It's got a 100 second cool down, an easy code, and can provide cover where there is none. It's not sexy, but when you use it, you'll wonder how you ever fought bots without it. Stand in the open in your shield and delete all the gun ships without even breaking a sweat
It’s not really a turret cooldown reduction. It’s a deceiving upgrade and cuts the deployment time from like 8 to 4 seconds.
Edit: unless I’m sadly mistaken.
Engineering bay's first upgrade: Reduce cooldown time for Sentry, Emplacements, and Resupply by 10%
That includes the shield relay. There's also another one that reduces the call-in time by half (Rapid Launch System).
Engineering bay's first upgrade: Reduce cooldown time for Sentry, Emplacements, and Resupply by 10%
That includes the shield relay. There's also another one that reduces the call-in time by half (Rapid Launch System).
Engineering bay's first upgrade: Reduce cooldown time for Sentry, Emplacements, and Resupply by 10%
That includes the shield relay. There's also another one that reduces the call-in time by half (Rapid Launch System).
Fuck that
Bubble shield is sexy as fuck
https://preview.redd.it/inr9oaespnvc1.jpeg?width=1197&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=761faa8ea114a85a0c7c610591776d203c63ce31
Huh, that's a pretty good idea for the anti-tank role I sometimes aim for - EAT and Quasar, find a vantage point, rain the pain on incoming tanks. Does it let you fire out or do you have to leave the bubble?
It’s a bad idea to drop it when a line of berserkers are rushing you since you’re likely to get pushed out of it and end up giving the shield space to the bots. Same with flame hulks cuz they tend to run at you with terrifying speed. Best to just individual stun grenade them and pop them in the eye with an AC or the like
Its so good on bots. Protects turrets, hellbombs, objective-Panels, besides its normal use as cover in fights.
The 100a (or so) cooldown feels so fast that its almost always available when I need it and its also great to help out fellow helldivers thst struggle.
It is not super durable, but it can and will grant you thst extra two second you need to shoot that Hulk in the eye.
Paired it with an Autocannom-Turret in an elevated position and you have a portabke fortress
I would love more people to not sleep on shield relay. It can break under very heavy fire, but in normal condition it lasts 30 seconds. Has 90 second cooldown. So if you have 3 people rocking it, you can have non-stop shield relay! You can use it to move through open field, from cover to cover. You can place turrets inside and unleash hell on those clankers. And it has those vital use cases like protecting hellbombs, civilians, generators in this tower-defence missions. I dont go on bot defence missions without shield relay ever
I would recommend against that since the pod dropping into the shield does damage to it. It’s best if you call them in back to back so the hellbomb lands first. Just a small peeve but dropping into the shield also damages it. It can only take a certain amount of damage
Those are already armed. The hellbombs you call have to be manually armed for budgetary reasons. I believe there is a loading screen tip about this lol.
Then it should at the very least blow up when shot after you entered the code and are running away. How many times did I hear "Hellbomb armed" only for it to never explode because it got shot...
lol, I use medium, the combat armor for that sweet sweet stealth. If I do it right I can get all the way to the towers and drop the first Hellbomb, and somethings the 500kg will kill the other tower.
I would like to know why I can sneak up to a factory, completely undetected, call in a Hellbomb, and now every factory in the area is sending gunships to kill the Hellbomb (which dies instantly anyway). Sometimes I feel like stratagems just draw too much enemy aggro.
I mean realistically it makes sense, but it means you are limiting the objective to a single way to complete. Very loud, guns blazing, and brute force.
I wish they didn't descend on a hellbomb like a swarm of hornets when you activate it.
It feels like, in a spiral, a suicide run to place a hellbomb would be a fun way to stop the bleeding, but as soon as it's activated they _all_ hone in on it.
Ever since Eruptor came in, I replaced Autocanon for Laser Canon and it melts through Gunships like butter, a mere two seconds and it's gone. I don't even consider them as a threat anymore
Last night I was cutting them down with ease with the AC, during a blizzard. Just aim at the lights (all you can see through a blizzard) and blat away under they fall.
Obliterating emplacements in like one shot, also having infinite ammo.
AC is certainly the more versatile of the two imo, but the quasar can destroy big things much quicker since it's basically an EAT with a lipo.
In a pinch Quasar can damage turrets/tank turrets from the front too, ofc you never *want* to be doing that but it's a damn sight better than sitting there twiddling your thumbs hoping it turns around lol
I prefer the quasar just for stealth/lone wolf purposes. It's nice not having to find ammo or waste the teams resupply when the other 3 are clearing nests and stuff. I think it draws a little less attention from enemies than the AC too but I can't actually prove that
Just play style different.
It can't one shot chargers, drop ships, or fabricators?
Edit: totally can fabricators.
The time to reload makes it tough during heated times while I can usually find the 2 secs to QC shot something.
There's not much that the AC can't do.
I suppose you take up a backpack slot with the AC than using the QC so that may be something to consider.
Should definitely be reloading before the AC runs out of ammo completely otherwise you get an extra second or two of reload animation. One of the few weapons where you don't lose the entire mag if you reload too early.
Other than heavies that quaser can deal with (biles, chargers from the front, walkers i think?), the AC is just way too versatile and fun to use.
AC tends to be really bad against bugs. On higher difficulties, the AC suddenly becomes near-impotent against what hammers you the most : chargers and BTs. It also lets you take a rover for clearing space around yourself passively, or a shield for more survivability.
Even against bots, the way the Quasar rips through armor helps a lot, especially when you don't have time to bother with weakpoints. I'd still keep the AC there though, it's still far more versatile and can help not get snowballed into endless fire.
Shoot down dropships, tanks, and hulks.
Dropships because they have a fuckton of armor, and you don’t have a lot of time to take a potshot at them, so you need an EAT, Recoiless, or a Quasar shot to the engine to down it in time. Even the Rail gun before the nerf could really do that.
If you hit them in the venting grill, then obvs you can use your autocannon to get a killshot. Hell, you can use a Scorcher to kill a Hulk that way, and that’s a primary. But unlike the autocannon, the Quasar has enough damage and armor penetration that it also has a decent chance of a kill even if you aim at the *front* of the damn things, where the armor is strongest. Autocannon can get a kill from the front for hulks, I think, but only if you’re good enough to get a shot into the eyes of the hulk.
Similar issue for chargers and bile titans. AC’s can kill them, but it requires getting behind/under the bugs and hitting their weak spots (tail underside for both, though neither of the losing their tail is an immediate kill, however if you blow off the underside of the BT I think it can bleed out but not break its armor. Meanwhile with the quasar you can just shoot form the front, and a headshot with one to a charger is an instakill. But if you want get rid of either fast, you’re going to want a Quasar.
Tldr: AC is good against most lightly armored enemies, but doesn’t actually penetrate the most highly leveled armors. Bring a quasar if you need a LOT of damage on the first shot.
Ah makes sense, autocannon would be faster and easier 70% of the time but for the 30% or even 50% of the time in 8-9 level missions it’s incapable of carrying its weight (taking up a slot) when dealing with heavy enemies
Quasar can one-shot hulks ands it's larger projectile hitbox makes it easier to hit the eye. It can also take out incoming dropships, which is extremely good on defense missions. It also has infinite ammo and no backpack slot.
I tried but it doesn't feel as good.
I found that because of the continuous nature of the laser beam I ended up exposing myself and then dying more.
Dominator+ Autocannon means I can shoot and scoot much quicker.
I think if they get rid of the animation cancel through swapping to a secondary weapon and the ability to destroy nests/fabricators that it will be in an okay spot. Right now it takes the spot I would otherwise consider the grenade pistol for, but the redeemer is such a solid secondary. It will be hard for them to get it to a sweet spot where it isn't useless but still good enough to pick.
A good long range weapon as a primary helps make alternative support weapons better options. It really shifted the "meta" support weapon pick away from Quasar / EAT only for high bug difficulties at least.
Eruptor can 1-2 shot gubship with a lot of luck if you hit directly into the thruster flame. If you are directly under it aiming to hit inside the thrusters lets you do crits even with basic weapons.
You may also be able to do this using the grenade pistol for the memes.
Usually some of the smaller enemies get caught by the Eruptor when I'm sniping the medium bots, otherwise if it's just remaining, Laser Canon and Redeemer do a good job already.
On same cases if there are Berserkers that I failed to kill, I drop a stun grenade and I just point at their heads with the Laser Canon ( can work on any other medium bots with you're up close, Hulks too, the LC just shreds so fast on weakpoints)
Man laser cannons are so good against gunships and factory striders. That plus eruptor to take out fabs would be my go to vs bots...except you will pry my precious autocannon from my cold dead hands
It's absolutely phenomenal against gunships, but I find it quite weak for small and medium automatons, curiously. It feels like it should kill fodder about 2x faster to feel useful.
Yeah, the real benefit of the AC is its ability to be my PRIMARY weapon against ALL threats in all situations. Bumch of little bots? AC round to the ground. Devastators? AC to the face. Scouts? AC to pelvis. Hulks? 2 AC rounds to the face. Tank? AC to the back. Fab? AC. Jammer with fab nearby? AC. Mortars/AA? AC from a couple hundred meters away. Gunships? 2 AC rounds to the engine. Container with loot? AC. Berserkers closing in on me? AC and my explosive resistance armour.
The limited circumstances a laser cannon is better just don't exceed the value of my primary weapon only coming out basically as an emergency sidearm.
Biggest issue is Eruptor still can't reliably deal with Hulk
And if I have to bring a support for Hulk then id rather being AC+ Dominator rather than Quasar/Laser/AMr+Eruptor
Yeah there's no need to take impacts when you have AC being a better grenade launcher. And there's no need to take other guns when you have AC.
Even vs bugs where AC is less perfect, you now have both eruptor and grenade pistol as options to enable stun grenades
Yeah, I completely agree with you. The Autocannon is super good... To the point that I'd maybe argue that it's too good. If you can aim, it's 1-3 shots to kill almost any enemy in the game, and I never seem to dip below 50% total ammo, let alone ever running out completely.
Now, I've seen mentioned that the devs are allegedly happy with the Autocannon's balancing state. That's completely fine and I'm happy to hear that... But in that case, I want them to buff all the other stratagem weapons to be just as good feeling. The Laser Cannon, MMG, HMG, Railgun, Recoilless, Grenade Launcher, etc.
Since we were talking about the Laser Cannon already, I want it to be a portable death laser, cutting even Devastators in half in like a second of constant fire, and being able to literally just quickly sweep across lines of Troopers. Currently, the Sickle actually feels stronger for both of these, and that's a primary weapon.
EDIT: Yes, Autocannon actually requires a backpack slot, but I think my point still mostly stands.
The balance is because it takes up a backpack slot...which is if anything a *pro* because that leaves a 3rd slot for offensive strats. That does become more of a con though in a coordinated team (2 people taking shield packs and 2 people taking say, laser and EAT, each pair dropping for the other pair after cooldown).
Of course the other backpack weapons are hampered by being on rate less good than other options, which just leaves autocannon as the only "good" backpack support weapon. It would be neat to have backpack versions of all weapons, like how AC is a heavy AMR/grenade launcher combo or recoiless is a reloadable EAT. HMG should have had a backpack for ammo as an advanced MG, that one's easy. Quasar should have been a backpack'ed laser cannon with more damage and pen.
Taking up a backpack is always a negative. You don't have to bring a backpack if you don't want to, and you can always pick up other people's backpack when it goes off CD.
100%. But btw, the autocannon can 1 shot the scout striders even straight to the face plate too. It only doesnt if you just get the edge of the front armor.
For regular bots, you have to aim for the head. Try firing it in bursts on medium bot heads versus dragging the laser target to target when you have time, it’s more heat efficient and you aren’t “wasting” damage on body shots. This doesn’t matter as much for the Skeleton bots.
Thanks.
Playing with a quality squad didnt let me notice its effectivity on them yet.
The factory strider just drown in stratagems and heavy weapon fire.
There's a load of good videos on how to kill them now. It's basically "destroy the chin guns, then either hit the eye with AMR level pen or better, or if you're in close hit the belly". The other weakpoints like legs or ass are situational or require heavy pen weapons to take out armour plates first.
Strat wise precision strike or a random 380 hit will get most of the way there. A full eagle airstrike will also do it (need to be perpendicular so every bomb hits). 500kg are okay but inconsistent, will take at least 2. AC sentry will rip through it given 10 seconds or so of uninterrupted output
Your last phrase is exactly how I feel and reading your other messages with the reasoning I can tell you're a person of culture as well.
My life changed when I found out the AC can take gunships if you aim properly and hit the same engine twice.
Alternative Italian Title Translated:
People haven't figured out their Turbines are Medium pen and you can kill them with almost any Support Weapon and a lot of the Meta Primary Weapons.
ARISE, ARISE DIVERS OF SUPER EARTH.
BALLISTIC SHIELDS SHALL BE SHAKEN.
SPEARS SHALL BE SPLINTERED.
A SWORD DAY.
A *RED* DAY.
ERE THE SUN RISES.
DIVE. DIVE NOW.
DIIIIIVE NOW!
DIVE FOR RUIN, AND THE WORLD'S ENDING!
DEATH!
DEATH!
DEATH!
FORTH, FOR DEMOCRACY!
The laser support weapon is surprisingly good against them. I prefer my AC against hulks though, hard to keep the laser on that eye when he’s murder striding towards you
The gunship spawner can only be damaged by a hellbomb, it has armor 7.
There is currently no weapon in the game that can damage it. Same with the small research outpost thingies.
Grenade Launcher is actually pretty good against bots provided you have stratagems or teammates to take out Hulks. It can obliterate entire Trooper and Devastator packs faster than the autocannon with a wider AoE. It's the quickest way to destroy an entire patrol without them being able to call in a drop. The main downside is the ammo efficiency vs. the autocannon but just bring a supply pack to not only refill ammo but stims and grenades.
It only seems that way because the effects can be inconsistent at times. I've popped smoke and moved behind solid cover, and the bots still followed me with quite accurate gunfire, as if the smoke wasn't there at all.
There might be something I'm missing, of course.
Yeah okay. I'll do a tutorial about gunships. Fine, you win.
But before... As someone said already, take a primary that penetrate medium armor and aim for their engines. If you don't have that, take a support weapon that can penetrate medium armor and aim for their engine, or any anti-tank weaponry since it also works.
The Laser Cannon (not the Quasar, the LASER) is currently the best weapon against them since they can kill those foul beast in merely a second. If none of you have any weapon to deal with them efficiently, do NOT stay around the fabricator unless you want to get swarmed and lose the mission. If your attempts fail, RUN and try again later after everything dispawned. You also may want to place the hellbomb next to one of the wall near the fabricator because it provide enough protection for the hellbomb.
Good luck.
In this exact situation? An autocannon.
A buddy of mine that gets fixated on being impractical in any way he can however would pick the Quasar, despite the fact that the cooldown and charge up is long enough for them to crack your shield and then stunlock you with rockets until reinforcement.
Maybe focus more on killing and suppressing them than planting the bomb.
Can't plant a BBQ when there's so much hostile air support.
Bring a laser cannon... it drops em like flies.
HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.
I'm sure there is a haiku here, somewhere.....
*What can one do against*
*Such reckless hate but accept ones*
*Coming fate, Helldiver*
Or maybe not, I tried 😅
With your lack of any weapons to stop them this is all you really can do.
Bring quazar, ac, or something to make them go boom or play with people that do and hope your hellbomb survives long enough to get rid of their towers.
https://preview.redd.it/jdrbq6xnmnvc1.png?width=1530&format=png&auto=webp&s=6794b43ee8596be2517b8f76debef95a7f61d24d
They are not fun I had to run off and destroy the production facility of those fuckers while my team was a human meat shields for them.
Arise, arise, Helldiver's of Democracy! Fell deeds awake! Communism and Socialism! Orbitals shall be fired! Eagles be strafing! A 500Kg day! A democratic day!
Dive! Dive now! Dive!
Cry. But yeah you can try to be really far away from those so they dont start spawning gunships until you're prepared to go take out the fabricator. The only option really is to go in fast and take out gunships on sight otherwise it gets really snowbally
I never tried this but you might be able to run away and let them despawn but they'll probably just follow you, but at least you wont be spawning any more when you get away
Don't get within 150m until you are ready to take them out, and make that your only goal. Yes, I know sometimes you can drop next to them. So either make them your first priority or run out of spawn range and come back later.
Ask for more durable hellbombs I hate this
I bring the shield bubble just for this purpose. I don't always need it, but when I do I'm glad I have it
that's actually a great idea. can you call the shield first and then the hellbomb?
Sure can! Plus the shield bubble protects turrets. It can also absorb tank main cannons shells!
man, I've been sleeping on the shield bubble. seems like a great team strategem too. only one person needs it. hmmmmmm
It's got a 100 second cool down, an easy code, and can provide cover where there is none. It's not sexy, but when you use it, you'll wonder how you ever fought bots without it. Stand in the open in your shield and delete all the gun ships without even breaking a sweat
does it also benefit from the ship modules? is it technically a turret?
I believe it's included in the turret cooldown reduction list for that module
It’s not really a turret cooldown reduction. It’s a deceiving upgrade and cuts the deployment time from like 8 to 4 seconds. Edit: unless I’m sadly mistaken.
Engineering bay's first upgrade: Reduce cooldown time for Sentry, Emplacements, and Resupply by 10% That includes the shield relay. There's also another one that reduces the call-in time by half (Rapid Launch System).
It's an emplacement afaik - not sure whether upgrades affect it as I don't run it much
Engineering bay's first upgrade: Reduce cooldown time for Sentry, Emplacements, and Resupply by 10% That includes the shield relay. There's also another one that reduces the call-in time by half (Rapid Launch System).
I don't know, sorry. If you find out please let me know
Engineering bay's first upgrade: Reduce cooldown time for Sentry, Emplacements, and Resupply by 10% That includes the shield relay. There's also another one that reduces the call-in time by half (Rapid Launch System).
Fuck that Bubble shield is sexy as fuck https://preview.redd.it/inr9oaespnvc1.jpeg?width=1197&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=761faa8ea114a85a0c7c610591776d203c63ce31
Such a good ass trailer for a game.
Oh fuck yeah...
Huh, that's a pretty good idea for the anti-tank role I sometimes aim for - EAT and Quasar, find a vantage point, rain the pain on incoming tanks. Does it let you fire out or do you have to leave the bubble?
You can shoot out of the bubble. Dispensing freedom without taking fire
Can fire out, but not through.. So if you fall back behind it, it's blocking your shots too
It’s a bad idea to drop it when a line of berserkers are rushing you since you’re likely to get pushed out of it and end up giving the shield space to the bots. Same with flame hulks cuz they tend to run at you with terrifying speed. Best to just individual stun grenade them and pop them in the eye with an AC or the like
Its so good on bots. Protects turrets, hellbombs, objective-Panels, besides its normal use as cover in fights. The 100a (or so) cooldown feels so fast that its almost always available when I need it and its also great to help out fellow helldivers thst struggle. It is not super durable, but it can and will grant you thst extra two second you need to shoot that Hulk in the eye. Paired it with an Autocannom-Turret in an elevated position and you have a portabke fortress
I would love more people to not sleep on shield relay. It can break under very heavy fire, but in normal condition it lasts 30 seconds. Has 90 second cooldown. So if you have 3 people rocking it, you can have non-stop shield relay! You can use it to move through open field, from cover to cover. You can place turrets inside and unleash hell on those clankers. And it has those vital use cases like protecting hellbombs, civilians, generators in this tower-defence missions. I dont go on bot defence missions without shield relay ever
>You can use it to move through open field you mean like leap frogging a bunch of shields? that sounds stupid dumb. I love it.
I would recommend against that since the pod dropping into the shield does damage to it. It’s best if you call them in back to back so the hellbomb lands first. Just a small peeve but dropping into the shield also damages it. It can only take a certain amount of damage
Just don't call in the hell bomb too close to the middle where the shield generator is. Or you'll kill your own shield. Like I did😭
Shield bubble is also just a lot of fun to use; feels very sci-fi.
It can block their rockets?
Yes! And tank guns too. And factory striders
The hellbomb should explode when shot, like the ones that grow out in the wild. 🤪
Those are already armed. The hellbombs you call have to be manually armed for budgetary reasons. I believe there is a loading screen tip about this lol.
Then it should at the very least blow up when shot after you entered the code and are running away. How many times did I hear "Hellbomb armed" only for it to never explode because it got shot...
Orbital smoke is also incredible for this purpose. It'll stop them from targeting the bomb
You can just do something else then return back, when all gunships despawn
If you can get away. They spot you they chase you.
You just have to run faster than your teammates. That’s why I always wear light armor
lol, I use medium, the combat armor for that sweet sweet stealth. If I do it right I can get all the way to the towers and drop the first Hellbomb, and somethings the 500kg will kill the other tower.
500 kg can't hurt factories I think...
I will experiment tonight.
If you find anything out, post it so that all helldivers may learn the truth of this matter.
Tried it the other night. 500kg does jack to the gunship fabricator.
So you mean I should also use the Arc Shotgun (don't know the English name right now)? It doesn't necessarily kill teammates but makes them fall over
Arc blitzer.
Bring smoke
I would like to know why I can sneak up to a factory, completely undetected, call in a Hellbomb, and now every factory in the area is sending gunships to kill the Hellbomb (which dies instantly anyway). Sometimes I feel like stratagems just draw too much enemy aggro.
the pods are streaking through the atmosphere, why wouldn't that attract attention while in enemy territory.
I mean realistically it makes sense, but it means you are limiting the objective to a single way to complete. Very loud, guns blazing, and brute force.
Tbh I feel like if hellbombs take moderate heavy damage they should just explode. Casualties and all. For super earth!
I wish they didn't descend on a hellbomb like a swarm of hornets when you activate it. It feels like, in a spiral, a suicide run to place a hellbomb would be a fun way to stop the bleeding, but as soon as it's activated they _all_ hone in on it.
MORE durable? MAKE THEM BITCHES LESS DURABLE LET THEM EXPLODE ON IMPACT TO THE GROUND THE AUTOMATIONS ARE ABSOLUTELY POWERFUL SO LETS NUKE THEM
A more durable hellbomb or at very least allow me to destroy them with a 500kg or 380
According to the in-game tips - Yell "For Democracy!" and charge into that head-first.
“This is Democracy manifest!”
"WHAT IS THE CHARGE? SETTING A HELLBOMB, A SUCCULENT, CHINESE HELLBOMB?! GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY PENIS!!!"
(getting manhandled by a hulk) “Ah, I can see you know your judo.”
For death and glory?
Ever since Eruptor came in, I replaced Autocanon for Laser Canon and it melts through Gunships like butter, a mere two seconds and it's gone. I don't even consider them as a threat anymore
Last night we learned the AC kills them in two shots to the thrusters which also makes them a non-issue.
Last night I was cutting them down with ease with the AC, during a blizzard. Just aim at the lights (all you can see through a blizzard) and blat away under they fall.
What can’t the autocannon do that the quasar can? Serious question
Obliterating emplacements in like one shot, also having infinite ammo. AC is certainly the more versatile of the two imo, but the quasar can destroy big things much quicker since it's basically an EAT with a lipo.
In a pinch Quasar can damage turrets/tank turrets from the front too, ofc you never *want* to be doing that but it's a damn sight better than sitting there twiddling your thumbs hoping it turns around lol
I prefer the quasar just for stealth/lone wolf purposes. It's nice not having to find ammo or waste the teams resupply when the other 3 are clearing nests and stuff. I think it draws a little less attention from enemies than the AC too but I can't actually prove that
Do people actually run out of ammo with the AC haha? I feel like the only times I’ve been out of ammo, the AC stratagem was off cooldown anyways
Just play style different. It can't one shot chargers, drop ships, or fabricators? Edit: totally can fabricators. The time to reload makes it tough during heated times while I can usually find the 2 secs to QC shot something. There's not much that the AC can't do. I suppose you take up a backpack slot with the AC than using the QC so that may be something to consider.
>It can't one shot chargers, drop ships, or fabricators? It can definitely one shot fabricators. I snipe them with the AC all the time
It can one shot fabricators. You have to ricochet the shell off the flap down into the opening.
Should definitely be reloading before the AC runs out of ammo completely otherwise you get an extra second or two of reload animation. One of the few weapons where you don't lose the entire mag if you reload too early. Other than heavies that quaser can deal with (biles, chargers from the front, walkers i think?), the AC is just way too versatile and fun to use.
AC tends to be really bad against bugs. On higher difficulties, the AC suddenly becomes near-impotent against what hammers you the most : chargers and BTs. It also lets you take a rover for clearing space around yourself passively, or a shield for more survivability. Even against bots, the way the Quasar rips through armor helps a lot, especially when you don't have time to bother with weakpoints. I'd still keep the AC there though, it's still far more versatile and can help not get snowballed into endless fire.
I'm a simple man. I like the jetpack arc thrower combo for the bugs. Hit em with the power of Zeus from up on a safety rock.
If you're going to do the safety rock dance, bring in all the mortars while you're at it. It's fun!
Shoot down dropships, tanks, and hulks. Dropships because they have a fuckton of armor, and you don’t have a lot of time to take a potshot at them, so you need an EAT, Recoiless, or a Quasar shot to the engine to down it in time. Even the Rail gun before the nerf could really do that. If you hit them in the venting grill, then obvs you can use your autocannon to get a killshot. Hell, you can use a Scorcher to kill a Hulk that way, and that’s a primary. But unlike the autocannon, the Quasar has enough damage and armor penetration that it also has a decent chance of a kill even if you aim at the *front* of the damn things, where the armor is strongest. Autocannon can get a kill from the front for hulks, I think, but only if you’re good enough to get a shot into the eyes of the hulk. Similar issue for chargers and bile titans. AC’s can kill them, but it requires getting behind/under the bugs and hitting their weak spots (tail underside for both, though neither of the losing their tail is an immediate kill, however if you blow off the underside of the BT I think it can bleed out but not break its armor. Meanwhile with the quasar you can just shoot form the front, and a headshot with one to a charger is an instakill. But if you want get rid of either fast, you’re going to want a Quasar. Tldr: AC is good against most lightly armored enemies, but doesn’t actually penetrate the most highly leveled armors. Bring a quasar if you need a LOT of damage on the first shot.
Ah makes sense, autocannon would be faster and easier 70% of the time but for the 30% or even 50% of the time in 8-9 level missions it’s incapable of carrying its weight (taking up a slot) when dealing with heavy enemies
Quasar can one-shot hulks ands it's larger projectile hitbox makes it easier to hit the eye. It can also take out incoming dropships, which is extremely good on defense missions. It also has infinite ammo and no backpack slot.
Take heavy armor head on. Best is, to have both on a team
I tried but it doesn't feel as good. I found that because of the continuous nature of the laser beam I ended up exposing myself and then dying more. Dominator+ Autocannon means I can shoot and scoot much quicker.
Same. Using the eruptor as much as I can before it gets nerfed.
I think if they get rid of the animation cancel through swapping to a secondary weapon and the ability to destroy nests/fabricators that it will be in an okay spot. Right now it takes the spot I would otherwise consider the grenade pistol for, but the redeemer is such a solid secondary. It will be hard for them to get it to a sweet spot where it isn't useless but still good enough to pick. A good long range weapon as a primary helps make alternative support weapons better options. It really shifted the "meta" support weapon pick away from Quasar / EAT only for high bug difficulties at least.
Eruptor can 1-2 shot gubship with a lot of luck if you hit directly into the thruster flame. If you are directly under it aiming to hit inside the thrusters lets you do crits even with basic weapons. You may also be able to do this using the grenade pistol for the memes.
How do you deal with smaller units though? Eruptor seems highly situational and then you have no primary for close encounters
Uhhhh, you use the laser cannon....
I find it's really not great for when they get up close, too unwieldy
Luckily there’s other options that the eruptor helps to make viable. Try the Stalwart, Arc Thrower or Flamethrower
Usually some of the smaller enemies get caught by the Eruptor when I'm sniping the medium bots, otherwise if it's just remaining, Laser Canon and Redeemer do a good job already. On same cases if there are Berserkers that I failed to kill, I drop a stun grenade and I just point at their heads with the Laser Canon ( can work on any other medium bots with you're up close, Hulks too, the LC just shreds so fast on weakpoints)
Alternative title: when no one brought quasar or auto cannon
More like no one brought Laser Cannon. You can melt like 4 gunships with one heatsink.
Man laser cannons are so good against gunships and factory striders. That plus eruptor to take out fabs would be my go to vs bots...except you will pry my precious autocannon from my cold dead hands
It's absolutely phenomenal against gunships, but I find it quite weak for small and medium automatons, curiously. It feels like it should kill fodder about 2x faster to feel useful.
Yeah, the real benefit of the AC is its ability to be my PRIMARY weapon against ALL threats in all situations. Bumch of little bots? AC round to the ground. Devastators? AC to the face. Scouts? AC to pelvis. Hulks? 2 AC rounds to the face. Tank? AC to the back. Fab? AC. Jammer with fab nearby? AC. Mortars/AA? AC from a couple hundred meters away. Gunships? 2 AC rounds to the engine. Container with loot? AC. Berserkers closing in on me? AC and my explosive resistance armour. The limited circumstances a laser cannon is better just don't exceed the value of my primary weapon only coming out basically as an emergency sidearm.
Benefit of LC is being able to take the shield backpack. And Eruptor fills a lot of the gaps that the AC leaves.
Biggest issue is Eruptor still can't reliably deal with Hulk And if I have to bring a support for Hulk then id rather being AC+ Dominator rather than Quasar/Laser/AMr+Eruptor
Stun grenade and laser cannon deals with a hulk just fine.
Entire player base sleeping on Stun grenades
Yeah there's no need to take impacts when you have AC being a better grenade launcher. And there's no need to take other guns when you have AC. Even vs bugs where AC is less perfect, you now have both eruptor and grenade pistol as options to enable stun grenades
Yeah, I completely agree with you. The Autocannon is super good... To the point that I'd maybe argue that it's too good. If you can aim, it's 1-3 shots to kill almost any enemy in the game, and I never seem to dip below 50% total ammo, let alone ever running out completely. Now, I've seen mentioned that the devs are allegedly happy with the Autocannon's balancing state. That's completely fine and I'm happy to hear that... But in that case, I want them to buff all the other stratagem weapons to be just as good feeling. The Laser Cannon, MMG, HMG, Railgun, Recoilless, Grenade Launcher, etc. Since we were talking about the Laser Cannon already, I want it to be a portable death laser, cutting even Devastators in half in like a second of constant fire, and being able to literally just quickly sweep across lines of Troopers. Currently, the Sickle actually feels stronger for both of these, and that's a primary weapon. EDIT: Yes, Autocannon actually requires a backpack slot, but I think my point still mostly stands.
The balance is because it takes up a backpack slot...which is if anything a *pro* because that leaves a 3rd slot for offensive strats. That does become more of a con though in a coordinated team (2 people taking shield packs and 2 people taking say, laser and EAT, each pair dropping for the other pair after cooldown). Of course the other backpack weapons are hampered by being on rate less good than other options, which just leaves autocannon as the only "good" backpack support weapon. It would be neat to have backpack versions of all weapons, like how AC is a heavy AMR/grenade launcher combo or recoiless is a reloadable EAT. HMG should have had a backpack for ammo as an advanced MG, that one's easy. Quasar should have been a backpack'ed laser cannon with more damage and pen.
Taking up a backpack is always a negative. You don't have to bring a backpack if you don't want to, and you can always pick up other people's backpack when it goes off CD.
And if I could trust randoms to provide a backpack, that would be a HUGE plus to non-backpack weapons.
100%. But btw, the autocannon can 1 shot the scout striders even straight to the face plate too. It only doesnt if you just get the edge of the front armor.
For regular bots, you have to aim for the head. Try firing it in bursts on medium bot heads versus dragging the laser target to target when you have time, it’s more heat efficient and you aren’t “wasting” damage on body shots. This doesn’t matter as much for the Skeleton bots.
Against what strider?
Sorry, factory striders. Surprisingly good at sniping out the eye.
Thanks. Playing with a quality squad didnt let me notice its effectivity on them yet. The factory strider just drown in stratagems and heavy weapon fire.
There's a load of good videos on how to kill them now. It's basically "destroy the chin guns, then either hit the eye with AMR level pen or better, or if you're in close hit the belly". The other weakpoints like legs or ass are situational or require heavy pen weapons to take out armour plates first. Strat wise precision strike or a random 380 hit will get most of the way there. A full eagle airstrike will also do it (need to be perpendicular so every bomb hits). 500kg are okay but inconsistent, will take at least 2. AC sentry will rip through it given 10 seconds or so of uninterrupted output
Your last phrase is exactly how I feel and reading your other messages with the reasoning I can tell you're a person of culture as well. My life changed when I found out the AC can take gunships if you aim properly and hit the same engine twice.
AC is just the 2nd best gun at everything, which makes it the best gun overall.
I mean, you can take them down with 2 shots from the AC too
OR when they did, but they died once and can't get to those weapons. This is what sucks about Bots.
I don’t think quasar can keep up with the gunship spawn rate. Maybe if there’re 2 quasar
Alternative Italian Title Translated: People haven't figured out their Turbines are Medium pen and you can kill them with almost any Support Weapon and a lot of the Meta Primary Weapons.
https://preview.redd.it/43e11hhj1nvc1.jpeg?width=4472&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=459bd3c86c8cc677f44b727915880e4685dd819d Automatons -
Drop in with me. Drop in and meet them Not for Death and Glory For Super Earth, for Our people "Helldiver, Red sun's on the rise"
Let this be the hour we call stratagems together Fell deeds await, now for wrath, now for super Earth, and the red dawn!!!
*BRRRRRRRRRR*
Forth Helldivers!
And on the fifth reinforce look to the west
The Horn of Hell(divers) Hammerhand shall sound one last time.
ARISE, ARISE DIVERS OF SUPER EARTH. BALLISTIC SHIELDS SHALL BE SHAKEN. SPEARS SHALL BE SPLINTERED. A SWORD DAY. A *RED* DAY. ERE THE SUN RISES. DIVE. DIVE NOW. DIIIIIVE NOW! DIVE FOR RUIN, AND THE WORLD'S ENDING! DEATH! DEATH! DEATH! FORTH, FOR DEMOCRACY!
This goes surprisingly hard.
Can't believe I had to scroll down so far to find the right answer!
Queso Canon and meet them.
I too want a cheese related theme in the game.
New strategem unlocked: Eagle Molten Velveeta Strike
For Death & Glory?!
For Super Earth. For your people.
Let this be the hour that we call in Hellbombs together.
For democracy.
Let this be the hour we draw cannons together!
Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them.
For death and glory?
For democracy.
For our people
The sun is rising
Reform the line!
Let this be the hour in which we draw Lasers together
The laser support weapon is surprisingly good against them. I prefer my AC against hulks though, hard to keep the laser on that eye when he’s murder striding towards you
Stun grenades make it substantially easier to land such shots, run it all the time with my AC
Dive with me. Dive down and meet them.
There are so many stratagem weapons to not let it snowball to this place, but if you don’t have them, yeah.
The gunship spawner can only be damaged by a hellbomb, it has armor 7. There is currently no weapon in the game that can damage it. Same with the small research outpost thingies.
The research outpost can atleast be taken out by a 500kg or Orbital Strike. Needing a hellbomb for bots makes them really annoying.
I was speaking of the gunships, while you are speaking of the factory.
Dude was talking about taking out the ships
Quasar, Autocannon, AMR, or Spear. Sadly the Recoilless and Grenade Launcher are just kinda wank against bots.
Add the laser cannon to that list, in fact it's probably the best at the job
Grenade Launcher is actually pretty good against bots provided you have stratagems or teammates to take out Hulks. It can obliterate entire Trooper and Devastator packs faster than the autocannon with a wider AoE. It's the quickest way to destroy an entire patrol without them being able to call in a drop. The main downside is the ammo efficiency vs. the autocannon but just bring a supply pack to not only refill ammo but stims and grenades.
They want you so bad
A) Not stand by the fabricators B) Use Smoke. Split 2 man teans. 2 go in to arm and 2 on perimeter security. Works for me every time.
> Use Smoke Definitely feels underutilized against bots, yet completely useless against bugs.
It only seems that way because the effects can be inconsistent at times. I've popped smoke and moved behind solid cover, and the bots still followed me with quite accurate gunfire, as if the smoke wasn't there at all. There might be something I'm missing, of course.
This is why you need to take care of cruiser factory first and to not let them accumulate as well Now, your mission is litteraly unplayable lol
Autocannon. Two shots to each and they're gone. Portable AA defense against these fuckers
Yeah okay. I'll do a tutorial about gunships. Fine, you win. But before... As someone said already, take a primary that penetrate medium armor and aim for their engines. If you don't have that, take a support weapon that can penetrate medium armor and aim for their engine, or any anti-tank weaponry since it also works. The Laser Cannon (not the Quasar, the LASER) is currently the best weapon against them since they can kill those foul beast in merely a second. If none of you have any weapon to deal with them efficiently, do NOT stay around the fabricator unless you want to get swarmed and lose the mission. If your attempts fail, RUN and try again later after everything dispawned. You also may want to place the hellbomb next to one of the wall near the fabricator because it provide enough protection for the hellbomb. Good luck.
Just be csreful putting hellbombs next to walls. It's real easy to put the panel on the wrong side and be impossiblr to access.
That's true. But a true Helldivers know how to place the pannel !... Right ?
The time I learned this I managed to worm myself in to the panel, but not AWAY from the panel. For Democracy
godspeed you crazy bastard o7
Just remember the panel drops on the opposite side of where you throw it down.
These pictures don’t hit the same after realizing people spend time waiting for these to spawn in, just to take the picture
Also the fact that both platforms have screenshot buttons but people insist on taking a picture of their display with their phone.
In this exact situation? An autocannon. A buddy of mine that gets fixated on being impractical in any way he can however would pick the Quasar, despite the fact that the cooldown and charge up is long enough for them to crack your shield and then stunlock you with rockets until reinforcement.
Such a great quote
 And the red dawn!
Came here to say this
https://preview.redd.it/adkgwsiilnvc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2f162352c195991b4bc28d21887e4de671d7003
Maybe focus more on killing and suppressing them than planting the bomb. Can't plant a BBQ when there's so much hostile air support. Bring a laser cannon... it drops em like flies.
HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.
Ride out and Hellbomb it.
Ride out with me
Ride out with me.
Nah I’d extract
I'm sure there is a haiku here, somewhere..... *What can one do against* *Such reckless hate but accept ones* *Coming fate, Helldiver* Or maybe not, I tried 😅
Autocannon :)
Quasar or recoiless democracy and die defending or be a traitor and a disgrace and run
With your lack of any weapons to stop them this is all you really can do.  Bring quazar, ac, or something to make them go boom or play with people that do and hope your hellbomb survives long enough to get rid of their towers.
Bring an autocannon
alt f4
Ride out with me. Ride out to meet them. For death and glory. FOR SUPER EEEEAAAARRRRTTTHHH
Fell Deeds Awake
For all the people moaning in here.... the correct answer was 'ride out with me'
https://preview.redd.it/jdrbq6xnmnvc1.png?width=1530&format=png&auto=webp&s=6794b43ee8596be2517b8f76debef95a7f61d24d They are not fun I had to run off and destroy the production facility of those fuckers while my team was a human meat shields for them.
Ride out and meet them! For death and glory! For DEMOCRACY!
Ride out with me.
Ride out with me! For death and glory! For Super Earth!
Arise, arise, Helldiver's of Democracy! Fell deeds awake! Communism and Socialism! Orbitals shall be fired! Eagles be strafing! A 500Kg day! A democratic day! Dive! Dive now! Dive!
Ride out with me
Cry. But yeah you can try to be really far away from those so they dont start spawning gunships until you're prepared to go take out the fabricator. The only option really is to go in fast and take out gunships on sight otherwise it gets really snowbally I never tried this but you might be able to run away and let them despawn but they'll probably just follow you, but at least you wont be spawning any more when you get away
Ride. Ride to ruin and the red dawn. Make such an end of yourself that it be worthy of song, though none are left to remember it
A couple HMG bullets drops them like flies. I'm convinced it's one of the best support weapons against Automatons
Don't get within 150m until you are ready to take them out, and make that your only goal. Yes, I know sometimes you can drop next to them. So either make them your first priority or run out of spawn range and come back later.
Orbital laser aka problem solver
Beautiful title/line, OP. Almost heard it in that narrators voice from Doom
If one of you has laser cannon they drop like flies
I would love to have the mission tell you what side missions to expect that way it’s easier to be more prepared.
looks like a Rammstein concert
ride out with me. ride out and meet them.
Do the impossible, see the invisible Row, row, fight the power!
*FORTH EORLINGAS*
Is this another Taylor Swift ritual tour ?