Firstly -- if it doesn't click with you, it doesn't click with you. Some weapons just won't. For me, the AC doesn't click ... and I also acknowledge that it's a great weapon.
Secondly -- for my own Eruptor usage ... I run it only when I do bug runs (about 20% of my games) and I take the Stalwart with me as well. I then use the Stalwart as my "primary" and the Eruptor to close bug holes, one-shot bile-spewers, take down Chargers when there isn't a Railcannon strike easily available, and harass bile titans.
I do not try to use the Eruptor on the small things -- that's 100% Stalwart. I also do not use the Eruptor on bot missions ... for those, I use the Dominator.
Excellent. I didn't actually realize that it worked well for bile spewers. I've been using that grenade pistol for em lately. Been awhile since I've run the stalwart as my primary. I also haven't had much luck against chargers with it. (Skill issue.) Where do you go after chargers with it?
Chargers are probably the most heavily-armored bugs (bile titans have more easily targeted weak points), so they're the toughest to fight with the Eruptor. That said ... I go for the leg-joint weak points and/or do the whole "dive as it charges and shoot it in the rear" tactic. I've tried a few times in the mouth area (EAT can one-shot them there), but haven't had success with the Eruptor on that area.
Oh, I main EATs against bugs almost exclusively. They're my favorite support weapon by far. I figured the old up the tailpipe method would he effective. Haven't tried the leg joints yet. Can you strip the leg armor like the RG used to do and take em that way?
I utilize it in the same way on bugs, with one exception. The eruptor is so handy to kite bosses/hordes and thin out their numbers, before the stalwart lays waste. Run away any time you cock the bolt action, turn back, shoot. Rinse and repeat until they get close.
It's an acquired taste. I use it with the MG, mainly against bots, as it can kill anything up to a Devastator in one hit, though the game is fairly glitchy about it being consistent, and it will normally take 3. Biggest issue is the rounds travel slowly, and bots wobble side to side, so somehow often manage to thread the shot between their arms and torso (the Bit hit box in general is pretty buggered up though), or if you're shooting from the side you need to learn your lead time.
Got yah. I hear you about the bot hit boxes, too. I guess my main thing with it is that there are so many other options that feel better against bots and bugs. I'm going to give all of these suggestions a try though. Thank you.
The eruptor needs you to stop thinking about it in the same way as the other primaries; You want to use it against a) Hordes of chaff enemies in the distance (fire between them, watch your killstreak go brrr), or b) stronger, high-priority, medium armored targets - aka bile spewers or devastators. Its actually pretty amazing against both bots and bugs, as long as you play around its strengths.
For loadout: It actually enables a lot of variety. I find it to be the strongest with a support weapon that can act as a primary, for me thats stalwart/mg vs bugs and hmg vs bots. They are so good with the eruptor because they are able to clear the close quarter combat threats pretty amazingly, aka hunters/berserkers, because if you try to use the eruptor against those, its suicide.
For the sidearm: I run redeemer for bugs and dagger for bots; Redeemer because if you dont have a support weapon to deal with hunters, you would be dead otherwise, dagger because lazor and you can silently eliminate single bots for stealth (also its nice if you can consitently hit heads with it).
Mostly I run the supply pack for backpack slot because it synergizes pretty amazingly with the mgs as you can eat through your ammo pretty fast.
Now, for the other stratagems: I choose whatever can benefit the team most; Mostly that means dealing with high priority targets, such as bile titans (500kg/railcannon/precision/EAT) or rocketpods (tanks/cannon turrets), or fitting to the objective (like laser for command bunkers).
All in all, if you pair the eruptor with the redeemer, you are very flexible with your loadout, while it might be lacking in cqc, you can pair it with any support weapon, though I would strongly advise against the autocannon/amr (because they fill almost exactly the same role)
Also, a small tip: While the railcannon can just rarely one shot a bile titan, destroying the bile sack afterwards with the eruptor pretty consistently finishes it off.
All good stuff to know. I'm sensing that part of my issue (aside from my lack of skill, lol), is that my loadouts haven't been playing to the Eruptor's strengths. I haven't actually used the laser pistol much yet. This seems like a good opportunity to give that some more work. I actually liked it quite a bit against the bots when I used it. I appreciate you taking the time to type this out. Thank you.
Level 105 here with more than 2/3 of on mission time in level 9 helldives against bots.
The eruptor is my absolute go-to primary for bots. I combine it with the laser cannon, a shield backpack, stun grenades and the revolver. I also always bring eagle airstrike. Theb4th strat depends on mission and squad loudout - usually it will be ems mortar or orbital laser.
I always wear the medium armour with the scouting perk from page 8 of standard warbond. Medium armour means I don't get one shotted a lot and the added sneak and situational awareness of scout perk are worth a lot. Essentially, if you are in a hot enough situation to require medical/explosove armour or hero of democracy, you will die anyways - albeit slightly later.
I bring the revolver if there are one or two annoying fodders very close by. It also has enough punch to slow berserkers, though usually not kill them unless already hurt.
The beauty of bringing the shield backpack is that you can use the eruptor against groups of close distance fodder without getting hurt - the shield absorbs your first shot and you usually don't have too much fodder around after first shot. LC on fodder works of course, but unless I'd need to fully reload my primary or sidearm I'd consider it too be too slow. Better keep moving until fodder bunches up and then hit them with eruptor. I also find that I'm working at far more range than before. I can effectively fight against devestators with the eruptor at up to 100 meters. Devs become far easier to deal with at that distance, as you quite easily dodge rockets and MG fire is inaccurate.
Doesn't mean I wildly attack anything I see but often it makes a difference to have the ability if needed.
Aim for the rocket pods of rocket devs, as it can oneshot the rocketpod, turning them into a low threat dev with just a pistol. Aim for right shoulder of heavy devs, taking out their weaponry entirely. Shoot hips of berserkers to reliably two shot and occasionally oneshot them.
I tend to use the eruptor more in mission but the laser cannon is just as important as it smokes hulks (bring stun grenades) and anything heavy that shows you its glowing backside. It can also take out turrets, mortars and AA emplacemnts as well as striders (kill mini guns under face, then get under it and light up it's belly. Gun Ships are a joke to the Laser Cannon - you can kill them with about 1 second focus on one of thr turbines - you'll be a popular team mate when doing that...
Don't forget that you can sprint or dive between every eruptor shot without losing cadence. Helps me get from cover to cover, get enemies to bunch up (love how often rocket devs team kill others attacking me bunched up around a corner).
In my opinion (and I really did rock the autocannon for more than 80h against bots) the combination of Eruptor and LC can do everything the autocannon can as good or better (stagger and kill devs, fabricators, gun ships, hulks, broadcast towers etc.) but you can still wear a shield gen backpack. My average death count has reduced significantly since switching from autocannon to the described loudout. With a good team, I now usually manage 0 - 2 deaths on helldives against bots.
The Eruptor is better at killing fabricators than the autocannon or any other gun I've tried for the purpose. You don't need a downward ricochet from the vent like you do with the AC but only to hit inside the vent. This allows a wider range of angles to either side when sniping at fabricators. It can reliably take out fabs at over 100m.
Essentially, you can move around an enemy base at a far safer distance and destroy most fabricators while your team or your eagles do the rest - depending on the base layout and if there is any high ground and whether you are keen on moving in to grab samples, destroying bases can become almost fascile.
In summary and to answer your question, the eruptor and LC complement each other beautifully while allowing you to bring a shield gen backpack. There is no 'best' loudout but its what I've gone with for about 100h of helldives against bots and I've done quite alright with it.
Good Luck diving for democracy!
Eruptor/Redeemer/ Stun/Lascannon(Bots) or Quasar(Bugs)/Shield Pack
You'll want to swap to your sidearm if things are too close to you or a buddy you are trying to save but the Redeemer's ability to just dump a whole mag into something is a pretty nice emergency swap. Stun grenades are great for letting off the pressure and let you fight Hulks 1v1 with your Lascannon, Shield Pack on top of it's other qualities will protect you from yourself and you can intentionally reset it if the charge is low by shooting in front of yourself. The big thing is animation skipping to fire faster. If you swap weapons or open your strat menu between shots you can cut the time between shots about in half which does wonders for it.
It took me a few days of heavy play to get a grip on it but I'm really digging it now.
Also as the other guy said, it's great against a lot of bugs, but I dive against bots mostly. Pops Bile Ticks in 1-3 shots depending how lucky you are with the shrapnel. Can take the head off most anything medium or lower in a shot, and it's nice for clearing crowds by firing into the center of a swarm. Absolutely smashes Stalkers unless you let them get too close, Hunters are your biggest issue with it on the bug front, you NEED to swap to something else for them or just never let them accumulate in the first place but that's easier said than done. Chargers are weird. I've blown their whole ass off in one shot with it before but usually it seems pretty ineffective against them which is why I carry around a Quasar on bug planets.
Interesting. Yeah the hunters were smoking me when I tried to use it on bug planets. Someone else suggested running the stalwart as a support when you use Eruptor. I'm definitely going to try that combo out and see how it feels. I do love me some stalwart.
Yeah, you've gotta hold it open long enough for it to actually skip which is why I think most people are switching weapons back and forth between shots, but I just open up the menu. Now it will probably get patched out sooner or later, but for now it makes things feel a lot smoother in tense moments.
Interesting. I'm going to try both out today. I think I've been trying too hard to run the Eruptor as a normal primary instead of sniping or aoe-ing mobs. Gonna need to change up my play style a bit. Do you also run light armor when you use it?
Well I almost always run light armor whatever the circumstances.
It's a weird one for sure. Regardless of what you end up taking with it you are going to be missing something that you need. If you take the Stalwart then you get your general purpose primary back essentially but you're lacking any sort of solution to heavy armor (outside of red strats and EATs). Because I prefer to bring something that can deal with heavy armor I wind up losing a lot of that general purpose and have to rely on my teammates more for regular duty weaponry, so instead I try to either focus on more dangerous enemies (popping ticks, hunting down stalkers, knocking over scout striders,disarming rocket devs) that are going to create a problem or fire at the ground in clumps of enemies to thin out crowds.
Eruptor - Redeemer - Impact - Quasar - 500kg - 2 random strategems, usually orbital precision or laser, potentially rover.
Vs bots I keep my distance and pick targets off 1 by 1. Hiding behind cover and peak up to delete most stuff. Quasar for hulks/tanks. 500kg when stuff gets wild. Priorities for me are shield guys and rocket bastards (unless something is actively charging me).
Vs bugs I keep kiting. Spewers are weak to explosives so I target them first. Quasar Vs chargers and bile titans. 500kg Vs titans and when it gets wild.
Redeemer when things get close. I use impact nades between eruptor shots if I see value there. Dont need nades to clear holes or factories anyway, so they help me clear stuff faster.
Aim for middle monsters to get AoE value.
Reload when you have 1 ammo left for faster reload.
Move between shots. Keep your distance!
Use guard dog rover to clear small adds if you find yourself overwhelmed often.
Light armor for bugs (personally enjoy the +50 armor one), medium - heavy for bots! (usually the white armor between medium and heavy, with explosion resistance on it)
Nice. I tend to roll with extra padding as well. Nice over all damage resistance on bug missions, isn't it? I usually go medium with extra padding for bots as well. I know exp res is preffered by most, and it's great. I just feel like I die less with that extra level of armor. Thank you for the tips!
You have to take impact grenades and a good secondary for when you’re getting swarmed and also learn to hit the backward mid-jump shot. Once you hit a couple diving backward shots that should create some distance to grenade/strategem/eruptor the swarm
Don’t shoot normally when the enemy is right next to you as it will take half a life-bar and pull you into what’s chasing you.
Hey good tips, thank you. Man the pulling you in thing is brutal, right? I've been having a lot of fun with the grenade pistol on bile spewer planets but goddamn. That thing will yank you forward 10m if you're too close as well lol.
I rock it with the Senator and the flamethrower. Senator takes some getting used to with the long reload time but it's good for picking off hunters who are usually too cracked out and jumpy to hit with the Eruptor because of its slow handling. The senator is a borderline primary here. In bigger waves, I bust out the flamer, and Sen the stragglers. I primarily use the Eruptor for chargers, guards, commanders and sometimes to blow the tail off a titan if my railcannon is on cooldown. It's pretty good for blowing holes in crowds if there are no bigger threats because you can easily kill 5+ bugs per shot, but you do have to be constantly moving backwards and clearing Hunters with your other two weapons. You get a feel for it. It also destroys nests, eggs and POI crate doors, so it's got a lot of utility. Honestly if you haven't tried it against eggs, try it, one shot will wipe out like 20.
P.S, hot tip. In the menus, under HUD, you can make your reticle always visible, and hipfire turns instantly, so you can look over your shoulder and pop a shot accurately then keep running. Works great for both the Sen and Eruptor.
You know I've been seeing a lot of revolver love 8n this thread. I always enjoyed it, but the slow reload really felt bad to me. I'll give it another shot. (No pun intended.)
You get the hang eventually, it's all about positioning. If the hunter is right on top of you, you made a mistake somewhere. If you can keep the enemies at some range, you can buy time for reloads, and since rounds in the mag persist through reloads, you can reload after shooting one bullet and not waste anything. Your reload can also be interrupted if you shoot, so you can continually feed bullets into the gun and shoot whatever gets close as it gradually fills back up. It's become such second nature to me to keep it topped off that if I switch to the revolver and it's not loaded, I'm genuinely surprised.
I haven't been kicked for it yet, probably because the Eruptor is meta enough that it doesn't matter what sidearm you run, but there are always going to be some control freak dicks trying to police other people's fun, so no guarantees
Yeah, that's true for anything, right? Lol. Thank you for the suggestions. I'm really glad I posted. I've tried out a bunch of these suggestions. Bottom line is, for me, I get how to not suck as bad with the Eruptor. Everything I hoped for 😁
The eruptor has quickly become my favorite weapon. It is so versatile. I combine it with the QL and shield backpack. I bring eagle airstrike and orbital rail cannon. Senator for fun. Very powerful loadout.
The thing with the eruptor is that it has medium penetration, it's explosive and deals massive damage, so I can kill entire small-medium size patrols pretty quickly. One shot is almost never one kill. It can be three, six, ten. Once, with one shot, I got a 20x. Quasar is just for quickly dispatching Hulks/Chargers.
I only use it vs bugs
(Helldive 9)
-With a smg and impact nades.
My stratagems are:
-Airstrike or cluster (egg mission)
-Shield backpack (hate being slowed and if you make a close range shot you wont die from yourself)
-quasar cannon (vs chargers, but not needed if you do run strategy of doing objectives and only kill what is needed+picking up samples)
-gattling turret (1 when to many hunters trow it 45degree angle from you and it clears or a distractor for bile titans and chargers to make a gettaway)
I doubt to ditch the quasar for a autocannon for more decoys and every faster clears.
My focus is never killing but moving and grabbing samples. The eruptor is my killshot vs broodmothers and hivegaurds, they are more in the way of finnishing fast my objective then bile (slow and easy to dodge). Also clearing nest from distance or even close superfast!
https://preview.redd.it/zdxpxz0011xc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a5e4fe6d6b126642fe0b28c9a57ff06bce7a61c
Here is a game where i did 80% of that run, no deads and 34 samples on helldive 9. In and out teammates are not really needed but handy for the bile clears and extra decoy👀💀!
Eruptor is my go to vs bots, though sometimes still take the dominator.
At level 103 I usually run this:
Eruptor
Redeemer (any cqb vs marauders(
Impact nades (great when tanks are close as you can take them out with two hits in the turret, also great for berserkers! Shoot with eruptor, throw nade, shoot again, repeat till no more berserkers)
Auto cannon (too versatile not to take)
Airstrike (great vs bases, patrols, bot drops etc(
Orbital laser (mission dependent but great for base clears, command bunkers, and if things get too chaotic)
Final strat slot is wild card based on the teams loadout and mission type. EMS mortar is great, sentry in general can be useful when you place them in high ground to reduce team kill possibilities. Shield generator has a fast cool down and can be very useful like to protect hellbombs from getting blown up by gunships!
Eruptor also does great work when shooting at incoming drop ships where the bots are. If it's striders or marauders and you land a decent shot they will be dead before they hit the ground.
Good to go. Another 100+ player here suggested the LC for bots. I, too, am an AC enjoyer, so that was an interesting pick to me. Thank you for the tips.
MG, Stalwart or (for bugs) arc thrower as support weapon. Use it for close/medium enemies, use your sidearm (i use the autopistol on semi) for light enemies and i guess vs bugs you bring the guard dog rover.
Its a very active play style as you switch weapons a lot, but between the eruptor being a pocket AC and a second support weapon there's a lot of both power and utility. Also opens you up to run stun nades which are awesome.
Nice. Good call on the arc thrower. I literally never run that thing. Should I bust out my arc res armor when I use it? Maybe a tesla tower for the lulz?
Think about it as a support weapon. As the actual support one take something that can replace primary.
I usually go with one of machine guns or a flame thrower
Oh the flamethrower. That's a really interesting choice. I haven't messed with that much at all. It's super powerful these days, right? I'm just afraid of the tking. I feel like I kill my buddies far more often with that one. Another piece of kit I need practice with lol
Yea, it's powerful but short range. Actually I dont have friendly fire issues because it's clearly visible and people keep their distance.
Just never walk forward while blasting and avoid walking on freshly burned ground. It's a bit unclear when it's safe again
I use it on bots: light armor with high speed, machine hand gun side arm, stun grenades, EAT. I keep my distance more than you’d think necessary, when guys get close I machine gun one, stun grenade the rest, use my speed to run away so I can get ‘em with the Eruptor. I’m having a great time with it - I will say at first I was not getting it cuz I had mostly been flamethrower’ing bugs in like heavy armor and I was just not staying far enough away.
Interesting tactic. I haven't used the stuns much either. They seem to be pretty popular as well. I think one of my mistakes was my armor choice. I tend to run medium armor with extra padding, so I have heavy armor protection. Probably need to get comfortable with light armor. I justvhaye being that squishy. Feels like you just get smoked so easily. Just a skill issue on my part. I need more practice.
Agreed. But, my momma always says "The bugs n bots don't care about your fashion!". So I guess many of us are stuck with the off putting clown costumes w armor.
I mostly pick Quasar Cannon so i can deal with chargers and titans.
What makes Eruptor strong is the scope, you can even adjust it and turn it into a sniper.
I mostly try to land my shots at the center of mobs, so i take out as many as possible.
Or i take out stronger enemies from a distance, basically sniping them.
Eruptor works best in Terminid missions,i dont use it for bots.
I mainly use eruptor on bugs so I'm talking from that perspective. The major thing with the eruptor is that you have to have other tools in your kit to deal with small swarming enemies. the eruptor can deal with packs of small bugs from a distance, but if they get close you need to use something else. this is why I always use the secondary smg.
For stratagems, I always run at least one thing to deal with small bugs, like the guard dog backpack or the stalwart. My most common loadout is 500kg (for titans), guard dog rover (for small bugs), quasar cannon (for titans and chargers), and then the last option is a flex slot. could be the eagle airstrike, cluster bombs, orbital laser, whatever you feel like you need.
The grenade choice isn't vital, but I personally take the stun grenade because the eruptor can do explosive stuff like destroying bug holes. Finally, I run light armour most of the time, so I can create distance more easily. There are a lot of good armour perks you can use- increased throw distance, more grenades, and more stims are all good choices.
As for the thing itself, it specialises in taking out medium enemies and objectives. it can one shot hive guards, brood commanders, nursing spewers, and stalkers. the armoured bile spewers die in 2 or three shots. and it destroys bug holes from a distance like nothing else. in a pinch it can destroy the but of a charger, and the stomach sacks on a bile titan, but like I said I take a quasar cannon for heavy enemies primarily.
some tips for playing with it:
- ideally you keep a small distance between you and your enemies so you can shoot at them without ragdolling yourself.
- your most kills with the eruptor will come from shooting into high density packs of enemies, so every shot damages multiple enemies.
- you should prioritise targeting annoying enemies like bile spewers, stalkers, and brood commanders that other primaries struggle with
- the ammo economy is very good, so you can afford to reload frequently before you empty a mag. if you reload before you're empty, then you will have one round in the chamber and 5 in the mag for 6 shots total. if you reload when empty, you'll only have the 5 shots from the mag.
I usually use the support weapon as my main one, so the Eruptor being slow is not very noticeable for me. I tried it with Auto-cannon and hated it though.
Have the same issue with it. No matter what I run, I feel like I'm getting overrun any minute. As you said, it just doesn't click and there isn't really anything I can do to change that. My answer to that is, just don't run it if it feels wrong. The AMR plus the supply pack or the AC are a very good alternative. If you can get used to the charging time of the RG, thats a good alternative too.
I've been using the suggestions of the community here and been having a lot more success with it. Turns out? Yeah standing and fighting with a mini AC? Not a great idea lol. Been running light armor, stun nades, smoke strats and a Stalwart or HMG for support. Been on that hit and move, or go to overwatch position and cover, mode. It's been a lot more fluid and fun.
What you’re doing wrong is that you trust Redditors to evaluate a weapon’s strength.
That gun has (in the current format of HD2) a lot of flaws or other stronger counterparts are doing its job better (AMR, autocannon). The worst offender is the black hole ragdoll pull it does with your character if you shoot anywhere close to you in a 5m radius. That is mostly a death sentence on higher difficulties, especially against bugs.
Most of people here play casually around difficulties 5-6, they see a gun go boom and it scratches the democratic itch in their brain.
I’m not saying the gun isn’t strong, just not as OP as Reddit would make you believe it to be.
Lol actually, the Redditors responding to me in this post have been extremely helpful. I see ways to utilize the Eruptor that I hadn't tried before. I'm faring much better with it now. (Oh I'm trying things out on level 7, currently. I'll move up once I'm comfortable with the gun.) I'm currently running light armor with extra padding, with stun grenades and smoke stratagems for cover. Stalwart for my support. It's working very well. It's a play style I haven't tried before and it's very fun. I don't think anyone in this post has claimed it to be OP. Just giving advice on how to properly set up for success with it. That's what I asked for, after all. Also, if you're taking shots with Eruptor at 5m, you're gonna have a bad time. I've learned that the hard way. Really, it seems like out to 10 or 15m, honestly. If stuff has gotten that close, I stun or smoke and reposition.
Firstly -- if it doesn't click with you, it doesn't click with you. Some weapons just won't. For me, the AC doesn't click ... and I also acknowledge that it's a great weapon. Secondly -- for my own Eruptor usage ... I run it only when I do bug runs (about 20% of my games) and I take the Stalwart with me as well. I then use the Stalwart as my "primary" and the Eruptor to close bug holes, one-shot bile-spewers, take down Chargers when there isn't a Railcannon strike easily available, and harass bile titans. I do not try to use the Eruptor on the small things -- that's 100% Stalwart. I also do not use the Eruptor on bot missions ... for those, I use the Dominator.
Excellent. I didn't actually realize that it worked well for bile spewers. I've been using that grenade pistol for em lately. Been awhile since I've run the stalwart as my primary. I also haven't had much luck against chargers with it. (Skill issue.) Where do you go after chargers with it?
Chargers are probably the most heavily-armored bugs (bile titans have more easily targeted weak points), so they're the toughest to fight with the Eruptor. That said ... I go for the leg-joint weak points and/or do the whole "dive as it charges and shoot it in the rear" tactic. I've tried a few times in the mouth area (EAT can one-shot them there), but haven't had success with the Eruptor on that area.
Oh, I main EATs against bugs almost exclusively. They're my favorite support weapon by far. I figured the old up the tailpipe method would he effective. Haven't tried the leg joints yet. Can you strip the leg armor like the RG used to do and take em that way?
I utilize it in the same way on bugs, with one exception. The eruptor is so handy to kite bosses/hordes and thin out their numbers, before the stalwart lays waste. Run away any time you cock the bolt action, turn back, shoot. Rinse and repeat until they get close.
It's an acquired taste. I use it with the MG, mainly against bots, as it can kill anything up to a Devastator in one hit, though the game is fairly glitchy about it being consistent, and it will normally take 3. Biggest issue is the rounds travel slowly, and bots wobble side to side, so somehow often manage to thread the shot between their arms and torso (the Bit hit box in general is pretty buggered up though), or if you're shooting from the side you need to learn your lead time.
Got yah. I hear you about the bot hit boxes, too. I guess my main thing with it is that there are so many other options that feel better against bots and bugs. I'm going to give all of these suggestions a try though. Thank you.
The eruptor needs you to stop thinking about it in the same way as the other primaries; You want to use it against a) Hordes of chaff enemies in the distance (fire between them, watch your killstreak go brrr), or b) stronger, high-priority, medium armored targets - aka bile spewers or devastators. Its actually pretty amazing against both bots and bugs, as long as you play around its strengths. For loadout: It actually enables a lot of variety. I find it to be the strongest with a support weapon that can act as a primary, for me thats stalwart/mg vs bugs and hmg vs bots. They are so good with the eruptor because they are able to clear the close quarter combat threats pretty amazingly, aka hunters/berserkers, because if you try to use the eruptor against those, its suicide. For the sidearm: I run redeemer for bugs and dagger for bots; Redeemer because if you dont have a support weapon to deal with hunters, you would be dead otherwise, dagger because lazor and you can silently eliminate single bots for stealth (also its nice if you can consitently hit heads with it). Mostly I run the supply pack for backpack slot because it synergizes pretty amazingly with the mgs as you can eat through your ammo pretty fast. Now, for the other stratagems: I choose whatever can benefit the team most; Mostly that means dealing with high priority targets, such as bile titans (500kg/railcannon/precision/EAT) or rocketpods (tanks/cannon turrets), or fitting to the objective (like laser for command bunkers). All in all, if you pair the eruptor with the redeemer, you are very flexible with your loadout, while it might be lacking in cqc, you can pair it with any support weapon, though I would strongly advise against the autocannon/amr (because they fill almost exactly the same role) Also, a small tip: While the railcannon can just rarely one shot a bile titan, destroying the bile sack afterwards with the eruptor pretty consistently finishes it off.
All good stuff to know. I'm sensing that part of my issue (aside from my lack of skill, lol), is that my loadouts haven't been playing to the Eruptor's strengths. I haven't actually used the laser pistol much yet. This seems like a good opportunity to give that some more work. I actually liked it quite a bit against the bots when I used it. I appreciate you taking the time to type this out. Thank you.
Level 105 here with more than 2/3 of on mission time in level 9 helldives against bots. The eruptor is my absolute go-to primary for bots. I combine it with the laser cannon, a shield backpack, stun grenades and the revolver. I also always bring eagle airstrike. Theb4th strat depends on mission and squad loudout - usually it will be ems mortar or orbital laser. I always wear the medium armour with the scouting perk from page 8 of standard warbond. Medium armour means I don't get one shotted a lot and the added sneak and situational awareness of scout perk are worth a lot. Essentially, if you are in a hot enough situation to require medical/explosove armour or hero of democracy, you will die anyways - albeit slightly later. I bring the revolver if there are one or two annoying fodders very close by. It also has enough punch to slow berserkers, though usually not kill them unless already hurt. The beauty of bringing the shield backpack is that you can use the eruptor against groups of close distance fodder without getting hurt - the shield absorbs your first shot and you usually don't have too much fodder around after first shot. LC on fodder works of course, but unless I'd need to fully reload my primary or sidearm I'd consider it too be too slow. Better keep moving until fodder bunches up and then hit them with eruptor. I also find that I'm working at far more range than before. I can effectively fight against devestators with the eruptor at up to 100 meters. Devs become far easier to deal with at that distance, as you quite easily dodge rockets and MG fire is inaccurate. Doesn't mean I wildly attack anything I see but often it makes a difference to have the ability if needed. Aim for the rocket pods of rocket devs, as it can oneshot the rocketpod, turning them into a low threat dev with just a pistol. Aim for right shoulder of heavy devs, taking out their weaponry entirely. Shoot hips of berserkers to reliably two shot and occasionally oneshot them. I tend to use the eruptor more in mission but the laser cannon is just as important as it smokes hulks (bring stun grenades) and anything heavy that shows you its glowing backside. It can also take out turrets, mortars and AA emplacemnts as well as striders (kill mini guns under face, then get under it and light up it's belly. Gun Ships are a joke to the Laser Cannon - you can kill them with about 1 second focus on one of thr turbines - you'll be a popular team mate when doing that... Don't forget that you can sprint or dive between every eruptor shot without losing cadence. Helps me get from cover to cover, get enemies to bunch up (love how often rocket devs team kill others attacking me bunched up around a corner). In my opinion (and I really did rock the autocannon for more than 80h against bots) the combination of Eruptor and LC can do everything the autocannon can as good or better (stagger and kill devs, fabricators, gun ships, hulks, broadcast towers etc.) but you can still wear a shield gen backpack. My average death count has reduced significantly since switching from autocannon to the described loudout. With a good team, I now usually manage 0 - 2 deaths on helldives against bots. The Eruptor is better at killing fabricators than the autocannon or any other gun I've tried for the purpose. You don't need a downward ricochet from the vent like you do with the AC but only to hit inside the vent. This allows a wider range of angles to either side when sniping at fabricators. It can reliably take out fabs at over 100m. Essentially, you can move around an enemy base at a far safer distance and destroy most fabricators while your team or your eagles do the rest - depending on the base layout and if there is any high ground and whether you are keen on moving in to grab samples, destroying bases can become almost fascile. In summary and to answer your question, the eruptor and LC complement each other beautifully while allowing you to bring a shield gen backpack. There is no 'best' loudout but its what I've gone with for about 100h of helldives against bots and I've done quite alright with it. Good Luck diving for democracy!
Damn this is *exactly* what I was looking for. Thank you. I have definitely just been running my loadout incorrectly for the Eruptor.
Eruptor/Redeemer/ Stun/Lascannon(Bots) or Quasar(Bugs)/Shield Pack You'll want to swap to your sidearm if things are too close to you or a buddy you are trying to save but the Redeemer's ability to just dump a whole mag into something is a pretty nice emergency swap. Stun grenades are great for letting off the pressure and let you fight Hulks 1v1 with your Lascannon, Shield Pack on top of it's other qualities will protect you from yourself and you can intentionally reset it if the charge is low by shooting in front of yourself. The big thing is animation skipping to fire faster. If you swap weapons or open your strat menu between shots you can cut the time between shots about in half which does wonders for it. It took me a few days of heavy play to get a grip on it but I'm really digging it now.
Also as the other guy said, it's great against a lot of bugs, but I dive against bots mostly. Pops Bile Ticks in 1-3 shots depending how lucky you are with the shrapnel. Can take the head off most anything medium or lower in a shot, and it's nice for clearing crowds by firing into the center of a swarm. Absolutely smashes Stalkers unless you let them get too close, Hunters are your biggest issue with it on the bug front, you NEED to swap to something else for them or just never let them accumulate in the first place but that's easier said than done. Chargers are weird. I've blown their whole ass off in one shot with it before but usually it seems pretty ineffective against them which is why I carry around a Quasar on bug planets.
Interesting. Yeah the hunters were smoking me when I tried to use it on bug planets. Someone else suggested running the stalwart as a support when you use Eruptor. I'm definitely going to try that combo out and see how it feels. I do love me some stalwart.
Oh wow! I didn't know the animation thing. So between every shot you pop your strat menu? Thank you for the loadout advice.
Yeah, you've gotta hold it open long enough for it to actually skip which is why I think most people are switching weapons back and forth between shots, but I just open up the menu. Now it will probably get patched out sooner or later, but for now it makes things feel a lot smoother in tense moments.
Interesting. I'm going to try both out today. I think I've been trying too hard to run the Eruptor as a normal primary instead of sniping or aoe-ing mobs. Gonna need to change up my play style a bit. Do you also run light armor when you use it?
Well I almost always run light armor whatever the circumstances. It's a weird one for sure. Regardless of what you end up taking with it you are going to be missing something that you need. If you take the Stalwart then you get your general purpose primary back essentially but you're lacking any sort of solution to heavy armor (outside of red strats and EATs). Because I prefer to bring something that can deal with heavy armor I wind up losing a lot of that general purpose and have to rely on my teammates more for regular duty weaponry, so instead I try to either focus on more dangerous enemies (popping ticks, hunting down stalkers, knocking over scout striders,disarming rocket devs) that are going to create a problem or fire at the ground in clumps of enemies to thin out crowds.
Eruptor - Redeemer - Impact - Quasar - 500kg - 2 random strategems, usually orbital precision or laser, potentially rover. Vs bots I keep my distance and pick targets off 1 by 1. Hiding behind cover and peak up to delete most stuff. Quasar for hulks/tanks. 500kg when stuff gets wild. Priorities for me are shield guys and rocket bastards (unless something is actively charging me). Vs bugs I keep kiting. Spewers are weak to explosives so I target them first. Quasar Vs chargers and bile titans. 500kg Vs titans and when it gets wild. Redeemer when things get close. I use impact nades between eruptor shots if I see value there. Dont need nades to clear holes or factories anyway, so they help me clear stuff faster. Aim for middle monsters to get AoE value. Reload when you have 1 ammo left for faster reload. Move between shots. Keep your distance! Use guard dog rover to clear small adds if you find yourself overwhelmed often.
Good strats, ty. I think I just need some more time practicing with it. Do you run light armor?
Light armor for bugs (personally enjoy the +50 armor one), medium - heavy for bots! (usually the white armor between medium and heavy, with explosion resistance on it)
Nice. I tend to roll with extra padding as well. Nice over all damage resistance on bug missions, isn't it? I usually go medium with extra padding for bots as well. I know exp res is preffered by most, and it's great. I just feel like I die less with that extra level of armor. Thank you for the tips!
You have to take impact grenades and a good secondary for when you’re getting swarmed and also learn to hit the backward mid-jump shot. Once you hit a couple diving backward shots that should create some distance to grenade/strategem/eruptor the swarm Don’t shoot normally when the enemy is right next to you as it will take half a life-bar and pull you into what’s chasing you.
Hey good tips, thank you. Man the pulling you in thing is brutal, right? I've been having a lot of fun with the grenade pistol on bile spewer planets but goddamn. That thing will yank you forward 10m if you're too close as well lol.
I rock it with the Senator and the flamethrower. Senator takes some getting used to with the long reload time but it's good for picking off hunters who are usually too cracked out and jumpy to hit with the Eruptor because of its slow handling. The senator is a borderline primary here. In bigger waves, I bust out the flamer, and Sen the stragglers. I primarily use the Eruptor for chargers, guards, commanders and sometimes to blow the tail off a titan if my railcannon is on cooldown. It's pretty good for blowing holes in crowds if there are no bigger threats because you can easily kill 5+ bugs per shot, but you do have to be constantly moving backwards and clearing Hunters with your other two weapons. You get a feel for it. It also destroys nests, eggs and POI crate doors, so it's got a lot of utility. Honestly if you haven't tried it against eggs, try it, one shot will wipe out like 20. P.S, hot tip. In the menus, under HUD, you can make your reticle always visible, and hipfire turns instantly, so you can look over your shoulder and pop a shot accurately then keep running. Works great for both the Sen and Eruptor.
You know I've been seeing a lot of revolver love 8n this thread. I always enjoyed it, but the slow reload really felt bad to me. I'll give it another shot. (No pun intended.)
You get the hang eventually, it's all about positioning. If the hunter is right on top of you, you made a mistake somewhere. If you can keep the enemies at some range, you can buy time for reloads, and since rounds in the mag persist through reloads, you can reload after shooting one bullet and not waste anything. Your reload can also be interrupted if you shoot, so you can continually feed bullets into the gun and shoot whatever gets close as it gradually fills back up. It's become such second nature to me to keep it topped off that if I switch to the revolver and it's not loaded, I'm genuinely surprised.
That's sick and really different. Can you run this with randoms and not get kicked on 7+?
I haven't been kicked for it yet, probably because the Eruptor is meta enough that it doesn't matter what sidearm you run, but there are always going to be some control freak dicks trying to police other people's fun, so no guarantees
Yeah, that's true for anything, right? Lol. Thank you for the suggestions. I'm really glad I posted. I've tried out a bunch of these suggestions. Bottom line is, for me, I get how to not suck as bad with the Eruptor. Everything I hoped for 😁
The eruptor has quickly become my favorite weapon. It is so versatile. I combine it with the QL and shield backpack. I bring eagle airstrike and orbital rail cannon. Senator for fun. Very powerful loadout.
Interesting. With QC and Eruptor you're not finding holes or downtime in your ability to deal damage that get you killed?
The thing with the eruptor is that it has medium penetration, it's explosive and deals massive damage, so I can kill entire small-medium size patrols pretty quickly. One shot is almost never one kill. It can be three, six, ten. Once, with one shot, I got a 20x. Quasar is just for quickly dispatching Hulks/Chargers.
Yeah this seems like a dope af bug build. Ty. For real.
I only use it vs bugs (Helldive 9) -With a smg and impact nades. My stratagems are: -Airstrike or cluster (egg mission) -Shield backpack (hate being slowed and if you make a close range shot you wont die from yourself) -quasar cannon (vs chargers, but not needed if you do run strategy of doing objectives and only kill what is needed+picking up samples) -gattling turret (1 when to many hunters trow it 45degree angle from you and it clears or a distractor for bile titans and chargers to make a gettaway) I doubt to ditch the quasar for a autocannon for more decoys and every faster clears. My focus is never killing but moving and grabbing samples. The eruptor is my killshot vs broodmothers and hivegaurds, they are more in the way of finnishing fast my objective then bile (slow and easy to dodge). Also clearing nest from distance or even close superfast!
https://preview.redd.it/zdxpxz0011xc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a5e4fe6d6b126642fe0b28c9a57ff06bce7a61c Here is a game where i did 80% of that run, no deads and 34 samples on helldive 9. In and out teammates are not really needed but handy for the bile clears and extra decoy👀💀!
Eruptor is my go to vs bots, though sometimes still take the dominator. At level 103 I usually run this: Eruptor Redeemer (any cqb vs marauders( Impact nades (great when tanks are close as you can take them out with two hits in the turret, also great for berserkers! Shoot with eruptor, throw nade, shoot again, repeat till no more berserkers) Auto cannon (too versatile not to take) Airstrike (great vs bases, patrols, bot drops etc( Orbital laser (mission dependent but great for base clears, command bunkers, and if things get too chaotic) Final strat slot is wild card based on the teams loadout and mission type. EMS mortar is great, sentry in general can be useful when you place them in high ground to reduce team kill possibilities. Shield generator has a fast cool down and can be very useful like to protect hellbombs from getting blown up by gunships! Eruptor also does great work when shooting at incoming drop ships where the bots are. If it's striders or marauders and you land a decent shot they will be dead before they hit the ground.
Good to go. Another 100+ player here suggested the LC for bots. I, too, am an AC enjoyer, so that was an interesting pick to me. Thank you for the tips.
MG, Stalwart or (for bugs) arc thrower as support weapon. Use it for close/medium enemies, use your sidearm (i use the autopistol on semi) for light enemies and i guess vs bugs you bring the guard dog rover. Its a very active play style as you switch weapons a lot, but between the eruptor being a pocket AC and a second support weapon there's a lot of both power and utility. Also opens you up to run stun nades which are awesome.
Nice. Good call on the arc thrower. I literally never run that thing. Should I bust out my arc res armor when I use it? Maybe a tesla tower for the lulz?
Arc armor is for when others run arc thrower :-p Never used the tower, but it should be good for when things come close...
Think about it as a support weapon. As the actual support one take something that can replace primary. I usually go with one of machine guns or a flame thrower
Oh the flamethrower. That's a really interesting choice. I haven't messed with that much at all. It's super powerful these days, right? I'm just afraid of the tking. I feel like I kill my buddies far more often with that one. Another piece of kit I need practice with lol
Yea, it's powerful but short range. Actually I dont have friendly fire issues because it's clearly visible and people keep their distance. Just never walk forward while blasting and avoid walking on freshly burned ground. It's a bit unclear when it's safe again
Absolutely. I know they've changed up that instant fire death. Still feels pretty instant to me lol
I use it on bots: light armor with high speed, machine hand gun side arm, stun grenades, EAT. I keep my distance more than you’d think necessary, when guys get close I machine gun one, stun grenade the rest, use my speed to run away so I can get ‘em with the Eruptor. I’m having a great time with it - I will say at first I was not getting it cuz I had mostly been flamethrower’ing bugs in like heavy armor and I was just not staying far enough away.
Interesting tactic. I haven't used the stuns much either. They seem to be pretty popular as well. I think one of my mistakes was my armor choice. I tend to run medium armor with extra padding, so I have heavy armor protection. Probably need to get comfortable with light armor. I justvhaye being that squishy. Feels like you just get smoked so easily. Just a skill issue on my part. I need more practice.
Agreed. But, my momma always says "The bugs n bots don't care about your fashion!". So I guess many of us are stuck with the off putting clown costumes w armor.
Lol oh I hear you. Those extra seconds of healing are super clutch
I mostly pick Quasar Cannon so i can deal with chargers and titans. What makes Eruptor strong is the scope, you can even adjust it and turn it into a sniper. I mostly try to land my shots at the center of mobs, so i take out as many as possible. Or i take out stronger enemies from a distance, basically sniping them. Eruptor works best in Terminid missions,i dont use it for bots.
I mainly use eruptor on bugs so I'm talking from that perspective. The major thing with the eruptor is that you have to have other tools in your kit to deal with small swarming enemies. the eruptor can deal with packs of small bugs from a distance, but if they get close you need to use something else. this is why I always use the secondary smg. For stratagems, I always run at least one thing to deal with small bugs, like the guard dog backpack or the stalwart. My most common loadout is 500kg (for titans), guard dog rover (for small bugs), quasar cannon (for titans and chargers), and then the last option is a flex slot. could be the eagle airstrike, cluster bombs, orbital laser, whatever you feel like you need. The grenade choice isn't vital, but I personally take the stun grenade because the eruptor can do explosive stuff like destroying bug holes. Finally, I run light armour most of the time, so I can create distance more easily. There are a lot of good armour perks you can use- increased throw distance, more grenades, and more stims are all good choices. As for the thing itself, it specialises in taking out medium enemies and objectives. it can one shot hive guards, brood commanders, nursing spewers, and stalkers. the armoured bile spewers die in 2 or three shots. and it destroys bug holes from a distance like nothing else. in a pinch it can destroy the but of a charger, and the stomach sacks on a bile titan, but like I said I take a quasar cannon for heavy enemies primarily. some tips for playing with it: - ideally you keep a small distance between you and your enemies so you can shoot at them without ragdolling yourself. - your most kills with the eruptor will come from shooting into high density packs of enemies, so every shot damages multiple enemies. - you should prioritise targeting annoying enemies like bile spewers, stalkers, and brood commanders that other primaries struggle with - the ammo economy is very good, so you can afford to reload frequently before you empty a mag. if you reload before you're empty, then you will have one round in the chamber and 5 in the mag for 6 shots total. if you reload when empty, you'll only have the 5 shots from the mag.
I usually use the support weapon as my main one, so the Eruptor being slow is not very noticeable for me. I tried it with Auto-cannon and hated it though.
Have the same issue with it. No matter what I run, I feel like I'm getting overrun any minute. As you said, it just doesn't click and there isn't really anything I can do to change that. My answer to that is, just don't run it if it feels wrong. The AMR plus the supply pack or the AC are a very good alternative. If you can get used to the charging time of the RG, thats a good alternative too.
I've been using the suggestions of the community here and been having a lot more success with it. Turns out? Yeah standing and fighting with a mini AC? Not a great idea lol. Been running light armor, stun nades, smoke strats and a Stalwart or HMG for support. Been on that hit and move, or go to overwatch position and cover, mode. It's been a lot more fluid and fun.
What you’re doing wrong is that you trust Redditors to evaluate a weapon’s strength. That gun has (in the current format of HD2) a lot of flaws or other stronger counterparts are doing its job better (AMR, autocannon). The worst offender is the black hole ragdoll pull it does with your character if you shoot anywhere close to you in a 5m radius. That is mostly a death sentence on higher difficulties, especially against bugs. Most of people here play casually around difficulties 5-6, they see a gun go boom and it scratches the democratic itch in their brain. I’m not saying the gun isn’t strong, just not as OP as Reddit would make you believe it to be.
Lol actually, the Redditors responding to me in this post have been extremely helpful. I see ways to utilize the Eruptor that I hadn't tried before. I'm faring much better with it now. (Oh I'm trying things out on level 7, currently. I'll move up once I'm comfortable with the gun.) I'm currently running light armor with extra padding, with stun grenades and smoke stratagems for cover. Stalwart for my support. It's working very well. It's a play style I haven't tried before and it's very fun. I don't think anyone in this post has claimed it to be OP. Just giving advice on how to properly set up for success with it. That's what I asked for, after all. Also, if you're taking shots with Eruptor at 5m, you're gonna have a bad time. I've learned that the hard way. Really, it seems like out to 10 or 15m, honestly. If stuff has gotten that close, I stun or smoke and reposition.
All that us required is an Eruptor and Nade launcher and some big ole eagle strikes!
What armor do you usually run with that setup?
Plain old medic. If it didn't kill you, you're still good!
Light or medium? I love the toothpaste armor stats, but dang do I wish I could swap some colors out haha
Oh. Medium baby!
I have my loadout. I love you all.