Here are a couple of advanced tips which may help you in Co-op Arena matches (even financially).

You can actually kill an Armored Choker with a melee attack even if he doesn't choke a teammate using the stopping power of your gun. To do so, you need to shoot his helmet off. Once you do, you have to shoot at him and then once he's in your melee range, use the SQUARE button.

It does require some practice at first and you will fail once in a while, but it may help you many times especially if your team splits into two groups covering multiple spawn areas in a Survival round.

NOTE - it's best to do this with a rapidly firing gun like the AK-47, M9 or an Arm Micro. It could be done with a single-shot pistol or the G-MAL as well, but if you don't melee him right after you land the last bullet, he will grab you and it's easy to miss or let too much time pass between the last shot and your attack, especially with the 3-shot G-MAL.

You can also pull a Choker down while hanging from a ledge. To do so, you have to fire your handgun at him and then immediately hit the SQUARE button.

There are two ways to avoid a Choker's grip. The first way is to climb on a small crate or other object providing little room for another person (or a Choker, for that matter) to stand on. He will stand there confused trying to kill you with his M9 which will give you an opportunity to kill him with headshots or at least shoot his helmet off in preparation for a melee attack (see - tip above).

The other way to confuse a Choker can be performed if another teammate is nearby. If the player being chased presses and holds the DOWN button on the D-pad just as you would do to perform a high-five, the Choker will stop short of choking that player and a teammate can attempt to take him out from a safe distance.

Although headshots are still the most efficient way of killing Armored Enemies from a distance, in some situations, you may try a different spot and find out that it's also a good alternative.

Let's say you're in a Siege round, the Armored Enemy just doesn't want to come inside the Siege area and you're carrying an AK-47. Aiming for his head may be quite difficult with this gun especially from a long distance. In such case, you could aim at his knee/thigh. Surprisingly, it will work quite well. Just as headshots resulting in losing the helmet first, leaving his head vulnerable to attack, the partially armored thigh will also lose the armor first allowing you to kill him this way.

NOTE - this trick works even for PAKman. Although it is strongly recommended to shoot his torso with the PAK-80 and kill him with ~30 bullets this way, well-aimed shots in his leg will allow you to kill him even with less than 30 bullets from the PAK-80 (!). It may prove useful in certain situations in which you don't see his torso and hide from his attack, but can aim at his leg.

If you're a good Co-op Arena player, you may think it's a better idea to play with less-skilled players which will allow you to earn more money per round... and you're right. You can earn large amounts of cash per round... but not per hour.

From my experience, I've managed to earn even more than $40,000 in one Co-op Arena round when playing with random, less experienced players. Unfortunately, this comes with a price - loss of time and joy of playing.

Let's say you've managed to get even $50,000 in 1 match. Sounds good, but take a look at the time it took for this round. Not only you'll be annoyed by the mistakes many players make, but you will have to repeat many rounds multiple times. One time you die because you attempt to revive a teammate in a dangerous area (and if you won't he'll rage-team-kill you or both leave the match and you'll lose everything), the other time someone grabs a PAK-80 and uses all its ammo in seconds and then PAKman arrives... in a Siege round... in Syria... and you're dead again. Then you look at the final score and get your huge $50,000... after 30 minutes.

Playing with good and experienced players not only will make your matches more enjoyable, but you'll earn cash more efficiently. From my experience, I've been able to earn around $30,000 per match, but each match lasted about 15 minutes (!). That makes $120,000 per hour while, considering the above example, you'll get only $100,000 per hour and realistically, it'll often be less than $50,00 per 30-min. match, but the frustration will be just as big as I've described.

Beside earning cash by killing enemies, you can also get some cash from a variety of medals and fill your kickback meter in the process.

Some of them come naturally, but there are some which you should consider getting more "consciously". The rather "natural" medals include:

• Long Gun Fever ($250) - awarded for 5 kills using a long gun.
• Wild West ($250) - awarded for 5 kills using a pistol.
• Punch Out ($250) - awarded for 5 kills with a melee attack.

If you want an additional challenge and some more cash, you can try earning medals that require a little more skill such as:

• Covert Ops ($500) - awarded for 3 kills using stealth. NOTE - stealth kills also count towards the Punch Out medal.
• Headcracker ($500) - awarded for 5 headshot-kills. NOTE - each headshot-kill will also count towards the Long Gun Fever or Wild West medals.
• Dead Eye ($250) - awarded for killing 3 enemies quickly with a Sniper Rifle.
• While They're Down ($250) - awarded each time you kill an enemy in a knocked down state. For this medal you can try to throw a grenade next to an enemy just to knock him down (but not kill him with the grenade) and then shoot him while he's knocked down (a melee finish won't count).

You can check out the full medal list in-game by going to Profile -> Records -> Medals while in the Multiplayer Lobby.

As you should know by now, using a PAK-80 gun to kill PAKman is a crucial strategy which may decide whether you win the match or have to repeat a couple of rounds multiple times, but there's one issue with this gun - you can't climb up to every area of every map with it... or can you?

Here's a couple of tips how to get the PAK-80 up to certain places in order to cover as much area as possible incl. Siege Areas.

• Airstrip - you can transport the PAK-80 to the top area above Siege Area B by using the stairs between Siege Area A and B.
• Chateau - you can carry it anywhere thanks to the stairs at the back leading inside the Chateau. All Siege areas have easily accessible elevated points:
  • Area A: use the main stair in the front and then climb to the place where you can find a turret in competitive modes,
  • Area B: easily accessible from inside the Chateau as well as from the back through the stairs,
  • Area C: there are stairs leading to the third turret (the only one at the back of the Chateau) from competitive modes.
• Desert Village - after taking a right turn near the treasure chest, there is a spot on the far left which you can use to get to Siege Area C where if you jump up at the proper angle, you can take your PAK-80 without dropping it.
• Facility - in order to transport a PAK-80 picked up in the submarine area, use the spots to the left and right of the sub area.
• Highrise - although you can use various staircases to carry the PAK-80 up and down certain buildings, you can't get it to Siege Area C if you're on the side of Area A or B and vice versa.
• Molten Ruins - fortunately, you can get pretty much anywhere with it on this map. In order to avoid being attacked, you can hide behind the bookshelf in Siege Area A, in the small building to the left in Siege Area B or around the center fountain in Area C.
• Museum - in the Highrise, it may be up to chance whether you're at the proper side of the next Siege Area. Unfortunately, in the Museum, Siege Area B is not accessible with the PAK-80 at all. However, if it is not yet round 10, you may want to take the PAK-80 to the base of Siege Area B and hop down once a minute to swap to and from the PAK-80 in order to keep it on the map for the round that follows.
• Syria - thanks to a lot of stairs in this map, you can carry the PAK-80 anywhere incl. all top Siege Areas, which is recommended.
• Yemen - you can take it on top of spawn building siege zone using a "two-hop" process, but careful which sides of the building you try to exit - some result in dropping the weapon instead of dropping down with it in hand.