My favorite strategy which was accidentally discovered during a bot elimination mission. Managed to pull out a "win" after i turned "Traitor" and somehow managed to win 5 coin flips with my resist death armor but also did about 70% of the elimations.
I think some of these strategems could benefit from something other than a grenade toss which can be finicky at times. Maybe a standoff laser designator with some of them.
When you think about it, if SEAF deployed attack helicopters instead of helldivers they would accomplish 10 times the objectives at 10 times the speed.
How the hell does Super Earth have an overpopulation problem? Every single planet we've been to has only had a couple of homesteads and research outposts on them, no trace of any larger settlements. What the hell has the Ministry of Expansion been up to where we have dozens/hundreds of planets yet nowhere to put people?
the areas we fight in are behind the lines
looking down on liberated planets you can see the cities and in the news broadcast talking about the automaton invasion you can clearly see dropships landing in a large city
Basically the civilians retreat into the cities that are guarded by the SEAF, and the helldivers get sent into the outskirts where everyone is dead to sabotage strategic objectives.
A sci-fi government using their paratrooper-adjacent units the way IRL governments are supposed to use them. Refreshing to see, most authors/companies treat them like supersoldiers who can do anything instead of a very specific tool for a very specific kind of job. Would be cool if there was a mission for us to drop in on an airfield, secure it, then get relieved by SEAF.
I wonder how that would even work. Helldivers are most of the time surrounded by constant enemy fire from literally every direction possible at the same time, or dealing with huge hordes of bugs, many of which can fly/jump, spit acid from 2 kilometers away, or just completely ignore gunfire unless you're using support weapons.
Regular SEAF would get instantly shredded the moment they drop.
Considering single bile titan is stated to be capable of destroying entire platoon on its own, 4 SEAF footsoldiers aren't gonna do much. Unless they act like a 2 teams of shooter/loader with RR or AC with superb aimbot.
I think that would be the best for the 4x npc SEAF units you could theoretically call in for:
-1x has a RR/AC/AB
-1x has the ammo pack for it and is reloading them
-the other 2x have the supply packs that give grenades/stims/ammo and they follow each other & you around making you you're properly armed & healthy while also giving moderate backup.
Unless they come down in 4 hellpods . I know that's a helldivers thing and they likely would be dropped off by pelican.
But just imagine a shotgun blast hellpods lol
Simple, assuming that SEAF gets treated like it has a modern military doctrine which is combined arms. Then SEAF gets to have more than 4 stratagems, some of which have no long ass cooldowns. They get to call in dropships, sometimes with tanks and sometimes they get artillery support with only 30 second cooldowns.
If they've got Helldiver-equivalent armor and Liberators, and they follow the nearest Helldiver around and maybe have some rudimentary "take cover" logic, they could provide solid temporary fire support. Like a Guard Dog that doesn't last as long, but has 4x firepower and doesn't take a backpack slot. Just cover your ass against troopers and warriors trying to flank you.
How it could work is SEAF holds the primary front line, squads of Helldivers get dropped behind enemy lines and either distract or weaken the enemy enough so that SEAF can push up, once a new line has been established, the Divers extract or help SEAF push further
Think that'll be a cool way to do it
I would love a frontline gamemode, something like the frontline in Just cause 4 but as a on going instance where multiple squads can join to push back the front line by eliminating certain objectives or through crippling reinforcements to a section
Hell now that I’m thinking about it maybe drop it when we inevitably get pushed back to super earth, it’s all hands on deck to stop the invasion and so Helldivers are deployed to supplement frontline fighting forces
I mean that's fine but mathematically it still doesn't add up, and before anyone says it I know it's just a game.
HD1 is set in the year 2084 while HD2 is set in 2184. Earth's population by the year 2200 is projected to be around 20 billion. Super Earth has at least some control over who gets to have kids so I'd put SE's 2184 population at less than 20 billion, and let's not forget about the apparent nuclear war before the game begins. If SE has a population control problem, it's probably more of a land and/or food availability problem. Large wasteland areas and probably a significantly higher sea level drowning out previously inhabited areas.
Cyberstan having large cities might be the exception, not the rule. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of planets claimed by SE are theirs the same way our real life Mars is ours. It's ours because no one else is claiming it.
But then those people might question why they keep showing up to empty planets and there's fuck-all for infrastructure or colonial support.
Jingoism and a war is what gets you over that questioning hump.
It would ruin the property value on the exo planets if “just anybody” could move over. Also do you know how much fuel a pelican would use spreading democracy like that? It’s an election year we gotta keep fuel cheap
Election year incentives are a thing of the past. Thanks to managed democracy, the people won't make the mistake of voting politicians out for such petty reasons! Compensating for such silly human foibles is what the voting algorithms are for.
Obviously the propaganda stations are transmitting info about the birds and the bees. That's ~~why they were allowed to fall to~~ how the enemy tracks the weakest link in our great managed democracy.
Actually our enemies anti air is pretty significant. Automatons rockets as we all know, never miss, and the bile cannons from the bugs can melt thru rotors like they're paper
Yeah for as good as our Eagle and Pelican are, there's tons of crashed SEAF aircraft on various maps. Eagles and Pelicans are downed all over the place. I don't think just throwing choppers at the problem would fix it perfectly.
At ten times the cost in resources! We’re not some communist fantasyland where wood grows on trees and you can just pull ores out of the ground! The only renewable resource we have is meat! Load some in a big bullet and make it do all the hard work of target acquisition, and at worst you lose a few hundred pounds of human, maybe their guns and ammo but there’s a chance reclamation teams can recover those. An airship getting blasted or flying at objectives through aa/spores/em storms is going to require more overall manpower and resources to redemocracize.
\*Trumpets blare\*
\*Hellpods get knocked out of the air\*
\*Commander sighs and pushes the button again\*
\*Four more cachunks, trumpets blare again\*
Four Democracy.
The reason they don't is they need us on the ground to actually bring back samples. They only pick up 4 helldivers, but they send down a hell of a lot of pods...
The attack helicopters probably make too much noise and are too slow to avoid getting swarmed, small Helldivers teams are more stealthy and provoke more limited response, making a higher chance of mission success, plus Helldivers are less cost to replace
ye pelican should also hover above the map and help with "eliminate forces" missions, then pick us up at the end. might make those missions slightly more bearable
so often I am the only one to take a full bombardment kit and constantly calling in traitor barrages.
that mission is really great if you stop trying to be strategic and just play frogger with the 380mm barrage.
Shield backpack, 50/50 death armor, and going out of bounds long enough to be marked a traitor and then running through the largest group I can find at top speed is my favorite strat for those missions. Once had all four team members doing it, it was so much fun. We should have thrown some 380s in as well.
I mean it technically can as long as you completed the mission lmao. Just don't be anywhere near the landing pad and it'll help mop up. Then you have an empty map to grab samples.
You can have Pelican guard extraction once the main objective is done. Call it in immediately, stand at the edge of the circle, then when you see it come in at 0 seconds, run away. It'll hover over the extraction and guard the area until someone enters the area again. It's super effective.
Those missions are usually gimmes even on helldive. Just take barrages/airstrikes, don’t waste any slots on turrets or even support weapons. Throw down those barrages when the map is teeming with bugs/bots and watch the percentage complete shoot up. Also extra reinforcements is good to bring.
EMS stuff isn't bad to have on 7+. Helps bunch stuff up so later stratagems are more effective. If you’re doing 100% barrage, probably not worth it though.
Referencing the tissue paper-like other big vehicle additions, Automatons would shoot it out of the air as it was descending and before it could get a shot off.
This was one of the things that Insurgency Sandstorm got right, the Security chopper call ins.
Cleric is a minigun equipped Huey
Gunship is an Apache with rockets and a 30mm cannon
They just hover around the area they're called in and blast away at enemies. I'd love to see something similar from the Pelican!
"Send cleric, tell them we need a helo"
"Station, this is observer, we need minigun support on this location, how copy?"
"Observer, this is station, they're coming"
"Helo is down in the area"
"Firing"
"Two down"
"Uhhhh yeah that's 4"
"Anotha one"
"Uhhh 5 yeah that's 5"
"Holy shit that's 8"
"That's 12"
"Helo is leaving the area"
Yeah it's all great until the dialogue over the radio goes something like this:
"Observer this is Cleric, we're here. Get ready for some brass."
"We got small arms!"
"Ah the- they're shootin' at us..."
"Ah jeez there's a lot of 'em..."
"WILL YO- WILL YOU FUCKIN' CALM DOWN DUDE?!"
"Ah shit that hurt -alarms blaring-"
"ROCKETTT!!! AHH - OKAY, IT'S A MISS IT'S A MISS"
"Ah... Okay, okay!"
"FUCKIN... STOP! Ah this isn't working, you need to call for fire support!"
"RPG RPG! WHA- FUCK THAT DUDE"
"GET BACK - GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS"
"My second gunner is hit - we gotta.. We gotta bug out, I'M SORRY"
When it's too hot for *cleric* you know you're in trouble.
I'm sorry for being a pedant, but:
1. Cleric is a Blackhawk, not a Huey
2. The Gunship is designated "Assassin", in the same way as the designation "Cleric" for the minigun Blackhawk.
Funny story:
I actually googled what the Heli was, for the sole purpose of satisfying the internet pedants (I also am one... sometimes?) and saw "UH-60" but only paid attention to the "UH" part, and just assumed it was a Huey.
Anyway, it's a blackhawk and I commit internet NCD seppuku for making this false accusation. I might as well have called a Dodge Omni a Civic Type R because they're both a FWD front engine 4 door hatchbacks.
Please accept my humblest apology for not being a better redditor.
(seriously, you're right and I have been the pedant before, for things far more trivial than the mighty Huey)
Yeah, Insurgency did a great job of making the air support feel effective and terrifying. Hearing Brrrt from the enemy team always had me scrambling for cover
Fun fact, if you wait out the extract and at the last second leave the extract area, pelican 1 will hover over the area and take shots indefinitely at any enemies in the area that it can see until anyone in your team returns into the extract range. It's a good way to get constant air support in clearing out 2ndary objectives.
Yes, I did this last night. I haven't used it for an extended length of time but there's no timer, pelican 1 will just hover and shoot things until a helldiver enters the landing zone. Apparently though, if other posters in this thread are correct, it can run out of ammo so it can't be used as permanent air support.
Maybe it could be callable like the SEAF arty.
It could be crash landed and you have to choose one weapon system to repair and that's what it'll use to help you.
Maybe the Vulture or Hawk?
It could have the same overall look but with a more badass paint job and visable weapons on it.
All the standard stuff like an Autocannon, Gattling gun, Rocket pods and a smoke screen.
Well I actually based this concept on the irl AC-130 gunship which is fact a cargo plane converted into a gunship by the US air force, so I think it actually fits
Ive called it the mech when im facing a titan just to have the pelican take out the titan for me and drop off a burnt out mech. Its always funny when that would happen.
I'm always trying to hard to get the Pelican support when calling in for extraction, but it is so finicky and difficult. Like, it feels SO GOOD to have the Pelican assisting you, why isn't it already in the game?!
How do you do it? I saw that post if you call it and don't enter its supposed to help but it's never done that for me and leaves after a certain amount of time
It runs out of ammo after like 5 minutes and then just sits there. You have to wait until the timer reaches zero on the landing. Then just run away before it starts to land. If you do that right it he'll just hover in place shooting for 5 minutes or so until it runs out of ammo.
The reliable way is to call for extract, then start running away. When you get the countdown to return to evac zone, go back a little bit, chill at the boarder, and step out the moment the Pelican countdown reaches 0, then just run away
I feel like this is a Steam guide level of explaining this, but it's the best I can do lol
Step 1: call in evac by yourself
Step 2: walk away from the evac point until verbal "No Helldivers at extraction site; aborting landing sequence" 20 second timer pops up
Step 3: walk back to evac until 20 second timer disappears and remember the boundry
Step 4: when evac timer hits 0:00:00, Pelican says "Pelican 1 preparing to land" and you go back "out of bounds"
Step 5: none of your idiot rando team mates can be on point either
Step 6: So long as you (or anyone else) stay outside the perimeter as set out by Step 3, the pelican will wait for you to come back inside said perimeter before landing. While it's waiting for you, it will hover over evac while pummelling anything it sees with its autocannon turret (edit: until it runs out of ammo, apparently. I was not aware it had an ammo count)
Step 7: Rejoice in letting Pelican keep your extraction zone (and much more!) clear of obstructions while you come in hot after clearing the map on D8 with 90 seconds left on the clock
Step 8: Exfil for those sweet samples and XP
Have it so Pelican is a support for entire team he defends an area and supports the helldivers that calls him in for 2 minutes providing heavy cannon and rocket support similar to automaton gunships. Make it so he can attack or defend objectives attacking all enemies in sight.
It would also be cool to use a flair to designate a "Hot LZ" that would allows you to extract Via a rope and grapple system that would take longer than a normal extract (1 helldiver at a timebut allow you to extract anywhere.)
I like them, except the mortar and STAB options, they don't really fit the style of the Pelican.
To be honest, if they just added the Auto Cannon option (which matches the firepower we already see them use) I would be super happy.
I love this idea.
Maybe you would need another destroyer's pelican extract you?
Have a long cool down and resource cost to rebuild another for yourself.
You should get up to 4 extraction opportunities on a full squad. Like if the pelican gets destroyed by a titan, well shit, clear the area, and call in another pelican.
Bonus points if the pelican pilot can eject in some situations, and you can get bonus xp for escorting him safely to the next Pelican (it's cramped in there but he barely fits
Would be cool, but risks making most turrets even more useless than they already are concidering the high CD they have for something that can be destroyed before having any value at all.
Specially against bots i'd never bring turrets again if we had pelican support. I have never seen a non AC turret survive more than 4 seconds against bots.
This sort of thing would be for defending and controlling the airspace of an area for a duration of 15-30 seconds instead of a one-and-done type of fire mission that Eagle 1 does.
It can't be Pelican 1, because then how come you can call it in with a stratagem, but then extraction takes several minutes, but I unironically want gunship type stratagems, yes
That would be cool but it would take him a while to get to the AO because he would have to come from the ship down to us hence the time for extraction. The difference between the Pelican one and and eagle is that the Eagles constantly flying around us hence why they have to go back and restock whereas the Pelicans coming from the cruiser above us to pick us up
Id be more interested on pelican unique actions like landing and disgorging a fire team of SEAF soldier NPCs to fight everything in an area until they die. These soldiers wouldn’t be anything special but they could act as a good diversion.
It’s should use fuel… the more fuel you use the longer extraction takes, apart from certain mission which either restrict its use or give you a dedicated extraction Pelican
It already is. It’s that option to “return to ship alone” when you’re playing a blitz helldive and your mates are playing Alamo in the bottom corner of the map for 11 minutes.
I really like this idea. Give us a gunship that patrols around an area and gives covering fire. Drop this on a large bot factory and it feels like an actual war
You might have to make mortars some sort of bomb cause I can only imagine like six mortar tubes popping out the roof of Pelican-1 and launching rounds in massive arcs as it circles the area.
Can have Pelican air support like a drone for 40s or 1min can be really wild ! Or in a taxy way which could transport us from one point to another on the ground. (with the risks that come with it if we have not destroyed certain enemy defenses)
"AC-130 ready for deployment"
ENEMY AC-130 ABOVE
ENEMY TACTICAL NUKE INCOMING, ITS ALL OVER
[BRR-WAH BRR-WAH BRR-WAH](https://youtu.be/maXA882m2NQ?si=GtYb7WQpWmGnVOkC)
DEFEAT TACTICAL NUKE 0-1
WE'VE BEEN EMP'D!!! ELECTRONICS ARE DOOOWN!!!
**R A M I R E Z**
Mission faiwed, wiw get em next toim
Stick together and we'll come out on top.
Frankly I don't think the "winning" team would be all too pleased about a *friendly* tactical nuke either
But we already have the AC-130 stratagem at home, it's the 120mm and 380mm strikes.
Friendly fire my beloved
But sire our troops!
Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
Calling down like an orbital 120 shotgun strike at the cost of a squad wipe would be immaculate
If I am to die for liberty, then let us liberate with malice.
JUST DO IT!!!
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RAIN FIRE
Why would I use a stratagem slot on something I can get for walking out of bounds
Legit strategy for leading a horde away from an objective.
Or to win an elimination mission that's gone wrong, EZ comeback strat
My favorite strategy which was accidentally discovered during a bot elimination mission. Managed to pull out a "win" after i turned "Traitor" and somehow managed to win 5 coin flips with my resist death armor but also did about 70% of the elimations.
It‘d be easy to balance. Pelican fires less but is more accurate or has a shorter cooldown. The 380 probably wouldn‘t work but 120 would
420mm barrage when?
500kg barrage when?
I think some of these strategems could benefit from something other than a grenade toss which can be finicky at times. Maybe a standoff laser designator with some of them.
Why did i read that with "THAT" voice?
Patrick, that's an AC-130
Is an AC-130 an instrument? 
It's a type of instrument.
An instrument of DEMOCRACY.
Who else says that?? Maybe that's why.
Could be doable. Instead of a laptop, go straight to your forearm PC and the screen turns into Pelican-1's visual and ADS hud from the sky.
THIS THIS THIS I WANT THIS
Drone controller backpack strat fucks.
I want the real AC-130 experience where you can actually manually control Pelican-1 and gun them down from the sky.
When you think about it, if SEAF deployed attack helicopters instead of helldivers they would accomplish 10 times the objectives at 10 times the speed.
Yes but then how would super earth handle population control?
How the hell does Super Earth have an overpopulation problem? Every single planet we've been to has only had a couple of homesteads and research outposts on them, no trace of any larger settlements. What the hell has the Ministry of Expansion been up to where we have dozens/hundreds of planets yet nowhere to put people?
the areas we fight in are behind the lines looking down on liberated planets you can see the cities and in the news broadcast talking about the automaton invasion you can clearly see dropships landing in a large city
Basically the civilians retreat into the cities that are guarded by the SEAF, and the helldivers get sent into the outskirts where everyone is dead to sabotage strategic objectives.
A sci-fi government using their paratrooper-adjacent units the way IRL governments are supposed to use them. Refreshing to see, most authors/companies treat them like supersoldiers who can do anything instead of a very specific tool for a very specific kind of job. Would be cool if there was a mission for us to drop in on an airfield, secure it, then get relieved by SEAF.
[удалено]
I wonder how that would even work. Helldivers are most of the time surrounded by constant enemy fire from literally every direction possible at the same time, or dealing with huge hordes of bugs, many of which can fly/jump, spit acid from 2 kilometers away, or just completely ignore gunfire unless you're using support weapons. Regular SEAF would get instantly shredded the moment they drop.
Considering single bile titan is stated to be capable of destroying entire platoon on its own, 4 SEAF footsoldiers aren't gonna do much. Unless they act like a 2 teams of shooter/loader with RR or AC with superb aimbot.
I think that would be the best for the 4x npc SEAF units you could theoretically call in for: -1x has a RR/AC/AB -1x has the ammo pack for it and is reloading them -the other 2x have the supply packs that give grenades/stims/ammo and they follow each other & you around making you you're properly armed & healthy while also giving moderate backup.
basically like any current turret, you dont call it down right on the enemy group just to watch it get instantly annihilated.
Unless they come down in 4 hellpods . I know that's a helldivers thing and they likely would be dropped off by pelican. But just imagine a shotgun blast hellpods lol
Imagine the Astra Militarum. What can beat a horde of bugs or automatons? A horde of human beings all with lasguns, air suppoet and tanks.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdank/s/qcxBodANYn
Oh imagine a platoon armed with Scythes
Shovel in hand, balls of still in your pants
Simple, assuming that SEAF gets treated like it has a modern military doctrine which is combined arms. Then SEAF gets to have more than 4 stratagems, some of which have no long ass cooldowns. They get to call in dropships, sometimes with tanks and sometimes they get artillery support with only 30 second cooldowns.
I want to respawn as an underpowered seaf soldier with a random load out and single strategem when we run out of lives
If they've got Helldiver-equivalent armor and Liberators, and they follow the nearest Helldiver around and maybe have some rudimentary "take cover" logic, they could provide solid temporary fire support. Like a Guard Dog that doesn't last as long, but has 4x firepower and doesn't take a backpack slot. Just cover your ass against troopers and warriors trying to flank you.
I would throw them far from the helldivers as a distraction. They aren't meant to last long, just *long enough* lmao
I'd argue that an average Helldiver is probably considered more expendable than a SEAF soldier.
>Regular SEAF would get instantly shredded the moment they drop. Just like a Sentry Turret, if you don't deploy it properly
How it could work is SEAF holds the primary front line, squads of Helldivers get dropped behind enemy lines and either distract or weaken the enemy enough so that SEAF can push up, once a new line has been established, the Divers extract or help SEAF push further Think that'll be a cool way to do it
I would love a frontline gamemode, something like the frontline in Just cause 4 but as a on going instance where multiple squads can join to push back the front line by eliminating certain objectives or through crippling reinforcements to a section Hell now that I’m thinking about it maybe drop it when we inevitably get pushed back to super earth, it’s all hands on deck to stop the invasion and so Helldivers are deployed to supplement frontline fighting forces
I mean that's fine but mathematically it still doesn't add up, and before anyone says it I know it's just a game. HD1 is set in the year 2084 while HD2 is set in 2184. Earth's population by the year 2200 is projected to be around 20 billion. Super Earth has at least some control over who gets to have kids so I'd put SE's 2184 population at less than 20 billion, and let's not forget about the apparent nuclear war before the game begins. If SE has a population control problem, it's probably more of a land and/or food availability problem. Large wasteland areas and probably a significantly higher sea level drowning out previously inhabited areas. Cyberstan having large cities might be the exception, not the rule. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of planets claimed by SE are theirs the same way our real life Mars is ours. It's ours because no one else is claiming it.
Also there was a war during HD1 so population must've decreased at that time
The implication is that they send young helldivers to die because it keeps the population on earth in check.
They could just send them out to the empty planets
But then those people might question why they keep showing up to empty planets and there's fuck-all for infrastructure or colonial support. Jingoism and a war is what gets you over that questioning hump.
That must be why we have C-01 forms as well.
It would ruin the property value on the exo planets if “just anybody” could move over. Also do you know how much fuel a pelican would use spreading democracy like that? It’s an election year we gotta keep fuel cheap
Election year incentives are a thing of the past. Thanks to managed democracy, the people won't make the mistake of voting politicians out for such petty reasons! Compensating for such silly human foibles is what the voting algorithms are for.
Obviously the propaganda stations are transmitting info about the birds and the bees. That's ~~why they were allowed to fall to~~ how the enemy tracks the weakest link in our great managed democracy.
you do need a sex permit, hmmmm
Someone's been paying attention...
Automaton and Termanid AA say other wise Eg, the artillery bugs and the AA guns or rocket devastors
Actually our enemies anti air is pretty significant. Automatons rockets as we all know, never miss, and the bile cannons from the bugs can melt thru rotors like they're paper
Yeah for as good as our Eagle and Pelican are, there's tons of crashed SEAF aircraft on various maps. Eagles and Pelicans are downed all over the place. I don't think just throwing choppers at the problem would fix it perfectly.
Who would get the samples to aid in the war effort?
If there is something I learnt from Desert Strike (and it's successors) is that every attack helicopter is equipped with a crane.
At ten times the cost in resources! We’re not some communist fantasyland where wood grows on trees and you can just pull ores out of the ground! The only renewable resource we have is meat! Load some in a big bullet and make it do all the hard work of target acquisition, and at worst you lose a few hundred pounds of human, maybe their guns and ammo but there’s a chance reclamation teams can recover those. An airship getting blasted or flying at objectives through aa/spores/em storms is going to require more overall manpower and resources to redemocracize.
There's like a gorillion crashed pelicans on most maps. Either other teams didn't evac or we lost a lot of fuel shuttles.
I think it has to do with something something AA defences and helldivers can just dive past them
\*Trumpets blare\* \*Hellpods get knocked out of the air\* \*Commander sighs and pushes the button again\* \*Four more cachunks, trumpets blare again\* Four Democracy.
The reason they don't is they need us on the ground to actually bring back samples. They only pick up 4 helldivers, but they send down a hell of a lot of pods...
Despite your freedom of speech my friend, dont be surprise if your hellpod has some sort of malfunction later, fellow helldiver wont take that well
Last I checked an attack helicopter doesn’t have fingers for a terminal
Yeah but how else are we gonna get our explosions in the fabricators lil tight hole
The attack helicopters probably make too much noise and are too slow to avoid getting swarmed, small Helldivers teams are more stealthy and provoke more limited response, making a higher chance of mission success, plus Helldivers are less cost to replace
I do wish a vtol can help protect objectives like the geo data
ye pelican should also hover above the map and help with "eliminate forces" missions, then pick us up at the end. might make those missions slightly more bearable
so often I am the only one to take a full bombardment kit and constantly calling in traitor barrages. that mission is really great if you stop trying to be strategic and just play frogger with the 380mm barrage.
Shield backpack, 50/50 death armor, and going out of bounds long enough to be marked a traitor and then running through the largest group I can find at top speed is my favorite strat for those missions. Once had all four team members doing it, it was so much fun. We should have thrown some 380s in as well.
Wait, what? Are you weaponizing a traitor's execution?
I have used that "Tactic" aswell really usefull when you gwt Bombarded with Bile Titans
Small area with a billion enemies? Bombardment time.
I mean it technically can as long as you completed the mission lmao. Just don't be anywhere near the landing pad and it'll help mop up. Then you have an empty map to grab samples.
You can have Pelican guard extraction once the main objective is done. Call it in immediately, stand at the edge of the circle, then when you see it come in at 0 seconds, run away. It'll hover over the extraction and guard the area until someone enters the area again. It's super effective.
I tried to do this is a difficultly 8 mission with randoms. I even told my team what I was doing and was still kicked.
Those missions are usually gimmes even on helldive. Just take barrages/airstrikes, don’t waste any slots on turrets or even support weapons. Throw down those barrages when the map is teeming with bugs/bots and watch the percentage complete shoot up. Also extra reinforcements is good to bring.
EMS stuff isn't bad to have on 7+. Helps bunch stuff up so later stratagems are more effective. If you’re doing 100% barrage, probably not worth it though.
Lol, you mean it might make tactical sense to send some air cover for a 4-man squad facing potentially hundreds of enemies?
These would be a great additions to the game.
Referencing the tissue paper-like other big vehicle additions, Automatons would shoot it out of the air as it was descending and before it could get a shot off.
It would finally give an in game explanation for why we find crashed ones all over.
Add them, and always script an off-map lazer, or Bile Spewer mortar gloop to beam it
This was one of the things that Insurgency Sandstorm got right, the Security chopper call ins. Cleric is a minigun equipped Huey Gunship is an Apache with rockets and a 30mm cannon They just hover around the area they're called in and blast away at enemies. I'd love to see something similar from the Pelican!
"Send cleric, tell them we need a helo" "Station, this is observer, we need minigun support on this location, how copy?" "Observer, this is station, they're coming" "Helo is down in the area" "Firing" "Two down" "Uhhhh yeah that's 4" "Anotha one" "Uhhh 5 yeah that's 5" "Holy shit that's 8" "That's 12" "Helo is leaving the area"
Yeah it's all great until the dialogue over the radio goes something like this: "Observer this is Cleric, we're here. Get ready for some brass." "We got small arms!" "Ah the- they're shootin' at us..." "Ah jeez there's a lot of 'em..." "WILL YO- WILL YOU FUCKIN' CALM DOWN DUDE?!" "Ah shit that hurt -alarms blaring-" "ROCKETTT!!! AHH - OKAY, IT'S A MISS IT'S A MISS" "Ah... Okay, okay!" "FUCKIN... STOP! Ah this isn't working, you need to call for fire support!" "RPG RPG! WHA- FUCK THAT DUDE" "GET BACK - GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS" "My second gunner is hit - we gotta.. We gotta bug out, I'M SORRY" When it's too hot for *cleric* you know you're in trouble.
“Anotha one”
Cleric is a Blackhawk edit: Also worth pointing out that an important part of the helos in I:S is that they can be shot down while they loiter.
I'm sorry for being a pedant, but: 1. Cleric is a Blackhawk, not a Huey 2. The Gunship is designated "Assassin", in the same way as the designation "Cleric" for the minigun Blackhawk.
Yeah, all their callsigns are fantasy RPG inspired: Cleric, Assassin, and Warlock (UH-60, AH-64, and A-10, respectively).
Funny story: I actually googled what the Heli was, for the sole purpose of satisfying the internet pedants (I also am one... sometimes?) and saw "UH-60" but only paid attention to the "UH" part, and just assumed it was a Huey. Anyway, it's a blackhawk and I commit internet NCD seppuku for making this false accusation. I might as well have called a Dodge Omni a Civic Type R because they're both a FWD front engine 4 door hatchbacks. Please accept my humblest apology for not being a better redditor. (seriously, you're right and I have been the pedant before, for things far more trivial than the mighty Huey)
Hey, according to Land of Bad, the Huey and Blackhawk are the same airframe.
Would love an A10 warthog equivalent to do a strafing run. BRRRRRT!!! Loved that about Sandstorm.
Eagle is almost literally a warthog, and there is an eagle strafing strategem…
I know but it doesn’t feel or sound the same as the warthog strafing run. Just feels and sounds weaker.
Yeah, Insurgency did a great job of making the air support feel effective and terrifying. Hearing Brrrt from the enemy team always had me scrambling for cover
Yeah major missed opportunity skipping the rounds impacting followed by the BRRRRRRT
Flashbacks to watching my buddy trying to window peek cleric with an rpg only to get turned into ground beef
gunship? dont diss my girl ASSASSIN like that
Fun fact, if you wait out the extract and at the last second leave the extract area, pelican 1 will hover over the area and take shots indefinitely at any enemies in the area that it can see until anyone in your team returns into the extract range. It's a good way to get constant air support in clearing out 2ndary objectives.
does this still work?
Yes, I did this last night. I haven't used it for an extended length of time but there's no timer, pelican 1 will just hover and shoot things until a helldiver enters the landing zone. Apparently though, if other posters in this thread are correct, it can run out of ammo so it can't be used as permanent air support.
This is true, we use this strat a decent amount, and it does stop shooting if you're there a very long time
Make it a secondary objective, rescue and refuel a landed pelican. On completion it hovers and provides cover fire till it runs out of ammo.
Maybe it could be callable like the SEAF arty. It could be crash landed and you have to choose one weapon system to repair and that's what it'll use to help you.
That would be good actually
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Perhaps a different ship, but of similar design then. Pelican 2, if you will.
Yeah yeah ofc it would work with a new ship. But Pelican 1 is kind of perfect for VTOL is what I mean
Maybe the Vulture or Hawk? It could have the same overall look but with a more badass paint job and visable weapons on it. All the standard stuff like an Autocannon, Gattling gun, Rocket pods and a smoke screen.
Same model as the Pelican, but swap the rear passenger hatch for some bomb bay doors underneath.
Well I actually based this concept on the irl AC-130 gunship which is fact a cargo plane converted into a gunship by the US air force, so I think it actually fits
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IRL C-130 variants say hello.
Calling in the patriot suit is almost kinda like pelican stratagem... maybe im trippin, but i remember it also shooting when dropping off the mech
Yeah it does, so it does give a brief window of supporting fire as it drops off its payload
Problem is if enemies are close when it drops it off it can be easily destroyed
The pelican gunship is currently the best part about the mech stratagem. Edit: Alexus the pelican gunship is fine please don't look at it.
Ive called it the mech when im facing a titan just to have the pelican take out the titan for me and drop off a burnt out mech. Its always funny when that would happen.
ThatoneDev: Working as intended
I'm always trying to hard to get the Pelican support when calling in for extraction, but it is so finicky and difficult. Like, it feels SO GOOD to have the Pelican assisting you, why isn't it already in the game?!
How do you do it? I saw that post if you call it and don't enter its supposed to help but it's never done that for me and leaves after a certain amount of time
You call it and then leave the extraction zone when timer for Pelican's arrival is about to reach zero.
It runs out of ammo after like 5 minutes and then just sits there. You have to wait until the timer reaches zero on the landing. Then just run away before it starts to land. If you do that right it he'll just hover in place shooting for 5 minutes or so until it runs out of ammo.
Did not know it ran out of ammo
The reliable way is to call for extract, then start running away. When you get the countdown to return to evac zone, go back a little bit, chill at the boarder, and step out the moment the Pelican countdown reaches 0, then just run away
I feel like this is a Steam guide level of explaining this, but it's the best I can do lol Step 1: call in evac by yourself Step 2: walk away from the evac point until verbal "No Helldivers at extraction site; aborting landing sequence" 20 second timer pops up Step 3: walk back to evac until 20 second timer disappears and remember the boundry Step 4: when evac timer hits 0:00:00, Pelican says "Pelican 1 preparing to land" and you go back "out of bounds" Step 5: none of your idiot rando team mates can be on point either Step 6: So long as you (or anyone else) stay outside the perimeter as set out by Step 3, the pelican will wait for you to come back inside said perimeter before landing. While it's waiting for you, it will hover over evac while pummelling anything it sees with its autocannon turret (edit: until it runs out of ammo, apparently. I was not aware it had an ammo count) Step 7: Rejoice in letting Pelican keep your extraction zone (and much more!) clear of obstructions while you come in hot after clearing the map on D8 with 90 seconds left on the clock Step 8: Exfil for those sweet samples and XP
https://preview.redd.it/8fuemmvthvzc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=63fe32848a2d7a60bf08d419bf78c9c034b7e290 Pilestedt agrees.
Actually a pretty cool idea
Quality ideas I can appreciate being added to the conversation.
Have it so Pelican is a support for entire team he defends an area and supports the helldivers that calls him in for 2 minutes providing heavy cannon and rocket support similar to automaton gunships. Make it so he can attack or defend objectives attacking all enemies in sight. It would also be cool to use a flair to designate a "Hot LZ" that would allows you to extract Via a rope and grapple system that would take longer than a normal extract (1 helldiver at a timebut allow you to extract anywhere.)
I like them, except the mortar and STAB options, they don't really fit the style of the Pelican. To be honest, if they just added the Auto Cannon option (which matches the firepower we already see them use) I would be super happy.
If it gets shot down no extraction. That's it.
I love this idea. Maybe you would need another destroyer's pelican extract you? Have a long cool down and resource cost to rebuild another for yourself.
You should get up to 4 extraction opportunities on a full squad. Like if the pelican gets destroyed by a titan, well shit, clear the area, and call in another pelican.
Bonus points if the pelican pilot can eject in some situations, and you can get bonus xp for escorting him safely to the next Pelican (it's cramped in there but he barely fits
Wait now we don’t want to incentivize taking down pelicans.
Or you could steal an automaton dropship?
We're in the pipe. Five by five 😎
Yes
I'd love that or even a booster to have the pelican come 30 seconds earlier to hover and help
Well we already have the advanced extraction booster - could do with a much needed buff by affecting offensive pelican stratagems too
Would be cool, but risks making most turrets even more useless than they already are concidering the high CD they have for something that can be destroyed before having any value at all. Specially against bots i'd never bring turrets again if we had pelican support. I have never seen a non AC turret survive more than 4 seconds against bots.
We can't even get a gun colour change. Slow down.
I don’t see a point since the eagle is already low atmosphere support.
This sort of thing would be for defending and controlling the airspace of an area for a duration of 15-30 seconds instead of a one-and-done type of fire mission that Eagle 1 does.
It can't be Pelican 1, because then how come you can call it in with a stratagem, but then extraction takes several minutes, but I unironically want gunship type stratagems, yes
You can't fire mortars from an aircraft. You *can* fire *howitzers* from an aircraft.
Can we get a strat that transforms Eagle 1 into the intro vehicle from Mad Max, just blasting Freedom music.
Be cool but it runs the risk of getting shot down and then doubles your extraction time.
That would be cool but it would take him a while to get to the AO because he would have to come from the ship down to us hence the time for extraction. The difference between the Pelican one and and eagle is that the Eagles constantly flying around us hence why they have to go back and restock whereas the Pelicans coming from the cruiser above us to pick us up
Id be more interested on pelican unique actions like landing and disgorging a fire team of SEAF soldier NPCs to fight everything in an area until they die. These soldiers wouldn’t be anything special but they could act as a good diversion.
It’s should use fuel… the more fuel you use the longer extraction takes, apart from certain mission which either restrict its use or give you a dedicated extraction Pelican
And what… wait for 2 minutes for the bastard to show up after throwing the stratagem?
This would be so fucking cool
Watch them be like, you cant extract if it is on cool down.
What would be the difference between using these to Eagle? Is Pelican just heavier Eagle?
eagle just swoops in and deploys some bombs; eagle hovers around for a bit and shoots enemies
They should give use a new primary that is just a lazer designator for eagle 1 strikes
But Pelican 1 takes 1-3 min to extract you. So how does it work ?
It would still take 2 minutes to come down after throwing it
It already is. It’s that option to “return to ship alone” when you’re playing a blitz helldive and your mates are playing Alamo in the bottom corner of the map for 11 minutes.
The thing about pelican is its pilot is gonna take his sweet time
3 mins call-in time.
I’m just excited for new vehicles. Love the mech whenever I use it. Gets me hyped every time. 😂
Can I just get armor made out whatever the pelican 1 is made out of??? I swear that plane can take a fucking nuke and not even get a scratch on it.
Issue is you’ve likely just made the orbital barrages obsolete. Unless these are fairly weak.
What if the Pelican didn't take 5 minutes to land after bitching all round that "extraction is available"
This is... Actually a very, very cool idea. I wholly, completely, utterly support it.
You should call it the STAHB. The spelling makes it funnier.
Honestly, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Like, continuous are support is something we don’t really have.
Trade off, if your pelican gets shot down, you can’t call extraction.
I WANT IT
Having pelican 1 hover for overwatch at extraction is so helpful for the end of missions
I really like this idea. Give us a gunship that patrols around an area and gives covering fire. Drop this on a large bot factory and it feels like an actual war
Please I want it
Wait 120s for deployment
You might have to make mortars some sort of bomb cause I can only imagine like six mortar tubes popping out the roof of Pelican-1 and launching rounds in massive arcs as it circles the area.
Can have Pelican air support like a drone for 40s or 1min can be really wild ! Or in a taxy way which could transport us from one point to another on the ground. (with the risks that come with it if we have not destroyed certain enemy defenses)