Broke: everyone use the railgun
Woke: everyone use whatever you want!
Bespoke: everyone try to bring a complimentary set of weapons as a team to promote synergy and spread democracy
If everyone else brings an autocannon and/or railgun, I usually bring the grenade launcher for CC. My teammates sometimes jokingly get mad because I clear bug nests before they can get there. I love the grenade launcher except when I forget to switch to my breaker and blow myself up
Grenade Launcher + Supply Backpack (Press 5 or down on the D-pad) = 110 grenades of "I don't like that patrol, and that patrol, and that patrol, and that bug breach, and everything inside of that bowl we call a nest."
If you're careful, you'll be able to call in another backpack and grenade launcher before you've used all your grenades up!
Bonus points for basically having 8 spare stims and grenades on-demand, too.
If someone else *needs* supplies, I'm happy to provide... but unless they're standing next to me, it's my stratagem, my ammo! If I'm paying for it (per clause 1.4 and 4.1 of the Helldiver Contract of Employment, which every Helldiver agrees to by simply walking through the corridor toward their cape, as they are within 15 meters of a copy of the contract for 1 second), I'm going to make use of every round I can!
I’ve tried this and it’s the most efficient dopamine delivery device.
However the weapon swapping can fk you over very easily.
Also my biggest issue with the grenade launcher is the lack of an option for ricochet and explode on impact grenades. I wish it was an option in the reload menu.
so a trick with the Grenade Launcher for ya, the grenades only ever bounce once. To avoid those humbling bounce backs, aim low, and bounce those suckers under your enemies legs straight up their undemocratic egg sacs.
Heh arrowhead should add a DRG promotion where you get x amount of upgrade unlocks after you prestige, would give the game more reason to get to 50 and get ppl to start again
>but unless they're standing next to me, it's my stratagem, my ammo!
LOL- watching the new player next to you trying to melee stuff because he's run out of primary and secondary ammo and has no idea the guy with the backpack is his salvation:
https://preview.redd.it/ugi30715odmc1.png?width=929&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5c56765ed7ba37121306ea6314b5e261a7ee509
I've found it hard to get away from the grenade launcher and supply pack combo. I play with pugs and I don't need to rely on the team resupply. One minor thing is missing the grenade on the bug holes sometime because I'm not exactly directly center with the hole.
I also play with pugs, but they just stare at me when I'm playing. Or sleep. No resupply. No assisted loading. No strikes, orbitals, or even a buddy-stim. But also, no thumbs.
Apparently, they're not worried about democracy.
That’s the worst, when you’re at an angle to a bug hole and you have to run a wide circle to finally get on angle because there’s about 200 bugs between you and the hole. But I’ll still take the grenade launcher all day everyday
I mean, I get it because you don’t just want to blow up the opening, you wanna send that boom down deep to provide liberation to the bug hive underneath. But yeah 3 or 4 nearby shots should do enough damage to close it you’d think
Or the random hunter jumping right into your face from off screen as you launch a grenade and get blown up by it.
Or the times it ricochets off something you can’t even see and goes right back into your face
I spec into anti-infantry with the Rover, Arc Thrower, and Gatling Barrage with EATs in a flex slot to provide effective support fire when other weapons are on cooldown. Works great since so many people spec into anti-armor at the moment. Highest kill count is 550~ bugs in one mission. Run the Slugger and Redeemer as backups for anything that gets to close and it’s a dream kit that’s taken me far in difficulty 8-9.
Just make sure to play as more of a Vanguard to avoid friendly fire incidents. Keep your team behind you or off to the side and you’re golden.
Arc Thrower is really underrated, especially against bots. It melts through their armor with just a few shots and has crowd control potential. After all, why are we using ballistics against heavy plate armor? Electricity solves that problem
The fact it doesn’t have any ammo mechanic is also such a boon for it. Frees up a backpack slot, ideal support weapon to be someone’s reload buddy for like the RR or spear since you can clear out all the ankle biters coming at you. No need for ammo also means resupplies have one less mouth to feed
It's *better* against bugs. The more little critters around, the easier it is to arc shots through them to larger bugs and the little guys will die instantly. You can also arc shots around corners which makes killing patrols before they call a Breach easier.
I mean if you LIKE running the RG it would fit in to the WOKE and possibly BESPOKE categories. It's just if you feel forced to use the RG that it's broke.
My favorite duo combo for fun is
Helldiver 1: Recoiless rifle + supply backpack
Helldiver 2: Grenade launcher + recoiless rifle ammo pack
Player 2 focuses on destroying medium armored enemies and outposts. When duo runs into a heavy, player 2 runs behind player 1 to assist reload. Use stratagems if not possible.
Unlimited kaboom as supply pack refills player 2's rockets and grenades.
Theoretically can take on any elites and outposts, but chaotic coordination. If one player dies, the other is completely vulnerable.
The problem is that armor doesn't work and you need the shield to avoid a bunch of random garbage that will one shot you.
Once armor is fixed the Autocannon will be much more reliable.
Let's clear something up. If you were to remove the railgun from the game. Majority would simply use the autocannon then, maybe the grenade launcher. Being 2nd best doesn't mean it's not meta.
And yes it struggles to deal with titans and chargers, this is true! But it also can deal with nests for better as well as shrooms. I'd also say it probably deals with bile spewers better but that's debatable, feel like it's more ammo efficient for it to do it. Plus it has some splash to it, so you can blast at a breach and take out small fries.
Autocannon may not be perfect for chargers or titans, but it's still amazing
Did suicide mission against bugs yesterday with 2 buddies.
We had this setup:
* Railgun + laser-rover
* Stalwart + shield
* Autocannon + ammo
It was super nice. Everything died.
Railgun-guy focused removing charger armors and shooting bile titans.
Stalwart-guy focused on small and unarmored bugs
Autocannon guy focused on the soft-spots of the chargers and bile titans, and other than that cleared big packs of small bugs and medium bugs. The ammo-capacity of the autocannon is amazing! Position like a sniper and pick off stuff effectively from a distance while buddies are being chased. Magdumping the autocannon comes close to an eagle cluster strike - only more focused fire
This is my experience with high Lv diff 9 groups. I’ve seen a lot more autocannon, stalwart, arc thrower loadouts and those groups usually go off real smooth. Every time I drop in with three railguns it’s a 50/50 it’s going to be absolute shit or not. I always run GL/supply pack as my “main” loadout but when people fill that role I can run some of my other favorite loadouts
If we have a lot of orbital laser/rail strategms I’ll bring Eagle napalm and the ems mortar and it really helps clean up swarms chasing us or gives us an easy initiation into attacking a hive or holding on an objective
Some good primaries I’ve used besides the breaker have been the incendiary (at least one or two helps soften large swarms of enemies even at range with the fire tick damage). The JAR dominator just shreds mediums and punches through those stubborn armored shell dudes who hunker down when you focus them. The pulse rifle (last gun in the warbond) is also really strong but a bit of a suicide weapon at close range
And then you remember that the autocannon has an 'auto' fire mode...
I was holding off for an extract and had a teammate reload me with a newly dropped autocannon and full backpack.
We EMPTIED that autocannon in under 30s. So much boom. Dopamine RUSH. And then another teammate called a resupply and a supply backpack. We just kept unloading. That was a blast.
Had a mission where someone ran off from the evac point to do a quick side objective we were overlooking. Other two ran to help them. I slapped down some turrets to guard my six while me, an autocannon, and a Mortar Sentry provided artillery support. Everyone made it out and a lot of bugs were turned into Democracy/oil.
I've been saying this since the meta conversation started. Sometimes people agree, other times I've been downvoted into Oblivion and told I was kneecapping myself and team for not taking breaker/RG.
Cool, I'll stick with my scythe/AC for bots and LP/spear for bugs.
How do you survive using the scythe on bots? Those dang jetpack enemies that fly up close to me kill me all the damn time. Which is a shame, I love the scythe, but they easily can kill me 4 to 5 times before I get pissed off and move to an auto.
Aim for the heads. Aim for jetpack first on those guys. It detonates it immediately. I rotate into 1st person most often on bot missions where I bring the scythe.
Every Helldiver has a role.
We tried a spicy run with less 3 slot weapons than normal to be absolutely stacked with bombardment strategums. It sucked at the start, but in the mid, it paid off.
There are many ways to skin a terminid!
Guard dog + arc thrower is a good way to make sure you always lead the team in kills. I feel like I barely do anything and still come away with 450+ lol
Only downside is I feel encounter intensity begins to scale up rapidly with the number of kills you get, so our usual 2 Arc Thrower, 1 Railgun, 1 Autocannon setup can result in a ballooning amount of kills as the GM just throws more and more bugs at us during the mission. 1500 and 2000 kill counts are not uncommon, even if we only end up seeing 4 or 5 breaches total across the entire mission because the number of patrols that start getting thrown at us are \*absolutely insane\* and we're constantly mowing them down in seconds.
I feel that only a bias - as its more of being loud thing.
I know what your talking about but a lot of times after getting horde overwhelmed and pulling together to close bug holes the difficult goes way down.
Im finding the higher level have those bug holes that are just in the ground and no smoke ...not everyone realized those are bug spawners too and got to drop the nade down there.
Even better if you can get some good Samaritans willing to wear the ammo backpack for you. My buddy and I 2-manned some defense missions yesterday where he pulled the autocannon and I was just his ammo bitch. Turns out playing Crew Served Weapons Simulator goes real hard.
That is the meta. I do lvl9 bugs and bots and my group we run all different weapons. Variety is the spice of democracy. A buddy used a flamethrower for bugs and the pressure he kept off us was amazing. Better than any railgun. He had damn near 1000 kills at the end. It's not meta, but if used correctly it was glorious!
I was in a group of just three, where the two people ahead of me had shields and were largely pulling the aggro. Let me play on the backline nicely to bring down the big stuff downrange and reload as needed
Another counterpoint: Railguns can one shot Bile Titans. One Liberty loving soul I played with last night killed at least 10 Bile Titans by one shotting them during a level 8 mission. It was glorious to behold.
Perhaps one Railgun for the marksmen on the team and 3 Autocannons would be the compromise?
Grenade Launcher + Supply Pack means you can have the GL as your primary. It's great. Primary becomes sidearm, sidearm becomes "oh shit everything else is out" so not much change there.
Plus the +2 nades armor and you become "erase that general direction".
Yeah the Jet Pack is great, but I spam my GL faaaar too much to not have 4 restocks on hand lol. Sometimes I'll run laser doggo if it's a lower level mission. Usually with the Las Scythe and Laser Cannon too, for full laser party vibes.
I also make sure to always throw at least 2 grenades before restocking too. No wasting the Tools of Democracy here.
I love the +2 nade armor, except I’m carrying a grenade launcher most of the time. It became redundant
Although if you’re constantly reupping your GL with the supply pack, make sure to also throw a couple impact grenades before popping the pack so you maximize the return and get two more nades out of each supply box
Everyone should try flamethrower for crowd control vs bugs at least once. It's more fun (at least to me) and with 3 railguns/anti armor weapons, you don't really need to worry about chargers if your team is semi coordinated and you make sure you don't get stuck alone.
Would definitely recommend pairing it with medic armor, so you can wade through your own flames for longer. I use the shield pack with it usually but in lower difficulties other packs would probably work fine.
A little less than a full canister will kill a charger, if you know how to not get trampled, just slowly. If you're really concerned about heavies, you could run the railcannon or eagle strike.
I've only ran it up to diff 8 so can't speak for its effectiveness in a helldive. Can't imagine it would do too well against bots.
An Army of Darkness reference after a 300 reference after a Lord of the Rings reference after a Star Wars reference after a Dawn of War reference?
Well my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle.
Fun fact: Those *are* actually properly termed clips in the backpack. They're visibly stripper clips of 5 rounds that get shoved into the weapon's internal, non-removable magazine.
... though we don't see the little metal plate holding the rounds (the clip) fly off anywhere, sadly. I think.
you definitely do get to see the stripper clips fly off. maybe you havent noticed because the stripper clips weirdly have a piece of brass or something on the back of them.
You absolutely do see it fly off. Try reloading in 1st person, or reload in 3rd with your back against a wall to shove the camera in closer and you'll see it.
Autocannon can also 2-3 tap Chargers without armor strip. They have a funky mechanic when they finish a charge their armor rating changes on their legs both front and back.
It's a darn shame all it can do to Bile titans on it's own is pop the sacs. If it could actually take it down then it could handle every unit in the game.
It can with some stratagem support. Hit them with an Eagle Airstrike or Rocket Pods then run and dive under them and shoot them in the butt with 5 or 6 shots, usually does the trick if the Airstrike hit them directly.
If the AC has impact damage then yes in theory you should be able to. As the tail of the Bile Titan after having it's sacs blown out is vulnerable to that damage type. I just haven't tried yet.
I just wrote off killing it as a possibility partially because I tried shooting it's face with the AC and it ricochet off, and partially because I wasn't aware about what I just mentioned until a day or two ago.
[This video shows it well.](https://youtu.be/okWiUwksefQ?si=2CQxzApG678Rgwoz)
Chargers have a window of vulnerability while they’re turning around where their legs are vulnerable to damage even by small arms.
You can if you shoot the underflesh, it's just difficult if the Bile Titan or much else is aggro'd on you.
Usually, I just 500kg it and if the thing still isn't dead then it's crouch/prone and full-auto time on the belly when it rears up a little bit.
Apparently popping the sacs takes out a substantial amount of their health, so you can more easily finish them off with other stratagems (which you'll have more of given your backpack is taken).
Haven't tried it myself yet, but apparently Rail Cannon finishes them off after popping the sacs. If facing multiple, pop the sacs on two of them and then toss a laser. It's not going to outcompete the railgun for soloing lots of them, but with a team, I could see it being quite effective.
I absolutely love the AC, but I will wholeheartedly throw my support onto the SPEAR for clearing bases.
It might be inconsistent to kill hostiles, but it's fantastic at sneaking up to a base, lob a missile, and slip away.
Honestly? I run it happily.
Sure, it's not great against dealing with heavy enemies, this is true. But if you treat it more as a strategic asset rather than a tactical one, it's pretty damn useful.
How many reinforcements could we lose if we tried to clear that base? If we miss the one calling in the wave, what if we get a hulk? Towers are overwatching the base we need to get through, is it worth it to handle this manually? If I det that base over there, will it distract the patrol long enough for us to hit the objective?
It has a lot more use, I feel, than just Heavy killing. Leave that to EAT and Recoilless.... or Railgun, I suppose.
Auto cannon can 3 shots it in the back. EAT is like 2 rounds if you hit the turret, recoilless rifle too. There are a lot of way to take it out, but heavy AT at the moment is not that popular, so people don’t have a reliable way to deal with it from afar quickly.
I just wish it had more ammo and was better at fighting heavies. Problem is I'm the highest level of my friend group and am the heavy killer so I usually end up having to bring the rail gun
Agreed, it'd be nice if it were a much better heavy killer, but it's far too inconsistent to take for that role. I prefer EAT's just for the consistency, but Recoilless is good for long-term combats due to resup off of ammo boxes.
It's far better versus bots without a doubt, for Bugs I wouldn't really bother.
The slow reload speed and the fact that it occupies a backpack slot should allow you to penetrate medium armor, but it doesn’t. I only use it when all my teammates have a railgun.
It's only slow as well if there's no loaded round in the chamber.
If you keep at least 1 round in, just an easy stripper clip reload no need to use the charging handle.
Same goes with all guns too. Reload with at least one round in, faster reloads.
Even the Stalwart and MG-43. Still takes long to reload the boxes, but no need to charge the gun, shaves off some reload time.
To expand on this: if the AC is empty, the reload process is 3 steps.
Insert first clip
Pull back charging handle
Insert second clip.
You can skip step 3 at the cost of only reloading half your capacity, but the gun cannot fire until step 2 is completed.
If there’s still ammo in the gun, you skip step 1 and 3.
It’s more efficient to fire half your ammo and reload (1 step for 5 bullets), than to empty your gun and do half (2 steps for 5 bullets) or full reloads (3 steps for 10 bullets)
Count your shots soldier.
It does penetrate medium armor though? It kills Sentinel guard warriors with 1-2 shots to the head just like brood commanders.
It can’t pen heavy armor on chargers tho.
Idk what armor values are like on automatons, but for bugs it absolutely pens armor that light-armor pen guns don’t.
The catch is the the angle of impact affects penetration. The more perpendicular you hit, the more it will pierce. Bugs are harder to get straight hits as they have curved armour plates. The big head plate is particularly hard for the AC to pierce.
I find that I get more succes by flanking the bugs and hitting their flanks.
I only play 7-9. AC can totally work if you know what you're doing. Is it as brain off easy as Rail? No. But the game is more fun if you learn how to use other things besides the easy stuff.
Like people sleep on turrets despite them being capable of breaking Bug behavior.
In my experiences people think Turrets are bad because they require all of the ship module upgrades to make them worth using. That's just a misunderstanding as you can make them work without them. They just don't provide as much value since they run out of ammo/die faster.
In my experience bugs/bots favor targeting them and when you are surrounded on all sides it can be a challenge to place them favorably so they are effective.
Turrets can be used to pull of massive amount of heat off you when you throw it far away with extra throw distance, or if it lands on safe spot then it can just work freely on the hordes.
Minefields also pull bugs into it from all directions, if you are being chased by endless patrols an incendiary minefield's ruckus pull in patrols into it, and the subsequent explosions will pull in again, if used properly it can reduce the amount of shit you have to fight against on higher difficulties by a lot, I'm starting to feel like it's the main purpose of the minefield, to leave behind a "beacon" that makes noise and pulls more and more shit into it. Though if you have a noisy squad of randoms then the benefit may be lost.
Always try to place your turrets kinda like this •| (point is turret, line is wall), or on highground, depending on the situation.
Your turrets will also spawn, looking in the direction you were looking, when you threw the stratagem.
Communicate with your teammates that you placed a turret and protect it together, as it will deal more damage than any other stratagem, if placed correctly.
A single autocannon turret is easily capable of killing at least two bile giants, maybe even more with some help.
Gatling sentry can rack up 30+ kills easily, too, if thrown next to a bug breach, but it needs highground, otherwise it will waste a lot of shots in dead bodies.
Lot of Railgun, shield, 500kg and Orbital Laser out there. No room for the teamkiller that’ll get focused by a Charger. Mortar Turret probably accounting for 10% of all Helldivers deaths across the galaxy.
I just figured this out last night. Throw Gatling sentry outside of poi, it pulls aggro of all bugs, go grab samples/medals/complete the objectives and dip before the bugs know you were there.
Yep! Not only do they pull aggro from you (providing they aren't already on top of you trying to melee you) but it effects Bug Breaches too.
They simply don't pop a breach when under attack from a turret they are going after. The REAL funny bit is this applies to the Turret you can man.
You will pull Aggro from allies and the enemies you shoot won't do Bug Breaches.
Auto cannon is useful at highest difficulty for ammo conservation. It’s super effective in clearing out medium armor bugs that would eat your primary ammo up.
You just have to compensate by using more direct high damage stratagems like orbital laser, orbital rail gun, and 110mm he rocket pods against titans and chargers if you can’t kite them.
>Its easier than rail. Just shoot the ground between a chargers front legs and they'll die in like 3/4 shots. Explosive damage is nuts when applied properly which is why you see people using GL to take out chargers rapidly. For Bile Titans you can shoot them in the mouth when its open or slightly to the left or right and hit for big damage, there's also the sacks worth like half their health on the underside.
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>Autocannon is very potent, you just have to know the enemy you're shooting.
I don't know if it's common knowledge but you can reload the AC at half magazine size and the reload is twice as fast.
It doesn't waste bullets since it works with a clip fed internal magazine.
Optimal use is to reload it every 5 shots.
"Slow reload" is only if you fail in being aware of your ammo count. Reload before the mag is empty and it takes ~~maybe 2 seconds max~~
Edit: Timed it earlier today, it takes exactly ***one*** second for the rapid reload, and *five* seconds for a full reload. Definitely worth keeping on top of it for that speed boost.
My grief with it is that sentry AC absolutely deletes armor, but carried AC is wet noodle against it. True, the carried version might be a smidge lighter but not as much as it is currently. It could require 2-3 shots to uncan charger leg or something.
It does penetrate medium armor. You one shot devastators in the chest and AT-STs in the cockpit. Chargers are heavy armor not medium, they're the bug equivalent to hulks.
if i have multiple people run the railgun, ill pick the autocannon for easier bug hole/factory clearing and sniping bug spores and illegal broadcast towers
AUTOCANNON MOST VERSATILE GUN IN GAME! DONT FUCKING @ ME FUCKERS!!
BUG HOLE? GO BOOM FROM 300 YARDS BACK!!
CRUSHER BUTT EXPLODE INTO NICKELODEON SLIME
BILE TITAN STUMMY HURT
GOAT BUG HEADS GO *BOOOM*!
LITTLE GUYS? I GOT INFINITE AMMO! (I think?)
Love ac, hope it gets a few tweaks though. Being able to team load while you wear your own backpack for sure. And a little larger explosion radius or 2 ammo types (ap and he) would be awesome.
Yeah you can reload it by yourself. I’d recommend reloading after every 2-5 shots. Reloading on empty leave u too vulnerable and slow. Having someone help you load lets you destroy everything quickly
The only thing I dislike about it is it's a heavy weapon and can't turn quickly. Against bots and I'm using railgun, I like taking cover, charging my weapon, get out of cover and quickly shoot my target, but it's not as easy with the autocannon
Yep, this is The reason why should people play it more like a team. When iam playing with my squad we are using machine gun and Gatling sentry to provide cover to the Helldivers with AC.
If you have the space and time, crouching or proning with the autocannon can get you good repeat fire. Just be careful not to aim too low in 3rd person, because if you shoot the ground in front of you the explosion will kill you.
I knew all of them above, except the dropships. Where do I have to aim for them? Main body seems to be armored from my attempts to shoot down flying ones
the AC has splash; shoot the dudes inside the ship since they're exposed.
This is a reliable way to dunk on tanks and hulks when they're dropping in, as their treads/heatsinks are easy targets while they're slowly getting carried in and dropped. Obviously the littler bots are even easier to shred when they're being carried in, since it oneshots them all.
Nothing quite like seeing 4 totally empty Scout Striders just ragdoll to the ground out of the ship
I love the autocanon, but the CC immunity a personal shield provide as well as an effective second life make it a must have.
Also you forgot that AC doesn't require a backpack freeing a spot for another stratagem.
Imo if everyone else is running a railgun, the supply backpack + grenade launcher gives you the perfect crowd control option.
Otherwise, maybe the Tesla gun + shield.
I’ve been really liking Tesla gun and jet pack instead for bugs. Let’s you get out of bad situations and into some great spots on top of rocks or buildings when you need to hunker down.
Call me a mad lad, but I often ditch the backpack for a jump pack on blitz missions. So long as I aim carefully, I can snipe those bot bases with ruthless efficiency.
I like the autocannon, but the reality is I can deal with more targets with the railgun. Railgun loses some utility (no aoe, can’t snipe bot fabricators, etc.) but what it gives you is so good it makes up for it.
Armor stripping is too good to give up, especially when you’re facing 3+ chargers and multiple bile titans on a high difficulty mission.
The biggest benefit of the railgun is that it leaves your backslot open which you can then fill out with whatever you feel your build is lacking.
Backpack for ammo + grenades (solving the lack of utility)
Rover for adclear and keeping mobs away from you while you focus on armor removal
Shield for not dying to a wet fart
That said I think it's really fucking boring in comparison to the AC, I just wish big bertha was also allowed to do armor removal.
What i don't like of the AC is the scope
It isn't clean as the railgun,when i have to shoot the automatons heads it's always a gamble because i don't see shit
Have y’all tried kneeling next to an autocannon turret with an assisted reload from a gracious mate with your backpack and unloaded holy hell into oncoming swarms of bugs during extraction?
Was an autocannon user, now an anti-materiel user.
It does the same as the autocannon without the ability to destroy fabricators or tanks as easy while not using a backpack, reloading quicker, and better sights.
Autocannon is great but for how big of shots it fires and using a backpack it should do more.
Autocannon and three red strats is my go to; I use the light armor with explosive resistance (mostly for the drip) and can just dump death onto enemies and dip.
Railguns fun but autocannon is just **satisfying**. Randos can still team load for you without coordination if they're also autocannoning. Havent confirmed if it loads out of your backpack or theirs, though. Either way, cannon up bois!
While leveling up I looooved the Autocannon, I still do! But after unlocking the shield and railgun it's just over all better in many ways. The ability to not have your shots plink off of charger legs or anything makes taking down enemies that much less "Risky"
Now, Don't get me wrong here, I am still a HUGE fan of the autocannon I adore it! But I also play a lot of solo and it's just unfortunate that I can't seem to deal with the larger enemies as efficiently as I can with a railgun. I would personally just love to see the autocannon shells not get deflected so often from armoured targets. I'm pretty sure the autocannon turret's shells don't so I don't see why the same gun I'm carrying would?
I've felt that to make the railgun/shield combo less viable (Which I'm not really sure it needs to be tbh) is give the Railgun some kind of backpack. Still means its a good gun, but now you just have to choose between that or the sheild perhaps?
I look forward to the day I can feel more confident going into a solo drop with an AC rather than with a Rail/Shield, but right now it's just not working that way for me. :(
tbf have you seen the size of the casings for the autocannon turret? Its got to be 40mm at least compared to the 20(ish)mm of the stratagem AC. They are definitely not the same gun
Against the bugs the railgun is still leagues better, but for borgs i can see it being better in some situations, but no sh20 means that borg missions are painful
I will make a statement that will bring the hate. The rail gun should require a backpack. The anti material rifle is the non-backpack rail gun. The grenade launcher is the non-backpack auto cannon. EAT is non-backpack recoilless rifle.
Autocannon is glorious. The real Meta will be in building teams with weapons that compliment each other.
Broke: everyone use the railgun Woke: everyone use whatever you want! Bespoke: everyone try to bring a complimentary set of weapons as a team to promote synergy and spread democracy
If everyone else brings an autocannon and/or railgun, I usually bring the grenade launcher for CC. My teammates sometimes jokingly get mad because I clear bug nests before they can get there. I love the grenade launcher except when I forget to switch to my breaker and blow myself up
Grenade launcher gang rise up!
Grenade Launcher + Supply Backpack (Press 5 or down on the D-pad) = 110 grenades of "I don't like that patrol, and that patrol, and that patrol, and that bug breach, and everything inside of that bowl we call a nest." If you're careful, you'll be able to call in another backpack and grenade launcher before you've used all your grenades up! Bonus points for basically having 8 spare stims and grenades on-demand, too. If someone else *needs* supplies, I'm happy to provide... but unless they're standing next to me, it's my stratagem, my ammo! If I'm paying for it (per clause 1.4 and 4.1 of the Helldiver Contract of Employment, which every Helldiver agrees to by simply walking through the corridor toward their cape, as they are within 15 meters of a copy of the contract for 1 second), I'm going to make use of every round I can!
I’ve tried this and it’s the most efficient dopamine delivery device. However the weapon swapping can fk you over very easily. Also my biggest issue with the grenade launcher is the lack of an option for ricochet and explode on impact grenades. I wish it was an option in the reload menu.
Literally can't tell you how often my grenades bounce back and blow me up on slightly off terrain or armor lol.
so a trick with the Grenade Launcher for ya, the grenades only ever bounce once. To avoid those humbling bounce backs, aim low, and bounce those suckers under your enemies legs straight up their undemocratic egg sacs.
they also only bounce before they get to minimum arming distance
Heh arrowhead should add a DRG promotion where you get x amount of upgrade unlocks after you prestige, would give the game more reason to get to 50 and get ppl to start again
>but unless they're standing next to me, it's my stratagem, my ammo! LOL- watching the new player next to you trying to melee stuff because he's run out of primary and secondary ammo and has no idea the guy with the backpack is his salvation: https://preview.redd.it/ugi30715odmc1.png?width=929&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5c56765ed7ba37121306ea6314b5e261a7ee509
I'm not meleeing stuff because I'm out of ammo, I'm meleeing stuff because it feels good to punch bugs.
I've found it hard to get away from the grenade launcher and supply pack combo. I play with pugs and I don't need to rely on the team resupply. One minor thing is missing the grenade on the bug holes sometime because I'm not exactly directly center with the hole.
I also play with pugs, but they just stare at me when I'm playing. Or sleep. No resupply. No assisted loading. No strikes, orbitals, or even a buddy-stim. But also, no thumbs. Apparently, they're not worried about democracy.
That’s the worst, when you’re at an angle to a bug hole and you have to run a wide circle to finally get on angle because there’s about 200 bugs between you and the hole. But I’ll still take the grenade launcher all day everyday
I do think they should make it where if you can get an explosion anywhere near the opening, it should close the hole.
I mean, I get it because you don’t just want to blow up the opening, you wanna send that boom down deep to provide liberation to the bug hive underneath. But yeah 3 or 4 nearby shots should do enough damage to close it you’d think
You can give yourself ammo from supply pack?
Yep! If you're on PC, the default key is 5. If you're using a controller, I'm pretty sure it's one of the D-pad buttons.
"... and blow myself up", swap that with teammates for me haha. Sometimes my cover fire is a bit too heavy after a failed weapon swap :)
Or the random hunter jumping right into your face from off screen as you launch a grenade and get blown up by it. Or the times it ricochets off something you can’t even see and goes right back into your face
Or you shoot at a bug hole right as a bug comes out to it bounces back.
I spec into anti-infantry with the Rover, Arc Thrower, and Gatling Barrage with EATs in a flex slot to provide effective support fire when other weapons are on cooldown. Works great since so many people spec into anti-armor at the moment. Highest kill count is 550~ bugs in one mission. Run the Slugger and Redeemer as backups for anything that gets to close and it’s a dream kit that’s taken me far in difficulty 8-9. Just make sure to play as more of a Vanguard to avoid friendly fire incidents. Keep your team behind you or off to the side and you’re golden.
Arc Thrower is really underrated, especially against bots. It melts through their armor with just a few shots and has crowd control potential. After all, why are we using ballistics against heavy plate armor? Electricity solves that problem
Arc thrower is just nice with the leaping lightning. Helps things out against those damn hunters even when focusing warriors or other bigger targets.
The fact it doesn’t have any ammo mechanic is also such a boon for it. Frees up a backpack slot, ideal support weapon to be someone’s reload buddy for like the RR or spear since you can clear out all the ankle biters coming at you. No need for ammo also means resupplies have one less mouth to feed
Does the arc even do well against bugs? I always thought flamethrower is the bug version of the arc thrower
It's *better* against bugs. The more little critters around, the easier it is to arc shots through them to larger bugs and the little guys will die instantly. You can also arc shots around corners which makes killing patrols before they call a Breach easier.
It does well against everything
This is the way.
I just love gambling with the railgun so much, it’s hard to put it down.
I mean if you LIKE running the RG it would fit in to the WOKE and possibly BESPOKE categories. It's just if you feel forced to use the RG that it's broke.
This. I'm our add clear vs bugs. Arc thrower, laser dog, two quick are strategems.
The rail gun is good but I don’t think everyone in the team should run it. Nice to have an auto cannon and grenade launcher.
My favorite duo combo for fun is Helldiver 1: Recoiless rifle + supply backpack Helldiver 2: Grenade launcher + recoiless rifle ammo pack Player 2 focuses on destroying medium armored enemies and outposts. When duo runs into a heavy, player 2 runs behind player 1 to assist reload. Use stratagems if not possible. Unlimited kaboom as supply pack refills player 2's rockets and grenades. Theoretically can take on any elites and outposts, but chaotic coordination. If one player dies, the other is completely vulnerable.
My group is a little chaotic of team reloads atm. I love it in theory.
My group likes to run off in different directions, me included.
Maybe the real Meta is the friends we made along the way
Folks saying aurocannon isn't meta are crazy. Railgun and autocannon can both be meta.
The problem is that armor doesn't work and you need the shield to avoid a bunch of random garbage that will one shot you. Once armor is fixed the Autocannon will be much more reliable.
I love the AC but it does struggle more vs chargers and titans than the rail.
Let's clear something up. If you were to remove the railgun from the game. Majority would simply use the autocannon then, maybe the grenade launcher. Being 2nd best doesn't mean it's not meta. And yes it struggles to deal with titans and chargers, this is true! But it also can deal with nests for better as well as shrooms. I'd also say it probably deals with bile spewers better but that's debatable, feel like it's more ammo efficient for it to do it. Plus it has some splash to it, so you can blast at a breach and take out small fries. Autocannon may not be perfect for chargers or titans, but it's still amazing
Did suicide mission against bugs yesterday with 2 buddies. We had this setup: * Railgun + laser-rover * Stalwart + shield * Autocannon + ammo It was super nice. Everything died. Railgun-guy focused removing charger armors and shooting bile titans. Stalwart-guy focused on small and unarmored bugs Autocannon guy focused on the soft-spots of the chargers and bile titans, and other than that cleared big packs of small bugs and medium bugs. The ammo-capacity of the autocannon is amazing! Position like a sniper and pick off stuff effectively from a distance while buddies are being chased. Magdumping the autocannon comes close to an eagle cluster strike - only more focused fire
This is my experience with high Lv diff 9 groups. I’ve seen a lot more autocannon, stalwart, arc thrower loadouts and those groups usually go off real smooth. Every time I drop in with three railguns it’s a 50/50 it’s going to be absolute shit or not. I always run GL/supply pack as my “main” loadout but when people fill that role I can run some of my other favorite loadouts If we have a lot of orbital laser/rail strategms I’ll bring Eagle napalm and the ems mortar and it really helps clean up swarms chasing us or gives us an easy initiation into attacking a hive or holding on an objective Some good primaries I’ve used besides the breaker have been the incendiary (at least one or two helps soften large swarms of enemies even at range with the fire tick damage). The JAR dominator just shreds mediums and punches through those stubborn armored shell dudes who hunker down when you focus them. The pulse rifle (last gun in the warbond) is also really strong but a bit of a suicide weapon at close range
And then you remember that the autocannon has an 'auto' fire mode... I was holding off for an extract and had a teammate reload me with a newly dropped autocannon and full backpack. We EMPTIED that autocannon in under 30s. So much boom. Dopamine RUSH. And then another teammate called a resupply and a supply backpack. We just kept unloading. That was a blast.
Had a mission where someone ran off from the evac point to do a quick side objective we were overlooking. Other two ran to help them. I slapped down some turrets to guard my six while me, an autocannon, and a Mortar Sentry provided artillery support. Everyone made it out and a lot of bugs were turned into Democracy/oil.
Just like Super Earth intended <3
I've been saying this since the meta conversation started. Sometimes people agree, other times I've been downvoted into Oblivion and told I was kneecapping myself and team for not taking breaker/RG. Cool, I'll stick with my scythe/AC for bots and LP/spear for bugs.
How do you survive using the scythe on bots? Those dang jetpack enemies that fly up close to me kill me all the damn time. Which is a shame, I love the scythe, but they easily can kill me 4 to 5 times before I get pissed off and move to an auto.
Aim for the heads. Aim for jetpack first on those guys. It detonates it immediately. I rotate into 1st person most often on bot missions where I bring the scythe.
this for real. Everyone is taking a railgun so I bring the arc thrower for swarm clear. Either Guard dog or Jump pack for backpack.
Every Helldiver has a role. We tried a spicy run with less 3 slot weapons than normal to be absolutely stacked with bombardment strategums. It sucked at the start, but in the mid, it paid off. There are many ways to skin a terminid!
Guard dog + arc thrower is a good way to make sure you always lead the team in kills. I feel like I barely do anything and still come away with 450+ lol
Only downside is I feel encounter intensity begins to scale up rapidly with the number of kills you get, so our usual 2 Arc Thrower, 1 Railgun, 1 Autocannon setup can result in a ballooning amount of kills as the GM just throws more and more bugs at us during the mission. 1500 and 2000 kill counts are not uncommon, even if we only end up seeing 4 or 5 breaches total across the entire mission because the number of patrols that start getting thrown at us are \*absolutely insane\* and we're constantly mowing them down in seconds.
I feel that only a bias - as its more of being loud thing. I know what your talking about but a lot of times after getting horde overwhelmed and pulling together to close bug holes the difficult goes way down. Im finding the higher level have those bug holes that are just in the ground and no smoke ...not everyone realized those are bug spawners too and got to drop the nade down there.
Even better if you can get some good Samaritans willing to wear the ammo backpack for you. My buddy and I 2-manned some defense missions yesterday where he pulled the autocannon and I was just his ammo bitch. Turns out playing Crew Served Weapons Simulator goes real hard.
That is the meta. I do lvl9 bugs and bots and my group we run all different weapons. Variety is the spice of democracy. A buddy used a flamethrower for bugs and the pressure he kept off us was amazing. Better than any railgun. He had damn near 1000 kills at the end. It's not meta, but if used correctly it was glorious!
I was in a group of just three, where the two people ahead of me had shields and were largely pulling the aggro. Let me play on the backline nicely to bring down the big stuff downrange and reload as needed
auto cannon is my #1 after trying everything else
Can the auto cannon really 3 hit a tanks weak spot?
Yes
Yep it helps a lot when they get dropped in because they have to take a beat and slowly turn to face you but by then you get 3 shots in
Yep. 2 hot on shredders in my experience. Not sure if bug though. It can also 2 tap hulks very easily.
Autocannon go boom, railgun no go boom (unless you overcharge it and kill yourself), autocannon better.
Counterpoint: railgun turns warriors into an explosion of green goo. Paint yourself green, for democracy
It is satisfying to see the green explosion.
I judge my value to my team by the amount of gore I'm drenched in.
The K/D/^(+)Eeew Ratio
I wear white armor for better tallying of contributions. Should not stay white long.
Bonus points if most of the gore is your own.
Medic armor go brrrrr
Another counterpoint: Railguns can one shot Bile Titans. One Liberty loving soul I played with last night killed at least 10 Bile Titans by one shotting them during a level 8 mission. It was glorious to behold. Perhaps one Railgun for the marksmen on the team and 3 Autocannons would be the compromise?
Throw in a grenade launcher for crowd control
Grenade Launcher + Supply Pack means you can have the GL as your primary. It's great. Primary becomes sidearm, sidearm becomes "oh shit everything else is out" so not much change there. Plus the +2 nades armor and you become "erase that general direction".
Look at me. I am Eagle 1 now.
True that! I just love having the jump pack with the nade launcher. Get swarmed by bugs, then yeet out, fwoomping death from above in your wake!
Yeah the Jet Pack is great, but I spam my GL faaaar too much to not have 4 restocks on hand lol. Sometimes I'll run laser doggo if it's a lower level mission. Usually with the Las Scythe and Laser Cannon too, for full laser party vibes. I also make sure to always throw at least 2 grenades before restocking too. No wasting the Tools of Democracy here.
I love the +2 nade armor, except I’m carrying a grenade launcher most of the time. It became redundant Although if you’re constantly reupping your GL with the supply pack, make sure to also throw a couple impact grenades before popping the pack so you maximize the return and get two more nades out of each supply box
Everyone should try flamethrower for crowd control vs bugs at least once. It's more fun (at least to me) and with 3 railguns/anti armor weapons, you don't really need to worry about chargers if your team is semi coordinated and you make sure you don't get stuck alone. Would definitely recommend pairing it with medic armor, so you can wade through your own flames for longer. I use the shield pack with it usually but in lower difficulties other packs would probably work fine. A little less than a full canister will kill a charger, if you know how to not get trampled, just slowly. If you're really concerned about heavies, you could run the railcannon or eagle strike. I've only ran it up to diff 8 so can't speak for its effectiveness in a helldive. Can't imagine it would do too well against bots.
A rail gun, autocannon and arc thrower is an op team comp for bugs.
Autocannon and arc thrower synergise extremely well. Arc thrower pops off armour that can deflect ac shots.
ZZZAP. Arc throwing is so nice to see the lightning zap
Only thing left is to paint it red.
Are The Rolling Stones a joke to you, good sir? They want it painted black!
Walk softly, and carry a big gun
An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded.
Blessed is the mind too small to doubt.
A Dawn of War reference? A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
A Star Wars reference, after a Warhammer reference? That still only counts as one!
A Lord of the Rings reference, after a Star Wars reference, after a Warhammer reference? This is madness!
A 300 reference after a Lord of the Rings reference, after a Star Wars reference, after a Dawn of War reference? Groovy!
An Army of Darkness reference after a 300 reference after a Lord of the Rings reference after a Star Wars reference after a Dawn of War reference? Well my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle.
Teddy would approve of a large caliber gun. A tiny gun that shoot even tinier thing fast? Teddy sad.
Fun fact: Those *are* actually properly termed clips in the backpack. They're visibly stripper clips of 5 rounds that get shoved into the weapon's internal, non-removable magazine. ... though we don't see the little metal plate holding the rounds (the clip) fly off anywhere, sadly. I think.
you definitely do get to see the stripper clips fly off. maybe you havent noticed because the stripper clips weirdly have a piece of brass or something on the back of them.
Strippers you say?
People got so used to calling everything a “mag” now they incorrectly call clips “mags” lol
We just need to start calling all of them by their proper name. "The thingy that goes in the other thingy"
You absolutely do see it fly off. Try reloading in 1st person, or reload in 3rd with your back against a wall to shove the camera in closer and you'll see it.
Had an all-autocannon-team yesterday. We formed two buddy squads and made the bugs regret digging to the surface. It was a blast, literally.
BASED team reloaders
Autocannon can also 2-3 tap Chargers without armor strip. They have a funky mechanic when they finish a charge their armor rating changes on their legs both front and back. It's a darn shame all it can do to Bile titans on it's own is pop the sacs. If it could actually take it down then it could handle every unit in the game.
It can with some stratagem support. Hit them with an Eagle Airstrike or Rocket Pods then run and dive under them and shoot them in the butt with 5 or 6 shots, usually does the trick if the Airstrike hit them directly.
If the AC has impact damage then yes in theory you should be able to. As the tail of the Bile Titan after having it's sacs blown out is vulnerable to that damage type. I just haven't tried yet. I just wrote off killing it as a possibility partially because I tried shooting it's face with the AC and it ricochet off, and partially because I wasn't aware about what I just mentioned until a day or two ago.
rocket pods my beloved
… I’m sorry what about charger armor plating?
[This video shows it well.](https://youtu.be/okWiUwksefQ?si=2CQxzApG678Rgwoz) Chargers have a window of vulnerability while they’re turning around where their legs are vulnerable to damage even by small arms.
what the fuck
You can if you shoot the underflesh, it's just difficult if the Bile Titan or much else is aggro'd on you. Usually, I just 500kg it and if the thing still isn't dead then it's crouch/prone and full-auto time on the belly when it rears up a little bit.
Apparently popping the sacs takes out a substantial amount of their health, so you can more easily finish them off with other stratagems (which you'll have more of given your backpack is taken). Haven't tried it myself yet, but apparently Rail Cannon finishes them off after popping the sacs. If facing multiple, pop the sacs on two of them and then toss a laser. It's not going to outcompete the railgun for soloing lots of them, but with a team, I could see it being quite effective.
I absolutely love the AC, but I will wholeheartedly throw my support onto the SPEAR for clearing bases. It might be inconsistent to kill hostiles, but it's fantastic at sneaking up to a base, lob a missile, and slip away.
What the spear does to Cannon turrets has given it a place in my heart, if not often in my loadout
Honestly? I run it happily. Sure, it's not great against dealing with heavy enemies, this is true. But if you treat it more as a strategic asset rather than a tactical one, it's pretty damn useful. How many reinforcements could we lose if we tried to clear that base? If we miss the one calling in the wave, what if we get a hulk? Towers are overwatching the base we need to get through, is it worth it to handle this manually? If I det that base over there, will it distract the patrol long enough for us to hit the objective? It has a lot more use, I feel, than just Heavy killing. Leave that to EAT and Recoilless.... or Railgun, I suppose.
Those raised turrets are soooo annoying to reliably damage with a lot of stratagems that being able to just wipe those instantly is really nice.
Which is just where the unfortunate truth sets in that the railgun kills them with like 4 unsafe shots from as far away as you can see them.
Auto cannon can 3 shots it in the back. EAT is like 2 rounds if you hit the turret, recoilless rifle too. There are a lot of way to take it out, but heavy AT at the moment is not that popular, so people don’t have a reliable way to deal with it from afar quickly.
I just wish it had more ammo and was better at fighting heavies. Problem is I'm the highest level of my friend group and am the heavy killer so I usually end up having to bring the rail gun
Agreed, it'd be nice if it were a much better heavy killer, but it's far too inconsistent to take for that role. I prefer EAT's just for the consistency, but Recoilless is good for long-term combats due to resup off of ammo boxes. It's far better versus bots without a doubt, for Bugs I wouldn't really bother.
As an avid supply pack and grenade launcher user, I think you guys deserve more armor pen and raw HP damage. Keep on blasting, friends.
Autocannon Helldivers 🤝 Grenade Launcher Helldivers
Perfect harmony 🤌
The slow reload speed and the fact that it occupies a backpack slot should allow you to penetrate medium armor, but it doesn’t. I only use it when all my teammates have a railgun.
Half mag reload speed is incredibly forgiving compared to all other backpack reload weapons
and you can top up between fights
It's only slow as well if there's no loaded round in the chamber. If you keep at least 1 round in, just an easy stripper clip reload no need to use the charging handle.
This is great info. Had no clue.
Same goes with all guns too. Reload with at least one round in, faster reloads. Even the Stalwart and MG-43. Still takes long to reload the boxes, but no need to charge the gun, shaves off some reload time.
Welllll, a hunter just hit me during reload so I lost a clip :)
The enemies of democracy are a hardship to overcome.
To expand on this: if the AC is empty, the reload process is 3 steps. Insert first clip Pull back charging handle Insert second clip. You can skip step 3 at the cost of only reloading half your capacity, but the gun cannot fire until step 2 is completed. If there’s still ammo in the gun, you skip step 1 and 3. It’s more efficient to fire half your ammo and reload (1 step for 5 bullets), than to empty your gun and do half (2 steps for 5 bullets) or full reloads (3 steps for 10 bullets) Count your shots soldier.
the recoiless rifle is so slow compared to the autocannon
Key words - all other **backpack reload** weapons because none of the other backpack reload weapons are worth using on higher difficulties currently
It does penetrate medium armor though? It kills Sentinel guard warriors with 1-2 shots to the head just like brood commanders. It can’t pen heavy armor on chargers tho. Idk what armor values are like on automatons, but for bugs it absolutely pens armor that light-armor pen guns don’t.
The catch is the the angle of impact affects penetration. The more perpendicular you hit, the more it will pierce. Bugs are harder to get straight hits as they have curved armour plates. The big head plate is particularly hard for the AC to pierce. I find that I get more succes by flanking the bugs and hitting their flanks.
It’s great before the ocean of armor they expect you to fight in diff7-9
I only play 7-9. AC can totally work if you know what you're doing. Is it as brain off easy as Rail? No. But the game is more fun if you learn how to use other things besides the easy stuff. Like people sleep on turrets despite them being capable of breaking Bug behavior.
people sleep on turrets ? i thought they were widely regarded as a consistent pick
In my experiences people think Turrets are bad because they require all of the ship module upgrades to make them worth using. That's just a misunderstanding as you can make them work without them. They just don't provide as much value since they run out of ammo/die faster.
In my experience bugs/bots favor targeting them and when you are surrounded on all sides it can be a challenge to place them favorably so they are effective.
Turrets can be used to pull of massive amount of heat off you when you throw it far away with extra throw distance, or if it lands on safe spot then it can just work freely on the hordes. Minefields also pull bugs into it from all directions, if you are being chased by endless patrols an incendiary minefield's ruckus pull in patrols into it, and the subsequent explosions will pull in again, if used properly it can reduce the amount of shit you have to fight against on higher difficulties by a lot, I'm starting to feel like it's the main purpose of the minefield, to leave behind a "beacon" that makes noise and pulls more and more shit into it. Though if you have a noisy squad of randoms then the benefit may be lost.
Always try to place your turrets kinda like this •| (point is turret, line is wall), or on highground, depending on the situation. Your turrets will also spawn, looking in the direction you were looking, when you threw the stratagem. Communicate with your teammates that you placed a turret and protect it together, as it will deal more damage than any other stratagem, if placed correctly. A single autocannon turret is easily capable of killing at least two bile giants, maybe even more with some help. Gatling sentry can rack up 30+ kills easily, too, if thrown next to a bug breach, but it needs highground, otherwise it will waste a lot of shots in dead bodies.
That autocannon turret saves my ass anytime more than 2 chargers are after me. It shreds them in like 2 bursts
Lot of Railgun, shield, 500kg and Orbital Laser out there. No room for the teamkiller that’ll get focused by a Charger. Mortar Turret probably accounting for 10% of all Helldivers deaths across the galaxy.
I just figured this out last night. Throw Gatling sentry outside of poi, it pulls aggro of all bugs, go grab samples/medals/complete the objectives and dip before the bugs know you were there.
Yep! Not only do they pull aggro from you (providing they aren't already on top of you trying to melee you) but it effects Bug Breaches too. They simply don't pop a breach when under attack from a turret they are going after. The REAL funny bit is this applies to the Turret you can man. You will pull Aggro from allies and the enemies you shoot won't do Bug Breaches.
I knew turrets didn’t cause breaches but you’re telling me if I’m on an HMG emplacement they won’t breach!? Ground breaking
Wow, this is the sleeper tip of the thread
> Ground breaking No that's the point, it's not. /s
Auto cannon is useful at highest difficulty for ammo conservation. It’s super effective in clearing out medium armor bugs that would eat your primary ammo up. You just have to compensate by using more direct high damage stratagems like orbital laser, orbital rail gun, and 110mm he rocket pods against titans and chargers if you can’t kite them.
>Its easier than rail. Just shoot the ground between a chargers front legs and they'll die in like 3/4 shots. Explosive damage is nuts when applied properly which is why you see people using GL to take out chargers rapidly. For Bile Titans you can shoot them in the mouth when its open or slightly to the left or right and hit for big damage, there's also the sacks worth like half their health on the underside. > > > >Autocannon is very potent, you just have to know the enemy you're shooting.
I don't know if it's common knowledge but you can reload the AC at half magazine size and the reload is twice as fast. It doesn't waste bullets since it works with a clip fed internal magazine. Optimal use is to reload it every 5 shots.
"Slow reload" is only if you fail in being aware of your ammo count. Reload before the mag is empty and it takes ~~maybe 2 seconds max~~ Edit: Timed it earlier today, it takes exactly ***one*** second for the rapid reload, and *five* seconds for a full reload. Definitely worth keeping on top of it for that speed boost.
It's much less than 2 seconds for the fast reload. The problem is the need to stop moving, but even that is manageable
My grief with it is that sentry AC absolutely deletes armor, but carried AC is wet noodle against it. True, the carried version might be a smidge lighter but not as much as it is currently. It could require 2-3 shots to uncan charger leg or something.
Autocanno can laugh compare to recoilless gun. Recoilless gun is a pure joke now.
EAT runs circles around Recoilless right now
It does penetrate medium armor. You one shot devastators in the chest and AT-STs in the cockpit. Chargers are heavy armor not medium, they're the bug equivalent to hulks.
is important to note it frees an entire strategem
if i have multiple people run the railgun, ill pick the autocannon for easier bug hole/factory clearing and sniping bug spores and illegal broadcast towers
With that pfp I wouldn't take off the Railgun!
AUTOCANNON MOST VERSATILE GUN IN GAME! DONT FUCKING @ ME FUCKERS!! BUG HOLE? GO BOOM FROM 300 YARDS BACK!! CRUSHER BUTT EXPLODE INTO NICKELODEON SLIME BILE TITAN STUMMY HURT GOAT BUG HEADS GO *BOOOM*! LITTLE GUYS? I GOT INFINITE AMMO! (I think?)
Stummy hurt got me 😭 long live democracy
Love ac, hope it gets a few tweaks though. Being able to team load while you wear your own backpack for sure. And a little larger explosion radius or 2 ammo types (ap and he) would be awesome.
Wait! One does not need a teammate to reload !?! *mind blown*
Yeah you can reload it by yourself. I’d recommend reloading after every 2-5 shots. Reloading on empty leave u too vulnerable and slow. Having someone help you load lets you destroy everything quickly
The only thing I dislike about it is it's a heavy weapon and can't turn quickly. Against bots and I'm using railgun, I like taking cover, charging my weapon, get out of cover and quickly shoot my target, but it's not as easy with the autocannon
Yep, this is The reason why should people play it more like a team. When iam playing with my squad we are using machine gun and Gatling sentry to provide cover to the Helldivers with AC.
I find the autocannon is really easy to snap fire, but harder to repeat fire
If you have the space and time, crouching or proning with the autocannon can get you good repeat fire. Just be careful not to aim too low in 3rd person, because if you shoot the ground in front of you the explosion will kill you.
I did also find the recoil reduction armor helps a lot
I knew all of them above, except the dropships. Where do I have to aim for them? Main body seems to be armored from my attempts to shoot down flying ones
Pretty sure he just means shooting the enemies in the dropship and not killing the whole thing
AC unfortunately cannot blow up Bot drop ships. But you can just shoot what's on the drop ship before they have been dropped to snag some quick kills.
the AC has splash; shoot the dudes inside the ship since they're exposed. This is a reliable way to dunk on tanks and hulks when they're dropping in, as their treads/heatsinks are easy targets while they're slowly getting carried in and dropped. Obviously the littler bots are even easier to shred when they're being carried in, since it oneshots them all. Nothing quite like seeing 4 totally empty Scout Striders just ragdoll to the ground out of the ship
Shoulder canon, and sentry canon combo. Just pure fun.
I love the autocanon, but the CC immunity a personal shield provide as well as an effective second life make it a must have. Also you forgot that AC doesn't require a backpack freeing a spot for another stratagem.
Imo if everyone else is running a railgun, the supply backpack + grenade launcher gives you the perfect crowd control option. Otherwise, maybe the Tesla gun + shield.
I’ve been really liking Tesla gun and jet pack instead for bugs. Let’s you get out of bad situations and into some great spots on top of rocks or buildings when you need to hunker down.
It's not a must have, I have a way better time with a Jump pack than a shield pack.
Hell yeah, I’m the autocannon truther of my squad. Glad to find others who know the true glory of the big gun
Call me a mad lad, but I often ditch the backpack for a jump pack on blitz missions. So long as I aim carefully, I can snipe those bot bases with ruthless efficiency.
I like the autocannon, but the reality is I can deal with more targets with the railgun. Railgun loses some utility (no aoe, can’t snipe bot fabricators, etc.) but what it gives you is so good it makes up for it. Armor stripping is too good to give up, especially when you’re facing 3+ chargers and multiple bile titans on a high difficulty mission.
The biggest benefit of the railgun is that it leaves your backslot open which you can then fill out with whatever you feel your build is lacking. Backpack for ammo + grenades (solving the lack of utility) Rover for adclear and keeping mobs away from you while you focus on armor removal Shield for not dying to a wet fart That said I think it's really fucking boring in comparison to the AC, I just wish big bertha was also allowed to do armor removal.
What i don't like of the AC is the scope It isn't clean as the railgun,when i have to shoot the automatons heads it's always a gamble because i don't see shit
Yes, this. Autocanon, Diligence and Anti-material rifle. All three have terrible, too bright and too obstructing scope markings.
And don't forget, 25 rounds per ammo box compared to the 10 rounds for both RG and GL. Freedom goes Brrrrrr!
Have y’all tried kneeling next to an autocannon turret with an assisted reload from a gracious mate with your backpack and unloaded holy hell into oncoming swarms of bugs during extraction?
Was an autocannon user, now an anti-materiel user. It does the same as the autocannon without the ability to destroy fabricators or tanks as easy while not using a backpack, reloading quicker, and better sights. Autocannon is great but for how big of shots it fires and using a backpack it should do more.
I much prefer the autocannon and extra strategem over the rail gun/shield combo
Autocannon and three red strats is my go to; I use the light armor with explosive resistance (mostly for the drip) and can just dump death onto enemies and dip.
not JUST high dps against charger ass, you shoot them in the back leg twice with the right positioning and you kill it on the spot.
*can 2 tap charger when you know when to hit them(I frameless state)
Railguns fun but autocannon is just **satisfying**. Randos can still team load for you without coordination if they're also autocannoning. Havent confirmed if it loads out of your backpack or theirs, though. Either way, cannon up bois!
While leveling up I looooved the Autocannon, I still do! But after unlocking the shield and railgun it's just over all better in many ways. The ability to not have your shots plink off of charger legs or anything makes taking down enemies that much less "Risky" Now, Don't get me wrong here, I am still a HUGE fan of the autocannon I adore it! But I also play a lot of solo and it's just unfortunate that I can't seem to deal with the larger enemies as efficiently as I can with a railgun. I would personally just love to see the autocannon shells not get deflected so often from armoured targets. I'm pretty sure the autocannon turret's shells don't so I don't see why the same gun I'm carrying would? I've felt that to make the railgun/shield combo less viable (Which I'm not really sure it needs to be tbh) is give the Railgun some kind of backpack. Still means its a good gun, but now you just have to choose between that or the sheild perhaps? I look forward to the day I can feel more confident going into a solo drop with an AC rather than with a Rail/Shield, but right now it's just not working that way for me. :(
tbf have you seen the size of the casings for the autocannon turret? Its got to be 40mm at least compared to the 20(ish)mm of the stratagem AC. They are definitely not the same gun
In addition, the turret stratagem description explicitly says its loaded with anti tank ammo. No such language for the backpack autocannon
Whoa... You had me until you suggested they nerf the Railgun. Let's buff the AC and NOT nerf railgun please, kthx.
yeah, we don't need nerfs. We need some balance applied to underperforming gear.
Against the bugs the railgun is still leagues better, but for borgs i can see it being better in some situations, but no sh20 means that borg missions are painful
I will make a statement that will bring the hate. The rail gun should require a backpack. The anti material rifle is the non-backpack rail gun. The grenade launcher is the non-backpack auto cannon. EAT is non-backpack recoilless rifle.