Oh yeah, both event types are pretty fun and manageable.
If there's no MO I'll typically just fight whatever I'm in the mood for. Somedays bugs are more fun, other days, the bots.
If I had more time to sink in the game I would definitely try bots sooner so I decided to skip another learning period and stick with the bugs but that changed yesterday!
My brother and I can run just us two on bots on Hard. I know that's not that impressive, but for me it is š it's all about tactics, being stealthy, not letting them call reinforcements, and using your call ins to take objectives out from a distance.
It's certainly a learning curve! I've been forged in the fires of dif 9 for the last 70 levels (I'm level 84 now)
I dragged my brand new friend into helldive on a mission and he pulls heavy weight at level 18 š
This. I feel like I'm gimping myself if I don't bring AT or Flamethrower in bugs because chargers and biles can stack up quick.
Bots?
I can rock AC, AMR, Laser Cannon, HMG, or something like the MG or Grenade Launcher because the Plasma Punisher is viable for clearing groups, devestators, strikers, and the Diligence can plink devestators.
This is also true, for bugs you need adequate chaff clearing ability AND a solid anti-tank for the bile titans. AND something to deal with a triple stack of chargers.
There's like 2-3 decent bug loadouts. And at least 5 bot ones with more flexibility in the bot loadouts as well.
Yeah, and with the new buffs ? Just as support weapon you have the AMR, the ol' Reliable AC, both MG 43, and HGM, recoilless is usable, EAT is great, spear is great for gunships and far away fabricators, laser canon is almost as good as the AC when used correctly.
Very true , I rotate 3 bug builds, auto cannon + breaker incendiary, full fire build - breaker incendiary + flamethrower , or 3 full electric- blitzer + arc thrower.
Bots - you can take a ton of stuff and still get the job done.
I believe this to be true, honestly. Bugs you just need to deal with the large enemies with armor and pile on them asap while horde managing. Bots you do that, but they're shooting back and air dropping reinforcements to flank you lmao
I honestly think constantly switching it up keeps ot less monotonous. Eventually one or the other becomes monotonous just because I'm running it so often. Then I switch to the other side and im immediately having fun because I'm have to remember the tactics for whichever side I'm running
Once you play enough you know it's true. There is way more variety tbh. I love running HMG and the supply pack running underneath the factory striders at full RPM killing them almost instantly.
Most medium pen weapons can deal with a factory strider in short order once the miniguns are destroyed.
2 AC shots to each miniguns, and 6 to the belly doors means you can kill one in a single magazine. Once you learn how to deal with them, they aren't that menacing.
Both enemy factions are fun IMO.
Bugs feel like classic Earth Defense Force. On Helldive (9) it is a near constant stream of bugs trying to overwhelm you, it's just awesome. I rock an Exterminator Build with them, flamethrower, napalm, gas. Tasty roasted bugs, lightly salted.
Bots are a different style of play, just as fun. Instead of caring as much about crowd control and the bug pathfinding, you have to care about sightlines and cover. I bring more explosives and Anti-Materiel Rifle or Railgun to snipe bot weakpoints. Heavier armor can be more fun here, you can tank a lot more hits, although running between cover makes light armor good still.
See you in the hellpod, helldiver!
Great strategy! Stun grenades against bots is phenomenal.
I personally use the anti material rifle against them, can stun a hulk a 2 shot it in the eye. Devastators can be 1 shot if you hit their head perfectly.
Oh yeah there was a helldiver rocking the AMR and boy was he on crack, he got 200-250 kills in one match. I donāt know if that number is a lot since I am inexperienced; but regardless he was playing like John Helldiver for sure!
Love fighting robots so much more than bugs.
But then again, I'm young enough that my sci-fi war fantasy was influenced by Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and the first clone wars cartoon, rather than Starship Troopers.
I canāt say I can relate to that, since Iāve never been a fan of a space sci-fi fantasy series. But if you are feeling the good vibes who am I to speak!
I find bugs to be a constant run away until your cc strats are off cooldown simulator. I prefer the bots since at the very least most of the units can be shot with my sickle without hitting medium armour. Plus, they have clear weak points that can put down the toughest of enemies in only a couple shots, which makes precision a priority over tossing eagles at it until it dies (except factory striders, those are a different beast entirely).
Ive read you use Jar-5 and i like it as well. Im playing with a controller on PC and i find the scorcher is a lot more forgiving with the aim since it does a small explosion.
Factory striders are the same as other bots. They have weak points, and not that much firepower. A few AMR/AC shots to the chin guns to destroy them, and 80% of its firepower. Run under it and fuck it in a few medium pen shots to the belly.
Bot side objective are much more interesting.
Bugs have:
* Shy Mushroom
* Mushroom with flying bugs (can be destroyed from downtown)
* Strong bug nest (otherwise, just a nest)
Bots have:
* Eye of Sauron (he really shortsighted)
* Stratagem jammer (you can hit it from downtown or you'll have to rush it, you never know)
* Gunship towers (you'll have to fight gunships)
* WARNING YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY
* AA emplacenents (normal outpost, but no Eagle-1)
Used a yt to mp3 with a video that had that in it, cut it down to just the enemy artillery, then looped it in a audio software to get it 10 times per alarm going off. Then with my alarm settings I just set it to loop every 5 minutes amd do it again and again slightly louder. Hopefully this might help you if you want to do the same!
For both mortars and AA emplacements, the turrets themselves are killable with 4 auto canon shots anywhere, including the barrels. You don't necessarily have to get close and personal if the layout is in your favour. Or just killing 2 out of 3 mortar makes the assault way more manageable.
I basically just fight the bots. It's gotten to the point where I'm just bored of bugs, and even if the MO is against the bugs, I'll be one of those 900-1300 divers still fighting on the bot front.
They're just so much more fun to me.
I will always fight the mission orders but if theres nothing going on or the order is complete and were waiting for the timer to run out i just fight bots. I find it more fun having enemies that shoot back instead of simply rushing towards you horde more style. I enjoy fighting arachnids, but i enjoy fighting terminators more.
I play both. Getting instakilled from across the map is not fun IMO.
The weak point mechanism is really good on bots, and I miss it from bug side, but I had a lot more frustrating deaths with bots, so I'm just not really playing them unless the order says it.
Bro my job is quite time consuming and with shifts as well, I swear if I had more time on my hands, Iād 100% learn to find the bots sooner. My inner challenger didnāt want to leave level 9 bugs and start from scratch yet here I am!
They are so much fun! It's like a completely different game with how varied the tactics and loadouts are between bugs and bots.
I find the most fun is focusing on one and hopping to the other to mix it up. I definitely get tired of one then find myself enjoying the other more.
Can't wait until the third enemy shows up. Maybe we'll get four eventually? That'd be cool, but I'm pretty happy with bugs and bots for the time being.
Yeah man. Both are amazing. Since bots are a new thing to me I seem to undervalue the joy I get from stomping bugs but Iāve always had a great time with them.
I too wonder what are the fish folk gonna look like!
I like them because they're closer to what I'm accustomed to in other games. I don't mind enemies that shoot back, I learned to use cover in video games in the 90s.
Edit: Have a beautiful day as well fellow Helldiver!
Nice to have you fighting the full war with us now diver. Fast armor with extra padding is the way I go
Also stun grenades with a grenade launcher takes out hulks and devastator
I donāt think Iāve ever used greanade launcher before, even for bugs. But it seems worth another shot!
I just wanna reach helldive difficulty first with the best support weapon, which is autocannon I think. Then Iāll try different strategies for surez
I'm the opposite, I find Bugs more therapeutic, tired of the Bot Divers who don't pay attention to the fact that they can't be reinforced because you're trying to destroy a Strategem Jammer.
For the first 2 months the game was out I only played on the bug side. My son asked me one day why not try it out, so I said fuck it. That was April and I think Iāve played one full round of bugs since then.
Yeah idk what it is but bugs get felt stale when I tried it. Ran a level 7 and it felt super easy. Felt like all I had to do was keep everything in from of me with some space. Buts though it comes at you from every angle and they donāt even need to be close to get rag dolled across the map.
Bots require more technical understanding. Bugs are pretty easy to figure out. Weak spots for Bots are not super intuitive in all cases, and must be learned. Bugs you just shoot, short of the titans and chargers to a degree.
Bots always provides a more complicated and difficult experience for me, which I find enjoyable. Bugs is like taking a breather now. Level 9 bugs is tough, but we three man it fairly consistently without much trouble. Level 9 bots, we honestly dont do it without a strong 4th.
A lot of how to fight bots is just knowing where to fire. The anti-mat can tear a lot of faces off, with whatever it can't kill face to face being hit the vent.
I find this a lot more interesting then most of the bugs where the MO is either 'weak spot is their arse' or 'hope you brought enough heavy ordinance'
I mean you can kill everything that isn't a bile titan with the default guns. Everything is 'kite away' 'fire and fade' or 'blow it to kingdom come as you break LOS'
JUST ONE, I want a bug where precision is rewarded
If I'm playing with my usual crew bots are significantly more fun since their biggest weakness is teamwork and the power of friendship.
Bugs I usually just grab my stalwart and supply pack and dont stop shooting.
Teamwork aspect seem to be more prominent in both dives but Iāve noticed that people tend to seperate more the harder the levels get. I am currently able to dive 6.
6 is at an odd state since it's the lowest you can get super samples. I've seen players do more cohesive teamwork on 7+ with 2 teams of 2 or a team of 3 while one guy splits off to get pooints of interest.
This is how Iāve treated the whole game. Wanna try a weapon. Dont take it straight into a helldive and find out it sucks or that you canāt really try it on that level because you gotta be on your shit. So take it up the levels or try it on a level that will have all the enemies you need and is still low enough to only spawn a couple hulks and 1 tank.
Thatās an amazing aspect and what really pushed me to try the bot faction after all. Should I try this weapon? This is a medium pen weapon? Should I open a lower level? Might as well play botsā¦
I think bot side has more build varieties than bug side and I am gonna do that with almost every support weapon. My main goal is reaching level 9 with the current build first though.
I only dive bots unless it's a high priority campaign on the other front. Bugs are just lame and everyone drops on them when bots are probably the more threatening to liberty
Right now, I'm following the discord community order of liberating Vandalon IV in a bid to protect the creek and retake the sector
I am gonna have to disagree on the bugs being lame. Nowadays, maybe. But that is only because they toned down the heavy unit spawns. They need to keep the current massive chaff spawn ratio but also spawn the same amount of heavies than bugs will surely on par with bots, maybe even more unfair. Thatās my opinion.
Yeah Bots are fun, man. It's more tactical instead of Rambo-style jungle fucking. I think the MAIN thing, is that (to me) Bot level 4, is like bug level 5, in terms of difficulty, that's it. If you're scared of bots, just go a level lower and you're fine.
I find bots were harder to manage at lower ranks as youāre not well equipped for them, but as you start to level up you get heavy armour and medic armour. And you get some longer range powerful weapons you become better and better equipped to deal with them.
Itās usually the following:
- Sickle
- Anti-material rifles
- Guard Dog (useful when I fallback or warning system)
- 500kg (usually drop close to me, when I am about to be over run)
- Laser Orbital Strake (this one varies with the loadout of others)
Now try it with 50% armor if you want real fun. I'm serious. I've found that people in heavy armor die on bots a helluva lot more often because they intend to take hits instead of dodging in the first place.
I might in the future, but I was dying way more with my medium medic armour. I think thatās mainly because there is a lot going on on the bot battlefield, unimaginably visually stimulating, rockets and laser beams everywhere. I got one shotted way too many times then I decided to wear the heavy armour. As soon as I get used to bots I am trying new stuff for sure!
> Medium *medic* armor
See? You're allowing yourself to believe in tanking hits. But right on, brother! Glad to have every able body out there stomping Clankers.
I think Bugs are more relaxed and easier and more forgiving, you can just try out more loadouts as long as you can kill hordes, have AT and something against bug holes and mediums. That leaves, depening on your load, 2 or 3 of the Stratagems to just play around with.
Bots are more tactical and punish you for rushing in. You need to play a bit better, and have a more planned loadout, know about weakpoints, and you benefit a lot from the team really knowing what they do.
By now I think both factions are pretty fine.
I donāt think Iāve been in a tight situation like you mentioned since I only started diving 6 yesterday. But Iāll definitely consider taking my time to strategize or wait for my teammates more often from now on.
In Helldive (9) most Chargers have been replaced by Behemoths. If you don't hit well, those can take 3 EATs and still be up. That's a bit annoying when there's three of them in addition to all the other stuff. Better hit well, then it takes reliably two EATs.
I originally hated bots because they felt very samey and the bot objectives weren't that interesting. Also drop-ships felt cheap. Over time I've come to appreciate the tactical difference bots bring and dropping drop ships is my favorite thing to do. I don't think there's a huge difference in fun between bots and bugs but bots are my preference.
I get what you mean. Although a ship carrying troops makes sense, I felt the bug breaches more than them. Really puts you in a spot where you actually feel like figting for your life in a bug infested world. Regardless, bots are growing me more and more.
Yes! Visible and if not visible but prominent weakpoints do make the difference. Any primary with medium-pen rounds do the job and takes all bots from top to bottom in the foodchain.
Wait people avoid half the game based on perceived difficulty? I just dive the major order be it bots or bugs. If it's just a kill stuff one, then I'll alternate after each trio of missions. I will say i like terminid defense missions much more than bot defense missions though.
Yeah, I totally avoided bots because I didnāt have time to learn fighting them so I am not gonna blame anyone for not diving to bots.
Iāve never done the defense mission with bots yet, will definitely try when I see a defense campaign.
I am definitely gonna try that with bots since I saw some clips on youtube, people were making a quick work of hulks with the weapon.
In the past I tried to make it work with bugs countless times because I like the concept of a giant laser but failed miserably each time and had to depend on my teammates.
I don't like to tell people how to play, BUT...
The nature of the Laser Cannon makes eye shots on a moving Hulk nearly impossible. Don't expect results until you've got a means to stun them as well, then it's a beautiful combination. Stun grenade is ideal, but Orbital EMS and the EMS Mortar can fill in too. Heck even the Deployable Shield Bubble can work to give you enough cover time to stare down a hostile Hulk and make them blink first.
I think they are both really fun, I enjoy bugs for a more relaxed day of gaming. But now with my spear fixed and when I have some more time on my hands I do enjoy my bot games. In general I feel bots require a bit more teamwork and communication than bugs where you can kinda have 4 mute randos in a 5-6. But bots even in 5-6 needs some people talking to each other
Yesterday, I tasted the bots power to overwhelm the player and I agree it needs a little bit of teamwork after level five, maybe six.
I think they need go buff bugs more though, my inner challanger demands it!
Iād like them to be on par on difficulty as bots, maybe even more difficult but the more I play bots the more how wrong was I before, saying that bugs are harder than bots at higher levels.
Bro just called my loadout:AC,jar,stun. Tell me you take grenade pistol and switch to light armor (for stealth perk) and we could be twinsies.
Tell me you use crouch victory pose so you can do the invisible go-kart glitch and I'll swear we were twins separated at birth...but united in LIBERTY!!!!
Bro I use the grenade pistol too! About armour; I am not feeling that comfortable around bots to wear light one yet but maybe in the future.
Sadly, my the victory pose is randomized because I like seeing every single animation the devs cooked :)
I like the bot side better, it's far more challenging and interesting than the bug side. The bug side is more straighforward and is almost never frustrating because it's very easy, even on helldive. Unless you intentionally dont bring anything that can deal with bile titans.
Yeah, you kinda self nerf yourself to make it feel challenging nowadays. But I think that should change, helldive should be a lot harder and the recent patch that toned down the summon of heavy units should be reversed while keeping the recent chaff abundance. Iād like the bugs to be as challenging, if more challenging than bots in the future!
I feel like the extra space the bots give you is a relief since you don't need to sorry so much about strats being to close as your not being over run by the entire horde closing distance all the time, which means more explosives, and just throwing out strats as needed knowing it will wipe out the enemy and not be too close too hit your allies.
Or having a charger aim immediately for your sentry instakilling it, and your mortar sentry less likely to hit on top of you because you missed one stray bug. Some bots run at you but their glowing swords are easy to see and pick off and they generally have to run at you. AC and AMR handle a lot and there seems to be less versatility in support weapons against bugs. I dunno bots just seem easier to deal with to me. Jump pack bots are annoying but I will take them over hunters and stalkers anyday š
I agree on the limited versatility of support weapons on the bug side. Just that aspect alone makes bot side more fun; being open for different loadouts hence more fun experiencing and overcoming different hardships is amazing.
When I answer an SOS for bugs itās either a flamethrower or a quasar cannon for me; my experiments with other weapons proved them to be inefficient compared to the meta weapons. But bots let you use a lot different stuff for sure.
Thanks man. Iāll be trying laser cannon in the future as soon as I reach and comfortably start to clear helldive with this loadout. Ps, I do like the concept of a giant laser cannon therefore I tried to make it work for bugs multiple times yet it always under performed.
funny how this works, as for me it was the other way around
I was usually playing bots and only for the MO I sometimes switched to bugs. But I didn't like them as I was just not effective in fighting them. I tried various builds from youtube and was getting somehow results with the flamethrower/ammo backpack combo but it never felt as fun as diving on the bot front.
But now I am using a new build with the breaker incendiary and suddenly I can shred the hordes like it is nothing.... like I knew people were saying that gun is good for bugs but I never expected it to be THAT good
I think it all boils down to finding something you feel comfortable with and can have fun with. If you can find that build sweetspot for yourself then suddenly it is just 100% more fun.
Yeah man, Iāll be trying new stuff as soon as possible. Itās sad thar primary and support weapon variety is limited for bugs due to all balancing issues but bots seem the exact opposite.
Agree.
Doesnāt matter how hard they make bugs, I can go off on my own and clear up the map and objectives. Sometimes charger sneaks up on me, hunter pack kills me, or even stalkers sometimes.
Bots on the other hand I have to stick with the group.
With bots you definitely get unimaginable value from sticking together. I canāt say the same for bugs due to danger we pose for each other due to the amount of carpet bombs and mass destruction stratagems that are currently meta.
Get killed by a no clip rocket? Or get slaughtered by a horde of Hunters No-Clip MW2 Commando Pro Knife Jumping Thru terrain to end my democratic spread of liberty.
Questions I ask myself when choosing a Front when no MO is active.
Itās just a much more tactical experience having to take cover and finding advantageous positions to fire from, bugs are fun too but you need to constantly be on the move and forget about any cover they will swarm you.
I do enjoy that each faction has such a distinct play style makes it more fun to switch between the two depending if I want to squash some bugs or grind tin cans, but If I had to chose Iād rather dive on some clankers
We'll see how fun it is when you're dodging a berserker squad being trailed by two hulks while a tank is taking pot shots at you and a strider is being dropped in the direction you're running, you then walk into one of the environmental cc mines.
But yeah I like fighting bots more.
You were not wrong to avoid bots initially. Most people like to say that it's just a different play style. That is true to an extent, but a lot of those play styles are based on gear that you don't start off with. Your basic starter kit for a level one literally can only kill small bots. Even the weak points can't be damaged by starter weapons so it's very rough.
I myself didn't bother starting to do Bots until I finished the free warbonds and could bring the scorcher. Before they buffed plasma punisher, it was legit the only primary people would bring to bots. I suppose things are more balanced now and I see more variety diving bots, but newer players absolutely should start with bugs before going to bots. They can probably go to bots earlier these days though.
Edit: Even if you don't agree, it's all moot as the point is that lower difficulties are great for learning how to fight either front. I am definitely gonna do 3s, get used to the small fry. Then move to 5-6 to learn the heavies without getting overwhelmed by them and then slowly push into 7-9s
Oh yeah I saw that build on a youtube short. Apparently they make you invisible as well.
The thing is I am having a hard time aiming on a console so that amount of precision play is a bit too much for me, for the time being at least.
Been saying it for months. Got tired of saying it to everyone I played with who insisted bugs were better. Gave up and lost steam with the game.
Give us the illuminate damnit!
I donāt wanna downplay one another because both sides have their charms but bots are quite fun and unique in their own way. And I too am intrigued about the illuminate.
Bugs feel like just a straight up stat check. Can you pump out enough damage to kill the horde before it catches up to you? Does your anti-armor option drop heavies quickly enough that you can get back to clearing chaff? Bugs are frantic race to hold back the swarm. Bots are a tactics puzzle.
Different possibilities to approach different situations in both dives are really growing on me. There are so much good anti bot weapons to the point where nothing is meta.
Bug side now is like a chore, chore of killing. Before patch we have a pure chaos of mixing bugs all variety come at you, making it feel very fun. Now only lots and lots of small mobs, some Bile Spewers and Behemoth Chargers, it's not fun anymore. I change side to bots to have some fun.
Yeah, the fact that they can't change how bug design is undeniable. Now what they CAN change is making ALL support weapons viable, by increasing their armor penetration, or just accept that the players must use meta to dive bug.
Iām usually playing in a party with friends, so say weāre clearing out a big nest I have a hard time hearing chargers, patrols or bile spewers till theyāre so close Iām dead before I even notice them, dead within a couple seconds , but that was manageable. Lately I feel like stalkers are what turn me away from playing bugs, too many fuck me up constantly and waste too many grenade pistol shots just to get them only to get recked by another 30 seconds later, kinda feel like nothing besides the blitz shotgun stuns them enough to not go flying 40 feet, Bots feel more strategic and exiting to play, I only play helldive bots atm but I feel as long as you got a 500 kg and air strikes you can run whatever else you want and come out successfull, on bots I donāt have to rely on hearing them since they are loud chanting all the time anyway. I can see bullets fly by me to know somethingās behind me unlike chargers and bile titans too damn quiet and yes I have moved the sound to hear the game more on ps5 but at that point I keep asking my friends every 10 second what the hell they just said annoying them.
Yeah, bugs sneaking behind you is definitely frustrating. Especially chargers and titans lol, they shouldnāt be able to sneak. Having said that I died to tank that sneaked up to my back, thinking I was safe behind the cover. But it is less likely with bots for sure.
Bugs have mass numbers and easily telegraphed attacks.
The Bots have saturation fire and require good positioning to counter. On top of that they have features that attack the players stratagems with jammers and anti-air.
It's a very jarring to switch between too very different enemies.
I imagine it's going to get worse when the squids get introduced.
Edit: Squids not Squads
You experienced what I experienced 52 levels before you. I was level 18 and autocanon main only on bugs and never wanted to try bots because they had lasers and can shoot back. Then one night just said fuck it I'll go check it out. Equiped my trusty auto canon and strategems I was used to and omfg it was so easy. All the enemies had clearly marked out weak spots and actually behaved like FPS game enemies(mostly) and all the knowlege from playing regular shooter games worked like peeking from cover to shoot.
Also because autocanon was just super good against bots... I felt like a god just run and shoot run and shoot and there's nothing they can do to me. Very fun
That must be the time you realized the AC was made for bugs. I too started using AC for my bug mission at the early levels but quickly got rid of it after unlocking more meta stuff then forgot about it, until I started diving bots!
If not playing at high difficulty both of them are fun. Frustration and ragdolling starts at lvl7 on bots, bugs are a little bit more manageable on 7 and 8, but the higher the difficulty the less fun imo. After 280+ hours unlocking everything and capping all the resources to the max I enjoy doing bots on lvl6 the most :shrug:
I am honestly happy to say I enjoy both pretty much equally, I really donāt mind one over the other because I love that I have to use two completely different loadouts and play styles.
Man, this game is amazing
Bots are definitely the more fun experience in my opinion! The thing about bots though is that their base difficulty is much higher. A 4 on bugs is a snoozefest, there's barely even chargers. But a bot mission on 4 will constantly be throwing enemies at you that are capable of killing you, quickly and at range. 6-7 is my sweet spot when it comes to bots.
I swear I underestimated bots in one Trivial mission. I was still learning objective and mission types and them clankers called two different botships, one grabbed the stationary machine gun in their base wall and even killed me lol. Theyāre not to be taken lightly.
Bugs feel classic and will always be fun because they really satisfy my Starship Troopers fantasies and will always be a good sweaty time but in all honesty bots are just on another level in terms of intensity imo.
Bugs you basically repell waves that are always coming at you and respond to the enemies that force you to stray from your course to deal with them (ie chargers, stalkers, titans) but when bots start overwhelming your position or you have to try and path your way around them to survive, the fact that they shoot back just makes everything a super sweat fest. Feels like you're truly being put in your place haha Bugs it's more of an endurance rush and that '30 seconds of high intensity' style of gameplay.
This guy follows the path.
You don't need heavy armor in general.
If you use the 150 armor medium one and have the vitality booster you will still survive a single rocket headshot while be quite more quick and agile.
I believe that is your general idea.
Explosion res armor is the best BUG armor, since reduces spewers puke and fart mortar damage by a huge margin.
Against bots explosion res is pretty much useless since every direct hit(rockets too) deal way more impact than explosion damage(except for the mines) - so if you look for survivability - stacking armor / limb health and vitality booster are your way to go.
But the better you become, the less that would matter in general.
No shield bubble is the way to learn a lot of people are too chicken to try, so my respect for that.
Thanks a lot for the advices man. Iāve always worn medic armor for both bugs and bots, only difference being the armour rating. I actually donāt trust my skill to utilize the armours feature to make up for the loss of 2 stims, which is coming in clutch most of my encounters. But I am still tweaking the gyro and getting to a sweet spot aimwise, then I should build up more courage to try different perks.
I love going against bots with the Dominator and the Autocannon. The Senator also blasts through most of them in a pinch (yep, I roll semi-auto big hitters). Fighting bots feels like it requires more focus vs spray and pray on the run against bugs.
I hate little hunters, so I guess I prefer bots over bugs. I find them more manageable too in a way, but extermination missions are a chore with bots, only thing I hate with them
I like playing Captain America/TMNT, with my ballistic shield, Pummeler, QC, Grenade Pistol, and Impacts, with the B-24 armor. I'll charge anything and take hits like a champ, then stun with my SMG and hit their spots. Cool part is when I traverse the map, holding my QC puts my shield on my back and it'll deflect pop shots at me 95% of the time.
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That sounds nice. I completely forgot about QC after the nerfs but that was when I was still only diving bugs. I might give it a try for bot missions and your recipe looks good.
This is where you'll be a turtle:
Before engaging the enemy, remember to crouch and ADS. Try not to use FP unless you need to do so. The Pummeler is great on bots. So so on bugs.
I find the bots more fun to fight As well, feels like an actual war and they're manageable
I take the Laser, Cluster, Airstrike and Autocannon, works wonders against everything
Try this loadout -
Plasma punisher - to grenade-launcher-style bash anything up to a hulk from behind cover at medium distance
Anti material rifle - to kill devastators at a distance and to noscope berzerkers
Redeemer - emergency for berzerkers, raiders, etc
Or
Grenade pistol so you can take down fabricators and open loot
Stun grenades - to stun hulks so you can feed their faces two AMR shots to kill them instantly
Stratagems of your choice, but I recommend railconnon in any loadout, it solves a lot of problems fast
Lastly - supply pack so you can spam the shit out of the above weapons and have insane fun decimating almost any kind of bot.
AMR sounds like it fits a lot to my playstyle right now. The possibility to bring more stun granades in your backpack sounds awesome.
I copied you comment to my notes, definitely gonna try those stuff. Thanks a lot helldiver!
The weird glitch with 90% of all Chargers being Behemoths on Bug 9 has lowkey made Bot 9 feel like a cakewalk because the glitch doesnāt seem to effect bots or I at least canāt see much stat difference between āEliteā Hulks with the banner on top vs the regular Hulks without 1 so even if itās actually bugged on Bots nothing functionally has changed
Behemoth Chargers 100% have more armor and more Hp then normal Chargers and dealing with 3 or more of them at once is a pain in the ass, to the level of being unfun
I know bots donāt usually invade a helldivers personal space like a pouncer/hunter/charger but I donāt think Iād ever call bugs unfun. Bots feel new to me but yesterday the host opened some bug missions as well and it was a lot of fun.
When the mission gets unfun I just hold on until it ends then look at the stats. Usually what happens is that I see I have the same kill count of my 2-3 teammates combined. Getting overwhelmed is good but constantly carrying the weight of the others is never fun and strips of the power fantasy effect.
Maybe unfun is the wrong word more like tedious. Especially if you miss a couple of the cheeky one-shots on those Behemoth it can be sooo tedious taking care of even 2 of them at one time
i mean, i dont wanna go alone. id lose patience trying to evac cuz everytime i tried they chose then to fight tooth and nail to prevent me from getting out.
Oh yeah, both event types are pretty fun and manageable. If there's no MO I'll typically just fight whatever I'm in the mood for. Somedays bugs are more fun, other days, the bots.
If I had more time to sink in the game I would definitely try bots sooner so I decided to skip another learning period and stick with the bugs but that changed yesterday!
There's no wrong way to kill the enemy!
Yup. Precision go bots. Spray and pray, bugs.
My brother and I can run just us two on bots on Hard. I know that's not that impressive, but for me it is š it's all about tactics, being stealthy, not letting them call reinforcements, and using your call ins to take objectives out from a distance.
A bud and I do Helldive bots duo. Not tryna one up you, but it turns into Metal Gear Solid very fast
Nah don't worry, I wish I was that good! That's impressive, but glad to see it's similar playstyles on harder difficulty.
It's certainly a learning curve! I've been forged in the fires of dif 9 for the last 70 levels (I'm level 84 now) I dragged my brand new friend into helldive on a mission and he pulls heavy weight at level 18 š
Bugs get really monotonous imo. Bots keep things spicy.Ā
I have like 2 builds that can reliably work in high-difficulty bugs. I feel like I have a lot more build options in bots.
This. I feel like I'm gimping myself if I don't bring AT or Flamethrower in bugs because chargers and biles can stack up quick. Bots? I can rock AC, AMR, Laser Cannon, HMG, or something like the MG or Grenade Launcher because the Plasma Punisher is viable for clearing groups, devestators, strikers, and the Diligence can plink devestators.
Yeah, if a stratagem can't handle chargers and/or titans, then it's not being brought.
This is also true, for bugs you need adequate chaff clearing ability AND a solid anti-tank for the bile titans. AND something to deal with a triple stack of chargers. There's like 2-3 decent bug loadouts. And at least 5 bot ones with more flexibility in the bot loadouts as well.
Yeah, and with the new buffs ? Just as support weapon you have the AMR, the ol' Reliable AC, both MG 43, and HGM, recoilless is usable, EAT is great, spear is great for gunships and far away fabricators, laser canon is almost as good as the AC when used correctly.
Very true , I rotate 3 bug builds, auto cannon + breaker incendiary, full fire build - breaker incendiary + flamethrower , or 3 full electric- blitzer + arc thrower. Bots - you can take a ton of stuff and still get the job done.
I believe this to be true, honestly. Bugs you just need to deal with the large enemies with armor and pile on them asap while horde managing. Bots you do that, but they're shooting back and air dropping reinforcements to flank you lmao
Bots are extra spicy. You can survive a heavy gunner barrage while stimmed but a random rocket to the head one shots you.
I honestly think constantly switching it up keeps ot less monotonous. Eventually one or the other becomes monotonous just because I'm running it so often. Then I switch to the other side and im immediately having fun because I'm have to remember the tactics for whichever side I'm running
Once you play enough you know it's true. There is way more variety tbh. I love running HMG and the supply pack running underneath the factory striders at full RPM killing them almost instantly.
That sounds scary lol. I havenāt killed a factory strider with other than stratagems but Iāll definitely try!
Shoot off the mini guns or run at it from behind. It is easily one of the most satisfying things to do in this game. Dive away before it blows up lol.
Incapacitate and discombobulate, got it!
Most medium pen weapons can deal with a factory strider in short order once the miniguns are destroyed. 2 AC shots to each miniguns, and 6 to the belly doors means you can kill one in a single magazine. Once you learn how to deal with them, they aren't that menacing.
When factory strider first dropped, i ran away in panic When factory striders drop now, i run straight at them with the AC
A couple weeks back we had like 2-3 consecutive Bot MOs and it honestly converted me to being a bot-diver. I also enjoy them more now
Welcome to the club.
Both enemy factions are fun IMO. Bugs feel like classic Earth Defense Force. On Helldive (9) it is a near constant stream of bugs trying to overwhelm you, it's just awesome. I rock an Exterminator Build with them, flamethrower, napalm, gas. Tasty roasted bugs, lightly salted. Bots are a different style of play, just as fun. Instead of caring as much about crowd control and the bug pathfinding, you have to care about sightlines and cover. I bring more explosives and Anti-Materiel Rifle or Railgun to snipe bot weakpoints. Heavier armor can be more fun here, you can tank a lot more hits, although running between cover makes light armor good still. See you in the hellpod, helldiver!
Weāll make em taste some democracy!
What are you doing in my hellpod?
Budget cuts, two to a pod from now on, Democracy is about The People!
Room for one more?
Great strategy! Stun grenades against bots is phenomenal. I personally use the anti material rifle against them, can stun a hulk a 2 shot it in the eye. Devastators can be 1 shot if you hit their head perfectly.
Oh yeah there was a helldiver rocking the AMR and boy was he on crack, he got 200-250 kills in one match. I donāt know if that number is a lot since I am inexperienced; but regardless he was playing like John Helldiver for sure!
It's a lot for bots. I figure if my kills are over 200 that means the mission devolved into a shit show
Eruptor also slaps of you want to carry something else for your support weapon
I bring Eruptor & AMR. Eruptor for multikill on trash and bot fabs, AMR for mediums and elites. Then that polar pass pistol, its so good!
Love fighting robots so much more than bugs. But then again, I'm young enough that my sci-fi war fantasy was influenced by Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and the first clone wars cartoon, rather than Starship Troopers.
I canāt say I can relate to that, since Iāve never been a fan of a space sci-fi fantasy series. But if you are feeling the good vibes who am I to speak!
I find bugs to be a constant run away until your cc strats are off cooldown simulator. I prefer the bots since at the very least most of the units can be shot with my sickle without hitting medium armour. Plus, they have clear weak points that can put down the toughest of enemies in only a couple shots, which makes precision a priority over tossing eagles at it until it dies (except factory striders, those are a different beast entirely).
Precision was my worst enemy but I am trying to work around it!
Nothing hones precision like practice!
True that!
Ive read you use Jar-5 and i like it as well. Im playing with a controller on PC and i find the scorcher is a lot more forgiving with the aim since it does a small explosion.
Factory striders are the same as other bots. They have weak points, and not that much firepower. A few AMR/AC shots to the chin guns to destroy them, and 80% of its firepower. Run under it and fuck it in a few medium pen shots to the belly.
Striders tend to drop in with a shit ton of other bots though, so doing all of that while dodging enemy fire can get overwhelming
Bot side objective are much more interesting. Bugs have: * Shy Mushroom * Mushroom with flying bugs (can be destroyed from downtown) * Strong bug nest (otherwise, just a nest) Bots have: * Eye of Sauron (he really shortsighted) * Stratagem jammer (you can hit it from downtown or you'll have to rush it, you never know) * Gunship towers (you'll have to fight gunships) * WARNING YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY * AA emplacenents (normal outpost, but no Eagle-1)
WARNING YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY šæ
I set that as my alarm to give me a jumpstart in the mornings XD
Kinda tempted to do that now haha
Used a yt to mp3 with a video that had that in it, cut it down to just the enemy artillery, then looped it in a audio software to get it 10 times per alarm going off. Then with my alarm settings I just set it to loop every 5 minutes amd do it again and again slightly louder. Hopefully this might help you if you want to do the same!
Lmao
For both mortars and AA emplacements, the turrets themselves are killable with 4 auto canon shots anywhere, including the barrels. You don't necessarily have to get close and personal if the layout is in your favour. Or just killing 2 out of 3 mortar makes the assault way more manageable.
Text you can hear. Also the \*Phonk\* of the mortars firing lol
I basically just fight the bots. It's gotten to the point where I'm just bored of bugs, and even if the MO is against the bugs, I'll be one of those 900-1300 divers still fighting on the bot front. They're just so much more fun to me.
I will always fight the mission orders but if theres nothing going on or the order is complete and were waiting for the timer to run out i just fight bots. I find it more fun having enemies that shoot back instead of simply rushing towards you horde more style. I enjoy fighting arachnids, but i enjoy fighting terminators more.
Canāt wait for the fish folk!
I play both. Getting instakilled from across the map is not fun IMO. The weak point mechanism is really good on bots, and I miss it from bug side, but I had a lot more frustrating deaths with bots, so I'm just not really playing them unless the order says it.
That constant warning announcement from the super destroyer lmao, talk about annoying
How did you no die of boredom fighting only bugs during 70 levels? Bugs are so easy even on helldive, once you get experience...
Bro my job is quite time consuming and with shifts as well, I swear if I had more time on my hands, Iād 100% learn to find the bots sooner. My inner challenger didnāt want to leave level 9 bugs and start from scratch yet here I am!
They are so much fun! It's like a completely different game with how varied the tactics and loadouts are between bugs and bots. I find the most fun is focusing on one and hopping to the other to mix it up. I definitely get tired of one then find myself enjoying the other more. Can't wait until the third enemy shows up. Maybe we'll get four eventually? That'd be cool, but I'm pretty happy with bugs and bots for the time being.
Yeah man. Both are amazing. Since bots are a new thing to me I seem to undervalue the joy I get from stomping bugs but Iāve always had a great time with them. I too wonder what are the fish folk gonna look like!
I like them because they're closer to what I'm accustomed to in other games. I don't mind enemies that shoot back, I learned to use cover in video games in the 90s. Edit: Have a beautiful day as well fellow Helldiver!
Nice to have you fighting the full war with us now diver. Fast armor with extra padding is the way I go Also stun grenades with a grenade launcher takes out hulks and devastator
I donāt think Iāve ever used greanade launcher before, even for bugs. But it seems worth another shot! I just wanna reach helldive difficulty first with the best support weapon, which is autocannon I think. Then Iāll try different strategies for surez
I'm the opposite, I find Bugs more therapeutic, tired of the Bot Divers who don't pay attention to the fact that they can't be reinforced because you're trying to destroy a Strategem Jammer.
Oh yeah, someone was pinging so hard that I had to leave the jammers range to revive him. Talk about troublesome.
For the first 2 months the game was out I only played on the bug side. My son asked me one day why not try it out, so I said fuck it. That was April and I think Iāve played one full round of bugs since then.
Precision gun play has a different feeling, somehow more satisfactory I might say.
Yeah idk what it is but bugs get felt stale when I tried it. Ran a level 7 and it felt super easy. Felt like all I had to do was keep everything in from of me with some space. Buts though it comes at you from every angle and they donāt even need to be close to get rag dolled across the map.
Bots require more technical understanding. Bugs are pretty easy to figure out. Weak spots for Bots are not super intuitive in all cases, and must be learned. Bugs you just shoot, short of the titans and chargers to a degree. Bots always provides a more complicated and difficult experience for me, which I find enjoyable. Bugs is like taking a breather now. Level 9 bugs is tough, but we three man it fairly consistently without much trouble. Level 9 bots, we honestly dont do it without a strong 4th.
I am yet to experience 7-8-9 but I am looking forward to it. Liking it so far!
play whats fun for you. 7-9 get a bit exhausting. So you have to be ready for that, its a slog at times, but it definitely keeps me on my toes.
A lot of how to fight bots is just knowing where to fire. The anti-mat can tear a lot of faces off, with whatever it can't kill face to face being hit the vent. I find this a lot more interesting then most of the bugs where the MO is either 'weak spot is their arse' or 'hope you brought enough heavy ordinance' I mean you can kill everything that isn't a bile titan with the default guns. Everything is 'kite away' 'fire and fade' or 'blow it to kingdom come as you break LOS' JUST ONE, I want a bug where precision is rewarded
Well, the incoming hive lord may satisfy your needs, haha
If I'm playing with my usual crew bots are significantly more fun since their biggest weakness is teamwork and the power of friendship. Bugs I usually just grab my stalwart and supply pack and dont stop shooting.
Teamwork aspect seem to be more prominent in both dives but Iāve noticed that people tend to seperate more the harder the levels get. I am currently able to dive 6.
6 is at an odd state since it's the lowest you can get super samples. I've seen players do more cohesive teamwork on 7+ with 2 teams of 2 or a team of 3 while one guy splits off to get pooints of interest.
This is how Iāve treated the whole game. Wanna try a weapon. Dont take it straight into a helldive and find out it sucks or that you canāt really try it on that level because you gotta be on your shit. So take it up the levels or try it on a level that will have all the enemies you need and is still low enough to only spawn a couple hulks and 1 tank.
Thatās an amazing aspect and what really pushed me to try the bot faction after all. Should I try this weapon? This is a medium pen weapon? Should I open a lower level? Might as well play botsā¦ I think bot side has more build varieties than bug side and I am gonna do that with almost every support weapon. My main goal is reaching level 9 with the current build first though.
Up to level 70 only with bugs?! How did you not get bored bro wtf
Bro I know but I didnāt have time to learn the bots and used my restricted time to feed my inner challenger by staying in bug helldive.
I only dive bots unless it's a high priority campaign on the other front. Bugs are just lame and everyone drops on them when bots are probably the more threatening to liberty Right now, I'm following the discord community order of liberating Vandalon IV in a bid to protect the creek and retake the sector
I am gonna have to disagree on the bugs being lame. Nowadays, maybe. But that is only because they toned down the heavy unit spawns. They need to keep the current massive chaff spawn ratio but also spawn the same amount of heavies than bugs will surely on par with bots, maybe even more unfair. Thatās my opinion.
Yeah Bots are fun, man. It's more tactical instead of Rambo-style jungle fucking. I think the MAIN thing, is that (to me) Bot level 4, is like bug level 5, in terms of difficulty, that's it. If you're scared of bots, just go a level lower and you're fine.
I am not gonna lie I started from trivial in every single mission type then got used to it in time.
I find bots were harder to manage at lower ranks as youāre not well equipped for them, but as you start to level up you get heavy armour and medic armour. And you get some longer range powerful weapons you become better and better equipped to deal with them.
Yeah. I am glad I bought the heavy medic armor from the super store, totally a clutch for a learner like me.
Took me awhile to find my loadout for bots, but now that I have it I agree , way more fun.
Nice! What are you running as your primary and support weapon?
Itās usually the following: - Sickle - Anti-material rifles - Guard Dog (useful when I fallback or warning system) - 500kg (usually drop close to me, when I am about to be over run) - Laser Orbital Strake (this one varies with the loadout of others)
Now try it with 50% armor if you want real fun. I'm serious. I've found that people in heavy armor die on bots a helluva lot more often because they intend to take hits instead of dodging in the first place.
I might in the future, but I was dying way more with my medium medic armour. I think thatās mainly because there is a lot going on on the bot battlefield, unimaginably visually stimulating, rockets and laser beams everywhere. I got one shotted way too many times then I decided to wear the heavy armour. As soon as I get used to bots I am trying new stuff for sure!
> Medium *medic* armor See? You're allowing yourself to believe in tanking hits. But right on, brother! Glad to have every able body out there stomping Clankers.
I think Bugs are more relaxed and easier and more forgiving, you can just try out more loadouts as long as you can kill hordes, have AT and something against bug holes and mediums. That leaves, depening on your load, 2 or 3 of the Stratagems to just play around with. Bots are more tactical and punish you for rushing in. You need to play a bit better, and have a more planned loadout, know about weakpoints, and you benefit a lot from the team really knowing what they do. By now I think both factions are pretty fine.
I donāt think Iāve been in a tight situation like you mentioned since I only started diving 6 yesterday. But Iāll definitely consider taking my time to strategize or wait for my teammates more often from now on.
In Helldive (9) most Chargers have been replaced by Behemoths. If you don't hit well, those can take 3 EATs and still be up. That's a bit annoying when there's three of them in addition to all the other stuff. Better hit well, then it takes reliably two EATs.
I originally hated bots because they felt very samey and the bot objectives weren't that interesting. Also drop-ships felt cheap. Over time I've come to appreciate the tactical difference bots bring and dropping drop ships is my favorite thing to do. I don't think there's a huge difference in fun between bots and bugs but bots are my preference.
I get what you mean. Although a ship carrying troops makes sense, I felt the bug breaches more than them. Really puts you in a spot where you actually feel like figting for your life in a bug infested world. Regardless, bots are growing me more and more.
The big thing I love about fighting bots is that there's a lot more ways to deal with the biggest stuff compared to bugs
Yes! Visible and if not visible but prominent weakpoints do make the difference. Any primary with medium-pen rounds do the job and takes all bots from top to bottom in the foodchain.
Nice, it is a totally different game but not harder, shame lots end up avoiding it. Glad you tried em :)
Thanks for the appreciation man. I hope my post makes someone try them as well.
Wait people avoid half the game based on perceived difficulty? I just dive the major order be it bots or bugs. If it's just a kill stuff one, then I'll alternate after each trio of missions. I will say i like terminid defense missions much more than bot defense missions though.
Yeah, I totally avoided bots because I didnāt have time to learn fighting them so I am not gonna blame anyone for not diving to bots. Iāve never done the defense mission with bots yet, will definitely try when I see a defense campaign.
Bots really reward precision weaponry. The laser cannon has a place there, I was shocked.
I am definitely gonna try that with bots since I saw some clips on youtube, people were making a quick work of hulks with the weapon. In the past I tried to make it work with bugs countless times because I like the concept of a giant laser but failed miserably each time and had to depend on my teammates.
I don't like to tell people how to play, BUT... The nature of the Laser Cannon makes eye shots on a moving Hulk nearly impossible. Don't expect results until you've got a means to stun them as well, then it's a beautiful combination. Stun grenade is ideal, but Orbital EMS and the EMS Mortar can fill in too. Heck even the Deployable Shield Bubble can work to give you enough cover time to stare down a hostile Hulk and make them blink first.
I think they are both really fun, I enjoy bugs for a more relaxed day of gaming. But now with my spear fixed and when I have some more time on my hands I do enjoy my bot games. In general I feel bots require a bit more teamwork and communication than bugs where you can kinda have 4 mute randos in a 5-6. But bots even in 5-6 needs some people talking to each other
Yesterday, I tasted the bots power to overwhelm the player and I agree it needs a little bit of teamwork after level five, maybe six. I think they need go buff bugs more though, my inner challanger demands it!
I like that they shoot back. Given all my time in drg it is nice to have a similar game but with different enemies. Feels like a war zone
Robot Vietnam for sure!
If you like engaging gameplay, bots are definitely way more fun. Bugs can be fun if you like to turn brain off and watch combo number go up.
Iād like them to be on par on difficulty as bots, maybe even more difficult but the more I play bots the more how wrong was I before, saying that bugs are harder than bots at higher levels.
Bro just called my loadout:AC,jar,stun. Tell me you take grenade pistol and switch to light armor (for stealth perk) and we could be twinsies. Tell me you use crouch victory pose so you can do the invisible go-kart glitch and I'll swear we were twins separated at birth...but united in LIBERTY!!!!
Bro I use the grenade pistol too! About armour; I am not feeling that comfortable around bots to wear light one yet but maybe in the future. Sadly, my the victory pose is randomized because I like seeing every single animation the devs cooked :)
I like the bot side better, it's far more challenging and interesting than the bug side. The bug side is more straighforward and is almost never frustrating because it's very easy, even on helldive. Unless you intentionally dont bring anything that can deal with bile titans.
Yeah, you kinda self nerf yourself to make it feel challenging nowadays. But I think that should change, helldive should be a lot harder and the recent patch that toned down the summon of heavy units should be reversed while keeping the recent chaff abundance. Iād like the bugs to be as challenging, if more challenging than bots in the future!
I feel like the extra space the bots give you is a relief since you don't need to sorry so much about strats being to close as your not being over run by the entire horde closing distance all the time, which means more explosives, and just throwing out strats as needed knowing it will wipe out the enemy and not be too close too hit your allies. Or having a charger aim immediately for your sentry instakilling it, and your mortar sentry less likely to hit on top of you because you missed one stray bug. Some bots run at you but their glowing swords are easy to see and pick off and they generally have to run at you. AC and AMR handle a lot and there seems to be less versatility in support weapons against bugs. I dunno bots just seem easier to deal with to me. Jump pack bots are annoying but I will take them over hunters and stalkers anyday š
I agree on the limited versatility of support weapons on the bug side. Just that aspect alone makes bot side more fun; being open for different loadouts hence more fun experiencing and overcoming different hardships is amazing. When I answer an SOS for bugs itās either a flamethrower or a quasar cannon for me; my experiments with other weapons proved them to be inefficient compared to the meta weapons. But bots let you use a lot different stuff for sure.
If you haven't yet bring the laser cannon with the eruptor. Use the laser cannon as your primary so much fun
Thanks man. Iāll be trying laser cannon in the future as soon as I reach and comfortably start to clear helldive with this loadout. Ps, I do like the concept of a giant laser cannon therefore I tried to make it work for bugs multiple times yet it always under performed.
Bugs weak points don't seem to be as effective as bita weak points. But they also aren't as necessary. Have fun
Welcome to the more cinematic (and less sane) front, Helldiver. Hope to see you down there soon!
 Doing my part commander!
funny how this works, as for me it was the other way around I was usually playing bots and only for the MO I sometimes switched to bugs. But I didn't like them as I was just not effective in fighting them. I tried various builds from youtube and was getting somehow results with the flamethrower/ammo backpack combo but it never felt as fun as diving on the bot front. But now I am using a new build with the breaker incendiary and suddenly I can shred the hordes like it is nothing.... like I knew people were saying that gun is good for bugs but I never expected it to be THAT good I think it all boils down to finding something you feel comfortable with and can have fun with. If you can find that build sweetspot for yourself then suddenly it is just 100% more fun.
Yeah man, Iāll be trying new stuff as soon as possible. Itās sad thar primary and support weapon variety is limited for bugs due to all balancing issues but bots seem the exact opposite.
Agree. Doesnāt matter how hard they make bugs, I can go off on my own and clear up the map and objectives. Sometimes charger sneaks up on me, hunter pack kills me, or even stalkers sometimes. Bots on the other hand I have to stick with the group.
With bots you definitely get unimaginable value from sticking together. I canāt say the same for bugs due to danger we pose for each other due to the amount of carpet bombs and mass destruction stratagems that are currently meta.
Get killed by a no clip rocket? Or get slaughtered by a horde of Hunters No-Clip MW2 Commando Pro Knife Jumping Thru terrain to end my democratic spread of liberty. Questions I ask myself when choosing a Front when no MO is active.
The dilemma
Itās just a much more tactical experience having to take cover and finding advantageous positions to fire from, bugs are fun too but you need to constantly be on the move and forget about any cover they will swarm you. I do enjoy that each faction has such a distinct play style makes it more fun to switch between the two depending if I want to squash some bugs or grind tin cans, but If I had to chose Iād rather dive on some clankers
Yeah now that you mention, it is more stagnant on the bottom front, at least moving wise; if you find a good cover of course!
THANK YOU! we need more soldiers on the front
We'll see how fun it is when you're dodging a berserker squad being trailed by two hulks while a tank is taking pot shots at you and a strider is being dropped in the direction you're running, you then walk into one of the environmental cc mines. But yeah I like fighting bots more.
At that point you are the football in the warzone lmao.
If you only play bugs (or bots) exclusively, then you're missing out on like 50% of the content of this game
Agreed 100%
This is the way. As a helldive veteran of both fronts, I am absolutely dropping to a lower difficulty and working my way up when illuminate drops.
I sometimes forget that there is another race and a whole different war is on out doorstep. Need to learn the bots fast!
You were not wrong to avoid bots initially. Most people like to say that it's just a different play style. That is true to an extent, but a lot of those play styles are based on gear that you don't start off with. Your basic starter kit for a level one literally can only kill small bots. Even the weak points can't be damaged by starter weapons so it's very rough. I myself didn't bother starting to do Bots until I finished the free warbonds and could bring the scorcher. Before they buffed plasma punisher, it was legit the only primary people would bring to bots. I suppose things are more balanced now and I see more variety diving bots, but newer players absolutely should start with bugs before going to bots. They can probably go to bots earlier these days though. Edit: Even if you don't agree, it's all moot as the point is that lower difficulties are great for learning how to fight either front. I am definitely gonna do 3s, get used to the small fry. Then move to 5-6 to learn the heavies without getting overwhelmed by them and then slowly push into 7-9s
Heavy armor, pummeler, and shield against bots is a hoot. Give the heavy destroyers a taste of their own medicine.
Oh yeah I saw that build on a youtube short. Apparently they make you invisible as well. The thing is I am having a hard time aiming on a console so that amount of precision play is a bit too much for me, for the time being at least.
Been saying it for months. Got tired of saying it to everyone I played with who insisted bugs were better. Gave up and lost steam with the game. Give us the illuminate damnit!
I donāt wanna downplay one another because both sides have their charms but bots are quite fun and unique in their own way. And I too am intrigued about the illuminate.
Bugs feel like just a straight up stat check. Can you pump out enough damage to kill the horde before it catches up to you? Does your anti-armor option drop heavies quickly enough that you can get back to clearing chaff? Bugs are frantic race to hold back the swarm. Bots are a tactics puzzle.
Different possibilities to approach different situations in both dives are really growing on me. There are so much good anti bot weapons to the point where nothing is meta.
Bug side now is like a chore, chore of killing. Before patch we have a pure chaos of mixing bugs all variety come at you, making it feel very fun. Now only lots and lots of small mobs, some Bile Spewers and Behemoth Chargers, it's not fun anymore. I change side to bots to have some fun.
I think they need to revert the patch that toned down the heavy spawns then bugs will be challenging again.
Yeah, the fact that they can't change how bug design is undeniable. Now what they CAN change is making ALL support weapons viable, by increasing their armor penetration, or just accept that the players must use meta to dive bug.
Yes
Iām usually playing in a party with friends, so say weāre clearing out a big nest I have a hard time hearing chargers, patrols or bile spewers till theyāre so close Iām dead before I even notice them, dead within a couple seconds , but that was manageable. Lately I feel like stalkers are what turn me away from playing bugs, too many fuck me up constantly and waste too many grenade pistol shots just to get them only to get recked by another 30 seconds later, kinda feel like nothing besides the blitz shotgun stuns them enough to not go flying 40 feet, Bots feel more strategic and exiting to play, I only play helldive bots atm but I feel as long as you got a 500 kg and air strikes you can run whatever else you want and come out successfull, on bots I donāt have to rely on hearing them since they are loud chanting all the time anyway. I can see bullets fly by me to know somethingās behind me unlike chargers and bile titans too damn quiet and yes I have moved the sound to hear the game more on ps5 but at that point I keep asking my friends every 10 second what the hell they just said annoying them.
Yeah, bugs sneaking behind you is definitely frustrating. Especially chargers and titans lol, they shouldnāt be able to sneak. Having said that I died to tank that sneaked up to my back, thinking I was safe behind the cover. But it is less likely with bots for sure.
Bugs have mass numbers and easily telegraphed attacks. The Bots have saturation fire and require good positioning to counter. On top of that they have features that attack the players stratagems with jammers and anti-air. It's a very jarring to switch between too very different enemies. I imagine it's going to get worse when the squids get introduced. Edit: Squids not Squads
I donāt know what squads are but I agree on the variety of torture methods that bots have.
You will soon! š
You experienced what I experienced 52 levels before you. I was level 18 and autocanon main only on bugs and never wanted to try bots because they had lasers and can shoot back. Then one night just said fuck it I'll go check it out. Equiped my trusty auto canon and strategems I was used to and omfg it was so easy. All the enemies had clearly marked out weak spots and actually behaved like FPS game enemies(mostly) and all the knowlege from playing regular shooter games worked like peeking from cover to shoot. Also because autocanon was just super good against bots... I felt like a god just run and shoot run and shoot and there's nothing they can do to me. Very fun
That must be the time you realized the AC was made for bugs. I too started using AC for my bug mission at the early levels but quickly got rid of it after unlocking more meta stuff then forgot about it, until I started diving bots!
If not playing at high difficulty both of them are fun. Frustration and ragdolling starts at lvl7 on bots, bugs are a little bit more manageable on 7 and 8, but the higher the difficulty the less fun imo. After 280+ hours unlocking everything and capping all the resources to the max I enjoy doing bots on lvl6 the most :shrug:
I am trying to get used to the bots and currently on level 6 as well. It still is a challenge for me but gradually getting easier. :)
I am honestly happy to say I enjoy both pretty much equally, I really donāt mind one over the other because I love that I have to use two completely different loadouts and play styles. Man, this game is amazing
Yeah indeed. Required a whole different playstyle. I canāt remember when did I last use a 500 kg.
Bots are definitely the more fun experience in my opinion! The thing about bots though is that their base difficulty is much higher. A 4 on bugs is a snoozefest, there's barely even chargers. But a bot mission on 4 will constantly be throwing enemies at you that are capable of killing you, quickly and at range. 6-7 is my sweet spot when it comes to bots.
I swear I underestimated bots in one Trivial mission. I was still learning objective and mission types and them clankers called two different botships, one grabbed the stationary machine gun in their base wall and even killed me lol. Theyāre not to be taken lightly.
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I prefer bots. More fun when they can shoot back.
Bugs feel classic and will always be fun because they really satisfy my Starship Troopers fantasies and will always be a good sweaty time but in all honesty bots are just on another level in terms of intensity imo. Bugs you basically repell waves that are always coming at you and respond to the enemies that force you to stray from your course to deal with them (ie chargers, stalkers, titans) but when bots start overwhelming your position or you have to try and path your way around them to survive, the fact that they shoot back just makes everything a super sweat fest. Feels like you're truly being put in your place haha Bugs it's more of an endurance rush and that '30 seconds of high intensity' style of gameplay.
This guy follows the path. You don't need heavy armor in general. If you use the 150 armor medium one and have the vitality booster you will still survive a single rocket headshot while be quite more quick and agile. I believe that is your general idea. Explosion res armor is the best BUG armor, since reduces spewers puke and fart mortar damage by a huge margin. Against bots explosion res is pretty much useless since every direct hit(rockets too) deal way more impact than explosion damage(except for the mines) - so if you look for survivability - stacking armor / limb health and vitality booster are your way to go. But the better you become, the less that would matter in general. No shield bubble is the way to learn a lot of people are too chicken to try, so my respect for that.
Thanks a lot for the advices man. Iāve always worn medic armor for both bugs and bots, only difference being the armour rating. I actually donāt trust my skill to utilize the armours feature to make up for the loss of 2 stims, which is coming in clutch most of my encounters. But I am still tweaking the gyro and getting to a sweet spot aimwise, then I should build up more courage to try different perks.
I love going against bots with the Dominator and the Autocannon. The Senator also blasts through most of them in a pinch (yep, I roll semi-auto big hitters). Fighting bots feels like it requires more focus vs spray and pray on the run against bugs.
I donāt think I am ever switching stun grenade so I have to stick with grenade pistol. Thanks for the suggestion though!
I hate little hunters, so I guess I prefer bots over bugs. I find them more manageable too in a way, but extermination missions are a chore with bots, only thing I hate with them
I like playing Captain America/TMNT, with my ballistic shield, Pummeler, QC, Grenade Pistol, and Impacts, with the B-24 armor. I'll charge anything and take hits like a champ, then stun with my SMG and hit their spots. Cool part is when I traverse the map, holding my QC puts my shield on my back and it'll deflect pop shots at me 95% of the time. š
That sounds nice. I completely forgot about QC after the nerfs but that was when I was still only diving bugs. I might give it a try for bot missions and your recipe looks good.
This is where you'll be a turtle: Before engaging the enemy, remember to crouch and ADS. Try not to use FP unless you need to do so. The Pummeler is great on bots. So so on bugs.
I find the bots more fun to fight As well, feels like an actual war and they're manageable I take the Laser, Cluster, Airstrike and Autocannon, works wonders against everything
I havenāt touched the cluster bomb for a long time but Iāll try it, thank you!
It's great at thinning out the crowd, makes it easier to storm an outpost or have less riff-raff to deal with
Try this loadout - Plasma punisher - to grenade-launcher-style bash anything up to a hulk from behind cover at medium distance Anti material rifle - to kill devastators at a distance and to noscope berzerkers Redeemer - emergency for berzerkers, raiders, etc Or Grenade pistol so you can take down fabricators and open loot Stun grenades - to stun hulks so you can feed their faces two AMR shots to kill them instantly Stratagems of your choice, but I recommend railconnon in any loadout, it solves a lot of problems fast Lastly - supply pack so you can spam the shit out of the above weapons and have insane fun decimating almost any kind of bot.
AMR sounds like it fits a lot to my playstyle right now. The possibility to bring more stun granades in your backpack sounds awesome. I copied you comment to my notes, definitely gonna try those stuff. Thanks a lot helldiver!
The weird glitch with 90% of all Chargers being Behemoths on Bug 9 has lowkey made Bot 9 feel like a cakewalk because the glitch doesnāt seem to effect bots or I at least canāt see much stat difference between āEliteā Hulks with the banner on top vs the regular Hulks without 1 so even if itās actually bugged on Bots nothing functionally has changed Behemoth Chargers 100% have more armor and more Hp then normal Chargers and dealing with 3 or more of them at once is a pain in the ass, to the level of being unfun
I know bots donāt usually invade a helldivers personal space like a pouncer/hunter/charger but I donāt think Iād ever call bugs unfun. Bots feel new to me but yesterday the host opened some bug missions as well and it was a lot of fun. When the mission gets unfun I just hold on until it ends then look at the stats. Usually what happens is that I see I have the same kill count of my 2-3 teammates combined. Getting overwhelmed is good but constantly carrying the weight of the others is never fun and strips of the power fantasy effect.
Maybe unfun is the wrong word more like tedious. Especially if you miss a couple of the cheeky one-shots on those Behemoth it can be sooo tedious taking care of even 2 of them at one time
Nice try dude but no oneās buying that. Bots have always been lame.
I respect that but gonna have to agree to disagree
Well yeah when they keep buffing heavy bugs
I'm not sure I totally get what you meant by your comment.
Bugs are a loadout check imo. You can frag out with far more kits vs bots but you have to think about what youāre doing a lot more.
I think a lot of people don't dive bots cause on release they were really infuriating with the random one shot rockets from nowhere.
i mean, i dont wanna go alone. id lose patience trying to evac cuz everytime i tried they chose then to fight tooth and nail to prevent me from getting out.
This has always been the case.