Gizmo Guide: Crawler Nest and T.I.M. Zone Denial

Gizmo (Rashid Rahal) is an Engineer who does not build walls — he makes ground expensive to cross. His kit is three spider-shaped machines and a mine, all pointed at the same job: slow an advance enough that your squad’s rifles get a free second.

Nothing in the kit deals burst damage. If you play him looking for kills he will feel weak. Play him to deny a corridor and the same kit wins fights without firing.

Three bots, one job

The Crawler Nest deploys a nest holding three sentry bots. They disperse, chase targets inside their radius, and detonate on contact — damage, a slow, and a tag that marks the enemy for your squad, plus a puff of smoke on the hit.

Read the effect list again: the slow and the tag matter more than the explosion. A tagged enemy is one your squad can pre-aim, and a slowed enemy cannot cross the lane before the smoke clears.

Nest placement maths

Place nests at the far side of the choke, not at your feet. A nest at your feet detonates on the first body through and is spent; a nest on the enemy’s side of the choke engages them while they are still deciding, and the slow lands where their retreat is.

Second rule: never stack all three bots’ value into one doorway you are also holding with two rifles. Spread the nest so its radius covers the flank route, and let the smoke mine cover the front. Place the device where the bot must cross open ground to reach it, not where it starts closest — the chase radius matters less than what the bot walks through on the way.

T.I.M. as a moving wall

The Tenacious Interception Module is the larger version of the same machine. It patrols in the direction you send it, switches to tracking when it finds someone, and webs them in place to restrict movement.

That makes it a wall you can push, not a turret you defend. Send it down the lane the enemy wants to use, and their push stalls while they deal with it. It also works as an early warning: where T.I.M. engages tells you where the push is coming from.

Defensive Vanguard uptime

His trait buffs firearm handling while he stands inside the radius of his own deployables. That is a positioning instruction disguised as a passive: after you place the nest and the mine, fight from inside their footprint, not from a separate angle.

Players who drop a nest and then push forward alone throw the trait away — and usually the nest too, since it now defends empty ground.

Counterplay

Explosives clear bots, and a squad that frags the nest before entering pays a grenade instead of a life. Flank routes that bypass the deployable footprint also leave Gizmo with a handling buff he cannot use. When that happens, do not rebuild in the same spot — move the nest to the route they just used twice more than they should have.

For a second denial layer, pair with Shepherd and let Uluru put hard cover in front of the nest.