u/TheGreat_White_Snark

Hello again Helldads! With the Void Perircer Campaign in full swing and the squids showing us what happens when you mix original recipe with extra spicy, I thought it was time I did deep dive on building loadouts that you can bring to almost any mission and give you options for just about any engagement.

Why bother?

Well, With the new campaign bringing in some of the biggest participation nhumbers I've seen since joining the fight as an Xbox diver, I've seen a helluva a lot more new divers than I was expecting, nearly every mission I've run since the patch on Aug 12 has had at least one diver below level 50. And probably 1 of every 3 of those has a sub-level-20! (To say nothing of why these baby-divers are trying to roll in a Difficulty 9 mission, but that's another article)

So with the why out of the way, lets talk about the hurdle that comes with fighting the latest batch of Illuminate forces inside the void.

It would seem the squids don't like getting provoked on territory they've already stolen from us, so their solution is to add Invasion Forces to whatver the prevailing sub-faction is. This eesentially puts standard squid forces on the field alongside the variant forces. (The real pain point being there are so many Watchers it's like living in a EDM fueled K-hole but with not nearly enough innappropriate touching to make it fun).

Effectively the Invasion forces modifier deployes the largest spread of Illuminate unit types on one battlefield we've seen so far.

This of course means you have to think in terms of options. You will be facing huge spreads of chaff, medium armor heavy infantry, Fleshmob and Crusher damage sinks, and Harvester fire support to give a short description.

If you're dropping as a solo-diver into that, you best have your shit on straight becuase this is not the time to bring the emotional support Quasar Cannon. This is when you have to be big time prepared, and while the baseline equipment can be servicable, now is the time to bring your high-quality violence and crowd pleasers.

What's all that really mean? It means don't pack for one problem, pack for EVERY problem.

Tall order? Certainly.

Impossible? Nope.

Think less about what specific weapons or startagems you should bring and more about what they need to do.

In any given mission you will encounter the following:

• Chaff patrols with medium support
• Heavy units that can arrive in two's or three's
• Spawners/Bases
• Enemy breaches/drops

In the Invasion Forces missions, the only thing that's changed are the high numbers of Watchers that make keeping the incidence of drops go from manageable to really out of hand almsot unavoidable. This combined forces arragnement and ability to call in reinforcementsrapidly and repeatedly, means engagments become protracted, high intensity firefights that require a lot of resources to deal with.

But that aside, your tactical toolbox, needs to have at least one tool for each of those bullet points. If you're missing even one, congratualtions, you are combat ineffective becuase you're forcing your squad to work harder to cover you.

Here's an example of a load out that a friend of mine really likes, but learned the hard way that they did not pack accordingly for the combination of Vote Snatchers and Invasion Forces at Difficulty 8:

• Hot Shot Marksman Rifle
• Warrant
• Thermite
• Railcannon Strike
• Gatling Barrage
• Bulletstorm
• Breakthrough Exosuit

In fairness, nothing here is exclusivley bad. These are all widely accepted as good peices of kit. However how they combine is the real problem. On balance, he's got all the tools I mentioned.

But this is an example of a loadout that doesn't gel together well, and in fact is sort of hamstrung by a few things. If we stack these itmes into the areas they can serve, it looks like this:

• Chaff patrols with medium support
  • Hot Shot Marksman Rifle
  • Warrant
  • Bulletstorm
• Heavy units that can arrive in two's or three's
  • Gatling Barrage
  • Breakthrough
  • Thermite
• Spawners/Bases
  • Thermite
  • Railcannon
• Enemy breaches/drops
  • Gatling Barrage
  • Bulletstorm

You'll notice that there is very little overlap, so it lacks flexibility so if you are out of ammo or between call-ins you would really be in a bind.

The current arrayed forces of the Illuminate make expendable items like the Bulletstorm a hindrance rather than a help. The Stalwart can be reloaded on the move and fired at similar cyclic rate, making it the better choice for the longer engagements when you maybe don't have the breathing room to call in a new pod, or worse, when you've burned all the rounds in a Bulletstorm and still have forty seconds before you can get more.

The Railcannon (a favorite of mine, but) has similar issues. Harvesters can bea real pain, but they have quite a few exploitable weakpoints that other gear can tackle beyond killing one of them every 2-1/2 minutes. The case could be made for the Eagle 110 Rocket Pods, as an alternative.

Next culprit? Thermite. These things, I feel are largely overused by any metric. For the number of them you can carry, they take ages to actually kill whatever you stick them to. Against the enemy numbers we're dealing with, that Crusher needs to die NOW, not twenty seconds after it's already smashed you to goo.

The last hitch in this getup is the Breakthrough. In the right squad build, this thing could anchor a full offensive push, but unforutnately it doens't carry enough ammo for it's fletchette cannon and bashing a Crusher with the shield takes a lot of work. So much so, that more and more of them just aggro onto it so much so that you've actually created a bigger problem but having a mob if these heavy-headed jerks to deal with instead of 2 or 3.

While I could run forensics on the weakness of this build, in depth, I don't think that's the most contructive way to learn (Unless you really want me to, let me know). But I will say this, this build is not fast enough or have the staying power and lacks any area control options outside of the Gatling Barrage needed for the Illuminate forces inside the void.

Conversely, After some tinkering, I deployed with this kit:

• One-Two AR
• Warrant
• Arc Grenade
• Napalm Barrage
• Eagle Strafing Run
• Heavy Machine Gun
• AR Guard Dog
• Ture Grit - Armor

Admittedly It looks like a hodgepodge, but Warrant can pick out Watchers and Elevated Overseers, the One-Two can work for chaff and the underslung grenade launcher can takeout warphsips once the shield is down. The HMG covers a LOT of problems from Overseers all the way up to Harvesters. My goal here was to have as many things as possible sit across multiple roles. So if we reference the list of encounter must haves from above, we can see the spread.

• Chaff patrols with medium support
  • One-Two AR
  • Warrant
  • Arc Grenade
  • Napalm Barrage
  • HMG
  • AR Guard Dog
• Heavy units that can arrive in two's or three's
  • Napalm Barrage
  • Eagle Strafing Run
  • Heavy Machine Gun
• Spawners/Bases
  • One-Two AR/GL
  • Eagle Strafing Run
• Enemy breaches/drops
  • Literally throw everything at these... becuase fun

I have more than one option for almosst everything, and for the most part there's very little down time in the is kit. The exception being the Napalm Barrage, but that's mostly as a broad area denial weapon when defending objectives and the reinforcements start landing en masse.

Is it perfect? Of course not, there's no such thing.

Did I always have the right tool for the job? You bet I did.

Was it flashy? Sadly, not really, but sometimes you just want to be good at your job, you don't alway have to make statement.

In summation, don't over specialize for operations in The Void, be prepared for these five things:

• Chaff patrols with medium support
• Watchers in high numbers
• Heavy units, including Crushers that can arrive in two's or three's
• Spawners/Bases
• Enemy drops that can overlap leading to protracted fights

Whenever possible try to pick gear that covers, 2-3 of these categories, and most importantly, have fun with it!

My setup is for me, but you can find your secret sauce if you've got kit that works best for you. I hope this helps and let me know if you've got any tips that have helped fighting in The Void!

We're in it now, fellow HellDads! The Void cracked open and some proper grape-flavored nightmare fuel spilled forth with the Illuminate's Vote Snatcher's subfaction.

The good news? We have a brand new warbond and update under the hood that is the best refresh I've seen in the last year.

The bad news? The new warbond is pricey and not every HellDad can get it (those crap-catchers aren't getting any cheaper are they?) and these new enemies are fully ready to make you put your small free time window feel like apunihsment not a a joy, as it should.

The ACTUAL good news? I'm here for you all, right along with every other HellDad to make sure that you're still able to keep fighting the good fight by doing the field research and buiii;dcrafting homework so you can drop with confidence even if you don't get to swing around that beautiful new beast of a Bolt Pistol.

So chin up, We have a big pile of toys to your bring your very best quality violence right on top of those squidly bastards for bothering to crash our party.

First thing's first, know your enemy. While the subfaction only bring two new units, they're cranking up the dial on what makes the Illuminate a particular challenge.

These monsters rob you of the most essential tactical elements required for success, time and space, with constant relentless pressure.

Here's the breakdown relying on mostly existing gear;

Wretches - Moving in small up to insane numbers, your best bets are:

• Shotguns with duckbill muzzle attachements to blast off arms and legs in a hurry. The new changes to the number short mags you can carry, puts the Breaker and Breaker Incendiary back on the menu. (The Breaker S&P is solid, but is hampered somewhat by it's range and that Wretches are fair bit tougher than Voteless)
• Flamethrowers are exceptional as they can lock down avenues of approach as Wretches begin to pour in. Having at least one in your kit, if not the focal piece is advised (Crisper in particular is easy to fit in) if able.
• Gas grenades are without a doubt one of the all time great grenades. The confusion and DOT components can really take some of the pressure off, giving you that sweet space or time you need to actually fight.
• The Autocannon flak rounds can lay a real hurt on Wretches in the right situation, but as they close on you it can be a real challenge to keep them at range where the flak rounds don't come back to bite you. But thanks to the new assisted reload changes, having a teammate on your elbow can put an alamring number of shells down range in a hurry.
• Honorable mention: Melee weapons, can be put to the right effect, provided one: you're wearing the right armor for close it work. And two: You manage your footing, backpedalling and letting them step into your swings and not attempting to hack your way forward through them. So, good fun but a little finnicky

Crushers - These hulking jerks just plod inexorably toward you seemingly forever, like prostate cancer. They can be a monstrous ammo tax if you're ready to commit to dorping them as fast as you can. There are a few solutions to them:

• Relentless attack. Once you damage a Crusher, it only takes a moment or two for it's regenration to kick on once the damage stops. For this the Stalwart, MG43 Machine Gun and the Cremator are tops. But once you start on one of the clods, don't let off the trigger until they go down or you'll just have to start all over again.
• The more surgical option, requires Heavy Peneatrating weapons that can take off that metal hood, exposing the supremely creepy baby-head underneath. For this, the AMR, Eruptor, Senator and Autocannon APHET rounds to start then do your best to put rounds on the soft spot.
• Eagle Strafing Runs and well carefully timed Precision Orbital Strikes can take out a couple of Crushers in one stroke, but don't rely on them to do the heavy lifting.
• Honorable mention: Orbital Napalm Barrage. This one should be obvious, but given it's wide spread and long refresh time, this is more of a 'break glass in case of holy shit' option rather than a go to, but it is awful satisfying to watch these shmucks keel over rotisserie style before they can close on you...

One last option, Exo Suits. The Breakthrough and Lumberer in particular can be huge assets that can anchor assualt agains these enemies in particular given their limitations in range and lack of direct firepower.

I hope this helps get your gears turning! Keep up the good fight!

Who doesn't love charts??

As busy HellDads it's not always easy to do the field research on your loadout or simply test things for pure silliness (and most of you probably aren't creative professionals with super-nebulous schedules and pockets of freetime to fill, like me...).

Moreover, busy as we are, we still want to do our part and be the most effective Helldivers we can and that means trying to setup our kit so can deliver in any envirnmonet against any enemy. In my short time writing these longer deep dive articles something I think is worht noting is that I don't always have time to test every single loadout, and theory crafting alone is worthless without some data to back it up.

As the title suggests there are two methods really dig into what your build is or isn't doing right. The first, obviously is to take it out and see what happens in-game. Easy, direct, immediate feedback and experience.

The only downside, is that you're lmited to one setup per mission, and sometimes, you just have a bad series of drops and can't find a combat rhythm to really do the work, so to speak. So you get frustrated, and don't really get to enjoy your self or the new idea you had to put the hurt on those undemocratic jerks like you wanted.

So, after a fair bit of googling and my own research, I came across this phenminal tool:

https://democracy-hub.net/builder/builder.php

I've leaned on this one for a little while, now. It's an excellent tool that gives you a broadspectrum breakdown of your loadout, including ratings against different enemy types (by variant even), the range where you're the most effective, and how volatile or surgical the ssetup is and a general power rating.

THis thing is phenomenal and is particularly great when you have an idea, but can't hop on to the game right away but still want to see if you've got something that might cook.

Stringly recommend checking it out as I'll be continuing to use it in my articles for helpful refences concerning specific loadouts.

Hi there HellDads! Been seeing a lot of trends lately in loadouts that I would classify as 'built for the exception, not the rule'. Couple this with a particular run with a pal I hadn't played with in probably eight months and I realized I had work to do (keeping in mind this assumes a difficulty 8 or higher).

Th challenge: How to make sure you're always an asset, even when Bile Titans and Vox Engines can ruin your day or Spore Burst, Appropriators or Cyborgs can suck the fun out of your session by making you work harder than you have to.

The good news first! Buildcrafting in HD2 is a snap, and requires none of the granular setups that you might have seen in say Destiny 2.

The bad news? Well, it's all too easy to 'overbuild' for one tactical problem and not havea solution for the most common ones. As I mentioned, this reuslt sin the 'built for the exception, not the rule' setups that really don't serve as force multpliers and in fact force the other squad members to make up the shortfall.

Example, you say?

For your consideration, I present the 'Codependence Trifecta': Quasar Cannon, Thermite, 500KG Eagle Strike. These are most overpicked tools that are taken together in a loadout where you really only need one. While it scores well in the numbers it's upside down, with the light category being it's weakest by far.

Early in, most players suffer from what I can only describe as tactical trauma bonding, where they come up against their first heavy enemy, it stomps them, so they're determined to deal with these enemies over all others from then on out.

There's nothing wrong with trying to be a specialist in HD2, but there's a difference between specializing, and limiting what you can do. Take the Codependence Trifecta above, at first glance, it looks like you're loaded for bear, but of the 7 slots you have to work with you've allocated 3 of them to anti-tank work. Why does this matter if you've got the tools for job?

Let's look at this handy chart:

Density=Likelyhood of encountering class for every 100 enemies versus Footprint=application of force required to eleminate

The reality of any encounter is the left. During any drop or breach, failure to manage the chaff and line enemies is how the heavy and elite ones actually overwhelm you.

This is where the disparity occurs in most builds. A newer player, builds for the tactical footprint (on the right), but the seasoned player builds for the density or numerical spread (on the left) of actual enemies they'll likely deal with.

Basically, build for the enemies you'll spend most of the drop fighting, not the ones that require the biggest bullets.

This way, you're set up to have maximum tactical flexibility and can adapt to changes in combat without having to scramble from postion or panic toss 500KG's or Thermites when the odd Impaler or Shredder Tank rolls up.

(That being said, all the Hi-Ex in the galaxy isn't going to help if you can't put it where it needs to go. So please, learn where the soft spots are on those big guys before you complain that you NEED that Recoiless and then chuck all of your thermites on a single Vox Engine)

So how'd we get from me griping about my buddy's lack of game knowledge to charts and the term 'tactical footprint'?

It got my gears turning when he suggested the the Stratagem choices were all down to the color in the menu, rather than what they actually did, and sort leaving grenades, primary and armor passive out of the equation.

Building an effective solo loadout in HD2 has two avenues of approach, the more fun one, starting with the peice of kit you want to lean on the most and build around it, or build for the enemy you're going up against in broadstrokes. Both work, but not for everyone. And that's okay!

So, after much validating and contextualizing, I can get to the meat of this whole thesis, solo buildcrafting.

(One last corrolary, building a solo build, is different than being a solo player. When I saw build as a solo, I mean build to stand on your own but be equipped to support the squad. Playing solo is a whole dedicated playstyle that maybe I'll address in the future.)

First up, here's an example of a build with a ton of flexibility (and relatively few warbonds required for you budget-concious Helldivers):

Legionaire

• Primary- Cookout
• Secondary- Missile Pistol
• Grenade- Giga
• Armor- Engineering Kit
• Orbital Railcannon
• MG43 Machine Gun
• AR Guard Dog
• Machine Gun Sentry

Is it flashy? No. Is it effective against a variety of the most common enemy types at almost all ranges? Absolutely. I can promise you, this setup will yeild you some really solid returns becuase you'll have tools in your pocket for everything. Giga's will double as both anti-heavy and elite solutions, but the railcannon is you delete button for the largest target, menawhile, your MG and Gaurd Dog form you main firebase and can chew through most things while keeping the chaff at bay. This setup is almost perfect, lacking only in an area control option, but the sentry could be swapped for a gas minefield or even a Eagle Napalm. The missile pistol is your spawner closer but can also work for pinch points like Alpha Commanders or (asshole) Gunships.

If you're curious, how this spread looks like with numbers here's your peek under the hood which gives a pretty solid overall rating across all three facctions, with not much in the way of holes in coverage (apart from direct support kit, but that's another article).

If the Legionaire is the peak generalist, than it's time to talk about specialists, becuase to my mind, they shouldn't be centered on equipment, but rather the enemy, which defines the equipment you take. So we're going to look at a group specialists I've setup for sub-factions that are commonly challenging becuase they have acute tactical problems compared to their vanilla parents.

Up against the Illuminate, we're dealing with the Appropriators, which, depsite the mechs are actually a medium formation.

Inappropriator

• Primary- Gallant
• Secondary- Warrant
• Grenade- Pryotechnic
• Armor- Gunslinger
• Autocannon
• 110MM Eagle Rocket Pods
• Orbital Gatling Barrage
• Laser Sentry

This is all about maximizing options, the Autocannon's selectable ammo means that delaing with the smaller mechs and Harvesters is such the flip of a switch. The secret suace is the Warrant, that is there almost enetirely to deal with Obtruder packs and elevated Overseers that can really be a pain.

The analysis of this build showcases that it's got a ton of output against Appropriators while keeping the range band for engagments firmly at mid-range where but isn't in the lurch outside of that.

Against Cyborgs, we need an edge on armor penetration but also in the issue of being rushed by Radicals that just want to kick the shit out of you anychance they get.

Heckler

• Primary- Plasma Punisher
• Secondary- Missile Pistol
• Grenade- Dynamite
• Armor- Seige Ready
• Heavy Machine Gun
• Gas Dog
• 120MM Orbital Barrage
• Leveller

This setup is focused on controlling a lane of attack, and setting up for the long firefight. The Gas Dog is there to give you the time and space you need to lay that HMG on the targets it eats the best, Hulks, Devastators, and so on, while also blinding that Radicals that can be dispatched and abused with the Plasma Punisher (stagger force baby!).

The real tough peice of meat the chew on are the Vox Engines, but that's why we bring the Leveller! Which doubles as an option for smaller bases and tightly packed bot drops when your 120 is on cooldown.

If we look at the breakdown, we can see there's a bit of redundancy and a slight limitation in close range efficteveness. The Leveller in addition to the HMG seems strange, but you can call in Leveller's as often as they're avaiable so that's a squad positive, and often you may not have time/space to reload the HMG, but a Leveller being at hand can solve what ever problem you're dealing with to give it to you. The close range issue is manageable enough provided you don't try to use the Plasma Punisher like a Breaker and blast yourself off your feet.

Finally, we have the Spore Burst strain of the Bugs. THese cracked-out little jerks can really have you tearing your hair out as you're constatn being outflanked while even chonkier Spore Titans just keep coming.

Draconian

• Primary- Torcher
• Secondary- Talon
• Grenade- Gas
• Armor- Inflammable
• Commando
• Laser Dog
• Orbital Napalm
• Rocket Sentry

The use case for this one, is to minimize the number of 'bursts' that occur from the chaff by using the Torcher as the workhorse to control lanes of attack and burning them. The laser dog can be alittle finicky, but since it has none of the ammo issues of the bullet dog nor the heat sink issues of standard laser weapons, it can literally just keep on cooking whatver gets around you. The commando is your go-to for Spore Titans and has a fast enough cycle time that you can keep bringing them in as needed. The rocket sentry is your best answer for when the breaches start popping off, since once you lay down the napalm, it will clear the chaff and the sentry will harry the heavies and elites.

Gas grenades are your multitool here. They can help manage groups and set them up to be cooked with the Torcher, chucked onto breaches and can close bug holes (these things are lowkey one of the best grenades in the game).

Analysis shows that this kit is staged almsot perfectly for Spore Burst operations and should fit nicely into any squad on those planets.

One last thing, the exception... Vehicles. Not Exosuits, vehicles. These are multi-seat platforms that can really change the tempo of a drop, so, if you take a Bastion or FRV, make sure you've got the bodies to make it work or you're giving up valuable strategem slots. PLease don't be the guy with the FRV stapled to their ass, isnisting it has to come on everydrop, becuase I promise you it, really doesn't (but that's another article).

There you have it! A long winded, but hopefully insightfull look at buildcrafting by yourself so you can be a team asset. I'd love hear your approaches and what you all think!

Hey there fellow HellDads! I've been putitng a lot of time in against the Appropriators (for all the thankless and futile glory it provides) and one thing I'm seeing a lot of is that this particular brand of Squid seems to lend it self to what I call mid-tier weapons.

What is a 'mid-tier' weapon you ask?

Well, the short answer is one that excels aganst medium to heavy armor with out going full into anti-tank roles.

The more specific answer, still includes the above proviso but also, gear that is more niche, or unique, or maybe just a little goofy and outside the the usual 'meta' picks that dominate most theaters.

Here's some examples (by no means inclusive, just some to consider):

• Arc Thrower
• Heavy Machinegun
• Speargun
• Anti-Materiel Rifle
• Railgun
• Maxigun
• Belt-fed Grenade Launcher
• Flamethrower
• Laser Cannon
• Airbust Rocket Launcher

And so forth

I find that I like most of these over stuff like the Recoiless, depsite the fact they've got clear (sometime glaring deficiencies).

My go-to mid-tier crutch, the one that I reach for time and again, is probably the Laser Cannon. It doesn't require much from me and it always comes through!

My fave though? I'm gonna have to say the Airburst Launcher. That thing is a blast, (puns, ick, I know). And I take alot of pride in not being a walking war-crime when I use it.

Anyway, what're your faves or crutches? Lets talk about it!

Resource management isn't the strength of most Helldivers, I know. We're a loose confederacy of directed violence and motivated idiocy, but that doens't mean we have to make it harder on ourselves literally from the jump.

As a lvl150 (not a flex, just a statement), I've been seeing a troubling trend among the sub-100lvl players where they tend to place the intital drop point in the least convenient, or arguably worst postion in relation to the mission objectives.

I'm all for covering all the secondaries, elminating all the bases and exploring as many of the POI's as poissible, but there's a right and awrong way to do it.

The worst offender I recently saw was just last night. I like to wind down a long day with a few Quickplay drops, helping where I can while I'm living that single parent life, and usually these are fairly typical drops, fun is had, silliness ensues, extraction complete, rinse, repeat. However last night, as I mentioned, I got slotted a Recover Black Box mission on Heze Bay, against the Appropriators no less witha 75 and a 79. No big deal, a man short and they're high enough level that they shouldn't need any babysitting...

Or so I thought.

The squad leader ignored my request and dropped us on the opposite of the map away from the Black Box, right next to the main objecitve marker.

The result was the two divers with me ate up almost the entire reinfocement budget before we could fight our way clear of the settlement just to get half way to the Black Box only to have to fight our way all the way back. Spending most of the drop just triyng to get to where we needed to be.

I had only a pair of deaths but the other two racked up 10 and 11 respectively. I spent fully half the mission alone waiting for the rienforcement timer to refresh so I could watch these two try to fight in place against overwhleming obturder and veracitor hordes only to get overrun twenty seconds later.

While some might argue this was due to their lack of combat skill against appropriators, but I view that as a symptom not a cause. Planning your mission route (the tried and true circular or spiral method is nearly perfect), helps keep from running against the mission timer, and eating up the reinforcemetn budget too early in uneccasary or protracted running engagements far from the objective.

I'm no quitter, and everyone should be able to get their XP, so I figured I should push hard and help these brain trusts at least learn a lesson about how much harder it was going to be, and I carried them and set an example.

In summation, think before you just drop that marker anywhere, and consider those pre-mission briefing map pings as requests or suggestions not just noise, maybe we're trying to help.

Diatribe over. Thanks for listening!

The new Spore Burst strain has proven to be a real challenge for Helldivers since they evolved from the Gloom strain and invaded the vibrant paradise planets. THe why is easy enough; they're numerous, and once they strat laying down that rust colored miasma they get too fast for any ad-hoc position to hodl for long. Add to that the Spore Titan being tankier and more prone to showing up in twos and threes.

What does this new mean for us? Our equipment doctrine has to cover both crazy area-denial/crowd-control AND quick heavy bug options.

The issue is that weapons and stratagems that do one well typically falls far short at the other.

Two examples:

The Cremator, undisputed king of area-denial and crowd control but is not a suited to dropping a titan quickly (although it can cook them, it will take only slightly less time than my mom's drier than the Mojave turkey).

Railcannon Orbital Strike, the one-shot delete button for whatever your largest problem is. But, long recycle time and almost zero collateral damage, means it's surgical and effective provide you only have ONE large obnoxious problem to deal with.

As a use case, both of these being in your kit allows them to cover eac hother's weakness decently, but Spore bugs in particualr have a way of putting the pressure on a squad until they get caught shorthanded in a cycle of reinforcing repeatedly during a fighting retreat, hoping to get a breather to regroup properly, but costs valuble mission time and severely limits combat effectiveness as support weapons and backpacks are left scattered across the field with their refresh times being quite lengthy.

It's tactical problem that plagues veteran and new helldivers alike.

So, what can you do? Build for coverage, not for targets. What's that mean? Well, in short it means that you have to shoot for control of an area, rather than one type of enemy that's giving your the most trouble (although these often go hand in hand).

The biggest boon that should clue you in is the oft overlooked Orbital Gas Strike that command has given us with its refresh time halved. Gas overall, I'd say is the darkhorse winner for dealing with the strain.

DoT coupled with the blinding and confusion effects can lock down whole corridors, giving you the much needed breathing room to employ more direct fire options.

As for direct fire, laser and flame weapons are the key to mitigating the actual spore burst effect. These weapons can kill the mulch without triggering the spore burst. This is key in covering your lanes of fire and not being forced back.

The next big issue is, of course, the Spore Titan. As mentioned before, the Railcannon strike, can delete one of these hard-headed monstrosities straight away, but hurts for uptime. So how can we offset this? The Spear can, with the right positioning, take down one with two missiles, but lacks for tactical flexibility. Although, at Difficulty 9 or 10, the high number of Alpha Commaders makes the argument to use the Spear against smaller targets to mitigate the number reinforcements or breaches that can occur. But back to the Spore Titans, the obvious solutions are Recoiless, Quasar and EAT , and whil enot original they get the job done provided you're accurate.

With all that in mind, how should you as a single Helldiver kit out for a tour against the Spore Burst Strain?

I'd like to offer two schools of combat for your use:

First up, a setup I call the Caustic Volcano.

• Primary- Scythe
• Sidearm- Ultimatum
• Grenade- Gas
• Support- Flamethrower
• Support Backpack- Gas Dog
• Orbital- Railcannon
• Orbital- Napalm Barrage
• Armor Passive- Inflammable OR Desert Stormer

This setup is designed to lock down a sector of fire(heh) or cover a retreat or reposition. It's all about overlapping gas and flame effects to keep the Spore Burst to a minimum. The Railcannon and Ultimatum are for the Titans and other heavy targets. The Napalam Barrage is your tool for bug breaches and full area denial during defensive objectives. The lack of sentries, means that you can stay mobile and your gas dog can interdict any smaller bugs that prusue you when you reposition.

Next up, we flip the priorty with the Mounted Missileer

• Primary- Trident
• Sidearm- Missile Pistol
• Grenade- Incindiary
• Support- Spear
• Support- Supply FRV
• Orbital- 120MM Barrage
• Mines- Gas

In this build, You can become the rolling fire base for your squad. If you're driving, you can dismount far from the front edge of the engagement, pounding Titans, Chargers and straggling Alpha Commanders with the Spear, restocking from the FRV as needed. Just make sure to reload the auto-gun on the FRV in place of an sentries. You can also use the Gas Mines, to cover your position or in repsonse to bug breaches. The 120 is for bug nests or in a pinch for when the enemy density gets out of hand.

Either of these should slot into a squad nicely, and while we've got free access to the Orbital Gas Strike, they can cover a big chunk of the battlefield in support of more traditionally kitted helldivers.

Enjoy and good hunting, for Democracy!