How to Single Pull in SWG
by Osborne Maelstrom - Sept. 19, 2003
Kauri Server

          The first thing to understand is when one would want to single pull, and why. The answer to "when" is; all the time. Why? Simple math.. every player can deal a fixed average amount of damage per second to creatures, so the amount of time it takes to kill two creatures with a total of 10,000 hit points is fixed, whether you fight them separately, or at the same time. Lets say for the sake of this exercise it takes 1 minutes, 40 seconds to kill the two creatures. That's 100 seconds of combat in which we deal 10,000 hit points of damage, so we dish out 10 damage per second. Generally, creatures deal out much more damage than we do. So lets say that each creature can deal 20 damage per second. If you fight them one at a time, you would engage the first 5,000 hp creature for 50 seconds after which it would be dead, and then the second one for another 50 seconds and it would be dead too. During these two fights, you will have receives 20,000 hit points of damage (which we'll just say was healed). That's 10,000 damage from the first creature and 10,000 from the second. Now lets change things a little and say you engage them simultaneously. You can't change how fast you kill them, so the fight will still last 100 seconds, but now you are taking twice as much damage for the duration of the fight, so 40,000 hit points of damage instead of 20,000.
           Assuming that you could actually survive the extra 20,000 damage you took (because the damage went to a pet, or you had doctors healing you the whole time), it still cost you twice as much in stims to get through one fight.
There are plenty of good reasons to fight creatures one at a time, but that one alone is enough to make it worth doing. You are more likely to survive the fight and it will cost you less to do so. In the case of a large group, this would mean that you probably don't have to stop to make a camp and heal everyone now, so you can keep right on hunting, thus making you more effective in the long run.

PRE-REQUISITE: Where should you fight?
          Once you have determined where the lair is, you should try to fight in a clear spot (no other aggressive creatures around) which is at least 80m (90-100 is better) away from the lair. Bring all your creatures to your chosen place and fight them there. Don't send pets in early while the creature is running to you, don't use suppression fire before it gets there, and don't charge it or go to it to fight. The reason for this is simple. As you are fighting, MORE creatures will continue to spawn. They generally will spawn and/or wander within about 45m of the lair (there are exceptions). If one appears or wanders that far in YOUR direction, and you are at 80m from the lair, it is now only 35m away from the fight.. getting close. So if you are in a precarious situation, this is the MOST important thing to remember (it is also the thing most people seem to ignore, and then die) . DO NOT FIGHT ANYWHERE WITHIN THE SPAWN AREA! More creatures will come and you will die. Ok, now that you've chosen a place to fight, bring the creatures in for the slaughter one at a time.


So how exactly can we separate one "mob" (mobile object, a creature or humanoid that is hostile to us) from the others? There are many cases, I will try to illustrate each one, from easiest, to hardest.

1) Non-social Creatures - (such as Tortur)

This is the easiest case.. just make sure everyone in the group attacks the same creature. Only one until it is dead, then move to the next. Position is irrelevant. This will ensure the fastest hunting over time.

2) One social creature positioned far from its friends

This is mostly simple, just stand as far from its friends as you can, so they don't come after you, and attack the one that is alone. It doesn't matter if the creatures are aggressive or not (red dots vs yellow dots). There is only one thing to consider. Make sure you are close enough to the creature you are about to engage and make sure you are standing and they you do NOT have mask scent or camouflage engaged. If the creature can't immediately determine where the attack is coming from, instead of charging you, it may wander first looking for you. In some cases, this could lead to it wandering towards its friends, and then you've got multiple mobs to contend with. Make sure you PULL, the creature, don't charge it. Attack with ranged weapons first, let it come to you and fight it where it is safe.

3) Two social creatures close to each other, far from any other friends

This is just as easy to single pull as the previous example, but requires a different method. SWG assist logic works in such a way that creatures assisting the one being attacked automatically know where you are and charge you, regardless of other circumstances. We will take advantage of this. Move to a distance beyond 65m. You MUST be outside of successful attack distance for this to work. Target the farther of the two creatures and fire on it. Nothing will happen because you are too far to fire, but the assisting creature 'knows' its buddy is being attacked, and knows where to find you, so it comes running, while the one you attacked stays put. Change target to the charging creature, and let it come to you. Don't go to it, as you will probably end up getting the one you first shot at join in to help its friend if you fight too close.

4) A pack of social aggressive mobs

Believe it or not, hunting aggressive mobs is much easier than the non-aggressive ones. As long as the mobs have ANY amount of distance between them (they're not standing on top of each other) this is pretty easy. Make sure you don't have mask scent or camo on. Now, before you start, hit the peace key. This is the MOST important thing. When you hit 'peace' and aren't in combat, what it does is prevent you from auto-firing at the next mob that agro's on you. You'll know you did it via the peace symbol that shows up next to your HAM bar. Pick out the target you wish to pull. It should be the closest one, because when a mob starts chasing you, if it runs by its friends, they MAY join in. The closest one will run away from his friends. It helps at this point if you know the agro range of the mob you are pulling. Run to the edge of its agro range, that's to say the maximum distance you can stay at and still get it to agro on you, and run sideways in front of it.. side to side, but don't get closer, and definitely don't run closer to any of its friends. It will eventually start to chase you by itself, and its friends won't help, UNLESS you forgot to hit peace first. In that case, you will auto fire on it, and as a reaction to your attack, its friends will come running. Once it has chased you to where you want to fight, kill it. Rinse, repeat.

5) A pack of social, NON-aggressive mobs

These are a little more tedious to pull than the aggressive ones. It is harder to do well, but is safer. What you want to do here is change the situation into either #2, or #3. By running around at what I can only call the agro range (even though they don't actually agro, being non-aggressive), some of the creatures will react to you. One of two things can happen. If the creature are afraid of you (not many of those anyone cares about), they will run away. Otherwise, they will 'bluff' charge you as if to attack. By running the right way when they charge you (or run away), you can take them to a spot of your choice. Once you've succeeded in getting one or two of them far enough away from its/their friends, proceed with pulling as described in case #2 or #3 as needed.

This should be enough for any group or individual to hunt mobs within their capability safely and successfully.

There are other ways of pulling which can come in handy in special circumstances, such as "bleed pulling", which can buy you a 20 second head start before the creature's start coming after you, but that will have to be for another guide.

I hope this was useful.

Osborne Maelstrom - call me Os
Kauri Server