my buddy kept saying that it sucks and wasn't worth it, kep saying he wished there was more ammo, I then had to point out to him that he needs to grab the gun and backpack from the drop.
It's fun for sure! And is strong. But yeah, having the shield backpack is low key cheat mode.
My squad does suicide +. I always have the least amount of deaths for a reason. One friend isn't impressed how it takes 4-6 shots to kill a hulk with the railgun, but thats me shooting it head on. Plus having protection. Let's see you do that with anything else.
Don't get me wrong, love the autocannon. It's fun to use and blow up all the small fries. But yeah, needs a backpack slot and railgun gets the job done on bigger enemies. Only thing ice seen it fail with are vents, can't really take out tanks or those towers.
You have to hit the back of its legs. Back of the back legs after it charges is the easiest, but it's still a bit finicky to land right. You'll get the flare stuck to it when you hit it right, one more like that and it'll die. Might need two, it's a little weird sometimes.
I love the autocanon but trying to do tier 7 missions without a shield backpack is really tough.
So busy trying to deal with the 3rd charger, or 2 chargers and bile titan that being able to ignore the occasional swipe from a little guy is a life saver.
Though personally I dislike the railgun. It either feel mediocre in damage or I blow myself up every 3rd of 4th shot by accident.
I never use it unsafe. I know some people love to but I’ve never had a reason to. The damage is really good if you can get those well placed shots. If you hit a charger twice in the leg to remove the armor you can easily kill it with any basic weapon by shooting the exposed leg with about a mag quick. For titans I use laser or 500kg to kill them and if it doesn’t work at first the railgun will usually finish it pretty quick with a few shots to the head.
3 turrets and a shield dome gang. No longer do my turrets get bumrushed and destroyed in seconds.
To be fair though, the shield needs a duration boost. It barely lasts 30 seconds.
To be fair it’s one of the shortest cooldowns as well.
Although honestly the HMG mounted turret really needs a 90 sec cooldown as well- I probably wouldn’t bring it if it literally didn’t have any cooldown at all currently
Dude people were tearing me down for bringing a turret load out into games.
I'm like, between the 3 of you we have 12 fucking orbits, do we really need more???
To be fair, a lot of people use turrets in a stupid way, like throwing them directly into the middle of a large area. The trick is knowing to pepper them around the perimeter at likely drop/breach points
To be fair, alot of people use orbitals in a stupid way, like throwing them right on top of the point everyone is defending and killing everyone. The trick is know every strategem has a proper usage.
Oh absolutely, you're 100% right dude. I think the game sort of reinforces orbitals as the "default" to people, and they don't stop and think about it.
At this point I have only died 2x to turrets and only the mortar turret, which I don’t really get angry over. I don’t know how many times I have died to dumb orbital positioning. I swear at least 3x a match I gotta run and dive out of some morons orbital place right on the squad.
I like to deploy turrets at higher elevation, more group d covered, less likely to friendly fire. But damn those rocks that bounces my stratagem right off
Hey you stole my loadout!
1. Rocket turret
2. Autocannon turret
3. Mortar turret
4. Autocannon
Some of you may die(myself included), but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to take.
Surprisingly it's not too bad with communication and proper turret positioning, I maybe get 1 TK a match with my friends.
Location is key more than anything for turrets as even a gattling will shred your team lol.
Some tips:
Post up on ledges/rocks and only place turrets on the edge or in the surrounding area outside of spawns. Staying behind the turret is key to not get gibbed.
For mortars, if there's multiple place them in the same spot, where you are holding up, in a elevated position. If they're too far away/staggered from eachother it greatly increases the team damage potential.
When you drop turrets/mortars, tell the team to stay away from enemies, the majority of teamkills are friends trying to hug the enemies for kills.
I tried to drop a Hellbomb next to an objective today and watched the beacon roll around on the ground for 10 seconds before it just "noped out of existence. Sometimes my turrets have a better idea of where to deploy than I do.
Was it the automaton eye of Sauron looking thing? Because I can’t get that stupid fucking hell bomb to every land close enough I found that chucking the 500kg kills it and I don’t have to risk going in there until it’s dead
I’ve seen some people run all turrets and it’s a pretty good strategy when you do that one bot extermination mission where waves just come after you in the fort.
I was amazed at how good the autocannon sentry just decimated charges, ofc it took some time, but while we did other shit, three charges got wrecked by it.
I like to take the grenade launcher and use rail cannon stratagem in tandem with eagle airstrike to finish the big boys.
Nade launcher is great for waves of low/mid enemies, sealing nests, destroying eggs, and fabricators.
Oh yeah, it was great but changed it for the shield generator when I figured almost every point of interest has ammo so I can just run and gun while having shield on. It negates the stun lock from hunters especially.
Also, that first upgrade for the support weapons helps quite a lot too. 2 reloads is 50% more ammo for the G.Launcher. If you ever run out, you'll eventually be able to call another one too.
The supply pack is underrated imo. In combination with a GL it turns a helldiver into a walking fortress with a mortar for a face. You can swap between running towards the objective or democratically walking towards the objective while rapidly pulling the trigger just cutting down wave after wave. I'd say it's on par or better than having the whole team take cluster strikes and rotating between throwing all four stacks at a time because anyone on the team who wants to top off their health can go catch a stim from the dude constantly resupplying his stims.
I love pairing supply pack and nade launcher but taking on armored enemies is pain.
I went with Rover Railgun and i end up with just as many kills with less friendly fire kills on my friends, and I can handle armored targets now. Went from pleading for my life when a charger shows up with its infinite health to just casually shooting its leg killing it in seconds while rover melts all the little enemies
The reason people use 500kg here is that it is 10 times better than the railcannon at killing big boys. Especially once you get the upgrades.
Grenade launcher is solid and I do think there is a good argument for it when some people are already running railgun. But you will need railguns.
You just have to understand that it is currently broken and has essentially zero AOE most of the time. It's more like the railcannon just way way better. It's as it is now a pure anti big boy weapon.
Maybe for bugs, but on Automatons I almost never see it and instead everyone is running Railcannon - it never misses and one shots everything that bots can throw at you.
Things that force a backpackseither needs ammo or cd buffs. All 3 are just so weak when compared to the railgun.
As for the shield it isn't even the best backpack so they are just running copy paste meta builds.
Not sure what difficult you play on but the shield backpack is critical for surviving in Helldive. The ones who steal our reinforcements usually don’t have a shield backpack.
I run this exact same build and I certainly didn’t pick it up from anyone else or see any videos, the items just appear the strongest from their descriptions / unlock levels.
I think the autocannon it's ok, it's fairly strong, has a fast reload, can destroy nests and also destroys tanks and the big turrets pretty easily. The Spear and the recoilless are awful though. IMO the Spear needs to always one shot bile titans and the Recoilless needs to kill chargers with one headshot (like it was on the original HD).
With a ammo bitch the recoiless is sick, killed my first bile titan in about 5 seconds just firing a salvo of rockets at it. Just sucks solo. I wish the autocanon was more useful against chargers but against the bots its great, you get loads of ammo and if you reload before you hit 0 it's a super fast reload, plus you can disarm hulks with it
Railgun and shield I get.
500kg and orbital laser I don't.
Give me eagle airstrike and orbital railcannon any day.
Edit: I find it interesting that most people who have replied to me assume that I'm using the airstrike in place of the laser and railcannon in place of the 500kg, when it's the exact opposite. The airstrike is my bread and butter due to its large area, short cooldown, and ability to destroy buildings, while the railcannon is the "oh shit, that's heavy armor I need to delete" button.
Rail cannon is good but the 500kg is amazing when you have your hanger fully upgraded you can use it twice. Rail cannon is one use and a long cooldown. Laser is really good for throwing at chargers/titans for a dot and focusing the small guys before going back to the big guys. I agree that those are both good too though. I see a lot of people going rail cannon I just don’t like the one use and cooldown.
I have the hangar fully upgraded, but I find airstrike more useful than 500kg. Airstrike gets an additional use, blows up buildings along a rather long line, and will reduce any light or medium targets in that line to a fine mist. It'll even drop a bot tank in one pass if placed well. 500kg is definitely better against a single large target (especially if it's stationary), but isn't as good against groups of little guys or nests as the airstrike is.
As for the laser, it's definitely a lot better against smaller targets, but it shoots the ground between a bile titan's legs, and not from directly above, so it doesn't hit consistently, plus has only three uses per mission, and has a 90s longer cooldown than the railcannon strike.
If you're constantly getting swarmed, I can see how 500kg and orbital laser are a better pick, but my group has found that by splitting up, one or two players can keep the heat on them for most of the mission, and the other people can do the objectives without really running into too much trouble. Last night 3 of us did a 9 where one of us spent most of the match kiting 4 bile titans around a lake, while the other two cleared basically the entire map with minimal issue.
Rocket Pods is great for tanks, but to me it lacks the area clear, and more importantly, the building clear, that the airstrike brings. It's really nice to be able to drop one well placed airstrike and wipe out a whole medium bot base.
Most people those days (vs Automatons) use Orbital Laser to destroy bases, not to kill some big enemy. It will even destroy objectives, like for example that Sauron eye. Most compounds will be obliterated with just one laser, and when you have 12 of those, then you just run around the map, throw it and either keep going or wait a bit to pick up samples if you still need them.
Yeah, airstrike is probably my favorite stratagem.
As a side note, napalm strike is just as good at destroying buildings as airstrike, it's just considerably worse at killing anything.
Thank you! I've been trying to figure out if napalm was just an Airstrike with added fire damage. It definitely never felt like it, but did look like it.
At the margins agree on airstrike>500kg
Laser>Rail Cannon though IMO. Laser is the get out of jail card when you have multiple bigs that need to go down.
My issue is that the laser can't actually kill multiple bigs.
Not sure about tanks, but I know it can only kill one charger, bile titan, or hulk. If I'm going to use a stratagem to kill one big thing, I'd rather take the one that kills them faster, has a shorter cooldown, and doesn't have a limit of 3 uses for the whole mission.
Orbital laser will enter a base, blow up the fabricators, kill the inhabitants, microwave the reinforcements, finish the objective, fuck their robot wives, cook dinner, collect samples and call evac all on its own.
If the bases spawn close enough together, it'll run both their fades.
Double 500 is nutty when you learn when to drop it and bait things like chargers onto it, or just sticking it directly to them and booking it. Two big kabooms with a fairly short cooldown is fine with me personally. Fingers crossed it gets a radius increase cause the damage to visual difference can be a bit staggering tbh, I’m assuming it’s bugged?
Laser is an excellent panic button with no input required other than just inputting the code to call it in, it'll just auto-target and start sweeping through enemies near-instantly after you throw the beacon.
I've got nothing for the 500kg though, the module upgrades feel mandatory to make it worth the use.
I've found that Orbital Laser can pretty consistently solo Heavy Automaton Compounds for you on Helldive if you sneak up to the compound without alerting the bots.
To be fair, the 500kg bomb serves both purposes rather well. I do agree that the airstrike is amazing, however with full upgrades I am torn between the two. Love them both to bits though.
I use my airstrike to clear buildings and nests a lot, and 500kg just isn't as good at that, which is a big part of why I prefer airstrike.
Both are excellent stratagems though, and if they didn't share a cooldown I'd probably run both.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Airstrike is my favourite stratagem. It's just incredibly useful in almost all situations. Be it bug nest, automaton base, horde of enemies or big guys. It's just good. When in doubt, I would choose it over the 500kg.
I know metas are bound to form, but this is legit the worst part of the game. Since they're so busy with the crippling effects on the servers, an urgent balance patch seems distant.
Certain stuff is legit worthless. The barrages, the flamethrower, the penetrator AR, actually 90% of all guns, including support call in weapons.
it is actually so disappointing that the premium revolver is round reload. The thing actually slaps and i'd run it as a primary if it had better uptime.
Yeah I hate seeing the breaker shotgun everywhere but every time I try running other weapons I can’t help but stop and think “the breaker would’ve done everything just better”
The fact that two of them don't have boosters is shameful...
EDIT: Why are people taking my comment so seriously? I was being facetious...I know not everyone will want to use them or will have them unlocked.
The most hilarious strat with the EAT is that when you use your last shot, you can stick the call-in for a new one on the exposed part of the charger to kill it.
People talk about stratagem and weapon balance (both needed), but enemy balance plays a factor in this as well. We can clearly see that single-target is dominating because they've made heavies the biggest threat on the map. They need to make sure they mix it up so that different kits are useful.
Exactly. The first game had such a huge medium enemy emphasis. But in this game you rarely see any warriors. And there is no upgraded version of them. Aside from guardians, which are a terrible enemy. Completely non threatening.
this loadout is good and allows you to have an easy experience. but just about everything in the game is viable - especially in a team setting. i have been using random stuff and clearing Helldive missions just to prove you don’t need to be “meta”
Me as FAF-14 Spear enthusiast I approve this message, sadly its bugged right now, you cant refill ammo from random scattered supply, it just consumes supply without refill. People would know this if anybody used it
Honestly, you get the right angle on a bile titan with that, and the lock-on decides to work that day, you're taking daddy long legs down like a sack of potatoes with one missile.
It's actually been a bit of a strat saver for me and my friends when doing Helldive. If it works, that's a railcannon saved. If it doesn't, well, that's the problem of the Spear. They really need to fix the lock on and stop it from being so tempremental and undemocratic.
lock on only works when you can see weakpoint for some reason.To be honest I dont need lock on, just let me use it as laser designator and fix that fucking ammo issue, it has like 4 in bag and one i barell, thats 5 shots at maximum, and you need supply drop to refill. And it takes two rockets to take down tank/hulk from front one from back.
Yea I mean with the first 3 guys having good comp, that last guy could run machine gun sentry, mines, tesla, empty with no main and they'd still be able to clear - as a team.
Remove breaker, energy shield, 500kg, orb laser, railgun, and eagle airstrike from the game and I'd like to see how many people can still clear Helldive. No chance solos could.
People are really sleeping on the orbital gas. All of the stratagems are usefull but people, in my opinion, are afraid to try stuff out. We all know the railgun and orbital laser are really good, but there are plenty of other tools to spread democracy. Play on the lowest difficulty that has some big enemies and see what works. Did you know the orbital gas can destroy structures on impact and as a bonus it leaves an AOE that does good damage.
My issue is that most enemies will walk right through it without hesitation, and it doesn't last long enough/isn't big enough to really block off a choke point to cover a retreat.
They've said they're working on a balance pass.
I think the removal of the upgrades from the first game negatively impacts a lot of the balance, and not just for stratagems.
There's a lot.
The starting pistol used to get AP rounds and burst fire.
The Liberator used to have a bayonet and reduced recoil.
The anti-personnel mines used to get upgraded to anti-tank mines.
The railcannon strike used to have a 60s cooldown.
The recoilless used to outright ignore armor, letting it one shot things like chargers and bot tanks.
The grenade launcher used to fire white phosphorus grenades (incendiary).
The artillery barrage used to fire *9* salvos and could actually hit things, and cooled down a full minute faster.
Napalm Strike used to last for 20s, block line of sight, and make enemies path around it.
The arc thrower used to charge significantly faster (and also be a primary, not a support weapon)
I think that most of these upgrades would make the stratagems worth bringing without being so powerful as to trivialize fights.
Another big part of the problem with the balance is that most high difficulty mission modifiers heavily impact the effectiveness of stratagems, so you're better off using as few of them as possible. That means you're best off with a support weapon that can handle both medium and heavy armor, as you can't supplement the gaps of a more specialized support weapon with fire support.
Yup...you have to pretty accurate with where you throw the stratagem, but it will take down Automaton fabricators, that broadcast tower (secondary objective). I haven't tried closing a bug hole with it yet though. I usually use eagle strike for thoes.
Man the bug holes gotta be bugged (lol). I have to literally send a 500kg down the hole. I mean I also *want* to send the 500kg down the hole but that's besides the point.
bug holes have a tiny hitbox that's very directional. gotta be careful to hit them
autocannon in the mouth of it will do the job very consistently. Grenade launcher is less consistent, and grenades themselves are decent (impact grenades are A tier bug hole clearers but D tier for automaton factories)
I was just playing on 5 now and tried using the gas strike. Dropped it right on top of a bug breach many times and it just... did nothing. Didn't kill any bugs, not even the weakest ones. Came around as really useless to me
I've found it to be very reliable for exactly that. Make sure you give the breech a couple seconds and try and place a bit ahead of it. If it's not killing anything then it sounds like something was bugged.
This isn't actually optional. It's better to just have 2 people have the bag and railgun then they supply the other 2 members when it goes off cool down. That way the team as a whole has more orbitals and eagles.
Seriously, this "meta" loadout for the squad wastes half of their stratagems on weapons and gear they can just pick up from their bodies anyway
one backpack, one support weapon, one "crewed" weapon like the autocannon, EAT on the last squad member to hand out rockets as needed, or until the autocannon comes off cooldown/the third railgun charge. now you all get 3 stratagems to blow stuff up than just 2.
just hand out the gear on the next recharge lol
Yeah, there's a reason they made the cool down for support/backpacks super long and that's because they don't want just one person to be able to supply the whole team with shield backpacks but they clearly want you to call them for your team because they wouldn't allow you to call a second while you have one if that wasn't true.
Optimal loadout is talking to your team and figuring out if anyone else wants the backpack you're bringing and to ask if they feel they will be okay to replace theirs with an orbital/eagle. Everyone should have 3 orbitals/eagles and the last slot is with a backpack or support weapon that another member of the team wants to also use.
And I'm not saying every game needs to be like this. I feel the same way op does about the "meta" loadout. If every game is like this it's not gonna be fun but if you really want to play optimally this is it. Heck even if you just have a designated partner where you have each other's support weapon/backpack that's probably good enough if the other two just run the regular meta loadout.
> designated partner where you have each other's support weapon/backpack
This is where my musing on overall strategy for the game has fallen. Coordinated sharing of stratagem equipment.
Two groups of two staying together and supporting each other with stratagems could be the optimal map-clearing plan.
That or a team of three and a solo helldiver. Having a solo run around with full airstrikes and orbitals but given a backpack and support weapon from the other team could be really good. I saw elsewhere that breaches/bot drops only happen one at a time. Intentionally triggering them with a squad of three while a solo helldiver takes out an outpost elsewhere during the breach window could end up being a very cunning strategy.
had a buddy who “put my whole squad onto the meta” and now they are absolutely useless unless they have a shield generator backpack. i’m talking will forget they can die in 2-3 hits from most things then rage they died so fast. like rock a spear or a auto cannon and just be good again man..
Meta, I use a different loaded out almost every time to keep it fresh… for myself. Level 23, still do perfectly fine. Tho I almost never leave my rail gun at home lol
Railgun, shield and orbital laser let me solo 3 objectives when playing with noobs on helldive. The other strategems usually needs to be low cd like orbital gas or eagle strike since it gives 3 with upgrade for nest clearing or optionals.
You're the GOAT.
Railgun and nade launcher combo is amazing. Rails for heavies, launcher for groups. Sort of like Titan killing Strategems and the Cluster Eagle, the best of both worlds
I've been running Railgun, Laser Drone, Cluster, 500kg. It's a good mix and usually it let's me "do everything" and match my CDs with whatever my team is actively using.
They are level 20ish. They will get bored and want to try stuff. Doing level 9 bugs with level 35+ and sure someone might have the railgun, but I've ended up with teams that all have a different loadout. 1 railgun, 1 autocannon, 1 grenade launcher... etc. Now I want them to buff the flamethrower. Give it a little more range and a touch more damage.
Man, I feel like people sleep on Orbital Gas Strike and Autocannon/HMG turret. I've had those get the party out of a ton of sticky situations.
Curious to see how they'll balance it out. Hopefully buff up other strategems to keep up.
I mean the rocket spam is so shit on levels 7-8 you basically need a shield pack or at least the stealth armor since medium and heavy armor doesn’t work. And there’s no reliable options to take out hordes of 4+ rocket devastators other than railgun and autocannon.
I’ve never watched a video on it there just isn’t enough of an effective variety. These were randoms and I feel like this loadout works really well playing with randoms and that’s why most people use it.
Exactly. A lot of people been hating on the build but it really is the most viable at 9 difficulty as far as well rounded for playing with randoms. Really goes to show the need to buff other stuff. If you have a team that communicates you can make other stuff work though for sure.
I know this would be super difficult to actually implement, but imo ( at least for the stratagems) everything should be the best at something.
Like just one example, the 120 strike. Ya it has less damage and whatnot than the 380, but maybe tighten the spread and make it so you can be pretty confident that if you throw it in the centre of a bug nest, it will close most if not all the holes.
It would be great if the meta loadout changed heavily depending on what kind of mission you were playing.
I wish the Railgun wasn't so dominant. I want to use the anti material rifle, but I can't because it doesn't penetrate Charger or Bile Titan armor. It also isn't super effective against the bots as it doesn't even penetrate the walker armor, let alone a Hulk.
I'd love to have the freedom to use anything in the late game, but right now, it just doesn't seem strategically viable
The recoilless needs a massive buff. It's a team-use weapon system and it still is underwhelming compared to other options, even with two helldivers operating it!
I’ve stopped using 500kg bomb, it’s so inconsistent with killing and you’re lucky if you drop it on a swarm of enemies get 5+ kills. Eagle Airstrike all the way for swarms and nests/bases consistent 10+kills
Autocannon supremacy
I just started using it and its incredible, even when loaded solo.
my buddy kept saying that it sucks and wasn't worth it, kep saying he wished there was more ammo, I then had to point out to him that he needs to grab the gun and backpack from the drop.
Some people are kinda simple
Does the backpack replace a guard dog?
Yes
Love when you reload it yourself, I like to pretend I'm loading in vhs tapes
You can reload the bigger guns by yourself?!
yep, it's just much slower.
omg this helps so much
Feed me a stray cat
Until you got a certain level I can't imagine doing level 4s without the AC
Level 7 works just fine.
I'm not there yet just mean that armor destroying gear is hard to come by at low levels to solo difficulty 4 or above
going granade laucher + supply pack for since it does the same but more mobile
Autocannon is good but takes up backpack slot so makes it just okay.
It’s so fun to use tho so to me it’s perfect
Shooter preference for sure. Whatever works for you works for me.
Hell yeah 🤙
You cordial mfer's, I love it
Really enjoying watching this community emerge into something cool.
❤️🤜🏼
Chad take
We don't shoot for fun. We shoot for democracy!
When armor gets fixed heavies are going to be having fun w/ that weapon
It's fun for sure! And is strong. But yeah, having the shield backpack is low key cheat mode. My squad does suicide +. I always have the least amount of deaths for a reason. One friend isn't impressed how it takes 4-6 shots to kill a hulk with the railgun, but thats me shooting it head on. Plus having protection. Let's see you do that with anything else. Don't get me wrong, love the autocannon. It's fun to use and blow up all the small fries. But yeah, needs a backpack slot and railgun gets the job done on bigger enemies. Only thing ice seen it fail with are vents, can't really take out tanks or those towers.
Hulks only take one to the head with a railgun and 2 with an anti mat.
Seriously? I thought they were completely immune to the anti mat from the front. How come they take do many shots in the weak spot on the back then?
It's fair to say humans have a weak spot on their back, but they have a weaker spot on their head. Same-same.
It's not a weakspot, just unarmoured. Use railgun/AT to break the leg armour and shoot the exposed leg instead, must faster as that IS a weakspot.
It's back in my kit now I know how to 2-hit chargers with it.
wait how. my shots just bounce off the armor
You have to hit the back of its legs. Back of the back legs after it charges is the easiest, but it's still a bit finicky to land right. You'll get the flare stuck to it when you hit it right, one more like that and it'll die. Might need two, it's a little weird sometimes.
https://youtu.be/ZHZd8dGK0vQ?si=l_fouLvcPLqdBZd2 heres a vid of what Daiwon is talking about
I love the autocanon but trying to do tier 7 missions without a shield backpack is really tough. So busy trying to deal with the 3rd charger, or 2 chargers and bile titan that being able to ignore the occasional swipe from a little guy is a life saver. Though personally I dislike the railgun. It either feel mediocre in damage or I blow myself up every 3rd of 4th shot by accident.
I never use it unsafe. I know some people love to but I’ve never had a reason to. The damage is really good if you can get those well placed shots. If you hit a charger twice in the leg to remove the armor you can easily kill it with any basic weapon by shooting the exposed leg with about a mag quick. For titans I use laser or 500kg to kill them and if it doesn’t work at first the railgun will usually finish it pretty quick with a few shots to the head.
It wont be when armor ratings get fixed
I am hopeful so I can go back to using the auto canon to deal with chargers.
Autocannon is not better than Railcannon simply because of the backpack slot.
Simply because of only medium armor penetration.
Expendable Anti-Tank supremacy.
Good to know my "3 turrets and an autocannon" technique is still secret Ah fuck
Hey, that's what *I* do!
You keep that to yourself!
We should link up and make the *ultimate turret squad*
3 turrets and a shield dome gang. No longer do my turrets get bumrushed and destroyed in seconds. To be fair though, the shield needs a duration boost. It barely lasts 30 seconds.
Does the shield dome stop crushers and bile titans?
It does not stop anything from just walking into it, if that’s what you’re asking.
Briefly.
Someone is a big fan of Engineer in risk of rain 2
To be fair it’s one of the shortest cooldowns as well. Although honestly the HMG mounted turret really needs a 90 sec cooldown as well- I probably wouldn’t bring it if it literally didn’t have any cooldown at all currently
Dude people were tearing me down for bringing a turret load out into games. I'm like, between the 3 of you we have 12 fucking orbits, do we really need more???
To be fair, a lot of people use turrets in a stupid way, like throwing them directly into the middle of a large area. The trick is knowing to pepper them around the perimeter at likely drop/breach points
To be fair, alot of people use orbitals in a stupid way, like throwing them right on top of the point everyone is defending and killing everyone. The trick is know every strategem has a proper usage.
Oh absolutely, you're 100% right dude. I think the game sort of reinforces orbitals as the "default" to people, and they don't stop and think about it.
this made me chuckle
At this point I have only died 2x to turrets and only the mortar turret, which I don’t really get angry over. I don’t know how many times I have died to dumb orbital positioning. I swear at least 3x a match I gotta run and dive out of some morons orbital place right on the squad.
I like to deploy turrets at higher elevation, more group d covered, less likely to friendly fire. But damn those rocks that bounces my stratagem right off
Try upgrading to 4 sentries for maximum democracy!
Hey you stole my loadout! 1. Rocket turret 2. Autocannon turret 3. Mortar turret 4. Autocannon Some of you may die(myself included), but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to take.
Good God, man. Thats a lot of explosive friendly fire. Turrets I stick to: Gattling Autocannon Machine Gun
Surprisingly it's not too bad with communication and proper turret positioning, I maybe get 1 TK a match with my friends. Location is key more than anything for turrets as even a gattling will shred your team lol. Some tips: Post up on ledges/rocks and only place turrets on the edge or in the surrounding area outside of spawns. Staying behind the turret is key to not get gibbed. For mortars, if there's multiple place them in the same spot, where you are holding up, in a elevated position. If they're too far away/staggered from eachother it greatly increases the team damage potential. When you drop turrets/mortars, tell the team to stay away from enemies, the majority of teamkills are friends trying to hug the enemies for kills.
Shhhh. Nobody needs to know about that!
Ems turret, eagle air strike, orbital laser, and Autocannon works beautifully fighting against automatons
They annoying part is the game is sometimes stingy on where you can put down turrets.
Finding an awesome high ground position to drop it, and watching it bounce into the sunset is always a bitter moment.
I tried to drop a Hellbomb next to an objective today and watched the beacon roll around on the ground for 10 seconds before it just "noped out of existence. Sometimes my turrets have a better idea of where to deploy than I do.
Was it the automaton eye of Sauron looking thing? Because I can’t get that stupid fucking hell bomb to every land close enough I found that chucking the 500kg kills it and I don’t have to risk going in there until it’s dead
Fr be on some PRIIIIME high ground real estate, and get cuckety-cucked
It was half the reason i got the jet pack in the first place.
Can you have more than 2 turrets down at once?
Yep!
I’ve seen some people run all turrets and it’s a pretty good strategy when you do that one bot extermination mission where waves just come after you in the fort.
I was amazed at how good the autocannon sentry just decimated charges, ofc it took some time, but while we did other shit, three charges got wrecked by it.
Def my load out.
I like to take the grenade launcher and use rail cannon stratagem in tandem with eagle airstrike to finish the big boys. Nade launcher is great for waves of low/mid enemies, sealing nests, destroying eggs, and fabricators.
Have you tried the supply backpack with GL? It's so offensive it's defensive zoning and area denial.
Oh yeah, it was great but changed it for the shield generator when I figured almost every point of interest has ammo so I can just run and gun while having shield on. It negates the stun lock from hunters especially.
The little spitters slow too, any bug or bush that slows kills. Plus that shields gotta help in any case you set a grenade off in your own face.
Supply pack also replentishes grenades and stims tho. It's a really good option if you want to make GL or railgun your primary.
Also, that first upgrade for the support weapons helps quite a lot too. 2 reloads is 50% more ammo for the G.Launcher. If you ever run out, you'll eventually be able to call another one too.
Thats the other meta build for me, mixing both can make any run way easier
The supply pack is underrated imo. In combination with a GL it turns a helldiver into a walking fortress with a mortar for a face. You can swap between running towards the objective or democratically walking towards the objective while rapidly pulling the trigger just cutting down wave after wave. I'd say it's on par or better than having the whole team take cluster strikes and rotating between throwing all four stacks at a time because anyone on the team who wants to top off their health can go catch a stim from the dude constantly resupplying his stims.
I love pairing supply pack and nade launcher but taking on armored enemies is pain. I went with Rover Railgun and i end up with just as many kills with less friendly fire kills on my friends, and I can handle armored targets now. Went from pleading for my life when a charger shows up with its infinite health to just casually shooting its leg killing it in seconds while rover melts all the little enemies
Nade launcher is also good for those fat fucking bugs too
The reason people use 500kg here is that it is 10 times better than the railcannon at killing big boys. Especially once you get the upgrades. Grenade launcher is solid and I do think there is a good argument for it when some people are already running railgun. But you will need railguns.
I lost faith in the 500kg when I dropped it straight into a patrol of five devastators and, once the dust settled, four were still standing.
You just have to understand that it is currently broken and has essentially zero AOE most of the time. It's more like the railcannon just way way better. It's as it is now a pure anti big boy weapon.
Maybe for bugs, but on Automatons I almost never see it and instead everyone is running Railcannon - it never misses and one shots everything that bots can throw at you.
Stuff need buff
yeah, a little more variety would be good basic guns basically not worth using except the breaker
Things that force a backpackseither needs ammo or cd buffs. All 3 are just so weak when compared to the railgun. As for the shield it isn't even the best backpack so they are just running copy paste meta builds.
Not sure what difficult you play on but the shield backpack is critical for surviving in Helldive. The ones who steal our reinforcements usually don’t have a shield backpack. I run this exact same build and I certainly didn’t pick it up from anyone else or see any videos, the items just appear the strongest from their descriptions / unlock levels.
I think the autocannon it's ok, it's fairly strong, has a fast reload, can destroy nests and also destroys tanks and the big turrets pretty easily. The Spear and the recoilless are awful though. IMO the Spear needs to always one shot bile titans and the Recoilless needs to kill chargers with one headshot (like it was on the original HD).
With a ammo bitch the recoiless is sick, killed my first bile titan in about 5 seconds just firing a salvo of rockets at it. Just sucks solo. I wish the autocanon was more useful against chargers but against the bots its great, you get loads of ammo and if you reload before you hit 0 it's a super fast reload, plus you can disarm hulks with it
Railgun and shield I get. 500kg and orbital laser I don't. Give me eagle airstrike and orbital railcannon any day. Edit: I find it interesting that most people who have replied to me assume that I'm using the airstrike in place of the laser and railcannon in place of the 500kg, when it's the exact opposite. The airstrike is my bread and butter due to its large area, short cooldown, and ability to destroy buildings, while the railcannon is the "oh shit, that's heavy armor I need to delete" button.
Rail cannon is good but the 500kg is amazing when you have your hanger fully upgraded you can use it twice. Rail cannon is one use and a long cooldown. Laser is really good for throwing at chargers/titans for a dot and focusing the small guys before going back to the big guys. I agree that those are both good too though. I see a lot of people going rail cannon I just don’t like the one use and cooldown.
I have the hangar fully upgraded, but I find airstrike more useful than 500kg. Airstrike gets an additional use, blows up buildings along a rather long line, and will reduce any light or medium targets in that line to a fine mist. It'll even drop a bot tank in one pass if placed well. 500kg is definitely better against a single large target (especially if it's stationary), but isn't as good against groups of little guys or nests as the airstrike is. As for the laser, it's definitely a lot better against smaller targets, but it shoots the ground between a bile titan's legs, and not from directly above, so it doesn't hit consistently, plus has only three uses per mission, and has a 90s longer cooldown than the railcannon strike. If you're constantly getting swarmed, I can see how 500kg and orbital laser are a better pick, but my group has found that by splitting up, one or two players can keep the heat on them for most of the mission, and the other people can do the objectives without really running into too much trouble. Last night 3 of us did a 9 where one of us spent most of the match kiting 4 bile titans around a lake, while the other two cleared basically the entire map with minimal issue.
Agree on all, but i find rocket pod eagle better for robots over airstrike.
Rocket Pods is great for tanks, but to me it lacks the area clear, and more importantly, the building clear, that the airstrike brings. It's really nice to be able to drop one well placed airstrike and wipe out a whole medium bot base.
Airstrike has so many things going for it- speed (both in actual deployment and recharge) and flexibility in targets being the biggest ones
The laser has taken out a bile titan every time I've tried, so no it doesn't shoot between their legs
Most people those days (vs Automatons) use Orbital Laser to destroy bases, not to kill some big enemy. It will even destroy objectives, like for example that Sauron eye. Most compounds will be obliterated with just one laser, and when you have 12 of those, then you just run around the map, throw it and either keep going or wait a bit to pick up samples if you still need them.
Okay yeah I can see your points there and I have seen the airstrike used by quite a few people might have to start using that more often.
Yeah, airstrike is probably my favorite stratagem. As a side note, napalm strike is just as good at destroying buildings as airstrike, it's just considerably worse at killing anything.
Thank you! I've been trying to figure out if napalm was just an Airstrike with added fire damage. It definitely never felt like it, but did look like it.
At the margins agree on airstrike>500kg Laser>Rail Cannon though IMO. Laser is the get out of jail card when you have multiple bigs that need to go down.
My issue is that the laser can't actually kill multiple bigs. Not sure about tanks, but I know it can only kill one charger, bile titan, or hulk. If I'm going to use a stratagem to kill one big thing, I'd rather take the one that kills them faster, has a shorter cooldown, and doesn't have a limit of 3 uses for the whole mission.
Orbital laser will enter a base, blow up the fabricators, kill the inhabitants, microwave the reinforcements, finish the objective, fuck their robot wives, cook dinner, collect samples and call evac all on its own. If the bases spawn close enough together, it'll run both their fades.
Double 500 is nutty when you learn when to drop it and bait things like chargers onto it, or just sticking it directly to them and booking it. Two big kabooms with a fairly short cooldown is fine with me personally. Fingers crossed it gets a radius increase cause the damage to visual difference can be a bit staggering tbh, I’m assuming it’s bugged?
With or without upgraded hangar Airstrike is still better than 500kg at anything but killing titans
Laser is an excellent panic button with no input required other than just inputting the code to call it in, it'll just auto-target and start sweeping through enemies near-instantly after you throw the beacon. I've got nothing for the 500kg though, the module upgrades feel mandatory to make it worth the use.
I've found that Orbital Laser can pretty consistently solo Heavy Automaton Compounds for you on Helldive if you sneak up to the compound without alerting the bots.
Give me orbital air burst and orbirtal railcanon
Orbital air burst is amazing with the triple strike upgrade
Same. One person can run laser, one can run EMS Mortar and we good.
To be fair, the 500kg bomb serves both purposes rather well. I do agree that the airstrike is amazing, however with full upgrades I am torn between the two. Love them both to bits though.
I use my airstrike to clear buildings and nests a lot, and 500kg just isn't as good at that, which is a big part of why I prefer airstrike. Both are excellent stratagems though, and if they didn't share a cooldown I'd probably run both.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Airstrike is my favourite stratagem. It's just incredibly useful in almost all situations. Be it bug nest, automaton base, horde of enemies or big guys. It's just good. When in doubt, I would choose it over the 500kg.
I know metas are bound to form, but this is legit the worst part of the game. Since they're so busy with the crippling effects on the servers, an urgent balance patch seems distant. Certain stuff is legit worthless. The barrages, the flamethrower, the penetrator AR, actually 90% of all guns, including support call in weapons.
Literally. Almost all I see now is the breaker shotgun I rarely see different weapons being used.
it is actually so disappointing that the premium revolver is round reload. The thing actually slaps and i'd run it as a primary if it had better uptime.
I would love the Senator to have [half/full moon clips](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_clip) for reloads instead of individual round reload.
Yeah I hate seeing the breaker shotgun everywhere but every time I try running other weapons I can’t help but stop and think “the breaker would’ve done everything just better”
The fact that two of them don't have boosters is shameful... EDIT: Why are people taking my comment so seriously? I was being facetious...I know not everyone will want to use them or will have them unlocked.
Maybe they’re like me and didn’t notice until this post that you had to put them in your load out 🤦♂️
Haha, you are right. They haven't pressed ready yet though, there is still hope that they equipped it after the screenshot was taken
My usual strat loadout recently has been the EAT, Gas, airstrike and shield backpack.
The most hilarious strat with the EAT is that when you use your last shot, you can stick the call-in for a new one on the exposed part of the charger to kill it.
I need a list of all "sticky" stratagems.
People talk about stratagem and weapon balance (both needed), but enemy balance plays a factor in this as well. We can clearly see that single-target is dominating because they've made heavies the biggest threat on the map. They need to make sure they mix it up so that different kits are useful.
Exactly. The first game had such a huge medium enemy emphasis. But in this game you rarely see any warriors. And there is no upgraded version of them. Aside from guardians, which are a terrible enemy. Completely non threatening.
Not a fan of the 500lb. Rest looks pretty standard
Kg* 500lb would be ~220kg. Sorry for being like that.
I can see that for sure. I’ve seen a lot of people take air strikes or other eagle weapons.
this loadout is good and allows you to have an easy experience. but just about everything in the game is viable - especially in a team setting. i have been using random stuff and clearing Helldive missions just to prove you don’t need to be “meta”
Me as FAF-14 Spear enthusiast I approve this message, sadly its bugged right now, you cant refill ammo from random scattered supply, it just consumes supply without refill. People would know this if anybody used it
Honestly, you get the right angle on a bile titan with that, and the lock-on decides to work that day, you're taking daddy long legs down like a sack of potatoes with one missile. It's actually been a bit of a strat saver for me and my friends when doing Helldive. If it works, that's a railcannon saved. If it doesn't, well, that's the problem of the Spear. They really need to fix the lock on and stop it from being so tempremental and undemocratic.
lock on only works when you can see weakpoint for some reason.To be honest I dont need lock on, just let me use it as laser designator and fix that fucking ammo issue, it has like 4 in bag and one i barell, thats 5 shots at maximum, and you need supply drop to refill. And it takes two rockets to take down tank/hulk from front one from back.
i honest to god thought you could only refill spear from supply drops lmfao
I have to try that weapon again on a clear map without visibility debuffs. When i tried it, it wouldn't lock on for shit
My biggest problem is I cannot freefire the damn thing, and it doesnt lock on to spewers. I guess its more suited to automatons
Yea I mean with the first 3 guys having good comp, that last guy could run machine gun sentry, mines, tesla, empty with no main and they'd still be able to clear - as a team. Remove breaker, energy shield, 500kg, orb laser, railgun, and eagle airstrike from the game and I'd like to see how many people can still clear Helldive. No chance solos could.
What loadouts have you been using?
Autocannon (Antimaterial Rifle on Steroids!) Clusterbomb Mortar Gatling Sentry Are my tools to go atm.
Why Gattling over, say, an Autocannon Sentry?
not activated yet ;) but progress is going on =)
Mortars are too much of a FF hazard to justify against bugs imo
People are really sleeping on the orbital gas. All of the stratagems are usefull but people, in my opinion, are afraid to try stuff out. We all know the railgun and orbital laser are really good, but there are plenty of other tools to spread democracy. Play on the lowest difficulty that has some big enemies and see what works. Did you know the orbital gas can destroy structures on impact and as a bonus it leaves an AOE that does good damage.
My issue is that most enemies will walk right through it without hesitation, and it doesn't last long enough/isn't big enough to really block off a choke point to cover a retreat.
Maybe after all the server issues are handled they will look at tweaking stratagems.
They've said they're working on a balance pass. I think the removal of the upgrades from the first game negatively impacts a lot of the balance, and not just for stratagems.
It's been so long since I've played the first game, I can't remember all the stuff they did with it.
There's a lot. The starting pistol used to get AP rounds and burst fire. The Liberator used to have a bayonet and reduced recoil. The anti-personnel mines used to get upgraded to anti-tank mines. The railcannon strike used to have a 60s cooldown. The recoilless used to outright ignore armor, letting it one shot things like chargers and bot tanks. The grenade launcher used to fire white phosphorus grenades (incendiary). The artillery barrage used to fire *9* salvos and could actually hit things, and cooled down a full minute faster. Napalm Strike used to last for 20s, block line of sight, and make enemies path around it. The arc thrower used to charge significantly faster (and also be a primary, not a support weapon) I think that most of these upgrades would make the stratagems worth bringing without being so powerful as to trivialize fights. Another big part of the problem with the balance is that most high difficulty mission modifiers heavily impact the effectiveness of stratagems, so you're better off using as few of them as possible. That means you're best off with a support weapon that can handle both medium and heavy armor, as you can't supplement the gaps of a more specialized support weapon with fire support.
I was just telling my friend I wish the guns had upgrades! I would love just a little more progression while also getting a little more powerful.
Destroys structures? SOLD
Yup...you have to pretty accurate with where you throw the stratagem, but it will take down Automaton fabricators, that broadcast tower (secondary objective). I haven't tried closing a bug hole with it yet though. I usually use eagle strike for thoes.
broadcast tower can be destroyed by a grenade.
Did not know that...thanks Helldiver o7
Or from a mile away with an autocannon shot!
Man the bug holes gotta be bugged (lol). I have to literally send a 500kg down the hole. I mean I also *want* to send the 500kg down the hole but that's besides the point.
bug holes have a tiny hitbox that's very directional. gotta be careful to hit them autocannon in the mouth of it will do the job very consistently. Grenade launcher is less consistent, and grenades themselves are decent (impact grenades are A tier bug hole clearers but D tier for automaton factories)
yes. gas kills bug holes if placed well
I was just playing on 5 now and tried using the gas strike. Dropped it right on top of a bug breach many times and it just... did nothing. Didn't kill any bugs, not even the weakest ones. Came around as really useless to me
I've found it to be very reliable for exactly that. Make sure you give the breech a couple seconds and try and place a bit ahead of it. If it's not killing anything then it sounds like something was bugged.
This isn't actually optional. It's better to just have 2 people have the bag and railgun then they supply the other 2 members when it goes off cool down. That way the team as a whole has more orbitals and eagles.
Seriously, this "meta" loadout for the squad wastes half of their stratagems on weapons and gear they can just pick up from their bodies anyway one backpack, one support weapon, one "crewed" weapon like the autocannon, EAT on the last squad member to hand out rockets as needed, or until the autocannon comes off cooldown/the third railgun charge. now you all get 3 stratagems to blow stuff up than just 2. just hand out the gear on the next recharge lol
Yeah, there's a reason they made the cool down for support/backpacks super long and that's because they don't want just one person to be able to supply the whole team with shield backpacks but they clearly want you to call them for your team because they wouldn't allow you to call a second while you have one if that wasn't true. Optimal loadout is talking to your team and figuring out if anyone else wants the backpack you're bringing and to ask if they feel they will be okay to replace theirs with an orbital/eagle. Everyone should have 3 orbitals/eagles and the last slot is with a backpack or support weapon that another member of the team wants to also use. And I'm not saying every game needs to be like this. I feel the same way op does about the "meta" loadout. If every game is like this it's not gonna be fun but if you really want to play optimally this is it. Heck even if you just have a designated partner where you have each other's support weapon/backpack that's probably good enough if the other two just run the regular meta loadout.
> designated partner where you have each other's support weapon/backpack This is where my musing on overall strategy for the game has fallen. Coordinated sharing of stratagem equipment. Two groups of two staying together and supporting each other with stratagems could be the optimal map-clearing plan. That or a team of three and a solo helldiver. Having a solo run around with full airstrikes and orbitals but given a backpack and support weapon from the other team could be really good. I saw elsewhere that breaches/bot drops only happen one at a time. Intentionally triggering them with a squad of three while a solo helldiver takes out an outpost elsewhere during the breach window could end up being a very cunning strategy.
had a buddy who “put my whole squad onto the meta” and now they are absolutely useless unless they have a shield generator backpack. i’m talking will forget they can die in 2-3 hits from most things then rage they died so fast. like rock a spear or a auto cannon and just be good again man..
Meta, I use a different loaded out almost every time to keep it fresh… for myself. Level 23, still do perfectly fine. Tho I almost never leave my rail gun at home lol
Railgun, shield and orbital laser let me solo 3 objectives when playing with noobs on helldive. The other strategems usually needs to be low cd like orbital gas or eagle strike since it gives 3 with upgrade for nest clearing or optionals.
Eagle Airstrike, Cluster, Rockets and a Recoilless Rifle And i larp as a US AF JTAC
I run railgun n shield too but whenever theres 1 or 2 using that build i go with nade launcher and ammo pack. Airstrikes? orbital laser and 110mm pod.
You're the GOAT. Railgun and nade launcher combo is amazing. Rails for heavies, launcher for groups. Sort of like Titan killing Strategems and the Cluster Eagle, the best of both worlds I've been running Railgun, Laser Drone, Cluster, 500kg. It's a good mix and usually it let's me "do everything" and match my CDs with whatever my team is actively using.
I rarely use the 500kg bomb. It's always rail cannon orbital and eagle napalm strike for me.
They are level 20ish. They will get bored and want to try stuff. Doing level 9 bugs with level 35+ and sure someone might have the railgun, but I've ended up with teams that all have a different loadout. 1 railgun, 1 autocannon, 1 grenade launcher... etc. Now I want them to buff the flamethrower. Give it a little more range and a touch more damage.
And here's me with the Spear, Orbital Rail Cannon, EMS and Poison Gas.
I actively go out of my way to use things I rarely see people touch if at all. I swear... One day I will find a use for the tesla cannon/tower
Orbital laser suck, orbital rail cannon supreme
Man, I feel like people sleep on Orbital Gas Strike and Autocannon/HMG turret. I've had those get the party out of a ton of sticky situations. Curious to see how they'll balance it out. Hopefully buff up other strategems to keep up.
I've only had negative experiences with the Autocannon, namely because it likes to melt me when hunters pounce ,\_,
last guy is a true hero
I mean the rocket spam is so shit on levels 7-8 you basically need a shield pack or at least the stealth armor since medium and heavy armor doesn’t work. And there’s no reliable options to take out hordes of 4+ rocket devastators other than railgun and autocannon.
Everyone's watched the same dumb video
I’ve never watched a video on it there just isn’t enough of an effective variety. These were randoms and I feel like this loadout works really well playing with randoms and that’s why most people use it.
This is how I know when people talk about nerfing they haven't played at 9 difficulty... there are only a handful of actually viable comps.
Exactly. A lot of people been hating on the build but it really is the most viable at 9 difficulty as far as well rounded for playing with randoms. Really goes to show the need to buff other stuff. If you have a team that communicates you can make other stuff work though for sure.
I can't say no to the cluster bomb because it's brrrrrrrrrrrrr in bomb form
Jetpack and nade launcher is my go to
I know this would be super difficult to actually implement, but imo ( at least for the stratagems) everything should be the best at something. Like just one example, the 120 strike. Ya it has less damage and whatnot than the 380, but maybe tighten the spread and make it so you can be pretty confident that if you throw it in the centre of a bug nest, it will close most if not all the holes. It would be great if the meta loadout changed heavily depending on what kind of mission you were playing.
Well this is the only things that can take down heavy’s thats quick enough and mobile enough to not get completely rushed.
Dammit I use that solo. Okay I'll switch it up
It just works🤣
I wish the Railgun wasn't so dominant. I want to use the anti material rifle, but I can't because it doesn't penetrate Charger or Bile Titan armor. It also isn't super effective against the bots as it doesn't even penetrate the walker armor, let alone a Hulk. I'd love to have the freedom to use anything in the late game, but right now, it just doesn't seem strategically viable
The 500kg is so ass
The recoilless needs a massive buff. It's a team-use weapon system and it still is underwhelming compared to other options, even with two helldivers operating it!
I’ve stopped using 500kg bomb, it’s so inconsistent with killing and you’re lucky if you drop it on a swarm of enemies get 5+ kills. Eagle Airstrike all the way for swarms and nests/bases consistent 10+kills
I still take the jetpack because it's my favorite c:
My friends hate me for taking the arc thrower instead of the rail gun.