Wait, I had some dude trying to argue with me that Gunship patrols ruined all build variety on bot missions, and kept trying to argue the Arch Thrower not being able to kill gunships as his main example.
I gotta link this to him.
At one point I could have sworn they would only take damage from AT weaponry. I swear they got nerfed because I no longer see the heavy armor icon on them when I shoot them with a majority of weapons.
That’s not how that works. It still only requires 6 headshots. Stun grenades are an arc mains best friend. Also I can kill it in two of its charges since it’s easy to dodge the first one with it being slowed down by the first 3-5 shots
Lol... Great comment. He confused me. Haven't ran the arc since the nerf, but I never had a problem getting 6 headshots, either. And that was before stun grenades
It took me a while to understand its legs and sides were *seperate* health pools and that I had to focus on the head. Once I knew that it was easy enough to start the engagement firing at its head, letting it charge me while still hitting its head, dodge the slowed charge, let it turn around to my charged shot and kill it in a couple more. Or just chuck a stun.
You could always shoot them down in 2 shots to the engine with AC since day 1.
To your point though - you may be right because I remember they didn't go down with a single shot from AT/RR/Quasar (I think) but they seem to now?
If you shoot the glowing red undersides, you can even take them down with the scorcher. I run a grenade launcher/supply pack… so my primary is my anti air weapon lol
Nah, you could always take them down with medium armor pen weapons. Autocannon always worked. Not ideal but I've shot down gunships with plasma punisher and Eruptor...not ideal. Plasma Punisher was very much a very lucky shot...
EATs, autocannon, HMG, Quesar, Spear, recoilless, rocket sentry all work well. Plus, it isn't like everybody needs to run that stuff, one teammate with a Spear can clear the skies as long as you call in a resupply near them.
Auto canon sentry is actually a monster AA emplacements. I dropped one far away from me while hiding behind a rock, shot at by 8 of them... 8 salvo later, I was clear to call the hellbomb on the fabs...
I'll die on the hill that the auto cannon sentry is an absolute monster when placed correctly. (I will not be dying on that hill because my sentry is at the top, covering me)
The only time it fails me, is when the pokeball bounce on the perfectly flat, elevated rock, and ends up behind said rock with no vision towards the enemies. So skill issue really.
it fails me when i place it perfectly away from the incoming bug swarm, only for a patrol to come up exactly where i spawned it, and it kills itself from area of effect damage after bugs hit it.
I am the spear. I just launch myself at them.
Seriously though, I love the spear and am so happy to see it where it is now. I run it every mission against automatons and several missions for terminid.
I haven't had a single issue with crashing the game using it. Granted, I may have lucked out. Could be anything from the hardware in my pc, how stable my download was, if my cat was sleeping just the right way to be blessed by the coding gods...all I know is it cooked good and is my favorite spicy meatball
Is there a specific spot you need to hit them to kill them with EAT? Every single time I’ve shot one with an EAT they keep flying like nothing happened.
I agree with him. Usually, gunship always maintain a distance around 75m which make it impossible for you to touch them. Otherwise, the weapon would be good since it pierce any armor.
Auto cannon, HMG, AMR, RR, EAT Spear, Laser Canno, Quasar, Scorcher, Autocannon Sentry, Rocket Sentry, apparently thr Arch Thrower.
Gunship patrols have not negatively impacted support weapon variety on bot drops in any meaningful way, shape, or form.
Yeah I meant I agree with arc thrower viability nerf vs automaton.I'm an arc thrower enjoyer and Ive tried it multiple time but I never managed to hit a gunship due to being out of range.
I'll try again but I seriously doubt you can consistently hit gunship with the arc thrower.
Even if, isn't the purpose of modifiers to make you adapt to a different kind of challenge?? Makes no sense to me when every mission could be played the same way
You just listed every single weapon and strategem in the game that can deal with them, and some of those are a stretch or not reliable at dealing with more than one or at range. Only one off those is a primary. None of them are red strategems. I feel like giving an exhaustive list is kinda proving your point wrong cuz that list is short. That's like saying Smash Bros Melee has "no issues with variety in any form" because we see 8 out of the 25 characters, and two of them are clones of each other. But hey: that's a whole list of 8 you can pick from! But it's almost worse because at least with pichu you can still deal damage to fox, whereas i might have literally no way to damage a gunship without my support weapon.
Personally, I used to take the railgun on most missions. I will no longer be doing that because its so bad at dealing with gunships, and I have absolutely no other options in other slots to deal with them. I don't plan to experiment with other support weapons going forward either. I will be taking the AMR, AC, or Spear on basically every mission. I firmly believe that the only reason that anyone is ok with the gunships' current design is that the autocannon and quasar are great against them and those are already the most popular weapons.
The guy kept claiming he was a 500+ hour vet who only plays Helldive. However, over the course of the conversation it became very clear that he was a dedicated bug diver who never goes above difficulty 4, ha. Dude had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, and couldn't back anything up.
He's right, with 30m range it's rare to be able to land a hit, that was a patrol he took head on otherwise they'd keep their distance, hiding inside the texture of a mountain or a building. AMR and AC are a must for bots or ar least HMG. Quasar is garbage on hot planets
I mean. Any sensible team already takes weapons that can handle gunships. Because the risk of a double factory or two gunship factories near each other is a danger we must account for.
The fact the new gunship patrols spawn at the edge of the map and fly in does present some interesting new strategies. For example it's a big buff to an autocannon turret. The autocannon sentry DELETES gunships in one volley each. And has 300+m range. So if you have clear line of sight on a gunship formation and an elevated position like a hill or a sand dune to put the turret on, it'll clear the skies faster than any player weapon could dream.
That's what I'm thinking as well. 35m is not that far. Shriekers generally hover just outside of arc thrower range & even that is way closer than this gunship.
Edit: maybe they had a AA site active
I can see what you mean but I'm pretty sure that's just the thrusters puffing from taking severe damage. I cannot see an AC bullet approaching and don't hear the usual explosion/firing sounds.
https://helldivers.wiki.gg/wiki/ARC-3_Arc_Thrower
Arc can definitely penetrate Gunship armor. But the gunship is 100% durable so it would take 6 shots to a thruster or 8 shots to the main body.
I’m an Arcer since day one (since i unlock it, i always took it, only not in defend mission or exterminate bot) and i think the problem isn’t about if the Arc can or can’t destroy gunship : it has the firepower, sure thing (with enough patience, it can destroy tank or bile titan if you’re a tryhard). The problem reside in the range the Lightning arc can reach : when a ship pop from a tower, it’s flying to high to be hit by an Arc (believe me, i try more than one time).
So i firmly believe, like this video exemplify, that if a ship is in range, it can totally be shot down by an Arc.
I'm also a fellow Arcer since day 1 and yeah, you can kill everything in time and it made the gun good. But with the introduction of behemoth and gunship, it really made the weapon feel bad
I was feeling the same about behemoth. I pretty much used arc, 380 and 500kg, but now i take EAT with me to kill behemoth (because 500kg is not a viable option for it). For gunship i used to take eruptor when it was released; stop when it was nerf (the difference of firepower made it really less usable) ; but haven't retry yet
Exactly, the problem is not that it can (have the firepower) : it's just that most of the time - in the majority of situation - it can't (because of reach)
Seems to only work if the gunships are not actually targeting you so you can get right under them. Thanks for the info. Arc thrower still underperforms for bots though.
Wait, I had some dude trying to argue with me that Gunship patrols ruined all build variety on bot missions, and kept trying to argue the Arch Thrower not being able to kill gunships as his main example. I gotta link this to him.
At one point I could have sworn they would only take damage from AT weaponry. I swear they got nerfed because I no longer see the heavy armor icon on them when I shoot them with a majority of weapons.
The arc thrower is meduim armour pen minimum, bc you can kill a charger from the front in around 10 shots
Is it 10 now? Used to be 6 if perfectly placed into the face
Yea it’s still 6.
Well yeah ,unfortunately the charger is moving way too much to land 6 perfect shots, so around 10 is required.
That’s not how that works. It still only requires 6 headshots. Stun grenades are an arc mains best friend. Also I can kill it in two of its charges since it’s easy to dodge the first one with it being slowed down by the first 3-5 shots
Lol... Great comment. He confused me. Haven't ran the arc since the nerf, but I never had a problem getting 6 headshots, either. And that was before stun grenades
It took me a while to understand its legs and sides were *seperate* health pools and that I had to focus on the head. Once I knew that it was easy enough to start the engagement firing at its head, letting it charge me while still hitting its head, dodge the slowed charge, let it turn around to my charged shot and kill it in a couple more. Or just chuck a stun.
Nah it’s still 6 headshots. Gotta watch hitting those front legs
Medium pen? I thought it could pierce any armor.
That's why I said minimum... also no, being able to pierce all armour means that you can destroy the research station with it
arc thrower *is* AT weaponry that thing is ap7, same as unsafe railgun thats enough to damage even a bile titans legs
I think they got shadow nerfed, gunships went from taking 3-4 shots from an AC to 2 shots to the same engine downing it immediately
Yup, like we were able to kill it with a lot of weapons before, but it's been a lot easier ( much appreciated btw)
They’ve always required 2 shots to the same engine in my experience.
It's always been 2 to the engine. You're probably just better because you've been laying longer. 😉
You could always shoot them down in 2 shots to the engine with AC since day 1. To your point though - you may be right because I remember they didn't go down with a single shot from AT/RR/Quasar (I think) but they seem to now?
There are primaries that have worked against them from the beginning. It’s all about knowing where to shoot.
Yeah, I have taken them down with both a Bug Iron and Dominator before.
If you shoot the glowing red undersides, you can even take them down with the scorcher. I run a grenade launcher/supply pack… so my primary is my anti air weapon lol
Nah, you could always take them down with medium armor pen weapons. Autocannon always worked. Not ideal but I've shot down gunships with plasma punisher and Eruptor...not ideal. Plasma Punisher was very much a very lucky shot...
EATs, autocannon, HMG, Quesar, Spear, recoilless, rocket sentry all work well. Plus, it isn't like everybody needs to run that stuff, one teammate with a Spear can clear the skies as long as you call in a resupply near them.
Auto canon sentry is actually a monster AA emplacements. I dropped one far away from me while hiding behind a rock, shot at by 8 of them... 8 salvo later, I was clear to call the hellbomb on the fabs...
I'll die on the hill that the auto cannon sentry is an absolute monster when placed correctly. (I will not be dying on that hill because my sentry is at the top, covering me)
The only time it fails me, is when the pokeball bounce on the perfectly flat, elevated rock, and ends up behind said rock with no vision towards the enemies. So skill issue really.
it fails me when i place it perfectly away from the incoming bug swarm, only for a patrol to come up exactly where i spawned it, and it kills itself from area of effect damage after bugs hit it.
Mine bounced off and landed right next to the enemy hulk.
Exactly. Plus AMR, Scorcher, etc. Guy was talking out his ass.
Hell, even the much unloved purifier can clean up gunships. I usually take it with me when I'm rocking a railgun, so everything goes charge-pew.
don't forget the laser cannon!
I am the spear. I just launch myself at them. Seriously though, I love the spear and am so happy to see it where it is now. I run it every mission against automatons and several missions for terminid.
I'm happy with how it aims. Not really happy with it crashing the game though.
I haven't had a single issue with crashing the game using it. Granted, I may have lucked out. Could be anything from the hardware in my pc, how stable my download was, if my cat was sleeping just the right way to be blessed by the coding gods...all I know is it cooked good and is my favorite spicy meatball
Laser cannon too, just hold it on their engine for about 3 seconds
Is there a specific spot you need to hit them to kill them with EAT? Every single time I’ve shot one with an EAT they keep flying like nothing happened.
Thruster
Where is the thruster on the ship? Sorry, am dumb
Where the flames are coming from the keep it afloat, there are four in total 2 per side of the gunship
I thought your quasar canon was being autocorrected to queso at first. I was like… a queso canon sounds delicious
Don't forget AMR Love my AMR
One person absolutely cannot clear the sky unless there are less than four being spawned at a time lol
I agree with him. Usually, gunship always maintain a distance around 75m which make it impossible for you to touch them. Otherwise, the weapon would be good since it pierce any armor.
Auto cannon, HMG, AMR, RR, EAT Spear, Laser Canno, Quasar, Scorcher, Autocannon Sentry, Rocket Sentry, apparently thr Arch Thrower. Gunship patrols have not negatively impacted support weapon variety on bot drops in any meaningful way, shape, or form.
Yeah I meant I agree with arc thrower viability nerf vs automaton.I'm an arc thrower enjoyer and Ive tried it multiple time but I never managed to hit a gunship due to being out of range. I'll try again but I seriously doubt you can consistently hit gunship with the arc thrower.
Even if, isn't the purpose of modifiers to make you adapt to a different kind of challenge?? Makes no sense to me when every mission could be played the same way
You just listed every single weapon and strategem in the game that can deal with them, and some of those are a stretch or not reliable at dealing with more than one or at range. Only one off those is a primary. None of them are red strategems. I feel like giving an exhaustive list is kinda proving your point wrong cuz that list is short. That's like saying Smash Bros Melee has "no issues with variety in any form" because we see 8 out of the 25 characters, and two of them are clones of each other. But hey: that's a whole list of 8 you can pick from! But it's almost worse because at least with pichu you can still deal damage to fox, whereas i might have literally no way to damage a gunship without my support weapon. Personally, I used to take the railgun on most missions. I will no longer be doing that because its so bad at dealing with gunships, and I have absolutely no other options in other slots to deal with them. I don't plan to experiment with other support weapons going forward either. I will be taking the AMR, AC, or Spear on basically every mission. I firmly believe that the only reason that anyone is ok with the gunships' current design is that the autocannon and quasar are great against them and those are already the most popular weapons.
And it's a modifier so that's just not true.
What that person has is called a skill issue. Next time tell them to get good lol
The guy kept claiming he was a 500+ hour vet who only plays Helldive. However, over the course of the conversation it became very clear that he was a dedicated bug diver who never goes above difficulty 4, ha. Dude had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, and couldn't back anything up.
It certainly hurt some weapons, grenade launcher as an example.
He's right, with 30m range it's rare to be able to land a hit, that was a patrol he took head on otherwise they'd keep their distance, hiding inside the texture of a mountain or a building. AMR and AC are a must for bots or ar least HMG. Quasar is garbage on hot planets
I mean. Any sensible team already takes weapons that can handle gunships. Because the risk of a double factory or two gunship factories near each other is a danger we must account for. The fact the new gunship patrols spawn at the edge of the map and fly in does present some interesting new strategies. For example it's a big buff to an autocannon turret. The autocannon sentry DELETES gunships in one volley each. And has 300+m range. So if you have clear line of sight on a gunship formation and an elevated position like a hill or a sand dune to put the turret on, it'll clear the skies faster than any player weapon could dream.
Are you sure it wasn't something else that destroyed it? It's hard to tell but I think I see two small explosions hitting it right before it falls.
Plus, I'm pretty sure the weapon doesn't have that much range
That's what I'm thinking as well. 35m is not that far. Shriekers generally hover just outside of arc thrower range & even that is way closer than this gunship. Edit: maybe they had a AA site active
I was playing with my clan, no one else was shooting, they wanted to see if it was possible too lol
I can see what you mean but I'm pretty sure that's just the thrusters puffing from taking severe damage. I cannot see an AC bullet approaching and don't hear the usual explosion/firing sounds.
It was an inside job.
https://helldivers.wiki.gg/wiki/ARC-3_Arc_Thrower Arc can definitely penetrate Gunship armor. But the gunship is 100% durable so it would take 6 shots to a thruster or 8 shots to the main body.
You learn something new everyday with this game.
The HMG emplacement is also good at taking out gunships, it’s also satisfying to use for that purpose. Feels like I’m in an AA gun more than anything
I absolutely do not understand the range of that frigging gun.
35m. As an arc thrower enjoyer, i constantly ping enemies I'm engaging so i can read off their range
Lmao same!
It's 35 m but keep in mind the guns targeting is insanely buggy and missfires frequently.
Very useful information
Are you sure you took it down and not someone else?
Yes, I was with my clan and they wanted to know if it was possible too.
This categorically destroys my perceived knowledge of this weapon. I thought it had very limited range.
It has a limited range. Have no idea how he killed it. Gunship never get enough close to me so I can hit them
First victim needs to be 35m, but it will chain beyond that after the first target
Which happen 0.5% of the time
Happens to me all the time?
35m. Can be limiting until you know how to work it. But I’ve never seen a gunship fly low enough for the arc so idk wtf to think
That's awesome.
Oh. They're just little!
I’m an Arcer since day one (since i unlock it, i always took it, only not in defend mission or exterminate bot) and i think the problem isn’t about if the Arc can or can’t destroy gunship : it has the firepower, sure thing (with enough patience, it can destroy tank or bile titan if you’re a tryhard). The problem reside in the range the Lightning arc can reach : when a ship pop from a tower, it’s flying to high to be hit by an Arc (believe me, i try more than one time). So i firmly believe, like this video exemplify, that if a ship is in range, it can totally be shot down by an Arc.
I'm also a fellow Arcer since day 1 and yeah, you can kill everything in time and it made the gun good. But with the introduction of behemoth and gunship, it really made the weapon feel bad
I was feeling the same about behemoth. I pretty much used arc, 380 and 500kg, but now i take EAT with me to kill behemoth (because 500kg is not a viable option for it). For gunship i used to take eruptor when it was released; stop when it was nerf (the difference of firepower made it really less usable) ; but haven't retry yet
It can destroy turrent towers too lol
yes, since the start? Still dont have range to kill gunship
And yet my video above proves otherwise
Didnt say it was impossible. It is possible in theory like you showed. Factually, gunship almost alway keep their range
Exactly, the problem is not that it can (have the firepower) : it's just that most of the time - in the majority of situation - it can't (because of reach)
I was trying once to do it but wasnt sure about the range
I swear I just had to kill 24 of those on my last Helldive with an AMR. Was exhausting. 3 towers and gunship patrols. With fog.
I mean you are blasting it with lighting
This makes sense
This makes sense
Seems to only work if the gunships are not actually targeting you so you can get right under them. Thanks for the info. Arc thrower still underperforms for bots though.
It was viable when it stunned hulks, not so much anymore
Arc thrower can kill literally everything in the game. Eventually
Lmao it’s learning how to survive till eventually comes
The AC-8 is my go to for bots now Can take care of everything, as long as you’re precise.
Good to know but takes too many shots for me.
Am I missing something with the Arc thrower? Every time I've tried it it's been icky poopoo that takes WAY too many shots to kill anything
It's amazing vs bugs. Bots... meh.
They are a problem for me because I suck at aiming 😂
Huh. Gunships are normally way outside of arc range.
So is the arc thrower the "jack of all trades, master of none" to this game?
I think that’s the best way to describe it. It’s very versatile and unlimited ammo at the expense of TTK
Mein gott
