Video summary

WARDOGS ► A Quick Start Guide To Flying Helicopters - Controls, Settings, Sensitivities

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas / lessons conveyed

  • Purpose of the video: The speaker (Ghost) shares a quick-start guide for flying helicopters in Watch Dogs (in the context of a testing/early access period), focused on practical setup and basic flight techniques.
  • Why helicopters matter early: Helicopters are portrayed as a good way to earn money early, before players unlock weapons like stingers and RPGs.
  • Goal of the guide: Learn how to:
    • Fly basic helicopter controls (altitude, momentum, turns)
    • Use inertia effectively
    • Land safely without flipping or damaging the propeller/skids
  • Emphasis on practice: Crashes happen; players should use training zones and iterate with adjustments.

Method / instructions (detailed)

1) Pre-takeoff setup: control settings & peripherals

  • Go into control settings before doing anything else.
  • Mouse sensitivity:
    • Set sensitivity to 0.55.
    • This sensitivity also affects helicopter control.
  • DPI:
    • Use 1600 DPI.
    • Reference for tuning: ~25–26 cm for a 360° turn.
  • “Relative” parameter:
    • The speaker sets Relative preference.
    • Note: It appears in the infantry section, implying relevance might be indirect.
  • Freeview settings:
    • Leave most freeview values at 100.
  • Air transport multiplier:
    • Adjust if you want mouse sensitivity higher/lower than the base.
    • The speaker prefers the “unit” meaning/behavior (exact phrasing unclear due to subtitle errors).
    • Tuning advice:
      • If movement feels too slow → increase slightly
      • If too abrupt → reduce slightly
  • Battlefield-like feel:
    • The speaker wants helicopter controls to resemble Battlefield, which requires:
      • Enable mouse control of the helicopter
      • Assign mouse axes to helicopter actions:
        • Mouse left/right → Roll
        • Mouse up/down → Pitch

2) Alternative mouse aiming approach (and recommendation)

  • “Rifle aiming” option (not recommended by the speaker):
    • Would map:
      • Left/right to yaw
      • Up/down to pitch
    • The speaker says yaw in Watch Dogs feels weak and less comfortable than in games like Battlefield.
    • Conclusion: The speaker doesn’t recommend rifle aiming for Watch Dogs.

3) Rotor control tuning

  • Separate adjustments:
    • Pitch and roll of the rotor can be adjusted independently.
    • The speaker keeps both at 50%.
  • Axis isolation:
    • Rotor mouse axis isolation set to 0%.
  • Y-axis inversion:
    • Y axis is inverted.
    • Reasoning: mimics joystick behavior:
      • Push forward → nose down
      • Pull back → nose up

4) Flight assistance systems (stabilization & restrictions)

  • Enabling assist features:
    • The speaker says it’s okay and even a good start, but explains what each does.
  • Stabilization system:
    • Mitigates pitch/roll/yaw to keep the helicopter level.
    • Can be turned off for more free/manual control.
  • Flight mode restrictions:
    • Limits extreme angles for safe flight.
    • Can be turned off for more aggressive maneuvers.
  • Speaker’s preference:
    • Turns both stabilization and restrictions off to gain full control.

5) Keyboard mappings (aircraft control)

  • Pitch controls:
    • W = pitch up (climb / gain altitude)
    • S = pitch down (descend / lose altitude)
  • Roll/turn controls:
    • A = left
    • D = right
  • Why some keys feel “strange” (F-keys and X):
    • During alpha/beta testing, leaving certain helicopter-related keys unassigned caused them to reset to default after restarting, leading to crashes.
    • To avoid that, the speaker assigns helicopter-related functions mostly to keys he doesn’t use often:
      • F6, F7, F8 for special/cyclic controls
        • One is used for an “air barrel” gag
      • Optional alternative:
        • Could use F9 or similar if you don’t want it on a specific key (like Space)
  • Countermeasures:
    • Assign countermeasure activation to X
    • Motivation: feels comfortable and familiar (Battlefield habit).

6) Basic flight: takeoff, altitude control, turning

  • Taking off:
    • Pick up a helicopter at a vendor/training ground.
    • Start engine:
      • via menu “start engine”, or
      • press W (also starts engine)
  • Climb/descend:
    • After reaching full speed:
      • Hold W → gain altitude
      • Hold S → descend/lose altitude
  • Using controls simultaneously:
    • Mouse (hand on mouse):
      • Mouse right/left = roll
      • Mouse forward/back = pitch changes
    • Keyboard (A/D):
      • Causes side-to-side turning/rotation.

7) Core mechanics: inertia (how to climb/descend efficiently)

  • Key concept: use helicopter inertia.
  • Examples given:
    • Climb quickly:
      • Pull the handle toward you
      • This reduces speed but increases altitude
      • Then level the helicopter to stabilize while keeping the gained height
    • Lose altitude quickly:
      • Hold S to descend
      • Instead of just holding W to climb, tilt forward to bleed speed/altitude
    • Descend faster by accelerating the rotor:
      • Helps drop altitude faster
      • Costs speed (and can be advantageous depending on combat/tracking needs)
  • Combat survival tactic:
    • Fly low to reduce targeting effectiveness.
    • Speaker notes inability to target at low altitude (exact meter value not specified).

8) Steering strategy: roll-heavy turning

  • Direction control:
    • Use roll on the mouse to control flight direction.
  • Banking guidance:
    • For a right bank, the speaker often also turns the nose right.
  • Turning note:
    • A full turn results in ~180-degree change (subtitle ambiguity).
    • Therefore: rely on roll more than in Battlefield.

9) Training suggestions & practice locations

  • Use training areas:
    • Speaker references a riverbed at range for helicopter practice.
  • Practice exercises:
    • Approach a bridge:
      • slow down
      • dive under it
      • later become more confident and stay lower to the ground
  • Recovery from mistakes:
    • If you crash:
      • Press Escape
      • Return to spawn
      • Take another helicopter

10) Landing methodology (altitude/momentum management)

Approach to land safely

  • Don’t go too low while learning:
    • “Just get used to the controls, experiment.”
  • Landing approach goal:
    • Focus on removing horizontal momentum.

If you overshoot

  • Fix technique:
    • If landing zone is overshot, jerk the rotor back sharply and turn around.
    • This can nearly stop horizontal momentum quickly.

Speed/altitude planning for dropping players to a control area

  • Suggested altitude/speed start:
    • Begin slowing and descending around ~1000 meters (maybe 800–900 depending on team/drop preferences).
  • Also:
    • Study the map:
      • look for flatter spots
      • avoid buildings/obstacles to protect the propeller

Landing setup while flying over trees (example)

  • Example plan:
    • When ~1000 meters from the target:
      • hold S
      • pull the helicopter slightly toward the speaker
    • Effect:
      • gives height while losing momentum
  • Speaker’s claim:
    • This is the safest way to land (per their experience).

Final descent and touchdown

  • Select a landing spot (example: train tracks).
  • Descent:
    • Use light S presses
    • Avoid sudden movements
  • Touchdown / skids guidance:
    • Landing is safe when you approach with forward momentum and set down “straight.”
    • Reason:
      • skid direction helps prevent flipping even after hard landings.
  • Do NOT land with big sideways shift:
    • Coming in “like that” (side-shifting) will flip the helicopter.
  • Common failure scenarios:
    • Crashing into buildings while trying to pick up passengers near vendors (usually bad alignment/side approach).
    • Hitting trees with the propeller during landing attempts.

11) After crashes: repair procedure

  • If propeller damage occurs (or helicopter flips):
    • Buy/keep a wrench for vehicle repairs from the seller.
    • Use the repair menu via F-menu:
      • scroll to the bottom option like “move helicopter”
      • then repair the propeller
    • Attempt takeoff again.

12) Hovering / passenger exit safety

  • You don’t always need a full landing:
    • If you hover slightly above the ground and get close enough, passengers get a prompt to exit safely.
  • Parachute exception:
    • If passengers have parachutes, they could exit earlier and fall/crash—more often than expected.

13) Landing style variants (future content)

  • The speaker briefly mentions:
    • “professional pilots”
    • “J-like turns”
  • They say this will be covered in future videos.
  • For now:
    • Land softly and slowly near the control zone edge or near a nearby capture structure (e.g., first tower).

14) Low-altitude combat and evasive landing

  • When targeted by anti-aircraft missiles:
    • lean slightly to the side
    • slowly lower yourself (implied for cover and timing)
  • If landing site is uneven / helicopter rocks:
    • pause a few extra seconds
    • carefully align roll and heading using the mouse
    • then land successfully
  • Screen indicators (bottom UI):
    • Vertical lines show pitch (up/down)
    • Thin horizontal lines show roll
    • Side arrows indicate whether you are gaining or losing altitude/situation
    • Tilting forward:
      • arrows move down (rapid altitude loss)
    • Pulling handle back:
      • arrows jump up (rapid altitude gain)

15) Final principles & learning mindset

  • Helicopter control balance:
    • You can rapidly change altitude and speed.
    • You can also do small, smooth micro-maneuvers (described as the “joy” of helicopter flying).
  • Encouragement:
    • Anyone can learn; it’s not that hard.
  • Future promise:
    • Once helicopter variants (minigun / rocket launcher) unlock, the speaker will provide aiming tips.

Speakers / sources featured

  • Ghost (speaker/host; YouTube creator)

Original video