Helldivers 2: For Managed Democracy!

[glacial light]

I now bring guard dog purely so if it shoots at something behind I know to give it a look

[ionic holly]

but at that point with a spewer i can usually hear the wind up and stagger them with me blitzer or pummeler

well stagger might be the wrong word for blitzer? whatever it does to stop them from spewing

[honest acorn]

That's stagger I think

[ionic holly]

brain flubbed that one a hair

[honest acorn]

It's a very high stagger gun

[ionic holly]

I wanna agree but they don't physically stagger

it just stops the bile from coming out of their mouth

they do the animation and everything

[honest acorn]

Huh IDK then

Might be an animation glitch

[ionic holly]

it's
actually a really strong counter to them because they get animation locked

[ionic holly]

Maybe but it also just doesn't stagger them in normal play either

like if it's just walking they don't stagger

so it seems intentional?

would need an arc thrower bud to detail their own experiences

since while i love the blitzer I
do not love the arc thrower

Oh yeah, found a fun bot build my friends are basically calling 'riot cop'

Pummeler/Verdict/stun nades/ballistic shield

[lethal badger]

Is blitzer worth

I’ve been using punisher and anti mat when I wanna feel vain

[supple siren]

Blitzer buff made it very effective vs medium buggos

[ionic holly]

It's a good bug weapon, good stagger and all that, but it's very much an acquired taste even post buff

[supple siren]

Could maybe use a touch of arcing

[tall stone]

Beam Build upgraded into Arc Action.

[honest acorn]

Blitzer is good now

Used to be merely usable

[ionic holly]

it's one of my favorites and will likely be to the end of time

but now my list of favored weapons is too long

i can't bring 'em all into a mission

blitzer, pummeler, adjudicator, punisher plasma, tenderizer

[glacial light]

It's a good bug weapon for like just running and shooting

Like no reload, no ammo, ok cooldown time, and ideally kills 3 enemy with every shot without needing to aim

It feels great when a bunch of hunters jump at you and you just zap 3 of them out if the air at once

[lethal badger]

Not good for bots

[glacial light]

The range issue is the issue for bots, it staggers berserkers well

So if you're being chased by like less than 6 berserkers you're fine with a blitzer, as for every other enemy that pings you from a distance?

[lethal badger]

What’s a good long distance primary for bots

Tired of using punisher and being horribly outclassed against a Devastator platoon

[glacial light]

My togos are Sickle and used to be Eruptor (hope the buff gets it back)

[ionic holly]

that might need a little more narrowing down depending on what you want cause by all means most ranged medium pen options are good

[glacial light]

Also like the counter sniper I hear is low-key great

[blissful sparrow]

Dominator is great fun

[ionic holly]

CS is good, love my adjudicator, plasma pun stuns the fuck out of shield devs and kills striders nicely, dominator is the dominator it does great

[glacial light]

Dominator also great thing erases medium bots to weakpoints

[lilac tangle]

Love me some boltgun

[glacial light]

I found plasma pun isn't as strong against strider since they received the pilot explosive reduction

Unless there's something I'm missing

[ionic holly]

does it still kill them from the front in less than a battery?

[glacial light]

It takes like 3 to 4 shots near the top of the shield to kill?

[ionic holly]

So yes it's still fine, just takes more

it's not as one and done

and being able to stun lock shield devs and rocket devs is still more than enough worth

[glacial light]

Yea plasma punisher is good for stun locking other mediums, I still like the feel of Eruptor better

[upbeat vector]

Liberator or Lib Pen are both good

[ionic holly]

i'm
not putting down the eruptor my bud i'm just talking about a different weapon?

[tight zephyr]

Yeah I don't like fighting bugs as much.

[glacial light]

I apologize if I was unclear or sounded defensive. I'm stating my preference for Eruptor over Plasma punisher is cause to recent changes to how striders take damage indirectly nerfs plasma punisher in a way that I'd prefer the Eruptor better

[ionic holly]

Alright, which is fair, i'm just not one to compare weapons like that since the eruptor and plasma pun clearly want to do something different with how they function

plasma pun is basically a hand held energy grenade launcher and eruptor is a minature missile launcher

not to mention the plasma pun gets way more of its value out of being able to stun the fuck outta most things

[glacial light]

I do compare them for personal use cause like I can only bring one primary per mission and stick to it for that faction until changes happen. I am not skilled enough or play enough to be swapping weapons and be good at it

[ionic holly]

shrug.

i don't know what you want me to say

[glacial light]

I'm just saying my opinions? Maybe I should play games if I'm being unintentionally confrontational at this moment

[ionic holly]

I apologize, did that sound rude?

No its fine i just think perhaps this might've been a bit confusing to me

[strange vine]

Its funny cause its the opposite for me. The plasma punisher is way better to me for killing scout striders because you can fire 2 shots to kill in the time it takes for the eruptor to rack in for the 2nd shot

[glacial light]

What's the secret behind killing it in 2 shots? Since that one patch it takes like 3 to 5 for me on the leg joints or top of shield or middle of shield

[strange vine]

I just shoot the faceplate. Its always been 2 shots to kill for me with plas punisher

Maybe a 3rd shot if very unlucky

[glacial light]

Really maybe I'll try it again, the effectively increased breakpoint requiring a few extra shots made me stop using it

[honest acorn]

They used to be able to do it in 1

[strange vine]

Yeah it was 1 shot before, but now its 2

[tight zephyr]

What's the best way to kill a bile spewer real quick? Because they seem to come by the dozen and they're hard to kill.

I've been using the Punisher and it's not quite doing it.

[blissful sparrow]

Impact grenade oneshots them iirc

[tight zephyr]

Ah. Guess that's my next unlock. I'm gonna go back to fighting bots for a while after this, I think.

[glacial light]

Grenades, autocannon, grenade launcher

I think those are my most effective methods of dealing with bile spewer swarms

[tight zephyr]

Ah, I need to unlock the autocannon. I've been having so much fun with the recoilless rifle that I forgot to do that.

[glacial light]

It's different use case, autocannon is like a jack of all trades support weapon you can basically use as a primary

Although on bots autocannon is kind of goated afaik it can destroy every enemy and building via weakpoints and has a good magazine size and rate of fire and reloads quick assuming it's not completely empty

It kills ads, usually 1 or 2 taps medium, and a few more shots for heavies to weakpoints

[tight zephyr]

I like the RR because it's a big explosion, but not too big, and also because the recoilless rifle as a weapon is underrepresented and I'm just excited to see one.

[glacial light]

If you want a bigger but weaker explosion airburst is great fun against bugs

If you like RR for it's ability to deal with heavy enemies then maybe not airburst

[tight zephyr]

I got to see my dad use a Carl Gustaf in training once and it was one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed firsthand.

I like the RR because it's an RR and I think that's a cool weapon.

But also yes it's been very useful for swatting heavies.

I like using it to knock the tracks off of bot tanks and then flee as fast as I can.

So, I think I'm going to prioritize the autocannon and the impact nades next.

[glacial light]

Impacts are my 2nd favorite with 1st being stuns. But also I haven't tried the impact incendiary which might take 2nd place

[glacial light]

Is the OPS arrow not centered?

That's it HD2 literally unplayable

[lilac tangle]

https://tenor.com/view/panda-flip-desk-freak-out-mad-gif-15503485

[shy prairie]

Also if you didn't already know, unless your weapon is explosive the big glowing bile sacs are not a real weakpoimt

[modest fiber]

me when i see a bug at my lawn:

[shy prairie]

I think they count as a 'large volume body" or something like that, and have 90% damage resistance against non explosive

For non explosive weapons, the bile spewer head/mouth is the place

[modest fiber]

yea iirc explosive damage just deals normal to those parts, which usually (if the weapon is the custav or eat) tends to kill it in one hit

[wide mural]

bile spewer go pop

[alpine seal]

massive body parts are... really complicated in terms of damage calculation, i recall

not all explosive weapons deal full damage to them, each gun has an independent damage value for them with generic ballistics being around 10%

the only thing you really need to remember is that most primaries deal pretty low "durable damage" [even explosive ones] except the scorcher

[strange vine]

yeah enemy health is a bit complicated

every body part has its own health pool, and every body part has a certain "durable" percentage

each weapon also has, in addition to its regular damage, a durable damage stat

which is the damage it does to durable body parts

most primaries do very low durable damage (usually 10%), and most explosives like the autocannon deal 100% durable damage

[tight zephyr]

The autocannon does kind of rule, but man I don't like fighting the bugs still. I just did a mission where, after getting killed and redeploying, I could see that the entire map around us was basically solid bile spewers.

[shy prairie]

yeah 'ate those bile spewer maps

[lilac tangle]

The spawn rate on bile spewers is too damn high

I never see any less than 4 of them at a time whenever they show up, regardless of difficulty

They're not exactly hard to deal with, but they act as cover for the little swarming guys and it's a pain in the ass

[wide mural]

it's why having a high volume of explosives is a necessity for me on bugs

gotta be able to pop the water balloons quickly because they spawn constantly

[modest fiber]

well anger towards the enemy is good :3 makes me want to kill em even more

[lilac tangle]

But frustration is not

At least they're satisfying to pop

[glacial light]

my issue is they're quiet and spawn so many for how quickly they will kill you with bile

They're like pre nerf flame hulks but numerous medium enemies

[lilac tangle]

I should try turning on midnight mode like someone else suggested

Apparently it makes the bugs easier to hear

[glacial light]

It helps let's you hear BT, chargers, and spewers a bit but the prowlers and hunters often drown them out

It helps against lone spewers sneaking up on you when you hear the gurgle

[lilac tangle]

TBF I tend to prioritize killing Prowlers and Hunters anyway

[glacial light]

I run heavy medic witb supply pack so I'm always hopped up on stims and they're a lower priority for me

[lilac tangle]

I just don't like being unable to run away :V

[glacial light]

I think like 2 or 3 spewers do more than can stims can handle

[lilac tangle]

If you can see spewers coming they're never a problem on their own

[glacial light]

Im always running cause I just stim when I'm out of stamina

They should let us stim at full health

[modest fiber]

ah yes, the drug dispenser ^-^ good times

[lilac tangle]

There's a light medic armor that's really good for that tactic

One of the ones you have to buy with super credits

CM-21 Trench Paramedic

[glacial light]

I've tried all 3 medic armors and I still like heavy cause stims negate the slowness if you're always running and gives you a bigger buff to stim

Also I'm just a big fan of tanking in general

Light medic theoretically is good with supply pack too cause stimming negates it's low armor while giving you lots of speed but I find enemies that stagger you to stop stimming like 3 hunters or being knocked down from rocket barrages will kill you quick

[lilac tangle]

If you get slowed by hunters, being in heavy armor would just make it even harder to get away

[glacial light]

With heavy armor and stims you don't need to get away

[modest fiber]

heavy armour is based option

[glacial light]

Between stuns, supply pack, and heavy medic armor anything less than 12 hunters is not a threat to me at all

[lilac tangle]

TBH I've never noticed a significant enough difference between heavy and any other armor that would warrant taking heavy, except against bots when using the armor that reduces explosive damage

[glacial light]

And if it is then stun at my feet, dive away, throw a strike near me, stim, almost die, and make it out with full health

[lilac tangle]

I like not having to expend resources when possible

Not getting hit is the best defense

[glacial light]

Resources are really plentiful

[lilac tangle]

Not when you're out of meds and trying to find some while your teammates hog the supply drops

[glacial light]

But if you like not being hit, then you'd appreciate the 20 hunters on me instead of you

[lilac tangle]

It would make for a very tempting target for a napalm strike, true

[glacial light]

I don't run out of meds or use more than 1 supply drop, I get stuff from POIs. A fresh supply packs get you 8 grenades/meds and is refillable

And I burn at least 25 stims in a 40 minute mission

[lilac tangle]

I never take the supply pack when I can just output free damage with a rover

[glacial light]

Rover is good for that I tend to be the person that does the terminals cause I am too stimmed up to die

Everyone has their own roles in the team

I also like to be the sample carrier, someone dies and drops samples in a hot zone. Ig i'm walking through the swarm to grab the super samples and walking back

[lilac tangle]

I do too, being in light armor all the time helps a lot with that

[glacial light]

I also tend to play with friends are don't play HD2 a lot so they die more often than folks here, and I try not to die more than once a mission so it's like 3-4 extra lives for my teammates.

[lilac tangle]

I don't get to play with friends that often so my playstyle is usually pretty self-reliant

[glacial light]

Same, that's like the default for most folks unless they coordinating in a group with VC

[lilac tangle]

Some would say I play selfishly, but I usually end up dying the least and getting all the objectives done mostly by myself, so 🤷‍♂️

Though once in a blue moon you meet a rando team that is well-coordinated and actually know what they're doing, and it's wonderful

Shoutout to the team that helped me unlock Helldive difficulty

[glacial light]

I don't really play to win, I play to ensure people don't not have fun. Someone in my friend group is just in a deathloop and getting frustrated that they can get the support weapon they have fun with back? The optimal choice would be to tell them to leave it and wait for the CD to get a new one so we don't burn reinforcements and get the objective odone, but i'd rather just abandon what i'm doing and escort them to get their stuff back so they can get back to fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5RqahhwTw8

[lilac tangle]

Carbot is good fun

[upbeat vector]

Huh

Anyone else having trouble connecting?

And by 'trouble' I mean 'inability'

[strange vine]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/279613729803599883/1238985496265363546/image.png?ex=664146a9&is=663ff529&hm=61e07c4a78cf549c2c1e9e20a0ad2fbaf5f0539c9e0c5382fdba5794dff1b78b&

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1cpkqp7/what_if_pelican_1_joined_the_fight/

[glacial light]

I feel like it sort of steps on the toes of turrets to have a flying turret that's basically invincible but honestly sounds sick

[strange vine]

Well it only lasts for less than 20 s

According to the graphic

So it cant do the same locking down an area thing

[glacial light]

As an eagle fan I wouldn't mind having a pelican with similar mechanics

[tight zephyr]

I could get behind having the Pelican orbit the battlefield for a short time to provide fire support.

Sounds sick.

[steady flame]

I take it that the mortar and gatling fire comes out the side?

[burnt vapor]

I have said it before I would love to be able to have pelican one just sit above the field for a bit as a stratagem
He does so much work when he comes in for evac and when he drops off EXOs

[glacial light]

A poor super destroyer crewmember is in the back of the pelican and firing off a ground mortar from the ramp

[burnt vapor]

nah they're just throwing them out the back by hand

[steady flame]

To be fair, if it's a pintle-mounted or roof-mountex gunmortar, that's fairly smart.

Then again, that requires Super Earth being smart.

[strange vine]

i love that the mortar sentries have a fucking lil robot arm that loads in the mortar shell every shot

its not in some magazine or whatever

its needlessly more complicated

[unkempt river]

<@&1206091872716595200> spill oil?

[cobalt patrol]

Once I've had breakfast, lemme get up properly

[unkempt river]

It is one step above having an intern dropped with the mortar to load it, functionality-wise

[tight zephyr]

I’d like an AC-130 equivalent. Super Earth is already “America, except more.” Might as well put in the aircraft with a tank cannon and like five other guns sticking out of the side.

[cobalt patrol]

An aircraft with so many guns the recoil makes it do a barrel roll

[hollow plover]

The Eagle-1 strafing run needs an upgrade where it just goes on for way too long

[hot meadow]

Unironically I am still haunted by this

[honest acorn]

It was fairly hilarious metacommentary tbh

[hot meadow]

Like now I just can’t do bots without heavy explosive resist armor

[honest acorn]

Armor just making you slower for no gain since super earth went with the lowest bidder

[cobalt patrol]

<@&1206091872716595200> HELL HELL HELL DIVERRRS

[cobalt patrol]

Look, under optimal conditons

<@&1206091872716595200> One more?

[tight zephyr]

Cruelty Squad was like this for... like an entire year.

[idle hollow]

nobody realised

it was so funny

no wonder people thought armor sucked lmfao

the giant screen-screwing flesh suit that gives like 80% damage reduction doing nothing

[tiny owl]

Honestly the funny bubble man suit I thought felt weirdly fragile for ages then that patch note arrived and I laughed my ass off realising why

[glacial light]

Super Earth isn't prjmiu, the robot arm is operated remotely be an unpaid internship who is not paid in exposure because they don't have enough experience to have a role ojn a super destroyer that pays in exposure yet

[glacial light]

I think in the first game strafing run could like be call immediately after you called one in so you can burn charges to effective make a wall of lead for like 20 seconds straight

[shy prairie]

Heck

[alpine seal]

Divers

[unreal merlin]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/504546024648343562/1238766482700369973/RDT_20240511_0914575377696393264117361.jpg?ex=66412370&is=663fd1f0&hm=6aa183e8a0b7156b88079b3c6f892f2bf6a65b650795f9bf195fc88f72ffecbc&

[tight zephyr]

Ah, we're fucked.

[gusty wave]

It had a cooldown of 10 seconds, no use limit, and you could stack multiples of them in your stratagem list

[mortal wing]

Welp, game is still delisted here and in 160-180ish countries. And according to steam support it's sony's decision.

That sure bodes well.

[cobalt patrol]

😦

That really sucks @mortal wing

[quick plinth]

https://tenor.com/view/helldiver-helldivers-2-bile-titan-gif-6555671389602187095

[modest fiber]

having eagle one animated sure looks wack, also that voice sounds somewhat close to the one in game.. or is that just me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl6O7Z9nmog

[cobalt patrol]

You know what'd be cool? a strat that chases after whatever you mark

like a version of orbital laser but weaker, except you can more directly control it

[unreal merlin]

Aren't stratagems supposed to follow the beacons if they stick to something that moves, but it's currently bugged?

[cobalt patrol]

Supposedly, yes!

I'm thinking something liek a controllable gattling barrage could be cool

https://i.redd.it/hlumknocnuzc1.png

<@&1206091872716595200> Re: restirctions, see above image.

TLDR: It was admin error that hese ones werent already restricted. Valve fixed that. orignal restricting is still sony, Arrowhead is still pushing for game to be avaible evrywhere

[stark ether]

ok so we should still be mad at sony

[glad marsh]

EDF laser pointer 👀

[stark ether]

only some of them are supposed to

iirc only the blue ones really

[hollow plover]

Ye, offensive strats only target the spot where it first activated on

[stark ether]

other than the laser, rocket pods, and railcannon that havve their own targeting mechanics

[blissful sparrow]

and the 380 that doesn't care in the first place

[cobalt patrol]

It does; t drops in set patterns

That are based on the direction you thew and if you previously used a barrage this mission

[blissful sparrow]

yes, but the spread is so large, its marker getting carried around doesn't really matter much relatively

enemy walked 10m with the marker on its head? still a 70m area

[strange vine]

I should note this is apparently a bug that will eventually be fixed

[blissful sparrow]

i cannot wait for them to fix it and people to not notice and get absolutely bodied by Cluster strikes

[unreal merlin]

Hot off the testing, the Pummeler kinda actually slaps the hell out of bots.

Would recommend, especially with a ballistic shield.

The concussive effect lets you seriously bully devastators of all types and it does quite well vs raiders with trigger discipline.

Also disrupts raiders trying to launch flares so you can better control alerts.

The new assault rifle is just kinda okay. I didn't really see it stand out but I used it a few missions and it was about as serviceable as the liberator.

[strange vine]

yeah pummeler's the clearest winner of the bunch

[keen zinc]

Ironically a better explosive weapon than the democratic detonation ones

[junior badge]

I dunno, I still like the crossbow, and the eruptor needs a bug fix and it'll be right back.

Plus grenade pistol is still just good.

[unreal merlin]

Crossbow will be made great again when it gets its medium armor pen.

[keen zinc]

They're good but not really Explosive!

Yknow

For the Explosions! themed warbond

[honest acorn]

After the damage buff the concussive liberator isn’t bad too

It’s kind of middling now but that’s a lot better than “community agreed upon bottom 1 primary”

[junior badge]

I mean, they all do explosions?

Not big AoE mostly (except GP), but neither does the pummeler, surely?

[keen zinc]

More talking thematics and feel

The pummeler feels more Explosive in theme than the Eruptor

In it's current form

[stray tide]

Man I increasingly can't tell if they've played their own game
why.. why is the tenderizer so insanely bad

what was it's imagined role

also yeah everything feels thematically super incoherent lol

[tall stone]

Tenderizer is the assault rifle, right?

The working theory is that its numbers were based on pre-buff Liberator.

And it got missed or had to stay that way for console purposes.

[stray tide]

console purposes?

[tall stone]

Things having to be set in stone earlier for Playstation players.

[stray tide]

weird, okay

[blissful sparrow]

You need to submit a build to Sony, they verify it and then you can release it. Which can take a while

[stray tide]

Well I hope it gets buffed then

cause like

good lord

[tall stone]

It will 100% get buffed. Arrowhead is more than willing to fiddle with weapons.

[stray tide]

definitely feel for them it's just....so strange to see a good 1 or 2 weapons per warbond be just

baaaad

[tall stone]

I would be more surprised if everything was good.

[honest acorn]

I think cutting edge has the best weapons of the premiums all in all

Blitzer is good now, plasma punisher is good, dagger is good now, Sickle is top tier

And to top it off one of the best boosters

Steeled Vets is pretty good with everything but the conc lib being very solid

DD is kind of whack rn with multiple bugged/overnerfed weapons

(I haven’t touched polar yet)

[strange vine]

the tenderizer absolutely isnt bad, its just aggressively alright. It's pinpoint accurate, better than the Sickle actually imo, meaning ive been able to get full auto head shots on devastators 50 meters out

its not really outstanding compared to the liberator, which is the issue

if i had to choose b/w the liberator and tenderizer, id take the former vs bugs and the latter vs bots

[junior badge]

And again, it will definitely get a buff to match its description vs the liberator. I'll eat a hat otherwise...

At which point I think it'll be in a good spot.

[strange vine]

yeah honestly it just needs a damage buff

[glacial light]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/iInKUv4GNE

Finally memes on the subreddit

[blissful sparrow]

just need to give the left guy resupply backpack

done that before

[hazy oriole]

railgun oneshots hulk to the eyeslit, right?

[honest acorn]

I think it can again

I’m not very good at that shot though

[hollow plover]

Yup

[glacial light]

One shot safe or unsafe?

[honest acorn]

unsafe

[unreal merlin]

It works on safe mode.

The only things I think you'd need to go unsafe for are charger legs for armor break, or maybe bot armor/vents. Just leave it on safe mode to

• cut devastators in half at the waist
• kill hulks with one eye shot
• pop heads off hive guards/commanders/spewers

[strange vine]

good ideas here
https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1cq4iu3/as_an_alternative_to_operational_modifiers_i/

[unreal merlin]

Quality "I WISH IT WOULD SUCK MORE" proposal

[glacial light]

I feel like it'd be good asa difficulty modifier rather than upping the enemy numbers, as diff goes up enemy patrol compositions change and adapt to players during a mission

[tall stone]

I'd want more changes to bugs tbh. They don't really alter the gamestate like Bots can.

[azure pewter]

Time for worms 🪱 🪱🪱

[orchid pulsar]

<@&1206091872716595200> lets go lets gho lets go

[azure pewter]

Yes

[tall stone]

OK, so something fucky is going on with mission tracking rn.

I was using a Quasar cannon. One other guy was using a Machine Gun.

[daring monolith]

Teammate kills count for personal orders

[nocturne saffron]

Can confirm

[tall stone]

Huh. How have I never noticed that before?

[hollow plover]

Prolly just thought the orders were real easy :)

[tall stone]

Having everyone on a team on lower difficulties with the weapon definitely helped that, yeah.

Usually go to the Bugs for a bit for "Kill X Enemy" orders.

[reef raven]

it's what I just did with a friend

medium difficulty bug mission

[tall stone]

Also, the bot killing goes well I have to damit.

[reef raven]

Question btw: I'm about to have enough medals that I could get one or the other, which should I get?

Plasma Punisher?
Or Grenade Pistol?

Originally I was thinking of getting the former but I hear it isn't a shotgun but more like a mini-plasma grenade launcher with weak range.

But I was starting to lean Grenade Pistol specifically after reading it can take down bug holes/etc, especially as it would free my grenade slots for more utility type grenades

[hollow plover]

P. Punisher is very much a grenade launcher

[tall stone]

Utility grenades are good.

[hollow plover]

Range isn't Particularly bad, just need to adjust for 70+m

[tall stone]

It's got a drop-off, yeah

[reef raven]

(And the short range of the Plas-punisher seem disapointing as I do enjoy the stopping/stagger power of the regular Punisher even at pretty decent range even against medium/heavy-ish foes like Devastators since even when my support weapon is out of ammo I could take out the Punisher to chain stagger some foes while better armed allies would take them out)

Can Plas.Punisher at least take out bug holes and fabricator?

[tall stone]

That I don't remember off the top of my head.

[reef raven]

nods Might focus on grenade pistol and then afterward stun grenade to progress a bit in Cutting Edge instead then

[keen zinc]

I kinda wanna try out the plasma punisher again

Now that it doesn't shoot snails

[alpine seal]

i was initially quite disappointed with the plasmisher even post-buff, but that was against bugs. despite its explosive nature it's actually much better vs. bots

chunks devastators and two-taps scout striders if fired at their legs

very good medium clearer, it's like the purifier if it was an actual gun

[keen zinc]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/LI1d8z2l4B

[candid finch]

I feel like they need to take some moments to examine shit and polish some things. They have a LOT of stuff out there, give it all a good polish before going on

[keen zinc]

At least it's primarily a stat and mechanic problem

The designs are all good

The tenderizer looks and sounds cool

I just want it to hit good

Using larger ammunition and is still bullpup but is still the length of a long rifle, it should have very good muzzle velocity and ballistics

It should punch through or knock flat whatever it hits

That's a lot of energy

[strange vine]

It really seemed like it would fulfill the niche of "high damage but light armor pen" AR, not "pinpoint accurate average damage" gun

From the preview text

[keen zinc]

I think they should up the Penetrators damage but make it's bullets subsonic and rebrand it as a special purpose weapon

Make it a groza

[strange vine]

Give the penetrator 55 damage

[keen zinc]

55 damage, medium pen, subsonic ammo, boom it is now an excellent niche pick

[strange vine]

Idk "subsonic" and "AP" doesnt make sense to my laygirl mind lol

[keen zinc]

[strange vine]

But yeah

Needs 55 damage boost

[keen zinc]

Special purpose weapons are a fun type of assault rifle

[strange vine]

Its already paying for the AP with lower ammo per mag

[keen zinc]

The Russians made a lot of them

[strange vine]

It doesnt need less damage too

[keen zinc]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/9×39mm

The Soviets really loved designing shit for hyper specialized niches

[sour whale]

the russian subsonic guns are so weird, i love them

[keen zinc]

These are SPECIFICALLY for indoors urban ops where collateral damage is to be minimized

So they need to be able to be quiet, hit very hard, penetrate armor, but NOT penetrate walls

So they have to be big, specially made to be armor piercing, but also fly slow to be quiet and not shoot through walls and hurt other people

And somehow they did it

[strange vine]

Damn thing i learned today

[keen zinc]

I normally dislike bullpups but the Groza is my beloved

[strange vine]

Sweet

[keen zinc]

This fish is actually a gun

If you look closely

[naive dragon]

I love it

[keen zinc]

Function before form: the gun

[tight zephyr]

That's a pretty good gun in STALKER.

[stone bridge]

[tight zephyr]

I've been making a lot of friends because of those things.

[unkempt river]

<@&1206091872716595200> spill oil!

[quick plinth]

be there in a bit

[ionic holly]

What's the MO kill count if anyone can drop it real quick?

[ionic holly]

Thanks
not terrible progress but cutting it hella close

[trail nymph]

This is what we get for obliterating that terminid MO a few weeks back

[quick plinth]

we mainly did it because we were getting 4x the kill count

[burnt vapor]

That was also before player count took a blow due to all the recent controversies

[mortal wing]

Sorry to be negative. But it sure does looks like an indicator for further restriction if game "shouldn't have" been sold in my country in the frist place.

[cobalt patrol]

Oh, no you've every right to be upset and mad

[mortal wing]

I will try restrain myself to not bring up the topic again.

[cobalt patrol]

I'm just trying to clarify this is on Sony and Arrowhead is at least trying to step up to bat for you

No, be loud about it. It'd stupid gooseshit from Sony

[keen zinc]

One of these days I wanna do a full squad of arc resistant armors, blitzers and arc throwers, laser rovers and Tesla towers

Task Force Lightning

[azure pewter]

What if a mech that has a arc thrower as its only weapon but has a tesla tower hat

[quick crown]

It would be bugged and destroy itself

[glacial light]

But consider, Tesla dog

[quick crown]

A dog for every damage type, Fire, lightning, and explosive

Just tape the grenade pistol to one.

[glacial light]

Cluster dog or mortar dog or nothing

[azure pewter]

High speed Ramming dog

[glacial light]

HD2 first melee weapon but it's not for us, that would be ironic

[azure pewter]

Mech stompy is right here

[blissful sparrow]

HD1 Cyborg dog, but as a pet you take into battle

[azure pewter]

https://tenor.com/view/dog-robot-dog-gif-10350529

[blissful sparrow]

Orbital Banana Drop

[hexed steeple]

calling in my cyberdog stratagem and watching it get stuck on an underbrush within 4.3 seconds of deployment

[glacial light]

Throwing a 500kg and running away to hide behind a rock then you see cyberdog is there with you but with the beacon in its mouth and the sound of impact in the dirt next to you

But don't worry because it's a 500kg cyberdog was fine cause they were a foot away from the bomb

[keen zinc]

Rule Of Ape

Reminds me of the best Rimworld mod

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2869960605

[reef raven]

so a question about the tenderizer..... the description mention it's "stopping' power and for some reason one aspect I can't help but think of when reading that description isn't "damage" but "stagger"... which I can't help but think about because the Punisher shotgun is specifically one of my favorite weapon due to it's ability to stagger some large foes(devastators, warrior bugs, even berzerkers a bit?) even when it doesn't penetrate the armor plating.

Has anyone noticed any different between the stagger capability of the tenderizer VS the liberator?

[keen zinc]

It's bad atm

Like it's a downgrade

They'll probably buff it next patch

[tall stone]

Chances are good that it got hit with being sent for approval before the Liberator buff, because it is notably more powerful than pre-buff Lib.

[keen zinc]

I really want it to get like 65 damage, high velocity bullets, and good hitpunch

Doesn't have to stagger but I want to see light things get a little shook getting hit by it

Also want it to get its black texture so I can look cool

I wonder when the next patch gonna drop

[placid hamlet]

hey the Railgun kinda slaps actually?

brought it against bots to diff 8 and it just one shots Devastators

[hexed steeple]

nothing quite as satisfying as oneshotting a hulk tbh

[placid hamlet]

ye

feels real easy to hit the eye, too

is the projectile hitbox just huge or something?

[hexed steeple]

idk! maybe you're just cracked

[glacial light]

I noticed it with AMR and hulk where it's shoot near the eye and like the impact hole the fist of a fist isn't even touching any red but it didn't reflect and counted as a weakpoint hit

I'm guessing smapl weakpoints are bigger than they seem visually

[honest acorn]

Something feels more generous about it for me

It might just be that the projectile is near instant and the sight properly aligned

[placid hamlet]

yeah maybe

definitely haven't been this good at hitting the eye with the AMR or the laser cannon

[strange vine]

i sketched up a helldiver for scale purposes with a suit based off limebreaker's design

[pure wave]

Bnuuy ears

[keen zinc]

[pastel igloo]

bnuuy diver

[keen zinc]

I love liberty

[oblique hazel]

respectfully, 👀

[ionic holly]

Limebreaker my beloved

[keen zinc]

This maybe be slightly too risque for this channel tho

[ionic holly]

Cyan pops in regluarly, surely if there was an issue he'd comment, yeah?

[honest acorn]

I think it’s within server bounds

[steady flame]

Limebreaker! I like that artist.

[keen zinc]

The voices

[ionic holly]

They do a good whiskey

[pure wave]

They certainly make stuff.

[keen zinc]

Communism but the vanguard party is literally a melee vanguard that hacks apart the enemies of the proletariat

[strange vine]

Whats this commie talk in my democratic helldivers thread

[keen zinc]

Try to bring Democracy to Rimworld

End up with cannibal bugmen worshipping nutrient paste dispensers

[ionic holly]

... so terminids adjacents?

[keen zinc]

Not everything is translatable into Warhammer 40K factions, nerd

[ionic holly]

Huh?

did
did i mix up terminids and tyranids?

[keen zinc]

No I'm just illiterate

But Terminids aren't really bug-men really

Just bugs

[ionic holly]

to be fair i did say adjacent

[honest acorn]

Actual tyranids could be a sort of cool enemy

Bugs with guns

[keen zinc]

Disgusting

I hate bioguns

[gusty heron]

Nah not even that, just a bug that stole an autocannon. Not even sure if they know how to use it, they might have just gotten lucky so far. Are they reloading, or just picking up new autocannons as they go? It's a question best left for the Super Scientists.

[keen zinc]

Me teaching the bugs the concept of fire and maneuver

[gusty heron]

Please don't teach the bile spitters how to form overlapping arcs of fire I can hardly handle them already when they're too blobbed up for more than one to shoot at a time 😭

[keen zinc]

Teach Pouncers how to prime grenades

[tight zephyr]

Hulk riding a Bile Titan.

And the Titan is using an Annihilator tank as a skateboard.

[gusty heron]

Bile titan with automaton artillery bolted on, maybe an armored platform on top for bots to shoot down from

[azure pewter]

And it will periodically drop some devestators

[tight zephyr]

[User was sent to Freedom Camp for this post.]

[sinful bay]

My democracy officer really hates my puns huh

[azure pewter]

(Yall invented the factory strider)

[gusty heron]

Alternatively, a factory walker except it just keeps moving at you, and then when it gets close enough it opens up and dumps like four dozen scavengers out

[sinful bay]

I just spawned outside after a mission

[tight zephyr]

A Devastator with a Bile Spewer on a leash.

Robot voice: “He doesn’t bite.”

Also, I changed the voices to French for a laugh and...

The Democracy Officer sounds really cool now.

“For a laugh” isn’t exactly accurate. It’s more curiosity.

[keen zinc]

Four gunships airdrop a factory strider that opens it's bays only for nothing to emerge (to the naked eye)

Stalker team six deploys

[gusty heron]

https://tenor.com/view/crying-emoji-meme-gif-24564691

[shy prairie]

Yeah I've done that too. A little sad I can't get the Japanese voices

[hearty pier]

I'd quite like being able to randomise into the different language voices for your helldiver. Would really lean into the "disposable replacements" vibes

[strange vine]

Would be fun

[unkempt river]

<@&1206091872716595200> anyone up for a few missions?

Belay that, other game to play, sorry folks

[unkempt river]

<@&1206091872716595200> ok, fr this time: Anyone up to Spill Oil?

[quick plinth]

an onthology series about a different helldiver each episode would be a pretty awesome thing

(each and every episode ends with the inevitable demise of that episodes helldiver)

[blissful sparrow]

We are gonna need a new Timmy

https://tenor.com/view/the-dinos-new-timmy-boom-explosion-gif-14266796

[cobalt patrol]

<@&1206091872716595200> No voice robot crunchin'

[unkempt river]

Correction: I will be in voice, Zombie will not

[cobalt patrol]

<@&1206091872716595200> Some Voice Robot Crunching.

[strange vine]

cleaned up that sketch!

[keen zinc]

Lesbians always winning

[strange vine]

with the new sprite

[modest fiber]

well.. that bunny is in trouble

[keen zinc]

Nah she's okay

Democracy protects

[pure wave]

I dunno she's like maybe five feet away from a hukk

Hulk

[keen zinc]

Democracy protects

Also it's a bruiser so it's fine

[modest fiber]

well democracy is a strong form of protection, but a gun never hurts

also gyat

[glacial light]

Only 50% of the time

[keen zinc]

Every time

[pure wave]

Something something super earth

Everytime you take lethal damage, 50% of the time you don't

[keen zinc]

Go to church

[tight zephyr]

Is the 500kg bomb’s area of effect really small? I feel like it’s really small.

[blissful sparrow]

yes, its very small

its a cone that extends upwards

[strange vine]

finished a commission of @golden ledge's Automaton OC named AM-S4113NXT-C "Sallie"!

[keen zinc]

Pog

[golden ledge]

Hell yea

[pure wave]

Clamper arms

[keen zinc]

The grippy

[pure wave]

Lunging for the Helldiver's stratagem pad with my grabby claws

[ionic holly]

Hey, heads up divers who use it

Airburst launcher exclusively procs on enemies and helldivers now, so watch that friendly fire

Also the tenderizer is black now and they've listed it's damage as a known issue

[pure wave]

as it should

[glacial light]

Aw cute

[glacial light]

It's working as intended cause it identifies threats to the user and the biggest threat are other helldivers

[quick plinth]

I'm just waiting for that damn spear fix

tasting the nectar of the gods the other day by targeting gunships from 300m away next to a resupply pod (I have the full ammo on pickup) has given me the idea of just how good the spear would be if the targeting wasnt screwed since it just immediately locked them and shot them out of the sky

[pure wave]

Ngl, the spear lock on being wonky seems fair for its effective range

[honest acorn]

It should at least be less wonky up close if that were true

It’s in the known issues list so we know it’s not intended

[ionic holly]

Mhm, and they HAVE a fix in the pipe, just need to send it

[quick plinth]

issue is: its not meant to be wonky, if it was meant to be wonky, fine but then make it one hit whatver it does hit instead.

since its on the bugs list we know its not meant to be wonky, not to mention what I said earlier about it locking near instantly on gunships without any issue

[pure wave]

Gotcha

[golden ledge]

She signed up to be converted from a super earth citizen to a happy automaton.

[quick plinth]

i imagine its because of the way the lockon works, terrain or whatnot has some weird interaction with it that makes it messup the lockon

since it can lock on gunships like a heatseeker can low flying planes (extremely easy and quick)

ive noticed it has a relatively simple time locking onto BTs when theyre alone and terrain is relatively flat

[ionic holly]

Mhm, its lock just needs to be fixed like they planned and it'll be a-okay

and this is from someone who's been using it since day 1

[quick plinth]

i love the damn thing when it works

but its more inconsistent than warthunder and thats a damn achievement

[glacial light]

Oh man that's so unpatriotic, you should definitely tell me where and how she signed up so I can make sure to avoid that

[golden ledge]

I'm not sure wh at woudl be funnier Cyberstan or Malevelon Creek

[tight zephyr]

I’ve been trying to use the RR on Hulks and I only seem to be able to seal the deal in two shots about half the time.

Otherwise it seems to eat an apparently random number of shots. I’m not sure where the shot goes when it’s looking at me because shooting the front is so inconsistent.

Any advice?

[quick plinth]

aim for the legs

1 leg down slows them to a crawl second leg gone kills

unless ur certain u can make the eye shot

[tight zephyr]

I’m usually trying for snap shots if it’s bearing down on me. I’ll remember this.

[quick plinth]

each leg takes 1 rr shot

[tight zephyr]

That’s fine.

[sweet surge]

https://www.gematsu.com/2024/05/helldivers-ii-sales-top-12-million

[glacial light]

More units sold than there are people in sweden

[strange vine]

https://youtu.be/gqV2muMjmqQ

[tall stone]

Not liking the odds for this MO now.

15 hours to kill about 600 million bots.

[cobalt patrol]

Hey, I came back from level 7 missions with nearly 300 bots killed each mission, I'm doing my part

[tall stone]

You are indeed.

[alpine seal]

anti tank mines will be quietly dropped into the stratagems unlock 3 days later or something

[cobalt patrol]

Well, i have been sleeping on the plasma punisher into bots

and also possibly Gas trike

[honest acorn]

I'm a big gas strike enjoyer for bots

It's also good for bugs but I've come to prefer napalm vs them

[stone bridge]

Gas Strike is goated

[cobalt patrol]

Plasma Punisher is just great too. Point and click entire groups of troopers away

[honest acorn]

Yeah it's the weapon which had the biggest turn around for me

Used it for the first time vs bugs and was like "this is ass bottom 1 weapon holy shit it sucks"

And then I learned how to use it

[meager saffron]

plasma punisher got me kicking my feet and giggling

[strange vine]

plasma punisher is great

fun grenade launcher

[cobalt patrol]

<@&1206091872716595200> So who's around currently?

[glacial light]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/LowSodiumHellDivers/s/6oqIAXCoOy

Frend

[sweet surge]

Wait

Helldivers 2 reddit already has a splinter subreddit?

[ionic holly]

Considering how things have gotten i am not shocked

[sweet surge]

I'm not shocked that it one was made

Just alittle surprised it came so soon

[pure wave]

I'm frend...

[glacial light]

There's like /r helldivers, /r helldivers2, /r lowsodiumhelldivers

[meager saffron]

there's a similar one for destiny

[cobalt patrol]

The mods in Helldivers have at least started to thump things a bit to clean up the negativity etc

[meager saffron]

not surprising given the general levels of toxicity in their respective fanvbases

[cobalt patrol]

and ooogh, yes, Destiny's fanbase is possibly even worse

[meager saffron]

imagine getting so heated about not porting over an exotic from d1 that you death threat a developer off twitter

least insane d2 player

[cobalt patrol]

That.. that was defintely a thing that happened, yeah

I'm not even kidding when i say the fanbase was a huge chunk of why i stopped playing

like 40% fanbase, 40% issues with bungie as a company, 20% issues with the game and general apathyt etc

[glad marsh]

Hmmm

• first person shooter
• MMO

Yeah
I'm remembering why I didn't like destiny much again

It was like an MMO combined with a COD lobby

At least when I played

[cobalt patrol]

siiiiigggh

I hate kicking people. but also when you've been told repeteadly "Get off extract, we need to clear out these bases" (because they're swarming us with reinfrocementsand extract is a hellzone), the soloution is not to call in extract.

[tight zephyr]

This is a good game.

[meager saffron]

no hellzone is the mediocre playstation exclusive shooter franchise

[honest acorn]

It's really impressive how pretty HD2 is

[cobalt patrol]

Pfft.

[strange vine]

This thread is amazing omg
https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1cs5v3j/this_rts_sucks/

[unkempt river]

tbh, an RTS version of Helldivers sounds dope as hell!

[naive dragon]

I wanted to say "hey at least the armor is cool" but then I remembered that was just them making jin roh OCs

Helldivers rts but your hero units don't listen to you

[unkempt river]

wait a sec

That would just be a scifi skin of overlord, wouldn't it?

[cobalt patrol]

Kinda sorta? Your gobbos listend to you prettyu good in Overlord

[unkempt river]

Fair enough

[keen zinc]

<@&1206091872716595200> cowabunga

i just lost my job so now i can helldive more

[cobalt patrol]

Uh, that ufcking sucks 😦

You okay?

[keen zinc]

[strange vine]

[keen zinc]

<@&1206091872716595200> dos mas por favor

[keen zinc]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHdSxAq3cys

i am a rocket man

[orchid pulsar]

also verry similiar https://open.spotify.com/artist/7qEGDvyYKOw0Nk7pR1KEb4?si=5VXntVICQfqAx8_bKowRFA

verry bangin

[pure wave]

Actually peak comedy ngl

[stark ether]

helldivers rts where you control the seaf and theres a rare chance that a dive in helldivers2 (with actual players) takes place on your map

[tardy onyx]

Dust 514 2

[stark ether]

dust but not being an idiot about exclusives or making it an extraction shooter this time ™️

[glacial light]

Isn't there a FPS/RTS hybrid like that where each side gets a PC commander to command PCs and some NPCs while PCs lead the charge in FP

[unreal merlin]

A few, most dead or not quite the same

[pure wave]

Uuuh maybe Executive Assault/Executive Assault 2

Or Silicon

[unreal merlin]

If only Silica didn't run like absolute ass.

[stark ether]

fps/rts tend to not do to well

theres also empires mod but thats nust players

[cobalt patrol]

It's one of those perenial concepts that's been around forever, and it sounds cool in practice

sounds cool, but in practice it's just bad\

mainly because of a bunch of factors

RTSes thesmelves are very werid games in that the skills they reward have very little to do with the straterghy part (Well, that matters, but so does your ability to just slam keys real fucking fast etc. There's good reasons mobas have mostly displaced them)

[stark ether]

the main issue they run into is there isnt a good way to practice for the commander role and then people get very elitist (generally not even commanders just beople are like do run it if you dont know it) about it because its so important and then the few commanders burn out and then you have no commanders and the game dies

[cobalt patrol]

I think, ironically, a pve version could kinda work, but you still have issues there wedding the two gameplay types and balancing your playerbase

[stark ether]

the key is to allow each player to switch between fps and rts at will imo, and go for a pve you and your friends against the ai kinda game

going for a warcraft rtsrpg with first person elements probably would have the best bet

[cobalt patrol]

Honestly, tapping into moba stuff would also work - every player has a hero unit, and that's what you control when you drop into fps mode, and it's about balancing dropping bakc to rts mode to que up stuff and setup pushes etc, then dropping in to apply personal player skill as a force multiplier

[unreal merlin]

Throw Natural Selection 2 into the ring of RTS/FPS hybrid. It worked pretty darn well, although is no longer being developed and for a long time had a problem of there being an ENORMOUS skill disparity in the playerbase. There wasn't really a middleground: either your team had some average joes of middling to low competency and coordination, or there was someone with a purple rank who could solo the entire enemy team by themselves with a Shotgun or Fade.

Aside that player skill disparity it worked great as an RTS/FPS hybrid.

[pure wave]

Did they just retcon like two months of war

[honest acorn]

Two months of special operation my Democratic friend

[strange vine]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1cscyaa/the_automaton_front_couldnt_possibly_get_any_worse/

[pure wave]

Ngl id love a self nuking enemy

[tiny owl]

my other 'kinda' fps/rts hybrids I can throw in the ring are Activision and Pandemic's Battlezone 1 and 2, though they're more rts/hovertank sims

[reef raven]

I mean that would be on-par with the Ministry of Truth no?

[pure wave]

Very on par tbh

[oblique lotus]

man I loved the special military operation, I can't wait for the global war on terror galactic war on tyranny

/s

Also wow they're getting satire from everywhere aren't they

[tight zephyr]

Boy howdy I’m glad to have spent five days shooting bots to come 78% to the goal.

Actually I did have fun but it is a bit disappointing.

[tall stone]

Welcome to the Bot Front

There's quite a few more dedicated Bug Divers

[tight zephyr]

I don’t really get it.

Like, rockets are annoying but if I never see another bile spewer it’ll be too soon. Fine for some, I guess.

[pastel igloo]

i don't find bugs fun at all so i stick to bots

[strange vine]

oh boy

[fallen tendon]

randos struggle with picking engagements and using crouch/prone to sneak up on enemies and so dislike bots as that's a key part of avoiding some of their issues

[cobalt patrol]

Also stuff like being rocket juggled can feel really bad

[ionic holly]

Man i dont care what the target is, command says shoot, i shoot.

[unreal merlin]

the totally unprecedented power of running stealth armor and crouch walking

also the new pummeler SMG rocks hard vs bugs in addition to bots

very strong pick for primary weapon

[cobalt patrol]

They need to turn down the visual effect before I'll be happy using it. It's literally painful for me

[ionic holly]

it has a visual effect?

[cobalt patrol]

it strobes quite heavily when it's hitting things

[winged patio]

My theory is that because the bots don’t really feature in the promotional material nearly as much as the bugs do, new players automatically end up gravitating towards the bugs, and then they hear how difficult and dangerous the bot front is and decide that it doesn’t sound fun.

[tight zephyr]

It’s not even difficult, though. I have a way worse time against bugs.

[burnt vapor]

It comes down a lot to how people play
some playstyles work alot better vs one or the other

[glacial light]

I think a lot of players that like HD2 and coop horde shooters tend to melee focused like zombies in L4D2 or literal bugs like deep rock galactic

The idea of a swarm nonhuman enemy that shoots back is probably novel and scary to players not used to it

[tall stone]

I love the bots because they shoot back at me.

Except for Heavy Devs, which can go die.

[glacial light]

Whereas bugs are mostly melee awarm enemies with some twists that they're familiar to fighting in other coop horde games

Also Vermintide is another horde coop with mostly melee enemies

[tight zephyr]

If I never see a bile spewer again, it’ll be too soon.

[glacial light]

Are bile spewers and the artillery bugs the same one

I play bugs on lower level solos to avoid bile spewers then nursing spewers which seem as deadly just squishier

[tight zephyr]

The car-sized ones that come by the gorillion, are hard to kill, vomit acid on you and delete you instantly.

[winged patio]

Yeah, but Content Creators™️ say it's difficult, so it doesn't matter what the truth is, it's precieved as harder.

[glacial light]

Hi I'm John Helldiver, I'm helldiving 25 hours a day since launch and it seems so easy on Helldive I've been playing with a flute controller so I want more suffering for everyone

[gusty heron]

I have a catastrophic skill issue when it comes to fighting bugs, but I'm pretty sure that's on me (with bots you just shoot them in the face like twice and they die, with bugs you try that and then suddenly they're on top of you and oh god oh fuck the diving does nothing)

[glacial light]

One thing I find odd is AT is more important for bugs than bots, almost everything bots can be killed witb med pen weapon to weakpoints but against BT and Charger it's extremely slow to kill them without a heavy pen weapon or explosive

The faction with a literal tank needs less AT the bugs

[cobalt patrol]

Flamethrower goes ahahaha burrrn

[glacial light]

Flamethrower is underrated for killing chargers

[cobalt patrol]

Flamethrwoer is underrrated vs bugs in general >.>

I can delete everything that's not a bile titan with it

[reef raven]

I've BBQed a few chargers in a pinch

[gusty heron]

Yeah, for real. I run the slugger or sometimes the SMG, and with the former of those I can kill almost anything while with the later I can avoid getting killed by almost anything (via ballistic shield). Whereas for bugs I need a gun specifically for chaff, a gun specifically for heavies, and a grenade for everything that falls in between (which is probably good from a build diversity perspective, but it's bad from a me not running out of ammo and dying perspective)

[reef raven]

Also enjoying using the flamethrower to create impromptu firewalls to hinder bug movements thanks to its ability to set ground on fire

[gusty heron]

I used the flamethrower a bit back when I was new, but the amount of times I'd fire it while moving and explode into flames was very high

[honest acorn]

You just gotta take a shield pack learn to live with it

[gusty heron]

And it seemed like the ground fire did nothing most of the time

[cobalt patrol]

I usually tell teamates to just bring them to me

[glacial light]

Last I checked you can kill a charger to the leg witb 1/4th to 1/3rd of a flamethrower tank depending on the ship module upgrade

[cobalt patrol]

because i can eviscerate c hargers in about 1/6th of a mag

[gusty heron]

OH WAIT DoT got fixed I need to try the flamethrower again don't I

[cobalt patrol]

and a few seconds

[glacial light]

Flamethrowers damage against charger is insane even without dots its mostly direct hit damage

[honest acorn]

It was a bummer outside of chargers if you lost on the dot rng though

Since no firebreaks

[gusty heron]

Alright that's intriguing, I'll give it a spin sometime. What primaries do y'all pair with it?

[glacial light]

Being able to consistently kill at least 2 chargers per flamethrower tank seems kind of too powerful unless someone at AH just really hates chargers

I don't know if it's really intended or it was an accidental consequence of nerfing chargers way back when

[honest acorn]

something with good range, I mean the incendiary breaker

[honest acorn]

It was from the flamethrower buff not charger nerf

I think its kinda ok because its the shortest range and most risky to use support weapon

And you can mess up and die instantly a few ways while using it

[tall stone]

Not to mention the team risk involved.

[glacial light]

I can't believe Helldivers 2 is getting political /s
https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/xmKOoO5TFM

[gusty heron]

I still find chargers generally scary, but it really feels like there's room for something in between them and bile titans. Like, bile titans are a big enough problem that sometimes the answer is to just run away, while chargers are an immediate problem but they're one that you solve very quickly most of the time (in my experience). Both of them are dangerous, but there's a pretty big gap between them I reckon.

[honest acorn]

I'm just waiting for Impalers to return

[glacial light]

I'm not afraid of chargers as I am afraid of being knocked down by one and swarmed without being able to stim

[tall stone]

Chargers dont' scare me. I can get the dumb things to run in circles.

Hunters on the other hand....

[glacial light]

A lone charger with a weak swarm isn't even a threat if it rams into you (or maybe it's the shield pack)

[tall stone]

No, they do surprisingly little damage when they hit you.

[honest acorn]

Just a looot of stagger

[tall stone]

The most dangerous thing about them is the stomp.

[gusty heron]

Yeah, the only bugs that feel directly threatening to me are bile spewers, hunters, and stalkers. Everything else is a danger because of the mental load they create or the CC they inflict. Sure, the former of those two (bile titans and chargers) probably could kill you, but it's more likely that you'll be trying to avoid them and then get got by something else.

However, I get got to something else a lot, because I am bad at fighting bugs.

[tall stone]

It's very hard to see everything that's going on with Bugs.

Bots don't do as many flanking manuevers as they do.

[gusty heron]

Sometimes they do some other attack almost immediately afterwards that kills instantly against medium armor, but that's rare in my experience. Almost all of the time I get rammed and staggered (and maybe thrown a good distance), some of the time I also get splattered.

[tall stone]

Also something I like about Bots more than Bugs: You can do damage to Bot drops and take out specific dropships in advance to improve your odds.

You get a bug breach though? Too bad, you have to deal with the entire breach now.

[burnt vapor]

Please god no

[tall stone]

Now granted there are some great tools for dealing with a bug breach (Mmmmm, Orbital Gas Strike)

[glacial light]

I think bugs also have a different design philosophy in that BT, Chargers, Shriekers all are basically distractions for the swarm

[honest acorn]

You can just drop gas/napalm/airburst on a breach and not need to deal with like 70% of it though

[meager saffron]

gas is bugfuck (ha) now

[gusty heron]

Yeah, I've been finding that my heavy slot is trending more and more towards things that can kill dropships, since a primary and impact grenades and precision strike can kill everything else (except striders, most of the time).

[glacial light]

Bots are opposite, first priority for bots is to kill heavies and troopers are distractions

Except berserkers

[tall stone]

Except for commissars

To delay that drop just a bit longer.

[glacial light]

Commissar? You mean future blown up dropship

[tall stone]

You know, fair.

But yeah. I like playing against bots because they're more interactible beyond "Shoot all the things"

[glacial light]

Also another reason I like bots is you can counter their reinforcements

[gusty heron]

If it weren't for berserkers being in their hot boy summer era then they'd be scary as hell to me (they have crop-top armor and you can shoot them in the belly with a pistol, it's easy enough even while running for your life)

[tall stone]

Berzerkers are things you have to pay attention to though.

[glacial light]

They live and die for fashion

[gusty heron]

Mostly they die for it, thankfully 😌

(I would too, but the cowards at high command keep sticking me back in cryo when I ask about cropping my armor)

[tall stone]

Side note, current MO seems to be progressing fine.

[glacial light]

300 armor extra heavy armor but it's a super Earth chainmail bikini and the rest is unprotect

[tall stone]

Vernen Wells defense is on track, so unless the bots make us have to defend Aeris Pass at the same time, we should have this in the bag.

Angel's Venture should be done today.

[gusty heron]

That would be incredibly real of them, just need to find a way to maintain the gender anonymity. I suggest an extremely armored bikini, like some proper ERA blocks for maximum protection of everything above the lower ribs.

[tight zephyr]

Now that the Kill Two Billion Robots order is over maybe I'll try my hand against the bugs again.

[tight zephyr]

Wear the bikini over the default armor.

[cobalt patrol]

I'm pretty sure my brain is ocmepltey toast oin it's ability ot evaulte itself

"that was a terrible missiuon, i did shit" i say. Then i get to the scoreboard and i've most kills by a mile, best accuracy, no accdientals, pletny of strats used etc

[hearty pier]

Those missions tend to be the one where you happen to be locked in engagement for most of it. Those always feel like you are doing badly, even if you are managing it well enough

[glacial light]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/helldivers2/comments/1csofu0/mo_failed_lol_of_course_it_did_curb_your/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Damn SEAFs get a whole 72 hours of basic training

[tall stone]

This suddenly explains the Menkent Line.

[sweet surge]

I don't know what's more horrifying
Having to go behind enemy lines while fighting the bugs and the bots as helldivers
Or being SEAF and fight either head on in actual battles

[tall stone]

Plus side: SEAF gets the mortar emplacements.

[gusty heron]

Minus side: You're there before the Helldivers, and that means you have to take environmental storytelling detail sometimes.

[strange vine]

to be fair theres a lot less corpses around than youd think

:v

[tall stone]

Oh yeah, for sure.

[glacial light]

I imagine they actually evacuate SEAF soldiers but it's inevitable they get ambushed or someone has to hold the line until helldivers come in

[tall stone]

Another downside: You still get deployed to Hellmire.

[royal lantern]

Well the bots and bugs probably have uses for them

[glacial light]

Bugs use the bodies as propaghanda on ther illegal broadcasts

[cerulean sluice]

I imagine that a lot of the gains are actually made by the SEAF, especially on the bot front where conventional warfare makes sense. Our missions just divert forces or otherwise aid the SEAF. The SEAF still takes horrific casualties, of course

[glacial light]

The only rational explaination

[cerulean sluice]

I honestly think the illegal broadcasts were made by the human colonists trying to expose the truth about how the bug crisis came to be. Wasting valuable Helldiver mission time and stratagem resources on silencing dissent and whistleblowing is very Super Earth.

[tall stone]

We're definitely the madman who make strategic goals more feasible by undertaking suicide missions, yeah.

[tall stone]

Or silencing the people who discover the Terminids are sapient.

[cerulean sluice]

(If they even are, they might just be a man-made ecological disaster being solved the entirely wrong way)

[tall stone]

The Bugs from Helldivers 1 were absolutely sentient (as commonly used for sci-fi)

So the options are we either selectively bred/engineered higher thought out of the terminids

Or we still have that in there and harvest them for fuel anyways.

[tight zephyr]

I assumed it was that last one.

It's the more dystopian option.

[lethal badger]

Tries playing bugs with rabdoms

These guys are 25 minutes in

They have used all but four of their reinforcements

One of them is level 39

Bugs really seem just not as fun to fight ngl

SOMEONE CALLED IN AN ORBITAL JUST AS I RESPAWNED

I’m so done

[lethal badger]

I’m crying

I got an orbital right next to me again

This is hilarious

[tight zephyr]

I had someone earlier dropping the Eagle cluster bomb strikes pretty much as soon as they cooled down.

To their credit, when I asked them to be more careful with it they seemed to make the effort to do so. I suspect I was playing with an Actual Child in this case.

[cobalt patrol]

https://i.imgur.com/b4VwirZ.png

[ionic holly]

my shield build has reached max stupidity

OPS, 380mm, gas strike, shield

[cobalt patrol]

Doesnt gas go throguh the shield?

[ionic holly]

Ballistic shield, but yes regardless

i dont
really intend to step IN the gas though?

[cobalt patrol]

Look, i don't like to make assumptions on players playstyle. I watched someone be magnetically attracted to the pretty green gas reepeteadly tonight! also i thought you meant the big bubble shield. So. You know

[ionic holly]

Fair, its very much more of a "hold position, make them walk through the gas" style

[unreal merlin]

New loadout:
Pummeler, Grenade Pistol, Stun Grenade
Armor of preference, I like light
Railgun, 500kg, Orbital EMS, Orbital Gas.

Focus on controlling the mass of enemies, bring a friend with more AT options (EAT/RR/etc).

Gas on a bug breach is too nice

[ionic holly]

Gas on bot drop is my preferred
feet first into them melting

[cobalt patrol]

I keep beiong too on the ball with my aim

and having the gas hit the dropship

[ionic holly]

Oh i typically drop it a lil infront of the ship enemies will usually approach me and it misses the ship

[cobalt patrol]

as said, i am too on the ball with my aim

[ionic holly]

Penguin fuckin balling

[cobalt patrol]

Yes, redditor. They;'re dumb. They're super earth. They're that dumb

[ionic holly]

https://tenor.com/view/thats-the-joke-ranier-wolfcastle-mc-bain-the-simpsons-stand-up-comedy-gif-4372917

[ionic holly]

Fuck i have a hard choice to make
ballistic shield main or spear main

[unreal merlin]

Por que no los dos? Alternate every few missions.

Ballistic shield is super good now and lets you stare heavy devastators in the face.

Although spear is super good theoretically, the inconsistent lock on bug can be really frustrating.

[ionic holly]

I've been using spear since launch, trust me, i know, i just don't care about the lock

there are very few that understand the machine spirit of the spear

[unreal merlin]

I want to use it more, I just don't appreciate sidestepping for 30 seconds trying to find the sweet spot where I can actually acquire lock instead of 80% and losing it.

[strange vine]

its fun when the spear works but when it doesnt it feels bad

being able to delete towers from halfway across the map makes things easier

[quick crown]

I will be the biggest spear user and enjoyer in the world when the lock on works.

Doing a little sidestep dance before every shot though is what makes the anger gauge crank up the quickest

[blissful sparrow]

Love the little triangle spinning an slowly getting smaller and smaller and smaller and then just grow again.
over and over.

[strange vine]

ive taken to holding down the fire button so it triggers immediately when it becomes green

[blissful sparrow]

same, just when it never even becomes green its a pain

[tight zephyr]

I have enough for another war bond track. I’m eying the Pummeler. Is it any good? I feel like it’d be helpful against Berserkers.

[strange vine]

pummeler's great with ballistic shield

you can lock down entire berserker packs and devastators

[tight zephyr]

I think I might be thinking of the wrong thing. The assault rifle that staggers.

[honest acorn]

It’s decent now

Can stagger lock berserkers but doesn’t kill them very fast

But it is a safe way to beat packs of them

Not my favorite primary but it is functional now

The dominator and incendiary breaker are very good though

[strange vine]

yeah those are what youd get steel vets for

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1ct9i7c/super_earth_declares_war/

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1ct7fmi/after_declaration_2galactic_warhymn_play_in/

[tight zephyr]

Volunteered for conscription? How patriotic of them.

I need a better option for dealing with Berserkers and especially Devastators. The Liberator Penetrator has been mostly disappointing.

[strange vine]

berserkers are fat chunks of pure HP and little armor, you usually want something that can output a lot of DPS to take em out

[tight zephyr]

I generally pull my sidearm for them.

[strange vine]

for berserkers either Senator fishing for headshots (hard) or the machine pistol are good options

[hazy oriole]

how many senator headshots is it to take a bezerker down?

[strange vine]

1 iirc?

its just hard cause they bob and weave a lot

[glacial light]

It takes like 2 headshots at most with rapid fire weapons to kill a berserker with other weapons. But yea they bob and weave like nothing

[strange vine]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1ctc5y3/got_outplayed_by_the_bots/

[sour whale]

outplayed by mushrooms

[keen zinc]

dont aim for the head

shoot them in their shiny tummy

[unreal merlin]

the secret easy weakspot on all devastators is the waistline. it's not AS instakill as the head but it's much easier to target and hits to the midsection > hits to the shoulder armor next to the head because you missed

[tall stone]

When in doubt, saw the berzerker in half.

[supple siren]

Shouldn't have given them such a cinched waist, is fragile

[crystal canopy]

they had to make sure the robots werked

[strange vine]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1ct7b91/the_brood_commander_is_the_gold_standard_for/l4akgtg/

[tall stone]

Ahhh, now this is the kind of game analysis I live for.

[tight zephyr]

I hate that.

[tight zephyr]

Is there anything in the Polar track worth it?

[shy prairie]

People are saying the pummeler is good

The booster/incin grenades might also be nice, possibly less so for bots though

[quick plinth]

the booster is mid

only a 25% resist to slows

[honest acorn]

That seems pretty nice

[quick plinth]

better boosters out there

[honest acorn]

There's only really 2 super strong boosters IMO so with 2 slots left I can see taking it

[quick plinth]

and most of the better ones are free

[tall stone]

It's a great filler booster for bugs.

For when the main three you want to have are taken.

Main three being Stamina, Health, Hellpod Optimization.

[strange vine]

pummeler, incendiary impacts, and the pistol are all good

[ionic holly]

i fucking love the verdict so much

senator is cool and all but the verdict feels snappier

(also has a higher total ammo pool, barely)

[tight zephyr]

I mostly fight bots, how is it against them?

[strange vine]

good for popping troopers

[tight zephyr]

Hmmm...

[ionic holly]

Kills most devs in 2 headshots

[stone bridge]

Its actually by a huge amount, the Verdict has 10 to a mag and 8 in reserve

[ionic holly]

Senator is a 40 or 60? forgot which

[stone bridge]

Compared to the Senator's 6 in cylinder and 40 in reserve

[ionic holly]

Oh yeah no over double then, my bad

[steady flame]

I'm gonna guess the Verdict has 80 in reserve, not less than 1 mag?

[stone bridge]

8 magazines my friend

[ionic holly]

But yeah, senator is more lax but the verdict can last longer and still kill enemies when ya need it
like skaian said it can dumpster troopers

[steady flame]

Can I use my current sickness as an excuse to being an idiot?

[ionic holly]

i've mostly one shot them to the body/head

[stone bridge]

You're 100% fine

[ionic holly]

Personally i adore the verdict, more than even the senator

[tight zephyr]

My aim isn't all that precise, I tend to just kind of hose down Berserkers with the machine pistol if I'm using a sidearm.

It's kind of an ammo hog, though. So I'm shopping around a bit.

[steady flame]

Is the GP-31 still any good?

[ionic holly]

Grenade pistol? yeah no it's been untouched i think

it's just that it's more a utility option rather than active use

[steady flame]

And is the Eruptor still bugged?

[ionic holly]

Probably
next balance patch is overall gonna be interesting, i hope they don't overcorrect and buff too hard.

[ionic holly]

Then i can't really suggest the verdict for bots

granted it does do good work on zerkers, less than a mag i wanna say?

assuming all shots hit their tummy

[stone bridge]

I think the Verdict is great if you're more consistently swapping to your secondary for whatever reason, while the Senator is if you really need punchy firepower at a moment's notice

[ionic holly]

Mhm

it's a lovely addition to a ballistic shield build

pummeler is too

[steady flame]

I forget since it's been a while, are there any "special" slot weapons you can use with the shield, or does the shield take that slot?

[ionic holly]

Wdym?
it only takes the back slot so any support that doesn't have a backpack is usable

[steady flame]

I mean like, holding the shield and a support weapon.

[ionic holly]

Oh you can't hold both, no
but it will sit on your back to switch to while using a support weapon

None of the supports are one handed, and i don't know if we'll ever get one

They also glued it onto your arm better, i've not dropped it once since beginning to use it again

[azure pewter]

What if they made one but it feed from backpack lol

[ionic holly]

Would be funny and sorta purpose defeating

[azure pewter]

Actually that would be sick, have a homie feed you while shield gunning

Prolly won’t tho

[ionic holly]

i guess it would have the sole niche of being a support you can actively use while carrying SSDs

[cerulean sluice]

honestly idk how a 1-handed support weapon would work, not to mention that the shield and a single objective type care about being one handed

[ionic holly]

Mhm

it's just not worth the effort if you ask me

... however if it was some fucked up high powered sawed off shotgun with explosive shells, i could fuck with that

just lemme use a ballistic shield and the super shotgun

[steady flame]

I like the idea of a sawn-off O/U shotgun for the secondary slot, yeah.

[glacial light]

A one handed support melee weapon to use with the ballistic shield

[ionic holly]

Blegh...

personally i would rather melees be passives cause that sounds pretty fun

[glacial light]

There was the saber from HD1

And bayonet

[ionic holly]

i'm just saying
two birds, one stone
get some new passives, and finally get melee stuff

[glacial light]

Three chargers, one EAT stratagem

[ionic holly]

Pfft

[azure pewter]

I bet you could do 4 with some luck

[ionic holly]

Also when we get melees

i need a "fuck you" hammer of sorts that actually can rock against armour at times

[glacial light]

Power fist

[tight zephyr]

So I started playing about a week ago. Have we ever actually succeeded on a Major Order?

[glacial light]

I want to ruin the games aesthetic with an armor that detonates microexplosives for short sudden horizontal movement and a devastator exoskeleton arm to punch through armor and yes I want it to become knockoff dark souls

[alpine seal]

we've had a good record up until now and this one is the team giving us an easy order

[tall stone]

https://tenor.com/view/muppets-muppet-muppet-show-scooter-hammer-gif-23230653

We have both succeeded at harder orders and failed easier ones.

[cobalt patrol]

<@&1206091872716595200> Who's around, currently?

[ionic holly]

Yknow
i keep hearing people mention the ballistic shield's health and
i gotta wonder how high it is cause ive not had this shit break on me

Cause folk make it sound like its gonna break mid mission and ive
never had one break on me, 9 and lower

[honest acorn]

I don’t think it takes damage any more

[ionic holly]

Got one surefire way i know how to test

gonna go piss off a cannon turret and let it direct impact the shield

[cobalt patrol]

It can be smashed by sufficently big booms

For instnace

i have b roken @orchid pulsar sheild with a 380 barrage

[ionic holly]

Can affirm, tank shot broke the shield
i was pretty fine all things considered but yeah its gotta be up there in destructive power to break it

was trying to use a base turret but the thing kept missing.

[honest acorn]

Ohh, I think I misunderstood a patch note saying that it wouldn’t take chip damage from small arms

[ionic holly]

so it
literally only gets blown up by high ordinance

i fail to see the problem

[glacial light]

I have intentionally broke one with like 6 direct shots from a bruiser hulk

Which is like incredibly tanky still, if you're taking that much damage from an enemy and lived that shield has more than paid off

[tall stone]

It takes some work to break a shield, yeah.

[glacial light]

One thing I love is bullying heavy devastators, like being within 10 feet of one and just tanking their shots then headshot them

It feels so disrepectful and rewarding

[ionic holly]

im gonna try something funny

ballistic shield+hmg

[tight zephyr]

It was the Tenderizer I was thinking of.

Is the Tenderizer good?

[ionic holly]

Feels good, doesnt do good damage but its known issue so it'll likely see a damage bump

Well i shouldnt say that, it doesnt do good damage for what its advertised as

[wide zenith]

One-shotting a hulk with an A-Mat is just a spike of dopamine concentrate, dude.

[tight zephyr]

I think I'm gonna go with the Steel Veterans.

The Dominator looks neat and that incendiary shotgun is handy.

[cobalt patrol]

The Dominator and Senator are extremely good @tight zephyr

[unkempt river]

<@&1206091872716595200> here to run a few games of Helldivers, anyone down to spill oil?

[orchid pulsar]

Yeeh sure

[short rune]

Pff

So the tenderizer. Not sure how to feel about it

Could need some slight damage boost?

[ionic holly]

Yeah it's listed as a known issue, probably gonna be 10~ or so , least that's the play in my head

[short rune]

Otherwise it seems decent? Ammo is also a bit scarce but maybe thats fine when the gun kills faster

[ionic holly]

Gun feels great to me, just want a lil more damage is all

[short rune]

Yeh

[civic apex]

all the plasma weapons ahve been bad

[short rune]

Plasma?

[civic apex]

plasma punisher and such

[stone bridge]

No the plasma punisher is goated actually

[civic apex]

how so ?

did they upgrade it ?

last time I used it it just seemed to have to little ammo and was hard to use

I like the vibe

it just didnt seem great

[burnt vapor]

Scorcher also is pretty decent last time I checked

[stone bridge]

They made the projectile a lot faster, but it was always good imo

[oblique hazel]

I've never been able to get behind the plas punisher, but the scorcher v nice

[burnt vapor]

Also isn’t the Purifier the new plasma weapon not the tenderizer?

[royal lantern]

The plasma punisher is something I really really wanted to like, it was the second weapon I unlocked, and I've used it a lot now but I feel like it just lacks a little in actual killing power sometimes

The projectile speed increase has gone a long way to make it feel great, and the splash and stagger offer a lot of utility, but often it can feel weirdly like throwing water balloons at devastators and berserkers

Though that's partly the low rate of fire, I suppose, because the total number of shots to kill them isn't really bad at all

[stone bridge]

I mean, yeah, you're using an AoE weapon against a) targets that extremely reward precision and b) extremely high health targets

For devs and berserkers respectively

It's a triangle mismatch, essentially

[royal lantern]

No yeah those were probably bad examples, I more mean it's balance of features leaves me feeling like it's sort of neither fish nor fowl the damage just being the bit that sticks out to me. I don't really know what enemies I want to be shooting at with it

Besides striders

[unreal merlin]

Yeah, plasma punisher is fine as it is now with its improved projectile physics. Scorcher is an excellent bot killer (inadvisable vs bugs) if you have a good degree of accuracy and don't waste shots. The new one is kinda trash though

[unkempt lily]

part of me really, really hopes that AT mines and vehicles get released at the same time

[mortal wing]

how many major orders is it failed by now?