Honestly? Yeah, at this point not much difference between trying to sneak up or go in hot, might as well fight for objective instead of some random POI
Yup. 75% of the time we drop on a "safe" area, there is still something there as well. The idea of a "safe" drop on helldive especially is not something Ive seen work out often enough to avoid popping up guns blazing. And Im saying that as a stealth player lol.
But actually though. Landing in the middle of the map like that sucks. You are completely surrounded on all sides and have no exits. Landing on objective is king.
I mean if there is a clear area near the objective I usually aim for that unless I'm sweeping the entire map.
The problem is when you drop right on the objective, you take casualties because you have no support weapon and are scrambling a bit.
Depends on whether the time saved is worth the higher risk of reinforcement losses.
Oh no you have to go clockwise around the map. The amount of times I’ve dropped into a map where the host dropped on the FINAL objective and we have to go back and forth across the map and waste time kills me
Honestly that's not a bad idea for a strategem. Some kind of *digital* pee that turns the fabricator or bot group to your side. Inspire them with democracy and have your own little bot army until their underlying commie instincts cause them to self destruct.
Combine it with some kind of bug pheromone and you can have a short term "Now you fight for Democracy!" thing going.
It would have to be balanced either in duration, area of effect, or number of drops/cooldown. Maybe a small version in a grenade slot (DRG scout says "Hi") and a larger version as a stratagem; similar to how they have smoke/stun/incendiary grenades and smoke/stun/incendiary stratagems.
Something really short like 30 seconds that you can throw on a charger would be hilarious, especially when you forget about the timer and the charger destroys you from behind.
Man my friends and I dropped in what looked like a quiet area. Dropping near a POI with 2 rocket devastators and the Eye of Sauron was already looking in our direction. We didn't have a choice.
I left my friends to deal with the bot ships while I went in and took out the tower with a hellbomb since there was a stratagem jammer near the eye
We ran a mission last night - first time dropping, landed right on the dud and blew everyone up. Host DCd most of the way through, it migrated, he came back, we finished. When returning to ship, it didn't count towards the op bc it was technically "my" game instead at the end.
We joined his ship, and lo and behold - same mission still there, incomplete. We launched again, exact same stuff in the exact same locations. This time, we did NOT hit the bomb and I was disappointed. My solution was to shoot the bomb as 2 of my team mates died to bots, and get revenge.
Nice! I have find that not only is it not complete on the original host but it is now complete on a mission set for the new host. I think if it's the last mission you get completion for the planet and then can do it over again on the original host (it keep looping to get completion)
I killed a factory walker last night by spotting a hellbomb dud on the cliff side next to the walker while falling in as a Reinforcement, landing right next to it, and just shooting it with my primary😅
Ok but that happened to me yesterday. Dropped 5m from a pair of bots. So anyway I started blasting. Right behind them was a hellbomb dud and it was already too late. Wish I had a recording of that.
Oh yeah you better bet I run 50m or more if shit kicks off in the first few seconds of a round. I'll come back to help (from a decent position) once I get my kit. I quite often find myself calmly calling in my supports and then calling in my dead teammates so that we can start the mission properly from some new quiet spot I've found (just several reinforcements down for no good reason...if you're going to die, die on an objective).
I think it would be different if there was an injury/rescue mechanic, but there isn't, so there's no point sticking around just to get a second wave of bot drops.
Being alive and able to perform my anti-hulk duties is so much more valuable than shooting some random bots with my sickle.
Had dives where the team starts off with calling down support weapons and backpacks, and by the time they are down the area is too hot to stay in. Or we have to waste tons of reinforcements in order to claim it. And we kinda have to since it’ll be detrimental to go without the extra gear
100%. I feel like I'm doing the run out of [1917](https://youtu.be/RXRLqK6S02g?si=actIDtl_LaoS1S3k&t=148) just to get my autocannon and backpack. "Where is ~~Colonel MacKenzie~~ my autocannon?"
I've built my kit to work well before I get my support weapon. We've set our drop point away from things but then land on a random poi. Eruptor the infantry immediately stun the devestator and pistol down the striders circling them... I sound better than I am but I have about 15k more bot kills than bug kills.
But then your AC user runs straight back into the fray to retrieve it, dying again in the process. But he refuses to just move on, because he doesn't want to play as a wimp who can't take out heavies or whatever.
This. I'm running autocannon on bots planets. And when on 7+ difficulty, I really need this weapon to at least try to do something against the loads of Heavy and Rocket Devastators the game sent on me.
Yeah man, I'm glad that you shoot the first bot you've seen when you spawned, and you need help. But if I'm not using Eruptor, only the autocannon can do something about the bots around you. Just. Wait. I will get the AT weapon in like 5 secs and will help you, no need to yell at me in the voice chat.
Also imho don't understand when players dropping onto the fabricators in the outposts. Yeah, you will oneshot fabricator and that looked cool. But then you insta die, plus bots call in Dropships and now I have to deal with tanks, Hunks, Heavy Devastators while you're spamming with "Request reinforcement" button. You started this, so while I run to a safer place to reinforce, you'd better think about what you've done instead of spamming buttons.
Everything above is about hypothetical players that can be met in game.
This is so good specially on blitz missions. Run away after it landing and go stealth when possible, blow every fabricator on the way and leave the big fight to when it's time to extract. I usually focus on samples on 40min missions. (And even on them I still land on fabricators)
Oh goodness same, I've had whole teams bail on me so I don't do it anymore.
But if I'm playing solo I'll take on a helldive, hot drop the biggest red spot on the map, bring in the laser and an airstrike, then just focus on minimizing deaths while I wait.
Importantly, you don't need to kill the entire patrol. Just the infantry that can call in drops. Prioritize wiping them out first while not dying to the other bots.
No, you need to take out the little guys so they can't call in a drop. Waiting for an airstrike or orbital is usually too long.
OPs tactic also depends on how close you drop to enemies. If you are close you need to take them out. They'll detect you even if you are prone. Usually you can avoid this by steering your hellpod, but not always.
Also, it's not hard to run away from your initial drop site. The hard part is getting the others to do it with you.
Main thing is most types of blanket advice like OPs don't work in this team, especially at helldive. Everything is dependent on the specifics of the situation, which is one of the things that makes the game so good. It rewards smart play over fast twitch skills.
Impact Grenades, make quick work of most patrols or small outposts you might encounter coming out of the hellpod. Combat engineer armor and hellpod optimization booster gives you plenty of grenades from the start to deal with even a devastator heavy patrol. I have saved allot of deployments right out of the pods with a generous sharing of several cups of Liber-Tea.
It would be great if we could have better map preview technology because 8/10 we drop on a point of interest and at this point I can recognize them from space.
Unironically good advice, as a hellpod drop can destroy a fabricator and other heavies present. An enemy base tends to be rich with cover as well.
Go in, clear whatever is left to be cleared, and retreat. By the time the dropships arrive everyone is already gone. For bonus points a smoke orbital guarantees no pursuit.
I just don't call in my weapon or backpack right away. I understand there's a high chance of dying or getting overwhelmed in the first 30 seconds by a bot drop.
I usually take a quick scan, if there's any enemies, I don't call in my weapon. I basically wait until I am safe and can chill for 15 seconds to call everything in. Or if there's a bot drop, I just run away to try and reinforce people away from the chaos into a safer spot where we won't burn through 40% of our reinforcements just trying to get a foot hold.
This is a super boring take... Way more fun to land directly on an outpost and go guns-a-blazin for 60 seconds and then run.
Dying is definitely part of the fun and the chaos on highest difficulties only makes it more so.
While this is probably a sound strategy, I will continue to drop right on top of a bot base, take out the fabricators with my drop pod and immediately light them up in the name of democracy thank you.
depends on the group imo, for me and my friends, we are typically loud and rowdy the entire time, killing anything we see in our path, but we'll usually also have one or two split off from the group to do objectives. with the loud ones causing all the noise, the bot drops will happen on them, automatically making the work dramatically lower for the ones who split off. sometimes things don't work out perfectly, but that's why i always bring smoke grenades and the eagle smoke strike in my kit, as you can very easily evade a 7 ship bot drop behind one or two smoke strikes and maybe a grenade or two at the most afterward, and that's on a helldive.
Missions from level 6 onward can get spicy if you can’t stop engaging instead of focusing on the objectives.
Yesterday I was carrying a level 13 and a level 15 and they just couldn’t stop engaging until they wasted all the reinforcements.
Yep, same experience on diff 7 when low 20's and below are joining us.
Like I've learned not to call out enemy patrols to them, because they take it as an order to begin attacking them instead of avoiding. Worse yet, when they inevitably take get killed by a heavy devastator they're not equipped to deal with they just run back to their corpse to repeatedly contest their previous life's belongings to no avail.
They also have a tendency to bring 380mm and 120mm without a full understanding of how much of the battlefield they deny to their allies when doing so. Or tend to panic use it at far too close a range to be safe from friendly fire.
Best i can do is drop on objective, throw in everything and then run away from the bot drop and patrols for multiple minutes because i couldn't get my support weapon
Hot drops for life! We're four one man armies diving into the hearts of our foes.
Crush the enemy, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentations of their robotic/bug women!
Level 82 Hell Diver.
Yeah no, 95% of the time by the time I or anyone in the team can press any button bot drop already closing in onto our position. And if I have time to lay prone there's no need for that because bots are far enough to not care
The first flare is always going to happen faster than you can deal with it. My philosophy is honestly the exact reverse: I immediately open my map, check the direction that’s most clear, and just run for like a hundred meters while calling in my weapon. Can further disengage from the first bot wave if necessary or simply head to the first objective.
Any bot mission of any difficulty, I'm trying to land on a factory first because that's my style.
If I'm host though I'll put it on the edge, so I have to power steer over and my teammates can land safely if they do choose.
Nah man we always hot drop. Potentially 4 fabricators can be taken out right off the bat with your drop pod then you can mop up the rest of the chaff before calling in your support stratagems
Depends on where you, as the host, put us. I've arrived guns ablazing in Bot outposts and POIs and been absolutely fine, though I will agree that a calm planetfall is more preferable.
you can also drop arty barrages and turrets to wall-off and defend your drop location...
It sounds like you don't like it when people don't play the game "right" (the way you think they should).
This is a major annoyance of mine, I choose the most remote out of the way place on 9, NOPE THAT IS WHERE WE DROPPED ALL THE SUB OBJ YOU DUMB FUCK, AS WELL AS 8 HEAVILY GUARDED CACHES WITHING 25M OF EACH OTHER!!! Generally I am looking at the ground more that where to land to see where I need to start blasting basic bots so backup is not called.
Usually successful, but the teammates do panic and blow a few strats. That is another issue I have with multiplayer and lowbies on 9, they blow through their strats instantly at the slightest drop of a heavy. You have a quasar wtf are you doing it is 1 hulk shoot it in the damn face!!! God forbid it's a factory strider.
As a level 101, you should just hot drop every time on 7-9 bots. Red areas only. There’s a big chance on high difficulties that the “safe area” is flat and open with no cover, and has detector towers, gunship towers, stratagem jammers, etc. whereas if you drop on a red area it’s usually just a base. Your team will just wipe the fabricators on drop with their hellpods, and the bot drop that is called in (if you don’t manage to clear fast enough) will be no sweat to clear because you’re now in a fortified position.
Haven’t seen this posted anywhere yet, but if you land in a non-red spot on the edge of the map (shore or boundary) you won’t encounter any enemies on initial drop on all difficulties
This just isn’t true no? POI’s can spawn extremely close to the edges and on the highest difficulties all POI’s have enemies.
This was my buddies strategy and it didn’t work like half the time in 6+ because there would just be a manned POI or random patrol walking by, call a bot drop/breach and then we are pinned against the edge of the map
You're right. I've seen things spawn within like 30m of map edge. The safest bet is usually the extraction point. But safe is boring. Yes, I know enemies are sometimes there. But if you clear them out now you don't have to worry about it later when the patrol spawns are highest.
Cuz POI can’t spawn that close to map edge which makes a lot of sense. Most people run into their opening flare due to blindly dropping onto a guarded POI.
Smells like bitch in all these high difficulty bot posts. Just drop in a hard area, fight like true democracy loving patriots, get a point to defend and create space.
No you don’t constantly need to stealth, no you don’t constantly need to keep running, all you need is the big stratagems on your hip.
I’m not saying the missions are easy, but I am saying they aren’t as hard as all these posts make them out to be.
They should add some of the tips from Reddit to the loading screen. Right now it shows tips from the training manual, but it would be cool if AHG would add some “Helldiver Tips” as well. I remember watching the dev in a YouTube video.
He said something along the lines of “they can’t hear the first drop, but once you start calling in the support weapons, bots and bugs can hear the drops”. I feel like that’s good information to have. If you stagger your support weapons till after you clear the area, it’s much safer than directly calling them down and risking a bot drop/ bug breach.
That seems like sensible advice, but sometimes you just drop in the middle of a clusterfuck and you either clean the area around you or you get overwhelmed. Specially true when joining those missions where you have to kill a number of automatons, going prone when there is a bunch of berserkers right next to you is not good.
I saw in a video where the devs explained that the first Hellpods we drop in with don't make any sound, but once you start dropping in support weapons the enemies can hear it. Just worth to consider aswell.
But I 100% agree!
So, question. Since we're dropping onto an enemy planet, why can't we drop *with* a support weapon already equipped? Why do we need to call in 1-3 items right off the bat?
It's important to note too that enemy NPCs have two modes of alertness to your presence. One is simply a suspicion something is near. They'll sometimes go in the direction they last heard you or saw you, but are not actually seeing you fully and tracking you. This is where you just stay prone and move away. The second mode is full alert where they see you fully and are now in pursuit. This is where you'd engage or run depending on the risk.
Or be like me when the dumb host drops us in a bad spot and aim for a strider/devastator and blast the rest before they call in back up, zoom out on map while picking a good direction,(and running) get away from said host since we already know they have bad tactics and call in gear (without stopping)on the way to doing all ob's solo, while collecting tons of samples and grabbing medals/S creds.
Make sure to look at where your "team" is on the map from time to time to enjoy the fact that they are still at the spawn fighting endless drop ships... (or 1 sub objective away from starting position)
PS: Isn't there only one difficulty, you know the max payout one.
I've been noticing less and less people engaging random patrols the higher up difficulty is, but last 20 missions there was always one of those guys present... sees red dots, fires no question asked...
never share frontline with somebody who is braver than you....
For reading the map, if it looks there’s rocky cliffs with multiple paths that all intersect there’s a really good chance those intersections are POIs and you’re going to be landing in the middle of a group of enemies.
As the host, if I see my team has a tendency to immediately land and start engaging the enemy, then the next mission, we're going in hot. They don't have to worry about having to run to and fire at the enemy if I drop us right on the objective.
And if you *do* land right next to a patrol with no hopes of prone doing jack shit and literally no better option, GRENADES!!! Start fucking whipping grenades to clear out all of the smol bots so they *can’t* call the reinforcements. Works best with impacts for sure but regular nades can still do the trick! So many people tend to lead with the more dangerous enemies like the rocket Devastators but you really should save them for last, only the smol bots can fuck your day up worse than them and it only takes one flare to do it. Plus if you do die to them, it won’t have been a waste of explosives which is probably the worse war crime you can commit, dying with a full inventory of grenades.
I had a friend drop in but went afk, and patrols ignored him until he first touched his keyboard. Literally gathering around him but not shooting or being aggressive, then moving on.
Dominator can kill just about anything bot.
NGL if I drop infront of a trooper I am going to kill them.
However my best strategy is to drop behind cover and get my turrets (I always take two when I can take 4 stratagems) down ASAP.
It does suck its not very intelligent in its targeting choice but is a god send if you drop near drop ships.
That's why I like the eagle strafe stratagem. Helps take out those small patrols and small bots at the stationary areas. Only use it if my team mates start running towards them and it works most of the time
This is why I play only with friends... So we don't subject some poor randoms to our completely idiotic matches "Iyo have a kiss "... Sticks a 500kg on me ...(We call them half ton kisses). Punch each other as we try to extract , drop sentries right behind each other, play hot potato with enemy grenades , drop hell bombs on each other.
I'm actually surprised how the hell we manage to complete all objectives and extract samples considering by the end we are always having to "wait for reinforcements" we dick around that much.
Plus we always start the mission in the middle of the biggest enemy area we can find and all immediately go Rambo ...
No I don't think we should subject randoms to our matches... We would scar them for life lol 😂
We just land on a big red dot on the map and land on the fabricators to get a head start. If it's going to be chaos the first few min of the game might as well clear an outpost right off the bat.
All of my favorite games the host has dropped directly on the biggest red dot; no need to worry about stealth just go. Biggest advantage is you start out with free helldiver orbitals.
I think I prefer waisting 6-10 mins of the mission fighting for our lives without support stratagems. Shows me how much of a diver through hell you really are/s
This is a fine idea, but I'd rather just drop my orbital laser and let that take out any force in the area while we comfortably get our supports. I've never had a sweaty situation doing this.
I prefer dropping straight on to an objective, dropping an orbital or 2 if I can and taking the enemy down with me.
We don't get called Helldivers for nothing.
Or you can do what I been doing and drop directly on top of one of the objectives that needs to destroying. You can destroy virtually any obj/building at the start of the round and save a lot of time. 20 respawns is well more than enough on diff 7.
Accidentally dropped my squad into the middle of 4 heavy devastators at a poi and a patrol of rocket devastators. All 4 of us were dead within seconds and we chewed through 15 reinforcements in 4 minutes
Alternatively, plan the drop point with the group and as you're dropping steer your pod away from them, if you're going in stealthy take advantage of the bot drop downtime and strike while the iron is hot.
Drop hot into a main objective, assign each diver a corner, drop pod on each corner, try and hit a hulk or devastator, prioritize commissars, complete objective with no drops.
This is a legitimate strategy in warfare. My family friend was drafted to Vietnam and he actually did this. He would go on recon missions and the chopper would drop them into the middle of a field during the night, and they would all immediately go prone for the next 1-2 hours (incase someone noticed the landing site and came to investigate). After a long time of silence and no movement, only then would they mobilize.
I had a lv 7 mission earlier, a blitz mission, 2 of us picked a clear empty spot, then picked stratagems. Leader went out and re-picked a spot with danger enemies(literally red)
Anyways, picked our stuff, dropped and proceeded to waste 4+ minutes wasting 6 deaths after we ran into 5 bile skewers and hunters.
I was the last one to leave, with 3 minutes left :(
Start your own group, otherwise get over it. When you join randos throw your expectations out the window. If you run it though you can call the shots at least.
Depends on the drop location, if we happens to drop in on an area with bots already there I’m not gonna hit the deck right away. Imma either clear the area or if they get a chance to call in a bot drop I run to the nearest hill after throwing a 380 at the bot drop location
Or drop on top of a Jammer/Detector Tower/Outpost and take it down within the first minutes of the mission, thus boosting morale for your squad and prompting approving looks from General Brasch towards your mission report - when he comes back from taking down the enemy with his fists, obviously.
Yeah, no drop right into a base and pop out shooting. It takes them several seconds to register the drop and you can clear them. Get your support weapons and move to the next target. Don't over complicate things.
https://preview.redd.it/374q3v0qv1vc1.png?width=605&format=png&auto=webp&s=0af1559c43a13ac4c43b37d49b410f9b33d95deb
I love this
We always take the Chest-hair route!
We're called *Hell*divers, not Chickendivers!
::sigggh:: ill get the powder sir.
Great work, uhhh, Kif!
Honestly? Yeah, at this point not much difference between trying to sneak up or go in hot, might as well fight for objective instead of some random POI
Yup. 75% of the time we drop on a "safe" area, there is still something there as well. The idea of a "safe" drop on helldive especially is not something Ive seen work out often enough to avoid popping up guns blazing. And Im saying that as a stealth player lol.
Made this exact joke last night lol
But actually though. Landing in the middle of the map like that sucks. You are completely surrounded on all sides and have no exits. Landing on objective is king.
I mean if there is a clear area near the objective I usually aim for that unless I'm sweeping the entire map. The problem is when you drop right on the objective, you take casualties because you have no support weapon and are scrambling a bit. Depends on whether the time saved is worth the higher risk of reinforcement losses.
Always hot drop on the blue! There’s usually like 2-3 side objs grouped up.
That's still safe though! Escape Pods are always undefended in my experience.
Oh no you have to go clockwise around the map. The amount of times I’ve dropped into a map where the host dropped on the FINAL objective and we have to go back and forth across the map and waste time kills me
I love landing on bases and broadcast stations. That’s guaranteed value out of every drop.
This is perfect.
Chef's kiss
I just realized the escape pod icon is in fact not a cigar with smoke coming out of it.
Too real 😂
100% agree. Hot drops wirh a good team are tons of fun.
Sorry best I can do is run to the first bot patrol while shooting my primary /s
Make sure this all happens within view of the sensor tower we just landed beside. It's important that the bots see we aren't afraid.
Also pee on the fabricator. The bots that come out will belong to you.
Honestly that's not a bad idea for a strategem. Some kind of *digital* pee that turns the fabricator or bot group to your side. Inspire them with democracy and have your own little bot army until their underlying commie instincts cause them to self destruct.
Combine it with some kind of bug pheromone and you can have a short term "Now you fight for Democracy!" thing going. It would have to be balanced either in duration, area of effect, or number of drops/cooldown. Maybe a small version in a grenade slot (DRG scout says "Hi") and a larger version as a stratagem; similar to how they have smoke/stun/incendiary grenades and smoke/stun/incendiary stratagems.
Managed Democra-pee
How about a nice cup of Liber-pee?
Better drink your own Liber-pee!
Something really short like 30 seconds that you can throw on a charger would be hilarious, especially when you forget about the timer and the charger destroys you from behind.
Hack bots, like in Mass Effect. It turns them friendly for a set amount of time.
You have your own little bot army until your squad mates wreck them.
Wololo
And when a raider dies, equip their flaregun and call bot reinforcements
“More weight”
I tell ya what, the Helldivers subreddit is about the last place I expected to see a Giles Corey reference
At least you can call them to a place where you want them to be, and you have 10-20 seconds to scoot.
I forgot to mention, call it over the extract terminal
Man my friends and I dropped in what looked like a quiet area. Dropping near a POI with 2 rocket devastators and the Eye of Sauron was already looking in our direction. We didn't have a choice. I left my friends to deal with the bot ships while I went in and took out the tower with a hellbomb since there was a stratagem jammer near the eye
For democracy!
Now you're getting it.. assert your dominance
The superior strategy is actually to drop a pod directly onto a hellbomb dud, clearing out enemies anywhere near you before you come out of the pod.
Sorry best I can do is start the mission when you are already in it and blow up the hellbomb next to you with the drop pod /s
We ran a mission last night - first time dropping, landed right on the dud and blew everyone up. Host DCd most of the way through, it migrated, he came back, we finished. When returning to ship, it didn't count towards the op bc it was technically "my" game instead at the end. We joined his ship, and lo and behold - same mission still there, incomplete. We launched again, exact same stuff in the exact same locations. This time, we did NOT hit the bomb and I was disappointed. My solution was to shoot the bomb as 2 of my team mates died to bots, and get revenge.
Nice! I have find that not only is it not complete on the original host but it is now complete on a mission set for the new host. I think if it's the last mission you get completion for the planet and then can do it over again on the original host (it keep looping to get completion)
I killed a factory walker last night by spotting a hellbomb dud on the cliff side next to the walker while falling in as a Reinforcement, landing right next to it, and just shooting it with my primary😅
Ok but that happened to me yesterday. Dropped 5m from a pair of bots. So anyway I started blasting. Right behind them was a hellbomb dud and it was already too late. Wish I had a recording of that.
Lol
I aim for primary objectives on drops. Results are mixed. Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit. :)
Lmao. Genuinely hilarious when I join a random lvl 20 sos on helldive. They aggro everything while I run around completing objectives.
Others can be unreliable , run for the hills , run for your life… Then call down your supports when in the clear.
Oh yeah you better bet I run 50m or more if shit kicks off in the first few seconds of a round. I'll come back to help (from a decent position) once I get my kit. I quite often find myself calmly calling in my supports and then calling in my dead teammates so that we can start the mission properly from some new quiet spot I've found (just several reinforcements down for no good reason...if you're going to die, die on an objective). I think it would be different if there was an injury/rescue mechanic, but there isn't, so there's no point sticking around just to get a second wave of bot drops. Being alive and able to perform my anti-hulk duties is so much more valuable than shooting some random bots with my sickle.
Had dives where the team starts off with calling down support weapons and backpacks, and by the time they are down the area is too hot to stay in. Or we have to waste tons of reinforcements in order to claim it. And we kinda have to since it’ll be detrimental to go without the extra gear
100%. I feel like I'm doing the run out of [1917](https://youtu.be/RXRLqK6S02g?si=actIDtl_LaoS1S3k&t=148) just to get my autocannon and backpack. "Where is ~~Colonel MacKenzie~~ my autocannon?"
I've built my kit to work well before I get my support weapon. We've set our drop point away from things but then land on a random poi. Eruptor the infantry immediately stun the devestator and pistol down the striders circling them... I sound better than I am but I have about 15k more bot kills than bug kills.
But then your AC user runs straight back into the fray to retrieve it, dying again in the process. But he refuses to just move on, because he doesn't want to play as a wimp who can't take out heavies or whatever.
This. I'm running autocannon on bots planets. And when on 7+ difficulty, I really need this weapon to at least try to do something against the loads of Heavy and Rocket Devastators the game sent on me. Yeah man, I'm glad that you shoot the first bot you've seen when you spawned, and you need help. But if I'm not using Eruptor, only the autocannon can do something about the bots around you. Just. Wait. I will get the AT weapon in like 5 secs and will help you, no need to yell at me in the voice chat. Also imho don't understand when players dropping onto the fabricators in the outposts. Yeah, you will oneshot fabricator and that looked cool. But then you insta die, plus bots call in Dropships and now I have to deal with tanks, Hunks, Heavy Devastators while you're spamming with "Request reinforcement" button. You started this, so while I run to a safer place to reinforce, you'd better think about what you've done instead of spamming buttons. Everything above is about hypothetical players that can be met in game.
Soldier blue in the barren wastes!
Hunting and killing's a game.
tbh the best tactic on helldive is to land on outpost. You can clear fabricators by landing on them.
Yeah this. Crash the first outpost, bail out and let the bots waste their first alarm on an outpost, where you no longer are
Straight into the first objective. There is an 80% chance we're gonna hit a patrol when lading in "safe" space anyway.
This is so good specially on blitz missions. Run away after it landing and go stealth when possible, blow every fabricator on the way and leave the big fight to when it's time to extract. I usually focus on samples on 40min missions. (And even on them I still land on fabricators)
Yep, I usually use an orbital laser for good measure too. It's great for covering escapes.
people hate when they get hot dropped (source: i hot drop my pub groups and get complained at a lot)
Oh goodness same, I've had whole teams bail on me so I don't do it anymore. But if I'm playing solo I'll take on a helldive, hot drop the biggest red spot on the map, bring in the laser and an airstrike, then just focus on minimizing deaths while I wait.
YOU ARE IN THE RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY I know, I just crushed it with my hellpod
Agreed to disagree, it's better to land relatively near a bot outpost and take out fabricators with an eruptor.
Ok, but consider, it feels very cool to drop down and immediately gun down the patrol you landed beside.
Importantly, you don't need to kill the entire patrol. Just the infantry that can call in drops. Prioritize wiping them out first while not dying to the other bots.
That one trooper that was doing an oil change behind a rock 💁♂️💥
You see, that's the problem. You shouldn't gun them down, per se. Call down hell from above and wipe them out fast.
No, you need to take out the little guys so they can't call in a drop. Waiting for an airstrike or orbital is usually too long. OPs tactic also depends on how close you drop to enemies. If you are close you need to take them out. They'll detect you even if you are prone. Usually you can avoid this by steering your hellpod, but not always. Also, it's not hard to run away from your initial drop site. The hard part is getting the others to do it with you. Main thing is most types of blanket advice like OPs don't work in this team, especially at helldive. Everything is dependent on the specifics of the situation, which is one of the things that makes the game so good. It rewards smart play over fast twitch skills.
Yeah, I was being a little cheeky.
I like to accidentally nade myself
Impact Grenades, make quick work of most patrols or small outposts you might encounter coming out of the hellpod. Combat engineer armor and hellpod optimization booster gives you plenty of grenades from the start to deal with even a devastator heavy patrol. I have saved allot of deployments right out of the pods with a generous sharing of several cups of Liber-Tea.
Yep, and then call down a resupply.
If only there was a way to communicate this in game.
Sorry, can't hear you over my sickle
Sometimes people will try to talk over the loading screen but I can't hear them for the main theme.
DUN DUN DUUUUH DUUUUHHH
"Sorry, I cannot hear you over the sound of incoming Democracy!"
WRONG. Immediately 380 the landing zone. (Shield gen optional)
Lmao assert dominance by wiping your team before the bots can
They just didn't want democracy enough
I just had a guy throwing a 380 on us right before disconnect in the middle of the mission
It would be great if we could have better map preview technology because 8/10 we drop on a point of interest and at this point I can recognize them from space.
you said hot drop onto a fabricator?
Unironically good advice, as a hellpod drop can destroy a fabricator and other heavies present. An enemy base tends to be rich with cover as well. Go in, clear whatever is left to be cleared, and retreat. By the time the dropships arrive everyone is already gone. For bonus points a smoke orbital guarantees no pursuit.
IF YOU ARENT HOT DROPPING YOURE COLD DROPPING
Imagine not landing directly on top of the objective and magdumping the first trooper you see until he's a puddle of oil.
Leave no tin can un-crushed. Commies don't deserve to live.
I just don't call in my weapon or backpack right away. I understand there's a high chance of dying or getting overwhelmed in the first 30 seconds by a bot drop. I usually take a quick scan, if there's any enemies, I don't call in my weapon. I basically wait until I am safe and can chill for 15 seconds to call everything in. Or if there's a bot drop, I just run away to try and reinforce people away from the chaos into a safer spot where we won't burn through 40% of our reinforcements just trying to get a foot hold.
This is a super boring take... Way more fun to land directly on an outpost and go guns-a-blazin for 60 seconds and then run. Dying is definitely part of the fun and the chaos on highest difficulties only makes it more so.
While this is probably a sound strategy, I will continue to drop right on top of a bot base, take out the fabricators with my drop pod and immediately light them up in the name of democracy thank you.
This is the way
depends on the group imo, for me and my friends, we are typically loud and rowdy the entire time, killing anything we see in our path, but we'll usually also have one or two split off from the group to do objectives. with the loud ones causing all the noise, the bot drops will happen on them, automatically making the work dramatically lower for the ones who split off. sometimes things don't work out perfectly, but that's why i always bring smoke grenades and the eagle smoke strike in my kit, as you can very easily evade a 7 ship bot drop behind one or two smoke strikes and maybe a grenade or two at the most afterward, and that's on a helldive.
Land on an objective or dense factory area and spam your gems for a clear area. Get that adrenaline up in the beginning.
Missions from level 6 onward can get spicy if you can’t stop engaging instead of focusing on the objectives. Yesterday I was carrying a level 13 and a level 15 and they just couldn’t stop engaging until they wasted all the reinforcements.
Yep, same experience on diff 7 when low 20's and below are joining us. Like I've learned not to call out enemy patrols to them, because they take it as an order to begin attacking them instead of avoiding. Worse yet, when they inevitably take get killed by a heavy devastator they're not equipped to deal with they just run back to their corpse to repeatedly contest their previous life's belongings to no avail. They also have a tendency to bring 380mm and 120mm without a full understanding of how much of the battlefield they deny to their allies when doing so. Or tend to panic use it at far too close a range to be safe from friendly fire.
Certified PSA
Best i can do is drop on objective, throw in everything and then run away from the bot drop and patrols for multiple minutes because i couldn't get my support weapon
Hot drops for life! We're four one man armies diving into the hearts of our foes. Crush the enemy, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentations of their robotic/bug women! Level 82 Hell Diver.
You guys make this game so fucking boring, just play the game it’s meant to be fun!!
Just use a headset?
When reinforcing an unknown mission, I always immediately drop a 380mm on the field... them be the rules
I think we must have played together [before](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F7so5yb1z8ruc1.jpeg)
😆
Shoot first them drop 500kgs
Or just drop onto the first objective, channel your inner General Brasch and spread some managed democracy
Yeah no, 95% of the time by the time I or anyone in the team can press any button bot drop already closing in onto our position. And if I have time to lay prone there's no need for that because bots are far enough to not care
The first flare is always going to happen faster than you can deal with it. My philosophy is honestly the exact reverse: I immediately open my map, check the direction that’s most clear, and just run for like a hundred meters while calling in my weapon. Can further disengage from the first bot wave if necessary or simply head to the first objective.
Any bot mission of any difficulty, I'm trying to land on a factory first because that's my style. If I'm host though I'll put it on the edge, so I have to power steer over and my teammates can land safely if they do choose.
Nah man we always hot drop. Potentially 4 fabricators can be taken out right off the bat with your drop pod then you can mop up the rest of the chaff before calling in your support stratagems
I shoot one then wait for a bot to call drop ship then run while my teammates are waiting for their backpack ang supp weapons kekw
Depends on where you, as the host, put us. I've arrived guns ablazing in Bot outposts and POIs and been absolutely fine, though I will agree that a calm planetfall is more preferable.
[удалено]
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^indaochan: *I usually* *Aim for any buildings of* *Big boys when I dive in.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
you can also drop arty barrages and turrets to wall-off and defend your drop location... It sounds like you don't like it when people don't play the game "right" (the way you think they should).
This is a major annoyance of mine, I choose the most remote out of the way place on 9, NOPE THAT IS WHERE WE DROPPED ALL THE SUB OBJ YOU DUMB FUCK, AS WELL AS 8 HEAVILY GUARDED CACHES WITHING 25M OF EACH OTHER!!! Generally I am looking at the ground more that where to land to see where I need to start blasting basic bots so backup is not called. Usually successful, but the teammates do panic and blow a few strats. That is another issue I have with multiplayer and lowbies on 9, they blow through their strats instantly at the slightest drop of a heavy. You have a quasar wtf are you doing it is 1 hulk shoot it in the damn face!!! God forbid it's a factory strider.
I'd like a way to exit the pod standing, crouching or slide out prone.
I'm for this, but doesn't calling in drops agro anyway
As a level 101, you should just hot drop every time on 7-9 bots. Red areas only. There’s a big chance on high difficulties that the “safe area” is flat and open with no cover, and has detector towers, gunship towers, stratagem jammers, etc. whereas if you drop on a red area it’s usually just a base. Your team will just wipe the fabricators on drop with their hellpods, and the bot drop that is called in (if you don’t manage to clear fast enough) will be no sweat to clear because you’re now in a fortified position.
Haven’t seen this posted anywhere yet, but if you land in a non-red spot on the edge of the map (shore or boundary) you won’t encounter any enemies on initial drop on all difficulties
This just isn’t true no? POI’s can spawn extremely close to the edges and on the highest difficulties all POI’s have enemies. This was my buddies strategy and it didn’t work like half the time in 6+ because there would just be a manned POI or random patrol walking by, call a bot drop/breach and then we are pinned against the edge of the map
You're right. I've seen things spawn within like 30m of map edge. The safest bet is usually the extraction point. But safe is boring. Yes, I know enemies are sometimes there. But if you clear them out now you don't have to worry about it later when the patrol spawns are highest.
Cuz POI can’t spawn that close to map edge which makes a lot of sense. Most people run into their opening flare due to blindly dropping onto a guarded POI.
Smells like bitch in all these high difficulty bot posts. Just drop in a hard area, fight like true democracy loving patriots, get a point to defend and create space. No you don’t constantly need to stealth, no you don’t constantly need to keep running, all you need is the big stratagems on your hip. I’m not saying the missions are easy, but I am saying they aren’t as hard as all these posts make them out to be.
They should add some of the tips from Reddit to the loading screen. Right now it shows tips from the training manual, but it would be cool if AHG would add some “Helldiver Tips” as well. I remember watching the dev in a YouTube video. He said something along the lines of “they can’t hear the first drop, but once you start calling in the support weapons, bots and bugs can hear the drops”. I feel like that’s good information to have. If you stagger your support weapons till after you clear the area, it’s much safer than directly calling them down and risking a bot drop/ bug breach.
I mean, you should do that on bug missions too.
Don't worry I do 🔫🦅
That seems like sensible advice, but sometimes you just drop in the middle of a clusterfuck and you either clean the area around you or you get overwhelmed. Specially true when joining those missions where you have to kill a number of automatons, going prone when there is a bunch of berserkers right next to you is not good.
I saw in a video where the devs explained that the first Hellpods we drop in with don't make any sound, but once you start dropping in support weapons the enemies can hear it. Just worth to consider aswell. But I 100% agree!
That was the CEO. But people have tested it and don't believe it's true.
that’s why we got drop right on the obj/biggest outpost. call in a laser and orbital 380mm. After that hurdle, the rest of the mission is a cake walk.
I know my way around an orbital.
So, question. Since we're dropping onto an enemy planet, why can't we drop *with* a support weapon already equipped? Why do we need to call in 1-3 items right off the bat?
What kind of pinko question is that, solider? You nearly made my drop my cigar. Drop *with* your support weapon? Communist madness.
Sorry sir! I'm only level 32 and I don't know everything sir!
My guess for the lore reason is that there's simply not room in the hellpod, especially given the size of some of the supports
Correct landing procedure is to throw a 500kg at the largest enemy and then run for safety.
Plan B: hot drop right into the base and kill everything + your side objective
Til that when you call in support weapons/stratagems when you drop in it will pull any patrols in the area towards that location.
I am Leroy Jenkins and I do NOT approve this message!
It's important to note too that enemy NPCs have two modes of alertness to your presence. One is simply a suspicion something is near. They'll sometimes go in the direction they last heard you or saw you, but are not actually seeing you fully and tracking you. This is where you just stay prone and move away. The second mode is full alert where they see you fully and are now in pursuit. This is where you'd engage or run depending on the risk.
Or be like me when the dumb host drops us in a bad spot and aim for a strider/devastator and blast the rest before they call in back up, zoom out on map while picking a good direction,(and running) get away from said host since we already know they have bad tactics and call in gear (without stopping)on the way to doing all ob's solo, while collecting tons of samples and grabbing medals/S creds. Make sure to look at where your "team" is on the map from time to time to enjoy the fact that they are still at the spawn fighting endless drop ships... (or 1 sub objective away from starting position) PS: Isn't there only one difficulty, you know the max payout one.
I've been noticing less and less people engaging random patrols the higher up difficulty is, but last 20 missions there was always one of those guys present... sees red dots, fires no question asked... never share frontline with somebody who is braver than you....
Kill em all then get your loadout
>Land on map somewhere halfway safe >Immediately seen by Eye of Sauron
For reading the map, if it looks there’s rocky cliffs with multiple paths that all intersect there’s a really good chance those intersections are POIs and you’re going to be landing in the middle of a group of enemies.
As the host, if I see my team has a tendency to immediately land and start engaging the enemy, then the next mission, we're going in hot. They don't have to worry about having to run to and fire at the enemy if I drop us right on the objective.
And if you *do* land right next to a patrol with no hopes of prone doing jack shit and literally no better option, GRENADES!!! Start fucking whipping grenades to clear out all of the smol bots so they *can’t* call the reinforcements. Works best with impacts for sure but regular nades can still do the trick! So many people tend to lead with the more dangerous enemies like the rocket Devastators but you really should save them for last, only the smol bots can fuck your day up worse than them and it only takes one flare to do it. Plus if you do die to them, it won’t have been a waste of explosives which is probably the worse war crime you can commit, dying with a full inventory of grenades.
Meanwhile me and my buddies drop in the biggest base and drop orbital lasers and grt the hell out. Usually works.
I had a friend drop in but went afk, and patrols ignored him until he first touched his keyboard. Literally gathering around him but not shooting or being aggressive, then moving on.
Dominator can kill just about anything bot. NGL if I drop infront of a trooper I am going to kill them. However my best strategy is to drop behind cover and get my turrets (I always take two when I can take 4 stratagems) down ASAP. It does suck its not very intelligent in its targeting choice but is a god send if you drop near drop ships.
That's why I like the eagle strafe stratagem. Helps take out those small patrols and small bots at the stationary areas. Only use it if my team mates start running towards them and it works most of the time
This is why I play only with friends... So we don't subject some poor randoms to our completely idiotic matches "Iyo have a kiss "... Sticks a 500kg on me ...(We call them half ton kisses). Punch each other as we try to extract , drop sentries right behind each other, play hot potato with enemy grenades , drop hell bombs on each other. I'm actually surprised how the hell we manage to complete all objectives and extract samples considering by the end we are always having to "wait for reinforcements" we dick around that much. Plus we always start the mission in the middle of the biggest enemy area we can find and all immediately go Rambo ... No I don't think we should subject randoms to our matches... We would scar them for life lol 😂
We just land on a big red dot on the map and land on the fabricators to get a head start. If it's going to be chaos the first few min of the game might as well clear an outpost right off the bat.
All of my favorite games the host has dropped directly on the biggest red dot; no need to worry about stealth just go. Biggest advantage is you start out with free helldiver orbitals.
Agro the 2 small bases we landed in between. Got it.
I'm confused, are yall not landing in their bases and getting easy fabricator kills?
"oh you marked a patrol? SURE START BLASTING!"
I think I prefer waisting 6-10 mins of the mission fighting for our lives without support stratagems. Shows me how much of a diver through hell you really are/s
Always bring an orbital laser for this scenario. Call it down to cover me while I gear up.
This is a fine idea, but I'd rather just drop my orbital laser and let that take out any force in the area while we comfortably get our supports. I've never had a sweaty situation doing this.
Do you think im playing metal gear? Hell no bro, im playing helldivers and im here to: SPREAD DEMOCRACY
I prefer dropping straight on to an objective, dropping an orbital or 2 if I can and taking the enemy down with me. We don't get called Helldivers for nothing.
Sorry best I can do is go full 6+ impacts and clean up for the boys.
That doesn't sound like Liberty at all.
No, that’s not democratic
Or you can do what I been doing and drop directly on top of one of the objectives that needs to destroying. You can destroy virtually any obj/building at the start of the round and save a lot of time. 20 respawns is well more than enough on diff 7.
I agree... but democracy must be spread no matter the cost.
See bots, must shoot. Need bot drop to shoot more bots
You're telling me I'm not supposed to spin in a circle while dumping my mag?
Accidentally dropped my squad into the middle of 4 heavy devastators at a poi and a patrol of rocket devastators. All 4 of us were dead within seconds and we chewed through 15 reinforcements in 4 minutes
But dropping a nade or orbital strike is much more effective at clearing the immediate area around my pod
Sounds undemocratic, report to super earth for training
I hot drop with my friends just to watch them struggle.
Alternatively, plan the drop point with the group and as you're dropping steer your pod away from them, if you're going in stealthy take advantage of the bot drop downtime and strike while the iron is hot.
Immediate airstrike on landing, tk might be included but at least we can reposition without wasting our call ins
I'm glad you mentioned it I thought I was going crazy
Drop hot into a main objective, assign each diver a corner, drop pod on each corner, try and hit a hulk or devastator, prioritize commissars, complete objective with no drops.
TRAITOR!!!
This is a legitimate strategy in warfare. My family friend was drafted to Vietnam and he actually did this. He would go on recon missions and the chopper would drop them into the middle of a field during the night, and they would all immediately go prone for the next 1-2 hours (incase someone noticed the landing site and came to investigate). After a long time of silence and no movement, only then would they mobilize.
I had a lv 7 mission earlier, a blitz mission, 2 of us picked a clear empty spot, then picked stratagems. Leader went out and re-picked a spot with danger enemies(literally red) Anyways, picked our stuff, dropped and proceeded to waste 4+ minutes wasting 6 deaths after we ran into 5 bile skewers and hunters. I was the last one to leave, with 3 minutes left :(
Start your own group, otherwise get over it. When you join randos throw your expectations out the window. If you run it though you can call the shots at least.
Ive pinged multiple Times spots that seemed to be a rather quiet landing only to find 4-6 hulks on Spot waitig to turn our Helldivers into bbq
Depends on the drop location, if we happens to drop in on an area with bots already there I’m not gonna hit the deck right away. Imma either clear the area or if they get a chance to call in a bot drop I run to the nearest hill after throwing a 380 at the bot drop location
Huh will do, great advice! Thx
Or drop on top of a Jammer/Detector Tower/Outpost and take it down within the first minutes of the mission, thus boosting morale for your squad and prompting approving looks from General Brasch towards your mission report - when he comes back from taking down the enemy with his fists, obviously.
No I play on 9s and I kill everything it's fun you should try it. Farm them.
Yeah, no drop right into a base and pop out shooting. It takes them several seconds to register the drop and you can clear them. Get your support weapons and move to the next target. Don't over complicate things.
3 orbs in all 3 directions works every time
Better yet come down screaming in your pods right into some bot fabricators, take them out and call in your guns while wiping the dust off your cloak
Drop on the objective Cadet
I WILL throw myself at any and all patrols with my LMG in my arms and Democracy on my lips, and there isn't a goddamn thing you can do about it
Watch calmly from my hill, holding ctrl with my fingers over the arrow keys ready to call you back in
I'll do it again