Helldivers 2: For Managed Democracy!

[graceful bluff]

yeah the run is also really annoying

I know there's a modding scene for helldivers 2 but it's mostly just model changes and removing capes or changing how scopes look

I just want a streamlined mission screen a la payday 2/DRG mods, and a mod that lets me open bunkers on my own

[oblique hazel]

I feel like there's a lot this game could learn from Deep Rock in general

[graceful bluff]

like being able to pet bugs

[cobalt patrol]

Bahahaha

I got hit by a rocket

and proceeded to pinball between three diffrent mines

before i fianlly died

Bots feel a lot harder (In good ways) now

I need to rethink ym stratergy competley

[odd arch]

how's the eruptor rn? I feel like with every weapon getting deadlier and the addition of fab HP it kinda lost its sauce

but I haven't had a chance to play

[tall stone]

Still a long-range explosive sniper that can pop fab vents.

Got shrapnel back.

[tight zephyr]

Last night I had a classic “I’m a genius!” Two seconds later: “OH NO!” Moment

I had a Hulk coming at me and I was like “Ah, I’ll just hit him with one of my trusty thermite grenades. 😏 “

[gas grenade bounces harmlessly off of the Hulk]

“I FORGOT.”

[glacial light]

Fab HP is mostly for hitting the anywhere not at a vent iirc. Any explosive to vent will still 1 shot it

HP is for like commando being able to any angle 2 shot it

Eruptor also got deadlier in every way with sharpnel back and it still has the higher direct damage. So it is still the easy to use exploding sniper but now clears ads better

Also increased body part damage means the will kill you if you shoot close even if they reduced sharpnel headshot chances

No longer can I just point blank a berserker in a panic and just throw myself 10 feet away from the berserkers to stim up and repeat

[unreal merlin]

Had a good bit of success with crossbow + flame pistol + gas grenades. The little roaster does pretty decent for melting small groups of bugs that are too close to crossbow

[glacial light]

When I feel like a madlass I find crisper with eruptor

I generally just bring crisper all the time anyways though

For bugs

[glacial light]

So like what's a nice primary that'd pair well with crisper for bugs besides Blitzer and incendiary breaker

And I love Eruptor but i'm not bringing it to bugs on a serious run

[tall stone]

Cookout

[glacial light]

Why would the democracy space station need strong magnetospheres

Hmmm

[tall stone]

Super Earth skimps on radiation protection?

[tight zephyr]

I had a feeling we were going to fumble this MO.

[glad marsh]

So in other words we're making a battle station controlled entirely by democracy

[odd arch]

anyone happen to know the noise aggro range of the laser cannon? I should know as the #1 fan but I've been playing close to the team so haven't had many chances to see

[tall stone]

No clue! Either I need to use it or something hasn't noticed me.

[odd arch]

I have a feeling it's pretty short

[hazy oriole]

gave the liberator gundog a try yesterday
seems alright but the limited ammo really kills it for me

[odd arch]

the trick imo is to combine it with an overall ammo hungry loadout

so you're restocking all the time in general, not just for the dog

also it's cracked vs bots

about on par with laser vs bugs

[hazy oriole]

what makes it so good vs bots?

[graceful bluff]

it does a ton of damage

also one ammo pack refills its entire ammo stockpile

[odd arch]

it aims for heads too

it just genuinely goes "what devastator drop?"

[graceful bluff]

while the laser guard dog is a great target painter(and helldiver painter), the liberator guard dog will just rip shit apart

[stone bridge]

I've had the Liberator guard dog wipe bot infantry squads in literally a second and a half

The tracking is crazy

[graceful bluff]

I wish they'd give its ai to the machine gun turret

[glacial light]

I like it cause it actually stops firing sometime when switching targets so safer

Laser is just always on

[odd arch]

I don't think gundog ever shot me

laserdog killed me many times

[glacial light]

I'm surprised people run out of ammo on it, I rarely do on bugs even if it's like 4-5 inutes betwreen resupply pods

Unless you're like a sickle/blitzer, quasar bug survivalist that has not gone 3 operations without ever picking up ammo. I ammo up my dog when I need to my weapons

[tall stone]

Alrighty, it seems the blob is going for Gaellivare for completion.

[barren iron]

I need the warthog we keep seeing in the leaks so fucking bad

I dont actually want like an APC or anything but like, a warthog like vehicle with the whole squad in it?

sick

[tall stone]

Welp, accidentally went into bots with the blitzer.

Still great because of the constant hit-stun, pops troopers as easily as the small bugs.

Absolutely terrifying experience, do not encourage others to do it.

[hazy oriole]

Is it me or does the shield emplacement have less health

[cobalt patrol]

I think it may feel more fragile given the changes?

to enemeys etc

afaik it waso ne of the things tht didnt get touched this patch

so it's probably scheduled for some love like the jetpack and Purifier are in the next patch

[tall stone]

I think I may start asking for random loadouts from my friends when I play. I'm close to having absolutely everything.

[glacial light]

Seems interesting, purifier seems like a cool idea

[tall stone]

Except Chemical Warfare, which is waiting on Super Credits

[hearty pier]

When I'm playing on lower difficulties I like hitting one of the randomisers and giving myself 1-2 swaps to make a functional loadout

It's partly how I discovered my love of smokes

[glacial light]

Imagine if HD2 had loadout slots

That'd be very convenient

[tall stone]

The true promise of the DSS: Enabling loadout slots. 😛

[tight zephyr]

I forgot to equip thermite grenades last night when going back to the bots and only realized when I had a gas grenade bounce harmlessly off of a Hulk.

[tall stone]

I'm still bringing stuns and just bonking hulks with my AT weapon.

[tight zephyr]

I had just dropped in after a death and hadn’t been able to recover my recoilless rifle.

So I tried to use my thermite nades and oops

[glacial light]

Stims are nice for berserkers

[tall stone]

Ho boy, the randomizer gave me the lib Concussive.

It's so bad.

[odd arch]

throwing knives

[tight zephyr]

I was in a mission with a pubbie who insisted he liked the LibConc

[tall stone]

Like, sure, the stagger is nice.

But it takes so long to kill.

[odd arch]

one idea I have for knives is to make them shock knives
retrieveable if they kill a target
consumed to cause a stun on hits that deal damage but fail to kill

[cobalt patrol]

RR is fucking kickass into bots now

Just wow.

That's a lotta fun

Just gotta figure out the rest of my loadout to support it

[quick plinth]

I have given up on playing anything above maybe an 8 with randoms, because at this point its just an exercise in frustration, it only works if I'm willing to (very politely) herd cats using voice chat

[mortal wing]

How's general game feel currently? Some bigger patches I've heard?

Haven't played for maybe 4 months.

[oblique hazel]

game feels pretty great right now

everything does more damage, making gameplay feel a lot more dynamic

and you can find a use for nearly everything now on at least one of the fronts and not have it be too bad, which means theres a ton more loadout variety

[cobalt patrol]

A lot more fluid.
Eg, you can take down a bile titan or charger with pretty much any primary now... But it's really high risk.

Or a recoilless can just dunk them out of existence, but you'll get slaughtered by the add swarm

Conversely a Flamethrower can murder anything that's smaller than a charger, can take down chargers & BT's, but the latter takes time and it's high risk... But the swarm is going to fear you

Gas got reworked - it does a small dot still, but it's main effect is too confuse everything, causing them to attack reach other. Which is hilarious

[stone bridge]

I highly recommend the Torcher as a primary into bugs now

It's fearsomely good, just risky

[cobalt patrol]

I've been loving the Tenderizer as a pairing with the Flamethrower

I'll keep the Torcher in mind for other outfits.

Flame resistance armor helps a ton with the risk too

[graceful bluff]

I need to finish farming for SC to get the tenderizer

[cobalt patrol]

https://old.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1focff8/a_stealth_nerf_an_intended_change_and_a_a_couple/

Useful info

[unreal merlin]

Fun fact, setting railgun to unsafe and charging it for like half a second lets it one-shot gunships in the engine.

[quick plinth]

Yes

[unreal merlin]

I also think it's nutty how overcharge railgun will literally explode a brood commander entirely instead of just popping its head off

[quick plinth]

but the commander has to be facing you, otherwise you might struggle to kill it with the railgun as ive found trying to snipe their heads while they're sideways on

[unreal merlin]

I can't say I've felt the same issue, railgun has been my go-to for months when it comes to killing them.

[graceful bluff]

This made me realize we need a weapon type we don't have at all

microwave guns

turn bugs into popcorn, fry bots

<@&1206091872716595200> anyone for some social super credit farming?

[sage plume]

if i finish this text today then sure

[cobalt patrol]

Super Helldive: IN fact, very super, very helldive

[cobalt patrol]

Hahaha

Super helldive bots is sucha clsuterfruck

it's very fun

[glacial light]

How much harder is 10 to 9

I'll probably never do it but I am still curious

[unreal merlin]

I haven't played a 9 recently to compare but it's quite chaotic and there's a LOT of enemies so you kind of have to be on the ball.

[tight zephyr]

I always come back to the Punisher in the end…

[glacial light]

I actually want to try bugs for once to see how well fire shotgun and crisper works with shield pack but I was too successful at convincing my crew to play automatons on HD2 and they only play automatons now. Instead of playing bugs they play Space Marines 2

[tight zephyr]

The Cookout is fun, I like it. It’s a spicy Punisher.

The Punisher in my loadout is basically carcinization. Every weapon I like the most is a variant of it.

[glacial light]

The bug firefighter build, crisper for roasting, and cookout for roasting with force of bullets

[glacial light]

Unfortunate I tried running a full firefighter build with the fire armor and shield pack, you cannot survive an orbital napalm or any of the stratagems directly hitting you

Which I mean fair, but it would have been cool

[hazy oriole]

makes sense, it's fire resist and not kinetic resist

[glacial light]

It also does less than I'd like against burning if I step into the fire

[tall stone]

We are squishy divers now.

[glacial light]

I do like the flamethrower with how efficient it is for killing ads fast with little ammo cost. I think I might do like torcher and a secondary for like the guard fellows

[graceful bluff]

yeah I wish it was 95% or higher against fire

[glacial light]

And spewers

[cobalt patrol]

Bots are actually really hard now

possibly too hard

turrets esp feel overtuned

[stone bridge]

I think bots are fine overall, but command bunkers are some BS

Not fond of em

[tall stone]

You know, I think they overtuned the difficulty decrease for kill missions.

There's long stretches where I'm just sitting doing nothing.

[glacial light]

Did they decrease the difficulty of those?

Or more like our buffs are overturned and they didn't change anything to adjust

I do feel the size body part damage on the turrets

They pretty much never headshot and I have issues surviving them even stunned up on heavy medic armor

Not the worst, cause the laser is still visible and stays there for a good amount of time to like dive away even if I can't see it

But I do feel the sting of bot troopers more, I used to like just tank a light patrols and fire off AT at a heavy or fab. But unless I stim up beforehand a half dozen troopers seem to hurt a lot and it feels risky to ignore them to prioritize the heavies

All the more reason to keep supply pack, medic armor, and stim booster. I need more stims

I need more excuses to stim more

[wheat plank]

The game refuses to launch without crashing for me so I'm dropping it in favour of making room for Mass Effect

[tight zephyr]

AYYY

[cobalt patrol]

What difficulty have you been on? This is based on diff 9/10. Which are pretty crazy. (And with randoms)

[stone bridge]

8s or so

[tall stone]

Command bunkers get a laser from me.

[cobalt patrol]

Interesting .That should be when rocket striders are turning up and are a big diffuclty spike

[cobalt patrol]

So

Eagle Strafe can take out bot fabs now

[oblique hazel]

gatling barrage too I believe

[noble shuttle]

confirm?? cause that's a big deal

[oblique hazel]

I mean, it could pop em before the change if you got lucky enough for the shot to go in the vents, and I think its projectiles have the exact same damage profile as eagle strafe

I haven't seen it happen, but if eagle strafe can now I don't see why it wouldn't be able to

[graceful bluff]

it's.. always been able to?

oh wait strafe run, holy shit

thought you said airstrike

[cobalt patrol]

Yup, strafing run

It just cuts straight through em now

DOes enoguh damage that the Fab just goes "Well, fuck" and explodes

[supple siren]

Did they change the sound of Orbital Gatling or is it bugged

[royal lantern]

I think it's bugged, iirc the change isn't in the patch notes and also it's terrible

[unreal merlin]

That's incredible, I'll have to try that sometime.

[cobalt patrol]

I'm loving 500kg + STrafe into bots, and i havent even unlocked the "Send it back with stuff still loaded, 10% faster cooldown" upgrade yet

[unreal merlin]

The ability to destroy assemblers is very valuable to me cuz that's most often where I see teams getting stuck with: trying and failing to assault into an outpost to get the assemblers. Anything that lets you blow it up quickly from afar is good for keeping the group moving.

[glacial light]

Does the 500kg have a big radius like it's visual suggests now

[cobalt patrol]

<@&1206091872716595200> Looking for 2 more for Helldive bots

And yeah, the explosion radius is "Yes" now.

[glacial light]

And what's the damage falloff like on the edges, is it it like 500kg lethality all the way through, or like same death zone but edges mostly kill light units

[cobalt patrol]

I have killed many people including myself with stray 50kgs since the patch

[glacial light]

Damn

[graceful bluff]

It's even bigger than I expect now and I keep dying to it lmao

[glacial light]

Airburst step aside for my unexpected team kill stratagem

[cobalt patrol]

I've been having good luck into bots with it, strafing run, and walking barrage + RR

And on helldive etc i see basically everyone running 500kg

It's just a very good swiss army knife currently

decently spammable, kills stuff and innit afraid of anything

[unreal merlin]

500kg has always been a pretty flexible option if used appropriately, much like everything it's kind of at its best right now

[glacial light]

Damn so it's like the mini hell bomb on a plane now it always looked like

[cobalt patrol]

Also dominator can shoot donw gunships now

[sage plume]

wait so uhh we were <@&1206091872716595200> ing?

[unkempt river]

I hardly know 'er

[cobalt patrol]

I was, but filled up

[sage plume]

:(

[cobalt patrol]

Got space now @sage plume

[sage plume]

yeyeah

[cobalt patrol]

I am a robot killing death machine

[sage plume]

i cant join rn but ill be there

[cobalt patrol]

I'm just doing a blitz and then going to bed, sorry

[sage plume]

:(

[glacial light]

Dominator? Like the primary? Does that mean Eruptor can do it well now

[cobalt patrol]

Probably!

Gunship thrusters have very weak armor now

Also i keep shooting down drop ships with Walking Barrage on accidnet

and it's very ufnny

[glacial light]

Nice

I do like that, it's not a good feeling. Similar to old chargers if you're in a bad situation without a weapon that can deal with them effectively and it's like ig I got to wait running around like chickens while gunships chase me until my support weapon is back cause I died in a hellswarm

I'd rather die fighting, or moreso die trying to shoot them with the Eruptor but they suddenly decide to move directions after I shot the Eruptor And miss cause of projectile travel time

[strange vine]

they decreased the spawn rate

theres been issues where if you're solo or on lower difficulties not enough enemies spawn

[glacial light]

That's surprising

[strange vine]

inner radius is 10 meters, outer radius is 20 meters

[strange vine]

gunships havent been changed; theyve always had 3 armor on engines

they did get nerfed to 85% durability vs 100% about a month or 2 ago

[glacial light]

I've always thought exterminate were one of the easier ones. Like exterminate 9 was doable at a time when I struggled with like command center missions 6 or other similar long missions

[strange vine]

its way easier now

but you also no longer need to take barrages

you can just bring a general kit

[glacial light]

Ah so like armor pen value didn't change but now you can actually deal damage to engines instead of it just deflecting every time?

[strange vine]

no it just means weapons with low durable deal more damage now

[glacial light]

I don't know how armor deflection works besides vaguely angles and armor pen number between 1 and 10

[strange vine]

the only thing you need to know right now is if your AP (armor penetration) matches the AV (armor value), then you deal 65% damage and 100% damage if your AP is greater than AV

practically all bullets and projectiles have flat AP values rn so angle of attack doesnt really matter unless its a really oblique angle

[supple siren]

I keep having tanks survive direct 500kg hits I thought we moved past this, Helldivers

[tight zephyr]

Really? Jeez…

I usually bring the OPS instead of the 500kg and that always works.

[supple siren]

It's been fine usually! But past couple of days it hasn't seemed to kick over the edge

[tight zephyr]

I almost always have the RR on me, so…

I keep that thing (a loaded recoilless rifle) on me.

[supple siren]

I've returned to Railgun for bots but they've made it not pierce tankfaces so I cry

Makes Hulks Devs and Gunships instantly disappear like magic though

[glacial light]

I wonder if it's like a bug of changing 500kg

Also tanks can be oddly, well tanky, but also really easy to kill

2 impacts to turret top or spear will kill it. But hellpod on turret will not.

3 or 4 impacts iirc will not kill a BT but a hellpod will

[odd arch]

I wouldn't be surprised if it's some damage propagation issue

like the bomb lodges itself in the tank in a way that prevents tracing a ray to it

[glacial light]

Yea I think 500kg had a unique narrow cone shape for AoE which is why the range seemed like 3 feet, which idk how they changed it but if they like widened the cone it could still has similar issues

Like before a sort of unreliable trick if a hell bomb is on you and you are slowed is try to step on the ground so that you move like 2 inches down lower and immediately stop and that'd let you take 0 damage, but u reliable cause your helldiver doesn't immediately stop when you let go so you could stop a tiny bit but the next step puts you high enough to be exploddd

Not hell bomb 500kg

[quick plinth]

the humble RR killing tanks and hulks alike in a single round basically anywhere

[supple siren]

But it doesn't turn everything temporarily gold/red with Explosion Power

[tight zephyr]

No, but it is very satisfying.

Also recoilless rifles, as a weapon system, are Really Cool.

[honest acorn]

Yeah it’s cool to see one in not a WW2 game

[supple siren]

Oh yeah it's a favorite if I'm going backpackless

[strange vine]

this is false, its always been a sphere

just a really small sphere compared to its graphic

[strange vine]

this isnt really the case anymore since they changed some of the turret damage registration in EoF, you really have to be hitting the actual vent with an impact to damage it

[glacial light]

How does it kill a BT if it's a small sphere but not like a helldiver close to it? Do the BT leg hitboxes be big or something

[unreal merlin]

the legs ARE big...

[strange vine]

iirc most explosives have a smaller helldiver damage radius than actual enemy damage radius

thats why player testing was so inaccurate

[glacial light]

Amazing

Helldivers simply ignoring parts of larger explosions from years building resistantance to smaller explosions

[uncut hatch]

space station level would be sick

[pastel igloo]

jumping into Helldivers again after playing a bunch of SM2 and Darktide and man

i'm getting fucked up good

tbf i jumped in after long hiatus on the second highest diff

gonna play some more tomorrow

[noble shuttle]

the Spear is so good now sweet liberty

I can be the laziest helldiver

[cobalt patrol]

I should really give it a crack

I'm bussy being a terrible recoiless man

[hearty pier]

Dreams of just sitting at the top of a hill with a supply drop and a spear

[cobalt patrol]

A good dream, a good dream.

also dear teammates

i am begging you

you just saw me throw a walking barrage at the base

PLEASE STOP RUNNING INTO IT

[hearty pier]

But the giant "walking" beacon lit up. Doesn't that mean go?

[cobalt patrol]

...Sure

[cobalt patrol]

=x

That was a frustrating level 9

I had to actually quit because my tema was doing... ??? and also just dropping 380s ontop of us constnatly

[quick plinth]

at this point, id rather solo 8+ than ever deal with random teammates again

on a more positive note

I was finishing up a level 4 operation because I was running around for SC and forgot to turn it off of public while I was doing something else when a bunch of newbies (sub 20) joined

and I just said aight, and went up to 5 and had a chill little experience bringing up the lvl 3 guy upto speed

gave him some higher level support weapons to try

and most surprising to me, teaching them that they could in fact buy new stratagems

that was a fun wholesome hour or two of diving, turns out their friends didn't show when they bought the game to play with them

[cobalt patrol]

I fdind randoms good in general

<@&1206091872716595200> Bot 9s, anyone?

[quick plinth]

I'd be up for it

[cobalt patrol]

Join me then , but we'll be filling with randos

Hmm, looks like others might be interested later

so i'm gonna try again later and do some satisfactory

[pastel igloo]

stratagem jammers are the very worst

[graceful bluff]

I really do wish you could just dumpster enough firepower into them

[pastel igloo]

just had one next to the objective with like a million bots covering it

[quick plinth]

I mean now that the RR can kill fabs from anywhere

and spear could already do it

a lot of the time jammers are barely an inconvenience (if the jammer is attached)

the only time they truly suck is when you drop right on top of them first thing

[stone bridge]

<@&1206091872716595200> lookin for 1 more, we got a channel already

[stone bridge]

waow...so true...

[barren iron]

it is true

I am a bug...

[glacial light]

I'm not sure what the issue is, the developers are just removing bugs

[glacial light]

I tried to find the char comic panel of him saying "red is my favorite color" as for why he ran a red light but found this instead

[quick plinth]

this was a conversation at some point while gaming

it would be really nice to get an armor buff that's just showing you the predicted trajectory of your stratagem (maybe bounces included)

maybe in some kinda guided weapons warbond?

[glacial light]

It would be a good compliment to the throw armor

[supple siren]

Also just have 'em not bounce

[glacial light]

The one time I do want like the cheesy video game grass that lets you know if you can walk on it but for stratagems

[quick plinth]

I guess they could just tack it onto the throw armor, but I don't see why

[glacial light]

I don't see why it should be a new armor. The only armor in the game that affects you stratagem trajectory would benefit from being able to see the difference and would make switching armor easier. If you muscle memory remember regular throws, you don't need to relearn new throws cause you can rely on visuals of the arc

It seems only useful for a new armor that would change how stratagems work, or just have it as a universal option that's armor independent like a booster or a ship module

[quick plinth]

actually

that's a better idea

it being a ship module or booster

[unreal merlin]

If you look up about 45 degree and throw the stratagem beacon will go almost exactly 50m, 75m with the armor trait. Mark a target or location with Q and use the distance reading to put unguided warheads on foreheads.

[glacial light]

It'd be quicker for someone new to just eye it with a predicted trajectory than learn the approximate throwing angles

It would be a nice QoL feature for many probably, although AH isn't always the one for QoL features if it clashes with the game's vibes. Like no numbers on the ammo counter in the UI unless you inspect your gun for ones that count bullets, you kind of have to mentally track it, listen to low magazine audio cues for those with those, or wait for a clik

[odd arch]

there are ammo counters?

[honest acorn]

https://x.com/helldiversmedia/status/1839357028856467909?s=46&t=RjdIzh2qFuWkjovzBmgCsQ

Helldivers 2 Media (@Helldiversmedia) on X

After careful review of data collected from after action reports, Super Earth has determined that additional head protection is not needed since no head injuries have been reported

#Helldivers2

Twitter · Sep 26, 2024, 5:31 PM

Wow so efficient!

[pastel igloo]

incredible

[hexed steeple]

lmfao

[quick plinth]

ww1 lesson forgotten

[tall stone]

There's no reported right hand hits

[glacial light]

Yea if you hold the button for swapping scope zooms and fire modes in the middle it shows you exact ammo count and magazine size

I think by default it's hold reload button R

Or is it middle mouse button

[tight zephyr]

It’s R.

[uncut hatch]

does anyone know what causes the first person bug or the camera bug? I keep getting and id like to not

[oblique hazel]

no idea, but I do know how to get out of the first person bug, or at least one of them

swap to your grenade

[uncut hatch]

oh sweet, i usually sut suffer until i die

[tight zephyr]

So, something I've wanted to know lately.

What the fuck is up with the bioprocessors?

[strange vine]

Likely bots using humans as fuel like humans use terminids for fuel. Super Earth also has bioprocessors because i got a PA announcement saying "Are you too old or sick? Take a trip to the bioprocessing vats so you can serve super earth after death!"

[tight zephyr]

Might be.

I generally side with the Automatons against Super Earth but uh... I don't think there are good guys really.

[supple siren]

Oh for sure, every enemy in the game is only an enemy in response to Super Earth Actions

[strange vine]

Yeah automaton brutality is basically only a response to super earths atrocities

[sweet surge]

Yeah

SE's enemies are they the way they are cause of super earth's constant escalation

When ever the Illuminates come back are doing horrific stuff, you know who to blame

[tight zephyr]

I thought they were already doing horrific stuff beore SE encountered them.

[lethal badger]

Has a cool idea

What if at a point a faction offers to do a temporary alliance with us against another

And we get a war bond that’s themed around that factions weapons

Or stratagems too

Like an automaton stratagem jammer that shuts down enemy deployments

And next time a choice comes around we could turn on them

And get a bonus like increased chance of super credits or more medals

[tall stone]

Team up with freedom-haters? Never

[lethal badger]

Temporarily

The bonus for backstabbing them could be super credits instead of medals each mission if they backstab them with their own weapons

[strange vine]

they werent really, SE made them worse

they used to be peace-seeking scholars

now from what we can see in leaks ||theyre now religious warrior zealots who worship some dark power||

[glacial light]

Same with bugs

Iirc it's implied in 1 they were peaceful collective races of terminids with advanced social structures then SE discovers they were good fuel and adaptable for research so they kind of raided a bunch of nests for eggs to farm raise them then they defended themselves and only the most violent and hostile towards humans survived outside of farms

And the glowy folks sent diplomats and scouts iirc then we stole their stuff and basically declared war

SE really did make their own enemies when they had none

[tight zephyr]

Aren’t the Automatons a creation of the Cyborgs from the first game made as a dead hand weapon against Super Earth or something like that?

[strange vine]

they made the automatons yeah, but given the tweet that the official hd2 account made as part of their teasing stuff over the years idk if they purposefully made the automatons to fight or if the automatons decided to fight to free their creators

the tweets in questions just denounced super earth and said their children the automatons wouldnt suffer under SE's regime

also warmap info now

[lethal badger]

Iirc isn't Helldivers a satire of specifically American imperialism?

[glacial light]

Yes

[lethal badger]

Ohh

I don't remember making our own enemies..

Oh wait

Yeah that tracks

[trail nymph]

The bots and bugs give the two things that every imperialist regime wants oil and cheap labour

[odd arch]

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

[cobalt patrol]

Important and hilarious discovery

At sufficently long range shots? RR shots bounce off Fabs

[graceful bluff]

Guessing they lost too much speed?

[odd arch]

I'm fine with gear being good for only one faction but I can't help but wonder if there's a way to make shield generator bug capable

preventing them from entering would be too much, maybe an EMS effect on crossing the threshold?

[cobalt patrol]

Either way it was hilarious

[cobalt patrol]

It does actualyl block charger charges! and can make BTs self-immolate

So

Tip

Plasma Ppunisher into Super Helldive bots? Not a good plan when your support weapon is bad at Rocket Striders

[meager saffron]

I remember when plasma punisher could just kill striders from the front

good times

[cobalt patrol]

Oh, it's great vs normal striders

Rocket, or rather, Reinforced Striders

[meager saffron]

ah right

[cobalt patrol]

Not so much

They're just so tanky ;.;

I really like the explosive crossbow vs them, but only 5 shots and reload from arseland is well

Not Great

[graceful bluff]

yeah really not a fan of rocket striders

[cobalt patrol]

Fuck yeah, Super Helldive cleared

And on bots to boot

[odd arch]

them replacing every strider in existence is a bit off

[cobalt patrol]

Yeah, if they were a bit less, and their rocekts were turned down

or just made easier to kill

they're stupid tanky 😦

you kinda need someone running something like Arc Thrower, AMR or AUtocannon to sweep them

[odd arch]

them having both the rockets and shields tickles me wrong

[cobalt patrol]

(Arc Thrower messes them up fierce though)

the rocekts being so hard to kill is one of thei suses

the rockets are supposed to be the weakpoint, but they're a weridly tiny hitbox

and take a surpsing amount of punishment to set off

[odd arch]

I've shot them directly with eruptor to no effect before

which is funny because eruptor can just kill the strider ignoring the rockets

[cobalt patrol]

So far best weapons i've found vs them are DOminator, Explsovie Crossbow and Scorcher

none of which are my favourite option for various reason, thoguh noen of those are bad options either

[odd arch]

how's the eruptor into bots now btw

does the shrapnel mean anything there?

and the health/armor rebalances

[cobalt patrol]

I haven't tried the Eruptor

bots in general feel rpetty good, it's onyl Rocket Striders who feel ergeious, and Heavy devs are still a meannce

but peoples loadouts are diverisfying, folks are finding more soloutions

Thinking about Rocket Striders, i think the soloution may actually be, or what i'd do at least:

Rocekt striders are a Leader unit for Strider packs - so they only replace a couple of Striders. Make em like 5-10% bigger at most

an.d that's it. Bigger would make their toughness feel more natural, andm ake em easier targets

and not having them 100% replace Striders would solve that part of things

[hexed steeple]

eruptor take 2 shots against devastators of any kind unless you land perfect headshots every time which is kinda rough

[pastel igloo]

gotta say, i'm loving the commando

being able to just pop a hulk in one shot is so peak

[unreal merlin]

Railgun gaming over here continues to be a swiss army tool of bot slaying.

Just even stronger now.

Devastators? Striders? Gunships? Hulks? None can survive my hypersonic scalpel.

[stone bridge]

yeah Railgun is nutty good into bots rn

One taps Rocket Striders too

[pastel igloo]

Nice

[quick plinth]

you will struggle against tanks and facstriders but that's what friends are for

[tight zephyr]

Considering how a recoilless rifle works, this is probably the case.

[cobalt patrol]

That's the main reason i dont run it, really want at least one teammate who can crack Tanks and Fac striders

[tight zephyr]

I swear by the RR.

Sometimes I use it on a single heavy Devastator that’s annoying me.

Just out of spite.

[pastel igloo]

suffer not the automaton to live

[unreal merlin]

That's why I just have an appropriate stratagem for those. Orbital Precision, Eagle Airstrike, Eagle 500kg, etc.

Railgun, Precision/Airstrike, Orbital Gas, Flex is my usual kit.

[cobalt patrol]

I find that FS are tough enoguh ,threating enough, etc that you need more than just a isngle strat to kil them

while one well aimed RR rocket will instant kill them

(Admitedlly, it's a hell of a shot - you have to hit either the neck where it's unamored, or the eye on the head)

[unreal merlin]

Also: railgun serves as an anti-facstrider tool in a pinch

Haven't bothered to try it against tank vents recently but it might be viable against those too.

[cobalt patrol]

Probably. Hard to get aroudn tanks though

parto f hte other reaosn i like the RR is you can just shoot a Shredder's main body

and that causes it's carrige to catch fire and it'll die on it's own

[odd arch]

before the patch I was able to take down FSs with HMG emplacement to the neck

I wonder how quickly that goes now

also the idea of realizing you don't have any gun big enough within reach and opting to sandblast the behemoth's head off tickles me

[cobalt patrol]

Neck ARmor is 1.5k hp, AC 5, 30% bleed ove, all durable

Neck Body is 2500 hp, all durable, armor AC 4, fatala when destroyed

https://helldivers.wiki.gg/wiki/Factory_Strider

One other good trick is to use a rocket to crack the siude armor (Where the automatom symbol is in that picture)

whcih exposes the armor 3 fatal zone

You can also just hit the head twice iwth the RR and that'll kill

[odd arch]

I'm vaguely aware striders have a ton of damage zones but I never got to play around with them because they either get nuked from orbit or I need to leave NOW

[cobalt patrol]

that link has all the details!

It's pretty funny the sher amount of damage zones they have\

"Upper leg armor. Upper knee armor. Lower leg armor. Leg"

Hilariously "LEg" is just fatal.

[quick plinth]

I wonder what's the benefit of the reverse jointed legs that the automatons seems so fond of

[stark ether]

looks cool

[tight zephyr]

Looks cool.

[hexed steeple]

looks cool

[odd arch]

looks cool

[pastel igloo]

looks cool

[lethal badger]

Anyone notice the automatons are changing?

From white skulls to a shiny black metal for some units?

[tight zephyr]

Yeah. I wouldn’t worry about it.

[honest acorn]

They’re probably just getting dirty from all the communism they’re endorsing

[glacial light]

I use Eruptor a lot, the bullet travel time is really rough and makes headshots beyond like 100m hard if the enemy moves at all. Despite having the nice 200m scope it's better to be closer with it so you can more reliably headshot.

But ngl I love the Eruptor and still use it as my main weapon on bots but if you're using it as a main weapon then AMR/Railgun/Autocannon does it similar but better.

I'm comparing primary vs support weapons, but on bots the support weapons above can basically be your primary since they can kill everything and also have enough ammo reserves to do so

[odd arch]

best bot primary, guard dog

[glacial light]

On bots it is very nice as AT, it surprisingly takes the same number of shots to kill as an EATs for things you'd use an EATs for, I think like gunship engines take Commando 2 vs EATs 1 but that was before gunship durability changes and factory striders

Also the laser part is very helpful on making sure you hit an hulk's eye from a distance even if it moves

[odd arch]

I'd love more disposable weapons

there's a certain style bonus to using the bare minimum costco deal launcher

[glacial light]

Commando is basically BOGO EATs with laser

They taped together 4 weaker EATs

[odd arch]

metal storm disposable MG when

[glacial light]

Disposable support weapons are still my favorite design wise, i'm sure i'd be better with railgun or autocannon but like just having one good gun that does everything well isn't as fun for me compared to using my full loadout frequenly. It's why I mainly use Eruptor as discount autocannon then bushwacker/crisper as close range, and commando for the big ones.

[glacial light]

It better be true to life and make me be within 20 feet and fire it all at once at like 1 million RPM or whatever it is

bonus points if they let you fire the entire thing while carrying it and ragdoll you to the map borders

[odd arch]

RPM settings: high, very high, Yes

[glacial light]

Ammo counter on the gun so you can see it go from 20,000 round magazine to 0 in less than a second

[odd arch]

if guard dog could be told to chill it'd be a staple of my stealth/support loadout because it's genuinely extraordinary on bots

AH plez

[glacial light]

The 5 key is unused on guard dogs, let us stow them

[blissful sparrow]

iirc HD1 did have a disposable MG so i'm suprised they haven't ported it yet

[glacial light]

I think it fits with hd2 well with recent changes seems to be shifting more towards glass cannoning with strong weapons but more easy to kill divers. Game intends us to die with the many reinforcements 4 divers get and quick cooldown disposable weapons reduces the sting of dying and being able to recover faster than losing your 8 minute cooldown weapon (even if most helldivers have CD reduction modules)

[odd arch]

imagine dying, couldn't be me

bush tick gang

(I am blown sky high by a rocket trooper that lost its target and in a moment of clairvoyance decided to shoot me from 700m away, into my scout armour)

[glacial light]

Sometimes as a Supply Pack wearing Vitality Enhancement Boosting Butcher Armor wearing diver I am at full health too often and it means the healing on my stims goes to waste so I need more damage

You stim to heal and avoid dying.

I stim for the mission end leaderboard

We are not the same

[odd arch]

I feel like scout armour does something to targeting priorities even if enemies know about you btw

I'm often kinda ignored by the bots even if I'm doing marching fire shoulder to shoulder with the team

[glacial light]

Are you playing in co-op? I know a crew member of mine uses it cause she gets like ignored by bots when she starts a fight

[odd arch]

if I'm the only player they can see they act normal but if I get between them and teammates they have a tendency to walk past me

admittedly makes sense to go after the buff one first

[glacial light]

It's funny cause she has the kill on sight mentality still from other games and she picks fights if there's not enough action so we walk past a patrol and they start shooting us and we're like damn did we get spotted and she's like 10 feet away from a patrol shooting bots while they're ignoring her and shooting us at like 50m away

[odd arch]

optimal use of scout armour

democratically distributes combat experience

[glacial light]

But yes scout armor I do recommend to new players even though starter one is technically more survivable, scout armor makes enemies like blind to you if there's teammates and like helldiver's 2 for a horde shooter is like pretty high death so it might feel bad to die so often and so fast to someone used to like deep rock or space Marines 2 where you're like a monster that can tank hits later on and have the 1 life

And I don't mind taking the aggro cause I have more equipment options to deal with it but a new player doesn't really

Although if you play the ultra stim build and everyone else is using scout armor your new primary becomes the stim button

[odd arch]

I don't feel particularly guilty about passing on the aggro because I can cover my team a lot better when my ass is not exploded

it's a good trade

also I bring shield gen in that loadout so more often than not my team is shielded from the shots going past me

[glacial light]

There was a funny op where early on my crew realized if everyone wore scout armor but me, I could just tank all of it while they try out new stratagems they've unlocked

I spent the whole missions using stims more than using stratagems or weapons

Some encounters I was just resupplying from the supply backpack and stimming and doing nothing else while everyone was shooting the bugs around me, and sometimes at me

[tight zephyr]

I use the Twigsnapper armor a lot.

[strange vine]

just got a PA announcement saying "Too old to be productive? Why don't you take an early trip to the bio-repurposer vats!"

[tall stone]

Yeah, those have been in the game for a while.

[strange vine]

yeh

[odd arch]

Eagle Sweat

[glacial light]

Eagle sweat is helldivers! Eagle sweat is helldivers! Hold up my democracy office is requesting my location

[tight zephyr]

I drank the Eagle Sweat and I don’t feel any more democratic…

Mostly nauseated.

[glacial light]

Common mistake, Eagle Sweat is a cologne, you're supposed to inject it I think

Mix it with your stims

[tight zephyr]

The only thing that’s about to be free is my lunch from my stomach.

[odd arch]

common mistake, as hinted by the name cologne is a suppository

[graceful bluff]

supersitory, surely

[glacial light]

The old stims were a pain in the ass for sure

[tight zephyr]

Only if you don’t use the Super Lubricant like you’re supposed to.

[glacial light]

Damn like at this super bugeorgise that can afford all the mandatory super equipment

[odd arch]

Super Lube gallon drum drop stratagem when

mario kart coded

[glacial light]

That's what the 500kg is

It's 500kg barrel

But also did to budget constraints its the explosive variant

The volatility to heat makes it a good stratagem, don't use it to reduce friction

[glacial light]

Oh mean I hope this opens up low gravity missions on the surface of this megastructure

But also where else are we getting move this megastructure weapon

[tall stone]

Cyberstan

[cobalt patrol]

We're just supproting hte local death star program

it's fine

[glacial light]

Find it can move wherever it wants, anywhere could be local if it tried enough

[sweet surge]

Where it moves will decided by player voting

[glacial light]

Hey chat, democracy Officer here. I noticed you all voted on a single course but it seems to be the headed straight into merida

[oblique hazel]

If arrowhead isn't going to release the illuminate, we'll take the fight to them

[cobalt patrol]

Helldiver kicks down the door of a blackhole FOR DEMOCRACY Dives in

[lethal badger]

https://youtu.be/eBQObtiV40g?si=h7fHDfHeA0FR3m9q

You know what I think could be cool

given the choice to join an enemy faction

Playing as normal but there’s a chance you’d fight enemy NPC Helldivers

And your ships and stratagems would all get a visual makeover

https://youtu.be/j9kB-Kxu888?si=b-4l3pI2VJ-iikLm

[cobalt patrol]

Hmm. Gas Dog seems interesting

reasonbly potent

but it feels like it's more a pairing for the Stalwart or MG?

where you can abuse the fact it's a little psycopath that will engage at very long ranges

ocne you shoot something

FT it doesnt feel great, because it's just shooting the same things you are, and THEY ARE ALREADY DEAD

I might give Gundog, the baisc one a go again, lalthe buffs that guy's had

[supple siren]

Gundog into bots takes out a shocking number of Devs

[tall stone]

I prefer Gundog into Bots, ye

[cobalt patrol]

This was bug-specific

I've seen some crazy people using FT into bots, and it's shockingly good now there it seems

but i havent messed with it much myself

But yeah, Gun dog is a monster into bots, no argument

little jerk hates some robot heads with a passion

If he doesnt get a head, no other robot is allowed a head either.

[hearty pier]

I'm an advocate for crisper (the flamer pistol) into bots, it just answers anything smaller than a hulk really nicely

[odd arch]

berserker rendition of the ash baby

[glacial light]

Gas dog would be better if you could have it like go after an enemy you ping or just attack an enemy in an area you've pinged

I like how it gets close to attack cause that means less chance of friendly fire

But like you said, it's slow and bugs that gas would be useful on are dead usually from teammates before it gets there

[hazy oriole]

I need to try gundog into bots sometime

[odd arch]

it can genuinely be your primary weapon so long as you kill striders and hulks before it can waste all of its ammo into them

troopers and devastators are given express tickets to their new career at the napalm barrage factory by the dog

[graceful bluff]

Or even just if it didn't focus on one enemy and instead spread the debuff

[cobalt patrol]

Yeah, that's the main issue

Anyway, Gundog with Flamethrower? Suprsingly real, hoenstly

Unlike laser dog, it covers your weaknesses without murdering you

and it will brutally murder everything and then some

and it's not like FT isnt ammo-hungry, so keeping it loaded inst much of an issue

and the only thing it cant kill are chargers... whcih stuns and flamethrwoer takes care of

[cobalt patrol]

I need to test out running HMG emplacement + Commando + Gundog + 500kg and some choice of primary and secondary

could be a very good all arounder

[cobalt patrol]

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1xK8k8

Concept art of an earlier version of the automatond

[tight zephyr]

<@&1206091872716595200> Anyone want to dive?

[quick plinth]

I'd be up for it if we get more

[tight zephyr]

Remind me to never go into a bug fight without an MMG.

No, Slugger and RR I think.

I don't know.

I think I should just default to the RR because pubbies can't be trusted to actually use AT.

And nix the thermite grenades, they take way too long to kill Chargers.

[unreal merlin]

That's always been my gripe with thermite grenades: I need the thing affected NOW, not ten seconds from now

[teal solstice]

I just toss the nade and run like hell

[tight zephyr]

I like them for bots because they’re good for sticking to tanks and then running away.

They also work on Hulks and such.

[glacial light]

I do the same for chargers, 2 thermites on a charger and it'll be dead before it charges me again.

[teal solstice]

If there aren’t any hulks and I don’t have any commando rounds I just stick em on the fabs and run in circles until I can call down an orbital laser

[glacial light]

Hulks I don't use them on cause I want them dead now, it's hard to avoid a flamethrower hulk in grenade throwing range and bruisers I also do not wait to wait potentiall 2-3 shots that could ragdoll me before thermite does its job

Tanks is throw and run around it while mocking it

[teal solstice]

Commando is just better anti tank

[glacial light]

For bots yes

[teal solstice]

It’s like two rockets to the face on a hulk to down them?

[glacial light]

Should be 1

Hit the eye with laser on and 1 takes out a hulk

[teal solstice]

Ah

Sometimes I just magdump them to feel something cus I got another off cd

Anti-mat is traditionally my go to, but commando is quickly becoming my favorite

Also, I believe the thermite grenade works wonders on the mobile fabs, though I’ve barely been able to keep track of who hits them due to them either not spawning, or there being a meeting of the robot camels

[glacial light]

Turrets on certain tanks take 1-2 shots to the side to kill

And I think striders it's 1 extra than EATs to kill at eyes

[teal solstice]

I think it’s the AA turrets and the SAM?

[glacial light]

Striders 2 EATs to eye kills it, Commando 3 shots to eye kills it. Which imo gives it to commando because you have to hit both EATs perfectly to kill, whereas Commando has a 1 shot buffer and is laser guided to it's easiser to make distance shots if strider decides to turn it's head slightly

[trail nymph]

I'm up for some diving

[graceful bluff]

I mean you killed it as soon as its attached, just gotta sidestep it once or twice which isn't really a problem

[tight zephyr]

I have a lot of trouble with bugs.

They’re a lot harder than bots.

I haven’t really gotten the hang of it.

[hazy oriole]

it's funny, opposite problem for me

bugs rn are in the most enjoyable state they've ever been for me but bots suddenly feel way harder

[tight zephyr]

The bots feel harder, but it’s a lot less annoying.

For me, personally.

I think I just kind of don’t have a good head for the kind of constant pressure the bugs fight you with. Bots kind of hit you hard in bursts, but you basically always have bugs trying to kill you.

That’s the difference I feel, anyway.

[tall stone]

You bringing laser dog to help with the bugs?

[tight zephyr]

I usually don't think to.

If I'm not taking a recoilless rifle, I should bring it.

It sure likes to set my teammates on fire though.

[cobalt patrol]

I would actually say Gundog is better than laser dog into Bugs

Though it's a lot more feast/famine and you have to be on the ball

Laser dog will kill you and all your family

[teal solstice]

I adore bots

The challenge makes me feel alive

Bugs just swarm, and it gets a little dull once I’ve called in my turrets

[tall stone]

I prefer laser specifically because I can focus on other things.

[heady halo]

i really like thermite with the throw range increase armour

just fucking hock the things

[tall stone]

Stuns are still my beloved.

[heady halo]

i still dont have them u locked lmao

[supple siren]

They're my favorite Flame Hulk answer

Highly recommend

[tight zephyr]

The Adjudicator is surprisingly good for bugs.

[tight zephyr]

Also I have Diff 10 unlocked now. Time to see how awful this is.

[tight zephyr]

This isn't bad at all...

[heady halo]

ive been loving the adjudicator on bugs honestly

its the perfect midspot of being able to one shot a warrior but having enough ammo to deal with at least a small swarm, its great against anything

[tight zephyr]

Yeah. It’s been surprisingly versatile.

Also difficulty 10 isn’t as bad as I expected and it seems like the most likely reason is that the pubbies are uh… just kind of better at the game than the ones I’m used to in 6-7.

[hearty pier]

The median pubby quality is a big factor in getting through high difficulties. Also just embracing barraging and runniny

[cobalt patrol]

Players on Super Helldive generally are there intentionally and know what they're doing

And also know it's super Helldive, shit is going to go side ways

[tight zephyr]

In 6 and 7 where I've always usually played, I always feel like I can't rely on my team for anything except to be ablative shielding.

[cobalt patrol]

I racked up ten deaths (oof) the other day, no one cared because I was Flamethrower guy and they tend to die a lot at the best of times... And also at the end of the mission I was sitting pretty on 441 dead bugs, by far the most

Also because I got team killed like at least 3 times, but that's Flamethrower guys life

[steady flame]

Yeah, flame troopers have a habit of quick deaths.

[cobalt patrol]

I always figure if they're busy killign me, the rest of the team isnt dying

which usually holds true.

[tight zephyr]

The Torcher is fun, but I don't think I'd take it into high-end content.

[stone bridge]

Torcher is crazy good

The damage and armour pen buff honestly make it a top tier weapon into bugs if you can handle the idiosyncrasies

[tight zephyr]

Hmm.

[strange vine]

I dont really jive with the flamers really

[oblique lotus]

I am permanently blitzerpilled

[cobalt patrol]

Mostly the risk into bugs is a big on fire setting you on fire. Otherwise it's extremely good

[glacial light]

Fire dot isn't a joke it's better if you have shield or many stims

I've switched off Blitzer for torcher

Torcher doesn't feel that far off from flamethrower for killing non heavies and it's a primary so I'm having a good time

Id say on bugs it has no contesters on the ability to kill hunters and prowlers to just a tap for ground fire and dot damage, and even the medium bug quickly if you hold it on them. The self immolation is kind of a big deal since you could leave set yourself on fire and that's like a 3rd of your health gone.

Supply Pack butcher vitality enhancement gaming means I have more excuses to stim up and fire damage not really a big deal

[quick plinth]

[unrelated to anything above]
this farming SC business is easy, play 1s and listen to a podcast or something

now the question remains, CHEMICAL AGENTS for the stim pistol or FREEDOM'S FLAME for the cookout I guess? (the flamethrowers don't really interest me

[odd arch]

how do I not get an aunerysm from finding two bunkers on one 1 map

that's the main challenge

[glacial light]

Freedoms flame but for the skins

[quick plinth]

that does suck, finding bunkers and being solo

[glacial light]

SC grind solo X2 with someone else

Split up immediate

[quick plinth]

they should make a guard-dog that carries a senator or something and can open bunkers with you

[glacial light]

Guard dog being able the open bunker doors would make sense

He'll even a stratagem that's a 14 foot pole

[odd arch]

hey speaking of

how is lunge mine not a super earth classic

probably more of a militia than helldiver weapon but

[glacial light]

I do wish they scaled up SC for difficulty so playing normally nets you more SC

[glacial light]

Give me mine on a stick as a utility weapon, one use too cause they do not expect me to survive using it

[odd arch]

a rack of lunge mines, one handed, ballistic shield leaves you mostly Fine after using it

we're going to recreate BFV mine jousting with the addition of the warthog

[graceful bluff]

Guard dog that just copies your secondary weapon

[glacial light]

Stim dog

I'm surprised we don't have a mortar grenade dog

There are 2 dogs I would actually want though, a shotgun dog that runs after enemies and is faster similar to gas drone

And an explosive drone that you throw like 4 mini drones that seek out targets to blow up, or more in line with current drone one that has a lunge mine and you ping a target and it flies over to poke it with a mine or place the mine on the ground if there's no enemy then returns to backpack to replace the mine at the end of the stick

[tight zephyr]

I think people who bring mortars to bug fights should be knouted.

Because the son of a bitch always dumps one mortar on the scavenger I’m slapping with my gun, then two on my fucking cranium.

And definitely none on the ten gorillion hunters advancing on us from the other side of a hill.

[quick plinth]

which is why stun mortar is suprerior

[tight zephyr]

It at least does not murder me because a single scavenger got within five meters of me.

[cobalt patrol]

Trying out a HMG emplacement, Gundog, Commando loadout.

It's got legs. I think swapping commando for Quasar or Eats is probably the play, and maybe airstrike over 500kg?

Main issue is it's very team dependant because it's hard to make HMG emplacement work when your bloody team keeps dropping orbital Napalms on your head

[graceful bluff]

<@&1206091872716595200> anyone for some dives

[quick plinth]

sure if we get more

[glacial light]

Can HMG emplacement shoot bugs in melee range

Or is that what gundog is for

HMG is pretty great for bots if you know objective require you to sit for a bit and they kill hulks which is great. I haven't figured out tanks unless they turn to expose their vents to you or factory striders yet

[odd arch]

it can, it's just a question of how much melee it'll take

on bots it's always great because the cooldown is so short

I think of it a bit like EAT... two

[glacial light]

When I mean deal, I mean can you kill a bug meleeing you, I know it spins faster but is there a gap between the turret and where the bullet comes out that's a blind spot

[odd arch]

I've never had trouble with such a gap

[glacial light]

I never ran into a blindspot cause bots don't ever try to melee you besides berserkers and they become HMG fodder

Ok that's neat, I never brought HMG into bugs cause I didn't know how it'd deal with being surrounded, hate that about manual turrets in other games where you can't shoot someone because they're hugging your turret

[unreal merlin]

I don't think HMG Emplacement has much of that issue since you can quite thoroughly mulch anything that would possibly cause that issue from a significant distance.

[glacial light]

Distance isn't the issue, it's moreso a random bug joins in from a patrol behind you and there's like an annoying hunter slapping your turret

[cobalt patrol]

Gundog helps cover things, but it's more that the 1-2-3 of Gundog, HMG EMP and Commando/Eat/quasar makes you immensely flexible and powerful

You're a force multiplier wherever you go

Also it's just funny watching Gundog grumpily blap hunters for trying to get to you

[glacial light]

I think unfortunately supply pack is my new early game shield pack as my crutch.

[cobalt patrol]

(it really does help keep things off you while you're focusing on the hoard though)

[glacial light]

Backpack slot reserved until further notice

[cobalt patrol]

I'm the madman who's given up shield pack as a Flamethrower main for Gundog

So you know

[glacial light]

Powerful energy

Terrifying

I only use torcher cause I have unlimited stims

[cobalt patrol]

Treat my takes with the assumption I die. A lot

I do run fireproof armor, that really helps

And a solid 3rd too half my deaths tend to be friendly fire incidents of some kind

[glacial light]

Ah I see, I try not to die because I only play with my crew and they're not handling the new increased body damage change well at all and they've been dying more and so we've been playing less HD2 overall

[cobalt patrol]

Plus the funnies like A Charger in Motion remains in Motion

[glacial light]

They've been slowly falling off HD2

[cobalt patrol]

I'm fine with dying a lot because of I'm dying the rest of the team isn't

I'm the Aggro tank

[glacial light]

I optimal play is to like always backpeddle with flamethrowers to not take dot in the first place, but I choose to ignore that with my gross number of stims

Every group of enemies I see I just stim up now and i've ruined myself for other playstyles that don't work with medic armor and supply pack

I want to play stupid dumb aggro, but I want to not die to free up my alloted reinforcements for my squad

[cobalt patrol]

shrug. Like it works for me, and everyone I play with (mostly randoms) seem pretty chill with it because they see how effective I'm being overall

I'm really hoping the next patch Jetpack buffs are great, because I will gleefully drop Gundog for Jetpack if so

[glacial light]

If jumpjets are remotely like the dark matter ones i'd consider putting down the supply pack

I like the shorter jumps with shorter cooldowns, the friendly fire was a bonus

[cobalt patrol]

Honestly what I'm hoping.

[unreal merlin]

Are we actually anticipating the jumpjets to be changed, or is this just wishful thinking?

[cobalt patrol]

They've been stated to be one of the things getting changed in the next patch

Purifier too

Let me see if I can dig up a source

[unreal merlin]

Purifier sure needs the love at any rate. I haven't seen any reason for anyone to use it ever since it became available.

[glacial light]

I hope they change jump pack so you can somewhat use weapons while jumping

[quick plinth]

I'm just hoping they give me more verticality with it

[tight zephyr]

I was watching a movie at the time this ping was sent out, let me grab some lunch and I'll be down.

[cobalt patrol]

Apparently it's going to be able to rapid fire Scorcher style, while also having the charge up mode, according to what Pilestedt said on Twitter

https://nitter.poast.org/Pilestedt/status/1837857419440894200#m

[unreal merlin]

Curious what the difference between it and the Scorcher will be then.

Seems people immediately went about raising that question after the post though.

[glacial light]

I also wonder this

What makes the 2 really unique, like if charged mode is not changed well and everyone uses it uncharged rapid fire, it's just a scorcher but better or worse.

I always thought it resembled the plasma punisher more as like energy grenades and looking at the scorcher, the stats of scorcher and purifier are like really close

I see why scorcher/purfier get compared

Also AT mines are still triggered by light enemies right?

[unreal merlin]

IIRC yes.

They made them explode BIGGER which still isn't what they need to be worth taking.

A bigger explosion still triggered by a raider or scavenger instead of a hulk or charger is not useful.

[tight zephyr]

One of my favorite things in this game is getting a huge number of kills with stray hellbombs.

It feels so cool every time.

[glacial light]

Yes which is why I petition for the orbital hellbomb barrage variant of the mortar

[odd arch]

there was some tech but I forgor

[glacial light]

Probably, i'm not a fan of certain techs. Like the animation interrupt reloads to basically reload I think it was RR faster

[odd arch]

there are two wolves inside of helldivers

embracing the jank like EDF and striving for organic cinematics like MGSV

[glacial light]

I do love the EDF jank

One of the ranger's starter weapons is a front loaded tube rocket launcher from like WW2 that can be reloaded in a second but loads 2 rockets and later 5.

If you're good enough you can load a single shot rocket faster enough it fires 5 times

[cobalt patrol]

They did say they're working on that, it just wasn't ready to ship for the big buff patch. So at mines are Very Murder now, but also very sensitive souls

And I'm willing to let them cook with the Purifier. I'm betting the difference will be in ammo etc, or even it's rapid fire mode being weaker than the Scorcher

I'd say after the last patch they've earned the goodwill

[unreal merlin]

I don't doubt Arrowhead's ability to balance things sensibly. They've demonstrated it several times, their ability to recognize when things are under- or over-performing and adjust them for a healthier game state despite the naive cries of BUFFS ONLY FOREVER.

[odd arch]

making the game deadlier overall with the buff patch was a power move

[cobalt patrol]

I'm really impressed with your patch because they actually managed to hit the bit that people were really upset about, the power fantasy, and then tweak things enough that the game feels even more thematic

Helldivers are even more disposable bullets after this patch

Very lethal, very dangerous! Often to themselves!

[tall stone]

And each other!

[cobalt patrol]

I am begging my teammates to think before they throw the orbital Napalm barrages

I am also begging them to not run into my walking barrages

[tall stone]

Pfft, too bad for them if they get caught in my strats tbh.

[unreal merlin]

I've one friend who I genuinely just don't enjoy playing with because they bring at least a 120mm on every mission and throw it without any warning or foresight. I try to maintain awareness but I can't swivel my head like an owl in the middle of fighting six heavy devastators and I don't appreciate them turning this Very Easy To Assault Outpost into 30 seconds of Do Not Go Here while it gets bombarded to no effect and I still have to run in there and kill everything and the factory anyway.

[lethal badger]

https://youtu.be/t7y5OwJykWw?si=M7dX4inak8OHhyf9

[quick plinth]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R485-EPqxw

lots of useful info

[glacial light]

I am somewhat certain helldiver's 2 players are cat people, cause they can't resist walking towards the giant glowly red beacon that appears in front of them

I understand like backpedaling or side walking into a OPS, but if it's like directly 10 feet in front of you there's the option to move any direction but forwards into it and I just have to watch it happen often in pub games when someone throws a stratagem dangerously close to another teammate and the other teammate walks forward closer

[hazy oriole]

If you can spare it take a backpack support wep and bring a shield emplacement
It helps the HMG sooooo much, especially on bots

[hazy oriole]

There's also the fact a great deal of people don't know which direction the walking barrage is going in until it nails them

[glacial light]

Barrage I get, the beacon stays lit for like a few seconds and the AoE is big, OPS leaves a laser on the location after the beacon's light is gone

[uncut hatch]

The amount of times Ive tossed a walking barrage way out infront of me and watched the first couple of shots land a decent ways away from me instilling me with a false sense of security that I can get a bit close before just getting absolutely pasted by a stray round in almost comedic timing is crazy

[strange vine]

I think scorcher has more ammo per mag than purifier, at least rn

[quick plinth]

they said they're gonna turn it into a scorcher plus or something to that effect

"it'll act like a scorcher and when charged do even more damage" iirc

join a 10 on bots
host has one of the reinforcement boosters
drop in
mfw they have no reinforcements and are getting overwhelmed doing a secondary

[heady halo]

there should be a mod that displays aoes

[quick plinth]

which ones?

[heady halo]

at least for airstrikes and orbitals

[heady halo]

i wish i could record

the shuttle had its doors locked and was gyrating wildly

just, proper gmod collision error overlapping collision style

and just stuck there

[oblique hazel]

does anyone have any tips for using the explosive crossbow?

I've been hearing a lot about how good it is recently, but it just feels so awkward to use for me

[cobalt patrol]

Aim Good?

It's def an awkard weapon in temrso f handlign and reloading

no argument there.

It does a lot of damage, and hte spalsh means even if you dont hit the headshot, it ends to Fuck Stuff Up

[honest acorn]

It's just an awkward weapon to use

Weird fire rate, slow projectiles, drop, etc

[cobalt patrol]

The reward ofc is that it aboslotuey mulches whatever you hit with it

Also i wish i had a more reliable testing enviroment in this game, because i killed a BT in a quater of a cannister!?

(of FT)

and i'm pretty sure but not 100% sure it hadnt gotten injkured before that?!

[oblique hazel]

I think I might just need practice with it then

because I did not have this much trouble first using the plasma punisher, and its decently similar in a good few respects

[unreal merlin]

Frankly it's just practicing with it until you intuit the projectile physics, then you can use it at all ranges. I think at long range the weird bit is that it doesn't have nearly as much fall drop as you might think.

Also learning to use it as a more flexible tool than just direct-hitting enemies. I'll often deliberately aim for terrain or objects to get better splash damage on more enemies. It also is a good tool for blowing up POI create and assemblers/bug nests

[oblique hazel]

I think thats my problem with it so far, it has more dropoff than I'm expecting at close range, and less than I'm expecting at long range

[hazy oriole]

heard on the grapevine that you can do more damage to annhilator tanks by hitting their barrels
can anyone verify?

[odd arch]

they have less armor between the guns

dunno if barrels themselves are able to take damage

[stone bridge]

Quasar + Laser Dog is very much back in business vs bugs

It has the RR damage model so it just oneshots BTs to the dome

[quick plinth]

weird, because Quasar doesn't oneshot dropships (to the body) in my experience

[stone bridge]

maybe it's a little lower, but the difference is academic into bugs

[quick plinth]

fair enough

[oblique hazel]

it is lower yeah, it and EATs are a 'tier' below the RR, to use the dev's terminology

[strange vine]

It and EATs have 2000 damage while RR has 3000

[glacial light]

Damn does RR one shot BT consistently or is the head model still a weird issue

[tall stone]

Head has been consistent for me lately

[glacial light]

Sick there's my new support weapon for bugs

But also if I could get someone to use RR and stick next to each other it seems like insane burst AT

8 BT of the old days aren't so scary anymore

[tight zephyr]

I swear by the RR. It feels like an appropriate tradeoff for having no backpack.

[glacial light]

That is a big one for me, I have developed a meta dependency on stims and grenades

I'm so used to supply pack I'd probably run out of 4 default stims in like 6 minutes

[odd arch]

I wonder when modding is going to take off

[glacial light]

Is there a modding scene

[tall stone]

Probably never

[glacial light]

It's been like a year but modding besides like QoL fixes never seemed like a thing for Satisfactory

[strange vine]

theres a small modding scene but its for model swaps

[cobalt patrol]

Satisfactory has a mod scene!

[blissful sparrow]

[graceful bluff]

There's even aa mod that makes the game way harder

and it just looks like suffering

[glacial light]

Oh I thought I was in satisfactory, i'm surprised HD2 could have big mods considering it's a live service game

I would be very surprised if a big modding scene happens for HD2

[odd arch]

I hope for mods because it'd be neat to see something close to the original intent of the game

which admittedly AH is trying to sneakily bring back

[graceful bluff]

There's mods because they chose the literal worst anticheat in the industry

literally worse than not having it

[odd arch]

me being forced to switch to win11 because half the anticheats just straight up don't work on 7 anymore

and don't stop cheaters either

[graceful bluff]

hd2's anticheat is literally just a waste of cpu cycles

[glacial light]

I am guessing the excessive anticheat is a sony requirement

[graceful bluff]

considering it's an anticheat unheard of outside of asia, yes

[quick plinth]

man

its a shitty ass anticheat

people have been cheating stuff in

so much

[glacial light]

I remember nProtect from my days playing Grand Chase in 2008, which was made by Nexon when they were smaller but yea, Never stopped hackers back then either

[graceful bluff]

you can literally use cheat engine freely

don't even have to obscure it

[glacial light]

I see nProtect has not gotten any better

[quick plinth]

huh

I found a single mod on nexus that replaces most reticles with a single red-dot

you'd expect there to be more

[unrelated helldivers thought]

I wish there were stealh oriented weapons

[odd arch]

I'd be glad to see them but there's a number of picks in the current arsenal that already make the bots into skyrim NPCs

default pistol, DCS, laser beam rifle, uhhh

none of these are stealth stealth and they already make the AI very stupid

[unreal merlin]

Ironically the crossbow tends to be pretty decent for being subtle. Of course the knives exist but that's the try-hard stealth option. Quasar actually is crazy good for low-detection missions because the impact explosion draws more attention than firing it, so you can use it to draw patrols where you want them to go investigate (usually away from you)

[odd arch]

knives run into the issue of I could just toss a normal grenade and slap the survivor into submission

it's stealth if no one's alive to report it

[unreal merlin]

Yeah knives are genuinely just not very usable. They do work but you get like 8 of them and the inability to pick them back up or otherwise refresh them sans bringing a Supply Pack means even in the best case you can stealth kill like two patrols before you're out.

[oblique hazel]

being able to stealth kill a factory strider with them is hilarious though

[quick plinth]

the fact there is no medium peak physique armor is a crime

[oblique hazel]

there is!

its superstore only, but it does exist

[quick plinth]

never seen it myself truth be told

[tight zephyr]

I use that armor all the time. Peak Physique is a wonderful perk.

I should use the Dominator more, come to think of it.

Is the Dominator any good for bugs? I know it’s pretty good for bots.

[quick plinth]

its fairly good

since it allows you to deal with mediums pretty handily

[tight zephyr]

Maybe I’ll give it a shot.

[cobalt patrol]

Extremly good for swatting mediums -= Spwewers, Commanders, Guards.

One shots hunters too, so as long as your aim is on point, it's a good chocie there

absoloteuy hilariosu wrecks poor Stalkers

[hazy oriole]

god i hate rocket striders

[tight zephyr]

What weapons are useful for them? Laser cannon? Railgun?

[stone bridge]

Railgun

[hearty pier]

Laser cannon/HMG will deal with them well enough to the leg joints too

[tight zephyr]

Okay yeah I like the Dominator for bugs.

I always seem to end up liking weapons for bugs that I thought were more suitable for bots and vice-versa.

[hearty pier]

A lot more weapons play well on both than they may appear on first glance

The flamethrowers being good into bots (mission and environment dependent) is a personal favourite example

[strange vine]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1209274445982867499/1290830333658267763/Proto_Impact_Grenade.mov?ex=66fde2ee&is=66fc916e&hm=9adec6bcd63c34d8a41568d3c14745da210cb19bdf3ebefca54ff29fb80c28ac&

[tight zephyr]

wuh

[quick plinth]

dominator kills them 2 rounds between the legs

AMR takes one to same lower middection from any angle, even through the leg

basically, just shoot them between the legs with anything with medium pen

i gotta say that the AMR on bots is extremely good now

[unreal merlin]

Railgun continues the trend of being an anti-everything tool by killing striders/rocket striders with one safemode shot to the hips below the cockpit

Just snapfire a few times and you're only left with cleaning up any raiders they were with

[odd arch]

the railgun lacks a certain special touch though

like leaving molten holes and plasma trails

I need my "this guy is extra super dead" feedback

[unreal merlin]

I reflexively disagree because it leaves everything bar tanks a shattered wreck

[odd arch]

the brain gremlins are winning

[unreal merlin]

Plus uh

Look, if you do even like 1 second of unsafe charge it literally disintegrates brood commanders and I don't know why

They just full body explode

Not even a corpse

[odd arch]

yes, I could click on everything with railgun and have it keel over and die
or I could scatter their ashes with a far less efficient but more bombastic option

this is partially a bit because I'm a laser cannon cultist and it's one of the least impressive options

[unreal merlin]

I wanted to like the laser cannon but its performance was not for me. I haven't revisited it after the recent buffs though

[quick plinth]

its better than before but it's always been a middle of the road weapon for me

[quick plinth]

any <@&1206091872716595200> feelin' like divin'?

[sage plume]

might be but id like to go on some lower diff dives as i need to get back into the rythm

[steady flame]

As long as it's feet-first I'm on. :3

[stone bridge]

I'm down

[quick plinth]

helldivers froze my god damn computer

@sage plume @stone bridge Channel made

[quick plinth]

Channel made

[stone bridge]

Be there shortly

[steady flame]

Alright, will be there soon, sorry. x.x

Lady Havoc (She/Her) ↩️

[Reply to:](#1204832579287519292 message) Channel made

[quick plinth]

no need to apologise

[cobalt patrol]

OKay

So the flamethrower actually just fucking dunks on Bile ttians?

Like holy shit, i am shredding them

[glacial light]

Damn I assume stratagem flamethrower?

How much of a tank does it take to kill one?

[cobalt patrol]

The fastest I've done solo, into a Kill a bile titan mission, was a quarter tank

And I'm 90% sure it was a whole health uninjured one

Because I was very careful to only use my primary to clear out stuff around the sides untill I had a clear shot

In general though it seems it you go for the sack on the middle of the body and aim up you rip them apart

[odd arch]

that's less flamer power and more the new sack mechanics I'd wager

[cobalt patrol]

Agreed, but it's still rather shocking just how fast you down them

[glacial light]

Dang half a mag would have been enough for me to switch

Step aside commando I'm flame waffen

Flamethrower, undetermined secondary, Eruptor for distance, unsure on grenade

Stun? It's pair well with dot

[unreal merlin]

Stun is giga utility. I'd say grenade pistol for secondary but you already have eruptor for blowing up POI crates. Go with the deagle I guess, it's a real solid and simple gun.

[tight zephyr]

I’m having trouble with a loadout for bot 10s. I have had some success with the Slugger and grenade pistol, but I’m undecided on support and grenade choice.

[tall stone]

One of the Too Cloose back-up guns for secondary.

[unreal merlin]

I feel like I sing too many praises for Railgun

Stun and Gas grenades are both very good choices however. Gas will kill raiders and disorient everything smaller than a Hulk. Stun buys you a nice breather moment.

[hazy oriole]

gas will disorient hulks too iirc

[quick plinth]

gas affects tanks also

but I'm not sure if that's just the orbital gas or all gas

[unreal merlin]

Even better.

[tight zephyr]

Railgun…

[supple siren]

Railgun is just the only way I can figure to deal with all the damnedable Rocket Striders

[unreal merlin]

he is medicated

[odd arch]

a good start

[tall stone]

https://tenor.com/view/hellraiser-pinhead-what-coolstorybro-head-gif-4593768

[glacial light]

Ah yes legally distinct verdict it always comes back to you

[quick plinth]

apply one AMR shot to the hip from any angle even through the legs

Dominator kills with 2 shots to the hip joint

[supple siren]

See I hate targeting those damn joints with the way they move, plus it's satisfying to just Unmake them. AMR feels... good, but they just arrive in such numbers

[tight zephyr]

Who’re you calling pinhead?

[strange vine]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1fuqn18/animated_short_featuring_loreaccurate_general/

[golden ledge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCX4OLgkBnE

If for whatever reason the audio isn't working

[tight zephyr]

Okay, the Railgun rocks for bots at high levels, but I still need teammates who have situational awareness greater than that of an amoeba to survive.

[quick plinth]

aw I was just gonna send that, nice to see someone else also found it

[unreal merlin]

It just solves so many problems! Also, unsafe mode with maybe 1sec of charge oneshots berserkers

The only thing it doesn't do well against are tanks, turrets, and factory striders (though overcharge shots can at least destroy the chin guns on those)

[strange vine]

https://fxtwitter.com/helldivers2/status/1841783983534739479

[tall stone]

What do you mean E-710 is used for combustion engines

[graceful bluff]

anything is combustible if you're reckless enough

[tight zephyr]

We got us a Wish.com Death Star.

[glad orchid]

Temu “Killer Sun”

[graceful bluff]

Starkiller

[glad marsh]

That last line... Man...

[lethal badger]

I like the leaks that changed the Illuminate lore a bit

Very unique to see them go from a ||knowlege seeking peaceful society to a vengeful almost theocratic one because of what we did||

https://youtu.be/ggOYSHmMLo0?si=b8tzduuCCF4JFCLE

[tight zephyr]

“What we did” meaning “a damn fine job of kicking their squid asses!”

I have never once examined my own thoughts, emotions or beliefs!

[lethal badger]

The illuminate are going to be the ultimate test of media literacy lmao

It’s easy to dehumanize robots and bugs

But the illuminate fight in a completely different way

They’re smart not just in lore but in gameplay

[tight zephyr]

The bots are basically correct, although I disagree with whatever it is they have going on with those bioprocessors.

[lethal badger]

I’d love to fight rogue Helldivers

The ai would need to be overhauled completely to make them competent

But it could be so cool to finally have that moment of “what are we doing?!”

[tight zephyr]

Have you seen your average pubbie?