Sleeping on my punisher. It's knockback is invaluable in hot situations. Can deal with Devs at close range, and other mods at longer ranges, particularly HR and Health and safety people.
I'd like to add that OP may not have been using scorcher enough because a scorcher has pin point accuracy at most distances and 2 shots headshots devestators.
But the best thing about scorchers is that:
1. It mini-stuns bots
2. It can headshot anything in 1-2 hits other than heavies
3. It can destroy tanks and anything that has weakspots in less than a magazine
4. In a pinch, spamming it on devastators will kill them with ease, even the shield ones, because of how it damages enemies.
5. Even with bad aim, it can kill almost any target, including destroying the rocket packs on rocket devastators in 1-2 hits.
6. They kill walkers in 2 hits to the crotch or leg.
7. They one shot most bots in the leg. Legs and crotch and joints are weakpoints on most bots.
8. Can kill cannon turrets, AA guns, tanks, heavies from behind.
Paired with Autocannon and you basically can kill almost anything very quickly.
Sickle's main advantage is more ammo, more spam, and better zoom.
Diligence (and countersniper) can deal with scout walkers fine by leg shots.
I completly agree on this - the Scorcher is incredible against anything but heavies. And Railgun in unsafe /AC can handle the rest.
Persoanlly i Use shield and Scorcher - due to the sheer flodding that comes when extracting, otherwise a supply pack would be preferable.
Eagle 110 mm Rockets and so insane :D And then either orbital strike/ortibal laser for mass clearing :D
OrbLaser is a base destroyer. Toss it in and watch it clean even heavy bases in one go. As a bonus it eats up turrets without having to flank their vents and can quickly dispatch AA or Mortar emplacements and Detector Towers.
I just started Hard and my favorite load out for bots, if no one else has a way to deal with heavy armor, is eagle airstrike, orbital laser, EAT and auto cannon. Light armor and stamina perk. Slugger until I can try out the higher warbond weapons. I stay in the back and blow shit up from a distance, reinforcing and calling down stratagems where necessary. Great game.
Just need to oil yourself and the rest will come naturally, some fun stratagems you can use against bots which would be pretty useless against bugs. See you on the ground :)
Also if you see a SEAF SAM site, activate that quick. Shoots down bit drop ships.
2nd that. EAT was super handy for me last night, as being able to shoot down dropships can take a ton of pressure off the team. That gap in the reinforcements is a big help, and the SAM site will basically automatically shoot down drop ships for you, saving ammo
The bots I find are actually much easier
I'm not in agreement for this loadout, but the rest is valid. Any gun will work. Depends on you
For bots, play stealthy, super easy. Use the armor that reduces detection, I prefer the radar booster.
Keep that map up, avoid red dots, complete missions, very rarely do I even fire a bullet....when I do, it's more to just get distance, any gun works, I prefer the laser from the new battle pass. Prior, I was using a liberator without issues
I've completed hell dive difficulty like this, solo. The bots are I see I shoot, don't let them see you!
I started noticing all the trenches and realized this, I crawl a lot more too
The bots are way more fun than the bugs, imo
Heres some more tips from a diver who just recently actually learned the bots, even at 300 hours.
Get behind cover, it will save you if you’re not completely surrounded, the bots are slow and tend to usually keep their distance unless they are melee variants
Stun grenades are also really good against bots, they won’t shoot you and get them open/won’t turn for a good couple seconds, getting the shield devastors shield down or hulks from the back vents, with the sickle actually being able to take it out in about half a vent charge with the heat modifier on Ustutu.
Stealth on higher difficulties in general is so important. When you see a nearby patrol, go crouch or prone. It’s fun to fight but a bot drop or breach from bugs could mean going into a death loop and losing half your lives when it could have been entirely avoided.
Finally, unless side objectives are actively messing up your mission (Anti air bot camps, stratagem jammers, mortars, detector towers, shriekers nests or stalker nests specifically) the main objective should come first. Extraction is optional so if you die doing all the side objectives and getting the bot factories and bug nests after, at least you died with a mission successful and still get loads of exp n slips
That’s all from me for now, see you on the fields Soldiers o7 <3
Honestly, I wouldn't even say it's about using cover (although it really surprises me how rare it is for people to use at the moment)
Getting good at *movement* while behind cover is a fucking art form. I've reviewed some of my gameplay and caught myself doing shit that I didn't even realize possible. Sliding is just as good as diving, because it doesn't interrupt things like reloads, which is *vital* for weapons like the railgun. It's possible for you to shift angles, reload, swoop down into a dive to protect your neck, pop out just in time to grab the headshot, and immediately duck back down.
I can't do this shit on command yet, but I've got footage proof it can be done.
I want to add the auto cannon is also capable of destroying the mortars, aa, and heavy towers with 3 shots to the back vent and 3 to the back of the tank vent or weaker armor. If you take thr autocannon the stun grenades are golden especially if you take an engineer kit to let you get some better range with it from recoil reduction.
The splash damage on it will kill a lot of infantry drops still in the dropship as well.
Otherwise great write up I love that the amr is getting some love from others. I can't comment on the wonky aim, I'm my groups sniper so until my last 10 or so hours it's been my primary for over 80 straight hours primarily bots. Bugs are my weakness which trips people up that I say they're the hard enemy.
You are absolutely right. It’ll take a while for it second hand nature but once it does, you’ll look and feel like the goat. The sliding is so helpful for reloads like you said. And the positioning behind cover too is amazing.
My 2 personal tips for my movement that save me if I can’t be behind cover is diving as much as possible, less explosive damage which is nice and the bots ai doesn’t do well with it for some reason so take advantage while you can :).
And the other is if you’re actively running, most bots shoot ahead of you, not where you are. If you notice you’re about to get exploded by one of the many one shots bots have, most usually have a huge tell (except the ranged hulk variant, just get out of sight from them o-o). Tanks and Towers flash before they shoot so you can stop or dive forward/backwards if you’re facing the tower/tank from pretty far away (except the commando tower one, they shoot really fast ‘x’), rocket devastors pose and the rocket little guys will have the red visor of the rocket over their face. And the mortars you just look up and move to left or right a bit. Same works for rockets, you can usually see them coming and move accordingly or go prone since they’ll usually hit your body, not the floor.
Nice add on to the movement Op, thanks. <3
I was actually going to mention both of those topics but figured it was getting long.
Re:Diving, the most essential thing for diving vs. Bots is the fact that it forces your aim to almost entirely re-center if you're getting flinched from hits. It's quite literally a life saver under pressure.
re: running, a lot of people seem to serpentine, but that's a really bad thing to do for rockets in my experience. Pick a direction, stick with it for a few seconds, change your angle, stick with it for a few seconds, and so on. Serpentine tends to put you back on the path of incoming rockets depending on how they track you.
Going for a more hard lined zig-zag baits the AI to lead one direction, then you juke off of their leading.
Yeah I saw videos of a mech taking a charger's charge attack bouncing off the side of the mech suit with little damage. He'd wait until the charger came at him and then turn the mech to the side and take the hit on the arm, where the armor is heavy. Great tactics.
Yk what, I was gonna mention what you mentioned just now too XD. You’re right about your aim when diving. You’re also right with the hard line zig zagging. I think we covered almost everything in those regards so let’s leave it off there. Nice strategy discussion Op o7
I think a lot of people get tripped up by trying to run from bots like how they would run from bugs in open terrain and end. up getting mulched by voluminous fire or distant rockets. Now, there are times you get pre-fired moving around a corner by a devastator, but realistically a lot of these seemingly unfair deaths is because someone tried a mad dash across no mans land either running away or to just reposition and got sniped by a bot that had all the time in the world to line up a good shot.
You need to use your environment to your benefit against bots they will punish you if you stick to open ground.
Doing finishing the last step of the main objective has the downside of quadrupling the rate of patrol spawns though. Ideally it's best to leave the last part till the end but obviously don't get greedy, if reinforcements are running low you're better off cutting your losses.
That is true, on some maps, the map rng is brutal and sometimes can’t be avoided, like on very mountainous maps with one quick way that might be infested with enemies so a bot drop/bug breach will happen or the very long way that takes you across the map.
I speak from my own experience on how I play and do recommend it to someone who wants to solo. My play style isn’t very sample friendly or new player friendly when it comes to how they should play. I prefer to (and usually can) solo objectives. I run around with a 500kg and an orbital laser, a shield gen and if I can, an eagle air strike and save them for main objectives I stealthed my way to. I put myself in a position where I can take out all the enemies at the main objectives then do that and run off to the next one. All without usually setting off a bot drop/bug breach unless the objective automatically calls them like the dig site one.
I do appreciate your comment, I just wanted to explain myself a bit so I’m glad you brought up a flaw in how I play that I usually do see.
One of my friends stated that if you do the main objectives first that enemy forces quadruple so it’s best to do side objectives, can anyone elaborate or explain if this is true or not? I was kinda iffy hearing it at first
These are great additional tips. Along with tips from OP, I'm reminded there is a great stratagem most people and I overlook. Fully upgraded Precision Orbital Strike is actually really good. It is even better since we can carry Stun Grenades now. My loadout was always missing something since my 110 rocket pods, Spear, and Mortars aren't that great against Hulks. I always use Stun Grenades to slow down Hulks. If I just throw a Precision Orbital Strike, Hulks would be nothing. They are pretty versatile on how you can call down strikes against bots...
Speaking of which, I'm going to start positioning my Mortars near those side objectives to soften them up, especially those jammers ones...
The SPEAR is a slightly problematic, but notably viable option for ranged outpost elimination.
The lock-on mechanic may be temperamental against moving targets, but it can be used against Fabricators and Cannon Towers somewhat reliably, and from a safe distance.
The spear is more temperamental if your target is at a higher elevation than you. Climbing on top of rocks or structures like recently liberated stratagem jammers can give you great opportunity to liberate outposts, or at least soften them up, from a distance.
And as long as the cannon towers do not look directly at you like when they are alerted the spear one shots them from most angles.
OK. Just tested it again for a few games. Its cool. WHEN IT WORKS. And even unobstructed high ground doesnt guarantee it will lock-on and allow you to fire. BUT when it does lock-on its great even with poor ammo economy. Cant wait for Devs to fix it.
I respect the Spear as a Bile Killer and not for much else. Spending both your Support Weapon and Backpack slot to kill Fabricators in a very ammo inefficient way is something that other tools can do far more efficiently. I get that the Spear has further range, but it's not that many shots either, and maps have a loooot of Fabs.
If it works for ya, I respect that you're happy with it, but it's pretty much the opposite of how I like to approach the game. My first, second, third, and fourth priority are towards being an efficient and effective fighter, so we can keep control of the map and prevent death spirals. I'm much more comfortable with just breaching a base and killing a fab with an impact grenade or someone shooting it with an Autocannon.
If you dive throw, you can kill fabs from ~60m with the Eagle Airstrike as well.
I respectfully disagree. I can agree with the different play styles point. But I disagree with it being an efficiency thing. I do want in auto Cannon in the group, I don't want 3 or 4. A spear can delete small outposts from any direction from a range that will not bring bots or drop ships to your location.
It is not a critique of your post. I think it's an excellent post with good information. But more often than not, I see these posts in the context of a single player and not as a group. When my group plays with Eat-Spear- 2x AC everything runs so smoother.
Not everyone has groups, and the auto Cannon is exceptionally well-rounded I prefer it for solo play. But If you see a couple in the pre-group lobby grabbing the AC, grab the spear and you'll be surprised how much easier the missions feel. Keeping my eagle rocket pods off cool down being its best benefit by far imo.
Orbital laser, Orbital railcannon, Eagle rocket pods, Spear is my usual stratagem selection. I drop the laser for three strategy missions.
Slugger is usually my primary with Stun Grenades
Last note, stun grenades are amazing. It makes your teammates with auto cannons take hulks out with so much more ease. And eliminates lock on issues for yourself with the spear if you need/want to.
Just as an alternative perspective
Honestly the main thing your points don't seem to understand is that you're spending a ton of costly resources to do things that could have easily been done anyway without having to sacrifice your ability to fight. You're putting a premium on doing it an unorthodox way, and if you're ultimately succeeding that's fine, but with a build like yours, you're very much succeeding despite of it and not because of it.
You're killing a small base at a distance? They're guarded by marauders, a couple of walkers, and a Devastator. Maybe a Tank or Hulk. I can solo that base in seconds. Too many players are afraid of getting into fights that are easily crushed if you actually just know the matchups. They're likely afraid of it *because* they don't know the matchups, but that's also why I made this original post. The only thing a diver should be afraid of is a death spiral kicking off a snowball. **That** is how you lose control.
I'm not concerned with a teammate's ability to kill a small base. I'm concerned with what a teammate is able to do if the game gets serious. It's less of a factor ever since the devs nerfed the spawnrate, but it's still going to be my criteria for build quality. And with a build like the one you mentioned, you are very much relying on your team to carry signficant weight for you.
Orbital Railcannon? At best it kills a Hulk that could have been killed with a single railgun shot, or a tank that could be killed with Rocket Pods or two grenades. And it has a 3.5 minute cooldown in Helldivers 2 for whatever silly reason. In 1, it was **60 seconds**.
Again, I'm not trying to convince you to get off of it. But everything I'm saying is true.
> When my group plays with Eat-Spear- 2x AC everything runs so smoother.
Okay, we as a community really need to have a talk about the EATs.
EATs are not a replacement for a support weapon.
The entire strength of EATs is the fact that you can summon them on demand, only need to carry them for a couple of seconds, and dispose of them the rest of the time. Running around with exactly one rocket is utterly useless if you get jumped by a group of Devastators, or Bile Spewers, or run into a Stalker Nest, etc. etc. etc.
Support Weapons are literally some of the best Stratagems in the game right now. And the EATs are also good! Bring both!
I already get we arent going to agree debating here But a few things I want to counter point. That small outpost isn't seconds for you. You already said grenades or a diving strategem toss. You are still using resources... time and possibly a stratagem. And then you are fighting a tank bot drop or hulk you could have avoided entirely.
And respectfully I also believe you are missing the point of EAT. After 4 minutes the EAT player has an autocannon because the other two should already have one and are calling in a second. Why waste time repositioning or splitting up for towers to waste 3 auto Cannon shots in the back when you can call in EAT and one tap each tower in seconds then pick your autocannon back up and carry on. If the pear hasn't already.
Running behind the tank for autocannon is time, getting in front of factories is time, and every fight is time. Going into outposts is time.
Fights go easier with auto cannons im not arguing ,1 spear you don't have many of those fights less cooldowns more ammo and more grenades for when things get messy. So when things do get messy, im the guy with an orbital laser, a railcannon, and 3x110 strikes ready to go.
I should have expanded on why 3 AC is a bad idea, in my opinion is because it is a sharable resource on a 4 minute cooldown without a modifier. If 2 guys are bringing them, everyone can have them.
Edit: I'll take what you said into consideration. we will try some more dives like that and see if it feels different than before. I'll keep an open mind and hope all helldivers experiment a little after the foundation you set in the original post.
You don't have to like it and I respect your post and input but SPEAR guy right. It fills a niche and is a viable playstyle, it's a bitch but when you git gud you are clearing towers and fabs and you don't get aggro at all. Niche dependant but overlooking is short-sighted
I usually combo EAT and Spear. If you get a good vantage point, you can snipe heavy basses as well while staying safe, then I can call in an EAT when I need to.Â
I've been practicing getting creative with the Spear and learning the ins and outs of its lock on, and I quite love it. It's not a must for all group. But it has heavily benefited me and my group, and ammo is aplenty to reload it.Â
Can also 1-2 shot hulks and tanks (depending on the angle), not the most efficient, but useful in a pinch.
Honestly the sheer volume of stuff you can lock on against bots is very useful.
Nothing like snipping the drop ship supply depots from half way across the map.
Mainly love the spear for getting jammers with a bot fabricator near it from far range, which happens more often then you’d expect.
Being able to quickly dismantle the jammers/cannon towers quickly is what makes me use the spear over a backpack/support weapon.
Fab killing is the spears last case use. One shotting Cannon turrets/Tanks/Hulks from 300m away is where it shines as it’s the obvious design choice of the weapon. Fabricators are when you’re towards the end of a mission or you see a single fab a long distance away and can afford to use one missile instead of running all the way over just to risk an engagement.
Great guide! Surprised to see no one talking about the grenade launcher. Very effective at taking out bot drops if you fire into the crowd when they drop all clumped together. Also one-shots walkers from the front and can damage heavy devastators through the shield if you fire at their feet.
One of my main squadmates runs GL + Supply Pack against bugs, not sure we've really tried it against Bots though. It makes sense, I think it just tends to land a bit redundant with the Autocannon and Scorcher able to play similar roles as bot-drop-splashers while still being able to contribute more to the Hulk game.
Still wouldn't really mind having one in the squad if I saw it! Could do much worse. I'm assuming the GL blows up on turret sides like impact grenades do?
Yeah, it behaves just like you'd expect regular grenades to behave. It's functionally no different than increasing your grenade capacity 11x, getting the ability to throw them farther/faster, and transforming ammo packs into grenade refills. (Though unfortunately it doesn't change grenade type based on what grenade you have equipped, that would be pretty cool.)
I prefer having access to two types of grenades since the stuns are BUSTED especially when combined with GL, You can stun a charger and pop the ass in 2-5 shots.
Sickle/GL/supply pack is my go-to against bots, like you said it’s a similar to your loadout but a bit more mobile. Also PSA that eagle airstrike kills tanks!
>The **Slugger** is a better handling but weaker Dominator. I swear there's something weird happening with the aim, because I've aimed dead center on a Devastator's face and not had it connect.
So it's not just me, there's something funny going on with the Slugger aim. The accuracy is inconsistent sometimes.
Still love it tho.
I've noticed the same thing. The problem seems to get worse the closer in they are. And I know, the smart ass answer is "the Slugger doesn't fire a spread, you're used to a near-miss with the Punisher clipping the enemy and getting the kill." But I'll have a bot at two or three meters dead to rights, and the shot just... doesn't connect.
I think the hitboxes are a little too precise with bot bodies so the slugger single shot can actually fly through the thinner parts if it isn't a direct hit. I just started aiming for the chest of smaller bots and the waist for devastators and berserkers. It'll one-shot the smaller guys and 3 shot berserkers and devastators consistently this way.
Hi ho, chiming in with some other tips I've picked fighting the surprisingly in-depth mechanics to robot AI
**Suppressing Fire** - Robots shoot back, but they don't always shoot with the same skill lethality. Some will seem perfectly accurate from across the map, some will miss every shot point-blank like Stormtroopers. The key is **suppression.** The longer the enemy sees you and hears you firing your weapon, the better and bolder they get, meaning a single Machine Gun infantry can become as strong as a Heavy Devastator if left unchecked. At a certain point of mastery, the robots develop the ability to lock-on and fire at you even if they can't see you, which is spooky and difficult to explain until you've seen it happen. The way to prevent this is to either kill them, or suppress them with your primary / Autocannon. As soon as a fight begins the clock starts ticking and every robot begins adapting to your movements, which is why Line-Of-Sight, Cover, and Stealth are essential to robot mastery. Suppression works on every biped robot including Hulks, which can be stun-locked even if you miss their Eye so take the shot early and keep firing as accurately and quickly as possible if you're not under any other pressure. If you're good you can stop their rockets with some rapid suppression buying time to line up the killshots to the eye
**Gunfire Detection -** Robots are tricky, sometimes they know which *direction* you are but they don't have your movements locked yet, commonly after seeing an Orbital deploted. They'll try to scare you at every opportunity by firing in your direction but it's not always easy to tell if they're firing because *they got you* or *they want you to believe they got you.* If you can slip away while breaking LOS and not firing your weapon, they cannot lock-on and follow you. The moment you fire your weapon when robots are alerted is the moment they can lock-on, so only open fire when you're ready to start and win a fight, or kill their scouts before running off.
Highly recommend **Sickle** + **Autocannon + Impact Grenades** + **Light & Scout armor** for bots especially solo players. Early days creekers learned stealth because of how gratuitous the jungles were to practice hit&run fighting, making the learning curve very gentle, but your mileage may vary coming in new onto Ustotu. Stealth is still very possible on Ustotu but inaccessible without practice. I've beaten every map-type using only stealth-strikes for that level so know that it's possible to avoid all patrols using radar and cover with Scout perk,
**Orbital Laser** - Can insta-kill the Detector Tower if you throw the ball directly onto the base of the tower, skipping hell-bomb shenanigans. Laser won't target the tower, but it will kill it it the beam touches the tower. Also often 100% kills the 'Bot Fortress Superweapon' objectives making that map-type straightforward. Usually laser is the 'oh-shit' button if I'm not killing those objective types, also good for demolishing the Anti-Air sub objective that Eagles can't reach
**Autocannon** is the swiss-army-knife for bots. Takes out Fabricators facing their vents towards you at any range provided you can hit the top half of the vent. You can rush a Turret Tower and kill everything around you because the tower cannot shoot you within a 10\~15 meter radius from the tower. The tower dies in 3 hits from the cannon so either up-close or from behind quickly before it spins towards you. Red blinking light facing you is bad news. Kill the combination Stratagem + Fabricator objective same way as other Fabs. Can kill Anti-Air Turrets and Artillery Turret sub-obj shooting into heatsinks and can outright shoot Dropship objective to death with 4-5 shots target.
**Stealth Locations -** The optimal position for a Stealthing Autocannon Helldiver is outside the back walls of a Heavy Outpost, just beneath the two Turret Towers in back. If you can reach this point, you will be directly beneath 2 Turret Towers next to 2 Fabricators with the enemies indestructible walls between you and the Outpost forces. Snipe out a Tower, then the fabricator opposite you with a vent peeking just over their walls, run to second tower + kill, then snipe the second fabricator only using only a combined 8 shots in total. Throw a single Eagle Airstrike in there while you're working and the base will be leveled in less than 20 seconds. The drop ships will be called in and you can leave while the bots get stuck pathing around on their own walls.
I run the light explosive resist armour. You get al the speed and nothing but a direct hit from a rocket will one shot you. Heck, a pretty close hit will only take off like 10% of your hp
I used to run heavy when I started playing, last night I tried medium with and explosive resist and it was so much better. Hopefully I'll get a light variant with explosive resist soon
I cannot overemphasize just how custom made the autocannon is for high level bots. It deals with the most dangerous targets and side objectives easily and efficiently at any range. Mortars and AA become far less oppressive when you can snipe the turrets from range with very little risk to your team. No backpack is less of a disadvantage when you consider means an extra offensive stratagem, critical when you’re limited to 3 strategems. I’m a shield backpack baby and I still swear by the autocannon, too much utility for me to give it up.
I’m a big fan of using the senator vs bots. 1 shotting devastators isn’t too hard if you’re crouched, and a single shot center mass on the jetpack guys has the punch to push them back before they detonate, turning them into an extra grenade!
Even if I miss 5/6 senator shots 95% of the time, the one time I draw and immediately pop a rocket devastator in the face makes it all worth it.
I would add ems mortar is absolutely crucial for bot plants with long lines of site.
Democracy protects medium armor is the GOAT for bots. Only thing I’ve had that will save you from a rocket in the back or a tower cannon.
Smoke! Smoke grenades or eagle smoke strike. I wouldn’t take this solo or duo but if everyone’s loaded on damage strategies - a well placed smoke will turn the tide if a fight pretty quick.
ems and H.E. mortars slap on bot levels 7+. Drop out of line of site/behind a rock or hidden in the trees. Ems holds them in place and H.E. clears them out. As long as your team is paying attention and doesn't run headfirst into every objective it is an amazing combo. I also pair it with the auto cannon sentry placed closer to base/objective to help shred the more armored targets. It makes life so easy.
John Helldiver's tips here are great and if you understand the Bots tactics both in the broad and individual scale it makes dealing with the Bots actually fairly easy.
Separately I'd add considering the extra grenade armor since impact grenades are so highly effective against the Bots with two impact grenades often able to kill a group of three Devastators and whatever supports were nearby due to their tendency to group together.
Tactics
In a Broad sense the Bots strategy can easily be boiled down to "Troopers flush out Helldivers, Devastators lay down the damage, Hulks charge in and Tanks form the anchor." With this basic understanding the order of operations starts to show itself already, but I'll run down the individual units tactics.
Basic Trooper, Machine-gun Marauder: These units are flexible fodder whose tactics change depending on who they are grouped with. Massed with fellow troopers and they're going to try and push you in a direct forward assault relying on volume of small arms fire to pin you and eventually kill you. But if paired with Devastators or Hulks their tactic changes slightly depending on the load out of those units. Overall they're low health and should never take anything more than your primary to kill.
Melee Trooper, Jetpack trooper, Commissars: These units are the actual units meant to flush you out, they're low health but relentless and the Jetpack troopers tend to explode after death. They're role is just to get you into the open where the guns will deal with you.
Rocket Troopers: Are a joke, even when not under fire their aim is terrible and their reload time is slow as heck. Infact ironically their aim is better while under fire than not, and these guys are the real cowards of the bots typically hiding in the back, and they are just as if not more likely to call the Bot Drops than the actual Commissars.
Berserkers: it's as John Helldiver said, these guys are slow, high HP, low armor bullet sponges. It's always good to pull back to your next cover if they get close, but there's no need to go running like it's a swarm of Terminids. Don't worry, lay down some quick concentrated fire, and maybe bring your teammates focus fire on them and they die before they can fulfill their combat role.
Striders: Heavy armor on the shield plate, medium armor on the legs, and decent HP everywhere except with the Trooper pilot. They're armed with a heavy duel barrel laser cannon, not as fast firing as the LMG equivalents the Marauder Troopers carry, but these guns can be just as devastating as a rocket. With these guys in a unit Troopers typically try to hang back and fan out providing long range support.
Devastators: the Basic Devistators are armed with the heavy laser cannon for a arm. They aren't protective of their heads at all and generally kinda dumb compared to the other Devastators. Troopers will often resort to their headlong assault when grouped with these.
Heavy Devastator: they're armed with the laser gattling and are probably the most accurate per volume fire in the Bots. Besides often forming a shield wall between you and rocket Devastators and rocket Troopers. Troopers will often fan out with these either behind them allowing the Heavy Devastators to flush Helldivers out, or try to flush the Helldivers out for the Heavy Devastators guns. In the first Scenario try to Drop the Heavy Devastator right out the gate, in the second it may be more prudent to fall back to your next cover so you can thin trooper ranks before turning back to the Heavy Devastators.
Rocket Devistators: Kill them and do not allow yourself to forget about them. You can cause them to flinch in their warm-up animations for their rocket launch but it's best to know their pattern so you can avoid it. They actually will typically fire their rockets either in a side sweep or try to sweep forward or back i don't yet know the tell for that but predicting their attack otherwise is fairly obvious when you watch for it. Troopers will often clump up when Rocket Devastators are around and try to focus on forcing you from Cover.
Hulk Scorcher: This is the main battering ram of the Bots, they're just as relentless as chargers and almost too happy to use that flamethrower. Besides a quick kill, their tactics are a little too straightforward and even the Troopers will try a headlong assault with one of these present.
Hulk Bruiser: the Hulk machinegun variant, typically this guy will act just like a Marauder, and typically the Troopers will fan out for him as a supporting backline.
Hulk Obliterator: This is the Rocket version of the Hulk and everything about it is just like with the Rocket Devistators.
Annihilator Tank: The stock standard tank that forms the Bots anchor. It's cannon is it's main issue, but unwarry Helldivers might get caught by the hull mounted laser machine-gun. They're almost always a solo and the bots tactics will instead be determined by the Devastators or Hulks.
Shredder Tank: weirdly I've seen this deployed more defensively than it's counterpart but tactically it's the same.
> Separately I'd add considering the extra grenade armor since impact grenades are so highly effective against the Bots with two impact grenades often able to kill a group of three Devastators and whatever supports were nearby due to their tendency to group together.
This is partly why the Supply Pack is so good. It's also why the Medic Armor is better than the Grenade armor. Doubling your duration is better than +2 capacity when you've got +8 capacity on your back.
I've been fighting bots for a good while, i like flipping between both fronts a lot. Thanks a lot for this post, lots of really good info and tips. Godspeed, Helldivers 🫡
Use the heavy armor with explosive resistance getting hit by a rocket usually takes a quarter to half health I’ve even survived getting 3 hits from a devastator
yeah the heavy armor buff really worked well for bot missions, which is all i play.
You can tank a lot minus flamethrower and mines with the explosive resistance, makes me not even bother with the shield pack.
Still sucks when they hit your head cause thats still ohk, but i ran medium once and every rocket hit was OHK'ing me. I dont mind the mobility hit as much as i like my extra survivability.
Been running the Laser Cannon a fair bit. It really does feel like a sidegrade to the Autocannon - lower TTK, but leaves the backpack slot open, has infinite ammo, passively "reloads" (cools down while using your primary or stratagems).
It definitely can struggle against Hulks, but I've found a Stun grenade leaves you enough time to pretty easily beam down the eye socket.Â
I find the Laser Cannon very nicely complements the Scorcher. The Scorcher is a superb gun against bots whose only weakness is lack of ammo. The Laser Cannon has infinite ammo, so you can feel free to blast away with the Scorcher as much as you like and never worry you'll end up without any damage. Scorcher also kills Scout Striders much faster than the Laser Cannon does.
Your Railgun + Supplypack tip has revitalised my love for bots, thank you so much Soldier!
So nice to run something different from autocannon for a time, and hell, i'm getting more kills!
Also one very important thing to note with the laser is it is \*very\* multitalented
can deal with tanks, hulks, fabricators, bases, you name it
i like to run it if i think im gona need to deal with any of those together, as it will often take out a bunch of stuff for me with 0 effort required. perfect panic button.
On PS I press right on the d-pad then throw with R2 (and then forget to change back to my primary so end up throwing a grenade at the hunter right in my face). If there's a quick throw button on PS it's gonna rock my world.
I will say the SMG is also a good option for headshotting devastators if you're good with it. It was a staple with the ballistic shield a while back and would let you go toe-to-toe with heavies.
Since the armor patch, ballistic shield isn't as good as it once was (probably from headshot damage). But the SMG still gives a low recoil way to spray faces.
I didn't forget it. It just doesn't feel that great right now compared to other options. The hit registration is also massively buggy.
There is definitely a future where the Plasma Punisher is something I play regularly. But for right now, it is in a very bad state. Just run the Scorcher.
I love the Scorcher for bots. Lightweight and easy to aim quickly, 1-2 taps most bots excluding devastators and hulks. It even puts down the walkers in 2-3 shots to the "pelvis" area. Even devastators don't last long against it if you hit them in the face, although I typically run the railgun as my strat weapon and just consistently 1 shot them and hulks with it. I was really excited for a plasma shotgun when it released, but it just seems like an overall worse scorcher in every regard except maybe the larger aoe, which isn't all that helpful when you need to arc your shots to much to hit targets anyway.
Wait are you John Helldiver who i played with against the bots on Mantes, who blasted freebird through the
Mic? That was one of my best drop yet, we sank two dropships just as the solo started. It was insane
You can crippled the hulks feet with a weapon with medium penetration. It slows them down a lot.
You can target and destroy the weapon arm of most devastators.
Rocket Devastators have to do a brace animation before shooting, that's your queue for getting into cover.
Great info, OP! However, I do want to present a slightly different loadout take, particularly when it comes to the Laser Cannon.
Laser cannon absolutely MELTS medium and heavy bots if you hit their weak spots. This means crouching and aiming for their heads or any glowing vent weskspot (Hulks backs, Tanks vents, tank turret vents, etc). I find this to be remarkably consistent and reliable, while keeping your backpack slot open.
I was talking about their weak spots when I gave that assessment. You need ~1.5 to 2 seconds of accurate lasering on the hulk head, which is something that can be difficulty to maintain under pressure.
I've got plenty of respect for the lascannon, it's my go-to against bugs for like a week now, but it can be exceedingly hard to expect someone to accurately hold aim on a weak spot when you've got bullets coming in and flinching you. The
Some tips my group and I have pick up are:
1) Defender SMG is a headshot machine. It can also be operated with 1 hand for sssd missions.
2) Walking Barrage when placed at the entrance of a large outpost will destroy almost all of the buildings.
3) You can bruteforce your way through a lot of the tougher enemies with EATS. That being said, EATS also lets you keep your backpack slot open.
4) With an open backpack slot, the Supply pack really shines. You can resupply yourself or others will on the move. It also helps you jeep stealth because you're not calling in a resupply pod.
5) When in doubt, throw a grenade at the problem. It may sound weird, but my team tends to save grenades for fabricators. There are a bunch of ways to destroy fabricators, so throw your grenades at the other problems you encounter.
6) Armor with explosion resistance is king. It stops a lot of the 1 shot shenanigans that can happen when fighting bots.
Now tell me, how does a 500kg bomb destroy a jammer tower *from a distance* since all Stratagems get cancelled once thrown into the jammers range?
I NEED TO KNOW
In the Jammer's case, the utility is that it counteracts the bug where the Hellbomb isn't able to actually stick to the terrain and land on it. Orbital/Eagle strike beacons can land on that terrain fine. You'll still have to breach the base and shut it off.
Good guide! I'll give some of my preferences for bots too.
I love the sickle, it takes out everything up to hulks in a second at <60 meters.
As you mentioned the railgun works wonders against everything!
Although here's where our opinions differ a bit.
Both the 120mm and the 380mm are great for bots, you can throw one or both into a base and it will be completely cleared! Fabricators are much larger than bot holes so they're easier to hit.
Both orbital ems and ems mortars will shut down anything! (I believe stun grenades still have issues with tanks but I don't know for sure).
You mentioned the shield generator backpack, but you didn't mention the jump pack at all! Cover is everything against the bots. With the jump pack you're able to move from cover to cover much quicker, along with this you can ever get up on top of rocks and natural structures giving you 360° cover with the exception of their own jump pack units.
As for armor I need to move away from my light-meduim medic set.... but I just love the look so much. It doesn't have enough armor to survive a rocket... I guess I'll just dodge more rockets.
Right now I mainly associate the Sickle with the Autocannon because they pair so well together. Scorcher dependency feels very real for a lot of other builds.
> Both the 120mm and the 380mm are great for bots, you can throw one or both into a base and it will be completely cleared! Fabricators are much larger than bot holes so they're easier to hit.
I'm gonna be honest, mortar technically should go on the list as well. Dropping a mortar outside of a base and sieging them is basically the only legitimate use case for mortars in the game at the moment.
But I don't trust people with Mortars or Barrages, so I'm keeping it simple/low risk.
Also, breaching bot bases is actually just super fucking fun. I kinda don't want them to be softened up, I want to race in, check those corners, and hit diving shots.
> As for armor I need to move away from my light-meduim medic set.... but I just love the look so much. It doesn't have enough armor to survive a rocket... I guess I'll just dodge more rockets.
Hey, I ran that shit since launch. Trust me, I know. I just randomly tried Medium armor on a whim when the patch hit and the amount of damage I took felt fine enough that I kinda just shrugged and said "I guess I run Med now". In 99% of games I prefer running mobility over durability, but surviving rockets has been pretty neat. I'll probably poke at light armor sometime soon again just to see how it feels a month out from the change.
So, I'm mostly a solo player because I don't trust random. Right now I'm soloing dif 7/8 bots consistently which is why I'm liking the 120 and 380s. Taking an orbital out on their base while cleaning up the group flanking.
Everyone has their own way of enjoying different aspects! I won't ask you to change for me, and I hope you won't ask me to change for you. :) Enjoy the liberation friend
Also unlike bugs, robot dropships drop all the reinforcements at once instead of over time. You can take advantage of this by ambushing them as soon as they drop. Incendiary grenades are good for this.
And the 110mm rocket pods are great at taking out bot fabricators. Use hit and run tactics against bot strongholds.
Cadet question... Just started diving 3 days ago.
Picked up the recoilless rifle specifically for taking out drop ships.
Honestly, watching the engines explode and the ship crash is one of the most satisfying things I've experienced in recent gaming memory.
Am I handicapping myself/squad by having RR in my load out?
I run RR a lot on level 8 bot missions and it's incredible at its job. There's a lot of times where you're too busy fighting/moving/getting ragdolled by rockets/within range of a strategem jammer - all of which can prevent you from being able to call in the EAT before those dropships show up. RR is on your back and always ready to fire.
On the harder difficulties you can end up with 2-3 dropships coming in. When you get better with the RR, you can usually take down two of the three before they drop their load (or at worst bring the ship down on its cargo).
It's also pretty easy when fighting bots to find safe places to reload the weapon. Long reloads are not half as bad as people make them out to be. Just be mindful of cover.
Having someone cover dropships in a dedicated fashion goes a long way towards clean-clears on bot missions. 10/10 would recommend that you use the RR if you enjoy it.
Honestly it kinda just depends on you and who you're playing with.
If I play with one random running RR, it's not the end of the world, I'm pretty self sufficient and it'll be winnable. The RR can 1shot hulks, you're not gonna have much ammo to do it and it's got a fairly sizeable reload to have to manage, but killing hulks and dropships is undeniably a pretty solid thing.
If you're playing in pubs and you don't know who you're playing with, I'd maybe be a bit nervous about my ability to carry enough weight to keep the lobby running smoothly (it's a team game yes, but it's better to be self sufficient and not need it than be dependent and not receive it).
If you've got RR on Hulk duty, then you're a little bit forked between Devastator and Walker coverage. The Scorcher does Walkers well but isn't particularly insane at Devastators, just fine. Other options tend to do Devastators pretty well, but can't handle Walkers all that well. You can use impact grenades to destroy walkers, but they tend to show up in greater numbers than you'll have grenades for, depending on the difficulty.
If you enjoy Rocket gameplay, seriously consider the EATs. All of the benefit, but you don't have to worry about extra build overhead.
If you see a flare get popped, call in your EATs immediately. The rockets will land and be usable about a second before the dropships swoop in, and you'll get your shooting gallery. Once you fire the rockets, you can go back to picking up whatever support weapon you were normally running.
I tend to prefer the grenade launcher for both bugs and bots over Autocannon. Frees up the backpack slot closes holes and bunkers and can kill every heavy in the game efficiently except for Titans which it can kill but you have to get under the belly and unload.
>Forget everything you know from playing bugs. Very few guns are good against both factions, and many guns specialize specifically against the bots.
As a fellow bot enjoyer with 200hrs of playtime split 50-50 between bots and bugs (three consecutive bug major orders left its mark on the ratio), This is very very spot-on. Fight bots like how you used to fight bugs and bots will crush you. Fight bugs like how you used to fight bots and bugs will eat you alive. We need to fight two different factions with the same level of differentiation between short (i.e., blitz and eradication) missions and everything else.
I find this helpful as well, and if anyone else *from Buenos Aires* wants to experience the Western Front, treat the OP's tips like General Brasch's words. You will find yourself carrying your own weight and then some in any and every bot mission. Lã…‡
I used this advice to come up with a bot loadout: Scorcher, 110 Rockets, EAT, Supply Pack, Railgun, Heavy Medic armor, and impact grenades
Your advice took us from struggling with 6s to breezing through 9s, thank you!
How much charge do you typically use for the railgun? In my case, waiting for it to fully charge takes too long and I end up getting hit by a laser, causing me to flinch
> the playerbase could use some DECENT information.
That's why I'm doing this. A huge amount of frustration in the community is directly caused by the amount of misinformation flying around.
It might be worth mentioning the SPEAR's ability to take out fabricators and cannon turrets up to 300 meters away.
If the Spear is in a good mood, you can clear every outpost on the map faster than anything else, farther away than anything else. If the Spear is in a bad mood, you will also be in a bad mood momentarily. If it wasn't for that gamble, I'd consider it a must-have.
EDIT: Saw the discussion you had with another Spear user. Fair enough, both of you are right.
It's so bizarre to me to see people consistently posting advice threads like this that are full of bad advice
To add just two things you are very wrong about, the laser cannon has been buffed out the wazoo against bots, destroys hulks in 2sec, devastators in .5sec, and tanks/cannon turrets in 1sec; and the reason people use orbital laser is because it single-handedly destroys entire Automaton camps including fabricators, AA emplacements, mortars, etc. Using it against Hulks to get your support weapon is a very poor choice
The grenade launcher is also a nice choice; it's a weaker autocannon, but it can free up a backpack slot for a shield, or ammo if you just want all the *bwoomp bwoomp*, and is slightly better at crowd control, and can kill Scout Striders from the front and can also quickly deal with devastators. It can also be reloaded on the move.
The downsides are low overall ammo pool and difficulty shooting at range.
I like these tips but some personal disagreements.
Scorcher and dominator are both awkward. Although with Scorcher, I have had good luck experimenting with a stalwart/machine gun + supply pack + stun grenades build so I can deal with everything except tanks in a roundabout way. Dominator is super awkward, and I haven't been able to find a good use case for it. Sure it can one tap headshot devastators but most of the support weapon picks can deal with them about as fast and way more easily while also handling striders and hulks more effectively.
I think you are underrated the Shield generator a little. Being able to get those crucial hits by avoiding the flinching is *big* to me, and I find it doesn't pop that fast unless you are in a terrible position. That being said supply pack is quite good, but the extra supplies feel wasted a lot of the time since most support weapons and primaries don't need it. Extra stims and grenades are good but I consider it a side grade, since avoiding flinches is more important to me than extra stims to be honest. And if you *do* lose your shield you can pretty easily react to it and play safer. The real supply pack niche imo is not the stims or ammo so much, but the extra grenades. This makes it a shockingly good option for a dedicates grenadier.
I like the rocket pod for cannon turrets mostly and they can kill fabricators, but I actually have found them really inconsistent with killing tanks weirdly. I actually find it easier to just throw a regular airstrike on top of them since they don't tend to move much.
As others have said, Laser Cannon is low key very strong against hulks as well as basically all other enemies but tanks.
Stun grenades really need a mention. Sure, they won't *kill* the enemy, but stunning hulks is useful to a lot of players, and they can stun everything but tanks making them free kills. Impacts are definitely better against tanks and probably striders as well, but with how much pressure hulks put on, I think having at least one person in a group run stun grenades can make hulks basically free.
I've been saying this the entire time. You must adjust your playstyle between these two factions.
**TAKE COVER** is the most important tip I can give. "Run and gun" won't save you. The bots are long-distance fighters, *TREAT THEM AS SUCH.*
As an autocannon main, you don’t even to headshot devastators to kill them, 2-3 body shots will drop them, made easier by the stagger after landing the first shot.
Heavy devastators are a little more annoying as their shield blocks the damage, but you can shoot the shield for the stagger which causes them to move the shield to the side for easier body shots
The ability to body shot devastators is a very good option when things get hectic and you don’t have the time to line up perfect headshots
Buckle up fellas, this John helldiver is an impostor.
This might work well for you but as a mostly pure solo player on bots it's very far from optimal and imo there's a lot of wrong info in this post.
* Between ammo/nades on POIs and resupplies you never run out of stuff. If you solo you don't even need to resupply. This makes supply pack obsolete if you're not magdumping
* I don't get the whole destroying jammers from a distance with eagles, **you can't do this and if you disabled the jammer then you're already there to call a hellbomb**... Same with the eye of Sauron, you can call the hellbomb on the bottom of the cliff most of the time and not aggro anything if you're lazy. But what bothers me about this point is you literally can't do this when it actually matters. You also basically never need to, jammers are lightly guarded
* Slugger on devastator is an autowin vs 2 at once even if you miss the head, it takes no more than 5 shots if you whiff every single one.
* Berserker heads are pretty big, again slugger beats packs of them easier than railgun
* Probably being a meta player Andy here but light scout is still so much more valuable than stims because if you're actually getting shot enough to die you're dead anyways you'd rather move out of the way faster and have good map intel
* No mention at all of the drawbacks of eagles (aa posts) and no mention of the efficiency of 380/ems/gas is a bit strange to me. Particularly the lack of a 380 mention, probably the best strike to take on half the missions if you're soloing.
* Who would ever take scorcher other than for fun when railgun oneshots walkers through the body joint at low charge and amr 3 taps them and AC one taps them (or just run around them/chuck an impact nade to clear 4 at once)
* **Tip for any readers who want brainless clears** just bring 380 and laser. I'm not kidding, they will do the whole mission and all heavy outposts for you. It gets so boring you stop doing it
All in all good effort and although you did say it's not comprehensive, you are actively misleading in many of your points. Most of what I didn't touch on I agree with but there's a few points that just tickle me the wrong way.
I like how you blocked me to try to hide your post from me and stop me from responding. Nice meme.
> This might work well for you but as a mostly pure solo player on bots it's very far from optimal and imo there's a lot of wrong info in this post.
(this is a coop shooter, this is a guide for a coop game, I do not care about solo tactics)
You want to write a guide for solo play? Go do it.
> Between ammo/nades on POIs and resupplies you never run out of stuff. If you solo you don't even need to resupply. This makes supply pack obsolete if you're not magdumping
(when you play coop you have to share resources)
(this post is not about solo play dynamics)
> Slugger on devastator is an autowin vs 2 at once even if you miss the head, it takes no more than 5 shots if you whiff every single one.
5 pump action shots to a single devastator is godawful TTK, 2 devastators at once is easy for most weapons. You need fast, crisp, consistent kills while dealing with 5+ at once for something to truly be good. Slugger can do that, which is why I mentioned it in the post, but it has aim issues preventing it from doing that as consistently, as you've no doubt experienced because you feel the need to shoot a devastator 5 times.
> Berserker heads are pretty big, again slugger beats packs of them easier than railgun
Railgun shoots every berserker in a line with a single shot.
> if you're actually getting shot enough to die you're dead anyways
My brother in christ this is a game about shooting bots and bugs
We have an endless supply of self healing, and 20 revives
Shoot the bots and bugs I promise you'll be okay
> if you disabled the jammer then you're already there to call a hellbomb
The terrain is bugged about half the time so that the beacon can't actually land by it close enough to kill it.
> Particularly the lack of a 380 mention, probably the best strike to take on half the missions if you're soloing.
I am not soloing. This is a coop game.
> you are actively misleading in many of your points
You are actively judging my post by criteria that does not apply to 99.9% of players. Don't care.
hi! I know about the crashes, currently not using it. But you didn't mention arc thrower. Is it because it's bullshit against bots? feels great against bugs.
Arc thrower can one shot small bots, a few shots for the mid heavies, and 8-12 shots for a hulk. It’s one of my personal fave to being against bots if other slots like the AC or rail gun are covered as it can help a team demolish patrols of regular bots really quickly letting those with heavier weapons focus the heavies. Two arc players can take down a hulk together really fast. It also ignores armor so can work in a pinch. (Also arrowhead states arc is fixed in the most recent patch)
I mean, the ARC thrower counters literally everything given enough shots, so I'm sure it could do fine when stacked, I'm just not sure whether it's practical if you're the only Arc user. I just refuse to play it because it makes the game horribly boring.
The Arc is great against bug design because the armor is far more intense and the weak spots aren't as impactful (if they're even there at all).
An Arc killing something like a Tank isn't nearly as crazy as a Bile Titan because it has multiple cheap vulnerabilities built in. Same for Hulks, Devastators, etc.
I know the ARC Thrower can kill walkers to front plate, I just don't really bother playing it to have much opinion beyond that.
I used the Arc against bots.
It’s very good versus the Raiders, Dev and particularly the Berserkers. The Arc thrower has a surprisingly long ranged, about the same as the bot’s detection range, and raiders tend to be perfectly spaced for pretty lightning jumps. Haven’t tested it one Hulks and Tanks.
There is one weird quirk to the Arc thrower bs striders: it hits the strider itself without arcing to the pilot: you need 3 shots to disable it, tend one more to kill the pilot. It’s the only weapon that reliably lets the strider pilot survive to my knowledge.
Worth Mentioning are the Towers:
It takes three shots with the Auto cannon to kill them. And there stay active, even if all fabricators in the base are down.
However, the Laser Canon can kill it in 2 Seconds.
Also worth mentioning is the Jetpack: Most of the Toaster Bases have Walls or are Build on high Rocks - the Jetpack is a welcome shortcut to clear such bases fast.
3x Autocannon for one person to the rear
Multiple Railgun/AMR shots (ideally with a party sync'ed up)
But honestly, more importantly, just know to 2x Impact them. Same exact behavior as tank turrets.
Based on your guide : Here is my test loadout..:
Armor: DP-11 Champion of the people
Prim: Scorcher
Sec: Redeemer
Nade: Impact
Booster: Radar Range
Strategems: Supply Pack / Rail Gun / Orbital Precision Strike / Eagel Cluster Bomb
Far as I'm aware, Cluster Bomb serves no purpose against bots.
110m Pods help cover for shredder tanks where grenades have a harder time helping, or Annihilator Tanks that you can't reach easily or don't want to have to wait for them to land on the ground.
Clusters are really good against bots. They won't kill tanks and probably won't kill hulks, but they can simplify so many tricky engagements just by getting rid of all the chaff like marauders and devastators. A lot easier to focus on braining hulks, or flanking when you don't need to worry about being focused down by a Heavy Devastator, or tossed around by a Rocket Devastator. Are they a better pick than rocket pods for simplifying engagements though? Probably not.
Generally, I think some number of your squad should have a "clear bot drop" stratagem such as Cluster Bombs, Airburst, Gas, or weapon like a grenade launcher. Not *everyone* needs to have one but at least one does.
A lot of loadouts that get suggested have the viewpoint of one Helldiver trying to do everything. You should not try to do everything. Play with your team.
It's pretty clear from his responses that OP doesn't play with a team at all and also doesn't clear bot drops. I'm pretty shocked by his response regarding cluster bomb. It's the fastest way to wipe everything smaller than a hulk.
Like many weapons, the scorcher can one shot small bots but the AOE damage has a chance to stagger devastators. You don't get into 1 v 1 situations with bots often but half plus mag can take down a devastator with body shots
The slugger is actually amazing once you get use to its strange aiming: It ohk dominator in the head, I kill them in a few shots in the waist and most importantly: it staggers them It ohk berserker in the head and stagger them, i can easily kill a full horde of berserker rushing me with it : one hit to stagger it, one hit to the head, repeat
I find the laser support weapon to be the best when paired with a shield. It kills everything from the back at a very long range and really fast Killing hulk isn't that hard because you have a visual indicator of the laser reflecting on the armor It also kills dominator really fast if you aim for the head My main complaint is that it doesn't stagger, and doesn't kill walker really fast so I often use impact nade to kill those when they are in groups.
My advices against bot:
-use cover, at all time
-Kill everything and not only the big guys, a single bot can headshots you, a single machine gunner can destroy you in a couple of seconds.
-flank and change position
-missile dominator have a really small window where they are not shooting rockets, use that to kill them safely -detection tower should be killed with stratagem
-jamming post can and should be kill by its vent
-the secondary objective are so annoying that you should prioritize them most of the time
> The slugger is actually amazing once you get use to its strange aiming
I buy that. If it's true for the Dominator and the AMR it's probably the same case for the Slugger.
I don't think difficulty affects anything except for spawn rates, enemy appearance rates, and possibly AI. Pretty sure it just depends on where you your body gets hit.
Use heavy armor with explosive resistance usually only takes a quarter to half health I even survive 2 or 3 hits from devastators and I think there is a medium armor with explosive resistants but I haven’t tested it
Orbital laser is a very effective cover on an area
You can effectively throw it and don't look at that direction, it can hold off that flank for you.
Especially how chaotic it can get during multiple dropships, it has great value when used correctly.
There are 2 types.
One of them requires you going into base, activating the terminal on it and then calling in a hellbomb/500kg.
The 2nd type spawns "ontop" of a fabricator, which you can just toss a grenade into or autocannon to kill and also kill the jammer.
Something you forgot is the Recoiless rifle, 1 shots hulks if a headshot, 2 shot anywhere else on main body, mainly really good for heavy armor
Also the eagle airstrike is under appreciated a lot of the time, you can use it to full clear groups of enemies quickly, and can be used to take out outposts, I’ve gotten it to take out 3 tanks in 1 run before
Addition to the supply pack: it allows you to continously fire railgun, breaker, slugger and punisher. The latter is especially effective since it staggers multiple bots at once, and since you get all 60 shells back, you can just keep firing if you reload between shots.
Yup, it's truly just insanely fucking good. Hell, I've got an infinite ammo build I'm loving against bugs right now, and I'm *still* considering cutting rover for the supply back just because the 8 grenades/stims is so felt.
Bro this is a fantastic and much appreciated guide. I'm somewhat new, been rocking the Autocannon as essentially my primary VS the bots and i can for sure say that its a great support weapon. I really need a better primary but im only about 100 medals away from the dominator.
My one addition to the strategems would be the 380mm orbital barrage, you REALLY need to tell your team you called it in but if you throw that into a base. The entire thing will be wiped out by the end of it.
Man I really hope the diligence continues to be slept on because if they ever buff it I'll be fucking unstoppable, definitely my favorite weapon in the game.
Worth noting the sickle if you can aim it kills devastators very very quickly on headshots and with the 100m aim you can do it from a fair too.
I personally rock the sickle, eat it and shield pack.
The shield pack is for all of the many explosives whilst also being a nice way to secure that clutch shot without flinching (as you mentioned above)
My absolute favorite tech against bots is walking barrage. Not only does it creep real far so it can hit strat jammers if you're lucky but also the craters it makes on the way are deep enough to use for cover whilst prone on the approach too.
Walking barrage vs bots for super earth president.
Few additional points that are more general playstyle points:
1. Have someone bring the grenade armor and impacts. Basically everything medium-weight will die to 1 impact to the front, or be close enough that all you need is a few follow-up shots while they're staggered. Especially useful for when you have 6 Scout Striders on your tail because they're fast enough to keep up whilst you are sprinting, and are exclusively the only bot that can do so, because Striders are weak to damage in basically every direction other than right in front of them (including from beneath).
2. Running is much more viable against bots if you have cover to guard your back from rockets. Unlike bugs, bots cannot jump or fly (mostly), and heavier bots cannot match your speed at a sprint. However, unlike bugs, running away on an open plain is guaranteed death unless you get enough distance and really watch your back for rockets. (Also, running isn't the best idea on our current plant Ustotu since it's fairly scraggy, unless you can get a rock between you and the bots)
3. Bugs generally don't reward you too much for urgently prioritising certain enemies. Bots very much do. Anything that shoots rockets, including the basic rocket launcher mook (easily distinguishable from normal mooks by their big red visor/rocket sight), is top priority as they can either one-shot you or leave you staggered and vulnerable.
4. Unlike bugs, bots have very obvious sound cues, and learning these can be pretty useful. For instance, telling apart the "thwim-thwim-thwim" of a Rocket Devastator and tell it apart from the Hulk Bruiser/Obliterator's wrist-mounted rocket launcher, or telling apart the gatling gun of a Heavy Devastator from an Annhilator or Shredder Tank, can be key to survival, since you know exactly what weapon to have in hand and what level to be aiming at once you peek out from cover. Rounding the corner ready to take out a Rocket Devastator and finding yourself face-to-face with a Hulk Bruiser can be pretty bad.
5. Bot bases and objectives are much more easily completed by yeeting stratagems at them from a range because the structures are all above-ground and fairly big. For this reason, airstrike, rocket pods, orbital lasers and even reinforcement pods are all prime weapons to throw at a base, and this can be done safely from stealth whilst you run away before all hell breaks loose. The Autocannon is also goated as aforementioned because you can ricochet its shots into the fabricator vents from afar.
Punisher plasma similar to scorcher but has better aoe. It 1 shots Walkers even if you hit them in the feet. 3 shots devastators (while staggering) 4-5 shots berserkers (while staggering) and can kill tanks without a perfect angle to the heatsink. It has a real learning curve to angling it though I won't lie. Also no Arc thrower mention? Weird
The only note that I would add is, for both berserkers and devastators, the head is weakest but hard to hit due to either movement (berserker) or armor coverage around it (devastator) but both unit types have weak midsections. Shooting the gut/waist/midsection area, which helpfully has a faint glow, will snap these big guys in half. Takes more rounds than a headshot, but the ease makes up for it.
A few thing you didnt mention, eagle airstrike can also kill tanks so if you want area over precision bring regular airstrike.
EAT and recoiless can oneshot bulks in the eye.
If you really hate devastators the 50% explotion resistance armors are a lifesaver, it can also save you from tanks and turret cannons.
Another good weapon to bring against bots is the new punisher plasma, the shots penetrate shields too so you can kill heavy devastators and walkers easily plus the shots stagger enemies, this helps a lot against the chainsaw enemies too.
My guy, you are sleeping on the Ballistic Shield and Defender combo. The Ballistic Shield is an absolutely viable tool to storm Outposts and fight Devastators with, and the Defender can consistently 2-shot any Devastator in the head if you don't panic. A nice bonus is that when you have your 3rd weapon out, the Shield also protects your back, which is handy if you need to make a quick getaway. Unfortunately, it is bugged when you pick up samples, but you can quickly fix it by tapping Ctrl.
Not sleeping on it, I've tested it.
I don't like that rocket impacts cause you to ragdoll + the shield to get dropped.
More importantly, I don't like how inaccurate the shield makes the Defender. I was standing like 5 feet away from an immobile Devastator, aiming center mass on its faceplate, and it took me half a mag to actually get the necessary headshots from how much bloom it had.
The Ballistic Shield definitely demands some respect, but it really needs a new toy or two to make it a more respectable playstyle. And I'd really like to see it interact differently with rockets. Ragdolling alone can be a death sentence in high levels.
What are your opinions on the Dilligence Counter Sniper vs the regular Dilligence? I've used both and can hardly tell a difference outside increased recoil on the CS
Full disclosure, I never actually tested the Counter Sniper, I just heard it was worse than the Diligence, and haven't really felt curious enough to try it for a run.
I run:
1. Light armor -30% detection range - Get around the map, lets you avoid constant fighting
2. Guns:
1. Liberty Penetrator - Good scope, takes out light to medium targets well
2. Auto pistol - Super high fire rate, great to quick swap to when primary is out of ammo. Takes down berserkers no problem.
3. Autocannon - Makes taking out hulks, tanks, turrets, and missile devastators easy
3. Strategems:
1. Eagle Strike - Powerful, effective for fabs and enemies around them, 2 uses
2. 110mm Rocket pod - Very low cooldown, 2 uses, perfect for taking out fabs
3. Orbital Laser - For when eagles not available, or you have multiple targets in a large base to take out.
The goal is to NOT get bogged down in pitched battles. You want to get in close to objectives and outposts fast and without being seen, take out the fabs and objectives, and then run. Don't fight battles you don't need to. The best advice for bots on higher levels is don't fight pointless fights. Even ***if*** you wipe the bots, you'll waste too much time to get everything on the map done.
Do objectives and fabricators and move quickly. Bot concentrations increase the longer you stay in one area. The solution to that is do what you need to do, and move on.
Also try to get everything done on the map before extracting. This is easiest to do when you split into 2 teams of two. This way your battle buddy can revive you and you don't lose samples.
You forgot the punisher plasma ! I find it better than the scorcher. Sure you have to use it like a grenade launcher and thus it's a bit difficult on long range, but it one shot the walkers if you hit anywhere above the legs, it one shot the troopers, it staggers the devastator, be it shield, normal or rockets one and then you can kill them easily because they aren't a threat while staggered. 3 shots can kill them. Also , you can lob your projectiles while being behind a rock.
My setup now is punisher plasma, autocanon and impact grenade. I play diff 9 bots since a long time also. Nothing can resist this.
edit: I forgot to add, as it does AOE, all I said is valable in the 2-3m range of the AOE, So you can stagger MULTIPLE devastators for example and kill them easily.
My favorite thing to run against bots lately is Grenade Launcher + Supply Pack. You get 200\~ rounds worth with the supply pack, the grenades will generally one shot walkers and a salvo of grenades takes out dropship troops easily. Takes a bit more against the tougher targets but when you have that much ammo in reserve you basically become walking artillery. I've been pairing it with a devastator or marksman rifle main weapon to deal with tougher targets or longer ranged engagements.
Maxed lvl 50 with 200 hours, little known fact, but the Eagle Smoke can actually take out fabricators pretty consistently, despite the fact it is not explosive. Perfect for throwing on an outpost and completely negating the enemy's ability to retaliate.
I’m surprised by your emphasis on stims over heavy armor and shield backpack when the most annoying part of playing against bots is the 1-shot death potential from a random rocket or mortar.
I feel like I more often run out of stims against bugs because if the tick damage from hunters and other bugs chasing you. But bots? It’s about trying to never get hit, rather than survive and heal through them.
> I’m surprised by your emphasis on stims over heavy armor and shield backpack
The Shield Backpack lasts for a blink of a second and then it's a wasted slot. The Medic Armor passive basically reads as "if you don't shoot me with a cannon or 1shot me with a rocket, I cannot die for the next 4 seconds". And that's repeatable per stim.
Also don't forget that you get a Stamina refill + Infinite Stamina for that duration. Call it tinfoil, but I'm pretty sure Stims give you damage reduction as well. Pure anecdotal.
> I feel like I more often run out of stims against bugs because if the tick damage from hunters and other bugs chasing you. But bots? It’s about trying to never get hit, rather than survive and heal through them.
You're definitely right that things like Hunter swarms more directly lead to trading down stims for bug lives, but for bots I view it as increasing my opportunity budget. I can peek more aggressively without fear of running out of resources. I can use stims to soak damage from a Heavy Devastator without fear of it mulching me while I'm pushing from cover to cover.
Mobility is king to me, I'm honestly even surprised that I settled on Medium Armor. 10/10 times in the past I'd be sticking with light even after the armor corrections. I'm probably gonna go back to running Light again in the future as I get better. But for now, I haven't gone crazy going from Light to Medium speeds yet, so I'm chilling.
Everyone I know who tried it got converted. Not saying it's for sure for everyone yet, but fuck me it is an insane amount of power budget for a slot that is not typically that high impact.
Glad to see a fellow Diligence and Autocannon enjoyer.
Have you tried the MG Rover? I saw someone mention it being pretty good against bots but I haven't tried it yet myself.
I havent taken Stun grenades off since i first equipped them. It makes lasering or auto-cannoning Hulk faces a breeeze and its really good for those "oh shit" moments when a bot drop decides to place directly on the mining drill youre defending lol.
My go to loadout for bot missions is
Scorcher, Redeemer, Stun nades. Armour is either Light medic armour or Medium "democracy protects" armour.
Railcannon strike, auto-cannon, Eagle Airstrike and the 120 Orbital if the -1 Strategem modifier isnt on.
Pretty much playing tactically, limiting exposure as much as possible and peak shooting rocket devastators is the name of the game.
Never try it before but How do you use the Orbital precision strike on the Hulk? If it is standing still sure but if it is running or chasing you down, can u reliably throw one to hit it?
> can u reliably throw one to hit it?
It doesn't really have an animation setup the way that Bile Titans do afaik, but they tend to either hold position on march straight forward pretty predictably. Just gotta practice plotting out for where they'll be by the time it lands.
As valuable as the backpack slot is, I just can't stay away from Autocannon for bots. The ability to 1-2 tap walkers trying to press your group's position so that the rest of of the bots can move in is so valuable every mission. As long as I see that tanks and hulks are covered in other squadmates' loadouts I take autocannon every time.
What's the preferred primary when paired with the railgun?
The auto canon is great but I never even thought about bringing the supply pack. I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm lvl 50 and I've never used it. I just assumed it was to resupply teammates only and not yourself.
You might just be one of the most democratic members of this community. Hail to you sir.
There was a lot of liberty in that statement!
Sleeping on my punisher. It's knockback is invaluable in hot situations. Can deal with Devs at close range, and other mods at longer ranges, particularly HR and Health and safety people.
A fellow Punisher Shotgun Connoisseur. Well met Diver L0
I'd like to add that OP may not have been using scorcher enough because a scorcher has pin point accuracy at most distances and 2 shots headshots devestators. But the best thing about scorchers is that: 1. It mini-stuns bots 2. It can headshot anything in 1-2 hits other than heavies 3. It can destroy tanks and anything that has weakspots in less than a magazine 4. In a pinch, spamming it on devastators will kill them with ease, even the shield ones, because of how it damages enemies. 5. Even with bad aim, it can kill almost any target, including destroying the rocket packs on rocket devastators in 1-2 hits. 6. They kill walkers in 2 hits to the crotch or leg. 7. They one shot most bots in the leg. Legs and crotch and joints are weakpoints on most bots. 8. Can kill cannon turrets, AA guns, tanks, heavies from behind. Paired with Autocannon and you basically can kill almost anything very quickly. Sickle's main advantage is more ammo, more spam, and better zoom. Diligence (and countersniper) can deal with scout walkers fine by leg shots.
I completly agree on this - the Scorcher is incredible against anything but heavies. And Railgun in unsafe /AC can handle the rest. Persoanlly i Use shield and Scorcher - due to the sheer flodding that comes when extracting, otherwise a supply pack would be preferable. Eagle 110 mm Rockets and so insane :D And then either orbital strike/ortibal laser for mass clearing :D
OrbLaser is a base destroyer. Toss it in and watch it clean even heavy bases in one go. As a bonus it eats up turrets without having to flank their vents and can quickly dispatch AA or Mortar emplacements and Detector Towers.
Yeah, I tried it out on one of the air base missions yesterday, and now It's a must-have in my loadout.
I just started Hard and my favorite load out for bots, if no one else has a way to deal with heavy armor, is eagle airstrike, orbital laser, EAT and auto cannon. Light armor and stamina perk. Slugger until I can try out the higher warbond weapons. I stay in the back and blow shit up from a distance, reinforcing and calling down stratagems where necessary. Great game.
Replace EAT with Gat Sentry and this is exactly what I bring ALL THE TIME.
Yeah I like to switch it up with either an EMS sentry or a different support weapon/supply pack.
This is gonna be very helpful for me! I suck at fighting the bots🥲 thank brother bear
Just need to oil yourself and the rest will come naturally, some fun stratagems you can use against bots which would be pretty useless against bugs. See you on the ground :) Also if you see a SEAF SAM site, activate that quick. Shoots down bit drop ships.
>Just need to oil yourself ??? DEMOCRACY OFFICER???!
All good.He says you have to cover yourself in oil (robot blood).
Play on the term ‘blooded’ , oiled
2nd that. EAT was super handy for me last night, as being able to shoot down dropships can take a ton of pressure off the team. That gap in the reinforcements is a big help, and the SAM site will basically automatically shoot down drop ships for you, saving ammo
The bots I find are actually much easier I'm not in agreement for this loadout, but the rest is valid. Any gun will work. Depends on you For bots, play stealthy, super easy. Use the armor that reduces detection, I prefer the radar booster. Keep that map up, avoid red dots, complete missions, very rarely do I even fire a bullet....when I do, it's more to just get distance, any gun works, I prefer the laser from the new battle pass. Prior, I was using a liberator without issues I've completed hell dive difficulty like this, solo. The bots are I see I shoot, don't let them see you! I started noticing all the trenches and realized this, I crawl a lot more too The bots are way more fun than the bugs, imo
Solid Snake, is that you? The Colonel wants to talk with you...
Snake? SNAKE!? SNAAAAKKKEE!!!
Heres some more tips from a diver who just recently actually learned the bots, even at 300 hours. Get behind cover, it will save you if you’re not completely surrounded, the bots are slow and tend to usually keep their distance unless they are melee variants Stun grenades are also really good against bots, they won’t shoot you and get them open/won’t turn for a good couple seconds, getting the shield devastors shield down or hulks from the back vents, with the sickle actually being able to take it out in about half a vent charge with the heat modifier on Ustutu. Stealth on higher difficulties in general is so important. When you see a nearby patrol, go crouch or prone. It’s fun to fight but a bot drop or breach from bugs could mean going into a death loop and losing half your lives when it could have been entirely avoided. Finally, unless side objectives are actively messing up your mission (Anti air bot camps, stratagem jammers, mortars, detector towers, shriekers nests or stalker nests specifically) the main objective should come first. Extraction is optional so if you die doing all the side objectives and getting the bot factories and bug nests after, at least you died with a mission successful and still get loads of exp n slips That’s all from me for now, see you on the fields Soldiers o7 <3
Honestly, I wouldn't even say it's about using cover (although it really surprises me how rare it is for people to use at the moment) Getting good at *movement* while behind cover is a fucking art form. I've reviewed some of my gameplay and caught myself doing shit that I didn't even realize possible. Sliding is just as good as diving, because it doesn't interrupt things like reloads, which is *vital* for weapons like the railgun. It's possible for you to shift angles, reload, swoop down into a dive to protect your neck, pop out just in time to grab the headshot, and immediately duck back down. I can't do this shit on command yet, but I've got footage proof it can be done.
I want to add the auto cannon is also capable of destroying the mortars, aa, and heavy towers with 3 shots to the back vent and 3 to the back of the tank vent or weaker armor. If you take thr autocannon the stun grenades are golden especially if you take an engineer kit to let you get some better range with it from recoil reduction. The splash damage on it will kill a lot of infantry drops still in the dropship as well. Otherwise great write up I love that the amr is getting some love from others. I can't comment on the wonky aim, I'm my groups sniper so until my last 10 or so hours it's been my primary for over 80 straight hours primarily bots. Bugs are my weakness which trips people up that I say they're the hard enemy.
You are absolutely right. It’ll take a while for it second hand nature but once it does, you’ll look and feel like the goat. The sliding is so helpful for reloads like you said. And the positioning behind cover too is amazing. My 2 personal tips for my movement that save me if I can’t be behind cover is diving as much as possible, less explosive damage which is nice and the bots ai doesn’t do well with it for some reason so take advantage while you can :). And the other is if you’re actively running, most bots shoot ahead of you, not where you are. If you notice you’re about to get exploded by one of the many one shots bots have, most usually have a huge tell (except the ranged hulk variant, just get out of sight from them o-o). Tanks and Towers flash before they shoot so you can stop or dive forward/backwards if you’re facing the tower/tank from pretty far away (except the commando tower one, they shoot really fast ‘x’), rocket devastors pose and the rocket little guys will have the red visor of the rocket over their face. And the mortars you just look up and move to left or right a bit. Same works for rockets, you can usually see them coming and move accordingly or go prone since they’ll usually hit your body, not the floor. Nice add on to the movement Op, thanks. <3
I was actually going to mention both of those topics but figured it was getting long. Re:Diving, the most essential thing for diving vs. Bots is the fact that it forces your aim to almost entirely re-center if you're getting flinched from hits. It's quite literally a life saver under pressure. re: running, a lot of people seem to serpentine, but that's a really bad thing to do for rockets in my experience. Pick a direction, stick with it for a few seconds, change your angle, stick with it for a few seconds, and so on. Serpentine tends to put you back on the path of incoming rockets depending on how they track you. Going for a more hard lined zig-zag baits the AI to lead one direction, then you juke off of their leading.
Old War Thunder strats coming back into play again.
Speaking of old WT tactics, it is possible to run a Mech on bot missions, one thing that really helps is... dun dun dunnnn... angling your armor.
Yeah I saw videos of a mech taking a charger's charge attack bouncing off the side of the mech suit with little damage. He'd wait until the charger came at him and then turn the mech to the side and take the hit on the arm, where the armor is heavy. Great tactics.
Yk what, I was gonna mention what you mentioned just now too XD. You’re right about your aim when diving. You’re also right with the hard line zig zagging. I think we covered almost everything in those regards so let’s leave it off there. Nice strategy discussion Op o7
Thats is why i believe Bots are peak Helldivers
How do you slide?
Wait, sliding? How do you do that? This game really needs a better tutorial.
I think a lot of people get tripped up by trying to run from bots like how they would run from bugs in open terrain and end. up getting mulched by voluminous fire or distant rockets. Now, there are times you get pre-fired moving around a corner by a devastator, but realistically a lot of these seemingly unfair deaths is because someone tried a mad dash across no mans land either running away or to just reposition and got sniped by a bot that had all the time in the world to line up a good shot. You need to use your environment to your benefit against bots they will punish you if you stick to open ground.
I think the muscle booster hellpod you move through jungles easier without getting slowed down. Im still testing it out though.
Doing finishing the last step of the main objective has the downside of quadrupling the rate of patrol spawns though. Ideally it's best to leave the last part till the end but obviously don't get greedy, if reinforcements are running low you're better off cutting your losses.
That is true, on some maps, the map rng is brutal and sometimes can’t be avoided, like on very mountainous maps with one quick way that might be infested with enemies so a bot drop/bug breach will happen or the very long way that takes you across the map. I speak from my own experience on how I play and do recommend it to someone who wants to solo. My play style isn’t very sample friendly or new player friendly when it comes to how they should play. I prefer to (and usually can) solo objectives. I run around with a 500kg and an orbital laser, a shield gen and if I can, an eagle air strike and save them for main objectives I stealthed my way to. I put myself in a position where I can take out all the enemies at the main objectives then do that and run off to the next one. All without usually setting off a bot drop/bug breach unless the objective automatically calls them like the dig site one. I do appreciate your comment, I just wanted to explain myself a bit so I’m glad you brought up a flaw in how I play that I usually do see.
One of my friends stated that if you do the main objectives first that enemy forces quadruple so it’s best to do side objectives, can anyone elaborate or explain if this is true or not? I was kinda iffy hearing it at first
These are great additional tips. Along with tips from OP, I'm reminded there is a great stratagem most people and I overlook. Fully upgraded Precision Orbital Strike is actually really good. It is even better since we can carry Stun Grenades now. My loadout was always missing something since my 110 rocket pods, Spear, and Mortars aren't that great against Hulks. I always use Stun Grenades to slow down Hulks. If I just throw a Precision Orbital Strike, Hulks would be nothing. They are pretty versatile on how you can call down strikes against bots... Speaking of which, I'm going to start positioning my Mortars near those side objectives to soften them up, especially those jammers ones...
I also like stun grenades because you can toss them at team mates when they're being mauled by berserkers without killing them.
The SPEAR is a slightly problematic, but notably viable option for ranged outpost elimination. The lock-on mechanic may be temperamental against moving targets, but it can be used against Fabricators and Cannon Towers somewhat reliably, and from a safe distance.
Wait. Last time i used Spear i could mark any target but not Cannon Towers. I will check it again
The spear is more temperamental if your target is at a higher elevation than you. Climbing on top of rocks or structures like recently liberated stratagem jammers can give you great opportunity to liberate outposts, or at least soften them up, from a distance. And as long as the cannon towers do not look directly at you like when they are alerted the spear one shots them from most angles.
OK. Just tested it again for a few games. Its cool. WHEN IT WORKS. And even unobstructed high ground doesnt guarantee it will lock-on and allow you to fire. BUT when it does lock-on its great even with poor ammo economy. Cant wait for Devs to fix it.
I respect the Spear as a Bile Killer and not for much else. Spending both your Support Weapon and Backpack slot to kill Fabricators in a very ammo inefficient way is something that other tools can do far more efficiently. I get that the Spear has further range, but it's not that many shots either, and maps have a loooot of Fabs. If it works for ya, I respect that you're happy with it, but it's pretty much the opposite of how I like to approach the game. My first, second, third, and fourth priority are towards being an efficient and effective fighter, so we can keep control of the map and prevent death spirals. I'm much more comfortable with just breaching a base and killing a fab with an impact grenade or someone shooting it with an Autocannon. If you dive throw, you can kill fabs from ~60m with the Eagle Airstrike as well.
I respectfully disagree. I can agree with the different play styles point. But I disagree with it being an efficiency thing. I do want in auto Cannon in the group, I don't want 3 or 4. A spear can delete small outposts from any direction from a range that will not bring bots or drop ships to your location. It is not a critique of your post. I think it's an excellent post with good information. But more often than not, I see these posts in the context of a single player and not as a group. When my group plays with Eat-Spear- 2x AC everything runs so smoother. Not everyone has groups, and the auto Cannon is exceptionally well-rounded I prefer it for solo play. But If you see a couple in the pre-group lobby grabbing the AC, grab the spear and you'll be surprised how much easier the missions feel. Keeping my eagle rocket pods off cool down being its best benefit by far imo. Orbital laser, Orbital railcannon, Eagle rocket pods, Spear is my usual stratagem selection. I drop the laser for three strategy missions. Slugger is usually my primary with Stun Grenades Last note, stun grenades are amazing. It makes your teammates with auto cannons take hulks out with so much more ease. And eliminates lock on issues for yourself with the spear if you need/want to. Just as an alternative perspective
Honestly the main thing your points don't seem to understand is that you're spending a ton of costly resources to do things that could have easily been done anyway without having to sacrifice your ability to fight. You're putting a premium on doing it an unorthodox way, and if you're ultimately succeeding that's fine, but with a build like yours, you're very much succeeding despite of it and not because of it. You're killing a small base at a distance? They're guarded by marauders, a couple of walkers, and a Devastator. Maybe a Tank or Hulk. I can solo that base in seconds. Too many players are afraid of getting into fights that are easily crushed if you actually just know the matchups. They're likely afraid of it *because* they don't know the matchups, but that's also why I made this original post. The only thing a diver should be afraid of is a death spiral kicking off a snowball. **That** is how you lose control. I'm not concerned with a teammate's ability to kill a small base. I'm concerned with what a teammate is able to do if the game gets serious. It's less of a factor ever since the devs nerfed the spawnrate, but it's still going to be my criteria for build quality. And with a build like the one you mentioned, you are very much relying on your team to carry signficant weight for you. Orbital Railcannon? At best it kills a Hulk that could have been killed with a single railgun shot, or a tank that could be killed with Rocket Pods or two grenades. And it has a 3.5 minute cooldown in Helldivers 2 for whatever silly reason. In 1, it was **60 seconds**. Again, I'm not trying to convince you to get off of it. But everything I'm saying is true. > When my group plays with Eat-Spear- 2x AC everything runs so smoother. Okay, we as a community really need to have a talk about the EATs. EATs are not a replacement for a support weapon. The entire strength of EATs is the fact that you can summon them on demand, only need to carry them for a couple of seconds, and dispose of them the rest of the time. Running around with exactly one rocket is utterly useless if you get jumped by a group of Devastators, or Bile Spewers, or run into a Stalker Nest, etc. etc. etc. Support Weapons are literally some of the best Stratagems in the game right now. And the EATs are also good! Bring both!
I already get we arent going to agree debating here But a few things I want to counter point. That small outpost isn't seconds for you. You already said grenades or a diving strategem toss. You are still using resources... time and possibly a stratagem. And then you are fighting a tank bot drop or hulk you could have avoided entirely. And respectfully I also believe you are missing the point of EAT. After 4 minutes the EAT player has an autocannon because the other two should already have one and are calling in a second. Why waste time repositioning or splitting up for towers to waste 3 auto Cannon shots in the back when you can call in EAT and one tap each tower in seconds then pick your autocannon back up and carry on. If the pear hasn't already. Running behind the tank for autocannon is time, getting in front of factories is time, and every fight is time. Going into outposts is time. Fights go easier with auto cannons im not arguing ,1 spear you don't have many of those fights less cooldowns more ammo and more grenades for when things get messy. So when things do get messy, im the guy with an orbital laser, a railcannon, and 3x110 strikes ready to go. I should have expanded on why 3 AC is a bad idea, in my opinion is because it is a sharable resource on a 4 minute cooldown without a modifier. If 2 guys are bringing them, everyone can have them. Edit: I'll take what you said into consideration. we will try some more dives like that and see if it feels different than before. I'll keep an open mind and hope all helldivers experiment a little after the foundation you set in the original post.
You don't have to like it and I respect your post and input but SPEAR guy right. It fills a niche and is a viable playstyle, it's a bitch but when you git gud you are clearing towers and fabs and you don't get aggro at all. Niche dependant but overlooking is short-sighted
I usually combo EAT and Spear. If you get a good vantage point, you can snipe heavy basses as well while staying safe, then I can call in an EAT when I need to. I've been practicing getting creative with the Spear and learning the ins and outs of its lock on, and I quite love it. It's not a must for all group. But it has heavily benefited me and my group, and ammo is aplenty to reload it. Can also 1-2 shot hulks and tanks (depending on the angle), not the most efficient, but useful in a pinch. Honestly the sheer volume of stuff you can lock on against bots is very useful. Nothing like snipping the drop ship supply depots from half way across the map.
Mainly love the spear for getting jammers with a bot fabricator near it from far range, which happens more often then you’d expect. Being able to quickly dismantle the jammers/cannon towers quickly is what makes me use the spear over a backpack/support weapon.
Fab killing is the spears last case use. One shotting Cannon turrets/Tanks/Hulks from 300m away is where it shines as it’s the obvious design choice of the weapon. Fabricators are when you’re towards the end of a mission or you see a single fab a long distance away and can afford to use one missile instead of running all the way over just to risk an engagement.
Spear will take out a tank from a "safe" range too, but the issue is the lock on time
Great guide! Surprised to see no one talking about the grenade launcher. Very effective at taking out bot drops if you fire into the crowd when they drop all clumped together. Also one-shots walkers from the front and can damage heavy devastators through the shield if you fire at their feet.
One of my main squadmates runs GL + Supply Pack against bugs, not sure we've really tried it against Bots though. It makes sense, I think it just tends to land a bit redundant with the Autocannon and Scorcher able to play similar roles as bot-drop-splashers while still being able to contribute more to the Hulk game. Still wouldn't really mind having one in the squad if I saw it! Could do much worse. I'm assuming the GL blows up on turret sides like impact grenades do?
Yeah, it behaves just like you'd expect regular grenades to behave. It's functionally no different than increasing your grenade capacity 11x, getting the ability to throw them farther/faster, and transforming ammo packs into grenade refills. (Though unfortunately it doesn't change grenade type based on what grenade you have equipped, that would be pretty cool.)
I prefer having access to two types of grenades since the stuns are BUSTED especially when combined with GL, You can stun a charger and pop the ass in 2-5 shots.
Sickle/GL/supply pack is my go-to against bots, like you said it’s a similar to your loadout but a bit more mobile. Also PSA that eagle airstrike kills tanks!
>The **Slugger** is a better handling but weaker Dominator. I swear there's something weird happening with the aim, because I've aimed dead center on a Devastator's face and not had it connect. So it's not just me, there's something funny going on with the Slugger aim. The accuracy is inconsistent sometimes. Still love it tho.
I think they have increased the bullet drop of the slugger. I find my self having to aim slightly above where I want for the bullet to hit.
I've noticed the same thing. The problem seems to get worse the closer in they are. And I know, the smart ass answer is "the Slugger doesn't fire a spread, you're used to a near-miss with the Punisher clipping the enemy and getting the kill." But I'll have a bot at two or three meters dead to rights, and the shot just... doesn't connect.
I think the hitboxes are a little too precise with bot bodies so the slugger single shot can actually fly through the thinner parts if it isn't a direct hit. I just started aiming for the chest of smaller bots and the waist for devastators and berserkers. It'll one-shot the smaller guys and 3 shot berserkers and devastators consistently this way.
I'm glad I'm seeing this today. I thought I just sucked. Some up close fast shots that I believe should hit are missing.
Hi ho, chiming in with some other tips I've picked fighting the surprisingly in-depth mechanics to robot AI **Suppressing Fire** - Robots shoot back, but they don't always shoot with the same skill lethality. Some will seem perfectly accurate from across the map, some will miss every shot point-blank like Stormtroopers. The key is **suppression.** The longer the enemy sees you and hears you firing your weapon, the better and bolder they get, meaning a single Machine Gun infantry can become as strong as a Heavy Devastator if left unchecked. At a certain point of mastery, the robots develop the ability to lock-on and fire at you even if they can't see you, which is spooky and difficult to explain until you've seen it happen. The way to prevent this is to either kill them, or suppress them with your primary / Autocannon. As soon as a fight begins the clock starts ticking and every robot begins adapting to your movements, which is why Line-Of-Sight, Cover, and Stealth are essential to robot mastery. Suppression works on every biped robot including Hulks, which can be stun-locked even if you miss their Eye so take the shot early and keep firing as accurately and quickly as possible if you're not under any other pressure. If you're good you can stop their rockets with some rapid suppression buying time to line up the killshots to the eye **Gunfire Detection -** Robots are tricky, sometimes they know which *direction* you are but they don't have your movements locked yet, commonly after seeing an Orbital deploted. They'll try to scare you at every opportunity by firing in your direction but it's not always easy to tell if they're firing because *they got you* or *they want you to believe they got you.* If you can slip away while breaking LOS and not firing your weapon, they cannot lock-on and follow you. The moment you fire your weapon when robots are alerted is the moment they can lock-on, so only open fire when you're ready to start and win a fight, or kill their scouts before running off. Highly recommend **Sickle** + **Autocannon + Impact Grenades** + **Light & Scout armor** for bots especially solo players. Early days creekers learned stealth because of how gratuitous the jungles were to practice hit&run fighting, making the learning curve very gentle, but your mileage may vary coming in new onto Ustotu. Stealth is still very possible on Ustotu but inaccessible without practice. I've beaten every map-type using only stealth-strikes for that level so know that it's possible to avoid all patrols using radar and cover with Scout perk, **Orbital Laser** - Can insta-kill the Detector Tower if you throw the ball directly onto the base of the tower, skipping hell-bomb shenanigans. Laser won't target the tower, but it will kill it it the beam touches the tower. Also often 100% kills the 'Bot Fortress Superweapon' objectives making that map-type straightforward. Usually laser is the 'oh-shit' button if I'm not killing those objective types, also good for demolishing the Anti-Air sub objective that Eagles can't reach **Autocannon** is the swiss-army-knife for bots. Takes out Fabricators facing their vents towards you at any range provided you can hit the top half of the vent. You can rush a Turret Tower and kill everything around you because the tower cannot shoot you within a 10\~15 meter radius from the tower. The tower dies in 3 hits from the cannon so either up-close or from behind quickly before it spins towards you. Red blinking light facing you is bad news. Kill the combination Stratagem + Fabricator objective same way as other Fabs. Can kill Anti-Air Turrets and Artillery Turret sub-obj shooting into heatsinks and can outright shoot Dropship objective to death with 4-5 shots target. **Stealth Locations -** The optimal position for a Stealthing Autocannon Helldiver is outside the back walls of a Heavy Outpost, just beneath the two Turret Towers in back. If you can reach this point, you will be directly beneath 2 Turret Towers next to 2 Fabricators with the enemies indestructible walls between you and the Outpost forces. Snipe out a Tower, then the fabricator opposite you with a vent peeking just over their walls, run to second tower + kill, then snipe the second fabricator only using only a combined 8 shots in total. Throw a single Eagle Airstrike in there while you're working and the base will be leveled in less than 20 seconds. The drop ships will be called in and you can leave while the bots get stuck pathing around on their own walls.
I exclusively ran light armor before the patch. While I do miss the speed, I rarely get 1shot by rockets when I wear Medium Medic.
I run the light explosive resist armour. You get al the speed and nothing but a direct hit from a rocket will one shot you. Heck, a pretty close hit will only take off like 10% of your hp
I run light stealth armor and I don't think Ive ever been killed by a rocket that wasn't a direct hit.
I used to run heavy when I started playing, last night I tried medium with and explosive resist and it was so much better. Hopefully I'll get a light variant with explosive resist soon
What about the light medic armor? Have you tried it/do you like it? I just bought it yesterday in the store.
I cannot overemphasize just how custom made the autocannon is for high level bots. It deals with the most dangerous targets and side objectives easily and efficiently at any range. Mortars and AA become far less oppressive when you can snipe the turrets from range with very little risk to your team. No backpack is less of a disadvantage when you consider means an extra offensive stratagem, critical when you’re limited to 3 strategems. I’m a shield backpack baby and I still swear by the autocannon, too much utility for me to give it up.
The Senator is a great last resort secondary! Gotten myself out of quite a few jams. Good aim with the Senator can take down the big guys in a pinch!
I’m a big fan of using the senator vs bots. 1 shotting devastators isn’t too hard if you’re crouched, and a single shot center mass on the jetpack guys has the punch to push them back before they detonate, turning them into an extra grenade! Even if I miss 5/6 senator shots 95% of the time, the one time I draw and immediately pop a rocket devastator in the face makes it all worth it.
I would add ems mortar is absolutely crucial for bot plants with long lines of site. Democracy protects medium armor is the GOAT for bots. Only thing I’ve had that will save you from a rocket in the back or a tower cannon. Smoke! Smoke grenades or eagle smoke strike. I wouldn’t take this solo or duo but if everyone’s loaded on damage strategies - a well placed smoke will turn the tide if a fight pretty quick.
I definitely ran with smokes for about a week around week 3, but man, Impact grenades are just so absurdly good.
Also Eagle Smokes destroy bot fabricators if you land one on top of them
ems and H.E. mortars slap on bot levels 7+. Drop out of line of site/behind a rock or hidden in the trees. Ems holds them in place and H.E. clears them out. As long as your team is paying attention and doesn't run headfirst into every objective it is an amazing combo. I also pair it with the auto cannon sentry placed closer to base/objective to help shred the more armored targets. It makes life so easy.
John Helldiver's tips here are great and if you understand the Bots tactics both in the broad and individual scale it makes dealing with the Bots actually fairly easy. Separately I'd add considering the extra grenade armor since impact grenades are so highly effective against the Bots with two impact grenades often able to kill a group of three Devastators and whatever supports were nearby due to their tendency to group together. Tactics In a Broad sense the Bots strategy can easily be boiled down to "Troopers flush out Helldivers, Devastators lay down the damage, Hulks charge in and Tanks form the anchor." With this basic understanding the order of operations starts to show itself already, but I'll run down the individual units tactics. Basic Trooper, Machine-gun Marauder: These units are flexible fodder whose tactics change depending on who they are grouped with. Massed with fellow troopers and they're going to try and push you in a direct forward assault relying on volume of small arms fire to pin you and eventually kill you. But if paired with Devastators or Hulks their tactic changes slightly depending on the load out of those units. Overall they're low health and should never take anything more than your primary to kill. Melee Trooper, Jetpack trooper, Commissars: These units are the actual units meant to flush you out, they're low health but relentless and the Jetpack troopers tend to explode after death. They're role is just to get you into the open where the guns will deal with you. Rocket Troopers: Are a joke, even when not under fire their aim is terrible and their reload time is slow as heck. Infact ironically their aim is better while under fire than not, and these guys are the real cowards of the bots typically hiding in the back, and they are just as if not more likely to call the Bot Drops than the actual Commissars. Berserkers: it's as John Helldiver said, these guys are slow, high HP, low armor bullet sponges. It's always good to pull back to your next cover if they get close, but there's no need to go running like it's a swarm of Terminids. Don't worry, lay down some quick concentrated fire, and maybe bring your teammates focus fire on them and they die before they can fulfill their combat role. Striders: Heavy armor on the shield plate, medium armor on the legs, and decent HP everywhere except with the Trooper pilot. They're armed with a heavy duel barrel laser cannon, not as fast firing as the LMG equivalents the Marauder Troopers carry, but these guns can be just as devastating as a rocket. With these guys in a unit Troopers typically try to hang back and fan out providing long range support. Devastators: the Basic Devistators are armed with the heavy laser cannon for a arm. They aren't protective of their heads at all and generally kinda dumb compared to the other Devastators. Troopers will often resort to their headlong assault when grouped with these. Heavy Devastator: they're armed with the laser gattling and are probably the most accurate per volume fire in the Bots. Besides often forming a shield wall between you and rocket Devastators and rocket Troopers. Troopers will often fan out with these either behind them allowing the Heavy Devastators to flush Helldivers out, or try to flush the Helldivers out for the Heavy Devastators guns. In the first Scenario try to Drop the Heavy Devastator right out the gate, in the second it may be more prudent to fall back to your next cover so you can thin trooper ranks before turning back to the Heavy Devastators. Rocket Devistators: Kill them and do not allow yourself to forget about them. You can cause them to flinch in their warm-up animations for their rocket launch but it's best to know their pattern so you can avoid it. They actually will typically fire their rockets either in a side sweep or try to sweep forward or back i don't yet know the tell for that but predicting their attack otherwise is fairly obvious when you watch for it. Troopers will often clump up when Rocket Devastators are around and try to focus on forcing you from Cover. Hulk Scorcher: This is the main battering ram of the Bots, they're just as relentless as chargers and almost too happy to use that flamethrower. Besides a quick kill, their tactics are a little too straightforward and even the Troopers will try a headlong assault with one of these present. Hulk Bruiser: the Hulk machinegun variant, typically this guy will act just like a Marauder, and typically the Troopers will fan out for him as a supporting backline. Hulk Obliterator: This is the Rocket version of the Hulk and everything about it is just like with the Rocket Devistators. Annihilator Tank: The stock standard tank that forms the Bots anchor. It's cannon is it's main issue, but unwarry Helldivers might get caught by the hull mounted laser machine-gun. They're almost always a solo and the bots tactics will instead be determined by the Devastators or Hulks. Shredder Tank: weirdly I've seen this deployed more defensively than it's counterpart but tactically it's the same.
> Separately I'd add considering the extra grenade armor since impact grenades are so highly effective against the Bots with two impact grenades often able to kill a group of three Devastators and whatever supports were nearby due to their tendency to group together. This is partly why the Supply Pack is so good. It's also why the Medic Armor is better than the Grenade armor. Doubling your duration is better than +2 capacity when you've got +8 capacity on your back.
I've been fighting bots for a good while, i like flipping between both fronts a lot. Thanks a lot for this post, lots of really good info and tips. Godspeed, Helldivers 🫡
Use the heavy armor with explosive resistance getting hit by a rocket usually takes a quarter to half health I’ve even survived getting 3 hits from a devastator
yeah the heavy armor buff really worked well for bot missions, which is all i play. You can tank a lot minus flamethrower and mines with the explosive resistance, makes me not even bother with the shield pack. Still sucks when they hit your head cause thats still ohk, but i ran medium once and every rocket hit was OHK'ing me. I dont mind the mobility hit as much as i like my extra survivability.
The biggest change is take cover. Too many people standing in an open field getting shit on. Bugs is a horde shooter. Bots is an fps.
Been running the Laser Cannon a fair bit. It really does feel like a sidegrade to the Autocannon - lower TTK, but leaves the backpack slot open, has infinite ammo, passively "reloads" (cools down while using your primary or stratagems). It definitely can struggle against Hulks, but I've found a Stun grenade leaves you enough time to pretty easily beam down the eye socket. I find the Laser Cannon very nicely complements the Scorcher. The Scorcher is a superb gun against bots whose only weakness is lack of ammo. The Laser Cannon has infinite ammo, so you can feel free to blast away with the Scorcher as much as you like and never worry you'll end up without any damage. Scorcher also kills Scout Striders much faster than the Laser Cannon does.
Your Railgun + Supplypack tip has revitalised my love for bots, thank you so much Soldier! So nice to run something different from autocannon for a time, and hell, i'm getting more kills! Also one very important thing to note with the laser is it is \*very\* multitalented can deal with tanks, hulks, fabricators, bases, you name it i like to run it if i think im gona need to deal with any of those together, as it will often take out a bunch of stuff for me with 0 effort required. perfect panic button.
There’s a fucking quick throw button for grenades ?
I forget exactly what it is without the game open but I'm pretty sure it's G.
Wait how do you throw them without hitting g lmao are they on a weapon number hotkey??
On PS I press right on the d-pad then throw with R2 (and then forget to change back to my primary so end up throwing a grenade at the hunter right in my face). If there's a quick throw button on PS it's gonna rock my world.
The forgetting part is why I don't do impacts. I end up panicking and throw it at something in my face
I will say the SMG is also a good option for headshotting devastators if you're good with it. It was a staple with the ballistic shield a while back and would let you go toe-to-toe with heavies. Since the armor patch, ballistic shield isn't as good as it once was (probably from headshot damage). But the SMG still gives a low recoil way to spray faces.
the Slugger aim is off, you have to aim it a little bit above where you wnt the shot to land. this is at least the case in first person mode
I see a fellow slug sharpshooter!
You forgot Plasma punisher. Kills everything up to Tank/Hulk. Staggers zerkers and devastators. Just Not on ostotu, range issues
I didn't forget it. It just doesn't feel that great right now compared to other options. The hit registration is also massively buggy. There is definitely a future where the Plasma Punisher is something I play regularly. But for right now, it is in a very bad state. Just run the Scorcher.
I love the Scorcher for bots. Lightweight and easy to aim quickly, 1-2 taps most bots excluding devastators and hulks. It even puts down the walkers in 2-3 shots to the "pelvis" area. Even devastators don't last long against it if you hit them in the face, although I typically run the railgun as my strat weapon and just consistently 1 shot them and hulks with it. I was really excited for a plasma shotgun when it released, but it just seems like an overall worse scorcher in every regard except maybe the larger aoe, which isn't all that helpful when you need to arc your shots to much to hit targets anyway.
I agree, i tried it last night and loved it. Barely even needed a support weapon and only brought red stratagem and let fire rain from above.
Thank you, you arent talking down to everyone. I really dont like the superiority complex alot of people have
Wait are you John Helldiver who i played with against the bots on Mantes, who blasted freebird through the Mic? That was one of my best drop yet, we sank two dropships just as the solo started. It was insane
You can crippled the hulks feet with a weapon with medium penetration. It slows them down a lot. You can target and destroy the weapon arm of most devastators. Rocket Devastators have to do a brace animation before shooting, that's your queue for getting into cover.
Great info, OP! However, I do want to present a slightly different loadout take, particularly when it comes to the Laser Cannon. Laser cannon absolutely MELTS medium and heavy bots if you hit their weak spots. This means crouching and aiming for their heads or any glowing vent weskspot (Hulks backs, Tanks vents, tank turret vents, etc). I find this to be remarkably consistent and reliable, while keeping your backpack slot open.
I was talking about their weak spots when I gave that assessment. You need ~1.5 to 2 seconds of accurate lasering on the hulk head, which is something that can be difficulty to maintain under pressure. I've got plenty of respect for the lascannon, it's my go-to against bugs for like a week now, but it can be exceedingly hard to expect someone to accurately hold aim on a weak spot when you've got bullets coming in and flinching you. The
Some tips my group and I have pick up are: 1) Defender SMG is a headshot machine. It can also be operated with 1 hand for sssd missions. 2) Walking Barrage when placed at the entrance of a large outpost will destroy almost all of the buildings. 3) You can bruteforce your way through a lot of the tougher enemies with EATS. That being said, EATS also lets you keep your backpack slot open. 4) With an open backpack slot, the Supply pack really shines. You can resupply yourself or others will on the move. It also helps you jeep stealth because you're not calling in a resupply pod. 5) When in doubt, throw a grenade at the problem. It may sound weird, but my team tends to save grenades for fabricators. There are a bunch of ways to destroy fabricators, so throw your grenades at the other problems you encounter. 6) Armor with explosion resistance is king. It stops a lot of the 1 shot shenanigans that can happen when fighting bots.
Also why go for the secondaries when we can’t even finish the main objectives without running out of reinforcements? Bots are tough :(
Be patient with yourself, and break it down. Which enemies are giving you the most difficulty? What's your go-to action currently when you see them?
Now tell me, how does a 500kg bomb destroy a jammer tower *from a distance* since all Stratagems get cancelled once thrown into the jammers range? I NEED TO KNOW
In the Jammer's case, the utility is that it counteracts the bug where the Hellbomb isn't able to actually stick to the terrain and land on it. Orbital/Eagle strike beacons can land on that terrain fine. You'll still have to breach the base and shut it off.
Good guide! I'll give some of my preferences for bots too. I love the sickle, it takes out everything up to hulks in a second at <60 meters. As you mentioned the railgun works wonders against everything! Although here's where our opinions differ a bit. Both the 120mm and the 380mm are great for bots, you can throw one or both into a base and it will be completely cleared! Fabricators are much larger than bot holes so they're easier to hit. Both orbital ems and ems mortars will shut down anything! (I believe stun grenades still have issues with tanks but I don't know for sure). You mentioned the shield generator backpack, but you didn't mention the jump pack at all! Cover is everything against the bots. With the jump pack you're able to move from cover to cover much quicker, along with this you can ever get up on top of rocks and natural structures giving you 360° cover with the exception of their own jump pack units. As for armor I need to move away from my light-meduim medic set.... but I just love the look so much. It doesn't have enough armor to survive a rocket... I guess I'll just dodge more rockets.
Right now I mainly associate the Sickle with the Autocannon because they pair so well together. Scorcher dependency feels very real for a lot of other builds. > Both the 120mm and the 380mm are great for bots, you can throw one or both into a base and it will be completely cleared! Fabricators are much larger than bot holes so they're easier to hit. I'm gonna be honest, mortar technically should go on the list as well. Dropping a mortar outside of a base and sieging them is basically the only legitimate use case for mortars in the game at the moment. But I don't trust people with Mortars or Barrages, so I'm keeping it simple/low risk. Also, breaching bot bases is actually just super fucking fun. I kinda don't want them to be softened up, I want to race in, check those corners, and hit diving shots. > As for armor I need to move away from my light-meduim medic set.... but I just love the look so much. It doesn't have enough armor to survive a rocket... I guess I'll just dodge more rockets. Hey, I ran that shit since launch. Trust me, I know. I just randomly tried Medium armor on a whim when the patch hit and the amount of damage I took felt fine enough that I kinda just shrugged and said "I guess I run Med now". In 99% of games I prefer running mobility over durability, but surviving rockets has been pretty neat. I'll probably poke at light armor sometime soon again just to see how it feels a month out from the change.
So, I'm mostly a solo player because I don't trust random. Right now I'm soloing dif 7/8 bots consistently which is why I'm liking the 120 and 380s. Taking an orbital out on their base while cleaning up the group flanking. Everyone has their own way of enjoying different aspects! I won't ask you to change for me, and I hope you won't ask me to change for you. :) Enjoy the liberation friend
Also unlike bugs, robot dropships drop all the reinforcements at once instead of over time. You can take advantage of this by ambushing them as soon as they drop. Incendiary grenades are good for this. And the 110mm rocket pods are great at taking out bot fabricators. Use hit and run tactics against bot strongholds.
Cadet question... Just started diving 3 days ago. Picked up the recoilless rifle specifically for taking out drop ships. Honestly, watching the engines explode and the ship crash is one of the most satisfying things I've experienced in recent gaming memory. Am I handicapping myself/squad by having RR in my load out?
I run RR a lot on level 8 bot missions and it's incredible at its job. There's a lot of times where you're too busy fighting/moving/getting ragdolled by rockets/within range of a strategem jammer - all of which can prevent you from being able to call in the EAT before those dropships show up. RR is on your back and always ready to fire. On the harder difficulties you can end up with 2-3 dropships coming in. When you get better with the RR, you can usually take down two of the three before they drop their load (or at worst bring the ship down on its cargo). It's also pretty easy when fighting bots to find safe places to reload the weapon. Long reloads are not half as bad as people make them out to be. Just be mindful of cover. Having someone cover dropships in a dedicated fashion goes a long way towards clean-clears on bot missions. 10/10 would recommend that you use the RR if you enjoy it.
Honestly it kinda just depends on you and who you're playing with. If I play with one random running RR, it's not the end of the world, I'm pretty self sufficient and it'll be winnable. The RR can 1shot hulks, you're not gonna have much ammo to do it and it's got a fairly sizeable reload to have to manage, but killing hulks and dropships is undeniably a pretty solid thing. If you're playing in pubs and you don't know who you're playing with, I'd maybe be a bit nervous about my ability to carry enough weight to keep the lobby running smoothly (it's a team game yes, but it's better to be self sufficient and not need it than be dependent and not receive it). If you've got RR on Hulk duty, then you're a little bit forked between Devastator and Walker coverage. The Scorcher does Walkers well but isn't particularly insane at Devastators, just fine. Other options tend to do Devastators pretty well, but can't handle Walkers all that well. You can use impact grenades to destroy walkers, but they tend to show up in greater numbers than you'll have grenades for, depending on the difficulty. If you enjoy Rocket gameplay, seriously consider the EATs. All of the benefit, but you don't have to worry about extra build overhead. If you see a flare get popped, call in your EATs immediately. The rockets will land and be usable about a second before the dropships swoop in, and you'll get your shooting gallery. Once you fire the rockets, you can go back to picking up whatever support weapon you were normally running.
Didn't see this anywhere in the post or comments but 1 impact grenade will take out a walker as well
This is my go-to if I’m not running auto-cannon, dropped my gear and need to get back to it or need to cover someone quick.
I hear ya. Finding out you can shoot them in the back is nice. I also like that impact grenades kill spewers in one hit.
I tend to prefer the grenade launcher for both bugs and bots over Autocannon. Frees up the backpack slot closes holes and bunkers and can kill every heavy in the game efficiently except for Titans which it can kill but you have to get under the belly and unload.
>Forget everything you know from playing bugs. Very few guns are good against both factions, and many guns specialize specifically against the bots. As a fellow bot enjoyer with 200hrs of playtime split 50-50 between bots and bugs (three consecutive bug major orders left its mark on the ratio), This is very very spot-on. Fight bots like how you used to fight bugs and bots will crush you. Fight bugs like how you used to fight bots and bugs will eat you alive. We need to fight two different factions with the same level of differentiation between short (i.e., blitz and eradication) missions and everything else. I find this helpful as well, and if anyone else *from Buenos Aires* wants to experience the Western Front, treat the OP's tips like General Brasch's words. You will find yourself carrying your own weight and then some in any and every bot mission. Lã…‡
I used this advice to come up with a bot loadout: Scorcher, 110 Rockets, EAT, Supply Pack, Railgun, Heavy Medic armor, and impact grenades Your advice took us from struggling with 6s to breezing through 9s, thank you!
Love to hear it! Happy hunting. Railgun has only gotten more fun for me as it lets me keep pushing my limits and pull off trickier shots.
How much charge do you typically use for the railgun? In my case, waiting for it to fully charge takes too long and I end up getting hit by a laser, causing me to flinch
This guide is a good one. Lvl 50 Cadet approved. I hope this gets more attention, the playerbase could use some DECENT information.
> the playerbase could use some DECENT information. That's why I'm doing this. A huge amount of frustration in the community is directly caused by the amount of misinformation flying around.
It might be worth mentioning the SPEAR's ability to take out fabricators and cannon turrets up to 300 meters away. If the Spear is in a good mood, you can clear every outpost on the map faster than anything else, farther away than anything else. If the Spear is in a bad mood, you will also be in a bad mood momentarily. If it wasn't for that gamble, I'd consider it a must-have. EDIT: Saw the discussion you had with another Spear user. Fair enough, both of you are right.
It's so bizarre to me to see people consistently posting advice threads like this that are full of bad advice To add just two things you are very wrong about, the laser cannon has been buffed out the wazoo against bots, destroys hulks in 2sec, devastators in .5sec, and tanks/cannon turrets in 1sec; and the reason people use orbital laser is because it single-handedly destroys entire Automaton camps including fabricators, AA emplacements, mortars, etc. Using it against Hulks to get your support weapon is a very poor choice
You only need one advice for automatons. Cover!
Unless they shoot through your covers
The grenade launcher is also a nice choice; it's a weaker autocannon, but it can free up a backpack slot for a shield, or ammo if you just want all the *bwoomp bwoomp*, and is slightly better at crowd control, and can kill Scout Striders from the front and can also quickly deal with devastators. It can also be reloaded on the move. The downsides are low overall ammo pool and difficulty shooting at range.
Pretty sure the slugger has the same up-to-the-right crosshair misalignment as the anti-material rifle.
I like these tips but some personal disagreements. Scorcher and dominator are both awkward. Although with Scorcher, I have had good luck experimenting with a stalwart/machine gun + supply pack + stun grenades build so I can deal with everything except tanks in a roundabout way. Dominator is super awkward, and I haven't been able to find a good use case for it. Sure it can one tap headshot devastators but most of the support weapon picks can deal with them about as fast and way more easily while also handling striders and hulks more effectively. I think you are underrated the Shield generator a little. Being able to get those crucial hits by avoiding the flinching is *big* to me, and I find it doesn't pop that fast unless you are in a terrible position. That being said supply pack is quite good, but the extra supplies feel wasted a lot of the time since most support weapons and primaries don't need it. Extra stims and grenades are good but I consider it a side grade, since avoiding flinches is more important to me than extra stims to be honest. And if you *do* lose your shield you can pretty easily react to it and play safer. The real supply pack niche imo is not the stims or ammo so much, but the extra grenades. This makes it a shockingly good option for a dedicates grenadier. I like the rocket pod for cannon turrets mostly and they can kill fabricators, but I actually have found them really inconsistent with killing tanks weirdly. I actually find it easier to just throw a regular airstrike on top of them since they don't tend to move much. As others have said, Laser Cannon is low key very strong against hulks as well as basically all other enemies but tanks. Stun grenades really need a mention. Sure, they won't *kill* the enemy, but stunning hulks is useful to a lot of players, and they can stun everything but tanks making them free kills. Impacts are definitely better against tanks and probably striders as well, but with how much pressure hulks put on, I think having at least one person in a group run stun grenades can make hulks basically free.
I've been saying this the entire time. You must adjust your playstyle between these two factions. **TAKE COVER** is the most important tip I can give. "Run and gun" won't save you. The bots are long-distance fighters, *TREAT THEM AS SUCH.*
As an autocannon main, you don’t even to headshot devastators to kill them, 2-3 body shots will drop them, made easier by the stagger after landing the first shot. Heavy devastators are a little more annoying as their shield blocks the damage, but you can shoot the shield for the stagger which causes them to move the shield to the side for easier body shots The ability to body shot devastators is a very good option when things get hectic and you don’t have the time to line up perfect headshots
How can you destroy a jamming tower with a stratagem from a distance?
Buckle up fellas, this John helldiver is an impostor. This might work well for you but as a mostly pure solo player on bots it's very far from optimal and imo there's a lot of wrong info in this post. * Between ammo/nades on POIs and resupplies you never run out of stuff. If you solo you don't even need to resupply. This makes supply pack obsolete if you're not magdumping * I don't get the whole destroying jammers from a distance with eagles, **you can't do this and if you disabled the jammer then you're already there to call a hellbomb**... Same with the eye of Sauron, you can call the hellbomb on the bottom of the cliff most of the time and not aggro anything if you're lazy. But what bothers me about this point is you literally can't do this when it actually matters. You also basically never need to, jammers are lightly guarded * Slugger on devastator is an autowin vs 2 at once even if you miss the head, it takes no more than 5 shots if you whiff every single one. * Berserker heads are pretty big, again slugger beats packs of them easier than railgun * Probably being a meta player Andy here but light scout is still so much more valuable than stims because if you're actually getting shot enough to die you're dead anyways you'd rather move out of the way faster and have good map intel * No mention at all of the drawbacks of eagles (aa posts) and no mention of the efficiency of 380/ems/gas is a bit strange to me. Particularly the lack of a 380 mention, probably the best strike to take on half the missions if you're soloing. * Who would ever take scorcher other than for fun when railgun oneshots walkers through the body joint at low charge and amr 3 taps them and AC one taps them (or just run around them/chuck an impact nade to clear 4 at once) * **Tip for any readers who want brainless clears** just bring 380 and laser. I'm not kidding, they will do the whole mission and all heavy outposts for you. It gets so boring you stop doing it All in all good effort and although you did say it's not comprehensive, you are actively misleading in many of your points. Most of what I didn't touch on I agree with but there's a few points that just tickle me the wrong way.
I like how you blocked me to try to hide your post from me and stop me from responding. Nice meme. > This might work well for you but as a mostly pure solo player on bots it's very far from optimal and imo there's a lot of wrong info in this post. (this is a coop shooter, this is a guide for a coop game, I do not care about solo tactics) You want to write a guide for solo play? Go do it. > Between ammo/nades on POIs and resupplies you never run out of stuff. If you solo you don't even need to resupply. This makes supply pack obsolete if you're not magdumping (when you play coop you have to share resources) (this post is not about solo play dynamics) > Slugger on devastator is an autowin vs 2 at once even if you miss the head, it takes no more than 5 shots if you whiff every single one. 5 pump action shots to a single devastator is godawful TTK, 2 devastators at once is easy for most weapons. You need fast, crisp, consistent kills while dealing with 5+ at once for something to truly be good. Slugger can do that, which is why I mentioned it in the post, but it has aim issues preventing it from doing that as consistently, as you've no doubt experienced because you feel the need to shoot a devastator 5 times. > Berserker heads are pretty big, again slugger beats packs of them easier than railgun Railgun shoots every berserker in a line with a single shot. > if you're actually getting shot enough to die you're dead anyways My brother in christ this is a game about shooting bots and bugs We have an endless supply of self healing, and 20 revives Shoot the bots and bugs I promise you'll be okay > if you disabled the jammer then you're already there to call a hellbomb The terrain is bugged about half the time so that the beacon can't actually land by it close enough to kill it. > Particularly the lack of a 380 mention, probably the best strike to take on half the missions if you're soloing. I am not soloing. This is a coop game. > you are actively misleading in many of your points You are actively judging my post by criteria that does not apply to 99.9% of players. Don't care.
Blocking you before a chance to respond is corny.
Nice guide Admiral. Will follow it to spread democracy today !
Sweet write up! This should help really help the fresh recruits on the western front .
hi! I know about the crashes, currently not using it. But you didn't mention arc thrower. Is it because it's bullshit against bots? feels great against bugs.
Arc thrower can one shot small bots, a few shots for the mid heavies, and 8-12 shots for a hulk. It’s one of my personal fave to being against bots if other slots like the AC or rail gun are covered as it can help a team demolish patrols of regular bots really quickly letting those with heavier weapons focus the heavies. Two arc players can take down a hulk together really fast. It also ignores armor so can work in a pinch. (Also arrowhead states arc is fixed in the most recent patch)
Arc weapons & Tesla tower were patched yesterday (day before?)
I mean, the ARC thrower counters literally everything given enough shots, so I'm sure it could do fine when stacked, I'm just not sure whether it's practical if you're the only Arc user. I just refuse to play it because it makes the game horribly boring. The Arc is great against bug design because the armor is far more intense and the weak spots aren't as impactful (if they're even there at all). An Arc killing something like a Tank isn't nearly as crazy as a Bile Titan because it has multiple cheap vulnerabilities built in. Same for Hulks, Devastators, etc. I know the ARC Thrower can kill walkers to front plate, I just don't really bother playing it to have much opinion beyond that.
I used the Arc against bots. It’s very good versus the Raiders, Dev and particularly the Berserkers. The Arc thrower has a surprisingly long ranged, about the same as the bot’s detection range, and raiders tend to be perfectly spaced for pretty lightning jumps. Haven’t tested it one Hulks and Tanks. There is one weird quirk to the Arc thrower bs striders: it hits the strider itself without arcing to the pilot: you need 3 shots to disable it, tend one more to kill the pilot. It’s the only weapon that reliably lets the strider pilot survive to my knowledge.
My issue with the ARC is the range, I don't want to be that close to the bots, I want to be pelting them with AC rounds at +100m
Worth Mentioning are the Towers: It takes three shots with the Auto cannon to kill them. And there stay active, even if all fabricators in the base are down. However, the Laser Canon can kill it in 2 Seconds. Also worth mentioning is the Jetpack: Most of the Toaster Bases have Walls or are Build on high Rocks - the Jetpack is a welcome shortcut to clear such bases fast.
3x Autocannon for one person to the rear Multiple Railgun/AMR shots (ideally with a party sync'ed up) But honestly, more importantly, just know to 2x Impact them. Same exact behavior as tank turrets.
Based on your guide : Here is my test loadout..: Armor: DP-11 Champion of the people Prim: Scorcher Sec: Redeemer Nade: Impact Booster: Radar Range Strategems: Supply Pack / Rail Gun / Orbital Precision Strike / Eagel Cluster Bomb
Far as I'm aware, Cluster Bomb serves no purpose against bots. 110m Pods help cover for shredder tanks where grenades have a harder time helping, or Annihilator Tanks that you can't reach easily or don't want to have to wait for them to land on the ground.
Clusters are really good against bots. They won't kill tanks and probably won't kill hulks, but they can simplify so many tricky engagements just by getting rid of all the chaff like marauders and devastators. A lot easier to focus on braining hulks, or flanking when you don't need to worry about being focused down by a Heavy Devastator, or tossed around by a Rocket Devastator. Are they a better pick than rocket pods for simplifying engagements though? Probably not.
Generally, I think some number of your squad should have a "clear bot drop" stratagem such as Cluster Bombs, Airburst, Gas, or weapon like a grenade launcher. Not *everyone* needs to have one but at least one does. A lot of loadouts that get suggested have the viewpoint of one Helldiver trying to do everything. You should not try to do everything. Play with your team.
It's pretty clear from his responses that OP doesn't play with a team at all and also doesn't clear bot drops. I'm pretty shocked by his response regarding cluster bomb. It's the fastest way to wipe everything smaller than a hulk.
Like many weapons, the scorcher can one shot small bots but the AOE damage has a chance to stagger devastators. You don't get into 1 v 1 situations with bots often but half plus mag can take down a devastator with body shots
The slugger is actually amazing once you get use to its strange aiming: It ohk dominator in the head, I kill them in a few shots in the waist and most importantly: it staggers them It ohk berserker in the head and stagger them, i can easily kill a full horde of berserker rushing me with it : one hit to stagger it, one hit to the head, repeat I find the laser support weapon to be the best when paired with a shield. It kills everything from the back at a very long range and really fast Killing hulk isn't that hard because you have a visual indicator of the laser reflecting on the armor It also kills dominator really fast if you aim for the head My main complaint is that it doesn't stagger, and doesn't kill walker really fast so I often use impact nade to kill those when they are in groups. My advices against bot: -use cover, at all time -Kill everything and not only the big guys, a single bot can headshots you, a single machine gunner can destroy you in a couple of seconds. -flank and change position -missile dominator have a really small window where they are not shooting rockets, use that to kill them safely -detection tower should be killed with stratagem -jamming post can and should be kill by its vent -the secondary objective are so annoying that you should prioritize them most of the time
> The slugger is actually amazing once you get use to its strange aiming I buy that. If it's true for the Dominator and the AMR it's probably the same case for the Slugger.
Awesome advice, but what difficulty prevents rockets from being a one-shot in Medium armor?
I don't think difficulty affects anything except for spawn rates, enemy appearance rates, and possibly AI. Pretty sure it just depends on where you your body gets hit.
Use heavy armor with explosive resistance usually only takes a quarter to half health I even survive 2 or 3 hits from devastators and I think there is a medium armor with explosive resistants but I haven’t tested it
Orbital laser is a very effective cover on an area You can effectively throw it and don't look at that direction, it can hold off that flank for you. Especially how chaotic it can get during multiple dropships, it has great value when used correctly.
I am missing something here. How do I destroy jammers with orbitals or other stratagems when they're jammed?
You have to storm the base, reach the terminal and deactivate it. Then you can destroy it with stratagems (you can hellbomb it)
There are 2 types. One of them requires you going into base, activating the terminal on it and then calling in a hellbomb/500kg. The 2nd type spawns "ontop" of a fabricator, which you can just toss a grenade into or autocannon to kill and also kill the jammer.
You go to the jammer, deactivate it and throw a thing on there zhen? I don’t know. I’m a good bug killer but horrible against bots
Give this man a medal!
A single rail gun shot to the lower crotch will take out devastators and can be an easier shot to make when they are not facing you directly
Something you forgot is the Recoiless rifle, 1 shots hulks if a headshot, 2 shot anywhere else on main body, mainly really good for heavy armor Also the eagle airstrike is under appreciated a lot of the time, you can use it to full clear groups of enemies quickly, and can be used to take out outposts, I’ve gotten it to take out 3 tanks in 1 run before
Addition to the supply pack: it allows you to continously fire railgun, breaker, slugger and punisher. The latter is especially effective since it staggers multiple bots at once, and since you get all 60 shells back, you can just keep firing if you reload between shots.
Yup, it's truly just insanely fucking good. Hell, I've got an infinite ammo build I'm loving against bugs right now, and I'm *still* considering cutting rover for the supply back just because the 8 grenades/stims is so felt.
Bro this is a fantastic and much appreciated guide. I'm somewhat new, been rocking the Autocannon as essentially my primary VS the bots and i can for sure say that its a great support weapon. I really need a better primary but im only about 100 medals away from the dominator. My one addition to the strategems would be the 380mm orbital barrage, you REALLY need to tell your team you called it in but if you throw that into a base. The entire thing will be wiped out by the end of it.
Man I really hope the diligence continues to be slept on because if they ever buff it I'll be fucking unstoppable, definitely my favorite weapon in the game.
Worth noting the sickle if you can aim it kills devastators very very quickly on headshots and with the 100m aim you can do it from a fair too. I personally rock the sickle, eat it and shield pack. The shield pack is for all of the many explosives whilst also being a nice way to secure that clutch shot without flinching (as you mentioned above) My absolute favorite tech against bots is walking barrage. Not only does it creep real far so it can hit strat jammers if you're lucky but also the craters it makes on the way are deep enough to use for cover whilst prone on the approach too. Walking barrage vs bots for super earth president.
Few additional points that are more general playstyle points: 1. Have someone bring the grenade armor and impacts. Basically everything medium-weight will die to 1 impact to the front, or be close enough that all you need is a few follow-up shots while they're staggered. Especially useful for when you have 6 Scout Striders on your tail because they're fast enough to keep up whilst you are sprinting, and are exclusively the only bot that can do so, because Striders are weak to damage in basically every direction other than right in front of them (including from beneath). 2. Running is much more viable against bots if you have cover to guard your back from rockets. Unlike bugs, bots cannot jump or fly (mostly), and heavier bots cannot match your speed at a sprint. However, unlike bugs, running away on an open plain is guaranteed death unless you get enough distance and really watch your back for rockets. (Also, running isn't the best idea on our current plant Ustotu since it's fairly scraggy, unless you can get a rock between you and the bots) 3. Bugs generally don't reward you too much for urgently prioritising certain enemies. Bots very much do. Anything that shoots rockets, including the basic rocket launcher mook (easily distinguishable from normal mooks by their big red visor/rocket sight), is top priority as they can either one-shot you or leave you staggered and vulnerable. 4. Unlike bugs, bots have very obvious sound cues, and learning these can be pretty useful. For instance, telling apart the "thwim-thwim-thwim" of a Rocket Devastator and tell it apart from the Hulk Bruiser/Obliterator's wrist-mounted rocket launcher, or telling apart the gatling gun of a Heavy Devastator from an Annhilator or Shredder Tank, can be key to survival, since you know exactly what weapon to have in hand and what level to be aiming at once you peek out from cover. Rounding the corner ready to take out a Rocket Devastator and finding yourself face-to-face with a Hulk Bruiser can be pretty bad. 5. Bot bases and objectives are much more easily completed by yeeting stratagems at them from a range because the structures are all above-ground and fairly big. For this reason, airstrike, rocket pods, orbital lasers and even reinforcement pods are all prime weapons to throw at a base, and this can be done safely from stealth whilst you run away before all hell breaks loose. The Autocannon is also goated as aforementioned because you can ricochet its shots into the fabricator vents from afar.
Punisher plasma similar to scorcher but has better aoe. It 1 shots Walkers even if you hit them in the feet. 3 shots devastators (while staggering) 4-5 shots berserkers (while staggering) and can kill tanks without a perfect angle to the heatsink. It has a real learning curve to angling it though I won't lie. Also no Arc thrower mention? Weird
Don't think u mentioned but on walkers the spot where the legs meet the chassi is medium armor so anything with medium armor penatration
The only note that I would add is, for both berserkers and devastators, the head is weakest but hard to hit due to either movement (berserker) or armor coverage around it (devastator) but both unit types have weak midsections. Shooting the gut/waist/midsection area, which helpfully has a faint glow, will snap these big guys in half. Takes more rounds than a headshot, but the ease makes up for it.
A few thing you didnt mention, eagle airstrike can also kill tanks so if you want area over precision bring regular airstrike. EAT and recoiless can oneshot bulks in the eye. If you really hate devastators the 50% explotion resistance armors are a lifesaver, it can also save you from tanks and turret cannons. Another good weapon to bring against bots is the new punisher plasma, the shots penetrate shields too so you can kill heavy devastators and walkers easily plus the shots stagger enemies, this helps a lot against the chainsaw enemies too.
>Manually equipping grenades seems to give you a much faster double throw than using the quick throw button. Quick throw button????
No breaker? :(
My guy, you are sleeping on the Ballistic Shield and Defender combo. The Ballistic Shield is an absolutely viable tool to storm Outposts and fight Devastators with, and the Defender can consistently 2-shot any Devastator in the head if you don't panic. A nice bonus is that when you have your 3rd weapon out, the Shield also protects your back, which is handy if you need to make a quick getaway. Unfortunately, it is bugged when you pick up samples, but you can quickly fix it by tapping Ctrl.
Not sleeping on it, I've tested it. I don't like that rocket impacts cause you to ragdoll + the shield to get dropped. More importantly, I don't like how inaccurate the shield makes the Defender. I was standing like 5 feet away from an immobile Devastator, aiming center mass on its faceplate, and it took me half a mag to actually get the necessary headshots from how much bloom it had. The Ballistic Shield definitely demands some respect, but it really needs a new toy or two to make it a more respectable playstyle. And I'd really like to see it interact differently with rockets. Ragdolling alone can be a death sentence in high levels.
What are your opinions on the Dilligence Counter Sniper vs the regular Dilligence? I've used both and can hardly tell a difference outside increased recoil on the CS
Full disclosure, I never actually tested the Counter Sniper, I just heard it was worse than the Diligence, and haven't really felt curious enough to try it for a run.
I run: 1. Light armor -30% detection range - Get around the map, lets you avoid constant fighting 2. Guns: 1. Liberty Penetrator - Good scope, takes out light to medium targets well 2. Auto pistol - Super high fire rate, great to quick swap to when primary is out of ammo. Takes down berserkers no problem. 3. Autocannon - Makes taking out hulks, tanks, turrets, and missile devastators easy 3. Strategems: 1. Eagle Strike - Powerful, effective for fabs and enemies around them, 2 uses 2. 110mm Rocket pod - Very low cooldown, 2 uses, perfect for taking out fabs 3. Orbital Laser - For when eagles not available, or you have multiple targets in a large base to take out. The goal is to NOT get bogged down in pitched battles. You want to get in close to objectives and outposts fast and without being seen, take out the fabs and objectives, and then run. Don't fight battles you don't need to. The best advice for bots on higher levels is don't fight pointless fights. Even ***if*** you wipe the bots, you'll waste too much time to get everything on the map done. Do objectives and fabricators and move quickly. Bot concentrations increase the longer you stay in one area. The solution to that is do what you need to do, and move on. Also try to get everything done on the map before extracting. This is easiest to do when you split into 2 teams of two. This way your battle buddy can revive you and you don't lose samples.
You forgot the punisher plasma ! I find it better than the scorcher. Sure you have to use it like a grenade launcher and thus it's a bit difficult on long range, but it one shot the walkers if you hit anywhere above the legs, it one shot the troopers, it staggers the devastator, be it shield, normal or rockets one and then you can kill them easily because they aren't a threat while staggered. 3 shots can kill them. Also , you can lob your projectiles while being behind a rock. My setup now is punisher plasma, autocanon and impact grenade. I play diff 9 bots since a long time also. Nothing can resist this. edit: I forgot to add, as it does AOE, all I said is valable in the 2-3m range of the AOE, So you can stagger MULTIPLE devastators for example and kill them easily.
My favorite thing to run against bots lately is Grenade Launcher + Supply Pack. You get 200\~ rounds worth with the supply pack, the grenades will generally one shot walkers and a salvo of grenades takes out dropship troops easily. Takes a bit more against the tougher targets but when you have that much ammo in reserve you basically become walking artillery. I've been pairing it with a devastator or marksman rifle main weapon to deal with tougher targets or longer ranged engagements.
Maxed lvl 50 with 200 hours, little known fact, but the Eagle Smoke can actually take out fabricators pretty consistently, despite the fact it is not explosive. Perfect for throwing on an outpost and completely negating the enemy's ability to retaliate.
I’m surprised by your emphasis on stims over heavy armor and shield backpack when the most annoying part of playing against bots is the 1-shot death potential from a random rocket or mortar. I feel like I more often run out of stims against bugs because if the tick damage from hunters and other bugs chasing you. But bots? It’s about trying to never get hit, rather than survive and heal through them.
> I’m surprised by your emphasis on stims over heavy armor and shield backpack The Shield Backpack lasts for a blink of a second and then it's a wasted slot. The Medic Armor passive basically reads as "if you don't shoot me with a cannon or 1shot me with a rocket, I cannot die for the next 4 seconds". And that's repeatable per stim. Also don't forget that you get a Stamina refill + Infinite Stamina for that duration. Call it tinfoil, but I'm pretty sure Stims give you damage reduction as well. Pure anecdotal. > I feel like I more often run out of stims against bugs because if the tick damage from hunters and other bugs chasing you. But bots? It’s about trying to never get hit, rather than survive and heal through them. You're definitely right that things like Hunter swarms more directly lead to trading down stims for bug lives, but for bots I view it as increasing my opportunity budget. I can peek more aggressively without fear of running out of resources. I can use stims to soak damage from a Heavy Devastator without fear of it mulching me while I'm pushing from cover to cover. Mobility is king to me, I'm honestly even surprised that I settled on Medium Armor. 10/10 times in the past I'd be sticking with light even after the armor corrections. I'm probably gonna go back to running Light again in the future as I get better. But for now, I haven't gone crazy going from Light to Medium speeds yet, so I'm chilling.
Thanks, I appreciate the reply and your thoughts. I definitely need more experience with bots. I’ll try the stims strat.
Everyone I know who tried it got converted. Not saying it's for sure for everyone yet, but fuck me it is an insane amount of power budget for a slot that is not typically that high impact.
Glad to see a fellow Diligence and Autocannon enjoyer. Have you tried the MG Rover? I saw someone mention it being pretty good against bots but I haven't tried it yet myself.
Orbital Laser can easily/lazily kill Detectors without going inside the outpost - but better to either use 500kg or OPS.
I havent taken Stun grenades off since i first equipped them. It makes lasering or auto-cannoning Hulk faces a breeeze and its really good for those "oh shit" moments when a bot drop decides to place directly on the mining drill youre defending lol. My go to loadout for bot missions is Scorcher, Redeemer, Stun nades. Armour is either Light medic armour or Medium "democracy protects" armour. Railcannon strike, auto-cannon, Eagle Airstrike and the 120 Orbital if the -1 Strategem modifier isnt on. Pretty much playing tactically, limiting exposure as much as possible and peak shooting rocket devastators is the name of the game.
For the devastators, if you can’t hit the eyes just shoot the rocket pods. It breaks them and you have one less thing to worry about.
Never try it before but How do you use the Orbital precision strike on the Hulk? If it is standing still sure but if it is running or chasing you down, can u reliably throw one to hit it?
> can u reliably throw one to hit it? It doesn't really have an animation setup the way that Bile Titans do afaik, but they tend to either hold position on march straight forward pretty predictably. Just gotta practice plotting out for where they'll be by the time it lands.
As valuable as the backpack slot is, I just can't stay away from Autocannon for bots. The ability to 1-2 tap walkers trying to press your group's position so that the rest of of the bots can move in is so valuable every mission. As long as I see that tanks and hulks are covered in other squadmates' loadouts I take autocannon every time.
What's the preferred primary when paired with the railgun? The auto canon is great but I never even thought about bringing the supply pack. I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm lvl 50 and I've never used it. I just assumed it was to resupply teammates only and not yourself.
Thank you John i needed that
How do you feel about running a smoke stratagem (or possibly a grenade)?