Cover & Suppression
Players receive bonuses when behind cover and penalties when suppressed
Cover
Players can enter cover by standing next to tall structures or crouching behind low structures in the environment. Pretty much any physical obstacle in the game can provide cover, vehicles, fences, trenches, walls, sandbag covers, inside a pillbox, on the side of a pillbox, buildings, etc. Using the cover only requires that you stay very close to the structure and that you face towards it (or at least not turn your back to it).
Cover Levels
The cover system has 3 levels 
. Which level you get depends on the distance between you and your cover structure and the angle between the structure and where you're facing. If you're not hugging the covering element your cover level will lower very fast. If you are aiming at more than a 90 degree angle from your covering structure you won't get the highest cover level, and the level will lower quickly after the 90 degree mark. Having your back to the covering element will completely remove your cover.
A crouch-height structure will provide zero cover if you are standing instead of crouched.
The higher the cover level the bigger the buffs provided by the cover, and the increase isn't linear, so you should always strive to be in full-shield cover.
Cover Bonuses
Cover provides two buffs:
- Hit mitigation: A percentage of shots will be absorbed. Single shot weapons are impacted far less by hit mitigation than automatic weapons.
- Aim stability: Stability is regained faster. This is especially useful for automatic weapons and high-recoil weapons. Being crouched in full cover gives you the same stability as when prone without cover.
Tips
- Using cover is extremely beneficial to automatic weapons such as SMGs. It gives you the aim stability needed to fire the long accurate bursts you need to kill effectively without sacrificing mobility that going prone does. Being crouched in full cover allows you to empty an entire magazine without losing accuracy.
- High recoil weapons like Anti-Tank Rifles also benefit a great deal from cover. The higher stability regain allows you to use the weapons at a high fire rate while just crouched without sacrificing accuracy. The sniper rifle's accurate fire rate is at its maximum when using full cover while prone.
- In the absence of pillboxes and sandbag covers, building corners offer good cover allowing you to quickly peek around the corner and fire repeatedly and accurately without exposing yourself too much.
- To maximize your cover level, just remember to hug your cover structure, crouch if necessary, and minimize the angle between the cover and where you're aiming.
- When getting into cover, the shield icon takes a second to appear, this delay isn't just visual you are only getting the cover buffs after roughly one second.
- Standing in full cover gives enough aim stability to fire all semi-auto weapons (except snipers) at their maximum fire rate without losing accuracy. Being crouched in full cover gives enough aim stability to fire all automatic weapons without losing accuracy.
- Sniper Rifles uniquely gain very little stability from cover.
Suppression
When enemy bullets pass close to infantry players they become suppressed. Suppression is represented by the 
icon if the targeted player has no cover and by their cover icon blinking red if they do. Three types of suppression effect exist:
- Small Arms Suppression: Suppression from small arms (rifles, submachine guns, etc...) reduces the player's cover bonuses and reduces the rate at which their weapon regain stability.
- Machine Gun Suppression: Suppression from 12.7mm weapons additionally reduces the accuracy of suppressed infantry players and exposed structure/vehicle crews.
- Heavy Suppression: 20mm weapons cause heavy suppression, suppressing all vehicle gunners similarly to how suppression works on infantry and also reducing the accuracy of the suppressed crew.
Garrison Suppression
The AI of Pillboxes, Rifle Garrisons, and Machine Gun Garrisons can be temporarily suppressed if a high volume of bullets is fired at them in a short time. A suppressed defense will have its flag blink white. A player garrisoned inside a suppressed defense cannot shoot back. When the flag starts blinking fast it means the suppression effect is about to disappear. The suppression effect can be sustained by continuing to fire, the volume of fire necessary to keep a defense suppressed is less than the initial effort. Unlike player suppression, you need to actually hit the defense in order to suppress it, firing around won't do anything.
You'll need about 30 7.62mm bullets (fired quickly) to suppress a Tier 2 Rifle garrison, and 15 for a rifle pillbox.
The other types of garrisoned defenses (Bases, Garrisoned Houses, AT Gun Garrisons, etc...) cannot be suppressed.
