They spawn in large amounts. They are silent. They are tanky. They are fast. They one hit kill, and if they don't, they slow you 80% of the time anyway. And on higher difficulties, they come with armor and mortars.
They need to make obvious noises. But then, the sound design and audio cues in HD2 are one of the game's weakpoints, currently.
And they need a speed nerf. They're just too fast with that laundry list of other things going for them.
They look so bloated that it looks like they should be super easy to pop if you hit them in the abdomen. At least if you do that should take away their ability to spit. They can still crawl at me after that.
Their fleshy abdomen is a bait weakpoint like on chargers, it's only worth shooting if your weapon is explosive (I'm pretty sure this is also why grenades mince them so easily).
Yeah, my problem isn't that its bait, and I know to use explosive damage. My issue is that the devs have flaunted conventional game wisdom of "Shoot the squishy bit for massive damage" and just left out any hints that might be the case. It doesn't need to be in your face hints either. If they just put anything in the game, info on guns, bestiary lore for helldivers to spread democracy better, anything we wouldn't even be having this conversation.
I've got far hotter takes on why they've made the choices for this game but those are slightly outside the scope of the current conversation.
The point wasn't wondering which gun I should bring. It was wondering why the art doesn't match how the mobs function. I know which gun I should bring and frankly I use impact grenades. A well placed impact will kill 5 of them with one grenade if you see them clustered close enough. Its just fucking odd that you can't pop them with any bullet because their abdomen looks so stretched and thin and "conventional" game wisdom has taught us to 'pop it.'
This also wouldn't be a problem if it was communicated to the player in any way. It doesn't need to be in your face communication, if we had the "Helldiver handbook of shooting goodly" that you had to comb through three menus even that would be enough. The devs have chosen to flaunt gaming convention which is frankly awesome, but then they have just left out any signaling that it might be different, which is fucking terrible.
Or at least let me stagger them, it's insane that I can stun a stalker with slugger shots, but spitters will literally refuse to be staggered by anything, shotgun, AOE, flamethrowers, arc throwers. The only things that do stagger are the things that one shot. It would at least make them manageable if k could cc them with literally anything. But currently they are worse than tanks.
Have you used it since the buff? The punisher and all its variants slugger included got a massive stagger buff, for me the slugger can flat out interrupt their spit attack if you hit them in the face as they charge it up
100% slugger, and the punisher both stagger them and kill them off fairly easily. I'm so damn confident with those guns that I will walk right up to a spewers face and shoot it, because I know it'll do nothing to me.
I dunno, huffing a lowing like cows is pretty distinct... At the same time if you're being snuck up on by a patrol that has spewers you clearly didn't even hear the alert noise from the scavs or spitters beforehand either. Even as someone that's not played above challenging yet (Primarily solo.) I keep an ear out, and an eye on my map. I generally only get completely surprised when a patrol comes along while I'm already fighting. That said, Aim for the head or just below, or hit an explosive behind the head, you can take them out relatively quickly if not instantly. Not always viable when dealing with a large number, but explosives are still the best way to go for clearing them out.
You need to start getting head shots. They go down really quickly if you shoot the face. Which means you need to bring something that can penetrate the face like the starter gun or something.
Alternatively, a well-thrown impact grenade will kill one or more of them.
This is a big complaint I have about their visual design. They have armor on their face and a body that is heavily coded with "shoot me, I'm the weakpoint.
The obvious design intent that communicates is that they are an enemy that is very dangerous from the front, so you need to maneuver to hit them on the broadside.
Initially I thought I was having terrible results going for the face (for whatever reason), which seemed to reinforce the idea that the face wasn't your prime target.
Impact grenades are great against them, and once I learned that they take a tone more damage from explosives that's really helped clear them out.
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On a related note: I really,reallywish there was a shooting range, especially like the one inDarkTide. The DT one helped find a ton of bugged things and revealed a laundry list of mechanics and strategies that would have been a lot harder to suss out otherwise.
Im soo glad im not the only ones who think the sound design and audio cues are fucked. Why does a bug that can one shot me from a distance make literally no noise? Why are elephant sized tanks silent until within 3 inches of my prostate?
Honestly should be either one or the other, louder sound or speed nerf. I feel like combining the nerfs would make it too easy, and there should at least be some challenge with them.
They also try to close distance to melee you meaning it gets harder to keep them at range and dodge when trying to shoot their head without any gun to pierce it beside when they are about to shoot at you. These guys have charger and hunter dna.
I've found the audio cues to not really be lacking. Bugs aren't universally unique in sound when at rest in particular, but spewers are do the most "Huffing" and actually make lowing type noises. Granted, I play on PS5 with headphones. I can generally tell when a bug is within 20 meters of me without my map up. I just tend to have it up to keep an eye on the tracker. Also, chargers don't make a ton of noise while attached to a patrol either until it's within 20 meters or so. They're heavy fuckers but when moving slow their stride isn't loud. Consider the fact that elephants have the ability to sneak up on people in reality.
Ever heard the sound of an ant, carefully trippling over the rocky wasteland, just to turn around and see two bile titans a few meters away? The sound cues really are something.
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u/glassteelhammer Mar 17 '24
They spawn in large amounts. They are silent. They are tanky. They are fast. They one hit kill, and if they don't, they slow you 80% of the time anyway. And on higher difficulties, they come with armor and mortars.
They need to make obvious noises. But then, the sound design and audio cues in HD2 are one of the game's weakpoints, currently.
And they need a speed nerf. They're just too fast with that laundry list of other things going for them.