I’ve never owned one, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed playing it in the most recent Dronapocalypse.
Maybe a year ago there was a bug that temporarily gave a single TOW enough impulse to throw most smaller cars into the air. That was amazing, even though I didn’t own one. They should just make that glitch permanent, and/or allow you to fire more than one at a time.
If I were to try playing one in its current state, I would probably pair it with drones/turrets, and maybe add a trombone.
1 Like
Trombones don’t do jack. but drones or missiles are a good alternative
Short answer: a Fuze or two. Now, for the comprehensive guide: 
The Clarinet is best at dealing with hovercrafts. Here are a few examples of Clarinet ‘endgame’, i.e., the most you can do with this weapon (“Firewhip Secrets” on the exhibition):
One-shotting pristine hovercrafts can be done without any upgrades or cabin bonuses. But having at least a Harpy would be of substantial help. So, theoretically, you just need a base Clarinet and any cabin to take down a hovercraft carrying 2 Scorpions worth 65K+ coins, with a single missile. If those Scorpions, or Porcupines, etc., are upgraded, you’ll upset the pilot even more. 
Since this would only be the beginning of your adventure with this weapon, you’ll want to invest as few coins as possible, to see if you like it, and then maybe invest some more. Here’s a list of a beginner’s setup, to acquire with time, when you decide that you want to take your game to the next levels:
- A Clarinet.
- A detector. You need to know your targets’ approximate locations in advance, so a detector is necessary. The Clarinet’s low DPS (because of how long it can take to reach a target) means you have to make every missile count. For starters, the free Maxwell you may already have from the anniversary pack will be enough. I recommend the Doppler. It’s the most useful module in the game - it’s essentially a legal wallhack for your map. Buy it if it’s under 540c (selling for 415 as of this writing). Upgrade for more range of detection in cover as soon as you can afford it. To make the most of your Doppler, set your minimap size to Large and scale to 1. You’ll be able to see everything that’s not cloaked. (For the boosted variant, leave rotation on. Even with spin-firing, I got used to it rotating 180* after some time.)
- An Oculus/Verifier - because you’re particularly vulnerable to sneak attacks while piloting a Clarinet missile. (Lancer sneakers can even be disarmed with one missile, and if you miss, you can quickly type “LANCER” in the chat to warn the team - because you’d have seen them from far away.) Griffon sneakers aren’t as abundant as they used to be in 2020. They’ll get you most of the time, but that happens to me maybe once a few months.
- A Harpy, to buff your missiles’ blast radius. The ammo bonus is also nice.
- A Fuze drone or two. It has the most range of all wheeled drones, so it’s the best choice for the Clarinet. You can release a Fuze between firing your Clarinet for decent bonus damage. Or defensively.
- A Chameleon. Being a relatively easy target, you’ll need it to avoid attacks. It can also help with sneaking up into better firing positions.
- A Flywheel. Sometimes the weapon won’t reload fast enough, either because the missile you fired previously didn’t need to travel a long distance, or you hit an ally, or noticed a sneaker and opted to cancel the shot, so you can react to the sneak attack. But by this point, you’ll have expended 16 energy points, and you’d have to choose which modules to keep.
- A Neutrino - to see the explosive parts. I learned about this trick from Warbrand2, who is a Clarinet pilot I highly respect for his devotion to the weapon and ingenuity (but less so for repeating the GMs’ lies about the chat rules and promoting the Clarinet only up to 8K PS, as if weren’t fine at 12K). I’ve never used this method because I didn’t have a spare energy point. And I don’t consider it necessary because it’s not hard to guess where the explosive parts are located. But if used with the Harpy, it could make scoring critical hits easier, thus increasing your DPS and scores.
- An engine. Probably the Hot red. If you have a spare energy point, you can take something else.
- Small tracks/Omnis - to quickly get into a firing position and run away from danger while dropping Fuzes. Omnis could be the better option, but the wheel was released only half a year after I switched to the Cockpit, so I never got to consider it for my Clarinet vehicles.
- Always have 30 missiles. In most battles, I don’t fire more than 12. 26 wil be enough most of the time. But on a rare occasion, you’ll need up to 30. 3 base Ammo Packs will do, but you’d do well to invest in an Expanded Ammo Pack, and upgrade it for more capacity later on.
This is how you could build a basic version of a Clarinet car.
Building this compact, you’ll have to accept being a powderkeg. This car is a few blocks shorter than the ones I drove for 1.5 years before the Cockpit was released. I like building small for manoeuvrability. You can replace the Santas on the top with armor and make it slightly longer, so you don’t build higher than the cabin (7 blocks), to better use terrain as cover. I have the generator, fuel tank, weapon and detector upgraded for reduced weight, so you’ll have to use lighter parts. Unless you have Omnis. It’s hard finding good spots for arranging this car’s equipment with such limited space and tonnage. I didn’t plan on getting hit, so building this way worked fine.
The way I’d use this vehicle would be to get as close to the enemies as possible, while staying in cover and relative safety, most of the time behind the allies, or at least far enough from the enemies. A basic example:
- Drive toward your firing position as fast as you can. Keep an eye on the minimap for possible targets or cloakers.
- Park in such a way as to be in cover at all times. That’s why the vehicle needs to be as low as possible. (But a Cockpit variant should be 7 blocks tall, for optimal hovercraft ramming.)
- Look at the map - maybe you’ll see a sideways hovercraft. They’re easy to spot by their wacky sideways movement signature!
Use their main strength against them. 
- Start firing missiles. Prioritize hovercrafts . Try hitting them behind the cabin for a possible instapop. Skilled hovercraft pilots will dodge your missiles with ease when approaching them from the front or sides. A diagonal approach vector could help with that - if you have the time and enough missile fuel. Very rarely, you may be able to execute a hit from the rear, which they won’t expect, or they’ll even mistake the missile for a friendly one.
- If there are any rushers, switch to them, as they’re potentially an immediate threat. If you see a white blip from your Oculus or Verifier, it’s best to cancel a missile and uncloak them, or maybe you can even decloak them with the missile. Try disarming as many lancers, as much as you can, with missiles. Aim at the middle front. With other rushers, a frontal hit will damage their bumpers, which is a good thing, but a side hit could even be crippling. (With my boosted Cockpit Clarinet car, I like to cloak up and counter rushers by side-ramming. I can even survive charging a lancer car head on, disarming it.)
- Focus on snipers, primarily hovercrafts, as well as any long-range fighters. (With the Clarinet, you can get them on ledges.) Those with missiles will most often be lightly armored, hence easy to take out or disable. The general rule is to focus on the weakest vehicles or points and doing the most damage. It’s great if you can score a hit in a recess, such as between wheels or legs - this will allow you to utilize more of a missile’s blast sphere. Also, movement parts have a lot of HP per weight, effectively acting as great armor (as well as space armor), which is another reason to avoid hitting them dead-center. Except hover engines.
- Start poping Fuzes as soon as enemies are withing the range. Releasing them forward is best for a stationary vehicle. It’ll put them closer to the enemies, and you’ll be able to cling to an obstacle. With this type of vehicle, don’t release Fuzes to the sides or rear. When running from enemies, your Small Tracks or Omnis will allow you to drive backward with normal speed, and you’ll just drop the drones from your front.
Recommended upgrades, in order of importance:
- The Clarinet: +15 turn speed, to pull off some of the harder manoeuvers and hit some targets you would oherwise miss; -9% reloading time to fire faster; +10% resistance/durability becasue it’s your main/only weapon (mine is upgraded for reduced weight, which is fine too, I guess).
- The Doppler: +15% range of detection in cover, -17% weight. You’ll need the extra 60 m of detecting enemies behind obstacles - to find more of them and sooner, and to better plan your movements.
- The cabin: -17% mass, +10% weight limit, -20% delay before SD. Whether it’s a Harpy or a Cockpit, these will be ideal.
- The ammo packs: capacity; the blue one also for resistance or durability, the epic one for reduced weight, as it’s durable enough, but, depending on the placement, resistance or durability might be better for you.
- The Chameleon: -17% reloading time, +10% resistance/durability. (The boosted variant will get anywhere it needs to get without the duration upgrade, and faster recharging is critical.)
- The generator. Ideally, you’d have an Apollo upgraded for reduced weight. Someone told me that the heavy generators have a smaller blast radius, so the other upgrade could be reduced damage. Mine has a reduced blast radius and I’m fine with it.
- The Verifier. Even the extra 30 m makes a difference at such a short range. But you can leave it for later.
- The Fuze(s): -17% reoading time, 20% activation speed, +10% resistance/durability.
With a Cockpit car, there are also other upgrades to consider: - The Hermeses: +10% accelleration, +10% resistance/durability. If you get some with reduced weight, make sure to place those upgraded for resistance/durabilty in the rear left and right corners; ideally, all of those placed in the top-rear should be of this type. They’ll be receiving the most damage. Those placed in the front (or on the sides, should you build that way), will be much less prone to damage than those in the top-rear. I have only one Hermes upgraded for reduced weight, and I put it inside the car, so it’s the best protected one. Due to their size, boosters act as space armor. So upgrading a Hermes for more resistance/durability adds an extra 13HP to the spot it ‘protects’.
Upgrading a Hermes for +10% accelleration allows you to add 10% extra weight per that Hermes. By my estimation, a Hermes shouldn’t boost more than around 1242 kg of vehicle weight. Exceeding this weight will result in too much acceleration reduction. At 1400 kg per Hermes, the vehicle will accellerate 1/3 slower, which will be too slow. Hence, a Cockpit Clarinet car with 7 Hermeses shouldn’t weigh more than around 8700 kg. Upgrading all 7 Hermeses for more accelleration raises this value to around 9560 kg. This is critical. This type of car will benefit more from speed and boosted accelleration than from more HP. You’ll be just fine with around 900 HP at 12K PS. My current car has 1445 HP, but that’s really optional.
The fact that the developers reduced the number of Hermeses required for the Cockpit’s perk to 4, and now it’s going to be only 3, means they don’t realize that most Cockpit cars with 16 energy points weigh at least 7500 kg, which puts them well over the optimal weight per Hermes limit (they’d need at least 6 Hermeses for optimal boosted accelleration). By now, we also should have booster fuel tank modules. 150 fuel units isn’t enough, I need 400. There were other ways to prevent flying with Hurricanes, such as making fuel consumption depend on the vehicle’s tilt relative to the horizon, like with the Mandrake, e.g. up to 4x more at 90*. (Although I didn’t mind flying Hurricanes and am opposed to limiting players’ building options.) - The Buggy Wheels (ST): either for +25% grip and +10% damage resistance/durability, or +10% tonnage and -17% weight. During the recent upgrading discount event, I upgraded 6 wheels for the first set, 2 for resistance/tonnage, and I keep the remaining 2 upgraded for durability/tonnage in the garage. The plan was to have more grip while boosting. I don’t notice that in the test drive area, but in battles, I can see the car performs better when trying to outmanoeuver enemies. So this upgrade does improve the car’s combat performance. BUT! There are instances where more drift is useful, e.g. when sliding into a firing position (especially in the Sandy Gulf, onto the flat rock). I’m still considering switching (back) to wheels without the +25% grip upgrade. But, seeing as sliding into firing positions is done when I’m not in immediate danger, maybe it’s better to have even all 8 wheels upgraded for +25% grip - because that really makes a difference when enemies are close by. If not all of your wheels are upgraded for more grip, I recommend placing them in the front.
The Buggy Wheels (ST) are best for any boosted Cockpit car because they reduce the speed required for activating the perk to 45 km/h. Having to wait until you reach 75 km/h reduces your performance exponentially.
In my current car, the second pair are of the non-ST variant, because they’re the closest to the center of gravity. I needed the extra weight, and it turned out I could swap 4 STs for 2 non-STs. This improved the accelleration and reduced the turn radius.
With the current peristent lag, I can’t honestly recommend using the Clarinet at all. Barring missiles glitching through enemies, friendlies and terrain, your performance will mainly depend on your normal lag. Furthermore, this lag somehow seems to slow down my boosting speed, or maybe even impair non-boosted driving. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be using this car. And, because this car is the most fun I can have in this game, maybe this lag will make me quit Crossout altogether.
When considering a Cockpit Clarinet car, take into account the cabin’s nerf history. Its perk was originally capped at 140%. Then, based only on the performance of leviathans using this cabin, the developers reduced the bonus to some 105%, then to 50%. Now they’re threatening to reduce it furher, to 40%. Given the lag and the cabin’s uncertain future, it may not be worth investing in this type of car. Here’s a breakdown of the bonus damage over the consecutive nerfs:
+77% damage = 125% of damage with the Harpy, test data (7 Hermeses * 11% each). Based on these numbers:
+50% damage = 106% of damage with the Harpy (116% in damage tests).
+40% damage = 99% of damage with the Harpy. Which means I could as well use a Harpy and 2 Fuzes, and, optionally, upgrade the Clarinet for +10% blast radius. Unless damage tests show it’s actually well over 99%, which wouldn’t change much and would only show the developers’ ignorance of their own game.
Upon release, the cabin’s perk had no damage bonus limit. On 2020.10.26, it was set to 140%. On 2021.02.11, it was lowered to 125%. On 2021.03.29, it was lowered to 50%, and the bonuses from boosters were changed: common from 3% to 4%, rare from 6% to 8%, epic from 11% to 13%. This made the cabin slightly more sealclubbing-friendly. 
They even admitted the nerfs were based on the Cockpit’s performance in leviathans, completely ignoring that in regular PvP vehicles. And they had the audacity to say that it would “become more attractive for use in regular battles”. Yeah, a smaller bonus for PvP because it was too high in leviathans. GG, developers! One solution would’ve been to set the limit at around 90-100% and reduce it by 1 point for every energy point spent on weapons. Thus, for a leviathan with 50 energy points in weapons, the bonus would be between 40 and 50%, and for a Clarinet car - 85-95%. but no, let’s ignore regular PvP, for which the pack with the cabin was released.
Anyway, here’s some more cool Clarinet action. These are two of the clips I submitted to the Crossout Show:
If you didn’t see them featured in an episode, that’s because submissions are viewed by the ‘Game Masters’, who don’t like me because I regularly remind them that they can only ban players based on the set of rules they have. Instead of some of my submissions, they chose to show how some lucky newbies got out of tough situations. Which is great, good for them, they needed the 1000c. But a display of skill is something different indeed. And with each submission, I added I wanted them to gift the 1000c to a random player. In the latest episode, they settled for showing how much damage flamer cars can do. Because nobody expects them to burn through everything they touch. In the meantime, while everyone keeps complaining about hovercrafts, I can’t get my videos to them, to show them how they can fight back.
If you had the patience to read/watch through all this, here’s my current opus magnum. It’ll teach you everything you need to know about using a boosted Clarinet car. I’t condensed for the best viewing experience, but it’s long, so get something to eat/drink. 
Some more bonus footage: 8290 melee damage confirmed! (My current car is theoretically capable of 10K+.)
You know what’s coming next! 
Thanks for watching! 
OK, you should go to bed now. 
3 Likes
I haven’t used the tow in a while but one combo I know still works is a neutrino and doppler. Surprisingly the Tow is really good at weak point popping from long range that said builds based around it better have drones in support.
And I did exactly that, i went to bed after i saw your wonderful comprehensive guide, i’m still reading, there’s a lot to soak up, to digest.
I’m saving resources to start building hermes very soon, your input will certainly influence how i will build or even assume a major role in it’s development.
For now what i can say after the first watch of your post (more will follow), there was 3 things that transpired very well.
TOW are hard to use, i say that because you “missed” some " easy " shots or it seemed that way but at the same time you strike me as a very seasoned player of the TOW and if you “missed,” what will happen to a beginner like me?
But then, in the end you reinsured me of my initial doubt, with what i could pair the TOW with?
You remember me of a guy i met back in Warships, he was a CV (carrier vessel) main, normally the gameplay is very away from the danger and making strikes with the planes at distance while the hull is way back in the map, well this guy used to make his strikes with the planes but used to lure other ships and other planes to the AA and secondaries fire of his hull, he often was in the front lines , the later game was brawling with other CVs at their spawn with the skies full of burning planes.
SGT. Yolo is his name, he was extremely proficient with his Zuiho (a Jap cv).
A soon i build my hermes i will start by building a harpy.
Meanwhile
Thank you soooo much , you earn my gratitude and respect.
Pls, don’t give up because of the lags, they came and go.
1 Like
I kinda wished they could make it so you can use two tows together and the one tracking ur lead when you shoot the rocket or something cool in that nature and bring em to 4 energy so you could trombone or nest with them with pyres and flutes and hurricane combo it if that was the case. But only be able to use 2 at 4 enegry. So its at a max energy of 8 with 2. But using 4 at 16 energy would that be possible? If we were to get rid of the limitations of 2 or 3,4 on it and maybe tune down the energy cost that could be a cool rundown on something new on and old interesting to use weapon.
1 Like
Being able to fire more than one TOW at a time would be enough to rescue it.
I’d definitely pick up a few and give them a try.
1 Like
At that point might as well make it like the hurricane, shooting an actual volley and you control the swarm itself.
Also I think the main issue of this weapon is being a sitting blind duck while you control the missile.
One neat idea to boost this weapon to be more used would be an alternate fire mode when in flying missile mode. We all know the click button, missile speed boosts straight forward, but what if clicking the other fire button would instead make it act like a homing missile, locking on to an enemy the missile’s nose is pointing towards and going after it like a regular pyre missile at the speed boost velocity.
That way you can use it like it works currently, or with an “aim assist” that targets the cabin like all homing things usually do. But still not at such precision that you can just blindly use the homing feature, it still would not be as agile as a regular homing missile in turning and such so you’d still need to guide it somewhat towards the enemy.
I had a great idea to buff this weapon with 2 different firing modes, like on Astraeus
Push button once, it’ll shoot the missile straight forward at the speed boosted speed, but you can’t steer the missile at all, but neither are you stuck in place as it flies forward. Basically fires like a normal missile flying straight forward
Hold button for a short while, it fires like it normally does with you being able to steer the missile
makes it easier to fight people up close when they reach you, but also does not take away from it’s original functionality
3 Likes
This weapon should be removed from the game because it does not work for players who are using relative to camera… It sounds fun but it promotes camping and unfairly ruins the match for players who are unfortunate enough to be teamed up with one of these masochistic tow players…
They’d need to actually be viable and be more dangerous for that to be true lol.
Sure you can get good shots time to time, but the camera thing is more cool than useful imo. It tunnels visions the user and makes them a sitting duck any enemy can pick up without the user ever realising till its too late.
It’s a weapon from a time in crossout that people only had 1-2 weapons on their builds at like really low ps.(dronapocalypse is a good example of that)
You’re much more effective running pyres/hurricanes if youre lazy or flutes if you want more control imo.
Unless ofc you feel like playing with an RC missile and prank some newcomers at 2k ps or try to pop hover builds and tickle other builds at higher ps lol.
I think it also needs a damage buff, I’m running one fused for damage, and with Harpy to get a bit more explosion boost as well, and it feels like I am doing about 1 pyre’s worth of damage if even that, especially since the height is so perfectly aligned with bumpers and movement parts
That or instead of a speed boost when you click it / run out of flight time it should explode into multiple smaller bombs that scatter forward
2 Likes
That was a realllllllly long post to just say “The Tow is not good”
1 Like
Man this gun causes anal anguish beyond no other with teammates, people just push or drag you around all the time when running this thing. I don’t think they even know how many easy kills they’ve foiled with you managing to immobilize an enemy, generator exposed, just waiting to be destroyed, or about to help an ally who’s being held in place by enemies, also making said enemies to stay still and be easy targets, and some humongous anus has turned you around while you were steering the last rocket and you shoot off into some random direction when trying quickly to shoot off another one
Also this missile needs spark and flash immunity, they just hard counter it way too hard even though you’re playing in 6k and not expecting to run into these guns this frequent. It won’t do so much damage anyway that the immunity would suddenly make it op
just brawled in event,got the “One-man army” challenge…
but Tow camera angle needs to be 20 plus meters higher looking down and forward…
its camera is too low to the ground to make it any fun to play…
How would you use it in Sector EX, or under the bridge at the Powerplant, or in other tight/low clearing spaces? What, maybe dynamic camera height with sudden view shifting? And what if the current missile camera is better for finding vulnerabilities in enemy vehicles than one placed higher (and looking down and forward) would be?
It’s just another comment of the kind “I’m bad with the weapon, so buff it,” like so many others in this thread. And you’re not the first in this thread to demand a buff despite not having even owned the Clarinet.
I have no problem with the missile flying so low, or the camera height. I accepted the challenge, and because I considered the weapon fun in the first place, I decided to learn to use it better. At one point, I understood I had to practice in custom battles just to learn flying the missile among (and through) the various obstacles, to get my game up. It’s good this weapon isn’t easy to use, because it essentially is a ‘cheat weapon’ - the enemies can’t fire back. But one buff I see room for is a damage bonus that would drop to zero after flying the missile for 100 m - to give the user a defensive edge in close encounters.
I understand that the low altitude makes it hard to use, which is the first point made in the following video:
It was one of the reasons I wanted the developers to use a boosted Clarinet car instead, for more variety than just sitting in one spot and firing missiles, which would give more options to players unaccustomed to using it. I posted a thread to that end (now updated with a new poll to comment on your impressions about the brawl).
Over 15 months ago, I began attempts to get the info about the rear-fired boosted Clarinet car that I invented to the developers. A number of times through the chain of command, and even PMed Sam recently in the context of this brawl, but they don’t care. I’m Crossout’s top Clarinet pilot and I can’t get my remarks to the developers because those responsible for processing input from players either don’t care, or, in some cases, don’t like me because they’re the moderators whom I’ve exposed to act in violation of the chat rules. It’s just one niche weapon, but how many others have been neglected despite receiving constructive feedback from players? How much different a game would we play today if those in charge actually cared for the fun factor? (Perhaps it’s run by accountants?)
its not that the weapon is low…its the camera thats too low…looking at the butt of a rocket trying to not have a epileptic seizure…but what ever floats your boat…
As may be obvious from the first two sentences of my previous reply, I meant the camera. But here, I now amended that part.
What floats my boat is being effective with the weapon. Sure, let’s say that the camera would be the way you want it to. How would that restrict the view of the battlefield in general? Compare:
- The camera behind the missile:
a) Being able to see enemies far away and plan the missile route in advance. E.g., to take down a sniper, who could also be in a hill. Also, the missile flies so fast, the current view gives the user time to react to enemy movements farther away.
b) Being able to see vulnerabilities in enemy vehicles up close and make minute last-second corections, especially to target undermounted explosive parts, such as on hovercrafts.
c) Easier to spot obstacles from a greater distance. Because it flies so fast. So I don’t have to learn the locations to always know what’s beyond the view cone. - The camea 20 m higher, at a down-forward angle:
a) Can’t see the enemies until they appear in the restricted view cone. Of course there’s the radar to see them farther away, up to the full distance of an upgraded Doppler/Verifier/Keen. A devoted Clarinet pilot will look at the radar as often as possible. Maybe it’s just my limited data processing ability, but when I pilot the missile, I can’t look at the radar at the same time, except for brief peeks when I really need to and I know the missile won’t be making any turns for the duration. In the proposed situation, enemies would be coming into view with more delay. And if you wanted to see what’s beyond the view cone, you’d have to take peeks at the radar all the time. I can’t do that, but maybe other players are better at multitasking. It’s been suggested for years for an option to have the full map overlayed on the screen without having to actually enter the map screen. That would make it easier to see radar data. It’s weird how we still don’t have that.
b) No way of seeing undermounted stuff. In which case you won’t be able to use the wapon like a scalpel and would start complaining that it’s too weak as a hammer. An experienced Clarient pilot can make an educated guess that most of the time the explosive parts on a hovercraft are behind the cabin, but I’d want to see they’re there.
c) Harder spotting obstacles that are farther away (as in point a), meaning you’d have to spend more time to learn every location than with the current camera. On the other hand, those closer to the camera would be easier to see and navigate among.
d) What about flying the missile uphill/downhill? Woudl that affect the damera angle? What about corridors, bridges, etc.?
Now that I gave it some thought, I consider it an interesting argument to have the camera you suggest, but only as one of several options to toggle between. I’ve used the Clarinet as my main weapon for 3+ years and it never occurred to me to move the camera. But I can see the advantage of being able to switch between the two views on-the-fly. I’m not going to steal your suggestion, so post it through the form, even use any of my videos to show how restricting the current camera is, if you want. (You’ll find plenty examples showing how the current missile camera makes navigating the missile harder.)