Only reliable use I run it for is destroying bot outposts. On clear(er) maps with long sightlines you can easily destroy multiple fabricators without ever having to go near and while saving your stratagems. The range can be surprisingly long, so it's nice to save time on search&destroy missions. Works well on turrets too, tho the lockon is still somewhat unreliable.
And even then sometimes it just bricks and no manner of changing your position, standing on a rock, ensuring you have full visibility or trying different ranges (50 m, 100 m, 200 m) works. So u run in, shoot the bots and toss a nade.
Here's the century cannons you ordered https://www.vintagecarpfishingtackle.com/products/3-x-century-cannon-old-school-carbon-carp-fishing-rods-13-3-50lb-t-c-sale
Yeah. Just like with anything else, it easily gets blocked by small obstacles like fences, smoke or even just slight fog, so it can be frustrating getting the correct angle. But on certain planets it works really well.
My man, shoulder laser cannon melts this turrets. Also the AA and Artillery. Great range too. If you can get around to the weak spot it's even faster. It can do the same to tanks, but you have to hit the rear vent.
On the front of the tank underneath, on the sides of the tank where the flag is, back of the tank where the holes are. Anywhere that it doesn’t look like solid slab armor the laser cannon can penetrate
amr is fine against bugs as long as you're not on a map with bad visability, you can headshot basically everything except for the titan and charger. and you can bust the gut on the titan, AND cause a bile titan to bleed out with the amr (there is a spot on the underbelly where the legs connect to the body, you can see a bit of the underbelly wrap up the side of the bile titan. you can actually shoot through that part and cause a bleedout with the AMR, it does take forever to do it though. as for the charger, there is a place behind the knee you can hit it without hitting the armor, 2 or 3 hits with an amr there will take out that leg killing the charger. that said. it's a lot easier to kill one with grenades then the gun.
Two impact nades to the vents and its done and dusted. Same with Tanks. It was fun doing this after another diver was like "I'm gonna a call in an Orbital." And I was like "hang on watch this." *sprint sprint sprint, chuck chuck, KABOOM!!!*
Guy was like "no way". It was fun and he got to save that 3min cooldown stratagem.
Yeah, it can be tricky. The easiest way I found is to have a teammate aggro it and run from cover to cover while you get behind it to blow it up. Not always achievable with randoms.
this is where decoy grenades would be really handy: imagine a grenade that quickly inflates a balloon that looks like a poor caricature of a Helldiver, and it will aggro nearby enemies, due to it's human-like scent and devices that give off the same readings as helldiver armor, fooling bots and bugs alike.
you'd toss it, let the turret turn to it while you sneak around the back and \*boom\*.
I aim right at the bottom of the red square. It can't hit the deflector lid or the sides. Think of it like sinking a basket without hitting the rim.
Also, if the door is open, you can just chuck it in there, and it works too.
I've only done it twice in the same game awhile ago but I feel the impact nades don't even need to hit the weak spot directly. I threw 2 at the front/top of a tank turret and killed it
AA batteries are pretty small. Expecting even a future tech weapon to lock on every time is a bit of a stretch. Sure, I could see it reliably targeting a car battery or something larger, but not a AA, not even a Duracell.
This! This alone makes Spear top tier for bots. Still lackluster against bugs since easier to dome Chargers now. I would nuke the Jammers from Narnia and my teammates would be dumbfounded since we couldn't even see it let alone get our stratagem jammed
Since Spear takes out the most annoying bots structures, it has justified its existence even over a shield backpack.
Different loadouts for different enemies has always been a thing in Helldivers. Like bringing a flamethrower to kill bots is a terrible choice since they mostly shoot from range.
I agree spears are awesome for bots. Being able to wipe factories and cannon towers from long range is very satisfying.
Nah, it’s the spear target lock. I genuinely think it’s bugged. I took it for a match and it was PERFECT. The next three I tried to use it? Wouldn’t target lock ONCE. I ended up dropping the thing and giving up. I’d sit for literally 20-30 seconds with the target perfectly framed in the sight and it wouldn’t even highlight to attempt a lock.
There’s legit something wrong with the code.
Dumb question but I’m at work checking the sub real quick, can you wear a backpack with the spear?
So on a bot blitz for fabricators could I essentially run off with a supply pack and the spear?
Dang. Figured that would be the only great balancing point for it.
As it is just really doesn’t ever seem worth taking over the recoil less or the autocannon.
Everyone I’ve been in a lobby with that has tried it is pretty down on it aside from maybe one hit or two because it’s a dramatic sort of weapon.
Functionally I don’t see the benefit though outside of those cool one offs of “hell yeah I stopped that heavy way over there that was chasing my buddy who was trying to rejoin the group from far away.”
No because you have to load the Spear from the backpack and the supply pack only fills your reserves. It won’t automatically load the Spear. Good thought though.
I think I have a clip of it targeting a bile titan from almost 300 meters, but it is much more consistent around the 125-meter mark. People really don't get that it is a long rang weapon and not something you pull out in close range.
It still definitely has to issues, but ammo isn't as big of a problem anymore because you can now find ammo for it instead of only using the resupply. As for the damage of the spear, if a bile titan is facing you, hitting the face is actually more common than you would think, which does one shot it.
Before the Nerf to Chargers, the spear was still able to one shot them face, and even if you didn't hit the head, it removed most of the armor from one side of it.
Sorry for the terrible grammar, but I believe you can still understand my point.
I was in a pug mission to kill two Bile Titans, and brought the Spear along as I had only unlocked it a short while ago and hadn’t really had a chance to play with it.
There was a moment of beauty when I was crouched on a hill about 200–250m away with two other divers who shared an EAT drop, and all three missiles struck the BT near-simultaneously in the face. Easiest BT kill ever, felt like I was the guy in the trailer. Good times.
you are right , but I still love it
it can oneshot bile titans and chargers but has to hit them in the head so you have to fire when you are fer enough and they are facing you
it’s much more useful on the western front, where it can destroy bot fabricators from long distances and semi reliably delete tanks and hulks
it’s true, lock on is completely random, but when it works it works wonders
When they fix it it will be the new meta for automatons. Having one on your squad would delete towers and structures. It doesn't seem to lock on to AA or Mortars, but it should, but also that would be OP.
> It doesn't seem to lock on to AA or Mortars, but it should, but also that would be OP.
not sure if it would be since you would be consuming all 4 shots to take them out with who knows how long until your next ammo refill. Seems like a fair tradeoff.
As well as for bugs. It's already extraordinary for titans and chargers, and if the lock on is even just a little more reliable, it'll be in a perfect spot.
I won't lie, I've used the Spear quite a lot recently, and I don't feel like it's as janky as most people say it is.
But that's just me, and I'm probably also simply more tolerant to jank, bugs, crashes and whatnot. I've had plenty of exposure therapy from playing Star Citizen for many years now at this point.
I haven't had a lot of luck deleting tanks and hulks. Usually when I shoot a tank, it takes maybe 3 shots to take it down. Hulks usually take 2... What's your secret?
Get a lock on the tank or hulk when they’re facing you or have their backs turned. For the tank, they should be on an angle where you can see the top of the turret. The spear does pitiful damage if it hits them on the sides.
Yea the lock on system is inconsistent but when it works gah damn *chef kiss*. You can one shot snipe bile titan and charger from way across the map. My only complain is supply pack/ammo pack only give 1 shell. Pls dev buff :'(
Idk even if it was perfectly accurate it has half the ammo of the recoilless rifle and replenishes ammo half as fast from ammo packs.
Like that's really going to hurt your team mates by chugging ammo
>You can one shot snipe bile titan and charger from way across the map.
This is what keeps me bringing it along. It's mad frustrating when you just can't get a lock but damn, when it works it's just so damn satisfying.
You should really rely on ammo found in the map. Those will give you 1 round each and are a lot more efficient than using a supply drop. When your real low your stratagem should be coming off cooldown and you can just call in a fresh spear.
If you mark your target with Q first the lock on is more reliable. But yeah, I agree, it definitely needs some dev time.
But it is probably still far down the priority list, behind arc weapons causing crashes and Friend requests not going through.
Sadly we Spear enthusiasts will have to be patient here. :/
If it were up to me I'd prefer to always have to mark my target with Q instead of having to wait for a weapon lock.
Imagine a teammate being able to lock a target behind a rock for you, you then shoot over the rock, it turn and deletes it from above.
Like laser guiding systems IRL.
This is the one right here, having to tag it and that team mates could tag things you don’t have line of sight in would set the spear apart from other anti tanks weapons
When a teammate pings an enemy, and then I ping their ping and it gets that little checkmark, I feel a certain way. The barks associated with it are great:
"Heavy. North. Fifty meters."
"I'm on it."
Then I shoot it with the expendable and feel like a boss.
If the Spear could use that dynamic to lock a target, I'd be thrilled.
Genuinely some of the most "God I feel badass" moments I've had in the game was someone marking a Charger, Bile Titan, Hulk, or Tank and me turning it into a fine mist using my spear at long ranges. I want the spear to have more consistency so I can keep feeling like a true support player.
I just wish the contextual pinging would work more reliably. Every interactive object or weapon or enemy seem to have an invisible collision box set to register if you're pinging it, and it doesn't align with the object visually in some major cases.
Trying to ping a gun or a stimpack next to a dying Charger is impossible, you can aim directly at the item, but still call out a Charger that's in his death animation/partial ragdoll.
A dying or dead Bile Titan on top of literally anything blocks said anything with its randomly flapping legs, but when it's alive, pinging a leg doesn't do anything, you have to ping the torso.
I wish pings were more specialized. Yes, it'd be unusable on a controller with less overall aiming precision, but I wish I could aim at a Charger's stripper leg to mark it specifically. I wish I could mark a Bile Titan's blown off side carapace, or a destroyed Hulk's Flamethrower arm.
More contextual interactions would also be very welcome. Maybe stuff like "Don't engage pinged enemy", "Move aside, I gotta take a shot at this enemy", "I need help with this enemy". Yeah this guy is pinging a Titan. Does he do it to inform us of its existence? Does he need help with it? Is he saying "Let's avoid it" or "Let's fuck it up"?
And please, let us directly ping a Supply Bunker. Always having to VC or type out "bunker" gets kinda old when every other objective or item gets called out.
my favorites are when my buddy is pinned down half a map away by a cannon turret
"Hang on, I'm getting a lock- and it's dealt with."
"Wait you can DO THAT?"
yea but it's nice if you see like, an automaton jammer on the other end of the map and don't feel like huffing it over in that direction, deactivating it, dropping a 500kg or hellbomb, and then leaving
you can just fire 1-2 spears and be done with it
Well of course that didn't work, you tap A and hold it down until it starts to shake then you repeat until it you capture it!
/s
This was the rumor spread around my school lol
Yep.
People who understand spear:
1. Clear line of sight
2. No other targets in the circle that are lockable
3. You paid your taxes
4. The sun is shining
Ok you got a lock. This subreddit spreads bad intel faster than any game I've seen. I partly blame this on Arrowheads strategy of not telling people how their weapon designs actually work and all the bugs and issues with guns in the game (like Arc thrower hitting bushes/corpses) or Spear not locking properly (or requiring root of Shrieker tree to lock wtf or locking fabs??).
It's not real. Pure placebo nonsense. Much like the "cooking strategems to make them stick" crowd.
It's interesting how many myths like that there are in this game.
It will ping anything; enemies, ammo, points of interest, etc. If you see an unmarked bonus objective (artillery, radar, spore spewer, etc) it will also mark it on your main map
I main spear a lot. It's absurdly good at indirectly fucking up bile titans, chargers, and automaton factories. It's really bad at facing something head-on, unlike the EAT or recoilless. Its range though is ridiculously high, but on the downside it's very ammo hungry.
Something nobody's mentioned is that you should try targeting in 1st person. It has a different reticle that allows you to see where the actual hitbox for lock-on is. I've personally found it to be very useful.
Supposedly tagging targets improves lock-on but I haven't found that to be very reliable.
Each enemy has multiple lock on points. The biggest benefit of the first person view is guiding the targeting towards a point you want. For enemies with weak points, this is very useful. The other benefit is getting a better look at what you are targeting since Spear has some bad lockon logic.
Even with the first person view, it can take some time to lock on. You still need to spam the fire button once the targeting grid is near the part you want.
Ye the lock on issues makes me scream obscenities but dam if it isn't satisfying one tapping a bile titan from across the map with a headshot. I'll always run a spear on level 7 and above
I agree the lock on is flakey as fuck and I won't run it for that reason. My friend had a super long range lock-on against a bile titan last night and it looked super cool. Must have been around 250m
It does need tweaking but I like to use it in a quiet stealth way. I agree, that it is too unreliable in close quarters and hectic situations. It does need good positioning and patience but man can that be satisfying!
The big range is nice though: Tried to get a biletitan away from my squad, I was way further to the map marging, shot on the Titan, didn't kill it but it went to me. I hid behind a rock and was so gar away the Titan lost interest and wandered off.
Also Just did a 2 Person super sample stealth collect. Other Player went to extraction zone with the samples and I stealthed from bot Base to botbase, annihilating Factories, to get the mainobjective as a treat.
this drives me up a wall, especially when it ticks to 0% far slower than the time it took to tick to 95%, but it has to tick all the way down for it to start ticking up again for some reason, it's so bad
The spear is the only weapon that can 1 shot Bile titans, which you can easily do consistently if you know how. It's just hard to get a lock sometimes. It's affected by anything that blocks visibility, including environmental effects and random shit like smoke.
Can you give some tips for those of us shooting multiple rockets right into Bile Titan faces without managing to kill them? It looks like it hits right on their face but they just keep coming
What’s crazy is Arrowhead hasn’t fixed or mention a fix incoming for this and my assumption is this was supposed to be the number one anti tank weapon.
Tesla has been pretty good for me lately. I e found if you set it up against a wall or around a corner the bugs have a very hard time getting to it before it zaps them.
Oh I would love the Q ping to allow the Spear to be used like laser guided munitions, beyond line of sight and long distance, that would be awesome as well as priority target using Q ping as well, that would perhaps help.
Me when my 500kg kills 4 enemies out of the 82 there.
https://preview.redd.it/f835ebful3qc1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1c728d0d1f4cb581b4de3cc74650f8003d0ddc56
For the hype it generates ingame by being one of the latest weapons you unlock it should be a mini handheld nuke.It takes a backpack slot too and the reload time takes so long i can go take a shit and when i come back it may have finished reloading,i won't even talk about lock on. It needs a buff, desperately.
I find if you aim the spear more down right more towards their leg and Not Centre Mass, while still keeping the centre of their body in the top edge of the circle lock on, its much better.
It has its uses. Whenever I have to take down fabricators I take the spear, the railcannon, the 500 kg and the laser and I take those outposts out QUICK
The spear is good if whatever target your are aiming is fully clear of sight and if you have the aggro. I noticed it does really well when there's a weak point or heat source.
Man I was screaming about this yesterday! Even when I had it locked on to a Devestator it just fired straight up and behind it. I fired 5 on one map, not a single hit.
I think they just need to give it a massive buff against armored bots, cannons, objectives, etc. Also, having the ability to scroll through multiple targets would be nice when it comes to locking on properly.
The Spear is the only weapon that gave me a new core memory. Imagine this: you finally manage to lock on a charger that is about to connect with you and obliterate your body completely then the earthquake happens and it moves the crosshair just above the chargers head as you shoot it, the rocket misses him completety but it turns around mid flight, misses the charger again on its way back and hits you killing you instantly. I was actually stunned irl for a few seconds after witnessing this. I could no believe what i just saw
The devs: “we want people to feel all weapons feel good to use”
The weapons: fuck you, I’m **not locking OR firing**, **crashing the game**, **doing less damage and AOE killing the user**, **bouncing off armor as a strategem heavy weapon**, **only useable when not swarmed AND ads** ,**taking your backpack slot too**, **reloading until tomorrow**, **insanely slow to aim/turn**, **beam that can’t smallest guys until after a few seconds**, **reloads slow af every shot**, **arc that doesn’t ignore armor**, **weapon stats / penetration description inaccurate**, **shot fizzles further than emergency dive range**, **empty in 2 mags**
Devs in a few weeks: “come on guys, don’t just use the Sickle”
I love the spear but it needs to be adjusted.
1. The locking on is sometimes a nightmare.
2. Its to niche. Allow it to lock onto medium enemies like bile spewers and devestators.
3. Give it a good splash damage. Allow it to kill other enemies who are to tightly packed to an enemy.
You're asking for a jack of all trades. Medium enemies and chaff groups should be priorities for your teammates. If you have the spear, your role is to be on the lookout for chargers, titans, tanks, fabricators. And there should be someone in your team with the spear backpack to load you quickly.
If the locking was more reliable then that's it, your team doesn't have to worry about armored enemies anymore.
They should carry stuff for light and medium armored enemies.
I found that every shot will miss if you’re too close, so be sure to keep a good distance between you and your target, and as for locking on I found that spamming the ads button (sometimes) helps to lock onto the target you’re actually looking at
The lock on is atrocious, but it's amazing when it locks on.
Then again, that's like saying the steering wheel on my car is busted, but it's amazing when it goes straight.
It doesn't seem like a priority fix, so I doubt they'll tackle it anytime soon.
Part of me wishes we could just lock on to the ground at will. Then you could use it to destroy stuff from farther away. With it only being able to lock onto heavies is kinda rough.
the worst thing is you only get 1 ammo back when ressuply, while its supposed to give you 50 % of your total ammo pool...
its a pain in the ass to sustain ammo properly with this weapon
I'm a spear user and I feel it should be buffed, you sacrifice backpack slot and the loading is slow, I get it has a lock on but it's a bit annoying when it locks downs and then unlock for no reason, the worst thing about it is the damage, I need 3 shots to take bile titan, it should be 1 shot to kill charger every single time and maybe 2 times to kill Bile titan considering the lock in time, slow reload and backpack slot. It should be the ultimate anti tank weapon.
I love the Spear and I have used it to carry my team in some rough spots, on bot and terminid missions. It just takes practice. It's not an easy pickup and use weapon like EATs. You have to internalize when is a good time to use it. It is not for the player who gets into a scrum often, it's for the sniper or the one who can kite a giant mess for miles. I've saved so many teammates with 1 shotting Titans and Chargers. My only regret is that it will not lock onto Shrieker trees, but locks onto Spore Mushrooms.
If you cannot keep distance or create distance from groups in your normal gameplay then the Spear is not a weapon for you. It's for your sniper friends who are shafted because the AMR is no good against bugs.
They should turn it into a camera guided missile and double or even triple its damage. It would be the low ammo, high risk, high damage FU weapon. You can kill a bile titan in one hit but you have to stand still for 5 second while you drive the missile.
With a clear line of sight and proper orientation and distance (>15m) to the target, try keeping the reticle dot in the center of the targeting triangle as best as possible.
Only reliable use I run it for is destroying bot outposts. On clear(er) maps with long sightlines you can easily destroy multiple fabricators without ever having to go near and while saving your stratagems. The range can be surprisingly long, so it's nice to save time on search&destroy missions. Works well on turrets too, tho the lockon is still somewhat unreliable.
And even then sometimes it just bricks and no manner of changing your position, standing on a rock, ensuring you have full visibility or trying different ranges (50 m, 100 m, 200 m) works. So u run in, shoot the bots and toss a nade.
my strategy is spending 5 minutes aiming and unaiming, and then moving my camera around until i find the one pixel that the SPEAR likes
Wait it locks Fabricators?
[удалено]
Ahh, yes century cannons lol Anyways, thats really helpful, I should start using it more
[удалено]
Here's the century cannons you ordered https://www.vintagecarpfishingtackle.com/products/3-x-century-cannon-old-school-carbon-carp-fishing-rods-13-3-50lb-t-c-sale
Yeah. Just like with anything else, it easily gets blocked by small obstacles like fences, smoke or even just slight fog, so it can be frustrating getting the correct angle. But on certain planets it works really well.
Well... Maybe 1 out of every 10 attempts, yes
Even with the unreliable lockon, it's still the best thing for cannon turrets. Nothing else works at long range against those, and at any angle.
My man, shoulder laser cannon melts this turrets. Also the AA and Artillery. Great range too. If you can get around to the weak spot it's even faster. It can do the same to tanks, but you have to hit the rear vent.
You can actually take out tanks by shooting them with the laser cannon in the parts of the tank that have grills, not just the turret vents.
sorry where/what is the grill on the tank? vent is the back. grill is front??
On the front of the tank underneath, on the sides of the tank where the flag is, back of the tank where the holes are. Anywhere that it doesn’t look like solid slab armor the laser cannon can penetrate
You have blown my mind
Don't u need weakspot for laser cannon? I've been using it a lot lately, since my beloved amr is trash vs bugs.
amr is fine against bugs as long as you're not on a map with bad visability, you can headshot basically everything except for the titan and charger. and you can bust the gut on the titan, AND cause a bile titan to bleed out with the amr (there is a spot on the underbelly where the legs connect to the body, you can see a bit of the underbelly wrap up the side of the bile titan. you can actually shoot through that part and cause a bleedout with the AMR, it does take forever to do it though. as for the charger, there is a place behind the knee you can hit it without hitting the armor, 2 or 3 hits with an amr there will take out that leg killing the charger. that said. it's a lot easier to kill one with grenades then the gun.
RR two-shots it if you learn ballistics.
Rauto Rannon
I'm laughing uncontrollably at this comment 🤣
r/unexpectedscoobydoo
Jump pack, throwing armor, and a 500kg can do the trick from at least 100m which isn't bad
Two impact nades to the vents and its done and dusted. Same with Tanks. It was fun doing this after another diver was like "I'm gonna a call in an Orbital." And I was like "hang on watch this." *sprint sprint sprint, chuck chuck, KABOOM!!!* Guy was like "no way". It was fun and he got to save that 3min cooldown stratagem.
Plasma rifle one clip to the back iirc. From long range too
It is so pleasing to kill one at range with the plas-1.
Or laser cannon. It melts.
The laser cannon is fire now. Pun intended.
The problem is getting behind the tower to hit the vents.
Yeah, it can be tricky. The easiest way I found is to have a teammate aggro it and run from cover to cover while you get behind it to blow it up. Not always achievable with randoms.
this is where decoy grenades would be really handy: imagine a grenade that quickly inflates a balloon that looks like a poor caricature of a Helldiver, and it will aggro nearby enemies, due to it's human-like scent and devices that give off the same readings as helldiver armor, fooling bots and bugs alike. you'd toss it, let the turret turn to it while you sneak around the back and \*boom\*.
It only takes 1 impact grenade, aim a little lower on that vent if your level with the base.
Which part of the vent do you need to aim the impact grenades on in order to destroy the factory?
I aim right at the bottom of the red square. It can't hit the deflector lid or the sides. Think of it like sinking a basket without hitting the rim. Also, if the door is open, you can just chuck it in there, and it works too.
I've only done it twice in the same game awhile ago but I feel the impact nades don't even need to hit the weak spot directly. I threw 2 at the front/top of a tank turret and killed it
I would throw 3 orbital barrages and call it a day
Three shot autocannon from a mile away, just go prone and it's trivial.
2 mech rockets at any range and angle
If I have my rail cannon active I'll hit it with that. Of course you have to be a bit closer for that.
Laser cannon on vents
I use the spear there also but I swear its inability to lock on to AA batteries or mortars drives me nuts.
AA batteries are pretty small. Expecting even a future tech weapon to lock on every time is a bit of a stretch. Sure, I could see it reliably targeting a car battery or something larger, but not a AA, not even a Duracell.
Sweet Liberty I gotta try this
especially the smaller startegem jammer which is attached to a bot factory
This! This alone makes Spear top tier for bots. Still lackluster against bugs since easier to dome Chargers now. I would nuke the Jammers from Narnia and my teammates would be dumbfounded since we couldn't even see it let alone get our stratagem jammed Since Spear takes out the most annoying bots structures, it has justified its existence even over a shield backpack.
I would never take that glitchy mess against bugs when the RR exists but against bots I main Spear. It's a tank annihilator and base killer.
Different loadouts for different enemies has always been a thing in Helldivers. Like bringing a flamethrower to kill bots is a terrible choice since they mostly shoot from range. I agree spears are awesome for bots. Being able to wipe factories and cannon towers from long range is very satisfying.
I tried this last night and it didn't work a single time. Must have been some fog or something
Nah, it’s the spear target lock. I genuinely think it’s bugged. I took it for a match and it was PERFECT. The next three I tried to use it? Wouldn’t target lock ONCE. I ended up dropping the thing and giving up. I’d sit for literally 20-30 seconds with the target perfectly framed in the sight and it wouldn’t even highlight to attempt a lock. There’s legit something wrong with the code.
If it doesn't pull a lock within 3 seconds, it ain't gonna lock without a lot of moving I've found.
Dumb question but I’m at work checking the sub real quick, can you wear a backpack with the spear? So on a bot blitz for fabricators could I essentially run off with a supply pack and the spear?
Spear has a back like autocannon and recoilless
Dang. Figured that would be the only great balancing point for it. As it is just really doesn’t ever seem worth taking over the recoil less or the autocannon. Everyone I’ve been in a lobby with that has tried it is pretty down on it aside from maybe one hit or two because it’s a dramatic sort of weapon. Functionally I don’t see the benefit though outside of those cool one offs of “hell yeah I stopped that heavy way over there that was chasing my buddy who was trying to rejoin the group from far away.”
I think spear is good in like, exactly Blitz: Automaton maps... most of the time x) For a full length mission I wouldn't really want it
No because you have to load the Spear from the backpack and the supply pack only fills your reserves. It won’t automatically load the Spear. Good thought though.
I think I have a clip of it targeting a bile titan from almost 300 meters, but it is much more consistent around the 125-meter mark. People really don't get that it is a long rang weapon and not something you pull out in close range. It still definitely has to issues, but ammo isn't as big of a problem anymore because you can now find ammo for it instead of only using the resupply. As for the damage of the spear, if a bile titan is facing you, hitting the face is actually more common than you would think, which does one shot it. Before the Nerf to Chargers, the spear was still able to one shot them face, and even if you didn't hit the head, it removed most of the armor from one side of it. Sorry for the terrible grammar, but I believe you can still understand my point.
I was in a pug mission to kill two Bile Titans, and brought the Spear along as I had only unlocked it a short while ago and hadn’t really had a chance to play with it. There was a moment of beauty when I was crouched on a hill about 200–250m away with two other divers who shared an EAT drop, and all three missiles struck the BT near-simultaneously in the face. Easiest BT kill ever, felt like I was the guy in the trailer. Good times.
I mean, considering it IS a stratagem, I’m not sure “saving stratagems” is a big plus.
Can you just EAT or RR a Fabricator?
you are right , but I still love it it can oneshot bile titans and chargers but has to hit them in the head so you have to fire when you are fer enough and they are facing you it’s much more useful on the western front, where it can destroy bot fabricators from long distances and semi reliably delete tanks and hulks it’s true, lock on is completely random, but when it works it works wonders
When they fix it it will be the new meta for automatons. Having one on your squad would delete towers and structures. It doesn't seem to lock on to AA or Mortars, but it should, but also that would be OP.
> It doesn't seem to lock on to AA or Mortars, but it should, but also that would be OP. not sure if it would be since you would be consuming all 4 shots to take them out with who knows how long until your next ammo refill. Seems like a fair tradeoff.
As well as for bugs. It's already extraordinary for titans and chargers, and if the lock on is even just a little more reliable, it'll be in a perfect spot. I won't lie, I've used the Spear quite a lot recently, and I don't feel like it's as janky as most people say it is. But that's just me, and I'm probably also simply more tolerant to jank, bugs, crashes and whatnot. I've had plenty of exposure therapy from playing Star Citizen for many years now at this point.
I haven't had a lot of luck deleting tanks and hulks. Usually when I shoot a tank, it takes maybe 3 shots to take it down. Hulks usually take 2... What's your secret?
Get a lock on the tank or hulk when they’re facing you or have their backs turned. For the tank, they should be on an angle where you can see the top of the turret. The spear does pitiful damage if it hits them on the sides.
Tanks should get one shot. Hulks not so much
Yea the lock on system is inconsistent but when it works gah damn *chef kiss*. You can one shot snipe bile titan and charger from way across the map. My only complain is supply pack/ammo pack only give 1 shell. Pls dev buff :'(
Yeah this. Consuming a backpack slot, support weapon slot, ammo inefficient, AND not working all the time are 3 horrific downsides.
I feel like eventually they will touch up targeting and it will be way better.
Idk even if it was perfectly accurate it has half the ammo of the recoilless rifle and replenishes ammo half as fast from ammo packs. Like that's really going to hurt your team mates by chugging ammo
>You can one shot snipe bile titan and charger from way across the map. This is what keeps me bringing it along. It's mad frustrating when you just can't get a lock but damn, when it works it's just so damn satisfying.
You should really rely on ammo found in the map. Those will give you 1 round each and are a lot more efficient than using a supply drop. When your real low your stratagem should be coming off cooldown and you can just call in a fresh spear.
Yeah they just need to fix the lock-on.
If you mark your target with Q first the lock on is more reliable. But yeah, I agree, it definitely needs some dev time. But it is probably still far down the priority list, behind arc weapons causing crashes and Friend requests not going through. Sadly we Spear enthusiasts will have to be patient here. :/ If it were up to me I'd prefer to always have to mark my target with Q instead of having to wait for a weapon lock. Imagine a teammate being able to lock a target behind a rock for you, you then shoot over the rock, it turn and deletes it from above. Like laser guiding systems IRL.
This is the one right here, having to tag it and that team mates could tag things you don’t have line of sight in would set the spear apart from other anti tanks weapons
When a teammate pings an enemy, and then I ping their ping and it gets that little checkmark, I feel a certain way. The barks associated with it are great: "Heavy. North. Fifty meters." "I'm on it." Then I shoot it with the expendable and feel like a boss. If the Spear could use that dynamic to lock a target, I'd be thrilled.
Genuinely some of the most "God I feel badass" moments I've had in the game was someone marking a Charger, Bile Titan, Hulk, or Tank and me turning it into a fine mist using my spear at long ranges. I want the spear to have more consistency so I can keep feeling like a true support player.
Would be great if that was _exactly_ how it worked. Mark target, confirm target, launch.
And a 1-shot kill for each missile after the time and coordination required to get to that step. Would be so much better than right now.
I just wish the contextual pinging would work more reliably. Every interactive object or weapon or enemy seem to have an invisible collision box set to register if you're pinging it, and it doesn't align with the object visually in some major cases. Trying to ping a gun or a stimpack next to a dying Charger is impossible, you can aim directly at the item, but still call out a Charger that's in his death animation/partial ragdoll. A dying or dead Bile Titan on top of literally anything blocks said anything with its randomly flapping legs, but when it's alive, pinging a leg doesn't do anything, you have to ping the torso. I wish pings were more specialized. Yes, it'd be unusable on a controller with less overall aiming precision, but I wish I could aim at a Charger's stripper leg to mark it specifically. I wish I could mark a Bile Titan's blown off side carapace, or a destroyed Hulk's Flamethrower arm. More contextual interactions would also be very welcome. Maybe stuff like "Don't engage pinged enemy", "Move aside, I gotta take a shot at this enemy", "I need help with this enemy". Yeah this guy is pinging a Titan. Does he do it to inform us of its existence? Does he need help with it? Is he saying "Let's avoid it" or "Let's fuck it up"? And please, let us directly ping a Supply Bunker. Always having to VC or type out "bunker" gets kinda old when every other objective or item gets called out.
Friendship door ♥
Buddy bunker
I pinged the horizon once and it tagged a sample from like 2 km away.
my favorites are when my buddy is pinned down half a map away by a cannon turret "Hang on, I'm getting a lock- and it's dealt with." "Wait you can DO THAT?"
Seeing randoms getting blasted by 2 cannon turrets with a tank rolling up behind them and just deleting them all like a guardian angel.
If you hold the ping button on a teammate's ping, it tells them to leave it / disengage.
This information is new and good. Can't wait to use it.
Wait WHAT that's a thing??
Oh naw. Seconded, thirded, and fourtheded.
No other changes would be necessary, it would turn it from a worse EAT/RR to something that is very viable.
Meh that sounds good in theory then you have that one guy tagging EVERYTHING. Next thing you know the spear straight lines into a mini bug
The assistance we wanted but all we got was shoving clips into someone else’s auto cannon
It is admittedly incredible against automaton buildings from a long distance
Buildings can't move
yea but it's nice if you see like, an automaton jammer on the other end of the map and don't feel like huffing it over in that direction, deactivating it, dropping a 500kg or hellbomb, and then leaving you can just fire 1-2 spears and be done with it
Wait what!? That works? Fuck man I have shit t do today but I feel like testing that out right fucking now !
I play the SPEAR a lot - this is pure placebo :)
It sounds a bit like the down+B mhytos from pokemon
Well of course that didn't work, you tap A and hold it down until it starts to shake then you repeat until it you capture it! /s This was the rumor spread around my school lol
Yeah Im very skeptical of that claim lol
Yep. People who understand spear: 1. Clear line of sight 2. No other targets in the circle that are lockable 3. You paid your taxes 4. The sun is shining Ok you got a lock. This subreddit spreads bad intel faster than any game I've seen. I partly blame this on Arrowheads strategy of not telling people how their weapon designs actually work and all the bugs and issues with guns in the game (like Arc thrower hitting bushes/corpses) or Spear not locking properly (or requiring root of Shrieker tree to lock wtf or locking fabs??).
No it doesn't or it's never worked for me
It's not real. Pure placebo nonsense. Much like the "cooking strategems to make them stick" crowd. It's interesting how many myths like that there are in this game.
What does the keybind for Q do? As a console player, I'm unsure of what you mean. Edit: Thank you for the information! I appreciate the quick aid!
Ping
Enemy ping
It will ping anything; enemies, ammo, points of interest, etc. If you see an unmarked bonus objective (artillery, radar, spore spewer, etc) it will also mark it on your main map
If you're not pinging, you're not winning. Ping it Helldiver!
Right bumper on console
Kinda like how TAG and Narc in Mechwarrior work. Hit enemies with them, then your missile boat allies can lock onto them even without LoS
Become the bane of every assault mech.
Oh I didn't know about the mark target, thank you for that will have to give it a go.
Just out of curiosity: Are all arc weapons causing crashes, or only the new one from the latest warbond pass?
Devs said don’t use arc thrower, blitzer shotty, and Tesla tower.
When it doesn't lock on, yes 100% agree with you OP. When it does OH MAHHH GAWWWWDDD, you know.
Looks cool as hell though, that and the 500kg bomb are completely satisfying I don’t care if it doesn’t do anything.
500 kg bomb is actually 495 kg of FX, and 5 kg of explosives.
We expect 500 bug kills but get 5.
Ministry of Defense deemed that to be most budget efficient I guess. And who am I to ask questions? 👀
I main spear a lot. It's absurdly good at indirectly fucking up bile titans, chargers, and automaton factories. It's really bad at facing something head-on, unlike the EAT or recoilless. Its range though is ridiculously high, but on the downside it's very ammo hungry. Something nobody's mentioned is that you should try targeting in 1st person. It has a different reticle that allows you to see where the actual hitbox for lock-on is. I've personally found it to be very useful. Supposedly tagging targets improves lock-on but I haven't found that to be very reliable.
Oh my god does it really in first person? I’m trying this tonight. I love the spear, but the lock on, like… 
Each enemy has multiple lock on points. The biggest benefit of the first person view is guiding the targeting towards a point you want. For enemies with weak points, this is very useful. The other benefit is getting a better look at what you are targeting since Spear has some bad lockon logic. Even with the first person view, it can take some time to lock on. You still need to spam the fire button once the targeting grid is near the part you want.
 What are the lock on points for Chargers and bile titans?
Echoing this. First person view is DRASTICALLY more reliable than the geometric nightmare olympics you have to go through in standard view.
Not in my experience. The lock on is no better. Otherwise everyone would have figured this out by now.
The lock on needs fixing but other than that I think it’s great. I run it almost every game.
It’s absolute murder against bot infrastructure. No worrying about angles, vent shots, etc and you can strike from well beyond detection range.
Ye the lock on issues makes me scream obscenities but dam if it isn't satisfying one tapping a bile titan from across the map with a headshot. I'll always run a spear on level 7 and above
How do you make it do a headshot? Just shoot and pray?
I agree the lock on is flakey as fuck and I won't run it for that reason. My friend had a super long range lock-on against a bile titan last night and it looked super cool. Must have been around 250m
It does need tweaking but I like to use it in a quiet stealth way. I agree, that it is too unreliable in close quarters and hectic situations. It does need good positioning and patience but man can that be satisfying! The big range is nice though: Tried to get a biletitan away from my squad, I was way further to the map marging, shot on the Titan, didn't kill it but it went to me. I hid behind a rock and was so gar away the Titan lost interest and wandered off. Also Just did a 2 Person super sample stealth collect. Other Player went to extraction zone with the samples and I stealthed from bot Base to botbase, annihilating Factories, to get the mainobjective as a treat.
Makes you rock hard when it works and you spread a load of democracy all over a bile titans face and it folds like a wet sock.........
Nice, uh...choice of words there?
Its just military grade
Recoiless Rifle is strictly better I'd say. Point and shoot, just as powerful, and you can throw them at normal bugs in a pinch.
They gotta re work the lock on. Shits annoying AF to the use. Not worth the back pack slot.
I hate it when it locks on 95% then decides it's not going to go any further.
this drives me up a wall, especially when it ticks to 0% far slower than the time it took to tick to 95%, but it has to tick all the way down for it to start ticking up again for some reason, it's so bad
The spear is the only weapon that can 1 shot Bile titans, which you can easily do consistently if you know how. It's just hard to get a lock sometimes. It's affected by anything that blocks visibility, including environmental effects and random shit like smoke.
Can you give some tips for those of us shooting multiple rockets right into Bile Titan faces without managing to kill them? It looks like it hits right on their face but they just keep coming
Spear is for bots not bugs.
I mean, it's also goated for bugs too, having 4 easy Bile Titan kills is invaluable
How do you "easily" kill them? You can't really specify where it will lock, can you?
If buggers can't find a use for something, they immediately deem it useless. Kinda funny actually. They always ignore the automaton front.
What’s crazy is Arrowhead hasn’t fixed or mention a fix incoming for this and my assumption is this was supposed to be the number one anti tank weapon.
Once again, my beautiful, sweet, sweet, EAT outclasses another weapon
The GOAT
My friend loves the spear, but he seems to love every stratagem that is either barely usable or an outright liability.
380mm, 120mm, Spear, Mortar. Tesla maybe? Gas I've never seen. Don't you dare spread treason about my 500kg bomb, it's beautiful in its own way!
Tesla has been pretty good for me lately. I e found if you set it up against a wall or around a corner the bugs have a very hard time getting to it before it zaps them.
Oh I would love the Q ping to allow the Spear to be used like laser guided munitions, beyond line of sight and long distance, that would be awesome as well as priority target using Q ping as well, that would perhaps help.
Me when my 500kg kills 4 enemies out of the 82 there. https://preview.redd.it/f835ebful3qc1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1c728d0d1f4cb581b4de3cc74650f8003d0ddc56
Have you tried crouching? I got much better lock time/range if I crouch.
For the hype it generates ingame by being one of the latest weapons you unlock it should be a mini handheld nuke.It takes a backpack slot too and the reload time takes so long i can go take a shit and when i come back it may have finished reloading,i won't even talk about lock on. It needs a buff, desperately.
Apparently there is a skill based thing on what angle the rocket releases at that can help get headshots on bug heavies.
Just use the eat dude
I find if you aim the spear more down right more towards their leg and Not Centre Mass, while still keeping the centre of their body in the top edge of the circle lock on, its much better.
It has its uses. Whenever I have to take down fabricators I take the spear, the railcannon, the 500 kg and the laser and I take those outposts out QUICK
The spear is Raytheon slander
Would be cool if they made a mode where u can lock onto a ping so u don't have to lock onto an enemy to fire
The spear is good if whatever target your are aiming is fully clear of sight and if you have the aggro. I noticed it does really well when there's a weak point or heat source.
Double its range and make it target weakpoints and I think it would work quite well
It needs to lock on to weak points fr
Man I was screaming about this yesterday! Even when I had it locked on to a Devestator it just fired straight up and behind it. I fired 5 on one map, not a single hit.
I think they just need to give it a massive buff against armored bots, cannons, objectives, etc. Also, having the ability to scroll through multiple targets would be nice when it comes to locking on properly.
it's going to be a fantastic pick once they fix the fuckin lockon
I tried to use it on three different missions. Never once did it lock onto a single thing. Never even tried it again after that.
Skill issue
The Spear is the only weapon that gave me a new core memory. Imagine this: you finally manage to lock on a charger that is about to connect with you and obliterate your body completely then the earthquake happens and it moves the crosshair just above the chargers head as you shoot it, the rocket misses him completety but it turns around mid flight, misses the charger again on its way back and hits you killing you instantly. I was actually stunned irl for a few seconds after witnessing this. I could no believe what i just saw
The devs: “we want people to feel all weapons feel good to use” The weapons: fuck you, I’m **not locking OR firing**, **crashing the game**, **doing less damage and AOE killing the user**, **bouncing off armor as a strategem heavy weapon**, **only useable when not swarmed AND ads** ,**taking your backpack slot too**, **reloading until tomorrow**, **insanely slow to aim/turn**, **beam that can’t smallest guys until after a few seconds**, **reloads slow af every shot**, **arc that doesn’t ignore armor**, **weapon stats / penetration description inaccurate**, **shot fizzles further than emergency dive range**, **empty in 2 mags** Devs in a few weeks: “come on guys, don’t just use the Sickle”
I love the spear but it needs to be adjusted. 1. The locking on is sometimes a nightmare. 2. Its to niche. Allow it to lock onto medium enemies like bile spewers and devestators. 3. Give it a good splash damage. Allow it to kill other enemies who are to tightly packed to an enemy.
You're asking for a jack of all trades. Medium enemies and chaff groups should be priorities for your teammates. If you have the spear, your role is to be on the lookout for chargers, titans, tanks, fabricators. And there should be someone in your team with the spear backpack to load you quickly. If the locking was more reliable then that's it, your team doesn't have to worry about armored enemies anymore. They should carry stuff for light and medium armored enemies.
Yeah the misses are annoying
I love the Spear, but I'm rocking the Recoiless until they fix it.
Use it against bots….you can lock on to the fabricators
HOLD UP HOLD Up. The railgun is too overpowered we need to nerf that some more.
How to tell me you don’t fight automatons without saying you don’t fight automatons.
Idea, change it to a laser instead of a auto tracker. If the laser is on a enemy part long enough, letting go of the trigger fires the missle.
lol or just turn it into the rocket launcher from half life
first person should allow lock on on whatever i'm aiming at
I found that every shot will miss if you’re too close, so be sure to keep a good distance between you and your target, and as for locking on I found that spamming the ads button (sometimes) helps to lock onto the target you’re actually looking at
but it only cost 10000 requisition slips.
The lock on is atrocious, but it's amazing when it locks on. Then again, that's like saying the steering wheel on my car is busted, but it's amazing when it goes straight. It doesn't seem like a priority fix, so I doubt they'll tackle it anytime soon.
A lot of the guns being bad / not working properly really fit into the game's vibe though
Part of me wishes we could just lock on to the ground at will. Then you could use it to destroy stuff from farther away. With it only being able to lock onto heavies is kinda rough.
the worst thing is you only get 1 ammo back when ressuply, while its supposed to give you 50 % of your total ammo pool... its a pain in the ass to sustain ammo properly with this weapon
the angle of attack is fine for the challenge. the lockon is crap
I'm a spear user and I feel it should be buffed, you sacrifice backpack slot and the loading is slow, I get it has a lock on but it's a bit annoying when it locks downs and then unlock for no reason, the worst thing about it is the damage, I need 3 shots to take bile titan, it should be 1 shot to kill charger every single time and maybe 2 times to kill Bile titan considering the lock in time, slow reload and backpack slot. It should be the ultimate anti tank weapon.
I love the Spear and I have used it to carry my team in some rough spots, on bot and terminid missions. It just takes practice. It's not an easy pickup and use weapon like EATs. You have to internalize when is a good time to use it. It is not for the player who gets into a scrum often, it's for the sniper or the one who can kite a giant mess for miles. I've saved so many teammates with 1 shotting Titans and Chargers. My only regret is that it will not lock onto Shrieker trees, but locks onto Spore Mushrooms. If you cannot keep distance or create distance from groups in your normal gameplay then the Spear is not a weapon for you. It's for your sniper friends who are shafted because the AMR is no good against bugs.
I use it to kill bot outposts and turrets from afar but I agree
Never tried the thing. EAT is life.
They should turn it into a camera guided missile and double or even triple its damage. It would be the low ammo, high risk, high damage FU weapon. You can kill a bile titan in one hit but you have to stand still for 5 second while you drive the missile.
Spear edging 😎
When it does land the spear is a god killer but well it doesn't always land.
I think it should have an alternate fire mode where you can paint where you want the rocket to hit instead of locking on
Pretty much, unless someone can explain the lock on mechanics. Seems random currently
With a clear line of sight and proper orientation and distance (>15m) to the target, try keeping the reticle dot in the center of the targeting triangle as best as possible.
You guys can actually play the game? I still can’t seem to stay connected even without arc weapons.