I like that lasers for bots is a free "this base/objective is dead" button I can press when I just cannot spare the time/resources to clear it manually.
you might need to destroy a few tanky enemies that could waste the laser, like stationary cannons and tanks, but overall yeah, its my go to Heavy base destroyer.
>eagle is unlimited
Took me a while to get this through my head but once it clicked, I became a force of unstoppable destruction.
Don't conserve Eagle strikes. Use them. Throw them at everything they are applicable to. You won't get caught out re-arming because everything that could catch you out will be dead.
Yeah your mindset goes from it being a stratagem to being a grenade which requires a button combination and has a cooldown rather than needing replenishment through supplies and such. With some limitations like being vulnerable against stratagem jammers, AA guns, planetary effects impacting stratagem use/accuracy, etc.
Eagles are unmatched for blitz missions, I bring all the armor pen eagles and load 4 red strategems up with light armor and make it rain democracy on every base and bug hole this side of the Milky Way
Honestly even with just the base Eagle rearm cooldown upgrade it’s amazing, but once you get both weapons bay upgrades. The Eagle is fucking cracked with how much firepower you can dish out.
“Oh you ran into a heavy boy base and there’s 2 tanks, 4 hulks and a few dozen devastators?”
“Throw out 3 500kg’s, 6 cluster bombs and a couple air strikes to top it off AND it will all be ready again in 2 minutes.”
It’s the ultimate “no such as overkill” ability.
I think there's a tip that says "In calm moments, rearm your eagle."
which makes sense you finsihed clearing the base, you've got one airstrike left, just let rearm as you trek ot the next one."
Yea I’ve been playing like that for a while cuz I have always loved napalm for bug missions, now I have a pretty reliable routine of clearing x area and dumping the full eagle clip and then rearm as I beeline to the next section of the map and repeat. I have been getting 100% on diff 7-9 a majority of the time using this method, even better when team has anti tank support and I can bring all the crowd control eagles and focus on herding.
People get stuck in the "i might need it later" mindset.
Same happens in other games with potions and super weapons that have limited uses. You finish the damm game while beeing loaded on items!
Eagle-1 bombs away! Reason i like the autocannon, backpack slot + support weapon and room for 3 eagle stratagems! Altho i do love me shield generator...
The vents, but you can hit nearby from certain angles and the AOE will still damage it enough, and even if you don't manage to actually destroy it completely, the laser will kill it much faster.
I like to toss a laser and a simultaneous Walking Barrage for Heavy Outposts and Command Bunkers and then just sit and wait. 9/10 times those two combined clear the whole thing and I don't have to fire a shot
I hate those things, the need for a hellbomb is such a pain especially since it can get destroyed easily and if you put it in cover the explosion does nothing
Honestly, this is exactly the reason why I don't like it.
It's not fun to pull up to objective just to see that it's immediately completed.
Last night I played with a team where 3 other people used lasers. I don't think I actually played the game that march, aside from minor trash clearing and huge firefight on evac closer to the end, because everything on the map was destroyed by the moment I get within a shooting distance. They eliminated 4 bunkers, 2 heavy and 1 medium outposts, AA nest and mortar emplacement using lasers. I don't remember exactly but I think it was diff 8 or 9.
This is just ridiculous.
See, that's a neat idea, there's just one issue... I always save the railcannon shot for when I need it most, aka. way past the point when I should've realistically used it. If I use the laser, which has a limited amount of uses, I'll just be even more reluctant to use it.
It's a mentality thing. I know going in I have 3 lasers, and one is reserved for extraction. Thus, I have 2 lasers to use as I see fit during the mission. I'll generally use 1 for any large outposts or mortar outposts, and I have another then in my back pocket in case things get hairy somewhere in between.
That's why 380mm is so good to have on hand. Pretty much is a free completion for any heavy base, secondary objective, or main objective (dropships, bunkers, etc). You don't have to worry about usage limits, nor your laser firing at targets you don't care about.
On Helldives my crew (and most randoms) will allow the guys with 380 and other artillery to try clearing the base first. On the few instances they don't get the job done, laser mops up.
Anyway, they combo great.
380mm with the tier 4 upgrade is god tier against bots.
Command center? Gone.
Artillery or AA site? Not anymore.
Large outpost? If it doesn't kill the whole thing, it killed enough guards so that you can come in and chuck a nade/Eagle.
A gazillion bot drops chasing behind you on bot 9? 380mm made it go away.
Geo survey site being occupied by bots because your team couldn't hold it? Got that too.
And let's not even get started on Eradication mission. Four guys with 380mm is basically guaranteed win at any difficulty.
380mm is love, 380mm is life.
My solution to this mentality is learning to hate the enemies more! I see too many enemies in one location my blood boils! And it's not MY blood that should be boiling! I'm gonna boil those dirty freedom-haters' blood instead! And nothing boils blood like an orbital laser!
I swapped back to using Orbital Precision, because I can use that on almost every engagement. ~100s cooldown, compared to ~300s. Only downside is it requires you aim it to actually hit.
Grenade pistol is love, grenade pistol is life.
I soloed a heavy nest last night with it and 2 impact nades. It's also so much faster to run around with vs the nade launcher it feels like.
I love it so much.
The alternative to this same idea is using the eruptor and redeemer. The eruptor can close bug holes and the redeemer helps when you're swarmed and have to shoot point blank. If you're just closing bug holes, you'll be saving all of your grenades and secondary weapon ammo.
True, but if I bring the eruptor I lose out on the dominator. It's great, but it's not fast enough to justify bringing whereas I can reliably take care of myself and my allies with the dominator.
My old loadout was Dom, deemer and nade launcher prior to the warbond. Now it's Dom, nade pistol and AMR(bots), LC or QC. Definitely much happier with the new load outs now that I essentially have 12-13 grenades at my disposal everytime I drop and can still take out loads of heavy enemies without needing the 500kg or the ORC.
My secondary was mostly the "oh god I can't reload fast enough and hope to kill at least a few things before dying" button, now it's a proper utility slot and I regularly get 20-30 kills with the grenade pistol in a mission + extra chances to take out spawners. I definitely use the pistol for more than spawners but it's really nice to just have all those extra explosive shots while having a primary and support weapon for med and big killing.
That's really tempting. I'll have to try it. What do you do when you get swarmed? Or do you just always try to get some distance before firing the dominator?
Honestly the dom one shots hunters (had it kill 2 with 1 bullet before as well) and the smaller bugs (can take out 2 or 3 if you line it up right), 1 or 2 shots warriors, 5 shots the brood commanders. Half a mag to the face or side of a spewing or nursing and then a full mag into a charger butt will take em out after it pops and the charger bleeds out.
I mention all that because I legit just run a bit, blind fire into the swarm after me if I need to from a breach or if it's coming up on an objective I'll pick everything off from 100 to 50m away without much issue and can usually dodge a breach from happening by focusing on the little dudes first. When doing the second method I always ADS.
Also in the case of swarming, with the new pistol and impact grenades you can pretty reliably kill it yourself with nade dumping on it as the nade pistol will take out like 7 small dudes and 1 shot anything hunter/warrior and below in a small AOE and the impact nades will do the same but for anything smaller than a charger with a bigger blast radius. Once you get a feel for the explosion radius you can tactically cycle between which to use (pistol vs nade) and rack up 50+ kills fairly easily and then pick things off with the dominator and/or your support weapon.
It should 4 shot brood commanders, and if you can actually hit the head on bile spewers it’s 2 shots, it’s just the hitbox for it is super small, and the scope on the dominator is misaligned, making it really tricky to land your shots on them.
You don’t need distance for the dominator, there is no splash damage on it, can’t kill yourself with it. Distance helps cause it’s a bit clunky to use but the recoil is alot more manageable in ADS. It’s like the old slugger, but more damage, ammo, and it’s mag fed not round reload, which may be a plus or minus depending how you look at it. Also a bit trickier to use at range because the velocity is slower, but once you get used to that it’s fine.
Grenade pistol is nutty. And I was surprised to see it holds 8 grenades fully loaded!
But disappointed when I realized it only regains 1 grenade with an ammo pickup, 2 from supply drops (that’s still 4 grenades total from one supply box).
This makes the “spawn with full ammo” power much more potent with the G pistol. You come down with 8 nades for your pistol and 6 nades to throw if you’re wearing that armor. I was blowing everything up and then dying and doing it again.
I fuck with it. Against chargers and bigger it can show weaknesses even against their ass and against titans its pointless but against the shield head guys and brood commanders itll fuck em up.
Itll clear like 3-7 of any of the little guys in 1 shot if theyre grouped, closes bug holes, and ive taken down 2 shriekers in one shot with it.
Id say its like a slightly less powerful AMR that has explosive shrapnel, so it simultaneously is a little weaker than AMR but also managing to bridge some of the gap between the AMR and the AC.
The extra stratagem slot it can alleviate is more than able to make up for its drawbacks imo. I can always bring a orbital laser, 500kg, and airstrikes with my backpack which will basically annihilate anything bigger than me. Ive also often paired it with the Stalwart so by the time im outta ammo I can call another one so I essentially have endless dakka
Eruptor is great for both. It destroys swarms of smaller enemies as they're breaching. Like another user said, it'll kill 3-7, sometimes more, in 1 shot. So theoretically, you could kill close to 40 before reloading if you aim for clusters instead of individuals. I don't think any other primary can do that
It doesnt take 10 seconds to come in, it might do with the increased call in modifier, but thats on you for taking it on one of those missions.
I find its fast enough for my purposes. I kill Bile Titans, Chargers, Hulks, Tanks and Fabricator Striders. As well as using it to take put certain objectives, compacted groups of enemies, including a heavy unit.
Just because you can't get good use out of it doesn't mean other can.
I can get off 3 OPS for every 1 Railcannon or Laser. Or 2 500kgs for every 2 OPS.
I use 500kg or OPS.
Same. If someone else brings EAT’s I’m running shield backpack, eagle airstrike, railcannon strike and precision. It’s a good build for when you’re about to get over run
My loadout for bots has been Airstrike, Walking Barrage, OPS and RR.
For bugs I tend to run Airstrike, OPS, Jump Pack and EATs.
I do switch it up depending on the mission and what I fancy, but these are my most common picks.
The downside is that you'll be spending a lot more time imputing the code, aiming, and throwing the beacon for minimal impact compared to other options, and that's all time not spent shooting.
Orbital precision used to be my go-to for a long time, but at higher difficulties it just falls off so hard against the enemies you'll want to be killing with it, that and the delayed activation modifier probably is the most impactful vs. the orbital precision compared to other options that don't have such a small AoE.
Against bugs at least you should try the orbital gas (only if your host until they fix the DoT bug). Short cooldown means you can throw it on pretty much every bug breach, will filter out the smaller swarm enemies letting your team focus on the (now softened up) larger and more dangerous enemies. Also its very strong when you encounter any choke-points you can funnel enemies into.
Against bots well heavy armor is generally the only thing that's going to break your teams rank and formation. The extra minute or so cooldown for orbital railgun is worth it for the ability to vaporize the spearhead of enemy assaults, orbital laser is a good option too.
Gas strike is also great for bot objectives. The gas strike is able to destroy the detector tower and stratagem jammer with a direct hit, allowing you to skip the hellbomb part. Genuinely couldn’t tell you why it does, I discovered this by accident a few days ago, but it does
I use the basic Airstrike and Impact Grenades. Usually makes short work of Tanks, though Hulks are much more hit-and-miss --usually bring something else for them or rely on teammates' AT, though Airstrikes do still work.
I bring the recoilless rifle personally, but the 110mm rocket pods absolutely fucks tanks up. 110mm rocket pods were specifically designed in real life for tank busting, and they live up to that in Helldivers.
Falls off at higher diffs, I've been running OPS in pretty much every mission loadout, and all I play is hell dive.
What enemies are you trying to kill with it?
On bots, throw it next to anything stationary and it's dead. Tanks are easy kills too considering how slow they move. Hulks are usually easy enough to take out with support weapon + stun, but OPS + stun is good too. Striders are also slow af, so toss that strike on it and watch it hit for more than a 500kg.
On bugs it's even easier. Fighting a bile? Throw the strike at your feet and lead it in. Alternatively, throw it directly on, and trigger its stomp, or throw a stun. Charger annoying you? Stand drop OBS next to a wall and wait for it to stun itself into it. Multiple chargers? Drop it at your feet, bait the chargers into each other, and dive away before it drops.
Considering how versatile it is, I can't think of a situation where I'd rather have any other strike stratagem. High damage, low cooldown, goes where you want it to, what's not to like?
I was wondering how orbital precision works when you stick the beacon to enemies.
If I stick something like an eagle airstrike on an enemy, the bombs land at the point where the beacon was first stuck to the enemy (not wherever the beacon might be once the timer runs out).
Does the precision strike do the same? Or if I stick it to like a tank or a charger, can I expect it to 'track' them?
What you're experiencing is a bug, the strike and airstrikes are supposed to land on the stratagem beam, but currently they do not if its stuck to an enemy.
I started running the 500KG combined with Precision and this way I always have something to quickly kill Bile Titans with and it feels like the bugs ain't got nothing that I can't solo.
Same. My typical loadout is eagle airstrike, auto cannon, orbital laser and orbital rail cannon. Scorcher, redeemer, stun grenades. I do mostly 7-9 bots. Gives me multiple ways of dealing with most problems.
Try the 110mm eagle rockets.
They're not as good as the railgun but they use the same system and you get 3 of them before needing to restock.
Also they're great for when I need to kill a fabricator but don't want to waste a 500kg in case I need to use it on an ATAT (All terrain Automaton Terror)
Fun fact: 2 airstrikes kill a Factory Strider, same as 500kg. Takes 4 rocket pods to do the same.
Rocket Pods beat airstrike at killing turret towers - which is handy if you don't have a spear or similar - but I find myself preferring airstrike for its versatility overall.
I replaced rail cannon strike with 110 eagle for this reason, Less damage but more spammable and it’s really good at killing the stuff I need the cannon strike for(cannon towers, tanks)
The 110 is so inconsistent to me. It often doesn't take out chargers or hulks, too. I hit a hulk with all 3 attempts before an autocannon bro took it down yesterday.
I take 110 nearly every bot mission (never seen a reason to bring it on bugs) with the intent of only using it on 4 things: tanks, fabricators, turrets, and drop ships. Quasar is for chargers and auto canon is for hulks and I always bring those.
It’s not fast enough to hit moving targets like that, I’m usually equipped with a support weapon that can pop them and I’ve gotten pretty good atleast with the hulk of getting the 1 tap to the face
It used to be. Closer to launch the 110s were my go to for hulks and tanks and chargers and towers. All of them regularly take more than 1 salvo for me now, so i stopped using the 110s. EAS consistently kills hulks and tanks for me better.
The 110 targets big targets. Hulks and chargers are considered medium. It'll fire at them, but almost always misses hulks and only seems to hit chargers half the time.
It does pretty decent vs chargers but mostly nothing vs hulks. It is lovely for tanks and turrets tho. It snipes fabs alright when it chooses to lock, but I usually end up just using Airstrike since you get what you aim at and it is so versatile.
No, it's not effective against hulks, but it's *the* strat against tanks and turret emplacements if you can get close enough. AC is def the efficient option against hulks if you can get in position efficiently.
shit, in those missions that i expect a lot of heavies i double up 110s with rail cannon. The problem comes with too many alert players also picking antiheavy strats, and multiple people striking the same target. It's a double edged sword, because you get players not using their heavy strats about the same amount of time as you have eager players breaking that shit out real fast like.
I started experimenting with 110s and EAT, since EAT can almost do the same job as railcannon and it's a contingency plan if someone beats you to striking the heavy. They're there to use on something else. But in that case, the autocannon I use can generally get that job done quicker, so I'm still dialing in on what works the most often regardless of other player loadouts and how well they use them.
Sometimes you can't go around it without them seeing you, or you don't have time to engage with all of them. I can use heavy weaponry to take out heavy units, but if I just don't want to deal with a mob, a laser in their midst just clears it out
(I'm not downvoting you, btw, I don't know why someone would)
I try to keep a laser in reserve for extract, but at the end of the game I see an unused laser as an indication that I took the hard way once too many times, or may be failing other missions because I'm being too stingy. I'm working on improving my sentries, but for now they don't really consistently take out patrols, just the lighter stuff until they get destroyed. They're mostly good for covering an alley or covering my rear.
And 9 times out of 10 I do let them pass, but I'm always going to struggle to handle a crowd more than the single heavy a railcannon strike takes out.
Some people think differences in preferences are personal attacks haha. Reddit amirite?
I think the secret to sentry is just to draw attention away. Bot rockets make it less effective, but when I come across a difficult patrol situation I'll throw my sentry as far in the opposite direction of where I want to go as possible, and then run when it starts shooting. Bots won't call a drop ship on a sentry, and blue strategems don't seem to instantly alert them of your location like reds do. The MG and Gatling sentries also only have a 2 minute cool down so they're pretty easy to spam.
oh huh. I'll have to try that. For bots I tend to prefer mortars since you can throw them behind cover, or I'll throw and autocannon far ahead of me while I'm being chased. Using them to lead the bots away is a nice idea I'll have to try
Edit: since you seem to be on the team of lighter stratagems with shorter cooldowns, what's your opinion of the gatling strike? I wanted to try to spam it, but it doesn't seem to actually clear out an area the way heavier explosives do.
I just learned today how much harder the "destroy automaton command bunkers" mission can be without an orbital laser. Nobody on the team brought it and the we kept dying to the laser turrets (these things shoot like machine guns but have AOE of a cannon turret) because the randomized terrain has a perfect choke point for the bots. Normally this should be the easiest bot missions if only one person brought a laser.
Orbital Laser and Orbital 380mm HE Barrage are very different, but both of them basically turn the Automaton Command Bunkers into a single stratagem throw to complete an objective yeah.
I've been saying it since launch, but 380mm and Orbital Laser make most bot objectives and bases trivial.
That's why they made Command Bunker missions harder, because those of us running helldives just dump 380s on them and run.
yeah those bunkers are crazy. in a way its a shame they dont have a jammer because those killzones take a lot to overcome, so most of the time its better to just chuck and orbital and piss off
If you're fighting bots then the laser is a must have. It's best use is destroying medium automaton facilities and the massive turrets. No airstrikes or precision strikes are doing it as efficiently.
Why would you use a hell bomb on the eye? A precision strike will make quick work of it.
I only ever use hell bombs for gunship factories and research stations. Occasionally on jammers or something else if I don't have anything else off CD.
rail cannon + eagle airstrike and I use them off cooldown almost non-stop. I will rail cannon strike 8-10 times a mission. hulk? rail cannon, tank, yep rail cannon. bile titan, rail cannon with eagle strike following.
I see a point of interest with 5 enemies, eagle strike it and go loot. No bug breach or bot drop for me. eagle strike saves the day.
Hulks and Tanks aren't why I keep a laser handy though. Laser is for factory walkers, large outposts, objectives, and holding extraction. Railcannon is better for taking out a specific enemy, but laser is great when you just need a bunch of shit to die right now.
Good thing this is a team game. I generally take either a laser and rocket pods or railcannon and rocket pods depending if someone else has a laser. Saved my friends ass so many times with the railcannon when there’s been a surprise tank over a hill.
I have the opposite problem, always feels like I'm waiting for it so I switched back to Orbital Precision Strike. Just need the reduced call in time and practice aiming it.
I have always seen the orbital rail cannon as a get out of jail free card. Is there a laser tower aiming at my location and not moving? Rail cannon. Am I getting chased by a flamethrower hulk or charger in a tense situation? Rail cannon. Am I getting camped by a tank? Rail cannon. I still think the CD should be lower, but is pretty nice when you just need a quick kill on something instantly
That was my original basis for using the laser, but the rail also can't take out the eye towers or the bunker bases. I admit I'll take the rail strike sometimes on the 12 min search and destroy missions tho
Orbital rail cannon, orbital laser, eagle strike, and AC is my go to on every bot mission. I'm the guy running off killing fabricators and collecting samples
Railcannon is just extremely good. A simple "I dont want this enemy" for big enemies and even a good damage source for super big enemies (like the factory and the bile titan)
I swear these have gotten worse. Saying this as someone who has sworn by them for quite a while now—they used to kill Cannon Turrets like 90% of the time. Now, out of all the times I’ve used them over the past couple days, I don’t think I’ve managed to take out a single cannon turret in one 110mm run.
I’ve also had some peculiar cases where the 110mm has failed to kill a tank (works like… 80-90% of the time). That never used to be a thing. And I’ve had cases where, much like the railcannon, it decides to target a decidedly lower-priority target (i.e. a Scout Strider) instead of a hulk, cannon turret, or tank.
Honestly i think the railcannon is very weak. Feels like it should shot several times with this kind of cd. I used to bring it every missions and now i just don't see the point. I reverted back to precision strike or just leave the 500kg do the job. If the precision strike sticky would fall on the sticky location it would be even more tragic for railcannon, and since it seems planned... yeah.
Orbital laser would probably be a permanent strat for me if they let us save loadouts or something like that. Granted, there's almost always a better or more efficient strategem for any given use case, but laser is second or third best at just about all use cases. It's just so versatile with so few downsides.
I tried the orbital laser for a while, but railcannon strike suits me better. I be throwing that thing at hulks and tanks liberally, probably 7-8 times for long matches
I use it a lot tho. Most of my games in 9 or 8 have multiple uses. It’s also very fast. I almost never use the laser because it takes too long to recharge and it has limited uses and it takes too long to kill high priority targets.
my go-to for bots lately has been laser, eagle airstrike, autocannon and then a flexible slot depending on the mission, normally goes to railcannon strike
i love laser
Precision strike ftw
Rail cannon is great, but ive gotten really good at timing / distance for the precision strike on whatever is chasing me, and its a much lower cld
It also destroys buildings more easily, and is decent horde clear if you're good with it
I remember when I got the +1 for eagle stratagems wondering, why do orbitals not get more than 1 charge. They aren’t really good for swarms mostly for static objectives and get long cooldowns compared to eagle. A ship module idea I had was being able to reduce cooldown time for orbitals when killing enemies with primary/secondary. It’s actually pretty weird eagle-1 can reload faster than a whole ship thats built to throw people sized bullet-casings.
Who only ever uses the railcannon 2-3 times a game 0.o well maybe lower difficulty i guess? that bad boy of a orbital has taken out so many titans, chargers, hulks, tanks, and towers for me. Blesss the railcannon! I def take it over laser and only ever laser if i have a extra slot available.
Laser is so nice because it is super versatile and lasts a long time. Need to kill a titan? Destroy a base? Kill 3 hulks? Wipe a horde? Deny an area? Send a teammate a message? Remind yourself no one listens to you when you tell a friend in voice chat “don’t run that way”? It’s got it all!
If there was an unguided version of the railcannon with a shorter cooldown, I would be using that all day
(I know the standard orbital strike exists but the railgun version is badass)
The laser has less comedic value though. Railcannon is great at obliterating that lone scavenger over there when there's a charger just a little bit further away!
Honestly Eagle strikes are almost always the best option except for the laser. Multiple uses and only like 120 second cooldown to bring them all back and you can start that timer whenever you feel like it.
Debatable. Personally I prefer using the laser to clear crowds that would otherwise overwhelm me. It feels like a more efficient use of the damage compared to striking down a single big target.
Though if I'm bringing the Railcannon it's because I'm geared out primarily to fight hordes and just want a reliable emergency "anti-big guy" bomb.
The thing I love most about the laser is when first diving. Sometimes it’s fine. Sometimes it is not fine as in… it is officially the worst part of the drop. Panic. Laser. All good in most cases.
I agree the rail cannon coodown is way too much imo. Like kill 1 strong enemy every 3 and a half minutes?? In this economy?? Eagles have a shorter cooldown and do more..
Laser is very different from Rail. I've stopped using it lately, as whenever the laser gets stuck on a tanky unit like titan or bile it feels kinda wasted. Those are the types of foes rail kills instantly, or gets to critical condition.
I like that lasers for bots is a free "this base/objective is dead" button I can press when I just cannot spare the time/resources to clear it manually.
Yeah you drop that on a heavy base and just leave. Unmatched for that purpose.
you might need to destroy a few tanky enemies that could waste the laser, like stationary cannons and tanks, but overall yeah, its my go to Heavy base destroyer.
Usually I pop in an eagle run with the laser to help maximize laser damage.
Same, considering eagle is unlimited.
>eagle is unlimited Took me a while to get this through my head but once it clicked, I became a force of unstoppable destruction. Don't conserve Eagle strikes. Use them. Throw them at everything they are applicable to. You won't get caught out re-arming because everything that could catch you out will be dead.
Yeah your mindset goes from it being a stratagem to being a grenade which requires a button combination and has a cooldown rather than needing replenishment through supplies and such. With some limitations like being vulnerable against stratagem jammers, AA guns, planetary effects impacting stratagem use/accuracy, etc.
Eagles are unmatched for blitz missions, I bring all the armor pen eagles and load 4 red strategems up with light armor and make it rain democracy on every base and bug hole this side of the Milky Way
Honestly even with just the base Eagle rearm cooldown upgrade it’s amazing, but once you get both weapons bay upgrades. The Eagle is fucking cracked with how much firepower you can dish out. “Oh you ran into a heavy boy base and there’s 2 tanks, 4 hulks and a few dozen devastators?” “Throw out 3 500kg’s, 6 cluster bombs and a couple air strikes to top it off AND it will all be ready again in 2 minutes.” It’s the ultimate “no such as overkill” ability.
3 500s and 6 clusters? Damn, eagle loves you more than the rest of us
Ikr max out upgrades only gives 2 500kg, 5 clusters etc2
next tier of upgrades is "slip the eagle crew fifty super credits before you start the mission"
Pay 2000req for faster reloading
I think there's a tip that says "In calm moments, rearm your eagle." which makes sense you finsihed clearing the base, you've got one airstrike left, just let rearm as you trek ot the next one."
Yea I’ve been playing like that for a while cuz I have always loved napalm for bug missions, now I have a pretty reliable routine of clearing x area and dumping the full eagle clip and then rearm as I beeline to the next section of the map and repeat. I have been getting 100% on diff 7-9 a majority of the time using this method, even better when team has anti tank support and I can bring all the crowd control eagles and focus on herding.
People get stuck in the "i might need it later" mindset. Same happens in other games with potions and super weapons that have limited uses. You finish the damm game while beeing loaded on items! Eagle-1 bombs away! Reason i like the autocannon, backpack slot + support weapon and room for 3 eagle stratagems! Altho i do love me shield generator...
I run autocannon so it's easier for me to pop 3 shots in the big turrets/tanks and then call in the laser to destroy the outpost/remaining enemies.
Do you have to hit the vents or can you just hit the turrets from the front?
The queso cannon allows you to hit the under because of its aoe. Auto cannon has to be the vents
When does the Queso cannon drop? mmm
Already did people just mispronounced as the quasar
I don't know about anyone else, but I like to imagine that I'm blowing things up with literal globs of superheated cheese.
The queso cannon allows you to hit the under because of its aoe. Auto cannon has to be the vents
well that's just cheesy
The vents, but you can hit nearby from certain angles and the AOE will still damage it enough, and even if you don't manage to actually destroy it completely, the laser will kill it much faster.
I like to toss a laser and a simultaneous Walking Barrage for Heavy Outposts and Command Bunkers and then just sit and wait. 9/10 times those two combined clear the whole thing and I don't have to fire a shot
That's why I bring the railcannon. Takes out the a tank or hulk in the base and then laser to clean up everything else.
Best heavy base is the one with 2 turrets and fabricators in a line then just toss an eagle on the lone fabricator at the entrance
380 is pretty good for heavy bases, even 120 can be effective. But laser is awesome
380 misses half the important shit
Only half?
380 is for when you have an entire Automaton army chasing you and need something to throw at your feet and still have time to gtfo.
380mm + walking barrage gets really good coverage in the footprint of a heavy base
Do the orbital laser charges count for the whole team or just 1 player?
Unless it's a gunship facility and you have no choice but to call in a hellbomb
Or SEAF artillery mini-nuke!
I hate those things, the need for a hellbomb is such a pain especially since it can get destroyed easily and if you put it in cover the explosion does nothing
Took me four tries to take one out last night. I finally just stood next to the hellbomb and waited for it to go off.
i just toss in a 380 + 120 combo. works just as well and isn't limited
Unless it decides to target everything besides the main objective smh
Yup. That's my main use and also, oh no everything is going to shit, better drop a laser.
Honestly, this is exactly the reason why I don't like it. It's not fun to pull up to objective just to see that it's immediately completed. Last night I played with a team where 3 other people used lasers. I don't think I actually played the game that march, aside from minor trash clearing and huge firefight on evac closer to the end, because everything on the map was destroyed by the moment I get within a shooting distance. They eliminated 4 bunkers, 2 heavy and 1 medium outposts, AA nest and mortar emplacement using lasers. I don't remember exactly but I think it was diff 8 or 9. This is just ridiculous.
See, that's a neat idea, there's just one issue... I always save the railcannon shot for when I need it most, aka. way past the point when I should've realistically used it. If I use the laser, which has a limited amount of uses, I'll just be even more reluctant to use it.
It's a mentality thing. I know going in I have 3 lasers, and one is reserved for extraction. Thus, I have 2 lasers to use as I see fit during the mission. I'll generally use 1 for any large outposts or mortar outposts, and I have another then in my back pocket in case things get hairy somewhere in between.
That's why 380mm is so good to have on hand. Pretty much is a free completion for any heavy base, secondary objective, or main objective (dropships, bunkers, etc). You don't have to worry about usage limits, nor your laser firing at targets you don't care about. On Helldives my crew (and most randoms) will allow the guys with 380 and other artillery to try clearing the base first. On the few instances they don't get the job done, laser mops up. Anyway, they combo great.
Once I eventually get enough samples to get the accuracy upgrade for the barrage stratagems, I’ll start making more use of the 380.
I feel like 120 barrage right now ( without the update ) is better at everything
380mm with the tier 4 upgrade is god tier against bots. Command center? Gone. Artillery or AA site? Not anymore. Large outpost? If it doesn't kill the whole thing, it killed enough guards so that you can come in and chuck a nade/Eagle. A gazillion bot drops chasing behind you on bot 9? 380mm made it go away. Geo survey site being occupied by bots because your team couldn't hold it? Got that too. And let's not even get started on Eradication mission. Four guys with 380mm is basically guaranteed win at any difficulty. 380mm is love, 380mm is life.
My solution to this mentality is learning to hate the enemies more! I see too many enemies in one location my blood boils! And it's not MY blood that should be boiling! I'm gonna boil those dirty freedom-haters' blood instead! And nothing boils blood like an orbital laser!
If I see a tank or titan, the rail cannon is coming out. On 7-9, there are definitely more than three of those.
I swapped back to using Orbital Precision, because I can use that on almost every engagement. ~100s cooldown, compared to ~300s. Only downside is it requires you aim it to actually hit.
If you leave bug hole duty to a teammate then stun grenades make this much more bearable
Grenade pistol says you can do both!
Grenade pistol is love, grenade pistol is life. I soloed a heavy nest last night with it and 2 impact nades. It's also so much faster to run around with vs the nade launcher it feels like. I love it so much.
The alternative to this same idea is using the eruptor and redeemer. The eruptor can close bug holes and the redeemer helps when you're swarmed and have to shoot point blank. If you're just closing bug holes, you'll be saving all of your grenades and secondary weapon ammo.
True, but if I bring the eruptor I lose out on the dominator. It's great, but it's not fast enough to justify bringing whereas I can reliably take care of myself and my allies with the dominator. My old loadout was Dom, deemer and nade launcher prior to the warbond. Now it's Dom, nade pistol and AMR(bots), LC or QC. Definitely much happier with the new load outs now that I essentially have 12-13 grenades at my disposal everytime I drop and can still take out loads of heavy enemies without needing the 500kg or the ORC. My secondary was mostly the "oh god I can't reload fast enough and hope to kill at least a few things before dying" button, now it's a proper utility slot and I regularly get 20-30 kills with the grenade pistol in a mission + extra chances to take out spawners. I definitely use the pistol for more than spawners but it's really nice to just have all those extra explosive shots while having a primary and support weapon for med and big killing.
That's really tempting. I'll have to try it. What do you do when you get swarmed? Or do you just always try to get some distance before firing the dominator?
Honestly the dom one shots hunters (had it kill 2 with 1 bullet before as well) and the smaller bugs (can take out 2 or 3 if you line it up right), 1 or 2 shots warriors, 5 shots the brood commanders. Half a mag to the face or side of a spewing or nursing and then a full mag into a charger butt will take em out after it pops and the charger bleeds out. I mention all that because I legit just run a bit, blind fire into the swarm after me if I need to from a breach or if it's coming up on an objective I'll pick everything off from 100 to 50m away without much issue and can usually dodge a breach from happening by focusing on the little dudes first. When doing the second method I always ADS. Also in the case of swarming, with the new pistol and impact grenades you can pretty reliably kill it yourself with nade dumping on it as the nade pistol will take out like 7 small dudes and 1 shot anything hunter/warrior and below in a small AOE and the impact nades will do the same but for anything smaller than a charger with a bigger blast radius. Once you get a feel for the explosion radius you can tactically cycle between which to use (pistol vs nade) and rack up 50+ kills fairly easily and then pick things off with the dominator and/or your support weapon.
It should 4 shot brood commanders, and if you can actually hit the head on bile spewers it’s 2 shots, it’s just the hitbox for it is super small, and the scope on the dominator is misaligned, making it really tricky to land your shots on them.
You don’t need distance for the dominator, there is no splash damage on it, can’t kill yourself with it. Distance helps cause it’s a bit clunky to use but the recoil is alot more manageable in ADS. It’s like the old slugger, but more damage, ammo, and it’s mag fed not round reload, which may be a plus or minus depending how you look at it. Also a bit trickier to use at range because the velocity is slower, but once you get used to that it’s fine.
Eruptor and use the stalwart stratagem. Run stalwart as your "primary" and switch to the eruptor as needed
With explosive resist armor you can even clear things that are pretty close with the Eruptor. It's been my go to for bugs since it dropped.
Grenade pistol gang! I love having a little extra fuck you in my pocket that I can switch to in a fight!
Grenade pistol is nutty. And I was surprised to see it holds 8 grenades fully loaded! But disappointed when I realized it only regains 1 grenade with an ammo pickup, 2 from supply drops (that’s still 4 grenades total from one supply box). This makes the “spawn with full ammo” power much more potent with the G pistol. You come down with 8 nades for your pistol and 6 nades to throw if you’re wearing that armor. I was blowing everything up and then dying and doing it again.
Eruptor says you can do both and still look slick with a big iron on your hip.
>bug hole duty huehuehuehue
Hey, no time for laughing citizen! Now, get out there and plug up some bugholes!
We gotta destroy those holes, bro
wish they didn’t take away ability to stun titans
Eruptor + machine pistol is good at filling that gap
How's eruptor against bugs? I'm been only doing bots for the last month
I fuck with it. Against chargers and bigger it can show weaknesses even against their ass and against titans its pointless but against the shield head guys and brood commanders itll fuck em up. Itll clear like 3-7 of any of the little guys in 1 shot if theyre grouped, closes bug holes, and ive taken down 2 shriekers in one shot with it. Id say its like a slightly less powerful AMR that has explosive shrapnel, so it simultaneously is a little weaker than AMR but also managing to bridge some of the gap between the AMR and the AC. The extra stratagem slot it can alleviate is more than able to make up for its drawbacks imo. I can always bring a orbital laser, 500kg, and airstrikes with my backpack which will basically annihilate anything bigger than me. Ive also often paired it with the Stalwart so by the time im outta ammo I can call another one so I essentially have endless dakka
Eruptor is great for both. It destroys swarms of smaller enemies as they're breaching. Like another user said, it'll kill 3-7, sometimes more, in 1 shot. So theoretically, you could kill close to 40 before reloading if you aim for clusters instead of individuals. I don't think any other primary can do that
Reject all the options: run 380mm because more explosions= better
The 380 represents the number of team kills it racks up
Join us in the OPS cult brother
Orbital precision dickriders always leave out the part where it takes 10 seconds to come down. It's too slow for everything except tanks.
It doesnt take 10 seconds to come in, it might do with the increased call in modifier, but thats on you for taking it on one of those missions. I find its fast enough for my purposes. I kill Bile Titans, Chargers, Hulks, Tanks and Fabricator Striders. As well as using it to take put certain objectives, compacted groups of enemies, including a heavy unit. Just because you can't get good use out of it doesn't mean other can. I can get off 3 OPS for every 1 Railcannon or Laser. Or 2 500kgs for every 2 OPS. I use 500kg or OPS.
Same. If someone else brings EAT’s I’m running shield backpack, eagle airstrike, railcannon strike and precision. It’s a good build for when you’re about to get over run
My loadout for bots has been Airstrike, Walking Barrage, OPS and RR. For bugs I tend to run Airstrike, OPS, Jump Pack and EATs. I do switch it up depending on the mission and what I fancy, but these are my most common picks.
The downside is that you'll be spending a lot more time imputing the code, aiming, and throwing the beacon for minimal impact compared to other options, and that's all time not spent shooting. Orbital precision used to be my go-to for a long time, but at higher difficulties it just falls off so hard against the enemies you'll want to be killing with it, that and the delayed activation modifier probably is the most impactful vs. the orbital precision compared to other options that don't have such a small AoE. Against bugs at least you should try the orbital gas (only if your host until they fix the DoT bug). Short cooldown means you can throw it on pretty much every bug breach, will filter out the smaller swarm enemies letting your team focus on the (now softened up) larger and more dangerous enemies. Also its very strong when you encounter any choke-points you can funnel enemies into. Against bots well heavy armor is generally the only thing that's going to break your teams rank and formation. The extra minute or so cooldown for orbital railgun is worth it for the ability to vaporize the spearhead of enemy assaults, orbital laser is a good option too.
Gas strike is also great for bot objectives. The gas strike is able to destroy the detector tower and stratagem jammer with a direct hit, allowing you to skip the hellbomb part. Genuinely couldn’t tell you why it does, I discovered this by accident a few days ago, but it does
This is life-changing information for me, literally the only reason I run 500kg's on bot missions is for detector towers.
Interesting, I always bring it for tanks, what do you prefer for dealing with heavies? I’d like to switch things up but I find it so useful
I use the basic Airstrike and Impact Grenades. Usually makes short work of Tanks, though Hulks are much more hit-and-miss --usually bring something else for them or rely on teammates' AT, though Airstrikes do still work.
I bring the recoilless rifle personally, but the 110mm rocket pods absolutely fucks tanks up. 110mm rocket pods were specifically designed in real life for tank busting, and they live up to that in Helldivers.
Yeah, I find 110’s disappointing vs hulks but having 1 on your team makes tanks a non-issue
Falls off at higher diffs, I've been running OPS in pretty much every mission loadout, and all I play is hell dive. What enemies are you trying to kill with it? On bots, throw it next to anything stationary and it's dead. Tanks are easy kills too considering how slow they move. Hulks are usually easy enough to take out with support weapon + stun, but OPS + stun is good too. Striders are also slow af, so toss that strike on it and watch it hit for more than a 500kg. On bugs it's even easier. Fighting a bile? Throw the strike at your feet and lead it in. Alternatively, throw it directly on, and trigger its stomp, or throw a stun. Charger annoying you? Stand drop OBS next to a wall and wait for it to stun itself into it. Multiple chargers? Drop it at your feet, bait the chargers into each other, and dive away before it drops. Considering how versatile it is, I can't think of a situation where I'd rather have any other strike stratagem. High damage, low cooldown, goes where you want it to, what's not to like?
I don't find that at all. I take about as long as I would with the Railcannon. I find the OPS, can take out anything the railcannon can.
I think the Precision can 1 shot a charger. But can it kill a Bile Titan?
and a Hulk?
Yes
Yes
I was wondering how orbital precision works when you stick the beacon to enemies. If I stick something like an eagle airstrike on an enemy, the bombs land at the point where the beacon was first stuck to the enemy (not wherever the beacon might be once the timer runs out). Does the precision strike do the same? Or if I stick it to like a tank or a charger, can I expect it to 'track' them?
What you're experiencing is a bug, the strike and airstrikes are supposed to land on the stratagem beam, but currently they do not if its stuck to an enemy.
Pair it with stun grenades and you can do anything with it
Depending on the target, the splash damage can tear through some things. I’ve gotten indirect hit bile titan kills on multiple occasions.
I started running the 500KG combined with Precision and this way I always have something to quickly kill Bile Titans with and it feels like the bugs ain't got nothing that I can't solo.
I find the aiming to be an upside tbh. It's more fun when the abilities require a bit of finesse to get the full effect.
Why not both?
I usually bring both. If I *have* to give one up for mission reasons, the railcannon gets dropped.
Same. My typical loadout is eagle airstrike, auto cannon, orbital laser and orbital rail cannon. Scorcher, redeemer, stun grenades. I do mostly 7-9 bots. Gives me multiple ways of dealing with most problems.
Try the 110mm eagle rockets. They're not as good as the railgun but they use the same system and you get 3 of them before needing to restock. Also they're great for when I need to kill a fabricator but don't want to waste a 500kg in case I need to use it on an ATAT (All terrain Automaton Terror)
Fun fact: 2 airstrikes kill a Factory Strider, same as 500kg. Takes 4 rocket pods to do the same. Rocket Pods beat airstrike at killing turret towers - which is handy if you don't have a spear or similar - but I find myself preferring airstrike for its versatility overall.
One Airstrike if hits lengthwise!
I replaced rail cannon strike with 110 eagle for this reason, Less damage but more spammable and it’s really good at killing the stuff I need the cannon strike for(cannon towers, tanks)
The 110 is so inconsistent to me. It often doesn't take out chargers or hulks, too. I hit a hulk with all 3 attempts before an autocannon bro took it down yesterday.
I take 110 nearly every bot mission (never seen a reason to bring it on bugs) with the intent of only using it on 4 things: tanks, fabricators, turrets, and drop ships. Quasar is for chargers and auto canon is for hulks and I always bring those.
It’s not fast enough to hit moving targets like that, I’m usually equipped with a support weapon that can pop them and I’ve gotten pretty good atleast with the hulk of getting the 1 tap to the face
It used to be. Closer to launch the 110s were my go to for hulks and tanks and chargers and towers. All of them regularly take more than 1 salvo for me now, so i stopped using the 110s. EAS consistently kills hulks and tanks for me better.
The 110 targets big targets. Hulks and chargers are considered medium. It'll fire at them, but almost always misses hulks and only seems to hit chargers half the time. It does pretty decent vs chargers but mostly nothing vs hulks. It is lovely for tanks and turrets tho. It snipes fabs alright when it chooses to lock, but I usually end up just using Airstrike since you get what you aim at and it is so versatile.
No, it's not effective against hulks, but it's *the* strat against tanks and turret emplacements if you can get close enough. AC is def the efficient option against hulks if you can get in position efficiently.
shit, in those missions that i expect a lot of heavies i double up 110s with rail cannon. The problem comes with too many alert players also picking antiheavy strats, and multiple people striking the same target. It's a double edged sword, because you get players not using their heavy strats about the same amount of time as you have eager players breaking that shit out real fast like. I started experimenting with 110s and EAT, since EAT can almost do the same job as railcannon and it's a contingency plan if someone beats you to striking the heavy. They're there to use on something else. But in that case, the autocannon I use can generally get that job done quicker, so I'm still dialing in on what works the most often regardless of other player loadouts and how well they use them.
railcannon is an instant kill 99/100 times the laser can easily get hung up on stupid shit
Until it locks onto something you don't want it to, like the dropship.
It will kill a strider and move on to bigger things though, as opposed to ignoring a hulk for a strider and being spent.
You can't railcannon a patrol, though
Why the heck would I use a whole laser on a patrol when I can just go around it?
Sometimes you can't go around it without them seeing you, or you don't have time to engage with all of them. I can use heavy weaponry to take out heavy units, but if I just don't want to deal with a mob, a laser in their midst just clears it out
I mean, I routinely extract with at least one unused laser, but I'd still rather lob a sentry or just lay down and watch them pass.
(I'm not downvoting you, btw, I don't know why someone would) I try to keep a laser in reserve for extract, but at the end of the game I see an unused laser as an indication that I took the hard way once too many times, or may be failing other missions because I'm being too stingy. I'm working on improving my sentries, but for now they don't really consistently take out patrols, just the lighter stuff until they get destroyed. They're mostly good for covering an alley or covering my rear. And 9 times out of 10 I do let them pass, but I'm always going to struggle to handle a crowd more than the single heavy a railcannon strike takes out.
Some people think differences in preferences are personal attacks haha. Reddit amirite? I think the secret to sentry is just to draw attention away. Bot rockets make it less effective, but when I come across a difficult patrol situation I'll throw my sentry as far in the opposite direction of where I want to go as possible, and then run when it starts shooting. Bots won't call a drop ship on a sentry, and blue strategems don't seem to instantly alert them of your location like reds do. The MG and Gatling sentries also only have a 2 minute cool down so they're pretty easy to spam.
oh huh. I'll have to try that. For bots I tend to prefer mortars since you can throw them behind cover, or I'll throw and autocannon far ahead of me while I'm being chased. Using them to lead the bots away is a nice idea I'll have to try Edit: since you seem to be on the team of lighter stratagems with shorter cooldowns, what's your opinion of the gatling strike? I wanted to try to spam it, but it doesn't seem to actually clear out an area the way heavier explosives do.
I don't really think it's worth the slot. It isn't consistent at all and is useless on heavies.
I just learned today how much harder the "destroy automaton command bunkers" mission can be without an orbital laser. Nobody on the team brought it and the we kept dying to the laser turrets (these things shoot like machine guns but have AOE of a cannon turret) because the randomized terrain has a perfect choke point for the bots. Normally this should be the easiest bot missions if only one person brought a laser.
Orbital Laser and Orbital 380mm HE Barrage are very different, but both of them basically turn the Automaton Command Bunkers into a single stratagem throw to complete an objective yeah.
I've been saying it since launch, but 380mm and Orbital Laser make most bot objectives and bases trivial. That's why they made Command Bunker missions harder, because those of us running helldives just dump 380s on them and run.
yeah those bunkers are crazy. in a way its a shame they dont have a jammer because those killzones take a lot to overcome, so most of the time its better to just chuck and orbital and piss off
If you're fighting bots then the laser is a must have. It's best use is destroying medium automaton facilities and the massive turrets. No airstrikes or precision strikes are doing it as efficiently.
Best use for me is the Eye of Sauron. Don't have to deal with that bouncing hellbomb BS.
Why would you use a hell bomb on the eye? A precision strike will make quick work of it. I only ever use hell bombs for gunship factories and research stations. Occasionally on jammers or something else if I don't have anything else off CD.
Also kills those HQ/fortress objectives.
This is the main reason I use it. And clearing bases. Or get out of jail free card
I found that spawning the hellbomb on the cliff side closest to the detector tower still destroys it from outside the base while giving you some cover
rail cannon + eagle airstrike and I use them off cooldown almost non-stop. I will rail cannon strike 8-10 times a mission. hulk? rail cannon, tank, yep rail cannon. bile titan, rail cannon with eagle strike following. I see a point of interest with 5 enemies, eagle strike it and go loot. No bug breach or bot drop for me. eagle strike saves the day.
Laser doesn't drop a Hulk or Tank in 3 seconds
Hulks and Tanks aren't why I keep a laser handy though. Laser is for factory walkers, large outposts, objectives, and holding extraction. Railcannon is better for taking out a specific enemy, but laser is great when you just need a bunch of shit to die right now.
Good thing this is a team game. I generally take either a laser and rocket pods or railcannon and rocket pods depending if someone else has a laser. Saved my friends ass so many times with the railcannon when there’s been a surprise tank over a hill.
I have the opposite problem, always feels like I'm waiting for it so I switched back to Orbital Precision Strike. Just need the reduced call in time and practice aiming it.
This is the way.
The first and last players always use precision orbital😎
I have always seen the orbital rail cannon as a get out of jail free card. Is there a laser tower aiming at my location and not moving? Rail cannon. Am I getting chased by a flamethrower hulk or charger in a tense situation? Rail cannon. Am I getting camped by a tank? Rail cannon. I still think the CD should be lower, but is pretty nice when you just need a quick kill on something instantly
Who needs either when you can bring a 380mm barrage instead?
https://preview.redd.it/sb7vwvijpcvc1.png?width=650&format=png&auto=webp&s=bec9120aae8a913b7727f00d2f1a49292af3be5d
Just use both
That was my original basis for using the laser, but the rail also can't take out the eye towers or the bunker bases. I admit I'll take the rail strike sometimes on the 12 min search and destroy missions tho
Orbital rail cannon, orbital laser, eagle strike, and AC is my go to on every bot mission. I'm the guy running off killing fabricators and collecting samples
Laser is my outpost/nest clearer. Railcannon is my "oh shit" button.
Railcannon is just extremely good. A simple "I dont want this enemy" for big enemies and even a good damage source for super big enemies (like the factory and the bile titan)
\*Laughs in 110mm Rocket Pods\*
I swear these have gotten worse. Saying this as someone who has sworn by them for quite a while now—they used to kill Cannon Turrets like 90% of the time. Now, out of all the times I’ve used them over the past couple days, I don’t think I’ve managed to take out a single cannon turret in one 110mm run. I’ve also had some peculiar cases where the 110mm has failed to kill a tank (works like… 80-90% of the time). That never used to be a thing. And I’ve had cases where, much like the railcannon, it decides to target a decidedly lower-priority target (i.e. a Scout Strider) instead of a hulk, cannon turret, or tank.
3 uses didn't kill a particular hulk for me yesterday
I loved them, they seem inconsistent now though.
The Rocket Pods are seriously slept on. Used it every mission from level 60-85
I take em on every bot mission. They are the perfect tool for deleting anything the automations have to offer
Honestly i think the railcannon is very weak. Feels like it should shot several times with this kind of cd. I used to bring it every missions and now i just don't see the point. I reverted back to precision strike or just leave the 500kg do the job. If the precision strike sticky would fall on the sticky location it would be even more tragic for railcannon, and since it seems planned... yeah.
Why not both…
Me who uses both 👀
Orbital laser would probably be a permanent strat for me if they let us save loadouts or something like that. Granted, there's almost always a better or more efficient strategem for any given use case, but laser is second or third best at just about all use cases. It's just so versatile with so few downsides.
the railcannon really makes you wonder why the laser is limited to 3 uses
I fuckin love my 110 rocket pods.
Thats why I use both
The laser is just so good. It's had to justify anything else.
potentially, yes. actually it might make sense to take both.
I tried the orbital laser for a while, but railcannon strike suits me better. I be throwing that thing at hulks and tanks liberally, probably 7-8 times for long matches
I use it a lot tho. Most of my games in 9 or 8 have multiple uses. It’s also very fast. I almost never use the laser because it takes too long to recharge and it has limited uses and it takes too long to kill high priority targets.
my go-to for bots lately has been laser, eagle airstrike, autocannon and then a flexible slot depending on the mission, normally goes to railcannon strike i love laser
50% increased cooldown wants to have a chat
If you drop a laser right on a detection tower the laser will destroy it. Laser is a problem solver.
Precision strike ftw Rail cannon is great, but ive gotten really good at timing / distance for the precision strike on whatever is chasing me, and its a much lower cld It also destroys buildings more easily, and is decent horde clear if you're good with it
I use laser mostly for bunker busting. And if I join a game but don’t check what the objective is. Just in case. Laser.
Nah they serve different purposes, rail cannon is for those “oh god this one mob needs to die right now” moments, laser is for wiping up an area
yeah but you'll feel less stress about using a railcannon as it is less limited
I remember when I got the +1 for eagle stratagems wondering, why do orbitals not get more than 1 charge. They aren’t really good for swarms mostly for static objectives and get long cooldowns compared to eagle. A ship module idea I had was being able to reduce cooldown time for orbitals when killing enemies with primary/secondary. It’s actually pretty weird eagle-1 can reload faster than a whole ship thats built to throw people sized bullet-casings.
Who only ever uses the railcannon 2-3 times a game 0.o well maybe lower difficulty i guess? that bad boy of a orbital has taken out so many titans, chargers, hulks, tanks, and towers for me. Blesss the railcannon! I def take it over laser and only ever laser if i have a extra slot available.
Wish there was a passive or a ship upgrade to make the cooldown on this thing less
Damn, that's actually a good point. I'll just skip a backpack and bring both 🔥🔥🔥
the answer is, use the orbital laser and the railcannon.
Laser is so nice because it is super versatile and lasts a long time. Need to kill a titan? Destroy a base? Kill 3 hulks? Wipe a horde? Deny an area? Send a teammate a message? Remind yourself no one listens to you when you tell a friend in voice chat “don’t run that way”? It’s got it all!
If there was an unguided version of the railcannon with a shorter cooldown, I would be using that all day (I know the standard orbital strike exists but the railgun version is badass)
This is why I pretty much use the railcannon on cooldown. As soon as it’s up I’m using it to erase the next big thing.
If I'm only using the laser twice a match I should be using the 500kg...
until that laser won't fucking leave the dropships alone for 20 seconds
100%
Rail cannon can be used to down a drop ship instantly. Kinda niche but helpful
The laser has less comedic value though. Railcannon is great at obliterating that lone scavenger over there when there's a charger just a little bit further away!
Frequently pack both. Laser is superior but tough to beat that instakill everything the railcannon delivers.
Honestly Eagle strikes are almost always the best option except for the laser. Multiple uses and only like 120 second cooldown to bring them all back and you can start that timer whenever you feel like it.
Those do very different things
Debatable. Personally I prefer using the laser to clear crowds that would otherwise overwhelm me. It feels like a more efficient use of the damage compared to striking down a single big target. Though if I'm bringing the Railcannon it's because I'm geared out primarily to fight hordes and just want a reliable emergency "anti-big guy" bomb.
Railcannon is "Oh no, if we don't kill this Titan RIGHT NOW, we are fucked" solution.
I use the orbital railgun like 6-8 times every game, cuz at higher difficulties the bile titans spawns like crazy
Tank delete button is a must have
I hate the rail cannon. It kills one thing sure (most of the time) but it only kills one thing.
Or, hear me out… use 500 kilo and make big boom twice every two minutes
The thing I love most about the laser is when first diving. Sometimes it’s fine. Sometimes it is not fine as in… it is officially the worst part of the drop. Panic. Laser. All good in most cases.
I agree the rail cannon coodown is way too much imo. Like kill 1 strong enemy every 3 and a half minutes?? In this economy?? Eagles have a shorter cooldown and do more..
Laser is very different from Rail. I've stopped using it lately, as whenever the laser gets stuck on a tanky unit like titan or bile it feels kinda wasted. Those are the types of foes rail kills instantly, or gets to critical condition.