Enlisted new player guide: pick one army and build a battle lineup

Enlisted is a WWII squad-based MMO shooter from Darkflow Software and Gaijin, where you control both your own soldier and an AI-controlled squad, swapping between the squad’s members as they fall. Progression is a research tree of squads, weapons and vehicles, and matchmaking uses a battle rating so your gear meets similar gear. The scale can be off-putting at first: multiple armies, several fronts, and dozens of squads to research all at once. This guide is about starting focused instead of spreading thin across everything.

Feature details shift between updates, so treat the exact squad slot counts and unlock costs in your client as current-patch.

Before you start

• Pick one army to begin; you can start another later once the first is established.
• Do not buy premium squads until you know which front and battle rating you enjoy.
• Play the tutorial and a few bot matches to learn squad-swapping and building.
• Keep your squads’ battle ratings close together so you deploy at a consistent bracket.
• Expect the low ratings to be slower, close-range, bolt-action fights.

Step 1: Choose one army

Your chosen country decides which fronts and opponents you see, and each army has its own progression tree. Spreading play across several armies means several half-built trees and no complete lineup anywhere. Pick one — based on the setting or weapons you like the look of — and put every battle into it until you have a full set of squads at a working battle rating.

Battle experience is shared into whichever squad you have selected for research, so keep that pointed at a squad you actually use. Switching armies later is fine once the first one has a lineup that can hold its own; starting three at once is the mistake.

Step 2: Build a mixed lineup

Bring a squad slot loadout that covers different jobs rather than four of the same. A solid starting shape:

• One or two rifle squads for numbers and objective presence.
• One assault squad for close-quarters pushes into buildings and capture points.
• One engineer squad to build rally points, ammo and defenses.
• One vehicle squad — a tank or, if you like flying, a plane — for support fire.

Keep all of these at a similar battle rating so switching between them does not throw you into a harder bracket.

Step 3: Level a few squads deeply

Each squad has its own tree that unlocks more soldier slots, better weapons and squad perks. Those perks are a real power gain, and you only get them by investing in one squad. Rotate your research between three or four squads you actually field, get them to the point where they have full soldier counts and their key perks, and hold off on unlocking a wide bench of shallow squads.

Step 4: Play the engineer

The engineer squad is quietly one of the most valuable things you can bring. A rally point placed in a smart spot lets your team spawn forward and keeps pressure on an objective; sandbags and hedgehogs turn a exposed cap into a defensible one; a rearm box keeps a push alive. Drop your rally somewhere hidden but useful, refresh it when it is destroyed, and you will climb the scoreboard on assists and captures alone.

Step 5: Aim, don’t spray

At the low battle ratings most players are on bolt-action rifles and semi-autos, and fights are decided by the first accurate shot. Move between cover, pre-aim likely angles, and take deliberate shots rather than hip-firing bursts. Use your AI squadmates as extra guns by positioning them in cover near you, and swap to a fresh soldier when your current one is hurt rather than pushing a weakened body into the open.

Step 6: Follow the objective, not the kills

Enlisted matches are won by capturing and holding points, and the scoring rewards it. A player who sits back farming kills at range usually loses the match and earns less research than a player who pushes the cap with their squad, builds a rally on it and defends it. When you spawn, look at which point is contested and move your whole squad toward it. Your AI soldiers capture alongside you, so getting the squad bodily onto the objective is worth more than any single good gunfight elsewhere on the map.

Key takeaways

• Commit to one army first so all your battle experience funnels into one progression tree.
• Build a lineup that mixes squad types — riflemen, an assault squad, an engineer, and a vehicle — around the same battle rating.
• Bolt-action rifles dominate the low battle ratings; learn to aim rather than spray.
• The engineer squad’s rally points and cover are among the highest-impact things you can do for your team.
• Level a few squads deep for their perks instead of dabbling in many.