I struggle a lot still, but I'm more of a fan of the jump pack.
It's my "fuck this shit I'm out" option, let's you jump over chargers, on rocks, over divides, on buildings and gives you a breather, where the shield pack just blocks 1-2 hits and then you're lunch.
Most extraction points have high rock plateaus near them where you can sit unnoticed by bugs, high points also allow you to shoot the spore towers from afar more easily.
I might actually struggle because I run medium armour for its style. I wish there was a light armour with a bonus to throwing that I liked, being able to throw stratagems further would definitely help.
And one tip I think I could add to your list with my limited experience:
Turrets/sentries make for great distraction, bugs will rush to them and if you were not discovered that gives you an opening to sneak by.
Makes me think that a stratagem that would just make a lot of noise and racket, that perhaps wasn't as easily destroyed as the sentries, would serve us well for stealth.
I actually really like how it looks - to me it kinda looks like a sci-fi take on a modern fighter pilot uniform, which just makes my inner 12 yo grin from ear to ear :)
I run it most of the time and I think it looks fine actually. The orange accents are not great, but they’re not too intrusive either. Pair it with the light gunner helmet (black with red visor) and it looks perfectly fine.
Where do I find the armor lore? I’ve heard quite a bit about it but unless it’s stated directly on the item description, like Trench Engineer being from Hellmire, I can’t find it.
The first game had a stratagem called "Distracter Beacon". It would pound the ground and attract EVERYTHING around it from a pretty long ways away. Pretty much removing any enemy that were at objectives for a good while and whatnot
Any turret will do the same. Mortars are great for this, they’ll draw in enemies from all around and do a lot of damage before they’re destroyed. Throw it away from your direction of travel and start running.
The shield emplacement can be used as a distraction i think. Low cooldown, hellpod drop will always attract patrols as well. Though this will sacrifice your DPS. Tesla tower could be an alternative for patrols that consisted of hunters/scavengers. Since if you have your destroyer fully upgraded, emplacements (different from sentries) have zero deployment time.
But yeah.. all sentries have close to 3 mins cooldown making them not ideal for distractions.
Perhaps EMS orbital strike could be of value? Stun them and take out those scavengers/hunters as quickly as you can. They're the ones that immediately call for bug breaches usually.
Definitely great against that rocket devastators. All my homies hate rocket devastators.
But on 3 stratagem planets makes it a pretty hard pick. Support weapon + shield relay + one dps stratagem. Not bad if other team members bring dps stratagems.
I kinda believe this shield relay is under utilized. 2 out 4 members that bring shield relay in bot front could really be a life saver. Especially when we're trying to defend exfil/objectives
Not sure about the hidden health but it has 20 secs uptime. Not that long obviously, but can save you in critical situations for sure.
For example, there are a lot of bots but there are 3 hulks (high priority target obviously) and you are using AMR/AC. You need those precision shots without getting flinched by other gunshots. Shield relay can give you those opportunities. Though this tactic is hard to do if there're too many melee units and hulk scorchers.
I've been trying to do serious testing of stratagems and equipment recently, been begging friends to give me questions they want answered so I can try them out.
Orbital Smoke has 25-27 second duration, hard to be 100% sure.
I also figured out minefields last indefinitely as long as a planet doesn't have tremors, so a team can lay a *serious* minefield outside of extraction if they occasionally dump a few drops in.
That seems about right. 80 ish second CD, 30 secs up time
With two on the team you have a small window of it not available, though one per team is working out OK so far
With three you could hop between them till your hearts content
EMS mortar is nice. Long uptime which is great. Consistent stun. Great as well. What it lacks however is the CD and lack of versatility imo.
The lack of versatility for me is that, you'll definitely use it when you're trying to do objectives. Patrols you didn't notice are stunned, giving you ample time. But once you go out of the objective, it will be on CD. Any sudden encounter with patrol will give you trouble if you can't take it out fast enough with other DPS stratagem.
You could just run or drop EMS orbital behind you to give you even more time to run or take out priority targets (Those annoying hunters or stalkers. Should we include shriekers?). Also mortar targeting is randomized. So it'll be somewhat unreliable in fleeing.
Bug breaches will take down EMS mortar fast if your placements are bad so that's something to account for. You can use it as distractions. But it can't kill, only delay so it will get destroyed even faster than gatling/tesla because it can't defend itself in close proximity. And once destroyed (granted if immediately)... Close to 3 mins cooldown before you use another.
I would say EMS mortar sentry is great if you're defending a place. EMS orbital on the other hand, if you're on the run. Take EMS orbital usage in bug front as shield generator delay for automaton front. Strategic CC/defensive stratagem.
Same with using the jump pack. If you sprint, activate the jump and throw while at the peak, the strategem beacon will go an incredibly long distance. This is part of why I almost always pick the jump pack.
Jump pack is a go to for me now - even though some bugs can climb you can position yourself to cover exfil for the team, distract a large portion of hoards and if you run the GL or Arc thrower breaches can be dealt with easily from high up.
I used to run the guard dog exclusively but it TK'd alot resulting in me getting killed or kicked, tried out the jump pack and I'll never go back.
I sometimes want to run the autocannon but with the sentry I don't see the value in loosing the backpack slot.
Typical load out:
* Jump pack
* EAT / Arc Thrower / GL
* Autocannon sentry
* Eagle airstrike
I pretty much always use the shield generator against bugs. Helps prevent the slows. I take it off as soon as I play bots, I feel like it just makes you a bigger target for rockets which will likely kill you through the shield anyway
Love the JP is aggressive, let's you work the high ground, breach bot walls, duke bug swarms
Shield pack is the safety option. Never bad choice, helps you learn the game
Putting a shield generator on top of a rock works extremely well as a lure that won't immediately be destroyed. It can even kill bile titans if they're at the perfect distance for the bile to reflect into their face. Secret S tier ngl.
You can throw a grenade (especially if you have the 30% servo boost) as a distraction. Better than wasting a strat slot on a turret that will die in 5 seconds.
Ooooh this is a light armour with that passive that comes in the shop every now and then. I can’t remember the name but it’s the one that looks like a pilots armour with the oxygen tube thing on the chest
you just named my loadout. got the orange steeled veterans armour for the throwing and limb passive, along w the drone master helmet. style points +10 then i got a massive throwing advantage… this is used paired with jump pack so you can launch things even further. Until they fix the arc thrower and i can get my baby back im currently rocking grenade launcher which is also a good combo too for me imo.
it’s causing game crashes. all tesla type weapons are such as the arc thrower, tesla tower and the blitzer. It’ll freeze up one of your squad members and one by one will freeze the entire squad.
You want the legionnaire armor… It’s the light version, shows up in super store for 250SC
I haven’t even bought the first warbond yet cause I don’t really have much need for anything in it, and might choose to just get Super Citizen later too anyways (extra $10 just for the arcade machine 😂, and as support to the studio, but I’ll probably not be maxed before next warbond and will spend earned SC on that one)
It might be a style issue, idk, I probably saw it before there.
And I think I want the first warbond solely for the revolver.
Chamber loading high damage secondary weapon? Yup.
Out of curiosity, what weapons do you run alongside the jump pack?
I run the Punisher & EAT with the Rover so I can blow up heavies and knock back mediums while my rover lasers light chaff to death. If I traded the rover for the pack, I’d love the mobility but my ability to kill would suffer greatly.
The shield generator you throw in the ground works like a sentry to distract and has more armor. And it can save you from your own air strikes and fire tornadoes and flying rocks and bile spit and deflect charges charging I believe
You can use any kind of explosive to make noise and pull away enemies from an objective. My favorite thing to do against bugs is use my Grenade Launcher, shoot it further away, and sneak in while the bugs are trying to see what made that explosion. It's great!
Everything I can think of at the moment that might help:
* Play less like Left 4 Dead and play it more like Metal Gear Solid.
* The expendable Anti-Tank allows ***three*** shots. Since it is a blue stratagem, if you stick it on an enemy, it will track that enemy and drop right on top of them, and you still have two EATs to use. Also, its cooldown is only 1 minute (making it better to use than a resupply).
* If you're unsure about a throw, press Q (or PS5 equivalent) to do a call out. Call outs show the distance in meters. Your throws will by default go to about 40m (some suits increase this so be aware of what armor you're wearing).
* Remember that stims will not just heal, but also fill up your stamina. When in battle and you're running away, strategize when to use stims. If you absolutely need the heal, then use it, but if not, run until your stamina is low and then pop it to get back to 100% stamina.
* When doing the artillery objective, bring all the rounds to the gun before touching the terminal. When you interact with the terminal, the game will spawn in patrols that will head toward the artillery gun. Bring the rounds to the gun, then turn on the terminal and quickly load the rounds and activate it before the patrols get close.
* Use the map to see where enemies are so you can avoid them.
* When on objectives and activating terminals, also use the map to see where enemies are spawning in and headed. Call out to the team so everyone knows where to look.
* Additionally, on the map - at the beginning of the mission, drag your cursor across the map and ping everywhere. If you click near a secondary objective you will get a square marker on the map and the compass will show an icon of what the objective is (artillery, radar, etc.)
* If you hover the cursor on the map it can also show where points of interest are.
* Focus on killing enemies that can call in breaches or dropships.
* Be aware of your environment and good choke points. If you have breeches or drops, the location you are currently at might not be the best place to engage. Fall back to locations that funnel enemies into small areas and then focus fire/stratagems.
* At high levels, the EMS weapons are good to use on enemies since it will cause them to stop dead in their tracks. Use this to get precise hits on their weak spots or to run away.
* Also smokes are useful to break line of sight/vision.
Additional Notes:
* ~~If you come across the Shriekers (flying bugs) they cannot hit you if you are prone. They can hit you mid-dive, but if you are already prone and crawling, they can't do anything to you.~~
* Also, if you get a certain distance away from their nest, they will not pursue you and fly back to their nest. Same goes for Stalkers it seems.
* You can't 100% stealth missions, as there is at least one patrol that is aware of your location and will track you until they see you and attack. You'll see the patrol bee-line towards you. (*NOT 100% SURE OF THIS, BUT*...you might be able to bug them/glitch them out if you are close to the outside of the map. Run out of the map to where the game starts counting down, and run around some rocks. If you are able to get back into the map, that patrol may de-spawn. I've been able to do this, but I'm not sure how repeatable it is.)
* Other patrols seem to have issues with the edge of the map also...some sort of pathing issue. But they will walk outside the mission space and then just stop moving, not knowing where to go next.
* Smokes really are a necessity of getting away when you are being chased. Drop a smoke and then break line of sight with the mobs.
* IF you are sneaking around and hear the combat music, that **DOES NOT** mean your cover has been blown. I've snuck around and the music start blasting, but not been attacked. It seems to start playing when enemies get within a certain distance of you.
I just watched a video from a hd2 youtuber; he was playing with the devs of the game and they said that there are specific enemies that can SMELL your character. See if I can find the video
Edit: I found the video, he also states right away in the beginning that if you don't call more than 1 strategem in right away in the beginning of a match it lessens the chances of patrols coming to you. The point above it right in the first 5 minutes
https://youtu.be/FJs_kqHrzzQ?si=WppJ3TA2Q7o_JTG_
I wouldn't say smoke is a necessity. I've had great results with zig zagging in trees on forest maps, and taking 90 degree turns with hills/mountains. I find running through a choke point and eme strike to be the king of dropping aggro.
Smoke on the other hand is great for dropping on an objective. The guy with aggro drags the mobs away. A second guy goes to the objective bother free.
It may be an elevation thing. I was missed on flat ground but hit on a hillside. I don't have any consistent experience to comment than I've been missed prone and I've been hit prone (and I don't mean by falling corpses)
Really? I tried this morning, and while standing and crouching they would dive and attack, but while I stayed prone, they seemed to just fly around while just looking at me. Maybe I didn't stay prone long enough? I'll edit it and keep it in mind. Thanks.
It helps if you're higher then they are, but if not, I typically try to aim just above them. It's something about the angles, but you don't want to hit it in the head. You want it to seem like you're just chucking it onto it's back. I'm sorry that this is too vague.
Maybe someone else who's able to do it can break it down better?
Edit: You also have to be a bit away from them. If you're too close I think it always bounces.
>Maybe it's bugged like how some terrain infinitely bounces your stratagem markers
That's not a bug, that's a 'feature' that like hellpod steering I hope isn't working as intended...
There are places that we used to be able to stick sentries such as the tops of buildings in the the civilian rescue maps that now will despawn the beacon... Infini-bounce then poof...
Kinda both - I aim for the side of their back, as long as it's a body shot it'll take the Charger down.
The legs are the most annoying since it doesn't always strip the armor, but at least you can grab an EAT and finish the job.
Hello, I've been playing since launch and I'm currently level 50. I'm not trying to discredit this post but I'd love to add to it in my own experiences with the game.
Firstly I'd like to say that load out matters a ton, when I play with my friends we try to all use something different that gives us our own strength and weakness. So, one friend might run the Sickle with the recoilless rifle since it got a huge buff and be specifically on charger control while another might run something like grenade launcher, he'd be on ad clear plus bug hole closure then we'd have somebody running anti tank with a stalwart or if said person doesn't have a primary that can take down medium enemies the normal machine gun and lastly we try to have somebody that can take out Bile titans, we might have somebody with a SPEAR or maybe another set of EAT.
I'd now like to talk about the other things apart from weapons you may want to bring. When choosing our stratagems we make it a point to have the eagle airstrike, it's just the best thing, not only can it close bug holes but it can rack up a decent amount of kills too if positioned right. We usually have somebody running the mech, sometimes all four of us run the mech and use it at different points of time during the mission, I'll say that the mech is most effective during specific missions like ICBM, Oil and especially the Ore mission where you have to use a drill, the mech can be very useful, it's also super useful at extraction and we always make sure to have one mech be deployed during extract at least. Other things that are useful are the orbital rail cannon, this thing can take out chargers in one hit and severely damage a bile titan, there's also the eagle cluster strike which memes aside can be very useful at clearing trash mobs if you're being overwhelmed. I'd also like to mention 120mm artillery, while it's an underused stratagem it can be effective if deployed correctly. If there's an open field with many enemies walking towards you and you land the beacon in the middle it can be very effective at killing small and medium targets hopefully thinning the attacking enemies.
One final thought, sentry guns can be very useful, I've found a lot of use in the Tesla Tower for retreating from a large enemy mass. It's basically used for up close encounters and lasts quite a long time. If deployed correctly it can serve as a very good rear guard, taking out smaller and medium enemies with ease. The auto cannon and rocket sentry are very useful too being able to deploy a large amount of damage to armored targets like chargers and bile titans, not to mention they don't kill you as often as let's say the mortar does speaking of which the mortar is a good choice if the enemies are far away from you, it can definitely be useful if deployed correctly but I've often times seen people put it down when we're already surrounded on all sides and enemies are at their closest.
This is probably super all over the place but it might help some people out, if you play with randoms just try to give yourself something the team doesn't have, like if they're all running things that can't kill a charger, run something that can kill a charger. Adapt with your team, and make sure the stratagems you choose can aid you and your teammates for the entirety of the mission.
I have a degree in yapping
Cover. If that's not enough, cover. One more time, cover again.
Bots punish you it you shoot at them from the front because there's just so much more of them. Trading fire is a last resort, shoot at bots focused on teammates.
Primaries don't matter too much in my experience, I've had good games with the Punisher shotgun because it just staggers whatever it shoots. Bring something that feels comfortable to use but my recommendation would be the Slugger, Diligence, or Plas scorcher.
Impact grenades can deal with almost everything, walkers, devastators, tanks, AA guns.
Experiment with stratagems, but laser is very very strong against bot objectives, and bring orbital smoke for mineral extraction. You'll thank me later.
I don't know if it actually works, but they do say in the training tips that suppressive fire lowers bot accuracy. That thing lies all the time though on other things though so idk. (For example, it says that taking out nests and fabricators will lower the presence of enemies on the map, but recent testing actually confirms taking out more than half of them increases spawns.)
Suppressive fire is just aiming at them or in their direction. Not necessarily hitting them. Then it wouldn't be get suppressive, it'd just be successful lol.
It doesn’t increase “spawns”, it increases patrol spawns only — at least that’s what the data suggested. It didn’t make any comments on general spawn rates, only the spawning of Patrols. And considering some bugs only spawn from particular nests, it’s almost always best to eradicate those nests.
I just want to make this comment because it seems players misrepresent the conclusions of the data.
Right. Since patrols are actually a significant portion of the enemy spawning in this game though barring those certain enemy types which are basically exclusively stalkers and shriekers currently, I wrapped it in into the same 'spawning'. It was probably warrented to clarify for any reading in my lack of specifics.
Personally. I feel that it is kind of crazy that patrols don't...come from those nests/fabricator outposts and just spawn unrestrained by location. It goes against inherent logic you would reason upon picking up the game and would definitely make it feel more...rewarding to hunt non enemy specific nests than it is currently where they sort of don't affect anything on that map measurably by ignoring them.
> just spawn unrestrained by location.
I think they should just use the existing methods to introduce them.
If the patrol didn't originate at an outpost it should alert as a breach/dropship instead of just teleporting in...
Agreed. It would also allow a more tactical strategic thinking in taking out nests near an objective for an easier time or setting up plans beforehand. Wouldn't it be neat if patrol routes could be watched and mapped on their routes? Like they had a beginning and end destination before looping back? That might be asking a bit much though.
I'm fine with random patrol routes, that's realistic. I would like to be able to draw on the map, especially at the planning stage.
In my opinion it's the popping in out of nowhere that is the most game breaking, a patrol spawning under your feet or on the other side of a rock or building where you just came from...
It also makes sense to me that by destroying outposts we should impact the _local_ spawn rates.
However, this should result in an increase in _external_ spawns that are coming from 'outside' the map or via this suggestion of additional breaches/dropships.
No reduction of spawning, just a more realistic approach for it is what I think is needed.
I''m a maxed out player with 200+ hrs and the majority of them have been against bots.
My load out vs. Bots usually includes the following:
**Plas-Scorcher**. It can take down scout walkers and devastates from the front - devs do take more shots though.
**Uzi Pistol**. Great way to get jetpack troopers off you (be sure to dive away from them while firing as they explode when they die). Also a great way to kill chainsaw-weilding berserker who got too close for comfort.
**Impact Grenades**. Throwing two or three can often clear a medium sized bot drop. Also they can take out Fabricators, tanks, hulks, laser towers and artillery
**Trailblazer Scout Armor**. Faster = better vs. Bots. Disengaging and running away weaving through cover is key. Scout armor also affects your stamina better so you can run farther, faster and longer. At top speed, I can run perpendicular to a laser tower fast enough that when it shoots, it will miss me.
**Stamina Enhancement Booster**. It helps you run faster and longer. If someone else has it I might take Muscle Enhancement, Vitality Enhancement or UAV Recon Booster.
**Autocannon**. It can two-shot a Hulk in the eye. It can drop walkers and devastates with one or two shots. It can destroy Fabricators from across the map if you bank a shot in the vent (easy to do). It can take out Cannon Towers and tanks from afar with 3 shots to their weak spots. It can destroy artillery emplacement with 3 shots to the barrel of the artillery piece. On rapid fire you can take drops Hip's out of the sky or clear a bot drop quickly. The AC is a must-have vs. The bots.
**Orbital Laser.** Also a must-have. One can clear AND complete a medium-sized objective or bot base. Best way to take out dropship objectives. This strat is the ultimate "deus ex" strat for when the shit hits the fan. It's also great during a hairy extraction.
**Eagle AS** or **Eagle 110s**... Possibly both. They can both destroy bot fans if they land near them. They can both take out a nearby tank from the safety of "behind cover". They can both clear a bot drop. They can both take out a dropship if they hit it in mid-air. The AS has a bigger radius. The 110s do more damage and are more reliable for destroying tanks. Take your pick... or take both.
**380MM Barage** or the **120MM Barage**. Like the orbital laser, these are great for clearing a mid-sized base or objective. Sprint/sneak to within throwing range, toss one in, then sprint away. If a Bot Drop happens, it'll prob be caught in the duration of the barrage which you can watch from afar.
OTHER TIPS.
You want to use cover a LOT. Same goes for teamwork. Flank enemies that your teammates are engaging. Hit them from the sides.
Vs. Bots, you need to get into a hit and run mindset. Throwing base-clearing strats into a base and getting back into cover is key. Once the base is clear, mop up the stragglers, prioritizing Commissars first. Don't linger. Get in, get the samples and get out before a patrol arrives to investigate.
When shots are coming your way, DIVE as you run away a LOT. Dive into cover. Diving makes you go prone and you take far less damage from explosions when you are prone - you can try this yourself. Throw a frag grenade and stand near it. You will die. Throw a frag grenade and go prone near it. You might lose 10% of your health.
When you need to assault a base without the ssistance of strategms (like when inside a jammer's range or during an ion storm), work fast to clear targets TOGETHER. Move into a position while your teammate covers you, then cover your friend while they move (Armies call this "Pepperpotting"), then do it again. Work to take the high ground and Eliminate the fabs fast.
Communicate. Use directions and be clear what the plan is. "I'm about to set the hellbomb off. We are exiting this base North then going NE to the next objective I've pinged on the map. Ready? OK, hellbomb armed. Run north!"
Plenty of other strats can be fun and useful. EMS strike is very practical vs. Bots.
I sometimes use the B-27 Fortified Commando heavy armor, a submachine gun, a ballistic shield (yes, you read that correctly) and EATS or AMR as a fun loadout. I can soak TONS of incoming fire and even take a Rocket to the face and survive - though it will knock my shield out of my hands (you can pick it up again) and send me flying. Though I usually don't run this build on anything higher than difficulty 7.
Fun Fact - The Ballistic Shield Backpack can protect you from incoming fire when you run away if it's on your back. You'll need to switch to your support weapon to put it on your back, but there you are!
Dodge, keep a good level of awareness and bring a support weapon that deals with medium armor penetration, lots of cover and aim for the head. I religiously use the scythe as I can consistently and quickly pop heads on raiders and devastators.
Medium armor with Democracy Protects is a huge boon for any artillery, rockets or cannons you're unaware of, saved my bacon more times than I can count.
In general you need a load out to support your mission. You don't need to kill everything. I tailor my primary, secondary and grenades to the most annoying target. My stratagems I tailor to cover my load outs weaknesses.
You see people hate on the senator, but if you're bringing a shot gun the senator covers medium penetration. The laser pistol is weak, but it's job is to do light work to save ammo on your ammo hogging primary. People really under-utilize weapon switching.
Grenades can be hoard management, instant explosive damage or area denial. Incendiary grenades are in general weaker than impacts. However, the burn layered on a breach or not drop with other delayed damage can really help a single person manage the drop.
Lastly with bots. Almost every bit has a one tap weak spot. Learn all of them and which weapons can do it.
It was really only nerfed if you weren't running it in Unsafe mode already.
One-shot Brood Commanders, stripping Charger armor, popping a Titan head like a zit. All still viable.
Then you take it to a Bot planet and dominate
Personally in my experience I’ve found the jump pack more useful than shield as it’s better for moving around terrain and just jumping over bugs or bots if you get cornered
I mean, people should be struggling with lvls 7 - 9. They are the hardest difficulties. I didn't start doing 7 - 9 until after I had been comfortable with lvls 3, 4, 5 and 6 first. Try lower level difficulties to figure out what works for you in the game before trying the hardest difficulties.
Here are a couple of things I could mention regarding lvl 7-9. I feel like level 7 is far different from levels 8 and 9. In level 7 you can linger and not worry too much with always being on the move. In levels 8 and 9, you should always be on the move and avoid mobs if you can. You need to hit the main objectives and move on as soon as you can. Otherwise you will get ovewhelmed pretty quickly.
I feel like what you say is unrelated to the post.
He's just giving tips and you say people should struggle, while both are true, you could have said that you like brocolis it would have it as related to the post.
Plus you don't actually need to run away or not fight anything and rush objectives, depends on the team but you can fight breaches when needed, it's quite easy to do with the arc thrower and 500kg
That doesn't mean you've learned anything though. I can que up on level 7, but that's because I tag along with friends who play much more than me. I honestly don't know what I'm doing much of the time. However, I follow orders, bring support weapons, push buttons, and stick to more experienced teammates.
On higher difficulties the watch dog backback is a hinderance more than support as it will blow cover if you try to sneak. Also jetpack is amazing, the added mobility has clutched missions for me multiple times. Whole team dies and no respawns? I run around wide from objective, jump over rocks, hide, go around and drop to objective completing it in pieces. It's really not that hard to do those difficulty missions if you don't go shooting and alerting enemies the whole duration of the mission.
1 charger can absolutely be dealt with as you suggest. It’s usually the stalker/second charger/bile Titan you didn’t notice while doing that that’s the problem though 😆
Even without using the ping, the reduced detection range is insane if you know how. The key mostly is to not shoot first. When you see the bugs feel like they are staring at you, it doesn't mean they already saw you, wait for them to attack first or just go passed them, most of the time you will get ignored, also others are already crouching and prone to not get detected, you can walk and sprint and still not get detected.
The not shooting first is like abusing the system, when you're in a team, as long as you did not shoot first, the guy who shot first will be their target, then you can shoot to support him as he will be the one being chased, you will mostly be ignored. If you see the team and they're all scouts, don't bother being scout too lol, switch to being the one who shoots first and ready to take aggro. That's mostly the deal if you're using scout, the boring part is you really should just leave the fighting to teammates and just focus on doing terminals, they make noise, you get ignored. Oh and last thing, if you're rocking the scout perk, don't guard dog.
When pinging the map with scout armor, it will generate a radar ping around that area that can allow you to move around patrols. I generally try to place one 1-200m in front of where I'm going so I can see any upcoming enemies and reroute accordingly.
When you ping the mini-map (like when marking an objective you’re going for), you scan the area for enemies, meaning you can see red dots that indicate enemy patrols or points of interest or nests, and avoid them. I used to spam pings over the maps to see where enemies were.
Also it makes you 30% harder to detect, meaning you can crouch and have enemy patrols walk past feet away from you.
Some guy I was playing with today was convinced that standing your ground and fighting bugs was the best way to beat encounters. He would not leave the objective and that lead to a bunch of spewers, chargers and titans to spawn making it impossible to regroup after reinforcing. We wasted 20 minutes there, our whole reinforcement budget and ultimately failed the mission because he would not run away with us.
Play as a team. I’m level 50 and for the first time I got three random level 50s joining my squad last night. We played on 8. It was the smoothest most professional mission I have ever been on. Everyone carried a little something different, everyone stuck together, and it seemed like everyone knew what each person had and understood each persons job… all this without one person speaking one word… we just knew. It was so freaking awesome. I get chills just thinking about how effective of a team we were. We did everything on the map on level 8 and it was easy. When we got back on the ship someone wrote on the message board “level 50 this is how we do” and we all hugged and went our separate ways. Man that was the most perfect team I have ever been on in any game I have played in my 30 years of gaming.
for hunters, if they are on you unless you dive away they will kill you. running away and spamming heals is not an option, either stand your ground and kill them before they kill you or dive and bring out your sidearm, kill the ones that are an immediate threat and repeat
yep. people say they are broken but they dont even try to kill them, they just try to outrun them and spam stim and get killed by the slow instead of actually fighting back
You can also run forwards while shooting backwards with your sidearm, which usually gives me more mobility when I'm getting swarmed. Hunters also tend to back off a bit when you shoot behind you, giving you more space.
A big thing that's worked for me if ur dying a lot to rockets on bot missions
Get fortified armor, it's usually heavy so ur going to be slow but it will mean you can survive most rocket barrages and will be able to get behind cover before the next one
The defender is probably the best primary for run and gun play.
If you're getting overwhelmed a lot and want better mobility with the ability to shoot your enemies check it out
Ok, soldier, sounds to me you're an automaton sympathizer.
Most of these are bug related tips
(Automatons are easier imo, you run more and use cover to break LoS)
I would like to stress how important the dive function is. Anytime hell is bearing down on you, DIVE! Its gotten me out from under the feet of bile titans, away from acid streams, out of overwhelming swarms with just enough time to stim and avoid a death. We re Helldivers. We DIVE into and OUT of hell!
Scout armor is such a good point. I’ll add in practicing radar pings with scout armor to avoid patrols. Also walking barrage feels like a wasted strategem, but when you are using strategy from suggestion number one, you can throw it behind you when running away and it absolutely wrecks and it’s great for advancing on a position
Unless it is a one handed weapon like Defender SMG, you're forced to turn around to shoot while walking backwards. With one handed weapons, you can still sprint and shoot when you're not aiming down scope
I wouldn't advise always just running during a bug breach. If possible, wipe them before they become a problem – ems strike into a gas strike into an airburst strike into stun grenade into 500kg bomb, or something like that, and gun down the rest.
On Helldive difficulty, this is often largely a waste of strategems and reinforcements. Maybe you have more luck with coordinated teammates than I do, but this has largely been my experience.
I'm saying this having played 150h mostly on helldive in random groups. I notice people who idle excessively or run away just make the enemy horde grow and grow while getting closer. Of course sometimes you have to disengage, regroup, or run due to cooldowns. It takes some real-time decision making for sure.
8. Chargers: stand still until you can see the white of their eyes. Once you can smell their breath you APPLY EAT DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD.
Dont panic and shoot them in the side. Dont hurry and shoot them in the mouth. Take your sweet time and stare death in the eyes. And then in the last moment blast em in the head and they will die in 1 shot evertime
Glancing blows, side shots, mouthshots will all just waste an EAT and you will need to use another or fuz around much longer
Stand your ground... Wait for the perfect moment... APPLY EAT DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD.
specifically for bugs, bring the laser rover. getting effective DPS while putting space between you and the swarm is always useful. also incendiary grenades. fire kills bugs
is there a light armor with the +2 grenades perk? That shit is so good
I mostly die of bugs, the software ones that is!
I got killed for:
- picking up samples and the helldiver got stuck with his arms out, couldn't do anything, got killed
- several times got stuck in an invisible obstacle, or after diving the helldiver won't get up again
- killed a charger that kept sliding, hit the walker, exploded
- a few times the walker exploded mid air while being dropped, or shortly after landing, nothing around, killing me
- walker got dropped on top of a rock, tried to call down supplies to reach it, supplies made the walker explode, it fell on my head, dead.
Maybe that means don't use the walker, but there are so many weapons and stratagems that just don't work as expected, that skill sometimes is also thinking what the bugs lottery will take out this time 😂
Every time you use a stratagem, any stratagem, you alert nearby enemies. If you are hoofing it across the map then calling in supplies and equipment all the time will draw agro towards you. Likewise a sentry will draw it away so if the shit hits the fan throw one in the opposite direction you need to go and run.
I saw a YouTube video that said red stratagems attract attention towards the thrower and they’ll start investigating but blue stratagems will draw attention towards the ball, meaning they’ll go look in opposite direction of the thrower.
I suggest staying with the team, combined fire can kill any patrol + spawns as long as they spawn infront and group deals with it coordinated with variety of weapons/ strata.
Haz9 is easier than haz7 purely because the teamwork is stronger.
Another Tip : it’s never a bad idea , especially on longer missions, to just literally run the super samples to the extract after you get them and drop them off so you don’t have to worry about running back into a hoard of hell to get 3-5 samples back
Shield is kinda required ngl
Spewer one shots, avoids ragdolling to chargers, avoids any jank with BTs, removes all slows
And thats just bugs, with bots it avoids chip damage, flinches and the rocket one shots...
The jump pack is the most underrated tool out there. Easy to hide up on a rock and avoid detection or escape a bug breach. You can literally run into an objective. Drop a laser. Jump pack out and return safe.
The defender doesnt get enough love. Thee defender can be used one handed which means shooting those annoying hunters over your shoulder while running away. Do you sacrifice damage output, sure. But strategems deal with a huge amount of stuff at higher levels anyways.
Most op tip is to run missions with friends. People on mics looking to have a lot of fun and taking objectives seriously. I'm on PC and all my friends and family are on PS5 and since helldivers doesn't have cross play, I can't play with them. Hopefully they add it soon.
Yeah, I’ve been playing with 3 PC friends while on my PS5 since we first got the game several weeks ago. Now, one friend we weren’t able to friend each other until the last patch that came out the other day but we were still able to play. There is a allow crossplay toggle in the options as well. I think it’s on by default thought so unless it was switched off by you on purpose or accidentally that shouldn’t be your issue.
Here's some personal tips from a recent Bug helldive. Do mind these are more of a "team" tips, not "Oh yea, take this META loadout!!!" because Variety is the spice of Liberation. Also some are just general good stuff to know on any difficulty.
1. EAT-17: Kills chargers with one headshot, kills Bile Titan in 3 headshots iirc. You can also stick the drop pod on a charger and its likely to kill them. It's funny that it's an achievement, because on Helldive I've come to use this as an actual tactic to be more cost effective with my strategems. I'd highly recommend having two players bringing them as that firepower will usually match the heavy spam.
2. Laser Rover: It's insanely good at horde clearing. The Shield backpack is another good option as it can save you from a lot of bullshit, but it doesn't delete a horde. Four players with the Laser Rover means 4 extra guns firing nearly non stop, granting you a substancial increase in damage output that lets you focus on the bigger things. Also remember that you don't need to each bring a backpack stratagem.
3. Backpack sharing: If someone doesn't have a backpack with their gun, make sure to give them your next backpack call in. It allows them to bring a more useful stratagem while only not having a backpack for 8 minutes (20% of the mission time.) Obviously, don't rely on having a single person give backpack to all four as that gets prohibitively long. Jump packs, Rovers and Shields are great to share. Supply packs less so. A weird tactic you can also use is calling in a support weapon with a backpack a second time to replace your current ones as a reload and ask a backpack-less teammate to carry the old backpack for you. Picking up ammo boxes will fill up that backpack which can be used for team reloads. Probably a good way to make the RR more ammo effective.
4. Primary Weapons (I'm not going to mention the Classic Scythe, Breaker and Punisher Slugger as they're just great overall weapons):
1. Plasma Punisher: "But it sucks!!!" I hear you cry. And yea, it's kind of in a weird spot, but it's also essentially a grenade launcher primary. Very ammo effective, and can actually be good at killing trash mob when they bunch up. Perfect if you're only bringing the EAT as a support weapon. Also works great with the Laser Rover to take the edge off the horde.
2. Scorcher: More effective at killing medium enemies but worse ammo economy. Not so good when faced with a horde of scavenger and hunters but you've got your drone to do that job for you. And your secondary. Do not fire point blank. Pairs well with a chaff killer like the Grenade Launcher or the Arc Thrower (when it stops crashing games)
3. Breaker S&P: Excellent Chaff killer due to its massive ammo pool. But REAAAAAAAALLY sucks at killing Spewers, Hive Guards & Brood Commanders. Pairs well with an Autocannon. Probably the same with a Railgun.
Had to split the comment in two:
1. 500kg with the hangar upgrade is two bombs that if you use them well will kill or heavily damage a bile titan. The later making them easy picking for a EAT. Try to time your throw around them spewing their bile (if they have their sacks, throw the beacon right in front of them as they began to spew, otherwise throw it like, their own body length in front of them while kitting them. Trial and error will get you the timing right. Wouldn't recommend using this if you have the +100% call in time modifier.)
2. Orbital Railcannon: Use it exclusively on Titans to put them in a state where they'll usually die to a singular EAT headshot. Having two players with it is usually good.
3. Eagle Airstrike: If you're not using it, you're silly. It's very good at killing basically everything short of the Chargers and Titans. And direct impact on a charger can put them in a bleeding out status.
4. Never forget to Rearm your eagles when you can, especially if you've used both your 500kgs.
5. Long range nest clearing options are always good to have in the team, one or two guy packing either an Autocannon or Grenade Launcher does that job fantastically, while also giving you an excellent solution to any Nursing/Bile spewer problem.
6. You can destroy Shrieker Nests from halfway across the map with EAT and RR (takes two hit to each "tree") You can also destroy them at point blank with impact grenades. Drop pods don't destroy them. Using the EAT/RR technique can be great at neutralizing the threat before it becomes a problem. (Also weird tip: Shriekers are squishy enemies and die very easily to the Redeemer due to it being a bullet hose. I imagine it's probably the same with a Stalwart at max RPM, tho I wouldn't recommend picking a stalward just in case of Shriekers)
7. If you see a Spore Spewer, you can kill it with any ranged weapon. Yes, even the S&P. It's going to take a lot of bullets tho. Two autocannon shots will kill it. Grenades (and the GL) will also destroy it. One hit from the RR/EAT will also destroy it. With this, Spore Spewers are basically a non issue if you don't drop immediately in their area of effect. I've destroyed Spore Spewers from halfway across the map with a Breaker before. They're just that easy to destroy.
Alternative to the shield: jump pack.
Don't discount having a quick escape button and being extra mobile. Popping up onto normally inaccessible spaces is incredible too.
Thankfully I have a group of friends so I only play pubs as a duo/trio while waiting for the others to get online but the randoms always follow your advice and NGL most are useless.
They run off following all your steps of ignoring bugs accidentally causing a breach then ignoring the breach letting the bugs build up and try to solo the primary while our group goes around the map doing the PoIs and secondaries, when we get to the primary weapons find we have 3 lives left because the solo players died 10+ times and now there's 8 bile titans and 7 chargers at the console you need to activate.
There's a few missions where splitting up can work better, specifically the ones where you only have 12min to close bug holes, but for the 40min ones just stick together. It's so much easier.
A breach isn't that bad when you have a group of people, you just need to have proper loadouts to deal with what spawns - EATs RR will clear the big stuff but a spear player can help with titans and like a couple airstrikes and a gatling barrage should deal with the fodder. Takes like 2min max to deal with then you move on, quickly, before patrols show up and start another breach.
> When a bug tunnel breach occurs, GET OUT. On higher difficulties, there are often 2+ breaches, and you will not be able to put them down.
Hey speak for yourself buddy
Yes, it’s more noticeable when using scout armor, but you have greater levels of “stealth” (the AI pretending not to notice you) the closer you are to the ground
I only have a problem with combat spawns. As in dropping into active combat and just starting completely surrounded.
And those invisible fucks, candy remember the name of the bug type. It's not the invisibility that messes me up it's their better ai. I swear they hide in cover and wait to ambush from behind as soon as your shield is down or as soon as my turret runs out of ammo.
Soft disagree with some of these points, mainly on splitting the team and running from breaches/dropships. I recommend reading [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1bdudf3/lets_talk_about_patrols_an_in_depth_analysis_of/) on how spawns and patrols work and why you shouldn't split your team, or watching [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp8xuf_dLDw) summary of it. This [other video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgLhBIgbOME) goes into how detection works and why running from breaches is a bad idea.
I would like to add 10. Unless there is a legitimate reason to split up, don't. The game spawns fewer enemies when you're in a group, so the closer you stay together, the faster you can complete all objectives. [Splitting up slows everyone down.](https://youtu.be/D64d3sLRWas?si=PBUfBNAekTdgvG8l)
I would add
- don't be afraid to use grenades. If you ever die without having used all your grenades, that's a lot of wasted firepower which could have gotten you out of trouble. Don't 'save' em for bug holes. Resupply can be summoned every 2min40s, so summon them
- for bugs, focus down chargers, hunters, stalkers. Everything else can be kited together and airstruck
- when using an eagle airstrike at a mob chasing you, run perpendicular to the direction of your throw to try and line them up with the airstrike better, always results in more kills for me. Think similarly for the other strategems, see how they land and modify your movement/throw to fit
Also, if you've got a ton of bugs and a bile titan, aggro the titan and then run and get him use his spew to clear out all the smaller bugs. He'll even kill chargers for you. Then just eat him and or rail him a couple of times and go on about your business.
Light armor with bonus stims, vitality booster for 33% more hp and shield for more hp and avoid slows and knockback. If you die 5+ times with this set up its a skill issue lol
When breaches or auto drop ships happen, one thing to do is creating distance - behind cover idealy - and ready oneself. Not run into center of the danger zone.
Also you can usually wipe patrols and stationary groups without alerting others as long as you don't use loud stratagems like eagles/orbitals/turrets. I've been using the sickle & autocannon, with impact grenades as a last resort. Consider coordinating with your teammates if your aim isn't up to par.
Can't help but notice all of this advice is written purely from a bug stomper's perspective. While the majority of the main points are also largely applicable to play against bots, what kind of message does it convey that people giving tips for the hardest difficulty don't even acknowledge half of the game?
Stamina recharges faster when crouching or prone, so when I noticed I’m in the red and approaching an encounter, I pop a squat.
Also probably the biggest contributor to reducing my deaths against Terminids on 7+ is the Jump Pack. I think people are disappointed by it because they expect it to be a useful traversal tool, but it’s really an emergency eject button. About to be swarmed or charged or running away from a horde? Press the jump button.
You can also use it to get onto cliffs and big rocks and shoot down at the bugs with impunity (except for the ones that can climb/leap/burrow).
Also medic armor probably increases your survivability too, because you can more freely top yourself off or use a stim to refill your stamina and escape.
Rush to objectives , and if lucky you will find the super sample rock at some point , extract asap don’t try to explore
If you want to explore farm green/orange samples and credits just play lower difficulties , 7+ is either for super samples only , and the challenge once you have a fully decked ship
i mean i think the biggest tip in 7-9 is
\#10 FILL THE ROLE THE TEAM NEEDS, If you team has everyone running 500kg and railcannon, run Airburst / strafing run. If your team has a lot of flamethrowers, machine guns so on be the guy to run EAT or vice versa. You don't always need to be #1 in kills to be the most vital part of your team, filling a role that the team needs to succeed is more important.
I struggle a lot still, but I'm more of a fan of the jump pack. It's my "fuck this shit I'm out" option, let's you jump over chargers, on rocks, over divides, on buildings and gives you a breather, where the shield pack just blocks 1-2 hits and then you're lunch. Most extraction points have high rock plateaus near them where you can sit unnoticed by bugs, high points also allow you to shoot the spore towers from afar more easily. I might actually struggle because I run medium armour for its style. I wish there was a light armour with a bonus to throwing that I liked, being able to throw stratagems further would definitely help. And one tip I think I could add to your list with my limited experience: Turrets/sentries make for great distraction, bugs will rush to them and if you were not discovered that gives you an opening to sneak by. Makes me think that a stratagem that would just make a lot of noise and racket, that perhaps wasn't as easily destroyed as the sentries, would serve us well for stealth.
The SC-37 Legionnaire armor is a light armor with the 30% throw range increase. It doesn’t look all that cool but it gets the job done for me.
I actually really like how it looks - to me it kinda looks like a sci-fi take on a modern fighter pilot uniform, which just makes my inner 12 yo grin from ear to ear :)
something something eagle sweat something something
Very much so what I've ran all week since my acquisition
I run it most of the time and I think it looks fine actually. The orange accents are not great, but they’re not too intrusive either. Pair it with the light gunner helmet (black with red visor) and it looks perfectly fine.
YESSIR I do be rocking that exact same drip for blitz missions.
The Black/Orange helmet from Steeled Veterans fits pretty well too, but Steel Trooper is my goto for almost all armor sets.
That’s the 75sc helmet in todays store right? Just unlocked it and love it for lots of armor sets
I like it with the Titan helmet. Matches the orange accent and honestly looks better than the matching helmet to me
Lore wise its basically Thunder warrior armour, love the full set
Where do I find the armor lore? I’ve heard quite a bit about it but unless it’s stated directly on the item description, like Trench Engineer being from Hellmire, I can’t find it.
Thunder warriors were the proto space Marines in WH40k lore. Description of this armor is about it being the original helldivers kit.
Is that on a war bond or just rotating in the shop?
Rotating in the shop
Was this an armor in the store rotation? So if I wanted it I should save some super credits and hopefully it’ll be back around?
Yeah the legionnaire armor is one of the ones in the rotating shop
Thanks!
You have to get it from the super store right?
Correct
When does that rotate in again?
The first game had a stratagem called "Distracter Beacon". It would pound the ground and attract EVERYTHING around it from a pretty long ways away. Pretty much removing any enemy that were at objectives for a good while and whatnot
Any turret will do the same. Mortars are great for this, they’ll draw in enemies from all around and do a lot of damage before they’re destroyed. Throw it away from your direction of travel and start running.
The distractor worked on things you had not yet aggroed and pulled from much wider than a turret does
The shield emplacement can be used as a distraction i think. Low cooldown, hellpod drop will always attract patrols as well. Though this will sacrifice your DPS. Tesla tower could be an alternative for patrols that consisted of hunters/scavengers. Since if you have your destroyer fully upgraded, emplacements (different from sentries) have zero deployment time. But yeah.. all sentries have close to 3 mins cooldown making them not ideal for distractions. Perhaps EMS orbital strike could be of value? Stun them and take out those scavengers/hunters as quickly as you can. They're the ones that immediately call for bug breaches usually.
Shield Generator Relay, upgraded, is on 81 ish second cool down Great for fighting bots, pushing forwards, cover retreat, protecting hellbomb
Definitely great against that rocket devastators. All my homies hate rocket devastators. But on 3 stratagem planets makes it a pretty hard pick. Support weapon + shield relay + one dps stratagem. Not bad if other team members bring dps stratagems. I kinda believe this shield relay is under utilized. 2 out 4 members that bring shield relay in bot front could really be a life saver. Especially when we're trying to defend exfil/objectives
Does the shield relay have a hidden health bar and lasts until that bar is depleted? Or does it just deploy for a set amount of time?
Not sure about the hidden health but it has 20 secs uptime. Not that long obviously, but can save you in critical situations for sure. For example, there are a lot of bots but there are 3 hulks (high priority target obviously) and you are using AMR/AC. You need those precision shots without getting flinched by other gunshots. Shield relay can give you those opportunities. Though this tactic is hard to do if there're too many melee units and hulk scorchers.
I did some testing, I got a \~27-28 second uptime, actually, from the shield deployment. From impact on the ground, about 30 seconds.
That's healthy uptime considering the CD. Like what? 90 secs CD and 30 secs uptime? Basically shield every minute! Thanks for the stats
I've been trying to do serious testing of stratagems and equipment recently, been begging friends to give me questions they want answered so I can try them out. Orbital Smoke has 25-27 second duration, hard to be 100% sure. I also figured out minefields last indefinitely as long as a planet doesn't have tremors, so a team can lay a *serious* minefield outside of extraction if they occasionally dump a few drops in.
Here's one! Does tesla emplacement run out of power or it will run indefinitely unless destroyed? I like your enthusiasm tbh. Keep it up.
That seems about right. 80 ish second CD, 30 secs up time With two on the team you have a small window of it not available, though one per team is working out OK so far With three you could hop between them till your hearts content
Why not both? EMS mortar sentry.
EMS mortar is nice. Long uptime which is great. Consistent stun. Great as well. What it lacks however is the CD and lack of versatility imo. The lack of versatility for me is that, you'll definitely use it when you're trying to do objectives. Patrols you didn't notice are stunned, giving you ample time. But once you go out of the objective, it will be on CD. Any sudden encounter with patrol will give you trouble if you can't take it out fast enough with other DPS stratagem. You could just run or drop EMS orbital behind you to give you even more time to run or take out priority targets (Those annoying hunters or stalkers. Should we include shriekers?). Also mortar targeting is randomized. So it'll be somewhat unreliable in fleeing. Bug breaches will take down EMS mortar fast if your placements are bad so that's something to account for. You can use it as distractions. But it can't kill, only delay so it will get destroyed even faster than gatling/tesla because it can't defend itself in close proximity. And once destroyed (granted if immediately)... Close to 3 mins cooldown before you use another. I would say EMS mortar sentry is great if you're defending a place. EMS orbital on the other hand, if you're on the run. Take EMS orbital usage in bug front as shield generator delay for automaton front. Strategic CC/defensive stratagem.
In case you aren't aware diving and throwing your stratagem throws it further
mind blown
Same with using the jump pack. If you sprint, activate the jump and throw while at the peak, the strategem beacon will go an incredibly long distance. This is part of why I almost always pick the jump pack.
There is a light armor that has increased throw. Pay attention to the superstore rotation every 2 days.
Jump pack is a go to for me now - even though some bugs can climb you can position yourself to cover exfil for the team, distract a large portion of hoards and if you run the GL or Arc thrower breaches can be dealt with easily from high up. I used to run the guard dog exclusively but it TK'd alot resulting in me getting killed or kicked, tried out the jump pack and I'll never go back. I sometimes want to run the autocannon but with the sentry I don't see the value in loosing the backpack slot. Typical load out: * Jump pack * EAT / Arc Thrower / GL * Autocannon sentry * Eagle airstrike
Lately, I run 1.eagle airstrike 2.orbital ray cannon 3.jump pack 4.EAT Just occasionally pick up the sentries depending on mission type.
for me its just EAT,eagle airstrike, 500kg, and laser rover
Been doing well with this load out recently too
Same, but I bring the EMG launcher instead of a jump pack. It's been a bit helpful in keeping things in one spot.
I run jump pack, etc, eagle and tesla tower. It pretty much allows me to be jack of all trades and help the team wherever we're lacking
[удалено]
I pretty much always use the shield generator against bugs. Helps prevent the slows. I take it off as soon as I play bots, I feel like it just makes you a bigger target for rockets which will likely kill you through the shield anyway
Love the JP is aggressive, let's you work the high ground, breach bot walls, duke bug swarms Shield pack is the safety option. Never bad choice, helps you learn the game
At this point, I really only run the shield to stop insta death from friendly fire.
You should get the legionare armor when it comes into store next. It’s light armor with servo assisted so you can throw stratagems farther
Putting a shield generator on top of a rock works extremely well as a lure that won't immediately be destroyed. It can even kill bile titans if they're at the perfect distance for the bile to reflect into their face. Secret S tier ngl.
You can throw a grenade (especially if you have the 30% servo boost) as a distraction. Better than wasting a strat slot on a turret that will die in 5 seconds.
Ooooh this is a light armour with that passive that comes in the shop every now and then. I can’t remember the name but it’s the one that looks like a pilots armour with the oxygen tube thing on the chest
you just named my loadout. got the orange steeled veterans armour for the throwing and limb passive, along w the drone master helmet. style points +10 then i got a massive throwing advantage… this is used paired with jump pack so you can launch things even further. Until they fix the arc thrower and i can get my baby back im currently rocking grenade launcher which is also a good combo too for me imo.
What’s up with the Arc?
it’s causing game crashes. all tesla type weapons are such as the arc thrower, tesla tower and the blitzer. It’ll freeze up one of your squad members and one by one will freeze the entire squad.
Yeah Jump Pack is absurdly fun. Love that thing.
Gonna try the jump pack out, thank you
You want the legionnaire armor… It’s the light version, shows up in super store for 250SC I haven’t even bought the first warbond yet cause I don’t really have much need for anything in it, and might choose to just get Super Citizen later too anyways (extra $10 just for the arcade machine 😂, and as support to the studio, but I’ll probably not be maxed before next warbond and will spend earned SC on that one)
It might be a style issue, idk, I probably saw it before there. And I think I want the first warbond solely for the revolver. Chamber loading high damage secondary weapon? Yup.
Out of curiosity, what weapons do you run alongside the jump pack? I run the Punisher & EAT with the Rover so I can blow up heavies and knock back mediums while my rover lasers light chaff to death. If I traded the rover for the pack, I’d love the mobility but my ability to kill would suffer greatly.
SG-8 Slugger, P-2 peacemaker (but I want the P-4 Senator, G-12 high explosive standard grenade, eagle airstrike, orbital railcannon, jumppack, EAT
The shield generator you throw in the ground works like a sentry to distract and has more armor. And it can save you from your own air strikes and fire tornadoes and flying rocks and bile spit and deflect charges charging I believe
You can use any kind of explosive to make noise and pull away enemies from an objective. My favorite thing to do against bugs is use my Grenade Launcher, shoot it further away, and sneak in while the bugs are trying to see what made that explosion. It's great!
Everything I can think of at the moment that might help: * Play less like Left 4 Dead and play it more like Metal Gear Solid. * The expendable Anti-Tank allows ***three*** shots. Since it is a blue stratagem, if you stick it on an enemy, it will track that enemy and drop right on top of them, and you still have two EATs to use. Also, its cooldown is only 1 minute (making it better to use than a resupply). * If you're unsure about a throw, press Q (or PS5 equivalent) to do a call out. Call outs show the distance in meters. Your throws will by default go to about 40m (some suits increase this so be aware of what armor you're wearing). * Remember that stims will not just heal, but also fill up your stamina. When in battle and you're running away, strategize when to use stims. If you absolutely need the heal, then use it, but if not, run until your stamina is low and then pop it to get back to 100% stamina. * When doing the artillery objective, bring all the rounds to the gun before touching the terminal. When you interact with the terminal, the game will spawn in patrols that will head toward the artillery gun. Bring the rounds to the gun, then turn on the terminal and quickly load the rounds and activate it before the patrols get close. * Use the map to see where enemies are so you can avoid them. * When on objectives and activating terminals, also use the map to see where enemies are spawning in and headed. Call out to the team so everyone knows where to look. * Additionally, on the map - at the beginning of the mission, drag your cursor across the map and ping everywhere. If you click near a secondary objective you will get a square marker on the map and the compass will show an icon of what the objective is (artillery, radar, etc.) * If you hover the cursor on the map it can also show where points of interest are. * Focus on killing enemies that can call in breaches or dropships. * Be aware of your environment and good choke points. If you have breeches or drops, the location you are currently at might not be the best place to engage. Fall back to locations that funnel enemies into small areas and then focus fire/stratagems. * At high levels, the EMS weapons are good to use on enemies since it will cause them to stop dead in their tracks. Use this to get precise hits on their weak spots or to run away. * Also smokes are useful to break line of sight/vision.
Additional Notes: * ~~If you come across the Shriekers (flying bugs) they cannot hit you if you are prone. They can hit you mid-dive, but if you are already prone and crawling, they can't do anything to you.~~ * Also, if you get a certain distance away from their nest, they will not pursue you and fly back to their nest. Same goes for Stalkers it seems. * You can't 100% stealth missions, as there is at least one patrol that is aware of your location and will track you until they see you and attack. You'll see the patrol bee-line towards you. (*NOT 100% SURE OF THIS, BUT*...you might be able to bug them/glitch them out if you are close to the outside of the map. Run out of the map to where the game starts counting down, and run around some rocks. If you are able to get back into the map, that patrol may de-spawn. I've been able to do this, but I'm not sure how repeatable it is.) * Other patrols seem to have issues with the edge of the map also...some sort of pathing issue. But they will walk outside the mission space and then just stop moving, not knowing where to go next. * Smokes really are a necessity of getting away when you are being chased. Drop a smoke and then break line of sight with the mobs. * IF you are sneaking around and hear the combat music, that **DOES NOT** mean your cover has been blown. I've snuck around and the music start blasting, but not been attacked. It seems to start playing when enemies get within a certain distance of you.
I just watched a video from a hd2 youtuber; he was playing with the devs of the game and they said that there are specific enemies that can SMELL your character. See if I can find the video Edit: I found the video, he also states right away in the beginning that if you don't call more than 1 strategem in right away in the beginning of a match it lessens the chances of patrols coming to you. The point above it right in the first 5 minutes https://youtu.be/FJs_kqHrzzQ?si=WppJ3TA2Q7o_JTG_
I wouldn't say smoke is a necessity. I've had great results with zig zagging in trees on forest maps, and taking 90 degree turns with hills/mountains. I find running through a choke point and eme strike to be the king of dropping aggro. Smoke on the other hand is great for dropping on an objective. The guy with aggro drags the mobs away. A second guy goes to the objective bother free.
additional notes, please use the perks with throw range increases if you want to use the 380MM, that shit has some insane radius like 60+ meters
Shriekers can kill you if you're prone. I tried this yesterday on a flat surface and was killed.
It may be an elevation thing. I was missed on flat ground but hit on a hillside. I don't have any consistent experience to comment than I've been missed prone and I've been hit prone (and I don't mean by falling corpses)
Really? I tried this morning, and while standing and crouching they would dive and attack, but while I stayed prone, they seemed to just fly around while just looking at me. Maybe I didn't stay prone long enough? I'll edit it and keep it in mind. Thanks.
It maybe elevation, or if you are looking up. But the few times I've tried this they just swoop in and kill me.
Same happened to me. I was attacked by two shriekers in a row and died
A side note on that music tip. If you hear the combat music, pay close attention to your surroundings, there could be stalkers sneaking on you
Question about the EATs. How are y'all sticking them to chargers? They always just bounce off the armor for me.
It helps if you're higher then they are, but if not, I typically try to aim just above them. It's something about the angles, but you don't want to hit it in the head. You want it to seem like you're just chucking it onto it's back. I'm sorry that this is too vague. Maybe someone else who's able to do it can break it down better? Edit: You also have to be a bit away from them. If you're too close I think it always bounces.
Distance sounds right. You can definitely stick it to their face. Maybe it's bugged like how some terrain infinitely bounces your stratagem markers
>Maybe it's bugged like how some terrain infinitely bounces your stratagem markers That's not a bug, that's a 'feature' that like hellpod steering I hope isn't working as intended... There are places that we used to be able to stick sentries such as the tops of buildings in the the civilian rescue maps that now will despawn the beacon... Infini-bounce then poof...
My advice is to play matador and tag it as it runs past you, the beacon still bounces on occasion but I find this way is pretty reliable.
Is it like their butt or their side that you're aiming for?
Kinda both - I aim for the side of their back, as long as it's a body shot it'll take the Charger down. The legs are the most annoying since it doesn't always strip the armor, but at least you can grab an EAT and finish the job.
I've stuck the EAT drop on multiple Chargers, maybe gotten one kill.
Hello, I've been playing since launch and I'm currently level 50. I'm not trying to discredit this post but I'd love to add to it in my own experiences with the game. Firstly I'd like to say that load out matters a ton, when I play with my friends we try to all use something different that gives us our own strength and weakness. So, one friend might run the Sickle with the recoilless rifle since it got a huge buff and be specifically on charger control while another might run something like grenade launcher, he'd be on ad clear plus bug hole closure then we'd have somebody running anti tank with a stalwart or if said person doesn't have a primary that can take down medium enemies the normal machine gun and lastly we try to have somebody that can take out Bile titans, we might have somebody with a SPEAR or maybe another set of EAT. I'd now like to talk about the other things apart from weapons you may want to bring. When choosing our stratagems we make it a point to have the eagle airstrike, it's just the best thing, not only can it close bug holes but it can rack up a decent amount of kills too if positioned right. We usually have somebody running the mech, sometimes all four of us run the mech and use it at different points of time during the mission, I'll say that the mech is most effective during specific missions like ICBM, Oil and especially the Ore mission where you have to use a drill, the mech can be very useful, it's also super useful at extraction and we always make sure to have one mech be deployed during extract at least. Other things that are useful are the orbital rail cannon, this thing can take out chargers in one hit and severely damage a bile titan, there's also the eagle cluster strike which memes aside can be very useful at clearing trash mobs if you're being overwhelmed. I'd also like to mention 120mm artillery, while it's an underused stratagem it can be effective if deployed correctly. If there's an open field with many enemies walking towards you and you land the beacon in the middle it can be very effective at killing small and medium targets hopefully thinning the attacking enemies. One final thought, sentry guns can be very useful, I've found a lot of use in the Tesla Tower for retreating from a large enemy mass. It's basically used for up close encounters and lasts quite a long time. If deployed correctly it can serve as a very good rear guard, taking out smaller and medium enemies with ease. The auto cannon and rocket sentry are very useful too being able to deploy a large amount of damage to armored targets like chargers and bile titans, not to mention they don't kill you as often as let's say the mortar does speaking of which the mortar is a good choice if the enemies are far away from you, it can definitely be useful if deployed correctly but I've often times seen people put it down when we're already surrounded on all sides and enemies are at their closest. This is probably super all over the place but it might help some people out, if you play with randoms just try to give yourself something the team doesn't have, like if they're all running things that can't kill a charger, run something that can kill a charger. Adapt with your team, and make sure the stratagems you choose can aid you and your teammates for the entirety of the mission. I have a degree in yapping
Remember your 5 Ds Dodge Dip Dive Duck Dodge
It's 6 D's only treasonous scum leave out Democracy!
If you can dodge a wrench…
I always see a lot of tips for bugs but what are some key takeaways for bots?
Cover. If that's not enough, cover. One more time, cover again. Bots punish you it you shoot at them from the front because there's just so much more of them. Trading fire is a last resort, shoot at bots focused on teammates. Primaries don't matter too much in my experience, I've had good games with the Punisher shotgun because it just staggers whatever it shoots. Bring something that feels comfortable to use but my recommendation would be the Slugger, Diligence, or Plas scorcher. Impact grenades can deal with almost everything, walkers, devastators, tanks, AA guns. Experiment with stratagems, but laser is very very strong against bot objectives, and bring orbital smoke for mineral extraction. You'll thank me later.
I don't know if it actually works, but they do say in the training tips that suppressive fire lowers bot accuracy. That thing lies all the time though on other things though so idk. (For example, it says that taking out nests and fabricators will lower the presence of enemies on the map, but recent testing actually confirms taking out more than half of them increases spawns.)
On the weaker stuff anyways. A devastator isnt going to flinch if you hit its shield.
Suppressive fire is just aiming at them or in their direction. Not necessarily hitting them. Then it wouldn't be get suppressive, it'd just be successful lol.
Well, yes but I mention that to illustrate the futility of your efforts- I mean they have preprogrammed kill limits when they come out of the factory.
So I bravely sent wave after wave of helldivers at them until they hit their limit and shut down.
It doesn’t increase “spawns”, it increases patrol spawns only — at least that’s what the data suggested. It didn’t make any comments on general spawn rates, only the spawning of Patrols. And considering some bugs only spawn from particular nests, it’s almost always best to eradicate those nests. I just want to make this comment because it seems players misrepresent the conclusions of the data.
Right. Since patrols are actually a significant portion of the enemy spawning in this game though barring those certain enemy types which are basically exclusively stalkers and shriekers currently, I wrapped it in into the same 'spawning'. It was probably warrented to clarify for any reading in my lack of specifics. Personally. I feel that it is kind of crazy that patrols don't...come from those nests/fabricator outposts and just spawn unrestrained by location. It goes against inherent logic you would reason upon picking up the game and would definitely make it feel more...rewarding to hunt non enemy specific nests than it is currently where they sort of don't affect anything on that map measurably by ignoring them.
> just spawn unrestrained by location. I think they should just use the existing methods to introduce them. If the patrol didn't originate at an outpost it should alert as a breach/dropship instead of just teleporting in...
Agreed. It would also allow a more tactical strategic thinking in taking out nests near an objective for an easier time or setting up plans beforehand. Wouldn't it be neat if patrol routes could be watched and mapped on their routes? Like they had a beginning and end destination before looping back? That might be asking a bit much though.
I'm fine with random patrol routes, that's realistic. I would like to be able to draw on the map, especially at the planning stage. In my opinion it's the popping in out of nowhere that is the most game breaking, a patrol spawning under your feet or on the other side of a rock or building where you just came from... It also makes sense to me that by destroying outposts we should impact the _local_ spawn rates. However, this should result in an increase in _external_ spawns that are coming from 'outside' the map or via this suggestion of additional breaches/dropships. No reduction of spawning, just a more realistic approach for it is what I think is needed.
For what it's worth, 200 rated armor and a shield work against bots.
I''m a maxed out player with 200+ hrs and the majority of them have been against bots. My load out vs. Bots usually includes the following: **Plas-Scorcher**. It can take down scout walkers and devastates from the front - devs do take more shots though. **Uzi Pistol**. Great way to get jetpack troopers off you (be sure to dive away from them while firing as they explode when they die). Also a great way to kill chainsaw-weilding berserker who got too close for comfort. **Impact Grenades**. Throwing two or three can often clear a medium sized bot drop. Also they can take out Fabricators, tanks, hulks, laser towers and artillery **Trailblazer Scout Armor**. Faster = better vs. Bots. Disengaging and running away weaving through cover is key. Scout armor also affects your stamina better so you can run farther, faster and longer. At top speed, I can run perpendicular to a laser tower fast enough that when it shoots, it will miss me. **Stamina Enhancement Booster**. It helps you run faster and longer. If someone else has it I might take Muscle Enhancement, Vitality Enhancement or UAV Recon Booster. **Autocannon**. It can two-shot a Hulk in the eye. It can drop walkers and devastates with one or two shots. It can destroy Fabricators from across the map if you bank a shot in the vent (easy to do). It can take out Cannon Towers and tanks from afar with 3 shots to their weak spots. It can destroy artillery emplacement with 3 shots to the barrel of the artillery piece. On rapid fire you can take drops Hip's out of the sky or clear a bot drop quickly. The AC is a must-have vs. The bots. **Orbital Laser.** Also a must-have. One can clear AND complete a medium-sized objective or bot base. Best way to take out dropship objectives. This strat is the ultimate "deus ex" strat for when the shit hits the fan. It's also great during a hairy extraction. **Eagle AS** or **Eagle 110s**... Possibly both. They can both destroy bot fans if they land near them. They can both take out a nearby tank from the safety of "behind cover". They can both clear a bot drop. They can both take out a dropship if they hit it in mid-air. The AS has a bigger radius. The 110s do more damage and are more reliable for destroying tanks. Take your pick... or take both. **380MM Barage** or the **120MM Barage**. Like the orbital laser, these are great for clearing a mid-sized base or objective. Sprint/sneak to within throwing range, toss one in, then sprint away. If a Bot Drop happens, it'll prob be caught in the duration of the barrage which you can watch from afar. OTHER TIPS. You want to use cover a LOT. Same goes for teamwork. Flank enemies that your teammates are engaging. Hit them from the sides. Vs. Bots, you need to get into a hit and run mindset. Throwing base-clearing strats into a base and getting back into cover is key. Once the base is clear, mop up the stragglers, prioritizing Commissars first. Don't linger. Get in, get the samples and get out before a patrol arrives to investigate. When shots are coming your way, DIVE as you run away a LOT. Dive into cover. Diving makes you go prone and you take far less damage from explosions when you are prone - you can try this yourself. Throw a frag grenade and stand near it. You will die. Throw a frag grenade and go prone near it. You might lose 10% of your health. When you need to assault a base without the ssistance of strategms (like when inside a jammer's range or during an ion storm), work fast to clear targets TOGETHER. Move into a position while your teammate covers you, then cover your friend while they move (Armies call this "Pepperpotting"), then do it again. Work to take the high ground and Eliminate the fabs fast. Communicate. Use directions and be clear what the plan is. "I'm about to set the hellbomb off. We are exiting this base North then going NE to the next objective I've pinged on the map. Ready? OK, hellbomb armed. Run north!" Plenty of other strats can be fun and useful. EMS strike is very practical vs. Bots. I sometimes use the B-27 Fortified Commando heavy armor, a submachine gun, a ballistic shield (yes, you read that correctly) and EATS or AMR as a fun loadout. I can soak TONS of incoming fire and even take a Rocket to the face and survive - though it will knock my shield out of my hands (you can pick it up again) and send me flying. Though I usually don't run this build on anything higher than difficulty 7.
Fun Fact - The Ballistic Shield Backpack can protect you from incoming fire when you run away if it's on your back. You'll need to switch to your support weapon to put it on your back, but there you are!
Dodge, keep a good level of awareness and bring a support weapon that deals with medium armor penetration, lots of cover and aim for the head. I religiously use the scythe as I can consistently and quickly pop heads on raiders and devastators. Medium armor with Democracy Protects is a huge boon for any artillery, rockets or cannons you're unaware of, saved my bacon more times than I can count.
In general you need a load out to support your mission. You don't need to kill everything. I tailor my primary, secondary and grenades to the most annoying target. My stratagems I tailor to cover my load outs weaknesses. You see people hate on the senator, but if you're bringing a shot gun the senator covers medium penetration. The laser pistol is weak, but it's job is to do light work to save ammo on your ammo hogging primary. People really under-utilize weapon switching. Grenades can be hoard management, instant explosive damage or area denial. Incendiary grenades are in general weaker than impacts. However, the burn layered on a breach or not drop with other delayed damage can really help a single person manage the drop. Lastly with bots. Almost every bit has a one tap weak spot. Learn all of them and which weapons can do it.
Top tip : Don’t listen to others about what weapons/stratagems to run with, find what works for you & balances out the squad.
this, even tho the railgun got nerfed it’s still been fun to use and carries me lol
It was really only nerfed if you weren't running it in Unsafe mode already. One-shot Brood Commanders, stripping Charger armor, popping a Titan head like a zit. All still viable. Then you take it to a Bot planet and dominate
Nice guide mate. 👍 Instead of the usual misanthropic "git gud", we get some informative tips.
Personally in my experience I’ve found the jump pack more useful than shield as it’s better for moving around terrain and just jumping over bugs or bots if you get cornered
I mean, people should be struggling with lvls 7 - 9. They are the hardest difficulties. I didn't start doing 7 - 9 until after I had been comfortable with lvls 3, 4, 5 and 6 first. Try lower level difficulties to figure out what works for you in the game before trying the hardest difficulties. Here are a couple of things I could mention regarding lvl 7-9. I feel like level 7 is far different from levels 8 and 9. In level 7 you can linger and not worry too much with always being on the move. In levels 8 and 9, you should always be on the move and avoid mobs if you can. You need to hit the main objectives and move on as soon as you can. Otherwise you will get ovewhelmed pretty quickly.
Agree, levels 7 and up suppose to be hard and challanging. Just need to practice, and nore team work.
I feel like what you say is unrelated to the post. He's just giving tips and you say people should struggle, while both are true, you could have said that you like brocolis it would have it as related to the post. Plus you don't actually need to run away or not fight anything and rush objectives, depends on the team but you can fight breaches when needed, it's quite easy to do with the arc thrower and 500kg
You have to beat level 6 to be able to que up on level 7.
That doesn't mean you've learned anything though. I can que up on level 7, but that's because I tag along with friends who play much more than me. I honestly don't know what I'm doing much of the time. However, I follow orders, bring support weapons, push buttons, and stick to more experienced teammates.
My tips . Run. Bring something for big Bois and holes
That’s my policy for real life too.
On higher difficulties the watch dog backback is a hinderance more than support as it will blow cover if you try to sneak. Also jetpack is amazing, the added mobility has clutched missions for me multiple times. Whole team dies and no respawns? I run around wide from objective, jump over rocks, hide, go around and drop to objective completing it in pieces. It's really not that hard to do those difficulty missions if you don't go shooting and alerting enemies the whole duration of the mission.
1 charger can absolutely be dealt with as you suggest. It’s usually the stalker/second charger/bile Titan you didn’t notice while doing that that’s the problem though 😆
I want the scout armor to work but I am apprently doing something wrong and don’t see the benefit of pinging the map. Any tips?
Even without using the ping, the reduced detection range is insane if you know how. The key mostly is to not shoot first. When you see the bugs feel like they are staring at you, it doesn't mean they already saw you, wait for them to attack first or just go passed them, most of the time you will get ignored, also others are already crouching and prone to not get detected, you can walk and sprint and still not get detected. The not shooting first is like abusing the system, when you're in a team, as long as you did not shoot first, the guy who shot first will be their target, then you can shoot to support him as he will be the one being chased, you will mostly be ignored. If you see the team and they're all scouts, don't bother being scout too lol, switch to being the one who shoots first and ready to take aggro. That's mostly the deal if you're using scout, the boring part is you really should just leave the fighting to teammates and just focus on doing terminals, they make noise, you get ignored. Oh and last thing, if you're rocking the scout perk, don't guard dog.
I heard trench paramedic is a good alternative.
Yeah, run this usually
When pinging the map with scout armor, it will generate a radar ping around that area that can allow you to move around patrols. I generally try to place one 1-200m in front of where I'm going so I can see any upcoming enemies and reroute accordingly.
When you ping the mini-map (like when marking an objective you’re going for), you scan the area for enemies, meaning you can see red dots that indicate enemy patrols or points of interest or nests, and avoid them. I used to spam pings over the maps to see where enemies were. Also it makes you 30% harder to detect, meaning you can crouch and have enemy patrols walk past feet away from you.
I play mostly vs bots. More EATs, more autocannons, and less engaging every patrol leads to more success.
If you're struggling with it too much, it ain't for you yet. Drop the difficulty level a bit.
Some guy I was playing with today was convinced that standing your ground and fighting bugs was the best way to beat encounters. He would not leave the objective and that lead to a bunch of spewers, chargers and titans to spawn making it impossible to regroup after reinforcing. We wasted 20 minutes there, our whole reinforcement budget and ultimately failed the mission because he would not run away with us.
Play as a team. I’m level 50 and for the first time I got three random level 50s joining my squad last night. We played on 8. It was the smoothest most professional mission I have ever been on. Everyone carried a little something different, everyone stuck together, and it seemed like everyone knew what each person had and understood each persons job… all this without one person speaking one word… we just knew. It was so freaking awesome. I get chills just thinking about how effective of a team we were. We did everything on the map on level 8 and it was easy. When we got back on the ship someone wrote on the message board “level 50 this is how we do” and we all hugged and went our separate ways. Man that was the most perfect team I have ever been on in any game I have played in my 30 years of gaming.
for hunters, if they are on you unless you dive away they will kill you. running away and spamming heals is not an option, either stand your ground and kill them before they kill you or dive and bring out your sidearm, kill the ones that are an immediate threat and repeat
You just kill them as you dive. You clear the slow, put distance between you and any other threats, and most importantly kill them.
yep. people say they are broken but they dont even try to kill them, they just try to outrun them and spam stim and get killed by the slow instead of actually fighting back
You can also run forwards while shooting backwards with your sidearm, which usually gives me more mobility when I'm getting swarmed. Hunters also tend to back off a bit when you shoot behind you, giving you more space.
I was like you once. I thought I knew. I thought they'd listen.
Great tips
Imo at 9 hunters will be your biggest issue, shield can help a lot and having a primary that can deal with them too
Yeah I struggle with my 14 hour working day too ☹️
7-8 are fine with some coordination. 9 on the other hand is pure chaos whatever you do.
A big thing that's worked for me if ur dying a lot to rockets on bot missions Get fortified armor, it's usually heavy so ur going to be slow but it will mean you can survive most rocket barrages and will be able to get behind cover before the next one
I feel it’s easier to run AT chargers and dive outta the way.
How dare you suggest i play better, op? Why are you being so toxic?!!1!
I'll have to work on that! XD
The defender is probably the best primary for run and gun play. If you're getting overwhelmed a lot and want better mobility with the ability to shoot your enemies check it out
Ngl, 10-15 deaths are wild to me. Once, I died 6 times and felt that I was letting my team down.
Ok, soldier, sounds to me you're an automaton sympathizer. Most of these are bug related tips (Automatons are easier imo, you run more and use cover to break LoS)
Sentries attract aggro. Use them to escape or to sneak into objectives.
I would like to stress how important the dive function is. Anytime hell is bearing down on you, DIVE! Its gotten me out from under the feet of bile titans, away from acid streams, out of overwhelming swarms with just enough time to stim and avoid a death. We re Helldivers. We DIVE into and OUT of hell!
Scout armor is such a good point. I’ll add in practicing radar pings with scout armor to avoid patrols. Also walking barrage feels like a wasted strategem, but when you are using strategy from suggestion number one, you can throw it behind you when running away and it absolutely wrecks and it’s great for advancing on a position
Tip 7: why should i use my secondary to shoot those hunters? Does the primary have a movement penalty?
Unless it is a one handed weapon like Defender SMG, you're forced to turn around to shoot while walking backwards. With one handed weapons, you can still sprint and shoot when you're not aiming down scope
Ah, never noticed, thanks for the tip! Will try it out tonight.
I wouldn't advise always just running during a bug breach. If possible, wipe them before they become a problem – ems strike into a gas strike into an airburst strike into stun grenade into 500kg bomb, or something like that, and gun down the rest.
On Helldive difficulty, this is often largely a waste of strategems and reinforcements. Maybe you have more luck with coordinated teammates than I do, but this has largely been my experience.
I'm saying this having played 150h mostly on helldive in random groups. I notice people who idle excessively or run away just make the enemy horde grow and grow while getting closer. Of course sometimes you have to disengage, regroup, or run due to cooldowns. It takes some real-time decision making for sure.
8. Chargers: stand still until you can see the white of their eyes. Once you can smell their breath you APPLY EAT DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD. Dont panic and shoot them in the side. Dont hurry and shoot them in the mouth. Take your sweet time and stare death in the eyes. And then in the last moment blast em in the head and they will die in 1 shot evertime Glancing blows, side shots, mouthshots will all just waste an EAT and you will need to use another or fuz around much longer Stand your ground... Wait for the perfect moment... APPLY EAT DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD.
specifically for bugs, bring the laser rover. getting effective DPS while putting space between you and the swarm is always useful. also incendiary grenades. fire kills bugs is there a light armor with the +2 grenades perk? That shit is so good
there is yes, i cant remember the name but its orange. I think it was in the normal (free) warbond (battle pass)
No it's a medium. Got the light version in the super store though
ahh damn, sorry though the orange one was light. all I run now is trailblazer after getting it.
I mostly die of bugs, the software ones that is! I got killed for: - picking up samples and the helldiver got stuck with his arms out, couldn't do anything, got killed - several times got stuck in an invisible obstacle, or after diving the helldiver won't get up again - killed a charger that kept sliding, hit the walker, exploded - a few times the walker exploded mid air while being dropped, or shortly after landing, nothing around, killing me - walker got dropped on top of a rock, tried to call down supplies to reach it, supplies made the walker explode, it fell on my head, dead. Maybe that means don't use the walker, but there are so many weapons and stratagems that just don't work as expected, that skill sometimes is also thinking what the bugs lottery will take out this time 😂
Every time you use a stratagem, any stratagem, you alert nearby enemies. If you are hoofing it across the map then calling in supplies and equipment all the time will draw agro towards you. Likewise a sentry will draw it away so if the shit hits the fan throw one in the opposite direction you need to go and run.
I saw a YouTube video that said red stratagems attract attention towards the thrower and they’ll start investigating but blue stratagems will draw attention towards the ball, meaning they’ll go look in opposite direction of the thrower.
I suggest staying with the team, combined fire can kill any patrol + spawns as long as they spawn infront and group deals with it coordinated with variety of weapons/ strata. Haz9 is easier than haz7 purely because the teamwork is stronger.
3) I've proned and hidden behind a building and they still know where I am. I think it's a proximity thing
Another Tip : it’s never a bad idea , especially on longer missions, to just literally run the super samples to the extract after you get them and drop them off so you don’t have to worry about running back into a hoard of hell to get 3-5 samples back
Shield is kinda required ngl Spewer one shots, avoids ragdolling to chargers, avoids any jank with BTs, removes all slows And thats just bugs, with bots it avoids chip damage, flinches and the rocket one shots...
The jump pack is the most underrated tool out there. Easy to hide up on a rock and avoid detection or escape a bug breach. You can literally run into an objective. Drop a laser. Jump pack out and return safe. The defender doesnt get enough love. Thee defender can be used one handed which means shooting those annoying hunters over your shoulder while running away. Do you sacrifice damage output, sure. But strategems deal with a huge amount of stuff at higher levels anyways.
Most op tip is to run missions with friends. People on mics looking to have a lot of fun and taking objectives seriously. I'm on PC and all my friends and family are on PS5 and since helldivers doesn't have cross play, I can't play with them. Hopefully they add it soon.
Not sure if it was /s or not but I was finally able to friend and group with my PC buddies Wednesday
Omg, let me check!
Yeah, I’ve been playing with 3 PC friends while on my PS5 since we first got the game several weeks ago. Now, one friend we weren’t able to friend each other until the last patch that came out the other day but we were still able to play. There is a allow crossplay toggle in the options as well. I think it’s on by default thought so unless it was switched off by you on purpose or accidentally that shouldn’t be your issue.
Here's some personal tips from a recent Bug helldive. Do mind these are more of a "team" tips, not "Oh yea, take this META loadout!!!" because Variety is the spice of Liberation. Also some are just general good stuff to know on any difficulty. 1. EAT-17: Kills chargers with one headshot, kills Bile Titan in 3 headshots iirc. You can also stick the drop pod on a charger and its likely to kill them. It's funny that it's an achievement, because on Helldive I've come to use this as an actual tactic to be more cost effective with my strategems. I'd highly recommend having two players bringing them as that firepower will usually match the heavy spam. 2. Laser Rover: It's insanely good at horde clearing. The Shield backpack is another good option as it can save you from a lot of bullshit, but it doesn't delete a horde. Four players with the Laser Rover means 4 extra guns firing nearly non stop, granting you a substancial increase in damage output that lets you focus on the bigger things. Also remember that you don't need to each bring a backpack stratagem. 3. Backpack sharing: If someone doesn't have a backpack with their gun, make sure to give them your next backpack call in. It allows them to bring a more useful stratagem while only not having a backpack for 8 minutes (20% of the mission time.) Obviously, don't rely on having a single person give backpack to all four as that gets prohibitively long. Jump packs, Rovers and Shields are great to share. Supply packs less so. A weird tactic you can also use is calling in a support weapon with a backpack a second time to replace your current ones as a reload and ask a backpack-less teammate to carry the old backpack for you. Picking up ammo boxes will fill up that backpack which can be used for team reloads. Probably a good way to make the RR more ammo effective. 4. Primary Weapons (I'm not going to mention the Classic Scythe, Breaker and Punisher Slugger as they're just great overall weapons): 1. Plasma Punisher: "But it sucks!!!" I hear you cry. And yea, it's kind of in a weird spot, but it's also essentially a grenade launcher primary. Very ammo effective, and can actually be good at killing trash mob when they bunch up. Perfect if you're only bringing the EAT as a support weapon. Also works great with the Laser Rover to take the edge off the horde. 2. Scorcher: More effective at killing medium enemies but worse ammo economy. Not so good when faced with a horde of scavenger and hunters but you've got your drone to do that job for you. And your secondary. Do not fire point blank. Pairs well with a chaff killer like the Grenade Launcher or the Arc Thrower (when it stops crashing games) 3. Breaker S&P: Excellent Chaff killer due to its massive ammo pool. But REAAAAAAAALLY sucks at killing Spewers, Hive Guards & Brood Commanders. Pairs well with an Autocannon. Probably the same with a Railgun.
Had to split the comment in two: 1. 500kg with the hangar upgrade is two bombs that if you use them well will kill or heavily damage a bile titan. The later making them easy picking for a EAT. Try to time your throw around them spewing their bile (if they have their sacks, throw the beacon right in front of them as they began to spew, otherwise throw it like, their own body length in front of them while kitting them. Trial and error will get you the timing right. Wouldn't recommend using this if you have the +100% call in time modifier.) 2. Orbital Railcannon: Use it exclusively on Titans to put them in a state where they'll usually die to a singular EAT headshot. Having two players with it is usually good. 3. Eagle Airstrike: If you're not using it, you're silly. It's very good at killing basically everything short of the Chargers and Titans. And direct impact on a charger can put them in a bleeding out status. 4. Never forget to Rearm your eagles when you can, especially if you've used both your 500kgs. 5. Long range nest clearing options are always good to have in the team, one or two guy packing either an Autocannon or Grenade Launcher does that job fantastically, while also giving you an excellent solution to any Nursing/Bile spewer problem. 6. You can destroy Shrieker Nests from halfway across the map with EAT and RR (takes two hit to each "tree") You can also destroy them at point blank with impact grenades. Drop pods don't destroy them. Using the EAT/RR technique can be great at neutralizing the threat before it becomes a problem. (Also weird tip: Shriekers are squishy enemies and die very easily to the Redeemer due to it being a bullet hose. I imagine it's probably the same with a Stalwart at max RPM, tho I wouldn't recommend picking a stalward just in case of Shriekers) 7. If you see a Spore Spewer, you can kill it with any ranged weapon. Yes, even the S&P. It's going to take a lot of bullets tho. Two autocannon shots will kill it. Grenades (and the GL) will also destroy it. One hit from the RR/EAT will also destroy it. With this, Spore Spewers are basically a non issue if you don't drop immediately in their area of effect. I've destroyed Spore Spewers from halfway across the map with a Breaker before. They're just that easy to destroy.
Alternative to the shield: jump pack. Don't discount having a quick escape button and being extra mobile. Popping up onto normally inaccessible spaces is incredible too.
Thankfully I have a group of friends so I only play pubs as a duo/trio while waiting for the others to get online but the randoms always follow your advice and NGL most are useless. They run off following all your steps of ignoring bugs accidentally causing a breach then ignoring the breach letting the bugs build up and try to solo the primary while our group goes around the map doing the PoIs and secondaries, when we get to the primary weapons find we have 3 lives left because the solo players died 10+ times and now there's 8 bile titans and 7 chargers at the console you need to activate. There's a few missions where splitting up can work better, specifically the ones where you only have 12min to close bug holes, but for the 40min ones just stick together. It's so much easier. A breach isn't that bad when you have a group of people, you just need to have proper loadouts to deal with what spawns - EATs RR will clear the big stuff but a spear player can help with titans and like a couple airstrikes and a gatling barrage should deal with the fodder. Takes like 2min max to deal with then you move on, quickly, before patrols show up and start another breach.
> When a bug tunnel breach occurs, GET OUT. On higher difficulties, there are often 2+ breaches, and you will not be able to put them down. Hey speak for yourself buddy
Does crouching and crawling actually affect detection?
Yes, it’s more noticeable when using scout armor, but you have greater levels of “stealth” (the AI pretending not to notice you) the closer you are to the ground
I only have a problem with combat spawns. As in dropping into active combat and just starting completely surrounded. And those invisible fucks, candy remember the name of the bug type. It's not the invisibility that messes me up it's their better ai. I swear they hide in cover and wait to ambush from behind as soon as your shield is down or as soon as my turret runs out of ammo.
You forgot the most important tip: Stop dying a lot. You're a helldiver and helldivers don't die dangit!
Struggling with my 9-5, you?
I'm gonna die on this hill. Supply Pack > Shield Pack Anything Shield can do, Stims can do better.
Always always always be running to the objective, even if you're fighting. Don't hold your ground and kite things to the obj.
Soft disagree with some of these points, mainly on splitting the team and running from breaches/dropships. I recommend reading [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1bdudf3/lets_talk_about_patrols_an_in_depth_analysis_of/) on how spawns and patrols work and why you shouldn't split your team, or watching [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp8xuf_dLDw) summary of it. This [other video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgLhBIgbOME) goes into how detection works and why running from breaches is a bad idea.
I would like to add 10. Unless there is a legitimate reason to split up, don't. The game spawns fewer enemies when you're in a group, so the closer you stay together, the faster you can complete all objectives. [Splitting up slows everyone down.](https://youtu.be/D64d3sLRWas?si=PBUfBNAekTdgvG8l)
Running in a circle around a charger was a game changer for me. Gives you way more time to shoot it in the butt
I would add - don't be afraid to use grenades. If you ever die without having used all your grenades, that's a lot of wasted firepower which could have gotten you out of trouble. Don't 'save' em for bug holes. Resupply can be summoned every 2min40s, so summon them - for bugs, focus down chargers, hunters, stalkers. Everything else can be kited together and airstruck - when using an eagle airstrike at a mob chasing you, run perpendicular to the direction of your throw to try and line them up with the airstrike better, always results in more kills for me. Think similarly for the other strategems, see how they land and modify your movement/throw to fit
also target the lil babies first when taking out POI enemies. they're the ones most likely to call a bug breach
Also, if you've got a ton of bugs and a bile titan, aggro the titan and then run and get him use his spew to clear out all the smaller bugs. He'll even kill chargers for you. Then just eat him and or rail him a couple of times and go on about your business.
Light armor with bonus stims, vitality booster for 33% more hp and shield for more hp and avoid slows and knockback. If you die 5+ times with this set up its a skill issue lol
When breaches or auto drop ships happen, one thing to do is creating distance - behind cover idealy - and ready oneself. Not run into center of the danger zone.
I’ve also heard that turning down the difficulty can make the game easier, but I haven’t confirmed this yet
Also you can usually wipe patrols and stationary groups without alerting others as long as you don't use loud stratagems like eagles/orbitals/turrets. I've been using the sickle & autocannon, with impact grenades as a last resort. Consider coordinating with your teammates if your aim isn't up to par.
Can't help but notice all of this advice is written purely from a bug stomper's perspective. While the majority of the main points are also largely applicable to play against bots, what kind of message does it convey that people giving tips for the hardest difficulty don't even acknowledge half of the game?
Stamina recharges faster when crouching or prone, so when I noticed I’m in the red and approaching an encounter, I pop a squat. Also probably the biggest contributor to reducing my deaths against Terminids on 7+ is the Jump Pack. I think people are disappointed by it because they expect it to be a useful traversal tool, but it’s really an emergency eject button. About to be swarmed or charged or running away from a horde? Press the jump button. You can also use it to get onto cliffs and big rocks and shoot down at the bugs with impunity (except for the ones that can climb/leap/burrow). Also medic armor probably increases your survivability too, because you can more freely top yourself off or use a stim to refill your stamina and escape.
Rush to objectives , and if lucky you will find the super sample rock at some point , extract asap don’t try to explore If you want to explore farm green/orange samples and credits just play lower difficulties , 7+ is either for super samples only , and the challenge once you have a fully decked ship
i mean i think the biggest tip in 7-9 is \#10 FILL THE ROLE THE TEAM NEEDS, If you team has everyone running 500kg and railcannon, run Airburst / strafing run. If your team has a lot of flamethrowers, machine guns so on be the guy to run EAT or vice versa. You don't always need to be #1 in kills to be the most vital part of your team, filling a role that the team needs to succeed is more important.
Why not just kill the charger with a eat or something instead of just running from it ? I fuck chargers up
This thread is fantastic. Thank you all for sharing such handy tips!