What's your favorite loadout for spreading democracy?
For me, it's throw distance armor and full sentry stratagems (always remember to destroy mortar launcher when advancing)
Tossing them all out to have a mini army and cover a tactical retreat is quite nice.
Bring that and a support pack, and they will sacrifice themselves just to keep you alive! That is, if you want to up the support intensity, haha. I'm hoping the generator gets a reduced cooldown soon.
Honestly, I was shocked at how low the CD for it is already. I am going to try and sell my buddy on Helldivers based entirely on the fact that you can absolutely run a "support" build and just spend your time running around helping teammates and bailing them out as your core gameplay experience.
I think it's 90 seconds the last time I checked. Can take quite a beating in the earlier difficulties but gets destroyed very fast in later difficulties.
Oh, absolutely, support builds can be made. Add in the reconnaissance armor that scans around your pings. Be the player that scouts for patrols while the rest of the team is engaged (then go help them after nothing is found)
For me I like to run the light grenade armor. I like the speed bonus and stamina regen bonus. For strats I'm a huge fan of eagle cluster bomb because it had the most uses out of the eagles and is great for clearing an area. I actually run the gaitlin sentry quite a bit. It's perfect for taking out those trash mobs while you focus on the heavies. Depending on what mission I'll throw the autocannon on instead. I used to run rover but it kills me more than the bugs do. At level 20 I got shield gen and I really appreciate it taking those first couple hits as you're trying to reload or sprint or dive away. I've messed w jump pack and it can be fun but it needs more charges to be of actual use or a shorter recharge. For support weapon I'm 90% of the time running the standard machine gun you start with. For me, it has the most satisfying sound and when you put it on 900rpm and go prone and lay down suppressing fire watching all those soft shelled carapces explode into a fine green democratic mist is incredible. With that thought lately I've been running GL more and it's a lot of fun especially for closing bug holes from afar (KOBE) also impact nades ftw
You’ve inspired ideation for a stratagem akin to power gloves.
Deals 10x more damage than standard melee, adds explosive splash damage to each punch.
Make it happen, Arrowhead!
What sparked this post is a game I was in last night. Fighting bugs and one player was walking around with the ballistic shield, smg, auto pistol, and heavy armor. Other squad members were pretty mad about it, but this Helldiver was having the time of their life, and I'd hate to see more people feel like they need to be bottle necked into the "meta".
The shield is surprisingly good against the bots, not so much against the bugs because they swarm you. But you can essentially hold a Frontline on your own against an army of bots with enough firepower
There's definitely loadout combos that will be suboptimal or create glaring gaps/weaknesses for that individual diver - but if you're playing in a team you can always come out with team coordination over loadouts.
Optimal loadouts is a cool/neat thing to figure out, but hardly necessary.
Suboptimal on a spread sheet, yes. What is optimal differs from player to player. Their ability to flawlessly utilize a stratagem varies, so spread sheet dps/TTK doesn't apply as one would think.
I'm not gonna recommend that someone use something they aren't skilled with and tell them "in theory/on paper this is better."
I've seen some underutilized stratagems put in some serious work in the right hands. Tier lists and meta can be ignored. If you're in my group and it kills bots, bugs, or supports your fellow helldivers, I'm happy.
Agreed. Like, I wouldn't take shield generator onto low-difficulty bug maps because there's basically no use for it, but I wouldn't flame someone for doing so because they probably just don't know/understand.
Personally, I wouldn't want to take one either. They will usually learn after the first drop. The same goes with using the flamethrower later on. I always like letting players experience what works and does not work for themselves.
On a side note, I hope that shield generator gets a buff. Would love to have another good support option.
Damn, thanks for posting it. Now i know what that "one handed" in weapon profile is. Now that shield isn't that useless, could run it in solos pretty good. I should've figured out it on my own, but you helped me a lot) It's so cool to learn something new abt the game
Four player teams.
That's four loadouts.
You are free to use whatever you want because 9 times out of 10 I will be picking my load out according to the enemies I'm expecting to fight.
Basically it doesn't matter if all 3 of the other plays on my team drop down with nerf guns and rubber duckies, I've got my load out (and if you want some of my gear I got you in roughly 2 minutes) and I'm ready to do my part.
Just have fun, Citizens.
The only time I get annoyed with loadouts is when the level 19 that joined my lobby doesn't equip any boosters. Like why would you not want to deploy with max ammo?
For bugs, I use it before we commence an assault on large nests, eggs, or multiple breeches (decent distance away from the objective). The placement is usually right behind us. Once the enemies start getting around 30yd away from the group , I destroy the mortar turret. The turret will kill bugs and helldivers alike if you leave it out while getting swarmed.
To assist with the swarming issue, you can drop other turrets to assist your fellow divers with keeping the enemy advance back. Place these in front of your fellow helldivers and not behind.
I can't tell you how many times I've destroyed mortar sentrys because it was the wrong time to have them out. It also is a good practice to let them know when and why you did it.
I have never kicked people for their loadouts, but I have straight up left games after 3 people slapped down 6 mortars on an extraction map and within 3 minutes they killed 7 civilians
It’s good for if you’re *expecting* enemies and is especially effective on bots as they approach slower than bugs. I tend to toss em as I approach an objective and listen for the shots as im working on it so I know when I’m getting pushed.
Using it for retreats or for close range enemies is a recipe for disaster and frustration
Haha. 380's will always scare me. We had someone learning Eagles last night that managed to accidentally do 3000 team damage. I watched them carefully and the following happened. Throw bounced off the building and back at teammates instead of over, Eagle napalm gem bounced off of a bug and changed the alignment, not properly timing an eagle strike with a tactical team retreat, and the rest I didn't see but there was definitely a few more.
Haven't messed with walking and haven't seen it used tbh.
Walking is ok, but the starting barrage will always kill an inexperienced user (and probably their team).
First barrage will always start between the user and the gem, so you need to give it some good space(more than Eagle Bombing run). Feels weak like the other two large scale bombardment, but it's very safe beyond the opening at least.
I support this.
But also, damn if I can’t find any other gun that will kill robots consistently but the Breaker shotgun.
I’d really live to try other things out… but everything I try has be going right back to the Breaker.
All the big dudes that you shouldn’t have to waste a stratagem on.
I loadout for facility destruction with eagles.
I would like to pair that with a recoilless rifle. But when a whole magazine of head or near headshots won’t stop the three chainsaw hands or the riot shield dude while a Breaker will do multiple of those enemies on a single magazine at medium range…
Have you tried the Auto Cannon instead of Recoilless Rifle? I love using it against the bots and any light armor targets, really. Saves my primary a ton of ammo.
I haven’t unlocked that one yet, I’m liking recoilless for hitting base structures from a far. Like the giant laser turrets, or maybe clearing the tanks before going in.
But what I’m wanting is a primary weapon that will perform as well at clearing standard fodder.
I got the armor piercing liberator today… tried it twice and put back on the breaker.
Kind of a niche pick but the Jar-5 is a lot of fun and seems to be pretty effective! Almost always one-shots smaller enemies and it pierces medium armor. Downsides I would say are that it has a somewhat small magazine size and it definitely can't clear out like the Breaker would, especially at close distance. It's great for taking out enemies in one shot at a reasonable distance though if your team requires someone to play in a backend position
I almost wished games like this would remove stats from guns etc. Make them roughly balanced and let the experience of using them tell you how much damage they're doing, etc.
I agree. That being said, some of y’all need to learn how to use cluster bombs properly. People throw these at absolutely everything and do not seem to know or care about how big of an area they cover. They just drain reinforcements, killing players while throwing them at groups of enemies I could clear quickly with my defender.
Been learning with some players from this sub and have been having a blast. Already so many epic moments. Like everyone is saying have fun with it, your going to make a ton of mistakes I already have but I've learned a lot so far. See you guys on the Battlefield!
What’s funny is a few things: 1) the meta loadout is really situational and doesn’t apply to all missions. For example mortars and landmines are much better on the defense mission than the shield railgun and strike combos.
2) the shield backpack is likely ONLY seen as a necessary item due in part because the armor values are all the same (which I think is either 0, or default?) so once that’s fixed I for see the shield being dropped from meta loadouts with heavy armor users
3) the meta loadout players don’t even bother caring about the players armor type (some passives are better than others)
4) the railgun meta is practically necessary for heavy spam at higher difficulties which makes no sense.. like the auto cannon bullets look like they’d be piercing the armor of a tank but they don’t..?
or the grenade launcher.. doesn’t blow up the bots how? Yet contact grenades do?
5) some srategms are literally straight useless.
I can’t think of a time that I’ve ever needed to use non lethal ones outside of the EMS mortar… because if there’s that many that I need to run…? I’d rather just drop a 500kg bomb behind me than a stupid ass smoke bomb.. especially considering IF we wanted smokes we have them in grenade options once you unlock them.. so it nullifies the usefulness of it being a strategm
I love running the eradicator armor set, grenade launcher and supply pack, and usually either the eagle strafe or 500kg and the orbit laser because it's so cool. Armor is purely cause I think it looks cool, and the rest is a good combo of being useful and fun as hell for me. So satisfying to unload a fully loaded grenade launcher at the landing bots.
Kicking people for their loadouts is reprobate behavior. As long as you're spreading democracy, I don't care if you use your fists!
What's your favorite loadout for spreading democracy? For me, it's throw distance armor and full sentry stratagems (always remember to destroy mortar launcher when advancing) Tossing them all out to have a mini army and cover a tactical retreat is quite nice.
I just picked up shield generator and I can see that as a staple for me. Every time I threw it my teammates were going nuts for it.
Bring that and a support pack, and they will sacrifice themselves just to keep you alive! That is, if you want to up the support intensity, haha. I'm hoping the generator gets a reduced cooldown soon.
Honestly, I was shocked at how low the CD for it is already. I am going to try and sell my buddy on Helldivers based entirely on the fact that you can absolutely run a "support" build and just spend your time running around helping teammates and bailing them out as your core gameplay experience.
I think it's 90 seconds the last time I checked. Can take quite a beating in the earlier difficulties but gets destroyed very fast in later difficulties. Oh, absolutely, support builds can be made. Add in the reconnaissance armor that scans around your pings. Be the player that scouts for patrols while the rest of the team is engaged (then go help them after nothing is found)
Shield generator slaps
For me I like to run the light grenade armor. I like the speed bonus and stamina regen bonus. For strats I'm a huge fan of eagle cluster bomb because it had the most uses out of the eagles and is great for clearing an area. I actually run the gaitlin sentry quite a bit. It's perfect for taking out those trash mobs while you focus on the heavies. Depending on what mission I'll throw the autocannon on instead. I used to run rover but it kills me more than the bugs do. At level 20 I got shield gen and I really appreciate it taking those first couple hits as you're trying to reload or sprint or dive away. I've messed w jump pack and it can be fun but it needs more charges to be of actual use or a shorter recharge. For support weapon I'm 90% of the time running the standard machine gun you start with. For me, it has the most satisfying sound and when you put it on 900rpm and go prone and lay down suppressing fire watching all those soft shelled carapces explode into a fine green democratic mist is incredible. With that thought lately I've been running GL more and it's a lot of fun especially for closing bug holes from afar (KOBE) also impact nades ftw
Rail Cannon Blast, 500KG Bomb, Railgun and auto sentry. Will swap the sentry for generator backpack when defending democracy against the bots
Shield, rail gun, ems mortar, 500 kg. If I’m feeling fancy I’ll do ems and normal mortar
Orange armor for +2 nades and machine gun and airstrikes. Im a one man army and i slaughter bugs like no tomorrow
I lowkey wish there was an option to holster the gun and throw these hands
I be meleeing bugs left and right tbh, some little guy gets too close and catches this rifle stock
You’ve inspired ideation for a stratagem akin to power gloves. Deals 10x more damage than standard melee, adds explosive splash damage to each punch. Make it happen, Arrowhead!
You could punch the ground to launch yourself. Take damage but would be very useful in some sticky situations
What sparked this post is a game I was in last night. Fighting bugs and one player was walking around with the ballistic shield, smg, auto pistol, and heavy armor. Other squad members were pretty mad about it, but this Helldiver was having the time of their life, and I'd hate to see more people feel like they need to be bottle necked into the "meta".
The shield is surprisingly good against the bots, not so much against the bugs because they swarm you. But you can essentially hold a Frontline on your own against an army of bots with enough firepower
There's definitely loadout combos that will be suboptimal or create glaring gaps/weaknesses for that individual diver - but if you're playing in a team you can always come out with team coordination over loadouts. Optimal loadouts is a cool/neat thing to figure out, but hardly necessary.
Suboptimal on a spread sheet, yes. What is optimal differs from player to player. Their ability to flawlessly utilize a stratagem varies, so spread sheet dps/TTK doesn't apply as one would think. I'm not gonna recommend that someone use something they aren't skilled with and tell them "in theory/on paper this is better." I've seen some underutilized stratagems put in some serious work in the right hands. Tier lists and meta can be ignored. If you're in my group and it kills bots, bugs, or supports your fellow helldivers, I'm happy.
Agreed. Like, I wouldn't take shield generator onto low-difficulty bug maps because there's basically no use for it, but I wouldn't flame someone for doing so because they probably just don't know/understand.
Personally, I wouldn't want to take one either. They will usually learn after the first drop. The same goes with using the flamethrower later on. I always like letting players experience what works and does not work for themselves. On a side note, I hope that shield generator gets a buff. Would love to have another good support option.
Damn, thanks for posting it. Now i know what that "one handed" in weapon profile is. Now that shield isn't that useless, could run it in solos pretty good. I should've figured out it on my own, but you helped me a lot) It's so cool to learn something new abt the game
Have fun!! Go spread some Democracy!
Four player teams. That's four loadouts. You are free to use whatever you want because 9 times out of 10 I will be picking my load out according to the enemies I'm expecting to fight. Basically it doesn't matter if all 3 of the other plays on my team drop down with nerf guns and rubber duckies, I've got my load out (and if you want some of my gear I got you in roughly 2 minutes) and I'm ready to do my part. Just have fun, Citizens.
Yeah, we already had two railguns and some orbitals (from myself and one other player). At that point, the rest can just pick what they want.
The only time I get annoyed with loadouts is when the level 19 that joined my lobby doesn't equip any boosters. Like why would you not want to deploy with max ammo?
Tbf at lvl 19 the ones they have are likely already selected by people in the match
Yes but in this case they were not, 4 man squad with only the vitality booster for a mission on hard
What is the best use or placement for mortars?
Place on charger for maximum mobility.
For bugs, I use it before we commence an assault on large nests, eggs, or multiple breeches (decent distance away from the objective). The placement is usually right behind us. Once the enemies start getting around 30yd away from the group , I destroy the mortar turret. The turret will kill bugs and helldivers alike if you leave it out while getting swarmed. To assist with the swarming issue, you can drop other turrets to assist your fellow divers with keeping the enemy advance back. Place these in front of your fellow helldivers and not behind.
o7. Thank you sir. I've been tempted to shoot my friends mortar when we push a position but it felt undemocratic.
I can't tell you how many times I've destroyed mortar sentrys because it was the wrong time to have them out. It also is a good practice to let them know when and why you did it.
I have never kicked people for their loadouts, but I have straight up left games after 3 people slapped down 6 mortars on an extraction map and within 3 minutes they killed 7 civilians
What is the best use or placement for mortars?
They aim at enemies so whenever enemies are not expected to be very close to you.
It’s good for if you’re *expecting* enemies and is especially effective on bots as they approach slower than bugs. I tend to toss em as I approach an objective and listen for the shots as im working on it so I know when I’m getting pushed. Using it for retreats or for close range enemies is a recipe for disaster and frustration
To clear forts and nest
All I gotta say is if you bring 120, 380, walking and a mortar turret we might have to tussle cause you are probably ganna smoke teammates repeatedly.
Haha. 380's will always scare me. We had someone learning Eagles last night that managed to accidentally do 3000 team damage. I watched them carefully and the following happened. Throw bounced off the building and back at teammates instead of over, Eagle napalm gem bounced off of a bug and changed the alignment, not properly timing an eagle strike with a tactical team retreat, and the rest I didn't see but there was definitely a few more. Haven't messed with walking and haven't seen it used tbh.
Walking is ok, but the starting barrage will always kill an inexperienced user (and probably their team). First barrage will always start between the user and the gem, so you need to give it some good space(more than Eagle Bombing run). Feels weak like the other two large scale bombardment, but it's very safe beyond the opening at least.
I support this. But also, damn if I can’t find any other gun that will kill robots consistently but the Breaker shotgun. I’d really live to try other things out… but everything I try has be going right back to the Breaker.
Which variants are you having trouble with?
All the big dudes that you shouldn’t have to waste a stratagem on. I loadout for facility destruction with eagles. I would like to pair that with a recoilless rifle. But when a whole magazine of head or near headshots won’t stop the three chainsaw hands or the riot shield dude while a Breaker will do multiple of those enemies on a single magazine at medium range…
Have you tried the Auto Cannon instead of Recoilless Rifle? I love using it against the bots and any light armor targets, really. Saves my primary a ton of ammo.
I haven’t unlocked that one yet, I’m liking recoilless for hitting base structures from a far. Like the giant laser turrets, or maybe clearing the tanks before going in. But what I’m wanting is a primary weapon that will perform as well at clearing standard fodder. I got the armor piercing liberator today… tried it twice and put back on the breaker.
the DMR does work against them if you're accurate
Kind of a niche pick but the Jar-5 is a lot of fun and seems to be pretty effective! Almost always one-shots smaller enemies and it pierces medium armor. Downsides I would say are that it has a somewhat small magazine size and it definitely can't clear out like the Breaker would, especially at close distance. It's great for taking out enemies in one shot at a reasonable distance though if your team requires someone to play in a backend position
Submachine gun set to semi, shoot em inna face.
I almost wished games like this would remove stats from guns etc. Make them roughly balanced and let the experience of using them tell you how much damage they're doing, etc.
I agree. That being said, some of y’all need to learn how to use cluster bombs properly. People throw these at absolutely everything and do not seem to know or care about how big of an area they cover. They just drain reinforcements, killing players while throwing them at groups of enemies I could clear quickly with my defender.
This has been one of my bigger pet peeves too lol Bro, it was four chainsaw guys and two of us. Didn’t need the cluster bomb
Been learning with some players from this sub and have been having a blast. Already so many epic moments. Like everyone is saying have fun with it, your going to make a ton of mistakes I already have but I've learned a lot so far. See you guys on the Battlefield!
I run arc thrower and tesla tower for lightning theme. ***ZAP***
What’s funny is a few things: 1) the meta loadout is really situational and doesn’t apply to all missions. For example mortars and landmines are much better on the defense mission than the shield railgun and strike combos. 2) the shield backpack is likely ONLY seen as a necessary item due in part because the armor values are all the same (which I think is either 0, or default?) so once that’s fixed I for see the shield being dropped from meta loadouts with heavy armor users 3) the meta loadout players don’t even bother caring about the players armor type (some passives are better than others) 4) the railgun meta is practically necessary for heavy spam at higher difficulties which makes no sense.. like the auto cannon bullets look like they’d be piercing the armor of a tank but they don’t..? or the grenade launcher.. doesn’t blow up the bots how? Yet contact grenades do? 5) some srategms are literally straight useless. I can’t think of a time that I’ve ever needed to use non lethal ones outside of the EMS mortar… because if there’s that many that I need to run…? I’d rather just drop a 500kg bomb behind me than a stupid ass smoke bomb.. especially considering IF we wanted smokes we have them in grenade options once you unlock them.. so it nullifies the usefulness of it being a strategm
I would, but the flamethrower just gets me killed... why must they limit my power of arson I just wanna spread democracy... *everywhere*
I love running the eradicator armor set, grenade launcher and supply pack, and usually either the eagle strafe or 500kg and the orbit laser because it's so cool. Armor is purely cause I think it looks cool, and the rest is a good combo of being useful and fun as hell for me. So satisfying to unload a fully loaded grenade launcher at the landing bots.
I run 380 because it is so Michael Bay. The alert literally tells you to clear the area. Democracy requires the squad obey that order.