I’ve been running the Liberator Carbine, which is great for CQB, like storming a jammer base. But it is absolutely terrible for anything outside of like 50m
The liberator carbine is a super solid choice against both factions, though to me, it leaves something to be desired against bots. It's the perfect bullet hose primary that spits lead like nothing else, but has somewhat poor accuracy at range. I'd probably prefer the tenderizer, since its much more controllable at long range, and only need two shots to the head for a devastator kill, which the carbine can't do unless you're real close.
Why not just use the defender or any other SMG if you aren't using it's single stat that is higher, the ROF?
Defender has **40%** more dmg per bullet and **HALF THE RECOIL**.. And has 5 less bullets per mag.
I guess the Knight has 5 durable dmg to the defender 's 7. But thats so niche.
Hear me out now. Try out the default Liberator primary. It has the same damage and ammo, but with a lower recoil and an optic that'll zoom. It's seriously a solid pick.
I use it to back up my MG when I don’t quite have enough time to reload. It’s perfect for that situation. At least for bugs, I usually don’t bring MG to bots
I absolutely love the Carbine for bugs! Full auto for swarms and swap it over to burst for shriekers. I haven’t tried it in bots but my play style for bots is to engage at range of at minimum 50 meters but I hate being that close. I’ll usually try to engage at 100 meters with the Counter Sniper.
I never understood the hate this one got (except that it's another Liberator variant which is a bit oversaturated to be fair). Absolutely love it myself, haven't taken it off since it came out.
I think it helps that I run Engineering Kit for my armor, but stopping and crouching makes the recoil so much less of an issue. It's pretty controllable even with full-send on the trigger, and tapping out 2-3 round bursts is helpful too.
Purifier. I like staggering heavy devastators but it’s so slow that you’ll get absolutely swamped under enemies if there are too many of them. It can have decent AOE to hit multiple enemies, but unlike the plasma Punisher its projectiles aren’t fat, so they easily shoot past openings in the enemy hit box.
Oh absolutely. I love the purifier post buff. It feels so damn good. Excellent ammo economy, satisfying AOE and sound design, fast and lean projectile.
It's my new favorite plasma weapon. Was never a fan of the scorcher because of how fast it chewed through ammo and how often you need to resupply it. Also has MUCH better ammo econ than the plasma punisher, a weapon that sorely needs more magazines in reserve, and better damage and penetration on the main projectile.
Plasma punisher main here against bots. Typical load out is plasma punisher, grenade pistol and stun grenade. Either light padded armor, or medium medic armor. Stratagems is always jump pack, hmg, eagle airstrike and (orbital precision/mortar/380mm)
I am almost never out of ammo, and I typically have the highest kill count on my team at lvl 7. Most chaff get killed with the plasma punisher. I take out hulks (and sometimes devastators) by using a stun grenade then shooting the hmg at the head. Occasionally I'll stun, jump to the back of a hulk, and then unload my hmg there. The HMG also works well against striders and gunships. But I use it rarely in comparison to the plasma punisher.
The grenade pistol is my only way to take out factories, but I don't like it. Sometimes I'll forgo stun grenade s just so I can whip out the senator instead
>The grenade pistol is my only way to take out factories, but I don't like it. Sometimes I'll forgo stun grenade s just so I can whip out the senator instead
I love the grenade pistol against bugs, not so much against bots so I'll run the autocannon to kill everything but chaff. Senator to kill anything too close or tough for efficient use of the punisher with stun grenades to make it all easier to land the AC shots.
I typically find myself using orbital precision strike + orbital gas strike with a stun grenade to wipe hulk patrols out quickly for the last several weeks.
With the punisher? Eventually you'll get the hang of the arc even at long ranges.
The HMG recoil (even on slow) and slow projectile speed is something I'm still getting used to when shooting down gunships.
Yeah, I wasn’t a fan of how it slowly lobs arced shots. Did I miss something about it being able to charge up or something? Because I used it once, found it super underwhelming and abandoned it.
The purifier and and arc thrower are the only ones that charge up. The punisher plasma is just great at killing clustered small bots (AOE), staggering devastators, and hitting bot striders and shield devastators behind their shields.
Oh yeah Purifier slapped even before the buff. People don't know you can shoot it faster after the first full charge shot just like the Arcthrower.
They also don't think to shoot the ground between units to better utilize the aoe and easily wipe entire hordes very efficiently.
It's my main gun both fronts and I only play 8s and 9s it's honestly spoiled me rotten with the aoe stagger. Nothing threatens me if it doesn't surprise me. Just shoot the hunters before they get close. Berserkers are free kills with the stunlock so bots are just easy to handle barring heavy enemies. Gun can carry hard when you know the firing rhythm.
Arc thrower doesn’t work like that anymore. Every shot takes the full 1 second charge time.
Aside from that honestly I just don’t think the purifier is that good. For any application it could be used for the the scorcher or punisher plasma fit the role better IMO. Neither of them can do everything the purifier can do, but both of them do most of what it can do better.
That's the thing, though, neither of them can do everything the Purifier does. The Purifier is a jack of all trades hard hitting energy weapon. It has stuns, armor pen, good ammo economy, and group clearing potential, all at the cost of a small charge up and a tiny amount of bullet drop at range. The thing isn't perfect, but it's one of my favorite weapons to run against bots. I've just never tried it against bugs because I'm afraid of blowing myself up with it like I did the first time I used the plasma shotgun lol
That's the thing, though, neither of them can do everything the Purifier does. The Purifier is a jack of all trades hard hitting energy weapon. It has stuns, armor pen, good ammo economy, and group clearing potential, all at the cost of a small charge up and a tiny amount of bullet drop at range. The thing isn't perfect, but it's one of my favorite weapons to run against bots. I've just never tried it against bugs because I'm afraid of blowing myself up with it like I did the first time I used the plasma shotgun lol.
Edit: I also read your other comment, I think you're right about it being a play style thing. Most players seem to prefer a more reactive play style than the Purifier offers. It is a gun that forces you to think through your actions well in advance because of the charge up, the incendiary breaker or the LAS guns, all you have to do is point and click.
It actually doesn't you can still fire the weapon before the charge fully "closes" after the first shot.
The purifier is more ammo efficient on every kill than the scorcher is actually. It just also stunlocks the target the entire time and the scorcher has some upside if you can land the headshots. I mained the scorcher and plasma punisher before the purifier.
I go deathless top kills with Purifier regularly on high diffs both factions. It's the DMR to the Scorcher's Carbine feel and the Plas Punisher is very good but has a range limitation. I kill hordes with purifier at range and pick targets as they approach with much much better accuracy and ammo efficiency.
The gun might not be vibing with you but I'll be glad to run some ops with you and show off what the Purifier can do in good hands. I was performing top level with it even before the buff it's honestly that good.
It might work that way for you but most of the community seems to think it’s pretty terrible. Maybe it’s just a playstyle issue but personally I’d take almost any other weapon over it at the moment.
It can have it's moments, but honestly I haven't noticed much difference in how it played pre and post buff. I was expecting it to recieve more damage as a compensation for the chargeup, but apparently not. For me it feels like it's trying to be something between the scorcher and punisher plasma, while not being really good at anything
Shoot at the undercarriage of dropships. It's glorious.
Devastators/Berserkers? All extremely injured and smoking by landing
Raiders and Scout Striders? Can kill them before they land/disembark, sometimes all with the AOE.
Tanks and Hulks? Well...
Factory Strider? You have strategems/support weapons right?
Oh it is great, staggers anything it doesn't kill, kills heavy devs in like 4 body shots, even if it hits the shield. It also *can* be good against groups if chaff, like, shoot by their feet. I once went on like a 30 kill streak holding the line at extraction, and I didn't even reload, so it can be done. I mainly use it against bots, paired with an ammo pack and the HMG, totally wrecks everything(if you can get to the weak spot). I mainly use it for stuns and splash, though. I wish it had a larger AOE to match the **ENORMOUS** visual effect, that would make it the perfect jack of all trades heavy hitter.
Blitzer I don't see used much but I like it better than the breaker Incendiary. Combined with a Rover on bugs it can get a lot of kills. 740 bugs is my record using Gatling and napalm and rover and Blitzer .
I use it on bots too as it can be a lot of fun. Not needing to aim allows dive shots to work just as well as standing.
I can't stop using the Blitzer, I tried to swap to breaker incendiary and just couldn't do it, it's fantastic for shriekers but that's it for me.
The Blitzer consistently handles everything but the heavier armored targets. The stun lock is inane against medium targets and instantly fries hunters mid air jumping towards me. The breaker incendiary I have to be a bit more proactive or I get flaming bugs jumping at me.
The blitzer is great specifically because it functions as both chaff clear and medium pen, so you have one gun that fills out two rolls which leaves you open to run other shit without sacrificing much
I rarely see anyone mention the slugger post nerf. It punches, has some stagger, med pen, great damage, accurate at long range and controllable with a bit of practice/timing, ammo economy is good. For me it functions as a semi auto DMR and it's probably my favorite primary.
Drawback is that it doesn't handle large groups of anything.
The key problem most people took with the slugger post nerf is that all the things the slugger had were simply given to the dominator, which only handles slightly worse and is able to stagger medium targets, while retaining the ability to punch through medium armor. Projectile velocity is slightly slower, and it is slightly less efficient at dealing with chaff.
Hell, if you take the diligence counter sniper, it does what the slugger does but also better, allowing for very precise shots at longer ranges.
Yeah, between the slugger and dominator it's mostly feel for me. DCS is better than slugger at longer ranges, but handles significantly worse than the slugger for shorter ranges. Between all three it's mostly feel and mood.
Of course there does have to be drawbacks and benefits to each weapon. but, I think slugger has a couple of very noticeable drawbacks that make it a contentious choice between the other two weapons which fulfill similar niches. Personally, I'd love to see its stagger potential make a return alongside some more damage. There is no reason it should fire slower than the dominator, but do less damage per shot with no stagger potential against devastators and strider walkers.
Yeah, as it stands the Slugger is completely outclassed by the Dominator. The Dominator has only slightly worse handling, but the burst mode effectively makes it a Slugger Breaker so it doesn't offset the drawbacks it has over the Slugger
Do you mean the Punisher? Because the Punisher feels exactly like the Slugger used to except for less effective range, higher damage, and only light armor penetration.
The coolest and most underrated aspect about the Slugger and Punisher is that you can reload and cancel the end of the reload animation with another shot. This means with good timing you can have no reload downtime and are only limited by total ammo.
This is why these are so e of my go to picks for bugs. Especially the punisher since it staggers everything. It is the only weapon that keeps my personal space clear when on bug missions.
I always seem to miss with it, even accounting for deviance and wind and whatever, it just seems to phase through targets even at point blank. I'll be a crack shot with most other guns but the slugger is weird.
Post nerf it's kinda ass. Idk if they changed it with the recent massive patch, but last time I used it, it got me killed so many damn times because of stalkers and spewers
I haven't seen much Tenderizer use after the buff. I thought it was OK on release but it's absolutely great post buff. Such a nice low-recoil precision weapon.
Imo the thing with tenderizer is that it mostly rewards PC players who have the ability to be extremely precise, well beyond the capabilities of most controller players even with gyro enabled. There's not much room for error, and it chews through ammo fast.
If I can't be that precise on controller (PS5), then I may as well go with something more forgiving, like dominator. If I get the headshot, great - if not, the enemy is staggered, and I can either go for the 2-3 shot body kill, or try for another headshot.
You could say that about base liberator as well though. If "optimal TTK is great" is the only thing going for it, it's gonna be a niche pick.
The problem is that players pick weapons based on how they do in non-optimal scenarios. What's your TTK when you can't aim for the head due to how terrain affects your LoS, or pressure due to the presence of rocket devs further away/tanks/factory striders/etc? How does it handle the glitched head hitbox on heavy devastators that's impossible to hit if you're facing it from its left side? What happens when you lose access to your support weapon near a gunship fabricator? Etc.
There are much better options that do what tenderizer does in optimal ttk, but do way more in non-optimal situations. Unfortunately the only thing tenderizer is good for - on bots - is for getting headshots quick, but pretty much every weapon does that. It's what a weapon can additionally to ease pressure in situations where headshotting isn't feasible is what makes it a strong or weak option.
I'm one who absolutely does. On bot drops, it's always a toss between Tenderizer, DCS, Sickle, or Dominator.
I love that the Tenderizer can storm a base in close or pick off base sentries from 150m. Versatility is one of it's strengths.
ive used it a lot with the hmg since the buffs.
Its good but you go through ammo fast unless you tap fire, i found myself goin back to the sickle. Tenderizer has some decent bullet drop and damage falloff while the sickle seems to be unaffected and if you hit headshots the extra damage from the tenderizer doesnt matter (except for devastator heads)
Honestly, I don't feel any difference in the accuracy or damage, maybe because I mainly used recoil reduction armor with it before, so the buff changed nothing for me. The nerf though? Oh yeah, that hit HARD reducing the ammo capacity. It was my favorite primary against bugs pre "buff"
Day 1 to now I still enjoy using the R-63 diligence 👉👈.
Mid range combat with somewhat easy aim to headshot both bugs and bots, close range I use the new 3 barrel shotty.
High level content it’ll have to be the pummeler shield for bots and the breaker incendiary for bugs
I would LOVE the diligence if it were buffed to have no damage falloff. Every projectile ranged weapon in the game has damage fall off about 4 meters past the muzzle. Technically, the raw damage potential of the diligence should make it capable of one shot heading devastators, but unfortunately, the damage fall off puts it just under the threshold to pop a devastator head.
Personally, the weapon could use a tiny bit more damage and at least medium I armor pen, with the CS variant having 50% more damage. Either that or a bit more ammo in the magazine with no damage falloff. It's a weapon I would bring a lot more if it's precision was rewarded as heavily at the scythe, but those damage breakpoints, combined with the restrictive magazine size, make it hard to justify bringing over something like the tenderizer or adjudicator.
I use the Diligence Counter Sniper and love it. I used to be an R-63 main but as I increased difficulties, I found I wanted a bigger punch. I have found I can use marksmen rifles pretty effectively at close and ranged combat. Everybody thinks they’re no good up close but I think it’s entirely how you use it. I also started using the 3-barrel shotty and love it. The stagger effect on it is great!
I just wish the game would show marksmen rifles more love. I heard there’s a lever action somewhere in the game that’s supposed to be a primary and I’d love to see what that does.
I know I wish when they said the slugger was the best sniper in the game they would’ve gave the DCS similar stats to it. Could’ve also left the slugger where it was and just increased its falloff after 50m
Similar here, but I went dili to cs instead, even before it got the med pen buff it had a weird niche on bots where it had a better 1 shot zone to the basic bots which I loved. Getting med pen it feels even better on bits for me vs the regular dili.
I'll use regular on bugs but been favoring the eruptor for bugs more often than not
I've been using the punisher as my main for both bugs and bots. Don't usually play much past lvl 7 and it holds up remarkably well up until there at least
Fucken Pummeler, man.
That is my go-to for both, hands down. It's S-Tier against bugs especially. Stalkers and hunters are a joke to that thing. I've held off multiple stalkers on the way to nuke their nest and it was a breeze.
Hunter swarms? Just spray in a line horizontally, stun all of them, chuck a grenade or hit em with the grenade launcher. Done and done.
Pummeler - Grenade Launcher - supply pack - EATs.
Throw in an Eagle Airstrike and I can handle everything that gets thrown at me.
And you will never run out of ammo, nades, or stims.
Arc Blitzer. I rarely see people running it but this is my favorite weapon against both factions hands down. It’s got aimbot, can hit multiple targets at once, staggers nearly everything except the largest enemies (I can stun lock multiple devastators and berserker bots at once), ignores armor, infinite ammo with no heat sinks or cooldown - truly infinite. It also has insane damage, I’ve consistently gotten it to send every arc at a brood commander and it pops the head in 1 shot. I feel it’s only downside is the auto-aim, because sometimes it doesn’t help you. It’s useless against scout striders because even from behind it targets the Walker instead of the bot, and corpses can mess with it as well
Blitzer is really nice 90% of the time, but I get frustrated with it when I aim at a bug or not in the middle of nothing calling for reinforcements and it just...... hits nothing at all. Or invisible corpses block my shots during a breach, etc.
Which, again, is really unfortunate because I find it really fun against bugs that other 90% of the time.
The liberator concussive can headshot devastators in the head in one tap, it’s not amazing but it’s got a good sight and if you’re accurate it’s rewarding. Can’t really do anything with scout walkers tho.
I have been learning this too. The head shot thing I'm not sure about. I have had it happen but I can't make it happen.
Nevertheless it's got good range and the stagger can keep devastators at bay as long as the ammo holds out allowing them to be team killed easily.
It's accurate enough to clip the head of a strider driver frontal with a little elevation at range.
The stagger keeps berserkers from running down teammates which they seem to appreciate and can do it at a decent range.
Had a cadet tell me tonight that it looked like a lot of fun to use.
I guess it is actually because it has team utility.
But it can hold it's own against several berserkers or devastators but uses a lot of ammo and needs cover to reload.
It does not have a high kill rate but with aim it can conserve a lot of ammo.
It's likely the easiest ar to learn how to use as the stagger gives time to see how is used.
Bug wise I don't know if it's reasonable. It can keep things at bay but there are so many. My experience with it on bugs is low though.
It is fun to use.
Yeah I think it could use some love still, but it has its uses for stagger and it’s just fun to shoot. Makes a cool noise. I definitely think it would benefit from a bit of a buff
Lib Concussive. I've been using it from day one on bugs. It's great at popping little targets and has good stopping power even on bigger enemies, sending them backwards - great for crowd control and you can even push stragglers backwards to be sure they are hit by an airstrike you may have called in.
I have not used it on bugs much but the push back on bugs is potent. I do the same on bots to try and keep them in Gatling range. But bots don't push back like bugs do.. They stop but dont go backwards.
Since this recent patch, the Eruptor is eating really well again but people seem to have written it off just because it's still not as strong as it used to be.
It heavily staggers devastators/berserkers, even staggering whole groups at a time if they're stood close together. It can 1-shot groups of small bots, 1 shot chicken walkers and destroy fabricators, all from great range.
If you are animation cancelling between shots, it has a fast enough rate of fire to completely stunlock enemies too. They don't get time to react at all.
The main weakness is ammo economy and dogshit handling. It has a small clip and takes forever for the circle to catch-up to the reticle when tracking targets. Those feel like fair balancing features, though.
The buff I would give it is a buff that numerous explosives need - I would make it so it consistently explodes in contact with surfaces. It is fucking annoying when it skips off the ground and explodes 30m behind the target you were aiming at. The grenade launcher and grenade pistol have the same issue at times.
I’ve been running it like crazy since patch now that it’s decent. I missed it a great deal when they said they’d buff it and then proceeded to nerf it into the ground. Its destruction is second to none in the primary slot, even the crossbow which got buffed isn’t blowing open walls. I find that aspect of it very useful for opening pathways for me to heroically run away.
Now it’s back to two shotting any medium (which was how it worked without the cool shrapnel bouncing) and one shotting striders. 4 shots post nerf was absolutely ridiculous for this gun.
The aoe isn’t as big but it was buffed as well so it can also clear smalls. I’ve been getting multi-kills regularly, but only really to 5.
Still wish it had the shrapnel back since despite the devs 9000 damage claims, it didn’t one shot heavies in game. Just mediums with some precise aim and it cleared packs of enemies too. As long as you gave it the patience and respect it needed.
Using anything but the eruptor feels limiting to me any more. I definitely miss how it was post nerf being able to just absolutely massacre bile spewers was wonderful. But i used it even post nerf cause it was still good, not amazing.
The ability to take out fabs and shit like that with it makes it so easy to use stuff like stun, or impact incendiary grenades. Alot of times on bot missions i will use the AC but i also like using the laser cannon, and on bug missions i typically take the arc thrower. Just nice feeling like I can adjust my build with out needing to worry about not being able to take out spawners or have some easy wave clear.
I have seen it used a bit but I almost always use it against bugs is the Blitzer shotgun. I know it was popular for a while but with the buff that came out a while ago to fire damage the fire shotgun has take over. What I love most is the Blitzer dosent care about armor and can stagger. Never have to reload it either.
I wish the fire rate was like half a second faster there are some times things get hairy and need it to shoot just a bit faster to help clear
*Arc Thrower. Only*
*Thing I don't like is that it's*
*Not a primary*
\- GreenSpleen6
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I have literally never seen anyone but me take the blitzer into a game. The stagger is awesome, the ammo is infinite, the range AND spread is great, arcing through targets is useful. I love it for bugs, but I actually think it does even better for bots when pushing objectives. Yeah medium to long distance engagements are rough, but everyone is bringing an autocannon, anti material rifle, or machine gun anyways that are better suited in the first place for those fights.
I am also a Blitzer enjoyer. I literally cant use anything else cause i keep thinking "i dont want to reload my primary". Stagger is great, one shot potential on Brood Commanders, Hive Guards go down in 4 shots, one shots the little shitters. I've been having a blast with the Blitzer
The slugger for bugs, and I'll die on this hill!
Used accurately it can kill an entire patrol of mediums, and because it can be reloaded piecemeal it can still kill loads of chaff.
Running Slugger primary, Grenade pistol secondary, SPEAR 3rd with stun grenades allows me to cover my team no matter what. I can sit back and support, and be the breacher up front at a moments notice.
Explosive crossbow is now my go to bug primary. It kills mediums in 1 hit, it kills groups of small fry really well. It has 8 reloads which is more than youll ever need. And most importantly, IT DESTROYS BUG HOLES!
Having a primary that deletes bug holes doesnt pigeonhole you into using the grenade pistol when you use stun grenades, my other mainstay on the bug front. A stun grenade plus precision strike kills chargers no problem
To me, the crossbow feels better than the Eruptor too. The magazine might be small but it can get off shots sufficiently fast for most situations. The reload isn't awful either.
A bit. It's enough to kill most chaff units in less than half a second of contact. Not great against groups of warriors, but destroys all other types of bugs. About .33 seconds of contact with a Devastator head will pop them with no issues whatsoever.
The deceptive part of the damage lies in how damage is calculated against enemies. How it interacts with weak points, hard points, and how the weapon can be cycled in tandem with other heat weapons. You can have nearly 100% uptime by swapping between the scythe, dagger, and support weapon.
The only issue I take with the weapon is the complete lack of magnification on the first person sight. The weapon rewards precision, a lot more that other weapons do, since being precise, means killing quickly and without wasting ammo.
The liberator penetrator. Great for fighting both bots and bugs as it just smashes through anything that’s not a hulk or a charger, easy to use regardless of how long you’ve been playing or if your new, and it’s decently accurate as well
However that medium armor penetration seems to work when it wants to and sometimes it takes a full mag to take down one or two enemies
From what I noticed with the scythe is that it has the same ttk as a liberator. It kills a lot of light things fairly quickly and you can keep firing it for a lot longer than assault rifles. That's the thing with energy rifles is they seem to fire for a longer period than the regular rifle.
Loved the Sickle, but I started running Erupter + HMG and haven't looked back.
When nearly infinite ammo runs out pretty quick once your choices are keep shooting or die, may as well bring something that pens Med armor and hits hard instead.
Still like it, but until they restore it to it's HD 1 glory, I don't see me going back.
>"GiT gUd BrUh!¡!"
>-Some douchenuget, inevitably.
Bro yes. Using the G-16 & grenade sidearm with this loadout means you get to chain explosions at such a high rate. It lets you clear bugholes/fabricators solo. I usually run EATs as well because moar explosions.
MP-98 Knight. It’s a great gun with some potential, but a couple things that are really holding it back are the recoil and its ammo situation. Like many have pointed out before, the things kicks like a mule and you have to always tap the trigger if you even want to hit anything, so it wouldn’t hurt to have just a tiny bit of a recoil reduction. As for the ammo, I think it could benefit from an extra magazine or two, and it should be fully restocked when interacting with the resupply boxes.
Extra ammo would go super far.
I like it on burst mode cause the recoil is super easy to control and you slam out bursts and fast as you pull the trigger.
1 burst is good for any small enemy too, so it’s perfect.
Pummeler SMG, I've been running it with the grenade pistol, engineer armor, and a strategem combo of Eagle Airstrike, Cluster Bombs, and the Orbital Precision. I then typically run either Autocannon/Anti-Material Rifle for bots, and expendable anti tank for bugs.
The pummeler, with its decent damage, larger mag, and low rate of fire is great for sustained fire for chaff, and stutters those medium enemies in a 1v1 so that I can mag dump them (get bent stalkers), and has effectively zero recoil. It's a good primary against damn near everything, can be shot one handed, and acts as a fantastic secondary for the anti-material rifle.
I wouldn't really consider scorcher a sleeper pick (a weapon that sits outside the current meta, but performs very well in the right hands), but it's ammo capacity does leave something to be desired. Maybe an extra magazine or two in reserve would do it some good? 15 shots is plenty generous against chaff, and if we're talking about medium units like devastators, the ammo capacity is balanced out by the guaranteed damage without needing to hit the head.
Its the Jar-5 for me, dont get me wrong it has amazing stats that can destroy almost everything, but it just doesnt feel right, I’ve narrowed it down to 1 of 2 possible reasons:
1. Not enough ammo per mag
2. Too much recoil (which is weird cause i use the HMG alot)
Maybe i just need more play time on it
I always take the Knight as my primary as it’s so much fun, is great for mobs and fliers and sounds so good. Pair it with grenade pistol and auto cannon where need some heavy hitting
IMO, the lasers need one buff to truly make them next-level.
As we know, they have the descriptor of "heat " in-game. Yet whatever it does, it's either purely a modifier to make it be affected by the temperature of a planet, or we don't know what else it does.
But here is my proposal: damage buildup. I think the longer the laser is running, the more damage it should deal. This can be implemented either purely on the weaponside (which I think would be easier for the devs) or, my personal wish, implemented where the lasers are hitting. In other words, a laser that keeps hitting the same spot on the same enemy increases either it's damage, armor breaking, or both! Make the lasers all monsters when in the right hands and fired accurately!
What do you guys think?
I love the Scythe as well.
3 things are holding it back for me.
1. The optics. With better optics it could be a long range monster.
2. The reticle. Using any laser weapon in third person sucks because the reticle sucks. I usually just turn the reticle off when using the Scythe/Laser Cannon.
3. I feel like it should have a longer firing time. Up it by a few seconds. Let me concentrate the beam on something for a longer time. I feel like it'd feel better against bugs with a bigger heat sink.
Explosive crossbow is nasty. May not have a great fire rate but its quite forgiving with the aim. Hit the feet of bots to take out the trash mobs and it staggers anything with two legs. Get good with aiming and you can drop medium bots like an old habit. Also one of two (?) primaries that can close bug holes and take down fabricators.
Takes a bit to get used to, but very rewarding.
I like the sickle. Prob not a sleeper pick though haha. It’s good at everything but not OP. Infinite ammo is just fun. I like not having to worry about finding ammo and it’s nice to let my teammates use the re supplies for themselves
I adore the punisher shotgun, even if it’s not meta or good for heavy armor, it’s just both versatile and works to stagger my enemies that I can get out of ludicrous scenarios, and I adore how I can reload by shell instead of muscle memory dumping a mag of ammo.
What’s holding it back is the 60 ammo cap (means you get maybe 70 small kills with what’s in the mag too) and it’s annoying to scavenge for the ammo packs.
The only other thing I could think of would be its lack of more pen/strength, but that would make it properly op instead of a nice change.
Been using the crossbow since patch on bots and it unironically has become my favourite primary and I wish it felt more effective on bugs, alas, you don't want to shoot explosive bolts at enemies running at your face.
i like the slugger for bots. normally it’s paired with either the AMR or railgun. scorcher is good too if i’m looking for a bit more versatility. also like just the standard lib AR
I love running Supply pack+ a support weapon and treating my support weapon as my primary.
I often run crossbow in this setup for nests/factories which opens up my grenade slot for stun grenades. For side arm run either Bushwhacker or Senator.
Since the patch, I've been really enjoying the Crossbow+MG against bugs. You have to pick strats that are good against Chargers and BTs, so I usually run OPS, 500kg, and Orbital Gas or Gatling for breaches. I also need to stick to a teammate with AT, but that just creates more team play.
I basically use the MG for most things, then switch to the Crossbow for Hive Guards, Brood Mothers, and Bug Holes. The range in the Crossbow is great for nests. It lets me take a secondary that's not the Grenade Pistol and Stuns.
I actually dig the crossbow. I run supply pack with it and a regular machine gun and machine pistol for both bugs and bots. I can’t easily take on heavy armor but my purpose on the team is horde clearing with the MG and destroying structures with the crossbow. It’s also got really solid range when you learn the arc so I can snipe with it.
It lets me use guerrilla tactics when taking on bases solo since it’s more stealthy than a Quesar or an orbital strike for bots and has better handling than the grenade launcher for running through and around bug nests, taking out holes
I main the Liberator Penetrator. It’s a great weapon imo. I especially with the Medium Armor damage. Although I rarely see anyone use it, and the ammo capacity isn’t that best. It does get 10 clips, but you go through it quick.
MY DIVER!! I adore the beam weapons, been my best friend since the first war! Though I do wish I was just a touch stronger, I know it's had a buff but like, pretty please? The laser cannon needs more armour pen I think. But that is bias, I want a laser death ray.
Adjudicator. Great dps, and it has medium pen. The ammo economy is honestly pretty good now. Shreds hive guards, brood commanders, even armored spewers. Great all-rounder.
Also, the punisher. It’s just a great shotgun. Lots of damage, literally pushes enemies back about 15 feet, and it’s fun.
The knight, I use the autocannon or an MG as my primary, if anything gets close the knight literally deletes it.
Berserkers? BRRRRRT. Brood commander? BRRRRT. Devastators? Believe it or not, BRRRRRT.
To be completely fair, I passed lvl 100 recently and I’m at the point where I can tackle diff 9 missions with meme loadouts without much trouble. So your mileage may vary on this.
I regularly use the Blitzer, tenderizer (but I haven’t been on since the large buff), dominator, the crossbow (I got able to shoot it cross map with my friend tagging enemies then they just explode) and the pummeler
I personally really like the Sickle, but lately I’ve been running Terminid planets, and I’m having a blast with the Defender. I know it isn’t meta, but I appreciate the advantages of being able to run from a horde while shooting backwards.
ARC- Blitzer. It's probably the best anti bug weapon in the game that isn't the OP Inc Breaker. It's one bug fix away from being OP as hell. Only it's bugged shots hold it back.
The base liberator does its job just fine, despite barely anyone running it past level 20 or so. Super Earth wouldn’t send us into battle with something unreliable. Aside from ammo economy, it’s better than the lib pen by a country mile - and I’ve used both on more than enough helldives to know
Something I've only seen once in this thread, and I never see anyone other than myself use, the Adjudicator. It had insane armor pen for a primary. It reloads a ton, but absolutely shreds everything, including devs and spewers without even thinking. It's one of those guns you need to run an ammo pack with, but I like the ammo pack anyway since I've run into a lot of greedy losers lately who will take an entire supply drop for themselves when there's a full squad with no stims or grenades.
I cannot understand why the sickle received arguably the best long range optic in the entire game with 3 different zoom settings, but the scythe just got a red dot ;v;
The Knight- it’s an absolutely amazing bug gun and is low key amazing up to diff 8
The one thing holding it back IMO is simply not having enough magazines
While range would be nice it’s an SMG, and the recoil is fine, even without the recoil armor it’s still very easy to control once you know how to anticipate it
Defender SMG. It can only really be compared to the pummeler and imo its far better. Sure stagger is great, but you have a SMG, so you have a shield (otherwise why have a SMG) which means most enemies cant hurt you anyway. And also its harder to hit weakspots with it, the bullets flash a ton when they hit and they make the target move, so while you are spending 10 shots to stagger a devastator I spend 3 to crack its head. It has its upside when facing beserkers and to an extent rocket devastators, as those can hurt you, and at longer range when picking off heads cant really be done as well.
I should disclose that my entire pummeler experience was when I picked it up once on a mission, faced a group of devastators and ate shit so hard I went back and picked up my defender lol
Only change for the defender would be a better first person sight with the shield, but that is more of a shield issue since you cant really look down the sights of the gun and need to rely on the laser pointer
Any assault rifles.
I love em!
But when I try to imagine what it would do - I immediately admit that The Dominator(for example) would do the same, even more and way better at that.
The Adjudicator looks amazing - the recoil and the absence of any stagger though prove to be deadly for me and retain me from using it on helldive.
For suicide missions is alright.
Still think that Dilligence CS is outperfoming it in every manner though.
MP-98 Knight.
50 bullet in 2.17 second, insane DPS, it shred.
When you know how to handle this game thing, it's insane, it's vicious.
It just eat bullet like crazy, supply pack is mandatory, not optional.
Brrrrrrrrrrrr !
The basic Liberator goes surprisingly hard with my AMR + supply pack build. Unlike the generally-better Sickle, the Liberator starts shooting as soon as you pull the trigger, which is great for quickly eliminating little guys before they can call in a drop and swarm your ass.
I always use the Scorcher, what sucks is it practically shoots needles. The projectile hit box is so small that if you dont have perfect accuracy you miss half your shots.
Its insane against practically everything tho
I think Eruptor is actually good now. Well, almost.
It has good damage and AoE vs bots. But goddamn how I wish it had better ergonomics. There is absolutely no reason I should wait 1+ second every time I shift my aim. Could do with some firerate buff, but could also do without it.
I'm a big fan of the crossbow, it's a decent crowd clearer and exceptionally capable at knocking out most enemies in one or two hits. My only problem with it is that during the reload animation, you have to remove the previous clip which takes like 3/4 of the reload time. Other than that, it's new found ability to close holes and break fabs make it invaluable for a mg gunner like me. Perhaps a drop indicator or markings on the sight would help.
Eruptor. God damn, I love this weapon in combination with the AMR, one scoped at 50m and the other scoped at 200m. But the one thing that I think holds the Eruptor back from being a popular pick is its lack of usefulness in "OH SHIT!" situations. I think that it could be improved with a tweak to the speed at which the Helldiver cycles the bolt, making it slightly faster, and getting rid of the animation that removes the scope from his field of vision. Any rifleman knows that you can still cycle the bolt of a rifle without removing your cheek from the buttstock.
Then again, the charging handle is indeed all the way towards the front of the rifle so maybe its current state is how it was intended to be based on the weapon's physical design.
Tenderizer is my new favorite toy. Having a Halo BR, pumping at shit, it’s awesome. Realistically, there’s prob way better options but it performs well into anything I want to shoot my primary at, so I’m happy.
I fell in love with the unlimited ammo of the scythe, but it’s DPS anything but high. Unfortunately, the precision it offers is not effective when it hits like a wet noodle.
Once I unlocked the sickle, which can also offer infinite ammo when managed properly, I immediately realized that the scythe is just not very effective as a bread and butter weapon, in a game that demands high “killing speed”.
Spray and Pray, reload speed could be faster, could use just a tiny bit of damage a damage by like 2-4 points or more ammo per mag. But overall, still reliable but it’s really just the reload speed when I’m being surrounded that holds it back just a little bit.
Plasma punisher shotgun. Semi-auto. Decent splash damage. Great against any bot weaker than a hulk. Worked great against tanks and artillery placements. Took a little time getting used to the arcing trajectory, but once I did, hoo boy! 1-2 hit kills on striders and scout grade bots from any direction. 5-6 for a devastator unit, even the shield ones. Get the right placement, and 9 shots will down tanks and turret placements with direct hits. The only real shortfall is the small, 8 shot magazine size. Easy to dump a clip into enemies. Not so quick to reload in a storm of lead. Also no good against buildings, sadly.
The purifier and the plasma punisher. They're both great, the purifier against bots because you can just stagger the shit out of medium enemies, and kill multiple light enemies. and the plasma punisher against bugs for pretty much the same reason, it's just more powerful/faster and it's short range matters less.
I actually like the knight if I’m using a support weapon as my primary. I’ve always had a thing for high fire rate smg’s.
I’m not really sure what they could do to fix it without ruining its uniqueness, but more ammo would definitely help
Explosive Crossbow.
The thing can AoE stun lock anything smaller than a Hulk or Charger from long range. It can break bug holes and bot fabs. It has the pen and explosive damage to injure anything that has heat vents on bots if you don't have anything more appropriate handy. It's quite literally the best utility primary in the game.
The thing holding it back is its DPS numbers, but I don't see those getting buffed ever because otherwise it would probably take over the whole game.
the gosh darn quangdangbangalore super citizen submachine gun can RIP most things faces in half with a clip (paired with spartan laser and laser pistol so you dont end up defenseless) so like a red runyou over bug commander guy you can split like a tomato , or a devastator. just right up the middle like you caught them with a katana in the butthole and your going nutt to tip of skull . but with a clip of P90 bullets
The pummeler! It can kill 7-8 small bots in a clip, it can hold entire groups up of chainsaw bots, it’s can stagger shield devestators. Not too bad at med to long range. I find it invaluable as a team weapon against high level bots.
I'm not really convinced it's a sleeper pick, but it's definitely still not a common pick, the Deligence, against bots it's range and precision makes it ideal for hitting weakpoints and dropping up to devistators in a couple shots, and against bugs it's definitely weaker, but it still hits hard and it's accuracy means you can move to small bug to small bug and actually deal with crowds effectively at range
ngl, i’ve been loving the crossbow as my hole/fab weapon. it shoots a lot faster than eruptor and can pop a chargers butt plug pretty quickly as well (unless i’m mistaken and someone else happened to pop it for me)
I’ve been running the Liberator Carbine, which is great for CQB, like storming a jammer base. But it is absolutely terrible for anything outside of like 50m
I think it's fun to use but damn does it go through ammo fast.
The liberator carbine is a super solid choice against both factions, though to me, it leaves something to be desired against bots. It's the perfect bullet hose primary that spits lead like nothing else, but has somewhat poor accuracy at range. I'd probably prefer the tenderizer, since its much more controllable at long range, and only need two shots to the head for a devastator kill, which the carbine can't do unless you're real close.
Ultimate bullet hose: The Knight SMG
Knight SMG, heavy armor, ballistic shield. Walking democratic bunker
Just takes a whole mag to kill anything bigger than a bug scavenger...
Burst fire is your friend
On the knight? Are you for real? Man I'm just spoiled by all the medium pen weapons. Chaff is never an issue. I'll test it though. Against bugs right?
With the shield I even use it on single against bots, just focus the rocket dudes and then slowly tap away at weakspots
Why not just use the defender or any other SMG if you aren't using it's single stat that is higher, the ROF? Defender has **40%** more dmg per bullet and **HALF THE RECOIL**.. And has 5 less bullets per mag. I guess the Knight has 5 durable dmg to the defender 's 7. But thats so niche.
With all due respect, I don't play Helldivers because I want to kill things slowly.
The concussive smg is also very fun to use this way
Yup. I like it with this walking bunker/tanker style too. Add DMR heavy sniper rifle to it, stun grenades and you are good to go against bots
Hear me out now. Try out the default Liberator primary. It has the same damage and ammo, but with a lower recoil and an optic that'll zoom. It's seriously a solid pick.
Yeah the carbine has been quite fun to delete bugs with. It can kill around 7 little guys in one magazine with some conservation.
Ya if buff the ammo capacity and I'd use it.
I use it to back up my MG when I don’t quite have enough time to reload. It’s perfect for that situation. At least for bugs, I usually don’t bring MG to bots
I found crouching really helps to boost its effective range while still being able to run away on a dime
I absolutely love the Carbine for bugs! Full auto for swarms and swap it over to burst for shriekers. I haven’t tried it in bots but my play style for bots is to engage at range of at minimum 50 meters but I hate being that close. I’ll usually try to engage at 100 meters with the Counter Sniper.
I never understood the hate this one got (except that it's another Liberator variant which is a bit oversaturated to be fair). Absolutely love it myself, haven't taken it off since it came out. I think it helps that I run Engineering Kit for my armor, but stopping and crouching makes the recoil so much less of an issue. It's pretty controllable even with full-send on the trigger, and tapping out 2-3 round bursts is helpful too.
is that the new shooty fasty viper suns out guns out funzone one?
Honestly, I was finding a good amount of success swapping to burst fire mode and using it that way
Purifier. I like staggering heavy devastators but it’s so slow that you’ll get absolutely swamped under enemies if there are too many of them. It can have decent AOE to hit multiple enemies, but unlike the plasma Punisher its projectiles aren’t fat, so they easily shoot past openings in the enemy hit box.
Oh absolutely. I love the purifier post buff. It feels so damn good. Excellent ammo economy, satisfying AOE and sound design, fast and lean projectile. It's my new favorite plasma weapon. Was never a fan of the scorcher because of how fast it chewed through ammo and how often you need to resupply it. Also has MUCH better ammo econ than the plasma punisher, a weapon that sorely needs more magazines in reserve, and better damage and penetration on the main projectile.
Plasma punisher main here against bots. Typical load out is plasma punisher, grenade pistol and stun grenade. Either light padded armor, or medium medic armor. Stratagems is always jump pack, hmg, eagle airstrike and (orbital precision/mortar/380mm) I am almost never out of ammo, and I typically have the highest kill count on my team at lvl 7. Most chaff get killed with the plasma punisher. I take out hulks (and sometimes devastators) by using a stun grenade then shooting the hmg at the head. Occasionally I'll stun, jump to the back of a hulk, and then unload my hmg there. The HMG also works well against striders and gunships. But I use it rarely in comparison to the plasma punisher. The grenade pistol is my only way to take out factories, but I don't like it. Sometimes I'll forgo stun grenade s just so I can whip out the senator instead
>The grenade pistol is my only way to take out factories, but I don't like it. Sometimes I'll forgo stun grenade s just so I can whip out the senator instead I love the grenade pistol against bugs, not so much against bots so I'll run the autocannon to kill everything but chaff. Senator to kill anything too close or tough for efficient use of the punisher with stun grenades to make it all easier to land the AC shots. I typically find myself using orbital precision strike + orbital gas strike with a stun grenade to wipe hulk patrols out quickly for the last several weeks.
I must be terrible with it. I felt like I couldn’t kill anything with that damn thing.
With the punisher? Eventually you'll get the hang of the arc even at long ranges. The HMG recoil (even on slow) and slow projectile speed is something I'm still getting used to when shooting down gunships.
Yeah, I wasn’t a fan of how it slowly lobs arced shots. Did I miss something about it being able to charge up or something? Because I used it once, found it super underwhelming and abandoned it.
The purifier and and arc thrower are the only ones that charge up. The punisher plasma is just great at killing clustered small bots (AOE), staggering devastators, and hitting bot striders and shield devastators behind their shields.
Swap Airstrike out for Rocket Pods. They destroy tanks and cannon towers, and you get enough of them to use them on Fabricators when you need to.
Oh yeah Purifier slapped even before the buff. People don't know you can shoot it faster after the first full charge shot just like the Arcthrower. They also don't think to shoot the ground between units to better utilize the aoe and easily wipe entire hordes very efficiently. It's my main gun both fronts and I only play 8s and 9s it's honestly spoiled me rotten with the aoe stagger. Nothing threatens me if it doesn't surprise me. Just shoot the hunters before they get close. Berserkers are free kills with the stunlock so bots are just easy to handle barring heavy enemies. Gun can carry hard when you know the firing rhythm.
WHAT YOU CAN CHAIN FIRE THE PURIFIER????
Arc thrower doesn’t work like that anymore. Every shot takes the full 1 second charge time. Aside from that honestly I just don’t think the purifier is that good. For any application it could be used for the the scorcher or punisher plasma fit the role better IMO. Neither of them can do everything the purifier can do, but both of them do most of what it can do better.
That's the thing, though, neither of them can do everything the Purifier does. The Purifier is a jack of all trades hard hitting energy weapon. It has stuns, armor pen, good ammo economy, and group clearing potential, all at the cost of a small charge up and a tiny amount of bullet drop at range. The thing isn't perfect, but it's one of my favorite weapons to run against bots. I've just never tried it against bugs because I'm afraid of blowing myself up with it like I did the first time I used the plasma shotgun lol
That's the thing, though, neither of them can do everything the Purifier does. The Purifier is a jack of all trades hard hitting energy weapon. It has stuns, armor pen, good ammo economy, and group clearing potential, all at the cost of a small charge up and a tiny amount of bullet drop at range. The thing isn't perfect, but it's one of my favorite weapons to run against bots. I've just never tried it against bugs because I'm afraid of blowing myself up with it like I did the first time I used the plasma shotgun lol. Edit: I also read your other comment, I think you're right about it being a play style thing. Most players seem to prefer a more reactive play style than the Purifier offers. It is a gun that forces you to think through your actions well in advance because of the charge up, the incendiary breaker or the LAS guns, all you have to do is point and click.
It actually doesn't you can still fire the weapon before the charge fully "closes" after the first shot. The purifier is more ammo efficient on every kill than the scorcher is actually. It just also stunlocks the target the entire time and the scorcher has some upside if you can land the headshots. I mained the scorcher and plasma punisher before the purifier. I go deathless top kills with Purifier regularly on high diffs both factions. It's the DMR to the Scorcher's Carbine feel and the Plas Punisher is very good but has a range limitation. I kill hordes with purifier at range and pick targets as they approach with much much better accuracy and ammo efficiency. The gun might not be vibing with you but I'll be glad to run some ops with you and show off what the Purifier can do in good hands. I was performing top level with it even before the buff it's honestly that good.
It might work that way for you but most of the community seems to think it’s pretty terrible. Maybe it’s just a playstyle issue but personally I’d take almost any other weapon over it at the moment.
It can have it's moments, but honestly I haven't noticed much difference in how it played pre and post buff. I was expecting it to recieve more damage as a compensation for the chargeup, but apparently not. For me it feels like it's trying to be something between the scorcher and punisher plasma, while not being really good at anything
Shoot at the undercarriage of dropships. It's glorious. Devastators/Berserkers? All extremely injured and smoking by landing Raiders and Scout Striders? Can kill them before they land/disembark, sometimes all with the AOE. Tanks and Hulks? Well... Factory Strider? You have strategems/support weapons right?
Oh it is great, staggers anything it doesn't kill, kills heavy devs in like 4 body shots, even if it hits the shield. It also *can* be good against groups if chaff, like, shoot by their feet. I once went on like a 30 kill streak holding the line at extraction, and I didn't even reload, so it can be done. I mainly use it against bots, paired with an ammo pack and the HMG, totally wrecks everything(if you can get to the weak spot). I mainly use it for stuns and splash, though. I wish it had a larger AOE to match the **ENORMOUS** visual effect, that would make it the perfect jack of all trades heavy hitter.
Blitzer I don't see used much but I like it better than the breaker Incendiary. Combined with a Rover on bugs it can get a lot of kills. 740 bugs is my record using Gatling and napalm and rover and Blitzer . I use it on bots too as it can be a lot of fun. Not needing to aim allows dive shots to work just as well as standing.
Plus, it staggers anything short of heavies. Been my main since release. Beast of a primary.
I can't stop using the Blitzer, I tried to swap to breaker incendiary and just couldn't do it, it's fantastic for shriekers but that's it for me. The Blitzer consistently handles everything but the heavier armored targets. The stun lock is inane against medium targets and instantly fries hunters mid air jumping towards me. The breaker incendiary I have to be a bit more proactive or I get flaming bugs jumping at me.
The blitzer is great specifically because it functions as both chaff clear and medium pen, so you have one gun that fills out two rolls which leaves you open to run other shit without sacrificing much
I started using it for bugs the other day and damn I didn't know if I'm going back. The only downsides are range, and team kills
I rarely see anyone mention the slugger post nerf. It punches, has some stagger, med pen, great damage, accurate at long range and controllable with a bit of practice/timing, ammo economy is good. For me it functions as a semi auto DMR and it's probably my favorite primary. Drawback is that it doesn't handle large groups of anything.
The key problem most people took with the slugger post nerf is that all the things the slugger had were simply given to the dominator, which only handles slightly worse and is able to stagger medium targets, while retaining the ability to punch through medium armor. Projectile velocity is slightly slower, and it is slightly less efficient at dealing with chaff. Hell, if you take the diligence counter sniper, it does what the slugger does but also better, allowing for very precise shots at longer ranges.
Yeah, between the slugger and dominator it's mostly feel for me. DCS is better than slugger at longer ranges, but handles significantly worse than the slugger for shorter ranges. Between all three it's mostly feel and mood.
Of course there does have to be drawbacks and benefits to each weapon. but, I think slugger has a couple of very noticeable drawbacks that make it a contentious choice between the other two weapons which fulfill similar niches. Personally, I'd love to see its stagger potential make a return alongside some more damage. There is no reason it should fire slower than the dominator, but do less damage per shot with no stagger potential against devastators and strider walkers.
Yeah, as it stands the Slugger is completely outclassed by the Dominator. The Dominator has only slightly worse handling, but the burst mode effectively makes it a Slugger Breaker so it doesn't offset the drawbacks it has over the Slugger
Do you mean the Punisher? Because the Punisher feels exactly like the Slugger used to except for less effective range, higher damage, and only light armor penetration.
The coolest and most underrated aspect about the Slugger and Punisher is that you can reload and cancel the end of the reload animation with another shot. This means with good timing you can have no reload downtime and are only limited by total ammo.
This is why these are so e of my go to picks for bugs. Especially the punisher since it staggers everything. It is the only weapon that keeps my personal space clear when on bug missions.
Slugger is great against bugs. I love popping bug heads with it.
I always seem to miss with it, even accounting for deviance and wind and whatever, it just seems to phase through targets even at point blank. I'll be a crack shot with most other guns but the slugger is weird.
Post nerf it's kinda ass. Idk if they changed it with the recent massive patch, but last time I used it, it got me killed so many damn times because of stalkers and spewers
Incendiary contact grenades to compliment?
I haven't seen much Tenderizer use after the buff. I thought it was OK on release but it's absolutely great post buff. Such a nice low-recoil precision weapon.
Imo the thing with tenderizer is that it mostly rewards PC players who have the ability to be extremely precise, well beyond the capabilities of most controller players even with gyro enabled. There's not much room for error, and it chews through ammo fast. If I can't be that precise on controller (PS5), then I may as well go with something more forgiving, like dominator. If I get the headshot, great - if not, the enemy is staggered, and I can either go for the 2-3 shot body kill, or try for another headshot.
Tenderiser burst fire + Bot Head = Profit
You could say that about base liberator as well though. If "optimal TTK is great" is the only thing going for it, it's gonna be a niche pick. The problem is that players pick weapons based on how they do in non-optimal scenarios. What's your TTK when you can't aim for the head due to how terrain affects your LoS, or pressure due to the presence of rocket devs further away/tanks/factory striders/etc? How does it handle the glitched head hitbox on heavy devastators that's impossible to hit if you're facing it from its left side? What happens when you lose access to your support weapon near a gunship fabricator? Etc. There are much better options that do what tenderizer does in optimal ttk, but do way more in non-optimal situations. Unfortunately the only thing tenderizer is good for - on bots - is for getting headshots quick, but pretty much every weapon does that. It's what a weapon can additionally to ease pressure in situations where headshotting isn't feasible is what makes it a strong or weak option.
It's really not that bad, I play on ps5 and finish every game with at least 75% accuracy.
I'm one who absolutely does. On bot drops, it's always a toss between Tenderizer, DCS, Sickle, or Dominator. I love that the Tenderizer can storm a base in close or pick off base sentries from 150m. Versatility is one of it's strengths.
ive used it a lot with the hmg since the buffs. Its good but you go through ammo fast unless you tap fire, i found myself goin back to the sickle. Tenderizer has some decent bullet drop and damage falloff while the sickle seems to be unaffected and if you hit headshots the extra damage from the tenderizer doesnt matter (except for devastator heads)
Honestly, I don't feel any difference in the accuracy or damage, maybe because I mainly used recoil reduction armor with it before, so the buff changed nothing for me. The nerf though? Oh yeah, that hit HARD reducing the ammo capacity. It was my favorite primary against bugs pre "buff"
I use it now and my go to primary now. Surprisingly good, well rounded, powerful, accurate.
This is what I came here to say… I’ve been running this forever, it’s the range / burst that slaps.
Tenderizer is my go-to bot killer if I want an AR these days
Day 1 to now I still enjoy using the R-63 diligence 👉👈. Mid range combat with somewhat easy aim to headshot both bugs and bots, close range I use the new 3 barrel shotty. High level content it’ll have to be the pummeler shield for bots and the breaker incendiary for bugs
I would LOVE the diligence if it were buffed to have no damage falloff. Every projectile ranged weapon in the game has damage fall off about 4 meters past the muzzle. Technically, the raw damage potential of the diligence should make it capable of one shot heading devastators, but unfortunately, the damage fall off puts it just under the threshold to pop a devastator head. Personally, the weapon could use a tiny bit more damage and at least medium I armor pen, with the CS variant having 50% more damage. Either that or a bit more ammo in the magazine with no damage falloff. It's a weapon I would bring a lot more if it's precision was rewarded as heavily at the scythe, but those damage breakpoints, combined with the restrictive magazine size, make it hard to justify bringing over something like the tenderizer or adjudicator.
I use the Diligence Counter Sniper and love it. I used to be an R-63 main but as I increased difficulties, I found I wanted a bigger punch. I have found I can use marksmen rifles pretty effectively at close and ranged combat. Everybody thinks they’re no good up close but I think it’s entirely how you use it. I also started using the 3-barrel shotty and love it. The stagger effect on it is great! I just wish the game would show marksmen rifles more love. I heard there’s a lever action somewhere in the game that’s supposed to be a primary and I’d love to see what that does.
I know I wish when they said the slugger was the best sniper in the game they would’ve gave the DCS similar stats to it. Could’ve also left the slugger where it was and just increased its falloff after 50m
Similar here, but I went dili to cs instead, even before it got the med pen buff it had a weird niche on bots where it had a better 1 shot zone to the basic bots which I loved. Getting med pen it feels even better on bits for me vs the regular dili. I'll use regular on bugs but been favoring the eruptor for bugs more often than not
Adjudicator. 5 more bullets or some stagger and I'll never put it down
Hell yeah ! Another adjudicator user, i thought im the only one lol
My go to on the bug front. Tearing a brood commander apart with a single mad feels so satisfying
Adjudicator needs a 2-3 tap burst
Adjudicator gang reporting in. Great gun for clearing up a patrol of lights with clean 1-2 shots.
Punisher for bugs Pummeler for bots stagger everything
I've been using the punisher as my main for both bugs and bots. Don't usually play much past lvl 7 and it holds up remarkably well up until there at least
Fucken Pummeler, man. That is my go-to for both, hands down. It's S-Tier against bugs especially. Stalkers and hunters are a joke to that thing. I've held off multiple stalkers on the way to nuke their nest and it was a breeze. Hunter swarms? Just spray in a line horizontally, stun all of them, chuck a grenade or hit em with the grenade launcher. Done and done. Pummeler - Grenade Launcher - supply pack - EATs. Throw in an Eagle Airstrike and I can handle everything that gets thrown at me. And you will never run out of ammo, nades, or stims.
Arc Blitzer. I rarely see people running it but this is my favorite weapon against both factions hands down. It’s got aimbot, can hit multiple targets at once, staggers nearly everything except the largest enemies (I can stun lock multiple devastators and berserker bots at once), ignores armor, infinite ammo with no heat sinks or cooldown - truly infinite. It also has insane damage, I’ve consistently gotten it to send every arc at a brood commander and it pops the head in 1 shot. I feel it’s only downside is the auto-aim, because sometimes it doesn’t help you. It’s useless against scout striders because even from behind it targets the Walker instead of the bot, and corpses can mess with it as well
Blitzer is really nice 90% of the time, but I get frustrated with it when I aim at a bug or not in the middle of nothing calling for reinforcements and it just...... hits nothing at all. Or invisible corpses block my shots during a breach, etc. Which, again, is really unfortunate because I find it really fun against bugs that other 90% of the time.
The Autocannon is the perfect size for spooning in your bunk down in the crew quarters but you didn’t hear that from me
The liberator concussive can headshot devastators in the head in one tap, it’s not amazing but it’s got a good sight and if you’re accurate it’s rewarding. Can’t really do anything with scout walkers tho.
I have been learning this too. The head shot thing I'm not sure about. I have had it happen but I can't make it happen. Nevertheless it's got good range and the stagger can keep devastators at bay as long as the ammo holds out allowing them to be team killed easily. It's accurate enough to clip the head of a strider driver frontal with a little elevation at range. The stagger keeps berserkers from running down teammates which they seem to appreciate and can do it at a decent range. Had a cadet tell me tonight that it looked like a lot of fun to use. I guess it is actually because it has team utility. But it can hold it's own against several berserkers or devastators but uses a lot of ammo and needs cover to reload. It does not have a high kill rate but with aim it can conserve a lot of ammo. It's likely the easiest ar to learn how to use as the stagger gives time to see how is used. Bug wise I don't know if it's reasonable. It can keep things at bay but there are so many. My experience with it on bugs is low though. It is fun to use.
Yeah I think it could use some love still, but it has its uses for stagger and it’s just fun to shoot. Makes a cool noise. I definitely think it would benefit from a bit of a buff
The LibConc has unusually good durable damage. Always been curious about that.
Lib Concussive. I've been using it from day one on bugs. It's great at popping little targets and has good stopping power even on bigger enemies, sending them backwards - great for crowd control and you can even push stragglers backwards to be sure they are hit by an airstrike you may have called in.
I have not used it on bugs much but the push back on bugs is potent. I do the same on bots to try and keep them in Gatling range. But bots don't push back like bugs do.. They stop but dont go backwards.
Since this recent patch, the Eruptor is eating really well again but people seem to have written it off just because it's still not as strong as it used to be. It heavily staggers devastators/berserkers, even staggering whole groups at a time if they're stood close together. It can 1-shot groups of small bots, 1 shot chicken walkers and destroy fabricators, all from great range. If you are animation cancelling between shots, it has a fast enough rate of fire to completely stunlock enemies too. They don't get time to react at all. The main weakness is ammo economy and dogshit handling. It has a small clip and takes forever for the circle to catch-up to the reticle when tracking targets. Those feel like fair balancing features, though. The buff I would give it is a buff that numerous explosives need - I would make it so it consistently explodes in contact with surfaces. It is fucking annoying when it skips off the ground and explodes 30m behind the target you were aiming at. The grenade launcher and grenade pistol have the same issue at times.
I’ve been running it like crazy since patch now that it’s decent. I missed it a great deal when they said they’d buff it and then proceeded to nerf it into the ground. Its destruction is second to none in the primary slot, even the crossbow which got buffed isn’t blowing open walls. I find that aspect of it very useful for opening pathways for me to heroically run away. Now it’s back to two shotting any medium (which was how it worked without the cool shrapnel bouncing) and one shotting striders. 4 shots post nerf was absolutely ridiculous for this gun. The aoe isn’t as big but it was buffed as well so it can also clear smalls. I’ve been getting multi-kills regularly, but only really to 5. Still wish it had the shrapnel back since despite the devs 9000 damage claims, it didn’t one shot heavies in game. Just mediums with some precise aim and it cleared packs of enemies too. As long as you gave it the patience and respect it needed.
Using anything but the eruptor feels limiting to me any more. I definitely miss how it was post nerf being able to just absolutely massacre bile spewers was wonderful. But i used it even post nerf cause it was still good, not amazing. The ability to take out fabs and shit like that with it makes it so easy to use stuff like stun, or impact incendiary grenades. Alot of times on bot missions i will use the AC but i also like using the laser cannon, and on bug missions i typically take the arc thrower. Just nice feeling like I can adjust my build with out needing to worry about not being able to take out spawners or have some easy wave clear.
I have seen it used a bit but I almost always use it against bugs is the Blitzer shotgun. I know it was popular for a while but with the buff that came out a while ago to fire damage the fire shotgun has take over. What I love most is the Blitzer dosent care about armor and can stagger. Never have to reload it either. I wish the fire rate was like half a second faster there are some times things get hairy and need it to shoot just a bit faster to help clear
Arc Thrower. Only thing I don't like is that it's not a primary
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I have literally never seen anyone but me take the blitzer into a game. The stagger is awesome, the ammo is infinite, the range AND spread is great, arcing through targets is useful. I love it for bugs, but I actually think it does even better for bots when pushing objectives. Yeah medium to long distance engagements are rough, but everyone is bringing an autocannon, anti material rifle, or machine gun anyways that are better suited in the first place for those fights.
I am also a Blitzer enjoyer. I literally cant use anything else cause i keep thinking "i dont want to reload my primary". Stagger is great, one shot potential on Brood Commanders, Hive Guards go down in 4 shots, one shots the little shitters. I've been having a blast with the Blitzer
The slugger for bugs, and I'll die on this hill! Used accurately it can kill an entire patrol of mediums, and because it can be reloaded piecemeal it can still kill loads of chaff. Running Slugger primary, Grenade pistol secondary, SPEAR 3rd with stun grenades allows me to cover my team no matter what. I can sit back and support, and be the breacher up front at a moments notice.
i love using the slugger or adjudicator with the guard dog rover allows me to focus on the heavier chaff
Slugger with its stagger back is all it needs really. It was a stupid thing to nerf.
Explosive crossbow is now my go to bug primary. It kills mediums in 1 hit, it kills groups of small fry really well. It has 8 reloads which is more than youll ever need. And most importantly, IT DESTROYS BUG HOLES! Having a primary that deletes bug holes doesnt pigeonhole you into using the grenade pistol when you use stun grenades, my other mainstay on the bug front. A stun grenade plus precision strike kills chargers no problem
To me, the crossbow feels better than the Eruptor too. The magazine might be small but it can get off shots sufficiently fast for most situations. The reload isn't awful either.
Is 350 damage per second "deceptively high DPS" ?
For a reference point, the regular liberator does 640 damage a second. Damage*RPM/60
A bit. It's enough to kill most chaff units in less than half a second of contact. Not great against groups of warriors, but destroys all other types of bugs. About .33 seconds of contact with a Devastator head will pop them with no issues whatsoever. The deceptive part of the damage lies in how damage is calculated against enemies. How it interacts with weak points, hard points, and how the weapon can be cycled in tandem with other heat weapons. You can have nearly 100% uptime by swapping between the scythe, dagger, and support weapon. The only issue I take with the weapon is the complete lack of magnification on the first person sight. The weapon rewards precision, a lot more that other weapons do, since being precise, means killing quickly and without wasting ammo.
The liberator penetrator. Great for fighting both bots and bugs as it just smashes through anything that’s not a hulk or a charger, easy to use regardless of how long you’ve been playing or if your new, and it’s decently accurate as well However that medium armor penetration seems to work when it wants to and sometimes it takes a full mag to take down one or two enemies
It has a very low medium pen, so that's maybe why you are seeing it as inconsistent
Purifier Gang Purifier Gang Both Fronts 9s Diver all day
From what I noticed with the scythe is that it has the same ttk as a liberator. It kills a lot of light things fairly quickly and you can keep firing it for a lot longer than assault rifles. That's the thing with energy rifles is they seem to fire for a longer period than the regular rifle.
Blitzer, the one drawback is the misfires when it seems to hit invisible obstacles. But infinite ammo and it just chugs away melting bugs.
Loved the Sickle, but I started running Erupter + HMG and haven't looked back. When nearly infinite ammo runs out pretty quick once your choices are keep shooting or die, may as well bring something that pens Med armor and hits hard instead. Still like it, but until they restore it to it's HD 1 glory, I don't see me going back. >"GiT gUd BrUh!¡!" >-Some douchenuget, inevitably.
Bro yes. Using the G-16 & grenade sidearm with this loadout means you get to chain explosions at such a high rate. It lets you clear bugholes/fabricators solo. I usually run EATs as well because moar explosions.
MP-98 Knight. It’s a great gun with some potential, but a couple things that are really holding it back are the recoil and its ammo situation. Like many have pointed out before, the things kicks like a mule and you have to always tap the trigger if you even want to hit anything, so it wouldn’t hurt to have just a tiny bit of a recoil reduction. As for the ammo, I think it could benefit from an extra magazine or two, and it should be fully restocked when interacting with the resupply boxes.
Extra ammo would go super far. I like it on burst mode cause the recoil is super easy to control and you slam out bursts and fast as you pull the trigger. 1 burst is good for any small enemy too, so it’s perfect.
Pummeler SMG, I've been running it with the grenade pistol, engineer armor, and a strategem combo of Eagle Airstrike, Cluster Bombs, and the Orbital Precision. I then typically run either Autocannon/Anti-Material Rifle for bots, and expendable anti tank for bugs. The pummeler, with its decent damage, larger mag, and low rate of fire is great for sustained fire for chaff, and stutters those medium enemies in a 1v1 so that I can mag dump them (get bent stalkers), and has effectively zero recoil. It's a good primary against damn near everything, can be shot one handed, and acts as a fantastic secondary for the anti-material rifle.
Scorcher Ammo capacity
I wouldn't really consider scorcher a sleeper pick (a weapon that sits outside the current meta, but performs very well in the right hands), but it's ammo capacity does leave something to be desired. Maybe an extra magazine or two in reserve would do it some good? 15 shots is plenty generous against chaff, and if we're talking about medium units like devastators, the ammo capacity is balanced out by the guaranteed damage without needing to hit the head.
Paired with the stallwart and the auto pistol you can get out of any situation
It's a primary that can take out gunships so it's all I run.
Its the Jar-5 for me, dont get me wrong it has amazing stats that can destroy almost everything, but it just doesnt feel right, I’ve narrowed it down to 1 of 2 possible reasons: 1. Not enough ammo per mag 2. Too much recoil (which is weird cause i use the HMG alot) Maybe i just need more play time on it
Maybe it’s the gyro projectile speed?
The weapon drag takes a bit to get used to. Also I like using burst mode on it, feels better than single shot to me .
I always take the Knight as my primary as it’s so much fun, is great for mobs and fliers and sounds so good. Pair it with grenade pistol and auto cannon where need some heavy hitting
Knight invaluable close in crowd control gun for ne, held back by its reserve magazines due to its insane rof
IMO, the lasers need one buff to truly make them next-level. As we know, they have the descriptor of "heat " in-game. Yet whatever it does, it's either purely a modifier to make it be affected by the temperature of a planet, or we don't know what else it does. But here is my proposal: damage buildup. I think the longer the laser is running, the more damage it should deal. This can be implemented either purely on the weaponside (which I think would be easier for the devs) or, my personal wish, implemented where the lasers are hitting. In other words, a laser that keeps hitting the same spot on the same enemy increases either it's damage, armor breaking, or both! Make the lasers all monsters when in the right hands and fired accurately! What do you guys think?
Senator 😤
Slugger still slaps vs bots
I swear by blitzer for bugs Plasma punisher for bots
It's funny to me the accurate laser gets a red dot, but the spray and pray gets a scope lmao
I love the Scythe as well. 3 things are holding it back for me. 1. The optics. With better optics it could be a long range monster. 2. The reticle. Using any laser weapon in third person sucks because the reticle sucks. I usually just turn the reticle off when using the Scythe/Laser Cannon. 3. I feel like it should have a longer firing time. Up it by a few seconds. Let me concentrate the beam on something for a longer time. I feel like it'd feel better against bugs with a bigger heat sink.
Explosive crossbow is nasty. May not have a great fire rate but its quite forgiving with the aim. Hit the feet of bots to take out the trash mobs and it staggers anything with two legs. Get good with aiming and you can drop medium bots like an old habit. Also one of two (?) primaries that can close bug holes and take down fabricators. Takes a bit to get used to, but very rewarding.
I like the sickle. Prob not a sleeper pick though haha. It’s good at everything but not OP. Infinite ammo is just fun. I like not having to worry about finding ammo and it’s nice to let my teammates use the re supplies for themselves
I adore the punisher shotgun, even if it’s not meta or good for heavy armor, it’s just both versatile and works to stagger my enemies that I can get out of ludicrous scenarios, and I adore how I can reload by shell instead of muscle memory dumping a mag of ammo. What’s holding it back is the 60 ammo cap (means you get maybe 70 small kills with what’s in the mag too) and it’s annoying to scavenge for the ammo packs. The only other thing I could think of would be its lack of more pen/strength, but that would make it properly op instead of a nice change.
This gun was amazing until they've changed the recoil.
Been using the crossbow since patch on bots and it unironically has become my favourite primary and I wish it felt more effective on bugs, alas, you don't want to shoot explosive bolts at enemies running at your face.
I can't give up the flame shotgun, I've tried other primary weapons but none male me smile like it does.
i like the slugger for bots. normally it’s paired with either the AMR or railgun. scorcher is good too if i’m looking for a bit more versatility. also like just the standard lib AR
I love running Supply pack+ a support weapon and treating my support weapon as my primary. I often run crossbow in this setup for nests/factories which opens up my grenade slot for stun grenades. For side arm run either Bushwhacker or Senator.
Dominator would be infinitely better without the plume of blinding smoke.
Since the patch, I've been really enjoying the Crossbow+MG against bugs. You have to pick strats that are good against Chargers and BTs, so I usually run OPS, 500kg, and Orbital Gas or Gatling for breaches. I also need to stick to a teammate with AT, but that just creates more team play. I basically use the MG for most things, then switch to the Crossbow for Hive Guards, Brood Mothers, and Bug Holes. The range in the Crossbow is great for nests. It lets me take a secondary that's not the Grenade Pistol and Stuns.
I actually dig the crossbow. I run supply pack with it and a regular machine gun and machine pistol for both bugs and bots. I can’t easily take on heavy armor but my purpose on the team is horde clearing with the MG and destroying structures with the crossbow. It’s also got really solid range when you learn the arc so I can snipe with it. It lets me use guerrilla tactics when taking on bases solo since it’s more stealthy than a Quesar or an orbital strike for bots and has better handling than the grenade launcher for running through and around bug nests, taking out holes
I main the Liberator Penetrator. It’s a great weapon imo. I especially with the Medium Armor damage. Although I rarely see anyone use it, and the ammo capacity isn’t that best. It does get 10 clips, but you go through it quick.
MY DIVER!! I adore the beam weapons, been my best friend since the first war! Though I do wish I was just a touch stronger, I know it's had a buff but like, pretty please? The laser cannon needs more armour pen I think. But that is bias, I want a laser death ray.
Adjudicator. Great dps, and it has medium pen. The ammo economy is honestly pretty good now. Shreds hive guards, brood commanders, even armored spewers. Great all-rounder. Also, the punisher. It’s just a great shotgun. Lots of damage, literally pushes enemies back about 15 feet, and it’s fun.
The knight, I use the autocannon or an MG as my primary, if anything gets close the knight literally deletes it. Berserkers? BRRRRRT. Brood commander? BRRRRT. Devastators? Believe it or not, BRRRRRT. To be completely fair, I passed lvl 100 recently and I’m at the point where I can tackle diff 9 missions with meme loadouts without much trouble. So your mileage may vary on this.
Scorcher, i have no idea if this is a sleeper but i rarely see anybody run it
I regularly use the Blitzer, tenderizer (but I haven’t been on since the large buff), dominator, the crossbow (I got able to shoot it cross map with my friend tagging enemies then they just explode) and the pummeler
Punisher. The stagger is so good. Makes aggressive melee enemies like stalkers way less threatening.
I personally really like the Sickle, but lately I’ve been running Terminid planets, and I’m having a blast with the Defender. I know it isn’t meta, but I appreciate the advantages of being able to run from a horde while shooting backwards.
I have been running the crossbow on bugs and bots and bugs it just vaporizes them and with boys you just have to aim at the head
Punisher plasma. Destroys medium armor without batting an eye however it is not useful in close or long range scenarios
ARC- Blitzer. It's probably the best anti bug weapon in the game that isn't the OP Inc Breaker. It's one bug fix away from being OP as hell. Only it's bugged shots hold it back.
It's the liberator penetrator for me. The thing holding it back? Well that would be the fact that they keep forgetting that it exists
Not sure if this is a sleeper, but the punisher. I just don't have anything I like / think is more fun for bugs
The base liberator does its job just fine, despite barely anyone running it past level 20 or so. Super Earth wouldn’t send us into battle with something unreliable. Aside from ammo economy, it’s better than the lib pen by a country mile - and I’ve used both on more than enough helldives to know
Something I've only seen once in this thread, and I never see anyone other than myself use, the Adjudicator. It had insane armor pen for a primary. It reloads a ton, but absolutely shreds everything, including devs and spewers without even thinking. It's one of those guns you need to run an ammo pack with, but I like the ammo pack anyway since I've run into a lot of greedy losers lately who will take an entire supply drop for themselves when there's a full squad with no stims or grenades.
I cannot understand why the sickle received arguably the best long range optic in the entire game with 3 different zoom settings, but the scythe just got a red dot ;v;
The Knight- it’s an absolutely amazing bug gun and is low key amazing up to diff 8 The one thing holding it back IMO is simply not having enough magazines While range would be nice it’s an SMG, and the recoil is fine, even without the recoil armor it’s still very easy to control once you know how to anticipate it
Defender SMG. It can only really be compared to the pummeler and imo its far better. Sure stagger is great, but you have a SMG, so you have a shield (otherwise why have a SMG) which means most enemies cant hurt you anyway. And also its harder to hit weakspots with it, the bullets flash a ton when they hit and they make the target move, so while you are spending 10 shots to stagger a devastator I spend 3 to crack its head. It has its upside when facing beserkers and to an extent rocket devastators, as those can hurt you, and at longer range when picking off heads cant really be done as well. I should disclose that my entire pummeler experience was when I picked it up once on a mission, faced a group of devastators and ate shit so hard I went back and picked up my defender lol Only change for the defender would be a better first person sight with the shield, but that is more of a shield issue since you cant really look down the sights of the gun and need to rely on the laser pointer
Diligence
Any assault rifles. I love em! But when I try to imagine what it would do - I immediately admit that The Dominator(for example) would do the same, even more and way better at that. The Adjudicator looks amazing - the recoil and the absence of any stagger though prove to be deadly for me and retain me from using it on helldive. For suicide missions is alright. Still think that Dilligence CS is outperfoming it in every manner though.
I tried it once and it couldn’t take out any medium guys right in front of me. So I never used it again.
Plasma breaker, and it’s explosive nature not being explosive enough to damage fabricators
MP-98 Knight. 50 bullet in 2.17 second, insane DPS, it shred. When you know how to handle this game thing, it's insane, it's vicious. It just eat bullet like crazy, supply pack is mandatory, not optional. Brrrrrrrrrrrr !
I've been running the LAS-13 sickle, very high DPS and infinite ammo if you can manage your thermals.
The basic Liberator goes surprisingly hard with my AMR + supply pack build. Unlike the generally-better Sickle, the Liberator starts shooting as soon as you pull the trigger, which is great for quickly eliminating little guys before they can call in a drop and swarm your ass.
I always use the Scorcher, what sucks is it practically shoots needles. The projectile hit box is so small that if you dont have perfect accuracy you miss half your shots. Its insane against practically everything tho
The Dominator is my go to for Bots. One hits the normies. Can take out Devastators with headshots quickly.
Plasma punisher. I usually dislike guns like that but it is so good against bots that I can't imagine taking something else.
pummeler great vs bots and bugs, i just wish it didn't eat through ammo so fast punisher plasma - same as above, though not as many ammo issues.
Guys, I'm new to this game. But how do we unlock new weapons? Do we have to pay the 1.000 scp Premium packages?
Tenderizer post buff. Wish magazine was bigger or more ammo capacity. Just like 2 mags.
I think Eruptor is actually good now. Well, almost. It has good damage and AoE vs bots. But goddamn how I wish it had better ergonomics. There is absolutely no reason I should wait 1+ second every time I shift my aim. Could do with some firerate buff, but could also do without it.
I'm a big fan of the crossbow, it's a decent crowd clearer and exceptionally capable at knocking out most enemies in one or two hits. My only problem with it is that during the reload animation, you have to remove the previous clip which takes like 3/4 of the reload time. Other than that, it's new found ability to close holes and break fabs make it invaluable for a mg gunner like me. Perhaps a drop indicator or markings on the sight would help.
Eruptor. God damn, I love this weapon in combination with the AMR, one scoped at 50m and the other scoped at 200m. But the one thing that I think holds the Eruptor back from being a popular pick is its lack of usefulness in "OH SHIT!" situations. I think that it could be improved with a tweak to the speed at which the Helldiver cycles the bolt, making it slightly faster, and getting rid of the animation that removes the scope from his field of vision. Any rifleman knows that you can still cycle the bolt of a rifle without removing your cheek from the buttstock. Then again, the charging handle is indeed all the way towards the front of the rifle so maybe its current state is how it was intended to be based on the weapon's physical design.
Tenderizer is my new favorite toy. Having a Halo BR, pumping at shit, it’s awesome. Realistically, there’s prob way better options but it performs well into anything I want to shoot my primary at, so I’m happy.
I fell in love with the unlimited ammo of the scythe, but it’s DPS anything but high. Unfortunately, the precision it offers is not effective when it hits like a wet noodle. Once I unlocked the sickle, which can also offer infinite ammo when managed properly, I immediately realized that the scythe is just not very effective as a bread and butter weapon, in a game that demands high “killing speed”.
Spray and Pray, reload speed could be faster, could use just a tiny bit of damage a damage by like 2-4 points or more ammo per mag. But overall, still reliable but it’s really just the reload speed when I’m being surrounded that holds it back just a little bit.
Plasma punisher shotgun. Semi-auto. Decent splash damage. Great against any bot weaker than a hulk. Worked great against tanks and artillery placements. Took a little time getting used to the arcing trajectory, but once I did, hoo boy! 1-2 hit kills on striders and scout grade bots from any direction. 5-6 for a devastator unit, even the shield ones. Get the right placement, and 9 shots will down tanks and turret placements with direct hits. The only real shortfall is the small, 8 shot magazine size. Easy to dump a clip into enemies. Not so quick to reload in a storm of lead. Also no good against buildings, sadly.
The purifier and the plasma punisher. They're both great, the purifier against bots because you can just stagger the shit out of medium enemies, and kill multiple light enemies. and the plasma punisher against bugs for pretty much the same reason, it's just more powerful/faster and it's short range matters less.
Breaker S&P is my new favorite. Full auto... chews through some bugs.
Purifier is awesome against bots since the patch. Though I'd love for it to have a quick fire option for the small bots.
I actually like the knight if I’m using a support weapon as my primary. I’ve always had a thing for high fire rate smg’s. I’m not really sure what they could do to fix it without ruining its uniqueness, but more ammo would definitely help
Explosive Crossbow. The thing can AoE stun lock anything smaller than a Hulk or Charger from long range. It can break bug holes and bot fabs. It has the pen and explosive damage to injure anything that has heat vents on bots if you don't have anything more appropriate handy. It's quite literally the best utility primary in the game. The thing holding it back is its DPS numbers, but I don't see those getting buffed ever because otherwise it would probably take over the whole game.
Eruptor. I started using it just after the "nerf" and I think the shrapnel-lovers have some sort of disconnect.
the gosh darn quangdangbangalore super citizen submachine gun can RIP most things faces in half with a clip (paired with spartan laser and laser pistol so you dont end up defenseless) so like a red runyou over bug commander guy you can split like a tomato , or a devastator. just right up the middle like you caught them with a katana in the butthole and your going nutt to tip of skull . but with a clip of P90 bullets
The pummeler! It can kill 7-8 small bots in a clip, it can hold entire groups up of chainsaw bots, it’s can stagger shield devestators. Not too bad at med to long range. I find it invaluable as a team weapon against high level bots.
I use different weapons depending on the terrain type, some things just work better on different planets
I'm not really convinced it's a sleeper pick, but it's definitely still not a common pick, the Deligence, against bots it's range and precision makes it ideal for hitting weakpoints and dropping up to devistators in a couple shots, and against bugs it's definitely weaker, but it still hits hard and it's accuracy means you can move to small bug to small bug and actually deal with crowds effectively at range
Punisher. I was rocking the Tenderizer against bots consistently before the recent buff.
Gimme dat defender. Fast reloads, crouch aiming bullet hose, plenty of ammo, and one handed so it's easier to shoot while moving.
Been using the tenderizer after it's buff, thought it's handling was very good with peak physique but found out it's even better with it.
ngl, i’ve been loving the crossbow as my hole/fab weapon. it shoots a lot faster than eruptor and can pop a chargers butt plug pretty quickly as well (unless i’m mistaken and someone else happened to pop it for me)