Helldivers 2: For Managed Democracy!

[normal juniper]

this is also a different game with different game balance

and i think arrowhead recognizes that if they make the halo weapons just flat-out Better than most other options (lore accuracy and all that), on top of the higher warbond price, that would literally just be pay-to-win

[ionic holly]

As someone who does use the socom in game, very often

please do not ever change it

it's THE archetype i wanted for a pistol

i wanted a spammier better looking than the peacemaker option that still does comfortable damage

[unreal merlin]

Arrowhead is doing great in terms of balancing things now. Initially there was the shaky beginning with all the loudmouths screaming "ONLY BUFF NEVER NERF" without understanding that they needed to get it into the actually functional game state they wanted first before they could have started more elegantly tweaking things.

[fringe quiver]

I mean all things not in the base warbond are pay to win that are better options at that point

[supple siren]

People want Power Fantasy and it's just not the right game

They all fell for the intro cutscene

[unreal merlin]

Since this is an influx of clueless Xboxers I can only assume that it's more people who don't understand what the game's intended balance and feel is supposed to be.

[fringe quiver]

they missed ODST part of ODST

[ionic holly]

i wish, i make the mistake of diving into the steam discussion forms-

[fringe quiver]

and think it's Spartan

[ionic holly]

🤢

the steam discussion forms are miserable

you have people STILL rambling on about fuckin uh...
god i don't even remember their name, but the person they kept complaining about being the "king of nerfs"

[fleet nacelle]

On the topic of Xbox players we’re finally home and are gonna dive into things

Pun intended

[normal juniper]

yeah, but if they went forward with making the socom heavy pen it would go above and beyond any other sidearm, same with making the m90 med pen. why would you use most other shotguns when it punches through armor and does the most damage in class

[rotund marten]

heavy pen pistol is reserved for a hypothetical Cursed Halo warbond, where we can have the Pistol (Large)

[winter shuttle]

XD

[ionic holly]

also regarding calibers for these guns, i'm gonna be 100% with you

if you genuinely think bungie put thought into these calibers and weren't just picking them based off of what sounds cool and big, you're being dishonest with yourself

[supple siren]

Back in the day when guns could just be some shapes

[normal juniper]

https://tenor.com/view/weapon-firearm-gun-glock-big-glock-gif-18816190

[winter shuttle]

i think my only complain so far with the new update is once again, lib rate, and how scuffed it becomes

[rotund marten]

so far I've enjoyed the Halo rifle and SMG, haven't unlocked the other two yet

[ionic holly]

like- they go on in the lore in future games and specifically state the CE magnum was an upscale model primarily intended for spartan use

[winter shuttle]

the shotgun is amazing

the smg is eh

[rotund marten]

looking forward to the shotgun

the SMG is fun, I like its easy controllability

[winter shuttle]

the rifle is just.......chefs kiss

[ionic holly]

SMG is my favourite in the game frankly

[winter shuttle]

the pistol is alright

[rotund marten]

I haven't used many shotguns in a long time because I am not a huge fan of the breaker series

so it'll be nice to have something meatier

[ionic holly]

you ever used the punisher?

[winter shuttle]

repriment for me is also good

[rotund marten]

the Slugger was my go-to for the first three months of play

the Punisher I haven't gone for much

I have it, I just never played it a ton

[supple siren]

I'm pleasantly surprised by the rifle and that first person view is charmin

[ionic holly]

Fair enough, was gonna mention if you did use the pun-pun it's a similar experience, just a lot punchier

[rotund marten]

the rifle is god-tier for overseers, I'll give it that much

not quite my taste for bots or bugs but not because it's bad

[normal juniper]

the rifle seems punchier than it is in many halo games tbh

[rotund marten]

sometimes guns just have a particular vibe

[winter shuttle]

overall my only warboun d realted complain is.....stealth being kinda criptic to figure it out ?

but thats more the game fault over the warbound

[rotund marten]

I was wondering what the silenced guns would be like

[normal juniper]

the illuminate are certainly the most covenant-like faction in the game

so i can see it

[winter shuttle]

i'll love some indicator of stealth

[rotund marten]

I assume they don't allow you to shoot a bot that just noticed you sneaking into the strat jammer without alerting the whole base

I didn't touch a Halo game until last year, so this is not a nostalgia thing for me really

[supple siren]

They kind of do, depends on space

[rotund marten]

it's just A tier for Overseers and it's easier to sweep up voteless and fleshmobs with the other weapons than it is to handle all non-medium bots and bugs

it also doesn't actually kill devs that quickly, so there are better picks there IMO

Variable my beloved

[supple siren]

I've been Reprimanding bots, that or Deadeye

wish I could customize more of you, deadeye

[rotund marten]

deadeye is not to my taste, reprimand I have not tried

[winter shuttle]

its solid

[rotund marten]

ah, Truth Enforcers, yeah haven't got that yet

[supple siren]

I'm a sucker for analog machineries so lever action is like yaaaay

It goes kachunk and makes them die

[rotund marten]

also man, now I have warp packs and 2-3 other people to go SC farming with it's way less annoying to not have the new hot gun

an hour and a half of blitzing and there it is

[winter shuttle]

i mean you can solo farm with the mech

[rotund marten]

you can, but it's a little more awkward

[supple siren]

I thought warp pack would be less friendly with the cooldown

Hell and the startup

You can like Perfect Dodge it's great

[rotund marten]

warp pack is very user-friendly, also lets you cover ground faster

sometimes it won't let you jump into a bunker unless you're doing something strange though

found one that only let me in when I blipped towards it while diving sideways

horizontal helldivers at waist height only

[winter shuttle]

just dont like the rest of the warbound

[rotund marten]

I have fallen in love with the Variable

lots of ammo, great utility, murders almost everything not named Hive Guard

although the volley mode has felt like a trap

I kill devs and similar with less ammo used by spraying down the weakpoint area on full auto, since my aim is not quite god tier enough to skillshot the eye every time

the head has basically no health, so you don't really need seven bullets at once to pop it

[fleet nacelle]

Alright basic training done and we’ve named our super destroyer

The Halo of Mercy

(Kinda had to go with a halo riff )

[hazy oriole]

i kinda hope dot effects get fixed in the next patch if they haven't already

i miss flamethrower

[fleet nacelle]

so uh, anyone want to help teach us the ropes?

[cobalt patrol]

Nice, nice.

My ship is "Prophet of Audacity"

[fleet nacelle]

Ayy

[cobalt patrol]

As to teaching you the ropes, sorry, i am commited to Poe2... and a playtest in like 9 minutes for something else

[fleet nacelle]

That’s fair

[sharp crater]

I thought the fire damage was fixed

[stark ether]

"Pride of pride"

[normal juniper]

i went with the claw of law for mine

[sharp crater]

I've been using eagle napalm/incendiary grenades to great results

[fleet nacelle]

Oh right on another note we did get the super earth edition meaning we get a premium war bond token

[rotund marten]

mine has been Sovereign of Iron since I got the game because at the time I was reading the Iron Warriors books

[fleet nacelle]

Any war bond we should use it on in particular?

[rotund marten]

for straight up utility Democratic Detonaton, obtain thermite and grenade secondary

and eruptor

[normal juniper]

democratic detonation is usually what everyone gets first if given the choice

[hazy oriole]

are ya hosting or joining?

[fleet nacelle]

Hmm, fair enough

[sharp crater]

imo get what you think is cool (I went with steeled veterans because I'm a revolver addict)

[normal juniper]

i might be able to in a few but i am not that much more experienced

(they say after sinking in 60+ hours Already)

[rotund marten]

I'll be on in half an hour or so

we'll have you up to diff 7 before the evening's out

[sharp crater]

mostly joining lately. if it is a host thing I'm not super miffed about it

[sharp crater]

same here

[hazy oriole]

hm, maybe i'll give flame stuff a try again then

my particular issue was that flamethrower just wouldn't ignite enemies for some reason?

[sharp crater]

yeah for what it's worth I haven't been using the flamethrower so I can't comment on it if the problem is specific to the weapon

[unreal merlin]

Fire mechanics have always been inconsistent and I don't know what its current state is, but "hose an enemy" and "spray a firewall on the ground" have more or less always been good and functional

better vs bugs/squids due to the swarming obviously, but bots are surprisingly vulnerable to being melted

[fleet nacelle]

Alright first mission time

Alright cool, actual matchmaking unlocked

[mossy mango]

Want a friend after I'm done updating?

[fleet nacelle]

Hell yeah

We shall be in HA hangout vc

[mossy mango]

Sounds good!

[fleet nacelle]

#6257-9565

[normal juniper]

i may join soon!

[fleet nacelle]

9040-6136

[rotund marten]

there shortly

[ivory swallow]

https://tenor.com/view/dune-dune-2-dune-knife-may-thy-knife-chip-and-shatter-dune-chip-and-shatter-gif-5025479080738682343

[runic cairn]

https://youtu.be/KuH-aq9Gw0o?si=U09TIT9c_pBDwKsf

[fleet nacelle]

[fleet nacelle]

7245-6077

[fleet nacelle]

@ivory swallow on you

[weary granite]

Ngl, the Epoch is pretty funny to use on all fronts.

Also Epoch full charge apparently one-shots Chargers (good hit) and exposed Impalers, Bile Titan needs two solid hits to the sack or skull.

[unreal merlin]

Impalers are kinda fiddly but otherwise yes. Epoch is serviceable with enough practice, good even.

[weary granite]

Of course there is a chance I get turn into giblets if I don't let go of the trigger sooner than later but that will be the problem of anyone else near me and not mine in that moment.

:]

[unreal merlin]

These days I only overcharge if I get distracted by someone asking me something blindsiding when I don't expect it. I need to be able to hear the audio cue.

[strange vine]

split off bile terminids into their own distinct subfaction AH, pleaseee
they basically are a complete one already

then split the spore charger into the bile charger and spore burst charger, putting them in their respective subfactions
spore burst charger has the fart cloud and has a small explosion when it dies
bile charger no longer has the fart cloud but has a huge explosion when it dies

[strange vine]

i got a mod that makes the warning beeps much louder, is very good QoL

[weary granite]

For me the lizard brain in my skull hears both the sound and the electric visual cue of the Epoch even in an intense battle.

[unreal merlin]

The QOL would be if enemy constellations were actually better conveyed to the players (they aren't conveyed at all so literally anything is better)

[ionic holly]

a factory strider literally just

landed on me and a bud during an evacuate assets

[agile fable]

ok chargers and hulks are analogues of eachother, correct?

[ionic holly]

Iunno if they fulfil the exact same purpose but they are both the most common heavy, least on what i usually play

and both have their big weakspot on their back

[agile fable]

yup

i've been wondering why chargers don't have the same threat factor hulks do

like, from a mental perspective

i see a charger and think "ok, not too big a deal". i see a hulk and think "ah. well fuck."

[fleet nacelle]

Hmm, at least in our (very short) experience with the game hulks tend to like, pop out of nowhere

[agile fable]

and the funny part is hulks arent even that big a threat to me

i've learned that the laser cannon (my beloved) can melt them in like. 7 seconds or something.

[fleet nacelle]

Which makes them a bit more of an “oh shit” problem

[agile fable]

chargers also can just come out of nowhere

often at high speeds

i find them so funny cause they're like living freight trains

maybe that's it

the weak spot is easier to hit on chargers and they're just funnier so they're less of a threat in my mind

hulks dont have an ounce of comedy about them unless something funny happens To them

like, for example, carrying a heavy hitting stratagem over to the thrower

[normal juniper]

packing thermite has made hulks significantly less scary to me. i just can't handle getting mobbed by melee units who always outrun you so chargers will scare me more

[cobalt patrol]

Yes, they're the weak/chaff heavy

[cobalt patrol]

Jet brigade Hulks are constant comedy with the RR

Or with anything ap 3 for their jetpack

[rotund marten]

chargers definitely kill me a lot more than hulks do, because even when a hulk manifests out of nowhere next to your face you can frequently pop a stim and book it

chargers tend to pop into your peripheral vision when they're already moving at 100mph

[fleet nacelle]

Maybe hulks are scarier to us since the sole time we’ve fought them
A) it was in a city map
B) we didn’t have any weapons that could be easily kill them

[rotund marten]

neither are that dangerous to a prepared team moving and fighting as a group, though

[north fiber]

Hulks, chargers, and fleshmobs are all the same "tier" of enemy. The defining characteristic of their "tier" is that while they are all killable with primaries this tends to often be impractical. Additionally, they're so common that every loadout should have a plan to deal with them.

[agile fable]

my plan is just "shoot them with my big laser gun"

[rotund marten]

yeah, Cryptid may have noticed me firing away with theSenator because it can kill hulks with a few pistol shots to the face and we were on Diff 5 so I was having fun with it

the correct approach is either "let 'em have it with dedicated AT" or "stick with thermite, run"

although even on 10 I still like the Senator and the pistol-buffing armour for bots because it's a great holdout weapon

[north fiber]

I mean mine is "shoot with RR", "shoot with RR", and "Shoot with HMG". The plan doesn't need to be complex, you just need one.

[rotund marten]

fleshmobs are the odd one out of the three because they can be killed by basically anything, but in exchange there will be thirty of the bastards

[agile fable]

i hate fleshmobs

[north fiber]

tbh Hulks don't even need dedicated AT, you just want a support weapon with heavy pen (or some way to stun them then mag dump the honestly quite fragile heatsinks)

[rotund marten]

I need to get better at sniping the heatsinks with the variable while the thing's chasing friends, just to conserve good weapon ammo

[agile fable]

actually no scratch that i just hate the illuminate front and that sucks because we're on the precipice of a second illuminate siege of super earth

[rotund marten]

probably best just to put it on Volley rather than all-fire

[north fiber]

it's why I like the HMG into them. You get them to line up then mag dump all of them at once for an efficient kill

[rotund marten]

Stalwart + Peak Physique has been too much fun for me lately, the larger MGs just feel so clunky

stalwart buzzsaw doesn't do too badly, although a laser dog and/or eruptor helps immensely

[north fiber]

I run the extra grenades+recoil control when I run HMG for similar reasons. While I don't really have issues with the ergonomics (...too much) the recoil on the HMG is insane without the armor helping out.

[strange vine]

Stalwart doesnt need peak physique, it already has 40 ergo

[agile fable]

voteless come in hordes and are Just tanky enough that i can't deal with them easily using my lasers before they reach me and tear me apart like a pinata
overseers aren't too bad, i don't mind them
fleshmobs. oh how i hate fleshmobs. they are just. why. i hate them.
stingrays are like gunships but easier to dodge
and leviathans are just cool looking

[strange vine]

which is only slightly worse than the standard ARs

[rotund marten]

it doesn't, but it lets me whip it around like it was an SMG to murder bugs, which is just pleasant

so I frequently don't bother to change out the armour when fighting anything else

[stone bridge]

fleshmobs if you pack any kind of dedicated anti-personnel explosives

are easy

[rotund marten]

Fleshmobs don't massively annoy me, Leviathans oscillate wildly between being incredibly annoying and great big game depending on whether the team is willing to join me in blasting away with AT weapons

[strange vine]

due to how fleshmob's body parts are laid out, they take multiplied damage from explosions

[stone bridge]

autocannon flak tears them apart in short order, grenade launcher only a bit slower, eruptor is a 3-shot

[rotund marten]

GL is sometimes a little dodgy because of how quickly they can get in your face

works, though

[stone bridge]

hoverpack sweep if im being quite honest

[strange vine]

since none of their heads have explosive damage immunity theyll all independently take explosion damage, which then is fed into their main hp

[rotund marten]

haven't tried it yet, took a brief detour to get the new Halo weapons right as I reached that page of the warbond

just picked up the shotgun

[stone bridge]

ah, very good

m90 is fantastic

[cobalt patrol]

Recoiless Rifleeeeee

[cobalt patrol]

Levis really annoy me for how they're designed to just.. .arse around randomly. i would love them to actually feel like factory striders, a big oh fuck threat that needs to be brought down

[rotund marten]

I don't really mind them being these big floaty terrors that mostly just make life really hard, but there's basically no point killing them because another one just pops up

I think they'd instantly become way more fun if they were finite

[normal juniper]

i agree- if you wanted to go whale hunting to make the stage more manageable you should be rewarded with being able to strike them off the mission entirely

[rotund marten]

right now the solution I have essentially arrived at is to blow the front fins off to remove the long-range guns and then ignore it, because killing it gains you nothing and takes a lot of ammo

although usually that means just ignoring it outright because there's nothing else that requires me to be rolling around with that kind of long-range anti-tank equipment

[fleet nacelle]

Yeah we unlocked it for the last operation we played today and are fucking loving it

[cobalt patrol]

A big tip: you can reload cancel with it!

When your ammo turns white on the ammo counter, crouch/standup

this cancles the rest of the reload animation, and lets you firei mmediately

It also gets way better with super destroyer upgradeds - faster support weapon realods & having supplies fill your support weapon entirely

[rotund marten]

I must admit I was slightly confused as to what that second upgrade actually did purely because I barely ever run backpack support weapons

picked it up on the way to reload speed today

need to go crunch out a bunch of rare samples at some point just to get this thing up to date, I'm still missing seven T4/5 upgrades

[north fiber]

You likely are cofused because you've been benefiting from it before buying it

When someone calls down a resupply, the upgrade is either applied (or not) based on the person calling it down

everyone else then shares the benefit (or lack thereof)

[fleet nacelle]

Oh on that note we’re gonna be hopping on and doing some missions (difficulty 6 to start with since that’s the highest we’ve unlocked) if anyone wants to join

[trim breach]

ngl

my favorite part of free strategems

Is when your entire team just makes the collective decision of "fuck that direction in particular"

[north fiber]

I love playing in voice with people and dropping a "don't forget you have orbital lasers" and then three laser balls suddenly get thrown

[meager saffron]

so called freedom thinkers...

[normal juniper]

https://tenor.com/view/by-god's-light-i-smite-you-gianni-matragrano-gif-14063490941418944316

[odd arch]

late but people have the wrong idea about stealth weapons in general imo

stealthing objectives and stealth weapons are two entirely different beasts

[fringe quiver]

obviously stealth weapons means I should be able to go the entire map without being detected once

anything else is just sparkling invisibility

[odd arch]

stealth weapons are for removing low numbers of chaff blocking your way without bringing the wrath of 3 patrols on your head, but there's the expectation they will turn the game into hitman/MGS and no one in that same formation will wise up that they're being shot at

like idk what do people expect from a game that has obvious simulator aspirations

[fringe quiver]

sounds like illuminate propaganda

true democracy is silent and unending, always there

[cobalt patrol]

The Collective Disco Show has been great

[trim breach]

Doing a flag-raising mission on diff 10 bugs

All four people realizing they have free napalm barrages at once

[rotund marten]

I've been bringing a bunch of mechs because the free strats mean I can spare the slot, and man are these things cinematic even if they aren't superb

[trim breach]

i honestly really dig the green color scheme

[rotund marten]

If you can empty 14 rockets into chargers and titans before exploding they're not awful, I suppose, but they do have a tendency to explode

[hexed steeple]

i feel a lot of people have a very limited idea of what "stealthy gameplay" can look like due to how dedicated stealth games tend to be

[spare verge]

hellpods are not exactly stealthy insertion vehicles

[rotund marten]

How are the throwing knives for that, actually? Do they accomplish the goal of knifing a bot without his friend on the other side of the fabricator noticing, or are they merely about as sneaky as the silenced pistol?

[weary granite]

What I find annoying for any "Stealth Mechanic" in Helldivers 2 are the "Homing Patrols" that so conveniently follow your goddamn path.

[rotund marten]

I like trying to be sneaky in solo super helldive, but the way that generally works is that you stealth close enough to throw a barrage of 500kg and orbital laser at the objectives, blast as many spawners as you can reach and then run away a lot, so I only really want a "stealth weapon" that can kill the one annoying guy on the ramp or MG turret without instantly summoning a bot drop.

[fringe quiver]

I deserve to stealth execute a bile titan

[trim breach]

Run up under them and shoot an ultimatum straight up

Democracy Demands Sacrifice

[fringe quiver]

I do not like the smg

[weary granite]

I have forgotten how much I despised Predator Strain.

I no longer have forgotten.

[verbal summit]

I don't mind predator strain as much with something like the blitzer

But I can totally get the problem with them

[weary granite]

I did not need to have forty fucking stalkers jumping my ass with fifty hunters. I was running pure volume of fire with gas and I still got overwhelmed.

I legit kept getting spawncamped because my reinforcement pod dropped me too close to where I died.

[stone bridge]

what's your loadout?

[weary granite]

Lib Carbine
Grenade Pistol
Gas Nade
Gas Medium Armor

Gas mines (The entire map had mines thanks to me)
Warp Pack
Flamethrower
Strafing Run
+
Napalm Barrage
Gatling Sentry

Kept moving and everything, was going great and I had Super Samps to bring back to xtract. Then two patrols sandwiched me and one unluckily long Bug Breach and that is all she wrote.

[stone bridge]

yeah, your problem is in your choice of primary - you really want a weapon with staggering or stunning properties, especially against predator stalkers

punisher, cookout, pacifier or pummeler can also work, the M90a is literally ideal

[weary granite]

I was aiming for their legs to cripple them. Volume of fire really helped here.

They body blocked a lot of them. It is a shame that there was a LOT of them.

So yeah, is oof.

[stone bridge]

yeah, hence, stagger is ideal

the pellet spread can knockback multiple entities at once

[tight zephyr]

I’ve had good luck with the Breaker.

[weary granite]

Which one was M90a?

[stone bridge]

from the Halo warbond

[tight zephyr]

The Halo shotgun.

[weary granite]

Ah the shotty

I don't got it yet

[tight zephyr]

It’s basically the Punisher Except More.

[weary granite]

So I'll probably run Scorched Earth loadout

[tight zephyr]

Small magazine, but it does a lot with it.

[weary granite]

Cookout
Grenade Pistol (Hole Closing)
Incendiary Grenades
Fire Armor

Gas Mines
Gas Drone
Quasar or EATs
MG Turret for fast relief

[stone bridge]

looks good to me

[weary granite]

Actually maybe Arc Dog would be good here

They like to fucking swarm me for some reason

More than usual

Yeah I'll run Arc Dog and Epoch instead of Gas Dog and Quasar

Here is hoping I don't get Zeus'd by my dog

[tight zephyr]

That’s bugs for you.

[south temple]

man i wish the odst armor had a more aggressive passive

i miss my engineering kit

[odd arch]

sound reduction and no broken legs are OK but a mere 30% poi range is very funny

I expect it to get a buff but I'm just very amused trying to backtrack their thought process when deciding on that one

[weary granite]

Aight better. But I am done. Fucking two missions of Predator Strain and I am fatigued fighting them jesus.

Real freakin embarrassment tbh

I'm trying to grab Super Samps but apparently tonight is not the goddamn night

[north fiber]

Fire armor doesn't really feel necessary here? You could run more grenades or extra padding instead imo.

[stone bridge]

siege ready, fortified, ballistic padding all good options

[odd arch]

I assume it's to throw incis at close range?

they take longer to kill predator strain than they take to kill you so for similar strats I'd prioritize explosive resistance, or, if you're like me, gas

getting things done in the middle of a gas minefield never gets old

I forget, can you still rocket jump with the eruptor or is it too hard to avoid rear-facing shrapnel

[warm flint]

idk if people did that before, but anytime I've shot the eruptor too close to me I've died so

maybe if you use an explosive resistent armor?

[north fiber]

Nah, it's the shrapnel that's murdering ya usually so explosive resist won't help

If you want to "rocket" jump the Variable on total mode would work

[tardy onyx]

Warp Pack Get!

[tardy onyx]

Jumped inside my first buddy bunker and I got to say the word pack is pretty fun. Sure you might be technically less mobile than the jump pack but being able to tell a friend people and use it more at the risk of damaging yourself he's a fun trade off.

[mossy mango]

Predator strain has my number

Everytime I think I'm safe I get jumped

[strange vine]

https://youtu.be/1OzGgvBZ1Y4

[weary granite]

Close range fire and basically running through as many fire patches while letting more fire burn around. This is best used in conjunction with the gas mines, arc dog, and cookout stagger to make them stumble and burn.

[steady flame]

I skim-read it and thought "Hm, arc dog good?". Arc dog good.

[rotund marten]

did the maths and I am a casual 1333 rare samples away from actually finishing this ship up

going to need to start seriously sample hunting on missions

[unreal merlin]

Arc Dog is great, but only if you're playing with people who

• maintain good cohesion (not running ahead of the person with arc weaponry)
• maintain a good perimeter (not letting enemies swarm into your position)
  You want to play in ways that maintain clear directions for the Arc Dog to shoot in that does not include your teammates. You can do a lot of this yourself, but it IS a group effort and if the people you're playing with simply play in ways that do not jive with this then it will result in a lot of team killing.

The same thing is true with Arc Thrower, but in that case you have the option to hold charge and/or discharge it into the air/ground to avoid hitting a teammate (if you notice them).

[supple siren]

It can be easy to underestimate the chain range

Damn thing climbs a mountain sometimes

[rotund marten]

on the subject of sample hunting, I'd like some light armour with the +30% reload speed buff, do I go for Siege-Ready and unlock the AT emplacement or Masters of Ceremony for funny constitution and the Sample Scanner?

[supple siren]

AT Emplacement is a monster

[unreal merlin]

Urban Legends gets you way more useful things. Masters of Ceremony is something.

Siege Ready armor makes a lot of weapons feel very good to use.

[rotund marten]

I have heavy siege ready from the superstore already, but it would be nice to have something a bit more limber

[unreal merlin]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1208390071074562139/1411394183398428794/seriously-how-do-yall-keep-sneaking-into-the-d-10s-v0-8w3ui0ckl1mf1.webp?ex=68b47ec3&is=68b32d43&hm=8b8094742d599369406bde3b78fd15026f09dac3444ce4a3c7928bc11d5f04ae&

[mossy mango]

Urban Legends for sure, it and Democratic Demolition are near required warbonds

[rotund marten]

the sudden infusion of super credits from an actually good farming routine means I'm now unlocking 2-3 warbonds at once, it's great

Urban Legends next, then

[rotund marten]

<@&1206091872716595200> anyone for murder of any kind and/or SC farming

[normal juniper]

i'm down

[sage plume]

same here, i need to save up for the new warbonds

[mossy mango]

Sure!

[strange vine]

https://www.nexusmods.com/helldivers2/mods/7573 okay but this sort of thing as an actual stratagem would be cool

[north fiber]

all timer line tbh

[steady flame]

I'd love that mod and use it if it was in Helldivers colours, but sadly it isn't. :(

Oh, apparently it can! So I'll pick it up. :3

[rotund marten]

OK, 45 minutes of farming later I now have Urban Legends and delicious light siege-ready armour

man, it's odd to have 3-4 warbonds going simultaneously because you have way more SCs than you do medals

[civic apex]

https://youtu.be/KuH-aq9Gw0o

[cobalt patrol]

The contract is hilarious

It is just absolute arbitrary dogshit that garuntees your family gets nothing for your death, you never retire etc

[normal juniper]

i just remembered why i really don't like fighting squids

[odd arch]

my feelings are best summed up in the contrast between how I approach bots, my favourite faction, and squids
bots are very susceptible to all our flavours of strategic bombing and I still charge into them because it's enjoyable to fight my way to the top of their hills
squids are where all my fire and forget stratagems and kiting come out

[normal juniper]

get through a mission by the skin of my teeth, no reinforcement budget, get a mortar from ~somewhere~ to eat my entire health pool right when i'm at extract leaving without my samples not even 100m away, and then when i finally reinforce at the very end, my connection just. evaporates. giving me nothing

bc people in the lobby who have no idea what they're doing aggroed a levi

squids are genuinely a miserably balanced faction, because at their full roster they cover pretty much every base and have very minimal weaknesses

[odd arch]

they don't have any exciting strengths either as a kicker

they just slowly sand you down with good enough and annoyance

[normal juniper]

idk if arrowhead wanted them to be, like a happy medium faction or smth

but their niche is muddy at best, and from a casual standpoint (ie. most players) they're a nightmare to plan for, bc you have to have every eventuality planned

[odd arch]

at least they're consistent in that hordes, flesh mobs, ablative armour and shields all favour bullet hosing over AP

I give them that

[normal juniper]

bullethosing is their one identity but even so

you need fast crowd clear And big single target And snappy anti-air measures And ways to protect yourself from being bombarded by respawning cannons

every unit individually is not that much of a problem

[odd arch]

levis are the biggest pain in the ass but my personal design grudge is overseers

they're kinda all over the place in their bullet sink (big) to threat (small, with RNG instakills sometimes) to spawn rates (???) ratio

[normal juniper]

mine are mobs actually. if i can't bring an autocannon to 3-tap them it becomes hitbox roulette with those bastards

i just. don't really know what arrowhead was thinking with the illuminate

there's a semblance of a faction identity but nothing mechanically consistent

[odd arch]

overseers don't feel like an elite unit come to take advantage of the horde's cover, they're an annoying mosquito buzzing in my ear who I gotta mag dump eventually because it might roll a nat 20 on my head given enough time

[stone bridge]

any anti-personnel explosives work, crossbow or eruptor in the primary if you're not bringing an AC

[normal juniper]

i would bring eruptor more if there wasn't the constant crowd pressure, but i suppose i can run stalwart for that

[odd arch]

eruptor is my squid main when I'm not leveling/being silly

[spare verge]

I wonder how they'd feel if they made shielded units significantly more fragile when their shield is broken

just fully rip off the protoss

[normal juniper]

or the covies

[odd arch]

it clears horde well enough for the times where you actually have to shoot it personally

[split parcel]

wasp is excellent against illuminate ime

[normal juniper]

i do remember that, it's quite delightful

being able to one-tap overseers is pleasant, provided the missile doesn't hit geometry on the way there

[karmic prawn]

During the invasion of super earth my loadout was the eruptor, talon, light armour, incendiary grenades, medium machine gun, shield pack, machine gun turret and gatling or gas strike

Gundog also does great work getting overseers off your back

[rotund marten]

I'm not sure if I'm imagining it, but laser dog seems to do a great deal of work against fleshmobs with its fire effect and smooth target switching

[karmic prawn]

The HMG will saw a harvester in two in a few seconds of fire if you get the shots on target too

Though it's always been a bit unwieldy for me

[rotund marten]

I am too addicted to the Stalwart to use the heavier machine guns, yeah

you can swing that thing around like it's a lightsaber made of bullets, and run + reload is very handy

[karmic prawn]

I really like the medium one since it can take out harvesters and stingrays without too much trouble and it gives some crowd control in a pinch too

[rotund marten]

I should really be better at snapshotting stingrays than I am, although I'm usually not carrying the gear for it

[cobalt patrol]

Fire does more damage the bigger things are, fire will absolotuey fuck up Fleshies

[rotund marten]

OK, halo pistol acquired, next up AT emplacement and hoverpack

wondering whether I should go for Polar Patriots or Dust Devils next

may as well play with the new toys

but I do want the Verdict

[stone bridge]

What warbonds you got left? I think Dust Devils has a ton of promise, but we don't have any numbers right now

[rotund marten]

a good number, and there's a few I haven't totally scoured yet because I'm getting so many SCs in lately

let me check

Still need to unlock:

Polar Patriots
Viper Commandos
Freedom's Flame
Chemical Agents
Truth Enforcers
Masters of Ceremony
Servants of Freedom
Force of Law

and I'm still getting the last stuff with stats out of Borderline Justice and Urban Legends but that should go quite quickly

[stone bridge]

I'd recommend Chemcial Agents next, actually, it has some top tier bits for you

[rotund marten]

I am currently basically out of SCs because I bought a bunch of superstore armours just to round out my armour passives collection, but it should be a fairly short sprint to 1000 at current rates

light sidearm-boosting armour is great for messing around

even if it is very much not my usual fashion

[mossy mango]

I'm getting chemical agents for the stim pistol next

But I'm skipping cutting edge for now

[verbal summit]

@odd arch your stim pistol.plus my death revival armour

Infinite life

They'll never kill me

Plus idk melee build or something for the funnies

[sage plume]

i think it would be funny if you could buy medals, as in you buy a spot in a parade on a megacity/SuperEarth that would take you an entire hour as you parade around the city and then are awarded medals for it, but the important part is that it takes an hour (as it is funny)

[odd arch]

is it ethical

[odd arch]

hmm today I'll get a quick game in before sleep

lost current network connection

[verbal summit]

I consent and I'm the one dying so I think it's ethical

[north fiber]

We fucking did it

all three ops completed and with time to spare

[cobalt patrol]

i asume they mean Lead free

but hte idea thati s' LED free is amusing

[north fiber]

Gloom has opened up!

[cobalt patrol]

"If the Mirin sector does indeed hide the heart of the Gloom, then we will break open its chest cavity. We will extract hefty, high-value biopsies. And we will savour that long and final monitor beep of Justice."

[tall stone]

The new people get to experience Hellmire!

[fleet nacelle]

Dive?

<@&1206091872716595200>

[normal juniper]

Dive-

[tardy onyx]

Well I did my first Gloom dive. It was Hell. Not like metaphorically. No I'm pretty sure that was an actual preview of damnation.

[fleet nacelle]

Shit sorry got dragged away to supper

Be back on later

[normal juniper]

nodnod

[primal river]

Yeah Gloom dives are really nasty

Hellmire again but worse now! It's pretty cool

[knotty folio]

Is it just me or are Bile Titan Bug Holes way more common in the Gloom?

[fleet nacelle]

Well considering our first mission on hellmire had us fight about 4 of them and we only joined halfway through

Then yeah

[knotty folio]

At least we have two free hellpod stratagems right now, so closing them is pretty easy

[unreal merlin]

Just finished an operation where two of us spent a continuous 25 minutes fighting bugs over the same 150 sq.ft. of land

[tardy onyx]

On a more positive note I am really enjoying the Adjudicator. It feels more like a proper assault rifle compared to the Liberator.

[north fiber]

Welcome to Hellmire

It's appropriately named

[unreal merlin]

It used to be worse - there used to be fire tornados!

i_wish_this_sucked_more.png

[north fiber]

yeah, I'm really sad the fire tornados aren't appearing

[agile fable]

oh well

[north fiber]

I wish we could throw the box divers into the Siege of Popli IX

now that was a fucking fight

[agile fable]

who are the box divers again?

oh

[north fiber]

Xbox

[agile fable]

i am dumb

brain gone

[north fiber]

[agile fable]

if you ask for a source i don't remember where i got this.

[tardy onyx]

I could 100 percent see that as an actual description for an armor set.

[primal river]

Bring Back the Fire Tornados!!!

[ionic holly]

and this is why we wear the heaviest armour plating we can on the balls

[rotund marten]

dust devils superstore has a Dune sword to go with the Dune armour, apparently

new favourite warbond

[clever steeple]

greetings fellow divers!

i’m so ready to fight for Super Earth!

[daring monolith]

I’ve never been more sad that my pc is out of action than I am now

I need that sarduakar drip

[weary granite]

I wonder which would come first.

Armor color customization
or
Mech Loadout system

[quick plinth]

probably the former unless we get like two more mechs soon

[spare verge]

hoping for the mech with a flamethrower and anti-tank cannon from helldivers 1

[sharp crater]

I want a mech with a melee weapon for the real dreadnaught experience (stomping doesn't count)

[warm flint]

it has two chainsaws and the torso spins non stop

no other weapons or abilities

[sharp crater]

super earth would never allow it (too similar to automaton tech)

(but I approve)

[blissful sparrow]

2 Hands to grab fellow helldivers who then swing the ceremonial sword as i swing them

[verbal summit]

Definitely armour

[odd arch]

I think what breaks epoch's deal for me is that it can't blow up containers and fences

it's perfectly serviceable now that it shoots straight, just

I have a shoulder launcher, I'm not dedicating another slot to demolition

[strange vine]

i dont expect you to be using the RR to destroy bug holes unless its extreme circumstances though?

[odd arch]

it's more autocannon esque

[tight zephyr]

Man, I forgot how indispensible the Blitzer is for bugs.

[idle hollow]

you guys got any recommendations for bug gear
rn i use contact incendiaries, lib carbine and the dredd pistol
mainly stratagems tbh

[sharp crater]

my current loadout in the gloom is:

• eagle napalm
• eagle 500kg
• orbital gas
• EAT/RR/autocannon depending on team loadout

sometimes I will swap orbital gas for incendiary mines or MG turret

[north fiber]

I had quite a bit of fun with the bolter dominator, talon (tho any reliable secondary would work), gl, and thermites. Other strats were supply backpack, 500, eagle napalm

Dominator bullies warriors and above, gl murders small stuff and clusters of bile spewers, thermites for the chargers/impalers when your teams AT is otherwise occupied (or you ran off to close a nest solo again)

[sharp crater]

I will also vouch for the GL, it does work

[north fiber]

Armor was light peak physique but you could definitely run something else.

[idle hollow]

I tend to default to engi kit light for bugs

[rotund marten]

before mech loadout I would like the ability to land my backpack drone on my mech's roof so it can continue to dakkadakkadakka

the personal shields continue to shield the mech already, albeit mostly via jank

[odd arch]

getting to end of round screen consistently turns off my PC

what the actual fuck

[heady halo]

wow heldivers feels way different on a controller

[tight zephyr]

When's the new Warbond again?

[mossy mango]

4th

September

[tight zephyr]

Thank you.

I got really lucky with the 100-SC drops, so I've got the SC already.

[tardy onyx]

I SAW 3 BILE TITANS IN A FUCKING CONGA LINE.

[tight zephyr]

Sounds like the bug front, yeah.

[idle hollow]

i hate the big holes

why do they put out. Two of them

[weary granite]

Bile Titan Convoy hidden secondary objective.

[split parcel]

i just smack the big holes with orbital gas strike and that does the trick

[fleet nacelle]

Anyone up for diving?

[clever steeple]

finished my first personal order!

[idle hollow]

I finally got the warp pack

[fleet nacelle]

<@&1206091872716595200>

[idle hollow]

You know what that means

https://tenor.com/view/warframe-we-all-lift-together-gif-19925077

[graceful bluff]

fish

[idle hollow]

grind time

6000 SC to get all the remaining war bonds

7500 - 1500 (the halo bond doesn’t give SC)

[rotund marten]

I need to get grinding but I also need to sleep

I will get my 1k for Dust Devils in the morning

[weary granite]

I already got my 1k for the Dust Devils. I just need the medals.

I want my Missile Silo.

[cobalt patrol]

I'm just finally gonna buy the super citizen edition

[ionic holly]

I'm gonna be gunning for the heavy armour

really hoping it can blend in with other stuff fashion wise cause not a big fan of the helmet

[unreal merlin]

I'm liking the hellmire objectives shakeup

Nuclear silo as a secondary objective woo

[fleet nacelle]

@normal juniper have to go. Not sure when I’ll be back since it’s a short task that may transition into a longer one

[normal juniper]

nodnod

[cobalt patrol]

Wasn't that the case with the last gloom expedition? It was very cool though I agree

Need more of that sort of thing and less objectives that are low level only

[true seal]

Here we go again

We’re never escaping Hellmire

[tight zephyr]

Aptly named planet.

As an aside, my usual group loathes fighting bugs so this MO is gonna be rough.

[graceful bluff]

better bugs than squids

[north fiber]

Fucking love Hellmire

it sucks

[burnt vapor]

I have found I enjoy fighting the predator strain more then normal bugs, I think it’s because the stalkers help eat up the elite spawn pool so it’s less endless chargers

[cobalt patrol]

I enjoy some planets just being this perpetual clusterfuck, it's very super earth coded

[cobalt patrol]

Gas dog is also a big hero into them, gas dog takes no prisoners

[agile fable]

rite of passage

[hazy oriole]

anyone got tips for using the gl? last i tried i found myself somewhat whemled with it compared to my usual stalwart setup

[stone bridge]

do you have the hover pack?

[burnt vapor]

I still need to grab chemical agents, I have been running las dog and the good boy has been doing work.

[split parcel]

I greatly enjoy it on bugs due to its ability to close holes easily

[stone bridge]

So for reference, with the Hover Pack I literally just got a 38 kill streak using just the grenade launcher vs bugs

being able to volley shots directly into the center of crowds and use the entire explosive radius makes the GL a complete monster

[sharp crater]

yeah, the GL is good vs bugs, and is mostly point and shoot (the arc is barely noticeable outside of long ranges). You just gotta be mindful with it in close quarters

might be nice vs illuminate as well, but haven't tried it there myself

[hearty pier]

Definitely does work vs illuminate but really wants a supply pack there because of the fleshmobs

[hazy oriole]

I guess I shall give it a try, never been a biiiiiiig hoverpack afficianado due to how i find myself descending into a crowd of bugs

[stone bridge]

you wont have that problem with the gl

they'll all be dead

[north fiber]

I tend to run the gl with the supply backpack.

Both so the grenades never stop coming and to help out my allies

something to keep in mind is the grenades two shot bile spewers and mag dumping the face of an impaler seems to work pretty well

[sharp crater]

it will break charger butts too

[north fiber]

chargers I tend to just thermite when running gl

[sharp crater]

for sure, but it's an option

[north fiber]

And if a bile titan shows, well I just hope my local AT diver is nearby

[sharp crater]

yeaaahhhhh

[north fiber]

I mean I have options (thermites can kill them and I do run 500kg on the loadout I've settled on), but they're unreliable and expensive

[stone bridge]

ultimatum sweep

[odd arch]

GL is wonderful as a general firepower thing

I think it's forgotten mostly because people already get their explosions from very popular picks in other slots, but GL can replace them for a novel loadout

[verbal summit]

Remind me when the update drops today?

[odd arch]

ok I'll remind you

[verbal summit]

Oh I meant when's the time but that works too lol

I'll figure it out

I kinda hope it's like 2 or 3pm my time so I have a good excuse not to laze around all day and to actually go pick up my medw

Meds

[verbal summit]

Oh now??

Now now????

Fuck my meds I guess

[calm sorrel]

good news, they fixed Motivational Shocks applying to enemies! Bad news you can no longer pause bleeding out from adreno-defibrillator by getting in a walker

I honestly thought the second one was intentional and I was starting to suspect the first one was too given how long its been a problem for

[cobalt patrol]

Burrower strain is chewing on people on hellmire apprently

[stone bridge]

Hive World missions are up!

[cobalt patrol]

Thisisnotokaytm.

Also, holy fuck. Player joins by sos, spends the entirem ission cokmpalinign that his teamates form a previous misison wont kill bts for him, and that rupture strain is too hard?

Get to end of misson, land in ship

he's frigging 140

Didnt recongize things like RR as short for Recoiless Rifle

I eventually fave up giving him advice, told him to whine less and booted him off my ship because good gods sir

[rare nymph]

Ouch

[cobalt patrol]

I am happy to be patient with newbies. i am happy to be patient with people who need some advice and are receptive

I run right out of tolerance for whatever the fuck that was

[odd arch]

I'll take someone who dies every 5 meters over someone good but grumpy any day

[ionic holly]

desperately want to hop in but my wifi has been out for 3 days

[supple siren]

I never understand how folks can get like mad this game

[cobalt patrol]

Poor emotional regulation

it's not a skill thats' really tuaght these days

[supple siren]

Helldivers in particular though idk

Something about being buzzsawed in half by the tutorial made me go "ah yes this is a failure-accepting zone"

Like our lives are literally a secondary objective to the Real Mission

[sage plume]

<@&1206091872716595200> who wants to do a singular dif 10 bug mission (its all the time i have)

[burnt vapor]

I'm game

[strange vine]

heads up, the rupture warriors (from the new subfaction) have AV3 heads

[ionic holly]

unfortunate, but adaptable

[rotund marten]

OK, the deep dive levels are peak

this is incredible

[toxic socket]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1299931988937150545/1412416114431885383/image-148.png?ex=68b83683&is=68b6e503&hm=d19469b24ef3027b40771fc41368a5164e860b65ac423f450708f7826fb6ce63&

[burnt vapor]

Sounds right, I’ve never met a helldiver who had been shot in the head.

[hearty pier]

Does that cause issues using melee to keep them off you? Bash is only AP2 right?

[rotund marten]

so the new big guy is kind of tough

I'm not entirely certain it can die, we rained at least a dozen SPEAR shots on it and it didn't give a damn, but it did retreat for several minutes at times

[cobalt patrol]

That being ||The Hive Lord||

or just Mr Roach?

[sage plume]

<@&1206091872716595200> reping for more helldivers :D

[rotund marten]

I'll be ready in just ten minutes, I need to get a drink

[rotund marten]

||Hive Lord||, yes

if you can kill it, we're talking "everyone has a portable hellbomb and pops it when it appears next to you" levels of kaboom

which might work

||the inside of the mouthparts ||take red hitmarkers from most things, too, so spamming that with Quasar might help

[cobalt patrol]

I mean, given it ||Dwarfs the size of the Levithan, that's pretty great||

[rotund marten]

I do want to get a proper squad together and dedicate the whole mission just to seeing if it dies

[strange vine]

well it ||has 150,000 main HP, so its gotta have some weak spots?||

for reference, a hellbomb does 10,000 damage

[rotund marten]

spear gets red hitmarkers on the exterior armour, but it might not be doing any meaningful damage without weakpoint multipliers since you can't aim it

update to my previous statement

they die, somehow

thermites seem decent

do we have anyone else for big game hunting?

[ionic holly]

were my internet not down and i had the update installed, yes

[supple siren]

GL-52 De-Escalator stratagem input code now begins with a down arrow, inline with other support weapon stratagems

the real update

[cobalt patrol]

I'm genuiinely glad to here that

one of my faovutrie things is how there's recongixable patterns to strat imputs

[rotund marten]

these armoured tunneling bugs are fantastically annoying

it's not the tunneling so much as the fact that even the warriors are medium armoured

and the chargers are apparently immune to heavy pen, at least on the face

[strange vine]

imo makes sense, theyve got thicker heads

[heady halo]

that would be a cool armour passive tbh. headshots just make a cool ping noise and ricochet offf

[rotund marten]

I tried Dominator/Talon and that was wholeheartedly not cutting it, the dom doesn't have the damage to actually put down the alpha commanders and not enough ammo for the hordes

scorcher/GL is decent

[ionic holly]

see i like that but oh god is that gonna fuck with me

[cobalt patrol]

... Huh, I thought they were a joke when I fought them

Purifier liquifies the warriors etc

[ionic holly]

purifier moment

[cobalt patrol]

And RR still deleted the charges

[ionic holly]

I'm curious what you do for crowd clear? lean on allies?

[cobalt patrol]

Gas grenades, mg turret, purifier & talon as back up

[ionic holly]

Gas explains it
i run pyro myself as a crowd cleaner

[cobalt patrol]

Often have gas strike or gas mines

[ionic holly]

my funny lil fireworks are deceptively effective

[cobalt patrol]

I'd actually prefer to have incin mines, but they just aren't teammate friendly

[ionic holly]

Most mines aren't, gas just has the safety net of being able to slip away

[cobalt patrol]

Tbh, I mostly clear using the turret+ purifier

But I have done bugs with the Deadeye and kicked arse so

[ionic holly]

also, fellow MG turret enjoyer

[cobalt patrol]

Gas grenades are mostly a GTFO trick

Drop at feet, run

[ionic holly]

I do the same with pyrotechnics

[cobalt patrol]

Yes, teammates will always find a way to stand on incins

[ionic holly]

it's a little riskier cause it can by all means do a lot more damage but nothing you can't shrug off

(also just having 6 total grenades with no fuss is VERY nice)

also i wanna mention

the pyrotechnic have got to be the best "joke" option

i say joke in quotations cause they're yknow repurposed fireworks

but having used these as much as i do Holy Fuck

they kill everything

i've thrown these at factory and war striders and they die

i wanna know what the fuck kinda repurposing was done or what the hell kind of fireworks SE uses

cause they gotta start making ordinance out of that

[graceful bluff]

Apparently you don't even need a warp pack anymore to get into bunkers

[rotund marten]

the purifier and the scorcher kill them well

so does the flamethrower primary

but the stalwart goes ping ping ping off half the bugs in the mission

[heady halo]

pfff thought this was fonna be like an update where you could hellbomb bunker doors open or somthing

[heady halo]

do you think lasers would do well?

[rotund marten]

laser dog has been kind to me, not sure about the handhelds

[steady flame]

I wish I could play, but the crashbug has hands against me.

[winter shuttle]

the download size is getting fucking silly

[supple siren]

yeah my friend has their download corrupt after getting all this to 99%

[winter shuttle]

its bigger then total war warhammer 3

[graceful bluff]

Has it been kind to your teammates

[rotund marten]

fairly

[odd arch]

update: game is not shutting down my PC anymore

it's only shutting itself down!

[rotund marten]

scorcher is so far my favourite cave clearing primary

as long as I have the talon to quickswap to when one of those armoured guys spawns in my face

[agile fable]

Kilograms aren’t enough anymore

[knotty folio]

Just gotta railcannon strike it 20 times in a row, easy

(Or maybe as few as 18, depending on its armor)

[winter shuttle]

ok

trying to do tunnel rating alone is no fun

[rotund marten]

the caves require teamwork, yeah

[trim breach]

I need competent teammates

[rotund marten]

I'm enjoying it immensely, the difference between the organised 4 I had this morning and the randos I was just in a mission with is night and day

[trim breach]

So far my one attempt at doing anything today was a case of like

[rotund marten]

also, mechs are actually good

two people ahead of the mech, one person behind and calling your movements so it doesn't step on anyone pushes into caves well

[trim breach]

"Everybody stays in one spot and tries to kill a horde of bugs, but can't do it before the cooldown on reinforcements resets, so they just keep endlessly spawning and they waste fifteen minutes sitting in one spot instead of doing objectives."

[winter shuttle]

idealy

you want folks to bring in mechs

grenade lauchers are also good becuse man, there are a lot of nests

[trim breach]

Also nobody shoots at the flying hulk doing bombing runs for some reason

[rotund marten]

the support weapon slot is very contested

GL is great for clearing, but you want regular AT for dragonroaches and I don't even know what you want for the big fellow

Recoilless spam to the face, possibly

[strange vine]

Autocannon is also really good

and is easier to do close range fire since the AoE is smaller

they got rid of the ambient light on your diver on the ship but now helldiver arm consoles are light mode

[supple siren]

Anyone else get severe audio issues in the caves

[graceful bluff]

audio in general seems a bit fucky

like the laughing emote is silent to me in the destroyer

[rotund marten]

grenade launcher pros: incredibly destructive in tight spaces
cons: bounces 🙁

[rotund marten]

the new armoured bugs are weak to explosions and there are spitters everywhere, I knew there was a reason the Scorcher and the Purifier were annihilating them and the Dominator did next to nothing

full auto plasma rifle does the business

[hazy oriole]

fell to my knees

[stone bridge]

Apparently Dragonroach wings can be damaged by anything, including light pen

Which probably means Flak is really good for taking them out of the sky

[unreal merlin]

so we just dic (failed) a diff10, me and a friend were standing outside a cave entrance and I notice the dirt behind us
"huh, something's burrowing behind us, that looks really big"
"oh, yeah, that looks really big, does that look big to you?"
"yeah that looks pretty big to me"
skyscraper shai hulud erupts from the dirt
"OH NO, IT'S THE OLD MAN OF THE DESERT"

[rotund marten]

I would like to get a proper squad together for worm hunting

all recoilless w/ supplies

[sage plume]

id be down if its at a resonable time

(resonable is very flexible from <t:1756800000:t> to <t:1756843200:T>)

[idle hollow]

they're fucking huge

holy shit

how do you even kill that

[harsh kayak]

Gun

[knotty folio]

I'm definitely going to be trying the Eruptor into the mouthparts

Seems like a place where you'll get ridiculous damage from the shrapnel

[north fiber]

2 teams of recoiless buddy reloads plus autocannon mechs

and even then expect to be fighting for all your CDs to come back

The datamined HP values is ||150,000 so expect to be shooting for a while.||

[unreal merlin]

the practical answer is that you don't. you need ||15 hellbombs worth of damage||

[rotund marten]

we put a dozen or more spears into it and it didn't give a damn, so next time it's time to try RR and automech to the head

[idle hollow]

also uh

why does the epoch have no AT value

i can't pop fabricators with it

[unreal merlin]

You can, it takes 2 shots.

It however has no demo force so you cannot just put a single shot into the vent.

[idle hollow]

oh

[unreal merlin]

It has sufficient AP and damage to 2-shot normal fabricators.

[idle hollow]

that'd do it

[unreal merlin]

idk about big ones

[idle hollow]

hey speaking of

how do i deal with those

[unreal merlin]

More AT, airstrikes, 500kg, etc

[idle hollow]

mm

[unreal merlin]

they have 4000 hp and AV5

so an epoch can kill it but with like 5 shots

arrowhead, my life for a smidge of demo force on the epoch

[knotty folio]

Can't you also just poke their vents with demo force?

[north fiber]

Yeah, they die to nades in the vent like anything else

Recoiless in the vent or front door is a oneshot and it's a two shot otherwise

[graceful bluff]

Their vents are a bit annoying because they don't go in very far

so firework grenades can just spin back out of it

[rotund marten]

thermite catching the edge of the vent/bug hole my beloathed

at least it usually oneshots fabs anyway

[fleet nacelle]

As we’re now home anyone available to squad up in around 10-15 minutes?

[idle hollow]

contacts and thermites also dont do anything to the big boys

[north fiber]

Yeah, I don't count thermites as a bug hole closer when making loadouts lol

they're too limited and annoying

[verbal summit]

Anti tank emplacement perhaps?

[fleet nacelle]

Wait nvm we need to update the game

But after that!

[hazy oriole]

underground mega nests have bt holes, which annoys me since if you don't have either the ultimatum or the portable hellbomb (something a lot of new players won't have) you can't close it

[fleet nacelle]

Alright cool game has updated

…and broken our audio

Sounds like tinnitus

[rotund marten]

I'll be around to blow stuff up momentarily

[rotund marten]

I think at least the spore lung missions have hellbombs built in, but many of the others don't

I'm going to need to prioritise that warbond

since I lack both the Ulti and the PHB and I'm not removing the Talon with this number of armoured warriors deep striking directly onto my face

[fleet nacelle]

Aaand we have to go pick up our dad’s truck since it was in getting serviced

Great, just fucking great

can life just let us enjoy the game please??

[verbal summit]

You can close it without

[hazy oriole]

What's the min demo force needed?

[strange vine]

40 demo force

[knotty folio]

40, unless the underground ones are different

[strange vine]

you can kill a BT and itll crush the hole if youre lucky

[knotty folio]

Which I thought is just those two + assorted stratagems and hellpods

[strange vine]

also the rupture charger heads seem to be AV5 but they seem to have less HP, a patriot rocket is able to kill it in one shot

[knotty folio]

Or destroy another bug hole nearby

[rotund marten]

they don't like quasars, same as regular BTs

but I think the autocannon mech is the one for this

you want the wall of fire

and the short lifespan is not an issue since I'm either using them to clear a big nest or hold position in a cave against one breach so you can keep pushing the same passageway

which can get a bit absurd

on my last D10 spore lung run there was a ~10 minute section of us trying to push one L-shaped hallway with a small hole in the ceiling at one end

we could keep reinforcing into that gap but we couldn't drop half our strats because the hellpods or the mech would land on the roof, so it was just a total meatgrinder

a lot of the difficulty of these missions seems to come from the fact that there's no space to move and often no option to pull back and come back in again, you just have to go straight into the teeth of the colossal D10 spawns until either the AI director gives you a break or you manage to blow up something important

outside the caves you can get the usual momentum even without an ungodly number of airstrikes

[rare nymph]

Man D10 cave missions with randoms is painful

[verbal summit]

Yeup

[hazy oriole]

i will second this as someone who tried the patriot a lot, gatling was running out way before the rockets were

on the subject, what are y'all bringing to the gloom planets in terms of loadouts? strats, primary, grenade, secondary etc
i've found something that kind of works for me but I want more options as it's still far from ideal rn

[rotund marten]

I started with the Patriot but then I swapped and immediately went from "this doesn't clear nests" to "this can take half of a huge nest by itself before running out of gas"

[hazy oriole]

tips for dealing with rupture spewers would also be great those bastards are super annoying

[rotund marten]

scorcher is god tier

[supple siren]

Purifier onetaps spewers

[hazy oriole]

i wish more than ever we had a double gatling patriot

[hazy oriole]

charged shot?

[supple siren]

Yeahp

[rotund marten]

medium pen, explosive damage, great handling, kills spitters basically no matter where you hit them with a short burst

[supple siren]

But it's quick enough to catch 'em

[rotund marten]

purifier probably also great

you want easy explosive damage

[supple siren]

Just careful not to Explode Yourself

as they really like to pop up surprisingly

[rotund marten]

it also ruins the new armoured warriors and is adequate against anything else

[supple siren]

rest of the build: been struggling, no idea what sidearm.. considering grenade pistol just for the sheer Bug Holes of it all

Quasar's been nice

[hazy oriole]

i've been running supply pack mg with ulti and halt just to deal with the sheer amount of medium spam thrown my way

[rotund marten]

Primary: Scorcher/Purifier
Secondary: Senator/Talon (quickdraw medium pen so you don't kill yourself with the scorcher when a burrow warrior appears in your face)
Support: Grenade launcher for mass waveclear and bug holes, Quasar for AT/AA
Grenade: Thermite, incendiary, anything crowd control all good
Armour: I just roll more grenades

if I had fire resist armour I might be wearing it

[hazy oriole]

my big problem with rupture spewers isn't the damage but the visual noise of their projectiles, so often it feels like all i can see is green and then i run out of stims and get nibbed to death

miiiiight give the scorcher talon setup a try

[rotund marten]

it's been my staple

leave it on autofire, that thing has no recoil

or next to none

also has flashlight and laser sight

<@&1206091872716595200> can we get four for a worm hunt in ~25mins

this is not a job for less than a full squad

[fleet nacelle]

Probably? I’ll be 25-30 minutes

Ish

[hazy oriole]

any tips for it? i find i die a lot to selfdamage from flamethrowers so ive been cautious about using it

[rotund marten]

leave it on autofire, aim for centre mass with Alpha Commanders since it'll usually kill the body with explosive damage before you take the head off and it's an easier shot

be generous with swapping to the Talon, it's nearly as good a weapon and the Scorcher's main weakness is not having massive ammo reserves

[hazy oriole]

...oh wait the scorcher isn't the flamer primary

my bad

[rotund marten]

the scorcher is the purifier's assault rifle brother

[hazy oriole]

but yeah it's a great one, i loved it on bugs before i really should give it a try

especially since i don't really like charging the purifier

[rotund marten]

I don't have the Purifier but presumably it has the same use here

[hazy oriole]

how fast does it kill spewers?

[rotund marten]

fast, about a third of a mag

hit the unarmoured abdomen if you can, but the head is adequate

maybe a second of automatic fire if you just blast wherever you can

[hazy oriole]

applies to both rupture and regular variants?

[rotund marten]

probably

it's fast enough against either that I haven't noticed a significant difference in capability

[hazy oriole]

good

cannot overstate enough how bad i want those fuckers D-E-A-D

[rotund marten]

doesn't stagger well and don't use it within about 4 metres

explosion radius is 2m but sometimes they jump at you and things go badly

the head or back plating of the spewer should be a three to five shot kill, but I seldom find I have time to snipe, just aim vaguely in that direction and hold the trigger down

[fleet nacelle]

Hopping on now

@rotund marten

[rotund marten]

do we have two more?

[fleet nacelle]

Unsure

And my game just froze

Y’know I always heard about arrowhead spaghetti code and updates breaking things but never really looked into it

Yeah this, this is bad

[glad marsh]

so...

is it just me and my group or is the audio extremely crunchy in the caves?

[supple siren]

I also get that bug

It's real bad

[fleet nacelle]

Idk about caves but mine just breaks whenever I start the game

Like, dead silent except for some pops and crackles type of breaking

Alright well we’ll see if we get two more otherwise I’m just going to go off on my own

[rotund marten]

yeah

<@&1206091872716595200> do we have two more for a worm hunt?

[glad marsh]

ah... not just me

we hope they fix it soon, it kinda physically hurts to play rn

[rotund marten]

it appears we do not have two more for a worm hunt

alas

[fleet nacelle]

Alright well in that case we may go off and do some matchmaking with randoms

[rotund marten]

yeah, enjoy

I will go get another cup of tea

[south temple]

so what’re y’all’s cave loadouts

[fleet nacelle]

…and now are audio is functioning perfectly

Weird

[ionic holly]

Im very excited to get a chance to cave dive here in a bit

[keen zinc]

this update is really rough

[fleet nacelle]

Spoke too soon, audio broke again

[unreal merlin]

It would take 7.6 AT Emplacements to kill a Hive lord

[cobalt patrol]

I haven't tried caves yet, but I'm enjoying the hell out of PoE2, so you know

I'll be back

[unreal merlin]

BIG TIP FOR HIVE WORLDS: weapons with the EXPLOSIVE tag will force burrowed enemies to surface (where you can then shoot them). If the explosion is big enough you can often kill the bug while it's still underground

Grenade launcher, autocannon, plasma punisher, crossbow, AC Sentry, and so on all do great at preventing burrowed bugs from advancing on you

Grenade battlement is theoretically great but there's a returning bug where strategems drop rotated (so the battlement often ends up facing the wrong direction)

[rotund marten]

first hive lord kill get

took four of us half an hour, with recoilless/ac mech all round, a couple of hellbombs and a fuckton of thermite

[north fiber]

Hive Lord kill from a game just now

[rotund marten]

I think the thermite was huge

[north fiber]

something that I think people are sleeping on is breaking plates

because if you break the plates you expose Light Armor meaning you can lay into the fucker with a machine gun

[supple siren]

Are Big Lads only on 10?

[rotund marten]

yeah, the first hellbomb and rain of thermite cracked a plate and the only meaningful damage we did to it was on there

[north fiber]

nah, they're on 8s

[supple siren]

yaay

[rotund marten]

I don't have the AT emplacement but I think it's big here

[supple siren]

AT Emplacement was a fine whalehunter so this tracks

[unreal merlin]

Raw numbers, an AT/E has 19,500 damage across all 30 shells

[stone bridge]

Where're you getting these numbers from? They're wrong

Each AT/E shell is 1300 damage flat, with 150 explosive damage taped on

[unreal merlin]

I pulled it from the wiki earlier, though I've already brain dumped the base figures

[stone bridge]

Even discounting the explosive damage, it's 39k total

42.5k if you're dealing explosive damage to the fleshy bits

[unreal merlin]

Where the heck did I get 19k

I swear it was easy math at the time and now the Mandela effect is hitting me

[fleet nacelle]

https://open.spotify.com/track/2YF90rAMJp3QCCZN6zBXOA?si=5hd60OSQQpCzKadsl4KEfg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1PeYjDmxcRNvxLd5mGHuCC

[south temple]

the blitzer is fucking cleaning out these tunnels

blitzer + incendiary impacts + lib guard dog = maximum fun (and also team kills)

[supple siren]

I've been pleasantly surprised by the response time on Gas Dog for the burrowers

[rotund marten]

we spent 25 respawns on killing the hive lord and then somehow clutched the rest of the mission

hive lord died with one of us alive on maybe 40% health

we then slogged through all three nuke chambers with two mechs and dreg respawns, and only I extracted

[trim breach]

Okay

Now that I've had time to try it out

I am honestly on the verge of calling this unplayable bullshit

[supple siren]

my main issue is Dragon Hitboxes

[trim breach]

You have bugs you can't do shit to unless you bring med pen, bugs that will pop up and unavoidably take out half your health, a stupid escort objective combined with an unkillable boss that can and will one-shot said objective...

[fleet nacelle]

We’ve luckily not had to face the dragon yet since we don’t have e diff 8 unlocked

The everything else though, yeah

[trim breach]

It's popped up in 7 for me

Started at 10

Moved it down to 7

And it promptly showed up to eat the oil rig

[fleet nacelle]

Our game performance before the update was basically perfect bar a few lost frames here and there in the extreme circumstances

Now our audio breaks on launch

[south temple]

they’re on sevens too 😭

[fleet nacelle]

Ah

[supple siren]

a Quasar to the dome seems to knock them outta the sky but you have tight windows for it

[fleet nacelle]

Yeah we haven’t seen them yet thank god

[stone bridge]

The Dragon Roaches also die immediately if you break a wing

So even very high damage light pen will take care of em

Autocannon Flak is monstrous

[trim breach]

Oh, I wasnt' talking about that

I was talking about the hive lord

[fleet nacelle]

That’s also what we meant

We haven’t seen the big guy

[south temple]

he’s scary

but you just gotta book it

[rotund marten]

the dragons are not a problem, they're just flying bile titans

classic Tyranid unit

die hard to mechs and all the usual AT

[north fiber]

Either hit them with AT like normal or shred the wings with like an MG or something

[rotund marten]

the hive lord likes to burrow under the oil truck and pop out, which flings the truck into the air and kills it instantly

mission failed

[north fiber]

They're dangerous, but don't really have a unique demand on your loadout

[rotund marten]

happened to me

[north fiber]

yeah, I've seen videos of it

[trim breach]

The Hive Lord wouldn't be nearly as annoying if it didn't pop up on every last fucking mission

[rotund marten]

on the upside, after this Leviathans are going to be a breeze

ah, mech suits instantly break the destructible bridges near the spore lungs

so on foot only

[stone bridge]

lol

[rotund marten]

eagle strafe is apparently good for chunking the armour

[hazy oriole]

we need a second meridia i hate this fucking planet

this is both positive and negative

[rotund marten]

we're getting the Saul Tarvitz Experience apparently

way too many trees with bugs in them that want us off the planet that we just randomly decided to wander onto

I do like that the game is genuinely pretty damn difficult

I'm sweating on these cave dives, albeit more when the Hive Lord is around

also, is anyone else getting like seven billion shrieker nests?

I don't think I've seen a spore tower here yet, so possibly it's just that shriekers are the only destructible secondary going and the above-ground area is so small that they all get compressed into it

but at least half my dropzones have had two or three shrieker secondaries around them that we just get to pick up for free

[fleet nacelle]

Aaaaaand we are back and willing to suffer horribly if anyone is on

[burnt vapor]

It’s a mix of shrikers and stalkers here depending on the map

[rotund marten]

I've only had two stalker nests so far

[burnt vapor]

My one friend had to fight 3 stalker nests to try and rejoin us in the caves at one point

[rotund marten]

but the stalkers are much more troublesome since you can't just easily pop all the secondaries

[burnt vapor]

In other news I am finding the technical bugs are very inconsistent

Me and my one friend went basically glitchless our entire 4~ session run while our other friend was suffering massive issues like the hive lord flickering in and out of existence

[rotund marten]

I had to take my graphics settings down a bit but honestly I should have done that ages ago anyway

[fleet nacelle]

Alright in anyone wants to join we’ll be in one of the VCs

[strange vine]

hive lord stats

0% durable is a big surprise
meaning once the inner flesh is exposed high DPS weapons like HMG are probably one of the best options for burning down the HP

the damage transfer to main stats also mean you really want to be breaking off an armor piece and shooting the inner flesh

[stone bridge]

yeah, if you're magdumping into inner flesh a full MMG/HMG mag both do around 15k damage

15.75k for the MMG

[strange vine]

spines seem to be the name for the armor plates, which means you have to chew through 50k hp (health + bleed health) to break it

[rotund marten]

that fits with what me and my team saw and talked over after we got our kill

absolutely spam thermite + strafes onto a plate and then pour it on there

AC mech is good for attacking from a distance, also

[strange vine]

patriot minigun is probably the fastest way to burn down the inner flesh

total of 90k bullets of damage and shoots them fast

[rotund marten]

rare patriot W

Stalwart manages about 1000 DPS against the flesh, Patriot manages 1800

if I'm calculating this right

the rockets don't seem like enough to pop a plate by themselves but maybe if you had the whole squad shooting + some thermite

actually, Emancipator seems better here if I understand the mechanics correctly

two guns, 175 rpm each, 300 bullet damage + 150 explosion damage per shot

should be 90k total damage at 2625/s

you just don't get the rockets to help break the plate

or to just dump more damage

might be about even

[strange vine]

the explosion damage doesnt do anything because inner flesh is explosion immune and the main HP and spines (which do take explosive damage) have higher armor than the explosion's AP

[rotund marten]

Huh

Odd

I suppose that explains why it took so many thermites if they were only doing burn

although maybe we were just missing, thermite has the good AP

[strange vine]

the burn goes directly to the main HP, the thermite explosion is what damages the spine plates, and its 2000 damage

3 thermites is just 6k

to a spine

[rotund marten]

hence why it took so long, yes

still worth chucking five thermites whenever it pops up next to you, at least

and having a coherent strat of focusing down an armour plate and then spamming the weak spot is going to be far more effective than my first attempt team and I randomly saturating it with AT until we realised we'd made a weak spot 20 minutes in

[quick plinth]

Dragon breathes fire, more at 11
||https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1n6tebi/note_to_self_dont_challenge_an_actual_dragon_to/||

[stone bridge]

Upon observing Ye Olde Hive Lord, I don't really think they're a huge obstacle besides when you're using the big fuel extractor vehicle, that uh, that needs to change

But they're basically what Leviathans should have been, imo

They sure are incredibly intimidating and make a spectacle

[unreal merlin]

Excellent spectacle, yes. For most of my games today my solution has been "flee, just go inside the caves". Now having managed to kill one, I recognize that you CAN in fact just dump truckloads of AP5 into a body segment and it'll withdraw for a few moments.

AT Emplacement is indeed a core worm hunting tool

[trim breach]

I noticed that with the AC Exo

[glad marsh]

So
Has anyone figured out how to fully dodge the flying Titan's breath?
It seems really hard to do

[trim breach]

A few seconds of fire would cause it to withdraw

[trim breach]

Start moving early. If it's already spraying, you're going to get hit by it. That's...Really all I found.

Because I was running heavy and still sprinting around compulsively when I saw it coming and I managed to avoid it like...

65% of the time, maybe?

[supple siren]

I'm considering just Fire Resistance Armoring the gloom bugs

[trim breach]

Again

AC Exo will shred it in a matter of seconds

Flak AC at the wings as well

[supple siren]

Also has a set amount of bullets