Helldivers 2: For Managed Democracy!

[lethal dagger]

really glad the base liberator is getting its time to shine

[steady flame]

Personally I love the flamethrower against Voteless, but I think the Sterliser might be better iff gas doesn't spread to a Helldiver on melee.

[covert umbra]

The regular machine gun is very reliable against them, can confirm

[keen zinc]

<@&1206091872716595200> i need YOU to defend democracy https://discord.gg/qB35hn5T

oh wow can the spear not lock onto warp ships

[quick plinth]

be there in a bit (tenative)

[odd arch]

I got an MG kills personal order as I logged in to check the squids and that has made them much more relaxed for me than the average experience methinks

[unreal merlin]

Stalwart/MMG/HMG are all excellent

[tropic isle]

@keen zinc

[strange vine]

it can

[keen zinc]

sometimes

[unreal merlin]

just ticked over into Uncertain, here we gooooooo

[dusty spruce]

The stunlock makes the arc thrower really good against the Illuminate. It suffers a little on breaking shields, but it can reliably stunlock Harvesters to death. Metric ton of Voteless helps too.

[agile fable]

folks this is a minor psa

Illuminate Overseers may have light armor, but said armor completely blocks damage

unless you have piercing or explosive damage, you'll have to strip off the armor

[keen zinc]

ablative armor

[agile fable]

yeah i think

[strange vine]

only their heads dont have it

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1heyz4m/hey_guys_i_made_a_voicepack_because_of_a_shower/

tsundere eagle-2...

[cobalt patrol]

You can actually see it get destoryed/ripped off - their actual flesh is a blue-black color

[stone bridge]

it's why headshots are so effective against them

[cobalt patrol]

Also leg shots, as they have al ot less armor down there

[quick plinth]

cookout surprisingly effective against the overseers

[oblique hazel]

how do shotguns do vs ship/harvester shields?

[tall stone]

Pop 'em well

[indigo bear]

The electric arc shotgun has been doing pretty good against Voteless and Overseers

[shy prairie]

breaker cuts through ground ship shield in like maybe a little more than half a mag

[crystal badger]

@trail nymph slot open

[hazy oriole]

today i noticed the monoliths have piles of human bodies under them

[hazy oriole]

it's the big red denied that gets me

loud incorrect buzzer in text form

[quick plinth]

very masseffect reapers

[high epoch]

arrowhead on their way to instill the most horrible atrocitys on civilians for some reason.

just to give you ptsd

lungs imploding from hatching spores. organ harvesting and robot conversion and putting skulls on ones self for fashion wear and burning bodys, and now we got zombies and mind control

how can it get worst.

[hazy oriole]

isn't the lungs imploding thing a speculative thing

from the first colonial regiment

[strange vine]

WE WON

[upbeat vector]

Is it not possible to fight the Illuminate anymore?

[strange vine]

not at the moment

theyll definitely return

since its just their vanguard

[upbeat vector]

A friend just got home from college after being unable to play and she missed them :(

[strange vine]

theyll be back within the week, dw

[spare verge]

betting they'll be back on tuesday to coincide with a patch

[agile fable]

lets just give it a day or two and then it will be eternal squid time

[dusty spruce]

I was surprised we could win. I figured there would be a 'whoops' moment

[cobalt patrol]

The whoops will be when they actually return in force

[high epoch]

we won a level 95 attack. the losses beat the creek.

150.000 helldivers.

or more aorund 130,000

[covert umbra]

would be funny if the actual intro of the illuminate was delayed by several months cause this was an order that was intended to be lost

[dusty spruce]

yeah, guessing from the last part of that dispatch, the recon units are going to be finding a much larger force
and probably more than 4 unit types this time

[high epoch]

idk but imma enjoy sushi rations for a while from all the harvested squid people.

[covert umbra]

i wonder how slowly they'll roll out the new units

[stark ether]

reverse mines

[hazy oriole]

near perfect split on the fronts

[warped cypress]

recently bought Helldivers 2

really enjoying it

sadly my friends dont want to reinstall to play with me

[half crypt]

survived 2 full missions deathless and this is what gets me on the third

https://tenor.com/view/looking-up-funny-meme-guy-gif-22610169

thanks seaf sam i guess

[cobalt patrol]

Huh. I dont think i like the AT emplacement? like it's obviously V. Good

it's just not my style

[cobalt patrol]

Dont worry, we'll dump you into d10s!

[stone bridge]

I'm glad I can use the Halt on two fronts now

Absurdly common Halt W

[oblique hazel]

welcome to the cause, diver!

[steady flame]

Well we can dive with you, Ruby!

Ruby ↩️

[Reply to:](#1204832579287519292 message) sadly my friends dont want to reinstall to play with me

[stone bridge]

We'd be happy to have ya

[keen zinc]

you can call upon us any time

[warped cypress]

🫡

[high epoch]

https://tenor.com/view/helldivers-2-arrowhead-game-studios-sony-interactive-entertainment-playstation-elite-forces-gif-8626692236541807502

[quick plinth]

helldivers minimum spec seems to be pure fiction as my CPU and GPU are a whole generation newer than reccomended and still struggle to remain above 40 fps consistently on even a lower resolution (1% and 10% lows are quite bad) (without my tinkering with settings)

[burnt vapor]

I think I’m right at or only slightly above recommended but I can run helldivers on high settings right around 80 fps consistently so it might be an incompatibility issue or software issue

[trail nymph]

Are you running it on fullscreen or borderless window because I had a massive performance boost when I switched from borderless to fullscreen

[quick plinth]

2500X and 1650 4gb are ever so slightly above rec spec and the only way I can run it consistently is at 1280x720 all lowest

[odd arch]

I have an odd feeling that they gave the min specs with upscaling on

[quick plinth]

I'll try that as well

[quick plinth]

FSR 1.1 isnt good enough to both work well on min spec

which is why I'm annoyed they seem to think FSR 3.0 is a fun toy

when that kinda tech allowed me to play C77 on my setup 60 fps and rarely drop below 55

[steady flame]

Ugh, I'm just come off the squid front because it closed and now I'm having to re-learn all my loadouts. x.x

[burnt vapor]

Return to anti-tank

[glad marsh]

I'm sorry, it closed??

[quick plinth]

we won the MO

[burnt vapor]

Yeah we killed them all so no more to fight

[glad marsh]

Dang
I'm impressed

...and also we're probably getting a new major today or tomorrow anyways

They'll be back

[burnt vapor]

Helldivers when actually focused on an objective are nigh on unstoppable

[glad marsh]

But really!
Good job Helldivers playerbase!

It was probably everyone wanting to play new shit
But still!

[unreal merlin]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1204832579287519292/1318078744472059954/where-were-we-v0-kqrl2bmej47e1.png?ex=676103fd&is=675fb27d&hm=9041d5d9ba6f3e83401fc572bf38468e80563566015fc17cda36ce11f1481d3a&

But yeah I think it's funny how Helldivers were so eager to fight the squids that they did too well and now there's no more squids to fight

🎵 how could this happen to meeee 🎵

[stone bridge]

They'll be back very quickly

[unreal merlin]

Naturally

But now we can take all the new toys to the other fronts. I look forward to the E/AT on high difficulty bots

Post up on a hilltop and rain cannon on anything in sight.

I did that a couple times vs squids since Calypso has such enormous hill heights. Park an E/AT overlooking the city and snipe harvesters around the rest of the team near the objective

[trail nymph]

I think this sums up the whole invasion nicely

[spare verge]

if you can find a hilltop overlooking a big bot base you can clean house
2 shots to kill a bot fabricator from any angle with the AT emplacement

if you run out of tanks to anti it does acceptable AOE to blast crowds of bot infantry with

though it's not good at it so it's more for fun using up the remaining shells before moving on

[unreal merlin]

Devastators would be acceptable targets, raiders would just be for giggles

[trail nymph]

You shoot raiders with AT to send a message

[placid blaze]

What's worse is that the Eagle Strafing Run knocks out the shields in a single run.

And you have 4-5 of them.

[unreal merlin]

Eagle Strafe really led the charge this operation.

Orbital Precision works to kill the voteless ships but doesn't have the usability like it does vs bots and bugs imo

Orbital Gas can actually kill the ships too if it direct hits

[trail nymph]

We got a leak for what the next warbond might be and it’s an interesting one

[stone bridge]

Oh?

[trail nymph]

|| Helghast ||

[stone bridge]

[trail nymph]

|| 2 Armours
3 Weapons
3 Stratagems ||

[burnt vapor]

I see super earth is not happy about the squids turning voters into voteless

[stone bridge]

Is this official or fanmade? The models imply it's official, but I get a funny vibe

[trail nymph]

Looks legit

[stone bridge]

The Acceleration Rifle...

[trail nymph]

|| Three shot burst plasma sniper rifle ||

[frosty nexus]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/655521736556806144/1318196619975331900/image0.jpg?ex=676171c5&is=67602045&hm=5ad9f67ffa2386ddfd8af0bef55ff4d9acaf6b5136836cc2709b6b119f99e5a5&

[spare verge]

did a difficulty 5 evacuate high-value assets with the AT emplacement and nothing else but turrets to test
while I was on the emplacement not a single dropship made it in

though I got lucky and they were coming from the south so I could aim in that direction the entire time

[royal lantern]

The Voteless are just... People? Aren't they?

[frosty nexus]

How can they be people if they lost their citizenship?

[trail nymph]

Correction they were people and they’re not so it’s not super cannibalism

[unreal merlin]

I'm down for that plasma sniper rifle

And that armor effect is great, very cool to protect you from the whole rainbow of status effects

[quick plinth]

I really wish for the sniper rifle and the defensive stratagems, everything else I could go without

[verbal summit]

Medium armour pen sniper?? Like the same pen as the AMR?

[quick plinth]

Dilegence CS is medium pen

this is likley going to be medium pen a la plasma weapons

[verbal summit]

Oh

So what pen rating does amr have?

I like snipers but AMR feels like the only one that's worthwhile imo

Cus it can take out heavy units n such

[verbal summit]

Ahh

Oh well that light armour still looks very interesting :3

[quick plinth]

explosive burst plasma sniper rifle sounds amazing

[verbal summit]

OH RIGHT EXPLOSIVE

Eruptor 2?

I imagine it'll be less explosive eruptor?

Excitement for the sniper is back

I do hope I can change off the burst mode. As much as burst is something, I like to be ammo efficient and not shoot a burst at an enemy thag requires 1 bullet.

[trail nymph]

|| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zL_JJkOhJk0 rifle showcase at 2:36 ||

[verbal summit]

Also wish they'd give snipers longer scopes

Also let us aim down sights when jetpacking 🥺

Can't do my silly amr trickshots this way

[strange vine]

Its literally in the game files right now

[frosty nexus]

They patched that, you can do it now

[verbal summit]

Well you can aim while flying.

You can't switch to aim down sights while flying

I'll have to see if you can be aimed down sights while and then fly and stay aimed down sights.

I mean like first person

[spare verge]

might I request that datamined stuff be spoiler tagged
warbonds I'm iffy about, but especially please spoiler tag datamined enemies

[quick plinth]

oh yeah that sniper looks good

[quick plinth]

spoilering leaks would be appreciated for those who dont wanna see the upcoming stuff

[trail nymph]

I’ll remember the spoiler tag next time

[cobalt patrol]

@trail nymph You can go back and spoiler it now. use ||

and put that on either side ||like this||

[spare verge]

if the images are attached rather than embedded I don't think you can spoiler them retroactively ||but it's a lot less spoilery just skimming through it without context||

[blissful sparrow]

you can actually spoiler the preview by putting it into spoiler tags

oh misread, yeah, attached images i don't think you can repsoiler

[quick plinth]

the leaked sniper rifle seems tailor made to strip illuminate ablative armor

[trail nymph]

|| Leaked Warbond ||

Fixed

[spare verge]

🫡 democracy thanks you

[quick plinth]

put the yt link between || spoilers too

incredibly based 👍

[glad marsh]

||bunker or wall for that last one? We shall see...||

[trail nymph]

|| waist high barricade about 5 divers wide with the weapon mounted in the middle ||

[quick plinth]

|| wall with mounted weapon ||

[odd arch]

the ||bob semple rampart||

[glad marsh]

Truly the pinnacle of super earth technology

[placid blaze]

||if i can be cynical for a moment, this'll probably be popular with the people who unironically believe that Super Earth is good (fascists) given the aesthetic||

especially ||the AC-1||

[kindred lintel]

||considering the inspiration from killzone I wouldnt be surprised||

[placid blaze]

||style over substance||

[glad marsh]

||by the way, are we not gonna talk about the AC-1 literally having a Killzone decal on it?||

[placid blaze]

||...huh, did not notice that||

[quick plinth]

|| I NEEED that burst sniper YESTERDAY||

[keen zinc]

||I mean the Legionnaire armor says something about the old earth Legion, maybe the Helghast are a long ago precursor||

[placid blaze]

Honestly, what I really want is a 4th or even 5th faction (if its even achievable)

Like, take for eaxmple, an insurgent faction that sometimes pops up as a wrench against Helldivers

Imagine defending a plane only for, say, an Insurgent force to show up and they also show up in the missions, making it harder and w/ more objectives (e.g: destroy insurgent base) or smth

[glad marsh]

It'd be cute as like
A bazelgeuse style thing (if you know what that means)

[placid blaze]

could help show the seams that are cracking in the SE's control

[placid blaze]

i dont get it

aside from that, anyone ever thought why we never got anti-radiation missiles ever post-launch?

[glad marsh]

Uhh
So
Monster hunter world introduced a monster called bazelgeuse in the higher ranks
It would randomly just show up and mess with your hunt, usually by carpet bombing and dive bombing you at inconvenient times

[keen zinc]

I can hear the noise in my head

My fucking nemesis

[placid blaze]

I played Highfleet recently and wondered why we never get anti radiation missiles against strat jammers and now the illuminate ecm

[placid blaze]

Eeh, my idea is more like "sets back your progress and gives you more enemies to deal with"

[keen zinc]

You've no idea the level of dedication I took to mastering the Bazel fight out of sheer hate

My fucking nemesis

[placid blaze]

I don't play MH, sorry

[glad marsh]

You actually described what Bazel does lol

[keen zinc]

https://youtu.be/Fx2HVungUnw?si=zZ_EkFikagj-TA2T

[odd arch]

I imagine current level of helldiver indoctrination is too valuable to waste it by giving them thoughts from fighting super earth insurgents

[placid blaze]

Alternatively a fully-fleged "rebelling planet" would be very nice as well

[placid blaze]

if they get too big?

[glad marsh]

Do we use the Helldivers as military police is the question here

Will it disenfranchise them

(no? Probably not?)

[keen zinc]

Helldivers literal original purpose was killing secessionists

[placid blaze]

And have the Insurgents have like, actual legitimate concerns maybe

also that ^

[keen zinc]

You forget that Helldivers very first action was murdering a legitimate secessionist parliament

[spare verge]

AT emplacement with rocket sentry, autocannon sentry, and machine gun sentry works up to difficulty 9 bot defenses
just blow up every dropship

[placid blaze]

For example, for some voice taunts:
"Super Earth has only starved me!"
"Super Earth killed my family!"
"I sacrificed everything for Super Earth and they gave me nothing!"

like, its gotten that bad that people start rebelling

[keen zinc]

"I stole a loaf of bread!"

FIVE YEARS FOR WHAT YOU DID

THE REST BECAUSE YOU TRIED TO RUN

[quick plinth]

very important thing i ommited || plasma burst sniper rifle ||

[placid blaze]

Though the AI would be tremendous work

[glad marsh]

Pfft
Imagine someone running at you with a gun and saying that

[placid blaze]

if the insurgents are smart, they'd probably be harder to fight than the Automatons

[keen zinc]

The entire discord would erupt into ytp speak

[glad marsh]

I can see insurgents being a secondary objective with bots (or maybe (but probably not) illuminate)

[quick crown]

NOW PRISONER 2562511, YOUR TIME IS UP AND YOUR TIME IS UP
-# AND YOUR TIME IS UP AND

[placid blaze]

Not only that, we also give them SEAF and Helldiver equipment

[quick crown]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEVago2PKn0

CW: YTP and all that goes with it

[spare verge]

I was thinking it'd be cool to have commando bots as a secondary objective that come at you like stalkers where they retreat when shot at, but with sniper rifles
this sounds like it'd be even cooler

[glad marsh]

Well
If HD1 is anything to go by
Illuminates are the ones that'll have snipers like that

[placid blaze]

So its 50/50 sobering you up that super earth is actually BAD and milsim faction

[odd arch]

terminid aligned rebels, hatred for super earth crossing language barriers

[glad marsh]

Can the bugs even feel (anymore, after all the gene modding they've gone through)

[placid blaze]

Rebels that manage to communicte with Bugs (who said we'd stop at Whales?)

[placid blaze]

probably?

super earth isnt smart enough to remove their brain probs

if they did we'd have bugs that are constantly docile

or just get genemodded for maximum oil production while nullifying their outbreak capabilities

It could also be a way of canonifying rogue or left behind helldivers

[keen zinc]

Classic

[placid blaze]

"I fought for Super Earth, and Super Earth abandoned me!" And proceeds to throw a strat ball at you

[keen zinc]

You will starve again! Lol!

[placid blaze]

shadow-dropping insurgents to make them even more mysterious could be fun (if thats even possible)

[glad marsh]

They did it with shriekers

[placid blaze]

yeah

but yknow, everyone knows flying bugs are gonna be a thing

[quick crown]

Giant insects can't fly everyone knows that

[placid blaze]

SE could even blame "Uhhh squid mind control!!!!"

only to have you face people who are starving, destitute and desperate for help that SE never gave them

[quick crown]

I have been having such mixed results shooting at the jetsquids

[placid blaze]

Squids is just XCOM Helldivers change my mind

[quick crown]

But i have been mainly using the zapgun strat

[placid blaze]

Still

I'm kinda curious as to what the Illuminate's society was like before HD1

[keen zinc]

it was a scholar based society where your social status was based on your learning

[placid blaze]

was it post-scarity? authoritarian? libertarian (in the leftist way)?

[placid blaze]

so, philosopher kings type deal?

[keen zinc]

yep

[placid blaze]

huh

[keen zinc]

to be fair it worked for them

they had councils n such

[placid blaze]

and we made them somehow even more evil than ourselves.

greaaaat.

[rustic portal]

i have a concept for how to even escalate beyond adding an insurgent faction. first, you add them, they get fought for a while, then you add The Alliance, every faction working together and fielding mixed forces on certain worlds

[placid blaze]

an alliance to shelter all that wants true freedom? A... Shelter Alliance?

[rustic portal]

itd be bugfuck insane but also extremely cool

an alliance composed of rebels... some kind of... Alliance to Restore the Republic

[placid blaze]

Eh, I'm thinking more of the Shelter Alliance from NEBULOUS: Fleet Command

[rustic portal]

i havent played much nebulous unfortunately

[placid blaze]

Tldr, the Shelter Alliance was a loose coalition of star systems that fought against a far larger empire

[quick plinth]

Nebulous has a campaign?

[placid blaze]

its declining in the "modern day" of Nebulous but it was a power in its prime

[placid blaze]

rudimentary lore

[quick plinth]

mightve reconsidered my opinion if they added a campaign in the interim

[placid blaze]

its too heavy to run on my laptop

I'd need a radiation to manage the heat

[keen zinc]

@icy sequoia lets kill some bots/bugs

[odd arch]

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

[placid blaze]

holy shit.

Who would win? An eons old alien species with unknowable knowledge and experience and the best technology the galaxy has to offer

or

some crackhead with an electric stick

[glad marsh]

I mean
They're going to be adding one by 1.0

If that's worth anything

Unless their plans have changed

[placid blaze]

anyways

has anyone else here ever got crushed by a UFO?

while we were helldiving my friend shot down a UFO and it fell on top of me

[glad marsh]

Just curious, was this meant to be a Helldivers ping?

[keen zinc]

yes

<@&1206091872716595200>

apolgies random person

[runic cairn]

down

[cobalt patrol]

i routinely kill teammates via dropships to the face <.<

[placid blaze]

pff-

Bots would be a "good" faction if they didn't do some genuinely sickening stuff ngl.

Like the bio-processor.

[trail nymph]

You mean the smoothie maker

[tight zephyr]

I’m still not sure what that’s for.

[twin bridge]

blending the thousand SEAF corpses sent at you for fuel and repair is about all you can do as a robot team with no funeral rites

its not civilians

[spare verge]

so blood is fuel?

[twin bridge]

i assume they are too efficient to leave it to rot

[spare verge]

have we checked if hell is full

[tight zephyr]

It’s also not like they throw live people in there.

Maybe it’s just how they dispose of corpses.

[tall stone]

Super Earth also has bio processors

[tight zephyr]

Which would be really funny if it’s literally the bots being environmentally conscious.

[twin bridge]

they probably literally learned it from us as our barely surviving mining slaves

[placid blaze]

Yeah but what about all the dismembered corpses and piles of bodies we randomly find in cages and/or open platforms

[placid blaze]

Fair enough

[spare verge]

they're probably huffing the "super earth does war crimes to us, therefore it is okay to reciprocate" juice

[twin bridge]

remember when we enslaved their entire race

for eons

[placid blaze]

This.

[twin bridge]

with no mercy

i would also put the slave driver in the blender

to be fair

[tall stone]

Like, the bio-repurposing vats are talked about in Super Destroyer commercials

[indigo bear]

If they do make a 4th faction, I'd like it if they were so abstract and strange that it becomes a question whether or not the faction is a living species or a bizarre astral phenomena

[placid blaze]

Oh, shit I missed that one

[keen zinc]

grey goo

[spare verge]

4th faction is just an empty map that gaslights you

[placid blaze]

Honestly I'm of the belief that the Cyborgs were genuinely trying to improve themselves and SE said "nah fuck you guys" and enslaved them for being too "non-human"

[keen zinc]

i think grey goo would be the best fourth faction

mirror mimic type shit

[trail nymph]

Well with enough blood you can make iron add some carbon and you get steel rinse and repeat

[tall stone]

"Too old to be productive? Volunteer to go to a Bio-repurposing Vat today!"

[keen zinc]

plus the water, oxygen, hydrogen

fuel

[placid blaze]

I want insurgents that are unironically, provably, evidently good, as in, almost absolutely "they are good you literally cannot argue that their concerns are valid and/or actually true" and have SE try to explain it as a 4th faction

[trail nymph]

And it’s kinda implied that they’re using harvested brains to control the bots

[twin bridge]

i also just regardless of arrowheads intentions refuse to believe the robot race is the one that "processes" people for just fun

either way

[spare verge]

if there's anything the satire is missing I feel like it's perspectives outside of super earth yeah

[placid blaze]

I want it to drive home the fact that Super Earth deserves to burn in hell, get thrown into an event horizon, get punished retroactively through time and also deleted from existence paracausally

[spare verge]

just in case a game where you shoot space bugs for oil in the name of freedom was too subtle

[twin bridge]

its the kind of starship troopers satire where its very obvious one side is clownishly evil but the other side isnt "good" enough that anyone can just go "haha yeah screw those bugs"

[tight zephyr]

Corpses awaiting the bioprocessor.

They kill so many SEAF grunts.

[twin bridge]

piled up gathered corpses yes

[placid blaze]

I'm of the believe that the movie wasn't satirical enough and they should've went the Dr. Strangelove route and made everyone utterly incompetent and/or insane

[twin bridge]

they intend to live on the world i dont think you want literally warhammer levels of corpses rotting all over it if you have the numbers to clean up and re-use

[placid blaze]

make fascist aesthetic and then make them so unbelievably incompetent you can't ignore that the fascism is stupid and dumb

[twin bridge]

i guarantee super earth "cleans" planets by sicking terminids on leashes on it like "hell yeah we're so good at this"

"guys we have another problem"

[spare verge]

"guys the tunnelling bugs escaped the electric fences"

[placid blaze]

My personal pet conspiracy is that SEAF are a bunch of chocolate soldiers that melt at the first sign of combat so that checks I guess

[twin bridge]

"you guys arent gonna believe this but i only invested in a dog pen from amazon and i forgot they can fly now"

[placid blaze]

You mean, Super Amazon, Citizen?

That delivers Super Fast One-Year Super Shipping?

[twin bridge]

we already have super target wouldnt it be super super target

[placid blaze]

SE doesn't do this enough

[glad marsh]

Chocolate soldiers is now my new favourite paper tiger style thing

[placid blaze]

because Super Earth is still competent somewhat*

[twin bridge]

terracotta soldiers meet super terra-chocolate soldiers

they're just better

[spare verge]

even if the missions you go on are of unclear strategic value, it being a game that has to be fun and winnable clashes with the satiric intent somewhat

[placid blaze]

Your welcome, I got the term from Stellaris Invicta Season 2, where the army as believed to be so weak that they couldn't fight

[trail nymph]

Glass troopers shatter on impact

[spare verge]

I think they could probably go down that avenue more; missions that are really hard and also completely useless like the "spread democracy" ones

[tall stone]

I would not say that myself. Do you know how often I die to my own stupidity?

[twin bridge]

i feel like the satire kind of writes itself watching people pick the worst guns that are mechanically unfinished and unbalanced "because new and someone bid low" and then go to the wrong world we ARENT currently at war with only to die to a fucking fence

[placid blaze]

Anyways yes, competent, valid and good insurgent forces that give super earth a super headache and you literally cannot disprove that they are good as a 4th faction, thx arrowhead

[placid blaze]

spread democracy is awesome if you use the Paranoid Raise the Flag mod

but its basically only for propaganda reasons

[spare verge]

they should make us change out the automaton ammunition for cooked ammunition that is mostly real ammunition but with some fakes that blow up their guns so they blame their manufacturers for jams

[placid blaze]

and even then the Super Earth anthem is super shit and bad

[spare verge]

||real actual thing the US did in vietnam||

[keen zinc]

<@&1206091872716595200> room for 1 more alisteir isnt playing

[placid blaze]

FREEEDOM MUST SPREAD TO EVERY LAST WO- yeah lets turn that off, I'm gonna blast Paranoid by Black Sabbath instead

[twin bridge]

"my dad made this gun, this automaton guns made by automatons, why would he do this to me"

[placid blaze]

huh, the more you know

[twin bridge]

honestly you do not want to know more

thats about as funny as it gets and blown up hands arent really silly guy hours

[spare verge]

the S.O.G. prairie fire expansion for arma 3 has you do it in one of the missions

[placid blaze]

the speaker has customer service dial levels of bad/awful output

[tall stone]

All the other factions are already good guys as far as I'm concerned

Well

[placid blaze]

except the illuminate

because

well

[tall stone]

Barring the Illuminate

[placid blaze]

zombies

[placid blaze]

first time i did an RTF I just wanted to shut the speaker off and blast something else

[trail nymph]

What’s the difference

[heady halo]

nah they should add a new upgrade option of "freedom fried ammunition" that has been liberated from a planet which was scorched by a super solar flare, giving bonus ammo that is so eager to seek the enemies of democracy that it sometimes gets overexcited and explodes in the barrel

[spare verge]

this consists of: being flown in by helicopter, walking through the jungle for like an hour while evading trackers and getting into fights if they find you, planting the cooked ammunition, probably also fighting the guys guarding it, and then walking through the jungle for another hour to the extraction point to get flown out
it makes helldiver missions sound like sane planning

[placid blaze]

honestly super earth dreams of becoming as evil as the illuminate, that's the difference

[tall stone]

The Voteless still have minds in there

The Illuminate used to be fine

[placid blaze]

^

[twin bridge]

we gave them a rimworld mental break after telling them we would in fact be warring them over 20 inches of really uncool snowy terrain

[tall stone]

Then Super Earth did a genocide

[placid blaze]

honestly if the lost was just regular mindless zombies we could chalk it up to a regular zombie outbreak, but no it had to be "they're still definitely aware and not in control of thier bodies"

[twin bridge]

they went from pre-cult covenant races straight to flood because of us

[placid blaze]

which in some contexts is a fun trope admittedly, but that is horrifying.

[twin bridge]

i like when they salute when you blow their head off and you salute back like "welp"

[tall stone]

And suffering the entire time

[placid blaze]

^

Honestly if literally any other government but Super Earth made contact with the Illuminate they'd be either allies or at least not aggressive

[spare verge]

pay no attention to what we did to the terminids

[twin bridge]

you can tell the propaganda works because in their dying moments they question nothing and thank super earth for saving them from their agony that definitely has zero other way out

[placid blaze]

and certainly not whatever the hell they are now

[placid blaze]

at least they still have free will and control over their bodies.

and can evolve to fight super earth.

the lost are completely fucked, 100%

[tall stone]

The Terminids are right to hate us

[spare verge]

I like the bit of satiric edge that super earth isn't even remotely considering if the voteless could be helped; they're just condemned for being captured by the enemy

dehumanized just as much as super earth dehumanizes dissidents

[placid blaze]

the best thing we can do to them is just... well, end it for them unless Super Earth invents a "voter re-enfranchisement cure" or something

which, again, I highly doubt would even be a thing SE even gave a thought about.

[tall stone]

I bring the Blitzer so they can spend their last moments free again

[spare verge]

I also like that the report went "thousands are missing"
yeah, sure, thousands

[placid blaze]

I just (try to) shoot them in the head, best make it end quickly rather than a long, painful death

[spare verge]

that certainly is a number of thousands

[keen zinc]

"the voteless may not be able to be cured, but to ensure their enfranchisement is not lost, their votes will be cast in accordance to the ministry of truths determinations"

[placid blaze]

given a ratio of 20-40 Lost for every actual illuminate, we maybe killed around 20-100 million actual illuminate

which begs the question

how the fuck did Super Earth miss that

[spare verge]

covered up probably

[tall stone]

Super Earth ignores the obvious a lot

We missed a big-ass bot Fleet too

[placid blaze]

God now I really wanna write a story where Super Earth forgets that habitable planets aren't the only thing in a star system and a resistance force continues to be a thorn in SE's side cause they control everything else

The gas giant, the belt, the barren planets you didn't even think about colonizing

hell even the L1 point between the planet's gravity and their star

[strange vine]

doing this and making it so people can gun them down in the streets is a bad fucking taste in my mouth. This is why i am a firm opponent of adding any sort of human opponent in Helldivers 2

it just introduces an element that well

takes away from what makes the games fun

[tall stone]

Will appeal to the wrong sort

[strange vine]

even more so than usual, yeah

[placid blaze]

I'd really like to drive home the point that SE is evil, but that's a fair point as well

though, given the voteless?

[tall stone]

I am already on team "The Bots are right"

[strange vine]

the voteless are the most you can go because theyve been genetically corrupted

and are basically zombies

[placid blaze]

fair enough

[tall stone]

Super Earth is already unapologetically evil

[placid blaze]

The game doesn't give enough time to reflect on your actions or "are you SURE you wanna do this"?

[tall stone]

Anyone who can't see that by now isn't going to be convinced

[placid blaze]

fair enough

maybe im just driven by spite of a certain segment of the playerbase that existed since launch.

[strange vine]

the entire point of the game is playing as a disposable targeting system for a super fascist government fighting against threats that they caused and made worse themselves

[placid blaze]

mhm

[strange vine]

making it so you gun down civilians protesting oppression?

yeah fuck no, thats a super bad fucking taste in the mouth

[tight zephyr]

Also we are more disposable than coffee filters.

[placid blaze]

I mean that's the lore of the helldivers in HD1

...now that I think about it?

[strange vine]

lore yes, but not in the game

[placid blaze]

Yeah I agree

[strange vine]

the cyborgs at the point of the game have absolutely militarized

[tall stone]

Coffee filters are definitely more expensive than us Helldivers

[tall stone]

And how.

[placid blaze]

actually

anyone ever noticed that we have 3 billion colonists

and yet no megacities

?

How... inefficient is Super Earth's cities?

[tight zephyr]

America-tier

[tall stone]

I mean, we got to just see the cities

[placid blaze]

At best the urban maps we find are maybe, 1k, 5k people? cities and no highrises

or midrises

[strange vine]

they have the entire planet

[glad marsh]

Last I checked, things are covered in mega suburbs back on super earth

[tight zephyr]

Mixed use urbanism is illegal under Super Earth for reasons of buy a fucking car.

[placid blaze]

Guess we now know why they can let 3 billion people fucking disappear.

[tall stone]

Also, yeah, SE has s lot of planets

[strange vine]

i mean you see how many cars and roads there are in their 15 minute cities

[placid blaze]

if I can be hard scifi for a moment, at best SE is a local cluster power if the entire "galactic" map is to be taken at face value

which, yes is impressive

but not to the scale of a galaxy

[tall stone]

The real reason is skyscrapers would be a bitch to include

[placid blaze]

because if we count by planets at face value and excluding anything we don't see on the galactic map

[tight zephyr]

Boo hard sci-fi. More soft sci-fi with hard sci-fi aesthetics.

[placid blaze]

super earth has, maybe 30-40 star systems?

[placid blaze]

lemme cook

[placid blaze]

if we take that number, that's at best our local cluster

anything within 20-40 lightyears

which, ironically, wouldn't even make Super Earth a blip on the galaxy.

That's how big this "galactic" war is.

[strange vine]

doesnt fit with the actual lore

[placid blaze]

I personally believe it

[strange vine]

kay but thats just noncanon headcanon the same as people thinking their divers are clones

not gonna stop you

[placid blaze]

there's no evidence against it tho

[strange vine]

yes there is

given automatons explicitly came from outside the galactic rim

no reason why they would if they could just sit inside the milky way

[placid blaze]

Super Earth isn't the center of the galaxy and bots could just be in another star system, and that could just be propaganda

[tall stone]

I think you're not accounting for how few habitable planets with breathable atmosphere there are in a given system. Because Helldivers aren't given any oxygen supplies or the like

[placid blaze]

mhm

[placid blaze]

we never get to fight automatons in barren planets though

barely habitable yes, but never barren ones

[tall stone]

Any we can breathe on all these planets we can go to

[strange vine]

all the planets are also capable of sustaining uncovered life too lol

and plants

[placid blaze]

I'm surprised people live on hellmire

:P

[strange vine]

they live on it because super earth told them to

:P

[tall stone]

The Bugs loved Hellmire

[high epoch]

I thought the point of the helmet is to breathe better in low-atmosphere other then the obvious chemical protection and ballistic protection

[strange vine]

maybe but you always have civilians on every planet

and they dont have any sort of face covering minimum

[tall stone]

God no, it's to maybe stop a bullet and give you comms

There's fuck all for filters in those things, because everyone hacks up a lung when a sandstorm starts

[high epoch]

Spores in my lungs my beloved

[placid blaze]

A stiff breeze would probably make a helldiver cough and hack like they have a severe allergy to it

i mean we kinda see that in blizzard planets

[tall stone]

Cold air moving fast is hell on the lungs

Hellmire, misery as it is, is breathable

[placid blaze]

fair point

granted given my own set of allergic reactions it'd probably be miserable for the helldiver for a few brief minutes and not entire weeks.

[tall stone]

Super Earth has a lot of territory on the galactic scale, just going off of how many planets with a breathable atmosphere it jas

Because you know what I have never seen from Super Earth? Any evidence of Terraforming tech

[placid blaze]

maybe the current SE just inhabits a particularly habitable cluster or they keep finding those to inhabit whenever they lose

[strange vine]

i think ive seen some mention of terraforming every now and then?

[tall stone]

Fair. I'd expect to see more on colonies myself

Could just be those are actually protected

You know what is fun?

Calypso showed us that SE installs SAMs and Artillery positions in cities

[placid blaze]

but never use them in the invasion

despite the fact that we've seen them be extremely useful against the UFOs

[tall stone]

I mean, judging by SEAF

[placid blaze]

like, holy shit, I've seen 4-5 UFOs get taken down by a singleSAM

[tall stone]

They die very quickly

[placid blaze]

for such an incompetent faction SE makes some crazy good SAMs

[strange vine]

pretty sure they were sabotaged at least

well the SAMs have a max range of like 250 meters or smth?

so who's to say how effective they are :v

[placid blaze]

yeah but have you done a D8-10 and see how well a sam performs when a drone calls in reinforcements?

[strange vine]

mate i basically only do those difficulties

yeah the SAMs are fun

[tall stone]

I will also note we have to reactivate every defensive emplacement we find

[placid blaze]

^

[tall stone]

And also Super Earth is corrupt af

[placid blaze]

tbh, the range nerf is so the game doesn't become easy mode but even so, the SAMs perform ridiculously well against nearby targets in their range

[sage plume]

love this one

[versed hamlet]

ehhh I think this devalues the satire because people will just shrug it off as a hit piece instead of a critique of everything actually wrong with it
starship troopers and helldivers operate on putting the secretly deranged next to the obviously deranged (or at least obvious in hindsight) to get people to reflect, I feel

it's just the thresholds for this are gonna be different for everyone

it's essentially a facism propaganda piece with the goal of intentionally backfiring ig? 🤔
normally it would be made to ensure a smooth transition into radicalness but instead it's made to get under your skin and appall you

[quick plinth]

unfortunately the people who are being satirizied are just as devoid of selfawarness as the fictional characters

[warped cypress]

hello

is anyone up for a game?

[trail nymph]

Will be in about 20 minutes

[kindred lintel]

Are the illuminate not out yet? I checked the map and they werent there

[quartz cloak]

You missed them, they're all dead now

[kindred lintel]

Good job everyone!

[quartz cloak]

Give it a few days

[dusty spruce]

really waiting for that 'slipspace rupture detected' moment

[supple siren]

Don't be silly, they're 100% eliminated. Just like last time.

[warped cypress]

iirc

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/665820102360563732/1226936503402496211/Thennothingbadeverhappenedagain_ec721984f3e6c4f6b7d9e0494c4922d2.mp4?ex=6761ab29&is=676059a9&hm=19f7087f73f6b0e67569a3c464c2562199c0e58ddfa39e918a86168aaee62a9f&

this was in either helldivers or helldivers 2

my guess is that the devs are gonna "Halo: Reach" with super earth

https://youtu.be/Q_4i-yOUmXY

[steady flame]

So.. You folks think that Calypso was a diversionary vanguard?

[supple siren]

Makes sense with how far from Meridia it was

[warped cypress]

yes

calypso was a set up

[steady flame]

[high epoch]

the indomitable human spirit in question:

[strange vine]

devs have literally said it was a vanguard, yeah

[keen zinc]

If it still around in 30~45 mins I'll be back around

[warped cypress]

ok im in the vc

[shy prairie]

I can dive in like 15

[sage plume]

@keen zinc @shy prairie ETA?

[keen zinc]

30

[shy prairie]

5

but you folk have 4 already?

[tropic isle]

<@&1206091872716595200> 3 of you open for difficulty 9 then 10? I really wanna see super bases

[sage plume]

hop up to us im going to bed either way

[keen zinc]

Waylaid and delayed by weather and traffic

Thwarted

I'm gonna take a nap instead I guess

[wind arrow]

wait i never noticed autocannon has a flak option, what's the difference between those two payloads?

[quick plinth]

flak has a proximity fuse and is better against small enemies

[quick plinth]

regular rounds [APHET] are armorpiercing and have explosive filler, good against bigger targets and for weakspot hunting on elite enemies

[trim breach]

Pet conspiracy theory

SEAF generally lacks the authorization to activate or use artillery or SAM sites.

[tropic isle]

<@&1206091872716595200> me and havoc need 2 for diff 9

[keen zinc]

SCREEEEAAAAH

I rise from my bed like an eagle or perhaps a phoenix

[high epoch]

i see.

interesting.

[steady flame]

So, it turns out that the pike actually does really well against AT-STs scout striders. Ergo this comment -

Battle of Endor, 4 ABY, Colourised

[upbeat vector]

Wait are they back?

[high epoch]

i... yea... i'm looking at it on my map

but

no ones made a fuss. a singular planet defense 12. another scouting party.

[steady flame]

Isn't it also closer than the last one?

[high epoch]

my guess is people were kind of pissed that the illuminate might be gone for 3 days after barely being here for like... a weekend.

[high epoch]

yea it's closer to super earth. different sector.

[high epoch]

so the devs probably through it out there for people who were still cramming to play to play.

[rapid plover]

or perhaps the squids are continuing to move closer to SE

[high epoch]

which fair enough. it's nice it's not complete sector take overs.

[high epoch]

yea that is also a scary theory.

[rapid plover]

SE defense, let's go

[high epoch]

they aren't dumb like the bots and give us a fat target. they are stealthy.

they disappear then appear like a stealthy cancer in the universe.

[steady flame]

..Turns out the A-10 Eagle 1 gun run can kill fabs.

[high epoch]

holy shit the numbers went from 4,000 to 16,000

on the illuminate planet

[dusty spruce]

I managed to luck into an 100 SC pickup and got enough to buy another Warbond, but I'm a little split between choices. I have Democratic Detonation and everything before it.

What are some recommendations towards the next warbond I should get. Leaning a little towards truth enforcers myself, but wanna hear if there are other great standouts

[steady flame]

I love Truth Enforcers. Fashion is rad and the guns are fab.

[quick plinth]

what are your options specifcally?

[steady flame]

But the new one's pretty good too.

[high epoch]

i recommend flame warbond or the viper commando

if you want bang for your buck.

[dusty spruce]

Polar Patriots, Viper Commandos, Freedom's Flame, Chemical Warfare, Truth Enforcers, Urban Legends

Been getting them as they came out before I took a lengthy break from the game just around the release of Democratic Detonation

[high epoch]

OH WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT

NEW MO

KILL THE SQUIDS ! AGAIN !

[quick plinth]

Polar Patriots is arguably the nicest out of the ones on offer here: you get access to very good weapons, Tenderizer, Purifier and Pummeler

[high epoch]

https://tenor.com/view/spongebob-meme-bus-stop-angry-shouting-gif-4725481252007299028

[hazy oriole]

verdict too, love that lil hand cannon

viper commandos is only worth it for the armor and booster imo, rarely find myself wanting to use bushwacker or the lib carbine

[high epoch]

the shotgun was decent for me with bugs in a pickle or bots.

it's not the worst as an emergency side-arm

especially if accuracy is not priority

[hazy oriole]

it's not bad, i just feel like the senator does the "emergency burst damage" role better for me with higher armor penetration to boot

[high epoch]

idk the senator is good definetly but man the amount of times i have some dumb-bot or bug in my face i just dome them point blank.

with the shotty.

side note the senator is also decent if you want tell a xeno-soldier to fuck off.

amount of times i stealth mag-dump one with the revolver is quite nice.

they both are very decent side-arms i think next to the verdict which is in polar.

[dusty spruce]

seems I may as well just keep grabbing them in chronological order then. S'no problem with me. Things tend to feel right to me doing that.

thankye

[undone veldt]

I haven’t looked at the map for a few days

Are the illuminate gone?

[ivory swallow]

i like the regular machine gun + ammo pack loadout, whats the best promary/secondary/grenade for that?

im using breaker rn but idk if theres any better option in a premium warbond

[high epoch]

yes we defeated them, 150,000 divers defeating a level 95 defense in the last minute.

but then they came back. another 1 planet scouting party

defense level 12

[covert umbra]

the stun baton from the new warbond is waaaay better than i was expecting. you can stunlock devastators to death with it

[unreal merlin]

super earth has seen their 8%/hr capture rate and deemed it CRINGE by responding with our own 9%/hr defense rate!

[tall stone]

74% of the population on one planet is like that.

[high epoch]

i love watching 100,000 helldivers storm that shit like normandy to teach them a lesson again.

[strange vine]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1hfrvuc/we_are_the_authors_of_our_own_destinies/m2eq8so/

[high epoch]

https://tenor.com/view/phonk-walk-gif-26740144

[agile fable]

the illuminate have got to be scared out of their goddamn minds

it's been about a hundred years, and they have powerful new weapons and are no longer holding back. within days their first assault is completely irradicated and their second is being outpaced.

[supple siren]

They are holding back though, these are supposedly scouting parties

[agile fable]

yeah but still

it took an entire month to liberate malevalon creek during the second battle. it took 3 days to remove the squids.

[daring monolith]

they've just assaulted the MOG system

which I find endlessly funny

[quick plinth]

what is the funny ?

[keen zinc]

They're mogging us

We barely withstood their first scouting party and now two at once

[spare verge]

we need to build new orbital defenses there

we'll call it the mog station

[quick plinth]

what is mogging???

[keen zinc]

https://tenor.com/view/daniel-dae-kim-mogged-mogger-looksmaxxing-ruggyscruggy-gif-1507416034755076487

[hazy oriole]

it's a thing people do to show off their jawlines that got made into an ironic meme

aw man, did they remove sniping jammers by hitting the fabricator next to it?

[keen zinc]

yeas

[supple siren]

What, my friend did that just yesterday :o I think not all the jammers have fabs attached

[unreal merlin]

They don't all have one

The difference is if the thing is integrated into the same structure as the jammer or not. If they're separate buildings then they're separate

[hazy oriole]

aw MAN, that was my favourite way to take care of them

[ivory swallow]

@keen zinc sorry about that i was just testing my connection and it finally worked

[keen zinc]

np

<@&1206091872716595200> if anyone wants to do some chill diving, i'm thinking 4-6, feel free to hop in with me

[ivory swallow]

wever got a lobby going rn

full with a pub tho

[high epoch]

https://youtu.be/ylpLzngZSw4

helldivers beating the squids knees in again head-strong despite the casualities.

[keen zinc]

idk what that means

who is wever

[tardy onyx]

||I know it's 100 percent non-canon but still, imagine the insane lore implications if it was.||

[dusty spruce]

||could even see it being softly canon, given either explaining away their being some sort of Helghast equivalent people on a colony or just some ‘hey check out this cool dimensional portal, these people are pretty sweet’||

[high epoch]

https://youtu.be/tu_wTvstWcw

'defend 7 attacks'

oh nay why are they popping up more and more progressively

[glad marsh]

....and I assume we can't blockade the black hole they're clearly coming from

[tall stone]

Well yeah, they haven't figured out how to have multiple factions at the same time yet. 😛

[high epoch]

yea.

[stark ether]

i'm sorry that level of intelligence is treason

[glad marsh]

I just heard it from an acquaintance!

[tall stone]

Report them for Treason.

Give up your collaborator, and your fate will be merciful.

[glad marsh]

we both know my fate is the freedom camps no matter what happens

[burnt vapor]

watch Merida be a red herring the entire time

[oblique hazel]

<@&1206091872716595200> anyone up for a quick bit of SC farming?

[tall stone]

Absolutely!

[cobalt patrol]

"No, the game works great with faction vs faction combat. Sometimes when I had free time during development I would load into the test level and spawn two massive armies, bugs and bots and see who won.

It's the memory requirement that's the problem.
"

From. Pilestdt on Reddit!

[indigo bear]

Would love to crawl across the map in the throes of pitched combat between Bots and Illuminate in Forever Winter style.

[high epoch]

i imagine shooting a cage to release a charger on a outpost ngl of illuminate or bot.

or like maybe you can strategically use beefier units in general. do some farcry type shit.

you get the idea but probably not so taxing on memory.

[upbeat vector]

The fliers are so fucking tanky

They feel too tanky

[daring monolith]

they're pretty tanky. I've been using the adjudicator to good effect

[cobalt patrol]

Purifier charged shorts wrecks them

[upbeat vector]

And their heads are armoured too

[stone bridge]

One Senator headshot puts them down

the MMG also pummels them real good

[daring monolith]

still need to try the purifier into them but both adjudicator and senator works

HMG works into them (moreso the on foot guys bc ammo concerns though)

MMG as briar mentioned

MMG can also chunk the leg joint weakspot of the harvesters

[upbeat vector]

Yeah, the MMG seems goated against Illuminate

Every time I've tried to bring something else it's not been great

The flamethrower's good though

It struggles against the fliers but shreds through Voteless and ground Overseers

[indigo bear]

The blitzer chain stuns everything except the tripods. Been loving that thing

[cobalt patrol]

FT can also mess up harvesesters, get behidn them, they have terrible turning time and you can roast the leggies

[daring monolith]

I've been really liking the stun baton as a secondary with the peak physique armour

shreds through voteless and stunlocks ground overseers

(plus peak physique makes it easier to use slower weapons like hmg)

if you have a heavy AT dedicated team the stalwart is pretty fun for voteless clear too

[covert umbra]

my crazy notion is that since the MMG and stun baton are so efficient you could probably do well with something like the Eruptor as an exclusive anti-harvester weapon i think

[hazy oriole]

how many eruptor shots for a harvester kill

[cobalt patrol]

Explosive Crossbow is also a good consideration

[unkempt river]

What primaries other than ExXbow have been working against Illuminate? I've tried a few (both SMGs, Slug Shotgun, Default AR) and they all struggle to bring down overseers

[frosty nexus]

Lib pen and basic liberator actually do work against overseers

[covert umbra]

adjudicator and libpen both work alright in my experience

[frosty nexus]

Admittedly at most of a clip per overseer, but that's still a pretty good trade

Lib pen can also take down harvesters if you aim for the joints

[unkempt river]

I've started running Recoilless for Harvesters, it's pretty dang effective if you have anyone to pop shields

[frosty nexus]

Honestly I think the answer for literally everything the illuminate have right now is just the starting machine gun

The only thing it doesn't take down are their Tesla towers

[glad marsh]

...which you can just use literally any explosive on anyways

Current illuminate die to machine guns though

So many machine guns

[covert umbra]

i assume there's going to be some heavy illuminate units down the line

[glad marsh]

Oh yeah

[covert umbra]

how soon is the question

[glad marsh]

Harvesters are just the charger equivalents, we're gonna see something bigger

...or more threatening
Whichever

I remember seeing something about leaked council members

[frosty nexus]

Judging from last game, we've yet to see dark Templar, cloaked snipers, chair psychics, or THE GREAT EYE

[covert umbra]

yeaaah i fully expect some warp speed space ninja bullshit from them

[frosty nexus]

Also probably heavier harvesters with more armor

[cobalt patrol]

We know at least 3 units

From datamines

||Ghoul - Elite Melee of some kind. Mutated squid with four arms.
Enhanced overseer of some kind. Has fancier armor, more fancy staff.
Prophet: Looks like hte prophets from Halo 2, floating around in a chair||

[glad marsh]

Yeaaah ||council members|| are coming back
Those are the guys that mess with your controls
Dunno if they'll keep doing that though

[odd arch]

harvesters are the tripods?

if so the eruptor takes a few years

[glad marsh]

I keep hearing wildly different opinions on the performance of the eruptor but I've decided it's "not very good"™

[covert umbra]

i like it? haven't tried it against the illuminate but it's probably my weapon of choice against the bots

[glad marsh]

Oh I meant specifically against the Illuminate

It's good into bots I think, bugs depends entirely upon whether or not you can stay far away enough from them to not blow yourself up

[covert umbra]

yeahh you'd need a good secondary against the bugs, i feel like the baton would get you overwhelmed pretty quick just with the numbers they run

[odd arch]

the ablative armour makes it just not work I'm afraid

voteless and ship doors are the only sensible targets

I tried shooting a tripod all over and couldn't find a good damage spot

[strange vine]

The only good point for the eruptor vs the harvesters is the leg joint weakspot because it has AV3

[dusty spruce]

A couple of good shots on the leg joint with the eruptor will typically destroy it.
Love it too for its ability to clear packs of Voteless easily. Only struggles in killing close up elevated overseers due to handling and travel time
Needs a good backup though when reloading

It’s admittedly an acquired taste

[glad marsh]

<@&1206091872716595200> anyone up for some SC farming?
We know it's late, though..

[oblique hazel]

I can in a bit!

[quick plinth]

I'll lend ya a hand

[glad marsh]

:0

[oblique hazel]

once I finish up this farm mission with randos lol

[unkempt river]

at work or I'd join you

[high epoch]

I'm going to bed but I always am down fir mindless farming idc.

[stone bridge]

<@&1206091872716595200> anyone keen to join Ashley and I in higher diff missions?

[quick plinth]

I'd be up for it

[cobalt patrol]

I would, but i think i need to keep things chill and wind towards bed. HD always hypes me up

[hexed steeple]

https://discord.com/channels/426286410496999425/1318531672710582352

[stone bridge]

Understandable

[quick plinth]

https://youtu.be/6gI6xg0mvsI

"Arrowhead promised an FRV by this patch, I put a deposit down, where's my god damn jeep Pilestadt?!"

[warped cypress]

some dude joined and teamkilled everyone then left

i reported them cause wtf :/

[cobalt patrol]

Absoloutey good on reporitng them, but i'm sorry thath append to you

[warped cypress]

anyhoo i got my first donation thingy

[cobalt patrol]

Warbond?

[warped cypress]

the ship module

[cobalt patrol]

Oh!

Nice!

[high epoch]

Blocking also makes it so you never get matched with them ever again.

[short rune]

Yikes. Sorry to hear than. Some folks are just awful.

Thankfully thats not the rule

[quick crown]

Monster link sorry in advance

https://packaged-media.redd.it/x25nrif73b7e1/pb/m2-res_600p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1734454800&s=23f4d6c1e564984ca97de753954111477ed7fb27&x-auth-token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6InNPQ1JhUkNOTkZnL3Y3NkFRWVdYUkJhYWJ4QT0iLCJ0eXAiOiJKV1QifQ.eyJjYyI6IlVTIiwiY3IiOiIiLCJleHAiOjE3MzQ0NzE5NzIsImp0aSI6IiIsInJpZCI6InQzXzFoZnlpbHYiLCJzdWIiOiJ0Ml9hb3VheGIydiIsInVybCI6IngyNW5yaWY3M2I3ZTEifQ.ki55qrTH7W9b3drIpWEsCrlK1xQvcYICdihwD1Qcw_4

LOUD

[kindred lintel]

fun fact: anything after a ? is useless junk in a url

[quick crown]

Not always true because that breaks the embed sometimes like what happened there

[kindred lintel]

it varies site to site as youve just noticed

because the specific reddit embed requires an auth token

[high epoch]

That memes so real.

I watched them show back up. Then I saw the m.o of liberate the planet... now we got 7 liberation goals...

Like slowly over time popping up

[strange vine]

yeah the illuminate arent holding territory, theyre immediately leaving after winning a defend
theyre raiding

[tall stone]

Oh, they're just there to take people.

[high epoch]

raiding partys on planets. i didn't know we have space pirates.

our xeno friends.

anyway pick up your calamari in the lunch room. we have excess.

[trail nymph]

My theory is that they’re gathering supplies and voteless to launch a sneak attack on super earth

[dusty spruce]

we've got the squid version of the Collectors running around, I guess

[indigo bear]

I wonder if this hit-and-run tactic they've taken is a result of their intial push being defeated.

[steady flame]

Good question. Speaking of those, I have one of my own:
How do you folks handle Helldives (9s) solo? They seem pretty damn impossible.

[quick plinth]

stealth, hit n run tactics

attempting to minimise exposure to the enemy as much as possible

works a lot better for bots and now the illuminate than it does for bugs

[odd arch]

the key to solo stealth is overwhelming firepower

[quick plinth]

yes

hitting as hard as possible in as short of a time as possible before losing the enemy

[odd arch]

bots are nice in that I can easily visually identify all dropship callers

I could learn bug callers

[tall stone]

Scout armor and incredible violence

[odd arch]

but I play bugs when I have no other option so

[quick plinth]

basically any bug that isnt a heavy can call

[odd arch]

I should start unequipping stealth armour in teams tbh

because it's kinda fucked to have the horde split around me like I'm Moses to go beat my reloading teammate's ass

like don't get me wrong that's an incredible boon because I can cover them much better when I'm not being pulverized

but tickles me wrong

[strange vine]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pt0qAjMWCw

[strange vine]

literally every bug that arent spewers, chargers, shriekers, bile titans, or impalers

[supple siren]

It's my main issue with bugs tbh

You have to make sure there isn't a single little bastard inside a corpse or behind a boulder

Bots and Squids have clear direction

[steady flame]

It feels like for me, I just am constantly on the run and can't actually do the objectives because the enemy's constantly nipping on my heels.

[supple siren]

See that's precisely why I don't enjoy solo play, you folk are powerful

[frosty nexus]

Yeah, solo helldiving is very much about the hit and move.

You can't hold ground, you have to get the objective done in five seconds or rotate around for another go at it

[indigo bear]

My solo loadout for squids has been:
Light Scout Armor -For obvious reasons
Blitzer Primary (The Arc shotgun from Cutting Edge) - Infinite ammo, great crowd control, stuns overseers
dealer's choice of secondary
Frag Grenades - If I had the grenade pistol, these would be stun or smoke.

Orbital Laser - To clean out objectives that get crowded
Jetpack - High speed movement and escape
Patriot Mech - For when things just get too hot
Expendable Anti-tank - For the tripods

Stamina Booster - We're gonna be running a lot.

Gameplay: Always. Be. Moving.
Keep your ears open for patrols, and drop into crouch or prone when they get close. Voteless are pretty much blind but react to sound well. Overseers are very perceptive, stay out of their cone of vision.

When you come up on an objective move to kill everything there fast. If reinforcements start rolling in hard, don't be afraid to back off and hit a different objective.

[covert umbra]

i haven't used the EAT in a bit -- the Commando seems like a strict upgrade to it, right?

[supple siren]

EAT has more punch in a single shot, hits some oneshot breakpoints commando can struggle with

Much better charger obliterator

[steady flame]

I run impact fire nades but..

I imagine timed fire, timed frag, or impact frag would do well. Personally I don't much enjoy the Blitzer, doesn't feel fab on the damage to me, but I do find I have ammo issues a lot.

For strategems, I run MG-43, bubble shieldpack or jetpack, BRRT, and orbital gas.

[oblique lotus]

commando you need to land two hits where EATs need one, and iirc EAT rockets are a bit faster

Upside is that the commando gives you four rockets in one package plus guidance though guidance is a mixed bag

[tall stone]

EAT is a shorter cooldown by nearly a minute

[oblique lotus]

And-yeah

For PUGs I prefer the commando because I can call it in and take the entire drop with me

[supple siren]

I always feel like I end up stuck with a single Commando rocket and nothin to do with it

[oblique lotus]

For more coordinated groups it's more mixed

CD on both is short enough that you can call in new ones more or less as needed and leave a few just lying around the map

[supple siren]

Tried bringing both once, that was a hoot

Enough antitank for a whole squad

[tall stone]

Because of how much faster EAT is and its better damage, I prefer it

[oblique lotus]

For bugs I usually run OPS/500KG/cluster/commando+blitzer/GP/stun and that gets me through 10s pretty easily

[steady flame]

Personally for dedicated AT I prefer the RR, but that's due to not liking disposable weapons overall.

[strange vine]

I think im gonna try commando on squids

[oblique lotus]

I strongly prefer disposables

But that's preference

[strange vine]

Only one commando missile to kill a harvesters weakspot

[tall stone]

But I also just prefer Quasar because it's always available

[oblique lotus]

Quasar's a little clunky plus I like having four rockets on tap if I need them

[tall stone]

RR takes my backpack

[oblique lotus]

esp against bugs there is a reason why I go so heavy on AT

[supple siren]

I'm too jetpacked to use many a backpack weapon

The buffs have it in a beautiful spot

[oblique lotus]

Though honestly for bugs the blitzer is all you need for anything that doesn't have heavy armor

[supple siren]

and watching your friends have to toddle around the city walls is gratifying

'ah that must be tough guys sorry'

[oblique lotus]

The blitzer genuinely needs a nerf

It's astonishly good

[tall stone]

The dogs are also great

[steady flame]

For me, I think the issue with disposables is.. I'm not used to having replacements just be available, you know?

[oblique lotus]

Even against bots it's merely good as opposed to "the best weapon available trivializing 80% of the enemies" like it is against bugs

[oblique lotus]

Kinda but once you do get used it it it's weird going back

[steady flame]

Whereas I flit between HD2 and ArmA 3, so..

[supple siren]

Just call it down the moment it's off cooldown

[tall stone]

Ehhh. Blitzer is a god of bug killing and all. But it's not nerf worthy

[supple siren]

Maximum Use

[oblique lotus]

Also frankly not needing to reload launchers is really nice

[tall stone]

Because the ttk against mediums isn't always great

[oblique lotus]

it doesn't matter that the TTK against hive guard or spitters isn't good because it stunlocks them

[tall stone]

And unlike any other gun, you can't take advantage of stripped armor

[steady flame]

So like, I'm thinking about the idea of having 5 total across a squad of 10 through a 30 minute mission, vs like 18 rounds of Carl Gustav across 2 AT soldiers in a squad of 10.

[oblique lotus]

You can fight six spitters at once and done correctly none of them will ever get to attack

[steady flame]

Obviously, it's different in HD2, but my thinking is obviously old-fashioned.

[oblique lotus]

Also it can meatshot headshot brood commanders and stalkers (stalkers not reliable due to their arms)

[tall stone]

Correct. But can you fight six spitters and the small bugs all at once?

[oblique lotus]

Yes

unironically yes you can

It's a really absurd gun

[strange vine]

its not that good

its fine but it genuinely has a fair amount of weaknesses

for one, you dont control where the arcs go

[oblique lotus]

Against bugs the only thing it struggles with is shriekers

[supple siren]

Enjoying Flame Turret but struggling to see how it'd outpace Gatling

[strange vine]

its fire rate isnt that fast

[tall stone]

Aim freakouts happen to me all the time with Blitzer

[oblique lotus]

And everything spitter or smaller gets stunlocked by knockback + arc stun

I very rarely have issues with arc locking

[tall stone]

I cover its weakpoints with Laser Dog

[strange vine]

i think flame will be better if enemies are right up in its face since it leaves pools of fire

[oblique lotus]

and then honestly cluster covers the rest of the weaknesses

[supple siren]

Ahh, bugtype

[oblique lotus]

though that's more cluster also being way too good imo

[strange vine]

also i think the flame has AP4 as well? whereas gatling has AP3

[steady flame]

Cluster being.. The ABRL?

[strange vine]

eagle cluster

[tall stone]

Cluster is not too good lol

[strange vine]

not airburst im assuming

[oblique lotus]

Eagle cluster

It's so good

[strange vine]

also yeah cluster's great at add clear but its not the be all end all

ive moved off it for the most part

[oblique lotus]

fast, huge AoE, high damage, largely predictable AoE

[steady flame]

Ah. I forgot Eagle 1 got <srs> genuinely actually just war crimes </srs> cluster bombs.

[oblique lotus]

By the standards of chaff clearing callins it's really good

[tall stone]

Would rather orbital gas than Teamkiller Bomb

[strange vine]

cluster and "predictable aoe" dont go in the same sentence lmfao

[supple siren]

at least they don't seem to ricochet anymore

[oblique lotus]

It hits everything in the AoE very consistently and barring the occasional freak bomblet is pretty consistent about where it hits

I can throw it down at pretty close proximity without dying

[tall stone]

Boy is it not consistent

[oblique lotus]

I've very rarely had issues with the AoE ¯_(ツ)_/¯

And the orbital stratagems have issues with just missing enemies

[supple siren]

Orbital Gatling's been in a nice spot lately

they keep changing the sfx tho

[tall stone]

???

Like, not to sound rude

But that sounds like a skill issue

[oblique lotus]

No like the orbital airburst barrages can miss enemies due to scatter and timing

Since it doesn't hit the entire AoE at once

Whereas cluster hits everything in the area at the same time

I've had spewers survive orbital airburst while cluster is a consistent kill

[tall stone]

Ok, I think you and I are using very different anti-chaff is what is happening

I use Orbital Gas for mine

[oblique lotus]

Orbital gas is consistent but I'm not the biggest fan since its lower lethality

[tall stone]

Because hey, as it turns out, with a laser dog and a gun I can just be the lethal part

And the bugs can sit there and do fuck all nothing

[oblique lotus]

Too much work and time investment vs "they're all dead move forward"

[tall stone]

How many pubbies do you play with?

[oblique lotus]

Usually a lobby of randoms

[tall stone]

How many have you killed with your clusters?

[oblique lotus]

If I'm close to them I throw my cluster out further, so not many

[tall stone]

I refuse to believe that. Pubbies are drawn to red lights

[oblique lotus]

Idk its not really an issue for me unless we start to get overwhelmed or I get ragdolled and drop the beacon

[tall stone]

If a pubby gets killed by a gas strike, that is 100% their fault

[oblique lotus]

But against bugs if we're moving I throw the beacon on the patrol and the patrol disappears

[supple siren]

this is maybe the biggest and funniest weakness

other dropped strats you can kind of play with and avoid

[oblique lotus]

I guess the other perspective is that honestly I don't care that much if a pubby gets killed in a well placed cluster strike because that's their own fault

[supple siren]

cluster's just 'ah, well'

[oblique lotus]

There's a reason I wear Democracy Protects

50% of the time every time

[supple siren]

Democracy doesn't protect me, both my friends love using it and it offers me no quarter

but this frees me up to goof about with passives

[tall stone]

Ok, I am seeing why you get the results you do

I am in scout armor

If anything goes even a teensy bit wrong with a cluster, which do get wild hairs at times, I am dead

If my team is not paying attention, the cluster will kill them

Or

I can wait a few extra seconds for gas

[oblique lotus]

Yeah in that context its different

But cluster smells fear

[covert umbra]

recoilless becomes drastically better if you can coordinate team reloads

[tall stone]

Correct

[covert umbra]

otherwise i feel like the autocannon is my staple on most builds tbh

the stripper clip fast loads are too valuable to give up

[oblique lotus]

If you carry democracy in your heart and walk without fear you will very rarely never die

[tall stone]

I refuse to rely on Pubbies for anything

[oblique lotus]

^

[covert umbra]

again it's been a while since i played so -- if both you and another player are wearing an ammo backpack, can you not team reload for them?

[tall stone]

I can

But also pubbies are so, so stupid

You are relying on the average person being able to think

[oblique lotus]

It's actually really funny how the one time I took it off I realized how much it was doing to keep me alive

50% to Not Die is surprisingly good odds

[supple siren]

My main co-op friend only plays with Democracy and Always With A Bubble Shield

treats death as failure in a game where they tutorialized teamkilling for some reason

[covert umbra]

I'd really like to try the melee damage boost with the new baton

[cobalt patrol]

Means you get a whole nother strat to take!!!

[tall stone]

While fair

[cobalt patrol]

It really is. And it's always a crack up when it doesn't work and the bile titan kick reduces you too chutney

[supple siren]

I don't know if Divers remaining prone after a fall is a bug or a new feature but god I hope it stays

[tall stone]

You underestimate my hatred for Hunters and specifically Hunters.

[supple siren]

it adds this sort of 'yeah i meant to do that' factor to pratfalls that is just perfect

[tall stone]

And also my love for littering with EATs

[unreal merlin]

it's a new feature because getting ragdoll chained and automatically standing up into the endless stream of bullets from 17 heavy devastators was deemed to be unfun

[strange vine]

its very funny, you can solo a whole horde of voteless

[spare verge]

so the AT emplacement gave me an interesting animation bug

I was floating around like this

anyone tried using the flame turret on bots or bugs? I found it a bit disappointing on illuminate compared to bringing a gatling turret for its cooldown, especially since it was unable to fire at point blank range due to the length of its barrel

[unreal merlin]

Probably nigh useless against bots, decently good vs bugs, but I found it worked great vs squids as a way to control crowds of voteless

[covert umbra]

How's fire now generally? I stopped playing right around when everyone got mad about how shit fire was

[cobalt patrol]

Very strong, tends to roast you as well, so fire resistant armor is near mandatory.

Flamethrower specific:
Struggles a bit on high diff bugs just due to the # of chargers (you have to pop their butts, the legs & head work but take a lot of time) but it can murder bile titans and impalers in record time.

Still an amazing "and fuck this hoard" tool. Heard it does really well into illuminate currently, as long as you have something for flying Overseers

[tall stone]

Flamethrowers kill the heck out of most squids

[unreal merlin]

Burning the charger's foreleg is still the fastest way to do it, IIRC.

Not as much as it used to be, but still easy mode.

[covert umbra]

Knock of it's armour and then cook it?

[unreal merlin]

No, just cook it in the shell like a crab

[trail nymph]

<@&1206091872716595200> Who's up for some squid hunting?

[steady flame]

Sure!

@trail nymph Fren code?

[crystal badger]

I'm in

[heady halo]

im down if you still have slots

<@&1206091872716595200> two more slots in cass's channel!

[steady flame]

I'll jump in in a sec.

[heady halo]

its been like 10 minutes so does anyone wanna jump in before this mission?

[unreal merlin]

Latest Squid Loadout

• Diligence CS // Grenade Pistol // Gas Grenades
• Scout Armor, Light
• Stalwart // HMG Emplacement // MG Sentry // 120mm Barrage
  very comfortable in most situations and entirely capable of just stealth-crawling through a crowded city to do objectives without even fighting

• destroy outpost ships w/ 120mm barrage OR stalwart -> grenade pistol in the door (120mm also works on cognitive jammers)
• HMG Emplacement mulches literally everything, aim for Harvester leg-shoulder segment to easy kill, bullies overseers and watchers
• DCS and Stalwart give you very flexible engagement with any amount of voteless or overseers at close or long range, gas grenades offer emergency crowd control

[supple siren]

Gas Grenades also work on the ships oddly enough but if you got the pistol not really a problem

[steady flame]

How does the non-CS do?

[supple siren]

also it feels like the Exosuit was made to fight Illuminate, it just devastates these nerds

[unreal merlin]

Yeah they had their demolitions stat raised to 30 (enough to kill ships/assemblers/nests) but I had some difficulty getting them to actually stay in the ship door to detonate. Thus, "fuck this entire outpost, 120mm go"