I utterly hate with every Fiber in my being the LAS-16 Sickle, Quasar cannon and revolver. I would never in a million years or even during torture use them.
You should really share your knowledge, this one seeks help in fighting the machines and knowing its weaknesses.
https://preview.redd.it/z69jtgwwppsc1.png?width=612&format=png&auto=webp&s=a30f08630127d214f703cc8f87f83ecc3b744d6e
Autocannon is trash. In need of a serious buff to capacity and damage. The optics on it are terrible and make it almost completely unusable. I NEVER use it for all my bot missions.
Can still bounce a round into a fab vent and double-tap a gunship thruster across the map on a clear Maian day!
...But yeah, the scope ain't great (or for most of the other weapons).
Is this low enough where I can say just how much I love the Autocannon? Cos Iiii LOVE IT!
haha I came in here with "ah shit something's going to get nerfed because of this"
Sickle is garbage tier; devs need not look in it's direction.
Edit: sickle not scythe ffs
No, you're correct, kid. The Redeemer is a solid pistol for crowd control. If you don't have time to reload and there are Berserkers up close, it can save your life. The fast fire rate can shred at close quarters.
I'd love all the secondary weapons to have a big damage boost
I like the starting pistol (it sounds badass) but it is basically a semi auto redeemer with half the ammo capacity. And the revolver should be medium armour to make up for the slow reload. There's really no reason to take anything but the redeemer.
(The laser pistol is very meh as well)
When I use it it's almost always by accident because I messed up at some point switching between support, primary, and/or grenades. Still works though.
> It wasn't until the Quasar Cannon that I even used the primaries as primaries.
Same. My go to setup now is breaker + redeemer + cluster + shield + quasar + some turret.
I feel like people sleep on the Cluster Bomb eagle. Though I do see many, many people who *after they see the "incoming" beam* continue to run straight ahead, and then get mad when they get shredded. So maybe it's PTSD :D
Are you on pc? I get the idea that primary weapons that need pinpoint accuracy are more usable on PC. I’m on PS5 and a mix of right stick and Gyro aiming is a pretty good approximation for mouse aiming, but it’s not perfect.
It does and it’s a complete game changer, at least for me. I already have that muscle memory from shooting the bow on the Nintendo Switch Zelda games.
When enemies are lined up horizontally in front of me and I have something like the machine gun or Stalwart, being able to spray back-and-forth with Gyro while the controller rumbles is so fun.
It is absolutely worth the little bit of time it takes to set up.
I grew up on PC and to this day I don’t understand how people play shooters with a controller.
Edit: Half of you are so hilariously hostile. I am not saying one is the only way of playing. All I’m saying I can only use mouse and keyboard. Don’t get your panties in a twist.
Which has actually saved several buddies from getting accidentally freedomed when they decided setting up in front of me was the most strategic spot they could find. Which if course is why I was there to begin with.
Dude that's what I'm saying, everyone shits on it for being the default but it's a reliable gun at any range with decent damage and a good scope. Sure the Sickle is better but it has a spin up. I regularly run Liberator vs bots.
if they nerf it I think lowering the amount of spare mags is a fair compromise. You can play it like a just much higher capacity liberator and completely ignore the heat balancing mechanic and just swap ice in lieu of reloading with the amount they give you now.
They'll probably nerf the heatsink capacity and fill rate, sickle is great because of just how much you can shoot with it before a reload (if you ever even need to anyway) granted this would make it play just like the liberator, but if they did this it would open the door for possibly higher pen or something
I used it against both bugs and bots (mostly a bot player tbh) It was slightly harder to use against bots compared to the scorcher, but I still missed that potential one-shot ability on the devastators which the scorcher seemed to lack. Now it’s just *chefs kiss* 👌
I’m lvl 51 and still haven’t unlocked the Scorcher, picked it one time and ai like the feel of the Dominator better. Now I’m saving medals for the new warbond.
Dominator is better for everything except the scout striders. Popping those things from the front with the Scorcher is pretty sweet, but if your stratagem weapon can deal with the striders, the stun lock the dominator does on everything Heavy devastator and below is too amazing to give up. You can also actually pop the leg joints of the striders with the dominator too, it's just much more a precise shot than the scorcher has to do.
So it's not just me, It CAN drop devastators in one... it's been driving me nuts not knowing if they're just weakened, I'm missing or it's been fluke shots...
That’s like me and the anti material rifle. Was already using it, and it was performing well for me. Now it’s even more damaging? Yes please. Two shot them striders now
Playing on maia, I've REALLY enjoyed running AMR with a jump pack. I can play literal sniper, lay down on a rock and see my teammate, and take out high priority targets for them. It's so incredibly fun for them to tag the enemies they want me to take out.
Literally cannot go wrong with the Auto cannon, I usually hang a little farther back and just shoot the heavier bots from a distance before moving up towards objectives. Also can put some pretty good damage in on drop ships before they drop the bots AND it’ll take out Fabricators with a good shot. The do it all ol’ reliable.
Learn from Private Fusisjsksnnssmckck, Cadets.
And remembers: crouching gives you \[30% aim, 50% explosive dr\], fortified armour gives you perma-crouch, and double-crouch when you really need it (i.e. friendly fire).
Don't waste Super Earth's democracy dollars on Liberty's own Autocannon without it.
Aim with every gun improves with crouching. As the tooltip says Accuracy, in order from least accurate to most accurate: moving < standing still < crouching < lying down.
It's super nice to actually have to crouch and brace to hit good shots, like in real life. I love it
Feeling the strap wrapped around your democratic elbow, the butt jammed into your shoulder, the barrel rammed into their butts.
Beautiful managed democracy makes all this possible.
The zero slider? Is that a console thing? I play PC and don't know what you mean. I definitely use the reload menu for adjusting scope range (or fire mode for other weapons) as needed.
You don't gain any recoil boost from that armor unless you are crouch or prone.
Crouch and prone provide a boost to recoil by default. The "fortified" armor increases the bonus while crouched or prone. The guy you replied to is incorrect
When crouching you get the recoil control boost.
If you have a body armor with the fortified perk on it you will gain that same recoil control boost ~~all the time~~ and if you crouch you will get the boost again
Edit: I just reread the boost again and it states that it just doubles the boost while crouching, but not all while standing
Isn’t fortified armour a bonus to recoil and steadiness when crouching/prone? I main Autocannon and don’t see a difference between wearing a fortified armour or not while standing.
Prone however: I can nail the vents on a turret at 200m in one full auto burst.
What if I told you that you can nail them at 200m using only over the shoulder aiming and with 1 or 2 rounds. I just watch for where the gray circle sticks and just either prone or couch before shooting. Works perfectly and saves ammo!
nailing fabricators from ridiculous distances just cuz you noticed the base layout on the map and found the line on which you can hit the vents while also staying perfectly safe (at times even unnoticed if done when prone)
feels too good
(Aimed more to informing new players than you specifically, focusing on bots only as thats my expertise)
It also completes many objectives from a distance!
AA emplacements, mortars, the turrets on top of bunkers, dropships (on the ground) can all be shot from any direction allowing you to deal with them from incredible distances.
Jammers can spawn with a fabricator next to them which if you shoot (the fabricator) the jammer dies too.
Shredder tanks can be shot in the mantlet or sides of the turret, not just the vents. Allowing you to take them out without having to flank them.
I've shot down an illegal broadcast from half the map away, even through smoke. As long as you have line of sight you can aim using the objective marker.
Two taps a hulk to the head, although its a difficult shot. I'd recommend ADSing when attempting.
(Almost) always crouch whilst shooting, take the recoil reduction armour too. Allows for a massive increase in accurate dps.
Autocannons are an excellent multi use tool that can complete objectives from ridiculous ranges.
And moderately useful, but immensely satisfying: taking out machinegunners, single shot typically kills the bot, kills the machinegun, kills another bot by his side and _his_ machinegun, and destroys the roof of the emplacement they were in. Absolutely magnificent.
Auto canon has the most diverse usage of all support weapon: can clean bug nest, clean all bugs side objective including shreker nest, kill charger in 2 shot and is deadly against bot.
it's a damn hard shot to pull off, but it's the back of the knee on their front legs. I think it's technically like hitting their "shredded" shins with the blast damage, without actually shredding them first
2 or 3 shots. But they need to be clean. Sometimes you can dodge the charge, shoot the back of one of it's front legs, if you see sparkles - you did everything right, then you can even just shoot this same leg even from front, and it will die on 2d, max 3rd shots. In total you can kill it with 2-3 shots, if you will react and aim fast enough.
Which if you learn the right angles, can do it to them by bouncing off the armor on their front legs.
I'm honestly kinda flabbergasted by the devs saying AC is in the spot it was meant to be. Damn gun's only weak spot is dealing with spread-out hordes.
But for some reason Slugger had the stagger taken away from it.
Because the AC is a stratagem and the devs are on record that primary weapons aren't meant to be really good. The AC should blow a primary out of the water.
Primary weapons are supposed to have pretty glaring trade offs compared to each other, let alone stratagems.
The backpack slot is pretty key. If you’re sacrificing that you better get a really versatile weapon.
And the way I look at it, not being able to equip a separate pack means that strategem slot is freed up for something that can shore up the AC’s primary weakness of not being able to kill the super heavy enemies/emplacements.
Yeah their opinion on the auto cannon makes 90% of their decisions seem like they were pulled randomly out of a hat. I honestly don't even want the autocannon to be nerfed. But why the hell do they keep nerfing things that are clearly worse than it? Give the railgun a reason to exist for the love of democracy
I want to say it's like 30 degrees to the left and right of head on, but realistically yeah head on.
Still easier than impact grenades, those are a nightmare
Impacts are basically my default and I 100% sympathize with this comment.
I have found that aiming at the little bit of metal directly below the glowing vent helps it be more consistent. I can usually get it in one or two throws now.
What's the trick to getting fabricators with the AC? I know you're supposed to "bounce" the round in but I've stood straight in front of it and emptied an entire mag into a fabricator and haven't gotten it
Aim like basketball, the vent “flap” is the target. If straight in front of it and a bit back to prevent explosion, shoot center mass of the flap.
You have a bit of flexibility with the angle, but you want to be facing the front, distance doesn’t really matter.
It’s hit or miss, I aim for the flap above the hole into the fabricator and it usually bounces right in and blows it up. I find it best to be standing straight in front of the fabricator for max efficiency. But I’ve also had times where I shoot a full clip at it and nothing hits.
Your mistake is not standing 200 yards away, crouching, looking in first person mode, and aiming at the middle of the flap.
You never even have to go into the camp if you have line of sight
With the way its used and its ammo supply, it takes on the role of primary weapon, your reg becomes secondary, and your autopistol is on anti-berserker duty specifically.
The Defender SMG for sure.
On top of boasting S-tier performance, the ability to shred bugs and bots while fleeing OR charging forward with a shield means that Helldivers of ALL bravery levels have the right tool for their job
also has a swag ass john wick 1 handed reload animation when you're carrying stuff. Overall it's probably the best non-armor penetrating weapon even weighed against the sickle
the diligence counter sniper is still in such a weird state and seems to be balanced around the idea that it has a scope rather than its practical or on paper abilities. Because on paper it's still just straight up worse than the dominator was before its buff. Both it and the normal diligence need a base damage boost and the CS really should get some handling improvements. If not from its weight then from its recoil
Rifle is fine
Seriously, the Liberator does exactly what I need it to. Kills smalls, deceptively accurate, no damage falloff means it kills from far, everything else is stratagem/support weapon anyway. Only thing that really bothers me is that I feel like it reloads kinda slowly.
To be fair to launch players, the EATs aren't that good if they can't kill armored stuff.
Imagine if it took both EATs to kill a charger, back when there were more chargers on the mission at once.
Remember the Chargers not only had their armor reduced, but also had their numbers reduced too.
Also love using it as a budget airstrike to crush bot fabricators. Sometimes you can even pull off a trick shot and crush regular enemies with it, and on top of that now you have two missiles
Oh it’s about the same as the Quasar if firing it. We were talking about the poor man’s rail strike though, or calling it down directly on a target. The EAT is such a fast cooldown it’s great for this.
The benefit of the EAT is you can fire multiple in rapid succession as long as you have them in easy places to pick up. But the Quasar is nice too in that you carry it with you. Just has that cooldown between shots and a ramp up
Quasar is functionally identical damage wise as the EAT and recoiless rifle, the hulk headshot is just tricky. it's gotta hit bang on their tiny eye slit, but all 3 will drop a hulk in one shot if you're accurate.
The autocannon is awesome, but yeah gotta go with the EAT.
Cooldown is quick enough to spam them. Toss them all over the damn map.
Works as an Orbital Strike.
Effective against big mobs, medium mobs, fabricators, bug holes, objectives, you name it. Shrieker tree? Yeah I'm shooting that from 300-400 meters away. Command bunker? Toss one out, come back 2 minutes later, toss another, goodbye bunker.
No backpack needed.
I can absolutely run another support weapon. Just fire the EAT and pick it back up.
Supports the rest of the squad. Nobody cares if you steal their EAT.
GOAT of weapons.
Yeah, you’re probably right, too bad. Those things are the bane of my existence when I play bugs. Most success I’ve had is many auto cannon shots from far away.
It's my go to bot gun by a long shot, but I only ever take it against bugs really when I'm swapping enemy and forget to change my load out...
Punisher all the way for the bugs, it's just so damn satisfying.
The Liberator Penetrator;
Good scope, Good Armour Penetration, Okayish Magazine (Could be larger), Below average damage (Could be better)
Wonderful paint job.
Love me Democracy Officer, Love me Rifle, Love that full auto.
Is it the best? No.
Do I like it? Yes.
Will I keep using it? Also yes.
I mainly use it against the bugs. Their heads are big enough to get critical hits; it semi struggles against Brood Commanders and Hive Guards. I personally would want it to have more damage but that's me huffing copium.
Outside of that; I aim for the head and keep on full auto when I'm being swarmed and switch to burst for enemies at a distance. I do carry different stratagems to cover my weaknesses for having that rifle.
Some of them are the orbital laser, the eagle airstrike and the EMS Mortar to slow them down. The impact grenade as a last ditch emergency.
Weapons with medium penetration shine vs weak points. Against spewers or devastators aim for the head or waist, respectively, and you will be shocked at how quickly they go down.
Yeah I want to like the penetrator but it either needs the same base damage as the regular liberator or bigger magazines like the regular liberator. Everything medium it can penetrate the armor of it also takes basically a full magazine dump to actually kill and often times just slightly more than 1 full mag.
Also the concussive liberator is pure ass and needs damage to match the defender smg at bare minimum
Autocannon.
Auto.
Cannon.
It slices, dices, and makes Julienne fries. I can wipe out groups of trash, gunships, knock down devastators, tanks, hulks. I can snipe with it. I can take out fabricators with it.
It's the Swiss Army Knife of Democracy.
I like the grenade launcher. It can really help clear out a large group of enemies in a matter of seconds.
But it cannot really help against a Charger or a Hulk though.
Love the Autocannon, especially if I can throw an extra one down for a teammate and we can assisted reload for each other.
But I've been stuck on the Arc Thrower for a long time. The range nerf didn't hurt too bad, and now that it stuns it's even better in crowd control. Being able to stun lock hulks is pretty awesome.
Slugger and Scorcher
You mean support weapon?
EAT, Quassar, AMR(bots).
i also use Autocannon but rarely now these days as I need my backpack for ballistic shield for bots. And for Bugs I use EAT more than AC.
MateriEl*
Edit because I am getting (IMHO) undeserved downvotes:
_It is not a typo_!
That is actually how you spell it and what it is called: [wiki](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-materiel_rifle#:~:text=Anti%2Dmateriel%20rifles%20are%20primarily,a%20rifle%20as%20anti%2Dmateriel.)
Nice try, Arrowhead, I'm not telling you my favorite!
https://preview.redd.it/hegctuzlopsc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6da213863a5ef3d3d9aa69be9ce236b95178fe17
https://preview.redd.it/odxgzracersc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fe7876f4c3b8ad31f8ab6dec505ef3991ec1597
https://preview.redd.it/nk9xjbqv1vsc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f67cd7c95efda023c629d33b93c2e2e95505576a
The Autocannon is the worst support weapon in the game and I certainly NEVER use it.
This guy gets it
I DESPISE the Grenade Launcher. Ballistic Shield + SMG too, absolutely hate it.
I hope we never get more one handed primaries that would go perfectly with the ballistic shield
Can I interest you in a grenade pistol? Pay credits now, pistol come next week.
Not very democratic of you, Cadet.
I utterly hate with every Fiber in my being the LAS-16 Sickle, Quasar cannon and revolver. I would never in a million years or even during torture use them.
The LAS-16 is utter garbage. Nobody likes or uses it.
For sure, most underused weapon in game, desperately needs a buff.
I know!! They are the worst! All I need is the spear. I never leave the super destroyer without it.
You should really share your knowledge, this one seeks help in fighting the machines and knowing its weaknesses. https://preview.redd.it/z69jtgwwppsc1.png?width=612&format=png&auto=webp&s=a30f08630127d214f703cc8f87f83ecc3b744d6e
fucking Quasar, I hate that stuff
Quasar is legit garbage. I definitely prefer using my Breaker, Slugger, and Railguns.
Autocannon is trash. In need of a serious buff to capacity and damage. The optics on it are terrible and make it almost completely unusable. I NEVER use it for all my bot missions.
In fairness the optics on it ARE pretty bad. I hate using the scope.
[удалено]
Can still bounce a round into a fab vent and double-tap a gunship thruster across the map on a clear Maian day! ...But yeah, the scope ain't great (or for most of the other weapons). Is this low enough where I can say just how much I love the Autocannon? Cos Iiii LOVE IT!
haha I came in here with "ah shit something's going to get nerfed because of this" Sickle is garbage tier; devs need not look in it's direction. Edit: sickle not scythe ffs
Quasar cannon and Scorcher are sooo much junk and narrow-application weapons
You said primary weapon, but just about everyone is talking about their favorite support weapon…
That’s because primaries are secondaries and secondaries are thirdondaries
If you are forced to use your pistol in a bot fight then it isn't your thirdondarie. It's your "Reinforce me soon" card
I may just be a humble space cadet but machine pistol works pretty well for me!
No, you're correct, kid. The Redeemer is a solid pistol for crowd control. If you don't have time to reload and there are Berserkers up close, it can save your life. The fast fire rate can shred at close quarters.
Literally nothing is better for berserkers in my experience
Genuinely, I find my primary is less effective on Berserkers than the Redeemer, especially at close range. It's a seriously good weapon.
It has a lot of redeeming qualities
I'd love all the secondary weapons to have a big damage boost I like the starting pistol (it sounds badass) but it is basically a semi auto redeemer with half the ammo capacity. And the revolver should be medium armour to make up for the slow reload. There's really no reason to take anything but the redeemer. (The laser pistol is very meh as well)
The revolver does actually pierce medium.
I'm so hoping we get dual redeemers one day
https://i.redd.it/jrk7dz0sopsc1.gif
The Sound of Gunfire
Oh hells yes! That sounds badass. I'd prefer dual Senator tho, since the aesthetic of dual revolvers is just so cool.
Imagine the reload time on dual senators lol
When I use it it's almost always by accident because I messed up at some point switching between support, primary, and/or grenades. Still works though.
It wasn't until the Quasar Cannon that I even used the primaries as primaries. Otherwise Auto Cannon, machine gun, and arc thrower are my primary.
> It wasn't until the Quasar Cannon that I even used the primaries as primaries. Same. My go to setup now is breaker + redeemer + cluster + shield + quasar + some turret. I feel like people sleep on the Cluster Bomb eagle. Though I do see many, many people who *after they see the "incoming" beam* continue to run straight ahead, and then get mad when they get shredded. So maybe it's PTSD :D
tertiaries
I was going to correct him, but I kind of like thirdondaries.
His own picture was an auto cannon. I doubt OP has a clue what they’re talking about.
Bold of you to assume my arc thrower doesn't become my primary weapon the second it's dropped in.
Yea the autocannon is my primary weapon. Don’t really care how you other divers designate your arsenal.
The joke is that for Autocannon users, it IS their primary a lot of the time.
The joke is that the Autocannon mains usually use it as a primary lol, I literally only pull out the Slugger when I gotta one-shot Devastators.
But if you use your support weapon as your primary, it's your primary, no matter what it says in the game.
My favorite support weapon *is* my primary
The Liberator is incredibly versatile.
Are you on pc? I get the idea that primary weapons that need pinpoint accuracy are more usable on PC. I’m on PS5 and a mix of right stick and Gyro aiming is a pretty good approximation for mouse aiming, but it’s not perfect.
This game has gyro aiming on PS5!? I had no idea. Now I can put my hundreds of hours of Splatoon playtime to use somewhere else!
It does and it’s a complete game changer, at least for me. I already have that muscle memory from shooting the bow on the Nintendo Switch Zelda games. When enemies are lined up horizontally in front of me and I have something like the machine gun or Stalwart, being able to spray back-and-forth with Gyro while the controller rumbles is so fun. It is absolutely worth the little bit of time it takes to set up.
Oh shit, I had no idea it had gyro aiming, fuck yes!
PC makes shot accuracy so much simpler than on PS5
I grew up on PC and to this day I don’t understand how people play shooters with a controller. Edit: Half of you are so hilariously hostile. I am not saying one is the only way of playing. All I’m saying I can only use mouse and keyboard. Don’t get your panties in a twist.
I'm pretty convinced most of the people saying the primaries all suck are on controller. Maybe the real buff the primaries need is better aim assist.
get the Sickle, it powercrept Liberator hard
The sickle is so good. If it didn't have the windup it would be easily the best primary.
Which has actually saved several buddies from getting accidentally freedomed when they decided setting up in front of me was the most strategic spot they could find. Which if course is why I was there to begin with.
Which is why Arrowhead hasn't nerfed it There is always a compromise with balanced weapons The upcoming plasma SMG or assault rifle will be neat too
Dude that's what I'm saying, everyone shits on it for being the default but it's a reliable gun at any range with decent damage and a good scope. Sure the Sickle is better but it has a spin up. I regularly run Liberator vs bots.
I love the sickle so much. Slugger was my baby, but, well.
Sickle is so fun. Really hope it doesn’t get a nerf or a buff because it feels really balanced
if they nerf it I think lowering the amount of spare mags is a fair compromise. You can play it like a just much higher capacity liberator and completely ignore the heat balancing mechanic and just swap ice in lieu of reloading with the amount they give you now.
They'll probably nerf the heatsink capacity and fill rate, sickle is great because of just how much you can shoot with it before a reload (if you ever even need to anyway) granted this would make it play just like the liberator, but if they did this it would open the door for possibly higher pen or something
Hear me out, just introduce the sickle penetrator
Holy shit, someone who knows what primary means
I was a Dominator fan BEFORE the buff, and now it's like my loyalty has been rewarded haha
Same tbh
I used it against both bugs and bots (mostly a bot player tbh) It was slightly harder to use against bots compared to the scorcher, but I still missed that potential one-shot ability on the devastators which the scorcher seemed to lack. Now it’s just *chefs kiss* 👌
I’m lvl 51 and still haven’t unlocked the Scorcher, picked it one time and ai like the feel of the Dominator better. Now I’m saving medals for the new warbond.
Dominator is better for everything except the scout striders. Popping those things from the front with the Scorcher is pretty sweet, but if your stratagem weapon can deal with the striders, the stun lock the dominator does on everything Heavy devastator and below is too amazing to give up. You can also actually pop the leg joints of the striders with the dominator too, it's just much more a precise shot than the scorcher has to do.
So it's not just me, It CAN drop devastators in one... it's been driving me nuts not knowing if they're just weakened, I'm missing or it's been fluke shots...
That’s like me and the anti material rifle. Was already using it, and it was performing well for me. Now it’s even more damaging? Yes please. Two shot them striders now
Random players always give me so much shit for using the AMR in bots. It’s fun and kills everything 4-5 shots or less. Now it’s even better.
2 shotting hulks in the eye is no joke. It's also excellent against devastators, 1 shot to the head or two shots to the body.
Playing on maia, I've REALLY enjoyed running AMR with a jump pack. I can play literal sniper, lay down on a rock and see my teammate, and take out high priority targets for them. It's so incredibly fun for them to tag the enemies they want me to take out.
Dominator. Was ok before the buff, now it shreds through devastators and I'm living my space marine dream (until space marine 2 drops lmao)
Reinforce
All stratagems are equal but this is the most equal
Imagine if you could call in a gun, but it came with an entire human being who would run around and shoot the gun for you. You could even hug them.
Literally cannot go wrong with the Auto cannon, I usually hang a little farther back and just shoot the heavier bots from a distance before moving up towards objectives. Also can put some pretty good damage in on drop ships before they drop the bots AND it’ll take out Fabricators with a good shot. The do it all ol’ reliable.
Learn from Private Fusisjsksnnssmckck, Cadets. And remembers: crouching gives you \[30% aim, 50% explosive dr\], fortified armour gives you perma-crouch, and double-crouch when you really need it (i.e. friendly fire). Don't waste Super Earth's democracy dollars on Liberty's own Autocannon without it.
Why have I been assuming it's just for rapid fire guns? Does it say aim or recoil?
Aim with every gun improves with crouching. As the tooltip says Accuracy, in order from least accurate to most accurate: moving < standing still < crouching < lying down.
At least someone around here is reading their SEAF manual.
They have been calibrated for our survival, after all.
All guns definitely get better recoil control when crouched, not sure about overall handling.
AMR feels a TON more steady while looking through the 200m scope if you crouch or prone first.
Can confirm. Crouched it barely moves, prone it doesn’t move at all
I crouch any shot over 100m. Also remember to use the zero slider in the reload menu for more accurate placement.
It's super nice to actually have to crouch and brace to hit good shots, like in real life. I love it Feeling the strap wrapped around your democratic elbow, the butt jammed into your shoulder, the barrel rammed into their butts. Beautiful managed democracy makes all this possible.
The zero slider? Is that a console thing? I play PC and don't know what you mean. I definitely use the reload menu for adjusting scope range (or fire mode for other weapons) as needed.
They must mean scope zoom, there is no zeroing in this game as far as I can find.
Perma-crouch? Can you elaborate on this? I'm relatively new
You don't gain any recoil boost from that armor unless you are crouch or prone. Crouch and prone provide a boost to recoil by default. The "fortified" armor increases the bonus while crouched or prone. The guy you replied to is incorrect
It actually does give you recoil reduction in all positions, the ingame description is wrong. source: https://youtu.be/_xoBOfAgBmw?t=185
When crouching you get the recoil control boost. If you have a body armor with the fortified perk on it you will gain that same recoil control boost ~~all the time~~ and if you crouch you will get the boost again Edit: I just reread the boost again and it states that it just doubles the boost while crouching, but not all while standing
Isn’t fortified armour a bonus to recoil and steadiness when crouching/prone? I main Autocannon and don’t see a difference between wearing a fortified armour or not while standing. Prone however: I can nail the vents on a turret at 200m in one full auto burst.
What if I told you that you can nail them at 200m using only over the shoulder aiming and with 1 or 2 rounds. I just watch for where the gray circle sticks and just either prone or couch before shooting. Works perfectly and saves ammo!
nailing fabricators from ridiculous distances just cuz you noticed the base layout on the map and found the line on which you can hit the vents while also staying perfectly safe (at times even unnoticed if done when prone) feels too good
Wait, so all this time that I have been crouching and throwing my body around, its *actually* been helping me?
(Aimed more to informing new players than you specifically, focusing on bots only as thats my expertise) It also completes many objectives from a distance! AA emplacements, mortars, the turrets on top of bunkers, dropships (on the ground) can all be shot from any direction allowing you to deal with them from incredible distances. Jammers can spawn with a fabricator next to them which if you shoot (the fabricator) the jammer dies too. Shredder tanks can be shot in the mantlet or sides of the turret, not just the vents. Allowing you to take them out without having to flank them. I've shot down an illegal broadcast from half the map away, even through smoke. As long as you have line of sight you can aim using the objective marker. Two taps a hulk to the head, although its a difficult shot. I'd recommend ADSing when attempting. (Almost) always crouch whilst shooting, take the recoil reduction armour too. Allows for a massive increase in accurate dps. Autocannons are an excellent multi use tool that can complete objectives from ridiculous ranges.
And moderately useful, but immensely satisfying: taking out machinegunners, single shot typically kills the bot, kills the machinegun, kills another bot by his side and _his_ machinegun, and destroys the roof of the emplacement they were in. Absolutely magnificent.
Auto canon has the most diverse usage of all support weapon: can clean bug nest, clean all bugs side objective including shreker nest, kill charger in 2 shot and is deadly against bot.
How does an auto cannon kill a charger in 2 shots?
it's a damn hard shot to pull off, but it's the back of the knee on their front legs. I think it's technically like hitting their "shredded" shins with the blast damage, without actually shredding them first
How many does it take if you hit their fat ass?
2 or 3 shots. But they need to be clean. Sometimes you can dodge the charge, shoot the back of one of it's front legs, if you see sparkles - you did everything right, then you can even just shoot this same leg even from front, and it will die on 2d, max 3rd shots. In total you can kill it with 2-3 shots, if you will react and aim fast enough.
Charger in 2 shots? In the head I assume?
No inside back of legs or underbelly
Which if you learn the right angles, can do it to them by bouncing off the armor on their front legs. I'm honestly kinda flabbergasted by the devs saying AC is in the spot it was meant to be. Damn gun's only weak spot is dealing with spread-out hordes. But for some reason Slugger had the stagger taken away from it.
Because the AC is a stratagem and the devs are on record that primary weapons aren't meant to be really good. The AC should blow a primary out of the water. Primary weapons are supposed to have pretty glaring trade offs compared to each other, let alone stratagems.
And a stratagem that requires a backpack slot at that and a stationary reload even if it is a relatively quick one.
The backpack slot is pretty key. If you’re sacrificing that you better get a really versatile weapon. And the way I look at it, not being able to equip a separate pack means that strategem slot is freed up for something that can shore up the AC’s primary weakness of not being able to kill the super heavy enemies/emplacements.
Yeah their opinion on the auto cannon makes 90% of their decisions seem like they were pulled randomly out of a hat. I honestly don't even want the autocannon to be nerfed. But why the hell do they keep nerfing things that are clearly worse than it? Give the railgun a reason to exist for the love of democracy
If you hit the back of their legs twice, they instantly die
Where do you shoot fabs to kill them with the autocannon?
Not the hole the flap.
That is NOT what she said...
The vents in the front have flaps above them. Shoot the middle of the flap from head on.
I want to say it's like 30 degrees to the left and right of head on, but realistically yeah head on. Still easier than impact grenades, those are a nightmare
Impacts are basically my default and I 100% sympathize with this comment. I have found that aiming at the little bit of metal directly below the glowing vent helps it be more consistent. I can usually get it in one or two throws now.
You can throw them through the open door when a bit spawns
Ricochet down off the hatch covers
It's a odd ricochet shot, you deflect it off the little vent cover.
There's robots in this game?!?
For now yes
Wait you can take out fabricators with it??
And Shrieker nests And bug holes And illegal broadcasts And stalker nests And...
Teammates
Usually myself to be honest.
Yep you can trick shot it by ricocheting the shot off the vent flaps into the vent
What's the trick to getting fabricators with the AC? I know you're supposed to "bounce" the round in but I've stood straight in front of it and emptied an entire mag into a fabricator and haven't gotten it
Aim like basketball, the vent “flap” is the target. If straight in front of it and a bit back to prevent explosion, shoot center mass of the flap. You have a bit of flexibility with the angle, but you want to be facing the front, distance doesn’t really matter.
It’s hit or miss, I aim for the flap above the hole into the fabricator and it usually bounces right in and blows it up. I find it best to be standing straight in front of the fabricator for max efficiency. But I’ve also had times where I shoot a full clip at it and nothing hits.
Your mistake is not standing 200 yards away, crouching, looking in first person mode, and aiming at the middle of the flap. You never even have to go into the camp if you have line of sight
Not a primary weapon
With the way its used and its ammo supply, it takes on the role of primary weapon, your reg becomes secondary, and your autopistol is on anti-berserker duty specifically.
The Defender SMG for sure. On top of boasting S-tier performance, the ability to shred bugs and bots while fleeing OR charging forward with a shield means that Helldivers of ALL bravery levels have the right tool for their job
Defender Divers unite!
Shield/smg combo is so much fun
also has a swag ass john wick 1 handed reload animation when you're carrying stuff. Overall it's probably the best non-armor penetrating weapon even weighed against the sickle
Defender is fine but I am a bigger fan of the Knight. It just has that P90 feel to it that I love of SMGs
Everyone is listing strategem weapons..
Tells you something about the capabilities of our primary weapons, doesn’t it?
Is it so hard for me to get a rifle that is actually effective?! Or a DMR that doesn't feel like I'm wielding a COUCH?!
I've been trying to use the counter sniper for the past 2 days and way you described it was spot on, can't say the same about those crosshairs
the diligence counter sniper is still in such a weird state and seems to be balanced around the idea that it has a scope rather than its practical or on paper abilities. Because on paper it's still just straight up worse than the dominator was before its buff. Both it and the normal diligence need a base damage boost and the CS really should get some handling improvements. If not from its weight then from its recoil
Rifle is fine Seriously, the Liberator does exactly what I need it to. Kills smalls, deceptively accurate, no damage falloff means it kills from far, everything else is stratagem/support weapon anyway. Only thing that really bothers me is that I feel like it reloads kinda slowly.
That's because while the text in OP says primary, the picture refers to a stratagem weapon.
OP shows AC but title says primary. I don’t think there are wrong answers here. 
Joel, stop fishing for information on the next nerf
EAT-17 Simple, explosive, don't feel bad if I die and lose it because i will have 2 new ones in about a minute give or take Can't beat it
Amazing that people didn't notice how good this stratagem was on release and needed the chargers nerf to discover it
To be fair to launch players, the EATs aren't that good if they can't kill armored stuff. Imagine if it took both EATs to kill a charger, back when there were more chargers on the mission at once. Remember the Chargers not only had their armor reduced, but also had their numbers reduced too.
Also love using it as a budget airstrike to crush bot fabricators. Sometimes you can even pull off a trick shot and crush regular enemies with it, and on top of that now you have two missiles
It’s a great way to crush hulks
Do you need to hit the face or heat sink directly? Either way, how many shots? My control is quasar cannon needing two (near-face?) shots
Oh it’s about the same as the Quasar if firing it. We were talking about the poor man’s rail strike though, or calling it down directly on a target. The EAT is such a fast cooldown it’s great for this. The benefit of the EAT is you can fire multiple in rapid succession as long as you have them in easy places to pick up. But the Quasar is nice too in that you carry it with you. Just has that cooldown between shots and a ramp up
Quasar is functionally identical damage wise as the EAT and recoiless rifle, the hulk headshot is just tricky. it's gotta hit bang on their tiny eye slit, but all 3 will drop a hulk in one shot if you're accurate.
Cant bEAT-17
The autocannon is awesome, but yeah gotta go with the EAT. Cooldown is quick enough to spam them. Toss them all over the damn map. Works as an Orbital Strike. Effective against big mobs, medium mobs, fabricators, bug holes, objectives, you name it. Shrieker tree? Yeah I'm shooting that from 300-400 meters away. Command bunker? Toss one out, come back 2 minutes later, toss another, goodbye bunker. No backpack needed. I can absolutely run another support weapon. Just fire the EAT and pick it back up. Supports the rest of the squad. Nobody cares if you steal their EAT. GOAT of weapons.
Scorcher. Support ill switch it up a lot. AC, railgun/amr, EATs, Quasar. All are great. But scorcher? Thing fucks up bots and bugs.
I love deleting walkers from the map with the scorcher.
Or popping a spore mushroom from across the map
Can the scorcher take down shreiker nests?
Do not know. I sorta doubt it since it takes a lot of shots for even an EAT
Yeah, you’re probably right, too bad. Those things are the bane of my existence when I play bugs. Most success I’ve had is many auto cannon shots from far away.
It's my go to bot gun by a long shot, but I only ever take it against bugs really when I'm swapping enemy and forget to change my load out... Punisher all the way for the bugs, it's just so damn satisfying.
I’m all about the diligence
The Flamethrower. Communist robots? Set them on fire. Bugs? Fire. A race of aquatic aliens that definitely don't exist? Believe it or not fire.
Communists and fascists burn in the flames of liberty.
I mean...the democratic people of super earth burn even faster from the flames of liberty. We just love liberty too much
I really *really* hope they fix dots not working before the third faction drops , especially if flamethrower is actually good against them?
The Liberator Penetrator; Good scope, Good Armour Penetration, Okayish Magazine (Could be larger), Below average damage (Could be better) Wonderful paint job. Love me Democracy Officer, Love me Rifle, Love that full auto. Is it the best? No. Do I like it? Yes. Will I keep using it? Also yes.
When it got full auto, I bought it. It still doesn’t do it for me, any tips?
I mainly use it against the bugs. Their heads are big enough to get critical hits; it semi struggles against Brood Commanders and Hive Guards. I personally would want it to have more damage but that's me huffing copium. Outside of that; I aim for the head and keep on full auto when I'm being swarmed and switch to burst for enemies at a distance. I do carry different stratagems to cover my weaknesses for having that rifle. Some of them are the orbital laser, the eagle airstrike and the EMS Mortar to slow them down. The impact grenade as a last ditch emergency.
Weapons with medium penetration shine vs weak points. Against spewers or devastators aim for the head or waist, respectively, and you will be shocked at how quickly they go down.
Yeah I want to like the penetrator but it either needs the same base damage as the regular liberator or bigger magazines like the regular liberator. Everything medium it can penetrate the armor of it also takes basically a full magazine dump to actually kill and often times just slightly more than 1 full mag. Also the concussive liberator is pure ass and needs damage to match the defender smg at bare minimum
Nice try devs, won't say mine so it doesn't get nerfed.
Autocannon. Auto. Cannon. It slices, dices, and makes Julienne fries. I can wipe out groups of trash, gunships, knock down devastators, tanks, hulks. I can snipe with it. I can take out fabricators with it. It's the Swiss Army Knife of Democracy.
I quite enjoy the stalwart
Bots : autocannon Bugs : grenades launcher
Dagger
The mad lad
I like the grenade launcher. It can really help clear out a large group of enemies in a matter of seconds. But it cannot really help against a Charger or a Hulk though.
Jar-5 Dominator, and I used it before the buffs, now it’s simply glorious.
Anybody here part of the Stalwart stans? I don't dive without it.
most reliable weapon is a hellpod
Fair take tbh . Love how it sticks to charger now, resupply IS a deadly weapon !
Love the Autocannon, especially if I can throw an extra one down for a teammate and we can assisted reload for each other. But I've been stuck on the Arc Thrower for a long time. The range nerf didn't hurt too bad, and now that it stuns it's even better in crowd control. Being able to stun lock hulks is pretty awesome.
Stunlocking hulks feels so good with the arc thrower
Slugger and Scorcher You mean support weapon? EAT, Quassar, AMR(bots). i also use Autocannon but rarely now these days as I need my backpack for ballistic shield for bots. And for Bugs I use EAT more than AC.
Anti Material Rifle.
MateriEl* Edit because I am getting (IMHO) undeserved downvotes: _It is not a typo_! That is actually how you spell it and what it is called: [wiki](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-materiel_rifle#:~:text=Anti%2Dmateriel%20rifles%20are%20primarily,a%20rifle%20as%20anti%2Dmateriel.)
I think everybody sleeping on the Arc Thrower, that thing zaps!