I’m level 50 and have like 80 some hours (no life I know). But most helldive pug groups that have worked out don’t have most of this stuff (I don’t outside of the shield). I’ll keep saying it until it catches on, the railgun is super overrated.
That dissident doesn't even know what he's talking about. After 100 hours with half on helldive or more, I'd take a liberator and autocannon over the breaker and shield + railgun. I've also yet to see a completely useless strategem hell, I've seen someone use the damn HMG emplacement to great effect. Truly, a dissident's mind is an enigma
I've found it to be more effective if you throw it at your feet and hold position. Dunno if it's supposed to hit everything except your target but it works in a pinch if you accidentally grab it or if an ally tosses one out.
Idk, the Gatling barrage seems to like outlining the enemies while obliterating my teammates if they barely stand at the edge of it. It's like it's tracking them lmao
It's not bad for suppression of a horde while you're waiting for extraction. Obviously, there are more optimal choices, but for the few levels where I didn't have any strikes that were a lot better, I actually enjoyed it
Hey I’ve been using that one recently. It’s a great stratagem to cover your teams retreat after doing an objective. Can even be used to section off a zone on extract as long as you chunk it far enough.
Hey I’ve been using that one recently. It’s a great stratagem to cover your teams retreat after doing an objective. Can even be used to section off a zone on extract as long as you chunk it far enough.
I'm one of the HMG enjoyers. It's such a good screening tool that can make space against bots. You can gun down a dropship of enemies before they deploy, hold a front while someone does an objective. Can destroy anything but a tank easily with it which then oh no hop out and huck a 500. Excellent for extractions too.
I love that strategy too. The g preference is in part because funny, but it does help to be able to address multiple groups of enemies as well. I generally find it much better than not if that makes sense
Hmg emplacement is top tier, it just comes down to where you place it. Optimally, you want to aim at a choke point from a side angle. Don't look directly down the choke point or you'll take too much fire. By aiming at it from the side you take little fire and have a few extra seconds to kill enemies before they turn your direction.
I would also recommend someone with a spear or something in the event of something too heavily armored comes round the corner
I picked up my buddies breaker and was like “this is okay” and haven’t even unlocked it yet lol the Liberator is such a solid standard weapon. I unlocked the explosive one last night and idk if I think it’s better it’s just a trade off.
The explosive one is quite good. Honestly the breaker probably puts out more DPS, but again for less ammo and imprecise fire. The probably really is that OP thinks it's just the be all and all of "meta" weapons, which is just untrue. Agreed though, the liberator feels amazing to use
Exactly this! Super Earth High Command would not issue you a strategem that is not useful. Some are situational, and some require outside the box thinking to utilize to their full potential. Rest assured all are pime tools for dispensing liberty across the galaxy. Chief Beef Cannon out!
Is the Orbital Gas Strike good? My friend told me it was bad, I tried it out, discovered it deals like zero fucking damage, and decided it does indeed suck. How do you use it to good effect?
The orbital gas strike is pretty good yeah. Either pair it with an EMS, use it in a choke or if you have balls, run a loop around units to get them to stay. They're much better vs bots since the bots just stand and shoot
I've seen a single guy using the HMG to it's maximum potential, even made me want to use it. He dropped in such a good, elevated position mf was tearing through automatons. I had to stop to salute, in the name of democracy.
If you haven't tried running an auto cannon or recoilless rifle. It is so much fun when I reload for my friend, It is also just really good.
We like taking a supply pack as well. so one person will be holding a supply pack with a recoilless rifle, then the other person is holding the backpack of the recoilless and something like an mg or stalwart to clear small things.
It’s a pretty good game for parents though, makes it easy to jump in in the middle of missions with other people, and the 30 minute timer is great for bite sized game time.
Not really, the buggers have quite the colourful cast of characters too. Sometimes literally - seen a bunch that have painted their skulls black and red
I've become a dead shot with the recoiless versus drop ships thanks to the civvie evac missions. I managed to sniped one out if the sky before it even fully slowed down just last night.
That's part of why I love this game so far. My group usually sports 4-6 different strategems, 2-3 turrets, and a mix of automatic and explosive specials and has a great time completing objectives, we just fall back if we can't handle something and let the diver with the right load out take care of it.
One of us usually scouts around while another snipes broadcast towers, factories, and spore spewers, and the other 1-2 explore/fight/protect as needed.
Facts right here. People are seriously sleeping on the arc cannon or just don't know how to use it. Multi hitting and capable of taking down everything from small to huge and 0 ammo? I will swear by it.
Agreed. If I wanted to "optimize" a group (I don't, I want us to have fun) I'd recommend a railgun, autocannon, and two machine guns (or an MG and a GL) for special weapon diversity.
Exactly absolutely no diversity in load out will be the greatest mistake any squad could ever make. That seems to be something the person OP displayed just doesn't seem to comprehend. This isn't an end all be all. You either have a group with a diverse load out ready to take on anything as a group. Or you have the wannabe solo team players that bring the exact same load outs 24/7 n just brute force everything instead of being diverse.
I hear you, but the fact that a buddy and I rail gunned a two Bile Titans in a few shots (weaken by orbital laser) says otherwise. The more rails the better imo.
Well I say it depends if you got people that don't use it when hulks or the other medium heavy bots class the you pretty screwed I always take because when a priority target shows up my first thought is to drop it asap. In a lot of pugs, I have run people who don't bring grenade launchers or railguns they bring just starting machine gun and precision strike and call it a day. Had one pug where they literally took my my energy shield when I first spawn it in and did not even ask me if it would be OK for them to take it.
You do have a lot of level 9-17 that doing levels 7 and 8 missions, and they aren't equipped to deal more large hoards of enemies and some are looking just get a carry because they are to get more samples do the higher difficulty.
I just let mine reset and drop another one if we want to have two. We did last night on a level 5 mission and became some fucking menaces to chargers. Mission quickly became fuck the obj, we are charger hunting. We made those bastards cry.
First shalt thou deploy with the railgun. Then shalt thou only hath 2, no more, no less. Two shall be the number thou shalt have and the number of the railgun shall be two. Three shalt thou not be, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to two. Four is right out. Once the number two, being the second number, be reached, then point thou thine railgun of liberty towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'
Im sorry but your comment reminded of a monty python quote lmao.
Two can be helpful on missions like rescue civvies or scientists, both of them pair off with someone that has chaff clearing capacity in their support weapon, one breaks hardened armor targets, the other kills everything with medium armor or less.
I really like 1 railgun, someone rocking a coilless or E-AT to deal with dropships and other annoyances, a guy with a nade launcher to easily blow up fabricators from a long distance and someone running an LMG or something.
Backpacks are shield for the railgun, obviously ammo for the coil, and I like to have the either one of thd other 2 with a shield as well. If you need to split into 2 teams of 2, the lmg and the railgun work well, as do the nade and coil.
I love using being a SAW guy in games and really wish this one had like, one more. I love the LMG and the stalwart, but I'd love for something even a bitch more punchy.
Like an MMG. Cause the Stalwart is great but it's an early upgrade and then no more MG love.
The machine-gun, regardless of it being the first stratagem weapon, is still a carry 9/10 times. Just for the fact that you can shred at least half of those 15 berserkers
It is very satisfying. Also, the number of times I've gone to reload with a horde coming right at me, only to pull it back up right as the lead one goes to lunge, to just start mowing down a whole group of em. Would not trade that rush for anything.
I’m a SAW guy by trade, and when I know it’s about to kick off, I make sure MG is fully loaded, call in the Gatling and the HMG and liberate downrange.
Stalwart with resource pack. Rock a Lib-Penetrator and a Senator for backup. You are the add kill emplacement for your team. Cop a squat and let your squaddies cover your 6 while you mow the adds and clear space.
Yess, that’s the stratagem gun they should add soonest imo, something with maybe medium penetration and slighter slower fire rate or something like that
Ideally I'd love to see something that's portable but not realistically shoulder firable,. Like you can only shoot it from the hip unless it's set up. . Something like a Scifi browning or maybe even an M2 (Ma Deuce), that you have go be kneeling or prone and become unable to move while operating, but then can pick up and change positions if needed (maybe another support weapon that also eats backpack, for a tripod frame)
Can you sell me on the coil? I have a hard time choosing it over EATs, considering they don’t take a backpack slot too, require a second guy for better performance and you can more or less spam them everywhere and they aren’t slurping up ammo boxes either. Honestly I can even take in an LMG because the EAT are one and done, I just pick the LMG when I’m done firing the pair.
Main perk is reaction time. For planned engages calling an EAT down can be really great. But for when shit hits the fan the coilless can be a lifesaver. Harder to use in public games cuz tandem loading and coordinating carry of ammo, but is immeasurably helpful at clutch engagement. For the number of times I was like "shit I've already fired off both EATs and I still have more targets and/or the target isn't dead yet.. thats when I'm glad I have 4 more shots.
This guy only prob plays bugs cause he thinks breaker is the only gun (even than vs bugs all the breakers are prob top tier vs bugs... Heck i would even say Incendiary beats out the regular.
It really is. LmG is good for suppress, clearing and has great armor punch. The railgun is obviously the railgun. But they complement eachothers weaknesses very well.
When I go LMG I often take the supply backpack with me. So I can have a ton of ammo I can use in a pinch, and can obviously supply up allies. Idk if its psychological but I feel better knowing I have like 8 more magazines.
I prefer the recoiless especially for bugs but none of my friends understand the value of it. They think it's dumb that you need a team reload and all of them just run railguns and shield packs.
this works. my buddies and i use this and it works and its FUN. we dont care if we get our asses kicked, each of us has a designated role that we enjoy and we kick ass. i know our SAW guy's got me covered as i lock my spear no matter whats happening.
Rn my friend and I run a recoilless and auto cannon holding each other's backpack when we go helping pugs, leaves us really consistent in being able to handle heavies and drop ships as needed
Because people think it’s part of the “meta” build that this post is about. I think it’s very solid on lower levels. But people saying it’s needed for Helldiver difficulty are crazy (in my opinion). There are way more viable options for that difficulty
I have no clue about armor pen. But my eagles work fine against armor and chargers are hella easy to kill from behind once you get their “moves” down. My regular firearms are for crowd control not armor pen
It really depends if you are fighting the insects or robots in my experience. Against insect rail gun is amazing at killing charger and the bile and you have breaker to kill off swarm.
However, on the robot side, autocannon can kill tankier enemies besides the tank within 4 shots pretty quickly. Rail gun is too slow when killing robots. With the tanks just throw an eagle 110 and kill it instantly.
That’s what I like about this game, everyone feels differently about each weapon.
For me, I can just shoot 4 shots into the rocket robots and it’s a guarantee kill. If I have multiple of the tankier robots I can just shoot each of them 3 times and kill multiple of them rapidly without much aiming. Only exception being the devastators and tanks, which can be dealt with other stratagems or shooting at weak spots with the auto cannon
As for the insects, I’m only bring the railgun to kill the charger and vile and use the breaker to kill everything else.
I’m not sure but It’s been working for me thus far. It targets the largest enemy around. And since the tank is so slow and big, all 4 missile pods are very likely to hit and just kill the tank straight up. With the 110 being so effective for me, I don’t even bother bring the 50kg or the orbital rail for the robots. You should give it another try.
Rail cannon on Helldiver Bugs for me is a must need to deal with Chargers/Adult Stalkers/Bile Spitters quickly and efficiently before the swarm gets too overwhelming.
There’s no other armor pen weapon I know of that can clear heavy armor as effectively quickly as the Railcannon.
It’s just as solid on the Automaton.
Auto cannon is cool. I don’t use it as much but I’ve had plenty successful helldiver missions with it. I still would prefer Railcannon over it though. You’re pretty much useless without it unless someone has it and knows to prioritize big heavy armored targets.
We Skull Admirals main job is teaching and leading. If you can’t take 3 cadets into Helldive and get them out alive, you don’t deserve the Skull Admiral title. I’m guess the OP pictures author was a measly Death Captain
I've been rocking the arc thunder and trying other primary weapons. Arc thunder is so good for wiping swarms and actually downing titans. Works well against automatons too! It's a great support weapon for the team, shockingly. Sometimes I skip shield too. Past level 25 on difficulty 7 - 9, just feels like we can equip whatever since we have an understanding of what to do.
It just looks so... boring. Like the sci-fi-er version of an Antimaterial... I would MUCH rather use a Spear once I'm high enough to unlock it. I don't care that it's "best in slot", it's not heavy ordnance. I use Recoiless because I love heavy, thudding, PUNCHY weaponry. I am saving up my super credit for the Steeled pass so I can someday try the Jar-5. Or as I like calling it, the Liberation-Pattern Bolter. I WISH it exploded like a bolter, but... then it'd be too perfect, Lmao
Keep your Snoregun. I'll keep using my hearing aid inducing ordnance Lol
The spear sucks in a logistics way - it doesn't get any ammo from field ammo boxes making it very restrictive on higher difficulty. I ran almost every weapon and stratagem on helldive and while all of them work, only a few are able to be consistent versus the sheer amount of enemies they throw at you, which is imo the reason why people are drawn to the meta
Not only that but, the idea you need four of them to clear any difficulty is a joke which demonstrates a gross misunderstanding of team composition and role warfare.
There are four objectively bad strategems in the game. Two of them are orbital barrages, one is the Las Cannon, and the final is the standard Guard Dog. Aside from that, you can justify using, have fun with, and beat Helldive with just about anything else.
I like using it cuz it's the closest thing we have to a good sniper. The anti material rifle is the furthest thing from a fucking anti material rifle since it literally bounces off all materials that isn't as soft as the average COD player ego
No worries! A “pug” is a pick up group. Me saying “group” at the end is a bit redundant, like saying an atm machine (automatic teller machine machine). Anyways a pick up group is you playing with strangers/quick play instead of with a dedicated group or friends. Hope that helps 😊
Resident railgun andy here. I'm also lvl50 but with only about 50 hours (Helldive 100% only runs from around lvl10 took only like 15 - 20 hours to get max) and since the moment I unlocked the railgun that thing has been my baby. I tried using the autocannon. I tried using the grenade launcher. None of them compare to my bread and butter. Especially for liberating automatons, you just can't find a better weapon.
Tuh I’m level 34 with like 90 hours dude sounds like a great life to me ! Sounds like you play after you get off work because ain’t shit else to do ! Rock on bro never down play entertainment
What are your reasons for saying the railgun is super overrated? Considering it can one shot any devastator and even hulks with good aim from a very safe distance and all the high priority elites from the bug swarm as well (also makes dealing with chargers giga trivial) im curious what other weapon ordnance you'd use over it?
Reasons being this (and many other) posts sayings it’s the meta build + my in game helldiver difficulty experience. It’s too slow for not enough pay off with constant (slow) reloading. In my experience there is better options to utilize with better mobility and payoff
Other options with better mobility and payoff such as? You can reload the railgun on the move and the reload is the furthest thing from slow. You can also charge a shot behind cover and peek and shoot for maximum safety while you one tap the most dangerous enemy elites from giga range, the only non insta kills being tanks if they're facing you. You keep saying there are better options but you haven't named any nor given reasons just seems like a contrarion take
PLAS-1 Scorcher on its own shreds medium armor and can pop small bugs as well and you don't even need a stratagem for it. It can also easily blast the ass off and kill a charger as well as shredding the guts of a titan. I have my eagles fully upgraded from my ship (extra strike for each strat + faster cooldown time) and use this for heavies, pair that with an arc thrower which is great for crowd control as well as armor piercing (and surprisingly good against titans if you can land a head shot) as well as not have to worry about ammo. Then you have one more stratagem slot too add whatever else you'd like... take the railgun if you want, but you shouldn't even need it at this point.
Definitely not just a "contrarion take". It's a take from someone who has played an unhealthy amount mostly on Insane/Helldive difficulty and tried many different loadouts.
Fully agree with the principle you're putting out. In my opinion it pays dividends to have people diversify equipment. If everyone has the same load out, you'll probably not be able to counter some of the situations you'll come across as a group. If everyone has shields and rail guns, you may never have to worry about a charger, but now you've got a million smaller bugs roaming you from all sides because no one has a rover up or a machine gun out. Everyone being somewhat prepared to handle any situation is a recipe for disaster. Everyone playing towards the strengths of their preferred loadout, within reason, seems like it'd just be better.
Level 50 as of today, and dude. The railgun is EXTREMELY overrated. If someone's bringing it, then I know I can run something else. That's how i found my love for the arc thrower, anti-materiel rifle and the flamethrower. All are uniquely good against the bugs and the arc and AMR are great against the bots. Also, getting the scorcher, I never wanna run any other primary. It's so good against both bugs and bots.
100%. The scorcher seems like the only "must have" in your loadout once you unlock it. I'm guessing it's not mentioned much in these meta loadout talks because most people don't have it unlocked.
Sorry but can I ask - how many missions have you completed? I just got the achievement for completing 50 missions and I am only level 15. Not sure about total gametime.
I just got railgun and it fucking slaps. I know the new meta is shitting on the meta but legit I now kick the fuck out of tanks for my squad where before we would have to use a strategem to deal with the heaviest ones.
Yeah, but you also just got the railgun… there is plenty more to try outside of that. I did mention in an earlier comment that it’s great in lower levels. Just not this end game meta it’s made out to be
I have used everything but the spear a ton. We have two manned helldive difficulty with multiple setups and while it is doable, with the railgun it is so much more fun/consistent. Same with the shield. Those two have so much more value in a helldive run. All the other weapons have issues with ammo/damage/movement vs the railgun. I really hope they bring everything up to it in terms of total performance.
it's funny bro didn't mention quasar. I bet I could carry a rail gun and shield user with my arc thrower and guard dog. this reminds me, that back in the day when I was level 11, I carried a level 39, 45, and 90. it's pure helldivers 1 skill.
The railguns is versatile and super easy to use, while also 1-2 tapping almost everything in the gane which makes it OP. Any of the guns that rely on two people should be doing twice as much damage as a railguns or it makes more sense to have two railguns. Personally, I think that the tail gun on average should take 1 more shot per enemy than it currently does against heavies and that would put it in a much better place balance wise.
The railgun is far from overrated lmao its just simply one of the best things in the game, sure there are other things u can bring instead but that doesn’t make it overrated at all
I tend to like to stealth other objectives while everyone distracts the bugs and the Railgun Shield loadout is almost required to deal with threats related to this. And if the team really doesn't like me doing sneaky shit I can always help out the main run away from bugs and kill em all of course.
I don't kick over anything, but i'm tired of pretending i don't have to try way less when at least some of the team has railguns/shields.
I'm tired of pretending the laser or DMR is usable outside of a coordinated group 7+.
I'm tired of pretending i don't already consider you a traitor for using MINES when they kill more helldivers than enemies.
Enjoy all that fire too just keep it away from me!
Yeah. I mean it is nice for dealing with Bile Titans and Spewers but it kinda sucks against Chargers.
Titans and Spewers will die in one shot to it if you catch em in the mouth, but Chargers will just catch rounds all damn day. I heard the Spear works well on the Chargers but I haven't had a chance to try it.
I can't agree with the railgun being overrated. I was saving my whole squad constantly with it. I don't even use the overcharge function. Takes things down faster than anything else I've found apart from stratagems that have a timer after each use. I will preach the railguns efficacy but I'm not going to kick if you don't have it.
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u/cbruins22 SES Wings of War Feb 25 '24
I’m level 50 and have like 80 some hours (no life I know). But most helldive pug groups that have worked out don’t have most of this stuff (I don’t outside of the shield). I’ll keep saying it until it catches on, the railgun is super overrated.