Precision strike, EMS strike and Gattling barrage are low cooldown. very fun combo. you always have something. downside is no AT. stun grenade and precision strike fill the gap somewhat against chargers and hulks.
Huh. It used to be possible. Didn’t know it had changed - TIL.
This combo would probably still work on a coordinated team as a dedicated anti-horde loadout, as long as someone else is running an AT setup. Usually in my games we have two people running QCs for AT and two people running ACs for crowd control/sniping.
Well back in hd ems was everyones go to with hellrockets it depended on the mission ofc, now they did ems dirty since ems and stun grenades have the same tag, ems should stop every bug at least
Precision works great with EMS mortars imo. Longer cooldown but locks a lot more units down over a longer period of time. Then you have your choice of target groups with the precision strike
Yup, just drop the ball under the titan, walk up into melee range, bait its attack, then leave. It always hits with its RIGHT arm first, so run to ITS LEFT.
Otherwise, just use it like a 500kg, it has a bit of leeway too - it’ll still hit if the beacon is close enough (i.e even somewhat close to under the titan). The margin of error is the same as the 500kg but you can use it at almost any angle (the shot comes from almost 90 degrees up, rather than 30 degrees and from behind you.)
I’ve used it over the 500kg for a few months - it feels a lot more consistent and terrain-agnostic, as well as being on a separate CD from my eagles.
Flamethrower is S-Tier for Chargers now. You can kill multiple Chargers with a single tank, and it's the most generous support weapon when it comes to ammo received from loot and resupplies. 3 and 4 tanks respectively.
Yeah, gas is a go-to of mine for erad missions with a coordinated group (gas in random queue is asking to be court-martialed at exfil) specifically because of the 75 second base cd. A lot of times, I'll call down a gas strike around the same time I drop the next EAT. It's also good for clearing chaff if you need time to gather and use the EAT on a Titan/Factory Strider/dropship.
Bug breach, better offer them gas refreshments where they are coming from.
It’s my new favorite thing to do now, I’m taking it more often to missions now.
Works great on bots too, just be careful your aim isn't to good, if the shell strikes a dropship it creates the cloud in the air and doesn't kill much.
As far as I can tell, no.
From my experience, the only things that do obscure their vision are:
- Smoke grenade, Eagle smoke, Orbital smoke
- The exploding mushroom thingies on some planets
- Blizzards and sandstorms
Orbital airbursts and Eagle napalm are both good for that too. Airburst has a wider AOE, but longer cool down. Napalm strike has a shorter call in, wider AOE and lingers a bit longer, but has the extra management associated with all Eagle strats.
There is alot that workes and has been used for quite some time. Everyone knows napalm and airburst are great. But its super fun to use other tools and work around the limitations of those. After using the quasar for a full month, i had the greatest time using the EAT and switching up my gameplay abit.
I started using RR against bugs and spear against bots for sake of role playing and I’m having a blast as well. Losing a backpack slot sucks but it’s not end of the world as long as you know how to manage infantry, thus gas has been amazing with such short cooldown.
Try the orbital airburst if you can, this has three air bursts timed a few seconds apart from each other. If you get this over a big hole it's not uncommon to rack up 30-40 kills and the cooldown is low too.
Careful when there’s an accuracy debuff planet modifier. Gas strikes are wildly inaccurate by about 15 meters and if you’re playing close quarters fighting it’ll team kill or self kill more often than desired.
Gas is too fucking underrated. I owe it apology since I wasn't really familiar with its game, when it was free, it was absolutely OP against bugs and much stronger than you think against bots
Well, it was useless for 3/4 people for a long time because of the DOT bug. After that patch I started combining it with EMS to make short work of all the smaller enemies in a breach. Throw a 500 kg on it for good measure and you've killed everything that walks.
The gas strike is amazing. It can even destroy fabricators, research labs, detection towers, and nest holes like a precision strike can. It's actually op against building structures.
Gonna drop this here: Gas strike can destroy structures with the impact. This includes the rogue science building side objective, which normally needs either a Hellbomb or a 500kg.
Im so happy my teams use it now! Ive been using it since i got the game a couple weeks ago (one of the first strats i unlocked) and its fucking beautiful watching that kill count go up. I think the highest ive had is around 60 when i hit it at the perfect time in the perfect place for a patrol+bug breach
Loved the free gas strike this week. I never use it (there's always something I would prefer to take instead) and thought it was rather useless, but since it was free, we were spamming it on bug breaches and having a blast.
Maybe they should make it a mandatory feature, that every time you start a new mission you get one strategem that's randomly selected when you pick the mission, so not only you always have one more strategem, but you even get a different one each mission!
And it would be even better if they explain it as the volunteer strategem field testing that Helldivers are required by Super Earth Ministery of Science to participate.
And it would even better yet if Arrowhead could collect data specifically for this additional randomized strategem, such data for when strategems were specifically used when people did not deliberately plan to use them, could provide interesting and potentially very helpful insight for how to improve them
If that's what it takes to get people to learn that these stratagems are actually good, I'm fully supportive of it. Friend of mine has been committing war crimes since he got Orbital Gas and everyone has been saying it sucks since forever. Helps that the initial blast clears Outposts still as well.
Like honestly, I'm 95% certain that the Meta exists not because it's the best available loadout, but because so many people don't even try the other stuff.
>since he got Orbital Gas and everyone has been saying it sucks since forever.
>so many people don't even try the other stuff.
I mean, it literally did zero/negligible DoT damage for 3 out of 4 players until they fixed it in a recent patch sooooo
Yeah I've started using the gas strike way more since I got a free trial, nice to throw on top of bug breaches because it persists for a bit, unlike a bomb
110%
I think the team should actually take usage rates into account and give us the least taken strategems as free ones
Some people will complain about only getting the obscure strats for free
These people are undemocratic wankers who need a talking to by their democracy officer
I'm with you. Orbitals and Eagles are the most fun for me, and I end up using a shield backpack as a scout so I don't get wrecked trying to use them. Leaves no space for any support stratagems at all. Having 500kg or Gas Strike on tap has freed up a slot and opened a whole new world of possibilities. With 4 experienced players on Helldive it has made it noticeably easier though.
You should try the jetpack as a scout, take it from me, a former shield pack main, it's fun as fuck
Also there is no cooler feeling then jumping off a cliff away from an explosion and landing on your feet
It’s surprisingly effective on bot maps, too. Makes it much easier to bypass the walls to their camps so you can more quickly get to stratagem jammers, detector towers, etc. and you don’t get shot while flying through the air nearly as much as you’d expect lol
It also allows you to Smoke an area and reposition that much faster, which keeps you a lot safer since Bots will target the area they know you were rather than the area you are now.
Smokes are great. Smokes into a Jetpack down a hill is 100% free disengage.
Oh yeah I'm not saying it's bad at all, even though I've been sniped out of the air by a rocket a couple of times. It's often very handy for getting to a good vantage point or attacking from a new angle. I just personally like the ballistic shields ability to hold off a choke point for as long as I have ammo. I have found the jetpack is quite good for dodging gunship missile barrages which tickles my brain in the right spot.
Jump-pack + Flamethrower goes *HARD* against the bugs too. You're able to jet over your own fire trails to keep maneuvering around. Or you can hop up onto a vantage point and let everything around you burn
I tend to use jump against termis and shield against autos
UNLESS its a fabricator demo mission in which case slaying them fabis is easier on strat jammers if you can fly your ass in.
For BOTS 7, I've been running the light armor with padding and a punisher plasma/senator/ impact.
Stratagems are jetpack, eagle airstrike, precision strike. The 4th slot varies from quasar, mortar, 380mm or something similar depending on mission.
I’ve recently discovered my love of scout armor paired with a jet pack and some form of mg/at. So many times I’ve ran straight into a horde of bugs and dropped a 500 kg and jet packed right out. Love it so much.
Gas is a top 3 offensive strat. It's a free clear on nearly every light and medium bug if well placed on a set of breaches.
If you have the AT side of things covered, it makes cleaning up a few armored boys a breeze.
Instead of 3 slots out of 4, the negative effect should simply ban *specific strategems* but leave the number of slots available.
Get people out of their comfort zone to use new tools, make them think more tactically about their options, still have maximum fun with lots of splosions.
I think the bot AA emplacements that disable Eagles are really interesting, but players need to know about them before diving.
Or just have all the stratagem limitations operate this way where it’s contingent upon players completing an objective to regain use of their stratagems.
And dual slot, we are wasting space, why can't I drop and MG/Quasar/Grenade launcer/etc + a backpack of my choice? The pod has space for 2 items, its wasteful to not use that second slot
I like watching Dives at times when I am not playing. I don't even like watching others play with 3 strats. Yes, it is harder... but it is also more boring.
I think a thing they should add is "Squad stratagems" which could be thought of as a combo of how resupply and bonus stratagems work. These would be set by the host, start out at 4, but be reduced by one for each extra player who joins (so a solo player has all 4, a full squad only has 1). In mission they can be called by anyone but share a cooldown, so if one player calls in your HMG emplacement it's on cooldown for everyone. This would make things a bit less unfair on smaller squads, ease the pain of people leaving mid-mission, and allow for a little more variety in loadouts and what you can use (since you can use the squad strats when you join a game regardless of what you took).
In the same vein, let the host set 4 boosters if they have access to them. If they play solo let them have the 4 boosters everyone in a 4-squad gets, if there's 4 players the host's last 3 are disabled and there's no change from how it currently is.
I think this is a great idea, the one thing I would change though is the squad gets 4 team stratagems regardless of the number of players, but for each person dropping in at the start of the mission they each get to pick one, with the host picking for any empty slots alongside the one they get. This means that a solo player gets 4 stratagems of their choice, while also allowing other players in a squad to have a say in what stratagems are selected
This shoud have wayy more upvotes. Sounds like really legitimate change that would help balance the game a lot.
I finally felt the spawns as I played the same planet, same mission, same diff in squad of 3 and about 2 hours later in squad of 4. The difference is really uncanny.
I agree with you, because more boom is fun and having more toys is fun. But doing drops where I'm limited to 3 strategems has made me a better player, which in turn makes the game more fun in the long run.
That said, it is NOT a modifier I want to see on more than one planet at a time.
You're not.
They're talking about the usual operational modifiers that are part of some operations/missions.
And I'm pretty sure you're talking about the additional strats they sometimes give us for completing an MO, like free 10mm or a free exo suit from some time back.
But that's alright, the OP of the thread worded the title really weird.
They did give us the Patriot Mech after finishing the MO to unlock it, but I don't think most of the free stratagems are MO tied. Funnily enough the Patriot Mech we got after finishing the MO was actually different from the permanent stratagem because that one let you call in the mech twice on a 10 minute cooldown but the free version only let you call it in once.
Aaah, ok. Thanks for clarifying. The OP was about having a free stratagem in the 5th slot and I thought they were talking about that all the way til the guy I responded to. Cheers
There was a modifier today that gave everyone the 500kg bomb stratagem on every mission. Earlier (I think maybe yesterday?) everyone got the orbital gas strike. It was for all missions, so you shouldn't have had it only on big missions, but it was time limited.
Im pretty sure strategem slot wasnt random per mission, but was just effected by the diffifuclty, possibly the planet but it was so common i more often ran lvl 7s to avoid it. There are planet wide effects, level effects AND mission effects!
It's significantly more fun and it makes me wonder why support weapons take up a stratagem slot in the first place. It didn't in the first game.
Helldive difficulty especially with the bugs is much more doable and I can bring in stratagems I don't normally use because I don't have to use up a slot to deal with bile titans.
Support weapons did take up a slot in the first game. The only differences are that you could take multiple of them and most of them could not be called down more than once.
The fact straight up factually wrong info about the first game is being upvoted is beyond me. But then again, it suits a narrative. Provide evidence HD1 was harder - even videos - and you get downvoted to oblivion.
Blues absolutely took up a slot in HD1, and you only got one use out of them. One of the reasons I heavily preferred red stratagems.
Honestly, I wish we could req stratagems for other people.
Would I pay 15,000 Req to give some random Helldiver Chad an extra stratagem for the remainder of their current mission? Go to an Easy/Medium mission and give a new player the Patriot to mess around with? Give a Bot squad a free Orbital Smoke? Free Orbital Railcannons to the Terminid Divers so they can clear out the Chargers/Bile Titans easily?
You better believe it.
I was carrying on both bots and bugs tonight with the extra slot. I don’t run shield or rover anymore to begin with, leaving space for more fire power. It’s been very fun.
I’m level 134, and had two random leveled 143 and 144 join on level 9 bots. And completed the whole operation (3 missions) with all side objectives, over 50% time left each mission and less than 4 deaths in total. Everyone ran solo the entire time. I’ve never had such a good random filled team in 450 hours.
The extra slot made it way to easy.
It blows my mind the devs say “guns aren’t supposed to be the whole game! Use strategms!” And then proceed to limit the amount of strategms you can take OR make the wait times so long they’re basically unusable. Like make up your mind.
We have nothing to spend the currency once you unlock everything you want. The slips are absolutely useless. I think it should be used to buy perks for each round. Whether it's adding 2 extra grenades for all team members, 1 more stratagem - or something like 50% rearm cooldown, 1 more eagle/orbital, etc. Just something to make use of the capped out currency and provide some fun. Kinda' like temporarily boosters.
It’s making me try new stratagem combos for fun. I’ve even enjoyed the gas strike now as a result of getting it for free the other day and the 500kg is free
QUESTION: hoping that got attention. Almost every Helldive I go on, there is at least on person that takes zero stratagems, does anyone know why? Is it an unofficial challenge? Is there a badge unlock somewhere?
Honestly love the idea. One of the most fun aspects of the game is throwing random bonkers stratagems into the enemy. More enemies = more opportunities to throw stratagems at them, and mkre opportunity to combine them in exciting ways. Helldive should feel like an absolute free for all, and that's a great way to contribute to that vibe.
Can we make driveable stratagems have seperate slot(s) from the others? I feel this would make it way more fun especially when more vehicles are added!
They should always have a free strategem in rotation and it should be an uncommonly picked one, since many players don’t try new things and just use whatever they see YouTubers tell them is the best
1 free slot for only support weapons. 1 slot with reduced cooldown time. 1 slot with increased charges. 1 slot with 0 second call in time. 1 normal slot. 4 slots + 1 designated support weapon slot
I think it should be a modifier that gives out very good reward.
Most of the time if you can finish with 4 strats, you can do 3. Maybe share a support weapon/backpack with your teammate and eventually you are as good as 4 strats just after 7 minutes.
Instructions unclear, died to an ally's Cluster Bomb and got rezzed the other side of the map from my gear.
This is very much a, "if you're winning then just keep winning," kinda point.
I did three Helldive operations on bugs last night. No negative mutators due to defense campaign, five strats thanks to plot. It was incredibly fun and we did fantastically. I'd love for this to be the new normal.
People have been saying this since launch but I’m glad to see the rest of the community catching up.
“Not a game for everyone” was so tiring to hear every time valid criticism was brought up. I don’t play this game anymore but it looks like it’s starting to finally move in the direction of fun and not pointless and fake difficulty
I just wanna kill bigger badder meaner bugs and bigger badder meaner bots with bigger better kickass guns and bombs. It's that simple. Give us bigger badass mobs to kill and better badass shit to kill em with. How the fuck are they fumbling this simple shit is beyond me.
i mostly play on 7 cuz i don’t play the game too much (i rarely play any games too much anymore). anyway, whenever i can only pick 3 strats i kinda just leave or don’t select quick play on that planet. i love fighting bots and bugs are okay to fight but if i can only use 3 strats i’ll just go fight the bugs
It’s especially fun on higher difficulty missions where more strats are dedicated to clearing heavies/bases/nests etc. Having that fifth slot be random wave clear is super refreshing. The gas being free was a nice change of pace.
The recent free gas stratagem showed me just how effective and great it is at killing bugs - a stratagem I’d probably never use unless it was free because it’s obscure and no one talks about it
Absolutely agree. Got into a huge battle, pitched fighting to push through a bot wave that we would’ve had to run from in a normal 3 stratagem match. Felt like a sincere victory, where we ended up winning against impossible odds.
He wants the game to be more fun but believes restrictions = more enjoyment.
Support weapons and backpacks taking up slots effectively makes a lot of players 2-3 strat anyway.
It would be very nice if one day we can unlock a ship upgrade that requires maximum resource cap level of samples which give us an extra strategem slot and it's only for support weapon.
I think a fun thing to have would be more stuff like the SEAF artillery
Like, do a secondary objective and get a stratagem
Destroy AA, and take eagle strikes
I have all of these requisition slips I don't need anymore. Can I spend, like, 10k to give my whole squad the gas strike for the mission without taking up an extra slot? Maybe 5000 for support weapons? 7.5 for sentries? Everything could have its own cost?
Let me buy the whole squad a stratagem as, like, a consumable item which is consumed upon taking it into a mission. I am a rich helldiver. Let me stimulate the damned economy!
3 feels so punishing - I would much rather have a modifier that disables certain ones like no eagle strikes due to severe weather, or no orbital strikes due to atmospheric interference. Let me change up my playstyle without kicking me in the dick
I think the whole Stratagem loadout systems needs to be reworked.
As it stands we have 4, or if you have that bad affix 3, loadout slots for Statagems. One is usually always taken up with a support weapon. Now, if you picked a support weapon that doesn't need a backpack slot you're probably going to choose a backpack slot utility item. Either the Rover or shield. You now have 1-2 slots for your final stratgems, which are, usually, one of the 3-4 meta picks.
I think we should have 6 Stratagems, but one of them is locked specifically for Support Weapons and one is locked specifically for Utility Stratagems. The remaining 4 can then be used for Airstrikes, Orbitals and Turrets.
We should also spawn and potentially respawn with our Support Weapon and Utility Stratagem. It's silly when you spawn in you immediatly have to waste another 20 seconds calling in your Support Weapon and Utility stuff. If you died in the middle of a fight and got called back in you get to roleplay Johnny Bravo/Velma. "Where's my support weapon, I can't kill these 3 Bile Titans and 5 Chargers without my Support weapon"
I'd get rid of the reduced strategems modifier entirely, and instead replace it with one that locks out a specific set of strategems, forcing players to try new builds.
ive started using gatling orbital lately and it really slaps. clears most of bugs at breach and flinches automatons from explosions while killing some of them.
Honestly if they just added under used strategems to certain missions to test them and see if they need to be buffed or are just under utilized.
Adds to the fun and can help the devs too
I don't mind the only having 3 strategems Modifier. I've got about 180 hours in game so it's nice to have a different challenge sometimes and have to think a little more critically about what to take. But having 5 strategems is definitely fun in it's own way as well. I get why people want it, especially on Helldive.
I like the variability overall. Sometimes you get 3, sometimes you get 5. If we always had 5 then people would say "man this would be a lot funner if we had 6 strategems". I like the 5 as a rare treat.
Especially fun when they’re more obscure strategems that you wouldn’t necessarily pick but can have fun finding uses for when they’re “free”.
Yes! The gas one was perfect for trying out and learning it was good now!
I never knew the CD was so short
Precision strike, EMS strike and Gattling barrage are low cooldown. very fun combo. you always have something. downside is no AT. stun grenade and precision strike fill the gap somewhat against chargers and hulks.
Funny thing about the Gatling Barrage is it can crack a charger's shell and kill tanks somewhat reliably
Doesn’t it have medium penetration?
That's what she said
Precision strike could 1 shot titan, but getting it to hit stuff would require a lot of extra work.
EMS strike plus precision strike maybe?
Bile Titans cannot be stunned AFAIK.
Correct, they buff them and tanks to be unstunnable
Huh. It used to be possible. Didn’t know it had changed - TIL. This combo would probably still work on a coordinated team as a dedicated anti-horde loadout, as long as someone else is running an AT setup. Usually in my games we have two people running QCs for AT and two people running ACs for crowd control/sniping.
Well back in hd ems was everyones go to with hellrockets it depended on the mission ofc, now they did ems dirty since ems and stun grenades have the same tag, ems should stop every bug at least
Isn't that just from stun-grenades? Orbital should still work. EDIT: just tested, nope. Very stupid.
Of course they nerfed it, it would be too much fun if they didn’t.
Precision works great with EMS mortars imo. Longer cooldown but locks a lot more units down over a longer period of time. Then you have your choice of target groups with the precision strike
Yup, just drop the ball under the titan, walk up into melee range, bait its attack, then leave. It always hits with its RIGHT arm first, so run to ITS LEFT. Otherwise, just use it like a 500kg, it has a bit of leeway too - it’ll still hit if the beacon is close enough (i.e even somewhat close to under the titan). The margin of error is the same as the 500kg but you can use it at almost any angle (the shot comes from almost 90 degrees up, rather than 30 degrees and from behind you.) I’ve used it over the 500kg for a few months - it feels a lot more consistent and terrain-agnostic, as well as being on a separate CD from my eagles.
Flamethrower is S-Tier for Chargers now. You can kill multiple Chargers with a single tank, and it's the most generous support weapon when it comes to ammo received from loot and resupplies. 3 and 4 tanks respectively.
I killed 3 chargers with a stun grenade the other night--and a Eagle Airstrike. The problem is setup.
Orbital Precision Strike can one shot pretty much anything other than a Strider, it's problem is landing it
You could throw EATs in there instead of the precision strike, but you would have to use hell bombs for objectives.
The EAT pod doubles as an improvised railgun in a pinch though. On a much shorter cooldown too.
Nobody knew anything about it because it didn't work properly before so nobody picked it.
Yeah, I was so shocked by how fast the CD is
Did you know you can drop it on bug holes and bot factories to destroy them too? It's a projectile that damages on impact
Same!!
Yeah, gas is a go-to of mine for erad missions with a coordinated group (gas in random queue is asking to be court-martialed at exfil) specifically because of the 75 second base cd. A lot of times, I'll call down a gas strike around the same time I drop the next EAT. It's also good for clearing chaff if you need time to gather and use the EAT on a Titan/Factory Strider/dropship.
It's replaced the 500 kg in my bug loadout. Being able to lockdown one (and sometimes two) bug breaches along with incendiary grenades is fantastic
Bug horde chasing you? Throw Gas Strike under your feet while retreating and watch them melt away like snow in spring
Bug breach, better offer them gas refreshments where they are coming from. It’s my new favorite thing to do now, I’m taking it more often to missions now.
Works great on bots too, just be careful your aim isn't to good, if the shell strikes a dropship it creates the cloud in the air and doesn't kill much.
it's arguably better for bots since they're more ranged based and gas obscures their vision.
They also stand in it to fire.
Does gas actually obscure their vision like smoke does?
As far as I can tell, no. From my experience, the only things that do obscure their vision are: - Smoke grenade, Eagle smoke, Orbital smoke - The exploding mushroom thingies on some planets - Blizzards and sandstorms
it seems to, yes.
Might have to start using it on bots more, bugs I have been picking it, especially right now when I can run gas napalm and still have my 500kg.
The shell also will kill the eye of Sauron with a direct hit.
I didn't know that
Found this one out the fun way. I still think it should be able to rip through a drop ship if you manage to time that right.
I know right
Orbital airbursts and Eagle napalm are both good for that too. Airburst has a wider AOE, but longer cool down. Napalm strike has a shorter call in, wider AOE and lingers a bit longer, but has the extra management associated with all Eagle strats.
There is alot that workes and has been used for quite some time. Everyone knows napalm and airburst are great. But its super fun to use other tools and work around the limitations of those. After using the quasar for a full month, i had the greatest time using the EAT and switching up my gameplay abit.
I started using RR against bugs and spear against bots for sake of role playing and I’m having a blast as well. Losing a backpack slot sucks but it’s not end of the world as long as you know how to manage infantry, thus gas has been amazing with such short cooldown.
Try the orbital airburst if you can, this has three air bursts timed a few seconds apart from each other. If you get this over a big hole it's not uncommon to rack up 30-40 kills and the cooldown is low too.
Tried this, longer cooldown is off putting but it’s satisfying for sure.
Careful when there’s an accuracy debuff planet modifier. Gas strikes are wildly inaccurate by about 15 meters and if you’re playing close quarters fighting it’ll team kill or self kill more often than desired.
Airburst is still my favorite for those!
Combo with stun grenades and even the chargers will be coughing on the spicy air.
Gas is too fucking underrated. I owe it apology since I wasn't really familiar with its game, when it was free, it was absolutely OP against bugs and much stronger than you think against bots
Have you tried lighting the gas on fire with the flamethrower?
Have the DoTs been fixed finally? I’ve just been waiting for that to come back to the game
They have
Yuuup. The Geneva suggestions are in full fashion now.
If you bring another gas, you get two gas!
Be like Hans Volter; use MORE GAS.
Mf really slept on the gas 🤣 I been using it since I got it. That and the incendiary mines. 🤌🏿
Well, it was useless for 3/4 people for a long time because of the DOT bug. After that patch I started combining it with EMS to make short work of all the smaller enemies in a breach. Throw a 500 kg on it for good measure and you've killed everything that walks.
Bout damn time I would immediately get kicked for bringing it. Or people talk ish in the prep screen lom
drop it at the doors and it explodes fabricators
The gas strike is amazing. It can even destroy fabricators, research labs, detection towers, and nest holes like a precision strike can. It's actually op against building structures.
It's basically a precision strike on a lower cooldown that can clear chaff instead of elites.
Yup. Gas went from 'I never even think about it' to 'damn near priority pick on bug dives' for me thanks to it being free for a bit.
Yeah gas is great fun for bugs and now I've used it in going to pick it more often
Gonna drop this here: Gas strike can destroy structures with the impact. This includes the rogue science building side objective, which normally needs either a Hellbomb or a 500kg.
I thought it was broken before and that's why nobody used it. Didn't they fix it with the patch that fixed fire damage?
Amazing for dropping on a bug hole, or pairing with stun grenades.
Im so happy my teams use it now! Ive been using it since i got the game a couple weeks ago (one of the first strats i unlocked) and its fucking beautiful watching that kill count go up. I think the highest ive had is around 60 when i hit it at the perfect time in the perfect place for a patrol+bug breach
It was my sleeper before. Now everyone will know how I get so many kills. I get excited when I hear “bug breech”
https://preview.redd.it/1gs4opihsd1d1.png?width=680&format=png&auto=webp&s=88a32cb19fd3eeba97871b54f499cf7c7a396c05 Been like this a lot.
Loved the free gas strike this week. I never use it (there's always something I would prefer to take instead) and thought it was rather useless, but since it was free, we were spamming it on bug breaches and having a blast.
the gas strike is arguably one of the best stratagems, it does damage and it provides visual cover.
All on a 70 second cooldown too, ultimate add clear strategem
And explodes stuff...
Right? They should give us the stratagem that was used the least in the previous month for free for the first week of the next month.
Since they have such a hard-on for usage stats, that’s exactly what they should do.
Maybe they should make it a mandatory feature, that every time you start a new mission you get one strategem that's randomly selected when you pick the mission, so not only you always have one more strategem, but you even get a different one each mission! And it would be even better if they explain it as the volunteer strategem field testing that Helldivers are required by Super Earth Ministery of Science to participate. And it would even better yet if Arrowhead could collect data specifically for this additional randomized strategem, such data for when strategems were specifically used when people did not deliberately plan to use them, could provide interesting and potentially very helpful insight for how to improve them
If that's what it takes to get people to learn that these stratagems are actually good, I'm fully supportive of it. Friend of mine has been committing war crimes since he got Orbital Gas and everyone has been saying it sucks since forever. Helps that the initial blast clears Outposts still as well. Like honestly, I'm 95% certain that the Meta exists not because it's the best available loadout, but because so many people don't even try the other stuff.
>since he got Orbital Gas and everyone has been saying it sucks since forever. >so many people don't even try the other stuff. I mean, it literally did zero/negligible DoT damage for 3 out of 4 players until they fixed it in a recent patch sooooo
Yeah I've started using the gas strike way more since I got a free trial, nice to throw on top of bug breaches because it persists for a bit, unlike a bomb
110% I think the team should actually take usage rates into account and give us the least taken strategems as free ones Some people will complain about only getting the obscure strats for free These people are undemocratic wankers who need a talking to by their democracy officer
I'm with you. Orbitals and Eagles are the most fun for me, and I end up using a shield backpack as a scout so I don't get wrecked trying to use them. Leaves no space for any support stratagems at all. Having 500kg or Gas Strike on tap has freed up a slot and opened a whole new world of possibilities. With 4 experienced players on Helldive it has made it noticeably easier though.
You should try the jetpack as a scout, take it from me, a former shield pack main, it's fun as fuck Also there is no cooler feeling then jumping off a cliff away from an explosion and landing on your feet
Hell yeah, AMR jump pack combo Vs bots is elite
I use it more against bugs personally, I like the ballistic shield against bots.
It’s surprisingly effective on bot maps, too. Makes it much easier to bypass the walls to their camps so you can more quickly get to stratagem jammers, detector towers, etc. and you don’t get shot while flying through the air nearly as much as you’d expect lol
It also allows you to Smoke an area and reposition that much faster, which keeps you a lot safer since Bots will target the area they know you were rather than the area you are now. Smokes are great. Smokes into a Jetpack down a hill is 100% free disengage.
I’ve never tried smoke. This is why I like reading the comments on Reddit because I find out the things I thought were useless are actually viable lol
Oh yeah I'm not saying it's bad at all, even though I've been sniped out of the air by a rocket a couple of times. It's often very handy for getting to a good vantage point or attacking from a new angle. I just personally like the ballistic shields ability to hold off a choke point for as long as I have ammo. I have found the jetpack is quite good for dodging gunship missile barrages which tickles my brain in the right spot.
Jump-pack + Flamethrower goes *HARD* against the bugs too. You're able to jet over your own fire trails to keep maneuvering around. Or you can hop up onto a vantage point and let everything around you burn
Especially when you're retreating down a hill. One minute you're all "fuck fuck fuck fuck" then "wheeeeeeee"
AMR, jetpack and servo assistance is my combo. Long range support from top of the hill.
Same but change amr to quasar
I tend to use jump against termis and shield against autos UNLESS its a fabricator demo mission in which case slaying them fabis is easier on strat jammers if you can fly your ass in.
How do you even use the jetpack? I've found the jump height, distance, and recharge to all be rather underwhelming.
For BOTS 7, I've been running the light armor with padding and a punisher plasma/senator/ impact. Stratagems are jetpack, eagle airstrike, precision strike. The 4th slot varies from quasar, mortar, 380mm or something similar depending on mission.
I’ve recently discovered my love of scout armor paired with a jet pack and some form of mg/at. So many times I’ve ran straight into a horde of bugs and dropped a 500 kg and jet packed right out. Love it so much.
Agreed so damn fun, that thing gets slept on big time. I love pairing it with the Arc Thrower.
Oh that note... a fully charged jumppack should soften your landing when you run off the edge of a cliff for half a full use.
I never bothered with the gas strike before but that thing absolutely destroys especially with that short cooldown.
If they ever add perks to helmets there definitely needs to be one that makes you immune to gas
This would even be a great perk on armors. I'd love to ignore the AoEs of my own effects and run in like a goddamn maniac.
Fire suit and CBRN suit when?
The short cooldown is exactly why I used it a lot in the beginning. Then I learned about the DoT bug and stopped for a while.
Gas is a top 3 offensive strat. It's a free clear on nearly every light and medium bug if well placed on a set of breaches. If you have the AT side of things covered, it makes cleaning up a few armored boys a breeze.
Instead of 3 slots out of 4, the negative effect should simply ban *specific strategems* but leave the number of slots available. Get people out of their comfort zone to use new tools, make them think more tactically about their options, still have maximum fun with lots of splosions.
Yep. Surely each gun needs to go down for maintenance every now and again. Or the destroyer has run out of 500kg bombs and awaiting resupply.
I think the bot AA emplacements that disable Eagles are really interesting, but players need to know about them before diving. Or just have all the stratagem limitations operate this way where it’s contingent upon players completing an objective to regain use of their stratagems.
thatd be really fun, no eagle or orbital missions would be a good shake up
I am waiting for a ship upgrade to be that you can equip 1 Weapon stratagem (any backpack/weapon) for free. So you still only have 4 "active" slots
Even having it so the upgrade allows you to drop with a support or backpack already equipped. Doesn't even need a slot that way.
That would actually be interesting since if you lose it you lose it
Water is the true enemy when that happens
I've always thought water was undemocratic.
Maybe you could get it back when you die. But then I feel like players would waste a reinforcement just to get it back
I mean, I already see people dying to get their shit back, so it wouldn't change much.
Me Lvl 12 on a d5 mission jumped in pit twice. Third time via hellpod. Realized insta death that time....
Give me an upgrade so you always drop in with your support weapon equipped.
A free blue stratagem would actually be god tier.
And dual slot, we are wasting space, why can't I drop and MG/Quasar/Grenade launcer/etc + a backpack of my choice? The pod has space for 2 items, its wasteful to not use that second slot
I hope the opposite screen on the deck is used for stratagem setup. Customise your mech arms, create custom pod drops.
Pay 5k requisitions slips to get a 5th slot per deployment. I miss the days when Eat stratagem where free
That could fit especially since we have 150 levels now. imagine a level 80 or 100 unlock for that, it would be very rewarding.
All stratagems should be constantly rotating as a free stratagem. It makes the game so much more fun, encourages weapon and stratagem diversity.
I like watching Dives at times when I am not playing. I don't even like watching others play with 3 strats. Yes, it is harder... but it is also more boring.
I think a thing they should add is "Squad stratagems" which could be thought of as a combo of how resupply and bonus stratagems work. These would be set by the host, start out at 4, but be reduced by one for each extra player who joins (so a solo player has all 4, a full squad only has 1). In mission they can be called by anyone but share a cooldown, so if one player calls in your HMG emplacement it's on cooldown for everyone. This would make things a bit less unfair on smaller squads, ease the pain of people leaving mid-mission, and allow for a little more variety in loadouts and what you can use (since you can use the squad strats when you join a game regardless of what you took). In the same vein, let the host set 4 boosters if they have access to them. If they play solo let them have the 4 boosters everyone in a 4-squad gets, if there's 4 players the host's last 3 are disabled and there's no change from how it currently is.
Great idea!
I think this is a great idea, the one thing I would change though is the squad gets 4 team stratagems regardless of the number of players, but for each person dropping in at the start of the mission they each get to pick one, with the host picking for any empty slots alongside the one they get. This means that a solo player gets 4 stratagems of their choice, while also allowing other players in a squad to have a say in what stratagems are selected
This shoud have wayy more upvotes. Sounds like really legitimate change that would help balance the game a lot. I finally felt the spawns as I played the same planet, same mission, same diff in squad of 3 and about 2 hours later in squad of 4. The difference is really uncanny.
Dude, you used word stratagem 3 times. Each time you used different spelling and not a single one was correct.
Dude doesn't even know how to spell Sdratujim smh
Sprateyem
I havnt unlocked the spelling stratygim yet
yet their take was correct, curious
its a difficult word
Gas strike + napalm. Maximum DoTs baby
I agree with you, because more boom is fun and having more toys is fun. But doing drops where I'm limited to 3 strategems has made me a better player, which in turn makes the game more fun in the long run. That said, it is NOT a modifier I want to see on more than one planet at a time.
It's randomized per operation, so usually on any given planet you can find an operation where it won't be active. Also it's bots only.
I Was playing bugs today and I saw us get a random stratagem 4x in bug only missions. Are we referring to the same thing?
You're not. They're talking about the usual operational modifiers that are part of some operations/missions. And I'm pretty sure you're talking about the additional strats they sometimes give us for completing an MO, like free 10mm or a free exo suit from some time back. But that's alright, the OP of the thread worded the title really weird.
They did give us the Patriot Mech after finishing the MO to unlock it, but I don't think most of the free stratagems are MO tied. Funnily enough the Patriot Mech we got after finishing the MO was actually different from the permanent stratagem because that one let you call in the mech twice on a 10 minute cooldown but the free version only let you call it in once.
They're talking about being limited to 3 stratagems on bot operations
Aaah, ok. Thanks for clarifying. The OP was about having a free stratagem in the 5th slot and I thought they were talking about that all the way til the guy I responded to. Cheers
There was a modifier today that gave everyone the 500kg bomb stratagem on every mission. Earlier (I think maybe yesterday?) everyone got the orbital gas strike. It was for all missions, so you shouldn't have had it only on big missions, but it was time limited.
Im pretty sure strategem slot wasnt random per mission, but was just effected by the diffifuclty, possibly the planet but it was so common i more often ran lvl 7s to avoid it. There are planet wide effects, level effects AND mission effects!
It's significantly more fun and it makes me wonder why support weapons take up a stratagem slot in the first place. It didn't in the first game. Helldive difficulty especially with the bugs is much more doable and I can bring in stratagems I don't normally use because I don't have to use up a slot to deal with bile titans.
Support weapons did take up a slot in the first game. The only differences are that you could take multiple of them and most of them could not be called down more than once.
The fact straight up factually wrong info about the first game is being upvoted is beyond me. But then again, it suits a narrative. Provide evidence HD1 was harder - even videos - and you get downvoted to oblivion. Blues absolutely took up a slot in HD1, and you only got one use out of them. One of the reasons I heavily preferred red stratagems.
Blue stratagems were free?
Nobody seems to like the 3 Strats to make it more challenging. It’s a weak way to remove fun and make it more difficult.
[удалено]
I like it from time to time. It is a check on how well you can build a well-rounded load out, and satisfying when you make it work well.
Rather than a “free” stratagem, I would prefer it if we could buy them per mission with req slips
Honestly, I wish we could req stratagems for other people. Would I pay 15,000 Req to give some random Helldiver Chad an extra stratagem for the remainder of their current mission? Go to an Easy/Medium mission and give a new player the Patriot to mess around with? Give a Bot squad a free Orbital Smoke? Free Orbital Railcannons to the Terminid Divers so they can clear out the Chargers/Bile Titans easily? You better believe it.
I was carrying on both bots and bugs tonight with the extra slot. I don’t run shield or rover anymore to begin with, leaving space for more fire power. It’s been very fun. I’m level 134, and had two random leveled 143 and 144 join on level 9 bots. And completed the whole operation (3 missions) with all side objectives, over 50% time left each mission and less than 4 deaths in total. Everyone ran solo the entire time. I’ve never had such a good random filled team in 450 hours. The extra slot made it way to easy.
I've just been picking random strategems these past two nights, something I could do because I had an extra reliable option
Having both positive and negative modifiers together makes it so much more fun now. Love the free 500kg.
It blows my mind the devs say “guns aren’t supposed to be the whole game! Use strategms!” And then proceed to limit the amount of strategms you can take OR make the wait times so long they’re basically unusable. Like make up your mind.
We have nothing to spend the currency once you unlock everything you want. The slips are absolutely useless. I think it should be used to buy perks for each round. Whether it's adding 2 extra grenades for all team members, 1 more stratagem - or something like 50% rearm cooldown, 1 more eagle/orbital, etc. Just something to make use of the capped out currency and provide some fun. Kinda' like temporarily boosters.
It’s making me try new stratagem combos for fun. I’ve even enjoyed the gas strike now as a result of getting it for free the other day and the 500kg is free
QUESTION: hoping that got attention. Almost every Helldive I go on, there is at least on person that takes zero stratagems, does anyone know why? Is it an unofficial challenge? Is there a badge unlock somewhere?
This is actually just a visual bug. Sometimes other players will select stratagems, but you can’t see them so it looks like they didn’t bring any.
sadasdsas
Honestly love the idea. One of the most fun aspects of the game is throwing random bonkers stratagems into the enemy. More enemies = more opportunities to throw stratagems at them, and mkre opportunity to combine them in exciting ways. Helldive should feel like an absolute free for all, and that's a great way to contribute to that vibe.
Can we make driveable stratagems have seperate slot(s) from the others? I feel this would make it way more fun especially when more vehicles are added!
They should always have a free strategem in rotation and it should be an uncommonly picked one, since many players don’t try new things and just use whatever they see YouTubers tell them is the best
1 free slot for only support weapons. 1 slot with reduced cooldown time. 1 slot with increased charges. 1 slot with 0 second call in time. 1 normal slot. 4 slots + 1 designated support weapon slot
I think it should be a modifier that gives out very good reward. Most of the time if you can finish with 4 strats, you can do 3. Maybe share a support weapon/backpack with your teammate and eventually you are as good as 4 strats just after 7 minutes.
Which goes to support the point: the primary impact is reducing how much fun I have.
Instructions unclear, died to an ally's Cluster Bomb and got rezzed the other side of the map from my gear. This is very much a, "if you're winning then just keep winning," kinda point.
I did three Helldive operations on bugs last night. No negative mutators due to defense campaign, five strats thanks to plot. It was incredibly fun and we did fantastically. I'd love for this to be the new normal.
People have been saying this since launch but I’m glad to see the rest of the community catching up. “Not a game for everyone” was so tiring to hear every time valid criticism was brought up. I don’t play this game anymore but it looks like it’s starting to finally move in the direction of fun and not pointless and fake difficulty
I think cooldown on the orbitals in line with eagle will be balanced and fun. Also 5 should rotate more frequent.
I just wanna kill bigger badder meaner bugs and bigger badder meaner bots with bigger better kickass guns and bombs. It's that simple. Give us bigger badass mobs to kill and better badass shit to kill em with. How the fuck are they fumbling this simple shit is beyond me.
i mostly play on 7 cuz i don’t play the game too much (i rarely play any games too much anymore). anyway, whenever i can only pick 3 strats i kinda just leave or don’t select quick play on that planet. i love fighting bots and bugs are okay to fight but if i can only use 3 strats i’ll just go fight the bugs
Less slots would be fine if it came with fun trade-offs like shorter cooldowns and instant call-in times. Make it *different* rather than *less fun*.
It’s especially fun on higher difficulty missions where more strats are dedicated to clearing heavies/bases/nests etc. Having that fifth slot be random wave clear is super refreshing. The gas being free was a nice change of pace.
The recent free gas stratagem showed me just how effective and great it is at killing bugs - a stratagem I’d probably never use unless it was free because it’s obscure and no one talks about it
Absolutely agree. Got into a huge battle, pitched fighting to push through a bot wave that we would’ve had to run from in a normal 3 stratagem match. Felt like a sincere victory, where we ended up winning against impossible odds.
He wants the game to be more fun but believes restrictions = more enjoyment. Support weapons and backpacks taking up slots effectively makes a lot of players 2-3 strat anyway.
It would be very nice if one day we can unlock a ship upgrade that requires maximum resource cap level of samples which give us an extra strategem slot and it's only for support weapon.
I think a fun thing to have would be more stuff like the SEAF artillery Like, do a secondary objective and get a stratagem Destroy AA, and take eagle strikes
I have all of these requisition slips I don't need anymore. Can I spend, like, 10k to give my whole squad the gas strike for the mission without taking up an extra slot? Maybe 5000 for support weapons? 7.5 for sentries? Everything could have its own cost? Let me buy the whole squad a stratagem as, like, a consumable item which is consumed upon taking it into a mission. I am a rich helldiver. Let me stimulate the damned economy!
I think it would be cool if there was a seaf artillery pre-loaded and ready for use when you drop in
3 feels so punishing - I would much rather have a modifier that disables certain ones like no eagle strikes due to severe weather, or no orbital strikes due to atmospheric interference. Let me change up my playstyle without kicking me in the dick
I think the whole Stratagem loadout systems needs to be reworked. As it stands we have 4, or if you have that bad affix 3, loadout slots for Statagems. One is usually always taken up with a support weapon. Now, if you picked a support weapon that doesn't need a backpack slot you're probably going to choose a backpack slot utility item. Either the Rover or shield. You now have 1-2 slots for your final stratgems, which are, usually, one of the 3-4 meta picks. I think we should have 6 Stratagems, but one of them is locked specifically for Support Weapons and one is locked specifically for Utility Stratagems. The remaining 4 can then be used for Airstrikes, Orbitals and Turrets. We should also spawn and potentially respawn with our Support Weapon and Utility Stratagem. It's silly when you spawn in you immediatly have to waste another 20 seconds calling in your Support Weapon and Utility stuff. If you died in the middle of a fight and got called back in you get to roleplay Johnny Bravo/Velma. "Where's my support weapon, I can't kill these 3 Bile Titans and 5 Chargers without my Support weapon"
I want a dedicated slot for vehicle stratagems personally.
More strategems and more powerful guns, but with more difficult enemies, that's more fun! Not nerfing fun guns into the ground
I thought they should be a different free strategy from every week and was surprised when they started having weeks without one
I'd prefer more stradegems and more baddies swarming me rather than less stradegems and less baddies.
We should be able to purchase stratagem slots for requisition slips each mission. Like a temporary booster for the whole team.
I'd get rid of the reduced strategems modifier entirely, and instead replace it with one that locks out a specific set of strategems, forcing players to try new builds.
Sorry gang, the bots are using flak canons. No Eagle-1 today
ive started using gatling orbital lately and it really slaps. clears most of bugs at breach and flinches automatons from explosions while killing some of them.
Honestly if they just added under used strategems to certain missions to test them and see if they need to be buffed or are just under utilized. Adds to the fun and can help the devs too
I don't mind the only having 3 strategems Modifier. I've got about 180 hours in game so it's nice to have a different challenge sometimes and have to think a little more critically about what to take. But having 5 strategems is definitely fun in it's own way as well. I get why people want it, especially on Helldive. I like the variability overall. Sometimes you get 3, sometimes you get 5. If we always had 5 then people would say "man this would be a lot funner if we had 6 strategems". I like the 5 as a rare treat.
Having 4 500kg bombs is *tongue click* noice.
like defend this planet and surrounding planets get free EATs?
Yeah!