Helldivers 2: For Managed Democracy!

[tall stone]

But it wasn't worth it

[glacial light]

Starter pistol is good on bugs but verdict seems to one shot body shot light bots whereas peacemaker needs 2, not having to worry about aiming on the head and just do one click fast on bodies is nice for me

[unreal merlin]

The verdict does one tap raiders in the body most of the time, and it's a nice mix of more ammo than the senator and more stopping power than the starter

[odd arch]

does it need you to be walking forward to one tap? /hj

[unreal merlin]

I probably wouldn't use it against bugs since in that case you're dealing with more numbers of weaker enemies

[glacial light]

Yea peacekeeper can one shot most light bugs anyway so Verdict is just overkill with less mag size

[odd arch]

(velocity is factored into the damage calculation which means bullets decelerating straight out the barrel drops them to 99.99999% of their damage which in some very specific cases robs them of one shots)

(walking forward adds enough to counteract this)

[glacial light]

Helldivers 2 has a hidden weakspot multiplier per weapon too right?

There's like a ton of stats we don't see on screen

[odd arch]

the pulls back the mechanics courtain "what the fuck" betrays its shared blood with vermintide

[strange vine]

no

theres no weakspot multiplier anywhere

"weakspots" just have less health

[odd arch]

oh yeah enemy health

now that's a

thing

[strange vine]

also a lot of removable armor is just another enemy body part that covers other body parts

[odd arch]

shooting enemies in multiple body parts effectively wastes all bullets that didn't go in the part last hit

unless it was a part that deals damage to torso when damaged

[strange vine]

anyway i love the verdict, its a great secondary weapon esp on bots

[glacial light]

I see

Damage calculations in HD2 is too much for me

[odd arch]

because enemies die of a bodypart healthpool running out, they only have a vague "main HP" approximation in the form of torso

[glacial light]

I just have to try it and the numbers don't mean much to me

[odd arch]

but if you shoot them 90% dead in the torso their head is still perfectly fine

so swapping to headshots then won't speed it up any

[sage plume]

<@&1206091872716595200> who down

[quick plinth]

I could a couple

[sage plume]

noice

[honest acorn]

Maybe this evening

[tall stone]

Interesting

[tight zephyr]

I've said it before, but I think the big appeal of this game is that it captures the feeling of playing with action figures really well.

For me, anyway.

[pastel igloo]

it does yeah

[tight zephyr]

I’m just playing with my Space GI Joes and making them fight the robots.

I’ve really been enjoying the good ol’ MMG lately.

[strange vine]

its a really solid all-rounder

[strange vine]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1ebxqne/my_friend_and_i_made_charts_for_helldivers_2/
https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1eckjm6/due_to_demand_on_the_cooldown_charts_heres_two/

[tall stone]

Hot damn, that EAT cooldown.

[odd arch]

lmao

I wonder if I should include the ballistic shield in stealth loadouts

shield stealth is probably not very practical compared to just proning in scout armor but hilarious

[glossy horizon]

The shield is/was bugged that it stopped LOS if you raised it

So it made some whacky stealth possible, can't find a video right now though

[glacial light]

An advantage I can think of if you're good at playing with LoS and risking it but cause you're standing you walk faster than moving prone

And it's usually a race against time, I don't think it's like a huge difference though

[odd arch]

the shield stops enemies from aggroing even if they're aware of you

so you can be very blunt with your stealth

[glacial light]

Huh that's wild

[odd arch]

if they're already in combat mode they'll still shoot you

[glacial light]

Also couldn't you use scout and shield for mega stealth even if that's probably redundant

[odd arch]

but if they go "WHO GOES THERE" and you raise your shield they'll just

stare, vaguely aware that someone is there

but unable to proceed

[glacial light]

Uhhh automatons have thermal vision and the shield is the same temperature as the atmosphere so they can't sense your body heat, that's what my democracy officer said and it's entirely intentional

[tight zephyr]

I’ll buy that for a Super Credit!

[glacial light]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/helldivers2/s/hpbiGMd7ob

[pastel igloo]

Now THIS is Managed Democracy

[cobalt patrol]

Those are great, honestly

[tall stone]

Oooo

[junior badge]

Nice, that's a fun story

[hazy oriole]

https://x.com/helldivers2/status/1817247852986335378

HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) on X

MAJOR ORDER: The Helldivers are ordered to reclaim more ground from the Automatons. However, the enemy has deployed Orbital Cannons across their territories.

Liberating a bot planet will allow temporary return to normal extraction.

Twitter · Jul 27, 2024, 5:17 PM

five planets is a tall order but im hoping we can get it done

[quartz cloak]

On the bot front it's basically not going to happen

But it'll be fun

[pastel igloo]

Bot major order? not likely

[quartz cloak]

Why do people not play bots in this game

[pastel igloo]

gods only know

[blissful sparrow]

cause it isn't fun to them, its not in any way complicated

[glacial light]

My guess is they're used to horde shooters where enemies are melee heavy and that's their notion of fun they're used to

The melee horde shooter going strong for decades with L4D1 and COD zombies

Vermin Tide and Killing Floor. It all has very similar design of the swarm enemies are melee with a few ranged one and bots are the opposite of that formula they're used to

[quartz cloak]

I guess I'm just weird, because I enjoy the bots more

[strange vine]

the planets all have 0.45% regen so its not unobtainable

[quartz cloak]

The planets at 0.0% would be difficult with bot numbers

[glacial light]

I think most people in this thread like bots more

I'm one of them

[tall stone]

The upside is that they're all at only .45 reinforcement

[blissful sparrow]

it isn't weird at all that different players prefer different parts of a game

[quartz cloak]

No
It is weird that bugs are an order of magnitude more popular than bots

[glacial light]

It would take away the major part out but I'd like have 2 MOs for one bots and one bug at the same time at all times

[tall stone]

The weird part is the number of bug players who don't leave, yeah.

[blissful sparrow]

not at all. There is zero obligation for people to evenly split between different aspects of a game

[glacial light]

Is it weird? If they don't enjoy bots at all whyeave bugs

I don't really do bugs and do primarily only bots

[quartz cloak]

I'm just wondering where the disparity comes from

[cobalt patrol]

Bots are more tactically complex

Which is why I like them

[glacial light]

Major orders

[cobalt patrol]

Bugs feel kinda solved for me

[glacial light]

Oh disparity

I still stick by my statement above

[tall stone]

But if a bug MO goes on, you'll still go do the bugs is my point

[glacial light]

Why though

[quartz cloak]

Yeah, if it was purely random 'each person likes their own thing', we wouldn't be seeing so many more people playing bugs

[glacial light]

You can ignore it and do whats fun for you

[quartz cloak]

There has to be some reason why people gravitate to one en-masse

[blissful sparrow]

its no different than say the classic Battlefield "24/7 10k ticket metro" servers anf such

[glacial light]

#1204832579287519292 message

[blissful sparrow]

random does not mean 50/50 at all

[glacial light]

Bugs are familiar and I think that's mostly it

[glacial light]

That assumes players are blank slates with no preferences before playing this game

[quartz cloak]

I mean, yes
I'm trying to figure out where the preference comes from

[glacial light]

Their past gaming experiences will shape what the enjoy

[tall stone]

Like, I can viscerally remember several hard Bug MOs that the bot front dropped off to complete

[glacial light]

Long history of horde shooters being successful? It's fun cause you kill lots of swarms and fairly easy coop PvE when they're mostly melee and you have guns

[tall stone]

I can think of zero bot MOs that got the same treatment

[blissful sparrow]

i remember Malevolent creek

[cobalt patrol]

I will say that bots were viscous due to actual bugs when the game was starting out, one shot rockets etc.

And also people hate being juggled

Which still happens a lot

[tall stone]

The MO dropped, and the most popular planet by percent right now is Estanu

[glacial light]

Hunter stuns or Rocket juggling pick your poison

[tall stone]

Ah, that just changed while I was typing

[blissful sparrow]

a large chunk of bot only players probably dropped off after the creek stopped being a thing as they had tied an identity to it, so once that was resolved, there just wasn't any air left afterwards.
While bug players never had such an emotional attachment to a single place, it was always more balanced and free flowing, so any one event didn't instantly remove any satisfaction from continueing to play

[tall stone]

I can assure you as a bot only player, the creek may have gotten me in, but it's not what made me stay

[blissful sparrow]

yes, thats self evident

[glacial light]

Malevelon creek defense at level 3 made me not touch bots for like 7 levels

Not really an excuse now since bots are mostly fine

So much better than launch

Pre nerf rocket devs just one shotting everyone cause of explosion damage glitch making it deal way more than intended

[tall stone]

I think the sticky early opinion of "bots are harder than bugs" is the main thing

Despite bots being way less of an anti-tank check

Higher bots can have you bring in just about any weapon you want. Higher bugs go "Does your team have the tools to handle five Bile Titans and four chargers at once?"

[glacial light]

Yea I think by just numbers most people aren't like playing this game for several hours everyday and fans who are vocal. There is just a large number of folks that just boot up HD2 for a few hours on the weekend or a random weekday they're free then leave it at that, they don't read the news or updates about the game and they're a silent majority that just play a game of bugs cause it reminds them of L4D2 or COD zombies and call it good without posting in a public space about bugs being fun

[idle hollow]

https://vxtwitter.com/helldivers2/status/1817273756160569488 brigador crossover wow (joke)

[hazy oriole]

makes me wonder how well a combination front MO would work
2 bot planets 2 bug planets etc
escalation of freedom would be a good time to try something like that if they wanted to, invites everyone to check out the new beasties they cooked up

[civic apex]

neat

[idle hollow]

cool mission type

maybe i'll hop back on

[quick plinth]

Paris gun(Kaiser Willhelm gun) / Schwerer Gustav lookin ahh

[tight zephyr]

This Major Order is going to be funny as hell.

[odd arch]

I played some bug games recently out of curiosity and went "ok that was neat back to bots it is"

[tall stone]

I will go to bugs for a MO

[odd arch]

amusingly I am the world's loudest vermintide fan

[tall stone]

and once the MO is done, immediately return to Bots.

I will say that Bugs are no longer at a point that I hate to play them.

[strange vine]

gonna have to see how the meta changes with the new enemies

[odd arch]

bugs are both somewhat Industry Standard and a little weird in a way I can't get adjusted to
bots give me an experience no other PVE game so far did

it's a nice test of my ability to pay attention instead of just click heads better

because they bring in heads faster than I can click

I'm not calling them a TACTICAL PUZZLE FOR BIG BRAIN GAMERS but more... you are your own worst enemy against bots

and I like that a lot

[tall stone]

Yeah, bots are a lot more interactive than bugs in my experience.

[odd arch]

also I need a primary that can deal with gunships somewhat fierce because I can play around not having a gun to take out any of their other units

but a gunship following me for an entire match is giving me constipation

[tall stone]

Laser Cannon is great for that.

HMG

Autocannon

[odd arch]

I could naturally just bring a Correct support weapon or a missile sentry but that's too simple

[tall stone]

Primary is out of the question.

[honest acorn]

Lascannon and HMG do it best I think

[odd arch]

lascannon has been my goat the entire time but I like to spice things up

lascannon is also funny in that it's practically also a primary vs bots

[tall stone]

Lascannon is just really good.

It can handle most problems.

[odd arch]

only real problems are factory striders and berserkers
and I can just not be where the factory strider is

and as for berserkers

uhh ummm

[honest acorn]

fuck berserkers

HMG will do em pretty well tho

[odd arch]

DCS will probably remain my bot primary for the Foreseeable Future until I can grind out a warbond

so magdumping it in their spines works

[strange vine]

only the scorcher is viable vs gunships and it still takes like more than a mag of actually hitting the engine

[odd arch]

I used to run sickle for its silent profile but I realized DCS is nearly silent and also berserkers actually notice being shot by it

sickle? scythe? can never remember which is which

[honest acorn]

DCS being diligence countersniper?

[odd arch]

the beam one

and yeah

sickle is very funny vs small bots because their heads popcorn from being lightly caressed by it

so even if it's nighttime fog smoke and debris, I can just flail it at where shots are coming from and something probably dies

[stone bridge]

beam one is the Scythe

I love the Sickle into bots because of how unneringly accurate it is, you can crouch and magdump into a heavy dev head and they're gone in about 16-17 landed shots

There's no muzzle flash on the scope either

So it's way easier to aim while firing for me

[quick plinth]

is there any weapon that can kill airships but still deal with mediums handily but isnt the AC

laser cannon can sorta do that but deals with devs too slow at range

railgun is too bad at anti airship work

AMR too

RR has too little ammo- Quasar fires too slow

[stone bridge]

hmm? the AMR does fine against gunships if you shoot the engine block, it just takes practice to get the leading down

[hearty pier]

HMG falls into the same category as the AMR in that you need to lead the engines but you have a lot more bullets

[stone bridge]

yeah the HMG also destroys gunships if you like that weapon

[quick plinth]

its hard to get the lead down when my game either decides to drop 40 frames when I use first person or the scope just doesn't load

but yeah I suppose those two are good options I just don't really enjoy using them too much

[unreal merlin]

IDK what it is but the sickle is fine for me regarding accuracy until the very moment I decide I want to try shooting devastator heads with it, upon which it changes to spraying a cone shape where all shots land AROUND the reticle and consequently into the devastator's shoulder armor dealing zero damage

[odd arch]

I find the lascannon to be very quick at taking down devs but it is frustrating if they do anything other than pose for the picture

[unreal merlin]

My go to preference is railgun to the waist, but admittedly railgun lacks efficacy against anything that ISN'T a devastator or strider so while it's amazing at those two it's a big anti armor hole to fill for stratagems

[tall stone]

Let me tell you this right now

The 3 minute extraction times are rough.

[strange vine]

use case for the expert extraction pilot booster!

[tall stone]

For sure

[tight zephyr]

The big difference I've noticed between bots and bugs is that the bots will dogpile you if you kick the hornet's nest, but you can dupe them more easily. Bugs are more about constant harassment and are always trying to grab your ass.

[tall stone]

Oh no, bugs will also dogpile you.

Bots are generally polite enough to come from the same general direction.

Bugs will go out of their way to flank you.

[oblique hazel]

bots will also go telegraph when they're about to appear on top of you much better than bugs will imo

[tight zephyr]

Maybe that's why I feel like the bugs are a constant harassment.

[oblique hazel]

I feel like I get dogpiled by bugs significantly more often than I do bots

[tight zephyr]

Bug breaches are pretty easy to head off if a Bile Titan doesn't pop out.

But I definitely feel like I'm under constant low-level pressure with the bugs while the bots always feel like it's nothing and then a huge spike of activity that escalates the longer you fight them.

[tall stone]

I find bug Breaches easier to handle entirely because of Orbital Gas.

[glacial light]

Bots you can find cover, there's really no safety from a bug swarm besides kill a lot of them while keeping distance

[tall stone]

Pretty much.

If you can think for just a moment, you can generally handle bot problems.

It's things like Berserkers that complicate that.

[tight zephyr]

Pressure from bugs is more difficult for me to deal with because I often struggle against Bile Titans.

I actually found a use case for incendiary grenades against bots as a way to control Berserker swarms.

[glacial light]

The one thing I find really reliable on bugs is airburst launcher, wiping out a patrol before they get a nanosecond to call in another breach is good when you remember how many lone patrols turn into long engagements or being chased for miles

[tall stone]

Gas is very consistent on handling breaches

[tight zephyr]

Gas and napalm are my go-to for breaches, yeah.

Last night I forgot to switch to the impact grenades I usually bring for bots and still had the incendiary impacts equipped and found them actually very useful for stopping Berserker charges, though.

They go a long way to softening them up.

[glacial light]

Gas is very nice now

[tall stone]

Yeah, for Bugs the problem points are Spewers, Hunters, Stalkers, and quantity of Bile Titans and Chargers.

[glacial light]

It just makes berserkers on fire chasing me

[tight zephyr]

It eats through their huge health pool and makes it easier to mop them up with your primary.

[glacial light]

I run stuns for a long time but don't impacts still one shot berserkers

[tall stone]

For Bots, it's Gunships, Heavy Devs, and Cannon Turrets.

And Machine Gun Raiders, ofc

[tight zephyr]

Yeah but if you have a lot of them running at you, it can help a lot.

[tall stone]

And Berserkers.

[tight zephyr]

I have the most trouble with Bile Titans out of anything.

[tall stone]

Berserkers are the reason I sometimes choose to just run a shotgun.

[glacial light]

I use verdict over senator cause it's much more forgiving if you miss a berserker waist and boy do they love swaying

It is just a skill issue on my part

[tight zephyr]

I can usually kill a Charger if I don't get myself cornered, Spewers are annoying but they're not as bad now that they got nerfed. Hunters are infuriating little shits, but I've gotten better at murdering them. But with BTs? I'm useless.

[glacial light]

Their head hitbox is like bad

[tight zephyr]

It's so bad.

"LET'S GO GAMBLING!"

[glacial light]

It's supposed to be 2 EATs should kill to the head but is very inconsistent

[tight zephyr]

lmao

[tall stone]

That's why I use OPS on them instead now.

[tight zephyr]

I had one last night that took four EATs and a Quasar shot before we got its head.

[glacial light]

If there's a lot of charger killers on my team I bring Commando to bugs cause at best it 2 shot head shots but usually 3rd or 4th will kill and the universe hates you if it takes 5

[tight zephyr]

Yeah, I started using OPS and dropping it when I'm pretty sure they're about to puke.

[tall stone]

That and a person using the "Fuck you in particular big guy" orbital tends to handle them at the 6 I'm usually at.

[supple siren]

Idk how folks headshot chargers so well I always hot those stupid under-leggies

[tall stone]

Truth is that you can just strip a charger leg and be fine tbh.

[glacial light]

It used to be eats for my but I got tired of calling in EATs shooting 2 and it survives then I got to wait for it to be back and run around for like a minute

[tight zephyr]

Most squads I end up in have at least one person with a railcannon strike.

Just for BTs.

[tall stone]

It's the best call for them at the moment since the head's bugged.

[glacial light]

I'm classic stun+OPS but maybe not really use stun for those since OPS comes in faster now

[tall stone]

Open them up, shoot the gooey center.

[tight zephyr]

I'm going to be practicing with the OPS against them.

[tall stone]

Not fun phrasing? 😛

Ah

Entirely fair!

I will always stand by OPS

Helps for base-breaking too.

[tight zephyr]

It's a good all-rounder for if you need to say "Fuck off, weirdo."

[unreal merlin]

OPS is just super versatile.

[glacial light]

Really you just throw it where they're going to be and it's easier since calldown is shorter

You don't have to lead it a ton now

[tall stone]

My standards for bugs are OPS, Gas Strike, Rover, and the non-backpack support of my choice.

[unreal merlin]

BTs aren't even really hard to handle as long as you're aware of them and know how to bait them into standing still (literally just walk into their range and then away, or run under their legs)

[tall stone]

Rover handles those rat bastard hunters.

Rover is just so necessary for bugs because I can't look in every direction at once.

[glacial light]

Like most bugs a single BT isn't an issue it's when there's like 7 chargers/BT that accumulated cause you didn't kill them fast enough and that's dangerous

[tall stone]

Bugstacking is the worst, yes.

[glacial light]

1 or 2 BT you can kind of ignore and be mindful of position but they become priority once there's enough of them

[tall stone]

I've had times where I've been alone, and suddenly there's 3 Chargers and two Biles that I have to kill.

Thankfully chargers are dummies you can bait easily.

[glacial light]

I tried out gun dog last time for bugs and it's really nice, not for the killing part but it shoots where enemies are so it's really hard to sneak up on you

I wish there was like press 5 to toggle it off and have it return to backpack

[tall stone]

Rover gets me into fights I didn't start all the time.

[glacial light]

Yea that's why I wish there was a toggle

I want it off if we're not detected and the moment stealth is not possible then bring it out

[tall stone]

Would be great tbh

[glacial light]

Or even for gundog save ammo

I've never really had an issue with gun dog ammo but it'd still he nice

[tight zephyr]

I get killed by BTs stomping me more than by their acid.

[glacial light]

Same

[tall stone]

The temper-tantrums are killer.

[glacial light]

They're very quiet and you see a leg for a second from the corner of your screen then it stomps you.

Another reason I like gundog

[tall stone]

HEY A THING is great

Helps me against Stalkers all the time.

[tight zephyr]

Any of you want to dive? I'm tired of pubbies.

"GET OUT OF HERE STALKER!" followed by a barrage of shotgun fire.

<@&1206091872716595200> Oh right the ping.

[quick plinth]

i mean sure

I'll dive

[strange vine]

dont aim for the mouth, you wanna aim for the forehead

[tight zephyr]

6195-3603

[tall stone]

You have to aim at the thickest part of the armor, yeah.

[tight zephyr]

Anyway I'm ready whenever.

[glacial light]

The Helldivers 2 trailer where someone one shots a BT to the head and it explodes was a lie

[tight zephyr]

It's a propaganda film so I'm pretty sure there was a cut to the BT being blasted, and then the Helldiver getting covered in Terminid goo.

Especially because it's obviously a guided rocket and the Helldiver in question has a recoilless rifle.

So uh... is anyone coming or should I just dive?

[quick plinth]

I mean I can hop on but it seems to be a permanent case that only two people at a time seem to wanna dive

[cobalt patrol]

a lot of us are off elden ringing or similar

and or waiting for the big content drop

[quick plinth]

makes sense

[odd arch]

I run gundog against bots in stealth loadouts

it's a hassle to be always mindful of its range and shoot or unequip it when I need to get closer unnoticed but the mop up potential on dropship callers is wonderful

[quick plinth]

I was honestly surprised by how well the gun dog cleans up

now only if it's ammo reserves got proper replenished when you resupped

[quick plinth]

https://tenor.com/view/mr-bison-street-fighter-yes-gif-3718772

damn this missions has been good to me

[sage plume]

https://tenor.com/view/cr1tikal-penguinz0-meme-woo-yeah-baby-gif-19316511

[quick plinth]

for refrence this is a solo 3

[odd arch]

can you believe it guys? enough for a warbond just a week away

[quick plinth]

exactly

I think

I was sitting on 885

[quick plinth]

yeah baby

[idle hollow]

I still don’t have Polar Patriots or the jungle one bought

[quick plinth]

I don't think I'll ever buy Polar Patriots (Just doesn't have anything worth it if you ask me) while Viper Commandos is an excellet warbond if only for the booster alone (and the armor trait)

[ionic holly]

i've not missed a warbond yet myself

mostly cause i tend to just have enough credits laying around each time

[tight zephyr]

Polar Patriots has the Pummeler, Incendiary Impact and Verdict, all of which are very useful.

It also has the Tenderizer, which is my favorite assault rifle. But it's kind of love or hate because of its small-ish magazine.

The Pummeler and incendiary impact grenades are really useful for crowd control and the Verdict is a great middleground between the Peacemaker and Senator.

[tall stone]

Yeah, Polar Patriots gets ignored because it has one really bad gun.

But it's still pretty solid.

I'd get Demo Demo and Cutting Edge before it.

[quick plinth]

like it has one bad gun, 2 middle of the road guns, an ok grenade, no special armor perks and a bad by comparison booster

other warbonds offer better stuff if we're to rank em

[tall stone]

I would not call Pummeler middle of the road.

But hey, I'll break down Polar Patriots some. It'll be fun!

[quartz cloak]

Okay the Pummeler was bad on release which is why people got burnt

[tall stone]

Tenderizer was built on older numbers and was the one considered bad on release.

Pummeler immediately had people invested, because of its hitstun.

[quartz cloak]

Oh the Pummeler, the SMG

[tall stone]

OK, so we've got on the first page:

• Heavy Servo-Assisted Armor, something that takes Steeled Veterans 3 pages to get to
• Slow reduction Booster, an actually good buff against Bugs. It just has to compete with Cutting Edge and its patently insane Page 1 Localization Confusion
• Tenderizer, which is a nice gun into bigger bugs for sure

Page 2:

• Pummeler, the submachine gun. The work it does to keep you safe from things like berserkers is insane.
• Incindiary Impacts are a good source of fire on demand, which is great into both sides. It can just eliminate an entire group, no problem. You can also toss 'em onto bug breaches if gas is on cooldown.
• Heavy Fortified Armor. Boring.

Page 3:

• Light Scout armor. You already have this. But it looks nice.
• Purifier is bad. I'm not going to defend it. I've got Eruptor on Page 2 of Democratic Demolitions, and that works way better.
• Verdict, which is honestly a good pistol. For all that people love Senator, that revolver handles like a god-damn brick. This is a good compromise between ease of use and stopping power.

What makes a warbond good for me is when it gives the goodies.

Cutting Edge has just the most stonks page 1 out there, thanks to Localization confusion and Sickle, and Page 2 has Punisher Plasma and Stuns. Like, it's got zero competition for how good it is.

[honest acorn]

The armor does look sick

[tall stone]

Yeeee

And again, a page 1 Heavy Servo-Assist is good.

But yeah, for all of Cutting Edge's good points, it gives you just not worth it armor.

[odd arch]

how are thermites btw

[tall stone]

Impacts or normal?

[odd arch]

the thermite grenade

not incendiary

[honest acorn]

They’re decent

They used to suck shit and now they kill hulks and chargers pretty nicely

[tall stone]

Ah, ye

I still just run HE's because they take care of the problems I actually worry about.

IE Berserkers and large groups of bugs.

Oh, and Heavy Devs.

You know, I think i want to cover each of the bonds now.

[honest acorn]

I like them for hulks since you throw 2 in their general direction and they die

[hexed steeple]

when they released we still had the goofy aaaa damage over time bug right

[honest acorn]

Yeah

[glacial light]

When dot damage was a host privilege

[honest acorn]

They basically didn’t do anything

Except make funny noises and bright lights

[tall stone]

Steeled Veterans is next!
Page 1:

• Liberator Concussive is just worse Pummeler now. It's not bad, but Pummeler does everything it does better in a SMG frame. But hey, page 1 vs. Page 2.
• Senator is the Big Iron. Medium Pen, good damage, but low capacity and not great handling. It's good on its own merits though, and a good pick-up.
• Medium Servo-Assist Armor. Just a good, versatile ability to have.

Page 2:

• Incendiary Grenades. Fire on demand, slower than the impacts. Ain't nothing else to say.
• Breaker Incendiary. F i r e s h o t g u n. What's not to love? Quite possibly one of the best bug weapons in the game.
• Another Medium Servo-Assist armor. This is for fashion options tbh.

Page 3:

• Flexible Reinforcement Budget Booster. Niche, to say the least. You should probably use something that actually helps during the whole mission instead.
• JAR Dominator. So, I'm going to be perfectly honest. I have never used this gun. I haven't even been particularly interested in giving it a try. It comes in late on the warbond, and has a lot more explosive damage competition in the main. If someone has more experience with it, please tell me.
• Heavy Servo-Assist Armor. This stuff saved my life back on Merida and the Dark Fluid injection missions. It comes way later than Polar Patriots and its version of this though.

[quartz cloak]

I have a ton of experience with the JAR Dominator and it's genuinely my favourite gun

Against bots. Don't bother with it against bugs

But it can seriously hurt every Bot enemy that's not a Hulk or a Tank
And even then, it can actually destroy Hulks by hitting the rear radiator

Which I don't believe many Primaries can

[tall stone]

Fair! I use Eruptor into Bots. In the brief period of time it was terrible, I used Punisher Plasma.

Sometimes I'll do sickle, but the Eruptor being able to snipe fabs and pop Striders, Devs, and Missile Devs is invaluable.

[quartz cloak]

The Dominator puts down Devs with a single headshot and about 6-10 bodyshots depending on how merciful the damage calc is feeling

It can also kill Striders from the front

[tall stone]

Ooooo, that is nice!

[quartz cloak]

As for fabricators, I live and die by the Spear but that's my bias

[tall stone]

Entirely fair. There's no one answer for bot fabs, and that's great.

[quick plinth]

the slow reduction isn't enough to matter

when its competing with other much better and more consistent boosters

[quartz cloak]

Also, another thing the JAR does, it staggers just like the old Slugger did, so heavy devastators go from Destroyers of Worlds to 'Oh no you clipped my shoulder now my shield is not covering anything and you get to wreck my shit'

Though it's highly recommended to use it with the armour that reduces recoil, or improves handling

[quick plinth]

I found that peak phisique makes basically any "heavier" weapon just work

and idk if its just me or not but it also seems to have pseudo recoil reduction?

[quartz cloak]

Sssssssssssssssort of?
Not really, the recoil is still hefty, you can tell on the HMG

I think it's because recoil-reducing armour reduces the kick, while Peak Physique increases how quickly the gun swings back down after the recoil

[quick plinth]

something like that probably

[tall stone]

Time for Cutting Edge!
Page 1:

• Localization Confusion Booster. Get this. One of the best boosters in the game. It will, 100%, save your team trouble. The fact this a page 1 pick is insane.
• Sickle. Do you want to never worry about ammo again? Like, don't even worry about overheating clips. Just pick up more. They even fixed the sound now! A strong contender for one of the best guns in the game.
• Medium Electrical Conduit armor. Awful. Literally the base armor is better. Without any enemies that use electrical damage, the only thing this works against is friendly fire. Get literally anything else.

Page 2:

• Punisher Plasma. Have you ever wanted to be your own mobile mortar? Do you hate Heavy Devestators with the searing passion of the sun? This is the gun for you. Bugs like getting close, so it gets a bit dangerous to use against them, but it comes with good hitstun in addition to good range once you get used to its drop.
• Stun Grenades. Say goodbye to all problem enemies with these babies. Lock 'em down, and take your clean shot to get rid of them. You'll need other ways to handle spawners, but that's a very small price to pay.
• Medium Electrical Conduit Armor. Same as before.

Page 3:

• Arc-12 Blitzer. Literally never have to worry about ammo with this. Makes you a bug-killing god for anything that's not a Charger or Bile Titan. You will shoot a teammate and drop them to the ground with this. But that's their problem, they shouldn't be in front of you. Go, my child, and harvest that bug juice. (You can also use it into bots, it's fun against Berserkers. But there's better weapons for them)
• Dagger. Oh boy. So, uh. Pretty much any sidearm is better. I guess if you want an all-laser build it's nice. Typical laser "what's ammo?" upside. Not good a good sidearm thanks to charge time.
• Light Electrical Conduit armor. Still awful.

[quartz cloak]

Wait the Sickle sounds not like an AR now?

[unreal merlin]

It's a little different yeah

[tall stone]

The sound is so much better. They gave it pews.

[quick plinth]

I know it's a leak so Ill spoiler it in regards to the elcetrical conductor armor
|| illuminate are s'posed to use arc weapons, so the armor will likely get some more use then ||

[tall stone]

Until that actually exists?

Absolutely useless.

[quartz cloak]

It has one(1) niche use, bug defence missions.
Drop a tesla tower, stand in it

[tall stone]

But you can also do things other than that. That work better.

[quartz cloak]

That
Is entirely fair

[ionic holly]

Aye, as is in the current state of the game, arc res does nothing

might be better later, but for the time being

nothin'

[tall stone]

As it stands, it's a resounding negative point against Cutting Edge.

It's still the first Warbond you should get because everything else

[quick plinth]

if I had to rank all the warbonds, polar patriots is still on the bottom imo

but that's because I don't care for the weapons inside that much, the booster is D tier at best and the armors don't give us anything particularily good

[tall stone]

It's not at the bottom for one simple reason.

And that reason is Viper Commandos.

And to show that, we're going to skip over Demo for Viper Commandos

[glacial light]

Wrong viper commando is top tier cause it has hellpod and mech cosmetics

[quick plinth]

Viper commandos has one of the best boosters, one of the top tier armor perks, mid to bad weapons sure

but the armors and booster by itself carry viper commando

[tall stone]

To interrupt my flow: It has an OK armor perk.

You're competing with extra grenades, extra stims, and Servo-Assist.

And the ever-present recoil reduction.

[ionic holly]

I like the bushwhacker
Favorite secondary in the game

that is all i have to say about viper commandos

[tall stone]

I also like the Bushwhacker.

It suffers from me having Senator, Verdict, and grenade before it.

[glacial light]

I do love the booster as a stim pilled medic armor main

[ionic holly]

based and stim pilled /joke

Honestly though, armour wise it's gonna be tough for me to do anything but the latest heavy EK set we got, the guerilla one

[tall stone]

Viper Commandos is... Different than the others, for reasons you will soon see.

Page 1:

• Liberator Carbine. Another gun I haven't used. It's around in my armory, but I don't see a reason to use it thanks to having picked up the Breaker Incendiary, Eruptor, Sickle, etc before it.
• Light Peak Physique Armor. Peak Physique is nice for those quick turns you'll need to do with heavy weapons sometimes. The extra melee damage is neat, but niche.

Page 2:

• Bushwhacker. A lot of a firepower in a sidearm! Handles kinda clumsily though, and eats through ammo at the 3-shot. Has to compete with Verdict and Senator too.
• Heavy Peak Physique Armor. Same as before, just on the other end of armor.

Page 3:

• Experimental Infusion Booster. More running! More running is excellent! Finally something that competes with Localization Confusion!
• KNIFE! Look, I know I should probably use a grenade instead. But this this will tell a single enemy to absolutely go fuck themselves, so long as it's not a heavy. What's not to love about absolutely nailing a Stalker with a knife?!

So yeah.

Viper Commandos gives you less.

In exchange for a title and skins for hellpods, mechs, and the Pelican. Those are all more subjective in value, like the emotes and capes.

For that reason, I say you can wait till last for Viper Commando.

[odd arch]

electric armor has the theoretical upside of letting you fight within the range of your tesla tower

purely theoretical because you will be kicked for bringing a tesla tower

[tall stone]

Yep, but you can also use a different armor and not do that.

[honest acorn]

This is a downside unless everyone brings it

You can arc

[odd arch]

staring the host in the eye as I select tesla tower and both minefields

[tall stone]

Hey now, until gas was working, Minefields were great to throw on a bug breach.

[strange vine]

Hulk vents have AV 0, literally every gun in the game can damage it

Are you talking about turret vents? Those have AV 3 and only med pen primaries can hurt them

[tall stone]

But yeah, Viper is my least liked Warbond in terms of mechanics because it just gives you less. The most worth is on Page 3, with the Booster. Otherwise, you're getting OK armor.

And the Bushwhacker.

And for all my love of the knife...

You should probably just have grenades instead.

[quick plinth]

knife is kinda the worst nade rn

[odd arch]

on one hand, grenade pistol

on the other, you can't load stuns into the pistol

and stuns are the most picked grenades I think

[tall stone]

For good reason, they're amazing.

Stuns and Impacts are the typical picks.

But yeah, from a mechanical standpoint, I'd rather get Polar Patriots than Viper Commandos.

[glacial light]

Give me stun Eruptor and stun grenade pistol and stun eagles

I want no one to move ever

[tall stone]

EMS Orbital >:D

[glacial light]

380mm stun barrage

Clusterstuns

[odd arch]

isn't one of the plasma guns that no one really likes a stun gun for practical purposes?

big AoE with huge push force

purifier?

I don't remember which one it was but it stops short of knocking heavy devs flat on their asses

[strange vine]

Purifier sucks ass

Literally just take the plasma punisher

Until they either fix a supposed bug with the charge time or rework it its just ass

[odd arch]

I found some footage and the purifier makes scout striders do a dance with each shoot lmao

[strange vine]

Liberator carbine is a great lib sidegrade

[strange vine]

Punisher plasma does the same but faster

Like

Literally

The only thing purifier has over punisher plasma is longer effective range

And faster projectile

Its inferior every other way

[tall stone]

And now to finish off the Warbonds, Democratic Detonations!

Page 1:

• Thermite Grenade. You ever want to cook a Hulk or Charger? These can be pretty fire and forget in that regard, but are pretty localized. Still not bad to have, especially as a first-page pull.
• Medium Engineering Kit Armor. You have this already more likely than not, but this isn't bright orange at least.
• Adjudicator. OK, so. It's got monstrous recoil, and not great ammo issues. But those bullets do hit hard, especially with Medium Armor pen and the rate it fires at.

Page 2:

• Expert Extraction Pilot Booster. It usually doesn't do enough, but with the advent of some of the extract timer fuckery that has recently popped up in a MO, this can be a nice niche option to have in your back pocket.
• Light* Engineering Kit Armor. Now this is actually pretty unique across the board. Actually has some funky stat points.
• Eruptor. So, full bias here. The Eruptor is my favorite gun. It just works. Base-clearing, Medium enemy elimination, being able to have it burst near enemies... If you can handle the slow between shot reload and needing something else for the gribblies that get next to you, this gun will be a go-to problem solver.

Page 3:

• Exploding Crossbow. An interesting weapon to be sure! In many ways similar to the Eruptor, while being a silent shot to help with stealth.
• Grenade Pistol. This sidearm gets better the more warbonds you have. It can out and out replace your grenade slot, letting you use other options like Stuns instead. A gold standard for enablign builds.
• Heavy Fortified Armor. You probably have this already.

[graceful bluff]

I feel like the knife would see a lot more play if you could retrieve it

[tall stone]

Agreed.

So for my rankings:

1st - Cutting Edge
2nd - Steeled Veterans/Democratic Demolitions
3rd - Polar Patriots
4th - Viper Commandos

[graceful bluff]

also dunno if it still is but it used to be the case that the exploding crossbow can't close bugholes etc

while the eruptor can

[tall stone]

No clue.

I have only stopped using the Eruptor for a brief period of time.

And it only doesn't get used against bugs because of the Blitzer being a weapon of divine retribution against bugkind.

[honest acorn]

It can now

[tall stone]

Excellent

One thing that comes up is the Page 2 Amazing guns for most Warbonds.

Pummeler, Plas Punisher, Eruptor, Breaker Incendiary

Viper Commandos doesn't have a Page 2 Amazing Gun.

[glacial light]

I believe the aoe was reduced too? It's like a rapid fire Eruptor

I don't remember the armor pen

[supple siren]

Viper Commandos has The Fashion though

[tall stone]

Medium

[tall stone]

If you like the fashion, then by all means get it! But it's giving you less options than the other Warbonds, and I think it's important to remember that.

[glacial light]

The funny thing about crossbow is it's silent

They'll be alert by explosion but won't pay attention to where it can from

A useful tactic for throw arms if a distant patrol is heading your way is to lob an explosive in a different direction and they'll walk towards it

[odd arch]

from what I remember about the game, besides sounds enemies are also aggro'd by a sort of... cone your gun projects when shot at them?

so if you shoot a silent gun and miss they'll still turn around not because there are bullet whizz mechanics but because of this cone

[glacial light]

For most guns yes

[odd arch]

also how multiple enemies get aggro'd when you shoot into a group but they don't see their rearmost friend die

[glacial light]

Last I used it near launch I don't think this is how crossbow works

[odd arch]

I imagine projectile weapons are different because you can't really attach a cone to a high angle shot?

[glacial light]

I've shot at enemies in bases facing my direction and the grenade lands lands behind them so they turn around and we do sneaky

[tall stone]

Yeah, the crossbow is still the ultimate in weapon stealth based on observations.

[odd arch]

I love aggressive stealth

[tall stone]

Fantastic for those folks who are doing map sweeps to pick up samples.

[odd arch]

I would never subject my team to me splitting off to MGS objectives alone

[tall stone]

I subject randos to that all the time unless someone else is doing it first.

[odd arch]

but being a little off to the side to swoop in with a rescue unnoticed is peak

[tall stone]

Completing objectives is nice and all.

But I want samples.

[odd arch]

or if they get stuck in a meatgrinder I circle around it and complete the objective they're trying to get to before hitting the roadblock from behind

[tall stone]

Requisition is useless.

I need no title aside from Space Cadet.

Give me Super Credits, medals, and samples.

[odd arch]

I think my favourite build can be just summed up as

https://tenor.com/view/mercy-overwatch-come-here-gif-14280244

my value increases exponentially the harder my team is struggling

if they're doing great I'm just kinda also there

now I just need smoke grenades to free up a strat slot...

[strange vine]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1edw1mr/scorcher_v_gunships_tested

tl;dw shoot the gunship bodies with scorcher, thats the only part that it can deal damage to

[supple siren]

:Tc Odd! I'm just glad HMG continues to make them into vapor

[tight zephyr]

I have the controversial opinion that I don't like the Sickle. I've tried to give it a shot because it seems like everyone loves it, but I do not see the appeal.

[glacial light]

It's like a laser stalwart as a primary

On release it was very strong

Still is but other weapons got buffed

Also at the time the med pen weapons that existed weren't really strong so the meta was use sickle as basically the only ad clear you needed and rest of strats are support weapons or heavy killers

And last I checked it's still very precise, the nerf like reduced it's heatsinks you can carry?

Also sickle is big numbers, easy to break 2000+ shots fired with like 80%+ accuracy and I think bragging rights is the most important thing

[graceful bluff]

It's boring but very consistent, it's like the starting rifle but without having to reload if you run it well

[unreal merlin]

Sickle shines if you're having lots of smaller medium-range engagements where you can clean up the weaker stuff pretty quickly. At long range it has inaccuracy that can be annoying (though obviously not costly) and at close range or if you're being swamped in enemies it lacks the responsiveness of a traditional gun.

[glacial light]

Did they nerf it's accuracy? I remember you used to be able to like easily headshot shield devs from like 100m away with not much issue besides travel time

[unreal merlin]

It can still do it, but I have a lot of recollection on attempting to make precise shots at distance and the bolts go mostly around the crosshair instead of on target

[tall stone]

It's shockingly accurate, yeah.

[glacial light]

But yea it used to be straight upgrade to liberator and the liberator is a good stat stick gun for putting a lot of bullets out fast in short time.

Liberator isn't the most unique or fun to many but it's very strong

[tall stone]

It does good damage, is very consistent on aim, and it never runs out of ammo (for the sickle)

Never runs out of ammo is a *

[glacial light]

And heat damage does full damage to spewer butts when they one shotted you

[tall stone]

But you have to work very, very hard to run out your sickle reserves.

[glacial light]

I think sickle is still good, it just dominated cause other weapons didn't feel as strong at the time and post major buff patch more weapons are more viable and do their unique roles effectively.

[tall stone]

Ye

Still an amazing page 1 pick-up for a warbond.

[glacial light]

A big game changer for me was when med pen primaries got buffed

[unreal merlin]

very much a case of the sickle still being really good, just other guns are on par with it now

mostly

[tall stone]

Eruptor can be pried out of my cold, dead hands.

[graceful bluff]

I've kinda been falling out of love with the eruptor at least against bugs

[tall stone]

Oh, that's fair.

Little bastards get too close.

[graceful bluff]

while it feels great just popping bilespewers

[tall stone]

Spewers, warrior and commander heads, bases from afar.

[graceful bluff]

it's too unwieldly to hit broken armor well in close to mid range at 10's

[tall stone]

Oh, yeah.

10 Bugs require a... Very specific loadout. :/

[graceful bluff]

so unless you bring something to specifically deal with elites you have a problem

[glacial light]

Cause before the strongest primaries were the ones good for ad clear as the med pen ones were lack luster. So if you want the "optimal" experience you get an ad-clear primary then shore up weaknesses by using med/heavy stratagems to kill what your primary can't.

Whereas now I can carry Eruptor to destroy med enemies and use my stratagems to ad clear with AT support so i'm still equip for every enemy just in a way I like better

[graceful bluff]

but if you do, you're running a double elite loadout

[glacial light]

That's wild even as an Eruptor main

[tall stone]

Yeah, I don't bring Eruptor into bugs.

[glacial light]

Oh falling out of love, misread and thought you meant you liked bringing it to bugs

[tall stone]

I am one of the Eruptor's biggest fans, but those little bastards make it hard.

I just said all that, bluh

[glacial light]

I don't really play bugs cause my favorite primary, Eruptor, isn't as good against bugs

[tall stone]

Have you tried our lord and savior of bug killing, the Blitzer?

[glacial light]

Blitzer is what I bring for bugs

[tall stone]

100% the same.

[glacial light]

But Eruptor still my favorite

[tall stone]

Before I discovered its glory, I used Incend Breaker.

[glacial light]

I only used blitzer after it's fire rate buff

[tall stone]

For the brief period that Eruptor got pantsed, I was inclined to bring fire shotgun into bots because of how good it was at killing Berserkers.

[tall stone]

Same for me.

Once you get that consistent flow going, you can just take out huge groups of bugs with it.

[glacial light]

I still think sickle is better performance wise for bugs but blitzer is just more fun for me

[tall stone]

Blitzer is supremely satisfying.

The biggest problem with it is teammates.

Too many people want to run in front of me

smh

[glacial light]

I mean it doesn't deal too much friendly fire damage, I can't say they same when they're on the ground being swarmed

[odd arch]

people going "blitzer should be able to arc" after their wish comes true and they get a triple teamkill with the first shot of the match:

[tall stone]

I've done enough arc into bots to know that people don't want that wish.

It is supremely funny to just lock down a hulk or charger with electricity, though.

[strange vine]

how the hell are you playing 10s before august 6th

[graceful bluff]

9's

you know what I mean :v

[strange vine]

anyway i usually pair eruptor with stalwart

[graceful bluff]

(comedy option: 9's with pubs is a 10)

[strange vine]

true

[tight zephyr]

It's the windup that gets me. It feels like the gun isn't working right and fucks up my snap shots.

[stone bridge]

The spool is incredibly miniscule

[unreal merlin]

It's not nothing though, I do understand being offput by it when you really need to just pop an enemy reflexively

[strange vine]

0.5 seconds can make the difference between killing an enemy or getting fucked over

[tight zephyr]

It's not much of a windup, but it's enough to annoy me when I'm trying to take a reflex shot, yeah. So I guess I just won't use it. I have other guns I like.

[glacial light]

Yea spool up you need to account for but once you fire your first shot it doesn't spool up again if you tap fire like Gatling guns in other guns and ammo isn't an issue to do so with but it's not detrimental to not use the gun there's a good number of guns that fulfill similar role like the OG liberator

Also unlimited ammo sounds nice but supply drops are free and the Super Earth wants you to know this there's just free ammo box at the park and you can take as many as you want.

I've never really had issues with ammo on primaries aside from shotguns before their ammo reserve buff

[odd arch]

I mostly used the scythe when I intended to fuck off on my own so that I wouldn't ever need to call in a resupply away from the team

[short rune]

Not sure if I can agree with this

[stone bridge]

I mean, what part? The video shows it clear as day

[short rune]

Yeah but like, it feels more efficient to aim for the engine even if the damage is lower

But thats only from my personal experience without any deep benchmarking

[stone bridge]

Raleigh, did you watch the video?

[short rune]

I did

[stone bridge]

The difference between hitting the chassis and hitting the engines is over 2 and a half magazines

The evidence isn't fibbing

[short rune]

I'm not saying it is fake. I'm just saying that I perceived it differently when fighting them normally.

[honest acorn]

Might be a weirder plasma thing since the “plasma explosion” has weird functions

Like hitting both engines on body hit

[short rune]

Also, how often do you get to attack them head on without being the focus of their attacks?

[cobalt patrol]

I mean, you see it pretty clearly in that video?

YOu fairly often if they're attacking a temamate or if you yoursel are under atatck, and having ap riamry that can take them down is actually a Big Deal

[keen zinc]

i am back gaming

<@&1206091872716595200> who want gaming https://discord.gg/P8kRCgEM

@quick plinth nyxie isnt playing

[sage plume]

@quick plinth WE STILL HAVE SPACE

[odd arch]

I know what the problem is, it's out of gas

[honest acorn]

What is that thing?

[sage plume]

ammo

[strange vine]

Specifically the orbital cannon ammo

[honest acorn]

Ah ok thanks

[keen zinc]

https://youtube.com/shorts/nYWfZv8mujg?si=x_V8g3TCBL2ojN1U

[tight zephyr]

New strategy: Simply do not die.

You can tell the bots sure made a spirited effort to subvert this strategy, though.

[glacial light]

One person shot more than the other 3 combined

[tight zephyr]

He had a Sickle.

[glacial light]

That woudl explain it

I did love having the most shot by a large margin using sickle

And if you had mech you could hit a nice 4000

Or close I haven't yet

[cobalt patrol]

i always aprpeicate not haivng the most shots fired, but having more kills than shots

and hjigh accuracyt

[unreal merlin]

Highest accuracy and kills is def more important to me

I've been using the liberator vs bots and just popping raider heads for that extreme precision takedown

[glacial light]

Most stims used

And ig least deaths

[quick plinth]

when I use the countersniper and spear, it's actually difficult not to have like 80%+ accuracy

[cobalt patrol]

My line on deaths is that someone's gonna have the clown nose in a mission. And if it's not me, it'll be someone else

Though I've had the odd no death mission

[burnt vapor]

In my experience that sounds about right there is always someone who the game decides is public enemy number one

[unreal merlin]

I'm kinda glad we're done on Wasat because for whatever reason that planet just had a ridiculous number of heavy devastators

Easily like 20+ in some engagements with clear line of sight from all of them, bullet hell everywhere

Several times I got isolated from the team and just laid behind a rock waiting for the opportunity to strike back at the 10 devastators hosing down by position

[quick plinth]

there's something weird about the AC

it seems to be a closed bolt design

but you can never have +1

probably to make it play nice with 5 round clips rather than realism

[blissful sparrow]

9 round internal magazine

[strange vine]

https://fixvx.com/helldivers2/status/1818270330260959371

FLAMERS WINNING

[glacial light]

Me after my 100th stim in a mission
https://www.rxddit.com/r/helldivers2/s/bCoNERWAnd

[steady flame]

Flame trooper time! :D

[short rune]

Wooo!

Lets see what we get

A non-stratagem flamethrower?

Huh

I feel like they should add a backpack stratagem that is just a fuel tank.

[strange vine]

heavy flamer

[glacial light]

Interesting a hellpod booster

[short rune]

Oh?

[glacial light]

Description does seem to suggest it's only reinforcement hellpods

EATs would be so goated if it were any hellpod

[short rune]

What does it do?

[strange vine]

Fiery Drop – Firebomb Hellpods
Scorch the earth (and anything else) below as you touch down with attitude and ignite the dropsite.

[glacial light]

No clue based on description I assume causes firey explosion on hellpod impact

[strange vine]

dont land next to your friends lol

[glacial light]

It's ok my friends just land on top of me

Me wearing bright white and green medic armor
Friend that just hellpodded me: oh I thought you were an enemy

Also the long awaited fire resist armor

[ionic holly]

i know this pain immensely

[glacial light]

I sortet of wanted a napalm grenade launcher but 2 mini flamethrowers are cool too

I assume one is a secondary and could be good for Eruptor gaming

[short rune]

Flanethrower, Flamethrower pistol, flamethrower stratagmen, phosphorous grenade and napalm.

The bug BBQ

[keen zinc]

jump pack

[short rune]

Oh yeah

[glacial light]

We almost have a full pyro build we just need more fire stratagems

[keen zinc]

incin mines

[short rune]

Good call

Phosphorous cluster bombs would be cool

[pastel igloo]

Lets goooo, further weaponize Hellpods like Super Earth intended!

[short rune]

I just fear a lot of most literal friendly fire incidents when using these pods.

[glacial light]

That's what the reserve Helldivers are for

[short rune]

The cookout fires a shockwave rather than single shrapnel's, yes?

[glacial light]

I assume it's some sort of AoE on impact site

It would be funny if it was just a single fireball that was lobbed in a single direction on impact and you hit a teammate with it from far away but that wouldn't make sense

[strange vine]

it shoots flaming pellets like the breaker incendiary

[graceful bluff]

Honestly really been feeling the spear lately

it's amazing how nice it feels when you actually can lock onto shit

[strange vine]

looks like a tighter spread

spear fucks

literally only thing holding it back was the targetting bugs

[graceful bluff]

it having a staged reload is also nice

[glacial light]

It's really nice being able to snipe fabricators from a distance regardless of angle

The building targeting bug I hope is fixed?

[graceful bluff]

wasn't it intended

[steady flame]

I'm looking forwards to the Torcher.

[glacial light]

As in the spear was intended not to be able to target fabricators?

[ionic holly]

Yeah no that wasn't intended and i believe has long since been fixed

[glacial light]

Ok I was fairly sure they said it was a bug and that's good it's fixed

[graceful bluff]

it was a bug that it worked

[ionic holly]

No?
they literally listed that it was a bug that it wasn't locked on, lemme go find the notes

[graceful bluff]

Also, why is it that I see an sos, and it turns out it's a private game I don't have permission to join

[ionic holly]

It was fixed back in mid june

[graceful bluff]

I feel like they said at some point that it was a bug that it targeted them

huh

like, earlier than june

[ionic holly]

They said it was a bug that it wasn't targeting them, because when they buffed lock it wasnt locking structures

the locking on was NEVER a bug, it's one of the biggest features with the spear

[graceful bluff]

I mean specifically againsty structures

[ionic holly]

Well if they listed it like this
they clearly saw it not locking as a bug.

[cobalt patrol]

Explcitly they said it was a bug that it wasnt targeting structures

[ionic holly]

you MIGHT be thinking of the commando and how they said it's demo force is a little bugged?

[graceful bluff]

No I'm thinking way back closer to launch

last I played commando wasn't even a thing yet

[ionic holly]

Yeah no they never said spear wasn't meant to lock on buildings dude

[glacial light]

It was the monkey's paw bug fix where they fixed the lock-on on enemies but broke the structures

[ionic holly]

Like said it was literally one of its selling points
and considering we have gone to today with a fix to make sure it locked onto buildings instead of making it unable to

it's the intended state of it currently

if it wasn't at launch, it sure as shit is now

[cobalt patrol]

Anyway, i better earn some more super credits soon

[ionic holly]

Apologies i'm coming off aggressive am i?

[glacial light]

Yea a bit

[ionic holly]

Sorry

i've rocked spear since week 1, i've a spot for it in my heart is all

[quick plinth]

welp-

neither this pass nor polar patriots strikes my fancy really

[glacial light]

But I don't ever remember the devs saying spear targeting structures was unintended and i've also played sinc launch

[quick crown]

I too am a spear lover and I will always bring one

[ionic holly]

https://tenor.com/view/predator-arnold-schwarzenegger-hand-shake-arms-gif-3468629

Hell yeah

[quick plinth]

unless the armor buff is actually like flame resist- but I'd have to give up peak physique for that

[ionic holly]

It is

[glacial light]

75%

[ionic holly]

75% flame resist

[quick crown]

https://tenor.com/view/chestbump-helldivers-helldivers-2-bros-bro-gif-12770116070420201459

[ionic holly]

Blew my assumptions regarding elemental resistances out the fuckin' water so i'll own up to being wrong on that

[quick plinth]

no new grenades

which is fine

they stuck both the incendiaries in previous passes

but again I genuinely feel like neiter Polar Patriots nor Freedom's Flame has anything I like, cept maybe for the cookout

[glacial light]

I assume they did 75% fire cause a current enemy, hulks do fire damage instead of 95% like arc.

Although if a certain new faction deals arc damage I'm not sure on that logic

[ionic holly]

Given my kinetic preference, the shotgun might interest me but

ehhh...

I'm not a big flames guy in HD

[strange vine]

maybe cause fire typically deals less damage than arc

[glacial light]

Maybe I just lack imagination, but I feel like so far HD2 has covered almost every ballistic archetype with several unique variants.

[ionic holly]

We still lack an explosive shotgun, i can name that one

AA10 with HE rounds when

or just a concussive shotgun in general

[glacial light]

I'm surprised we don't have a concussive shotgun that's true

I mean punisher(?) staggerlocks devs but like I want stupid amounts of stagger from a concussive shotgun

[ionic holly]

I want one dedicated to concussive measures

true shotgun family concussive

whether it's just like punisher concussive or concussive breaker

(i'd personally prefer the second but no real preference)

But yeah i'm sure they could cook up stuff regardless

[tall stone]

New Warbond looks rad.

[cobalt patrol]

This new warbond is extremely my jam

says the known flamethrower main

[tall stone]

I'm looking forward to seeing how it holds up!

[cobalt patrol]

Hoenstly the armor and maybe one of hte primaries are the bthings i care aobut

[tall stone]

Hellpod firebomb booster is cool

[cobalt patrol]

If the incin punisher (Which is what the new one looks like) has good punch, that might displace the Dominator as my goto anti bug primary

Flame armor is probably going striaght on and never coming off as much as i set myself on fire

it'll suck not having 50% chance to just Not Die

but like...

Fire resistance

[glacial light]

Crisper seems like a perfect pairing for Eruptor or any slow fire gun

I wonder if the game text refers to the pods that support weapons come in as "hellpods"

Cause the booster text to me reads as only the reinforcement hellpods when it says as "you" touch down

Scorch the earth (and anything else) below as you touch down with attitude and ignite the dropsite.```

[graceful bluff]

hellpods are only pods that contain helldivers iirc

[short rune]

Has anyone played with the knight recently?

[graceful bluff]

I wish the targeting thing for mortars was also autocannons

so you could make it focus on the targets you want

[placid hamlet]

yes

it's kinda mid

[graceful bluff]

is the thermite grenade good yet btw

[short rune]

Ah, I hoped they would have buffed it

[odd arch]

what I want is some flak cannon ass thing to replace the old eruptor

designed with different stats from the ground up to not make the shrapnel OP

manually timed detonation,,,

[graceful bluff]

We'll probably never see shrapnel on a weapon again

[glacial light]

Interesting so stratagems come from hellpods

If it makes EATs hellpod cause fire i'll be using it all the time

[graceful bluff]

Eat hellpods are already really good for coring chargers/titans

[glacial light]

Now they can clear ads

Maybe

[graceful bluff]

I feel like putting fire around support weapons is just gonna be annoying though

could see it being real nice for turrets though

[glacial light]

I wonder if a second hellpod booster comes in if you could stack those

4 hellpod booster meta of just reinforcing constantly

[graceful bluff]

I mean that's the speedrun strat

setting fire to the ground around a tesla turret would be real nice for protecting it as it got the first charge off

[strange vine]

the thing is as a booster itll apply to everyone lol

[glacial light]

Yea if it applies too all hellpod stratagems it might lead to a lot of kicks

In rando games no one checks what the others bring for boosters really

This would be the first booster that could fire friendly isn't it?

[graceful bluff]

Can you even check boosters ingame?

as in if someone joins mid mission can you see what they picked

[modest fiber]

the new warbond looks neat :3 tho then i gotta grind credits again but, its still neat

[runic cairn]

<@&1206091872716595200> anyone down to grind sc with me

[modest fiber]

mm yes moneh :3

can't establish network connection.. bugger

[graceful bluff]

might be in an hour

[trail nymph]

I’m available for diving now

[glacial light]

Whoa I missed that you get a chest bump emote like in the trailer, this makes freedom's flame top tier

[quick crown]

I hope firebomb hellpods is like Extremely dangerous

[glacial light]

Getting killed cause someone dropped a beacon near you, then drop your beacon near them, endless death loop

[wind arrow]

lol sweet, i get to prioritize older warbonds due to preference

[faint parcel]

Hope the armor grants fire resist

[glacial light]

Good news it's 75% fire resist

[hexed steeple]

wonder how much of a differenc that makes against a flamer hulk

[tall stone]

We'll need to test! 😄

[ripe cloud]

i like this one

[tight zephyr]

This is gonna rule.

[burnt vapor]

All we need now is a flamer guard dog for maximum bug removal

[unreal merlin]

Eventually we'll get the exosuit that has a flamer and a 90mm battle cannon

[graceful bluff]

I still want a flame turret

literally just strap two to four flamethrowers on the spinny mine deployer and make it keep spinning

[unreal merlin]

Fantasy dungeon-ass trap device, rotating gouts of fire

[glacial light]

Flame mech, Flame dog, Flame Turret, Napalm Eagle and you could have an all fire build

Look at us, we're the hellmire now

[keen zinc]

i want an eagle 1 fulton device to hurl me across the map

[cobalt patrol]

Weather control call in that summons fire tornadoes fire for you.

"Local aggressive terraforming device"

[glacial light]

Summon a stationary cannon that you can get into and fire yourself across the map

Ope the ping sin

[short rune]

Is anyone else getting the bug where your CTRL and Shift Key no longer work on missions?

[quick plinth]

fun how I can't actually view the steam blog post because if I try to open it in web it just says it's not avilable in my region

[short rune]

Oh, yikes

Want me to post screenshots?

[strange vine]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAShOiYZqV4

[quick plinth]

I can see it in the steam client. thankfully

[short rune]

Remember the Creek

[quick plinth]

there are now youtube ads in the embeds wtf

[graceful bluff]

yeah, fuckin' rip guess I'm gonna have to view everything in browsers now

[tight zephyr]

What’s happening?

I’m at work.

[stark ether]

just a community news post thats weirdly regionlocked

[graceful bluff]

Youtube ads in discord embeds

[trim breach]

https://fxtwitter.com/ArrowheadGS/status/1819010201586209204

[quick plinth]

it's steam's region locking that's stopping me from viewing it in web

works fine in the client cuz I own the game

still can't look at the store page

[stark ether]

yeah the region locking is one of the reasons i dont play any more, we all dive together or we dont dive at all

and not the Japanese region locking thats a separate thing that just gets them their own client version

[tight zephyr]

Some of my friends were talking about how it'd be cool if you could invade other players' games as enemy units and I am so glad this is not happening.

[cobalt patrol]

... This is not a pvp game oh my god

No

I even enjoy weird asymmetrical pvp like Elden Ring or left 4 dead 2, and this would be so much worse

[agile fable]

asymmetrical pvp is good. symmetrical pvp is good when the game is built around it (usually). this is not a game built around it.

[glacial light]

Just let PvE games be PvE, there are so many PvP games just play those

[daring pelican]

I haven't played in like 6 months but decided to hop back on today and it turns out that reinforcement input muscle memory never goes away. Like the beacon was thrown before I realized I didn't read the input.

[tight zephyr]

I don't play games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring because of their PVP. I'd go to Stockholm and throw things at Arrowhead's offices until I was thrown out of Sweden if they put in PVP.

[honest acorn]

Every drop can be PVP if you don't tell the host

[glacial light]

Me wondering why the NPCs look like my character but don't fire back when shot

I think the AI is broken to only fight the bugs/bots

[glacial light]

Also there's been like several buff patches so a lot of things are viable and good now that would surprise you

[odd arch]

number 8 will surprise you

[glacial light]

YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED TO GUN DOG [GONE WRONG] [TOP 10 ANIME BETRAYALS]

[odd arch]

wonder if they'll introduce more dogs

[glacial light]

Flamethrower dog and Arc Dog are right there

Cluster Dog

[odd arch]

gun dog is honestly great and an interesting alternative to chaff clear stratagems

[glacial light]

I just wish gun dog could refill off of ammo boxes too and not just supply boxes

[strange vine]

yeah seriously, its the one thing holding it back from being a viable option

compared to laser dog

[glacial light]

The gundog is like surprisingly ammo'd up it takes a long time to like empty it completely even with enemies coming in non stop

And it actually doesn't constantly firing when switching targets usually but it's less friendly fire chances than laser

[graceful bluff]

We have this, it's called bringing guard dogs

[short rune]

4 more days for the escalation.

[wind arrow]

so this happens when you have a fire tornado that refuses to stop when extraction ticks down:

[graceful bluff]

I'm getting the fire armor just for fire tornados

[short rune]

I swear, they purposely programmed all tornadoes to move towards the extraction zone

[odd arch]

what is a tornado if not an independent patrol

[short rune]

A patrol you cant obliterate

[unreal merlin]

I held on to my stockpile of dark fluid, don't think I won't make another black hole

super earth's fiery enemies cannot be allowed to roam loose

[hexed steeple]

maybe i can disperse the tornado if i keep mag dumping into it

[cobalt patrol]

I still want a jetpack buff like Darkfluid jetpack

[graceful bluff]

ok, 5% chance of turning into a mini black hole just taking out everything in a 10m radius every time you jump

[graceful bluff]

o o f lmao

got hit by an aoe just as I was about to throw a tesla tower to cover our extraction, landed right next to the extract ship instead

[cobalt patrol]

RIP

[glacial light]

Shooting a fire tornado away would the most Helldivers thing

I think if you hit it with a big explosion it should affect the fire tornado somehow

[sweet surge]

We failed the MO
Wonder if ppl are gonna blame bugdivers again...

[tall stone]

No. It was a hard ask

[trim breach]

The stupidest people are always the loudest

[tall stone]

But also there were consistently like, 6k on Estanu

There is a difference made in MO's when about a fourth of the game is not doing it.

[pastel igloo]

it does make it slightly more difficult yeah

just a little bit

[tall stone]

We still got 4 out of 5

[sweet surge]

4 and a half really

[pastel igloo]

not bad

well fought to all who participated

[sweet surge]

Btw we immediately got a new MO...

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1221593864385724478/1268983112193282199/IMG_1531.png?ex=66ae681e&is=66ad169e&hm=58ea020e9059e9aa6bd6256cb16363c851f0f9a2c253207eb1d6cd3f720bdd23&

Oh no

[strange vine]

OH MY GOD

[tall stone]

Oh, so to not get anti-tank mines, we have to succeed

Glorious

[pastel igloo]

we gotta put in work so we don't get them then

[stark ether]

they're learning

[glacial light]

Alright we're gonna take like 11 bug planets to dodge the AT mines

[tall stone]

Time to keep the meme alive and kill as many enemies as possible

[glacial light]

I want this AT mines escalation to just go on

New MO that if you fail you get AT mines: get 8 hours sleep, eat at least 3 servings of vegetables a day, stay hydrated, exercise for 30 minutes every day

[quick plinth]

once again

[glacial light]

It'd be funny if they just had a MO that's like kill 6,000,000 and they never say what it is even after it was completed or failed

[stark ether]

https://tenor.com/view/im-doing-my-part-serious-stare-gif-11979677

[quick crown]

This will be the week that everyone thats taken a break from the game picks it back up

Community memes of not wanting mines

I WILL FIGHT FOR MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS

NO MINES NO MINES

[stark ether]

the poor dev that suggested at mines

[tight zephyr]

I put in a lot of missions on this MO, so this kind of rankles a bit.

[glacial light]

If we get this they should do the MO that we just failed but say we'll get AT mines if it fails

Exact same and everything

[stark ether]

just everythig is do X (also if you fail at mines)

[odd arch]

sir yes sir oorah

[tall stone]

Kill 3 billion bots

[stark ether]

kill 6 bill- oh wait wrong channel

[tight zephyr]

It’s taking all of my willpower to not abbreviate Punisher Plasma to PP to make the most juvenile jokes known to modern science. I want you all to know this and appreciate my personal sacrifice.

[tall stone]

PP good

[glacial light]

New MO: volunteer for 4 hours a week at a local charity or else you get AT mines

Sort of feel sorry for the AT mines devs that spent time making it then the community says nah

[tall stone]

I hope they appreciate the joke

[tight zephyr]

I’m more of a Scorcher guy.

[glacial light]

They probably enjoy the meme more than the effort put into making the mines

[stark ether]

i mean they got paid for the mines

and the memes are free

[glacial light]

I just thought of something, a doomsday clock for AT mines and when we fail an MO it ticks down closer to releasing AT mines

[stark ether]

i'm definitly not drinking mountain dew liberty while playing

[glacial light]

Super Earth says Mountain Dew Liberty has no addictive properties

[stark ether]

tastes like lack of at mines

[glacial light]

Also one dev said that AT mines can "one shot" striders, and they clarified factory striders

[stark ether]

no at mines

[glacial light]

We are purposely avoiding what I assume is a powerful AT weapon

[stark ether]

at mines are sedition

[glacial light]

The orphan children do not yearn for the AT mines

[cerulean sluice]

it would make bot front easier. too easy, Super Earth needs the war to keep going to keep their regime up

[strange vine]

they dont, it takes multiple detonations to kill a charger

[strange vine]

its middling at best from what ive seen of its datamined performance. Bile Titans absolutely laugh at them though lol

not only is the main body higher than the mines' AoE but its stilt legs avoid most of the field and the mines' AP is only 5, meaning they do nothing to the BT's legs that have 6 armor

[glacial light]

Is datamined stratagems accurate to release?

[strange vine]

generally, yes

especially when theyre ready for release

commando's stats were unchanged from the datamines once it was ready to be shipped

AT mines do 1000 damage with AP5

[glacial light]

That's not very AT to me

Sad

[strange vine]

it can at least cripple hulks

their legs are AV4 600 hp

and wil def track a tank, tracks are 750 HP AV3

but killing them requires more than one mine

[tall stone]

Turning a tank into a turret is nice

[hazy oriole]

speaking of tanks, i do hope we get some kind of tracked vehicle strategem down the line

the tank destroyer from HD1 would be fun i wanna duel an automaton tank in one

[tight zephyr]

I've been using the HMG more and shooting Hulks in the leg is really funny.

[tight zephyr]

Remember why we fight. To avoid giving anti-tank mines to children.

[tight zephyr]

Also, new fun loadout I've been using:
Twigsnapper armor
Punisher Plasma
Verdict
Stalwart
Incendiary Impact grenades.

[unreal merlin]

I feel like these randoms were purposefully antagonizing me by not opening the bunker door

I indicated, pinged, asked in text, they CAME OVER TO IT and just STOOD THERE and then ran off

multiple times, all three of them

why do they hate gaining samples and credits??

[tall stone]

Look, if they came and then left, I would 110% shoot them.

[unreal merlin]

I even reinforced two of them onto it

[tall stone]

Death

[glacial light]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/LowSodiumHellDivers/comments/1e81w29/old_dog_new_tricks/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

The automatons are learning

[tight zephyr]

I showed a rando that you can blow open those buried CONEX boxes and he kept spamming "Thank you!" and "Affirmative!" at me and I'm not sure if he was genuinely thanking me or being snotty because I showed him something he already knew.

[hollow plover]

You'll never know unless you meet again

[tall stone]

May your killing go well today, divers.

Also, I will never understand the folks who bring the Extra Reinforcement booster.

[cobalt patrol]

It sounds like a good idea on paper

And it's really hard to convince people that always on bonuses are stronger than "a few extra lives"

Tbh, health, stamina & ammo boosters shouldn't be a thing

They crowd out too much space

[tight zephyr]

I think you should just drop with full supplies by default.

[tall stone]

It's, like. So hard to not take more health or full supplies.

But, like. The extra reinforcements don't help. In the extraction I just did, the only difference it made is that we ended with 11 reinforcements left instead of 6

"It's just a game, don't ask me to take something different"

Bah

[cobalt patrol]

This is why I host, and I will tell people to change their boosters

And if they don't listen?

[tall stone]

Kick 'em, yeah.

[cobalt patrol]

Y E E T

Like I'm happy to explain why an always on booster is better

[tall stone]

I did.

But apparently "Not Dying and Being Able to Get Places Faster" are not good reasons.

[cobalt patrol]

But if they're just being stubborn etc, well, go play somewhere else. This is diff 7 minimum

[tall stone]

Normally I wouldn't care, but there was two sub-20s in that rando group

[odd arch]

why would I die less if I can just plan for the possibility of dying more

[glacial light]

If you die and everyone has throw armor they can reinforce you really far away

Die and be able to get places faster

[sour whale]

tactical dying...

[alpine seal]

super earth will order a helldiver to explode so they can send in another hellpod instead of increasing the head count from 4 to 5

[glacial light]

I wonder if you can speedrun missions by using throw armor and extra reinforcement boosters and just chain reinforcing your teammates across the map, throw a bunch of lasers/380s at a command base, then die to extraction

How fast can you finish a mission this way

Where we're going we don't need samples

And where we're going to is die

[tall stone]

Sevens, you know what we have to do now.

[trim breach]

Whee, I just had my first griefer in a holdout mission

Blows up friendly sentries, calls airstrikes onto teammates, eventually starts calling airstrikes onto the generators.

[daring pelican]

I was doing a destroy automaton fabricators mission and I spawned right next to a stratagem jammer that was right next door to a gunship factory. Genuinely what are you supposed to do in a situation like that? Is there even any non-support equipment that can deal with getting swarmed by 4 gunships?

[junior badge]

Technically, the plasma rifles can take them down

But yeah, that's super hard to deal with, unless the strat jammer is the easy to destroy version

[strange vine]

yeah at that point you just wanna be running away as fast as possible

[hearty pier]

Technically smoke grenades will buy you time from arbitrarily many gunships but you need to have brought them