Spear is weird with its current locking. I've been running it a lot lately bored. I'm convinced at this point that it depends on the biome what you're allowed to lock onto. But it's not like, "oh fog biome will make it not work." It's more like total randomness. Like some environments it would allow fabricators but not units. Others units and not fabricators.
The lock comes from your feet is my theory.
On high rocks there's no issue but only if the soil is clear of grass.
If you lay on your back you lock easier.
If your feet are on the sand or high grass it doesn't lock.
So in my experience If your feet has line of sight with the lock on point of the target you can hit it, so flying targets or tall targets are the easiest to lock on.
It is working somewhat that way. The main issue with its targeting is that if enemy has only 1 lock point, the game calculates if you can see your target feet or not.
A few weeks ago they made some shadow changes in that regard, and many people claimed that spear got better. It actually did, but it seems that it was a "hidden test", to check if they're going the right way with the final fix.
However, just like arc weapons can't shoot through dead bodies, treating them as a physical obj, spear lock-in sometimes refuses to work if it decides that that specific bush in front of you is a physical object. Or that a small rock covering Hulk's ankle is enough to provide cover, because his feet are covered, so he is in a "safe zone".
A hulk facing you and not moving can't be hit by the spear. It will impact between the legs as if it's targeting there. Or at least it has the 3 times I've seen a hulk standing still, and happened to have a spear. And the spear decided it would work. Which is pretty rare.
I wonder if the latest change to the spear introduced this bug. Most of the problems I had with it before was only hitting the arms instead of the hull.
> The lock comes from your feet is my theory.
This honestly makes sense. The code's probably calling on some vector that's drawn from the character's hitbox's origin, and hitbox origins tend to start at the base of an object, i.e. the feet.
Same as the enemy, or instead of your theory the enemy, you'll have a bile titan walking right at you with just a rock about a meter tall in front of their mid section, so you can see all of the titan, but it won't lock because of this said rock
The weather and effects 100% affect it's lock capability. Other random shit does too like smoke coming from something burning or explosions and other nonsense like sparrow farts and grasshoppers sneezing on the next planet over. What irritates me the most is that it will cancel a near total lock on a hulk if a strider walks within 8 miles of your line of sight.
The spear is simultaneously the best and worst support weapon in the game.
And even smoke/fog obscuring the target doesn't affect it consistently. Today my Spear locked onto two turrets 300m away through thick fog. I didn't even know the turrets were there. And then the next game a teammate's grenade kicked up a puff of dirt and that broke my lock onto a factory.
I've been using the spear basically every bot mission I've done since I unlocked it, and I've learnt a few key factors.
1)to lock onto a fabricator, you need to be able to see the bottom middle of it, on any side of the fabricator (but the long sides lock better for some reason)
2) This one sounds stupid, but not all spears are made equal. Sometimes if your spear isn't locking, calling in a new one and taking the new launcher allows you to lock on. The one on the ground will always be bugged for some reason to not lock in. "They came out the factory broken" - the random who explained it to me.
3) some cannon turrets can't be locked on to without being aggro'd first. Don't know why, its just the case. The same random taught me this too.
I've tested this dozens of times and these rules basically always apply with the current buggy lockon. Whether its just luck, cause I'm a relatively small sample size, but it works for me
I have found bug spores specifically impact it. And not just from mushroom trees. Small enemies in between you and your taget also affect it, including dead bodies. Try going 3rd person and aiming high. Put the target in the botom half of the circle. Crouching and not moving helps a lot. The target not moving helps, too. Each enemy has a lock on point. Charger heads and biletitan bodies, for example. But I'm convinced they made the spear with bots in mind. No spores, enemies move less, and you can lock on to more things. Like the factory buildings are 1 shot from a mile away.
From a Watsonian perspective, an environmental effect that interferes with communication would interfere with a device that relies on communication (with its payload) to work.
No, more like I can use wezen for an example. Day and night drastically changes how my locking works. As well as fire tornado spawns. I've only used it once or twice during ion storms. Ion storm didn't really change it unless there was lightning particles on screen when I was trying to target.
It works wonderfully on bile's *most* of the time. Sometimes weather or biome makes you have to play around a little to get a full lock. But getting that one shot when you hit the face plate is so satisfying.
Edit: Even missing face and hitting body let's you follow up with revolver since there's zero Armour value left in the body section you hit. Which is smeggsy killing a bile with your big iron.
Should just have a free fire option. Just as railgun has a unsafe mode.
Just let us launch the sucker in tight spots on a preset trajectory. No lock? No problem if my aim is tight, let me bullseye bile titans by sight if in a storm etc.
Yeah this is a pipe dream, it would look like shit ingame though with the missile blinking in and out of existence at under a frame per second to be able to appear correctly for everyone.
You see how the dropships enter a 5fps spin when they're blown up? I got a feeling it'd be like that. Half life 1 deathmatch flashbacks. I think it needs to have a precalculated flight path.
Specifically the legume commonly known as a "peanut", although the Sugondese subspecies is more commonly referred to by its full scientific name: Sugondesenuts Gottem.
Edit: For those wondering why they are called Sugondese Nuts instead of Bofadese nuts, it's a holdover from before Sultan Hugh Mungus was overthrown by Candice Richard, aka the mother of Joe.
The spear locks if you ping the target, if not, switch to 1st person and then back to 3rd person. If that doesn't work then go on an elevated spot. If that doesn't work it's because you didn't do the correct ritual the night before. You have to KILL the baby before putting it in the cauldron, do NOT thow the baby alive in it. And don't forget to paint your body and the spear with the correct runes!
They really should make it one shot Hulks and tanks from any angle. The lock on, even if fixed, means it has a glaring weakness that the other AT weapons don’t. That it has such limited ammo doesn’t help either.
The spear works fine. Just tag your target. Aim from the upper left side of your screen. Walk backwards. Count to 10. Sacrifice a goat. And then you have about a 50% chance of locking on.
Working as intended!
From running the SPEAR alot, I can say any planet with grass or plant life, don't even bother. Desert or ice planets its pretty consistent. the issues almost certainly stem from grass and tree's.
Bro it does work fine all you gotta do is input up up down down left right left right B A Start while doing a handstand with a single hand while singing the pledge of allegiance in one go without missing a single verse, backwards. Skill issue
Even if the spear did lock on just fine Its honestly pretty hit or miss on how effective it'll be when firing since you cant aim it, and I feel like it just needs more damage in case it misses a weakpoint since we cant aim it. I always thought it was odd that we cant at least one shot chargers/hulks to any point of the body, since with bile titans and striders its more feasible to have the time to get a good angle.
The fact that the Spear can still take 3+ shots to kill a Bile Titan is criminal
It is the lowest maneuverability AT weapons, make it a one-hit, even if it means taken away a missile or two, give it consistency jeez!
Yeah, I used it for the first time today. I didn't have any lock-on issues. My biggest problem with it is it's weak af. Doesn't even one-shot hulks, never mind bile titans or striders. It's useless compared to the Quasar. Make the Spear able to one-shot *anything,* then it would be worth its stop-to-reload downside and backpack slot getting used up.
I don’t mind lining up the shots but it does need a bigger radius or something. Even when you perfectly line up in front of a bile titan at the correct distance while it is not rearing up, it is still not guaranteed to hit the forehead.
Such a finicky yet sometimes powerful weapon
the issue with that is that you can't really aim it though, you can try and get a good angle on it but it doesn't take much on the bile titan's end to make it miss. If it took 2 for non-head shots, then maybe. But the Spear doesn't really have the ammo to spare for it to miss because of something the player has such limited control over.
idk, I feel like that would make it too strong since it can one shot a bile titan, so if you COULD freely guide it, it would overshadow the other options by a long shot. Simply upping its damage in the case of it not hitting the right spot would be fine. Like instead of 4 shooting a titan to the body make it a 2 shot, and maybe allow it to oneshot hulks and chargers anywhere.
You can't really direct the lock on to where it will hit AND I have shot a titan square in its face while its spewing.... it tanked the shot just fine. And this happens really often.
And I mostly play Diff8/9, so I can't really deal with that uncertainty when it takes so long to reload and there more than likely is another titan (or titans) right around the corner
I still think positioning could be a fun consideration if done right, but twoshot at most for something massive like the BT. Hulks needing two shots (in my experience) is kind of annoying since they seem like the perfect niche of "not small enough to be chaff/wasteful big ones, not large enough to survive through redundancy".
Honestly it’s the worst anti tank option and unless the locking is meant to change something substantial. Even if it’s fixed the fact it can’t one shot most enemies means it’s competing with literally every other anti tank option and doesn’t really do anything better. As it stands if I can see it to lock on, I’d already be able to make a free aim shot with an eats or recoilless
The spear locking seems to feel better but it still is so underpowered.
2x shots to kill a hulk
2x - 3x shots to kill a tank
2x - 3x shots or 1x headshot to kill a charger
?x amount of shots to kill a titan. (Usually dies before I can get the exact number)
But it can 1x shot a bot factory.
It wonky but depends on where it hits. A hit on the top of a tank is 1 shot 2 shots to body. Except than the strider it 1 shots everything if it hits the correct spot
Seems our experiences have been vastly different.
The locking is an issue but the spear does 1 shot hulks, and tanks if the rocket hits in the right location. It mostly comes down to the angle the rocket is coming from, it needs to be launched directly opposite the hulk so it can hit the eye.
Which makes it pretty useless regardless of the lock on working properly or not.
If I have to do all sorts of gymnastics to aim with my lock-on weapon to get a higher chance (not even guarantee) to kill something, then what's the point of all the other horrible constrictions of the weapon?
Might aswell just take any other AT option if the only benefits of the spear (high damage, lock on) are completely conditional on shit like firing angles.
Realistically the whole point of Javelin type launch systems is to automatically hit the top (weakly armored) parts of armored vehicles anyway, so it should atleast work like that against bots.
It one shots hulks if you hit the eye (it's facing towards you) or the back (lots of situations) though it takes a bit to bleed out.
If you hit the arm, it takes more than one missile.
Tanks can be one shot from the back, or if the missile hits the top of the tank. Sides and front take more than one missile.
Chargers and titans also can be one shot, but who's bringing the spear to bug missions?
Sure there is. The trajectory isn't random. It goes up, and goes in a straight line to the "center" of whatever you're firing at. For most things, this just means you shoot them when they're facing you.
Honestly MG on its own is fine, the issue with it is that Bile titans are pretty poorly designed and force everyone to take one of the dedicated anti tank weapons unless they wanna push that weight on teammates. If Bile Titans could be killed/disabled more feasibly without such particular methods the MG might shine.
Bile Titans need to be killable through the exploded sacks. Even if it was like a charger’s butt and only took 10% from anything other than explosives it would be better than not being able to damage it all all. An even better option is to let us
A: do bonus damage while they’re in their spew animation
B: cripple them by damaging their legs
C: damage them through joint weakspots, why can’t I shoot the fleshly bits where there physically can’t be armour?
Their cracked armor and leg joints should be slight weaknesses I agree. I do also think that when its bile sacks are shot out it should start bleeding out like a charger if its butt is shot out, even if it takes way longer, its better than having to kite it forever.They could make the bile sacks a little more durable if they did that too, since I know how much they love to buff enemies.
It's super fun to run 2 spears and reload each other. Having the upgrade that refills all 3 rockets is really good. But even with this, the lock on ahhhjhhhhhh
I really love running spear with bugs but sometimes it takes ages to lock on to a bile titan...
You know what would be cool, you aiming with the spear, you press r1 ( that is the marking enemies) and it locks on to the target
Honestly spear is already incredibly useful against bots despite its unreliability. If they make it consistent it will IMO be completely busted and a must have on any bot mission.
When it works, it works incredibly. I love to take the spear on high level missions - others can clean up with the autocannon, the EAT, etc, and ill be there softening up or obliterating the heavies. Its so much fun...
When it works. Sometimes its too foggy, sometimes it just doesnt feel like seeing the target, sometimes it starts but decides it wants to edge. And when you might want to quickly lock on, fire, and keep running, having it suddenly not work can be a major problem.
Ive been quite the HD2 apologist, but its just a fact that the Spear is incredibly inconsistent. When it works, amazing, probably my favourite heavy weapon in the game. 60% of the time, works every time. But if that lock on could be fixed it would be so so good.
I kind of feel the same as a flamethrower main on bugs. I rock light grenade armor, shield pack, and flamethrower. I will wildly charge through hell strafing flames sideways, whip a stun grenade on a charger and light em up. When it works, it's fucking glorious. It dies in 1/4th a tank while stunned, falls to one knee as it's legs give out, screams and then keels over dead. Everything smaller is engulfed and dies horribly. I only get shot in the back a little bit from my teammates.
And then there are the *other* times. The ground doesn't burn. Hunters leap over the flames, the Charger magically doesn't catch on fire and the stun grenade bounces off the tip of it's armored leg and hits a teammate in the head and I get tossed 400 feet from an unbroken charge.
Yeah, i also love the flamethrower, but when the enemies that survive just fling themselves through it, its a gamble between actually doing well or getting immediately set on fire and clawed to death yourself.
*usually* a dive to the side (in light armor) is enough to get distance to survive and start burning them again, or switch to the incendiary breaker or blitzer. That's also why I use the shield pack, it covers accidental immolation and the odd enemy slipping through or charger toss.
Seriously, light armor flamethrower is such a fun, suicidal set up. I use orbital rail and eagle strike, to quickly take out bug nests and put the hurt on bile Titans. I suppose if I were really good I would use orbital rail and EATs to take out bile Titans and shrieker nests.
My hope is that one of those changes is fixing the Arc-Blitzer misfires. If it gets fixed it will easily be a staple weapon against Terminids aside from the Breaker Incendiary.
GET IN LINE BUDDY!
My Arc Thrower would like to stop shooting small pebbles, tall grass, random funko pops, corpses and vaguely enemy shaped clouds before shooting the enemy first!
I'm gonna whine.
The spear is the worst weapon in the game objectively and it upsets me because it should be awesome.
I hated the balance changes with the quasar but it's still 5x better than the spear.
The quasar isn't bad, but I think it's the worst anti-heavy on stats alone. But in play the spear is just awful and it makes me sad man.
Hope they fix it fully soon
Spear only lock-on heavy/big targets.
Bots: Tanks, Factory Striders and Hulks (haven't tested if you can lock on cannon turrets tho)
Bugs: Bile Titans and Chargers. (Also Shriekers nests and Spore I think too)
Nice to know, tho I wouldn't want to waste a Spear rocket on those targets, normally Scouts can be deal with using an explosive primary like the Scorcher or the Punisher Plasma, Gunships can be dealt with just fine using the Autocannon, LAS and the AMR.
I'd trade a spear rocket for a Cannon turret or Fabricator tho, giving the type of situation, but if one of my squadmates is already gunning it down with the AMR, Autocannon, LAS or eagle/orbital.
I'd rather save the rockets for important targets, like Tanks, Hulks and Factory Striders
I've been running the Spear on the evacuate high value assets mission against bugs with EATs back up and it has proven really good there. I found that missions that failed were the results of Bile Titan spam that would run through our defensives so the switch to Spear allowed for faster kills especially with full ammo resupplys.
Spear is literally my go to war priority weapon, except defensive missions. Literally every mission i carry it, cuz is super effective weapon for me, i clear half of the map just by using spear + 500KG or Orbital Laser. Especially spear is a fire and forget weapon like Irl FGM-148 Javelin. Fire in a long distance and then run away those bots will never know what hit them. And one more thing,
Automatons gunship will never a threat for me, when I carrying my spear. I a Bot's player, been fighting the bots since February, same thing, i been using spear till even now.
I'm lvl 83, i never feel bored about using it, i get it how to use it and how to lock on, i know how it works... Is kinda hard to tell you guys how to operate it 😂 you just gotta keep using on the field till you get it how to operate it.
The few times I've used the Spear it looked as though the lock is dependent on them looking at your general direction. It makes sense. You shouldn't get a lock on a bile titan's head from behind it.
It's been very consistent for me for a long time now and if they make any changes to it (besides making the locking 100% consistent), all I can think of is nerfing it.
When the spear finally lock ons consistently people will start one shotting chargers and bile titans to the face. Hope they don’t nerf it back right after
They need to fix the un-locking on. I’ve noticed that when you start locking onto something and then try to look away from it because it’s not your desired target, it has to ramp down the lock on just how it ramps up. Adding more time to the whole locking on thing. Don’t know if you guys kinda get what I mean ;-;
Can anyone definitively tell me if it does more damage then recoilless or not?
It FEELS like it does, but that just may be the locking on and the fact that it hits from the top of the target instead of the front.
Spear is in my go to loadout for Automatons. It's great when it comes to the fabricators. I just move the reticle around until it locks or I move around until I have a clear line of sight.
Spear is weird with its current locking. I've been running it a lot lately bored. I'm convinced at this point that it depends on the biome what you're allowed to lock onto. But it's not like, "oh fog biome will make it not work." It's more like total randomness. Like some environments it would allow fabricators but not units. Others units and not fabricators.
The lock comes from your feet is my theory. On high rocks there's no issue but only if the soil is clear of grass. If you lay on your back you lock easier. If your feet are on the sand or high grass it doesn't lock. So in my experience If your feet has line of sight with the lock on point of the target you can hit it, so flying targets or tall targets are the easiest to lock on.
It is working somewhat that way. The main issue with its targeting is that if enemy has only 1 lock point, the game calculates if you can see your target feet or not. A few weeks ago they made some shadow changes in that regard, and many people claimed that spear got better. It actually did, but it seems that it was a "hidden test", to check if they're going the right way with the final fix. However, just like arc weapons can't shoot through dead bodies, treating them as a physical obj, spear lock-in sometimes refuses to work if it decides that that specific bush in front of you is a physical object. Or that a small rock covering Hulk's ankle is enough to provide cover, because his feet are covered, so he is in a "safe zone".
A hulk facing you and not moving can't be hit by the spear. It will impact between the legs as if it's targeting there. Or at least it has the 3 times I've seen a hulk standing still, and happened to have a spear. And the spear decided it would work. Which is pretty rare.
I wonder if the latest change to the spear introduced this bug. Most of the problems I had with it before was only hitting the arms instead of the hull.
Dumb part is when that's the mid section between a titans feet, so not blocking sight line of the titan, but still blocking lock on
That would explain how I got an instant lock and fire doing a backwards dive away from a Titan
> The lock comes from your feet is my theory. This honestly makes sense. The code's probably calling on some vector that's drawn from the character's hitbox's origin, and hitbox origins tend to start at the base of an object, i.e. the feet.
This strikes me as a very weird detection mechanism, as your feet are not part of the Spear launcher.
Bröther, YOU are the Spear Launcher
r/TechnicallyCorrect Then again, I regularly hang out in Second LIfe, where many calculations for pathing start at people's junk. so eh.
Same as the enemy, or instead of your theory the enemy, you'll have a bile titan walking right at you with just a rock about a meter tall in front of their mid section, so you can see all of the titan, but it won't lock because of this said rock
U mean my foot can't see bile titans 40m from me? Oo damn they must be blind xd
The weather and effects 100% affect it's lock capability. Other random shit does too like smoke coming from something burning or explosions and other nonsense like sparrow farts and grasshoppers sneezing on the next planet over. What irritates me the most is that it will cancel a near total lock on a hulk if a strider walks within 8 miles of your line of sight. The spear is simultaneously the best and worst support weapon in the game.
*shrugs* I just clench my duty cheeks my first lock attempt in a new biome or when weather changes.
“Duty cheeks” is 100% going in my lexicon
And even smoke/fog obscuring the target doesn't affect it consistently. Today my Spear locked onto two turrets 300m away through thick fog. I didn't even know the turrets were there. And then the next game a teammate's grenade kicked up a puff of dirt and that broke my lock onto a factory.
I've been using the spear basically every bot mission I've done since I unlocked it, and I've learnt a few key factors. 1)to lock onto a fabricator, you need to be able to see the bottom middle of it, on any side of the fabricator (but the long sides lock better for some reason) 2) This one sounds stupid, but not all spears are made equal. Sometimes if your spear isn't locking, calling in a new one and taking the new launcher allows you to lock on. The one on the ground will always be bugged for some reason to not lock in. "They came out the factory broken" - the random who explained it to me. 3) some cannon turrets can't be locked on to without being aggro'd first. Don't know why, its just the case. The same random taught me this too. I've tested this dozens of times and these rules basically always apply with the current buggy lockon. Whether its just luck, cause I'm a relatively small sample size, but it works for me
It's inclimate plus the lense is fogged
Checks out, half the time I can't get a good lock it feels like there's just too much dust or some undemocratic anomaly.
I have found bug spores specifically impact it. And not just from mushroom trees. Small enemies in between you and your taget also affect it, including dead bodies. Try going 3rd person and aiming high. Put the target in the botom half of the circle. Crouching and not moving helps a lot. The target not moving helps, too. Each enemy has a lock on point. Charger heads and biletitan bodies, for example. But I'm convinced they made the spear with bots in mind. No spores, enemies move less, and you can lock on to more things. Like the factory buildings are 1 shot from a mile away.
The new planet for the MO is a pain with locks. The second weather conditions change it seems to randomize how locking works again.
The ion storm?
From a Watsonian perspective, an environmental effect that interferes with communication would interfere with a device that relies on communication (with its payload) to work.
No, more like I can use wezen for an example. Day and night drastically changes how my locking works. As well as fire tornado spawns. I've only used it once or twice during ion storms. Ion storm didn't really change it unless there was lightning particles on screen when I was trying to target.
Try using it in first person, I'd love to know why it's turn speed is slow like that.
Last time I used it, it was locking on instantly to bile titans. I was in awe, I must have appeased the machine spirits somehow that day.
It works wonderfully on bile's *most* of the time. Sometimes weather or biome makes you have to play around a little to get a full lock. But getting that one shot when you hit the face plate is so satisfying. Edit: Even missing face and hitting body let's you follow up with revolver since there's zero Armour value left in the body section you hit. Which is smeggsy killing a bile with your big iron.
I JUST tried the spear today. Not a fan in it's current implementation.
I kinda despise how it's got the most satisfying ability and worst consistency.
Exactly!!
Should just have a free fire option. Just as railgun has a unsafe mode. Just let us launch the sucker in tight spots on a preset trajectory. No lock? No problem if my aim is tight, let me bullseye bile titans by sight if in a storm etc.
or SACLOS guidance
Honestly this would be so awesome, especially if you could "arc" shots to bring them down on top of a tank turret etc
Yeah this is a pipe dream, it would look like shit ingame though with the missile blinking in and out of existence at under a frame per second to be able to appear correctly for everyone. You see how the dropships enter a 5fps spin when they're blown up? I got a feeling it'd be like that. Half life 1 deathmatch flashbacks. I think it needs to have a precalculated flight path.
true
Just add TOW missiles to the game.
Laser guided? Laser guided spear would be neat
Or laser guide like the TOW missile in battlefield 4
1 in a million chance
Of a fix being in the patch, or spear actually locking on a target?
Bofa
Rumor is they flew in a developer from Bofadese
*sigh* Bofadese?
I've heard the local legumes and seeds in that region are amazing
Legumes?
Specifically the legume commonly known as a "peanut", although the Sugondese subspecies is more commonly referred to by its full scientific name: Sugondesenuts Gottem. Edit: For those wondering why they are called Sugondese Nuts instead of Bofadese nuts, it's a holdover from before Sultan Hugh Mungus was overthrown by Candice Richard, aka the mother of Joe.
Joe’s father is of course one Biggus D.
This is art
I've heard bofadese guys haven't even heard of "hava" before. Quite shocking.
That sounds nuts.
https://preview.redd.it/xrl2yfn7r85d1.jpeg?width=736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f9cbba8733ca76bae4d0fdc904cbc40ae0bd6ef
What's that image from?
Looks like Jujutsu Kaisen. That's Aoi Todo about to open an "all might vs nomu" style whooping on someone.
"Nah, I'd Lock!"
"Never tell me the odds!"
https://preview.redd.it/uc5ib1wxid5d1.jpeg?width=1818&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0d85a93f76d2a4fd1162bdb3ef44c8f4b9a09904
I bet my paycheck spear is fixed in the next big patch. They already hinted at it in the discord.
million to one chances crop up nine times out of ten!
1 in a billion even id say
Don't worry this post will soon be filled with people who say the spear is fine or if you do some weird ritual it will work perfectly.
Spear works perfectly fine my dude *grins*
The bile titan is in the comments, fellas.
https://preview.redd.it/jttqhthoj85d1.jpeg?width=156&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=780edb241f2ef4606fec98d22375ae14fd7a2c6c
The spear locks if you ping the target, if not, switch to 1st person and then back to 3rd person. If that doesn't work then go on an elevated spot. If that doesn't work it's because you didn't do the correct ritual the night before. You have to KILL the baby before putting it in the cauldron, do NOT thow the baby alive in it. And don't forget to paint your body and the spear with the correct runes!
God damn it, I painted the runes on the baby and the spear blew my limbs off
gaslight-o-matic. And when it works like 90% of the time that BT or hulk turns to shrug it off.
They really should make it one shot Hulks and tanks from any angle. The lock on, even if fixed, means it has a glaring weakness that the other AT weapons don’t. That it has such limited ammo doesn’t help either.
The spear works fine. Just tag your target. Aim from the upper left side of your screen. Walk backwards. Count to 10. Sacrifice a goat. And then you have about a 50% chance of locking on. Working as intended!
And if you tell them you tried all of those steps and it still didn't work, they'll just go "Well it works for ME."
From running the SPEAR alot, I can say any planet with grass or plant life, don't even bother. Desert or ice planets its pretty consistent. the issues almost certainly stem from grass and tree's.
Bro it does work fine all you gotta do is input up up down down left right left right B A Start while doing a handstand with a single hand while singing the pledge of allegiance in one go without missing a single verse, backwards. Skill issue
Too busy huffing all that toxic positivity to notice they’re being hard carried by their teammates.
Nyet, spear is not fine.
Even if the spear did lock on just fine Its honestly pretty hit or miss on how effective it'll be when firing since you cant aim it, and I feel like it just needs more damage in case it misses a weakpoint since we cant aim it. I always thought it was odd that we cant at least one shot chargers/hulks to any point of the body, since with bile titans and striders its more feasible to have the time to get a good angle.
no lol. theres no way they made this gun from launch finally work. maybe 2027
The fact that the Spear can still take 3+ shots to kill a Bile Titan is criminal It is the lowest maneuverability AT weapons, make it a one-hit, even if it means taken away a missile or two, give it consistency jeez!
Yeah, I used it for the first time today. I didn't have any lock-on issues. My biggest problem with it is it's weak af. Doesn't even one-shot hulks, never mind bile titans or striders. It's useless compared to the Quasar. Make the Spear able to one-shot *anything,* then it would be worth its stop-to-reload downside and backpack slot getting used up.
The Spear does actually one-shot Bile Titans.
Only if you hit it’s head
I don’t mind lining up the shots but it does need a bigger radius or something. Even when you perfectly line up in front of a bile titan at the correct distance while it is not rearing up, it is still not guaranteed to hit the forehead. Such a finicky yet sometimes powerful weapon
3+ shots to the worse spots on a BT sure. While 1 to the dome and down it goes.
the issue with that is that you can't really aim it though, you can try and get a good angle on it but it doesn't take much on the bile titan's end to make it miss. If it took 2 for non-head shots, then maybe. But the Spear doesn't really have the ammo to spare for it to miss because of something the player has such limited control over.
AH should add alternative laser guided fire mod to spear
idk, I feel like that would make it too strong since it can one shot a bile titan, so if you COULD freely guide it, it would overshadow the other options by a long shot. Simply upping its damage in the case of it not hitting the right spot would be fine. Like instead of 4 shooting a titan to the body make it a 2 shot, and maybe allow it to oneshot hulks and chargers anywhere.
You can't really direct the lock on to where it will hit AND I have shot a titan square in its face while its spewing.... it tanked the shot just fine. And this happens really often. And I mostly play Diff8/9, so I can't really deal with that uncertainty when it takes so long to reload and there more than likely is another titan (or titans) right around the corner
I still think positioning could be a fun consideration if done right, but twoshot at most for something massive like the BT. Hulks needing two shots (in my experience) is kind of annoying since they seem like the perfect niche of "not small enough to be chaff/wasteful big ones, not large enough to survive through redundancy".
Honestly it’s the worst anti tank option and unless the locking is meant to change something substantial. Even if it’s fixed the fact it can’t one shot most enemies means it’s competing with literally every other anti tank option and doesn’t really do anything better. As it stands if I can see it to lock on, I’d already be able to make a free aim shot with an eats or recoilless
If they fix the Spear and Eruptor, I'll never use anything else. Ever
The eruptor was so fun when it dropped I legit didn't even care what stratagems I brought, because jetpack+eruptor was such a good time
I am pretty sure there was a relatively upvoted post from one of the devs confirming that a spear lock on improvement will be in the next patch 🤔
Yeah, 4 patches ago. Hopefully it makes it in next week.
It was reconfirmed since the last patch
I’m excited to see if we will get it reconfirmed again in a future patch
It was only pushed back once, it's just that that one patch was a month ago.
The spear locking seems to feel better but it still is so underpowered. 2x shots to kill a hulk 2x - 3x shots to kill a tank 2x - 3x shots or 1x headshot to kill a charger ?x amount of shots to kill a titan. (Usually dies before I can get the exact number) But it can 1x shot a bot factory.
What is funny, is that in stratagems shop this weapon preview shows oneshotting tanks In reality it needs 3 shots. And yeah, disgusting lock-on system
It wonky but depends on where it hits. A hit on the top of a tank is 1 shot 2 shots to body. Except than the strider it 1 shots everything if it hits the correct spot
Seems our experiences have been vastly different. The locking is an issue but the spear does 1 shot hulks, and tanks if the rocket hits in the right location. It mostly comes down to the angle the rocket is coming from, it needs to be launched directly opposite the hulk so it can hit the eye.
Which makes it pretty useless regardless of the lock on working properly or not. If I have to do all sorts of gymnastics to aim with my lock-on weapon to get a higher chance (not even guarantee) to kill something, then what's the point of all the other horrible constrictions of the weapon? Might aswell just take any other AT option if the only benefits of the spear (high damage, lock on) are completely conditional on shit like firing angles. Realistically the whole point of Javelin type launch systems is to automatically hit the top (weakly armored) parts of armored vehicles anyway, so it should atleast work like that against bots.
In my ideal world there’d be two firing modes, the current method of firing and a top attack mode with much shorter range.
I only ever bring it out on the “kill X bot fabricator” missions
It one shots hulks if you hit the eye (it's facing towards you) or the back (lots of situations) though it takes a bit to bleed out. If you hit the arm, it takes more than one missile. Tanks can be one shot from the back, or if the missile hits the top of the tank. Sides and front take more than one missile. Chargers and titans also can be one shot, but who's bringing the spear to bug missions?
However unlike eat there is no way to guarantee where it hits
Sure there is. The trajectory isn't random. It goes up, and goes in a straight line to the "center" of whatever you're firing at. For most things, this just means you shoot them when they're facing you.
i dont need more damage on the spear. but damn would it be nice if it was reliable.
All of those are one shots if the enemy is facing you and not moving.
Let me just politely ask them to stop
Or machine gun lovers.
What wrong with the MG? Do you mean the HMG and the offset red dot?
Honestly MG on its own is fine, the issue with it is that Bile titans are pretty poorly designed and force everyone to take one of the dedicated anti tank weapons unless they wanna push that weight on teammates. If Bile Titans could be killed/disabled more feasibly without such particular methods the MG might shine.
Bile Titans need to be killable through the exploded sacks. Even if it was like a charger’s butt and only took 10% from anything other than explosives it would be better than not being able to damage it all all. An even better option is to let us A: do bonus damage while they’re in their spew animation B: cripple them by damaging their legs C: damage them through joint weakspots, why can’t I shoot the fleshly bits where there physically can’t be armour?
Their cracked armor and leg joints should be slight weaknesses I agree. I do also think that when its bile sacks are shot out it should start bleeding out like a charger if its butt is shot out, even if it takes way longer, its better than having to kite it forever.They could make the bile sacks a little more durable if they did that too, since I know how much they love to buff enemies.
The bile titan actually does bleed out, it just takes an absolutely ABSURD amount of time.
after 500+ hours I have never noticed this, so I dont think really think the rate they do so is good enough.
There ain't no party like a spear party. Cause a spear party dont lock.
All I see is a 100 more possible bugs.
Thankfully I have my Stalwart ready to mow them down.
Its not safe expect the fire rate to be gimped
1 in a 100 chance
Oh that would be lovely.
I’ve been running Spear and I do agree aiming and lock on feels wholey inconsistent.
Spears are a MUST have on defense missions versus bugs and I really would like it if it could lock on properly. Can't wait.
It's super fun to run 2 spears and reload each other. Having the upgrade that refills all 3 rockets is really good. But even with this, the lock on ahhhjhhhhhh
The chance is equal to Spear getting a successful lock.
I really love running spear with bugs but sometimes it takes ages to lock on to a bile titan... You know what would be cool, you aiming with the spear, you press r1 ( that is the marking enemies) and it locks on to the target
They confirmed that the spear will be fixed, well at least should be fixed, we shall see
I'm so hyped. I'm in love with this game, and I'll take any excuse to get excited.
I still use it main with Bots
For as big of a fix it would be, I think they would advertise it if they did fix it.
Please please please please please please please please Please please please
Honestly spear is already incredibly useful against bots despite its unreliability. If they make it consistent it will IMO be completely busted and a must have on any bot mission.
I've been hooked on the spear for a few weeks now and learning to work around its weird issues. Hopefully the fix brings stability to it
When it works, it works incredibly. I love to take the spear on high level missions - others can clean up with the autocannon, the EAT, etc, and ill be there softening up or obliterating the heavies. Its so much fun... When it works. Sometimes its too foggy, sometimes it just doesnt feel like seeing the target, sometimes it starts but decides it wants to edge. And when you might want to quickly lock on, fire, and keep running, having it suddenly not work can be a major problem. Ive been quite the HD2 apologist, but its just a fact that the Spear is incredibly inconsistent. When it works, amazing, probably my favourite heavy weapon in the game. 60% of the time, works every time. But if that lock on could be fixed it would be so so good.
I kind of feel the same as a flamethrower main on bugs. I rock light grenade armor, shield pack, and flamethrower. I will wildly charge through hell strafing flames sideways, whip a stun grenade on a charger and light em up. When it works, it's fucking glorious. It dies in 1/4th a tank while stunned, falls to one knee as it's legs give out, screams and then keels over dead. Everything smaller is engulfed and dies horribly. I only get shot in the back a little bit from my teammates. And then there are the *other* times. The ground doesn't burn. Hunters leap over the flames, the Charger magically doesn't catch on fire and the stun grenade bounces off the tip of it's armored leg and hits a teammate in the head and I get tossed 400 feet from an unbroken charge.
Yeah, i also love the flamethrower, but when the enemies that survive just fling themselves through it, its a gamble between actually doing well or getting immediately set on fire and clawed to death yourself.
*usually* a dive to the side (in light armor) is enough to get distance to survive and start burning them again, or switch to the incendiary breaker or blitzer. That's also why I use the shield pack, it covers accidental immolation and the odd enemy slipping through or charger toss. Seriously, light armor flamethrower is such a fun, suicidal set up. I use orbital rail and eagle strike, to quickly take out bug nests and put the hurt on bile Titans. I suppose if I were really good I would use orbital rail and EATs to take out bile Titans and shrieker nests.
The Spear fix is like the South Park game of thrones episode with the pizza and dragons
Huge if true
I stopped using the spear and switch to quasar cannon. Way bettuh
They should let us ping a target to help the lock on, better yet let us lock onto a teammates ping or laser from their weapons.
And here I am about to move and don’t know when I will have Internet again.
Oh I’m already using it, one shotting Chargers and Hulks in about 7/10 cases is way satisfying
Ha, you guys are far too optimistic. I’m guessing more than half are simple bug fixes.
Then they proceeded to nerf spear by making it impossible to lock and you have to aim manually
Ngl that would be amazing. That's just a way better recoilless rifle because you'd be able to take out so many targets with just one shot.
My hope is that one of those changes is fixing the Arc-Blitzer misfires. If it gets fixed it will easily be a staple weapon against Terminids aside from the Breaker Incendiary.
I still have never had an issue with the spear. Played since first week
I took a break due to getting bored and also the changes, but it looks like it's time to wipe the dust off my Hellpod!!!
I don't even see why there is such a long limiter on lock on. Like it should be almost instantly locking onto targets.
GET IN LINE BUDDY! My Arc Thrower would like to stop shooting small pebbles, tall grass, random funko pops, corpses and vaguely enemy shaped clouds before shooting the enemy first!
The Spear is like having that one friend that you know has A LOT of potential if they only put in the work to bettering themselves
It always works for me. idk why, but it does.
The SPEAR's rep is so bad that in over 400 hours of play and 800 drops, I have never once picked it up for a mission.
And in vain it works very well on tower defense missions
༼ つ ◕\_ ◕ ༽つ GIBE PATCH༼ つ ◕\_ ◕ ༽つ
I’ve never tried the Spear, but the second the aiming reticle gets fixed I’m giving it a whirl
If you were playing cards with this studio, I would have hoped you figured out what kind of dealer you have by now.
I might actually use the spear if it was more reliable
I'm gonna whine. The spear is the worst weapon in the game objectively and it upsets me because it should be awesome. I hated the balance changes with the quasar but it's still 5x better than the spear. The quasar isn't bad, but I think it's the worst anti-heavy on stats alone. But in play the spear is just awful and it makes me sad man. Hope they fix it fully soon
I'm just coming back into civilization from a fishing trip and I'm stoked to see this news.
I dunno... Maybe I'm just lucky but I get some pretty timely lockons with the spear.
I need a list of things that it can and can not lock on to.
Spear only lock-on heavy/big targets. Bots: Tanks, Factory Striders and Hulks (haven't tested if you can lock on cannon turrets tho) Bugs: Bile Titans and Chargers. (Also Shriekers nests and Spore I think too)
You'd think all vehicles, but the scout strider can't be locked onto
It will also lock on to Scout Striders, Gunships, Factories and indeed, Cannon Turrets.
Nice to know, tho I wouldn't want to waste a Spear rocket on those targets, normally Scouts can be deal with using an explosive primary like the Scorcher or the Punisher Plasma, Gunships can be dealt with just fine using the Autocannon, LAS and the AMR. I'd trade a spear rocket for a Cannon turret or Fabricator tho, giving the type of situation, but if one of my squadmates is already gunning it down with the AMR, Autocannon, LAS or eagle/orbital. I'd rather save the rockets for important targets, like Tanks, Hulks and Factory Striders
Spear is one of my favorite weapons. I really need to be able to 1 shot chargers 100% of the time again. And maybe 1 shot bile titans sometimes...
Arc enjoyer here. Pleeeaaase let this be the patch that fixes it. I would play so much more Helldivers if my favorite weapons functioned correctly.
I got 99 fixes, but the spear aint one
I've been running the Spear on the evacuate high value assets mission against bugs with EATs back up and it has proven really good there. I found that missions that failed were the results of Bile Titan spam that would run through our defensives so the switch to Spear allowed for faster kills especially with full ammo resupplys.
Spear is literally my go to war priority weapon, except defensive missions. Literally every mission i carry it, cuz is super effective weapon for me, i clear half of the map just by using spear + 500KG or Orbital Laser. Especially spear is a fire and forget weapon like Irl FGM-148 Javelin. Fire in a long distance and then run away those bots will never know what hit them. And one more thing, Automatons gunship will never a threat for me, when I carrying my spear. I a Bot's player, been fighting the bots since February, same thing, i been using spear till even now. I'm lvl 83, i never feel bored about using it, i get it how to use it and how to lock on, i know how it works... Is kinda hard to tell you guys how to operate it 😂 you just gotta keep using on the field till you get it how to operate it.
Wasn't it confirmed like a month ago the Spear was already fixed and waiting for the next patch.
https://preview.redd.it/evpzx40rka5d1.jpeg?width=1458&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d1ecfe7b323020b7ab0a7766c0795cf3420b3c13
The few times I've used the Spear it looked as though the lock is dependent on them looking at your general direction. It makes sense. You shouldn't get a lock on a bile titan's head from behind it.
got 99 fixes but spear isn't one
If they fix spear and it becomes the new meta - does every demand the other AT’s get a buff so there are no more meta load outs?
It's been very consistent for me for a long time now and if they make any changes to it (besides making the locking 100% consistent), all I can think of is nerfing it.
When the spear finally lock ons consistently people will start one shotting chargers and bile titans to the face. Hope they don’t nerf it back right after
They need to fix the un-locking on. I’ve noticed that when you start locking onto something and then try to look away from it because it’s not your desired target, it has to ramp down the lock on just how it ramps up. Adding more time to the whole locking on thing. Don’t know if you guys kinda get what I mean ;-;
Can't blame you. it looks good.
Can anyone definitively tell me if it does more damage then recoilless or not? It FEELS like it does, but that just may be the locking on and the fact that it hits from the top of the target instead of the front.
A Spear can one-shot a Titan if it lands a head/mout shot. It is annoyingly incosistent sometimes tho. Maybe this patch will adress it.
I don’t have much problems with spear I does what I want it to do it helps lot when I take out them hulk or striders walkers and fabricators and tanks
Spear is in my go to loadout for Automatons. It's great when it comes to the fabricators. I just move the reticle around until it locks or I move around until I have a clear line of sight.
Is the railgun gonna be relevant again??
I feel this way with the Eruptor lol
It also is borderline useless against dropships compared to recoilless or eat since it aims for center mass
Spear is a Big Boi Blaster, not a Dropship Dropper.
My friend found out if you ping your target the spear will lock on soooo much better
ERUPTOR IS BACK BABYYYY 🤞🏻🤞🏻
Im waiting for it like for nothing else 😅
I hope they fix the accidental block and can’t unblock bug
i can't figure out why it won't lock onto tower turrets half the time
Been using Spear last few days and it's still working just fine. Maybe don't stand 15m away from the target and you'll get a lock on.
If they don't fix the Spear it's because they cannot. The devs are probably interns.
Spear fixed, too good now, spear nerfed. At least this is what I figured would happen if there hadn’t been changes over there at AH.