This guide is a basic primer on efficient use of Thermoptic Camouflage in NEOTOKYO, and is meant for Recon and Assault players who are new to the concept or who are searching for ways to employ their thermoptic camouflage more effectively. Support players may not necessarily find tips of immediately practical value, but the conceptual ideas presented can help their overall play - smoke grenades are also a source of concealment that can be used with some of the ideas here in mind.

All example screenshots are taken from actual play on NEOTOKYO servers. Advanced players will likely already understand many of the concepts here on an intuitive level (after all, they're the ones providing the examples).

Finally, this guide is an ongoing work in progress - I will be updating regularly with more examples from actual play. I also welcome contributions - if you have screenshots or videos that you feel exhibit solid thermoptic camo use, feel free to let me know in the comments! I hope this encourages all players to step up their game and improve their play.

Situational awareness is the key to success in NEOTOKYO. This Assault and Support are completely unaware of each other - a dangerous situation that could go wrong for either very quickly. Always keep in mind the various ways to detect an enemy - both visual and auditory.

Essentially, all firefights in Neotokyo boil down to 4 steps.

1. Becoming aware an enemy is near you
2. Locating the enemy
3. Targeting the enemy by gaining line of sight
4. Engaging the enemy with a weapon

How fast this cycle occurs is dependent of course on a number of factors, but the key point to remember is that players on both sides are constantly engaging in this process. An enemy that walks into plain view results in a very fast execution of this cycle ("he's right there" leading to "move the mouse and shoot him"). Conversely, in an area where visibility is poor (like say the maze of shipping containers in the warehouses on nt_ghost), this cycle may take longer to execute. Some weapons allow you to "jump ahead" in the cycle, such as grenades - which only require that you get the general location rather than direct line of sight. The key to winning firefights is to complete this cycle faster than your opponent!

While reflexes, twitch-aiming habits, and experience can go a long way towards decreasing the amount of time it takes to locate and engage an enemy, after a certain point there are far more improvements you can make by changing your tactics - the methods by which you approach. A cloaked operative leaning around the corner takes much longer to engage than an uncloaked operative standing out in the open. Even a difference of milliseconds can sometimes be enough to result in very different outcomes.

This Recon has made himself difficult to detect by cloaking and exposing only a very small part of his body by leaning around a corner. Only half of his body is exposed and will be very difficult to detect from a distance - he is already barely visible.

Using cover is an excellent way to improve the effectiveness of thermoptic camouflage. By making less of your body visible, you become harder to detect, as the shimmering area that the enemy can see is greatly reduced. Leaning around corners is the classic example of this.

Camouflaged players are translucent and textures on the other side will display through in a distorted fashion. This Assault has made himself more difficult to detect from other angles by keeping one side to a textured wall.

Since thermoptic camouflage allows you to "see-through" players to the other side, a textured surface placed behind you will make the shimmering outline very difficult to make out. Keep in mind what angles you are visible from and position accordingly.


This recon takes advantage of the darkness of this corner and the mesh of the catwalk below him to make himself very difficult to detect for any players passing below.

Can you see the cloaked Recon in the very centre of the window or do you only see his two uncloaked team-mates? In a firefight between multiple combatants, player attention is naturally drawn to muzzle flashes and uncloaked players first, allowing a camouflaged operative to escape notice.

In organized play, synchronizing and/or spacing your thermoptic camouflage usage allows you to "spread" incoming attention between multiple players. Players naturally will be attracted to shoot at the most obvious target. By having higher health players stay uncloaked and letting lower-health players conceal themselves, you can preserve a high degree of firepower by keeping the entire fireteam alive for longer and preventing the opposing team from concentrating their firepower on one target. Alternately, certain team-mates can try to deliberately draw attention to themselves to give cloaked companions a chance to slip through or around enemy lines - Supports are excellent candidates for a diversion.

Distance is an important factor that makes detection much more difficult. The Assault to the left of my crosshair (just at the edge of my vision before it's cut off by the door jamb) would be even harder to detect if he wasn't highlighted by my motionvision reacting to his creeping around the rock.

Even with vision enhancements, a target that is far away still takes slightly longer to pick up. Combining distance with the other previously discussed techniques, such as concealment and silhouhette breaking, can make you far more difficult to pick up and allow you to move into flanking positions.

The main tool in defeating camouflage is the use of your alternate vision modes. These vision modes also work to help shorten the firefight decision cycle noted at the very beginning of this guide - employing methods that take advantage of vision mode weaknesses will in turn allow you to extend the "reaction time lead" you have on your opponent.

Note that each visual enhancer interacts with Thermoptic Camouflage in different ways.

Nightvision does not directly make Thermoptic camouflage easier to see, but the addition of higher contrast and the brightening of dark areas can make the telltale shimmer of therm-optic camouflage more apparent. However, the lack of colour contrast mean that silhouhette-breaking techniques can be more effective.

Motionvision highlights moving players, camouflaged or not. However, camouflaged players that are not moving will not be highlighted on motionvision, and the "film grain" effect makes it extraordinarily difficult to see the shimmer of a cloaked player.

Thermal vision highlights players who are not cloaked. Cloaked players are visible, but in a cooler shade that blends in with the environment - this makes cloaked players much harder to see in dark areas.

Being able to immediately grasp the capabilities of the opponents you are facing will allow you to deploy tactics that make it more difficult for them to detect and engage you effectively, regardless of whether you are camouflaged or not. A difference of even milliseconds can sometimes mean the difference between being killed or killing your opponent.

The other major tool in defeating cloaked and concealed players is far more humble - communication and teamwork! Alerting other players to the presence and/or direction of enemies allows you to bring more firepower to bear and shortcuts the detection time for other people, regardless of their experience level. A ghost-carrier that communicates effectively can nullify many challenges to detection (and thus vastly raise the effectiveness of team-mates[shameful.steam-censorship.pw]), as the carrier can see all enemies within 40m. For the greatest effectiveness, be sure that your communication to other players is not vague and easily misinterpreted.[shameful.steam-censorship.pw].


Keeping watch on multiple angles when moving as a group makes it less likely for an ambush to succeed. These two players are highly vulnerable to an ambush from any direction other than the front.