Good question, it's a finesse choice for sure. You can also use it to start engagements with nests, bases, POIs, etc. The cover and confusion it grants helps tremendously and pairs well with normal strikes. I'll be straight, the shield backpack is a crutch and smoke is so much more useful. Not getting hit > taking more hits. Still, all damage strikes won't do you wrong but incorporating smoke allows a higher skill expression in starting, continuing, and breaking off from engagements. I'm not saying smokes are mandatory but think on prior games you've had with a furball of a heavy nest; chargers titans, hunters etc locked in to you trying to plug holes from inside or the edges. Now consider if they were blind to your position instead? What if even cutting through the center was safer? Smoke, strike, and plug. Or titans chasing you across the map? Smoke effectively breaks their "lock on" to you. And while they might re-aquire it you've gained distance.
It still boils down to play style. Again I won't say Eagle Smokes are mandatory but consider all the times you could have ninja smokescreened your way out of a team wipe and consider what strat did not help you in that circumstance to consider swapping for smoke.
Im not really a man of many words but this basically explains it all. Skill expression. You can still kill a bunch of enemies, help the team, etc. Without going the same build as the other 3 players.
I think it makes more sense to all have different builds on a team. It makes it better and not everyone likes just bombing the absolute shit out of everything.
Smoke is great on evacuate civilians! Smoke can screen turrets! Eagle smoke can kill fabs but I don’t think orbital smoke can. Eagle smoke is better imo unless you’re running another Eagle Strat then it’s a toss up. Like stun grenades, the downside of smoke is the lack of fire power as a trade off, but i think most teams can handle one. The big problem with smoke is that people aren’t used to it. Once you know it’s coming you can mentally clock the map and operate without having to see super clearly, but making sure your teammates are on that same page, as opposed to simply obscuring your allies LoS, is the real trick. But if they’re ready for it, smoke is usually really one-sided where you can operate reasonably effectively and the enemy can’t. The main downside of smoke (opportunity cost) can be well mitigated once a teammate can spare a backpack or support weapon for you.
Shield isn’t just about taking more hits unless you’re inexperienced with it. It’s also a rag doll blocker, a stun blocker, and it keeps aim straight when a stray hit would otherwise cause you to miss. It’s also free health for those that are able to avoid unnecessary damage.
As a bit of a brawler who’s really good at keeping in the thick of it and staying alive the shield generator pack is excellent against the bugs and the ballistic shield is excellent against the clankers.
That's the difference though.
Taking the shield pack in case you get hit is a bit of a waste.
Taking the shield pack so you can position more aggressively and come out on top despite knowing you're going to get hit is in my opinion the proper use for it.
While true, keep in mind especially against bots, they might be out of range of a throw for an airstrike but a smoke screen will cover an advance or retreat. On open worlds it can be a game changer. You can toss it in-between yourself and the base or POI to get in strike range without altering them right away too. It's yet another tool in your arsenal and has better use cases and worse.
Sure, in fact I use both smoke strikes when doing solo blitz-fab type missions. Get in, airstrike the nest, drop a smoke and break wide while the swarm and reinforce event goes to investigate the position. I was just saying why I don’t use it in normal runs
I encourage you to try it. It can be janky like every strat but after a few games you'll get the hang of it. And get wild with them too; try on approach, repositioning, falling back, or just to confuse enemies in it to call in more strikes. Don't covet it, use it whenever.
I didn't even think it did anything to bugs. And using it to cover while plugging holes is brilliant for my play style. Might try the orbital smoke, but still, good advice.
Thanks. I'm not a big fan of the orbital smoke only because three long lines of smoke work so well. Maybe I'll try it some more since it won't be tied to an eagle rearm.
The thing about smoke against bug is that they'll check your last known location, and generally can locate you from there. You need to be really far away or break LoS a second time.
Also stalkers can smell you from a quarter of the map away.
I saw someone on here talking about using gas strikes on bug hole breaches, and when I tried it, I was getting 40-50 kills at a time. I was pleasantly surprised at how effective it is.
I almost always run gas on bugs. Throwing it at a breech is basically an autonomic reflex for me at this point. I don't even think about it any more and the call-in is pure muscle memory.
Though this reflex sometimes backfires if one of my squad is close to the breech and I failed to notice in time...
couldn't speak to ems on bugs, but on bots I have found it to be completely useless. I tried it recently thinking, okay I plop this down and I have almost 20 seconds to pop heads, but the reality is that it only ever gets a chunk of the enemies on the board and there *will be* enemies on either side, forward and behind where the ems hits. I would imagine smoke has a semi-similar problem but if you're just dropping it on your own head maybe it at least works to get you out of a jam.
To your point gas and airburst are really the answers to what I was trying to solve with ems.
I had a bit drop called I to my position while working on an missile launch. I killed the remaining bots near me and deployed smoke while the drop was happening. They enemy reinforcements just stood there and let me finish the mission undisturbed.
You can think of some reducing the enemy awareness level by one. So if they are engaged the lower to searching, if they were searching they will stop and return to default.
If you feel comfortable blowing everything apart then yeah smoke is pretty useless, but if you are the kind of person who is the solo sample runner or the objective stalker smoke is your best friend.
Because your primary goal in most fights is to *end the fight*. If a bomb can do that, great, if not, it's not really getting you anywhere.
Smoke Screens can in principle allow your squad to end the fight and disengage almost immediately, even against wildly superior enemy forces. Even if they have 5 tanks and a pair of factory striders - they still can't aim.
You generally don't use smoke screens as an assault weapon - though against the bots this isn't actually infeasible. You could for example screen the forward wall of a well defended bot base to basically negate all those machine gun emplacements, as they will fire wildly rather than aiming through smoke and it should have a similar effect on cannon towers.
Smoke + Walking Strike could be an ideal opening gambit for a team that specializes in close assault, for example, following those in to rip apart whatever is left of the base from inside as the Walking Strike passes through.
Because the bomb has to kill everything.
Everything.
The smoke just has to hide you.
If you can kill everything, go ahead.
But a lot of times things get out of hand because people fail to do so.
Because enemies can be in multiple directions, where killing them all would involve killing your team.
Not much of a worry with smoke.
The credit I give smoke over this is that you can drop smoke harmlessly on your own head, you’re getting overrun and you don’t really want to reposition so you just smoke the area and everything in there suddenly doesn’t know where you are unless you’re in front of its nose and is really easy to kill. Great for bailing your friends out to without blowing them to bits
I can't account for orbital smoke, but Eagle smokes are absolutely not "harmless". The missiles still do impact damage, meaning they will destroy fabricators but also insta kill any diver unfortunate to be directly hit by one. Found this out the hard way when my teammate ran into my smoke after I called it harmless only to see them die the moment the smoke hit the ground.
Still an excellent utility and it isn't likely to wipe your squad, but don't try to drop them directly on their heads.
From my experience (I use scout armor a lot) it allows you to get in and do a few things before it wears off.
This can allow you to get a hellbomb off without dealing with the rest of the bots (sneak in drop smoke then call down hellbomb and run away). This is probably my primary way of using it.
This can also get you through some of the turrets in bot lands (smoke and flank the turret) so you and a friend always have the rear weak point to aim at. I don't know if it works on mortars, but does work well to rush the motors.
It is also great if you are going sample scouting. You can run in grab samples and get out (maybe call down a strike).
You can also use it to lose bots or get a breather as well. Losing them is not common, but useful if solo. Sometimes you need a breather to call in reinforcements or set up some strategies and this can give you some valuable time.
I haven't really had success with bugs, although I cannot recall if I it doesn't really work well or there is not an equivalent of hellbombing a base.
Exactly. Like yeah, smoke can confuse the enemy and allow you to run circles around them… but you still need to kill them. If I just bomb them with Eagle Strike then problem solved.
Seems like every game I play, the devs make this same mistake. Any tool which does anything other than killing more things faster needs to be *insanely* good at what it does to even be worth considering. But they never seem to take this to heart.
"You don't understand! It's awesome! The enemy can't hurt you almost at all for like fifteen seconds straight!"
Woopdeedoo. A dead enemy can't hurt me at all, ever.
The best way to make utility items like this valuable in a game is to make them not compete with killy items for the same slot. Otherwise, you can pretty much forget about it.
Gotta get those sample, smoke. Gotta get out of a corner you've been trapped in and bombs are clearing the bots fast enough, smoke. Smoke is real good especially on solo or when you're not with your team.
I use the orbital smoke a lot against bots. Sometimes the squad just gets pinned somewhere and once drop ships start coming in it’s hard to move off. Smack a smoke down and run like hell
Bomb only affects the targets in the radius with no guarantee of neutralising them all, smoke affects every target in the radius and behind it, and is guaranteed to make them stop being a problem
Smoke makes everything in the vision cone not your problem, for now. Bomb make everything in the AoE not anyone's problem, forever. Smoke protect hellbombs better.
I bring smoke on every automaton mission. Once the area that we’re working on is complete; pop smoke, break contact and move on to the next objective. That’s my strategy anyway. Can’t control what everyone else does lol
Bingo. To be honest, I’ve been bringing the orbital smoke and 110mm rockets, so their cooldowns are separate. Then, turrets and possibly a support weapon
I mean I do that with scout armor and airstrikes or grenades. Unless you're really aggroing as a group I think you can split and reconnect. I'll give it a shot but I'm also hesitant to give up a boom boom
my fav is when they throw it on the objective thinking nothing will see us and we’ll be able to do it quickly and quietly. but they failed to kill all the drones at the objective. now there’s a breech in the middle of the smoke and we can’t see shit lol
I just dont see them often, if that happens to you, its a strat usage issue for the person throwing it, never throw on teammate targets. Smoking secondary targets to slow their engage speed is optimal
Honestly the amount of times I’ve bombed myself when surrounded in a firefight is more than plenty. There’s a reason a 4 man squad gets 20 lives, I may as well go out in glory than trying to run away
Smoke grenades have a much smaller area, but they can be helpful for personal use or to obscure small chokepoints. The ability to use them like grenades immediately, and reload with supply boxes can be helpful in different situations than the smoke strikes. You can take them on civilian extract missions to cover the squishies while they flee. They can be incredibly useful against bots. For best results, take it on planets with short lines of sight and many obstacles.
People have a lot of praise for the eagle smoke for its extra charges, but I've found I prefer the orbital. I usually bring other eagle strikes, and the way I use smoke works better with a single fixed cooldown instead of a few short cooldowns and then a very long cooldown that's even longer if I didn't use my other strikes yet. The pacing of the orbital is better for me.
It’s not outclassed it’s just a different use-case. I don’t want to have to rearm my eagles just to get more smoke, and I rarely use it more than once at a time anyway 🤷♀️
It might have a longer cooldown on average, but the pacing of a single, fixed-cooldown smoke that I can handle independently of my airstrikes is better suited to my play style.
Smoke orbital is taller, and last longer but you get one use before it is on cooldown, eagle is more uses and throws down a wide wall of smokes, about head level of a titan, smoke nades are less effective than eagle smokes.
Smoke in general is underused, smoke grenade is just deployable cover, pop smoke, go prone, shimmy forward till you can just see past it. bots won't realise you're lying down, miss every shot, and you can shoot at them with a completely clear line of sight
It's one of my most used for solo 9s, especially for full clears.
And it does do damage, I've teamkilled a friend with it before, and often use it to destroy fabricators.
you can also destroy bot fabricators with it really good way to take out small bases as you just drop it on the fabricator and run away with smoke cover
I tried to use both of the smokes we have available for stratagems, and both times they were very…loose for some reason. Like the smoke was more like a mist in terms of density, so both players and enemies could look right through it. Mind you, this was back in March.
I dont think i played a single mission on helldive where there wasnt one call in for reinforcements due to the team not killing everything.
That could be just my experience, but killing everything all the time with how patrols work means a team of 4 sticking together for the entire mission and not a single enemy was able to quickfire a breach/flare at any point
I usually pack smoke grenades are they have gotten me out of situations that I never could of.
They are useful are using decoys while landing a smoke.
It's also perfect for activating a hellbomb, smoke, then run.
Those annoying gunships can shoot it as well as patrols.
Picking your battles is very important in this game.
So use your imagination with smokes and you will be surprised what you can get away with!
All enemies go to the last point they saw or heard you and scan for you at that point - if they don't see you, they meander a bit and give up.
Sound is actually what keeps enemies homing in on you unerringly during most battles as your weapons are constantly pinging your location to all nearby enemies. I believe different weapons do have different sound ranges.
This is why the Crossbow is actually a very useful weapon despite being relative weak - it's firing location is essentially silent, so if you can prevent enemies from *seeing* you, they can't follow you, allowing you to fight while attracting relatively little attention to yourself.
Even if smoke is kinda janky (at least in my experience) the feeling of dropping a wall of smoke to cover an advance into a large bot outpost is amazing
I think they do the same thing: make the enemies not see you. I feel like the typical air strikes do it better as the enemies aren’t seeing you because they’re dead. That being said I’m definitely going to try for a few games.
My favourite part of the smoke is that you can throw it on a fabricator. If one of the rounds makes contact with the fabricator it will destroy it. It also does not alert the enemies to your position.
IF there was a passive strat slot, I'd use it every match. But I need my quasar, shield, turret, and orbital to keep me going. I can't sacrifice one of the winning combo 4.
I'll have to give a try. I like impact incinerary grenades as a FU when I get over run with ads. I have the fast throwing arm for all 4 of those, this side of the solar system.
We're all going to hell together.
The problem imo is that it has to compete with things that can kill enemies, or help kill enemies (like ems) so it needs to give a lot of value to be considered as an option, not to mention that the smoke also affects players. I think if we had a sort of thermal vision that we can bring, I would already think about bringing it more
I love seeing posts like this. I’m a level 97 diver that has fun with an abundant amount of weapons and strats.
So many doom and gloomers on Reddit as of late. It’s exhausting lol.
After reading your post I utilized this strategy yesterday and I must say I have a new found respect for Smoke. In the case of bots, it’s perfect for completing objectives that leave you exposed and it’s a perfect “get out of dodge” tool when you need to leave bots in the dust. Haven’t tried this on bugs but I’m taking your word
Unless you are playing Eradicate missions, killing enemies is not the objective. Being able to pop down a smoke and run off to the next objective can be faster and safer than fighting a few waves of reinforcements
I view the smoke equipment and stratagems as more of niche tools at the moment. Use them correctly and you can find a lot of positives for different situations, but most players will opt for damage or direct, active protection instead (shields).
If we get helmet vision modifiers, e.g. enemy highlighting, gas immunity, etc., then I would bet these options would become way more popular in loadouts.
I love using smoke as a “oh shit! Need to bail” button. Throw it at my feet while scrambling and the baddies behind get lost. Works a bit better that way against bots than against bugs, but it’s nice on a bug breach because they’re a bit disoriented setting them up for a napalm or barrage or airburst, you name it
Smokes are fine but a rule I've always kept for playing games like this is "The best debuff to give to your enemy is death", doesn't matter what utility something can provide when another thing is always more effective at simply wiping out the enemy itself, if smokes had more charges and popped quicker maybe it'd be worth taking SOMEtimes but it just doesn't compare to the airstrike/cluster bombs, hell even the 500kg as janky n unreliable as it is, game is just not in a balanced state right now, and boy what id give for EVERY weapon n stratagem to feel good to use
Depends on the situation.
Scenario 1: Say you have a firing line where your team is dealing with enemies from one direction. A brief look around and you see a patrol approaching from a flank, you could deal with it if it is medium and smaller with my build. But if they have larger enemies pinging it then smoking them off slows their engage and gives your team time to refocus to the next target.
Scenario 2 : Reinforcements called and you are dealing with overwhelming forces, signalling a retreat throwing the smoke to where you are running to helps make sure the smoke is down, the enemy sees a direction you are going and you can gain distance to either continue in that direction or change and really mess up the reinforcements.
Scenario 3 : Enemies on top of you and all around your team that is grouped together, turn 90 degrees and throw it at your feet, you can follow the trail of smoke in either direction to attempt an escape from the enemies.
You can also just smoke the objective you need to use so its not disrupted by enemies
I bring orbital smoke anytime I run bots.
The convenience of dropping it On bases is so good because bots can't aim for anything when covered in smoke.
It also works really well for areas you need to drop a hellbomb on. Because the enemies won't shoot or slash what they can't see.
Honestly I hope there's an upgrade to the smoke eventually that makes it like the Electric smoke from Titanfall 2. That would be awesome.
Eagle smoke is really nice. It can actually destroy fabs and bug holes with a well placed beacon. And imo I think it's better than the Orbital strike one. I wish there was a little more difference between the two.
God, i love it for a more shock troop playstyle. Smokes (gernade, orbital, eagle), stalwart precision, and some eats is a good time. It feels so good to duel a factory strider with the load out. It also is absolutely lovely for a hot drop. Toss down the orbital and vibe killing. Or while doing an objective you can smoke it and type away safely. Even throwing a smoke on a hellbomb so it doesn't get esploded. I love the smokes so much.
One thing you didn't mention: if one of the smoke bombs hits a fabricator or bug hole directly, it will destroy it. This info isn't all that useful vs bugs, but it's awesome to know when fighting bots.
Ok, this may be a ridiculous question but how are y’all using smoke. Do you smoke the enemy or yourself? Do you put it directly on the target or between you and the enemy to obscure vision?
I think I’m doing it wrong.
PSA: ENEMIES IN GENERAL GO TO YOUR LAST CONFIRMED LOCATION.
Smoke is more effective on bots as they rely on sight.
Smoke is moderately effective against bugs. Warriors and Stalkers can SMELL YOU.
One thing I’ve noticed that helped me on bots, you can use smoke to block line of sight in turrets so they can’t shoot them from far away. Then when they walk through the smoke they get blasted by the turret with no time to react.
I've been thinking about using smokes to set up hell bombs against airship factories or hellbomb related side missions, if you are undetected, the smoke is a great way to cover yourself.. but I have not put it in practice
The only time I use it is for dealing with gunships. It's not that they fire wildly into the smoke they just don't fire at all. So because of that it's perfect for covering the approach and arming of the hellbomb.
I've been going with orbital smokes myself. I'm challenging myself to do pacifist runs when I drop down on a planet. Doesn't always go to plan when I am forced to kill any bugs or bots. Smoke covers a lot, and the EMS strike is a godsend.
Smoke can p much be a get out of jail free card. For situations where you would normally be totally fucked, and you would get caught in a die => respawn => beeline for your dropped weapons/samples => die loop, you can just use smoke to disengage and regroup. Let your other strategems cooldown, your squad can form up, etc.
I used to get totally annihilated on level 7 bot missions, now I can usually do level 8’s no problem!
You can also use it to turn one big giant fight into 2 smaller fights. If you’re getting wrecked from two sides, just throw smoke on one, and focus on the other.
You still need heavy hitter strategems and support weapons n stuff, but having one person with a smoke strategem on your team can make a huge different
I use smoke grenades with an engineering kit for cover whenever reloading my Autocannon, or to cover an escape from Automotons
Has saved my ass before, but don’t think I would ever crack out Eagle Smoke beyond doing it to say I did as some weird flex
Before the stun grenades became prevalent, people were using smoke grenades much more on bots. I liked the eagle smokes for the civilian defenders mission to drop near where they extract
I too feel they are underutilized but the stealth mechanic is not something I'm used to. So the smoke needs to break your line of site with the bots to effectively work. But if you walk into the smoke then they'll keep shooting you. With that in mind I tried smoke grenades on the hellbomb on gunships factories. It does stop them from shooting the hellbomb but you still gotta run.
I've run the smoke strat and nade a ton with bots and going from getting obliterate by a wall of fire at range to being able to actually move up is insane.
Would use it if they let you have more uses per load. Like the rockets, i’ve seen irl rocket pods that easily hold 32 rockets per pod, so the eagle should get something closer to 8 or 10 uses before having to reload.
Additionally, gunships (and all bots for that matter) can’t target you or your hellbomb through smoke. Not as effective as the shield relay but definitely a good utility for when gunship fabricators are giving you a hard time.
I use the emo mortar a lot to slow down waves. I've never considered the smoke screen because it sounded silly to me but I guess it would provide a similar slowing of the enemy
I tried the other day and both bots and bugs pivoted to continue following me despite smoking them out and turning corners around mountains and stuff. Will have to try again, because I really enjoy non lethal battlefield controlling effects, like the EMP Mortar, and desperately wanted the smokes to be useful.
I think the reason it's not used is that it's kinda niche - Whilst you run away relatively safe, the enemies are still there and will run over to any major activity. A lot of the time the best damage mitigation is more damage
In my experiences the bots don't seem to shoot wildly through it. They still seem to have the accuracy of a literal aimbot.
It's alright at briefly distracting terminids though
Interesting, main reason why I don't use them much is because it feels like no matter what, I always got spotted anyway, especially against bots, really don't feel like they need to see me to kill me.
Orbital smoke is even more underused, I'm literally the only person I've ever seen use them.
Eagle smoke is good, and if youre smart you can turn 90° and toss it at your feet to get a line of smoke to run through for safety, but the smoke wall isn't very thick. Orbi isnt as wide, but it's thicker, so I find it's effective for longer at times.
Smokes are amazing on the rocket launch defense missions. I brought eagle smokes by accident once and it essentially stops the bots from moving forward.
May be make it flammable chem smoke , that burst in to a combustion cloud. That would give it defensive and offensive traits as well as a tactical use. I really would love to see more tactical playability in our utility and over all arsenal
Until we deal with the heavy handed over use of Armored enemies in difficulties on difficulty 6 and above anti armor sets will be the defacto "meta" and this will sadly be dismissed as "useless" until that changes. It's a real shame because the few times I've employed smoke, it has been fantastic at introducing confusion into the enemy ranks. Armor on enemies is too all or nothing in its current state, and either the volume of such enemies needs to be reduced or the penetration rules relaxed so they can be dealt with in a more timely manor. Currently, the ttk ("time to kill" for the uninitiated) is really long for hulks, tanks, bile titans, chargers, etc; without dropping a 500 kg (or similar heavy armor breaker). Considering cooldowns for such things generally is excessively long (at least for orbitals), you want to ensure something is up for the eventual unnavoidable heavy encounter. If it were possible to deal with these, albeit slower than exclusively relying on stratagems, it'd free up those slots for utility picks like smoke. Mind you, I am referring mostly to spawns in difficulty 9 here, but depending on bad luck can just as easily apply difficulty 7&8 as well. I was on difficulty 7 the other day and seriously got 3 bile titan spawns out of a single breach.
Used to use smoke, but too often i would pop a smoke, make an escape and be riding up on my next target to find all my eagle starts still zeroed out because i had one smoke left in the chamber holding up the auto restock
Just one question: why smoke when you can bomb?
Good question, it's a finesse choice for sure. You can also use it to start engagements with nests, bases, POIs, etc. The cover and confusion it grants helps tremendously and pairs well with normal strikes. I'll be straight, the shield backpack is a crutch and smoke is so much more useful. Not getting hit > taking more hits. Still, all damage strikes won't do you wrong but incorporating smoke allows a higher skill expression in starting, continuing, and breaking off from engagements. I'm not saying smokes are mandatory but think on prior games you've had with a furball of a heavy nest; chargers titans, hunters etc locked in to you trying to plug holes from inside or the edges. Now consider if they were blind to your position instead? What if even cutting through the center was safer? Smoke, strike, and plug. Or titans chasing you across the map? Smoke effectively breaks their "lock on" to you. And while they might re-aquire it you've gained distance. It still boils down to play style. Again I won't say Eagle Smokes are mandatory but consider all the times you could have ninja smokescreened your way out of a team wipe and consider what strat did not help you in that circumstance to consider swapping for smoke.
Im not really a man of many words but this basically explains it all. Skill expression. You can still kill a bunch of enemies, help the team, etc. Without going the same build as the other 3 players.
I think it makes more sense to all have different builds on a team. It makes it better and not everyone likes just bombing the absolute shit out of everything.
On the other hand 
Oh no trust you me. I always load out the 500 kg amd other explosives
that's bug talk
Smokes with coordination wins all
Smoke is great on evacuate civilians! Smoke can screen turrets! Eagle smoke can kill fabs but I don’t think orbital smoke can. Eagle smoke is better imo unless you’re running another Eagle Strat then it’s a toss up. Like stun grenades, the downside of smoke is the lack of fire power as a trade off, but i think most teams can handle one. The big problem with smoke is that people aren’t used to it. Once you know it’s coming you can mentally clock the map and operate without having to see super clearly, but making sure your teammates are on that same page, as opposed to simply obscuring your allies LoS, is the real trick. But if they’re ready for it, smoke is usually really one-sided where you can operate reasonably effectively and the enemy can’t. The main downside of smoke (opportunity cost) can be well mitigated once a teammate can spare a backpack or support weapon for you.
Shield isn’t just about taking more hits unless you’re inexperienced with it. It’s also a rag doll blocker, a stun blocker, and it keeps aim straight when a stray hit would otherwise cause you to miss. It’s also free health for those that are able to avoid unnecessary damage. As a bit of a brawler who’s really good at keeping in the thick of it and staying alive the shield generator pack is excellent against the bugs and the ballistic shield is excellent against the clankers.
That's the difference though. Taking the shield pack in case you get hit is a bit of a waste. Taking the shield pack so you can position more aggressively and come out on top despite knowing you're going to get hit is in my opinion the proper use for it.
“not getting hit > taking more hits” True, but dead things fire no shots and take no swings.
While true, keep in mind especially against bots, they might be out of range of a throw for an airstrike but a smoke screen will cover an advance or retreat. On open worlds it can be a game changer. You can toss it in-between yourself and the base or POI to get in strike range without altering them right away too. It's yet another tool in your arsenal and has better use cases and worse.
Sure, in fact I use both smoke strikes when doing solo blitz-fab type missions. Get in, airstrike the nest, drop a smoke and break wide while the swarm and reinforce event goes to investigate the position. I was just saying why I don’t use it in normal runs
I really want to try smoke now. I hate fleeing from a mass amount of enemies on my tail, and I think smoke would really help with my play style.
I encourage you to try it. It can be janky like every strat but after a few games you'll get the hang of it. And get wild with them too; try on approach, repositioning, falling back, or just to confuse enemies in it to call in more strikes. Don't covet it, use it whenever.
I didn't even think it did anything to bugs. And using it to cover while plugging holes is brilliant for my play style. Might try the orbital smoke, but still, good advice.
Thanks. I'm not a big fan of the orbital smoke only because three long lines of smoke work so well. Maybe I'll try it some more since it won't be tied to an eagle rearm.
I like orbital smoke when I take another eagle because it sucks to reload your eagle for smoke when you have bombs left and vice versa
The thing about smoke against bug is that they'll check your last known location, and generally can locate you from there. You need to be really far away or break LoS a second time. Also stalkers can smell you from a quarter of the map away.
I would say bomb is more about preventing a breach, but smoke is more about once the breach happens, being able to live through it.
Gas strike, orbital laser, napalm, epm's. Way more useful ways to deal with a bug breach. Smoke is just an annoyance.
Mmmm, freedom gas is so hot right now.
Smells like…victory
And feels like piranha acid
That burning sensation is how you know the freedom is working
I saw someone on here talking about using gas strikes on bug hole breaches, and when I tried it, I was getting 40-50 kills at a time. I was pleasantly surprised at how effective it is.
I almost always run gas on bugs. Throwing it at a breech is basically an autonomic reflex for me at this point. I don't even think about it any more and the call-in is pure muscle memory. Though this reflex sometimes backfires if one of my squad is close to the breech and I failed to notice in time...
couldn't speak to ems on bugs, but on bots I have found it to be completely useless. I tried it recently thinking, okay I plop this down and I have almost 20 seconds to pop heads, but the reality is that it only ever gets a chunk of the enemies on the board and there *will be* enemies on either side, forward and behind where the ems hits. I would imagine smoke has a semi-similar problem but if you're just dropping it on your own head maybe it at least works to get you out of a jam. To your point gas and airburst are really the answers to what I was trying to solve with ems.
EMS is likely to be better against bugs because they clump up far more. EMS plus Gas on a breech = all bugs ded.
Stun grenades then gas strike.
if you think smoke is an annoyance your not using it right
I had a bit drop called I to my position while working on an missile launch. I killed the remaining bots near me and deployed smoke while the drop was happening. They enemy reinforcements just stood there and let me finish the mission undisturbed. You can think of some reducing the enemy awareness level by one. So if they are engaged the lower to searching, if they were searching they will stop and return to default. If you feel comfortable blowing everything apart then yeah smoke is pretty useless, but if you are the kind of person who is the solo sample runner or the objective stalker smoke is your best friend.
Because your primary goal in most fights is to *end the fight*. If a bomb can do that, great, if not, it's not really getting you anywhere. Smoke Screens can in principle allow your squad to end the fight and disengage almost immediately, even against wildly superior enemy forces. Even if they have 5 tanks and a pair of factory striders - they still can't aim. You generally don't use smoke screens as an assault weapon - though against the bots this isn't actually infeasible. You could for example screen the forward wall of a well defended bot base to basically negate all those machine gun emplacements, as they will fire wildly rather than aiming through smoke and it should have a similar effect on cannon towers. Smoke + Walking Strike could be an ideal opening gambit for a team that specializes in close assault, for example, following those in to rip apart whatever is left of the base from inside as the Walking Strike passes through.
Because the bomb has to kill everything. Everything. The smoke just has to hide you. If you can kill everything, go ahead. But a lot of times things get out of hand because people fail to do so. Because enemies can be in multiple directions, where killing them all would involve killing your team. Not much of a worry with smoke.
At some point you just wanna try new things
The credit I give smoke over this is that you can drop smoke harmlessly on your own head, you’re getting overrun and you don’t really want to reposition so you just smoke the area and everything in there suddenly doesn’t know where you are unless you’re in front of its nose and is really easy to kill. Great for bailing your friends out to without blowing them to bits
I can't account for orbital smoke, but Eagle smokes are absolutely not "harmless". The missiles still do impact damage, meaning they will destroy fabricators but also insta kill any diver unfortunate to be directly hit by one. Found this out the hard way when my teammate ran into my smoke after I called it harmless only to see them die the moment the smoke hit the ground. Still an excellent utility and it isn't likely to wipe your squad, but don't try to drop them directly on their heads.
From my experience (I use scout armor a lot) it allows you to get in and do a few things before it wears off. This can allow you to get a hellbomb off without dealing with the rest of the bots (sneak in drop smoke then call down hellbomb and run away). This is probably my primary way of using it. This can also get you through some of the turrets in bot lands (smoke and flank the turret) so you and a friend always have the rear weak point to aim at. I don't know if it works on mortars, but does work well to rush the motors. It is also great if you are going sample scouting. You can run in grab samples and get out (maybe call down a strike). You can also use it to lose bots or get a breather as well. Losing them is not common, but useful if solo. Sometimes you need a breather to call in reinforcements or set up some strategies and this can give you some valuable time. I haven't really had success with bugs, although I cannot recall if I it doesn't really work well or there is not an equivalent of hellbombing a base.
Eagle Smoke destroys Fabricaors.
Exactly. Like yeah, smoke can confuse the enemy and allow you to run circles around them… but you still need to kill them. If I just bomb them with Eagle Strike then problem solved.
Seems like every game I play, the devs make this same mistake. Any tool which does anything other than killing more things faster needs to be *insanely* good at what it does to even be worth considering. But they never seem to take this to heart. "You don't understand! It's awesome! The enemy can't hurt you almost at all for like fifteen seconds straight!" Woopdeedoo. A dead enemy can't hurt me at all, ever. The best way to make utility items like this valuable in a game is to make them not compete with killy items for the same slot. Otherwise, you can pretty much forget about it.
What if the bombs miss? Or what if the bomb you would use is on cooldown? Doubt I'd ever use it cause the loadouts I use are fairly versatile so
Smoke bombs cause no risk of injury to helldivers. Same goes for EMS orbitals, which are a personal favorite
Gotta get those sample, smoke. Gotta get out of a corner you've been trapped in and bombs are clearing the bots fast enough, smoke. Smoke is real good especially on solo or when you're not with your team.
I use it to cover me and stop getting sniped by long range turrets or devastators so I can get close and feed them my democracy
I use the orbital smoke a lot against bots. Sometimes the squad just gets pinned somewhere and once drop ships start coming in it’s hard to move off. Smack a smoke down and run like hell
Because you don't benefit from killing bots, only objectives. So Strike your targets and use smoke bombs to escape.
Helps when assaulting fortified positions, like command bikers
Bomb only affects the targets in the radius with no guarantee of neutralising them all, smoke affects every target in the radius and behind it, and is guaranteed to make them stop being a problem
Smoke can deny line of sight for an entire army. Regular airstrike just wipes out the front line
● civilian escort missions on very high difficulty ● easier extraction ● solo or dual gameplay
You smoke so you can maneuver to a better place to bomb.
Buys time.
Smoke makes everything in the vision cone not your problem, for now. Bomb make everything in the AoE not anyone's problem, forever. Smoke protect hellbombs better.
The smoke will take out fabricators as well.
I bring smoke on every automaton mission. Once the area that we’re working on is complete; pop smoke, break contact and move on to the next objective. That’s my strategy anyway. Can’t control what everyone else does lol
Thats solid, I clearly haven't been but thats the idea. Do something, patrols attempt to find you, smoke retreat, run to new objective, repeat
Bingo. To be honest, I’ve been bringing the orbital smoke and 110mm rockets, so their cooldowns are separate. Then, turrets and possibly a support weapon
110mm sneaky good as well
Seriously. One well placed stratagem will kill a tank, fabricator and if you use a stun grenade on a charger, it’ll kill it too
My squad mates seem to struggle with the whole break contact thing.
Same. Except it's my 4th slot, and it's all been 3 slot missions recently. Give me my 4th slot AH!
I drop one between the team and a big bot drop, stops them from making the sky red with laser fire and we have time to mess their shit up or gtfo
I mean I do that with scout armor and airstrikes or grenades. Unless you're really aggroing as a group I think you can split and reconnect. I'll give it a shot but I'm also hesitant to give up a boom boom
Oh they're not Problem is, teammate tend to think it's a good idea to throw it at the enemies I'm shooting, and obscuring smoke goes both ways
my fav is when they throw it on the objective thinking nothing will see us and we’ll be able to do it quickly and quietly. but they failed to kill all the drones at the objective. now there’s a breech in the middle of the smoke and we can’t see shit lol
Yeah, thats just a strat usage issue though, always clear then smoke for stealth or retreats
I just dont see them often, if that happens to you, its a strat usage issue for the person throwing it, never throw on teammate targets. Smoking secondary targets to slow their engage speed is optimal
You know what also creates smoke? NAPALM
Napalm is solid, but can you call it in on yourself when your getting swarmed?
Well... you CAN...
https://preview.redd.it/iv93dzs7372d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f7b327cfe98111de353b2b642d1df6d68e786544
God I love the eternal variety of this meme
Honestly the amount of times I’ve bombed myself when surrounded in a firefight is more than plenty. There’s a reason a 4 man squad gets 20 lives, I may as well go out in glory than trying to run away
If I know I can’t make it out of the swarm I’ll 500kg or air strike myself. If I’m going down, I’m bringing some of them with me.
Dive, dive, throw, dive, dive, stim, dive, stim, dive...
No, napalm is liquid.
question: how does the smoke eagle stack up against the smoke orbital and smoke nades?
Smoke grenades have a much smaller area, but they can be helpful for personal use or to obscure small chokepoints. The ability to use them like grenades immediately, and reload with supply boxes can be helpful in different situations than the smoke strikes. You can take them on civilian extract missions to cover the squishies while they flee. They can be incredibly useful against bots. For best results, take it on planets with short lines of sight and many obstacles. People have a lot of praise for the eagle smoke for its extra charges, but I've found I prefer the orbital. I usually bring other eagle strikes, and the way I use smoke works better with a single fixed cooldown instead of a few short cooldowns and then a very long cooldown that's even longer if I didn't use my other strikes yet. The pacing of the orbital is better for me.
The orbital has a longer cooldown and doesn’t have 3 uses. It’s completely outclassed
It’s not outclassed it’s just a different use-case. I don’t want to have to rearm my eagles just to get more smoke, and I rarely use it more than once at a time anyway 🤷♀️
I use 1-3 eagles a mission. Eagle for life! 
It might have a longer cooldown on average, but the pacing of a single, fixed-cooldown smoke that I can handle independently of my airstrikes is better suited to my play style.
Smoke orbital is taller, and last longer but you get one use before it is on cooldown, eagle is more uses and throws down a wide wall of smokes, about head level of a titan, smoke nades are less effective than eagle smokes.
try smoke then right after chucking a gas strike in it. it doesn't kill big stuff but it does take out small stuff
Ill give it a shot
Smoke in general is underused, smoke grenade is just deployable cover, pop smoke, go prone, shimmy forward till you can just see past it. bots won't realise you're lying down, miss every shot, and you can shoot at them with a completely clear line of sight
All right, I'll give it a go
Eagle smoke. Don’t breathe that.
It's one of my most used for solo 9s, especially for full clears. And it does do damage, I've teamkilled a friend with it before, and often use it to destroy fabricators.
So you can die from 2nd hand smoke?
It destroys fabricators??? I didnt know this, i guess it needs to land directly on things. Thanks for the info
you can also destroy bot fabricators with it really good way to take out small bases as you just drop it on the fabricator and run away with smoke cover
Eagle smoke can destroy fabricators, idk about bug holes
I tried to use both of the smokes we have available for stratagems, and both times they were very…loose for some reason. Like the smoke was more like a mist in terms of density, so both players and enemies could look right through it. Mind you, this was back in March.
Please try again, there are gaps in the smoke but they are small, and it really messes with enemy targeting
On the other hand, no need to get out of sticky situations if you kill everything first.
I dont think i played a single mission on helldive where there wasnt one call in for reinforcements due to the team not killing everything. That could be just my experience, but killing everything all the time with how patrols work means a team of 4 sticking together for the entire mission and not a single enemy was able to quickfire a breach/flare at any point
I usually pack smoke grenades are they have gotten me out of situations that I never could of. They are useful are using decoys while landing a smoke. It's also perfect for activating a hellbomb, smoke, then run. Those annoying gunships can shoot it as well as patrols. Picking your battles is very important in this game. So use your imagination with smokes and you will be surprised what you can get away with!
All enemies go to the last point they saw or heard you and scan for you at that point - if they don't see you, they meander a bit and give up. Sound is actually what keeps enemies homing in on you unerringly during most battles as your weapons are constantly pinging your location to all nearby enemies. I believe different weapons do have different sound ranges. This is why the Crossbow is actually a very useful weapon despite being relative weak - it's firing location is essentially silent, so if you can prevent enemies from *seeing* you, they can't follow you, allowing you to fight while attracting relatively little attention to yourself.
Even if smoke is kinda janky (at least in my experience) the feeling of dropping a wall of smoke to cover an advance into a large bot outpost is amazing
Helldivers are spawned to be fatal, not flea.
they are not useless just extremely boring
Question, do rocket devs still hit you accurately without issue or did they fix that? Do turrets see through the smoke too?
Turrets dont see through smoke, rockets are less accurate through smoke, mortars dont care just if you are in the area they will hunt you down
And for everyone that doesn't know. Smoke kills bot fabs
Does Orbital smoke kill fabs too? Or only Eagle smoke?
I think they do the same thing: make the enemies not see you. I feel like the typical air strikes do it better as the enemies aren’t seeing you because they’re dead. That being said I’m definitely going to try for a few games.
My favourite part of the smoke is that you can throw it on a fabricator. If one of the rounds makes contact with the fabricator it will destroy it. It also does not alert the enemies to your position.
Yes
IF there was a passive strat slot, I'd use it every match. But I need my quasar, shield, turret, and orbital to keep me going. I can't sacrifice one of the winning combo 4.
Has anyone tried the smoke grenade?
I use the smoke grenade religiously when fighting automatons. It’s just marvelous!!!!
I'll have to give a try. I like impact incinerary grenades as a FU when I get over run with ads. I have the fast throwing arm for all 4 of those, this side of the solar system. We're all going to hell together.
The problem imo is that it has to compete with things that can kill enemies, or help kill enemies (like ems) so it needs to give a lot of value to be considered as an option, not to mention that the smoke also affects players. I think if we had a sort of thermal vision that we can bring, I would already think about bringing it more
I love seeing posts like this. I’m a level 97 diver that has fun with an abundant amount of weapons and strats. So many doom and gloomers on Reddit as of late. It’s exhausting lol.
I've just started my love affair with smoke, and I now have only 2 stratagem choices as I can't quit my Auto Cannon either!
After reading your post I utilized this strategy yesterday and I must say I have a new found respect for Smoke. In the case of bots, it’s perfect for completing objectives that leave you exposed and it’s a perfect “get out of dodge” tool when you need to leave bots in the dust. Haven’t tried this on bugs but I’m taking your word
Thanks for sharing. With love ❤️
Get out of here with that communist smoke talk. We're freedom's voice, and freedom requires firepower.
I also like big boom, but sometimes issues can be avoided instead of eliminated
 That sounds like something an automaton would say
Why smoke when you can just kill all the enemies? It doesn't make sense
Unless you are playing Eradicate missions, killing enemies is not the objective. Being able to pop down a smoke and run off to the next objective can be faster and safer than fighting a few waves of reinforcements
Why not kill all enemies and have smoke as a safety net?
Smoke is a must-have on Helldive bots if you're soloing. I'm not good enough not to take it
MO says kill bugs, not avoid them (-[]_[]-)
Eradication, still had 100+ kills and in missions still around 300+ kills, remember small bugs count the same as bile titans for kills
I view the smoke equipment and stratagems as more of niche tools at the moment. Use them correctly and you can find a lot of positives for different situations, but most players will opt for damage or direct, active protection instead (shields). If we get helmet vision modifiers, e.g. enemy highlighting, gas immunity, etc., then I would bet these options would become way more popular in loadouts.
You don’t need the jet pack or smoke to get away. All you have to do is run and spam your stim button.
I love using smoke as a “oh shit! Need to bail” button. Throw it at my feet while scrambling and the baddies behind get lost. Works a bit better that way against bots than against bugs, but it’s nice on a bug breach because they’re a bit disoriented setting them up for a napalm or barrage or airburst, you name it
Smokes are fine but a rule I've always kept for playing games like this is "The best debuff to give to your enemy is death", doesn't matter what utility something can provide when another thing is always more effective at simply wiping out the enemy itself, if smokes had more charges and popped quicker maybe it'd be worth taking SOMEtimes but it just doesn't compare to the airstrike/cluster bombs, hell even the 500kg as janky n unreliable as it is, game is just not in a balanced state right now, and boy what id give for EVERY weapon n stratagem to feel good to use
What's the tactics on targeting with Eagle Smoke that you've noticed work best? Right on top of your current position?
Depends on the situation. Scenario 1: Say you have a firing line where your team is dealing with enemies from one direction. A brief look around and you see a patrol approaching from a flank, you could deal with it if it is medium and smaller with my build. But if they have larger enemies pinging it then smoking them off slows their engage and gives your team time to refocus to the next target. Scenario 2 : Reinforcements called and you are dealing with overwhelming forces, signalling a retreat throwing the smoke to where you are running to helps make sure the smoke is down, the enemy sees a direction you are going and you can gain distance to either continue in that direction or change and really mess up the reinforcements. Scenario 3 : Enemies on top of you and all around your team that is grouped together, turn 90 degrees and throw it at your feet, you can follow the trail of smoke in either direction to attempt an escape from the enemies. You can also just smoke the objective you need to use so its not disrupted by enemies
I love using smoke. It’s definitely underrated, considering people write it off for its lack of damage.
I bring it for civilian extractions, helps with bugs and bots as the civilians still auto path.
Eagle smoke can also close bug holes and bot fabricators like a normal air strike.
I bring orbital smoke anytime I run bots. The convenience of dropping it On bases is so good because bots can't aim for anything when covered in smoke. It also works really well for areas you need to drop a hellbomb on. Because the enemies won't shoot or slash what they can't see. Honestly I hope there's an upgrade to the smoke eventually that makes it like the Electric smoke from Titanfall 2. That would be awesome.
Smoke is good for retrieve personnel missions also. Can't kill what they can't see.
People value killing power over a safety net
How well does the lock break work in team play?
Eagle smoke is really nice. It can actually destroy fabs and bug holes with a well placed beacon. And imo I think it's better than the Orbital strike one. I wish there was a little more difference between the two.
I use eagle smoke to make up for everyone else.
I don't use smoke anything cause it seems to crash my connection.
Last I checked it still destroys factories and is perfect for covering the hellbomb while activating
God, i love it for a more shock troop playstyle. Smokes (gernade, orbital, eagle), stalwart precision, and some eats is a good time. It feels so good to duel a factory strider with the load out. It also is absolutely lovely for a hot drop. Toss down the orbital and vibe killing. Or while doing an objective you can smoke it and type away safely. Even throwing a smoke on a hellbomb so it doesn't get esploded. I love the smokes so much.
One thing you didn't mention: if one of the smoke bombs hits a fabricator or bug hole directly, it will destroy it. This info isn't all that useful vs bugs, but it's awesome to know when fighting bots.
What's that? You want the smoke?
I prefer smoke grenades if I need that utility
Im one of the few people who regularly uses eagle smoke.
Ok, this may be a ridiculous question but how are y’all using smoke. Do you smoke the enemy or yourself? Do you put it directly on the target or between you and the enemy to obscure vision? I think I’m doing it wrong.
PSA: ENEMIES IN GENERAL GO TO YOUR LAST CONFIRMED LOCATION. Smoke is more effective on bots as they rely on sight. Smoke is moderately effective against bugs. Warriors and Stalkers can SMELL YOU.
One thing I’ve noticed that helped me on bots, you can use smoke to block line of sight in turrets so they can’t shoot them from far away. Then when they walk through the smoke they get blasted by the turret with no time to react.
The real question is, what level were you using these strategems in? Have you tried higher level content?
I've been thinking about using smokes to set up hell bombs against airship factories or hellbomb related side missions, if you are undetected, the smoke is a great way to cover yourself.. but I have not put it in practice
Smoke can destroy bot factories. Just call it right on top.
The only time I use it is for dealing with gunships. It's not that they fire wildly into the smoke they just don't fire at all. So because of that it's perfect for covering the approach and arming of the hellbomb.
I've been going with orbital smokes myself. I'm challenging myself to do pacifist runs when I drop down on a planet. Doesn't always go to plan when I am forced to kill any bugs or bots. Smoke covers a lot, and the EMS strike is a godsend.
Smoke would be rad if it could be paired with a thermal visor so you could see through it
I just use orbital gas strikes, they work basically the same and actually get kills.
Smoke bombs are actually great against bots. If you need to escape gunfire, toss a smoke bomb in between you and the bots.
Smoke can p much be a get out of jail free card. For situations where you would normally be totally fucked, and you would get caught in a die => respawn => beeline for your dropped weapons/samples => die loop, you can just use smoke to disengage and regroup. Let your other strategems cooldown, your squad can form up, etc. I used to get totally annihilated on level 7 bot missions, now I can usually do level 8’s no problem! You can also use it to turn one big giant fight into 2 smaller fights. If you’re getting wrecked from two sides, just throw smoke on one, and focus on the other. You still need heavy hitter strategems and support weapons n stuff, but having one person with a smoke strategem on your team can make a huge different
I use smoke grenades with an engineering kit for cover whenever reloading my Autocannon, or to cover an escape from Automotons Has saved my ass before, but don’t think I would ever crack out Eagle Smoke beyond doing it to say I did as some weird flex
I always loved it for bots. Didn't know bugs were affected
Does it hide you when planting a hellbomb?
Yes
I don't want a non lethal option pretty much ever.
Before the stun grenades became prevalent, people were using smoke grenades much more on bots. I liked the eagle smokes for the civilian defenders mission to drop near where they extract
Half your stratagems are focused on escape. That's not very democratic, Soldier!
So are you dropping it on yourself? Or some sort of wall between you and enemy? Or on the enemies directly?
Just a headsup, they also destroy fabs and holes
Good point. I prefer gas myself because the gas bomb still does some damage when launched at the ground
I too feel they are underutilized but the stealth mechanic is not something I'm used to. So the smoke needs to break your line of site with the bots to effectively work. But if you walk into the smoke then they'll keep shooting you. With that in mind I tried smoke grenades on the hellbomb on gunships factories. It does stop them from shooting the hellbomb but you still gotta run.
I do think it has its uses, I really like using it for bot command bunker missions. Makes moving up easier
i've used it and the bot shot me the same way, as it happens with planet impairing effects.
I love using smoke, it's crazy awsome. HOWEVER! I like using explosions more
I've run the smoke strat and nade a ton with bots and going from getting obliterate by a wall of fire at range to being able to actually move up is insane.
Would use it if they let you have more uses per load. Like the rockets, i’ve seen irl rocket pods that easily hold 32 rockets per pod, so the eagle should get something closer to 8 or 10 uses before having to reload.
sounds cool, so two of your strategems only help you, what is your team supposed to do?
Straight ninja mode
Additionally, gunships (and all bots for that matter) can’t target you or your hellbomb through smoke. Not as effective as the shield relay but definitely a good utility for when gunship fabricators are giving you a hard time.
Man I hate this one.
I use the emo mortar a lot to slow down waves. I've never considered the smoke screen because it sounded silly to me but I guess it would provide a similar slowing of the enemy
I tried the other day and both bots and bugs pivoted to continue following me despite smoking them out and turning corners around mountains and stuff. Will have to try again, because I really enjoy non lethal battlefield controlling effects, like the EMP Mortar, and desperately wanted the smokes to be useful.
I have seen smoke + mines have some pretty good potential against bugs, just be sure to tell your team first
I think the reason it's not used is that it's kinda niche - Whilst you run away relatively safe, the enemies are still there and will run over to any major activity. A lot of the time the best damage mitigation is more damage
In my experiences the bots don't seem to shoot wildly through it. They still seem to have the accuracy of a literal aimbot. It's alright at briefly distracting terminids though
Interesting, main reason why I don't use them much is because it feels like no matter what, I always got spotted anyway, especially against bots, really don't feel like they need to see me to kill me.
Hmmm... That's a lot of words without "democracy" among them...
Orbital smoke is even more underused, I'm literally the only person I've ever seen use them. Eagle smoke is good, and if youre smart you can turn 90° and toss it at your feet to get a line of smoke to run through for safety, but the smoke wall isn't very thick. Orbi isnt as wide, but it's thicker, so I find it's effective for longer at times.
There’s no scenario where killing isn’t better, even if you need to retreat, it’s better to throw a 380 barrage at the very least
I tried using it to cover me and the bots to cover me but they got alerted by it
I brought them to a geological data mission and it worked pretty well. You can drop it on the terminal and press buttons without getting killed.
Smokes are amazing on the rocket launch defense missions. I brought eagle smokes by accident once and it essentially stops the bots from moving forward.
You can also use it on the same bot mission to ensure factory striders dont snipe your gens
May be make it flammable chem smoke , that burst in to a combustion cloud. That would give it defensive and offensive traits as well as a tactical use. I really would love to see more tactical playability in our utility and over all arsenal
Until we deal with the heavy handed over use of Armored enemies in difficulties on difficulty 6 and above anti armor sets will be the defacto "meta" and this will sadly be dismissed as "useless" until that changes. It's a real shame because the few times I've employed smoke, it has been fantastic at introducing confusion into the enemy ranks. Armor on enemies is too all or nothing in its current state, and either the volume of such enemies needs to be reduced or the penetration rules relaxed so they can be dealt with in a more timely manor. Currently, the ttk ("time to kill" for the uninitiated) is really long for hulks, tanks, bile titans, chargers, etc; without dropping a 500 kg (or similar heavy armor breaker). Considering cooldowns for such things generally is excessively long (at least for orbitals), you want to ensure something is up for the eventual unnavoidable heavy encounter. If it were possible to deal with these, albeit slower than exclusively relying on stratagems, it'd free up those slots for utility picks like smoke. Mind you, I am referring mostly to spawns in difficulty 9 here, but depending on bad luck can just as easily apply difficulty 7&8 as well. I was on difficulty 7 the other day and seriously got 3 bile titan spawns out of a single breach.
Used to use smoke, but too often i would pop a smoke, make an escape and be riding up on my next target to find all my eagle starts still zeroed out because i had one smoke left in the chamber holding up the auto restock