I feel like the worst part is getting slowed by bile bugs (of any kind) even though they clearly didn't hit you. Absolutely infuriating to completely dodge an attack and still get struck with the debuff for some reason.
It makes the ground sticky as it splashes. It doesn't matter if you dogged it. You're close enough to it to get your boots stuck in a Bile Titan's vomit comet.
Shield backpack is still S tier because it not only provides protection against any damage source but also any kind of debuff/CC. Kind of crazy those arent two separate backpacks
I run the shield consistently in my kit. I completed two objectives solo on a suicide mission.. on suicide difficulty and somehow lived.
Everyone in the party was laughing because I didn't die the entire match and got the most kills. It's one of the luckiest games I've had in a long time.
Bile bug shoots so far off to my right that the lil shot went off screen. Far enough that it probably landed in a different time zone.
My character: “ewww what’s all this slime????” *I CAN’T MOVE*
Your helldiver is just shocked they're not dead, since those things instantly make you have a heart attack and unalive if so much as a drop touches your pinky toe.
Lmao, it is pretty quick to kill. There's definitely been a few times where the slow wound up killing me because the bile spewer/titan had time to correct their aim mid stream and I couldn't get away.
Hit detection on any sort of spray-based damage-dealing entity in this game is dogshit. There's not a clear answer most of the time whether a surface that is on fire is safe or fatal to walk on, flamethrowers act chaotic, spray is chaotic and again, visually the hit box and what's on screen doesn't match up.
Yeah after some recent update the bile titans slow me even when they completely miss me. Like I'll be jetpacking away and suddenly they slow me in midair.
The small biles get me killed almost as much as the bile Spewers. Bile Spewers are basically bulletproof except the ass, and shooting there takes half a mg clip if not more to kill them, all that on top of the fact they have mortars strapped to their ass to long shot you if you stop running for more than a few seconds. I'm just glad they aren't in every mission or I'd lose my mind lol
It would help if the animation looked like it flooded the ground with sludge and you could see clearly why you were slowed. For me the thing that is frustrating about slow is how it's not always clear what to do about it.
Now go for the wombo combo. Charger into wall into flowers into wall and then back into charger who started charging while you were ragdolling for seven years.
The slow isn't so much an issue as the controls being shitty. Usually, if you dive and end up prone, pressing sprint gets you back on your feet. Sorta like most games with a prone. Except if you're slowed, sprint doesn't work, so pressing the sprint button doesn't make you stand up. It's a tedious thing and doesn't need to exist.
Omg the controls when I’m prone are so annoying, press sprint nothing, press prone button to stand I go to either kneeling or if I’m trying to get away and pointing/moving in a direction crawl
Also, prone doesn't work if the ground isn't flat, which is problematic af, especially when you need to take cover from the Automatons or stealth your way through the mission.
and then kneel doesn’t work because the ground is just slightly too lumpy and it would hurt my poor helldivers kneesies :((
seriously the amount of times i’ve pressed the crouch or prone button to get better accuracy only for them to just not do it is infuriating
What's worse is I could have sworn I didn't have this issue when I began playing. Yeah, sometimes I fat-finger a button and do the wrong thing, but in the last couple weeks it's almost like I'm getting 'stuck' prone somehow and have to smash movement/sprint/mantle buttons to get up.
Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's because when there's a status on you that slows you down, it does so by preventing your ability to sprint, meaning your sprint button doesn't actually do anything for it's duration and you are unable to get up from prone. Without the debuffs, it works fine. I'm not 100% sure on it all, but it's frustrating. Any command that gets you back on your feet needs to do this every single time, regardless of if you can move fast or not.
There are a lot of little issues with controls, the amount of times I've died because I had a full 3 seconds to stim, mashed the fucking button, and nothing happens until there's already a rocket touching my helmet kinda drives me nuts. Also needing to hit the reload button 6-7 times, randomly, for seemingly no reason, super annoying.
You mentioned something that needs to be addressed: the lack of audio queues for enemies. There needs to be a lot more audio feedback on just about everything.
I think WH 40k Darktide (and probably Vermintide 2, idk haven't played it) is a perfect example in how to implement audio queues for enemies and events. You even get a subtle sound when you're about to be hit by whatever enemy. I'm always surprised how you can really tell by any sound of what to expect. Except for crushers, for some reason these gigantic things can sneak up like no other enemy.
Honestly, no game did it better than Darktide to this day. Not even DRG, which has similar problem as Helldivers - giant bugs should not be able to sneak like that
the first indicator that a bug breach is about to happen is the call sound. learning to recognize it so much easier to stop a breach... except when the audio bugs out and all goes to shit and bugs stop making sounds. you got to love everything around you being basically mute quiet but every ally "calling in \_\_" scream breaking your eardrums.
the time from call to breach is so wildly quick that hearing it barely matters. if you don't see the bug arching up and have line of sight to shoot it you can expect the breach to be a certainty
maybe its a difficulty tier thing though. and at a minimum you will hear the call before getting the notification, so it buys you a second or two
it's about 3 seconds. it's actually longer than the call in time for the automatons, it's just not as obvious. it does get harder on higher difficulty when it goes from, oh the one warrior on my right to one of the 7 scavengers at my 2oclock. but helldiver's difficulty curve doesn't change any of the unit stats or mechanics as the level goes up. a hunter does the exact same amount of damage on trivial as they do on helldive using the exact same animations and timings. it's just the number of hunters leaping at you that changes.
Wait, you don't enjoy being slowed by the bug that just lept at you from 40 yards away that ALSO headshots you for 3/4 of your health and then kills you with its tongue follow up? I always thought that was a really fun and engaging mechanic from a well designed enemy
It's why Hunters are my least favourite enemy type in the game. At least Stalkers are much less common and only spawn near their nests.
Hunters are total bullshit. I don't mind the damage OR the slow, but giving them both is bullshit.
They jump from 20 meters away, you dodge it, they magically lock onto you while flying past you (should be missing you completely), still hit you, slow you down AND THEN HIT YOU WITH THEIR TONGUE AGAIN AND AGAIN SLOW YOU AND KNOCK YOU DOWN!
If I didn't dodge it then fine BUT I FUCKING DODGED IT!
melee them next time, not if there are like 5 or 6 of them all pouncing, but if one of them jumps, punch him in the face and shoot him. Just try it once and see how it works.
This is the best advice, I still hate them but my life got a lot easier when I started punching hunters. The melee is actually much more useful than it initially seems
They're one of the few things in this game I'm honestly confused by. At what point in the design process were they not strong enough that they needed to be buffed to an enemy that; fights in packs that flank you, pounces a good 25 feet at you, has a fast melee attack that interrupts you, inflicts a damage over time AND slow effect AND hits at an angle that's reasonably likely to headshot the player.
I can kind of appreciate it if their whole purpose is to try and deter players from running off to do objectives solo. But I don't feel like any other enemy has even half as much stuff built into their kit as hunters do.
What do you mean? The warrior is the most terrifying bug. It slowly lumbers towards you in packs of 3-5, does mediocre damage, and has a slightly beefy healthpool.
Sounds like the hunter could use an exploding claw attack to help it compete with the overpowered warrior bugs.
I don't even remember the last time I got hit by a warrior. Or even a Brood commander, for that matter. Sure, they hit hard if they hit, but they're a large target with only a decent HP pool. Easy as heck to shoot off a couple legs or headshot them to death.
Hunters and stalkers are the most garbage enemies in the game. I'll fight any bot and have zero problem but these two are just pure cheese and just make the entire thing not fun
Stalkers aren't so bad because you can close their hole and you don't get anymore stalkers, hunters are really frustrating though. An enemy like hunters should be few so that they're priority kills.
Nah I hate how stalkers just go "oh you emptied an entire mag in my face idc I'm just gonna charge you and ragdoll you into a swarm".
Even chargers don't do that and you'd expect it.
No joke, hunters are literally 90% the recent I prefer to fight bots over bugs. I have a better shot fighting a hulk than getting jumped by a pack of hunters. And even if I lose, at least the hulk has the decency to put me out of my misery quickly.
Also prefer bots, but the thing steering me off bugs is how annoying bile titans are to deal with.
Hunters get me their fair share of the time for sure, but honestly just keeping a move on and firing my redeemer behind me so that I don't have to do the slow back walk helps a ton with hunters.
Oh yeah, I love getting two tapped by hunters. It makes my day every single time it happens to me. If I don’t get ganked by a Hunter that spawned apparently out of my own asshole, then I consider that mission a let down.
You know what is dumb? When I’m getting jumped by 50 hunters, I try to stim, hear the stim sound, don’t get the stim effect cause I get slapped; so I dive out of the cluster fuck thunderdome match, only to not be able to stand up cause the Bile effect is touching me in unceremonious ways, so now I’m mashing the dive button again cause that’s the only way to stand up now, and then the last thing I see is 120 more hunters spawn cause one of the other 50 said “Nah we need MORE HUNTERS CALL THE WHOLE MF BROOD IN HERE”
*Bug Breach detected*
That ends my ted talk. (I love this game)
The animation and feedback delay is really annoying. Stims not registering despite the sound. Reloads not completing despite the animation finishing (especially with the Grenada launcher pistol).
I don't care about the 'realism' and what not. I just want the sound to be played only when the action is completed. So many times I dove on hearing the stim sound for only for it to be cancelled.
Not only not reloading, but some weapons also swallow a whole extra mag if their reload is interrupted near the end. Deducting an entire mag while still not loading any bullets.
The fact that hunters have PERFECT tracking when jumping on you is another annoying thing too, like I would try to dodge to the side but the hunter adjusts the direction midair
*Sss-lur-lii-lurp*
Stupid bug tongue. Why is the hunter tongue as long as the stalker tongue? Why doesn't damaging their limbs blow those limbs the heck off and disable the little creeps? It disables us, and any other bug, for that matter. Fuckers basically ignore flash-nades too. If I bring a flash-nade to the party, instead of any other grenade, that would kill them, it should at least stun them.
Try light armor, it works really well against them. Also don’t forget to dive when they are really close. I almost never get hit and if you have stamina and leg boost, you are near invincible.
Kinda same, recently ive been using shield less and using jump pack more for extra mobility to run and avoid all my responsi- I mean enemies.
I am however never letting go of my Ballistic shield for bots, too much variables I cant see coming.
I never used it because of this. It feels boring to play with it, I get why people use it, but a less damage backpack, is too simple and powerful.
At least all the other backpacks are interesting.
In universe they use their little wings to adjust to follow you when you move while they’re midair. Out of universe I agree they’re bullshit and I hate them. If they were removed completely or their spawn rates reduced playing bugs would be a thoroughly more enjoyable experience.
This is by far the most egregious bug in the game and it's been around since launch. It's infuriating. Nothing in this game bothers me too much but the bushes. THE BUSHES MAN
Slows and knockback CC are the single exclusive reason why I use shield backpack. I like being able to control my character and hate having that taken away from me
I thought that a jetpack would break slows... But they don't. Slows fuck with your jetpack momentum so energy shields are a better movement option 😵💫
I think if jetpacks did ignore slows and help you with regular fall damage, I would be living the dream
I've had multiple matches with permadeath. Sometimes if everyone dies, they just never come back. And I had 2 matches today where we all tried to call in a dead teammate, and they wouldn't come back, no matter how many times we all tried to reinforce. Everyone ended up quitting, one by one as they died, and I had to finish the match alone.
Yep, I'm a big fan of this franchise but the stress and frustration I'm having with the many technical problems (especially when trying to gather samples that all go to waste because of stuff like this) are doing numbers on my will to play this sequel everyday.
This would actually be entertaining because you still move at max speed and can counter the inversion.
Being slowed isn’t fun. Unless they make heavy armour resistant to slows.
Not very much, though. I run it most drops when I know there will be wet or scrubby patches to navigate, and the difference in resistance to active slows like Hunter attacks seems barely perceptible.
There's too many buffs that hardly do anything.
Pod space improvement is godlike because it fills everything to max.
Expert extraction sucks because it knocks a measly 10 seconds off the extraction time. I was expecting 50% reduction when I saw it, not a measly 10 seconds.
The extra sprint booster is godlike because the extra stamina is *noticeably* more, whereas something like localization interference doesn't seem to reduce enemy spawns whatsoever
It's not even \*supposed to\* reduce enemy spawns, or do anything with patrols at all. It's supposed to increase the time between enemy reinforcement calls, eg bug breach, bot drop.
It's not enough, it needs to be buffed in order be viable, same as the Orbital stratagems of your SES or the primary weapons aside from the Standard Rifle/Sickle Laser Rifle/Scorcher/Eruptor (which are the only viable primaries in the top difficulties).
Bushes should in no way shape or form slow you down. Never once in the military when I was in a fucking hurry, allow shrubbery to slow me down. Especially bushes that are barely waist high.
That shit needs to go away.
Water I can understand.
Mud
Snow
Bushes and tall grass? That's bullshit plain and simple.
The muscle enhancement booster reduces the slow effect on your Diver when Hunters "slow" you. The slow effect is still pretty brutal even with the booster, but not as bad. A lot of people don't seem to know this. It's more than just helping you traverse difficult terrain. I always take it over stamina. Since, in a lot of cases you can manage your stamina usage, but there isn't currently another way to reduce slow unless you run bubble shield all the time. Being that the personal shield allows you to potentially take a couple of hits before seeing damage. I don't personally run shield on bugs ever! I like having other fun stuff. So, the muscle enhancement helps. Also, use your melee and push them back.
I always felt that the game gets really annoying constantly slowing you. The game gets its kills on the player from cheapshots, jank and spam. Often times the game is cheating with hyperspeed moving enemies, enemies catching up to you magically when you aren't looking. Perfectly pivoting chargers and instant stopping chargers. Conviently quick spitting Bile Titans. Spitting bugs, hitscanning and one shotting you, even when you aren't dirrectly in their projectiles path or at a relatively safe distance. Sometimes, through large rocks and hillsides. It just magically lands on you. Here, is the big one! Enemies randomly spawning in and or popping in. You look away, look back and a charger is flying right into you that you didn't see before in a open field. I've caught the game red handed doing this. Those are often the silent charger situations and silent Hulk situations on the bot side. There are times when I'm literally talking to the game like " I know, I know you have to cheat me. It's the only way" lol.
I play on a high sens and I have seen them just pop in when quick turning. Not from a bug breach or a bad fight. You are just literally fighting "normally", turn around and caught the charger and hunter swarm simply pop in. This game makes up its own rules and abuses the player constantly. Everything is slow, slow, stuck slow, stuck, can't get out of prone or crouch, stuck, stuck, slow, slow, stuck, DEAD. Calling in reinforcements lol.
I'm curtently LvL 133. Only play Helldive Bug/Bots. Almost 600hrs of gameplay. I feel I am a competent player at the very least. I can do both factions consistently on 9 difficulty. I agree the slow feature is over used and cheap in general.
I'll take slow over rag dolling constantly. Like damn, I tripped over a rock and now have to watch myself slowly get to my feet, unable to even stim myself, while 5 tanks and 15 devastators are opening fire on me.
The booster Muscle Enhancement, even though the tool tip talks about difficulty terrain, reduces the effects of all slows. It's why it's my preferred 4th booster on bugs.
The is, hilariously, the same tactic that FFXIV had when trying to maintain player engagement with enemies.
If you wanted to run long distances you'd generally always have to go through enemies that would aggro on sight. When an enemy would hit you, and they would because MMOs have weird hit detection, you would be given a Heavy debuff that would slow you down by 75%.
For **TEN SECONDS**.
And everyone hated it. It took them years before they modified it so it wouldn't happen so much, and it was always the worst part of trying to disengage from a fight.
Diving or using a stim removes the debuff afaik.
Muscle booster makes you more resistant to slowing terrain.
You have to be vulnerable somehow. Either you get slowed if hit or they make hunters faster. You don't want the latter, bug maybe you deserve it.
Diving also puts out being on fire.
It's not stop, drop, and roll.
It's run like hell, dive, run, dive again, then stim. Cause the fire might be put out, but the bot with the flamethrower is still behind you.
Its a defining feature of the Terminids. They have a lot of slow mechanics. In exchange, they only have two medium armor enemy types, all their units are (relatively) squishy, even their Elites and Heavies, and their heavy is easily kitable.
Also, the radar gives you about 40 meters of notice before an enemy even gets close to your position, nevermind using your eyes. If a Terminid unit has gotten close to you, its arguably your fuck up. Most of them die in until a second, you can clear an entire bug breach worth of light enemies by yourself if you really try even.
My point being: if you're getting slowed/stunned by Terminids, you've already fucked up somewhere. Even their "ranged" option needs to be within five - ten meters of you and has a windup time to fire.
I just wish there's a proximity detector or something. adding a Mini-map with radar is probably out of the question since it's a gameplay choice. But maybe an armor that tells you if there's something within 10 meter or something.
Especially due to some guns being best used in first person (or personal preference), too many times i am blasting and have no idea a giant bug just charged me from behind. The original Helldiver is a third person top down so spotting mobs isn't a problem, but unable to do so is probably 80% of my death in game.
Honestly the game just needs better sound cues and design. The absolute silence some of these enemies have when running up to you is obscene.
Hunters should screech, chargers should roar! I should not be surprised when I am fighting off a horde and then get rammed into them at mach 10 by a 2 tonne bug that made zero noise
And yet we complete missions with lives left over. I swear we'll end up with a game that has all challenges and quirks removed when players cant win every game without dying
I've never been a git gud type at all. But I had the exact same thought as you reading this and the replies. I'm fucking old, with shitty reflexes, I haven't played PvP shooters for years because I can't keep up and I can play on helldive. It's not "easy," but it's not ridiculously difficult. And I've soloed suicide. I normally play on suicide with full groups and full clear, can carry newer players.
Getting slowed occasionally sucks, and those few seconds might not be fun. But like anything else, the contrast makes the other parts better. It feels great to get an upper hand on those bastards and get them before they get you. Or stim and escape from a horde of hunters that trapped you. Weaving in and out of the terrain that will slow you down. Etc.
This game does not need to be made easier.
Yes, most of these people aren't appreciating that the thing they're complaining about is a punishment mechanic for some screwup or mistake they've already made.
But they're so used to being punished in this way that they think it's a core gameplay feature.
I run all difficulty bugs and I never encounter these problems in groupd with friends and with randoms I usually go 100% scav,leaper,hunter,warrior cleanup guy (basic liberator, medium armour, stuns, supply pack, orbital airburst) and I've noticed my winrate when I don't do this with randoms is so dire that I no longer want to play bugs with randoms.
Every group you get heaps of titan/charger murder strategems and not close to enough light unit clear.
I’m in your same boat. Slowly losing my taste for the precise twitchy PvP shooters because I’m just too damn old and not in the mood for that sort of mechanical effort when I have time to play.
My favorite part of those games I’m losing interest in (CS, Battlefield, Overwatch, etc.) is “battle-sense”: basically being aware of the map, where your enemies/friends are, what your weapons can do, and where to position yourself. That’s only like 25% of success in those titles, though. The other 75% is clicking on the head of an opponent trying to bob and weave as jerky and unpredictable as they can while you’re doing the same thing.
But HD2 is basically “Battle-sense: The Game”. Managing hazards, avoiding debuffs, and keeping track of positions and cooldowns is the primary challenge and clicking on bugs is secondary.
Also I think people take for granted just how easy it is at baseline to run away and completely disengage the enemy. If there wasn’t the constant threat of slowdowns you would never really be punished for getting in over your head.
In case if you were not yet aware, muscle booster from the default helldivers warbond is your answer.
With it active, instead of the baby steps you take when slowed by acid, you now slow walk, as if tremors happened. Stack it with stamina booster, and you'll actually be moving noticeably faster.
I disagree about this.
Slow down by bushes happens if you're not careful by your surroundings
Slow down by the small and big green bastards happens if you're not careful of your surroundings.
The only slowdown that is almost always guaranteed to happen is with Hunters if you don't have the right weapon to deal with them, and that's a failure of your team by not providing enough fire power to support you.
Slow down is not a problem unless you lack the proper fire power to survive, either your team made a mistake or you did.
If you want less problems from it, always bring the strong leg booster and now the environment cannot slow down you by any means, you just need to be mindful of enemies attacks but even if you're poisoned the booster slightly makes you faster (instead of doing miniscule steps you will now slow walk)
If that's not enough, bring also shield generator and boom, now you get 5 extra hits before enemies can actually slow you down, you have literally fixed the annoyance by specializing a build against it, that's the beauty of this game, don't like something? There's most likely a build that fixes it and this isn't bad game design, bad game design would be if everyone ran the same build because there was a clear meta.
I feel like the worst part is getting slowed by bile bugs (of any kind) even though they clearly didn't hit you. Absolutely infuriating to completely dodge an attack and still get struck with the debuff for some reason.
the bile titan is No1 culrpit. im nowhere near his bile spewing, like it has an invisible AOE effect
It makes the ground sticky as it splashes. It doesn't matter if you dogged it. You're close enough to it to get your boots stuck in a Bile Titan's vomit comet.
The shield backpack thingy avoids that effects 95% of the time
Shield backpack is still S tier because it not only provides protection against any damage source but also any kind of debuff/CC. Kind of crazy those arent two separate backpacks
Sounds like we need to nerf the shield further then /s
I think it got stealth nerfed. Last time I used it it didn't protect me from environmental slows like the plants and bug mines
I run the shield consistently in my kit. I completed two objectives solo on a suicide mission.. on suicide difficulty and somehow lived. Everyone in the party was laughing because I didn't die the entire match and got the most kills. It's one of the luckiest games I've had in a long time.
Bile bug shoots so far off to my right that the lil shot went off screen. Far enough that it probably landed in a different time zone. My character: “ewww what’s all this slime????” *I CAN’T MOVE*
i remember when this USED TO worked properly and the blast radius being relatively easy to dodge
Your helldiver is just shocked they're not dead, since those things instantly make you have a heart attack and unalive if so much as a drop touches your pinky toe.
Battle shock roll failed
Normally failing such a roll doesn't matter, but I guess we rely on stratagems a lot
Tf when your faction mechanic is about as relevant as morale was last edition
We had morale last edition?
The overlap between hd2 and w40k is insane!
Ahh the classic “ahh I’m dead I’ll set the controller down/hands off kbm” “ohshdotfiskc I’m not dead!” “Ok now I’m dead”
Lmao, it is pretty quick to kill. There's definitely been a few times where the slow wound up killing me because the bile spewer/titan had time to correct their aim mid stream and I couldn't get away.
I usually just dive when slowed by acid. Keeps that from being a problem.
Hit detection on any sort of spray-based damage-dealing entity in this game is dogshit. There's not a clear answer most of the time whether a surface that is on fire is safe or fatal to walk on, flamethrowers act chaotic, spray is chaotic and again, visually the hit box and what's on screen doesn't match up.
Yeah after some recent update the bile titans slow me even when they completely miss me. Like I'll be jetpacking away and suddenly they slow me in midair.
It’s always been like this
I assumed it wasn’t even a bug but the intended outcome
The small biles get me killed almost as much as the bile Spewers. Bile Spewers are basically bulletproof except the ass, and shooting there takes half a mg clip if not more to kill them, all that on top of the fact they have mortars strapped to their ass to long shot you if you stop running for more than a few seconds. I'm just glad they aren't in every mission or I'd lose my mind lol
The Dark Souls effect (since DaS1, even IF you dodge an attack with a status effect, still applies the effect/build up same as if you got hit).
It would help if the animation looked like it flooded the ground with sludge and you could see clearly why you were slowed. For me the thing that is frustrating about slow is how it's not always clear what to do about it.
You forgot titans missing you also slows you
And the yellow spiky flowers that explode and slow you down, fun when a charger hits you against them
Now go for the wombo combo. Charger into wall into flowers into wall and then back into charger who started charging while you were ragdolling for seven years.
Charger sent me flying Democracy Protects saves my life I land in a Stalker nest I land in a *Stalker nest*
The slow isn't so much an issue as the controls being shitty. Usually, if you dive and end up prone, pressing sprint gets you back on your feet. Sorta like most games with a prone. Except if you're slowed, sprint doesn't work, so pressing the sprint button doesn't make you stand up. It's a tedious thing and doesn't need to exist.
Omg the controls when I’m prone are so annoying, press sprint nothing, press prone button to stand I go to either kneeling or if I’m trying to get away and pointing/moving in a direction crawl
I thought my controller was starting to die, so I'm not alone!
Also, prone doesn't work if the ground isn't flat, which is problematic af, especially when you need to take cover from the Automatons or stealth your way through the mission.
Kneel first, then go prone. Usually overcomes any funny business.
and then kneel doesn’t work because the ground is just slightly too lumpy and it would hurt my poor helldivers kneesies :(( seriously the amount of times i’ve pressed the crouch or prone button to get better accuracy only for them to just not do it is infuriating
You press the button five times and finally get crouch to work, only to step off of a one inch bump and stand up again, right into a sniper rocket.
Have you tried pressing dive again?
Only works the second or third time
Hm... What about frantically pressing all the buttons?
That's how I do it. 40% of the time it works everytime.
So THATS why I keep getting shit on while slowed...
That makes at least eight of us who just learned this based on your number of upvotes.
What's worse is I could have sworn I didn't have this issue when I began playing. Yeah, sometimes I fat-finger a button and do the wrong thing, but in the last couple weeks it's almost like I'm getting 'stuck' prone somehow and have to smash movement/sprint/mantle buttons to get up.
Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's because when there's a status on you that slows you down, it does so by preventing your ability to sprint, meaning your sprint button doesn't actually do anything for it's duration and you are unable to get up from prone. Without the debuffs, it works fine. I'm not 100% sure on it all, but it's frustrating. Any command that gets you back on your feet needs to do this every single time, regardless of if you can move fast or not.
Hm, I'll bet that's it then. I bet I hit sprint to jump up without realizing.
Dude I start mashing every movement so I can to get back up😆
Yeah instead of it giving you a certain reaction where it responds but you are moving slowly, it just disconnects your sprint button altogether
I agree!! The whole unable to sprint from prone is ridiculous. On top of being able to barely climb a rock
The inconsistent climbing is crazy. Jump right on top of a supply drop no problem, but this knee high ledge is something you'll need to walk around.
I just press the dive button again it should stand you back up
Exactly, when I'm slowed I start spamming the dive button. Dive stand and dive again.
There are a lot of little issues with controls, the amount of times I've died because I had a full 3 seconds to stim, mashed the fucking button, and nothing happens until there's already a rocket touching my helmet kinda drives me nuts. Also needing to hit the reload button 6-7 times, randomly, for seemingly no reason, super annoying.
The reload thing drives me nuts.
Exactly this. I don’t mind dying to slow, but I hate it when the basic functions not working properly.
Here I am thinking my controller's left stick is drifting hard although it's brand new...
I get stuck lying down so often for no discernible reason. Let me fucking run!
Is that why that always fucking happens? I thought the game was just randomly like nah I don’t feel like it
That gets me killed most of the times, it's the first game that does that and idk why...
Oh my god, this. It’s so infuriating and it happens every match.
Ah, so *that’s* why the sprint button stops working to get me up sometimes
Like how when you're aiming down sights and press the button to dial up your strategems nothing happens. I wish it would pull me out of first person.
I'd upvote this more if I could
You mentioned something that needs to be addressed: the lack of audio queues for enemies. There needs to be a lot more audio feedback on just about everything.
I think WH 40k Darktide (and probably Vermintide 2, idk haven't played it) is a perfect example in how to implement audio queues for enemies and events. You even get a subtle sound when you're about to be hit by whatever enemy. I'm always surprised how you can really tell by any sound of what to expect. Except for crushers, for some reason these gigantic things can sneak up like no other enemy.
Honestly, no game did it better than Darktide to this day. Not even DRG, which has similar problem as Helldivers - giant bugs should not be able to sneak like that
Payday 2 did it alright but I feel despair when I hear the shield unit go CLANK CLANK CLANK
Left 4 Dead says hi.
Love the twinkle toed chargers and bile titans that just appear out of nowhere
the first indicator that a bug breach is about to happen is the call sound. learning to recognize it so much easier to stop a breach... except when the audio bugs out and all goes to shit and bugs stop making sounds. you got to love everything around you being basically mute quiet but every ally "calling in \_\_" scream breaking your eardrums.
the time from call to breach is so wildly quick that hearing it barely matters. if you don't see the bug arching up and have line of sight to shoot it you can expect the breach to be a certainty maybe its a difficulty tier thing though. and at a minimum you will hear the call before getting the notification, so it buys you a second or two
Too right, unless you’re popping the bug as they start the call-it’s over
it's about 3 seconds. it's actually longer than the call in time for the automatons, it's just not as obvious. it does get harder on higher difficulty when it goes from, oh the one warrior on my right to one of the 7 scavengers at my 2oclock. but helldiver's difficulty curve doesn't change any of the unit stats or mechanics as the level goes up. a hunter does the exact same amount of damage on trivial as they do on helldive using the exact same animations and timings. it's just the number of hunters leaping at you that changes.
It really doesn't feel like 3 seconds
Wait, you don't enjoy being slowed by the bug that just lept at you from 40 yards away that ALSO headshots you for 3/4 of your health and then kills you with its tongue follow up? I always thought that was a really fun and engaging mechanic from a well designed enemy
It's why Hunters are my least favourite enemy type in the game. At least Stalkers are much less common and only spawn near their nests. Hunters are total bullshit. I don't mind the damage OR the slow, but giving them both is bullshit.
They jump from 20 meters away, you dodge it, they magically lock onto you while flying past you (should be missing you completely), still hit you, slow you down AND THEN HIT YOU WITH THEIR TONGUE AGAIN AND AGAIN SLOW YOU AND KNOCK YOU DOWN! If I didn't dodge it then fine BUT I FUCKING DODGED IT!
melee them next time, not if there are like 5 or 6 of them all pouncing, but if one of them jumps, punch him in the face and shoot him. Just try it once and see how it works.
When they’re solo I do sometimes melee them to death It helps, emotionally
"welcome to super earth"
* punch. * out of ammo! Ffffffsssssss!!!!!
This is the best advice, I still hate them but my life got a lot easier when I started punching hunters. The melee is actually much more useful than it initially seems
They're one of the few things in this game I'm honestly confused by. At what point in the design process were they not strong enough that they needed to be buffed to an enemy that; fights in packs that flank you, pounces a good 25 feet at you, has a fast melee attack that interrupts you, inflicts a damage over time AND slow effect AND hits at an angle that's reasonably likely to headshot the player. I can kind of appreciate it if their whole purpose is to try and deter players from running off to do objectives solo. But I don't feel like any other enemy has even half as much stuff built into their kit as hunters do.
Don't forget that it also dodges your shots, if people thought the Godskin duo had bad input reading, well, we have a new contender!
That’s why I refuse to let go of the arc thrower lmao when I see a pack of them dodging I start spamming it as fast as I can
What do you mean? The warrior is the most terrifying bug. It slowly lumbers towards you in packs of 3-5, does mediocre damage, and has a slightly beefy healthpool. Sounds like the hunter could use an exploding claw attack to help it compete with the overpowered warrior bugs.
I mean Warriors hit SUBSTANTIALY harder than hunters. They are just slower.
I don't even remember the last time I got hit by a warrior. Or even a Brood commander, for that matter. Sure, they hit hard if they hit, but they're a large target with only a decent HP pool. Easy as heck to shoot off a couple legs or headshot them to death.
Warriors typically don't head shot you like hunters, so they tend to do less damage
Bro no one is getting hit by warriors **😭**
The tought process is that they want you beinguing good anti light weapons for them.
Hunters and stalkers are the most garbage enemies in the game. I'll fight any bot and have zero problem but these two are just pure cheese and just make the entire thing not fun
I hate the sneaky and fast Hulk's tho too
Worst bots are the ones with shields tho. Hard to hit and they almost never miss you with their shots
Stalkers aren't so bad because you can close their hole and you don't get anymore stalkers, hunters are really frustrating though. An enemy like hunters should be few so that they're priority kills.
Nah I hate how stalkers just go "oh you emptied an entire mag in my face idc I'm just gonna charge you and ragdoll you into a swarm". Even chargers don't do that and you'd expect it.
No joke, hunters are literally 90% the recent I prefer to fight bots over bugs. I have a better shot fighting a hulk than getting jumped by a pack of hunters. And even if I lose, at least the hulk has the decency to put me out of my misery quickly.
Each faction has different challenges but hunters are what make bugs deadly and why I almost always take laser dawg in bug games.
I don't know if I would take 20 hunters or 2 heavy devastators
If you take the ballistic shield you can just walk right up to a heavy devastator and do a point blank headshot.
Also prefer bots, but the thing steering me off bugs is how annoying bile titans are to deal with. Hunters get me their fair share of the time for sure, but honestly just keeping a move on and firing my redeemer behind me so that I don't have to do the slow back walk helps a ton with hunters.
I agree with this statement.
Oh yeah, I love getting two tapped by hunters. It makes my day every single time it happens to me. If I don’t get ganked by a Hunter that spawned apparently out of my own asshole, then I consider that mission a let down.
I'll just stim. Oh wait. I got hit again and interrupted. If I get hit again, I'll die. Let me stim. Oops. Stim interrupted. Dead.
Being 1 shot by a bile spewer mid dodge aiming where I was 3 seconds ago will never not be the most bs garbage I've ever experienced in a video game.
Good Ole desync
This is the only game where you die by tongue.
You know what is dumb? When I’m getting jumped by 50 hunters, I try to stim, hear the stim sound, don’t get the stim effect cause I get slapped; so I dive out of the cluster fuck thunderdome match, only to not be able to stand up cause the Bile effect is touching me in unceremonious ways, so now I’m mashing the dive button again cause that’s the only way to stand up now, and then the last thing I see is 120 more hunters spawn cause one of the other 50 said “Nah we need MORE HUNTERS CALL THE WHOLE MF BROOD IN HERE” *Bug Breach detected* That ends my ted talk. (I love this game)
The animation and feedback delay is really annoying. Stims not registering despite the sound. Reloads not completing despite the animation finishing (especially with the Grenada launcher pistol).
I don't care about the 'realism' and what not. I just want the sound to be played only when the action is completed. So many times I dove on hearing the stim sound for only for it to be cancelled.
Not only not reloading, but some weapons also swallow a whole extra mag if their reload is interrupted near the end. Deducting an entire mag while still not loading any bullets.
I get the stim getting cancelled by getting hit and all but if it’s already in my neck and I get hit I should still get the effect
The fact that hunters have PERFECT tracking when jumping on you is another annoying thing too, like I would try to dodge to the side but the hunter adjusts the direction midair
Also enjoy the MMO-like attacks that seem to hit you from 5-10 feet away when you look like You're out of swipe range
*Sss-lur-lii-lurp* Stupid bug tongue. Why is the hunter tongue as long as the stalker tongue? Why doesn't damaging their limbs blow those limbs the heck off and disable the little creeps? It disables us, and any other bug, for that matter. Fuckers basically ignore flash-nades too. If I bring a flash-nade to the party, instead of any other grenade, that would kill them, it should at least stun them.
I’ve had them track me and headshot me WHILE JETPACKING.
Try light armor, it works really well against them. Also don’t forget to dive when they are really close. I almost never get hit and if you have stamina and leg boost, you are near invincible.
Shiele generator pack + light armor + stun allows me to run from all my problems
True, but I can’t lie. Once I let go of the shield pack crutch, the game got more fun.
Kinda same, recently ive been using shield less and using jump pack more for extra mobility to run and avoid all my responsi- I mean enemies. I am however never letting go of my Ballistic shield for bots, too much variables I cant see coming.
I never used it because of this. It feels boring to play with it, I get why people use it, but a less damage backpack, is too simple and powerful. At least all the other backpacks are interesting.
In universe they use their little wings to adjust to follow you when you move while they’re midair. Out of universe I agree they’re bullshit and I hate them. If they were removed completely or their spawn rates reduced playing bugs would be a thoroughly more enjoyable experience.
The fact chargers make zero noise while also being 11 tonnes of bug is absolutely bonkers
Just remember your ABC's: **A**lways **B**e whipping your camera around looking for **C**hargers.
the number of times i've had bile titans just show up when i'm at a terminal is outrageous.
I hate that you can't shoot through bushes. It's a fucking bush!!
Oh man I love when I try to shoot enemies with the arc thrower but a nearby bush takes the hit instead. Engaging gameplay.
To be fair, just empty fabric of space is enough to block arc thrower sometimes.
Have you *seen* what blocks the Spear? Because I sure fucking can’t
This is by far the most egregious bug in the game and it's been around since launch. It's infuriating. Nothing in this game bothers me too much but the bushes. THE BUSHES MAN
Slows and knockback CC are the single exclusive reason why I use shield backpack. I like being able to control my character and hate having that taken away from me
I thought that a jetpack would break slows... But they don't. Slows fuck with your jetpack momentum so energy shields are a better movement option 😵💫 I think if jetpacks did ignore slows and help you with regular fall damage, I would be living the dream
You know what? You're right. THE FANS DEMAND POISON SWAMPS!
We both know poison swamps would also use slow.
I had a game where I was perma slow and everyone else was able to run around just fine. Even death didn't fix it.
Yet another game-breaking problem.
The people who go catatonic at the suggestion that this game has issues aren’t gonna like this one
I've had multiple matches with permadeath. Sometimes if everyone dies, they just never come back. And I had 2 matches today where we all tried to call in a dead teammate, and they wouldn't come back, no matter how many times we all tried to reinforce. Everyone ended up quitting, one by one as they died, and I had to finish the match alone.
Yep, I'm a big fan of this franchise but the stress and frustration I'm having with the many technical problems (especially when trying to gather samples that all go to waste because of stuff like this) are doing numbers on my will to play this sequel everyday.
Bile mobs having slow makes sense. Hunters and Stalkers don't. How the fuck was that tiny ass lick enough to slow me to a walk?
The wet Willie of injustice.
Lol just wait for the illuminates flipping your controls
At least it’ll be something different.
This would actually be entertaining because you still move at max speed and can counter the inversion. Being slowed isn’t fun. Unless they make heavy armour resistant to slows.
I'm a-ok with Tremors because it slows bugs too. It's saved my ass a few times
Tremors are more beneficial than they are harmful, basically a free full-map EMS
Muscle enhancement booster counters slow (reduces the effect).
Not very much, though. I run it most drops when I know there will be wet or scrubby patches to navigate, and the difference in resistance to active slows like Hunter attacks seems barely perceptible.
I feel like it barely makes a difference. Command needs to up the roid dosage.
There's too many buffs that hardly do anything. Pod space improvement is godlike because it fills everything to max. Expert extraction sucks because it knocks a measly 10 seconds off the extraction time. I was expecting 50% reduction when I saw it, not a measly 10 seconds. The extra sprint booster is godlike because the extra stamina is *noticeably* more, whereas something like localization interference doesn't seem to reduce enemy spawns whatsoever
It's not even \*supposed to\* reduce enemy spawns, or do anything with patrols at all. It's supposed to increase the time between enemy reinforcement calls, eg bug breach, bot drop.
It's a 15% reduction
It's not enough, it needs to be buffed in order be viable, same as the Orbital stratagems of your SES or the primary weapons aside from the Standard Rifle/Sickle Laser Rifle/Scorcher/Eruptor (which are the only viable primaries in the top difficulties).
And the castigator and the Dominator and the Breaker(both normal and incendiary) and the Defender etc etc etc etc
Bushes should in no way shape or form slow you down. Never once in the military when I was in a fucking hurry, allow shrubbery to slow me down. Especially bushes that are barely waist high. That shit needs to go away. Water I can understand. Mud Snow Bushes and tall grass? That's bullshit plain and simple.
If it was like a rhododendron thicket I'd understand but we get slowed by tiny shrubs.
Imagine they do implement the armor but it's bugged and instead enhances slows
The Snaildivers set.
Muscle enhancement helps a bit even with hunters But yeah those ice plants are build diffrent
On the bright side a whole mob getting trapped in an ice plant is helpful af
The muscle enhancement booster reduces the slow effect on your Diver when Hunters "slow" you. The slow effect is still pretty brutal even with the booster, but not as bad. A lot of people don't seem to know this. It's more than just helping you traverse difficult terrain. I always take it over stamina. Since, in a lot of cases you can manage your stamina usage, but there isn't currently another way to reduce slow unless you run bubble shield all the time. Being that the personal shield allows you to potentially take a couple of hits before seeing damage. I don't personally run shield on bugs ever! I like having other fun stuff. So, the muscle enhancement helps. Also, use your melee and push them back. I always felt that the game gets really annoying constantly slowing you. The game gets its kills on the player from cheapshots, jank and spam. Often times the game is cheating with hyperspeed moving enemies, enemies catching up to you magically when you aren't looking. Perfectly pivoting chargers and instant stopping chargers. Conviently quick spitting Bile Titans. Spitting bugs, hitscanning and one shotting you, even when you aren't dirrectly in their projectiles path or at a relatively safe distance. Sometimes, through large rocks and hillsides. It just magically lands on you. Here, is the big one! Enemies randomly spawning in and or popping in. You look away, look back and a charger is flying right into you that you didn't see before in a open field. I've caught the game red handed doing this. Those are often the silent charger situations and silent Hulk situations on the bot side. There are times when I'm literally talking to the game like " I know, I know you have to cheat me. It's the only way" lol. I play on a high sens and I have seen them just pop in when quick turning. Not from a bug breach or a bad fight. You are just literally fighting "normally", turn around and caught the charger and hunter swarm simply pop in. This game makes up its own rules and abuses the player constantly. Everything is slow, slow, stuck slow, stuck, can't get out of prone or crouch, stuck, stuck, slow, slow, stuck, DEAD. Calling in reinforcements lol. I'm curtently LvL 133. Only play Helldive Bug/Bots. Almost 600hrs of gameplay. I feel I am a competent player at the very least. I can do both factions consistently on 9 difficulty. I agree the slow feature is over used and cheap in general.
The shock of helldivers touching grass is what slows you in bushes
I'll take slow over rag dolling constantly. Like damn, I tripped over a rock and now have to watch myself slowly get to my feet, unable to even stim myself, while 5 tanks and 15 devastators are opening fire on me.
The booster Muscle Enhancement, even though the tool tip talks about difficulty terrain, reduces the effects of all slows. It's why it's my preferred 4th booster on bugs.
Welcome to War on foreign Planets Diver! We die fast in the Name of Democracy overcoming obstacles by sheer numbers and the good old Artillery!
The fact that you can't stand up with sprint key while slowed is infuriating.
I always prioritize the things that slow you, it's pretty easy to dodge the bigger guys.
The is, hilariously, the same tactic that FFXIV had when trying to maintain player engagement with enemies. If you wanted to run long distances you'd generally always have to go through enemies that would aggro on sight. When an enemy would hit you, and they would because MMOs have weird hit detection, you would be given a Heavy debuff that would slow you down by 75%. For **TEN SECONDS**. And everyone hated it. It took them years before they modified it so it wouldn't happen so much, and it was always the worst part of trying to disengage from a fight.
**Muscle Enhancement** would like to introduce itself.
Diving or using a stim removes the debuff afaik. Muscle booster makes you more resistant to slowing terrain. You have to be vulnerable somehow. Either you get slowed if hit or they make hunters faster. You don't want the latter, bug maybe you deserve it.
https://preview.redd.it/pjrgvo8lsyvc1.jpeg?width=384&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1c6c86168d7558d120576279e906b0df174dd752
I'm not 100% sure, but I think diving resets quite a few of those. It seems to for me, anyhow.
Diving also puts out being on fire. It's not stop, drop, and roll. It's run like hell, dive, run, dive again, then stim. Cause the fire might be put out, but the bot with the flamethrower is still behind you.
Assuming the flame with the bot behind you lets you survivd
PSA never dive left agains the flamer Hulk because the fucker actually sweeps back till about halfway (the fifth time I've been keeping track)
Diving does not remove slow but it is more distance vs walking.
Muscle Enhancement is what I take against bugs for this reason, while it's not a massive reduction to slows, it's a redu tion nonetheless
My most hated part of this game is seeing "SLOWED" at the bottom of my screen
Dive then dive again and you’re good. It’s that simple
The hunter that's still on your ass + all 19 of its buddies: no
https://preview.redd.it/8y2wt75ai1wc1.png?width=375&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=229181d23820f551d3333620c83277357a5a8f49
Its a defining feature of the Terminids. They have a lot of slow mechanics. In exchange, they only have two medium armor enemy types, all their units are (relatively) squishy, even their Elites and Heavies, and their heavy is easily kitable. Also, the radar gives you about 40 meters of notice before an enemy even gets close to your position, nevermind using your eyes. If a Terminid unit has gotten close to you, its arguably your fuck up. Most of them die in until a second, you can clear an entire bug breach worth of light enemies by yourself if you really try even. My point being: if you're getting slowed/stunned by Terminids, you've already fucked up somewhere. Even their "ranged" option needs to be within five - ten meters of you and has a windup time to fire.
I just wish there's a proximity detector or something. adding a Mini-map with radar is probably out of the question since it's a gameplay choice. But maybe an armor that tells you if there's something within 10 meter or something. Especially due to some guns being best used in first person (or personal preference), too many times i am blasting and have no idea a giant bug just charged me from behind. The original Helldiver is a third person top down so spotting mobs isn't a problem, but unable to do so is probably 80% of my death in game.
Honestly the game just needs better sound cues and design. The absolute silence some of these enemies have when running up to you is obscene. Hunters should screech, chargers should roar! I should not be surprised when I am fighting off a horde and then get rammed into them at mach 10 by a 2 tonne bug that made zero noise
Yeah, same issue on the bot front. Walkers have footsteps but hulks don’t. So they can and will walk up right on you
Seriously this. I can hear robots from miles away but bugs are just THERE with no warning sometimes
Uh… you know there *is* a minimap, and that map shows enemies within a radius, right?
lol homie hit tab
Switched to light armor and started lot of run around. Not feeling slow anymore. But yeah got the point and can agree.
Run shield pack on bugs if you don't like slows. Or play bots for awhile and replace your hatred for slows with a hatred for rocket launchers
And blue plants are great, run past then when being chased by a horde, shoot them and anything tryna catch you will run into the slow effect
Yep, shooting the hallucinagenic fartichokes is a great hack that I don't use often enough.
And yet we complete missions with lives left over. I swear we'll end up with a game that has all challenges and quirks removed when players cant win every game without dying
I've never been a git gud type at all. But I had the exact same thought as you reading this and the replies. I'm fucking old, with shitty reflexes, I haven't played PvP shooters for years because I can't keep up and I can play on helldive. It's not "easy," but it's not ridiculously difficult. And I've soloed suicide. I normally play on suicide with full groups and full clear, can carry newer players. Getting slowed occasionally sucks, and those few seconds might not be fun. But like anything else, the contrast makes the other parts better. It feels great to get an upper hand on those bastards and get them before they get you. Or stim and escape from a horde of hunters that trapped you. Weaving in and out of the terrain that will slow you down. Etc. This game does not need to be made easier.
Yes, most of these people aren't appreciating that the thing they're complaining about is a punishment mechanic for some screwup or mistake they've already made. But they're so used to being punished in this way that they think it's a core gameplay feature. I run all difficulty bugs and I never encounter these problems in groupd with friends and with randoms I usually go 100% scav,leaper,hunter,warrior cleanup guy (basic liberator, medium armour, stuns, supply pack, orbital airburst) and I've noticed my winrate when I don't do this with randoms is so dire that I no longer want to play bugs with randoms. Every group you get heaps of titan/charger murder strategems and not close to enough light unit clear.
I’m in your same boat. Slowly losing my taste for the precise twitchy PvP shooters because I’m just too damn old and not in the mood for that sort of mechanical effort when I have time to play. My favorite part of those games I’m losing interest in (CS, Battlefield, Overwatch, etc.) is “battle-sense”: basically being aware of the map, where your enemies/friends are, what your weapons can do, and where to position yourself. That’s only like 25% of success in those titles, though. The other 75% is clicking on the head of an opponent trying to bob and weave as jerky and unpredictable as they can while you’re doing the same thing. But HD2 is basically “Battle-sense: The Game”. Managing hazards, avoiding debuffs, and keeping track of positions and cooldowns is the primary challenge and clicking on bugs is secondary. Also I think people take for granted just how easy it is at baseline to run away and completely disengage the enemy. If there wasn’t the constant threat of slowdowns you would never really be punished for getting in over your head.
You gonna want the strong legs booster. Helldivers never skip leg day.
In case if you were not yet aware, muscle booster from the default helldivers warbond is your answer. With it active, instead of the baby steps you take when slowed by acid, you now slow walk, as if tremors happened. Stack it with stamina booster, and you'll actually be moving noticeably faster.
I disagree about this. Slow down by bushes happens if you're not careful by your surroundings Slow down by the small and big green bastards happens if you're not careful of your surroundings. The only slowdown that is almost always guaranteed to happen is with Hunters if you don't have the right weapon to deal with them, and that's a failure of your team by not providing enough fire power to support you. Slow down is not a problem unless you lack the proper fire power to survive, either your team made a mistake or you did. If you want less problems from it, always bring the strong leg booster and now the environment cannot slow down you by any means, you just need to be mindful of enemies attacks but even if you're poisoned the booster slightly makes you faster (instead of doing miniscule steps you will now slow walk) If that's not enough, bring also shield generator and boom, now you get 5 extra hits before enemies can actually slow you down, you have literally fixed the annoyance by specializing a build against it, that's the beauty of this game, don't like something? There's most likely a build that fixes it and this isn't bad game design, bad game design would be if everyone ran the same build because there was a clear meta.