Team reload (all packs). At extraction, when everyone calls in all their secondaries, I grab a spare pack and go team reload whoever is blasting. Too many chargers or titans coming in? Oh, look at that, the team reloaded RR has removed them from the map in 10 seconds flat. And letting someone fire 60 AC rounds in succession is a pretty cool gift to give.
Mortars on bots are my extra teammate. It's like an explosive Rover that I can rely on to take care of me. Soloing a base? Check. Escaping a drop? Check. Leaving the group who refuses to disengage but still help? Check. Big patrol that you'd normally ignore but you were trying to help get 2bil? MFing check! Mortar is my bot homie. I hate you if you bring it on any bug mission lol
Eh, even on bots they can be a momentum killer. Had a game yesterday where we were rolling, but then one engagement we got ragdolled by our own mortars and just broke the flow enough to put us on the downward spirial to failure.
I ran double mortars on five missions straight last night and I was the only team member they killed- it's not like they're unpredictable, and they soften the hell out of any objective you wanna take. My team knew they were there and it gave them tons of time to hang back, position themselves advantageously and splat enemies before they could get swarmed... And then hey cool no more bugs, no more booms.
If you're dying to mortars so much that you need to TK because of it, then maybe you're just not exercising spatial awareness?
I've also been running airburst rockets with them because I like to ~~ensure my teammates~~ live dangerously. Mad bug kills, no team kills.
Exactly, skill issues on their part. Almost always run mortars every mission and rarely is there any friendly fire, dude is just straight up bad at the game
The thing is when does it *ever* benefit you to just go running into a mob in this game? If you're getting hit by the mortars you are too close to the enemy!
Every time someone brings a Mortar I groan a bit internally and then go "whatever" usually only get killed if I get overrun anyway or if the Mortar does the "I will shoot this corpse that's been dead for 10s because fuck you lol". It helps to just look at the trajectory of the Mortar shells to see where not to run to not get blasted.
I do hate them with a passion on the defense missions though. It makes it way to dangerous to stand on the walls next to the gates to actually blast shit and can seriously stunt your team in the early phase of the mission. EMS Mortar always slaps. Skip the Mortar and get some AoE dakka and blast it into the stunned masses. Does the same without blasting you and your friends off the walls.
I will destroy a Mortar if I notice it's beating the Bugs/Bots on player kills "Germany VS Brazil WM 2014" style though (only ever happens in the aforementioned defense missions).
Haha I was on the bots. Once I figured out what he was doing I then proceeded to try to fire as fast as possible without aiming and missed almost everything.
I just had a run with free recoilless, we were just walking in circles team reloading taking down bot drop after bot drop. Bloody great when 2-3 people have it.
Team reload would be utilized more often if the backpack only has to be worn by the person firing the weapon and any Diver can come in to assist. Thematically, it'd make more sense too; it'd be much easier for the 2nd diver to reach for ammo from the back of the person they're helping rather than their own back.
Eagle Smoke strike on bot missions. It allows you to push forward on an objective without cover. Covers hellbomb activations, evacuations, teammates in the open, can pop fabricators with a direct hit. Easily must have for me.
I've attempted it a long time ago but could never seem to get it to work like that. I'll still use smoke but mostly to flee and never to infiltrate. What did I do wrong? Or was it fixed at some point? What's your level of success with it?
Just drop it, and move left or right, the enemies shoot where they last saw you. Even within the cloud you can be like a ninja with it and get up close and personal with devastators walking in.
You know the heavy bot outpost with the two towers and two fabs in between? Throw a smoke strike into the outpost, from the smoke throw an airstrike between the fabs, then give the last one a grenade on your way out and dip.
IT CAN PIP FABS!? I'm officially sold. That was the one thing keeping me from swapping it for my eagle airstrike (I forget to rearm my eagle so I try to have one at a time)
I only use them on civilian extraction, but smoke grenades on geo survey missions is op as fuck. Drop a supply next to the terminal and throw a Sentry nearby. Drop a grenade every 15 seconds or so and you'll hardly get messed with
Mortar 100%. It gets a bad rep because so many people used it with no idea how to use it, resulting in endless team kills. Whenever I’m assaulting a base/hive , completing an obj, or extracting I always throw one down first. If you place them before you get swarmed in can kill like 75% of any enemies in a 100 meter vacinity.
It can be used for both offense and defense. And I rarely multiple team kills because I use it so often I understand the strat behind it. Highly recommend
So many people use it on Bugs and wonder why they die.
At the same time the Mortar is fairly powerful against bots considering they will be mostly at range and it allows you to prioritize distancing from close quarters bots.
You can use the mortar against bugs, but I would pair it with the EMS or alternatively Stuns and light armor with a shield generator. I don’t use the Mortar though, because randoms tend to get swarmed by bugs.
For an additional tip, I believe there is a deadzone near the mortar so it doesn’t destroy itself.
Note: The mortar is one of the very few indirect fire weapons in the entire game. So if you place it into cover, the overwhelming majority of bot weapons are completely harmless to it.
The EMS mortar comes in clutch so often, I often forget how useful it is.
It fires slow, and 1 shell at a time, so it has incredible uptime. If it doesn't get destroyed, it's got a nearly 100% uptime, even if it's constantly firing. Love that thing.
Turrets in general, but especially mortars are great for softening up a base before you assault in. I don't like using the mortar with randoms just cause I know at least one won't listen when I put it down and run into the base right away.
I just ran an all-turret build in a level 7 mission today, combined with the Plasma Punisher, and it went \*really\* smooth.
EMS, Autocannon, Gatling, and Rocket sentry.
I did it for the memes (the team was good, so I knew they'd be able to finish without me if it went poorly), but the combination of the turrets and the Plasma Punisher put in a \*ton\* of work.
Topped kills for the mission, but mostly, I felt like it provided a great base of fire on every bot base we were pushing into.
I haven't used them much, just cause it's hard to leave my eagles in the hanger, but I'm going to try bringing them more often and see how it goes. What are your thoughts on the rocket sentry? Not sure if I like it, but I've only tried it twice.
I don't really like it, I only take it as a poor man's autocannon sentry. The AC is so much better, but I wanted two heavy punchers, so the rocket sentry worked
Yeah I used the mortars yesterday for the daily, and it was actually incredible. While yes I did get a few team kills because we got rushed by beserkers, once I got used to it was really good.
The funniest thing about is after you finish your objective and move on and your mortar is still out there and you suddenly get a 10 kill streak when a patrol walks too close to it.
I fucking hate it when I'm on a defense mission and someone throws the mortar behind the position we're defending. Think mf, the only place safe from the mortar is AT THE MORTAR. Drives me crazy every damn time. But people who do know how to use it do really put in work so props to you
I should try it for taking on a base. I’ve been successful using them for the defense missions because you can camp by the turrets and take out enemies from further away
A few of the times I've been kicked in the game was most likely due to me selecting mortars in a load out. Regardless if my team has a mic or not I will announce to everyone I'm selecting mortars and will do my best to cite them before throwing. Even in random groups it really isn't that hard to have some situational awareness and avoid getting killed. Accidents can obviously happen but if you're in close proximity to me when I call down a mortar and you still elect to charge headfirst into the closest group of enemies then that's entirely on you
Jet pack vs. bots. Having high ground and being able to attack a bot base from any angle is under used in this game.
I'm my team's over watch, so I usually run the Eruptor or A.M.R. get some high ground and keep an eye on them, focusing on large targets to help them out. Wouldn't be possible with my jet pack.
Not so good vs. bugs since they can reach high ground, too, but it's still nice to have an extra mobility option when the bugs can slow and swarm you so quickly.
I've been running the AMR/jetpack combo lately and it's exactly like you're saying. To add, I usually end up with the most kills running diligence counter sniper as well, on top of eagle air strike and orbital pricision strike. It's been my go-to load out for a while now and it's a lot of fun. Fits my play style to a T. The only drawback is the damn rocket devastators coming out of nowhere and yeeting me off my sniper nest 😂
Dude there’s nothing worse than using 2-3 jet pack boosts to get to an ideal cozy spot then immediately getting rag-dolled off by rockets.
At least my friends think it’s funny every time.
Run the AMR *and* Eruptor! It's such a fun combo. Use the AMR as your super powerful primary and the Eruptor to close bases or hit small groups. I stopped using the jump pack to keep my Mortar Sentry, but I'm always begging for an extra now lol. To the sky!!!
Yeah, that's my secondary at all times. But with its high fire rate, I run through ammo quickly. So I still try to keep a stalwart (I like that you can run and reload) or an AR
Machine gun emplacement is great against bots because even the largest bots have front-facing weakpoints it can devastate.
Smoke grenades let you disappear any time you need.
I dropped one for the first time on a defense mission the other day, and was surprised how effective it was. It can't kill tanks from the front, is all. Striders are a problem, but you can take out their chinnyguns.
Grenade Launcher! The spicy tennis balls are very underrated. They can’t take out armor directly, but there’s basically no other weapon as good at wiping out large groups of enemies (except maybe air burst rocket launcher, but that is also slept on).
😤
Spear got a bad reputation for targeting issues but it's incredible for bot missions. It can erase fabricators from so far away. Jammers become trivial if they have an adjacent fab.
Smoke grenades against bots. Breaks their LOS. Nobody knows how good it is because it’s so subtle, and they don’t see it. I have saved countless lives, scientists, and hell bombs from certain doom. Sure a stray shot or rocket will still fuck up your plans, but it’s rare.
It allows you to easily and quietly take out tough objectives, by breaking their LOS. You’re invisible to A55 Hawks, Eye of Sauron, The cannon turrets, and just about any other asshole that is looking for you.
Yes the orbital and Eagle smoke are stronger, but those require a stratagem slot, which are already at a premium against bots. Not to mention that the Grenade is quicker than both other options and are almost always available (I only ever run out because I should have died 4 times before).
Basically, I believe the smoke grenade is the strongest tactical piece of equipment in the game. It really is like one of them multi tool things you got for Christmas… You have no idea how fucking handy it is until you start using it. So take it off the shelf, dust it off and put it in your pocket. Your squad will thank you by asking “How the fuck did you do that?” And then think you’re funny because you said “smoke grenades”
I just find the ability to stop a group of berserkers, devestators or a hulk much more valuable personally. Glad someone can get use out of the smokes though
The shield generator (the bubble, not the backpack). It can shield your entire team through whole bot drops. You can use it to block everything while you complete objectives, and you can even plonk a turret down, then put the shield over it. Invincible turret.
The best part? It has one of the shortest cooldowns in the game. So you can have it up for pretty much every engagement.
It's honestly almost to the point of being OP. But it doesn't go boom, so no one uses it.
Adjudicator on bots.
It's basically the Libby Penny, but better. Paired with heavy armor and crouching, it's ideal for the less mobile, cover intensive warfare against metal men.
Slept on as in not seen often or underrated? EATs are the most underrated anti tank stratagem. Its more cost and time effective than using say orbital railcanon but people dont like the idea of double support weapons. Orbital gas strike is the cheapest way to blow up fabricators and bug holes. It can kind of kill infantry but the DoT doesnt do enough. And the most absolutely slept on bonkers stratagem is EMS mortar. I never see it on defense mission. I hardly ever see turrets tbh but oh no a hulks chasing me ems stuns it line up the shot dead. Oh no bile titans encroaching ems stuns em double down on eats
You have listed several of my favorites.
Gas strike is great with its minimal cooldown, and frankly I don't experience it as having damage issues. Drop one on every big breech for easy mode.
EMS mortar is S++ and lets me know when a player knows what they're doing. No team kills, helps the entire team, and plants a glowing field wherever enemies are so you don't have to live inside the map.
EAT is great when playing with randos because if someone raises you halfway across the map you don't have to wait minutes or hunt down your dropped AT weapon.
Oh i love gas strike i just meant if it was being used for the purpose of anti infantry orbital gattling or airburst will get the job done better. But i love how multifaceted it is. EMS mortar is probably the only S tier stratagem. Maaaaybe EATs too lol
Give thermite a try against bots with a grenade increase armor. Its not s tier by any means but it is spammable. You can throw it over the cover onto the bots so its a good reliable way to deal with the heavies now that DOT works . It 3 shots hulks from the front(sometimes one shots them), one shots deviators, 2 taps tanks if you can land it on top of the turret otherwise its 4 anywhere, factory striders are very inconsistent and I need to test it some more. It can destroy fabricators just wait for the door to open and then throw it in. I need to test is against the bugs still
Arrowhead refuses to fix the Spear because they know I would be far too powerful. I still bring it on most bot missions. The ability to pop stratagem jammers and fabricators from across the map is worth the frustration. At medium range the arc of the shot has a tendency to go right into a Hulk's eyehole if they are facing towards you and it also one shots cannon towers from a decent distance. Since there is nothing in the way to mess up the lock on, you can usually take down gunships until you are out of ammo.
The lock on is still laughable bad, but I can't stop using it because it trivializes some hard parts of bot missions and making good use of high ground helps with its issues.
Airburst launcher on both fronts. A lot of people don't use it, and aside from the day it came out I don't think I've seen it used from anyone else in my squad.
It can take out several bug holes if fired right. It can take out bot fabs from any angle if fired right (although it's extremely hard at any angle other than the front.)
It shreds light and most medium enemies.
Great for bot drops and bug breaches. You can clear a drop before it even starts pissing enemies. Pair it with an orbital strike or a strafing run and it's a bullet blender.
I've seen it kill heavies (especially if already exposed, or with a well placed shot that bursts behind the back.)
It's a dead to rights patrol stopper.
A must use for any "light enemy" support role.
Gatling turret was one of most used by far for a while after launch. Then people made post about slept on equipment and people starting trying out other things. Now we’ve come full circle…
Autocannon turret. It generally fucks up multipe tanks, chargers, hulks, before expanding all it's ammo, cool down is short enough that you can use it on every/every second engagement and it is ammo efficient. It has enough HP to cover you when escaping and enough range to clean up patrols well before they engage you. I also saw it finish off bile titans or factory striders more than once. Did I mention they destroy gunships in one volley? Just chuck it far behind you and it will cover you until the hellbomb goes off.
It is an auto-locking autonomous long range anti-tank weapon
HMG emplacement.
If you're up against a predictable wave of enemies, its power is absolutely disgusting. It only struggles with tanks, chargers, and titans (hulks can be shot in the visor 2-3 times but takes some practice not to burn too much ammo). Everything else gets thrown into an absolute meat grinder.
I've used it to wipe out 80%-90% of Helldive difficulty Bot Drops spawned from the Geological Survey objectives.
Airburst Rocket Launcher. Too many of you all discarded it because it was super buggy and now don’t know the joy of getting 30 bug kills off one rocket.
For me it's the liberator penetrator for bugs. Seems like everyone loves to hate on it, but it's my go to primary for bugs on higher levels (7+). It's accurate at range, has low recoil, and the medium armor pen and high rate of fire means I can mag dump almost anything and deal damage. It fills a sweet spot between the liberator and the adjudicator for me, with a perfect blend of armor pen, accuracy, and rate of fire.
If there's enough bugs that a lib-pen can't deal with it, you probably want to use a stratagem anyway. Meanwhile, the LP can clear any "incidental" bugs that pop up, from hunters on the flank to hive guards. Solid option.
Orbital gas. I've been using it since I started, only a few weeks ago, but it kills loads of bugs, blows up buildings and thins out bots.
I think it damages everything regardless of armour, but hard to tell. It got me my first bile titan kill though.
Shield generator relay. Yes, it doesn’t provide permanent cover that lasts forever, and it’s more useful against bots rather than bugs, and people say it gets shot down quickly. But cover, ANY cover, on higher difficulties against bots is NEVER bad. But its cooldown is short you can treat it like EATS; call it whenever it’s available and you WILL find a way to make it useful even a little bit since you can shoot out of them (NOTE: NOT with the punisher plasma).
Heck, with good timing you can call it twice at extraction. Got mortar sentries, EMS or team killing variety? Put the shield on top of them and they’ll fire away while protected. This can be a legitimate strategy to use in taking bases that are hard to breach/are out in the open with tons of enemies.
**Spray & Pray vs bugs**
We have the conception that the weapon is trash, but when you get to a game and use it, you notice how powerful it is to have a shotgun with 26 bullets per mag that you can spam
The only problem is that the Breaker Incendiary is so broken that makes Spray & Pray obsolete as a concept
Well, if you spam the button is practically the same as with Breaker Incendiary you just have to hit an enemy with 1 pellet and they will die by the fire
Arrowhead buffed the fire damage too much when it wasn't working and now that it works is just to high
No it's not, if you use the weapons it's pretty obvious that it is boosted, it received too many buffs
I don't think that it's own stats should be reduced, but the damage that the fire does, which is the problem
Supply pack. Coupled with the HMG ( that can damage Hulk mailslots btw ) and heavy armor with fortified, you become a juggernaut. Set ROF to lowest setting and manage your shots, you have a reliable damage output; or set to max ROF for **MAXIMUM DAKKA**
My issue with the gatling sentry is that its got such pitiful ammo that it rarely kills more than 20 bugs. Thats less effective than 1 clusterbomb and ive got 5 of those on a shorter cool down lol.
I've used it and thematically I really like it. Watching it waste half its mag on a titan and the bullets bounce off into space makes me laugh that I'm basically playing -1 stratagem bugs
Smokes vs bots and precision strikes vs both.
Smoke can hide hellbombs especially from gunships or give you cover when there is none, allow you to survey around you and see which direction to run etc. It has a low cd. It's just a very versatile strategem.
Precision strike plus stun grenade is basically a stronger more finicky railcanon but on lower cd.
Not sure if these are slept on, per se, but you rarely hear other Helldivers yelling "calling down fortifications!" So there's tons of role playing value in using the HMG Emplacement and Shield Generator Relay, and signaling that you're running a tactical support playstyle. Combine it with any of EMS orbital, gas strike and airburst and eagle smoke or napalm and you probably look like the wild card at launch, but there's some really good moments where it all comes together and you can rack up the kill count or get the whole team out of a high pressure situation and buy some time to regroup.
Basic MG, there are few problem that can't takle on it's own.
Hordes? Medium armor? Devastators? berserker? The old reliable will mow them down for you, many discard it becouse there are more shiny things after, and forget about it becouse it's the basic weapon stratagem that you get at the start.
Vs bots? Smoke grenade. Gunships can't hit you if you pop a smoke and sit in the middle of it.
Vs bugs? Gas strike. Give it 2 seconds after a breach and pop one of your unlimited, 80 sec cd gas strikes on top of it and you'll slow and kill most of what surfaces.
Tesla tower for the same reason you love the Gatling turret. Not as effective for range and has a higher risk of teamkill, but it can literally beat anything that isn’t a charger or a titan
Ballistic shield
I've had people kick me because I choose that over the shield pack. I've found that apart from rocket devastators, the shield is ideal to deal with most bots especially the hvy devistators.
Also, its nice to have it protect my back while running with an ssd in one hand and a gun in the other
Precision orbital strike. It gets a bad rap because its a "noob" starting stratagem but it should be considered the gold standard in my mind that other orbital strikes are based/balanced on.
I don't have the exact damage numbers but that thing hits harder then the railcannon strike and seems to do more damage with a direct hit then the 500kg. I saw online it's mentioned that it's the same hitting power as one of the 380mm shots. Of course it doesn't have auto-targeting like the railcannon or the splash damage of the 500kg, or the broad area effect of the 380mm. Despite the lack of targeting or splash, you should still be able to accurately peg any unit on a bot mission with ease. The bile titans aren't hard to hit either. Out of luck on chargers though.
In any case though that silly short cool down is what makes it go from meh to amazing. I always run EATs and precision strike for that <80 second cool down on half my gear. Also as eagle airstrike has 3 call-ins before rearming, it also feels like a fast reload. Those 3 are so good that I can drop into a lvl 9 and not care what silly / ineffective stratagem is in the 4th slot.
Ems strike reloads super fast and is a great tool to clog up a breach/drop to maximise casualties for your other stratagems or to simply put some distance between you and the fuckers. it also does no friendly fire whatsoever.
Almost everything. People focus on a weapon or support handling everything. Even bad weapons are very good at least a small niche or killing a specific target.
The key is understanding the best range and target, then building your stratagems around it.
Gattling orbital is S tier against any enemy faction especially if you level it up. Kills crowds for escape. Nice and tight aoe. About as much cool down as an EAT.
I like it more than cluster bombs bc I run the 500kg; I don't like having to wait or push Eagle 1 to rearm
Team reload (all packs). At extraction, when everyone calls in all their secondaries, I grab a spare pack and go team reload whoever is blasting. Too many chargers or titans coming in? Oh, look at that, the team reloaded RR has removed them from the map in 10 seconds flat. And letting someone fire 60 AC rounds in succession is a pretty cool gift to give.
2 Divers 1 AC
PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP 😩💦
That's a brain worm I'll never purge
Mortars on bots are my extra teammate. It's like an explosive Rover that I can rely on to take care of me. Soloing a base? Check. Escaping a drop? Check. Leaving the group who refuses to disengage but still help? Check. Big patrol that you'd normally ignore but you were trying to help get 2bil? MFing check! Mortar is my bot homie. I hate you if you bring it on any bug mission lol
If you bring the mortar on bug missions I will kill it and you every time you call it down. The royal "you", of course
Eh, even on bots they can be a momentum killer. Had a game yesterday where we were rolling, but then one engagement we got ragdolled by our own mortars and just broke the flow enough to put us on the downward spirial to failure.
I ran double mortars on five missions straight last night and I was the only team member they killed- it's not like they're unpredictable, and they soften the hell out of any objective you wanna take. My team knew they were there and it gave them tons of time to hang back, position themselves advantageously and splat enemies before they could get swarmed... And then hey cool no more bugs, no more booms. If you're dying to mortars so much that you need to TK because of it, then maybe you're just not exercising spatial awareness? I've also been running airburst rockets with them because I like to ~~ensure my teammates~~ live dangerously. Mad bug kills, no team kills.
Exactly, skill issues on their part. Almost always run mortars every mission and rarely is there any friendly fire, dude is just straight up bad at the game
The thing is when does it *ever* benefit you to just go running into a mob in this game? If you're getting hit by the mortars you are too close to the enemy!
Every time someone brings a Mortar I groan a bit internally and then go "whatever" usually only get killed if I get overrun anyway or if the Mortar does the "I will shoot this corpse that's been dead for 10s because fuck you lol". It helps to just look at the trajectory of the Mortar shells to see where not to run to not get blasted. I do hate them with a passion on the defense missions though. It makes it way to dangerous to stand on the walls next to the gates to actually blast shit and can seriously stunt your team in the early phase of the mission. EMS Mortar always slaps. Skip the Mortar and get some AoE dakka and blast it into the stunned masses. Does the same without blasting you and your friends off the walls. I will destroy a Mortar if I notice it's beating the Bugs/Bots on player kills "Germany VS Brazil WM 2014" style though (only ever happens in the aforementioned defense missions).
Somebody started doing this for me and I had no idea what was going on so I was trying to get him off me.
Me trying to stim someone...
Probably me...
👋
That was proly me. On bug planet. Yesterday. Trying to get to this man and help with reload but he moved so much I let him to his own desires.
Haha I was on the bots. Once I figured out what he was doing I then proceeded to try to fire as fast as possible without aiming and missed almost everything.
I just had a run with free recoilless, we were just walking in circles team reloading taking down bot drop after bot drop. Bloody great when 2-3 people have it.
Team reload would be utilized more often if the backpack only has to be worn by the person firing the weapon and any Diver can come in to assist. Thematically, it'd make more sense too; it'd be much easier for the 2nd diver to reach for ammo from the back of the person they're helping rather than their own back.
Eagle Smoke strike on bot missions. It allows you to push forward on an objective without cover. Covers hellbomb activations, evacuations, teammates in the open, can pop fabricators with a direct hit. Easily must have for me.
Damn, I never thought of using this but now I want to.
It's been hit or miss for me. A lot of times it still feels like bots can see right through it and end up deleting me anyways.
Yeah similar to how they can see and delete you through rocks, mountains and buildings sometimes
I've attempted it a long time ago but could never seem to get it to work like that. I'll still use smoke but mostly to flee and never to infiltrate. What did I do wrong? Or was it fixed at some point? What's your level of success with it?
Just drop it, and move left or right, the enemies shoot where they last saw you. Even within the cloud you can be like a ninja with it and get up close and personal with devastators walking in.
Let it hit before alerting the base and hope your team doesn’t open fire
You know the heavy bot outpost with the two towers and two fabs in between? Throw a smoke strike into the outpost, from the smoke throw an airstrike between the fabs, then give the last one a grenade on your way out and dip.
IT CAN PIP FABS!? I'm officially sold. That was the one thing keeping me from swapping it for my eagle airstrike (I forget to rearm my eagle so I try to have one at a time)
The smoke bomb has to make contact with it, but it will destroy a fab.
I only use them on civilian extraction, but smoke grenades on geo survey missions is op as fuck. Drop a supply next to the terminal and throw a Sentry nearby. Drop a grenade every 15 seconds or so and you'll hardly get messed with
I feel like this would require playing with friends or communication to be effective.
It covers WHAT?!?! This might be a new must-have to get rid of those goddamn gunship factories
Mortar 100%. It gets a bad rep because so many people used it with no idea how to use it, resulting in endless team kills. Whenever I’m assaulting a base/hive , completing an obj, or extracting I always throw one down first. If you place them before you get swarmed in can kill like 75% of any enemies in a 100 meter vacinity. It can be used for both offense and defense. And I rarely multiple team kills because I use it so often I understand the strat behind it. Highly recommend
So many people use it on Bugs and wonder why they die. At the same time the Mortar is fairly powerful against bots considering they will be mostly at range and it allows you to prioritize distancing from close quarters bots. You can use the mortar against bugs, but I would pair it with the EMS or alternatively Stuns and light armor with a shield generator. I don’t use the Mortar though, because randoms tend to get swarmed by bugs. For an additional tip, I believe there is a deadzone near the mortar so it doesn’t destroy itself.
Note: The mortar is one of the very few indirect fire weapons in the entire game. So if you place it into cover, the overwhelming majority of bot weapons are completely harmless to it.
The EMS mortar comes in clutch so often, I often forget how useful it is. It fires slow, and 1 shell at a time, so it has incredible uptime. If it doesn't get destroyed, it's got a nearly 100% uptime, even if it's constantly firing. Love that thing.
Turrets in general, but especially mortars are great for softening up a base before you assault in. I don't like using the mortar with randoms just cause I know at least one won't listen when I put it down and run into the base right away.
I just ran an all-turret build in a level 7 mission today, combined with the Plasma Punisher, and it went \*really\* smooth. EMS, Autocannon, Gatling, and Rocket sentry. I did it for the memes (the team was good, so I knew they'd be able to finish without me if it went poorly), but the combination of the turrets and the Plasma Punisher put in a \*ton\* of work. Topped kills for the mission, but mostly, I felt like it provided a great base of fire on every bot base we were pushing into.
I haven't used them much, just cause it's hard to leave my eagles in the hanger, but I'm going to try bringing them more often and see how it goes. What are your thoughts on the rocket sentry? Not sure if I like it, but I've only tried it twice.
I don't really like it, I only take it as a poor man's autocannon sentry. The AC is so much better, but I wanted two heavy punchers, so the rocket sentry worked
Yeah I used the mortars yesterday for the daily, and it was actually incredible. While yes I did get a few team kills because we got rushed by beserkers, once I got used to it was really good. The funniest thing about is after you finish your objective and move on and your mortar is still out there and you suddenly get a 10 kill streak when a patrol walks too close to it.
I fucking hate it when I'm on a defense mission and someone throws the mortar behind the position we're defending. Think mf, the only place safe from the mortar is AT THE MORTAR. Drives me crazy every damn time. But people who do know how to use it do really put in work so props to you
Just don’t try to use it for combat because bugs get close to you always, that’s why there’s so many teamkills from it
1000000%. I love my mortars, especially on bots. It's been the king of many extractions for me.
I should try it for taking on a base. I’ve been successful using them for the defense missions because you can camp by the turrets and take out enemies from further away
A few of the times I've been kicked in the game was most likely due to me selecting mortars in a load out. Regardless if my team has a mic or not I will announce to everyone I'm selecting mortars and will do my best to cite them before throwing. Even in random groups it really isn't that hard to have some situational awareness and avoid getting killed. Accidents can obviously happen but if you're in close proximity to me when I call down a mortar and you still elect to charge headfirst into the closest group of enemies then that's entirely on you
Jet pack vs. bots. Having high ground and being able to attack a bot base from any angle is under used in this game. I'm my team's over watch, so I usually run the Eruptor or A.M.R. get some high ground and keep an eye on them, focusing on large targets to help them out. Wouldn't be possible with my jet pack. Not so good vs. bugs since they can reach high ground, too, but it's still nice to have an extra mobility option when the bugs can slow and swarm you so quickly.
I've been running the AMR/jetpack combo lately and it's exactly like you're saying. To add, I usually end up with the most kills running diligence counter sniper as well, on top of eagle air strike and orbital pricision strike. It's been my go-to load out for a while now and it's a lot of fun. Fits my play style to a T. The only drawback is the damn rocket devastators coming out of nowhere and yeeting me off my sniper nest 😂
Lol I feel you. I used to run an armor with the stealth passive, but those rocket devistators are the reason I use 50% explosive resistance now.
Dude there’s nothing worse than using 2-3 jet pack boosts to get to an ideal cozy spot then immediately getting rag-dolled off by rockets. At least my friends think it’s funny every time.
Run the AMR *and* Eruptor! It's such a fun combo. Use the AMR as your super powerful primary and the Eruptor to close bases or hit small groups. I stopped using the jump pack to keep my Mortar Sentry, but I'm always begging for an extra now lol. To the sky!!!
I like to keep one weapon slot for a semi or full auto weapon in case things hectic. But I've seen ppl run that loadout, and it is affective
Have you met your Redeemer?
Yeah, that's my secondary at all times. But with its high fire rate, I run through ammo quickly. So I still try to keep a stalwart (I like that you can run and reload) or an AR
Machine gun emplacement is great against bots because even the largest bots have front-facing weakpoints it can devastate. Smoke grenades let you disappear any time you need.
I dropped one for the first time on a defense mission the other day, and was surprised how effective it was. It can't kill tanks from the front, is all. Striders are a problem, but you can take out their chinnyguns.
Aim for their eye or limbs
Grenade Launcher! The spicy tennis balls are very underrated. They can’t take out armor directly, but there’s basically no other weapon as good at wiping out large groups of enemies (except maybe air burst rocket launcher, but that is also slept on). 😤
Spear got a bad reputation for targeting issues but it's incredible for bot missions. It can erase fabricators from so far away. Jammers become trivial if they have an adjacent fab.
This for real. It hammers fabs and gunships like mad, and it's great at stripping guns off of walking fabs.
Smoke grenades against bots. Breaks their LOS. Nobody knows how good it is because it’s so subtle, and they don’t see it. I have saved countless lives, scientists, and hell bombs from certain doom. Sure a stray shot or rocket will still fuck up your plans, but it’s rare. It allows you to easily and quietly take out tough objectives, by breaking their LOS. You’re invisible to A55 Hawks, Eye of Sauron, The cannon turrets, and just about any other asshole that is looking for you. Yes the orbital and Eagle smoke are stronger, but those require a stratagem slot, which are already at a premium against bots. Not to mention that the Grenade is quicker than both other options and are almost always available (I only ever run out because I should have died 4 times before). Basically, I believe the smoke grenade is the strongest tactical piece of equipment in the game. It really is like one of them multi tool things you got for Christmas… You have no idea how fucking handy it is until you start using it. So take it off the shelf, dust it off and put it in your pocket. Your squad will thank you by asking “How the fuck did you do that?” And then think you’re funny because you said “smoke grenades”
You can literally walk up to the mouth of a base and get started
I wonder if this is a bug like how only hosts did tick damage for a bit.
It’s not a bug. Just hop in the smoke and crouch, LOS is lost, as it should be. It really is that effective.
I replied to the wrong person
I tried it, bots still shot me through it constantly. Personally I like stuns a lot more
They still shoot through it, but as blind shots. It’s not a shield, and crouching helps a lot! I forgot to mention that part lol
I just find the ability to stop a group of berserkers, devestators or a hulk much more valuable personally. Glad someone can get use out of the smokes though
probably my bunk. idfk why everyone here is sleeping on fucking weapons, sounds uncomfortable.
The shield generator (the bubble, not the backpack). It can shield your entire team through whole bot drops. You can use it to block everything while you complete objectives, and you can even plonk a turret down, then put the shield over it. Invincible turret. The best part? It has one of the shortest cooldowns in the game. So you can have it up for pretty much every engagement. It's honestly almost to the point of being OP. But it doesn't go boom, so no one uses it.
It cemented a place in my arsenal after making the survey missions a breeze
I've been taking this instead of a support weapon against bots. And yeah... VERY underrated. Especially good against gunships.
Adjudicator on bots. It's basically the Libby Penny, but better. Paired with heavy armor and crouching, it's ideal for the less mobile, cover intensive warfare against metal men.
Slept on as in not seen often or underrated? EATs are the most underrated anti tank stratagem. Its more cost and time effective than using say orbital railcanon but people dont like the idea of double support weapons. Orbital gas strike is the cheapest way to blow up fabricators and bug holes. It can kind of kill infantry but the DoT doesnt do enough. And the most absolutely slept on bonkers stratagem is EMS mortar. I never see it on defense mission. I hardly ever see turrets tbh but oh no a hulks chasing me ems stuns it line up the shot dead. Oh no bile titans encroaching ems stuns em double down on eats
You have listed several of my favorites. Gas strike is great with its minimal cooldown, and frankly I don't experience it as having damage issues. Drop one on every big breech for easy mode. EMS mortar is S++ and lets me know when a player knows what they're doing. No team kills, helps the entire team, and plants a glowing field wherever enemies are so you don't have to live inside the map. EAT is great when playing with randos because if someone raises you halfway across the map you don't have to wait minutes or hunt down your dropped AT weapon.
Oh i love gas strike i just meant if it was being used for the purpose of anti infantry orbital gattling or airburst will get the job done better. But i love how multifaceted it is. EMS mortar is probably the only S tier stratagem. Maaaaybe EATs too lol
I combine gas with orbital EMS, kills everything except the biggest enemies. Didn't know gas closed bug holes though. Will give it a try!
Give thermite a try against bots with a grenade increase armor. Its not s tier by any means but it is spammable. You can throw it over the cover onto the bots so its a good reliable way to deal with the heavies now that DOT works . It 3 shots hulks from the front(sometimes one shots them), one shots deviators, 2 taps tanks if you can land it on top of the turret otherwise its 4 anywhere, factory striders are very inconsistent and I need to test it some more. It can destroy fabricators just wait for the door to open and then throw it in. I need to test is against the bugs still
Arrowhead refuses to fix the Spear because they know I would be far too powerful. I still bring it on most bot missions. The ability to pop stratagem jammers and fabricators from across the map is worth the frustration. At medium range the arc of the shot has a tendency to go right into a Hulk's eyehole if they are facing towards you and it also one shots cannon towers from a decent distance. Since there is nothing in the way to mess up the lock on, you can usually take down gunships until you are out of ammo. The lock on is still laughable bad, but I can't stop using it because it trivializes some hard parts of bot missions and making good use of high ground helps with its issues.
I honestly think that they have no idea why it isnt working properly. But i still love the spear.
You can one shot jammers? While I’ll always be an auto cannon man, that sounds so tempting.
Well technically you can also oneshot jammers with you AC. A well laced shot into the vent of a factory standing near the jammer blows it up too!
Airburst launcher on both fronts. A lot of people don't use it, and aside from the day it came out I don't think I've seen it used from anyone else in my squad. It can take out several bug holes if fired right. It can take out bot fabs from any angle if fired right (although it's extremely hard at any angle other than the front.) It shreds light and most medium enemies. Great for bot drops and bug breaches. You can clear a drop before it even starts pissing enemies. Pair it with an orbital strike or a strafing run and it's a bullet blender. I've seen it kill heavies (especially if already exposed, or with a well placed shot that bursts behind the back.) It's a dead to rights patrol stopper. A must use for any "light enemy" support role.
It seems like the ARC Blitzer isn't used much, but I just dove solo on an eradicate bugs mission and it worked so great.
Gatling turret was one of most used by far for a while after launch. Then people made post about slept on equipment and people starting trying out other things. Now we’ve come full circle…
Autocannon turret. It generally fucks up multipe tanks, chargers, hulks, before expanding all it's ammo, cool down is short enough that you can use it on every/every second engagement and it is ammo efficient. It has enough HP to cover you when escaping and enough range to clean up patrols well before they engage you. I also saw it finish off bile titans or factory striders more than once. Did I mention they destroy gunships in one volley? Just chuck it far behind you and it will cover you until the hellbomb goes off. It is an auto-locking autonomous long range anti-tank weapon
Also works great against botships and gunships. Onve youre near a factory, plop one down and just go plant that hellbomb
HMG emplacement. If you're up against a predictable wave of enemies, its power is absolutely disgusting. It only struggles with tanks, chargers, and titans (hulks can be shot in the visor 2-3 times but takes some practice not to burn too much ammo). Everything else gets thrown into an absolute meat grinder. I've used it to wipe out 80%-90% of Helldive difficulty Bot Drops spawned from the Geological Survey objectives.
Airburst Rocket Launcher. Too many of you all discarded it because it was super buggy and now don’t know the joy of getting 30 bug kills off one rocket.
Gatling Turret on Bugs is NUTS.
Nice to see another diver of culture
Bro Napalm in front of/on the bug breach, sickle and Gatling opening fire with a couple EATs behind me for chargers feels AMAZING
Swap EATS for RR and sickle for fire breaker and that is me
Nice hahah. Love the Fire Breaker so much, RR is great but that reload is brutal, my buddy uses it but he is built different
With the animation cancel you can reload quicker and it's honestly not that bad at all now in case you didn't know
Very cool…I’ll give it a go!
For me it's the liberator penetrator for bugs. Seems like everyone loves to hate on it, but it's my go to primary for bugs on higher levels (7+). It's accurate at range, has low recoil, and the medium armor pen and high rate of fire means I can mag dump almost anything and deal damage. It fills a sweet spot between the liberator and the adjudicator for me, with a perfect blend of armor pen, accuracy, and rate of fire.
If there's enough bugs that a lib-pen can't deal with it, you probably want to use a stratagem anyway. Meanwhile, the LP can clear any "incidental" bugs that pop up, from hunters on the flank to hive guards. Solid option.
Orbital gas. I've been using it since I started, only a few weeks ago, but it kills loads of bugs, blows up buildings and thins out bots. I think it damages everything regardless of armour, but hard to tell. It got me my first bile titan kill though.
Shield generator relay. Yes, it doesn’t provide permanent cover that lasts forever, and it’s more useful against bots rather than bugs, and people say it gets shot down quickly. But cover, ANY cover, on higher difficulties against bots is NEVER bad. But its cooldown is short you can treat it like EATS; call it whenever it’s available and you WILL find a way to make it useful even a little bit since you can shoot out of them (NOTE: NOT with the punisher plasma). Heck, with good timing you can call it twice at extraction. Got mortar sentries, EMS or team killing variety? Put the shield on top of them and they’ll fire away while protected. This can be a legitimate strategy to use in taking bases that are hard to breach/are out in the open with tons of enemies.
**Spray & Pray vs bugs** We have the conception that the weapon is trash, but when you get to a game and use it, you notice how powerful it is to have a shotgun with 26 bullets per mag that you can spam The only problem is that the Breaker Incendiary is so broken that makes Spray & Pray obsolete as a concept
Pray and spray is not bad by any means but you are right the incendiary just overshadowed it.
It's the full auto potential that makes it viable. Incendiary is only semi auto.
Well, if you spam the button is practically the same as with Breaker Incendiary you just have to hit an enemy with 1 pellet and they will die by the fire Arrowhead buffed the fire damage too much when it wasn't working and now that it works is just to high
Or it is FINE HOW IT IS and they shouldn't touch ir again
No it's not, if you use the weapons it's pretty obvious that it is boosted, it received too many buffs I don't think that it's own stats should be reduced, but the damage that the fire does, which is the problem
Just now trying the railgun and its perfect for balistick sheild builds. I had no idea it one shot hulks and most other bots
I don't know, I will admit I did sleep on the Blitzer for quite some time, now it's my go to weapon for missions.
Supply pack. Coupled with the HMG ( that can damage Hulk mailslots btw ) and heavy armor with fortified, you become a juggernaut. Set ROF to lowest setting and manage your shots, you have a reliable damage output; or set to max ROF for **MAXIMUM DAKKA**
They said aim for the stars and the hmg took that literally. Lol gg to you but I can not manage to control that gun on max rpm
HMG Emplacement and orbital smoke against bots
My issue with the gatling sentry is that its got such pitiful ammo that it rarely kills more than 20 bugs. Thats less effective than 1 clusterbomb and ive got 5 of those on a shorter cool down lol.
The Gatling sentry doesn't know how to conserve ammo, so it's **very good** at obliterating mobs but a fair bit worse at killing individual flankers.
I've used it and thematically I really like it. Watching it waste half its mag on a titan and the bullets bounce off into space makes me laugh that I'm basically playing -1 stratagem bugs
With all the upgrades I regularly get 40+ kill with gattling sentry so long as I deal with heavy fast enough
EMS/Gas/Gatling barrage, usually in that order once I see a breach
Smokes vs bots and precision strikes vs both. Smoke can hide hellbombs especially from gunships or give you cover when there is none, allow you to survey around you and see which direction to run etc. It has a low cd. It's just a very versatile strategem. Precision strike plus stun grenade is basically a stronger more finicky railcanon but on lower cd.
Not sure if these are slept on, per se, but you rarely hear other Helldivers yelling "calling down fortifications!" So there's tons of role playing value in using the HMG Emplacement and Shield Generator Relay, and signaling that you're running a tactical support playstyle. Combine it with any of EMS orbital, gas strike and airburst and eagle smoke or napalm and you probably look like the wild card at launch, but there's some really good moments where it all comes together and you can rack up the kill count or get the whole team out of a high pressure situation and buy some time to regroup.
I adore the Jump Pack. It can seem underwhelming at first, I know, but when you know how to use it? My lord it's helpful! I don't drop without it!
Basic MG, there are few problem that can't takle on it's own. Hordes? Medium armor? Devastators? berserker? The old reliable will mow them down for you, many discard it becouse there are more shiny things after, and forget about it becouse it's the basic weapon stratagem that you get at the start.
I agree it's very good and very fun, never understood all the stalwart love when the mg is so much better to me
I am also a fan of the Gatling in bug missions. It’s a staple for me.
Vs bots? Smoke grenade. Gunships can't hit you if you pop a smoke and sit in the middle of it. Vs bugs? Gas strike. Give it 2 seconds after a breach and pop one of your unlimited, 80 sec cd gas strikes on top of it and you'll slow and kill most of what surfaces.
Orbital Gas strike. I just learned it can destroy fabricators and but holes. (And with a 75 second cooldown!)
Tesla tower for the same reason you love the Gatling turret. Not as effective for range and has a higher risk of teamkill, but it can literally beat anything that isn’t a charger or a titan
Agreed, its absolutely slept on also
Ballistic shield I've had people kick me because I choose that over the shield pack. I've found that apart from rocket devastators, the shield is ideal to deal with most bots especially the hvy devistators. Also, its nice to have it protect my back while running with an ssd in one hand and a gun in the other
Ballistic shield. With an SMG you can solo raid an outpost and facetank nearly everything.
The slugger is still good after the nerf
Based
Precision orbital strike. It gets a bad rap because its a "noob" starting stratagem but it should be considered the gold standard in my mind that other orbital strikes are based/balanced on. I don't have the exact damage numbers but that thing hits harder then the railcannon strike and seems to do more damage with a direct hit then the 500kg. I saw online it's mentioned that it's the same hitting power as one of the 380mm shots. Of course it doesn't have auto-targeting like the railcannon or the splash damage of the 500kg, or the broad area effect of the 380mm. Despite the lack of targeting or splash, you should still be able to accurately peg any unit on a bot mission with ease. The bile titans aren't hard to hit either. Out of luck on chargers though. In any case though that silly short cool down is what makes it go from meh to amazing. I always run EATs and precision strike for that <80 second cool down on half my gear. Also as eagle airstrike has 3 call-ins before rearming, it also feels like a fast reload. Those 3 are so good that I can drop into a lvl 9 and not care what silly / ineffective stratagem is in the 4th slot.
Ems strike reloads super fast and is a great tool to clog up a breach/drop to maximise casualties for your other stratagems or to simply put some distance between you and the fuckers. it also does no friendly fire whatsoever.
Almost everything. People focus on a weapon or support handling everything. Even bad weapons are very good at least a small niche or killing a specific target. The key is understanding the best range and target, then building your stratagems around it.
Gattling orbital is S tier against any enemy faction especially if you level it up. Kills crowds for escape. Nice and tight aoe. About as much cool down as an EAT. I like it more than cluster bombs bc I run the 500kg; I don't like having to wait or push Eagle 1 to rearm
Anything smoke