Playing Biome for the first time is a daunting prospect. It’s a maze of passages and openings.
What it really needs is a contact-point analysis, like I’m going to do in this video!!
Making a contact-point analysis for Biome was a daunting prospect. I checked out the
spawn points and for terrorists, a guy spawning here will be the first to get to A, and this
person here is first to B. CT’s weren’t so easy to do. This guy here
is best for B, but A is a toss-up between these 2 guys. I concluded that this is the
best for long A, and this one here is best for every other variant of A.
I then ran across the map with Cat of War on the enemy team to see where the two teams
would meet, if both were spawned in the best possible spots for the rush they’d be doing.
The reality is that this probably won’t happen often. But I think it’s still useful
to know before you play on the map, since it does still show you the furthest an enemy
could have rushed at a given time. And most spawns are within a second or so of the best
and for most people, an approximate knowledge of where the two teams meet is good enough
to help you avoid being caught off-guard in the first game or so you play on the map.
Let’s begin! But first… what do we call different places
on this map? There are no official names built into the map file, so I’ve had to resort
to Reddit’s callouts. And people had fun coming up with them for this map. It’s a
mess! But I’ll go with this one, which at least didn’t have any DICKS drawn on it.
Rushing A as terrorist presents 2 routes: one along this beautiful, high-up railing
passage, and the other, the more boring, road route. I found no instance where the railing
passage was faster. In fact, I’m not even sure why it exists as it’s not like you
can setup grenades from here as the dome will get in the way. It does look really pretty
though. And look!
Instant death.
So for this analysis, terrorists rushing A will stick to the safer, faster road. Rushing
long A, the teams met around THESE corners. This was surprising, since the doorway here
looked like it was made for terrorists to stand in as cover against rushing CT’s,
but this shows they won’t reach it in time… unless the CT’s all get terrible spawns.
But to make things more interesting, let’s investigate grenades. Can the teams pre-throw
grenades to damage the enemy team? It looks as though there would be a lot of possibilities
for this, but I found that grenades would bounce off something invisible around this
corner, more often than not. Given the angle both teams approach from, this will be more
of a problem for CT’s than it is for Terrorists, who can lob a nade between the wood stack
and ferns rather reliably. This has the potential to land close to any rushing CT’s!
Let’s try this same route again, only have the CT spawn for A and to rush through to
‘A-Main’. He has the time to push a long way forward! This means that terrorists rushing
long A will have to worry about CT’s possibly attacking from 2 different routes! Poor terrorists.
Let’s now have the terrorist attack A more directly and see where the two teams meet.
Again, CT’s have the time to push a long way forward. Terrorists can’t even reach
A-Main before CT’s are there in their face being all like shooty and stuff. I conclude
from this that ‘A-Main’ is a powerful spot for CT’s to hold and as big this map
is, having 2 guys here kind of makes sense for all kinds of strategic reasons.
Next is the battle for Mid. The CT will pass through lockers, across A-Short, through connector
(either way is fine because the room has a big thing exactly in the middle) and will
meet terrorists emerging from the left-hand side. That’s from the CT’s perspective,
obviously- terrorists will see it as the right side.
And this mid contact point raises a philosophical question: what IS a contact point? Is it the
point where the two teams kiss? Or is a line of sight good enough? I’m assuming line
of sight since that’s when the gun-play can commence. And for this, Terrorists will
want to head in a straight line across this area like so, as heading diagonally towards
the corner will slow them down by a fraction of a second, which I assume is what Cat of
War did here hence why he emerged a bit later than I appeared to on my screen when I played
as the terrorist. It doesn’t matter at all since CT’s clearly reach, and can look down
mid first. Now we’ll try a variation of the run where
CT’s approach it via drop instead. This route is much slower for CT’s than a straight
mid-push is, and the teams end up meeting just around the corner half way down mid.
How realistic this situation is is debateable, since before this could happen, terrorists
will first have to deal with CT’s at the bottom of middle.
As for pre-nading, terrorists don’t stand a chance since the biome will obstruct any
grenades from passing from their spawn into middle- so they’ll have to reach THIS spot
before smoking, which will delay any rush they plan to do.
CT’s also have problems. When stood in A-short, an invisible wall will stop any low-flying
grenades heading to mid. But if they do a super high throw then pre-nading mid it is
possible, but will take several seconds and I doubt would occur in time to hinder a full-on
terrorist rush. But please, feel free to prove me wrong.
These last 2 comparisons focus on a B rush. And luckily, this is much easier to talk about.
CT’s can forget about ‘B Lowers’ as there’s no situation where this is faster
for the rush than if they run through heaven. And terrorists also only have one route to
B! Unless they want to take the long way through CT spawn or boost teammates over this box
at drop here. Neither of which will be viable for a rush. SO! Terrorists take the direct
route to B. And in this first scenario, CT’s will approach it via heaven to the squeaky
red door. Cat of War managed this run a bit faster than I did actually. But no matter
how well you do the run as a CT, expect to DIE cos terrorists will have time to prepare
for your push, and the sound and motion of the door gives them yet more warning that
you’re coming. You’d have to be a brave or FOOLISH man to do this rush as CT.
And the last contact point analysis is if both teams rush long B. B-Main. CT’s have
a satisfying drop down from heaven into the site. No jumps are required, you’ll land
on the corner railing quite comfortably, and will even have this lovely angled B sign to
lob grenades off of. The moment CT’s pass through the doorway they’ll encounter approaching
terrorists for what will be a surprisingly long-distance fight. I feel that CT’s have
the advantage because of that grenade-bouncing sign thing.
In fact, this is ONE use for the longer CT route to B- it may be slower to reach the
doorway, but you approach it at a better angle to throw grenades off of this sign. Like so.
Of the whole map, I am most curious to know how battles here at long B will pan out.
Any way, I hope this has helped to make the maze that is Biome a bit more manageable.
If not, and you find yourself in a Biome game with me, feel free to follow me! And also
on twitter.