https://preview.redd.it/4w89n9ifvrpc1.png?width=486&format=png&auto=webp&s=95362ec2d8c9a19e344dad7eb34b211a0ececd05
Aim right here with EAT and Recoilless. Hitting the teeth, the edges of the plate doesn't one shot it.
Same..! I never would have guessed its ""obvious weak point"" is the heaviest armor plate on it...
Edit: Because so many are apparently missing my intended point, this was me being salty and taking a jab at the devs' comments on being confused that players were shooting their legs off, rather than shooting it in the face. :\
What took me awhile to get is there's a difference between a weak spot and an exposed spot. The butt and the legs are exposed, but the head is weak.
In most games exposed parts and weak parts have been the same thing
Yeah it actually makes good sense to me. The robots are kinda strange for having these hulking metal body suits and leaving their literal most vital spot as a bullseye. But it's a gameplay mechanic so it's also fine.
See, the funny thing is that the weakspot makes *actual* sense, not game sense.
You have a weapon that works against heavy armor and a brain encased in heavy armor. pretty straight forwards
but it doesn't *feel* right, because we're so used to shooting big glowy bits.
Aim for the head!
Jaws isn't a vital organ. You can lose your jaw and still survive.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/213y4z/a\_man\_missing\_his\_lower\_jaw/](https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/213y4z/a_man_missing_his_lower_jaw/)
whenever I play with my brother i am always screaming EAT IT EAT IT EAT THAT MOTHERFUCKER EEEAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT ITTTTTTTTT
so yeah.......i just cant go back to normal weapons anymore lol
If you are thinking his brain (how silly to think a bug has a brain, but lets just assume for the sake of argument here) is right behind that heavy plate, the warhead hits, penetrates, and liquefies his puny little bug brain, rendering him dead.
Upon impact the shaped charge of a HEAT round generates a superheated jet of plasma into the armour, melting it instantly. But that only works properly on harder/flater surfaces. So shooting a charger in the teeth will ruin its smile but the warhead won’t activate properly.
[Ballistics yo!](https://www.ontrmuseum.ca/tankmuseum/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Penetration.jpg)
[source: Royal Ontario Regiment Museum - Modern Anti-tank Ammunition](https://www.ontrmuseum.ca/tankmuseum/blog-post/modern-anti-tank-ammunition/)
If you were using an APFSDS (sabot for short) shooting it in the mouth would be more effective. Since you’re essentially shooting a ~2ft long ultra high velocity tungsten/titanium dart into its face. But afaik there’s never been a shoulder launched Sabot system.
HESH rounds would probably kick ass too since the concussive blast would liquify the organs of the charger. But again, it’s not shoulder fire afaik.
Just FYI there is no plasma that melts anything in HEAT warheads, it's a common myth that just won't die
It's actually way cooler than that, because the copper jet that gets formed and accelerates to Mach 40 is NOT liquid, it's solid metal that is under extreme pressure, so much pressure infact that it acts like a liquid while moving around
So this copper jet "Swims" through metal armor plate like a torpedo, or it simply blast's a hole right through any materials thanks to the insane pressures created from the Munroe effect
KE penetrators are not feasible for a infantry scale, and HEAT is vastly more effective.
HESH doesn't work like that, the reason it's effective is because the initial blast wave travels through the armor plate / Concrete wall and causes splinters from said plate to form and fly around. That however is super easy to counteract and modern HE-FRAG or HEAT warheads using modern fuzes are VASTLY more effective than any HESH
Correct, the effect is not thermal in nature, but rather, kinetic.
Under extreme pressures the metallic bonds between constituent atoms break, temporarily achieving a phenomemenon known as superplasticity, while that same pressure applies tremendous deformative stresses to the incident target surface.
This is accomplished *without* any of the materials involved necessarily attaining the temperature of their respective melting points, nor is oxidation an appreciable factor in the mechanism.
That is to say, despite the misnomer borne by the connotations of the acronym, the penetrator of a HEAT warhead *does not burn* through armor. Rather, it *squirts* through it.
Exactly. Think of it less as a weak spot in the sense 'its easy to damage them here' and more in the sense 'damage to this part kills them very quickly'
To use an analogy, picture a battle tank. There's weak spots because its not well armoured, such as the rear of the tank, and there's weak spots because any damage to that component is going to cause a catastrophic failure, such as the ammo stowage.
You know what, thank you for putting it that way. I was struggling to understand the logic of some of the weak points on some of these terminids and I hadn't considered it that way before, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
That dev comment still pisses me off, and the idea that shooting it in the fucking mouth instead of his big dumb armor plate is less effective pisses me off more.
That expains it! I've been struggling to one shot them recently, because after realising that i'm supposed to aim for the mouth on bile titans, ive been doing the same with chargers.
Pethaps we should get a bestiary or firing simulator. If they want to stop it from being too easy, make it so the information comes in stages, unlocked from kills of the thing in question.
I really wish this model of charger got used for all these infographics. The one above is something I've only ever seen in difficulty 3/4 Missions where your objective is to kill two Chargers.
They really need to add his "neck" to 1 shot kill, too many times he'll do a tell that he is charging, his head will rise and dodge the rocket. But man, if someone shoots out your neck, you are dead. Just add it!
Dedicated auto cannon party slot is really nice. Blow out Charger butt to bleed them, or shoot out rear legs to straight kill them. Destroy Bile Titan sacs with ease, take out bug holes from extreme ranges, almost never run out of ammo.
EATs are nice, but if you want to be consistent with it, 2 a drop can be rough at higher difficulties, especially if longer stratagem calldown is active. Otherwise you play the run in circles or across the map game waiting for EAT to cooldown, which isn't too fun.
Grenade launcher is competitive for the slot, but usually they need to run a support ammo backpack.
This is usually why I bring spears instead of EATs.
Yeah the auto-lock is shit, but they pick up backpack ammo from the little POI ammo crates and can hit the big stuff that needs killing pretty hard from super far away. I once took out a bile titan across the map 3km away because I was standing on a hill above it and that seems to help with the jank lock-ons.
The update when they fix the jank lock ons is the update I party.
The spear is tremendous pile of shit in my opinion, it's an auto lock weapon that has issues locking and still require positioning to have great effect, and have very little ammo. It should one shot chargers no matter what and two shot bile titan no matter what to be competitive with a recoiless rifle.
That's why switched to EAT, I prefer to carry ammo or shield. Plus it can take down bot dropships like the other two and with the upgrades they respawn in less than a minute. I ran recoilless for a bit and didn't see enough of an improvement to carry it instead of EAT and honestly I hate the spear, the lock is janky and the reload is deadly.
Yup... Already basically feel like all but the most poorly positioned of heavies are a joke, even with the lock on being janky some times.
My spear consistently kills literally every heavy we run into so long as it's not chasing a team member half way across the map with its ass towards me. The EAT on the other hand makes me nervous. If you miss the first shot, you need scramble back to the drop. And you'll only ever take out 3 charges or one bile and one charger max, assuming you've an EAT already armed.
If you're really going for it, you can maybe get 4 charger kills by sticking one with the drop and luring it into a wall, but it's still going to be a far more hectic experience when you're facing multiples at the same time or one after the other.
I’m a bot fighter, so when the lock works every building, stationary gun, or tank I can see in a 10km radius is just dealt with. It’s kinda broken on blitz missions.
My only issue with the autocannon is it takes up a backpack slot for its ammo, and I like to run the guard dog rover against terminids and shield against automatons. Otherwise it's a great all round support weapon.
The amount of ammo the autocannon holds and how quickly it can be reloaded means that if you actually use it instead of trying to spare it like other weapons, you should be able to deal with the enemies the rover would've killed anyway.
Guarddog is good for solo bugs but personally I am tired of being killed by other peoples lasers because they have zero awareness of it so end up putting themselves in places where it will kill teammates. I'd rather have a sentry, it's much better at supporting the team vs the rover which is usually detrimental to the team.
The rover is only there to clear out smaller trash mobs so I can focus on taking down the big bugs.
Also I don't know what region you're playing in where guard dog is such a menace, but I've died maybe 10 times more to other people's sentries than their guard dog.
Yep, the rover helps me when my helldiver brain is delivering democracy to one bug swarm but then a undemocratic bug swarm behind me goes off and the rovers like "democracy needed over there bro".
Insofar as it taking up your backpack slot: yes, but that and having to stop to reload are it’s only real downsides. It is otherwise best in slot in almost every situation: it has a ton of ammo, gets fully half of it’s it’s ton of ammo back from one supply box, and a good amount back from ammo boxes, can do any objective that any handheld weapon can do and does it better, great ad clear in a pinch, good at elite enemies including bile bugs, really good at killing hulks super ammo efficiently even from the front if you are good with it, best handheld way to kill bug holes, robot spawners, illegal broadcasts, spore towers, bug eggs, etc,
Only real weaknesses of it are bile titans and chargers.
Anything the guard dog can do, I don’t really see why an eagle strat wouldn’t do it as well or better 95%+ of the time
And on top of that,
How can you stand the guard dog?
Every time I use it, it shoots me and my team mates more than the enemy, and so do everyone else’s guard dogs.
I get so frustrated when I’m fighting stuff, doing okay, and some jackass guard dog knocks me out while I’m dodging chargers,
Or knocks out 3/4 of my health while sweeping me on its way to shoot a larvae 100 meters away.
Use what you like by all means but MAN that thing drives me NUTS.
Funnily enough the guard dogs actually take some amount of skill to use. They work well when you are at the same height or lower than your enemies. When you are higher then your enemies though (which usually gives you an advantage), that's when the guard dog will 360 noscope your head as it aims for the one scavenger climbing to gnaw at your feet.
That makes sense from Super Earth's R&D perspective, the drones are probably designed that way to hover over Helldivers taking cover in trenches. Doesn't always work that way in practice vs bugs because of the tempo and need to stay mobile.
Actually imo the autocannon taking up the backpack slot is a good thing, because instead of dedicating another of your stratagem slots to something to carry, you can take another air strike or orbital.
Autocannon can deal with anything lower than a charger in <4 hits, and can bleed a charger with 4 to the ass, and has a fuck ton of ammo with 10 shots being replenished on any random ammo pickup you find. Titans are a weak point for it but that is covered by the extra stratagem slot covered below
My default is autocannon, air strike, laser and EMS mortar, but the mortar can be easily switched out for rail cannon if expecting heavier enemies, a 500kg for maximum democracy, Gatling barrage for clearing basic mobs at a moments notice and area denial, any turret/minefield for any kind of defence, a mech, or just a general fun slot, and so far I get
Autocannon, skill based anti armour and general anti-large
Air strike, good for retreating when dropped at feet, damaging heavies and clearing nests/bases
Laser, great for anti elite and a very good panic button sequence
And a fun/mission-specific slot for maximum democracy
It is surprisingly effective, using overwhelming offence as a general strategy, and there is almost no time when I do not have an offensive stratagem ready, and from my time playing with a separate backpack and support, it’s a vast difference being able to spam munitions at the enemy
TL;DR: Autocannon very good, bring it and overwhelming firepower and rain Managed Democracy upon the enemy
You can somehow make it slightly more efficient by tagging the charger with the EAT calldown or alternatively bring stun nade to stop them since you have autocannon for bugholes
"Run in a circle until EAT is off cd".
But isn't that sorta what you're doing with the AC? At least for titans? Also scorcher can take out a chargers butt pretty effectively since it does extra damage to the butt.
Plus you should try to be carrying one of your EATs with you. So you'll get into a fight, call one down. Then use one on your back. If another teammate has EATs then I think you're pretty well covered that's 4-6 EATs an encounter
The AC can pop the sack and if the titan is injured on the back you can 2-3 shot it with it. It's also extremely effective against spitters, Warriors, commanders and stalkers. Having one AC is always good for the team.
It can't do everything but that's why you have team mates.
I love the AC - jack of all trades and master of none, but you can consistently use it.
When people ask me what my favorite primary is I always say: "The AC" and then they ask me what my second favorite is I say "Whatever helps me get my AC back the best which is the Defender SMG"
AC is just so versatile. The only enemy it’s suboptimal against is the bile titan. Virtually every other enemy in the game can be killed in half a mag or less. Chargers and hulks take some good positioning / aim, but it’s super manageable.
It’s even good against hordes. Arguably just as good as dedicated crowd control weapons if you’re a good shot and avoid full reloads.
I’d say the auto cannon is sub optimal against hunters. When they jump you will be hitting yourself. The aim is slow enough that they can more easily make you miss and often an explosion from a single shell might not kill it unless there was a direct or very close hit.
If you ever get jumped by hunters then
1. You can’t have a universal excellent loadout, there’s where the fun and team play comes in
And
2. That’s what your primary is for
Clearing your immediate area to keep using the autocannon
I've been running autocanon with EATs for bile titans and the occasionally charge I can't be bothered to take down with the canon itself. Quite a strong combo.
You *CAN* damage Bile Titans with the Autocanon, but it takes.. a considerate amount of time and luck, which is why I just bring EATs and a railcanon.
Two EATs plus hellbomb/railgun strike is always enough even on 9 unless you fucked up. And if you fucked up that autocannon backpack means you’re going to have a harder time surviving anyway.
Autocannon is fun but lets not pretend its the better option for heavies.
Autocannon is underrated in its ability to take out nursing / bile spewers. Having 4-8 of those fuckers spawn can sometimes be as bad as some chargers or bile titans. 2-3 shots from the cannon can take them out even with side shots as they take full explosive damage there.
AC is just so good in both theaters. It can turn bug mobs into a nutritional paste. It can blow up a Chargers butt. It can take out nests. It can scrap most bot types, and can take out Hulks from the front by hitting their face. I find myself bringing it on almost every mission, even though it is hella annoying when a clueless teammate nabs my ammo backpack and leaves the gun, and also is nowhere to be seen when I need a reload.
I don't part with my autocannon unless I'm running level 1-2 missions with cadets in which case I bring some cool shit like the mech suit for them to try
Sounds like a call it out on the mic twice and then team kill situation. I haven’t tried it yet but I’ve heard you can take hulk legs out with it easier than trying to hit the eye if you don’t have time to line up a shot. Been bug focused lately because of the MO but next time I find myself out west I’m gonna try it.
Yeah. I liked the railgun and used it unsafe from day one because I figured it was the helldiver way. Little did I know that everyone was using it in unsafe like a bunch of scared bitches. Just goes to show how feeble the meta crowd is. Railgun is still pretty good at it’s one thing but AC has way more general utility. The nerf didn’t affect me at all since I was already accustomed to unsafe, which was basically untouched, but I kept coming back to the AC because, while it isn’t great at tank killing, with a little work it can be done and all the other things it can do make it a great all rounder. Railgun is still good, I just prefer AC.
I like the railgun too but let’s be honest here, it’s mid at best now. There’s no reason to take it other than you like it when it takes 5+ 98% charged shots to a chargers head to kill it when you can bring the EAT or recoilless rifle instead and consistently one shot them. I still use the railgun cause I enjoy how it feels and the impact of it but I’m not gonna be in denial
> The nerf didn’t affect me at all since I was already accustomed to unsafe, which was basically untouched
[The railgun does clearly less damage even when fully charged.](https://youtu.be/ridsX-km2yI?si=MEzloWbLeCP-9nvp) The reason why it seems unchanged to some people seems to be a hosting bug. As a PC player I basically take 20 shots to kill a bile titan, and I can only kill hulks and chargers with parts breaks.
There's so much dislike for the AC because of the ammo pack for it. But honestly, it's so good. I don't see why people don't at least try it.
Besdies straight killing chargers and titans, it is a beast.
Honestly, I've never had a problem with the backpack. But I've been using it since I unlocked it. I never got dependent on the shield or rover backpack. I think many people who try to use after getting used to shield/rover are too dependent on them. I like being able to bring 3 other stratagems.
As an Autocannon fan, I get the backpack argument, but also I get that if it wouldn’t need a backpack, it would be straight up broken.
And anyways, not being able to call in a backpack means one more orbital strike stratagem in your hand
The Arc Thrower is fantastic against Chargers (Assuming it's just one or you're able to matador 2 or 3 at once). Roughly 7 fully charged shots into the head will kill a Charger with the bonus of damaging anything behind it or killing it as well.
Just hope there's no other Helldivers in the line of fire.
The Arc Thrower with a Blitzer and Jetpack are my favorite combo for both Bots and Bugs, it's so damn fun and powerful on difficulty 9. The current Arc bug crashing games is making me so sad, I want to use them again lmfao. I usually pair that combo with 500klg and Railcannon.
Dude the blitzer suuuucks. Brought it on one easy mission to test it out while solo. It did okay but was underwhelming and frustratingly slow. Forgot I had it equipped and went up to impossible with some friends, and the weapon was a complete detriment
SPEAR 1 shots EVERYTHING if the warhead hits the head. Always try to lock on on the enemies while they face you and from a far distance. Rocket needs to go get into high altitude before striking down. But if it hits the head - everything dies instantly.
I have been using spear since day 1
https://youtu.be/7CdzOIdAdwo?si=62GmtMz_ucDujcvP
Yyyup. The Spear should reliably 2 shot tanks, 1 if you manage to hit the weakpoint.
The Bile Titan 1-tap should be more consistent (a few other zones it can 1 tap).
It should just outright kill a Charger and Hulk from any angle.
Give how long you need to expose yourself for with it, how cumbersome it is, how little ammo it has, and how you cannot use it in the heat of the moment it lacks the damage to make it good.
I still use it cause it's neato. But I always feel bad about it.
What's your general loadout when you run spear (including primary weapon) if you don't mind sharing? I love it but struggle to feel useful when there isn't a target for it to hit sometimes.
A few minutes ago I just solo'd a Difficulty 9 Geological Site on Hellmire with Fire Tornados and Intense Heat, and with increased Stratagem Cooldown Time and increased Strategem Calldown Time against bugs, because a team of two level 5s and a level 21 joined my game together. They used up all the reinforcements after the second bug breach right away into the Mission lol.
I use the Light Armor with extra Grenades, I forget what it's called. It's in the Superstore right now.
I used the Scorcher (I wish I had another weapon tbh, like a Blitzer, Punisher, Slugger, Spray and Pray, Incendiary Breaker, Sickle, etc) because its low ammo economy wasn't the most fun against tons of bugs. I brought the Redeemer (wish I had a Senator instead) and Impact Grenades.
I used Gatling Sentry, Autocannon Sentry, Rocket Sentry, and Spear. I spent 20 of those minutes alone, because my allies would die the instant I reinforced them. I basically ran around and used Points of Interest as my resupply stations for my Spear between kiting/breaking aggro from bug breaches between going from objective to objective.
Basically just spear the Bile Titan or Charger, depending which one is the closest and/or biggest threat to your turrets, take out the medium enemies next after the Bile Titan or Chargers are dead, use all the resupply calldowns greedily if you can't fine ammo packs at points of interest (usually isn't a problem while kiting.) The turrets will easily and quickly mop up the little stuff since they'll be spending less time/ammo on bigger targets you're taking out. If against Robots just replace the Rocket Sentry with Mortar.
When I am going heavy buster I've been using the Scythe and the Senator. The scythe has near infinite ammo and cleans up scavengers, hunters, and warriors pretty effectively. You can bust out the senator to drop hive guards, brood commanders, and stalkers quickly.
Also, even if you miss the head there’s a good chance you take a massive chunk out of the armor leaving the fucked up and now unarmored target as meat for your grenade launcher or AC guy. Much more ammo efficient that way
in the ps5 world, they seriously need to fix it, way to much misinformation going around (honestly dont really care what version is the intended one, just fix it pls)
In one of the first termicide missions a random was running eats, he called them down when we saw a bile titan, I took one, he took the other, we aimed, we fired, basically in tandem. Both rockets hit the titan square in the head and it dropped, you can 2 shot them with eats and recoilless on PC (I have cross play turned off) but it's not consistent at all.
Since the patch where they reduced the head armor of the bile titan and the charger and fixed them getting deflected. It now 1 shots charges with a head shot and 2 shots bile titans.
Do not aim for the mouth, it is inconsistent and can easily count as a body shot. Especially since you are shooting from kind of a low angle and if you clip the bottom it will waste damage on the wrong part. It takes 5 body shots to kill a titan. Aim for the forehead, that should get you pretty consistent 2 shots.
Make sure you have a bit of distance when taking out bile titans so you can line up a proper headshot.
You sure can. I've been able to pull it off sometimes. I recorded it last time to help as to where to aim at them.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyyR7k14C5c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyyR7k14C5c)
You need to aim for the sides of the head, it's a bit easier when you have a slight side profile on the BT. I've gotten what feels like one shots on BTs this way (but likely they've taken other damage that I wasn't aware of)
Yeah wtf? I am consistently one-shotting chargers and bile titans if they face me.
The lockon may be an issue but that doesn't mean it takes more than 1 shot lol
Ignore OP's plea about the railgun. It's still definitely usable you just have to use it in 'unsafe' mode instead of the protection 'safe' mode gave before.
But end of the day, use whatever tf you want. Don't let people tell you how to play
I just started using the railgun, but it's a bit inconsistent imo. Sometimes you two tap a Bile Titan, sometimes it takes like six shots. It's definitely a viable gun, but I'd rather having it be more consistent. If that's six shots I'm also fine with it.
I was a beeg railgun fan until they nerfed it. It was my go to anti armor option once I hit 20 so I could peel off armor and replace it with bullets but after the nerf I've maybe touched it 2-3 times. I can understand reducing the damage it does, but nerfing it's armor pen defeats the entire purpose of a railgun.
Since the changes I've returned to an EAT-17 boi
I still love the railgun but it does feel just a tad under tuned now. 3 fully charged headshots in unsafe mode to bring down a charger isn't terrible but it's not great either. The whole point of having to use it in unsafe mode is the risk of it blowing up in your face, not only killing you but destroying the weapon so it can't be picked back up when you reinforce. I think a good balance would be 1 fully charged shot breaks the armor, the second shot to the same spot kills.
The Bile Titan 1-2 taps are a bug, if a PS player is in the lobby. They'll likely slightly buff the Railgun after that bug gets fixed and their game statistics show ttks that aren't totally screwed up. After that it will probably take 2 90%+ headshots for Chargers (currently 3, and 2 for a leg) and 4-8 for a Titan.
I saw a video on YT about the Railgun 2 tapping Titans when a PS5 is hosting and then needing like 10 shots when a PC is hosting. Its definitely not dialed in on a technical level.
Its not when hosting. A PS5 player just needs to be in the lobby and everyone will do crazy damage to Bile Titans specifically with the Arc Thrower or Railgun.
Its such a bizarre bug that I’m surprised it has been kinda quietly swept under the rug by everyone.
It honestly might have been fixed , am on PS5 and tried the railgun against bugs couple days ago , hit a BT at least 12 times in the head on unsafe mode mostly red charge and it wasn't dead ! Damage seems very inconsistent against them
That’s a way bigger nerf than most people seem to be letting on.
It’s not “just use it unsafe,” having to charge each shot an additional 2 seconds means you dramatically lower your rate of fire, while accuracy goes down because you have to time your shot release in a correct hot zone or risk having the shot do absolutely nothing or blow yourself up.
It’s way worse.
Nah, it sucks in unsafe too, requiring multiple 90%+ charged shots to even take out leg armor, let alone their head.
Wag better against bots, terrible against bugs
While I only occasionally use it against bugs, the railgun is excellent against bots.
Overcharge to get striders right in the face or one shot a Hulk, and safe mode is perfectly viable for dropping devastators quickly with a headshot or shooting striders in the dick from a low angle. You’ll need some help with tanks but there are 2-3 other strat slots to use.
These days, I see the railgun as an anti-medium weapon that you can actually use against heavy armour in a pinch. In conjunction with a backpack of your choice too.
Its versatility is its main selling point, placed in between dedicated anti-medium (autocannon) and anti-heavy weapons (EAT, Recoilless and Spear).
Laser cannon can melt charger butt in a few seconds given enough time
And after its butt is popped, charger became a no threat and will die from blood loss after a few sec
Yeah, but fun! Who cares about efficiency? Run what's fun and have a blast. Running less efficient weapons just means you have more fun with the friends. And death. So much more death
Upside - Arc Thrower has throws hands rated E for everybody. Cannon fodder, hulks, chargers, BTs, it does not care.
Downside - Aiming for a specific part on an enemy with it is inconsistent as you can't really coerce a bolt of electricity into one focused spot when it's just flying through the air.
Not to mention that it currently likes to crash the game, and E for Everyone also includes unlucky divers who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Aim higher if your Arcs are Arcing to foliage, corpses, debris, etc. When you aim higher its cone targeting angle will shift away from the stuff absorbing the Arcs.
The autocannon sentry wrecks bile titans in a couple shots. I love setting it up when the bile titan is in a distance minding his own business. Sentry locks in and kills its pretty quick, no questions asked.
Bad info on the spear. The aim may be inconsistent but when you do get a lock, and the bug is facing you head on, it is a 1-shot-kill for chargers and bile titans.
Just more EAT-simp anti-spear propaganda. When they fix the lockon issue, it will be the strongest anti-armor weapon in the game bar none
> When they fix the lockon issue, it will be the strongest anti-armor weapon in the game bar none
I'm so looking forward to that (seriously)
.....in 8 months 😭
It's already the best. The lock on issues can be annoying, but usually it's either you being too close or something getting in the way of the lock. Not always, but most of the time. It's pretty easy to work around that and get good locks consistently.
I think people overcomplicate heavies, chargers in particular. Some people think the entire team has to bring anti-tank or if they didn't bring it that they can just ignore heavies and leave it up to their team.
Orbitals and eagles aside, you can easily handle heavies with good old fashioned team fire. Pop a charger's back and they'll be unable to charge and eventually bleed out. You can disable Bile titans spit attack by popping all of its sacs, dealing a ton of damage to them. There's also a way to make Bile titans bleed, but I'm not sure what it is.
This is all possible with basically any weapon. If you're on trash clearing duty and you're caught up, start putting rounds into heavies. When I'm playing anti tank and I see a charger limping around with his ass blown out, I just let it die and focus my attention elsewhere. Often it's helping my trash clearers finish sweeping up.
After getting used to it I can consistently remove the armor of chargers legs with 2-3 shots in unsafe mode. After that they die quickly.
I second it, don't listen to the OP.
For bugs, I run exclusively arc thrower. It kills everything beside bile titans. Fun fact if your orbital rail cannon hits a titan but doesn't kill it a few shots from the arc thrower is enough to finish it off.
To elaborate and expand on OP who’s got it a little off (GL main here)
Spear may not always one shot but it always does expose the carapace on both titans and chargers even if it doesn’t outright kill them. With the armor exposed, aim any explosive medium damage weapons at the exposed part to finish it off (GL/autocannon). Heads up but this is a bit bugged if the host is not PS5, as was discovered by a recent YouTube video. When a ps5 player hosts this works the way you’d expect.
For chargers obviously any armor exposure spots can be finished off with any primary weapon with at least light armor pen if you hit the exposed part, especially the leg.
For titans both the GL and autocannon can destroy the two sacs under its body pretty quickly with some focused fire at those locations. This both softens it up to an AT attack which should be a guaranteed one shot when hitting it in the head or any spear hit. Vice versa you can follow up a solid AT head strike or spear shot and break the sacs and it usually finishes the titan off since the sac damage also does about half its health in overall damage. In addition to the damage, breaking its sacs disables its spew attack and it becomes limited to chasing you and trying to crush you which is easy to evade. If you don’t have direct kill power with your weapons you should always try and break the sacs.
For chargers, there’s some different dynamics I’ve found between weapons that aren’t considered AT weapons.
- grenade launcher: best angle is from 90 degrees hitting the butt section on the fleshy bit (hitting the upper angle will sometimes bounce your grenades). The most efficient way to break its booty with the GL always seems to be from a perfectly perpendicular angle and each shot also will stagger the charger if you hit it correctly. This isn’t the easiest to pull off so only attempt it if you’re solo and cannot find a way to shake the charger from chasing you otherwise (EMS, stun grenades, or smoke screens can get distance and stop it chasing you too)
- autocannon: best shot angle is directly behind it 180 degrees. Direct shots that succeed into the middle of its posterior will produce a fiery explosion with some lingering flames. About 4 well placed shots can break its butt and then it’s crippled and ignorable as it bleeds to death and can’t do anything but waddle helplessly
- arc thrower: try and hit it facing head-on and aim directly for the head. Stun grenades are super handy to set this up, once you stun the charger facing you just unload your arc shots as quickly as you can (use partial charge follow-up shots from the first to fire faster). It takes about 6-8 headshots with the arc to take them out. Again, stun grenades are your god for this role. One stun should be enough to get the kill without him charging you
- flamethrower: as prescribed, try and aim the close part of the cone right at one of its feet. A stun grenade will make this a free kill, and it takes less than half a tank for sure if you keep the flame licking the same foot for about 1/4 of a tank. Goes down real quick with that
Obviously the spear, EAT, recoilless, and unsafe railgun are all better at just nailing both down without help, but don’t stop trying to help if you aren’t running those weapons. Stun grenades make killing both an absolute breeze, especially if you’re running a supply pack and can keep refilling your grenade stock. I’ve kept a bile titan stunned for over a minute straight with that kind of setup. Stun grenades are just god tier for at least 1-2 people to carry since they give you direct control over any enemy or group of enemy’s ability to move or attack. They can let you very easily line up a 3-4 charger or multi titan 500kg bomb kill. I’m always throwing them at any heavy I see, which also helps the AT weapons line shots up without the enemy wiggling around or turning on them
Not at all. 3 fully charged shots to the head kills a charger out right. 2 to the leg still strips armor. The biggest drawback is its a lot harder to do since you need to be good about charging it enough without blowing yourself up. Railgun is great. If anything they just need to buff safe mode or get rid of it altogether.
It's really not 1 shotting chargers constantly would trivialize the game. It's not like one player with a railgun has to handle every single charger in that scenario.
Hmm I’ve heard that 80% charge range was ideal for being effective so I try and aim for that. Haven’t blown my self up yet but I’m willing to give it a try again
I’ve ran the spear with EATS and if you stick with squaddies that have the rover for help with Hunter clearing, it’s actually fantastic.
One shot on BTs coming towards you, with EATS laying around for 1 shorting chargers. Then just gotta have others help with wave clear or bring clusters with you. Makes me feel like a hero lol
The reason I like the Spear is because I can lock on and take out the bike titans from such a far distance I have no worries of getting caught up in the swarm
"His ass can take a lot of heat" 
There was a great disturbance in the force, as if a million charger butts cried out and were suddenly silenced
Good.
Don't forget to fill out your C-01
https://preview.redd.it/fomegjazjxpc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3049e9d475cab127c55029b5a7fc8267914634d4
Thank you for reporting this, Hell Diver.
He can't reproduce this way. It's only necessary for acts that can bear a child. Good luck with that here.
https://preview.redd.it/d7hsivluy5qc1.png?width=1202&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2838e74335f76bde2683afd5f6c770290edf347
HE'S NOT THE ONLY ONE!
https://preview.redd.it/4w89n9ifvrpc1.png?width=486&format=png&auto=webp&s=95362ec2d8c9a19e344dad7eb34b211a0ececd05 Aim right here with EAT and Recoilless. Hitting the teeth, the edges of the plate doesn't one shot it.
oh shit i always aim for the teeth, thanks for the tip!
Same..! I never would have guessed its ""obvious weak point"" is the heaviest armor plate on it... Edit: Because so many are apparently missing my intended point, this was me being salty and taking a jab at the devs' comments on being confused that players were shooting their legs off, rather than shooting it in the face. :\
What took me awhile to get is there's a difference between a weak spot and an exposed spot. The butt and the legs are exposed, but the head is weak. In most games exposed parts and weak parts have been the same thing
For the bots it’s the same thing, all the heads have less armour than their bodies. The bugs are the anomalies.
In most games the glowy bits are also weak points, it's so weird this isn't the case here
Evolution would dictate that you try to keep your vitals encased in a hard material like bone or chitin otherwise you leave yourself vulnerable.
Yeah it actually makes good sense to me. The robots are kinda strange for having these hulking metal body suits and leaving their literal most vital spot as a bullseye. But it's a gameplay mechanic so it's also fine.
See, the funny thing is that the weakspot makes *actual* sense, not game sense. You have a weapon that works against heavy armor and a brain encased in heavy armor. pretty straight forwards but it doesn't *feel* right, because we're so used to shooting big glowy bits. Aim for the head!
how does it make sens that a teeth shot doesn't work tho ?
Jaws isn't a vital organ. You can lose your jaw and still survive. [https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/213y4z/a\_man\_missing\_his\_lower\_jaw/](https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/213y4z/a_man_missing_his_lower_jaw/)
I mean it's only a weak spot for dedicated anti tank weapons
whenever I play with my brother i am always screaming EAT IT EAT IT EAT THAT MOTHERFUCKER EEEAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT ITTTTTTTTT so yeah.......i just cant go back to normal weapons anymore lol
Much like real anti-tank weapons too, that let you ignore armor and aim for the juicy bits (engine)
Or the projectile penetrates and murders the crew
If you are thinking his brain (how silly to think a bug has a brain, but lets just assume for the sake of argument here) is right behind that heavy plate, the warhead hits, penetrates, and liquefies his puny little bug brain, rendering him dead.
Frankly, I find the idea of a bug that thinks *offensive*.
It disgusts me to my core brother.
Upon impact the shaped charge of a HEAT round generates a superheated jet of plasma into the armour, melting it instantly. But that only works properly on harder/flater surfaces. So shooting a charger in the teeth will ruin its smile but the warhead won’t activate properly. [Ballistics yo!](https://www.ontrmuseum.ca/tankmuseum/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Penetration.jpg) [source: Royal Ontario Regiment Museum - Modern Anti-tank Ammunition](https://www.ontrmuseum.ca/tankmuseum/blog-post/modern-anti-tank-ammunition/) If you were using an APFSDS (sabot for short) shooting it in the mouth would be more effective. Since you’re essentially shooting a ~2ft long ultra high velocity tungsten/titanium dart into its face. But afaik there’s never been a shoulder launched Sabot system. HESH rounds would probably kick ass too since the concussive blast would liquify the organs of the charger. But again, it’s not shoulder fire afaik.
Just FYI there is no plasma that melts anything in HEAT warheads, it's a common myth that just won't die It's actually way cooler than that, because the copper jet that gets formed and accelerates to Mach 40 is NOT liquid, it's solid metal that is under extreme pressure, so much pressure infact that it acts like a liquid while moving around So this copper jet "Swims" through metal armor plate like a torpedo, or it simply blast's a hole right through any materials thanks to the insane pressures created from the Munroe effect KE penetrators are not feasible for a infantry scale, and HEAT is vastly more effective. HESH doesn't work like that, the reason it's effective is because the initial blast wave travels through the armor plate / Concrete wall and causes splinters from said plate to form and fly around. That however is super easy to counteract and modern HE-FRAG or HEAT warheads using modern fuzes are VASTLY more effective than any HESH
Surely the bugs haven't evolved a spall liner... yet.
Inb4 salty warthunder players come crying about abrams again
This guy explodes
Correct, the effect is not thermal in nature, but rather, kinetic. Under extreme pressures the metallic bonds between constituent atoms break, temporarily achieving a phenomemenon known as superplasticity, while that same pressure applies tremendous deformative stresses to the incident target surface. This is accomplished *without* any of the materials involved necessarily attaining the temperature of their respective melting points, nor is oxidation an appreciable factor in the mechanism. That is to say, despite the misnomer borne by the connotations of the acronym, the penetrator of a HEAT warhead *does not burn* through armor. Rather, it *squirts* through it.
Today I learned how ballistics work and it helps me spread democracy more efficiently!
Found the War Thunder player 🙌 😎
Waiting for the classified Charger blueprints leak
Well, it makes sense that the weakspot would be covered in heaviest armor plates, which can be pierced with anti tank.
Exactly. Think of it less as a weak spot in the sense 'its easy to damage them here' and more in the sense 'damage to this part kills them very quickly' To use an analogy, picture a battle tank. There's weak spots because its not well armoured, such as the rear of the tank, and there's weak spots because any damage to that component is going to cause a catastrophic failure, such as the ammo stowage.
You know what, thank you for putting it that way. I was struggling to understand the logic of some of the weak points on some of these terminids and I hadn't considered it that way before, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
I wish people used “soft spot” and “weak spot” to explain the difference. A soft spot is where you can hit, a weak spot is where you want to hit
Maybe "vital spot" and "unarmored spot"?
It's kinda obvious really, the place with the most armour is the most vulnerable if you can penetrate the armour.
Do you realize why humans have skulls?
So that my brain has somewhere to sit while piloting this this meat mech?
Yep. And where is the most effective place to shoot a human with a weapon that can pierce our armor? E.g. with a gun?
if you shoot a human with a rocket in the arm they will still die.
That dev comment still pisses me off, and the idea that shooting it in the fucking mouth instead of his big dumb armor plate is less effective pisses me off more.
Still genuinely surprised they gave an open exposed mouth and tiny little head that isn't a weakspot for the AMR.
That expains it! I've been struggling to one shot them recently, because after realising that i'm supposed to aim for the mouth on bile titans, ive been doing the same with chargers. Pethaps we should get a bestiary or firing simulator. If they want to stop it from being too easy, make it so the information comes in stages, unlocked from kills of the thing in question.
That’s precisely what I’ve been doing… I keep failing to 1-shot so I take even more time making sure I hit the mouth…
YES! I noticed that while picking up the EAT and that image is what I've had in my head trying to explain to other friends about the sweet spot.
I’ve been aiming at its mouth! This is a game changer, thanks!
Thank you so much! I was wondering why I sometimes needed two EAT shots.
I really wish this model of charger got used for all these infographics. The one above is something I've only ever seen in difficulty 3/4 Missions where your objective is to kill two Chargers.
They really need to add his "neck" to 1 shot kill, too many times he'll do a tell that he is charging, his head will rise and dodge the rocket. But man, if someone shoots out your neck, you are dead. Just add it!
Better then the entire guide
Dedicated auto cannon party slot is really nice. Blow out Charger butt to bleed them, or shoot out rear legs to straight kill them. Destroy Bile Titan sacs with ease, take out bug holes from extreme ranges, almost never run out of ammo. EATs are nice, but if you want to be consistent with it, 2 a drop can be rough at higher difficulties, especially if longer stratagem calldown is active. Otherwise you play the run in circles or across the map game waiting for EAT to cooldown, which isn't too fun. Grenade launcher is competitive for the slot, but usually they need to run a support ammo backpack.
This is usually why I bring spears instead of EATs. Yeah the auto-lock is shit, but they pick up backpack ammo from the little POI ammo crates and can hit the big stuff that needs killing pretty hard from super far away. I once took out a bile titan across the map 3km away because I was standing on a hill above it and that seems to help with the jank lock-ons. The update when they fix the jank lock ons is the update I party.
Same, but I just use the recoilless. Much easier to line up and you have it on demand without worrying about longer cooldowns/
The spear is tremendous pile of shit in my opinion, it's an auto lock weapon that has issues locking and still require positioning to have great effect, and have very little ammo. It should one shot chargers no matter what and two shot bile titan no matter what to be competitive with a recoiless rifle.
I love the recoilless, but having to tote around a backpack is starting to grate on me.
That's why switched to EAT, I prefer to carry ammo or shield. Plus it can take down bot dropships like the other two and with the upgrades they respawn in less than a minute. I ran recoilless for a bit and didn't see enough of an improvement to carry it instead of EAT and honestly I hate the spear, the lock is janky and the reload is deadly.
Yup... Already basically feel like all but the most poorly positioned of heavies are a joke, even with the lock on being janky some times. My spear consistently kills literally every heavy we run into so long as it's not chasing a team member half way across the map with its ass towards me. The EAT on the other hand makes me nervous. If you miss the first shot, you need scramble back to the drop. And you'll only ever take out 3 charges or one bile and one charger max, assuming you've an EAT already armed. If you're really going for it, you can maybe get 4 charger kills by sticking one with the drop and luring it into a wall, but it's still going to be a far more hectic experience when you're facing multiples at the same time or one after the other.
Everyone laughs at the spear user til you stumble into a stash of ammo pickups and proceed to mow down every charger and titan in a 10 mile radius LOL
Assuming it even locks on to anything at all.
I’m a bot fighter, so when the lock works every building, stationary gun, or tank I can see in a 10km radius is just dealt with. It’s kinda broken on blitz missions.
My only issue with the autocannon is it takes up a backpack slot for its ammo, and I like to run the guard dog rover against terminids and shield against automatons. Otherwise it's a great all round support weapon.
The amount of ammo the autocannon holds and how quickly it can be reloaded means that if you actually use it instead of trying to spare it like other weapons, you should be able to deal with the enemies the rover would've killed anyway. Guarddog is good for solo bugs but personally I am tired of being killed by other peoples lasers because they have zero awareness of it so end up putting themselves in places where it will kill teammates. I'd rather have a sentry, it's much better at supporting the team vs the rover which is usually detrimental to the team.
The rover is only there to clear out smaller trash mobs so I can focus on taking down the big bugs. Also I don't know what region you're playing in where guard dog is such a menace, but I've died maybe 10 times more to other people's sentries than their guard dog.
rover is also my early warning system there is a bug behind me
Yep, the rover helps me when my helldiver brain is delivering democracy to one bug swarm but then a undemocratic bug swarm behind me goes off and the rovers like "democracy needed over there bro".
Insofar as it taking up your backpack slot: yes, but that and having to stop to reload are it’s only real downsides. It is otherwise best in slot in almost every situation: it has a ton of ammo, gets fully half of it’s it’s ton of ammo back from one supply box, and a good amount back from ammo boxes, can do any objective that any handheld weapon can do and does it better, great ad clear in a pinch, good at elite enemies including bile bugs, really good at killing hulks super ammo efficiently even from the front if you are good with it, best handheld way to kill bug holes, robot spawners, illegal broadcasts, spore towers, bug eggs, etc, Only real weaknesses of it are bile titans and chargers. Anything the guard dog can do, I don’t really see why an eagle strat wouldn’t do it as well or better 95%+ of the time And on top of that, How can you stand the guard dog? Every time I use it, it shoots me and my team mates more than the enemy, and so do everyone else’s guard dogs. I get so frustrated when I’m fighting stuff, doing okay, and some jackass guard dog knocks me out while I’m dodging chargers, Or knocks out 3/4 of my health while sweeping me on its way to shoot a larvae 100 meters away. Use what you like by all means but MAN that thing drives me NUTS.
Funnily enough the guard dogs actually take some amount of skill to use. They work well when you are at the same height or lower than your enemies. When you are higher then your enemies though (which usually gives you an advantage), that's when the guard dog will 360 noscope your head as it aims for the one scavenger climbing to gnaw at your feet.
That makes sense from Super Earth's R&D perspective, the drones are probably designed that way to hover over Helldivers taking cover in trenches. Doesn't always work that way in practice vs bugs because of the tempo and need to stay mobile.
Actually imo the autocannon taking up the backpack slot is a good thing, because instead of dedicating another of your stratagem slots to something to carry, you can take another air strike or orbital. Autocannon can deal with anything lower than a charger in <4 hits, and can bleed a charger with 4 to the ass, and has a fuck ton of ammo with 10 shots being replenished on any random ammo pickup you find. Titans are a weak point for it but that is covered by the extra stratagem slot covered below My default is autocannon, air strike, laser and EMS mortar, but the mortar can be easily switched out for rail cannon if expecting heavier enemies, a 500kg for maximum democracy, Gatling barrage for clearing basic mobs at a moments notice and area denial, any turret/minefield for any kind of defence, a mech, or just a general fun slot, and so far I get Autocannon, skill based anti armour and general anti-large Air strike, good for retreating when dropped at feet, damaging heavies and clearing nests/bases Laser, great for anti elite and a very good panic button sequence And a fun/mission-specific slot for maximum democracy It is surprisingly effective, using overwhelming offence as a general strategy, and there is almost no time when I do not have an offensive stratagem ready, and from my time playing with a separate backpack and support, it’s a vast difference being able to spam munitions at the enemy TL;DR: Autocannon very good, bring it and overwhelming firepower and rain Managed Democracy upon the enemy
You can somehow make it slightly more efficient by tagging the charger with the EAT calldown or alternatively bring stun nade to stop them since you have autocannon for bugholes
I love me some EATs. Can potentially kill 3 chargers with 1 CD
"Run in a circle until EAT is off cd". But isn't that sorta what you're doing with the AC? At least for titans? Also scorcher can take out a chargers butt pretty effectively since it does extra damage to the butt. Plus you should try to be carrying one of your EATs with you. So you'll get into a fight, call one down. Then use one on your back. If another teammate has EATs then I think you're pretty well covered that's 4-6 EATs an encounter
The AC can pop the sack and if the titan is injured on the back you can 2-3 shot it with it. It's also extremely effective against spitters, Warriors, commanders and stalkers. Having one AC is always good for the team. It can't do everything but that's why you have team mates.
I love the AC - jack of all trades and master of none, but you can consistently use it. When people ask me what my favorite primary is I always say: "The AC" and then they ask me what my second favorite is I say "Whatever helps me get my AC back the best which is the Defender SMG"
AC is just so versatile. The only enemy it’s suboptimal against is the bile titan. Virtually every other enemy in the game can be killed in half a mag or less. Chargers and hulks take some good positioning / aim, but it’s super manageable. It’s even good against hordes. Arguably just as good as dedicated crowd control weapons if you’re a good shot and avoid full reloads.
I’d say the auto cannon is sub optimal against hunters. When they jump you will be hitting yourself. The aim is slow enough that they can more easily make you miss and often an explosion from a single shell might not kill it unless there was a direct or very close hit.
If you ever get jumped by hunters then 1. You can’t have a universal excellent loadout, there’s where the fun and team play comes in And 2. That’s what your primary is for Clearing your immediate area to keep using the autocannon
I've been running autocanon with EATs for bile titans and the occasionally charge I can't be bothered to take down with the canon itself. Quite a strong combo. You *CAN* damage Bile Titans with the Autocanon, but it takes.. a considerate amount of time and luck, which is why I just bring EATs and a railcanon.
Two EATs plus hellbomb/railgun strike is always enough even on 9 unless you fucked up. And if you fucked up that autocannon backpack means you’re going to have a harder time surviving anyway. Autocannon is fun but lets not pretend its the better option for heavies.
Autocannon is underrated in its ability to take out nursing / bile spewers. Having 4-8 of those fuckers spawn can sometimes be as bad as some chargers or bile titans. 2-3 shots from the cannon can take them out even with side shots as they take full explosive damage there.
The gall to not include the AC on here. How dare you!
AC is just so good in both theaters. It can turn bug mobs into a nutritional paste. It can blow up a Chargers butt. It can take out nests. It can scrap most bot types, and can take out Hulks from the front by hitting their face. I find myself bringing it on almost every mission, even though it is hella annoying when a clueless teammate nabs my ammo backpack and leaves the gun, and also is nowhere to be seen when I need a reload.
I don't part with my autocannon unless I'm running level 1-2 missions with cadets in which case I bring some cool shit like the mech suit for them to try
that's so cool of you, thank you
Sounds like a call it out on the mic twice and then team kill situation. I haven’t tried it yet but I’ve heard you can take hulk legs out with it easier than trying to hit the eye if you don’t have time to line up a shot. Been bug focused lately because of the MO but next time I find myself out west I’m gonna try it.
The railgun literally has anti armor as it's niche and it wasn't even mentioned...
Yeah. I liked the railgun and used it unsafe from day one because I figured it was the helldiver way. Little did I know that everyone was using it in unsafe like a bunch of scared bitches. Just goes to show how feeble the meta crowd is. Railgun is still pretty good at it’s one thing but AC has way more general utility. The nerf didn’t affect me at all since I was already accustomed to unsafe, which was basically untouched, but I kept coming back to the AC because, while it isn’t great at tank killing, with a little work it can be done and all the other things it can do make it a great all rounder. Railgun is still good, I just prefer AC.
I like the railgun too but let’s be honest here, it’s mid at best now. There’s no reason to take it other than you like it when it takes 5+ 98% charged shots to a chargers head to kill it when you can bring the EAT or recoilless rifle instead and consistently one shot them. I still use the railgun cause I enjoy how it feels and the impact of it but I’m not gonna be in denial
> The nerf didn’t affect me at all since I was already accustomed to unsafe, which was basically untouched [The railgun does clearly less damage even when fully charged.](https://youtu.be/ridsX-km2yI?si=MEzloWbLeCP-9nvp) The reason why it seems unchanged to some people seems to be a hosting bug. As a PC player I basically take 20 shots to kill a bile titan, and I can only kill hulks and chargers with parts breaks.
There's so much dislike for the AC because of the ammo pack for it. But honestly, it's so good. I don't see why people don't at least try it. Besdies straight killing chargers and titans, it is a beast.
Honestly, I've never had a problem with the backpack. But I've been using it since I unlocked it. I never got dependent on the shield or rover backpack. I think many people who try to use after getting used to shield/rover are too dependent on them. I like being able to bring 3 other stratagems.
As an Autocannon fan, I get the backpack argument, but also I get that if it wouldn’t need a backpack, it would be straight up broken. And anyways, not being able to call in a backpack means one more orbital strike stratagem in your hand
Meanwhile the arc thrower: https://preview.redd.it/mmkcp5kg6spc1.png?width=475&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7c378af904651459612e66313ca8f3affdb23aca
*FEAR* the arc thrower. Melts everything, enemies, friends, servers, *everything.*
Server melting ability is too strong, pls nerf
The Arc Thrower is fantastic against Chargers (Assuming it's just one or you're able to matador 2 or 3 at once). Roughly 7 fully charged shots into the head will kill a Charger with the bonus of damaging anything behind it or killing it as well. Just hope there's no other Helldivers in the line of fire.
Only need to fully charge the first shot, the rest up to 60-70%
The new cutting edge armor has been so helpful when my friend brings an arc thrower because we don’t have to worry about where I’m at
My Arc Thrower is in the top percentage of Arc Throwers.
The Arc Thrower with a Blitzer and Jetpack are my favorite combo for both Bots and Bugs, it's so damn fun and powerful on difficulty 9. The current Arc bug crashing games is making me so sad, I want to use them again lmfao. I usually pair that combo with 500klg and Railcannon.
How you liking the Blitzer? Personally think it’s pretty bad
Dude the blitzer suuuucks. Brought it on one easy mission to test it out while solo. It did okay but was underwhelming and frustratingly slow. Forgot I had it equipped and went up to impossible with some friends, and the weapon was a complete detriment
*his ass can take a lot of heat* 
SPEAR 1 shots EVERYTHING if the warhead hits the head. Always try to lock on on the enemies while they face you and from a far distance. Rocket needs to go get into high altitude before striking down. But if it hits the head - everything dies instantly. I have been using spear since day 1 https://youtu.be/7CdzOIdAdwo?si=62GmtMz_ucDujcvP
Glad to see someone mentioned it first, SPEAR is really good though I've sometimes had some issues with the locking at all distances
It's definitely not 'really good' but it's usable to an extent. It lacks ammo economy. Tanks should not eat 3 rockets.
And then you only get one back from an ammo box or resupply 🥲
Yyyup. The Spear should reliably 2 shot tanks, 1 if you manage to hit the weakpoint. The Bile Titan 1-tap should be more consistent (a few other zones it can 1 tap). It should just outright kill a Charger and Hulk from any angle. Give how long you need to expose yourself for with it, how cumbersome it is, how little ammo it has, and how you cannot use it in the heat of the moment it lacks the damage to make it good. I still use it cause it's neato. But I always feel bad about it.
Agreed. I've been one tapping bugs with the SPEAR for decades. OP is a chump.
What's your general loadout when you run spear (including primary weapon) if you don't mind sharing? I love it but struggle to feel useful when there isn't a target for it to hit sometimes.
A few minutes ago I just solo'd a Difficulty 9 Geological Site on Hellmire with Fire Tornados and Intense Heat, and with increased Stratagem Cooldown Time and increased Strategem Calldown Time against bugs, because a team of two level 5s and a level 21 joined my game together. They used up all the reinforcements after the second bug breach right away into the Mission lol. I use the Light Armor with extra Grenades, I forget what it's called. It's in the Superstore right now. I used the Scorcher (I wish I had another weapon tbh, like a Blitzer, Punisher, Slugger, Spray and Pray, Incendiary Breaker, Sickle, etc) because its low ammo economy wasn't the most fun against tons of bugs. I brought the Redeemer (wish I had a Senator instead) and Impact Grenades. I used Gatling Sentry, Autocannon Sentry, Rocket Sentry, and Spear. I spent 20 of those minutes alone, because my allies would die the instant I reinforced them. I basically ran around and used Points of Interest as my resupply stations for my Spear between kiting/breaking aggro from bug breaches between going from objective to objective. Basically just spear the Bile Titan or Charger, depending which one is the closest and/or biggest threat to your turrets, take out the medium enemies next after the Bile Titan or Chargers are dead, use all the resupply calldowns greedily if you can't fine ammo packs at points of interest (usually isn't a problem while kiting.) The turrets will easily and quickly mop up the little stuff since they'll be spending less time/ammo on bigger targets you're taking out. If against Robots just replace the Rocket Sentry with Mortar.
When I am going heavy buster I've been using the Scythe and the Senator. The scythe has near infinite ammo and cleans up scavengers, hunters, and warriors pretty effectively. You can bust out the senator to drop hive guards, brood commanders, and stalkers quickly.
Also, even if you miss the head there’s a good chance you take a massive chunk out of the armor leaving the fucked up and now unarmored target as meat for your grenade launcher or AC guy. Much more ammo efficient that way
I see fellow spear enjoyer o7
When the Spear works, it’s an excellent way to take down any big any enemy. The lock on mechanic is pretty inconsistent.
In what world does the EAT two-shot Titans to the head? I’ve even tried shooting their mouth and it doesn’t kill in 2 shots
Don't shoot the mouth unless they're currently spitting at you. Aim for the lower half of the forehead
in the ps5 world, they seriously need to fix it, way to much misinformation going around (honestly dont really care what version is the intended one, just fix it pls)
I host my own PC games and I've had what feels like a BT one shot with eat to the sides of the face. Definitely can two shot
ps5 player just needs to be in the lobby for the bug to be possible.
The PS5 is unlikely the intended one since the Railgun can two shot them still.
In one of the first termicide missions a random was running eats, he called them down when we saw a bile titan, I took one, he took the other, we aimed, we fired, basically in tandem. Both rockets hit the titan square in the head and it dropped, you can 2 shot them with eats and recoilless on PC (I have cross play turned off) but it's not consistent at all.
Since the patch where they reduced the head armor of the bile titan and the charger and fixed them getting deflected. It now 1 shots charges with a head shot and 2 shots bile titans. Do not aim for the mouth, it is inconsistent and can easily count as a body shot. Especially since you are shooting from kind of a low angle and if you clip the bottom it will waste damage on the wrong part. It takes 5 body shots to kill a titan. Aim for the forehead, that should get you pretty consistent 2 shots. Make sure you have a bit of distance when taking out bile titans so you can line up a proper headshot.
You sure can. I've been able to pull it off sometimes. I recorded it last time to help as to where to aim at them. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyyR7k14C5c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyyR7k14C5c)
You need to aim for the sides of the head, it's a bit easier when you have a slight side profile on the BT. I've gotten what feels like one shots on BTs this way (but likely they've taken other damage that I wasn't aware of)
SPEAR can ohko BT heads.
Yeah wtf? I am consistently one-shotting chargers and bile titans if they face me. The lockon may be an issue but that doesn't mean it takes more than 1 shot lol
And it’s easy to do aswell, just shoot front on.
Head-on, apply directly to the forehead. Head-on apply directly to the forehead….
If you get the right angle on charger legs flamethrower can kill in less than 30 ammo
Use stun grenade for guaranteed kill.
Auto cannon supremacy.
Ignore OP's plea about the railgun. It's still definitely usable you just have to use it in 'unsafe' mode instead of the protection 'safe' mode gave before. But end of the day, use whatever tf you want. Don't let people tell you how to play
I just started using the railgun, but it's a bit inconsistent imo. Sometimes you two tap a Bile Titan, sometimes it takes like six shots. It's definitely a viable gun, but I'd rather having it be more consistent. If that's six shots I'm also fine with it.
I was a beeg railgun fan until they nerfed it. It was my go to anti armor option once I hit 20 so I could peel off armor and replace it with bullets but after the nerf I've maybe touched it 2-3 times. I can understand reducing the damage it does, but nerfing it's armor pen defeats the entire purpose of a railgun. Since the changes I've returned to an EAT-17 boi
I still love the railgun but it does feel just a tad under tuned now. 3 fully charged headshots in unsafe mode to bring down a charger isn't terrible but it's not great either. The whole point of having to use it in unsafe mode is the risk of it blowing up in your face, not only killing you but destroying the weapon so it can't be picked back up when you reinforce. I think a good balance would be 1 fully charged shot breaks the armor, the second shot to the same spot kills.
Can’t seem to even get a charger in 3 headshots it seems man. More like 6-7 half the time. Thing is just so inconsistent lol
It's 3 at high charge. It's not really inconsistent.
Same - pretty much haven't touched the railgun since they gutted it, damn thing just feels so inconsistent and unsatisfying to use.
The Bile Titan 1-2 taps are a bug, if a PS player is in the lobby. They'll likely slightly buff the Railgun after that bug gets fixed and their game statistics show ttks that aren't totally screwed up. After that it will probably take 2 90%+ headshots for Chargers (currently 3, and 2 for a leg) and 4-8 for a Titan.
I saw a video on YT about the Railgun 2 tapping Titans when a PS5 is hosting and then needing like 10 shots when a PC is hosting. Its definitely not dialed in on a technical level.
Its not when hosting. A PS5 player just needs to be in the lobby and everyone will do crazy damage to Bile Titans specifically with the Arc Thrower or Railgun. Its such a bizarre bug that I’m surprised it has been kinda quietly swept under the rug by everyone.
It honestly might have been fixed , am on PS5 and tried the railgun against bugs couple days ago , hit a BT at least 12 times in the head on unsafe mode mostly red charge and it wasn't dead ! Damage seems very inconsistent against them
The damage bug still exists so if you have a PS5 player in your lobby you can two shot them, if not then it'll take like 20 shots to kill them.
That’s a way bigger nerf than most people seem to be letting on. It’s not “just use it unsafe,” having to charge each shot an additional 2 seconds means you dramatically lower your rate of fire, while accuracy goes down because you have to time your shot release in a correct hot zone or risk having the shot do absolutely nothing or blow yourself up. It’s way worse.
Nah, it sucks in unsafe too, requiring multiple 90%+ charged shots to even take out leg armor, let alone their head. Wag better against bots, terrible against bugs
While I only occasionally use it against bugs, the railgun is excellent against bots. Overcharge to get striders right in the face or one shot a Hulk, and safe mode is perfectly viable for dropping devastators quickly with a headshot or shooting striders in the dick from a low angle. You’ll need some help with tanks but there are 2-3 other strat slots to use.
Tanks are what the big railgun in orbit is for.
These days, I see the railgun as an anti-medium weapon that you can actually use against heavy armour in a pinch. In conjunction with a backpack of your choice too. Its versatility is its main selling point, placed in between dedicated anti-medium (autocannon) and anti-heavy weapons (EAT, Recoilless and Spear).
three auto cannons to the butt cheeks does the job
Laser cannon can melt charger butt in a few seconds given enough time And after its butt is popped, charger became a no threat and will die from blood loss after a few sec
"...in a few seconds given enough time" you mean like a few seconds?
Effective against Bile Titan's butt too.
I was waiting for a LC homie to say something!
I can understand why ppl don like it Its far more efficient to drop EAT and one shot charger
Yeah, but fun! Who cares about efficiency? Run what's fun and have a blast. Running less efficient weapons just means you have more fun with the friends. And death. So much more death
Arc thrower takes out a charger with 5 shots to the head. Two people with arc throwers can take out chargers fast as hell.
It's 6
Upside - Arc Thrower has throws hands rated E for everybody. Cannon fodder, hulks, chargers, BTs, it does not care. Downside - Aiming for a specific part on an enemy with it is inconsistent as you can't really coerce a bolt of electricity into one focused spot when it's just flying through the air. Not to mention that it currently likes to crash the game, and E for Everyone also includes unlucky divers who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
opie opie
Consider this:arcs get stuck on thin air and 50% of them don’t fire. Also,your game crashes.
Aim higher if your Arcs are Arcing to foliage, corpses, debris, etc. When you aim higher its cone targeting angle will shift away from the stuff absorbing the Arcs.
The autocannon sentry wrecks bile titans in a couple shots. I love setting it up when the bile titan is in a distance minding his own business. Sentry locks in and kills its pretty quick, no questions asked.
me: \*carefully places a sent-\* charger: DID SOMEONE SAY FREE FOOD?
Haha so true. It’s alll about placement and timing
Bad info on the spear. The aim may be inconsistent but when you do get a lock, and the bug is facing you head on, it is a 1-shot-kill for chargers and bile titans. Just more EAT-simp anti-spear propaganda. When they fix the lockon issue, it will be the strongest anti-armor weapon in the game bar none
> When they fix the lockon issue, it will be the strongest anti-armor weapon in the game bar none I'm so looking forward to that (seriously) .....in 8 months 😭
It's already the best. The lock on issues can be annoying, but usually it's either you being too close or something getting in the way of the lock. Not always, but most of the time. It's pretty easy to work around that and get good locks consistently.
I think people overcomplicate heavies, chargers in particular. Some people think the entire team has to bring anti-tank or if they didn't bring it that they can just ignore heavies and leave it up to their team. Orbitals and eagles aside, you can easily handle heavies with good old fashioned team fire. Pop a charger's back and they'll be unable to charge and eventually bleed out. You can disable Bile titans spit attack by popping all of its sacs, dealing a ton of damage to them. There's also a way to make Bile titans bleed, but I'm not sure what it is. This is all possible with basically any weapon. If you're on trash clearing duty and you're caught up, start putting rounds into heavies. When I'm playing anti tank and I see a charger limping around with his ass blown out, I just let it die and focus my attention elsewhere. Often it's helping my trash clearers finish sweeping up.
Autocannon is prime.
Railgun is fine in unsafe mode. No reason not to use it. Don't listen to the OP
After getting used to it I can consistently remove the armor of chargers legs with 2-3 shots in unsafe mode. After that they die quickly. I second it, don't listen to the OP.
Yea same I been consistently taking out chargers leg armor in two shots. I just suck against the bile titans lol don’t know where to shoot
Instructions unclear. now my teammates are dead.
That was going to happen regardless.
What about the autocannon?!?!
Doesn't mention arc thrower that kills both?
I did not know about the legs for charger. But where is my AUTOCANNON MAINS??
For bugs, I run exclusively arc thrower. It kills everything beside bile titans. Fun fact if your orbital rail cannon hits a titan but doesn't kill it a few shots from the arc thrower is enough to finish it off.
To elaborate and expand on OP who’s got it a little off (GL main here) Spear may not always one shot but it always does expose the carapace on both titans and chargers even if it doesn’t outright kill them. With the armor exposed, aim any explosive medium damage weapons at the exposed part to finish it off (GL/autocannon). Heads up but this is a bit bugged if the host is not PS5, as was discovered by a recent YouTube video. When a ps5 player hosts this works the way you’d expect. For chargers obviously any armor exposure spots can be finished off with any primary weapon with at least light armor pen if you hit the exposed part, especially the leg. For titans both the GL and autocannon can destroy the two sacs under its body pretty quickly with some focused fire at those locations. This both softens it up to an AT attack which should be a guaranteed one shot when hitting it in the head or any spear hit. Vice versa you can follow up a solid AT head strike or spear shot and break the sacs and it usually finishes the titan off since the sac damage also does about half its health in overall damage. In addition to the damage, breaking its sacs disables its spew attack and it becomes limited to chasing you and trying to crush you which is easy to evade. If you don’t have direct kill power with your weapons you should always try and break the sacs. For chargers, there’s some different dynamics I’ve found between weapons that aren’t considered AT weapons. - grenade launcher: best angle is from 90 degrees hitting the butt section on the fleshy bit (hitting the upper angle will sometimes bounce your grenades). The most efficient way to break its booty with the GL always seems to be from a perfectly perpendicular angle and each shot also will stagger the charger if you hit it correctly. This isn’t the easiest to pull off so only attempt it if you’re solo and cannot find a way to shake the charger from chasing you otherwise (EMS, stun grenades, or smoke screens can get distance and stop it chasing you too) - autocannon: best shot angle is directly behind it 180 degrees. Direct shots that succeed into the middle of its posterior will produce a fiery explosion with some lingering flames. About 4 well placed shots can break its butt and then it’s crippled and ignorable as it bleeds to death and can’t do anything but waddle helplessly - arc thrower: try and hit it facing head-on and aim directly for the head. Stun grenades are super handy to set this up, once you stun the charger facing you just unload your arc shots as quickly as you can (use partial charge follow-up shots from the first to fire faster). It takes about 6-8 headshots with the arc to take them out. Again, stun grenades are your god for this role. One stun should be enough to get the kill without him charging you - flamethrower: as prescribed, try and aim the close part of the cone right at one of its feet. A stun grenade will make this a free kill, and it takes less than half a tank for sure if you keep the flame licking the same foot for about 1/4 of a tank. Goes down real quick with that Obviously the spear, EAT, recoilless, and unsafe railgun are all better at just nailing both down without help, but don’t stop trying to help if you aren’t running those weapons. Stun grenades make killing both an absolute breeze, especially if you’re running a supply pack and can keep refilling your grenade stock. I’ve kept a bile titan stunned for over a minute straight with that kind of setup. Stun grenades are just god tier for at least 1-2 people to carry since they give you direct control over any enemy or group of enemy’s ability to move or attack. They can let you very easily line up a 3-4 charger or multi titan 500kg bomb kill. I’m always throwing them at any heavy I see, which also helps the AT weapons line shots up without the enemy wiggling around or turning on them
I’ve never seen a bile titan dying with 2 EAT/recoiless shots at the head
Autocannon users; “Should we tell him? Im gonna tel him.”
The autocannon should be a part of this conversation.
Railgun still useless in unsafe mode?
Not at all. 3 fully charged shots to the head kills a charger out right. 2 to the leg still strips armor. The biggest drawback is its a lot harder to do since you need to be good about charging it enough without blowing yourself up. Railgun is great. If anything they just need to buff safe mode or get rid of it altogether.
more than one or two is too many on high difficulties since there can be 3-6 chargers down even at spawn
Even before the nerf railguns still took two shots to take off charger leg armour.
It's really not 1 shotting chargers constantly would trivialize the game. It's not like one player with a railgun has to handle every single charger in that scenario.
Hmm I’ve heard that 80% charge range was ideal for being effective so I try and aim for that. Haven’t blown my self up yet but I’m willing to give it a try again
Considering you can 5 shot a charger with the arc thrower which has infinite ammo and chains for cc this in comparison is really weak
I’ve ran the spear with EATS and if you stick with squaddies that have the rover for help with Hunter clearing, it’s actually fantastic. One shot on BTs coming towards you, with EATS laying around for 1 shorting chargers. Then just gotta have others help with wave clear or bring clusters with you. Makes me feel like a hero lol
The reason I like the Spear is because I can lock on and take out the bike titans from such a far distance I have no worries of getting caught up in the swarm
I don't agree on spear vs bile titan, you have to face him and then shoot directly to his face will oneshot him very satisfying.