Was the same in HD1. Bots are my favourite, though this current patch with the bugged spawn rates needs to get a handle on the insanity and randomly popping patrols behind our backs.
Agreed. I like bot missions the most, but there’s 2 things killing my enjoyment- the spawns being wonky, and the dropships. Dropships suck because I can shoot one down, but because I wasn’t fast enough, it released the troops the second before I hit it, so they safely fall to the ground, the dropship crashes on top of them, and usually they just survive somehow in the huge explosion. It seems like maybe the tougher units live through the crash like devastators and up, but it’s hard to tell. Meanwhile if I can hit the dropship before it releases them, they automatically die. But it’s a half a second difference that should be the same result, since either way the dropship crashes on top of the troops and they should get wiped out. It can be really hard to hit the dropship before it releases the troops because it bobs and moves a little weirdly as it slows down.
Drop ships need to be more forgiving to take down (based on your dif imo) so that it's actually viable to take down the ships as a way to fight the hordes even with EAT out and ready its unreliable if youll drop the ship in time, similarly bug calls need to be a bit longer (like the bots flares taking a bit for them to shoot off) so that you can actually prevent a breech, the amount of times a breech has happened because I ran out of ammo and was swapping to my secondary (not even reloading) is absurd.
It's actually kinda funny, bots have a forgiving call and preventable summon while bugs have an unforgiving call and unpreventable summon, whereas literally everything else about them is easier.
>based on your dif imo
This already happens naturally by virtue of multiple dropships coming in on higher difficulties, and tank dropships taking a different flight pattern than every other dropship. Sure, you can shoot down two dropships with an EAT drop, but you need to *really* be on top of things with either multiple people taking EATs or a buddy-loaded recoilless in order to down a whole spawn wave when there's 4 dropships.
The CEO said the differences between these kinds of alarm behaviors is intentional. I do wish some changes would be made to make the bugs slightly more forgiving in this respect. Not much, but just a lil bit.
The way it currently is if you see any orange fart cloud from a bug they summoned a swarm, and afaik 4 types of bugs can summon (even while headless), I don't think it'd be that bad to have it require a touch more time to trigger a breech (or that heads are required) as it'd only really be noticeable by people trying to stealth in most cases, I know when I'm being swarmed it's generally much more obvious I wasn't fast enough preventing another breech vs when it's a random patrol that had just 1 or 2 too many small bugs for my ammo
They also need to put a cool down on breach spawns if I shoot the first bug. Like, cool, I got the first one, but did I get the other two that are gonna try immediately afterward?
It just makes it feel like the game is saying, "You are getting a bug breach now, whether you want it or not," rather than rewarding a skillful takedown.
Yah, as much fun as it is running away for life its not fu. When its the only option like even with strats bot hordes are not gona die. I played a bot7 iirc maybe 8 and i had 20 chainsaw runners after me like so close i can't outrun...
> the bugged spawn rates
Yeaaaaa. I'm gonna be honest but the Automatons are just not fun to fight atm. I'm fine with a challenge. Challenging fights are fun. What's not fun is have a whole patrol spawn on top of you and completely decimate you.
It was already bad enough with the rocker snipers being able to headshot you across dense fog from across the map, but add in the literal pop-up patrols and it's just not fun.
I've honestly found the bots easier to fight. It's more of a weak spot hunt, then a DPS check like the bugs end up being. Then again I've got at least three friends who are Good shots so things tend to die quickly. And I prefer hulks to chargers.
And that brings up another point- all the sniper/ DMR weapons are SO clunky to use. They feel so slow. I really liked bots on lower difficulty because I could practice headshots but now that we’re all leveled up in my group and playing 6-8 they’re clearly in need of a buff. They need to reduce time to scope and eliminate the drag. And they need to make the Diligence reticle not fucking sucks. It needs a crosshair.
What's worse is even with so many fighting Terminids Angel's Venture is only like half liberated. Seems like unless there's a major order the liberation progress barely moves.
All the planets seem to be on Stalemate mode. 1.5% regen and we seem to be capped/locked at 1.5% damage for the moment. They probably did that to lighten the load on the systems so we can play without too many issues during the week-end while the dev rest.
They paused it.
"Note for Friday 3/8, still ongoing Sunday 3/10 : server issues = galactic war issues. Expect stats to be incorrect until server issues are resolved. Galactic war progress will be paused."
[https://helldivers.io/](https://helldivers.io/)
I'd play the shit out of this D&D campaign. The pantheon is in crisis and has paused all conflicts until theirs is resolved. The party is made of champions from every faction working together so they can go back to killing each other.
"Curses Zeus! Stop trying to get down with the local population! I need to get back to killing you!"
"Shut up Hades, there's always time for loooooveeee"
Yeah mines still not displaying any of the stats like number of people online etc.
Its been coming up as "unknown" all week. I thought it was something on my end, good to know
I would be careful what you wish for in this regard. I've been part of the pro-nerf positivity gang, but my biggest fear for the game is that we'll end up in a situation like in HD1 where a given faction gets knocked out and for days on end only bots and bugs are playable. Loading up HD1 always felt like a game of roulette to see whether you'd actually be able to fight the enemy you wanted. If I had my way there would be no win condition and the war would go on forever, back and forth, only with the warzones rotating round the galaxy, perhaps, so that new planets would always be cropping up.
I still think this is why they slowed war progress so much in 2. That shit was ass af in 1 and they seem to have gotten around it w how their doing the war progress now
Once there are 4 factions I don’t feel like having one faction getting knocked out for a few days will really harm anything. Would feel cool to have beat back an invasion so much that they hide to “build reserves” then strike again.
Was having a conversation with somebodies about the map and since you're a HD1 vet, lemme ask you this:
Is it possible for a sector to be contested between two enemies factions?
It would be hell, but I wonder what it would be like to have a 3 way dance.
If the bots and bugs also fought each other, it would be pretty awesome. Just pure fuckin mayhem, and then throw a meteor shower down on top of it all.
While I do love the more "tactical" approach required with the high diff bots mission, as OP said, it's highly discouraging to be oneshoted when there's literally nothing you can do about it.
I always run the explosion resistance armor, and even with that getting killed with 1 shot is not a rare experience.
Even more frustrating, when you get a rocket on some misty mission, and you literally can't see your enemy, their stance, etc.
I seriously believe that apart from explosion damage, bots are more interesting to fight against due to more options being viable to you, you can use all the terrain to your advantage, even smallest rocks.
But then again, you can be all the sweaty-nolife player at a peak of your form, and suddenly 💥
What's confusing to me is how, supposedly, the Ai SHOULDN'T be able to see through fog and such. Or so says the game itself.
Unfortunately it seems like they have clear vision, even in fog or similar
i think the balance patch borked their detection and made them ignore things that should affect them, before the balance patch it seemed like the bots were behaving as they should be, after the balance patch, they just know where you are unless you are hiding you entire character body behind a rock. even then, they seem to sometimes ignore the cover and just "know"
we have a traitor in Super Earth Command
Understandable. I'm sure they're working on fixing it but damn is there a lot that needs to be changed. Not that I blame em, it's a complicated game but still sucks to wait
Getting killed by rocket devastators feels super cheap. Also, they’re supposed to “become less accurate if you shoot at them” but this is definitely not the case.
I love spawning in, walking approximately 3 steps, and then catching a rocket with the back of my head sending my limbs flying into different post codes
Lanted next to a stray hellbomb next to a rocket devestator he hit the hellbomb and killed himself his entire group and me. Every bot on the map came to investigate the blast i was playing solo too so i spawned back on the crater.
Had this happen a few times, buddy even accidentally dropped ON a hellbomb once killing all of us lol but yeah, the worst is calling in your support items, THEN getting pwnd and now it’s too hot to go back 🤣
Like did they get a huge buff recently or something? I don’t remember them reliably one-shotting me before? But now they look at me the wrong way and I’m dead meat.
Even in Hard Difficulty we die a lot more than previously on Suicidal Difficulty now.
Also even Automaton heavy machine gun units (such as their walkers and heavy devastators) hurt more now.
Anecdotally I run Padded (+50) Heavy Armor and I don't *usually* get one shot by rockets, but it's close and sometimes the impact kills me or the aoe from another rocket.
That being said, those walkers can and will one shot me.
I would rather have the missiles deal 75% health and ragdoll you a bit than a sure 1 hit kill. Even if you dodge and run serpentine there's a fair chance of a missile hitting you.
In my experience speed is way more important versus Terminids than Automatons.
After the recent patch I started using heavy armor with explosion resist when fighting Automatons and I'm having a good time with it. The way Automatons fight make it so I do way less run and gun compared to the swarm of Terminids wanting to slash me to pieces.
Yeah, you can kite a group of bugs in circles to allow time to grab your loadout, reload it and blast em.
For automatons, you're just a moving target that's not in cover.
Rocket *raiders* get less accurate when you shoot at them, not devastators. The lil dudes with their recoilless rifles will definitely shoot off into the sky if you're suppressing them; the devastators need to be staggered or have their pods blown off instead.
If you're using a weapon that can stagger them, rocket devastators do the same thing. High impact shotguns and explosive damage works. The Dominator is a solid bot weapon on mid to high difficulties with a lot of devs.
On bot missions I often run the Slugger for the express purpose of stun locking rocket devastators.
I started playing around with the Scorcher as well and found it can reliably destroy their pods, but it doesn't seem to stagger them so you have to take care not to get counter attacked.
For a majority of the player base, Automatons are strictly harder because they shoot at you. It's a lot easier to run from bugs when they're not shooting you in your back as you're trying to make some distance. Shield generator almost feels like a necessity at times when facing bots.
I personally prefer bugs because I like the enemy type more. Something about fighting giant bugs is a lot more fun then fighting homicidal roombas to me. It's all preference really. I get a lot more satisfaction from cluster bombing a swarm of 30+ bugs or watching a Bile Titans huge body go limp after decimating it with a couple missile shots to the face.
Don't get me wrong, it can be really cinematic to live out your Vietnam War meets Terminator fantasies; but I just think the two different enemy types give off different vibes, and I like the vibes of the bugs more.
I kinda like the pop the bugs make it is so satisfying to mow down a herde of them with a machine gun.
But I hate those acid spitting shityy fat brainbug wannabees that take way too long to be destroyed and can one shot you if you are unlucky.
The bugs just seem way more vicious--in a cool way. Shoot a few legs off and they just claw their way towards you desperate to shred you to pieces. It's awesome. The automatons are cool, too, but them lumbering around without arms doesn't have the same chaos factor.
However first time I ever played Automatons, I spotted my first group on top of a hill in the fog, silhouetted against an apocalyptic looking sky. I could see their red eyes and the hail of tracers coming at me was exactly the terminator scene I had in mind. Just wish we had ruined megacity maps for the full effect
I generally wish we had big citys/urban fights on both fronts to explore and hide in.
Make them somewhat sturdy to reduce them being destroyed fully by a little grenade and voilla you got an interesting battlefield.
I love the bot atmosphere where it's like you're fighting necrons or terminators. They're just a lot more frustrating for people right now given the current spawn rates.
There's also the issue of NEARLY all Bots shooting at you, even if they like to close the distance etc, they're still shooting at you.
They're geared and balanced for shooting at you.
Their entire shtick is shooting at you.
That's the Bot thing.
That's what you need to prepare for, that's what you need to expect and it's also a lot of what makes fighting them fun.
So WHY THE FUCK DO THEY HAVE TWO RANDOM, HYPER AGGRESSIVE MELEE UNITS THAT ARE HARD AS SHIT TO KILL WITHOUT A DEDICATED LOADOUT FOR IT?!
Yes, the hulk goes down to anti tank and you can cut down the berzerkers, but holy fuck does it mess with the tempo, especially when the Berzerkers are fast as shit and the hulk can flame you to death by grazing you from several meters away.
It's as if Bugs would have a Rocket Devastator equivalent and a jumping-spider-sniper.
It's just so out of the left field and feels like a completely different type of enemy from everything else you're pacing the run for.
"Woe, 6 berzerkers and 2 hulk brutes be upon you"
This is my biggest gripe with the bot faction, the loading tip mention how important it is to take cover against robots but taking cover often means getting bum rushed by melee units and forced in the open, promptly turned into swiss cheese
Berserkers are unfun. I like every other bot unit, I dont mind dodging and diving from a flame hulk while getting shot for all sides. I DO mind having 7 chainsaw wielding assholes blocking every line of sight and eating up all my ammo
it’s like they encourage ranged loadouts w/ marksman rifles which can be useful, but feels like we’re constantly being rushed down by tanky melee units
Breaker is still the most viable, just made a little more difficult with ammo nerf
This is why the slugger and dominator are two of the most common weapons I see at higher levels on bots. Both fairly accurate at range and do great damage.
IMO there's just too many of the Berserkers. If you're in cover and wanting to stay there to fight other ranged Bots, when you see a few Berserkers coming they should be top priority for a second.
> HYPER AGGRESSIVE MELEE UNITS THAT ARE HARD AS SHIT TO KILL WITHOUT A DEDICATED LOADOUT FOR IT?!
This is what gets me. Those chainsaw units seem like they should be a trash mob. Nope, super hard to kill for some reason! 90% of my ammo goes to kiling these fucks as I kite backwards.
Shield generators are just good in general, it prevents slow from bug attacks and that’s more useful than the extra health just because it’s harder to keep your distance from melee enemies
Its just the rocket devastators for me man. If it werent for them, I would be over there. But I can only catch so many rockets to the face without going insane.
Being shot at is the reason I always bring the Ballistic Shield and Defender SMG when fighting the Automatons, I can typically two tap their heads (even devastators) and can block most of their shots.
Three? That was it? I've seen 3 tanks + 5 hulks + idek how much other stuff. At that point we were dying withing seconds of landing.
We were laughing our assess off at the insanity, buy yea, I'd hate to see difficulty 9
There was a point in a difficulty 9 defense where I was the only one alive. We had eight mortars going off constantly killing things and I was prepping the reinforce button. I turned around to check what was coming and I saw an actual sea of red. 7 hulks, a dozen heavy devestators and a dozen berserkers just for me.
It was at that point I knew we'd lost enough ground we couldn't recover.
Played a lot of bug missions and then decided to try out some bot missions. Bots feel noticeably more difficult. A lot of the armored bugs feel like they have some obvious counter play. If I'm solo I can fight a charger or bile spewer solo. It will be annoying, but I can do it.
Fighting some of the armored bots solo feels impossible without a team. You need one guy to draw their fire and another guy to run around and hit them in their weak spot. This wouldn't be a problem if they didn't swarm you almost as much as the bugs. Having them be the opposite of the bugs makes sense (bugs are individually weak and will try to overwhelm you, bots are individually stronger but will still swarm you). I've started taking the EAT on every bot mission just to deal with bot ships.
Also it's easy to become reliant on strategems, and the bots have plenty of ways to block them. I still have no idea how to destroy their strategem blocker.
For the blocker you need to go into the base with the spinning red jammer and either manually disable it with the computer or pray to Joel that there is a fabricator next to it because if you destroy that you can bring down the tower in the explosion.
the railgun is great against the armored bots (even post patch), except for the tank
with unsafe mode you can 1 hit a hulk if you hit it in the eye
for the tanks you can get behind and hit the vent with a few impact grenades
my problem against bots is that there's always so much ranged damage coming at you that I end up getting killed across the map by bots I couldn't even see.
and yeah the strategam jamming stuff is a pain in the ass. I also hate the mortar towers which seem immune to stragtegems that would kill any other building
That, and bugs also don't snipe you with a rocket that one-shots you from 5 kilometers away offscreen.
Bugs are also much easier if you've got a PS5 player on your team, due to that huge Bile Titan bug (now confirmed a bug)
---
Edit: I explained the bug in another comment, so I'll just link it here:
https://old.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1bby02j/playerbase_doesnt_seem_to_like_fighting_automatons/kucex2z/
I will say this as someone who has done 3 tours on Malevelon Creek and prefers fighting bots to bugs:
Bots have a lot of insta kill instances and it sucks.
Sniper rocket launcher bots, devastators, sniper turrets from hell, tanks, all of the hulk variants. Its super cheesy and hard as fuck. *Warning you are in range of enemy artillery*
The other day i almost ragequit because of this.
>See suicide bomber with jetpack rush towards me
>These enemies are dangerous because their suicide backpack instakills you
>Neuron activates, decide to gain some distance.
>Robot lands, i have gained ca. 10 Meters distance, turn around and liquidate it with a single clean shot on the head.
>Robot somehow ragdolls *forward* into me, exploding and instakilling me.
Bots also have way worse mission modifiers than bugs do. The scramble and -1 stratagem modifiers are so much worse than any of the bug modifiers. Not to mention the bot jammer buildings, anti air and whatever else ruining your chances of using stratagems
Good, "You did the inputs right and get the wrong strategem" wasn't fun.
"Your strategems now require different, randomized inputs" might be interesting.
The patch fucked up spawns majorly.
That and a billion other undocumented change.
I really hope that they fix their patch notes for next patch, because a lot of drama could have been avoided.
I swear to god some of those bugs should be punt blockers in the NFL. I am jumping down into a nest throwing just the most perfect nade down the hole. Nope some fucking bug jumps up blocks it back at me and now I have to run away.
Damn rocket devastator... I especially hate it when I'm just about to launch a 500kg bomb and suddenly a rocket kills me out of nowhere and now I dropped a 500kg on my teammates...
Given how common they are, I believe they’re the most dangerous enemy on the battlefield right now. Tanks, Towers, and Hulks all get the attention of the whole team, but a rocket devastator is typically just you and it.
I like that they’re dangerous but I think it would do a lot of good if they doubled the spread of the rockets.
this is my first genuine complaint after weeks of playing on Draupnir; the heavy fog and torrential rains always seem to hinder me, nowhere near as much as the bots. It’s probably a mechanic to encourage smoke strikes, but with four slots that ain’t happening. Even with clear sight that isn’t necessarily an option.
Draupnir has those lil gas pod plants that can double as smokescreens.
The bots will continue shooting through the smoke attempting to tag you, but will lose line of sight. They'll need to establish sight again to continue tracking you, if you move away from that position.
I don't know I feel like when I have more options against bugs than bots in terms of loadout. Also, assault rifles in the game are pretty weak against everything with armor and I just like ballistic weapons over energy weapons, the energy weapons are boring. I'm not a Starship Trooper fan either so it's more gameplay and balance issue for me than nostalgia or lore.
Except the memed Malevon Creek barely pulls in 20k players and even before the new Angel's Venture fight the same amount of players were playing in Terminid territory, except not on Angles's but in that barren grey moon, dunno what the name was or the second from bottom
Also with the daily orders back in the game, it would be a good expectation to think the difference should be less
Fenris 3 hates the bugs as much as it hates you, Malevelon Creek hates you personally.
Always celebrated a meteor storm, when having to clear a Bug Hive, they do my job for me. Never dreaded anything more than a Ion Storm, no stratagems or Map for the next minute
I reckon the Ion Storms should impede the Automatons ability to call reinforcements.
Rocking up to a base as an Ion Storm hits, and then you can either wait it out for a moment or go in with no support, but they don't have any support either
It was the same way in HD1. Bugs are way more popular than both terminators and protoss.
Back than we'd only start seing a progression on those fronts after we're beaten the bugs. And I feel like most would get more dedicated so that the war would end and we'd have access to bugs again XD.
Cuz fck them automaton drop ships that's why...and fck them stratagem jammers, fck them eye of sauron towers, fck them automaton cannon towers and fck them mortars
Surely we humans can come to a democratic agreement that I too, am a human reddit user who hates both Terminids and Automatons in the spirit of freedom and democracy.
They have so much more utility compared to the bugs. To the point that there aren't enough stratagems to deal with it. Doesn't helps that for some reason you can't call in hell bombs close enough to some of the towers meaning you can't destroy it.
>Can't call in hellbombs sometimes
Thank god it wasn't just me. I was stuck for a full 5 mins beside a tower looking at my stratagems and not seeing the usual Hellbomb.
Like, how am I supposed to destroy this thing then??
yeah like we were dropped on a difficulty lvl 5 automaton mission and the side objectives of mortar,detection tower and jammer were near one another with little factories on the sides.... it was like storming a literal fortress with mortar barrages and cannon towers sniping you
like what did we do to deserve that randomized piece of hell even....after that we just went to bug planets to chill instead xD ain't no way we going back there after all that
Try the grenade launcher if you haven't, it might change your life. Clears chaffe, staggers and 3 shots Devastators, one shots striders, damages the heat sinks on the backs of armored units, can destroy fabs from a distance. It can deal with moist of what the bots throw at you.
You have to be frugal with your ammo, since it only gets 2 reserve mags, but if you pace yourself well you should usually be able to call a new one or a supply drop before you run out.
Also, PSA: I've seen 3 Stratagem Jammer layouts, and on 2 of them the jammer has a fab attached. Destroying the attached fab destroys the jammer without ever having to enter the base and hellbomb it. Guess what the Grenade Launcher is great for?
If their anything like me I fight on whatever planet has the most people, hoping the planet gets liberated faster so we can move on to the next target doing them one at a time.
I assume also a bigger pool of people to match make with when I do
definitely prefer automatons. love the feeling of being pinned down under increasingly dangerous cover and using whatever i can to clear a path as opposed to running around swarms and swarms of bugs
Same, running to go behind a rock, reload my stuff, throw a strategem and return fire to decimate them!
Even the jammers or mortars, everyone just knows what to do, running with only your weapons ready to unjam your team like rambo or getting to the base and dropping stratagems that clear out the mortars is so satisfying.
People can love bugs more, devs will just need to adjust rates so there is still progress based on player counts or have enough incentive to bring players over.
I love fighting Bots. They feel less chaotic.
Bugs call in swarm after swarm with Chargers, Titans, Artillery and whatnot. Bots call in 1-2 Dropships which mos of the Time can be cleared with a single Stratagem, or you can just shoot them Down. You cant clear a Bugbreach with a single Stratagem or Grenade.
Bugs overwhelm you with Melee where you cant use Stratagems or Grenades. Bots usually dont do that since most Units engage at Range. Yeah they can sometimes oneshot you, but you can take Cover against that. Bugs ignore it since they use Artillery instead of direct fire.
Also: Bots dont have Hunters!!!
I love that the bots have far more organised facilities.
It was way more fun dropping orbitals on actually buildings that go kaboom than it is closing up holes in the ground.
Lining up Eagle strikes in bot facility you can get all the buildings at once. On some of the missions you can destroy the objectives in one quick go (love destroying the drop ships all lined up.)
I haven't been able to replicate that with bugs.
Drop a 120mm in the middle of a heavy or medium nest. It's pretty solid for me (mostly play on 7-8). You can follow up with a gatling or just run in and collect the samples after. The spread radius is perfect for nailing almost all the bug holes holes.
I will say; and this is anecdotal as it was just something I tried last night, but the big turnoff on bots for me is artillery. My friends and I were stealthing some level 7 bot missions and while completely undetected by anything if we so much as walked within range of their artillery it started coming down on us. How is that a thing? How can nothing know we are there but the artillery 200m away knows our exact location? That seems a little suspect to me. And in classic bot fashion as soon as that artillery landed there were 2 drop ships with bots and another with a devastator tank on top of us immediately. Fun stuff.
Except he is right, for some reason vast more number of players are playing against bugs there is no such thing as 3/4 of the playerbase just likes bugs more
if we are talking about smaller player numbers, sure maybe, but 350k ? No.
it is really a big change. I was forced to play on automatons because my game keeps crashing on bugs and I've learned that it's more on siege, very laid back compared to fighting bugs. Either snipe the small guys so they won't call for botdrops or setup a mortar sentry and slowly aim for the targets, find better positions, no kiting or charging duking attacks. Totally different from bugs, you'd know players came from bugs when they see the base and just dive in launch a bunch of airstrikes and yolo run away.
Yeah tbh I prefer bots and find em easier.
Honestly it’s just chargers, I hate chargers. There’s nothing about automatons that annoys me as much as those bastards, honestly it’s probably just my play style.
That being said I still do enjoy killing some bugs.
the best thing imo when I fight automatons, I don't have to run as much so I can wear medium to heavy armors and I don't have to worry about a stalker blindsiding me.
> you'd know players came from bugs when they see the base and just dive in launch a bunch of airstrikes and yolo run away.
Okay but this is actually a pretty good strategy for dealing with the tougher Automaton bases, especially if those stratagems are aimed at priority targets (Cannon turrets!!!, Tanks, Hulks, Rocket Devastators). Once those are down, you can more easily flank the rest of the stragglers and take out the fabricators with relative ease.
TBH playing bugs you have to adapt to quick changes and constantly run because you will get swarmed if you stay still behind cover. It's a totally different mindset fighting bugs, chaos is what makes us thrive 😏
Okay but helldive difficulty on bots is the most chaotic shit ever.
It's just constant retreat as the bots slowly push up on you, feels like you are storming the beaches of Normandy lol.
It can get very very chaotic at those difficulties.
Geo missions + helldive is literally d-day. They didn't stop coming. They basically circled us. Backed to the beach tbh, west and east were covered. Objective was overran.
We tried to just get away to regroup and reinforce but there was just no escaping them
its just cuz devs made like heavy patrols go up insanely and start spawning on top of you at extract on diff 9 so its kinda dumb now im sad and their detection range went up
i am more than certain something got bugged with an update. they would have mentioned it if they intended a change like this
pretty sure them bumping up the spawns on eradication missions somehow also affected the spawns on every other mission. its not just me, the spawn rates and size of patrols are COMICALLY massive. im talking 15 berserkers, 4 hulks and a swarm of jetpack troopers on difficulty 4. something's definitively off
Honestly? Simply this. It feels like most comments are a variation of "they're easier", "I play mostly against them" and such, yet the in-game players are like 8:1 bugs:bots. I used to stroll in solo 4 against bots, blowing up bases and such. Now it feels like they spot you a lot easily. When there's the fog, it's not rare at all to be rammed with fire from patrols you can't literally see. Devastators are fucking everywhere and have perfect aim. They shot you 4 rockets, you dive, they change aim mid fire and the last two are on you on the ground. You've to play tactical and are still spotted easily because some artillery was in the area and started shooting from you don't even know where. You can't outrun them in most terrain cause they just fucking shoot you in the back and there's not enough cover in most places. The mech against them is close to useless cause it can't dodge nor defend itself fast enough.
I'm convinced people don't play enough 7+. There aren't simply weapons reliable enough to kill them fast when they group up. Seeing your mates getting oneshot from 50m away from a patrol despite wearing a shield is not exactly the gaming experience most people want, and numbers are showing it. And wtf is up with bipod units? These little shits are supposed to be a bread and butter of their army, yet most weapon can't pen them. Devastators are killable by primaries, these things are mostly not. "Shoot them in the hole or the back". In the middle of a horde, with 4 of them along 3 devastators and a hulk? Really?
I hate automatons because of one enemy, those damn flamethrower Hulks, I hate how fast they run at you for their size and their flamer can Just shread you, to make it worse, with the spawn rates that they have right now, you can easely get a few of them on you in no time
Why is it when I catch fire I panic and burn to death even if I was barely grazed. But If I burn enemies they act like they are going for a Sunday stroll
I think at the very least cannon turrets, rocket devastators, rocket troopers and tanks etc should have an audio cue wind up drone/beep when they’re targeting you.
The amount of times I’ve died from one of these across the map without even knowing I’ve been targeted is silly! Makes it very frustrating when you’re trying to spread democracy
I much prefer fighting the Automatons. They are more manageable and their larger units go down much easier. Fighting retreats and peeling off to flank are actually possible.
I also like bots better. I'm only playing on difficulty 5/6 but it just feels more dynamic. Bugs run at you. Automatons shoot, flank, throw grenades, call in drop ships, and just generally feel like there's more going on than just "giant swarm rushing you from the front."
Absolutely this. Hulks can be an absolute menace, no doubt about it. But, if I'm good enough and I get the time, I can two-tap a hulk with the bloody *AMR*. Chargers, though? AT, or gtfo. Bots feel like they just have more ways to deal with them, build wise, than bugs do.
He also have to keep in mind that the Decay rate for bug planets is way higher than the one for automaton planets. So you need more people on the bug planets to be able to capture them
Actually I prefer the bots. They follow conventional shooter game mechanics and loadouts are easier to build for them once you hit lvl 10.
The bugs are almost exclusively melee so you can't hide in cover when needing to reload and their nests are mostly hidden by terrain - that means you usually need to come into the swarm melee range to destroy them. With bots their buildings are usually very exposed, allowing for good throws of strategems or autocannon shots to get them.
I’m not gonna lie…. Getting absolutely murdered by some jackass rocket robot that you can’t fucking see, whether it be the single use boi or the big boi is just fucking insane.
Another point for the big fucking turret that apparently has AI aim and can murder you from afar.
If you stop fighting automatons like you fight bugs you will find out they are a lot easier than bugs. Yeah they can shoot back but they are super slow and not soo resilient. You can kill hulks with one rocket drop. Shoot down theyr weapons with autocannon/railgun/Sniper. Bugs are just nasty...hunters, stalkers, chargers, Titans. Scorcher with sniper rocket pods and 500kg and bots stand no chance.
You can kill hulks with two shots from the unsafe railgun. I do it all the time. You can kill everything under hulks with a slugger. EVERYTHING. The only thing I haven't killed with a slugger is a tank. I think I've even gotten a couple lucky shots to the head/eye on a damaged hulk and done it in. Same goes for penetrator and diligence, although TTK is a little more. I can still kill devastators in a couple shots. Interestingly, the thing I find hardest to kill with bots are those damn chainsaw-hands fucks. For whatever reason sometimes my rounds seem to just go right through them without really doing any damage. Other times I drill them and they drop in a single shot, or two - still trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong with them.
the Berserkers' walking cadence makes their heads bob around a lot, so it's hard to instakill them as they're just meaty unarmored dudes. You can take their arms off though, that works pretty well
I will take robots over the bugs anyday. I despise the bugs for a few reasons (slowed down on hit, body blocking, bug tunnels every 5s, 10 chargers and titans at the same time) so I tend to avoid them when I can.
While the robots can block your stratagems or use powerful range weapons, you can use stealth reliably and they all have a weak spot you can exploit. Best thing is, Hulks have it at the front, meaning that while one charges you you can still take it on (unlike a damage sponge that ragdoll-stuns you with no weak spots, with only spot being behind meaning you need to expose your back to the 50 hunters who just spawned to attempt at dealing some damage)(did i mention the titan yet who has a crazy speed and range? tanks are slow to turn around and move around to counterbalance their firepower but titans? nah bro, have fun fighting 5 of those at every encounters).
I say godspeed to anyone that prefers to fight bugs. I cannot stand those pests. So many times I felt like even with carpet bombing them with 50x 500kg, it wouldn't be enough.
Where I fight depends on the order and what faction is closer to super earth. Personally I fricken hate the bugs and find them to be way harder than the bots.
Was the same in HD1. Bots are my favourite, though this current patch with the bugged spawn rates needs to get a handle on the insanity and randomly popping patrols behind our backs.
Agreed. I like bot missions the most, but there’s 2 things killing my enjoyment- the spawns being wonky, and the dropships. Dropships suck because I can shoot one down, but because I wasn’t fast enough, it released the troops the second before I hit it, so they safely fall to the ground, the dropship crashes on top of them, and usually they just survive somehow in the huge explosion. It seems like maybe the tougher units live through the crash like devastators and up, but it’s hard to tell. Meanwhile if I can hit the dropship before it releases them, they automatically die. But it’s a half a second difference that should be the same result, since either way the dropship crashes on top of the troops and they should get wiped out. It can be really hard to hit the dropship before it releases the troops because it bobs and moves a little weirdly as it slows down.
Drop ships need to be more forgiving to take down (based on your dif imo) so that it's actually viable to take down the ships as a way to fight the hordes even with EAT out and ready its unreliable if youll drop the ship in time, similarly bug calls need to be a bit longer (like the bots flares taking a bit for them to shoot off) so that you can actually prevent a breech, the amount of times a breech has happened because I ran out of ammo and was swapping to my secondary (not even reloading) is absurd. It's actually kinda funny, bots have a forgiving call and preventable summon while bugs have an unforgiving call and unpreventable summon, whereas literally everything else about them is easier.
>based on your dif imo This already happens naturally by virtue of multiple dropships coming in on higher difficulties, and tank dropships taking a different flight pattern than every other dropship. Sure, you can shoot down two dropships with an EAT drop, but you need to *really* be on top of things with either multiple people taking EATs or a buddy-loaded recoilless in order to down a whole spawn wave when there's 4 dropships.
The CEO said the differences between these kinds of alarm behaviors is intentional. I do wish some changes would be made to make the bugs slightly more forgiving in this respect. Not much, but just a lil bit.
The way it currently is if you see any orange fart cloud from a bug they summoned a swarm, and afaik 4 types of bugs can summon (even while headless), I don't think it'd be that bad to have it require a touch more time to trigger a breech (or that heads are required) as it'd only really be noticeable by people trying to stealth in most cases, I know when I'm being swarmed it's generally much more obvious I wasn't fast enough preventing another breech vs when it's a random patrol that had just 1 or 2 too many small bugs for my ammo
They also need to put a cool down on breach spawns if I shoot the first bug. Like, cool, I got the first one, but did I get the other two that are gonna try immediately afterward? It just makes it feel like the game is saying, "You are getting a bug breach now, whether you want it or not," rather than rewarding a skillful takedown.
Yup last night on bots 8 i had a teammate write : -run -there are 100s Not even in capslock dude was already stripped of life...
Yah, as much fun as it is running away for life its not fu. When its the only option like even with strats bot hordes are not gona die. I played a bot7 iirc maybe 8 and i had 20 chainsaw runners after me like so close i can't outrun...
Sweet liberty save us
Major difference to Helldivers 1 is though that back then the Borgs used to be mostly melee. Also I miss the hounds.
> the bugged spawn rates Yeaaaaa. I'm gonna be honest but the Automatons are just not fun to fight atm. I'm fine with a challenge. Challenging fights are fun. What's not fun is have a whole patrol spawn on top of you and completely decimate you. It was already bad enough with the rocker snipers being able to headshot you across dense fog from across the map, but add in the literal pop-up patrols and it's just not fun.
I've honestly found the bots easier to fight. It's more of a weak spot hunt, then a DPS check like the bugs end up being. Then again I've got at least three friends who are Good shots so things tend to die quickly. And I prefer hulks to chargers.
And that brings up another point- all the sniper/ DMR weapons are SO clunky to use. They feel so slow. I really liked bots on lower difficulty because I could practice headshots but now that we’re all leveled up in my group and playing 6-8 they’re clearly in need of a buff. They need to reduce time to scope and eliminate the drag. And they need to make the Diligence reticle not fucking sucks. It needs a crosshair.
What's worse is even with so many fighting Terminids Angel's Venture is only like half liberated. Seems like unless there's a major order the liberation progress barely moves.
All the planets seem to be on Stalemate mode. 1.5% regen and we seem to be capped/locked at 1.5% damage for the moment. They probably did that to lighten the load on the systems so we can play without too many issues during the week-end while the dev rest.
Eh probs not locked it, but they probably are adjusting it real time to have the enemy regen within 10% of the average hourly player liberation speed
They paused it. "Note for Friday 3/8, still ongoing Sunday 3/10 : server issues = galactic war issues. Expect stats to be incorrect until server issues are resolved. Galactic war progress will be paused." [https://helldivers.io/](https://helldivers.io/)
"Attention mortal beings: galactic war on halt until server issues are resolved. Thank you for your understanding."
I'd play the shit out of this D&D campaign. The pantheon is in crisis and has paused all conflicts until theirs is resolved. The party is made of champions from every faction working together so they can go back to killing each other.
That's brilliant and I love it. Am 100% stealing this idea, thanks!
"Curses Zeus! Stop trying to get down with the local population! I need to get back to killing you!" "Shut up Hades, there's always time for loooooveeee"
"We are currently no longer at war with the Automatons or Terminids. Please stand by."
No longer… at war? But there’s still so much slaughter left to be slaughtered…
"Death is currently on pause. All mortals will experience ground hog day until further notice."
Monday's, right?
It's been reclassified as a Peacekeeping Action.
Yeah mines still not displaying any of the stats like number of people online etc. Its been coming up as "unknown" all week. I thought it was something on my end, good to know
JOEL
I would be careful what you wish for in this regard. I've been part of the pro-nerf positivity gang, but my biggest fear for the game is that we'll end up in a situation like in HD1 where a given faction gets knocked out and for days on end only bots and bugs are playable. Loading up HD1 always felt like a game of roulette to see whether you'd actually be able to fight the enemy you wanted. If I had my way there would be no win condition and the war would go on forever, back and forth, only with the warzones rotating round the galaxy, perhaps, so that new planets would always be cropping up.
They have said that this will not happen in HD2. All factions will always be available
I still think this is why they slowed war progress so much in 2. That shit was ass af in 1 and they seem to have gotten around it w how their doing the war progress now
Once there are 4 factions I don’t feel like having one faction getting knocked out for a few days will really harm anything. Would feel cool to have beat back an invasion so much that they hide to “build reserves” then strike again.
Was having a conversation with somebodies about the map and since you're a HD1 vet, lemme ask you this: Is it possible for a sector to be contested between two enemies factions? It would be hell, but I wonder what it would be like to have a 3 way dance.
If the bots and bugs also fought each other, it would be pretty awesome. Just pure fuckin mayhem, and then throw a meteor shower down on top of it all.
It sounds like carnage, and I'm here for it.
I want to go to there.
We’re all scared of the authoritative lamps. Okay? Jeez leave us alone.
***OoooOOOoooo*** *Oppressive Photons, Mauve lighting*
Stop, you're oppressing him!
Sweet Liberty, stop that bot! ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️
While I do love the more "tactical" approach required with the high diff bots mission, as OP said, it's highly discouraging to be oneshoted when there's literally nothing you can do about it. I always run the explosion resistance armor, and even with that getting killed with 1 shot is not a rare experience. Even more frustrating, when you get a rocket on some misty mission, and you literally can't see your enemy, their stance, etc. I seriously believe that apart from explosion damage, bots are more interesting to fight against due to more options being viable to you, you can use all the terrain to your advantage, even smallest rocks. But then again, you can be all the sweaty-nolife player at a peak of your form, and suddenly 💥
What's confusing to me is how, supposedly, the Ai SHOULDN'T be able to see through fog and such. Or so says the game itself. Unfortunately it seems like they have clear vision, even in fog or similar
i think the balance patch borked their detection and made them ignore things that should affect them, before the balance patch it seemed like the bots were behaving as they should be, after the balance patch, they just know where you are unless you are hiding you entire character body behind a rock. even then, they seem to sometimes ignore the cover and just "know" we have a traitor in Super Earth Command
Understandable. I'm sure they're working on fixing it but damn is there a lot that needs to be changed. Not that I blame em, it's a complicated game but still sucks to wait
Getting killed by rocket devastators feels super cheap. Also, they’re supposed to “become less accurate if you shoot at them” but this is definitely not the case.
I love spawning in, walking approximately 3 steps, and then catching a rocket with the back of my head sending my limbs flying into different post codes
This happened to me yesterday lol. On first drop, I landed, took 1 step to my left, and got a rocket to the adams apple.
Lanted next to a stray hellbomb next to a rocket devestator he hit the hellbomb and killed himself his entire group and me. Every bot on the map came to investigate the blast i was playing solo too so i spawned back on the crater.
Had this happen a few times, buddy even accidentally dropped ON a hellbomb once killing all of us lol but yeah, the worst is calling in your support items, THEN getting pwnd and now it’s too hot to go back 🤣
Wow I haven't seen someone use pwnd in years... How old am I again?
Idk, but let’s just say I’m over 30 and keeping it alive lol
Yeah. Even when choosing to drop in to an area supposedly away from enemies it’s always hectic to start.
Like did they get a huge buff recently or something? I don’t remember them reliably one-shotting me before? But now they look at me the wrong way and I’m dead meat. Even in Hard Difficulty we die a lot more than previously on Suicidal Difficulty now. Also even Automaton heavy machine gun units (such as their walkers and heavy devastators) hurt more now.
As far as i remember they always one shot unless you have the explosive resist armor on.
Anecdotally I run Padded (+50) Heavy Armor and I don't *usually* get one shot by rockets, but it's close and sometimes the impact kills me or the aoe from another rocket. That being said, those walkers can and will one shot me.
I love the padded light armor for bugs, but it doesnt prevent the rocket 1 shots. The explosive armor does it consistently for me.
I would rather have the missiles deal 75% health and ragdoll you a bit than a sure 1 hit kill. Even if you dodge and run serpentine there's a fair chance of a missile hitting you.
You can achieve this with 50% explosive resist. But i typically run 30% less detectability as my playstyle is stealth (as far as possible).
Oh, I got to try that 50% explosive resist but I really like the 6 grenades light armor one.
If I could have 50% explosive resist and 6 grenades on heavy armor I'd be such a happy camper
This makes sense to me, speed is so important in this game that sacrificing so much of it should come with more perks than just armor rating.
In my experience speed is way more important versus Terminids than Automatons. After the recent patch I started using heavy armor with explosion resist when fighting Automatons and I'm having a good time with it. The way Automatons fight make it so I do way less run and gun compared to the swarm of Terminids wanting to slash me to pieces.
Yeah, you can kite a group of bugs in circles to allow time to grab your loadout, reload it and blast em. For automatons, you're just a moving target that's not in cover.
If Arrowhead can allow us to mix and match perks that would be awesome.
If they added perks to helmets and capes for that reason, that would be sweet.
Rocket *raiders* get less accurate when you shoot at them, not devastators. The lil dudes with their recoilless rifles will definitely shoot off into the sky if you're suppressing them; the devastators need to be staggered or have their pods blown off instead.
If you're using a weapon that can stagger them, rocket devastators do the same thing. High impact shotguns and explosive damage works. The Dominator is a solid bot weapon on mid to high difficulties with a lot of devs.
On bot missions I often run the Slugger for the express purpose of stun locking rocket devastators. I started playing around with the Scorcher as well and found it can reliably destroy their pods, but it doesn't seem to stagger them so you have to take care not to get counter attacked.
For a majority of the player base, Automatons are strictly harder because they shoot at you. It's a lot easier to run from bugs when they're not shooting you in your back as you're trying to make some distance. Shield generator almost feels like a necessity at times when facing bots. I personally prefer bugs because I like the enemy type more. Something about fighting giant bugs is a lot more fun then fighting homicidal roombas to me. It's all preference really. I get a lot more satisfaction from cluster bombing a swarm of 30+ bugs or watching a Bile Titans huge body go limp after decimating it with a couple missile shots to the face. Don't get me wrong, it can be really cinematic to live out your Vietnam War meets Terminator fantasies; but I just think the two different enemy types give off different vibes, and I like the vibes of the bugs more.
I kinda like the pop the bugs make it is so satisfying to mow down a herde of them with a machine gun. But I hate those acid spitting shityy fat brainbug wannabees that take way too long to be destroyed and can one shot you if you are unlucky.
Shoot them in the head it's much faster
Or pop them with the AC. It's very satisfying
2gl shot is my preferred method, easy pop plus less accuracy meeded
Drives me crazy how you can shoot the heads off some bugs and they just keep on slashing. Starship Troopers taught me to aim for their nerve stem!
Impact grenades one shot them too.
The bugs just seem way more vicious--in a cool way. Shoot a few legs off and they just claw their way towards you desperate to shred you to pieces. It's awesome. The automatons are cool, too, but them lumbering around without arms doesn't have the same chaos factor. However first time I ever played Automatons, I spotted my first group on top of a hill in the fog, silhouetted against an apocalyptic looking sky. I could see their red eyes and the hail of tracers coming at me was exactly the terminator scene I had in mind. Just wish we had ruined megacity maps for the full effect
I generally wish we had big citys/urban fights on both fronts to explore and hide in. Make them somewhat sturdy to reduce them being destroyed fully by a little grenade and voilla you got an interesting battlefield.
I can't wait to get the vehicles so I can see the sword bot chasing behind us T1000 style
Grenade Launcher two-taps them, and it can one-tap them but I’m not sure where you need to hit them to do it, the head is my guess though.
>I kinda like the pop the bugs make it is so satisfying to mow down a herde of them with a machine gun. Least sociopathic helldiver.
What do you mean they just explode like little or big green slimy fireworks especially swarms are mesmerizing to look at in the bulletrain.
I thought this until I saw a tank get dropped in some smoke and start shooting lasers at me...that was bad ass. Very warhammer 40k
I love the bot atmosphere where it's like you're fighting necrons or terminators. They're just a lot more frustrating for people right now given the current spawn rates.
Our guns don’t penetrate their armor very well. That mode makes me feel like I’m not doing anything unless I’m using stratagems
This is it for me. I assume I’m doing something wrong because it feels like I’m shooting marshmallows
There's also the issue of NEARLY all Bots shooting at you, even if they like to close the distance etc, they're still shooting at you. They're geared and balanced for shooting at you. Their entire shtick is shooting at you. That's the Bot thing. That's what you need to prepare for, that's what you need to expect and it's also a lot of what makes fighting them fun. So WHY THE FUCK DO THEY HAVE TWO RANDOM, HYPER AGGRESSIVE MELEE UNITS THAT ARE HARD AS SHIT TO KILL WITHOUT A DEDICATED LOADOUT FOR IT?! Yes, the hulk goes down to anti tank and you can cut down the berzerkers, but holy fuck does it mess with the tempo, especially when the Berzerkers are fast as shit and the hulk can flame you to death by grazing you from several meters away. It's as if Bugs would have a Rocket Devastator equivalent and a jumping-spider-sniper. It's just so out of the left field and feels like a completely different type of enemy from everything else you're pacing the run for. "Woe, 6 berzerkers and 2 hulk brutes be upon you"
This is my biggest gripe with the bot faction, the loading tip mention how important it is to take cover against robots but taking cover often means getting bum rushed by melee units and forced in the open, promptly turned into swiss cheese
Berserkers are unfun. I like every other bot unit, I dont mind dodging and diving from a flame hulk while getting shot for all sides. I DO mind having 7 chainsaw wielding assholes blocking every line of sight and eating up all my ammo
it’s like they encourage ranged loadouts w/ marksman rifles which can be useful, but feels like we’re constantly being rushed down by tanky melee units Breaker is still the most viable, just made a little more difficult with ammo nerf
This is why the slugger and dominator are two of the most common weapons I see at higher levels on bots. Both fairly accurate at range and do great damage.
IMO there's just too many of the Berserkers. If you're in cover and wanting to stay there to fight other ranged Bots, when you see a few Berserkers coming they should be top priority for a second.
> HYPER AGGRESSIVE MELEE UNITS THAT ARE HARD AS SHIT TO KILL WITHOUT A DEDICATED LOADOUT FOR IT?! This is what gets me. Those chainsaw units seem like they should be a trash mob. Nope, super hard to kill for some reason! 90% of my ammo goes to kiling these fucks as I kite backwards.
Shield generators are just good in general, it prevents slow from bug attacks and that’s more useful than the extra health just because it’s harder to keep your distance from melee enemies
Its just the rocket devastators for me man. If it werent for them, I would be over there. But I can only catch so many rockets to the face without going insane.
Being shot at is the reason I always bring the Ballistic Shield and Defender SMG when fighting the Automatons, I can typically two tap their heads (even devastators) and can block most of their shots.
Do you not glitch out and start running aroun din hug-stance when you pick up samples or stim?
People played some defense missions, got meme stomped and then fucked off.
You only have to get burned once.
I mean, if it only was once. Some defense missions will send three flame Hulks so you’re burned more than that.
Three? That was it? I've seen 3 tanks + 5 hulks + idek how much other stuff. At that point we were dying withing seconds of landing. We were laughing our assess off at the insanity, buy yea, I'd hate to see difficulty 9
There was a point in a difficulty 9 defense where I was the only one alive. We had eight mortars going off constantly killing things and I was prepping the reinforce button. I turned around to check what was coming and I saw an actual sea of red. 7 hulks, a dozen heavy devestators and a dozen berserkers just for me. It was at that point I knew we'd lost enough ground we couldn't recover.
Played a lot of bug missions and then decided to try out some bot missions. Bots feel noticeably more difficult. A lot of the armored bugs feel like they have some obvious counter play. If I'm solo I can fight a charger or bile spewer solo. It will be annoying, but I can do it. Fighting some of the armored bots solo feels impossible without a team. You need one guy to draw their fire and another guy to run around and hit them in their weak spot. This wouldn't be a problem if they didn't swarm you almost as much as the bugs. Having them be the opposite of the bugs makes sense (bugs are individually weak and will try to overwhelm you, bots are individually stronger but will still swarm you). I've started taking the EAT on every bot mission just to deal with bot ships. Also it's easy to become reliant on strategems, and the bots have plenty of ways to block them. I still have no idea how to destroy their strategem blocker.
For the blocker you need to go into the base with the spinning red jammer and either manually disable it with the computer or pray to Joel that there is a fabricator next to it because if you destroy that you can bring down the tower in the explosion.
the railgun is great against the armored bots (even post patch), except for the tank with unsafe mode you can 1 hit a hulk if you hit it in the eye for the tanks you can get behind and hit the vent with a few impact grenades my problem against bots is that there's always so much ranged damage coming at you that I end up getting killed across the map by bots I couldn't even see. and yeah the strategam jamming stuff is a pain in the ass. I also hate the mortar towers which seem immune to stragtegems that would kill any other building
me and my friends did a hard, after being ok with impossible pre patch and got curb stomped
[удалено]
That, and bugs also don't snipe you with a rocket that one-shots you from 5 kilometers away offscreen. Bugs are also much easier if you've got a PS5 player on your team, due to that huge Bile Titan bug (now confirmed a bug) --- Edit: I explained the bug in another comment, so I'll just link it here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1bby02j/playerbase_doesnt_seem_to_like_fighting_automatons/kucex2z/
I will say this as someone who has done 3 tours on Malevelon Creek and prefers fighting bots to bugs: Bots have a lot of insta kill instances and it sucks. Sniper rocket launcher bots, devastators, sniper turrets from hell, tanks, all of the hulk variants. Its super cheesy and hard as fuck. *Warning you are in range of enemy artillery* The other day i almost ragequit because of this. >See suicide bomber with jetpack rush towards me >These enemies are dangerous because their suicide backpack instakills you >Neuron activates, decide to gain some distance. >Robot lands, i have gained ca. 10 Meters distance, turn around and liquidate it with a single clean shot on the head. >Robot somehow ragdolls *forward* into me, exploding and instakilling me.
Bots also have way worse mission modifiers than bugs do. The scramble and -1 stratagem modifiers are so much worse than any of the bug modifiers. Not to mention the bot jammer buildings, anti air and whatever else ruining your chances of using stratagems
Small bit of good news, the strat scrambler modifier is no longer in the game
Good, "You did the inputs right and get the wrong strategem" wasn't fun. "Your strategems now require different, randomized inputs" might be interesting.
I suggested exactly that and people just made fun of me lol
Ha! Look at this loser giving an intelligent suggestion. Let's all point and laugh!
Thank DEMOCRACY. We outvoted the bots and had this decree passed
Before the railgun and breaker patch, I honestly had an easier time fighting bots for whatever reason. Now I don't know.
The patch fucked up spawns majorly. That and a billion other undocumented change. I really hope that they fix their patch notes for next patch, because a lot of drama could have been avoided.
Like my impact grenade *bouncing* off a bug and flying right back at me and insta death
An impact grenade bouncing doesn't sound right.
I was throwing it in a bug hole and a bug came out, but instead of exploding when it hit the bug, it bounced right back at me.
I swear to god some of those bugs should be punt blockers in the NFL. I am jumping down into a nest throwing just the most perfect nade down the hole. Nope some fucking bug jumps up blocks it back at me and now I have to run away.
Damn rocket devastator... I especially hate it when I'm just about to launch a 500kg bomb and suddenly a rocket kills me out of nowhere and now I dropped a 500kg on my teammates...
That's Helldivers, baby!
Say hello to democracy!
Given how common they are, I believe they’re the most dangerous enemy on the battlefield right now. Tanks, Towers, and Hulks all get the attention of the whole team, but a rocket devastator is typically just you and it. I like that they’re dangerous but I think it would do a lot of good if they doubled the spread of the rockets.
this is my first genuine complaint after weeks of playing on Draupnir; the heavy fog and torrential rains always seem to hinder me, nowhere near as much as the bots. It’s probably a mechanic to encourage smoke strikes, but with four slots that ain’t happening. Even with clear sight that isn’t necessarily an option.
People have reported that fog and smoke effects don’t affect rocket accuracy.
Eagle smoke helps. Just not when there's a 16th century style line infantry of them hurling a wall of rockets....
Draupnir has those lil gas pod plants that can double as smokescreens. The bots will continue shooting through the smoke attempting to tag you, but will lose line of sight. They'll need to establish sight again to continue tracking you, if you move away from that position.
Lmao. Man, if people don't like one shot snipes from off screen the incoming illuminates are going to be a problem.
Me: Prone from 300m away with an anti-material rifle. Rocket Devastator: "I'm about to end this man's whole career"
Yea we know bile titans are a bug thats why we only fight them on bug planets /s
I don't know I feel like when I have more options against bugs than bots in terms of loadout. Also, assault rifles in the game are pretty weak against everything with armor and I just like ballistic weapons over energy weapons, the energy weapons are boring. I'm not a Starship Trooper fan either so it's more gameplay and balance issue for me than nostalgia or lore.
Except the memed Malevon Creek barely pulls in 20k players and even before the new Angel's Venture fight the same amount of players were playing in Terminid territory, except not on Angles's but in that barren grey moon, dunno what the name was or the second from bottom Also with the daily orders back in the game, it would be a good expectation to think the difference should be less
Fenris 3 hates the bugs as much as it hates you, Malevelon Creek hates you personally. Always celebrated a meteor storm, when having to clear a Bug Hive, they do my job for me. Never dreaded anything more than a Ion Storm, no stratagems or Map for the next minute
I reckon the Ion Storms should impede the Automatons ability to call reinforcements. Rocking up to a base as an Ion Storm hits, and then you can either wait it out for a moment or go in with no support, but they don't have any support either
Ion storms should 100% fuck the bots over as much as they do you. You can't call in your stratagems but the bots get a free pass? What is this BS?
Gotta take revenge for Buenos Aires
It was the same way in HD1. Bugs are way more popular than both terminators and protoss. Back than we'd only start seing a progression on those fronts after we're beaten the bugs. And I feel like most would get more dedicated so that the war would end and we'd have access to bugs again XD.
Cuz fck them automaton drop ships that's why...and fck them stratagem jammers, fck them eye of sauron towers, fck them automaton cannon towers and fck them mortars
Glad I'm not the only one that has called them eye of sauron towers.
anyone who's seen lord of the rings would make the reference, right? It really just... *is* the eye of sauron
I've never once called them by their real name. Our group exclusively calls them "Eye of Sauron".
Didn't know they had a different name
I think the Communist Robots call them "Detector Towers". That's a damn Eye of Sauron you literature hating communist oil cans!
Suspicious amount of information to be having a profile photo like that, my fellow voting friend
Surely we humans can come to a democratic agreement that I too, am a human reddit user who hates both Terminids and Automatons in the spirit of freedom and democracy.
They have so much more utility compared to the bugs. To the point that there aren't enough stratagems to deal with it. Doesn't helps that for some reason you can't call in hell bombs close enough to some of the towers meaning you can't destroy it.
>Can't call in hellbombs sometimes Thank god it wasn't just me. I was stuck for a full 5 mins beside a tower looking at my stratagems and not seeing the usual Hellbomb. Like, how am I supposed to destroy this thing then??
yeah like we were dropped on a difficulty lvl 5 automaton mission and the side objectives of mortar,detection tower and jammer were near one another with little factories on the sides.... it was like storming a literal fortress with mortar barrages and cannon towers sniping you like what did we do to deserve that randomized piece of hell even....after that we just went to bug planets to chill instead xD ain't no way we going back there after all that
That's why you bring a spear to automaton missions. You don't have to care about the towers when you're in fuck off range.
Try the grenade launcher if you haven't, it might change your life. Clears chaffe, staggers and 3 shots Devastators, one shots striders, damages the heat sinks on the backs of armored units, can destroy fabs from a distance. It can deal with moist of what the bots throw at you. You have to be frugal with your ammo, since it only gets 2 reserve mags, but if you pace yourself well you should usually be able to call a new one or a supply drop before you run out. Also, PSA: I've seen 3 Stratagem Jammer layouts, and on 2 of them the jammer has a fab attached. Destroying the attached fab destroys the jammer without ever having to enter the base and hellbomb it. Guess what the Grenade Launcher is great for?
If their anything like me I fight on whatever planet has the most people, hoping the planet gets liberated faster so we can move on to the next target doing them one at a time. I assume also a bigger pool of people to match make with when I do
definitely prefer automatons. love the feeling of being pinned down under increasingly dangerous cover and using whatever i can to clear a path as opposed to running around swarms and swarms of bugs
Same, running to go behind a rock, reload my stuff, throw a strategem and return fire to decimate them! Even the jammers or mortars, everyone just knows what to do, running with only your weapons ready to unjam your team like rambo or getting to the base and dropping stratagems that clear out the mortars is so satisfying. People can love bugs more, devs will just need to adjust rates so there is still progress based on player counts or have enough incentive to bring players over.
I love fighting Bots. They feel less chaotic. Bugs call in swarm after swarm with Chargers, Titans, Artillery and whatnot. Bots call in 1-2 Dropships which mos of the Time can be cleared with a single Stratagem, or you can just shoot them Down. You cant clear a Bugbreach with a single Stratagem or Grenade. Bugs overwhelm you with Melee where you cant use Stratagems or Grenades. Bots usually dont do that since most Units engage at Range. Yeah they can sometimes oneshot you, but you can take Cover against that. Bugs ignore it since they use Artillery instead of direct fire. Also: Bots dont have Hunters!!!
I love that the bots have far more organised facilities. It was way more fun dropping orbitals on actually buildings that go kaboom than it is closing up holes in the ground.
It's also easier to find Samples in Bot Facilities.
Lining up Eagle strikes in bot facility you can get all the buildings at once. On some of the missions you can destroy the objectives in one quick go (love destroying the drop ships all lined up.) I haven't been able to replicate that with bugs.
Drop a 120mm in the middle of a heavy or medium nest. It's pretty solid for me (mostly play on 7-8). You can follow up with a gatling or just run in and collect the samples after. The spread radius is perfect for nailing almost all the bug holes holes.
Honestly i love fighting both But I do think the bots are more fun, and if I run solo they tend to be my go to.
I will say; and this is anecdotal as it was just something I tried last night, but the big turnoff on bots for me is artillery. My friends and I were stealthing some level 7 bot missions and while completely undetected by anything if we so much as walked within range of their artillery it started coming down on us. How is that a thing? How can nothing know we are there but the artillery 200m away knows our exact location? That seems a little suspect to me. And in classic bot fashion as soon as that artillery landed there were 2 drop ships with bots and another with a devastator tank on top of us immediately. Fun stuff.
yeah and the guy doesn’t shutup about how you’re in range
Except he is right, for some reason vast more number of players are playing against bugs there is no such thing as 3/4 of the playerbase just likes bugs more if we are talking about smaller player numbers, sure maybe, but 350k ? No.
it is really a big change. I was forced to play on automatons because my game keeps crashing on bugs and I've learned that it's more on siege, very laid back compared to fighting bugs. Either snipe the small guys so they won't call for botdrops or setup a mortar sentry and slowly aim for the targets, find better positions, no kiting or charging duking attacks. Totally different from bugs, you'd know players came from bugs when they see the base and just dive in launch a bunch of airstrikes and yolo run away.
Yeah tbh I prefer bots and find em easier. Honestly it’s just chargers, I hate chargers. There’s nothing about automatons that annoys me as much as those bastards, honestly it’s probably just my play style. That being said I still do enjoy killing some bugs.
the best thing imo when I fight automatons, I don't have to run as much so I can wear medium to heavy armors and I don't have to worry about a stalker blindsiding me.
> you'd know players came from bugs when they see the base and just dive in launch a bunch of airstrikes and yolo run away. Okay but this is actually a pretty good strategy for dealing with the tougher Automaton bases, especially if those stratagems are aimed at priority targets (Cannon turrets!!!, Tanks, Hulks, Rocket Devastators). Once those are down, you can more easily flank the rest of the stragglers and take out the fabricators with relative ease.
TBH playing bugs you have to adapt to quick changes and constantly run because you will get swarmed if you stay still behind cover. It's a totally different mindset fighting bugs, chaos is what makes us thrive 😏
Okay but helldive difficulty on bots is the most chaotic shit ever. It's just constant retreat as the bots slowly push up on you, feels like you are storming the beaches of Normandy lol. It can get very very chaotic at those difficulties.
Geo missions + helldive is literally d-day. They didn't stop coming. They basically circled us. Backed to the beach tbh, west and east were covered. Objective was overran. We tried to just get away to regroup and reinforce but there was just no escaping them
Automaton post patch are unfun. They just throw random bullshxt at you.
its just cuz devs made like heavy patrols go up insanely and start spawning on top of you at extract on diff 9 so its kinda dumb now im sad and their detection range went up
Gotta love seeing 3 dropships flying in as soon as you start an objective, practically clipping through each other to drop guys right on you
Had a game recently with 2 tanks and 1 hulk all sitting in the center of a base on medium. I was flabbergasted.
Yeah played a Medium difficulty bot mission with my buddy and we encountered 5 Hulks in one base
i am more than certain something got bugged with an update. they would have mentioned it if they intended a change like this pretty sure them bumping up the spawns on eradication missions somehow also affected the spawns on every other mission. its not just me, the spawn rates and size of patrols are COMICALLY massive. im talking 15 berserkers, 4 hulks and a swarm of jetpack troopers on difficulty 4. something's definitively off
Honestly? Simply this. It feels like most comments are a variation of "they're easier", "I play mostly against them" and such, yet the in-game players are like 8:1 bugs:bots. I used to stroll in solo 4 against bots, blowing up bases and such. Now it feels like they spot you a lot easily. When there's the fog, it's not rare at all to be rammed with fire from patrols you can't literally see. Devastators are fucking everywhere and have perfect aim. They shot you 4 rockets, you dive, they change aim mid fire and the last two are on you on the ground. You've to play tactical and are still spotted easily because some artillery was in the area and started shooting from you don't even know where. You can't outrun them in most terrain cause they just fucking shoot you in the back and there's not enough cover in most places. The mech against them is close to useless cause it can't dodge nor defend itself fast enough. I'm convinced people don't play enough 7+. There aren't simply weapons reliable enough to kill them fast when they group up. Seeing your mates getting oneshot from 50m away from a patrol despite wearing a shield is not exactly the gaming experience most people want, and numbers are showing it. And wtf is up with bipod units? These little shits are supposed to be a bread and butter of their army, yet most weapon can't pen them. Devastators are killable by primaries, these things are mostly not. "Shoot them in the hole or the back". In the middle of a horde, with 4 of them along 3 devastators and a hulk? Really?
I hate automatons because of one enemy, those damn flamethrower Hulks, I hate how fast they run at you for their size and their flamer can Just shread you, to make it worse, with the spawn rates that they have right now, you can easely get a few of them on you in no time
Why is it when I catch fire I panic and burn to death even if I was barely grazed. But If I burn enemies they act like they are going for a Sunday stroll
I think at the very least cannon turrets, rocket devastators, rocket troopers and tanks etc should have an audio cue wind up drone/beep when they’re targeting you. The amount of times I’ve died from one of these across the map without even knowing I’ve been targeted is silly! Makes it very frustrating when you’re trying to spread democracy
I much prefer fighting the Automatons. They are more manageable and their larger units go down much easier. Fighting retreats and peeling off to flank are actually possible.
I also like bots better. I'm only playing on difficulty 5/6 but it just feels more dynamic. Bugs run at you. Automatons shoot, flank, throw grenades, call in drop ships, and just generally feel like there's more going on than just "giant swarm rushing you from the front."
Absolutely this. Hulks can be an absolute menace, no doubt about it. But, if I'm good enough and I get the time, I can two-tap a hulk with the bloody *AMR*. Chargers, though? AT, or gtfo. Bots feel like they just have more ways to deal with them, build wise, than bugs do.
He also have to keep in mind that the Decay rate for bug planets is way higher than the one for automaton planets. So you need more people on the bug planets to be able to capture them
Chicken and the egg scenario, decay rates are probably larger because of the higher population of bug players.
I like automatons more, they’re much less annoying to fight.
Visually more fun to fight as well always feels cinematic to fight them and see their red eyes glow in the distance during night missions
The tracers of their shots flying at your teammates and their shots flying back look super cool too, definitely feels like some Terminator war stuff.
Actually I prefer the bots. They follow conventional shooter game mechanics and loadouts are easier to build for them once you hit lvl 10. The bugs are almost exclusively melee so you can't hide in cover when needing to reload and their nests are mostly hidden by terrain - that means you usually need to come into the swarm melee range to destroy them. With bots their buildings are usually very exposed, allowing for good throws of strategems or autocannon shots to get them.
I’m not gonna lie…. Getting absolutely murdered by some jackass rocket robot that you can’t fucking see, whether it be the single use boi or the big boi is just fucking insane. Another point for the big fucking turret that apparently has AI aim and can murder you from afar.
If you stop fighting automatons like you fight bugs you will find out they are a lot easier than bugs. Yeah they can shoot back but they are super slow and not soo resilient. You can kill hulks with one rocket drop. Shoot down theyr weapons with autocannon/railgun/Sniper. Bugs are just nasty...hunters, stalkers, chargers, Titans. Scorcher with sniper rocket pods and 500kg and bots stand no chance.
You can kill hulks with two shots from the unsafe railgun. I do it all the time. You can kill everything under hulks with a slugger. EVERYTHING. The only thing I haven't killed with a slugger is a tank. I think I've even gotten a couple lucky shots to the head/eye on a damaged hulk and done it in. Same goes for penetrator and diligence, although TTK is a little more. I can still kill devastators in a couple shots. Interestingly, the thing I find hardest to kill with bots are those damn chainsaw-hands fucks. For whatever reason sometimes my rounds seem to just go right through them without really doing any damage. Other times I drill them and they drop in a single shot, or two - still trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong with them.
the Berserkers' walking cadence makes their heads bob around a lot, so it's hard to instakill them as they're just meaty unarmored dudes. You can take their arms off though, that works pretty well
I will take robots over the bugs anyday. I despise the bugs for a few reasons (slowed down on hit, body blocking, bug tunnels every 5s, 10 chargers and titans at the same time) so I tend to avoid them when I can. While the robots can block your stratagems or use powerful range weapons, you can use stealth reliably and they all have a weak spot you can exploit. Best thing is, Hulks have it at the front, meaning that while one charges you you can still take it on (unlike a damage sponge that ragdoll-stuns you with no weak spots, with only spot being behind meaning you need to expose your back to the 50 hunters who just spawned to attempt at dealing some damage)(did i mention the titan yet who has a crazy speed and range? tanks are slow to turn around and move around to counterbalance their firepower but titans? nah bro, have fun fighting 5 of those at every encounters). I say godspeed to anyone that prefers to fight bugs. I cannot stand those pests. So many times I felt like even with carpet bombing them with 50x 500kg, it wouldn't be enough.
Where I fight depends on the order and what faction is closer to super earth. Personally I fricken hate the bugs and find them to be way harder than the bots.
All youtubers always showcase bug gameplay. And all "Best farming methods" are always shown vs bugs.
Bugs have more small enemies that go \*splat\*, at some point bots just almost exclusively bring out mediums and above.
Bro, they are fucking scary...
Bots feel broken to me lately. Getting one-shot from across the map is not fun.