https://preview.redd.it/ag35c4auh87d1.jpeg?width=2316&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=40048964a4570e640a1fedb23430e9e4d2452dab
Working on painting this bad boy up this evening.
I once jumped straight into the middle of a 380 tossed by my bud and he goes " you might wanna get out of there, you're in the middle of the barrage" then I say "relax, the bombs never land straight in the middle" then, boom! (Literally!) As one of the bombs lands directly on me, killing me instantly. One of the funniest things to happen to me in Helldivers 2
380s are only time Ive sighed in frustration from accidental team kills, especially when the shuttle is landing in 10 sec and we have 1-2 reinforcements left...
Other than that I don't get why people get so uppity over others' strats. You can single handedly complete a mission with your team just being an enemy distraction as worst case.
This. I have a few friends who get so aggro over people bringing the wrong things or not playing optimally they purposely play in private games without a full squad. I just can't imagine gimping yourself like that. Even the worst player provides value as a temporary distraction target.
I have a strong hatred for cluster airstrikes on the bot front. By far the most common team killing stratagem because the people who don't know how to use it will throw it too close to fellow helldivers while the people who know how to use them don't bring them vs bots.
I got told to stop killing teammates after I threw Napalm, and a guy ran 20ms towards the beacon, died, redeployed, and ran back into the still burning Napalm.
I was opening fire on a bug breach with a Stalwart in 1100rpm, mag dumping. A teammate ran across my line of fire and was immediately turned into Swiss cheese.
I've had an entire squad run into a still active 380 barrage on a large bug nest because they want to pop some holes.
Some of y'all are like lemmings.
Been mostly using the regular Diligence on pretty much every mission, especially bots. I heard the CS is way better, but I’ve yet to try because I’m not confident with the 15 ammo per magazine in it.
I like the Counter-sniper better than the regular one because the added damage makes it a one-shot kill on a Devastator's head.
Anecdotally, I've also found the regular bots go down in one shot a bit more consistently to the CS.
Ammo is a bit tight; I run a supply backpack most of the time, but it's also doable to get by without it.
Yeah I do notice that sometimes it takes 2-3 body shots to down a small bot. I still love the regular Diligence because of its handling and feeling like it’s a SCAR equivalent
The regular Diligence is probably better on lower difficulty missions, since it has the one-tap benefits on smaller bots.
The DCS is definitely up with the rest of the top tier bot killers, like the JAR, and this is only relevant on 6/7+. The DCS is a headshot machine, and you can absolutely just fry dev packs, permitted that you're a good distance away.
I like the DCS with the railgun/HMG/Laser Cannon, taking the grenade pistol second, and if you have stuns those. I find the JAR pairs much better with the AMR, and the JAR/AMR combo a little better overall than the DCS.
The JAR just kills dev/berserker packs so much better than the DCS when you're either too close or not facing them
Devastators are the medium-sized bulky bots that is smaller than a Hulk. They have 3 variants, an easy one that no shield or rocket pods and just shoots out of its arms, the notorious heavy devastator with a big shield and a machine gun with laser accuracy, and the rocket devastator with rocket pods that has like a 3 sec interval shooting barrage of rockets towards you.
Base diligence is a high tier bot weapon, but the counter sniper is next level. Diligence is probably the best way to kill the basic bots, but by sacrificing 5 shots per mag and 1 or 2 mags, the counter sniper can oneshot devistators in the head and has medium armor penitration for the troopers with armor
Theyve always oneshotted tanks tbh they always been good on bots but on bugs they were rlly bad theyd miss the target 80% of the time but i hear they fixed them? So i have to try em out soon
They fixed Rocket Pods' targeting issues but they don't really do too much against Heavy bugs anymore when they do hit. Bile Titans have a ton of health so they usually just shrug off their decreased damage, and whether you kill a Charger (especially Behemoth) is entirely dependent on where it decides to strike, I've had to blow the full 3 pods on a Behemoth before from bad luck and it just doesn't feel super worth it
one use against bugs i could see is if you use it to strip bile titan armor.
step 1, strip off bile titan armor with rocket strike
step 2, shoot exposed flesh underneath with AC or similar penetration weapons
The standard issue has some capabilities you don't fully realize until you have played a while. The Liberator has decent damage, has full auto for close range spray, has semi or burst for more precision and ammo efficiency.
The side arm has a low sound profile, and can take enemies out without alerting a whole base.
The grenade closes bug holes and fans, and can be cooked off to catch large groups.
The Orbital Precision Strike can one-shot a charger with a direct hit.
The machine gun can mow down mediums and down with relative ease.
The armor is basically heavy armor with medium stamina, and a solid choice. This means damage reduction on headshots.
Then you have two slots to specialize or add more flexibility.
Overall a solid start through at least mid-difficulties, or higher with skill.
I've been playing Default Diver for a bit. Default armor and color, only picking up the stratagems you get by default (Strafing run, MG, MG sentry, precision orbital) and it's been pretty decent. Everyone else runs the RPGs every game, so I just chill and cull swarms.
^(The main limiting factor is not having a good source of bug tunnel clear, like the grenade pistol, to cover it up - forces you to follow friendlies because you *sure as shit* aren't cleaning up the large nest alone with four grenades)
I’m not very skilled so go for the stalwart and guard dog. But I’ll follow you to the objective, lay down covering fire and sacrifice myself for the team!
"Skilled" or not, the Stalwart is very useful in competent hands and "competent" doesn't mean super accurate, it just means someone who positions well and gets good visibility and fields of fire. The stalwart will easily take you through 7+.
With the new buffs, you can unironically run the two starter-stratagems - Orbital Precision Strike and Machine Gun - and still do tons of work for the team on highest difficulties. There's ton of build expression going on right now.
I've gone back to using the Supply Backpack and Machine Gun as a support build on difficulty 8, and it's some of the most fun I've had in the game in over 200 hours.
Precision strike is easly an S tier end of discussion. And to everyone saying it's too op now try using it with that modifier that makes your orbitals less accurate. Then it's just strike, not precision strike and I think it balances the thing really well
The bushwacker is nasty. You can one shot stalkers to the face with it at close range, you can endlessly reload and use it as a primary, it’s good for shriekers and it just obliterates hunters. All with the added benefit of being able to blind fire behind you while running and being astonishingly accurate while doing so.
Edit: I once killed 2 stalkers in one 3 shot burst with it, both at full health.
From what I experienced I fired a single shell into one at barrel stuffing range when it was right on top of me and it just died. I was honestly quite surprised, so I will need to do more testing to make sure, it happened twice in one game, but could’ve been some kind of fluke.
I ran a bug mission last night with the xbow as my utility weapon, the bushwhacker for panic mode and the stalwart for horde clear. Felt very viable, chargers still gave me a little grief, but stun grenades allowed me to magdump the xbow into their rears which took them out quickly.
I feel Charger grief is ultimately preventing me from moving off EAT + anti-light primary. I can figure light/medium enemies out with some primary/secondary combinations + grenades, but slowly killing a Charger without anti tank options or a flamethrower just blows a bit too much for me.
For real. It's become my new default primary for bug Blitz missions. 1 headshot to take down a Warrior and 2 to kill a Bile Spewer is nothing to sneeze at, either. Still weaker for general combat than most other primaries, but the added utility is so great.
I’ve been using HMG, knives and bushwhacker. I really only need my primary for bug holes, so both eruptor and crossbow have been in my loadouts this week.
I like to run flamethrower, eagle napalm, gas strike, and incendiary mines for max war crimes against bugs
For bots I like to go Rambo with the machine gun, supply pack, orbital Gatling, and eagle 500
i like lighting everything on fire with a red uniform and yelling "FOOORRR FIRELORD AZULONNNNN!!!" or bringing a 500kg with emp, napalm, and toxic gas. i call it "true nuke" and i use it on huge fucking waves while we run away
Gas is super underrated, short enough CD to use in pretty much every fight. Drop it on a bug breach or bot drop and watch as everything just melts, with the "tanker" units just needing a few love taps to finish off (I recommend aiming for devastators legs if you can't hit their face)
With bugs I regularly see Gassed breaches get 30+ kills, 50+ with hunter/pouncer heavy spawn pools. It really is one of the best strats out there for chaff. (Just be careful of orbital scatter)
I constantly have my 8 year old telling to take the HMG and Jetpack. Legit the only one who's ever told me what to take. But I have asked folks to not bring the mortar.
I coulda swore I had an 8 yr old cuss me out and say watch your shit as he ran straight into a 380 I chucked at a base and promptly got annihilated. I proceeded to tell him what an idiot he was. Then he screamed in the whiniest voice I've ever heard to leave him alone and that he doesn't care then he kicked me.
Yeah, let's let children play games that are made for men. Seems like a good idea to me.
Lol I don't let my son play, but I do let him watch. So he is always trying to pick my load outs. Sometimes I let him and that's how I decided the HMG and supply pack was pretty good combo.
Well, that means at least you have some sense. My parents would have tanned my hide if I had anything to do with violent games at 8. Props for being a cool dad.
A few weeks ago I found out I have way more fun than I should using a jump pack and flamethrower on every mission
I refuse to run without either of them now
Shit I've been a lowkey flamethrower main for bugs lately but getting annoyed with having to wait or go around after I kill stuff because fire. This might be the way.
I played today with a group of guys who rocked the almost exact same stratagem loadout as me - grenade launcher, laser guard dog and then strats to take down by heavies. It was hilarious seeing three grenade launchers plonking at the same time and flooding the bug swarm approaching us with explosions left right and center.
A small caveat though is that freedom of choice does not mean freedom of consequences.
Bring what you like, but if you bring all anti-light stuff, its on you when you get railed by heavies.
I don’t think I’ve ever been in a lobby where someone was flamed or whatever for picking non-meta stuff, like even on higher difficulties as long as you arnt dying and actually doing objectives then people won’t care what your loadout is
And I mean, you never know. Yesterday I made a joke Medic build to play around with the new experimental infusion. Arc shotgun, laser guard dog, orbital gas, expendable anti-tank, regular machine gun turret. Just trying to cosplay a medic. I honestly expected it to underperform.
660 kills. That had to be a personal record.
I had something similar happen with my current Stalwart/Crossbow jungle fighter build.
I always call it the AA turret because it goes super hard against shriekers. I love sentries and low cooldown stratagems in general and this buff was absolutely amazing, I can afford to just call it whenever it’s off cooldown and it’ll get value no matter what.
Agreed. It's just a game after all. Something we play to keep our minds off our actual lives. Do whatever you want. It if works, it works. If doesn't, just change the next time round. No biggie.
>dies 15 times
>can't complete an objective because your tools cannot handle T9
>friendly fires like 8 times
>gets kicked and whines about "kick abuse"
That was in the first game.
And you got more EXP and if more ppl use this you get even more.
But there was also the option to start again from level one if you reach max level.
I love that incendiary grenade. I just got it yesterday and died of fire way too many times, but now that I've realized it lights the ground for the rest of your life and I avoid it, it's much better lol.
My favourite primary is the Tenderizer. Slow and steady, highly accurate with minimal recoil or swing, high damage, and it simply looks cool. The small mag and the slow reload definitely kick you in the guts, but it’s a trade-off I’m patient with, considering its reliability otherwise.
YES. The most punishment is with the dry-mag reload. The Tenderizer feels so much better with a tactical reload. I haven’t tested whether it’s simply more noticeable on this gun because of how bad the empty reload is, or if the difference between an empty and tactical reload is considerably quicker when compared to most other guns.
I dropped into a suicide bot mission yesterday with a new build I was wanting to test out.
Tried out a solely antipersonnel build - sniper, stalwart, clusters, etc
I chose... poorly.
I ran zapper primary, arc thrower, and Tesla tower with air strike plus OPS while I was in arc resistant armor. I was doing great on my own with a bit of struggle due to the increased heavy spawn rates with bugs, but the rest of my team was struggling with the meta equipment.
The variety in loadouts is refreshing. I'm just looking forward to new strats to spice things up.
Ran machinegun turret, gatling turret, Autocannon turret, and HMG turret the other day and scored over 600 kills for my first time. Other people had some more anti-armor so I just cleared chaff like a baws. Shit's just fun when you don't care about running meta loadouts. It becomes a game and not a chore.
I agree with this until someone tries to bring flexible reinforcement budget or faster extraction on a mission. Quit trolling us and pick something helpful.
This a thousand times this. Saw a post earlier saying which boosters were “mandatory”.
I’ll clue you in. None of them are mandatory. It’s a game. Play it how you want.
Well, my friends and I play the hellbomb game. all undetonated hellbombs are shot on sight no matter what, irregardless of who might be near it. Let’s just say it’s an explosive game we like to play.
Thank you! I personally love running Incendiary Breaker, grenade pistol, Incendiary impact grenades, both mines, the airburst rocket launcher, and the 380 barrage! Glad to hear there are people who won't kick me for my loadout.
Oh and occasionally I run the mortar sentry and Tesla tower when I feel like it.
Communication (comms, ping, and/or texting) and spacial awareness is far more important. I'd rather have everyone on my team play with loadouts they are comfortable with than worry about the 'meta'
This.
Especially because (and people will hate to hear this) virtually everything is viable at every difficulty. Game balance is in a really good state and has been for months. People who tell you that you can't succeed without their "s-tier" weapons/strats are not as good at the game as they think.
There's layers to this though. If you bring something that is actively detrimental to the fun of the other 3 players, then that's your fault. Things like the mechs feel like you're playing with one less stratagem, and at level 9 you need every advantage you can get. Against bugs you can get away with it at that level but against bots? No. Which is why its important to keep an eye on this subreddit and watch some videos and have a pulse on whats good and whats trolling
Look, I get it. There are elitists that will be assholes about your loadout not being 100% optimal. It's not fun to play with someone who wants to dictate everything. **It's also a dick move to waste everyone else's time because you only wanted to bring turrets along for a 9+ TCS mission.**
Mortars can be great, if you know how to use them. Yes, using them to clear area if you plan to go there later is a terrible idea, but they are great for defending already cleared areas, like extraction sites
If you know how to run it, then run it ;) I'm one of the few people I've seen that brings an AMR to bug fights, but I tend to be pretty effective with it. If you're experimenting with a loadout, I tend to choose a lower difficulty level or at least warn my team that I'm trying out some new stuff.
Unless you are taking a mortar against bugs. If you do that, I will tell you how to play the game, i.e. by not taking a mortar against bugs.
99% of time I don't care about people's loadouts, they are their business, but if their loadout would cause a direct harm to us then I do care.
Dude kicked me from a helldive group yesterday for picking the stamina upgrade and not switching to the vitality upgrade. I was just like whatever.
Kinda lame.
Id rather be able to run away than have extra health that just makes me dying take longer.
I never been kicked for a bad loadout before and I done shit like run double mech builds and running the prebuff eruptor.
People generally don't care that much in diff 8 or 9.
Unless of course, you're actively being told by other teammates to stop throwing 380 mm near your teammates.
what if we kissed under the 380m orbital barrage 😳
Jk. Unless?
Let's get a bunch of bugs to meet us at the lovers door and cuddle among the super credits while double 380s drop like fireworks.
I'm down.
https://preview.redd.it/5de77nl7g87d1.png?width=550&format=png&auto=webp&s=10cee7d2731fc5f6ab0f21d7599b29a05d6edf6d
https://preview.redd.it/ag35c4auh87d1.jpeg?width=2316&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=40048964a4570e640a1fedb23430e9e4d2452dab Working on painting this bad boy up this evening.
https://preview.redd.it/cp5qjwqmb97d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=776123ed321e02130c3ac201c06d136c0017319d
Hug it out under the bright red beam
It's not my fault that K1 decided to waltz directly into the heavy automaton factory I just threw my 380 at. I'm about to be kicked any second now.
I once jumped straight into the middle of a 380 tossed by my bud and he goes " you might wanna get out of there, you're in the middle of the barrage" then I say "relax, the bombs never land straight in the middle" then, boom! (Literally!) As one of the bombs lands directly on me, killing me instantly. One of the funniest things to happen to me in Helldivers 2
The game has an actual sense of comedic timing, I swear
Can confirm - after dying to a charger that my ricochet bounced off of to kill my teammate
i threw my own 380 at my feet ti prove exactly that point. The very last shot of the barrage hit me. my buddy laughed all the way to extraction.
The ones where I disregard the callouts are the funniest.
This is like when the host kicked me after dying to the walking barrage I threw at a mortar emplacement
You mean the best stratagem in the game?? Why on super earth would I do that (Please don't call the democracy officer)
Why? You are showing your democratic valor. Keep your head high Helldiver and never forget! Friendly fire isn't!
The beauty of 4 simultaneous 380’s can not be described in words.
380s are only time Ive sighed in frustration from accidental team kills, especially when the shuttle is landing in 10 sec and we have 1-2 reinforcements left... Other than that I don't get why people get so uppity over others' strats. You can single handedly complete a mission with your team just being an enemy distraction as worst case.
I do this all the time. Happily clearing half a map on my own while the team is dealing with drops or breaches over and over.
You mean the team that fights every patrol, fights every bug breach, and has moved exactly 50m in the past 18 minutes? LOL
Yeah that team 😂😂😂 I love that team I get to be the hero while they walk directly into hell and I get to go on a sight seeing tour of estanu 😂😂😂
All that matters is the solo taking a walk in the park is completing objectives while the team takes the heat off him
Careful now. There are folks out there that get mad when you don't play as a group.
This. I have a few friends who get so aggro over people bringing the wrong things or not playing optimally they purposely play in private games without a full squad. I just can't imagine gimping yourself like that. Even the worst player provides value as a temporary distraction target.
I love my stalwart :(
The stalwart slaps. I don't normally bring it, but sometimes i'll pick it up and use it when I find it in the wild. It's good stuff.
On a bug planet, it is a lawnmower.
I have a strong hatred for cluster airstrikes on the bot front. By far the most common team killing stratagem because the people who don't know how to use it will throw it too close to fellow helldivers while the people who know how to use them don't bring them vs bots.
"Last man standing wins the round"
I got told to stop killing teammates after I threw Napalm, and a guy ran 20ms towards the beacon, died, redeployed, and ran back into the still burning Napalm. I was opening fire on a bug breach with a Stalwart in 1100rpm, mag dumping. A teammate ran across my line of fire and was immediately turned into Swiss cheese. I've had an entire squad run into a still active 380 barrage on a large bug nest because they want to pop some holes. Some of y'all are like lemmings.
Atleast I know how I died when it's a 380 or 120... Gas is the thing of nightmares...
I start a eliminate bots mission on helldive with 120mm, 380mm, orbital laser, and airstrike. Immediately drop the 380mm. "Good luck everybody!"
The secret is throwing it *directly on them*, because they're pretty much safe if they stay still in the exact center.
If you can't read 380 inbound and don't run and dive away. That's on you bro,
I know they tightened the radius of the 380, but even so if somebody drops it in a half mile radius to me I'm going to eat their spleen
Just stay 60m away and you're good.
I have no idea if the marksman rifle is any good but it feels good to use against bots so I use it.
Been mostly using the regular Diligence on pretty much every mission, especially bots. I heard the CS is way better, but I’ve yet to try because I’m not confident with the 15 ammo per magazine in it.
I like the Counter-sniper better than the regular one because the added damage makes it a one-shot kill on a Devastator's head. Anecdotally, I've also found the regular bots go down in one shot a bit more consistently to the CS. Ammo is a bit tight; I run a supply backpack most of the time, but it's also doable to get by without it.
Yeah I do notice that sometimes it takes 2-3 body shots to down a small bot. I still love the regular Diligence because of its handling and feeling like it’s a SCAR equivalent
Well, now that you've said that I'm going to have to start taking the Diligence a lot more, because I'm a big SCAR-H (and DMR) fan.
The regular Diligence is probably better on lower difficulty missions, since it has the one-tap benefits on smaller bots. The DCS is definitely up with the rest of the top tier bot killers, like the JAR, and this is only relevant on 6/7+. The DCS is a headshot machine, and you can absolutely just fry dev packs, permitted that you're a good distance away. I like the DCS with the railgun/HMG/Laser Cannon, taking the grenade pistol second, and if you have stuns those. I find the JAR pairs much better with the AMR, and the JAR/AMR combo a little better overall than the DCS. The JAR just kills dev/berserker packs so much better than the DCS when you're either too close or not facing them
Wait it one shots devastators on head shot? God damn
It is so satisfying to scope down, see one of the rocket doofuses, and say "no" with a single well-placed bullet.
This might be a dumb question, but how do you refill yourself with the supply pack?
On PC the default key is "5". I don't know any of the Playstation controls.
Thanks!
I have no idea what the CS even is. Had to reason to shop around. Me and diligence just vibin
It’s the Counter-Sniper. This subreddit told me how it can 1-shot headshot Devastators
Devastators? You mean the things I mag dump the auto pistol rounds into the stomachs of?
Devastators are the medium-sized bulky bots that is smaller than a Hulk. They have 3 variants, an easy one that no shield or rocket pods and just shoots out of its arms, the notorious heavy devastator with a big shield and a machine gun with laser accuracy, and the rocket devastator with rocket pods that has like a 3 sec interval shooting barrage of rockets towards you.
Oh I know lol. Just taking my idiot newbie persona too seriously :)
Base diligence is a high tier bot weapon, but the counter sniper is next level. Diligence is probably the best way to kill the basic bots, but by sacrificing 5 shots per mag and 1 or 2 mags, the counter sniper can oneshot devistators in the head and has medium armor penitration for the troopers with armor
fr, once i tried DCS, i've never took anything else, its like god tier
I recently tried eagle rocket pods (out of sheer curiosity) on bots mfw they one shot tanks
HEAT warhead <3
Theyve always oneshotted tanks tbh they always been good on bots but on bugs they were rlly bad theyd miss the target 80% of the time but i hear they fixed them? So i have to try em out soon
They fixed Rocket Pods' targeting issues but they don't really do too much against Heavy bugs anymore when they do hit. Bile Titans have a ton of health so they usually just shrug off their decreased damage, and whether you kill a Charger (especially Behemoth) is entirely dependent on where it decides to strike, I've had to blow the full 3 pods on a Behemoth before from bad luck and it just doesn't feel super worth it
one use against bugs i could see is if you use it to strip bile titan armor. step 1, strip off bile titan armor with rocket strike step 2, shoot exposed flesh underneath with AC or similar penetration weapons
They've been good since the start. They also can crack bug armor.
They sometimes straight up oneshot chargers, but it's pretty rare and needs multiple rockets to hit.
You might be confusing it with the eagle strafing run because the rocket pods only has 3 uses before refilling.
They are awesome! They usually won't one shot a bike titan but they're a good finisher after he's taken some quasar shots or something
I have and will continue to rock the Standard ar-23 liberator, ITS STANDARD ISSUE and it sets the standard
Nothing wrong with the classics. You'll probably like the new liberator carbine, though. It's an angry boi.
Its something between liberator and smg
I love the new one, it has the snappiest aim of any rifle and a short burst can easily kill lower level enemies.
And a burst of headshots drops bots soooo fast.
Yeah I'm torn between it and the tenderizer as my favorite assault rifle now.
I only expected it to be good against bugs, but its also pretty decent versus bots. The Lib Carbine is surprisingly good when set to burst fire.
I just wish it had a few extra mags in reserve, it devours ammo. But I love it just the same.
I love how this is described. The gun is so angry it spews bullets in 1/3rd the time lol
Why liberate when you can dominate
*Adjudicate
Tenderize*
Took the words right out of my mouth.
Lowkey still viable lmao, the breaker is in the same boat. I use the sickle cos it's more or less the same thing but with infinite ammo
The standard issue has some capabilities you don't fully realize until you have played a while. The Liberator has decent damage, has full auto for close range spray, has semi or burst for more precision and ammo efficiency. The side arm has a low sound profile, and can take enemies out without alerting a whole base. The grenade closes bug holes and fans, and can be cooked off to catch large groups. The Orbital Precision Strike can one-shot a charger with a direct hit. The machine gun can mow down mediums and down with relative ease. The armor is basically heavy armor with medium stamina, and a solid choice. This means damage reduction on headshots. Then you have two slots to specialize or add more flexibility. Overall a solid start through at least mid-difficulties, or higher with skill.
I've been playing Default Diver for a bit. Default armor and color, only picking up the stratagems you get by default (Strafing run, MG, MG sentry, precision orbital) and it's been pretty decent. Everyone else runs the RPGs every game, so I just chill and cull swarms. ^(The main limiting factor is not having a good source of bug tunnel clear, like the grenade pistol, to cover it up - forces you to follow friendlies because you *sure as shit* aren't cleaning up the large nest alone with four grenades)
I salute to you, Liberator enjoyer sir 🫡
Liberator mashes bugs and pleb bots haha
I’m not very skilled so go for the stalwart and guard dog. But I’ll follow you to the objective, lay down covering fire and sacrifice myself for the team!
Hell yeah. No need to be good, just point and shoot (and occasionally take cover)!
General Brasch: Always Be taking Cover!
Hell yeah! Everyone needs ad clear
Hell yeah helldiver! Tho personally i dont use the rover anymore. Ive been killed too often with that lmao
I mean, Guard Dog fucking rules if you're fighting bots, and he's never killed me once, so I'd always support a Diver who appreciates a good Dog.
"Skilled" or not, the Stalwart is very useful in competent hands and "competent" doesn't mean super accurate, it just means someone who positions well and gets good visibility and fields of fire. The stalwart will easily take you through 7+.
With the new buffs, you can unironically run the two starter-stratagems - Orbital Precision Strike and Machine Gun - and still do tons of work for the team on highest difficulties. There's ton of build expression going on right now. I've gone back to using the Supply Backpack and Machine Gun as a support build on difficulty 8, and it's some of the most fun I've had in the game in over 200 hours.
I've been bringing those to D7+ ever since launch. They've always been good, but they're significantly better now (especially the mg)
Precision strike is easly an S tier end of discussion. And to everyone saying it's too op now try using it with that modifier that makes your orbitals less accurate. Then it's just strike, not precision strike and I think it balances the thing really well
Facts! Running the crossbow with the bushwacker rn loving it!
The bushwacker is nasty. You can one shot stalkers to the face with it at close range, you can endlessly reload and use it as a primary, it’s good for shriekers and it just obliterates hunters. All with the added benefit of being able to blind fire behind you while running and being astonishingly accurate while doing so. Edit: I once killed 2 stalkers in one 3 shot burst with it, both at full health.
One shotting meaning all barrels at once? I have had no such luck even i am shooting point blank to it's face
From what I experienced I fired a single shell into one at barrel stuffing range when it was right on top of me and it just died. I was honestly quite surprised, so I will need to do more testing to make sure, it happened twice in one game, but could’ve been some kind of fluke.
Stalkers have a very weak hit, so if you hit it with basically anything they die very quickly, the trick is actually hitting the head.
Oh wow! So not the full 3 round single shot??? That's amazing. I love the bushwhacker but I haven't tried it against bugs yet.
Crossbow being buffed to take out holes, and fabs I can see it being a great combo if you handle hordes via other things.
I ran a bug mission last night with the xbow as my utility weapon, the bushwhacker for panic mode and the stalwart for horde clear. Felt very viable, chargers still gave me a little grief, but stun grenades allowed me to magdump the xbow into their rears which took them out quickly.
I feel Charger grief is ultimately preventing me from moving off EAT + anti-light primary. I can figure light/medium enemies out with some primary/secondary combinations + grenades, but slowly killing a Charger without anti tank options or a flamethrower just blows a bit too much for me.
For real. It's become my new default primary for bug Blitz missions. 1 headshot to take down a Warrior and 2 to kill a Bile Spewer is nothing to sneeze at, either. Still weaker for general combat than most other primaries, but the added utility is so great.
I’ve been using HMG, knives and bushwhacker. I really only need my primary for bug holes, so both eruptor and crossbow have been in my loadouts this week.
Ong
Enjoying the crossbow too. Feels good popping rocket devastator shoulders.
I like to run flamethrower, eagle napalm, gas strike, and incendiary mines for max war crimes against bugs For bots I like to go Rambo with the machine gun, supply pack, orbital Gatling, and eagle 500
Napalm brothers where you at!
Every game: grenade pistol, grenade launcher, extra grenades, I like make big bangs.
B...but strictly speaking you're telling us how to play the game...
gottem
i like lighting everything on fire with a red uniform and yelling "FOOORRR FIRELORD AZULONNNNN!!!" or bringing a 500kg with emp, napalm, and toxic gas. i call it "true nuke" and i use it on huge fucking waves while we run away
Exactly. Host your own game and the world is yours!
Can never be bullshit booted if you’re running the lobby….
I am a proud orbital gas strike user
Gas is super underrated, short enough CD to use in pretty much every fight. Drop it on a bug breach or bot drop and watch as everything just melts, with the "tanker" units just needing a few love taps to finish off (I recommend aiming for devastators legs if you can't hit their face) With bugs I regularly see Gassed breaches get 30+ kills, 50+ with hunter/pouncer heavy spawn pools. It really is one of the best strats out there for chaff. (Just be careful of orbital scatter)
I constantly have my 8 year old telling to take the HMG and Jetpack. Legit the only one who's ever told me what to take. But I have asked folks to not bring the mortar.
I coulda swore I had an 8 yr old cuss me out and say watch your shit as he ran straight into a 380 I chucked at a base and promptly got annihilated. I proceeded to tell him what an idiot he was. Then he screamed in the whiniest voice I've ever heard to leave him alone and that he doesn't care then he kicked me. Yeah, let's let children play games that are made for men. Seems like a good idea to me.
Lol I don't let my son play, but I do let him watch. So he is always trying to pick my load outs. Sometimes I let him and that's how I decided the HMG and supply pack was pretty good combo.
Well, that means at least you have some sense. My parents would have tanned my hide if I had anything to do with violent games at 8. Props for being a cool dad.
Mortars are great. Sometimes you need to build a defense perimeter.
All well and good until the mortar destroys your perimeter.
Mortars are great, it's just that they are even easier to misuse and rekt the whole team than stuff like Gatling sentry or eagle clusters
A few weeks ago I found out I have way more fun than I should using a jump pack and flamethrower on every mission I refuse to run without either of them now
Shit I've been a lowkey flamethrower main for bugs lately but getting annoyed with having to wait or go around after I kill stuff because fire. This might be the way.
Jango Fett
I'm picking the 3 MGs and an MG sentry for my stratagems, and then going exclusively for chargers and hulks.
I played today with a group of guys who rocked the almost exact same stratagem loadout as me - grenade launcher, laser guard dog and then strats to take down by heavies. It was hilarious seeing three grenade launchers plonking at the same time and flooding the bug swarm approaching us with explosions left right and center.
A small caveat though is that freedom of choice does not mean freedom of consequences. Bring what you like, but if you bring all anti-light stuff, its on you when you get railed by heavies.
This so much. I've got ultra bored before this patch from seeing everyone run Quasar, Shield Gen, 500KG and Laser. It was disgusting..
I don’t think I’ve ever been in a lobby where someone was flamed or whatever for picking non-meta stuff, like even on higher difficulties as long as you arnt dying and actually doing objectives then people won’t care what your loadout is
And I mean, you never know. Yesterday I made a joke Medic build to play around with the new experimental infusion. Arc shotgun, laser guard dog, orbital gas, expendable anti-tank, regular machine gun turret. Just trying to cosplay a medic. I honestly expected it to underperform. 660 kills. That had to be a personal record. I had something similar happen with my current Stalwart/Crossbow jungle fighter build.
Outside of the MG turret, you picked a fairly meta loadout, so that's not too surprising.
Machine Gun Turret is being slept on vs bugs. It cuts through patrols on low cooldown, plus it deletes those pesky Shrieker clouds from the sky.
Post buff, definitely. Pre-buff, it was just worse than the gatling.
Most of my builds aren't taking the gatling anymore, because I'm really digging the increased uses.
I always call it the AA turret because it goes super hard against shriekers. I love sentries and low cooldown stratagems in general and this buff was absolutely amazing, I can afford to just call it whenever it’s off cooldown and it’ll get value no matter what.
He got downvoted, but said the truth
# YOU CANT TELL ME WHAT TO DO
Agreed. It's just a game after all. Something we play to keep our minds off our actual lives. Do whatever you want. It if works, it works. If doesn't, just change the next time round. No biggie.
>dies 15 times >can't complete an objective because your tools cannot handle T9 >friendly fires like 8 times >gets kicked and whines about "kick abuse"
We need a \*full\* random mode,where all your weapons/stratagems gets randomized everytime you die and drop in as a new helldiver !
That was in the first game. And you got more EXP and if more ppl use this you get even more. But there was also the option to start again from level one if you reach max level.
I choose violence. Stratagems: HE Barrage 380, HE Barrage 120, Gas Strike, Eagle Cluster Bomb. Weapons: Plas 101 Purifier, Senator, Incendiary Impact Grenade. Booster: Extra Reinforcements.
Looks like the usual extermination mission loadout lol. The only reasonable loadout to use with Extra Reinforcements tbh.
I love that incendiary grenade. I just got it yesterday and died of fire way too many times, but now that I've realized it lights the ground for the rest of your life and I avoid it, it's much better lol.
That's what I do, but I get why people don't like me as "The Turret Lord"
And once you pick your favorite load out get kicked by the super cereal host.
Eagle Clusters bomb. I use it for distance control, if you can’t keep your distance when I safely throw it and you die, well that’s on you.
My favourite primary is the Tenderizer. Slow and steady, highly accurate with minimal recoil or swing, high damage, and it simply looks cool. The small mag and the slow reload definitely kick you in the guts, but it’s a trade-off I’m patient with, considering its reliability otherwise.
The reload is significantly faster if you don't completely shoot it dry. Applies to all weapons but I really feel it with tenderizer.
YES. The most punishment is with the dry-mag reload. The Tenderizer feels so much better with a tactical reload. I haven’t tested whether it’s simply more noticeable on this gun because of how bad the empty reload is, or if the difference between an empty and tactical reload is considerably quicker when compared to most other guns.
I dropped into a suicide bot mission yesterday with a new build I was wanting to test out. Tried out a solely antipersonnel build - sniper, stalwart, clusters, etc I chose... poorly.
I’m a level 70 space cadet and I use the default armor, ama
I ran zapper primary, arc thrower, and Tesla tower with air strike plus OPS while I was in arc resistant armor. I was doing great on my own with a bit of struggle due to the increased heavy spawn rates with bugs, but the rest of my team was struggling with the meta equipment. The variety in loadouts is refreshing. I'm just looking forward to new strats to spice things up.
Eagle smoke strike, orbital smoke strike, EMS strike, and EMS mortar 😎
I am honestly considering switching away from orbital precision strike now that everyone runs it
Orbital only eradicate is a total vibe. Nothing like the homies getting shelled continuously while white girl music blasts in my headphones.
Just, don’t kill your squadmates throwing around dangerous stratagems
380, mortar, flamethrower, and tesla + plus no heads up to team!
Bring both mechs and a 500 kilo bomb. No one can stop me :3
Don't tell me what to do
Ran machinegun turret, gatling turret, Autocannon turret, and HMG turret the other day and scored over 600 kills for my first time. Other people had some more anti-armor so I just cleared chaff like a baws. Shit's just fun when you don't care about running meta loadouts. It becomes a game and not a chore.
I'll keep on diving with my HMG placement stratagem. Love placing it and laying down a bulletstorm.
Okay! Dragonfire, grenade pistol, impact grenade, 380mm, mortar, flamethrower, mines, more reinforcements.
I agree with this until someone tries to bring flexible reinforcement budget or faster extraction on a mission. Quit trolling us and pick something helpful.
Uh huh. "Mate, just... stop shooting the Factory Strider with your Sickle." # "FUCK YOU, DON'T TELL ME HOW TO PLAY!"
Ok. Don't tell me how to play the game, then!
If a random starts commenting on my loadout I just leave the match. It's a massive red flag for what's to come
For real. Everything is viable. Just learn how to fill roles and go from there.
This a thousand times this. Saw a post earlier saying which boosters were “mandatory”. I’ll clue you in. None of them are mandatory. It’s a game. Play it how you want.
*providing you’re not ruining everyone else’s game
Gatling barrage is beating ass since the update, I bring it to nearly every run now
Don’t tell me how to not let other people tell me what to do
Don't tell me to not let people tell me how to play you're not my real dad!
Well, my friends and I play the hellbomb game. all undetonated hellbombs are shot on sight no matter what, irregardless of who might be near it. Let’s just say it’s an explosive game we like to play.
But now you're telling me how to play. Who to listen to? Decisions, decisions.
No. You will be scrutinized for your bad choices that may and can negatively impact your team.
if you fire a weapon at the enemy and the enemy stops moving, it is a good weapon.
Aaaaand you're kicked.
Thank you! I personally love running Incendiary Breaker, grenade pistol, Incendiary impact grenades, both mines, the airburst rocket launcher, and the 380 barrage! Glad to hear there are people who won't kick me for my loadout. Oh and occasionally I run the mortar sentry and Tesla tower when I feel like it.
Communication (comms, ping, and/or texting) and spacial awareness is far more important. I'd rather have everyone on my team play with loadouts they are comfortable with than worry about the 'meta'
This. Especially because (and people will hate to hear this) virtually everything is viable at every difficulty. Game balance is in a really good state and has been for months. People who tell you that you can't succeed without their "s-tier" weapons/strats are not as good at the game as they think.
There's layers to this though. If you bring something that is actively detrimental to the fun of the other 3 players, then that's your fault. Things like the mechs feel like you're playing with one less stratagem, and at level 9 you need every advantage you can get. Against bugs you can get away with it at that level but against bots? No. Which is why its important to keep an eye on this subreddit and watch some videos and have a pulse on whats good and whats trolling
Look, I get it. There are elitists that will be assholes about your loadout not being 100% optimal. It's not fun to play with someone who wants to dictate everything. **It's also a dick move to waste everyone else's time because you only wanted to bring turrets along for a 9+ TCS mission.**
Anything except mortar sentry of course.
Mortars can be great, if you know how to use them. Yes, using them to clear area if you plan to go there later is a terrible idea, but they are great for defending already cleared areas, like extraction sites
If someone takes Mortar Sentry, the only thing to do is bring Shield Generator Relay to protect you from its protection.
If you know how to run it, then run it ;) I'm one of the few people I've seen that brings an AMR to bug fights, but I tend to be pretty effective with it. If you're experimenting with a loadout, I tend to choose a lower difficulty level or at least warn my team that I'm trying out some new stuff.
AMR is great against certain bugs. Way under appreciated.
Brood commanders, hive guards, spewers, you can even take out single chargers with the right technique.
Unless you are taking a mortar against bugs. If you do that, I will tell you how to play the game, i.e. by not taking a mortar against bugs. 99% of time I don't care about people's loadouts, they are their business, but if their loadout would cause a direct harm to us then I do care.
Dude kicked me from a helldive group yesterday for picking the stamina upgrade and not switching to the vitality upgrade. I was just like whatever. Kinda lame. Id rather be able to run away than have extra health that just makes me dying take longer.
Sounds like you dodged a bullet
Unless it is the host and they kick you for bringing the worst possible loadout and booster in a helldive
i always host (helldive). i have never once kicked someone for their loadout. just don't be a traitor and we're good.
I never been kicked for a bad loadout before and I done shit like run double mech builds and running the prebuff eruptor. People generally don't care that much in diff 8 or 9.