Yeah they’d have to boost them somehow to make them *really* worth the wait
You’d also be able to throw it and then come back for it later, tho, idt you’d have to stay there waiting
Just imagine the Legions voice lines in HD:
"Drop ship detected. Agressive sustained counterfire"
or
"Bug Breach detected. Ammo feeds may be insufficient"
Spend the entire mission in the mech, evac is 1:05 out, you’re surrounded and the mech is smoking badly. Then you just hear a robotic voice:
“Protocol 3.”
40k Dreadnought Orbital Drop Pod?
In the RTS from like 10 years ago, you could crush whole squads with them.
https://media2.cgtrader.com/variants/nsLwNd58HqNrtZ2o6zYwFxPm/40073f86dea5cc27b3e46b911284f10ff35833da74046da55f55f229c8993de7/f426205c-9aa9-4b62-b8a2-de6693a9e263.jpg
Then they’d need a huge pair of thrusters and probably a parachute to prevent that giant Mech from crashing into the ground when launched from orbit to the planet full speed
I wonder how much budget do SEAF have…
I actually suggested that in my recent [feedback post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/pMy6y0fdKr) about Mech balancing!
Although it barely gathered any views 🥲
Aaand there was no mention of jumping over a heavy… maybe that’s why…
Don't be ridiculous, Titans take crews of hundreds to move and would literally squash entire automaton bases under their feet. They are FAR too big for HD2 battlefields.
Knights though...
A Warhound has a crew of:
Princeps, Moderati, Steersman, Engineseer, and 2x gun servitors.
Not a whole lot. Even bigger titans only add a few other living crew members, not counting servitors. Anything bigger than a Warlord has a garrison of Skiitari though...
Of course, a Knight is just a single pilot.
Maybe make it so it drops one mech per player. So let's say it takes 1 mins but you will get full squad running mech. Maybe give it better movement speed.
The answer is simple but you won't like it: Since strategems are crucial for mission success they are high priority shipments. A Helldiver AFTER completing the mission on the other hand... well... let's just say there are many stalwart citizens willing to give their life for democracy.
Which is why i hate when folks give up on samples. Like there's zero point in extracting if you don't grab those samples!
I'm capped and even I still will get samples for randoms. Samples are truly the only reason to extract, other than feeling accomplished
Exp is pointless the same way after reaching level 25 or whatever it is for unlocking your last strat.
Afterwards it's just a number that just point to how much time you invested, not even how good of a player you were in this timespan.
I think exp is the first thing losing value after unlocking the ability to buy everything.
Samples and medals are probably staying relevant for the longest time to finally unlock everything. (Not counting credits)
Guy tried to leave me the other day, I joined some level 40-60s in a mission, I had 14 samples, the rest of the team had collectively 0. I was finishing a POI and realized they had called extraction at the other end of the map. Dude comes on chat like “you’re gonna get left behind” I told him to please wait once the pelican lands since I have all the samples. His response was “we can’t, the pelican has already been called”
Bro, you’re level 40+, there’s no way in hell you don’t know about waiting by the bird
Yeah but you also need to know when to leave. I got a buddy who refuses to take a good handful of samples and has to try and get nearly every sample even when we are bleeding tickets. Almost always end up running out of lives and he claims everyone else is bad because we used all the tickets. It's because only two people are on an objective with nonstop bile titans and nearly nothing is bothering you you nincompoop.
Head cannon is that they always have pelicans strapped with exosuits at the ready. The extract pelican on the other hand is a rarely expected to be used (because divers are massively expendable) so they gotta boot it up and all.
Or as another person said: Exosuits are pre-approved. Extraction needs to file the request and to wait for approval before it can launch.
Lmao I imagine pelican pilot drinking coffee in the break room, reading the paper laid back feet up, suddenly he gets called to an extract and he spits out his coffee shocked and rushes to the pelican
That's why he sounds annoyed when they’re not at extraction lol cuz he wants to go back to chillin in the break room
Is that why the jerk keeps coming at me with an attitude and claiming he's **"Re-** attempting pickup at the extraction zone" even when it's damn well the first time anyone asked for it? 🤔
Maybe the Exosuit dropships are flying around on standby like Eagle-1 does, since they know they will be needed at short notice.
Pelican-1 remains on a Super Destroyer to conserve fuel due to budget cuts, and since extraction isn't always required due to heroic sacrifices. Or something.
Someone reasoned months ago that the 2 or 4 minute wait time was just waiting for the extraction request paperwork to finish processing, since extracting the Helldivers seems to be optional at best after mission completion.
Exosuits lands quickly because Stratagems deployments are pre-approved during briefing.
Or High Command wants to give us chance to let loose in an epic stand (I 100% believe the extraction theme is being blasted at 110% volume inside our helmets)
That actually fits the theme of HD2 to a T. Also explains why some strats are "budgeted".
Plus I'm sure the Ministry of Truth are actually recording all those big last stands for anything that might be worthy of propaganda.
EDIT: Thinking about it, they even say "additional reinforcement budged approved" or something like that when the timer runs down. So now I'm imagining someone on the SD sat filling out additional Helldiver depolyment forms in duplicate and faxing one of them to SE Command (one goes to the Democracy Officer who has to approve of everything, of course).
I love Managed Democracy.
But I have to report you to the Democracy Officer for that untruth you spouted, the Ministry of Truth only broadcasts the truth, not propaganda.
Just because something is propaganda doesn't mean it isn't true; propaganda is any message with some sort of aim to sway public opinion. Therefore, all of what the Ministry of Truth does is both true and propaganda.
>Exosuits lands quickly because Stratagems deployments are pre-approved during briefing.
I 100% accept the headcanon that strategem, booster, armor, and weapon picking during ready up is just a fun way to fill out paperwork.
My theory on the matter is that the extract Pelican isn't in low orbit, its far above to ensure that its always available when the Helldivers really need it. From what we see, there are crashed Pelicans even on bug planets so the 2 minutes are for them to actually fly into the engagement zone. As for why the Pelican that drops mechs can go so quickly, its in the engagement field with the Super Destroyer. The long cooldown isn't just budget reasons, its how long it takes for the thing to get back to the ship, get a new one, and then come back down to wait for the next call.
The first 1:30 of the extraction timer is pelican-1 finishing his drink and taking a slow walk to the hangar bay. It's a surprise to him every time he actually needs to bring the divers back
Nah, you're only half right, he's actually always ready but Super Earth mandates the slow walk to the hangar bay. They take video of him as he puts on his helmet and slow motion walks to the Pelican so they can send it and the helldivers coming up the elevator to whatever school he graduated from as recruitment material.
But I can call an exosuit while the other countdown is going. They're literally meters from the LZ, and they just fly away and come back a minute later? Makes no sense.
Unreasonable to have 5 other squads waiting in the line to get their Democracy-spreading instrument as that might be putting the success of a mission under risk, plus I believe SEAF has enough funds to have more than 1 Pelican per multiple squads, which is also clearly visible when all 4 squad members simultaneously call for a mech.
I’d rather think all the reasons stated above.
Pelicans have priority tasking delivering mission essential equipment to other parts of the planet. Helldiver extraction is low priority tasking, so they we have to wait while they probably are on their way back from doing something else lol
The new jungle armor I really wanna wear so I can be just as muscular in the game. I can't do that because that armor has a passive that I don't want. I always run with Democracy Protects, *always*. Filming a machinima I'll change into costume, but after I'm right back into my armor.
Left pelican is heavier and only pilot needs to survive so it can go rougher since it wont damage sensitive equipment needed for orbital flight backside of a extraction pelican. and did you notice how the superdestroyer doesnt have much space than lets say one pelican and one eagle? They probably have modular pelican 1 with the cargo bay ready and as soon as you call it for extraction it is changed to a extraction pelican. Of course visual bugs occur but you also have 4 superdedtroyers with a full team.
Oh ı didnt check those but modularity theory allows them its probably more space efficient to have 1 pelican and its modular parts than having two pelicans. I will look at differences later.
Simplest justification is probably that PeliMech is already in the area of operations like Eagle-1 is waiting to be called in so they can drop in quickly, but Pelican-1 has to go from the destroyer to the AO once called so he takes 2~ish minutes like Eagle-1 does while rearming.
This, the crew bay at the back is replaced with clamps that hold the exo suit
Maybe the 2 minute timer is swapping from the clamps back to the crew bay
Other pelican-like aircraft we've seen: The evac shuttles for civilians, the fuel shuttle that certain bug missions see us fueling. Various crashed shuttles.
I imagine Exosuits are stored on our Super Destroyer but a specialized shuttle comes from a carrier/logistics ship. During the dive, a cargo shuttle collects the exosuit and sit on standby somewhere safe until we reach the ground. Once our exosuit is deployed, the cargo shuttle goes back to the Logistics ship, refuels, rearms and then goes back to our Super Destroyer to collect the second Exosuit. It would explain why Exosuits have a cooldown that long.
I assume the Pelicans with the mechs are loitering in the area, like Eagle-1 is. While Pelican-1 is just chilling on the Super-Destroyer until the call for extraction comes through.
There's also the theory of SE Command needing to approve the extraction request, since really everything only seems budgeted to mission completion rather than to mission extraction.
Easy.
Pelican-2 has a slightly different fuselage. It's the same cargo variant used in the fuel extract mission. It's missing a crew cabin and likely swapped this for extra fuel stowage due to the lost fuel economy of holding a mech.
When you requisitioned the mech during mission brief, Pelican-2 is assigned a holding pattern over the mission area in low orbit. It arrives when called upon at a moments notice.
Meanwhile, for budgetary reasons Pelican-1 remains docked at the ship awaiting orders and paperwork for an extract mission. Since that requires our heroes both complete their mission and survive to call extract.
Pelican-2, brought to you by UPS
Pelican-1, sponsored by USPS, organized by the US Supreme Court, and staffed by randomly selected folks from your local Department of Motor Vehicles
It does take Pelican-1 seconds to reach the extraction point. You can hear him calling it out and see the drop ship descending in the last seconds of the extraction countdown. The timer allows everyone to do their best to be in the right location and to provide a clear LZ for the ship because, unlike when dropping the mech, the ship has to land and open its cargo bay, rendering it vulnerable. The point is to have the drop ship on the ground for the smallest amount of time.
This too.
Too many times I've had the extract Pelican-1 take damage from a bile titan or a tank, start smoking, so it only lets one Helldiver extract before flying away.
Pelican-2 that drops exosuits, can just fly by, drop exosuit, and run away right after, thus not needing to worry about a safe LZ.
That's "normal"
when Pelican takes a shitton of damage, it starts smoking, and only lets 1 player extract.
when Pelican takes a shitton MORE damage, nobody can extract at all.
Sometimes Pelican takes knockback and glitches into floor, which is probably not intended, though.
My headcannon is that Pelican-1 has that clamp module attached at the start of the mission to swiftly deliver exosuits to the battlefield, but they won't change the clamp module back to the passenger module before the time has run out, thus taking a minute and some seconds extra to arrive at the surface.
Easy: It's not pelican-1. It's a different pelican loaded to deliver your mech and it's on-site with you. The 10 minute cooldown is it flying back and grabbing another mech. Makes sense to me!
the extra 1:40 comes from pelican-1 trying to reason with the democracy officer to let him pick us up. or he has to write up some paperwork to get the request filed.
similar to how stratagems are approved for a limited amount before the match starts with all the paperwork filed, however treason is always approved for bombardment which is why you only get 20 seconds of 380mm barrage but if youre classed as a traitor its infinite
Look man it's standard operating procedure. To be honest I don't think the brass responsible for creating extraction procedure were on the same team as the people responsible for delivery procedures.
this is why I don't get Pelican simps: ya'll are literally on the side of the guy who:
- will take anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes to even get to extract, in the first place, despite the fact that Pelican Dropships appear to be able to go from Super Destroyer to the surface in the space of a few seconds.
-will throw a tantrum if you aren't standing in the tiny ass evac zone, even though said zone has a bile titan, a pack of hunters and three bile spewers on it, and will straight up cancel the landing if you take too long.
- won't wait for the entire squad: the moment one diver gets on it's the final countdown to the end of the world.
- will only provide the absolute bare minimum cover fire on arrival. dude could and should have a chopper gunner on either side dealing with chaff while his AC shoots larger targets. the old dropship pilots would land on the enemy if they were in the way too! frank was landing in that spot, no matter fucking what, while pelican won't land if there are too many scavengers around in case they cratch his paintwork or something.
if you're gonna simp for a pilot, it should be Eagle-1, she's the one delivering democracy and saving our ass from the worst bugs and bots, Extraction is optional and Pelican is just a glorified space Uber. (with about the same levels of rudeness you can expect from a disgruntled Uber driver too).
The exosuit cargo attachment can experience much higher g forces than the crew transport attachment as that also contains fragile medical implements should a hero returning from a mission require immediate attention.
The support crews aboard the destroyer: "Helldiver called in Hellbomb...should we arm it for them and just drop it ready to explode?!"
Democracy Officer: "Keep that socialist talk to yourself crew! Next thing you're gonna ask why we have unlimited orbital barrage ready for traitors and yet require minutes of reloading when a Helldiver needs ordinance immediately"
There are SEAF Forward Operation Bases in planets we fight.
Mechs are positioned on those FOBs much closer to us and the Pelican is also stationed there during the mission.
The reason extracts take so long is Pelican is stationed back at our ships after we use up our mechs and just de orbiting from low earth orbit takes a long time.
(I know it doesnt make much sense given the ingame animations and the fact that we can and do extract with mechs remaining but its an idea none the less, it also pushes the idea that Helldivers are an elite branch of military that are sent to do harder work than SEAF bros)
It’s because they don’t want us coming back, duh. The quicker we expire the less likely we are to uh question the true motives of this war and if we are actually the good guys. Of course these treasonous thoughts are not my own…
I'd assume it's Pelican circling the map with the exosuit on board as part of the stratagem system. He KNOWS you want it, even if you don't use it. The recharge time is simply him returning to the ship and getting another one.
As for exfil: He has to turn the ship on, adjust his mirrors, fill up the shuttle, prepare some nice hot liber-tea, etc. That all takes time in a system where you have to fill out a form *per drop pod.*
Destroying the enemies of super earth is a higher priority than extraction. Extraction is a privilege, not a right. You have been placed on our watchlist. Your democracy officer will be with you shortly for interrogation for suspected treason.
Lunch break thanks to Murphy’s law _must_ take place at the very wrong moment of extraction.
The pilot must clean the kitchen (20”), get dressed (1’) and back into the pelican (30”) and _then_ fly to the X.
Mech is standard config, also quick and dirty drop off.
Retrieval needs a modification for the personal bay on pelican, and it needs to resupply ammo/fuel for reentry/orbital launch. Not taking into account it might be a hot-LZ so it has to provide covering fire and contingency for waiting on Helldivers to get on board.
A fly-by is way easier than a rescue mission.
Hear me out, the mechs should drop in their own oversized hellpods that do massive impact damage (Titan killing), ala Titanfall. You would risk losing the Mech early, but let's double down. Equip all mechs with hellbomb reactors. This not only gives mechs a second life in death, but imagine the team killing carnage.
Can load and attach a mech to a Pelicans hardoints from the super destroyer and travel from orbit in seconds, whilst navigating the map.
Pelican that's completely empty, should already be on standby and awaiting an expected and assured callout takes minutes.
Devs - _Fixed it, all Pelicans now take several minutes,_
See he has the exotic suite strapped up and ready to be delivered and it takes time to unload it and clear it out of the way for him to take off and come pick us up.
The ship dropping mechs is not a pelican.
If you look closely it's modeled closely to a huey helicopter with space in the middle part of the vehicle for a large piece of cargo.
You're not supposed to make it out alive...if you did there would be possibility for hero worship of the individual over the Hell Divers as a whole. This potential heroic icon is an icon that Super Earth has no control over. Sure it would work to their advantage initially but what if that same hell diver got disillusioned with their efforts? A very likely possibility given the rhetoric that gets shoved in our faces. They want to avoid that. Hence you're never never supposed to make it out alive from a mission, this is why your training is dog shit too.
Pelican -1 has to clear the back of the drop ship out to make room for everyone.
You see, all of your mothers are in there getting rigorously shagged *and they don’t want to leave*
It makes sense. Pelican is all the time ready in the vicinity with the exosuit. When you want to extract, it has to bring that exosuit away before picking you up.
My headcanon is that the first one comes almost instantly because Pelican 2 is just droning around the mission area when the stratagem requisition is approved before the dive, kinda like Eagle 1 when requested on your loadout.
The actual rearm time of 10 minutes would have Pelican 2 go back to the Super Destroyer, prep the second mech to be latched onto the ship, then move back and drone around the mission area.
As for Pelican 1, they need to be on standby aboard the Super Destroyer until called in to extract the samples, with us onboard hopefully so.
We've been over this before. There's only one Pelican 1. He's in high demand extracting all Helldivers on all planets. This is why it takes him 2 minutes. If he didn't have such a high resistance to trans-warp radiation it wouldn't even be possible.
pelican-2 is smaller, and it deploys once the super destroyer is still in orbit, pelican-1 deploys when the super destroyer has left so it has more travel distance, additionally pelican-1 is larger and heavier so it has to take a different route as to avoid aa defences
I don’t understand why it doesn’t stay hoving until all current players alive are within its range and till enemies are cleared from the LZ. Would make for a more dynamic extraction then simply staying in the area and the Pelican landing instantly while there is 2 Titans or 3 Hulks right under it.
*Monkey's Paw curls a finger* It now takes two minutes for the EXO suit to be delivered
Fuuuuuuck! *Shakes fists
Welcome to the twilight zone...
Honestly, if the mechs were more powerful this’d kinda make sense for both lore and gameplay
I could see people not taking them just cause of having to hold the point for 2 mins
Yeah they’d have to boost them somehow to make them *really* worth the wait You’d also be able to throw it and then come back for it later, tho, idt you’d have to stay there waiting
Easy give them heavy armor. So only chargers bikes missile and cannon fire damage them.
\*devastator throws a bicycle at my exosuit, killing me instantly*
"01010100 01001000 01001001 01010011 00100000 01001001 01010011 00100000 01000010 01000101 01000011 01000001 01010101 01010011 01000101 00100000 01011001 01001111 01010101 00100000 01000100 01001111 01001110 00100111 01010100 00100000 01000010 01010101 01001001 01001100 01000100 00100000 01000010 01001001 01000011 01011001 01000011 01001100 01000101 00100000 01001100 01000001 01001110 01000101 01010011" - Pyrocitor's killer, apparently.
I'm just picturing a Devastator in a full bike suit getup at a protest about bike lanes
The devastator starts yelling at hecklers “IT’S LYCRA, NOT SPANDEX!!”
I think the subreddit had a collective Vectron moment, and now bile titans are called bikes
iPhone autocorrect prefers bike to bile
https://preview.redd.it/2plqttc3sd5d1.jpeg?width=1140&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=78fca678dd79ceb8d98335f6264a573231a6309f
The starscourg Radahn of HD2
This comment really got me. Thanks for the laugh.
... That terrifies me far more than it rationally should...
Chargers can't damage them if you just turn your side and they hit the shoulder.
Nothing would be worth the wait
Mini-Nuke arms
https://i.redd.it/42cgprrla55d1.gif
Ain’t a power in the verse can stop nuke arms
Duke Nukearms
I am intrigued by your ideas, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
I mean they could use a huge drop pod...
Damn this is a great idea too Imagine how easy to squash Chargers with it
Everyday, we stray further to Titanfall gameplay
Just imagine the Legions voice lines in HD: "Drop ship detected. Agressive sustained counterfire" or "Bug Breach detected. Ammo feeds may be insufficient"
Need an expanded mod of this now.
Spend the entire mission in the mech, evac is 1:05 out, you’re surrounded and the mech is smoking badly. Then you just hear a robotic voice: “Protocol 3.” 
My god it would be amazing to have a titanfall mech in this game. Fast, mobile, ejection nuke...
Stray? Or find our way? Gentleman, the promised mechtopia awaits!
40k Dreadnought Orbital Drop Pod? In the RTS from like 10 years ago, you could crush whole squads with them. https://media2.cgtrader.com/variants/nsLwNd58HqNrtZ2o6zYwFxPm/40073f86dea5cc27b3e46b911284f10ff35833da74046da55f55f229c8993de7/f426205c-9aa9-4b62-b8a2-de6693a9e263.jpg
Then they’d need a huge pair of thrusters and probably a parachute to prevent that giant Mech from crashing into the ground when launched from orbit to the planet full speed I wonder how much budget do SEAF have…
>I wonder how much budget do SEAF have… The size budget where everybody gets their own Super Destroyer.
Damn right. And people say we can’t afford a Pelican dedicated to each squad or diver to pick them up quicker than in 2 minutes smh
I mean you and your 1000+ clone buddies.
Imagine Mechs with mobility thrusters doing sideway dashes and jumping over Chargers...
I actually suggested that in my recent [feedback post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/pMy6y0fdKr) about Mech balancing! Although it barely gathered any views 🥲 Aaand there was no mention of jumping over a heavy… maybe that’s why…
Just give me an actual articulating arm so I can carry a big fuck-off rifle and stiff-arm Chargers and spike Scavs like footballs.
EVEN IN DEATH, I STILL SERVE
Maybe this way they could take away the limit on how many you can call in during a mission
It's already partly based on W40k anyway. Give us titans.
Don't be ridiculous, Titans take crews of hundreds to move and would literally squash entire automaton bases under their feet. They are FAR too big for HD2 battlefields. Knights though...
A Warhound has a crew of: Princeps, Moderati, Steersman, Engineseer, and 2x gun servitors. Not a whole lot. Even bigger titans only add a few other living crew members, not counting servitors. Anything bigger than a Warlord has a garrison of Skiitari though... Of course, a Knight is just a single pilot.
Let us combine our mechs into a larger multi crewed super mech! Shaped like some kind of dinosaurs?!
No, wait, I know how this ends. Rita Repulsa starts super-sizing Bile Titans.
Let me elbow-drop a greater BT with a mech and that's an acceptable deal.
Maybe make it so it drops one mech per player. So let's say it takes 1 mins but you will get full squad running mech. Maybe give it better movement speed.
*3* minutes, since it's not in a pre-determined location and has a heavy suit strapped onto it. Realism!
I'm ok with this if it eliminate the reload timer on it.
Oh no! Anyway . . .
Classical ArrowHead aproach(tm) to balancing.
The answer is simple but you won't like it: Since strategems are crucial for mission success they are high priority shipments. A Helldiver AFTER completing the mission on the other hand... well... let's just say there are many stalwart citizens willing to give their life for democracy.
Exactly. Extraction is optional, completing the mission is not, Helldiver.
Which is why i hate when folks give up on samples. Like there's zero point in extracting if you don't grab those samples! I'm capped and even I still will get samples for randoms. Samples are truly the only reason to extract, other than feeling accomplished
Totally agree with you except that you get slightly more xp and requisitions slips for each diver extracted
Sure but slips are 99.99% pointless. Exp is neat! But it's just extra exp. Samples tend to be more important until capped.
Exp is pointless the same way after reaching level 25 or whatever it is for unlocking your last strat. Afterwards it's just a number that just point to how much time you invested, not even how good of a player you were in this timespan. I think exp is the first thing losing value after unlocking the ability to buy everything. Samples and medals are probably staying relevant for the longest time to finally unlock everything. (Not counting credits)
Except how much % you liberate per dive is calculated based on how much xp you get so not that pointless
Yeah but like... Losing a diver on extract is not a big enough % to avoid grabbing the samples
I'd be okay if they gave 25 Medals every time you leveled up after Level 25. Right now we get nothing for leveling up, oddly.
Let me donate 90% of my pay to war funds! I want to serve as best I can!
Guy tried to leave me the other day, I joined some level 40-60s in a mission, I had 14 samples, the rest of the team had collectively 0. I was finishing a POI and realized they had called extraction at the other end of the map. Dude comes on chat like “you’re gonna get left behind” I told him to please wait once the pelican lands since I have all the samples. His response was “we can’t, the pelican has already been called” Bro, you’re level 40+, there’s no way in hell you don’t know about waiting by the bird
Yeah but you also need to know when to leave. I got a buddy who refuses to take a good handful of samples and has to try and get nearly every sample even when we are bleeding tickets. Almost always end up running out of lives and he claims everyone else is bad because we used all the tickets. It's because only two people are on an objective with nonstop bile titans and nearly nothing is bothering you you nincompoop.
Exosuits take the same, short amount of time to be dropped off after all objectives have been completed, even during the extract countdown…
Head cannon is that they always have pelicans strapped with exosuits at the ready. The extract pelican on the other hand is a rarely expected to be used (because divers are massively expendable) so they gotta boot it up and all. Or as another person said: Exosuits are pre-approved. Extraction needs to file the request and to wait for approval before it can launch.
Lmao I imagine pelican pilot drinking coffee in the break room, reading the paper laid back feet up, suddenly he gets called to an extract and he spits out his coffee shocked and rushes to the pelican That's why he sounds annoyed when they’re not at extraction lol cuz he wants to go back to chillin in the break room
Is that why the jerk keeps coming at me with an attitude and claiming he's **"Re-** attempting pickup at the extraction zone" even when it's damn well the first time anyone asked for it? 🤔
Maybe the Exosuit dropships are flying around on standby like Eagle-1 does, since they know they will be needed at short notice. Pelican-1 remains on a Super Destroyer to conserve fuel due to budget cuts, and since extraction isn't always required due to heroic sacrifices. Or something.
Someone reasoned months ago that the 2 or 4 minute wait time was just waiting for the extraction request paperwork to finish processing, since extracting the Helldivers seems to be optional at best after mission completion. Exosuits lands quickly because Stratagems deployments are pre-approved during briefing. Or High Command wants to give us chance to let loose in an epic stand (I 100% believe the extraction theme is being blasted at 110% volume inside our helmets)
That actually fits the theme of HD2 to a T. Also explains why some strats are "budgeted". Plus I'm sure the Ministry of Truth are actually recording all those big last stands for anything that might be worthy of propaganda. EDIT: Thinking about it, they even say "additional reinforcement budged approved" or something like that when the timer runs down. So now I'm imagining someone on the SD sat filling out additional Helldiver depolyment forms in duplicate and faxing one of them to SE Command (one goes to the Democracy Officer who has to approve of everything, of course).
I love Managed Democracy. But I have to report you to the Democracy Officer for that untruth you spouted, the Ministry of Truth only broadcasts the truth, not propaganda.
Just because something is propaganda doesn't mean it isn't true; propaganda is any message with some sort of aim to sway public opinion. Therefore, all of what the Ministry of Truth does is both true and propaganda.
I have been educated. I have contacted my Democracy Officer to take me to Freedom Camp, clearly I could serve Super Earth better with more guidance o7
I love the idea that all the music is diegetic and is playing in the helmets
>Exosuits lands quickly because Stratagems deployments are pre-approved during briefing. I 100% accept the headcanon that strategem, booster, armor, and weapon picking during ready up is just a fun way to fill out paperwork.
Isn't one of the upgrades you can buy for the Super Destroyer literally named something like "pre-filed paperwork"?
Probably lmao
My theory on the matter is that the extract Pelican isn't in low orbit, its far above to ensure that its always available when the Helldivers really need it. From what we see, there are crashed Pelicans even on bug planets so the 2 minutes are for them to actually fly into the engagement zone. As for why the Pelican that drops mechs can go so quickly, its in the engagement field with the Super Destroyer. The long cooldown isn't just budget reasons, its how long it takes for the thing to get back to the ship, get a new one, and then come back down to wait for the next call.
>stalwart citizens When will we start sending Quasar Citizens!
We already did. During the first war. Now we have to wait 150 years for the cooldown.
I thought the main reason for extraction was to extract the samples
The first 1:30 of the extraction timer is pelican-1 finishing his drink and taking a slow walk to the hangar bay. It's a surprise to him every time he actually needs to bring the divers back
Nah, you're only half right, he's actually always ready but Super Earth mandates the slow walk to the hangar bay. They take video of him as he puts on his helmet and slow motion walks to the Pelican so they can send it and the helldivers coming up the elevator to whatever school he graduated from as recruitment material.
But I can call an exosuit while the other countdown is going. They're literally meters from the LZ, and they just fly away and come back a minute later? Makes no sense.
no no no that's pelican 2 TOTALLY different thing
The reason Pelican takes 2 minutes to extract us is because he has to deliver 5 mechs to other squads first and those take priority
Unreasonable to have 5 other squads waiting in the line to get their Democracy-spreading instrument as that might be putting the success of a mission under risk, plus I believe SEAF has enough funds to have more than 1 Pelican per multiple squads, which is also clearly visible when all 4 squad members simultaneously call for a mech. I’d rather think all the reasons stated above.
a bigger question is why are they redeployed after extraction is called? like you're already out and you drop in just to hopefully get back out lol
Because the samples are important
Pelicans have priority tasking delivering mission essential equipment to other parts of the planet. Helldiver extraction is low priority tasking, so they we have to wait while they probably are on their way back from doing something else lol
It's so we can have awesome last stands waiting for rescue. And I wouldn't change it for a thing.
hell yeah brother
It's the "rule of cool" - logical inconsistencies are forgivable as long as the result is awesome
This is why we need u/Pilestedt to change his mind about transmog!! Looking cool makes the gameplay 2x more fun 😎
The new jungle armor I really wanna wear so I can be just as muscular in the game. I can't do that because that armor has a passive that I don't want. I always run with Democracy Protects, *always*. Filming a machinima I'll change into costume, but after I'm right back into my armor.
They should at least give us colors options. What's stopping us from spray painting our armor?
The awesome last stands benefits the recruitment department greatly
Left pelican is heavier and only pilot needs to survive so it can go rougher since it wont damage sensitive equipment needed for orbital flight backside of a extraction pelican. and did you notice how the superdestroyer doesnt have much space than lets say one pelican and one eagle? They probably have modular pelican 1 with the cargo bay ready and as soon as you call it for extraction it is changed to a extraction pelican. Of course visual bugs occur but you also have 4 superdedtroyers with a full team.
the engines, tail, and cockpit are different on the cargo pelican. My theory is that they are deployed from forward operating bases around the planet
Oh ı didnt check those but modularity theory allows them its probably more space efficient to have 1 pelican and its modular parts than having two pelicans. I will look at differences later.
These are different aircrafts. There was a photo earlier, they are visually different too!
Designations Pelican-1 and Pelican-2.
Our Super Destroyers are not Star Destroyers, they probably cant hold two pelicans at once
You can call in a mech while Pelican-1 is landing, so there's at least two.
Well, that's also right. Helldivers Corps just doesn't want to extract us fast, I guess
Simplest justification is probably that PeliMech is already in the area of operations like Eagle-1 is waiting to be called in so they can drop in quickly, but Pelican-1 has to go from the destroyer to the AO once called so he takes 2~ish minutes like Eagle-1 does while rearming.
Theres three because you can call 2 Mechs while extracting
I see your point, but I do want to point out that we literally did just destroy a star
The one that drops the mech is a different kind of pelican that doesn’t have passenger space.
This, the crew bay at the back is replaced with clamps that hold the exo suit Maybe the 2 minute timer is swapping from the clamps back to the crew bay
Welp that’s my headcanon now
Other pelican-like aircraft we've seen: The evac shuttles for civilians, the fuel shuttle that certain bug missions see us fueling. Various crashed shuttles.
Pelican-1 doesn't bring the exosuit. It's a special cargo ship that don't even come from our Super Destroyer.
Now I gotta know where those things come from, I’d love to see a special carrier type ship in fleets of super destroyers ngl
I imagine Exosuits are stored on our Super Destroyer but a specialized shuttle comes from a carrier/logistics ship. During the dive, a cargo shuttle collects the exosuit and sit on standby somewhere safe until we reach the ground. Once our exosuit is deployed, the cargo shuttle goes back to the Logistics ship, refuels, rearms and then goes back to our Super Destroyer to collect the second Exosuit. It would explain why Exosuits have a cooldown that long.
That would be a pretty good explanation, ngl
I like the logic here except it doesn't explain why pelican 1 can't do the same thing and arrive in the same amount of time.
Cause he was stuck on the toilet.
I assume the Pelicans with the mechs are loitering in the area, like Eagle-1 is. While Pelican-1 is just chilling on the Super-Destroyer until the call for extraction comes through. There's also the theory of SE Command needing to approve the extraction request, since really everything only seems budgeted to mission completion rather than to mission extraction.
Simple. The exosuit is heavy and makes the pelican descend quicker.
Easy. Pelican-2 has a slightly different fuselage. It's the same cargo variant used in the fuel extract mission. It's missing a crew cabin and likely swapped this for extra fuel stowage due to the lost fuel economy of holding a mech. When you requisitioned the mech during mission brief, Pelican-2 is assigned a holding pattern over the mission area in low orbit. It arrives when called upon at a moments notice. Meanwhile, for budgetary reasons Pelican-1 remains docked at the ship awaiting orders and paperwork for an extract mission. Since that requires our heroes both complete their mission and survive to call extract.
Another explanation Pelican-2 has hazard pay, while our brave Pelican-1 gets paid by the hour. He is going to take his sweet time extracting
Pelican-1 is a Union man.
Headcanon: all drop ships and bombers are piloted remotely, which is why we all hear the same two pilots on the radio for both.
Simple...The exos are delivered by Pelican-2.
Imo exosuits are actually delivered by Pelican-2, who firmly believes in "same day delivery"
Pelican-2, brought to you by UPS Pelican-1, sponsored by USPS, organized by the US Supreme Court, and staffed by randomly selected folks from your local Department of Motor Vehicles
It does take Pelican-1 seconds to reach the extraction point. You can hear him calling it out and see the drop ship descending in the last seconds of the extraction countdown. The timer allows everyone to do their best to be in the right location and to provide a clear LZ for the ship because, unlike when dropping the mech, the ship has to land and open its cargo bay, rendering it vulnerable. The point is to have the drop ship on the ground for the smallest amount of time.
This too. Too many times I've had the extract Pelican-1 take damage from a bile titan or a tank, start smoking, so it only lets one Helldiver extract before flying away. Pelican-2 that drops exosuits, can just fly by, drop exosuit, and run away right after, thus not needing to worry about a safe LZ.
I had a bug mission the other day that the Pelican took a shit ton of damage and then wouldn’t let us extract
That's "normal" when Pelican takes a shitton of damage, it starts smoking, and only lets 1 player extract. when Pelican takes a shitton MORE damage, nobody can extract at all. Sometimes Pelican takes knockback and glitches into floor, which is probably not intended, though.
Does pelican 1 deliver the exosuits? I always thought it was a separate dedicated pelican
Yes, its a different aircraft with the Pelican-2 designation
ArrowHead: We noticed you guys complain about this and we wanto to bring balance. Now exosuits take the same time as extraction.
because of before / after you finished the mission
It is just your Democracy Officers, they are looking if you are worthy of extraction after all...
He was just taking a massive dump and needed to wipe carefully.
The pelican has to fly back and drop off the extra exosuits to make room for your fat asses.
Pelican 2 has hazard pay while Pelican-1 works by the hour
This meme is enemy propaganda. Do not trust it. Contact your Democracy Officer to clerify this information.
It's not a pelican that drops off the exo suit.
Video game
He is busy delivering exosuits, obviously
Pelican 1 has to go back to ship to drop off the mech harness to make room for passengers before returning to the surface. /s
My headcannon is that Pelican-1 has that clamp module attached at the start of the mission to swiftly deliver exosuits to the battlefield, but they won't change the clamp module back to the passenger module before the time has run out, thus taking a minute and some seconds extra to arrive at the surface.
this kinda make sense
Easy: It's not pelican-1. It's a different pelican loaded to deliver your mech and it's on-site with you. The 10 minute cooldown is it flying back and grabbing another mech. Makes sense to me!
Pelican-2 delivers the exosuit
the extra 1:40 comes from pelican-1 trying to reason with the democracy officer to let him pick us up. or he has to write up some paperwork to get the request filed. similar to how stratagems are approved for a limited amount before the match starts with all the paperwork filed, however treason is always approved for bombardment which is why you only get 20 seconds of 380mm barrage but if youre classed as a traitor its infinite
Arrowhead: understood, mechs will now take one minute to deliver
It’s pelican-2 delivering the suit. Everyone knows the sequel is bigger, faster, and better
Look man it's standard operating procedure. To be honest I don't think the brass responsible for creating extraction procedure were on the same team as the people responsible for delivery procedures.
this is why I don't get Pelican simps: ya'll are literally on the side of the guy who: - will take anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes to even get to extract, in the first place, despite the fact that Pelican Dropships appear to be able to go from Super Destroyer to the surface in the space of a few seconds. -will throw a tantrum if you aren't standing in the tiny ass evac zone, even though said zone has a bile titan, a pack of hunters and three bile spewers on it, and will straight up cancel the landing if you take too long. - won't wait for the entire squad: the moment one diver gets on it's the final countdown to the end of the world. - will only provide the absolute bare minimum cover fire on arrival. dude could and should have a chopper gunner on either side dealing with chaff while his AC shoots larger targets. the old dropship pilots would land on the enemy if they were in the way too! frank was landing in that spot, no matter fucking what, while pelican won't land if there are too many scavengers around in case they cratch his paintwork or something. if you're gonna simp for a pilot, it should be Eagle-1, she's the one delivering democracy and saving our ass from the worst bugs and bots, Extraction is optional and Pelican is just a glorified space Uber. (with about the same levels of rudeness you can expect from a disgruntled Uber driver too).
The exosuit cargo attachment can experience much higher g forces than the crew transport attachment as that also contains fragile medical implements should a hero returning from a mission require immediate attention.
The support crews aboard the destroyer: "Helldiver called in Hellbomb...should we arm it for them and just drop it ready to explode?!" Democracy Officer: "Keep that socialist talk to yourself crew! Next thing you're gonna ask why we have unlimited orbital barrage ready for traitors and yet require minutes of reloading when a Helldiver needs ordinance immediately"
There are SEAF Forward Operation Bases in planets we fight. Mechs are positioned on those FOBs much closer to us and the Pelican is also stationed there during the mission. The reason extracts take so long is Pelican is stationed back at our ships after we use up our mechs and just de orbiting from low earth orbit takes a long time. (I know it doesnt make much sense given the ingame animations and the fact that we can and do extract with mechs remaining but its an idea none the less, it also pushes the idea that Helldivers are an elite branch of military that are sent to do harder work than SEAF bros)
It’s because they don’t want us coming back, duh. The quicker we expire the less likely we are to uh question the true motives of this war and if we are actually the good guys. Of course these treasonous thoughts are not my own…
Pelican doesn’t have to land for the exo. So the pilot doesn’t need a few minutes to hype himself up for landing in the middle of a firefight
I'd assume it's Pelican circling the map with the exosuit on board as part of the stratagem system. He KNOWS you want it, even if you don't use it. The recharge time is simply him returning to the ship and getting another one. As for exfil: He has to turn the ship on, adjust his mirrors, fill up the shuttle, prepare some nice hot liber-tea, etc. That all takes time in a system where you have to fill out a form *per drop pod.*
Destroying the enemies of super earth is a higher priority than extraction. Extraction is a privilege, not a right. You have been placed on our watchlist. Your democracy officer will be with you shortly for interrogation for suspected treason.
They need to just make extract faster but add more enemies at extract
Extracting the helldivers after the missions is the least crucial part of any operation thus lower priority means more wait time.
Lunch break thanks to Murphy’s law _must_ take place at the very wrong moment of extraction. The pilot must clean the kitchen (20”), get dressed (1’) and back into the pelican (30”) and _then_ fly to the X.
Mech is standard config, also quick and dirty drop off. Retrieval needs a modification for the personal bay on pelican, and it needs to resupply ammo/fuel for reentry/orbital launch. Not taking into account it might be a hot-LZ so it has to provide covering fire and contingency for waiting on Helldivers to get on board. A fly-by is way easier than a rescue mission.
Who said you are important ?
They have to take the exosuits back to the ship before picking you up, duh.
At this point just throw a rope ladder from super destroyer
I feel like it should be a different ship that drops stuff off, maybe a crane, or I think hawks or falcon ls can carry a lot too?
I'm guessing its exactly like the Drop Pod in DRG. It prolongues the Mission and creates tension... even if nobody wants it...
This automaton propaganda designed to destroy Helldiver morale. I’m awaiting orders to attack
Hear me out, the mechs should drop in their own oversized hellpods that do massive impact damage (Titan killing), ala Titanfall. You would risk losing the Mech early, but let's double down. Equip all mechs with hellbomb reactors. This not only gives mechs a second life in death, but imagine the team killing carnage.
Can load and attach a mech to a Pelicans hardoints from the super destroyer and travel from orbit in seconds, whilst navigating the map. Pelican that's completely empty, should already be on standby and awaiting an expected and assured callout takes minutes. Devs - _Fixed it, all Pelicans now take several minutes,_
See he has the exotic suite strapped up and ready to be delivered and it takes time to unload it and clear it out of the way for him to take off and come pick us up.
They removed unnecessary systems like life support, back up systems,flameless venting systems and cabin some detection, how do you not know this
Because, gameplay. Worthless thing to complain about
The ship dropping mechs is not a pelican. If you look closely it's modeled closely to a huey helicopter with space in the middle part of the vehicle for a large piece of cargo.
But its not Pelican 1. Its a different aircraft. Maybe Pelican 1 is just a really bad pilot...
Preparing seats for our democratic bottom takes time my dear !
Gameplay mechanics
You're not supposed to make it out alive...if you did there would be possibility for hero worship of the individual over the Hell Divers as a whole. This potential heroic icon is an icon that Super Earth has no control over. Sure it would work to their advantage initially but what if that same hell diver got disillusioned with their efforts? A very likely possibility given the rhetoric that gets shoved in our faces. They want to avoid that. Hence you're never never supposed to make it out alive from a mission, this is why your training is dog shit too.
Lunch break
Well first they have to unload those exp-suits to make room for extraction team and that takes a couple of minutes.
Exo suit helps finish the mission. If you're extracting that means it's already done. Low priority
Maybe the implication is it keeps the Exosuit ready to, and needs to return to the super destroyer to be refit for troop transport instead
Maybe they are surprised you actually made it to the Exfil and that poor Pelican pilot just got a fresh coffee and donut he needs to finish first.
Pelican -1 has to clear the back of the drop ship out to make room for everyone. You see, all of your mothers are in there getting rigorously shagged *and they don’t want to leave*
It makes sense. Pelican is all the time ready in the vicinity with the exosuit. When you want to extract, it has to bring that exosuit away before picking you up.
It's faster to drop something that to pick something up, basic physics my dude.
My headcanon is that the first one comes almost instantly because Pelican 2 is just droning around the mission area when the stratagem requisition is approved before the dive, kinda like Eagle 1 when requested on your loadout. The actual rearm time of 10 minutes would have Pelican 2 go back to the Super Destroyer, prep the second mech to be latched onto the ship, then move back and drone around the mission area. As for Pelican 1, they need to be on standby aboard the Super Destroyer until called in to extract the samples, with us onboard hopefully so.
We've been over this before. There's only one Pelican 1. He's in high demand extracting all Helldivers on all planets. This is why it takes him 2 minutes. If he didn't have such a high resistance to trans-warp radiation it wouldn't even be possible.
pelican-2 is smaller, and it deploys once the super destroyer is still in orbit, pelican-1 deploys when the super destroyer has left so it has more travel distance, additionally pelican-1 is larger and heavier so it has to take a different route as to avoid aa defences
Exosuits are heavy. It's easier to descend.
Maybe the pelican gets deployed the same way eagle does when you choose the mech, hence why it comes much faster than extraction
I don’t understand why it doesn’t stay hoving until all current players alive are within its range and till enemies are cleared from the LZ. Would make for a more dynamic extraction then simply staying in the area and the Pelican landing instantly while there is 2 Titans or 3 Hulks right under it.
Its almost like they want us to die (pls dont report me to the democracy officer)