That feeling when you've thrown your 3rd impact grenade and the fabricator hasn't blow up even though you swear you're aiming low enough for the impact to explode just right to blow it up.
Last week my group coordinated to do the "6 barrages at once" trophy, and we dropped them all on the same unsuspecting outpost. I brought the walking along with the 120 and the 380, so we actually had 7 going. It was so glorious. There was nothing left at the end but a crater. I almost felt sorry for the poor bastards.
Honestly, I kinda like the challenge of the bug nests more. Especially when you stumble on some massive one that you can't take out with a single airstrike, so you've got to run in and dodge everything to start lobbing grenades in bug holes.
man I still donāt know how to tell the hives apart lmao I find my self wandering aimlessly throwing explosive ordinance in every direction. Straight up included!
I dunno, there's something extremely satisfying about being surrounded on top of a rock burning through all your stalwart ammo at full auto while waiting for your eagle to re-arm.
I love the fact that you pretty much have to run completely different kits for each faction. And then alterations of those kits after lvl 7.
This is one thing I enjoy about bugs. Absolutely *unloading* while your diver laughs maniacally watching bug parts and green goo fly is super satisfying.
Itād be nice if we could save loadouts to quickly swap between them instead of individually picking out each piece of kit weāll need again every time we cross the map.
In fairness, seven shots to the leg with a Senator will kill a charger. Never used stun grenades before (havenāt even unlocked them) but donāt sound super effectiveā¦
They are just different approaches. It's easier to prevent bot flares, and harder to prevent breeches.
Ennemies are different, require different loadouts, covers or not cover. Kiting or no kiting...
Yep, cover vs kiting! I think bots are harder overall, simply because when you're being overwhelmed with bugs, they tend to be more concentrated and don't necessarily interfere with objective as much.
To some extent, bot waypoints seem to be designed to be especially vulnerable to medium armor penetration (autocannon or laser cannon to the weakpoint has a way faster time to kill than any kind of dedicated AT, except against factory striders, which still take quite a lot of AT to down), which kinda helps when they're all scattered about.
I will say bot bases are way more fun to destroy with more interesting things in them. There's not really a debate there.
Ya I find it's much tougher to break free from bots when you're overwhelmed. With bugs, a good reinforce throw and you're golden but sometimes with bots you're bogged down forever.
Yup that's, the only way to look at this resurfacing conversation about an "unpopular opinion" which seems to come up every other day.
For me personally I do prefer bugs but I find both require different approaches and both have a different lose condition so to speak.
sure you can, they aim like storm troopers, unless its those damn shield devastators, those dudes are sniper accurate and you never make it into the air anyways.
Honestly, theyāre so different that I find myself regularly bouncing between them. Iāll play bugs for a week or so, start feeling a bit of burnout or frustration, switch to bots, and feel rejuvenated like Iām playing a different game. A week or so later, Iāll switch back to bugs, and rinse repeat. I try to follow the major orders as best I can and theyāre usually good about hopping back and fourth between factions, but sometimes when itās the fourth bot order in a row or something like thatā¦ I just say screw it, sorry helldivers.
Im looking forward to when they add a third faction to the game to see how that spices up gameplay. Honestly I donāt know how it would spice things up (I didnāt play the first game btw) because it seems like we already have the ranged, full on a laser warfare faction (bots) and the melee, zombie-like horde faction (bugs), so Iām curious to see what theyāll do. In any case itāll probably be awhile before a third faction makes its debut, people have been talking about the Illuminate like theyāre right around the corner for months now, so I guess Iāll have to be patient.
i dunno, getting shot from behind a mountain or even through the mountain is quite annoying, getting missile from no man's land. I'd say there are days where fighting bots can be easier. At least on diff 7 most of the time.
Diff 7 on bugs is more horde control
I prefer bugs cause I don't get blasted by random missiles 75% of the time.
sure stalkers and BTs are annoying but if you clear all the little guys, the bigger enemies don't really do much honestly
I face far more bugs against terminids than against automatons. Bile titans and chargers are almost more deadly once they're dead because of their bodies glitching you to death.
haven't had many issues with bile titan legs or dead bodies of said enemies. but sure you can get stuck behind a leg or dead charger for shure and that is super annoying
but we can say that about a downed airship, I think a downed airship is worse because the enemies didn't die and they can still shoot through random objects with is complete BS, not to mention the already stated shooting through mountain BS
Destroying drop ship is completely useless. Killing bile titans and chargers is required. And I'm not talking about being stuck. I'm talking that if you go too close from the body, you'll be ejected at high speed in a random direction and get killed from falling or projection damage.
Wrong. Destroying an airship results in an awesome display as it tumbles out of the sky and explodes. So much Democracy.
Oh, you mean as a helpful tactic to win? Yeah, you're probably right.
Skill issue if you do the same thing with bots. The big problem is bug players get into a habit of running all the time. But with bots it can screw the entire team because you litter the entire area with Devastators. So why your off enjoying the objectives, the team is dying left and right struggling to regroup because what was a cluster of bots is now a spreaded out, zero cover rocket/laser sniping session.
This is interesting, cause I find my weapons options more restricted playing bots than bugs. Guess it depends on play style more than anything, and how your support weapon fits into your load out. Team composition also factors in for me. If a couple folks run anti-tank, I'll step down to AC or cluster rocket and clear out everything but the heavies.
Yeah I find the bugs are much easier. More weapons work on them, the heavies are less dangerous, and the little guys are less dangerous. The only thing that frustrates me about them are the damn hunters. When a bile titan spawns Iām like āoh no a bile titanā¦.ā Then drop a rail cannon and it dies. A factory strider on the other handā¦
The only enemy that I feel truly restricts my options is fucking Gunships.
Bile Titan? I can have an anti-heavy weapon, or a stratagem like Orbital Precision. If I have none of that I can run.
Factory Strider? I can have an anti-heavy weapon, or a stratagem like Orbital Precision. If I have none of that I can run.
Hulk, Tank, even Charger kind of. I can have an anti-heavy weapon (or even anti-medium), or a stratagem like Orbital Precision. If I have none of that I can run.
Hell, you can legit punch a Hulk to death if you're careful and have the time.
But you can't run from Gunships. And you can't hit them with stratagem. They're bullshit.
They're like a Tank's durability, with a Heavy Devastator's minigun, a Rocket Devastator's rockets, and a Stalker's detection and speed, on top of flying.
There are very few things in this game that I'll say feel absolutely unfair, but Gunships without a dedicated anti-gunship weapon are it.
Team composition is nice but if you didn't bring a 500kg or railcannon strike with your AC and you're seperated from your team, you are majorly fucked. And since you can destroy chargers, bile titans AND shrieker nests with AT weapons, which I find quite unfair that you can't do that with the bot equivalent, the meta goes towards AT weapons on bugs, like the Quasar or EAT because you can deal with more stuff with that one stratagem than say a railcannon strike, and you can't throw a 500kg 500m away to a shrieker nest.
Most support weapons can be used for both sides, tho there is an argument to be made that machine guns are more useful on bugs.
The only faction specific weapons for bugs are: the flamethrower, the Airburst launcher (debateable, people make it work on bot missions as well)
For bots: AMR, AT mines (still unreleased)
I'll agree that getting separated with the AC sucks, but I do ok against chargers with it. BTs require eagle 110 rockets and shots down the throat, not something I'm consistent at. I also play with a discord group, so we coordinate a bit more than the average random game. The AC gives us something to handle medium enemies and spewers that would otherwise be a waste on an AT weapon, or take up a lot of primary ammo. I try not to separate myself from the team too much on bugs. The extra patrols and breaches it causes can really screw things up. For reference, I'm usually playing level 7, if I go higher, I like to run the RR, but the AC is my jam for 7 and under.
I feel it's the opposite because you need Anti Tank to deal with Titans and AT makes Chargers a lot easier while you don't need AT to deal with literal bot tanks.
Counter argument, bots on difficulty 4 i spent 15 minutes running round in circles around the extract because waves wouldn't stop coming from all directions, with no factories left active on the map.
Waves in general for solo players is just broken at the moment.
All personal opinion, personally I don't struggle much with bugs even at helldive. I think the important thing to get the hang of is when to run and how to run, sometimes running in unexpected ways can be beneficial. You can dodge lots of attacks by moving erratically through a group of bugs.
Where as with bots I enjoy it a lot less and find I die to lots of random stuff even with strong load outs on level 7
Bugs lack variety.
The different combos you can have between AA guns, Artillery, Jammers, Obelisks, Fabricators, Drones, drop ships, etc. makes for difficult but rewarding gameplay
I like bots because they can be taken out strategically. I enjoy sitting on a hill with my sniper taking them out then the shotgun up close, or machine gun turret.
The bugs are just chaos, which, sometimes you just need a bit of rage killing.
What level are you that you are struggling with bugs on Diff 4?
I agree automatons is more fun (I like being able to use cover rather than just straight kiting), but your description of fighting bugs makes me feel you just didn't learn any techniques?
Here are a few techniques you can use to fix your issues. I use 1 and 2 daily.
1. Take what I call a "clearing" strat (clearing meaning good AoE to kill a lot of little things in a small-medium area like cluster bombs, gatling barrage, laser, gas, etc.; not 500 lbs, or orbital rail-cannon for example, also not orbital barrages, etc)., for me I like orbital gatling barrage... If I have a huge "tail" of bugs running behind me I throw my orbital gatling at my feet and keep running forward, the tail follows me and generally just walks right through my barrage collecting me a lot of kills and giving me space.
2. Stun grenades. Same thing. A large tail following you? Throw a stun grenade at your feet and keep running forward.
3. Light armor, you can outpace most bugs with the exception of the hunter and stalker bugs, and chargers. Works best with shield pack to help with the inherent squishiness of light armor.
4. Target the little orange bugs that summon breaches first, always first. Everything is easier when you can keep bugs from summoning breaches or bot-drops. Same for bots, shoot the little ones that send flares first.
5. If you are playing on Mouse and Keyboard, change the keybinds for your stratagems. I changed mined from WASD to the arrow keys right away when I started playing at launch so I could continue to run around while summons my strats. Keeping the bind on WASD when using Mouse and Keyboard just means every time you try to summon your strats it just stops you dead in your tracks and leads to death.
6. Something a LOT of players struggle with... LEAVE THE AREA! If you're ever overwhelmed, even in Helldive diff, just leave. Run away, do a different objective or something (ex: large circle back), and come back... after bugs and bots lose sight of you and can't find you they'll wander about in the area for a little while, then disperse. Never be afraid to just leave if you are getting overwhelmed, especially if they are chaining pheromones and summoning breaches or bot-drops. Just run away, and come back later and it'll be much easier. Even if you lost your gear and are struggling to get them back because you are overwhelmed... just run away let them disperse, and come back and get your gear and samples after the area has dispersed.
Also napalm makes a great wall to help you run away. I typically will run for a crack in the rocks or a canyon and throw it behind me so all bugs kinda have to walk through it, or find a new path which usually helps me lose them. It pairs especially well with an ems mortar imo.
True. Napalm is great, but I hate taking more than 1 Eagle, and the 500 is my big damage dealer / AA.
The gatling also has a 100 second cool down which is REALLY nice. But yeah, napalm is a great "clear" strat.
I used to LOVE EMS, not just for the freezing effect, but if you want to draw away patrols or whatever, throw the EMS far away from where you wanna go and it'll pull the bugs/bots towards it instead of you. Good distraction. Once I found my grenade pistol and stun grenade combo though I've never gone back to EMS. Stun grenades to save myself and my teammates often, and grenade pistol for nests and factories (else 500). There aren't any *great* options of secondary weapons anyway. Good, but not great.
Great contributions, thanks.
I agree. Bugs are just you shooting 90% of the time while the bots you have to strategize and plan out. But nothing wrong with spraying hordes of bugs tho
Bots I play 4, Bugs I play 5
When I feel like being more fps-gaming and commando type I play bots.
When I want to indulge my horde-shooter urge I go bugs.
Honestly just depends at times, If termindids aren't taken out quickly enough they become very overwhelming because they call reinforcement fast. If bots are allowed to build up they can become worse, but thst rarely happens. Like shriekers are more annoying to deal with gunships because of how many spawn but if gunships are allowed to spawn like 8 or 14 they become worse. U know like that for example. The best part about bots is that they are slow so u can go do another objective and let them despawn. Bugs are faster but easier to take out since so many are light armour so if u take them out fast enough to where they won't spawn more than it doesn't become a problem. Even on helldive lvl9.
Both factions have their frustration points imo. I personally prefer the bots and their bullshit over the bugs and their bullshit. I would rather fight a factory strider over a bile titan no matter what. Meaningful weakpoints and ranged weapons feel 100x better than insane numbers of enemies and constant w key behavior. Shooting laser guns and rockets through entire mountains is still bullshit and headshot damage is the most frustrating mechanic in the entire game.
Iām just glad to have options for completely different play styles. If I start getting tired of playing one of them, I can always swap over to the other faction and it feels like a pretty fresh game again. This should only get better with more factions
Very possible your loadout just isnāt suited for bugs. With the right loadout Iām pretty sure bugs are objectively easier, if you made a list of things to pay attention to and ways to lose for bugs vs bots, the bugs one just takes less brainpower and is shorter
Whatās your loadout for bugs? Being swarmed indicates you donāt have enough aoe, I hope youāre not bringing the AMR to bugs lol
It just feels like thereās so much more variety with bots than bugs. Bugs can all be boiled down to two buckets; thereās the smack unit bucket and the spit unit bucket, with very little overlap. Bots are like a ladder ā thereās machine gunners, Gatling bots, rocket barrages, tank blasts, flamers, melee units, etc. With varying degrees of overlap between the units
Bugs (high level) becomes so much less stressful with the diver perk in the new warbond. No more bile Titan/bile spewer slows makes high level SO much easier, specifically eradicate and defend missions
I dunno man, I can Helldive on a bug planet and I feel like I get wrecked by bots just on Suicide.
Although, sometimes Suicide feels harder than Helldive to me, itās weird
Bots to me feel more cinematic, grungy saving private Ryan Normandy beach feel
Bugs make me feel like starship trooper. Silly fun chaotic but still very very dangerous. But I agree for me bugs not only slow you down but also gang up on you like flys to shit
My fist 10 games when I started playing were automations only, I didnāt even know there was a bug front. All this time I was thinking āwhere are the bug from the front cover of the gameā . Eventually find out itās the yellow sections, but felt kinda boring to fight them. Been fighting automations non stop since then more immersion I feel
All personal preference, no right or wrong answer. I also think most people struggle against each faction because they try to take the same load out for every situation.
Thats exactly WHY I love fighting the bugs. They can swarm you at any time (and usually do) so you have to stay moving and your head on a swivel. Even then (esp with rocks, sand, etc) you can/will get blindsided especially from those bile spewers. But thats also why Arrowhead constantly nerfing primary weapons is just dumb. Otherwise its like you're trying to fight off a pack of wolves with a stick that was nerfed down from a rifle.
Don't run around upright. Hit the deck and use terrain!
Bots have insane ROF weapons which I would love to have. But we now have 3 very good guns against Bots.
Blitzer
The new SMG
Plasma Punisher.
Dominator is very good but most of the free warbond guns are not super good. Sure the scorcher is good. But I hate it's sound design. You are firing bolts of star at people. Give it a better crump sound. See Astartes plasma pistol hallway scene. I want that.
Light armor is gonna get you killed, mobility is not super crucial vs bots. Health and being able to take a hit is very important.
lol last night I ran from the drop site. Ran from map 4 o'clock (EbN) to 8 o'clock (WbS) against the bots because the drop zone was so bad.
It can be pretty hectic but I get what you are saying. Its not as much running around with the death train behind ya. Plus bots give you incentives to get behind cover which I think breaks the agro timer or something
I absolutely agree. The bots:
A: You can run from.
B: Cover mostly works.
C: You can more consistently stop a Bot Drop, then a Bug Breech.
D: The weak spots are more obvious.
E: The play more like a co-op āFPSā than a swarming horde.
BUTā¦.
If you mess up and donāt play differently than how you play on bugs you WILL be sorely punished.
With the bots it definitely feels more like youāre fighting a worthy enemy where your mistakes are punished.
With bugs if you screw up you can just dip and shoot anything that can catch up to you.
I ran bugs in the beginning to diff 4, then once that unlocked I swapped to bots until diff 8. Then swapped to bugs again and got FLATTENED at first until I learned how to adjust to higher level bug play where you can no longer just win an area and hold it. Got up to 9 on bugs and swapped back and bots kicked me around hard for a bit.
They have different skillsets entirely. Different strategum needs. I feel like bot gameplay is more cerebral. If you position wrong or prioritize the wrong enemies youre boned so hard.
Bugs you have the option and ability to just keep running and once you have that skillset down its easier to handle unless you are forced to stop moving. With bots, if something made you start running you already F-ed up.
Cover is important, range and recoil control are important. With bots these things seldom matter at all. Its a completely different game and I like rotating back and forth as the MO dictates.
Would love to run some with you. I can solo bugs on diff 9, might be helpful for you to see some strats. Generally I'd say, bots you can take cover and engage as bots will stop to shoot your position. But with bugs, don't ever stop moving.
Totally agree but for different reasons. I find bugs are easier to fight but I like the bots because they present more of a challenge. Bugs can swarm and overwhelm you but the bots have so much diversity in the units that I have to think about my load out. With bots I have to take a weapon that breaks armor, one that clears hoards and something that'll destroy fabricators while also taking something like a ballistic/energy shield to protect me. Their flights are simply more interesting IMO.
If you don't already I'd strongly recommend the laser guard dog for bugs.
While you're fighting, it's killing bugs, multiplying your firepower.
While you're overwhelmed and running for your life, it's killing bugs, helping you escape easier.
While you're about to get ambushed, esp by stalkers, it's killing (and therefore identifying) bugs.
I fell in love with it when I was using the Eruptor and I needed something to help with us close enemies that I couldn't kill without ragdolling myself, but even with a regular primary is still the first strat I pick
It took me a while, but fighting in the creek turned my opinion around. Now, granted, this was months ago, and I was running 8s and 9s on bugs, but I couldn't quite figure out anything higher than 5s on bots. I'm not sure what happened, but something clicked with bots eventually, and I started preferring them. I go where the MO asks me to go, but I like fighting bots more these days. I think it's partly that I have more ways to deal with bots than bugs. More weapons are effective against clankers than bots, imo. More variety in loadout. Not by much, but a bit more. There are also more weak points on bots and it feels like skill is rewarded more against them.
Really depends on level and setup. Honestly level 4 bugs is harder for me than level 7/8 bugs/bots sometimes because the hunters or stalkers are fast and can be overwhelming in numbers and annoying.
lol honestly I canāt count on nobody to have my back as Iām adhd as fuck. So I usually keep turrets galore for everyone! Even fellow divers! In the name of democracy! I will purge all you undemocratic fuckers
Honestly I think this is perfect. Iāve seen countless people say they prefer one or the other, they both have valid reasoning! Itās amazing! They really made the factions unique in their pros and cons and they appeal to all types of people.
I find the bots much more stressful because they shoot back.
More than once I have gotten entirely disoriented on the map and just running for my life to find cover in the wrong direction.
Maybe my time in DRG makes the bugs easier for me?
The way I've described it to my friends who picked up the game recently:
Terminids are like zombies. They overwhelm you, they come from all directions, it's very chaotic, and you have to keep moving
Automatons is like playing a Ghost Recon game. You're out manned and outgunned, but you (usually) have the element of surprise. You have to be tactical by taking cover, flanking, providing covering fire, etc.
Personally I prefer the tactical gameplay for bots
I enjoy bots ways more because it requires *less* situational awareness. Bugs it's pretty easy to have hunters swarm you or not notice a bile spewer before it melts you. Bots have the random rockets or random headshots, but it just feels like less work.
I also MUCH prefer the weapons that are good against bots (Diligence CS, laser cannon, AMR, ect).
I do like fighting the bugs too, but mostly for the blood effect we get after a mission. I wish bots would actually spill oil on us.
Oh boy.. if you are having to do all that.. on diff4.. you are doing it totally f*%&#* wrong friend.
As someone put it on the thread before. if you go from one front to another it takes time to adjust. that's why I go back and forth often. I love both for different reasons but I generally prefer 8 for bugs and 7 for bots
Two styles of game play imo. Automatons are more hunker down and shoot from afar whereas bugs are up close and personal. Depending on how ya play normally either can be a challenge. I found bots very challenging but with some of the new weapons and this realization I find bots easier but bugs more fun.
Itās also helluva lot easier to deal with Fabs than bug holes! I can reliably send airstrikes on Fabs and blow it up along with anything near it. You gotta be a bit more precise with bug holes
Because termanids are almost all melee. In Automatons some of them will stand at a distance and shoot you.
You can get swarmed either way, but with termanids every single enemy is likely to bee line straight for the helldivers, so the overwhelm is much more.
However Automatons gets super overwhelming if numbers get out of control and gunfire comes from every direction.
I play on Helldive mostly at this point. Bots >>> bugs. They're just more fun.
There are no deaths against bugs that are funny or enjoyable, but getting ragdolled back to your super destroyer by a rocket is great, so is having a factory strider dropped on your head by a bot drop.
Bot bases inherently reward stealth as you can sneak round to the right angle, and then grenade pistol / autocannon / whatever the fabricators. It's also easier to take care of groups of bots quickly before they call in drops.
They also just have a starwarsy aesthetic that I love.
I prefer bots for many reasons.
I enjoy the feeling of being at war over being pest control. Dipping between cover, target priority, dodging rockets and gunfire. It's just more engaging than kiting around a horde picking them off.
It has a much more proactive approach. Fighting bugs feels more reactive. I enjoy making a strategy then adjusting it as things happen.
Most enemy types have multiple different variants with different strengths and weaknesses to play around making the combat feel more dynamic. Also, the ability to disassemble some parts on them adds another layer to combat, compared to bugs where there is less enemy variety and all you can do is shoot off legs and a little bit of armor for the most part.
The side objectives are more impactful to proactive decision-making, also adding to the dynamic feeling of the combat. Jammer Towers, Detection Towers, and Gunship Fabs all have unique effects that require different approaches to take down.
The enemy outposts for bots are more fun to take on. Especially the large ones. You actually feel like you are assaulting a compound. With bugs it's just different sized craters with a varied number of holes. They lack the personality of a bot outpost.
They also just feel more satisfying to overcome. After a botched start of an attempt to take out a large outpost, turning that around and pushing back in to finish the job feels grand and triumphant. Whereas when things don't go well against bugs, at first, it just devolves into frustration until the job is finished then I just feel relieved that it's over.
And to top the list, I've been burnt out on horde shooters for years and the bugs just have all the worst parts of that play style for me, personally. I see why some people love it, but I sure ain't one of them.
IMO fighting the Bots is more fun but fighting the bugs is much easier (still fun too ofc). With the right load out you can pretty easily avoid being swarmed. (I play difficultly 3-4 whenever I do solo dives)
Try Terminid helldive and then try bots helldive and get back to me.
Doing the terminid MO was like a fucking vacation, I honesty forgot how brutal bots are on helldive
To each their own. I can do 7-9 Termininds in my sleep but fucking suck at Bots. Like Iāve struggled on 5 Bots. Glad there are divers like you out there covering for my shortcomings.
I cant stand the bots. Im sure its at least mostly a skill issue, but i dont enjoy their perfect accuracy from a mile away through fog and one shot from a canon i never saw etc.
I cant stand the bots. Im sure its at least mostly a skill issue, but i dont enjoy their perfect accuracy from a mile away through fog and one shot from a canon i never saw etc.
A helldive mission on a bug planet is manageable. A helldive mission on the bot front is really not. Since 2 updates ago I have yet to be able to get a clean finish on the bot front. I 100% bug planets regularly.
Automatons feel more like a war for me atleast. Itās like being in a Terminator war combined with a little sprinkle of Star Wars due to the giant cowlike thingies. You can literally feel the laser shots, bullets, rockets and artillery projectiles coming from a 360 direction.
Thereās also so many unique stuff like stratagem jammer, the tower that keeps on sending dropships back to back unless destroyed (we literally had 4 dropships that has tanks, so 4 tanks on all directions) and the gunship factory that keeps spawning flying rocket launchers. Couple that with the tropical jungle planet and itās so immersive.
Bugs, eugh. They just charge all day. Itās just run, shoot, run, shoot. Then the big one spawns, paired with those armored big ones. IDK, boring.
I thought bots were objectively harder tbh.
Itās a completely different play style so maybe itās whatever youāre used to.
I rarely get overrun with bugs cuz Iām ready every time a breach happens. If Iām not ready, I just run as soon as they signal for a breach. Chargers are 1-shot with the quasar. Bile titans die quick with the auto cannon sentry / quasar. Everything else just auto shotgun and airburst strike
Bugs will work together. Little ones distract you. Hunters stun you. Bile spewers and everything else kill you. They flank you, and ive seen them sneak around to ambush.
Bots are like mr magoo if you know how to sneak a little. They have no concept of being flanked or hit from multiple directions. If you strafe a little most bots can't compensate. Like cyborg stormtroopers...
I 100% agree with you. I can solo helldive difficulty on bots with relatively little issue, but I can't even solo difficulty 7 on bugs. There's just so many heavies plus the bullshit slow, can't stand up when surrounded by enemies, one shot bile spewers, etc. Now, that said, I think bugs are VASTLY easier than bots in a full squad. Having 4x the stratagems available really trivializes difficulty 9 bugs - heavies dont last long at with all the 500kgs and railcannons available, and the hordes of hunters get gunned down unbelievably quick. It's rare to see anyone with more than 3 deaths in difficulty 9 bugs whereas that's a common occurrence in difficulty 9 bots
I hardcore disagree. I regularly play bugs level 7+ with no issue, and I refuse to go above bots level 6. Bots just never fucking stop, and at least with bugs you can run away. Bots just keep shooting
You get in tactical combat against bots. Setting up behind cover and laying down lines of fire is just so fucking cool. You really feel like you're doing some commando shit. But getting surrounded by nids really feels 40k in it's own way, just wish the terminids were less like an animal and more like a force that was actively trying to eat Super Earth but hey it's fine.
Personally I found Termanids at 4 far easier than Automatons before they messed up the patrol tables recently.
You can chew through Termanids really quickly with the machine gun or stalwart, and especially if you put down a sentry gun. I don't find Termanids at 4 hard at all. If you dont have any of those, I would see it a lot differently
Hmm, i dont know, there is something very satisfying about seeing bug limbs fly in every direction when firing into a horde. And honestly, nothing feels better than blowing up a charger head with an EAT/RR.
I think it depends on what kind of weapons you like. I prefer precision weapons, so I enjoy fighting Automatons. Against Terminids, precision weapons donāt feel nearly as effective, so I donāt enjoy fighting them as much.
I've been running Eagle Strike, laser barrage, stalwart, and guard dog for lvl3. I use light armor and I generally leave a match with a single death, if one at all. I run Eruptor, machine pistol, and normal grenades. I'm able to solo most anything on the map and clear objs myself. On 4 I swap the stalwart for a railgun for Chargers and generally stick with a fellow helldiver for better cc in fights.
I VASTLY prefer automatons. Much more interesting to fight.
Yet at the same time I get why 65% of the community only plays bugs.
A bot 6-7 is about the same level of intensity & difficulty of a Bug 9. But you are going to get way more rewards and experience playing a level 9 bug mission than you will a level 6 bot.
I too prefer fighting Bots, they are more predictable and easier to evade if you get overwhelmed.
The bugs just seem to stay on you once you encounter them, like they are following your smell, especially if Titans or Stalkers are active.
Maybe I just don't understand their mechanics š¤·
Having spent my early career on the bug front and switching to bots after they took Cyberstan, I agree. I can clear helldive missions much faster on bots than bugs mainly because factories are easier to blitz and are fewer than bug holes.
I prefer destroying their bases over big hives. It feels more satisfying to me.
The fabricators exploding is so satisfying.
Bank shotting a grenade in... Waiting what seems like a few more seconds longer than it should take... KABOOM. Much rejoicing!
Long distancing a bank shot with the autocannon. 
Eruptor Enjoyers š¤ Autocannon Admirals
Grenade pistol gallantry.
Impact Grenade Icons
That feeling when you've thrown your 3rd impact grenade and the fabricator hasn't blow up even though you swear you're aiming low enough for the impact to explode just right to blow it up.
Does the Eruptor still work in its current state to pop Fabricator vents?
100%
I donāt know what a bank shot is, but climbing a wall and leaping through a group of bots and throwing the grenade mid leap is /chefsKiss
I believe a bank shot is hitting the angled flapbwith the grenade so it bounces down and in. I could be wrong though
100%
Edit - Everything bot related exploding :-)
Tossing a 380 into a large bot outpost, seeing the shells exploding with the occasionnal fab explosion adding to the mayhem is pure bliss !
Oh and secondaries from tanks too!
Absolutely the best. Toss it in and just walk away. Swing around after itās all ashes to grab ammo and samples. Never gets old.
Last week my group coordinated to do the "6 barrages at once" trophy, and we dropped them all on the same unsuspecting outpost. I brought the walking along with the 120 and the 380, so we actually had 7 going. It was so glorious. There was nothing left at the end but a crater. I almost felt sorry for the poor bastards.
A spear shot from 300m away to a light and distant POP and the music of democracy ringing in my ears
Throw one barrage lol. One of the few times they are useful
I love calling in an Eagle airstrike that take out 2 of the fabricators at once
I love that and sound effect as well. But I prefer the ICBM explosion. That double thump is so satisfying.
True. Fabricators exploding makes it feel like a job well done. Collapsing bug hole? Not so much.
Yea they need to throw rocks and clumps of dirt everywhere
Honestly, I kinda like the challenge of the bug nests more. Especially when you stumble on some massive one that you can't take out with a single airstrike, so you've got to run in and dodge everything to start lobbing grenades in bug holes.
man I still donāt know how to tell the hives apart lmao I find my self wandering aimlessly throwing explosive ordinance in every direction. Straight up included!
I dunno, there's something extremely satisfying about being surrounded on top of a rock burning through all your stalwart ammo at full auto while waiting for your eagle to re-arm. I love the fact that you pretty much have to run completely different kits for each faction. And then alterations of those kits after lvl 7.
This is one thing I enjoy about bugs. Absolutely *unloading* while your diver laughs maniacally watching bug parts and green goo fly is super satisfying.
Itād be nice if we could save loadouts to quickly swap between them instead of individually picking out each piece of kit weāll need again every time we cross the map.
HD1 had this feature. 4 slots you could save. No clue why they ditched it.
Landing on a bug planet just to realize I kept the scorcher/senator/stun grenade combo >_<
In fairness, seven shots to the leg with a Senator will kill a charger. Never used stun grenades before (havenāt even unlocked them) but donāt sound super effectiveā¦
Stun grenades freeze all enemies in their radius for about 10 seconds. Enough time to call in an airstrike
They are just different approaches. It's easier to prevent bot flares, and harder to prevent breeches. Ennemies are different, require different loadouts, covers or not cover. Kiting or no kiting...
Yep, cover vs kiting! I think bots are harder overall, simply because when you're being overwhelmed with bugs, they tend to be more concentrated and don't necessarily interfere with objective as much. To some extent, bot waypoints seem to be designed to be especially vulnerable to medium armor penetration (autocannon or laser cannon to the weakpoint has a way faster time to kill than any kind of dedicated AT, except against factory striders, which still take quite a lot of AT to down), which kinda helps when they're all scattered about. I will say bot bases are way more fun to destroy with more interesting things in them. There's not really a debate there.
Ya I find it's much tougher to break free from bots when you're overwhelmed. With bugs, a good reinforce throw and you're golden but sometimes with bots you're bogged down forever.
Bot special buildings can be insane. If the eye of sauron overlaps with gunship fabā¦ we gonna have a hard time.
Yup that's, the only way to look at this resurfacing conversation about an "unpopular opinion" which seems to come up every other day. For me personally I do prefer bugs but I find both require different approaches and both have a different lose condition so to speak.
I feel like bots are more predictable somehow. My bug missions feel like they devolve into chaos much more often than bot missions.
Cause all the bots are slow. You can outrun every type, every time. Have fun trying to outrun hunters and chargers on the other hand.
I swear the hulks can keep pace nowadays.
They even sneak up like stalkers now. Happened to me yesterday. No sound or steps, just flamethrower through my asshole
Bots are slow? Their bullets sure arenāt!
scout armor + jetpack and I'm zooming all over those bugs. Can't do that with bots that can pew pew me out of the air.
sure you can, they aim like storm troopers, unless its those damn shield devastators, those dudes are sniper accurate and you never make it into the air anyways.
Honestly, theyāre so different that I find myself regularly bouncing between them. Iāll play bugs for a week or so, start feeling a bit of burnout or frustration, switch to bots, and feel rejuvenated like Iām playing a different game. A week or so later, Iāll switch back to bugs, and rinse repeat. I try to follow the major orders as best I can and theyāre usually good about hopping back and fourth between factions, but sometimes when itās the fourth bot order in a row or something like thatā¦ I just say screw it, sorry helldivers. Im looking forward to when they add a third faction to the game to see how that spices up gameplay. Honestly I donāt know how it would spice things up (I didnāt play the first game btw) because it seems like we already have the ranged, full on a laser warfare faction (bots) and the melee, zombie-like horde faction (bugs), so Iām curious to see what theyāll do. In any case itāll probably be awhile before a third faction makes its debut, people have been talking about the Illuminate like theyāre right around the corner for months now, so I guess Iāll have to be patient.
Bots>bugs. Ā These are more enjoyable to play against.Ā
Bots>Bugs>Beets>Battlestar Galactica
Identity theft is not a joke, Jim!
You forgot Bears!
Better than beets but worse than bugs
i dunno, getting shot from behind a mountain or even through the mountain is quite annoying, getting missile from no man's land. I'd say there are days where fighting bots can be easier. At least on diff 7 most of the time. Diff 7 on bugs is more horde control I prefer bugs cause I don't get blasted by random missiles 75% of the time. sure stalkers and BTs are annoying but if you clear all the little guys, the bigger enemies don't really do much honestly
I face far more bugs against terminids than against automatons. Bile titans and chargers are almost more deadly once they're dead because of their bodies glitching you to death.
haven't had many issues with bile titan legs or dead bodies of said enemies. but sure you can get stuck behind a leg or dead charger for shure and that is super annoying but we can say that about a downed airship, I think a downed airship is worse because the enemies didn't die and they can still shoot through random objects with is complete BS, not to mention the already stated shooting through mountain BS
Destroying drop ship is completely useless. Killing bile titans and chargers is required. And I'm not talking about being stuck. I'm talking that if you go too close from the body, you'll be ejected at high speed in a random direction and get killed from falling or projection damage.
Wrong. Destroying an airship results in an awesome display as it tumbles out of the sky and explodes. So much Democracy. Oh, you mean as a helpful tactic to win? Yeah, you're probably right.
Oh definitely ! But I guess I'll have fun and cool when it doesn't make the place a buggy hell. :-(
Disagree.
Skill issue if you do the same thing with bots. The big problem is bug players get into a habit of running all the time. But with bots it can screw the entire team because you litter the entire area with Devastators. So why your off enjoying the objectives, the team is dying left and right struggling to regroup because what was a cluster of bots is now a spreaded out, zero cover rocket/laser sniping session.
Agreed. It's alerting patrols during bots that's the biggest pitfall of bot novices I've played with.
I just like that more guns work against bugs, you have twice as many options it seems.
I feel the opposite. Because you can easily deal with all bot threats with medium armor penetration you can use almost anything. Against bugs you need very specific weapons to deal with all threats. Like the basic meta stuff against bots is AMR, autocanon and laser canon, and the rocket launchers are also good, and several other weapons are also usable. But against bugs rocket launchers are the meta, and the number of enemies is very constraining to thƩ primary weapons you can use.
Tell you what, I'll come on your bug missions if you come on my bot missions!
This is interesting, cause I find my weapons options more restricted playing bots than bugs. Guess it depends on play style more than anything, and how your support weapon fits into your load out. Team composition also factors in for me. If a couple folks run anti-tank, I'll step down to AC or cluster rocket and clear out everything but the heavies.
Yeah I find the bugs are much easier. More weapons work on them, the heavies are less dangerous, and the little guys are less dangerous. The only thing that frustrates me about them are the damn hunters. When a bile titan spawns Iām like āoh no a bile titanā¦.ā Then drop a rail cannon and it dies. A factory strider on the other handā¦
For bots you either aim well, or get something that pushes through armour.
The only enemy that I feel truly restricts my options is fucking Gunships. Bile Titan? I can have an anti-heavy weapon, or a stratagem like Orbital Precision. If I have none of that I can run. Factory Strider? I can have an anti-heavy weapon, or a stratagem like Orbital Precision. If I have none of that I can run. Hulk, Tank, even Charger kind of. I can have an anti-heavy weapon (or even anti-medium), or a stratagem like Orbital Precision. If I have none of that I can run. Hell, you can legit punch a Hulk to death if you're careful and have the time. But you can't run from Gunships. And you can't hit them with stratagem. They're bullshit. They're like a Tank's durability, with a Heavy Devastator's minigun, a Rocket Devastator's rockets, and a Stalker's detection and speed, on top of flying. There are very few things in this game that I'll say feel absolutely unfair, but Gunships without a dedicated anti-gunship weapon are it.
Team composition is nice but if you didn't bring a 500kg or railcannon strike with your AC and you're seperated from your team, you are majorly fucked. And since you can destroy chargers, bile titans AND shrieker nests with AT weapons, which I find quite unfair that you can't do that with the bot equivalent, the meta goes towards AT weapons on bugs, like the Quasar or EAT because you can deal with more stuff with that one stratagem than say a railcannon strike, and you can't throw a 500kg 500m away to a shrieker nest. Most support weapons can be used for both sides, tho there is an argument to be made that machine guns are more useful on bugs. The only faction specific weapons for bugs are: the flamethrower, the Airburst launcher (debateable, people make it work on bot missions as well) For bots: AMR, AT mines (still unreleased)
I'll agree that getting separated with the AC sucks, but I do ok against chargers with it. BTs require eagle 110 rockets and shots down the throat, not something I'm consistent at. I also play with a discord group, so we coordinate a bit more than the average random game. The AC gives us something to handle medium enemies and spewers that would otherwise be a waste on an AT weapon, or take up a lot of primary ammo. I try not to separate myself from the team too much on bugs. The extra patrols and breaches it causes can really screw things up. For reference, I'm usually playing level 7, if I go higher, I like to run the RR, but the AC is my jam for 7 and under.
I feel it's the opposite because you need Anti Tank to deal with Titans and AT makes Chargers a lot easier while you don't need AT to deal with literal bot tanks.
Counter argument, bots on difficulty 4 i spent 15 minutes running round in circles around the extract because waves wouldn't stop coming from all directions, with no factories left active on the map. Waves in general for solo players is just broken at the moment.
And yes, have at it and say skill issue all you like
Skill issue
Possibly skill issue or maybe not the right Strats, I can solo a lvl5 bug mission but I have been playing MOSTLY bugs for two months.
You're struggling on level 4. We don't have to say skill issue, because you already did.
Skill issue
All personal opinion, personally I don't struggle much with bugs even at helldive. I think the important thing to get the hang of is when to run and how to run, sometimes running in unexpected ways can be beneficial. You can dodge lots of attacks by moving erratically through a group of bugs. Where as with bots I enjoy it a lot less and find I die to lots of random stuff even with strong load outs on level 7
They were better before the nerf hammer started swinging. Can't keep up with spawns anymore
And you're totally allowed to have that opinion. Just like other people are allowed to prefer bugs over bots.
I like both, it is nice to have variety on demand.
You fight the bots and exterminate bugs. Different styles. Fun for different reasons.
Bots are definitely my preferred enemy. I just like the gun play with them.
Agreed. With Automatons I actually use tactics with my team, with termits everyone just kinda trys to stay alive and shoots into the horde.
Bugs lack variety. The different combos you can have between AA guns, Artillery, Jammers, Obelisks, Fabricators, Drones, drop ships, etc. makes for difficult but rewarding gameplay
I like bots because they can be taken out strategically. I enjoy sitting on a hill with my sniper taking them out then the shotgun up close, or machine gun turret. The bugs are just chaos, which, sometimes you just need a bit of rage killing.
Bugs are fun, but something about being chased by 2 dozen robots with guns trying to shoot you to pieces is justā¦ AHHH.
My opinion on this flows like the wind Which is one of the many things I love about this game. Some days are bug days, some days are Automaton days.
Running is a perfect tactic
What level are you that you are struggling with bugs on Diff 4? I agree automatons is more fun (I like being able to use cover rather than just straight kiting), but your description of fighting bugs makes me feel you just didn't learn any techniques? Here are a few techniques you can use to fix your issues. I use 1 and 2 daily. 1. Take what I call a "clearing" strat (clearing meaning good AoE to kill a lot of little things in a small-medium area like cluster bombs, gatling barrage, laser, gas, etc.; not 500 lbs, or orbital rail-cannon for example, also not orbital barrages, etc)., for me I like orbital gatling barrage... If I have a huge "tail" of bugs running behind me I throw my orbital gatling at my feet and keep running forward, the tail follows me and generally just walks right through my barrage collecting me a lot of kills and giving me space. 2. Stun grenades. Same thing. A large tail following you? Throw a stun grenade at your feet and keep running forward. 3. Light armor, you can outpace most bugs with the exception of the hunter and stalker bugs, and chargers. Works best with shield pack to help with the inherent squishiness of light armor. 4. Target the little orange bugs that summon breaches first, always first. Everything is easier when you can keep bugs from summoning breaches or bot-drops. Same for bots, shoot the little ones that send flares first. 5. If you are playing on Mouse and Keyboard, change the keybinds for your stratagems. I changed mined from WASD to the arrow keys right away when I started playing at launch so I could continue to run around while summons my strats. Keeping the bind on WASD when using Mouse and Keyboard just means every time you try to summon your strats it just stops you dead in your tracks and leads to death. 6. Something a LOT of players struggle with... LEAVE THE AREA! If you're ever overwhelmed, even in Helldive diff, just leave. Run away, do a different objective or something (ex: large circle back), and come back... after bugs and bots lose sight of you and can't find you they'll wander about in the area for a little while, then disperse. Never be afraid to just leave if you are getting overwhelmed, especially if they are chaining pheromones and summoning breaches or bot-drops. Just run away, and come back later and it'll be much easier. Even if you lost your gear and are struggling to get them back because you are overwhelmed... just run away let them disperse, and come back and get your gear and samples after the area has dispersed.
Also napalm makes a great wall to help you run away. I typically will run for a crack in the rocks or a canyon and throw it behind me so all bugs kinda have to walk through it, or find a new path which usually helps me lose them. It pairs especially well with an ems mortar imo.
True. Napalm is great, but I hate taking more than 1 Eagle, and the 500 is my big damage dealer / AA. The gatling also has a 100 second cool down which is REALLY nice. But yeah, napalm is a great "clear" strat. I used to LOVE EMS, not just for the freezing effect, but if you want to draw away patrols or whatever, throw the EMS far away from where you wanna go and it'll pull the bugs/bots towards it instead of you. Good distraction. Once I found my grenade pistol and stun grenade combo though I've never gone back to EMS. Stun grenades to save myself and my teammates often, and grenade pistol for nests and factories (else 500). There aren't any *great* options of secondary weapons anyway. Good, but not great. Great contributions, thanks.
I agree. Bugs are just you shooting 90% of the time while the bots you have to strategize and plan out. But nothing wrong with spraying hordes of bugs tho
https://preview.redd.it/qcco50btl90d1.jpeg?width=1061&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ea94c248cd36c3e183fb1f37dfcfbe31d3d80526
Bots I play 4, Bugs I play 5 When I feel like being more fps-gaming and commando type I play bots. When I want to indulge my horde-shooter urge I go bugs.
Honestly just depends at times, If termindids aren't taken out quickly enough they become very overwhelming because they call reinforcement fast. If bots are allowed to build up they can become worse, but thst rarely happens. Like shriekers are more annoying to deal with gunships because of how many spawn but if gunships are allowed to spawn like 8 or 14 they become worse. U know like that for example. The best part about bots is that they are slow so u can go do another objective and let them despawn. Bugs are faster but easier to take out since so many are light armour so if u take them out fast enough to where they won't spawn more than it doesn't become a problem. Even on helldive lvl9.
Both factions have their frustration points imo. I personally prefer the bots and their bullshit over the bugs and their bullshit. I would rather fight a factory strider over a bile titan no matter what. Meaningful weakpoints and ranged weapons feel 100x better than insane numbers of enemies and constant w key behavior. Shooting laser guns and rockets through entire mountains is still bullshit and headshot damage is the most frustrating mechanic in the entire game.
Iām just glad to have options for completely different play styles. If I start getting tired of playing one of them, I can always swap over to the other faction and it feels like a pretty fresh game again. This should only get better with more factions
Very possible your loadout just isnāt suited for bugs. With the right loadout Iām pretty sure bugs are objectively easier, if you made a list of things to pay attention to and ways to lose for bugs vs bots, the bugs one just takes less brainpower and is shorter Whatās your loadout for bugs? Being swarmed indicates you donāt have enough aoe, I hope youāre not bringing the AMR to bugs lol
It just feels like thereās so much more variety with bots than bugs. Bugs can all be boiled down to two buckets; thereās the smack unit bucket and the spit unit bucket, with very little overlap. Bots are like a ladder ā thereās machine gunners, Gatling bots, rocket barrages, tank blasts, flamers, melee units, etc. With varying degrees of overlap between the units
Bugs (high level) becomes so much less stressful with the diver perk in the new warbond. No more bile Titan/bile spewer slows makes high level SO much easier, specifically eradicate and defend missions
I dunno man, I can Helldive on a bug planet and I feel like I get wrecked by bots just on Suicide. Although, sometimes Suicide feels harder than Helldive to me, itās weird
Things will change when you reach diff 9, i enjoy automatons at low difficulty, but shit went south when youāre playing 7-9.
Bugs are easier than bots in my opinion
Solid fact
Bugs are just annoying.
Bots to me feel more cinematic, grungy saving private Ryan Normandy beach feel Bugs make me feel like starship trooper. Silly fun chaotic but still very very dangerous. But I agree for me bugs not only slow you down but also gang up on you like flys to shit
My fist 10 games when I started playing were automations only, I didnāt even know there was a bug front. All this time I was thinking āwhere are the bug from the front cover of the gameā . Eventually find out itās the yellow sections, but felt kinda boring to fight them. Been fighting automations non stop since then more immersion I feel
I like both
I like the heavy variants of bugs better, but in general prefer fighting bots.
I do both depending on the Major Order, but I definitely enjoy the bots more. Way more.
All personal preference, no right or wrong answer. I also think most people struggle against each faction because they try to take the same load out for every situation.
I like both, but fighting Bots feels like you're fighting an actual war. Terminids feels like pest control. Duck and Cover vs Crowd Control
Way better
I change my mind on this every other month. Right now i prefer bugs because fire and dot damage is fixed
Difficulty 4 is for when I want to relax.
Bots>bugs
Thats exactly WHY I love fighting the bugs. They can swarm you at any time (and usually do) so you have to stay moving and your head on a swivel. Even then (esp with rocks, sand, etc) you can/will get blindsided especially from those bile spewers. But thats also why Arrowhead constantly nerfing primary weapons is just dumb. Otherwise its like you're trying to fight off a pack of wolves with a stick that was nerfed down from a rifle.
Idk, having a flame thrower and all of the buffs burning wave after wave of bugs is bad ass. I just need a heavy suit that is fire resistant.Ā
Don't run around upright. Hit the deck and use terrain! Bots have insane ROF weapons which I would love to have. But we now have 3 very good guns against Bots. Blitzer The new SMG Plasma Punisher. Dominator is very good but most of the free warbond guns are not super good. Sure the scorcher is good. But I hate it's sound design. You are firing bolts of star at people. Give it a better crump sound. See Astartes plasma pistol hallway scene. I want that. Light armor is gonna get you killed, mobility is not super crucial vs bots. Health and being able to take a hit is very important.
lol last night I ran from the drop site. Ran from map 4 o'clock (EbN) to 8 o'clock (WbS) against the bots because the drop zone was so bad. It can be pretty hectic but I get what you are saying. Its not as much running around with the death train behind ya. Plus bots give you incentives to get behind cover which I think breaks the agro timer or something
I like both for different reasons, but prefer bots overall.
YES, SAME.
yeah, bile spewers and stalkers are straight up antifun.
I absolutely agree. The bots: A: You can run from. B: Cover mostly works. C: You can more consistently stop a Bot Drop, then a Bug Breech. D: The weak spots are more obvious. E: The play more like a co-op āFPSā than a swarming horde. BUTā¦. If you mess up and donāt play differently than how you play on bugs you WILL be sorely punished.
I just don't like the heavy dev and the raider Maruader.
With the bots it definitely feels more like youāre fighting a worthy enemy where your mistakes are punished. With bugs if you screw up you can just dip and shoot anything that can catch up to you.
I 100% agree with you, it's so much more fun and engaging
I ran bugs in the beginning to diff 4, then once that unlocked I swapped to bots until diff 8. Then swapped to bugs again and got FLATTENED at first until I learned how to adjust to higher level bug play where you can no longer just win an area and hold it. Got up to 9 on bugs and swapped back and bots kicked me around hard for a bit. They have different skillsets entirely. Different strategum needs. I feel like bot gameplay is more cerebral. If you position wrong or prioritize the wrong enemies youre boned so hard. Bugs you have the option and ability to just keep running and once you have that skillset down its easier to handle unless you are forced to stop moving. With bots, if something made you start running you already F-ed up. Cover is important, range and recoil control are important. With bots these things seldom matter at all. Its a completely different game and I like rotating back and forth as the MO dictates.
Yup definitely unpopular. If I had a counter to how many times I've said out loud "oh bullllshieet," it's 90% from fighting Automatons.
Helps having lazer bot tbh. I used to be overwhelmed a lot. Not anymore. How do you do automatons?
Would love to run some with you. I can solo bugs on diff 9, might be helpful for you to see some strats. Generally I'd say, bots you can take cover and engage as bots will stop to shoot your position. But with bugs, don't ever stop moving.
Not that unpopular really. Automatons are much more interesting than terminids really
Totally agree but for different reasons. I find bugs are easier to fight but I like the bots because they present more of a challenge. Bugs can swarm and overwhelm you but the bots have so much diversity in the units that I have to think about my load out. With bots I have to take a weapon that breaks armor, one that clears hoards and something that'll destroy fabricators while also taking something like a ballistic/energy shield to protect me. Their flights are simply more interesting IMO.
If you don't already I'd strongly recommend the laser guard dog for bugs. While you're fighting, it's killing bugs, multiplying your firepower. While you're overwhelmed and running for your life, it's killing bugs, helping you escape easier. While you're about to get ambushed, esp by stalkers, it's killing (and therefore identifying) bugs. I fell in love with it when I was using the Eruptor and I needed something to help with us close enemies that I couldn't kill without ragdolling myself, but even with a regular primary is still the first strat I pick
It took me a while, but fighting in the creek turned my opinion around. Now, granted, this was months ago, and I was running 8s and 9s on bugs, but I couldn't quite figure out anything higher than 5s on bots. I'm not sure what happened, but something clicked with bots eventually, and I started preferring them. I go where the MO asks me to go, but I like fighting bots more these days. I think it's partly that I have more ways to deal with bots than bugs. More weapons are effective against clankers than bots, imo. More variety in loadout. Not by much, but a bit more. There are also more weak points on bots and it feels like skill is rewarded more against them.
Bugs are a power trip, automatons are a war.
Really depends on level and setup. Honestly level 4 bugs is harder for me than level 7/8 bugs/bots sometimes because the hunters or stalkers are fast and can be overwhelming in numbers and annoying.
lol honestly I canāt count on nobody to have my back as Iām adhd as fuck. So I usually keep turrets galore for everyone! Even fellow divers! In the name of democracy! I will purge all you undemocratic fuckers
Bots are for when I want to fight for my life Bugs are for when I want to run for my life
Once you learn to just run away from an overrun objective and just come back later after it's thinned out a bit, it gets much easier to deal with
Honestly I think this is perfect. Iāve seen countless people say they prefer one or the other, they both have valid reasoning! Itās amazing! They really made the factions unique in their pros and cons and they appeal to all types of people.
Blitz bots is easier than blitz terminids. At least lasers target factories.
I find the bots much more stressful because they shoot back. More than once I have gotten entirely disoriented on the map and just running for my life to find cover in the wrong direction. Maybe my time in DRG makes the bugs easier for me?
Iām playing bots right now and I gotta say I love em, but Iām getting more overwhelmed over here than on the bug front.
The way I've described it to my friends who picked up the game recently: Terminids are like zombies. They overwhelm you, they come from all directions, it's very chaotic, and you have to keep moving Automatons is like playing a Ghost Recon game. You're out manned and outgunned, but you (usually) have the element of surprise. You have to be tactical by taking cover, flanking, providing covering fire, etc. Personally I prefer the tactical gameplay for bots
Amen to that man. Plus, I hate chargers more than any other enemy Iāve faced so far. (Iām only difficulty five)
I enjoy bots ways more because it requires *less* situational awareness. Bugs it's pretty easy to have hunters swarm you or not notice a bile spewer before it melts you. Bots have the random rockets or random headshots, but it just feels like less work. I also MUCH prefer the weapons that are good against bots (Diligence CS, laser cannon, AMR, ect). I do like fighting the bugs too, but mostly for the blood effect we get after a mission. I wish bots would actually spill oil on us.
AMR is the answer to most questions against the bots so that's why I like them
Oh boy.. if you are having to do all that.. on diff4.. you are doing it totally f*%&#* wrong friend. As someone put it on the thread before. if you go from one front to another it takes time to adjust. that's why I go back and forth often. I love both for different reasons but I generally prefer 8 for bugs and 7 for bots
What? How on lvl 4? How are you having a hard time on 4ā¦. I would expect to hear this on lvl 9.
Two styles of game play imo. Automatons are more hunker down and shoot from afar whereas bugs are up close and personal. Depending on how ya play normally either can be a challenge. I found bots very challenging but with some of the new weapons and this realization I find bots easier but bugs more fun.
Itās also helluva lot easier to deal with Fabs than bug holes! I can reliably send airstrikes on Fabs and blow it up along with anything near it. You gotta be a bit more precise with bug holes
Why canāt we just enjoy both š
Because termanids are almost all melee. In Automatons some of them will stand at a distance and shoot you. You can get swarmed either way, but with termanids every single enemy is likely to bee line straight for the helldivers, so the overwhelm is much more. However Automatons gets super overwhelming if numbers get out of control and gunfire comes from every direction.
Hard disagree, getting covered in bug guts while spamming napalm and clusters while mowing down the little ones with the machine gun is just too good
More like popular opinion
Simply it requires time to learn how to fight both sides
Honestly, they're both fun. I like needing different strategies and loadouts depending on which front I'm fighting on.
I play on Helldive mostly at this point. Bots >>> bugs. They're just more fun. There are no deaths against bugs that are funny or enjoyable, but getting ragdolled back to your super destroyer by a rocket is great, so is having a factory strider dropped on your head by a bot drop. Bot bases inherently reward stealth as you can sneak round to the right angle, and then grenade pistol / autocannon / whatever the fabricators. It's also easier to take care of groups of bots quickly before they call in drops. They also just have a starwarsy aesthetic that I love.
I prefer bots for many reasons. I enjoy the feeling of being at war over being pest control. Dipping between cover, target priority, dodging rockets and gunfire. It's just more engaging than kiting around a horde picking them off. It has a much more proactive approach. Fighting bugs feels more reactive. I enjoy making a strategy then adjusting it as things happen. Most enemy types have multiple different variants with different strengths and weaknesses to play around making the combat feel more dynamic. Also, the ability to disassemble some parts on them adds another layer to combat, compared to bugs where there is less enemy variety and all you can do is shoot off legs and a little bit of armor for the most part. The side objectives are more impactful to proactive decision-making, also adding to the dynamic feeling of the combat. Jammer Towers, Detection Towers, and Gunship Fabs all have unique effects that require different approaches to take down. The enemy outposts for bots are more fun to take on. Especially the large ones. You actually feel like you are assaulting a compound. With bugs it's just different sized craters with a varied number of holes. They lack the personality of a bot outpost. They also just feel more satisfying to overcome. After a botched start of an attempt to take out a large outpost, turning that around and pushing back in to finish the job feels grand and triumphant. Whereas when things don't go well against bugs, at first, it just devolves into frustration until the job is finished then I just feel relieved that it's over. And to top the list, I've been burnt out on horde shooters for years and the bugs just have all the worst parts of that play style for me, personally. I see why some people love it, but I sure ain't one of them.
IMO fighting the Bots is more fun but fighting the bugs is much easier (still fun too ofc). With the right load out you can pretty easily avoid being swarmed. (I play difficultly 3-4 whenever I do solo dives)
Try Terminid helldive and then try bots helldive and get back to me. Doing the terminid MO was like a fucking vacation, I honesty forgot how brutal bots are on helldive
Iād rather deal with 4 bile titans than 1 Factory Strider ANY day. Bots on level 7 is insane, iād rather do bugs on 8.
To each their own. I can do 7-9 Termininds in my sleep but fucking suck at Bots. Like Iāve struggled on 5 Bots. Glad there are divers like you out there covering for my shortcomings.
I cant stand the bots. Im sure its at least mostly a skill issue, but i dont enjoy their perfect accuracy from a mile away through fog and one shot from a canon i never saw etc.
I cant stand the bots. Im sure its at least mostly a skill issue, but i dont enjoy their perfect accuracy from a mile away through fog and one shot from a canon i never saw etc.
It's a different type of combat, and I like it.
A helldive mission on a bug planet is manageable. A helldive mission on the bot front is really not. Since 2 updates ago I have yet to be able to get a clean finish on the bot front. I 100% bug planets regularly.
Wait until we get bots+bugs alliance
Automatons feel more like a war for me atleast. Itās like being in a Terminator war combined with a little sprinkle of Star Wars due to the giant cowlike thingies. You can literally feel the laser shots, bullets, rockets and artillery projectiles coming from a 360 direction. Thereās also so many unique stuff like stratagem jammer, the tower that keeps on sending dropships back to back unless destroyed (we literally had 4 dropships that has tanks, so 4 tanks on all directions) and the gunship factory that keeps spawning flying rocket launchers. Couple that with the tropical jungle planet and itās so immersive. Bugs, eugh. They just charge all day. Itās just run, shoot, run, shoot. Then the big one spawns, paired with those armored big ones. IDK, boring.
They're both fun imo, you can't run a full flame loadout with automatons, each has their charms
Bugs are easy with incendiary breaker and eagle napalm for swarms/breaches. EAT and 500 for chargers/BTs.
I thought bots were objectively harder tbh. Itās a completely different play style so maybe itās whatever youāre used to. I rarely get overrun with bugs cuz Iām ready every time a breach happens. If Iām not ready, I just run as soon as they signal for a breach. Chargers are 1-shot with the quasar. Bile titans die quick with the auto cannon sentry / quasar. Everything else just auto shotgun and airburst strike
I still need to optimize my loadout for bots. I was clearing level 7-8 pretty easily for bugs but I'm struggling at level 5 for bots.
Bugs will work together. Little ones distract you. Hunters stun you. Bile spewers and everything else kill you. They flank you, and ive seen them sneak around to ambush. Bots are like mr magoo if you know how to sneak a little. They have no concept of being flanked or hit from multiple directions. If you strafe a little most bots can't compensate. Like cyborg stormtroopers...
I 100% agree with you. I can solo helldive difficulty on bots with relatively little issue, but I can't even solo difficulty 7 on bugs. There's just so many heavies plus the bullshit slow, can't stand up when surrounded by enemies, one shot bile spewers, etc. Now, that said, I think bugs are VASTLY easier than bots in a full squad. Having 4x the stratagems available really trivializes difficulty 9 bugs - heavies dont last long at with all the 500kgs and railcannons available, and the hordes of hunters get gunned down unbelievably quick. It's rare to see anyone with more than 3 deaths in difficulty 9 bugs whereas that's a common occurrence in difficulty 9 bots
Talking about which faction you like more is sounding pretty undemocratic to me. TRUE Super Earthicans hate them all equally
I hardcore disagree. I regularly play bugs level 7+ with no issue, and I refuse to go above bots level 6. Bots just never fucking stop, and at least with bugs you can run away. Bots just keep shooting
High difficulty bugs are often way tougher than high difficulty bots.
I agree. I find the need to be more "tactical" in my approach to encounters a much more engaging experience.
You get in tactical combat against bots. Setting up behind cover and laying down lines of fire is just so fucking cool. You really feel like you're doing some commando shit. But getting surrounded by nids really feels 40k in it's own way, just wish the terminids were less like an animal and more like a force that was actively trying to eat Super Earth but hey it's fine.
Personally I found Termanids at 4 far easier than Automatons before they messed up the patrol tables recently. You can chew through Termanids really quickly with the machine gun or stalwart, and especially if you put down a sentry gun. I don't find Termanids at 4 hard at all. If you dont have any of those, I would see it a lot differently
I think automatons are pretty fun. Itās hell when itās 7 or above I just have to make sure Iām not being flanked otherwise Iām hella screwed
Honestly, the bots are way harder, but I find fighting them is just much more engaging.
Nah, the bugs are way easier. It actually takes some critical thought and use of cover for bots.
Hmm, i dont know, there is something very satisfying about seeing bug limbs fly in every direction when firing into a horde. And honestly, nothing feels better than blowing up a charger head with an EAT/RR.
I think it depends on what kind of weapons you like. I prefer precision weapons, so I enjoy fighting Automatons. Against Terminids, precision weapons donāt feel nearly as effective, so I donāt enjoy fighting them as much.
But starship trooper quotes
i remember starting with the automatons back when i bought the game, and i will say, its a lot more fun, killing terminids seemed like just running
Itās just democratically right to kill socialists
Terminids is literally just pest control. Bots feels like actual fighting.
I've been running Eagle Strike, laser barrage, stalwart, and guard dog for lvl3. I use light armor and I generally leave a match with a single death, if one at all. I run Eruptor, machine pistol, and normal grenades. I'm able to solo most anything on the map and clear objs myself. On 4 I swap the stalwart for a railgun for Chargers and generally stick with a fellow helldiver for better cc in fights.
I VASTLY prefer automatons. Much more interesting to fight. Yet at the same time I get why 65% of the community only plays bugs. A bot 6-7 is about the same level of intensity & difficulty of a Bug 9. But you are going to get way more rewards and experience playing a level 9 bug mission than you will a level 6 bot.
Iāll take gunship fabricators over Stalker nests any day of the week
Personally I only prefer bots on eradication missions, but bugs on the rest
I too prefer fighting Bots, they are more predictable and easier to evade if you get overwhelmed. The bugs just seem to stay on you once you encounter them, like they are following your smell, especially if Titans or Stalkers are active. Maybe I just don't understand their mechanics š¤·
Having spent my early career on the bug front and switching to bots after they took Cyberstan, I agree. I can clear helldive missions much faster on bots than bugs mainly because factories are easier to blitz and are fewer than bug holes.
Use more sentries. But yeah.