As my channel has a tendency to put numbers where there are none, I thought I would explore some concepts i've dabbled with on stream about why Automatic Weapons feel like they underperform in Helldivers 2. Thanks for watching and as always my favorite comment from this video will be featured in the next!
Actually super-useful tidbit of information regarding the way health pools function and damage is dealt. I wasn't aware that parts of enemy bodies all had separate health pools, which is why they can often feel strangely tanky at times if you're spraying-n-praying. Thanks for this.
I've never met a game in which Assault Rifles suck so bad, even if your playstyle is good. There are simply so many better options to take, and the CEO now CCO admitted as much (along with enemies taking too long to die/Time To Kill) and they were going to buff ARs, especially the Tenderizer, there's no way they would put in an AR in the next Warbond without ARs being "fixed", no doubt about it..
I’ve left the subreddits over the attitudes of the player base. It just takes too much out of the experience. Informative videos like this, and playing the game, that’s the way to enjoy Hell Divers. Enjoy spreading Democracy Hell Diver!!
While I'm perhaps one of those "complainers" regarding the game's current balance state, I _am_ also much more hopeful about the game's near-future since the CEO has directly addressed and agreed that balancing needs some reconsideration. If/when they also get a handle on the more egregious glitches, I'm sure HD2 will see a second-wind of general positivity and excitement as it did during launch. Critics aren't all doom & gloom; we just want to see the game thrive. The old saying in sports is "the crowd boos because they want to cheer"; we see potential for the game to be an almost-perfect co-op shooter, if only it could get a handle on its rougher edges. If the devs really are committed to doing so, then I'm sure we'll start to see more cheering again in the future.
Tbh, a secondary "tutorial" similar to the main one or a firing range with various enemies to shoot at would probably help people test and practice in a simple, controlled environment. Some enemies like stalkers or beserkers can be a bit hectic to just play aroind with in an ordinary mission.
A firing range would be neat, but General Brasch wants your ammunition buried in the enemy, not a training dummy. There's no better testing ground than the field, Helldiver.
I would love that. I keep doing things in the heat of battle then question if i really did it or my teammate did e.g. railgun shot going through 2 warriors killing them both, and the hmg killing a hulk my destroying its leg causing it to trip
Just to add to this, this idea would be as a replacement to a lot of weapons buffs/nerf. Most of the weapons are OK, they just need to be applied to their proper role. Light Pen primaries are mostly fine up until Impossible and Helldive, where these difficulties generally need at least medium pen to deal with hordes of medium armour targets. As people work up to the higher difficulties, light primaries become a bit of a crutch as you can deal with a few devastators or bile spewers in lower difficulties and are faced with more small enemies, but the same tactics don't work against 20 devastator variants backed up by 3 hulks and a smattering of troopers. Knowing how to use some of the more effective weapons is important to success in those difficulties. Helldive isn't really that hard if you're properly prepared and go in with a plan.
@@samwild6630 You see why this shouldn't be the case, right? In a game where the devs constantly go on about how they don't want a "meta," because they want all weapons to be equally viable, actively designing the game so specific weapons become essentially useless at higher difficulties-Especially when talking about weapons that are actually better at lower difficulties, because they're just better at clearing hordes of lightly armored enemies more efficiently-is just forcing players into using specific guns to be effective. Thus forcing players to play in a meta; Something the devs repeatedly say they don't want, as an excuse for nerfing popular weapons, despite fans being upset by the nerfs.
I generally find that dropping into a very low level mission is the best way to test a weapon. Low numbers of enemies give a controlled environment and you get missions to kill bigger enemies (level 1s have stuff like kill devastators and kill brood commanders while higher levels have stuff like kill hulks/Factory Striders and kill chargers/bile titans which give you areas where you can test weapons on the bigger enemies.
Great breakdown! My aim will have to get better before I take an AR over the Punisher, though. The Punisher staggers Berserkers, and that means they won't give me the condition known clinically as "Chainsaw Face."
Not only do they stagger berserkers, but also devastators, and if you can get close enough you can take the head off of both. I found this out during an exterminate mission the other day where I got a tad bit overwhelmed by walkers, berserker, and devastators, so I've learned many strats for all three if you get too close and don't have an armor piercing weapon at your disposal
I like to use the dominator to dispatch them quickly. Despite the Nerf, it's still a relatively reliable gun being able to one shot headshot devastators
@@infinity5722 The Dominator nerf was absolutely tiny. People get WAY too upset about the mere concept of nerfs, to the point where if you take even 1% off of something they'll just think "It got nerfed. Can't use it anymore." It's really silly seeing some peoples reactions to this stuff.
HMG is loads of fun too, for this reason. I used to hate berserkers, always got mobbed by them and struggled to hit those tiny bobbing heads. Now when I see a group of them charging at me I get happy thinking "hooray it's zerk shredding time again!" as I crouch and freaking cut the whole squad in half at the hips. It's glorious 🤘 Admittedly it doesn't do everything and probably not good solo, but that's what a team is for
@@MattWanchap I like the heavy machine gun a lot more (mainly for robo missions), when I use a supply backpack and absolute *do not share it,* unless it's an emergency 😅 Its main problem being ridiculously low total ammo, having the supply pack alleviates that. You can almost always call another resupply anyways. And every few minutes you can call down another backpack supply. Your team will understand and you can finally unload with that monster of a machine gun and be really helpful and valuable to your team again - loads of fun!
Thank you. I have been trying to tell people this for weeks. The main draw of an AR is range and fire rate flexibility. Shotguns and smgs struggle at longer ranges and marksman rifles struggle at close range. ARs can do both just not as well as either. You can go from long range sharp shooting to close quarters full auto and back again on the fly The trick to making accurate shots with an AR is recoil control. The longer you use the weapon the more you get a feel for what range you can full auto while still staying on target. Crouch and prone are key to making fast accurate shots on weak points. Swapping fire rate is also a good idea for ammo conservation. There are several enemies that can easily be over killed in full auto leading to a waste of ammo. Many ARs have a burst fire which can one shot devastators in the head. This gives you a fantastic time to kill if you have good recoil control and a good vantage point. All of the ARs save for the tenderizer got buffed recently so I recommend testing them out again. The tenderizer has next to no recoil. If your prone you can just about do full auto at longer ranges with a little trigger discipline.
Yeah that’s why I like the Penetrator for its flexibility. After they gave it the full auto I realized it wasn’t that bad. My problem then however was that I felt like the ARs were still… lacking purpose ig? This video gave me a whole idea as to what the ARs are used for… versatility and the ability to SHRED through large enemy weak points. Unfortunately for the second part, the ARs are typically outclassed by other weapons 🥲
They don't "feel" like they underperform.. they DO underperform, even the CEO now CCO admitted it, they were going to get buffed, and the Tenderizer especially - so I hope I can finally use them again. Plus there's no way they are adding in an AR in the next Warbond if the ARs aren't fixed for overall use, even with a good playstyle ARs suck over the other options, even IF you are hitting weak spots consistently.
Commenting for engagement, and stoping somebody from saying "bro fell off hahaha". While I can't watch currently I agree that alot of my automatic weapons are coming up short by a mag, or kills or another factor, will be intersection to see an analytic take. Your videos are an amazing reprieve in a sea of um low effort stuff. Thanks! Keep it up please!
It was recently discovered that enemies have "main" health pool, and most limbs copy 40-60% of their taken damage to that pool. Focusing on one area usually more effective, though.
Doesn't that only apply to massive units like BTs and ATAT's? I don't think Hulks actually care about having their limbs blown off, and a Charger takes the same amount of butt damage even if you've stripped a leg.
@@ExValeFor butt is a seperate body part (that also transfers to main). It's a very recent discovery, but you should be able to shoot a scout bot once in each arm and leg which will kill them without specifically dismembering anything. Love to hear back if that doesn't work.
@@ExValeFor If I'm reading the data right, Hulks have 1250 total health, each arm has 500hp but only transfers 30% of the damage done to them to the main hp - so after both arms are blown off the hulk still has some 950hp left, so it doesn't do a lot.
I think the ARs will come into their own against the Illuminate if they end up being light-medium armored with energy shields. You will need a combination of sustained fire and armor penetration to reliably bring them down.
I do appreciate the effort that went into this. I will personally still be sticking with my usual ( Jar-5 Dominator, Grenade Pistol, Stuns). Should the AR category get some very much needed buffs, I'll probably check them out again. Until then I'll stick to popping devastator in the face and being able to stunlock medium enemies reliably. Also the whole being able to destroy tanks/turrets thing.
It's almost contradictory to state that Berserkers "feel" like having higher health pools then having 625HP on the torso, a supposed "weakspot". They really do have higher health pools requiring an additional bullet or three, and their lack of armor makes them literal bullet sponges. All Automatic weapons automatically deal better with them, including the trusty Redeemer. These things highlight Adjudicator's strengths to someone good with tactics, having Semi-auto on for most of the fights and aiming for Devastator heads and 1-2 tapping Troopers, then switching over to Auto fire once Berserkers are spotted. It's basically a versatile med-pen weapon. (alternatively, just use Auto and tap really well, but that's outside of my skill set) The numbers really are nice to have though, thank you for providing extremely valuable information. Almost reminds me I should really just stick to my DMRs too.
The way they decided to do armor pen in this game is strange because it pretty much means there's no downside to weapons w/ higher armor pen values aside from statistically doing slightly less damage, but also because for a game trying to make the gun ballistics function semi-realistically, armor pen and damage work in reverse, punishing matching armor and pen values and rewarding overpenetration.
Bro you are stupid, matching armor pen means you barely pen that armor and thus lose energy that would go into the target if you have a pen rating higher than the armor of the target the round, missile, beam etc. has enough energy carried over to impart into the target itself
Adjudicator is my favorite BAR because it can handle nearly anything, with care. It can tap heads, burst stun Devastators of all kinds, and shoot the legs off mini Striders. It’s also great at shooting off limbs and rocket pods. Its hipfire is perfect against Berserkers and Scavengers and many other hectic targets. The trick was definitely realizing that different body parts have different health pools. Good job bringing that to more people.
If that thing had like +5 rounds in each mag I think it would surge in popularity because you're right but it feels bad to use when you can kill 2.5 enemies per mag and you know you need to reload and waste that .5 mag or youre gonna get slapped for not having enough bullets by the next guy.
@@Jaedeok82 At that point it would undeniably be the best AR, which is too much. It’d be fun, but then I’d never use anything else. Right now the Senator gives me the backup to use every round in almost every mag.
Great video! I'd been happy enough saying "ARs are for bugs", but your advice opens it up a lot more for bots. Also helps to paint all those medium pen weapons in better light, sometimes it feels like they get overlooked.
Another thing I think could help automatic weapons is armor degredation after enough structure damage. Let us crack a devastator chest plate after enough hits.
When I first started fighting the bots I never thought a sniper build was viable (which is a shame since I love sniping) so I used the ARs. However, after the damage buff to the DCS it’s now my go to loadout for them for the exact reason that it’s a one shot to the devastators head and I left the ARs behind because peppering the bots doesn’t work well with their individual health pools for different parts. I honestly never thought I would reach Helldive difficulty with a sniper rifle but I finally got there. I do hope they buff the ARs since I really like the tenderizers handling, it would be great to see it be made more usable
the problem with precision weapons early on was how botched some of the scopes were and weapons handling like they were chambered in calibers approaching FOOT units. I don't know why scopes felt so trash if they weren't the sickle....
@@bartofii yeah that was another reason I didn't use them much. But they feel a lot better now though. I think the AMR still could use some work on it's sight. Or it could be that I'm so used to compensating for the site being off now I can't shoot straight lol
I usually run the AMR and the Counter sniper and consistently get as many kills as everyone else. AMR for the big boys and CS for infantry. Gotten to the point I can take out a squad of infantry faster than the guys with automatics.
@@ryanschoenhard7116 yeah, I will average 150+ on a mission now depending on how long the mission takes. I pretty much run the same build, DCS and AMR with grenade pistol, then I juggle between the jump pack and supply pack.
A very good video! I'm glad to see someone sharing real information. One correction - The brood commander's head only has 200hp, but takes 60% of your durable (or structure as you call it) damage and 40% of your main damage, meaning lib pen is doing 27 damage while the adjudicator is doing 36.8 damage (in actuality a bit less due to drop-off), resulting in the shot counts you listed. It's a small difference but important to know the mechanics! If you see Zeddy, do say hi for me.
I know the videos old but, as a new diver. This video was SO helpful. Not just good AR info but enemy weak spot and health pools info… structure damage? I had no idea that was a thing. This video is a great resource and deserves a good spot in TH-cam algorithm. For super earth!
There are several more that talk about the damage system armor system and health system in their entirety as well if you want more info on how it all works behind the scenes
I think your best point in the video is on shooting limbs. Marksmen rifles will always be better at shooting heads, but heads are notably very small and very mobile in helldivers. Taking advantage of ARs high DPS and good ammo economy allows them to excel at consistant TTK and while being easy to use and ranged capable. If you're doing things correctly, you technically should be capable of killing most things in the game with a stock liberator, using nades, medium, heavy explosives and stratagems for everything else.
So basically, dump rounds into devastators' and berserkers' lower torso, and dump rounds into a heavy dev's backpack; it's still difficult to hit that backpack from the front though tbh, especially with all the aimpunch from the gatling fire. And all the death. Also the bug section is literally "just aim at head bro"; this is why bugs are so easy and boring, most of them are literally the exact same enemy with different coats of paint.
It can be better to focus the legs for brood commanders when using things like the sickle or stalwart, or even the incendiary breaker. Take out 3-4 legs and it dies without a bleedout.
I like to think the bots are just Combine soldiers and bugs for B4B zombies at low levels. But, on higher difficulties like Helldive. You fight the bots thats equivalent to the ARMA USA mod and for the bugs is GTFO.
Heavy devastators have cooldown between their machine gun bursts, try to take this at your advantage. They also have their head exposed, with assault rifles it's not too hard to hit it, just tap it don't full auto it, and if you use one of the guns with good scopes it's even better
This is easily one of the most informative and watchable HD2 videos that I've watched in a while. My ADHD usually has me skipping through videos but I watched this one from start to finish without feeling the itch to skip.
As a fan of the base liberator, I really appreciated this. I typically run it with an auto-cannon though as I liked how they compliment each other, but it's meant I haven't had to try to optimize AR performance too much. Looking forward to field testing these tips with the supply pack + whichever AR I want to test.
This changes my understanding of assault rifles fundamentally. Thumbs up, great content! This makes the liberator penetrator a potential candidate to bring with the AMR for bot crowd control.
Despite it being seen as a 'worse liberator', I've been enjoying using the Tenderizer. It sounds great, and the damn thing is a lazerbeam for me. (Though I do crouch and use fortified/engineer armours a lot, so it could probably be similar with the lib.)
@@pterodummy It would only 2 shot within close range before the damage fall off. It would likely need 70 damage like the defender to be a true headshot machine.
I like the tenderizer. I was using the sickle, but the tenderizer is more accurate, handles great, and is quiet . I really only use the ar for the little bot/bugs, and ac, amr, or mmg for the others.
Here's an easy way to balance in my mind: An AR15 shooting 5.56 in a 20" barrel can penetrate steel armor (AR500 steel) that 7.62x51mm in a 20" cannot. The high velocity with a small caliber puts a lot of that energy in a fine point, letting it punch through better. Bigger calibers compensate for this lack of pure penetration by just imparting more kinetic energy into the target, smashing it more. This could be represented by giving marksman rifles better "stopping power" by staggering enemies more noticably. This also allows marksmen users to utilize the stagger for setting up a headshot. Let ARs have a higher armor penetration than marksman rifles, which shoot bigger heavier bullets, and SMGs, which shoot lower velocity heavy pistol bullets.
Another point for assault rifles, take arms off heavy devastators. It's similar to the legs, but instead of killing it you effectively make it useless, and once it's gone you can almost use the dev as cover from other bots.
This tip also applies to the Eruptor. Going for the head or upper torso does not consitently result in 1-taps. Going for legs works wonders with the clunky grenade rifle though. If you do use the erupter, you can also speed up the cyclcling by fully swapping weapons after each shot.
This has been really helpful. Demystifying the damage methods of the game will make things a lot easier. I'd actually been wondering why my tactical shots to cripple and then kill enemies seemed like they were taking so long to finish them. Especially shooting the legs off bugs instead of going after the armored heads. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle.
A nuanced take on assault rifles here. Videos like these are in stark contrast to most of the knee-jerk reactions and takes out there. Well done, Eravin.
It's nice knowing that assault rifles kind of have a use case now, it's still really hard to justify every bringing one ever. Against light bots the diligence counter sniper hits the one shot body breakpoint, meaning the ttk is lower here then the ARs, as well as the one shot headshot breakpoint for devastators (as you covered). Against bugs assault rifles simply lose the firepower game to shotguns. Even as a midrange option I still think the slugger is better, for its one shot warrior head breakpoint, one shot hunter breakpoint, and 2 shot brood commander breakpoint. You can also reload between shots, giving it surprisingly good crowd control. All in all I think the assault rifles have too small of mags, or simply don't do enough damage to hit good breakpoints be competitive in any real scenario. Additionally the split health pools of the enemies further makes the assault rifles less useful then their precision counter parts.
and yet here I am every single night having great success with the adjudicator every single night. often coming top with little to no deaths. level 7 difficulty ( only do 8 or 9 when I fancy a sweat fest).
@@captaintruthyeah they aren't terrible weapons either. recently I've been playing las cannon on bugs (it's amazing btw) and brought the liberator penetrator as a panic swap option for when i cant use the las cannon, it filled it's role just fine. The fire rate and magazine capacity allowed me to shoot it without care for ammo economy to get out of rough situations
@@captaintruth it's more like the gaps between primaries. I could have done this with say the breaker, or some other strong weapons. Assault rifles don't really do anything other options do better. That's my only critic. I don't feel incentivised to play them. If they had bigger mag sizes the full auto would be much more enjoyable and meaningful, for clearing bunch of small and some medium ennemies with a mag. I've been playing the tenderizer today and if you give it 10more rounds it would feel so much better to play already
If they dont want to buff assault rifles' damage cause they are ascared they will overtake other categories at least give us bigger magazines or something so the automatic part has more appeal idk. What you said eravin is very true, considering how important it is to aim at weakspots because of seperated health pools AR weapons are very limited
Honestly, I dont understand their obsession with small magazines in this game. It doesnt feel good. Doubly so when theyre so stingy with armor penetration.
Delightfully informative, I had no idea about the separate health pools per body part! This information is going to revolutionize how I tackle medium threats, thank you so much!
I always enjoy watching your content, and this was no exception. I do have a minor quibble though which is hopefully constructive. I have been tinkering with ARs for the majority of my playtime. I struggled early but everything fell into place during the Malevalon days when I started shooting where the laser was on the Liberator Penatrator. I wish you could put that scope on everything. I almost exclusively play in 1st person, but I could still see in your footage you were making the same classic aim mistake I was making early on and shooting too low. Rewatch and look at where the laser is in the footage. You have to compensate considerably when shooting at anything closer than about 50 metres, but the laser on the Penetrator is a great teacher. The height over bore effect works the same on the other guns but not all have the laser. It us easy to get a false impression of a guns performance because the recoil can push a low aim into the correct zone, it will do so with poorer performance than the gun is capable of. Of course, I tend to put my ARs on semi auto and your point about using dedicated marksman weapons is well made. I find myself preferring the CS these days, but there is some value in being able to switch between controlled shots and volume of fire. Looking forward to changes coming to ARs in the future though. All the best and keep up the good work.
Thank you for this! I had no idea what the limb numbers were and it wasn't until watching your vid that I finally searched around enough to find them listed in the helldivers io database. It's a shame that this info is hard to find and not on either wiki. A lot of the discourse on balance that I've seen fails to take into account any meaningful health breakpoints, ttk, etc. I hope this encourages more people to get into proper theorycrafting.
EDIT: My bad, I was sleepy and mixed up the Eruptor with the Dominator somehow. Please disregard the below comment. -It still is. The nerf was absolutely miniscule. No one would ever even notice the difference if not told about it.-
@@ballbatboy My bad, I was sleepy and somehow mixed up the Eruptor with the Dominator. Yeah, the Eruptor losing it's shrapnel is plenty noticeable. Should at least also be noted that it wasn't intended as a deliberate nerf though. Just ended up being that way, with the buff to it's explosive damage not being enough to make up the loss.
@@UnknownSquid oh yeah, Dominator is still a great. The still high damage per shot and medium pen keep it on top. I'd even like a "lite" version of the Dominator with less damage and more ammo capacity.
Super helpful! Btw, I’ve had surprisingly good results with the Tenderizer (of all weapons) vs. Bots lately. I’ve been using it on Single Fire and using engagement ranges similar to the DMRs with great success. It feels like a Diligence that fills a more “Jack-of-all-trades” role that lets me use it in mid-to-close range if I let the enemy get too close. Its low recoil lets me laser beam the heads off of raiders at great distance and dinking devastators is surprisingly comfortable since I can tap-tap-tap with very little recoil to punish. For specifics, I’ve been running it in the following kit: Armor - Scout Secondary - Grenade Pistol Support - AMR Techpack - Jetpack(Recommended)/Shield Grenade - Smoke I was also running Air Strikes and 380mm Barrage. I love it. Especially because I typically run Diligence Counter-Sniper and I feel overly reliant on picking a secondary that can serve as a proper fighting gun in close range between awkward reloads. With this kit instead, Tenderizer solves all - except problems I can solve with the AMR and my utility secondary. I know this was barely related to your video, but I wanted share because I’ve been having fun with it already and now you’ve shown me precisely how I can use the Tenderizer even *more* effectively. You might have fun with it, but I’ve only used it on Diff.7. Thanks, Eravin!
in my experience with ARs, they current use is all purpose weapon, Adjudicator is a good example for it, it can perform at any distance, you can use it to snipe heads, you can spray it if something gets too close, you can fire it in bursts if you need to fire at enemies in close/medium range, this make the Adjudicator the best weapon for people who want to run some builds that would be strongly inclined to fighting a single kind of enemy, like builds that focus on fighting heavy armour with hard hitting but low rate of fire weapons would suffer when swarmed by smaller enemies, or builds focused on fighting these swarms of smaller enemies would have a hard time when fighting heavier armoured enemies.
I've never met a game in which Assault Rifles suck so bad, even if your playstyle is good. There are simply so many better options to take, and the CEO now CCO admitted as much (along with enemies taking too long to die/Time To Kill) and they were going to buff ARs, especially the Tenderizer, there's no way they would put in an AR in the next Warbond without ARs being "fixed", no doubt about it.
The fact all this is so massively hidden from us... If we were told even just a hair more of this we might understand why they feel stuff is "fine" when the players all feel it's crap. This is why you don't hide numbers, at least not to this extent, and either make weakpoints clearer or give greater feedback. An in-game bestiary we could slowly fill out would work magic.
The issue with helldivers imho has always been the lack of information, enabled by lhe lack of access to obtaining that information easily, which leads to people assuming and in the end misinterpretation. Meatsaw devistators (chainsaw) is clear example. Its entire body glows like a christmas tree, but hitting the head, similar to the other devistators doesn't yield same result. The torso requiring more bullets even though its intuitively pointing to the opposite. Weapon description text explaining the penetration value is a big oversight if everything revolves around it. It should be the actual number instead of the vague text. Each weapon has a separate damage value when penetrating a armour, which can start from +10%of damage (bile sacks), which is really important information, yet its shown nowhere inside the game. In general the user experience has been lacking in Helldivers 2 by quite a lot.
The separate hp pools are a really unusual mechanic, I don't necessarily dislike it but I wish it was communicated better in game. Thanks for putting numbers to it.
For anyone who wants to go rock and roll and brave enough to try I recommend medium/heavy armor, adjudicator, railgun, supply pack, stun grenades, grenade pistol and two other strategems of your choice (I like eagle airstrike and 380, but laser and ems mortar are also viable) is a fantastic combo to fight bots with. Shoot the adjudicator in bursts. Its scope is surprisingly effective at range when crouched. Use railgun for medium armor from hulk down (stun grenades make it easy for hulks), eagle for tanks and factory striders and factories. With supply pack you’ll have more than enough stims, nades, and ammo to tank dmg and mag dump to your hearts content. Super fun build. Also great for playing with randoms because you can be pretty independent and keep up the fight even if someone else is taking the resupply on cooldown.
I legit thought I was imagining that killing devs in the legs was a good tactic, back when I only had a penetrator to work with. Insane. Looks like I was onto something and desperaetly going for the microscopic head areas isn't as vital as it seems. Its crazy how small those heads are, I basically swore off ARs the moment I had a slugger
I think the Liberator Penetrator is especially a bit of a newbie trap, regarding devastators. Everyone has that same experience of their early weapon options not penetrating the torso armour, and thus mag dumping at the head to try and kill them. Then they unlock the Penetrator and think, "Ahah, medium pen, that must mean this is great against those bigger bots". So they take it and try the same, mag dumping around the head, but expecting the torso damage that does get through to result in a faster kill. With the result of course being the opposite. A weaker bullet hurting the torso for only half damage is still not enough to be efficient, and the ones that do hit the head are weaker than the regular liberator. So everyone has a bad time with that gun and puts it away immediately.
The only really new thing I learned is that bile sacks take structural DMG... If you have ammo to spare and down wear a shield or can't dodge left or right into a brood mother, give her a few taps on a leg, they usually should stagger a bit making it easier to avoid their charge. If they are limping they are a lot less lethal. Headshots also work on smaller targets, really important when you are clearing things with the Adjudicator. Warriors work like mini brood mothers. Also learn the difference of prone, crouch, standing still and running while using your AR of choice.
limb health is probably from the bare minimum damage to pop a specific limb like the devastators head having 130hp because the new smg with 65dam can pop it in two
Eh, I'm more of a milsim player nowadays, so I i use single fire a little more than automatic around cover. ARs are normally good for their versatility. Although in HD2, they're the baseline reliable option and most people should know where to shoot to make the most of it by now. Hopefully that incoming patch changes the new AR a bit more. Seemed like it was forgotten about when they did the last balance patch. Ballistic shield is great when you want to stop in front of heavy devastators and poke around the head. MGs and the emplacement are my go to for automatic fun. Still wondering why the Stalwart isn't a primary since we've got some big differences in primary weapons now.
I think this video shows how Sickle is king. Feels way better to spray into a leg for basically free ammo than compared to anything else, even with just light penetration. Meanwhile, the Lib Pen feels like every wasted bullet is a wasted diamond at times. So spraying/mag dumping with that feels less satisfying.
This is a public service message for everyone regardless of weapon. Almost nobody talks about the importance of separate hp pools and kill conditions in Helldivers 2, even though it's IMO one of the most important mechanics to understand.
I think the biggest issue is that you don't usually have enough time to shoot these other areas with more than a few shots before any of the bots who's aim never seem to be effected by being shot, shot you, mess up your aim completely, then shoot you in the head. Or a heavy devastator sniper shotting you from over 50 meters with infinite ammo.
Finally someone spitting some real facts about ARs, rather than dunking on them... Been saying it for the 4 months this game's been out. ARs are flex picks. They're not SMGs, they're not DMRs, but they can do both roles competently without stepping either. This is actually reinforced with the weapon's optic and fire rate settings. Low zoom, full auto for close. Mid zoom, burst for mid. High zoom, semi for long. It's telling you to be versatile, and literally everyone I see who plays ARs then tells me they're too weak / worthless either can't stop themselves from mag dumping or only ever tap fires... If you try to treat them as only either, you're going to end up disappointed. Flex with the AR, rather than trying to force it, and it'll work better for you. It trades raw power (even if I agree that all of them could use a bit more punch, especially my precious LibPen) for versatility. A fine tradeoff, in my opinion, and why I swear by ARs even in the face of randoms boo-ing my pick. ..Only to be shocked when I surprise them with one of if not *the* highest combat score on the team.
And that is why I've been using the Plasma Punisher. Lots of stagger, works on light and medium armored enemies, rarely have to worry about where it hits a bot or even hitting them directly as the AoE damage is pretty good.
I've been lasermaxing lately and all of your advice applies to the laser cannon for med pen and the scythe for light pen, lasers are not meta but are solid on dif 7 that I play on and cool as hell. I would love to see a lasermaxing video and the stealth mechanics around lasers.
I don't think about the ARs much because I'm an autocannon main. But sometimes I need to use my actual primary, or sometimes I need to trash clear. This video gives me some good options for my ARs
as I climbed up the levels and through the difficulties, the Lib Penetrator was my go to, it's medium armor pen came in clutch several times. But I've had to hang up my favored weapon, since I was more dead weight and had more impact with Laser Cannon or strategem uses. Now it's the Breaker Incendiary which destroys bugs. If the ARs get buffed...it'd be welcome
Dating back to the old days of battletech and mechwarrior 2, the secret weakness of everything with legs is that the legs are the weak point. Seriously tho, the scythe's laser dps is almost on par with AR ttk. It's just not as flashy nor as satisfying. Great vid. Learned tons!
I found the adjudicator to be versatile more than a handicap. You have automatic for chaff and you have the nice scope for precise shots on devastator heads.
Been using just the liberator since launch just recently switched over to the Adjucator, when I'm far i switched my fire mode to semi for more controlled pair shots, and then full auto when im moving to close combat with the enemy. My only favorite weapons so far is the standard liberator and Adjucator they the job done beautifully, i have to admit this video would definitely make me more lethal in against the enemy. Appreciate the info Diver.
Hey Eravin. I was wondering if you could do a video on how to adjust your playstyle depending on how many people are trying to stealthdive. Is having 3 or 4 of the squad play for stealth viable, or should you limit it to 1 or 2? In other words, How should you adjust your playstyle in response to the playstyle of the rest of your team? If you have 4 stealthdivers should they stay in pairs? Questions like that. Thank you for your consideration, and thank you for producing high quality helldivers 2 content. There's no other youtuber that does it better than you do.
With devastators, three shots to the groin area with the senator pistol has been rather effective in my experience. Really good guide, though with the ARs. Definitely will look into using them more when I’m squadded up!
For bile spewers, just use an impact grenade or HMG, or drop a sentry and keep moving. Also try grenade pistol - it takes two hits (if you have the warbond).
Honestly I wish the devestator chest wasn't armor 3, you're telling me with medium armor penetration I'm still not allowed to body shot the 2nd tier of bot? I think it would make the armor pen ARs feel a lot better and free up my support weapon for something with more bang. Lately I'm packing the laser cannon because it 1. Has unlimited ammo 2. Can kill basically anything with decent shot placement 3. I'm more or less using it like an oversized Sickle lol
“Click on their head” is much much easier said than done. Even with the marksman rifles. Honestly the sickle feels like a better marksman b/c of its lack of recoil. To me the DCS feels way to wavy and weird to am properly at times to use. Or who knows maybe I just need to get good.
I learned early on I didnt have the skill to land headshots consistently with full auto so I just decided to shoot the abdomen (belly) instead. I've gotten better since then but I still find that focus firing the belly is more consistent for me than the head even though its a bit more ammo greedy.
This has definitely been my experience. I notice a lot of people don’t want to stop loving or change their stance to shoot, so the weapons that perform even without that are suddenly “meta”. While I do think the AR’s could be buffed a bit, I don’t think they hopelessly underpowered like many people seem to believe. Practicing some trigger discipline and understanding enemy weak points seems to make all the difference. I especially think the Tenderizer is written off as totally useless. But my experience hasn’t been that at all, it is ridiculously accurate and I haven’t had nearly as much trouble with it as some seem to say. I wouldn’t put it anywhere near the Sickle, that’s things just kinda busted imo. But it’s certainly not worse than the Liberator.
Yes, if you can't get the smaller target, move onto the bigger target. Like the *limbs* or the arm that has the weapon. If you can't kill them now then make it easier to kill them later.
Thank you for the info. My game knowledge has train me to shoot the glowy parts of an enemy like the eyes or bulbous sacks. I didn't realise each body part has a seperate health pool and armour.
The only automatics I really liked were the Scythe and now the Pummeler, they were the only automatics I felt like I was really getting value out of over using over semi autos or shotguns
@@EravinVTI had no idea about health pools being seperate! I assumed they all contributed to the units health. This is game changing, thanks for the info helps alotn
The problem isn't with how the guns feel. It's with how the enemies REACT when you shoot them with an assault rifle. They look like a piece of cork that you slowly chip away at. A 5.56 round doesn't just take a chunk out of a target. The velocity of the bullet causes hydrostatic shock that produces a wincing flight response. That doesn't happen when bots or bugs get shot, so the guns are unsatisfying to use.
As someone who uses the sickle against bots i definitely needed this. Even with the nigh 0 recoil i can never hit the headshots on devastators so maybe ill go for the legs/belly lol
amazing video! please consider also showing the same visual information for both types of chargers, the titan, all types of hulks and tanks. thank you!
The adjudicator feels odd at times when shooting the devastator’s head. I know my aim is on and it doesn’t register. ( target is standing still and I see this happen ) has anyone else had this experience? Not with just this weapon. Thanks for the video!!!
The combination of plentiful spawns, level 3 armor, and what sometimes feels like aimbot tracking on the spew has made bile spewers one of my most hated enemies. If there was a way to know ahead of the mission whether or not i would have to deal with them it wouldn't be an issue. Being forced to either bring spammable armor penetration to every bug mission, or youll sometimes just be at a huge disadvantage really limits your options, especially solo.
I've switched to taking the flamethrower for tackling armoured bugs, and a light armour pen auto for the primary, usually stuns, and a grenade pistol or semi auto pistol, the machine pistol just eats through too much ammo, it needs a burst function, like a Raffica Beretta 93R machine pistol, for fire modes auto or burst no semi-auto, would be best, and the dagger is a good signalling device, and nothing more, IMHO, continuous beam weapons should have a thermal damage to their attack, heating up a specific body part, so if used on heat sinks or brains they get a slight bonus to the damage, like an additional 10-15% on those weakspots.
This kind of makes me want to go run an Adjudicator + Stalwart build on bugs next bug mission. I've been having a lot of fun running the Tendriser on bots on lower level mission. It's remarkably easy to head shot troops at a decent range, which means I can clear swarms of the, especially when they're trying to call in reinforcements. Add enough damage to two-shot a Devastator and I'd probably use it pretty exclusively.
the fact head damage doesn't bleed into the torso is really wierd, but if that was added it would really help (especially if it was proportional) Like yeah it might not be expressly realistic i GUESS but that would be a SERIOUS QOL change, especially since all the AT breakpoints suck for tank enemies. Imagine if u could dome a bile once with a missile and then just bust its sacks with a primary for the kill? Instead of headshots just being a huge waste of time if you ever, ever miss/the breakpoints requiring you waste extra shots to do like 10 more 6AP damage to the head... Also it'd make the MG feel better for automatons, idk if the HMG 1shots devestators either
As my channel has a tendency to put numbers where there are none, I thought I would explore some concepts i've dabbled with on stream about why Automatic Weapons feel like they underperform in Helldivers 2. Thanks for watching and as always my favorite comment from this video will be featured in the next!
Ew this horrible 2d thing looking horrible remove it pls
Hey- where are you getting these numbers? I really REALLY want to see them myself. Please please please please
Honestly same. Would be nice to have health pools labled to body parts
Wanted to tell ya, I follow a bunch of Helldivers YT channels but I’m subbed only to you, because you do an awesome job without the BS
Can you do a breakdown of the sustained laz weapons? I think those weapons need some attention but you might figure out how to make them useful
Actually super-useful tidbit of information regarding the way health pools function and damage is dealt. I wasn't aware that parts of enemy bodies all had separate health pools, which is why they can often feel strangely tanky at times if you're spraying-n-praying. Thanks for this.
Glad to help thanks for watchin
I've never met a game in which Assault Rifles suck so bad, even if your playstyle is good. There are simply so many better options to take, and the CEO now CCO admitted as much (along with enemies taking too long to die/Time To Kill) and they were going to buff ARs, especially the Tenderizer, there's no way they would put in an AR in the next Warbond without ARs being "fixed", no doubt about it..
Nice positive and informative video. The typical “this is killing/killed the game” is getting really old for this game.
trying my best to keep the same style of content flowing even if HD2 isn't at it's highest point rn
I’ve left the subreddits over the attitudes of the player base. It just takes too much out of the experience. Informative videos like this, and playing the game, that’s the way to enjoy Hell Divers. Enjoy spreading Democracy Hell Diver!!
@@EravinVT it can’t always be in its best form but it’s still an amazingly fun experience in a group of good friends.
This is why Eravin is one of yhe best Helldivers TH-camrs out there, no drama and straight numbers
While I'm perhaps one of those "complainers" regarding the game's current balance state, I _am_ also much more hopeful about the game's near-future since the CEO has directly addressed and agreed that balancing needs some reconsideration. If/when they also get a handle on the more egregious glitches, I'm sure HD2 will see a second-wind of general positivity and excitement as it did during launch.
Critics aren't all doom & gloom; we just want to see the game thrive. The old saying in sports is "the crowd boos because they want to cheer"; we see potential for the game to be an almost-perfect co-op shooter, if only it could get a handle on its rougher edges. If the devs really are committed to doing so, then I'm sure we'll start to see more cheering again in the future.
Tbh, a secondary "tutorial" similar to the main one or a firing range with various enemies to shoot at would probably help people test and practice in a simple, controlled environment.
Some enemies like stalkers or beserkers can be a bit hectic to just play aroind with in an ordinary mission.
A firing range would be neat, but General Brasch wants your ammunition buried in the enemy, not a training dummy. There's no better testing ground than the field, Helldiver.
I would love that. I keep doing things in the heat of battle then question if i really did it or my teammate did e.g. railgun shot going through 2 warriors killing them both, and the hmg killing a hulk my destroying its leg causing it to trip
Just to add to this, this idea would be as a replacement to a lot of weapons buffs/nerf. Most of the weapons are OK, they just need to be applied to their proper role.
Light Pen primaries are mostly fine up until Impossible and Helldive, where these difficulties generally need at least medium pen to deal with hordes of medium armour targets.
As people work up to the higher difficulties, light primaries become a bit of a crutch as you can deal with a few devastators or bile spewers in lower difficulties and are faced with more small enemies, but the same tactics don't work against 20 devastator variants backed up by 3 hulks and a smattering of troopers. Knowing how to use some of the more effective weapons is important to success in those difficulties.
Helldive isn't really that hard if you're properly prepared and go in with a plan.
@@samwild6630 You see why this shouldn't be the case, right?
In a game where the devs constantly go on about how they don't want a "meta," because they want all weapons to be equally viable, actively designing the game so specific weapons become essentially useless at higher difficulties-Especially when talking about weapons that are actually better at lower difficulties, because they're just better at clearing hordes of lightly armored enemies more efficiently-is just forcing players into using specific guns to be effective.
Thus forcing players to play in a meta; Something the devs repeatedly say they don't want, as an excuse for nerfing popular weapons, despite fans being upset by the nerfs.
I generally find that dropping into a very low level mission is the best way to test a weapon. Low numbers of enemies give a controlled environment and you get missions to kill bigger enemies (level 1s have stuff like kill devastators and kill brood commanders while higher levels have stuff like kill hulks/Factory Striders and kill chargers/bile titans which give you areas where you can test weapons on the bigger enemies.
Great breakdown! My aim will have to get better before I take an AR over the Punisher, though. The Punisher staggers Berserkers, and that means they won't give me the condition known clinically as "Chainsaw Face."
fair take, this one is really just for those who swear by automatics no matter the situation
Not only do they stagger berserkers, but also devastators, and if you can get close enough you can take the head off of both. I found this out during an exterminate mission the other day where I got a tad bit overwhelmed by walkers, berserker, and devastators, so I've learned many strats for all three if you get too close and don't have an armor piercing weapon at your disposal
:D why use ARs or aim when you can just lob Plasma with the Punisher.
I like to use the dominator to dispatch them quickly. Despite the Nerf, it's still a relatively reliable gun being able to one shot headshot devastators
@@infinity5722 The Dominator nerf was absolutely tiny. People get WAY too upset about the mere concept of nerfs, to the point where if you take even 1% off of something they'll just think "It got nerfed. Can't use it anymore." It's really silly seeing some peoples reactions to this stuff.
Also, remember, there is recoil reducing armor, and all of this advice applies to the machine guns even more effectively
Stalwart is a destroyer if you aim at the hips/belly. I've been running amr, but i still pick stalwart if i see my team has it covered.
HMG is loads of fun too, for this reason. I used to hate berserkers, always got mobbed by them and struggled to hit those tiny bobbing heads. Now when I see a group of them charging at me I get happy thinking "hooray it's zerk shredding time again!" as I crouch and freaking cut the whole squad in half at the hips. It's glorious 🤘
Admittedly it doesn't do everything and probably not good solo, but that's what a team is for
@@MattWanchap I like the heavy machine gun a lot more (mainly for robo missions), when I use a supply backpack and absolute *do not share it,* unless it's an emergency 😅
Its main problem being ridiculously low total ammo, having the supply pack alleviates that. You can almost always call another resupply anyways. And every few minutes you can call down another backpack supply. Your team will understand and you can finally unload with that monster of a machine gun and be really helpful and valuable to your team again - loads of fun!
Okay but, if you're not using medkit armor then what are you even doing
@@rawman44 using my resupply pack to get more stims whenever I want 😁
Thank you. I have been trying to tell people this for weeks. The main draw of an AR is range and fire rate flexibility. Shotguns and smgs struggle at longer ranges and marksman rifles struggle at close range. ARs can do both just not as well as either. You can go from long range sharp shooting to close quarters full auto and back again on the fly The trick to making accurate shots with an AR is recoil control. The longer you use the weapon the more you get a feel for what range you can full auto while still staying on target. Crouch and prone are key to making fast accurate shots on weak points. Swapping fire rate is also a good idea for ammo conservation. There are several enemies that can easily be over killed in full auto leading to a waste of ammo. Many ARs have a burst fire which can one shot devastators in the head. This gives you a fantastic time to kill if you have good recoil control and a good vantage point. All of the ARs save for the tenderizer got buffed recently so I recommend testing them out again. The tenderizer has next to no recoil. If your prone you can just about do full auto at longer ranges with a little trigger discipline.
Yeah that’s why I like the Penetrator for its flexibility. After they gave it the full auto I realized it wasn’t that bad. My problem then however was that I felt like the ARs were still… lacking purpose ig? This video gave me a whole idea as to what the ARs are used for… versatility and the ability to SHRED through large enemy weak points. Unfortunately for the second part, the ARs are typically outclassed by other weapons 🥲
If they just had like, 20% durable damage instead of 10%, then they’d be totally perfect
They don't "feel" like they underperform.. they DO underperform, even the CEO now CCO admitted it,
they were going to get buffed, and the Tenderizer especially - so I hope I can finally use them again.
Plus there's no way they are adding in an AR in the next Warbond if the ARs aren't fixed for overall use,
even with a good playstyle ARs suck over the other options, even IF you are hitting weak spots consistently.
Commenting for engagement, and stoping somebody from saying "bro fell off hahaha". While I can't watch currently I agree that alot of my automatic weapons are coming up short by a mag, or kills or another factor, will be intersection to see an analytic take. Your videos are an amazing reprieve in a sea of um low effort stuff. Thanks! Keep it up please!
Doin my best, thanks! 🥲
It was recently discovered that enemies have "main" health pool, and most limbs copy 40-60% of their taken damage to that pool. Focusing on one area usually more effective, though.
Doesn't that only apply to massive units like BTs and ATAT's? I don't think Hulks actually care about having their limbs blown off, and a Charger takes the same amount of butt damage even if you've stripped a leg.
@@ExValeFor butt is a seperate body part (that also transfers to main). It's a very recent discovery, but you should be able to shoot a scout bot once in each arm and leg which will kill them without specifically dismembering anything.
Love to hear back if that doesn't work.
Don't forget suppressive fire is a thing too. There is also flanking and angles. Clearing legs and disarming is a great way to cover teammates.
@@ExValeFor If I'm reading the data right, Hulks have 1250 total health, each arm has 500hp but only transfers 30% of the damage done to them to the main hp - so after both arms are blown off the hulk still has some 950hp left, so it doesn't do a lot.
Yeah but now you get to grab the achievement for living it alive but disarmed!
10:03 I feel like the berserkers are just unusually tanky as a whole. 625 HP is quite high for such a fast enemy often deployed in large groups.
I think the ARs will come into their own against the Illuminate if they end up being light-medium armored with energy shields. You will need a combination of sustained fire and armor penetration to reliably bring them down.
Funny you mention that, just published a video with this exact topic inside lol
I do appreciate the effort that went into this. I will personally still be sticking with my usual ( Jar-5 Dominator, Grenade Pistol, Stuns). Should the AR category get some very much needed buffs, I'll probably check them out again. Until then I'll stick to popping devastator in the face and being able to stunlock medium enemies reliably. Also the whole being able to destroy tanks/turrets thing.
Yep, No reason to really use ARs over other options right now, This one was just for the fans of ARs
Is that fun really that good? I usually use the diligence for bots but I've been looking for a good alternative.
It's almost contradictory to state that Berserkers "feel" like having higher health pools then having 625HP on the torso, a supposed "weakspot". They really do have higher health pools requiring an additional bullet or three, and their lack of armor makes them literal bullet sponges. All Automatic weapons automatically deal better with them, including the trusty Redeemer. These things highlight Adjudicator's strengths to someone good with tactics, having Semi-auto on for most of the fights and aiming for Devastator heads and 1-2 tapping Troopers, then switching over to Auto fire once Berserkers are spotted. It's basically a versatile med-pen weapon. (alternatively, just use Auto and tap really well, but that's outside of my skill set)
The numbers really are nice to have though, thank you for providing extremely valuable information. Almost reminds me I should really just stick to my DMRs too.
The Torso is at least 3 to 4 Diligence Counter Sniper shots, which is ridiculous in my book.
The way they decided to do armor pen in this game is strange because it pretty much means there's no downside to weapons w/ higher armor pen values aside from statistically doing slightly less damage, but also because for a game trying to make the gun ballistics function semi-realistically, armor pen and damage work in reverse, punishing matching armor and pen values and rewarding overpenetration.
The downside is they nerf the rest of the guns stats to compensate and then everyone thinks medium pen weapons are trash and never use them lel
the downside is they are worse/overkill for chaff at the cost of gun handling and mag size. the pen damage bonus does not apply to class 1and 2 armor
Bro you are stupid, matching armor pen means you barely pen that armor and thus lose energy that would go into the target if you have a pen rating higher than the armor of the target the round, missile, beam etc. has enough energy carried over to impart into the target itself
Adjudicator is my favorite BAR because it can handle nearly anything, with care. It can tap heads, burst stun Devastators of all kinds, and shoot the legs off mini Striders. It’s also great at shooting off limbs and rocket pods. Its hipfire is perfect against Berserkers and Scavengers and many other hectic targets.
The trick was definitely realizing that different body parts have different health pools. Good job bringing that to more people.
If that thing had like +5 rounds in each mag I think it would surge in popularity because you're right but it feels bad to use when you can kill 2.5 enemies per mag and you know you need to reload and waste that .5 mag or youre gonna get slapped for not having enough bullets by the next guy.
@@Jaedeok82 At that point it would undeniably be the best AR, which is too much. It’d be fun, but then I’d never use anything else. Right now the Senator gives me the backup to use every round in almost every mag.
The divers thank you for your dedication to well-formatted training from the field. Keep up the good work!
Great video! I'd been happy enough saying "ARs are for bugs", but your advice opens it up a lot more for bots. Also helps to paint all those medium pen weapons in better light, sometimes it feels like they get overlooked.
Excited to see how it all plays out if the AR buffs go live applying this kind of information
Another thing I think could help automatic weapons is armor degredation after enough structure damage. Let us crack a devastator chest plate after enough hits.
When I first started fighting the bots I never thought a sniper build was viable (which is a shame since I love sniping) so I used the ARs. However, after the damage buff to the DCS it’s now my go to loadout for them for the exact reason that it’s a one shot to the devastators head and I left the ARs behind because peppering the bots doesn’t work well with their individual health pools for different parts. I honestly never thought I would reach Helldive difficulty with a sniper rifle but I finally got there. I do hope they buff the ARs since I really like the tenderizers handling, it would be great to see it be made more usable
Agreed, Enjoy the Tenderizer's handling alot, it just needs some help!
the problem with precision weapons early on was how botched some of the scopes were and weapons handling like they were chambered in calibers approaching FOOT units. I don't know why scopes felt so trash if they weren't the sickle....
@@bartofii yeah that was another reason I didn't use them much. But they feel a lot better now though. I think the AMR still could use some work on it's sight. Or it could be that I'm so used to compensating for the site being off now I can't shoot straight lol
I usually run the AMR and the Counter sniper and consistently get as many kills as everyone else. AMR for the big boys and CS for infantry. Gotten to the point I can take out a squad of infantry faster than the guys with automatics.
@@ryanschoenhard7116 yeah, I will average 150+ on a mission now depending on how long the mission takes. I pretty much run the same build, DCS and AMR with grenade pistol, then I juggle between the jump pack and supply pack.
A very good video! I'm glad to see someone sharing real information. One correction - The brood commander's head only has 200hp, but takes 60% of your durable (or structure as you call it) damage and 40% of your main damage, meaning lib pen is doing 27 damage while the adjudicator is doing 36.8 damage (in actuality a bit less due to drop-off), resulting in the shot counts you listed. It's a small difference but important to know the mechanics!
If you see Zeddy, do say hi for me.
I know the videos old but, as a new diver. This video was SO helpful. Not just good AR info but enemy weak spot and health pools info… structure damage? I had no idea that was a thing. This video is a great resource and deserves a good spot in TH-cam algorithm. For super earth!
There are several more that talk about the damage system armor system and health system in their entirety as well if you want more info on how it all works behind the scenes
Let the left leg bot hunting begin!
leg meta is so back
@@EravinVT get me a kedr
Devastator: “I lost my legs in the war”
Grunt: “was it to mines? Explosives? Grenades?”
“No, some dipshit with an AR”
My left or the bot's left? Why left?
I think your best point in the video is on shooting limbs. Marksmen rifles will always be better at shooting heads, but heads are notably very small and very mobile in helldivers. Taking advantage of ARs high DPS and good ammo economy allows them to excel at consistant TTK and while being easy to use and ranged capable.
If you're doing things correctly, you technically should be capable of killing most things in the game with a stock liberator, using nades, medium, heavy explosives and stratagems for everything else.
So basically, dump rounds into devastators' and berserkers' lower torso, and dump rounds into a heavy dev's backpack; it's still difficult to hit that backpack from the front though tbh, especially with all the aimpunch from the gatling fire. And all the death.
Also the bug section is literally "just aim at head bro"; this is why bugs are so easy and boring, most of them are literally the exact same enemy with different coats of paint.
It can be better to focus the legs for brood commanders when using things like the sickle or stalwart, or even the incendiary breaker. Take out 3-4 legs and it dies without a bleedout.
I like to think the bots are just Combine soldiers and bugs for B4B zombies at low levels.
But, on higher difficulties like Helldive.
You fight the bots thats equivalent to the ARMA USA mod and for the bugs is GTFO.
Heavy devastators have cooldown between their machine gun bursts, try to take this at your advantage. They also have their head exposed, with assault rifles it's not too hard to hit it, just tap it don't full auto it, and if you use one of the guns with good scopes it's even better
AC is still King against the Bots. It staggers the Heavy Devestators so they open their Shieldguard.
This is easily one of the most informative and watchable HD2 videos that I've watched in a while.
My ADHD usually has me skipping through videos but I watched this one from start to finish without feeling the itch to skip.
As a former Mechwarrior Online player, leg meta is an old friend I am more than happy to revisit. Thanks for the video.
No problem!
As a fan of the base liberator, I really appreciated this. I typically run it with an auto-cannon though as I liked how they compliment each other, but it's meant I haven't had to try to optimize AR performance too much. Looking forward to field testing these tips with the supply pack + whichever AR I want to test.
This changes my understanding of assault rifles fundamentally.
Thumbs up, great content!
This makes the liberator penetrator a potential candidate to bring with the AMR for bot crowd control.
It’s at the very least not as bad as one would interpret by attempting to mag dump a thorax on a devastator
@@EravinVT Which I did on my first test run, being the noob I am :-D
Despite it being seen as a 'worse liberator', I've been enjoying using the Tenderizer. It sounds great, and the damn thing is a lazerbeam for me. (Though I do crouch and use fortified/engineer armours a lot, so it could probably be similar with the lib.)
I also enjoy the handling on the Tenderizer, It would of been my choice for a breakdown if it was just ever so slightly better
Trueee! If it got just a +5 damage buff (=65) then it could 2-shot devastators like the base Diligence. That would be so nice 😌
@@pterodummy It would only 2 shot within close range before the damage fall off. It would likely need 70 damage like the defender to be a true headshot machine.
I like the tenderizer. I was using the sickle, but the tenderizer is more accurate, handles great, and is quiet . I really only use the ar for the little bot/bugs, and ac, amr, or mmg for the others.
Will mid pen make it better?
Here's an easy way to balance in my mind:
An AR15 shooting 5.56 in a 20" barrel can penetrate steel armor (AR500 steel) that 7.62x51mm in a 20" cannot.
The high velocity with a small caliber puts a lot of that energy in a fine point, letting it punch through better. Bigger calibers compensate for this lack of pure penetration by just imparting more kinetic energy into the target, smashing it more. This could be represented by giving marksman rifles better "stopping power" by staggering enemies more noticably. This also allows marksmen users to utilize the stagger for setting up a headshot.
Let ARs have a higher armor penetration than marksman rifles, which shoot bigger heavier bullets, and SMGs, which shoot lower velocity heavy pistol bullets.
Another point for assault rifles, take arms off heavy devastators. It's similar to the legs, but instead of killing it you effectively make it useless, and once it's gone you can almost use the dev as cover from other bots.
Be careful as it might stomp you instead
This tip also applies to the Eruptor.
Going for the head or upper torso does not consitently result in 1-taps.
Going for legs works wonders with the clunky grenade rifle though.
If you do use the erupter, you can also speed up the cyclcling by fully swapping weapons after each shot.
This has been really helpful. Demystifying the damage methods of the game will make things a lot easier. I'd actually been wondering why my tactical shots to cripple and then kill enemies seemed like they were taking so long to finish them. Especially shooting the legs off bugs instead of going after the armored heads. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle.
A nuanced take on assault rifles here. Videos like these are in stark contrast to most of the knee-jerk reactions and takes out there. Well done, Eravin.
It's nice knowing that assault rifles kind of have a use case now, it's still really hard to justify every bringing one ever.
Against light bots the diligence counter sniper hits the one shot body breakpoint, meaning the ttk is lower here then the ARs, as well as the one shot headshot breakpoint for devastators (as you covered).
Against bugs assault rifles simply lose the firepower game to shotguns. Even as a midrange option I still think the slugger is better, for its one shot warrior head breakpoint, one shot hunter breakpoint, and 2 shot brood commander breakpoint. You can also reload between shots, giving it surprisingly good crowd control.
All in all I think the assault rifles have too small of mags, or simply don't do enough damage to hit good breakpoints be competitive in any real scenario. Additionally the split health pools of the enemies further makes the assault rifles less useful then their precision counter parts.
Yep not competitive, just trying to put out info for those that want to use them regardless
and yet here I am every single night having great success with the adjudicator every single night. often coming top with little to no deaths. level 7 difficulty ( only do 8 or 9 when I fancy a sweat fest).
@@captaintruthyeah they aren't terrible weapons either. recently I've been playing las cannon on bugs (it's amazing btw) and brought the liberator penetrator as a panic swap option for when i cant use the las cannon, it filled it's role just fine. The fire rate and magazine capacity allowed me to shoot it without care for ammo economy to get out of rough situations
@@undertaker2766 this is exactly what its about, building a kit that covers the gaps you need. they've given us more than enough firepower
@@captaintruth it's more like the gaps between primaries. I could have done this with say the breaker, or some other strong weapons. Assault rifles don't really do anything other options do better. That's my only critic. I don't feel incentivised to play them. If they had bigger mag sizes the full auto would be much more enjoyable and meaningful, for clearing bunch of small and some medium ennemies with a mag. I've been playing the tenderizer today and if you give it 10more rounds it would feel so much better to play already
If they dont want to buff assault rifles' damage cause they are ascared they will overtake other categories at least give us bigger magazines or something so the automatic part has more appeal idk. What you said eravin is very true, considering how important it is to aim at weakspots because of seperated health pools AR weapons are very limited
Honestly, I dont understand their obsession with small magazines in this game. It doesnt feel good. Doubly so when theyre so stingy with armor penetration.
Delightfully informative, I had no idea about the separate health pools per body part! This information is going to revolutionize how I tackle medium threats, thank you so much!
I always enjoy watching your content, and this was no exception. I do have a minor quibble though which is hopefully constructive.
I have been tinkering with ARs for the majority of my playtime. I struggled early but everything fell into place during the Malevalon days when I started shooting where the laser was on the Liberator Penatrator. I wish you could put that scope on everything.
I almost exclusively play in 1st person, but I could still see in your footage you were making the same classic aim mistake I was making early on and shooting too low. Rewatch and look at where the laser is in the footage.
You have to compensate considerably when shooting at anything closer than about 50 metres, but the laser on the Penetrator is a great teacher. The height over bore effect works the same on the other guns but not all have the laser.
It us easy to get a false impression of a guns performance because the recoil can push a low aim into the correct zone, it will do so with poorer performance than the gun is capable of.
Of course, I tend to put my ARs on semi auto and your point about using dedicated marksman weapons is well made. I find myself preferring the CS these days, but there is some value in being able to switch between controlled shots and volume of fire.
Looking forward to changes coming to ARs in the future though. All the best and keep up the good work.
Never thought the torso was broken up in two vroups. Also never thought there were separate health pools per limb/section. Very helpful to know.
Pleasantly surprised that this video brought me so much value. Was actually expecting to be disappointed with info but it was all legit! Great job!
Doin my best!
Thank you for this! I had no idea what the limb numbers were and it wasn't until watching your vid that I finally searched around enough to find them listed in the helldivers io database. It's a shame that this info is hard to find and not on either wiki. A lot of the discourse on balance that I've seen fails to take into account any meaningful health breakpoints, ttk, etc. I hope this encourages more people to get into proper theorycrafting.
Me too!
*Thank you.* newer player, having this explained simply is a big help!
glad to help n thanks for watching!
Kind of figured that Hipshots were meta against bots, the pre-nerf Eruptor was a Devastator hip killing machine
EDIT: My bad, I was sleepy and mixed up the Eruptor with the Dominator somehow. Please disregard the below comment.
-It still is. The nerf was absolutely miniscule. No one would ever even notice the difference if not told about it.-
@@UnknownSquid oh it's noticeable. Easy one shots turned into 2-3 shots. I also had the occasional basic automaton surviving the aoe blast.
@@ballbatboy My bad, I was sleepy and somehow mixed up the Eruptor with the Dominator. Yeah, the Eruptor losing it's shrapnel is plenty noticeable.
Should at least also be noted that it wasn't intended as a deliberate nerf though. Just ended up being that way, with the buff to it's explosive damage not being enough to make up the loss.
@@UnknownSquid oh yeah, Dominator is still a great. The still high damage per shot and medium pen keep it on top.
I'd even like a "lite" version of the Dominator with less damage and more ammo capacity.
Super helpful! Btw, I’ve had surprisingly good results with the Tenderizer (of all weapons) vs. Bots lately.
I’ve been using it on Single Fire and using engagement ranges similar to the DMRs with great success. It feels like a Diligence that fills a more “Jack-of-all-trades” role that lets me use it in mid-to-close range if I let the enemy get too close. Its low recoil lets me laser beam the heads off of raiders at great distance and dinking devastators is surprisingly comfortable since I can tap-tap-tap with very little recoil to punish.
For specifics, I’ve been running it in the following kit:
Armor - Scout
Secondary - Grenade Pistol
Support - AMR
Techpack - Jetpack(Recommended)/Shield
Grenade - Smoke
I was also running Air Strikes and 380mm Barrage.
I love it. Especially because I typically run Diligence Counter-Sniper and I feel overly reliant on picking a secondary that can serve as a proper fighting gun in close range between awkward reloads. With this kit instead, Tenderizer solves all - except problems I can solve with the AMR and my utility secondary.
I know this was barely related to your video, but I wanted share because I’ve been having fun with it already and now you’ve shown me precisely how I can use the Tenderizer even *more* effectively. You might have fun with it, but I’ve only used it on Diff.7. Thanks, Eravin!
I enjoyed the Tenderizer's handling so I'm hopeful for it's buff to make it a mainstay in my loadouts
@@EravinVT Same, I'm hopeful and excited for the next big balance patch
in my experience with ARs, they current use is all purpose weapon, Adjudicator is a good example for it, it can perform at any distance, you can use it to snipe heads, you can spray it if something gets too close, you can fire it in bursts if you need to fire at enemies in close/medium range, this make the Adjudicator the best weapon for people who want to run some builds that would be strongly inclined to fighting a single kind of enemy, like builds that focus on fighting heavy armour with hard hitting but low rate of fire weapons would suffer when swarmed by smaller enemies, or builds focused on fighting these swarms of smaller enemies would have a hard time when fighting heavier armoured enemies.
I've never met a game in which Assault Rifles suck so bad, even if your playstyle is good. There are simply so many better options to take, and the CEO now CCO admitted as much (along with enemies taking too long to die/Time To Kill) and they were going to buff ARs, especially the Tenderizer, there's no way they would put in an AR in the next Warbond without ARs being "fixed", no doubt about it.
The fact all this is so massively hidden from us... If we were told even just a hair more of this we might understand why they feel stuff is "fine" when the players all feel it's crap.
This is why you don't hide numbers, at least not to this extent, and either make weakpoints clearer or give greater feedback. An in-game bestiary we could slowly fill out would work magic.
Would help alot
The issue with helldivers imho has always been the lack of information, enabled by lhe lack of access to obtaining that information easily, which leads to people assuming and in the end misinterpretation.
Meatsaw devistators (chainsaw) is clear example. Its entire body glows like a christmas tree, but hitting the head, similar to the other devistators doesn't yield same result. The torso requiring more bullets even though its intuitively pointing to the opposite.
Weapon description text explaining the penetration value is a big oversight if everything revolves around it. It should be the actual number instead of the vague text.
Each weapon has a separate damage value when penetrating a armour, which can start from +10%of damage (bile sacks), which is really important information, yet its shown nowhere inside the game.
In general the user experience has been lacking in Helldivers 2 by quite a lot.
Very much so
The separate hp pools are a really unusual mechanic, I don't necessarily dislike it but I wish it was communicated better in game. Thanks for putting numbers to it.
For anyone who wants to go rock and roll and brave enough to try I recommend medium/heavy armor, adjudicator, railgun, supply pack, stun grenades, grenade pistol and two other strategems of your choice (I like eagle airstrike and 380, but laser and ems mortar are also viable) is a fantastic combo to fight bots with.
Shoot the adjudicator in bursts. Its scope is surprisingly effective at range when crouched. Use railgun for medium armor from hulk down (stun grenades make it easy for hulks), eagle for tanks and factory striders and factories. With supply pack you’ll have more than enough stims, nades, and ammo to tank dmg and mag dump to your hearts content. Super fun build. Also great for playing with randoms because you can be pretty independent and keep up the fight even if someone else is taking the resupply on cooldown.
I legit thought I was imagining that killing devs in the legs was a good tactic, back when I only had a penetrator to work with. Insane. Looks like I was onto something and desperaetly going for the microscopic head areas isn't as vital as it seems. Its crazy how small those heads are, I basically swore off ARs the moment I had a slugger
Yeah, leg meta for anything medium pen is a very viable option
I think the Liberator Penetrator is especially a bit of a newbie trap, regarding devastators. Everyone has that same experience of their early weapon options not penetrating the torso armour, and thus mag dumping at the head to try and kill them. Then they unlock the Penetrator and think, "Ahah, medium pen, that must mean this is great against those bigger bots". So they take it and try the same, mag dumping around the head, but expecting the torso damage that does get through to result in a faster kill. With the result of course being the opposite. A weaker bullet hurting the torso for only half damage is still not enough to be efficient, and the ones that do hit the head are weaker than the regular liberator. So everyone has a bad time with that gun and puts it away immediately.
Omg Ty for stating ttk numbers. I like to number crunch and it was driving me insane for the longest time not knowing ttk and damage / armor values
glad I could help!
The only really new thing I learned is that bile sacks take structural DMG... If you have ammo to spare and down wear a shield or can't dodge left or right into a brood mother, give her a few taps on a leg, they usually should stagger a bit making it easier to avoid their charge. If they are limping they are a lot less lethal. Headshots also work on smaller targets, really important when you are clearing things with the Adjudicator. Warriors work like mini brood mothers. Also learn the difference of prone, crouch, standing still and running while using your AR of choice.
Where did you get the numbers for limb health and armor from? (Like Devastator heads having 130HP and 0 AC)
limb health is probably from the bare minimum damage to pop a specific limb like the devastators head having 130hp because the new smg with 65dam can pop it in two
the adjudcator (idk the name) is a multi use gun, its a DMR, until the bots get to close, then its an AR
Eh, I'm more of a milsim player nowadays, so I i use single fire a little more than automatic around cover.
ARs are normally good for their versatility. Although in HD2, they're the baseline reliable option and most people should know where to shoot to make the most of it by now.
Hopefully that incoming patch changes the new AR a bit more. Seemed like it was forgotten about when they did the last balance patch.
Ballistic shield is great when you want to stop in front of heavy devastators and poke around the head.
MGs and the emplacement are my go to for automatic fun. Still wondering why the Stalwart isn't a primary since we've got some big differences in primary weapons now.
I think this video shows how Sickle is king. Feels way better to spray into a leg for basically free ammo than compared to anything else, even with just light penetration.
Meanwhile, the Lib Pen feels like every wasted bullet is a wasted diamond at times. So spraying/mag dumping with that feels less satisfying.
Thanks for the positives! This needs to be added into the SEAF training manual.
This is a public service message for everyone regardless of weapon. Almost nobody talks about the importance of separate hp pools and kill conditions in Helldivers 2, even though it's IMO one of the most important mechanics to understand.
For once I’m hopeful for a buff across the ARs in game. I forget about them because they are so outclassed until it’s time for a meme load out.
yeah i'm hopeful for this buff to shake things up for them
I think the biggest issue is that you don't usually have enough time to shoot these other areas with more than a few shots before any of the bots who's aim never seem to be effected by being shot, shot you, mess up your aim completely, then shoot you in the head. Or a heavy devastator sniper shotting you from over 50 meters with infinite ammo.
Finally someone spitting some real facts about ARs, rather than dunking on them... Been saying it for the 4 months this game's been out. ARs are flex picks. They're not SMGs, they're not DMRs, but they can do both roles competently without stepping either. This is actually reinforced with the weapon's optic and fire rate settings. Low zoom, full auto for close. Mid zoom, burst for mid. High zoom, semi for long. It's telling you to be versatile, and literally everyone I see who plays ARs then tells me they're too weak / worthless either can't stop themselves from mag dumping or only ever tap fires...
If you try to treat them as only either, you're going to end up disappointed. Flex with the AR, rather than trying to force it, and it'll work better for you. It trades raw power (even if I agree that all of them could use a bit more punch, especially my precious LibPen) for versatility. A fine tradeoff, in my opinion, and why I swear by ARs even in the face of randoms boo-ing my pick. ..Only to be shocked when I surprise them with one of if not *the* highest combat score on the team.
And that is why I've been using the Plasma Punisher. Lots of stagger, works on light and medium armored enemies, rarely have to worry about where it hits a bot or even hitting them directly as the AoE damage is pretty good.
Always like watching your content for a new refreshing perspective.
I've been lasermaxing lately and all of your advice applies to the laser cannon for med pen and the scythe for light pen, lasers are not meta but are solid on dif 7 that I play on and cool as hell. I would love to see a lasermaxing video and the stealth mechanics around lasers.
I don't think about the ARs much because I'm an autocannon main. But sometimes I need to use my actual primary, or sometimes I need to trash clear. This video gives me some good options for my ARs
as I climbed up the levels and through the difficulties, the Lib Penetrator was my go to, it's medium armor pen came in clutch several times. But I've had to hang up my favored weapon, since I was more dead weight and had more impact with Laser Cannon or strategem uses. Now it's the Breaker Incendiary which destroys bugs. If the ARs get buffed...it'd be welcome
Dating back to the old days of battletech and mechwarrior 2, the secret weakness of everything with legs is that the legs are the weak point.
Seriously tho, the scythe's laser dps is almost on par with AR ttk. It's just not as flashy nor as satisfying.
Great vid. Learned tons!
I found the adjudicator to be versatile more than a handicap. You have automatic for chaff and you have the nice scope for precise shots on devastator heads.
Been using just the liberator since launch just recently switched over to the Adjucator, when I'm far i switched my fire mode to semi for more controlled pair shots, and then full auto when im moving to close combat with the enemy. My only favorite weapons so far is the standard liberator and Adjucator they the job done beautifully, i have to admit this video would definitely make me more lethal in against the enemy. Appreciate the info Diver.
Hey Eravin. I was wondering if you could do a video on how to adjust your playstyle depending on how many people are trying to stealthdive. Is having 3 or 4 of the squad play for stealth viable, or should you limit it to 1 or 2? In other words, How should you adjust your playstyle in response to the playstyle of the rest of your team? If you have 4 stealthdivers should they stay in pairs? Questions like that.
Thank you for your consideration, and thank you for producing high quality helldivers 2 content. There's no other youtuber that does it better than you do.
With devastators, three shots to the groin area with the senator pistol has been rather effective in my experience.
Really good guide, though with the ARs. Definitely will look into using them more when I’m squadded up!
For bile spewers, just use an impact grenade or HMG, or drop a sentry and keep moving. Also try grenade pistol - it takes two hits (if you have the warbond).
Honestly I wish the devestator chest wasn't armor 3, you're telling me with medium armor penetration I'm still not allowed to body shot the 2nd tier of bot? I think it would make the armor pen ARs feel a lot better and free up my support weapon for something with more bang.
Lately I'm packing the laser cannon because it
1. Has unlimited ammo
2. Can kill basically anything with decent shot placement
3. I'm more or less using it like an oversized Sickle lol
“Click on their head” is much much easier said than done. Even with the marksman rifles. Honestly the sickle feels like a better marksman b/c of its lack of recoil. To me the DCS feels way to wavy and weird to am properly at times to use. Or who knows maybe I just need to get good.
Counter Sniper one-shot-head-shot is the best.
It’s my favorite gun now yah
I learned early on I didnt have the skill to land headshots consistently with full auto so I just decided to shoot the abdomen (belly) instead. I've gotten better since then but I still find that focus firing the belly is more consistent for me than the head even though its a bit more ammo greedy.
That consistency is all I want from an automatic
This has definitely been my experience. I notice a lot of people don’t want to stop loving or change their stance to shoot, so the weapons that perform even without that are suddenly “meta”.
While I do think the AR’s could be buffed a bit, I don’t think they hopelessly underpowered like many people seem to believe.
Practicing some trigger discipline and understanding enemy weak points seems to make all the difference.
I especially think the Tenderizer is written off as totally useless. But my experience hasn’t been that at all, it is ridiculously accurate and I haven’t had nearly as much trouble with it as some seem to say. I wouldn’t put it anywhere near the Sickle, that’s things just kinda busted imo. But it’s certainly not worse than the Liberator.
Yes, if you can't get the smaller target, move onto the bigger target. Like the *limbs* or the arm that has the weapon. If you can't kill them now then make it easier to kill them later.
Thank you for the info. My game knowledge has train me to shoot the glowy parts of an enemy like the eyes or bulbous sacks. I didn't realise each body part has a seperate health pool and armour.
Just the knowledge of the different health pools made this video worth watching...
I gotta try some stuff now.
The only automatics I really liked were the Scythe and now the Pummeler, they were the only automatics I felt like I was really getting value out of over using over semi autos or shotguns
What I always shoot for the eye! Looking forward to learning and improving after this vid 😮
headshot are still totally valid! but these alternatives will give automatic users a bit more agency with their automatic firing mode
@@EravinVTI had no idea about health pools being seperate! I assumed they all contributed to the units health. This is game changing, thanks for the info helps alotn
Great tips! Thanks for the video. Definitely gonna apply this as i love my ARs.
Gonna be even better when we get the buff!
Dude, this is an informational treasure chest. Thanks.
The problem isn't with how the guns feel. It's with how the enemies REACT when you shoot them with an assault rifle. They look like a piece of cork that you slowly chip away at. A 5.56 round doesn't just take a chunk out of a target. The velocity of the bullet causes hydrostatic shock that produces a wincing flight response. That doesn't happen when bots or bugs get shot, so the guns are unsatisfying to use.
Great vid. Where are you getting these health pool and armor numbers?!
never thought of going for the legs that will help me out a lot thanks!
leg meta is back
6:23
This has really changed how I thought the game worked. I assumed all damage done would contribute to the enemy dying but that's not the case.
As someone who uses the sickle against bots i definitely needed this. Even with the nigh 0 recoil i can never hit the headshots on devastators so maybe ill go for the legs/belly lol
The Sickle seems to be really inaccurate. Recoil is basically nonexistent, but it sure seems to spray shots all over a wider cone than other weapons.
amazing video!
please consider also showing the same visual information for both types of chargers, the titan, all types of hulks and tanks.
thank you!
The adjudicator feels odd at times when shooting the devastator’s head. I know my aim is on and it doesn’t register. ( target is standing still and I see this happen ) has anyone else had this experience? Not with just this weapon.
Thanks for the video!!!
I've had weird registration for hits before yeah
The patch notes have confirmed lots of weapons when ADS shoot lower then the reticle
I did but realize theses different heath pools were a thing. I thank you. This week change how I deal with the Robo-Satans.
The combination of plentiful spawns, level 3 armor, and what sometimes feels like aimbot tracking on the spew has made bile spewers one of my most hated enemies. If there was a way to know ahead of the mission whether or not i would have to deal with them it wouldn't be an issue. Being forced to either bring spammable armor penetration to every bug mission, or youll sometimes just be at a huge disadvantage really limits your options, especially solo.
You know what, I think I unintentionally figured this stuff out and have been using it when I use the breaker spray and pray.
I salute 🫡 you! Thank you for your service to Super Earth.
Thank you for watching! For Super Earth!
I've switched to taking the flamethrower for tackling armoured bugs, and a light armour pen auto for the primary, usually stuns, and a grenade pistol or semi auto pistol, the machine pistol just eats through too much ammo, it needs a burst function, like a Raffica Beretta 93R machine pistol, for fire modes auto or burst no semi-auto, would be best, and the dagger is a good signalling device, and nothing more, IMHO, continuous beam weapons should have a thermal damage to their attack, heating up a specific body part, so if used on heat sinks or brains they get a slight bonus to the damage, like an additional 10-15% on those weakspots.
This kind of makes me want to go run an Adjudicator + Stalwart build on bugs next bug mission.
I've been having a lot of fun running the Tendriser on bots on lower level mission. It's remarkably easy to head shot troops at a decent range, which means I can clear swarms of the, especially when they're trying to call in reinforcements. Add enough damage to two-shot a Devastator and I'd probably use it pretty exclusively.
the fact head damage doesn't bleed into the torso is really wierd, but if that was added it would really help (especially if it was proportional) Like yeah it might not be expressly realistic i GUESS but that would be a SERIOUS QOL change, especially since all the AT breakpoints suck for tank enemies. Imagine if u could dome a bile once with a missile and then just bust its sacks with a primary for the kill? Instead of headshots just being a huge waste of time if you ever, ever miss/the breakpoints requiring you waste extra shots to do like 10 more 6AP damage to the head...
Also it'd make the MG feel better for automatons, idk if the HMG 1shots devestators either
It's not a fundamentally bad system but they do need to draw more connections within it
Dominator slaps Devastator chicken legs into other planes of existence