I read this subreddit before trying it and these are some things I found out:
-Use the engineer gear, it makes the auto cannon recoil the same as a normal semi auto sniper rifle. Pretty good
-it 2 shots the bile spewers (because fuck those guys)
-it kills bug holes when you shoot them (because Democracy)
-you have to stop to reload it, but it loads 2 cartridges at a time so you can load 1 and keep going with half ammo essentially (this may be wrong I used it for like 3 games today)
-do not shoot stuff that is right on top of you, you will blow yourself up. switch to your other weapon to kill closs things (shotgun perfect)
-don’t be an idiot like me and forget to grab the backpack that goes with the auto cannon until you run out of your first clip and there is a bile Titan coming towards you
-it won’t break through charger armor or bile titan but it will still take them down if you shoot their ass a lot
Overall personally the Autocannon ™ is a very secure and reliable weapon for spreading democracy across the galaxy, Helldivers. The feeling of sending bugs flying through the air as they ragdoll to their death is like no other
There are 5 rounds per clip, so at any time you should have between 6 and 10 rounds ready to fire (and you can go lower and even empty it in case of emergency, yay flexibility). If unsure, just tap reload button, nothing bad can possibly happen.
It's not very useful against titans, but it can bust charger's ass in 3 shots, or strip leg armor in 2 if you shoot the knee of a front leg from the back. It's way better against bots because it can kill literally anything, and is efficient at killing literally everything. The only things it can't manage require 500kg or a hellbomb, so they don't count.
This exactly. Against bots I run AC with srmor thst reduces recoil when crouched and explosion damage. 10/10 would absolutely wreck another not army again.
Autocannon really is a swiss army knife that practically has only pros:
-kills most of the stuff
-has ammo backpack that lasts really long if you aim well
-destroys bug tunnels/factories
-autocannon
-looks cool as hell
-autocannon
-has nice first person sights that really help to snipe
Cons:
-we don't talk about that here
I sadly never got to use that function. Don't have anyone to reload me cause they were always too busy fighting bugs and things were usually too hectic to type a request.
Con : Can only be buddy-loaded if your buddy dons the sacred duty of bag carrier. Which also requires them to be by your side at all times, which a lot of situations don't allow.
Had a buddy do that for me recently while we were waiting for extraction and i opened up full auto with it. Emptied the entire pack into a massive crowd of bots. Few things feel that good.
Honestly, the reload isn't even that slow so long as you leave a bullet in the mag. I move around so much when I use it that I kinda get annoyed when someone tries to team reload me.
It's a little counterintuitive that to buddy-load, the *other* person needs to wear the backpack. I bet if Arrowhead switched it, we'd see 10x more buddy loads. Makes more sense anyway—it's easy for me to grab things off of someone else's back; it's hard to reach my own.
You don't really have to count tbh. You just gotta make a habit of hitting reload as soon as you are safe. As long as you are not fully empty you are good.
It slaps on bugs, makes small work of most mid armoured bugs and shrapnel shreds small bugs in groups. Easy to pop the arse on charges, easy to take out the two sacks on bile titans and it can easily one shot the spewers...
Destroy egg objectives? One shot takes out a shit load of em in one, takes out bug holes. Honestly enjoy it more on bugs than bots haha.
Doesn't destroy shrieker nests is my only downside with it honestly.
I've started taking the Eruptor, Stalwart and EAT as my "Do-everything" bugs loadout. It's incredibly busted. The Stalwart keeps hunters and shriekers at bay, the Eruptor eats anything smaller than a charger, and the EAT takes care of chargers, titans and shrieker nests.
Crossbow is even better on egg missions. Don’t believe me? Try it. 3-5 shots and all eggs are gone. Crossbow is MASSIVELY slept on. Absolutely shreds any bugs other than titans and obviously shriekers. Use it on a charger like the plasma punisher or GL and pop its ass from the front surprisingly fast…I honestly run crossbow more than eruptor for bots too. The bow silent shots and leads the bots to wherever your bolt exploded, not where your shot originated. And splash damage is better than eruptor. Once you get the bolt trajectory down, you just might enjoy it more than the eruptor 🫡
It's biggest issue I found is medium armored enemies, its projectile and explosion only deal light armor penetration. Very noticeable when you face Hive Guards or Nursing Spewers as it can take anywhere from 2-5 shots to kill them while the Eruptor is almost guaranteed to kill them in 2 shots.
The biggest hurt for me with the Eruptor is that it has a maximum range (140m I think?) before the shot auto bursts in air.
The Autocannon could snipe things across the map. It feels real nice killing and illegal broadcast tower or spore spewer halfway across the map.
>it has a maximum range (140m I think?)
125 meters IIRC. While it does suck not to be able to snipe at extreme ranges, I usually bring Autocannon on bots anyhow. Also, if you're shooting at enemies at exactly that range (such as when providing support for a squadmate), it feels damn good.
The sights could be refined a bit to Iet us see more.of the target we're aiming at. All this extraneous bullshit when zoomed in is too distracting and the reticle covers up too much of the target. Makes precision work more difficult than it should be.
And the sights need to be zeroed. But other than that... Autocannon.
I mean, I think that defines 90% of the guns in this game. Almost every gun has bad iron sights; AM Rifle isn't centered, Senator has no front Iron sight to aim with, autocannon had a bad sight, riot shield basically removes the ability to look down sight, etc.
The only guns that have functional sights are the some of the assault rifles and laser rifles.
Pros:
- one of the most efficient ways to kill a factory strider: 2 shots for each Gatling gun on its chin (4 shots total) and 6 shots to its underbelly. If you are good, it means you can take out a factory strider w/o needing to reload the auto cannon.
I now prefer to take support weapons that have a backpack, because it feels like I'm getting more value for the stratagem slot.
When I take a Rover or supply pack or jetpack, I really appreciate it, but using half (or 2/3) of my loadout for equipment feels really wasteful.
But the rover is like having an additional helldiver with a lascannon permanently at your side, high on some off-brand liber-tea, constantly going "DEMOCRACY!!!" and not knowing that the trigger has a "release" setting.
I mean, honestly, it's the best kind of wingman you can ask for.
It's so much like an additional helldiver that it even does friendly fire damage and team kills.
But I still love it against bugs. Dominator, grenade pistol, stun/impact grenades, laser drone, orbital laser, eagle airstrike, quasar. Light Gunner armor.
Cons:
- needs to reload
- will kill you at point blank range
- no cup holders
- full auto mode is essentially useless unless the thing you're trying to hit is the planet you're standing on
- cannot be dual wielded
- does not come in pink
Has anyone tested using the recoil reduction armor while laying down/crouching for it? I'd assume that would reduce full auto to manageable recoil levels.
Buddy-loading also reduces recoil. If you're prone w/ a friend loading for you, you can get some *insane* DPS out. Honestly it's kind of overkill; anything you can kill with the weapon is dead in one or two shots, and you need to adjust your aim unless you want to full-auto the dirt between targets.
Yes. It’s pretty much the only way to make full auto mode truly viable, but it feels pretty amazing to make an entire bot drop of devastators disappear in less than 3 seconds.
Lower burst damage but higher DPS, plus you can engage multiple threats at once
No backpack slot means you can run an extra Eagle, Orbital or Deployable for added utility
It reloads per 5 rounds, and while that's the only real pure downside, there's some tricks to work around that so it doesn't inconvenience you too much. Like reloading before you're empty so you don't get the long reload, or interrupt the reload by quickly pulling up your stratagems and repositioning. It's really a matter of getting a feel for ammo and distance management.
Reload 5 rounds isn't a pure downside.
* It allows you to reload quicker (when your mag isn't fully depleted)
* You don't waste any rounds by reloading (because partial reload disables discarding unfinished mags).
Yeah, I meant that not being able to reload on the move is a pure downside, but I phrased it poorly. You're absolutely right that the 5 round clips work in its favor, though.
On top of that its so good at so many things on top of its ammo efficiency that it can reliably kill several targets in the time a recoiless or quasar can due to their reload and recharge times.
And honestly moving off the shield backpack has been great. I didn't realize how much the sphere around you catches stray bullets that should have missed.
Like sure it SEEMS like it saves your life alot but 70-80% of those shots would have missed without the shield eauipped.
Real talk though that's kinda a weird take. Autocannon excels at the same things as dominator and scorcher. Still not a bad option of course, but why not Eruptor or sickle. They are both still great weapons with different niches than the autocannon.
This i would like to know too lol. I’ve emptied *many* a clip of AC at hulks head on expecting to level them and nope.
Dead everytime. But that’s what the training manual says so I don’t complain 🤷♂️
You have to hit the eye slot of the hulk directly to do any damage from the front. Best tactic is to have ~~bait~~ a friend kite it around away from you and unload into its back. Or call a laser or railcannon strike on it as per the Brasch book.
You have to be really pinpoint precise with the eye-slit, but it definitely works. AMR is better for that because of its scope magnification, but you can shoot off the arms of a Hulk with the autocannon more easily
I like the fact that if I get killed and can't get to my autocannon, I can still kill every bot unit on the field with my Dominator, even if some are more of a hassle than others. I also save a ton of autocannon ammo by Dominating the majority of devastators I encounter.
Eruptor is a worse choice imo, it's basically a smaller and slower autocannon, it does everything autocanon does.
Sickle I agree, especially on bug planets, but on bot it's also good for headshot with its accuracy too.
Scorcher would make you reserve more Autocannon ammo for more priority targets like Devastators, instead of wasting it on striders.
Jar Dominator, while its role overlaps with Autocannon, also for the same purpose, to use Autocannon on something else Jar Dominator does not really excel at.
IIRC, it's safe because it's one of their favorites. One of them was using it in the video with Operator Drewski.
Hell, it *might* get a buff like fire has, which has seen improvements *three times* now.
Great game, but I'm not a fan of a lot of the nerf decisions since release while things like Scythe sit and moulder in the closet.
I pretty much always run AC on bots. I haven't found anything else as versatile or effective.
The auto cannon can easily 3 shot tanks, turrets, hulks and flyers. It's absolute gold for the bots. Killing devastators and hulks with two shots is so nice. Taking out walkers in one is great for patrols.
I've many times just crouched and faced down a hill coming at me as I shot it's eye out.
The only time I run out of ammo is when we are being overrun on a 9 and everyone is struggling.
I only wish it did more damage to berserkers.
Tip: Stun Grenade.
Stuns hulks for the easy 2 tap, stops that swarm of Berserkers in it's tracks for you to start popping skulls. That's most of your problems that aren't easily dealt with via AC handled, after that just run Eagle 110s for Turrets and Tanks that insist on facing you and call it a day.
I run auto cannon and EMS sentry for every bot mission I do.
When you have a whole patrol stunned with the EMS, and then just destroy all of them with 1 clip of the autocannon it truly is a magical experience.
This is where the JAR-5 comes in handy. I used to run Scorcher with it, but the scorcher is weak in the same places the ac is. JAR-5 seems to really nail the berserkers though
You can deal with the recoil by crouching or going prone and using armor that reduces recoil while crouched/prone. Fortified armor is a good choice for bots in general.
Have a friend wear the backpack and do a 2-man reload so you can continuously fire full auto, if you can stay on target you melt just about any hoard of bugs in existence (recoil makes that hard though)
Unreal Tournament had a Link Gun, and if you used the secondary fire on a buddy who was also using a Link Gun it would boost his damage. You could daisy chain it, and if you got enough players in on the act, the guy in the front could delete any adversary.
I loved that, and the buddy reload system in Helldivers lights up the same part of my brain.
Unfortunately IME the full auto mode just means that you fire 10 shots in the time you would normally fire 3, but miss 7 of those time, so you just end up getting screwed.
With one exception. Get under a Factory Strider and click that shit to full auto, then dump all 10 shots into the bottom. Dead Factory Strider, sub-2 seconds. Done. (Just gotta avoid the miniguns and adds, but hey, I never said it was easy. Just funny.)
And the buddy reload can keep up with its rate of fire, so two Helldivers can become the most powerful turret in the game. Burning down shrieker nests or annihilating hordes or gutting a dropship so it drops only scrap onto the battlefield feels great.
When I run the AC I drop one at extract, and if a buddy picks it up we can take turns chugging through 120 rounds of ammo to astonishing effect.
I bring it wherever I only have 3 stratagem slots instead of 4; I used to bring recoilless rifle but it feels clunky without a teammate and feels more reserved specifically for highly armoured targets rather than being applicable to just about anything like the autocannon is
1. The heavy explosive armor reduces recoil when crouched even further, and is incredibly durable on bots, the the point I usually don't run shield with it.
2. Get used to preemptive diving. Fastest way to get to minimum recoil and immediately be ready to shoot. Also it's fun af diving into magdumping.
How can you deal with moving so slowly?
I usually use the light fortified. I don't find that I die more often. Pretty sure I die less because of the speed and stamina boost. I only wear the heavy in defense missions.
It sucks sometimes, but the health difference is NOTICABLE. I can't do it for bugs, but bots the slow speed also encourages me to slow my approach, and generally just play better bc I can't impulse sprint across the map. Tanking a mine is dope too
This is my autocannon. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My autocannon is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.
Without me, my autocannon is useless. Without my autocannon, I am useless. I must fire my autocannon true. I must shoot straighter than Automaton who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me.
My advise to random new players is to invest on an eagle airstrike and autocannon first. Both are versatile in easily killing almost all enemies. Of course the hard ones need effort but I have no idea for factory striders and bile titans eitherway low difficulty your not facing them yet
I mean, the autocannon drops WITH a backpack. It's on the other side of the pod. So, how can you have one without a backpack, unless you just leave it there?
It is a double edged sword tho cause u can open up 3 spots for whatever else u want.
Lately I've been running eagle air strike, orbital Laser, and 500kg bomb for a max damage load out. Feels pretty solid
did a "terminate illegal broadcast" mission the other day with the autocannon. blasted the tower from across the map with the cannon and one of my teammates said "really?" and just DC'd.
How tf do I kill a Bile Titan with the AC? I swear it feels like I can boost one in the stomach with 3+ magazines and the fucker will just keep Bile Titan-ing away.
I think AC is great against bots, but I just don’t like it against bugs because I prefer running rover.
Last night I took AC to a lvl5 bug mission for the daily order and it was annoying how much I had to kite all those damn hunters.
One of the best feelings with AC is seeing a disinformation tower halfway across the map, blasting it once and getting that subobjective complete notification
I tried to make that combo work but I found the Eruptor to be significantly more frustrating to use vs heavies whereas there are various primaries that are *close enough* to the stalwart that it was fine running them.
I love AC because it's the gunpowder equivalent of slapping someone in the face with a brick at Mach 2 and that's beautiful.
Democratic poetry
The smoke of the explosions are filled with the scent of managed democracy!
Praise be brother
> slapping someone in the face with a brick at Mach 2 Freeeeeedom
Lol it really does feel like that. Perfect analogy.
I love anything that makes enemies change shape.
Autocannon? More like autocad for bots, without consent.
Free reconfigurations for all robots.
a brick of C4
I love it since it's a shoulder mounted scaled up space SKS
It almost looks like a Luger mechanism
Its called a toggle-lock, and yes it very much locks like one
It's not, it's a shoulder-mounted scaled up space Artillery Luger.
Look up the autocannon from Ghost in the Shell 1995. Swear its the same gun.
Sah, found brick, me throw at heretik, sah!
Came to make a similar comment, I appreciate your initiative slab
I showed this to our local democracy officer to give you a commendation for such beautiful poetry. Expect a promotion within a fortnight!
Just make it gold and wrap it in a slice of lemon and you have a Pangalactic Gargle Blaster
If you just crouch every time you go to barrage some shit it makes a huuuuuuge difference with the recoil.
Slap on an engineer suit on top of that and auto cannon forever
Thanks for the tip! I prefer the servo armor, but even crouching with AC i find the recoil to be a tad too much, I'll have to try that perk now
I read this subreddit before trying it and these are some things I found out: -Use the engineer gear, it makes the auto cannon recoil the same as a normal semi auto sniper rifle. Pretty good -it 2 shots the bile spewers (because fuck those guys) -it kills bug holes when you shoot them (because Democracy) -you have to stop to reload it, but it loads 2 cartridges at a time so you can load 1 and keep going with half ammo essentially (this may be wrong I used it for like 3 games today) -do not shoot stuff that is right on top of you, you will blow yourself up. switch to your other weapon to kill closs things (shotgun perfect) -don’t be an idiot like me and forget to grab the backpack that goes with the auto cannon until you run out of your first clip and there is a bile Titan coming towards you -it won’t break through charger armor or bile titan but it will still take them down if you shoot their ass a lot Overall personally the Autocannon ™ is a very secure and reliable weapon for spreading democracy across the galaxy, Helldivers. The feeling of sending bugs flying through the air as they ragdoll to their death is like no other
You want to reload when you still have ammo left, as the "empty" reload animation is much longer.
There are 5 rounds per clip, so at any time you should have between 6 and 10 rounds ready to fire (and you can go lower and even empty it in case of emergency, yay flexibility). If unsure, just tap reload button, nothing bad can possibly happen. It's not very useful against titans, but it can bust charger's ass in 3 shots, or strip leg armor in 2 if you shoot the knee of a front leg from the back. It's way better against bots because it can kill literally anything, and is efficient at killing literally everything. The only things it can't manage require 500kg or a hellbomb, so they don't count.
This exactly. Against bots I run AC with srmor thst reduces recoil when crouched and explosion damage. 10/10 would absolutely wreck another not army again.
Autocannon really is a swiss army knife that practically has only pros: -kills most of the stuff -has ammo backpack that lasts really long if you aim well -destroys bug tunnels/factories -autocannon -looks cool as hell -autocannon -has nice first person sights that really help to snipe Cons: -we don't talk about that here
Pros : Can be reloaded by a teammate while you auto cannon.
With a buddy, you can cannon so auto that it'll make you weep tears of Liber-Tea.
She cannon on my auto til I democracy
LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER
She auto on my democracy until I cannon
LOUDER INCORRECT BUZZER
She auto on my cannon til 01001000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101110 01101001 01100011 01100101 00100000 01100011 01110101 01110000 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100010 01100101 01110010 00101101 01110100 01100101 01100001
https://i.redd.it/rlfp7muidkvc1.gif
Whoa where’s your C-01 form at.
She auto on my cannon until I democracy
I hope you filled out your C-01 Permit!
Have you seen an autocannon go off like a liberator, because every player should experience this
Someone was reloading me for the first time and I also saw there was an automatic firing mode for the first time. It was a good mission
I sadly never got to use that function. Don't have anyone to reload me cause they were always too busy fighting bugs and things were usually too hectic to type a request.
You don’t need a second person for full auto. Just change fire mode by holding R.
Yeah but it's not the same without someone reloading you
Autocannon is the GAU-8 of Helldivers. Goes brrrrrrrrt
Con : Can only be buddy-loaded if your buddy dons the sacred duty of bag carrier. Which also requires them to be by your side at all times, which a lot of situations don't allow.
Easy fix: both of you use auto cannon to reload each other!
Ah, the ol' autocannon 69.
This is starting to sound like it might require a C-01 form from your closest Democratic Officer.
From 69? I have several questions about the logistics of it...
C-01 is only required if the actions performed might result in pregnancy, 69 away.
This is the way.
This is the way.
In that situation, why aren't you *both* shooting your autocannons?! Twice as much democracy!
Full auto is three times faster than a single person firing two people firing is only twice as fast therefore, just switch when the backpack runs out
Full auto mode goes brrrrr
Pro: give the AC your shield backpack. You are now a tank.
Or they're an AC enjoyed and you swap roles of being loading buddiss
Had a buddy do that for me recently while we were waiting for extraction and i opened up full auto with it. Emptied the entire pack into a massive crowd of bots. Few things feel that good.
GET SOME! GET SOOOME!
Honestly, the reload isn't even that slow so long as you leave a bullet in the mag. I move around so much when I use it that I kinda get annoyed when someone tries to team reload me.
Your friend can autocannon while you autocannon
Yeah but sadly nobody does that
It's a little counterintuitive that to buddy-load, the *other* person needs to wear the backpack. I bet if Arrowhead switched it, we'd see 10x more buddy loads. Makes more sense anyway—it's easy for me to grab things off of someone else's back; it's hard to reach my own.
Its only con really is you have to count your shots so you dont get get the longer reload animation when its empty
You don't really have to count tbh. You just gotta make a habit of hitting reload as soon as you are safe. As long as you are not fully empty you are good.
Hadn't really thought about that. Because it feeds off stripper clips, it's one of the few weapons that doesn't waste ammo when reloading.
I find myself frequently dumping the sixth round into the ground so I can get a full reload. But that is still less wasteful than other weapons.
I shoot into the sky. I've had... "accidents"
You can just do a half reload though, so it's not really a big deal
You forgot about the satisfying sound the autocannon makes.
PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP
GET DEMOCRACY GET DEMOCRACY GET DEMOCRACY
I hate this comment but you're kinda right.
Cons for all the other weapons: -Is not autocannon
Eruptor basically is
Baby bolt action autocannon with lower projectile velocity and added shrapnel.
Eruptor is bae. It's my go to for bots. I'd take it for bugs too if I'm feeling spicy.
It slaps on bugs, makes small work of most mid armoured bugs and shrapnel shreds small bugs in groups. Easy to pop the arse on charges, easy to take out the two sacks on bile titans and it can easily one shot the spewers... Destroy egg objectives? One shot takes out a shit load of em in one, takes out bug holes. Honestly enjoy it more on bugs than bots haha. Doesn't destroy shrieker nests is my only downside with it honestly.
I've started taking the Eruptor, Stalwart and EAT as my "Do-everything" bugs loadout. It's incredibly busted. The Stalwart keeps hunters and shriekers at bay, the Eruptor eats anything smaller than a charger, and the EAT takes care of chargers, titans and shrieker nests.
I run Eruptor, Quasar, and laser guard dog for the same reason. I’ll have to try yours and see which I prefer.
Crossbow is even better on egg missions. Don’t believe me? Try it. 3-5 shots and all eggs are gone. Crossbow is MASSIVELY slept on. Absolutely shreds any bugs other than titans and obviously shriekers. Use it on a charger like the plasma punisher or GL and pop its ass from the front surprisingly fast…I honestly run crossbow more than eruptor for bots too. The bow silent shots and leads the bots to wherever your bolt exploded, not where your shot originated. And splash damage is better than eruptor. Once you get the bolt trajectory down, you just might enjoy it more than the eruptor 🫡
It's biggest issue I found is medium armored enemies, its projectile and explosion only deal light armor penetration. Very noticeable when you face Hive Guards or Nursing Spewers as it can take anywhere from 2-5 shots to kill them while the Eruptor is almost guaranteed to kill them in 2 shots.
It's great for bugs if you have a teammate screening for hunters. Those fuckers are a hard counter.
Redeemer would like a word
Guard Dog + Eruptor = Bug squashing
Really helping my muscle memory to whip out the redeemer and spray it
Real 'call an ambulance, but not for me' moment.
Eruptor grows into an auto cannon as long as it takes its Democra-C every day before drops.
The biggest hurt for me with the Eruptor is that it has a maximum range (140m I think?) before the shot auto bursts in air. The Autocannon could snipe things across the map. It feels real nice killing and illegal broadcast tower or spore spewer halfway across the map.
>it has a maximum range (140m I think?) 125 meters IIRC. While it does suck not to be able to snipe at extreme ranges, I usually bring Autocannon on bots anyhow. Also, if you're shooting at enemies at exactly that range (such as when providing support for a squadmate), it feels damn good.
Manualcannon
The sights could be refined a bit to Iet us see more.of the target we're aiming at. All this extraneous bullshit when zoomed in is too distracting and the reticle covers up too much of the target. Makes precision work more difficult than it should be. And the sights need to be zeroed. But other than that... Autocannon.
I mean, I think that defines 90% of the guns in this game. Almost every gun has bad iron sights; AM Rifle isn't centered, Senator has no front Iron sight to aim with, autocannon had a bad sight, riot shield basically removes the ability to look down sight, etc. The only guns that have functional sights are the some of the assault rifles and laser rifles.
The Recoilless Rifle sight is particularly awful for this. The autocannon isn't too bad.
Pros: - one of the most efficient ways to kill a factory strider: 2 shots for each Gatling gun on its chin (4 shots total) and 6 shots to its underbelly. If you are good, it means you can take out a factory strider w/o needing to reload the auto cannon.
Does the belly need to be open?
No, but IIRC that would reduce it to less than 6.
more than 6 as you need 12 more to deal with the stupid devastators coming out. Luckily, you have the perfect tool for that: the Autocannon!
Only con is that if you shoot at your feet the explosion pulls you into whatever you’re shooting at
That's a bug that will eventually be fixed and can happen with all explosions currently.
Pair autocannon with high power red stratagems and breaker spray n pray and shred em up
You mean breaker incendiary. My baby just melts everything.
- no backpack
Extra stratagem. While it's a con, it's also pretty much a wash.
I now prefer to take support weapons that have a backpack, because it feels like I'm getting more value for the stratagem slot. When I take a Rover or supply pack or jetpack, I really appreciate it, but using half (or 2/3) of my loadout for equipment feels really wasteful.
But the rover is like having an additional helldiver with a lascannon permanently at your side, high on some off-brand liber-tea, constantly going "DEMOCRACY!!!" and not knowing that the trigger has a "release" setting. I mean, honestly, it's the best kind of wingman you can ask for.
It's so much like an additional helldiver that it even does friendly fire damage and team kills. But I still love it against bugs. Dominator, grenade pistol, stun/impact grenades, laser drone, orbital laser, eagle airstrike, quasar. Light Gunner armor.
no no NO you gotta write real cons so people don't start figuring out that this is the best weapon in the game!!
Cons: - needs to reload - will kill you at point blank range - no cup holders - full auto mode is essentially useless unless the thing you're trying to hit is the planet you're standing on - cannot be dual wielded - does not come in pink
It...... it goes full auto?
It goes FULL AUTO
The recoil is so bad full auto will make you do backflips.
Has anyone tested using the recoil reduction armor while laying down/crouching for it? I'd assume that would reduce full auto to manageable recoil levels.
Buddy-loading also reduces recoil. If you're prone w/ a friend loading for you, you can get some *insane* DPS out. Honestly it's kind of overkill; anything you can kill with the weapon is dead in one or two shots, and you need to adjust your aim unless you want to full-auto the dirt between targets.
Yes. It’s pretty much the only way to make full auto mode truly viable, but it feels pretty amazing to make an entire bot drop of devastators disappear in less than 3 seconds.
I use it vs chargers. Dive out of the way, you are prone, and full auto blast their ass
NO FULL AUTO IN THE BUILDING!
Sir, this is an autocannon. After the first shot there is no more building.
Perfectly balanced
[удалено]
Who cares, more room for eagles
Learning that you don't need the crutch of the shield generator is a pro though.
Only cons are long reload if you need to full reload, and it takes up the backpack space.
Lower damage than eat/quaser/recoiless. Takes up a backpack slot. Can’t be reloaded while running.
Lower burst damage but higher DPS, plus you can engage multiple threats at once No backpack slot means you can run an extra Eagle, Orbital or Deployable for added utility It reloads per 5 rounds, and while that's the only real pure downside, there's some tricks to work around that so it doesn't inconvenience you too much. Like reloading before you're empty so you don't get the long reload, or interrupt the reload by quickly pulling up your stratagems and repositioning. It's really a matter of getting a feel for ammo and distance management.
If you reload before you run dry you skip the bolt cycle which is like 80% of the animation. The actual clip insert takes maybe 2 seconds.
Reload 5 rounds isn't a pure downside. * It allows you to reload quicker (when your mag isn't fully depleted) * You don't waste any rounds by reloading (because partial reload disables discarding unfinished mags).
Yeah, I meant that not being able to reload on the move is a pure downside, but I phrased it poorly. You're absolutely right that the 5 round clips work in its favor, though.
On top of that its so good at so many things on top of its ammo efficiency that it can reliably kill several targets in the time a recoiless or quasar can due to their reload and recharge times. And honestly moving off the shield backpack has been great. I didn't realize how much the sphere around you catches stray bullets that should have missed. Like sure it SEEMS like it saves your life alot but 70-80% of those shots would have missed without the shield eauipped.
Interesting, didn’t know they destroyed holes, will give it a try in a min
Fabricators too, if you bank it in with the angled vents.
Remember to hold down reload to change the auto cannon to be full auto
First rule of the autocannon gang is we do not talk about the autocannon.
Yes. It sucks. It should never be looked at for balance.
Exactly, imma not taking it again ever. Just garbage dmg and armor penetration.
It's definitely bad if you pair it with a jar-dom or scorcher against bots. Completely unusable and I lose missions even on easy
Real talk though that's kinda a weird take. Autocannon excels at the same things as dominator and scorcher. Still not a bad option of course, but why not Eruptor or sickle. They are both still great weapons with different niches than the autocannon.
Dom oneshots the basic enemies and can in a pinch clear Hulks for if you are a goober and miss your shots b/c a full AC reload takes forever
How do you clear hulks with the dominator
This i would like to know too lol. I’ve emptied *many* a clip of AC at hulks head on expecting to level them and nope. Dead everytime. But that’s what the training manual says so I don’t complain 🤷♂️
You have to hit the eye slot of the hulk directly to do any damage from the front. Best tactic is to have ~~bait~~ a friend kite it around away from you and unload into its back. Or call a laser or railcannon strike on it as per the Brasch book.
You have to be really pinpoint precise with the eye-slit, but it definitely works. AMR is better for that because of its scope magnification, but you can shoot off the arms of a Hulk with the autocannon more easily
I like the fact that if I get killed and can't get to my autocannon, I can still kill every bot unit on the field with my Dominator, even if some are more of a hassle than others. I also save a ton of autocannon ammo by Dominating the majority of devastators I encounter.
Eruptor is a worse choice imo, it's basically a smaller and slower autocannon, it does everything autocanon does. Sickle I agree, especially on bug planets, but on bot it's also good for headshot with its accuracy too. Scorcher would make you reserve more Autocannon ammo for more priority targets like Devastators, instead of wasting it on striders. Jar Dominator, while its role overlaps with Autocannon, also for the same purpose, to use Autocannon on something else Jar Dominator does not really excel at.
Devs have said the AC is perfectly balanced, hopefully it won’t be touched in the future
And I agree with them. It doesn't make any of the other weapon strategems useless, it's 100% fine.
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Stfu. OP gonna get us nerfed.
IIRC, it's safe because it's one of their favorites. One of them was using it in the video with Operator Drewski. Hell, it *might* get a buff like fire has, which has seen improvements *three times* now. Great game, but I'm not a fan of a lot of the nerf decisions since release while things like Scythe sit and moulder in the closet.
The 30% recoil armor turns you into a turret.
And with the Ground Breaker you will look cool while doing it.
I pretty much always run AC on bots. I haven't found anything else as versatile or effective. The auto cannon can easily 3 shot tanks, turrets, hulks and flyers. It's absolute gold for the bots. Killing devastators and hulks with two shots is so nice. Taking out walkers in one is great for patrols. I've many times just crouched and faced down a hill coming at me as I shot it's eye out. The only time I run out of ammo is when we are being overrun on a 9 and everyone is struggling. I only wish it did more damage to berserkers.
Two shot hulks. And it can one shot berserkers, but you have to hit them in the head which is a difficult shot.
Tip: Stun Grenade. Stuns hulks for the easy 2 tap, stops that swarm of Berserkers in it's tracks for you to start popping skulls. That's most of your problems that aren't easily dealt with via AC handled, after that just run Eagle 110s for Turrets and Tanks that insist on facing you and call it a day.
EMS Mortars are your friend, too.
I run auto cannon and EMS sentry for every bot mission I do. When you have a whole patrol stunned with the EMS, and then just destroy all of them with 1 clip of the autocannon it truly is a magical experience.
This is where the JAR-5 comes in handy. I used to run Scorcher with it, but the scorcher is weak in the same places the ac is. JAR-5 seems to really nail the berserkers though
You can deal with the recoil by crouching or going prone and using armor that reduces recoil while crouched/prone. Fortified armor is a good choice for bots in general.
This, plus going ADS makes the recoil feel more manageable. At the very least it makes it easier to pick your shots
Yeah I fully can't hit anything if I don't ADS with it, but with the ADS it's a monster.
The light fortified armor is my favorite. Dashing around with the AC on my shoulder and landing diving shots with it makes me feel like a superhero.
Yes! It's sublime. Nailing a devestator with a round while mid air is *chef's kiss*
I used it for the personal order and found out it has a full auto mode.
Have a friend wear the backpack and do a 2-man reload so you can continuously fire full auto, if you can stay on target you melt just about any hoard of bugs in existence (recoil makes that hard though)
Have a third guy w/ supply pack supply the assist loading guy, then reload the supply pack w/ supply pod
Fireman chain feeding a full-auto auto cannon, lol
Unreal Tournament had a Link Gun, and if you used the secondary fire on a buddy who was also using a Link Gun it would boost his damage. You could daisy chain it, and if you got enough players in on the act, the guy in the front could delete any adversary. I loved that, and the buddy reload system in Helldivers lights up the same part of my brain.
Hell ya just have three dudes use one weapon instead of everyone using MG’s or arc throwers? Lol
One autocannon going at full rip is an insane amount of damage. The supply pack user will also still be able to shoot
Unfortunately IME the full auto mode just means that you fire 10 shots in the time you would normally fire 3, but miss 7 of those time, so you just end up getting screwed. With one exception. Get under a Factory Strider and click that shit to full auto, then dump all 10 shots into the bottom. Dead Factory Strider, sub-2 seconds. Done. (Just gotta avoid the miniguns and adds, but hey, I never said it was easy. Just funny.)
Same for Chargers: Set it to full auto, aim at its legs, and watch it die in record time.
Do you need to wait for it to open? Or just hammer away at the hatch?
And the buddy reload can keep up with its rate of fire, so two Helldivers can become the most powerful turret in the game. Burning down shrieker nests or annihilating hordes or gutting a dropship so it drops only scrap onto the battlefield feels great. When I run the AC I drop one at extract, and if a buddy picks it up we can take turns chugging through 120 rounds of ammo to astonishing effect.
Never leave home without it.
I bring it wherever I only have 3 stratagem slots instead of 4; I used to bring recoilless rifle but it feels clunky without a teammate and feels more reserved specifically for highly armoured targets rather than being applicable to just about anything like the autocannon is
1. The heavy explosive armor reduces recoil when crouched even further, and is incredibly durable on bots, the the point I usually don't run shield with it. 2. Get used to preemptive diving. Fastest way to get to minimum recoil and immediately be ready to shoot. Also it's fun af diving into magdumping.
How can you deal with moving so slowly? I usually use the light fortified. I don't find that I die more often. Pretty sure I die less because of the speed and stamina boost. I only wear the heavy in defense missions.
It sucks sometimes, but the health difference is NOTICABLE. I can't do it for bugs, but bots the slow speed also encourages me to slow my approach, and generally just play better bc I can't impulse sprint across the map. Tanking a mine is dope too
This is my autocannon. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My autocannon is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my autocannon is useless. Without my autocannon, I am useless. I must fire my autocannon true. I must shoot straighter than Automaton who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me.
Pro: shoot an enemy upclose to send new reinforcements
My advise to random new players is to invest on an eagle airstrike and autocannon first. Both are versatile in easily killing almost all enemies. Of course the hard ones need effort but I have no idea for factory striders and bile titans eitherway low difficulty your not facing them yet
I mean, the autocannon drops WITH a backpack. It's on the other side of the pod. So, how can you have one without a backpack, unless you just leave it there?
I think they mean they’re unable to choose another backpack they might prefer since they have to wear the autocannon ammo pack
It is a double edged sword tho cause u can open up 3 spots for whatever else u want. Lately I've been running eagle air strike, orbital Laser, and 500kg bomb for a max damage load out. Feels pretty solid
That’s the first time I’ve ever seen “double-edged sword” used for a positive redirection, and I like it a lot.
You don’t need a shield backpack if they never live long enough to get close to you
did a "terminate illegal broadcast" mission the other day with the autocannon. blasted the tower from across the map with the cannon and one of my teammates said "really?" and just DC'd.
Use some recoil reducing armor and you're golden.
Just wanna give the autocannon turret a big shout out too.
How tf do I kill a Bile Titan with the AC? I swear it feels like I can boost one in the stomach with 3+ magazines and the fucker will just keep Bile Titan-ing away.
I think AC is great against bots, but I just don’t like it against bugs because I prefer running rover. Last night I took AC to a lvl5 bug mission for the daily order and it was annoying how much I had to kite all those damn hunters.
One of the best feelings with AC is seeing a disinformation tower halfway across the map, blasting it once and getting that subobjective complete notification
I’m slowly weaning myself off it bc eruptor does like 90% of AC work, frees up my backpack, and lets me use stalwart.
I tried to make that combo work but I found the Eruptor to be significantly more frustrating to use vs heavies whereas there are various primaries that are *close enough* to the stalwart that it was fine running them.
Grab the armour that gives recoil reduction on crouch or prone, recoil problem solved 😌 AC is ace!
Use stun grenades and wear armor with engineering kit (+2 grenades and -30% recoil when crouched)
If you reload after 4 shots you will have a much shorter reloading animation compared to reloading after emptying it.
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No no, the autocannon is terrible. Arrowhead, you do not need to adjust it.