My brother. How do you not know how much ammo the guard dog has? It literally has the magazines it has left to use on your back, that way you can tell how many magazines it has left and thus an idea of how much ammo it has left
@TheWileSpice I can't believe you never noticed this XD one of the main reasons why I love it is because it popa out the mag with a little ding, sets on your back and has a whole reload animation of a little arm reaching for the mag and popping it in the gun XD and has a less likely chance of killing ME then the rover
@thebaron9405 Yeah I'm very much mind blown hahaha. I've just been looking at all the guard dog footage I have with my mouth open. I definitely prefer it to the rover after the buffs as well!
Putting the jump pack in C for bugs is criminal. The amount of times that pack has saved me from being surrounded, getting charged, or jumped by a stalker is staggering. Never fight terminids without it
Agreed, i would put the jump pack in S tier for bugs and B tier for bots. Against bots, it will still get you out of sticky situations, and you get a lot of value in flanking quickly or boosting yourself to the next objective in no time.
I have had solo helldive missions where I had to kill % amount of bugs, and I’m not kidding when I say jump pack let me hard kite every bug in a circle for easy kills. It’s now one of my go to’s on the bugs and bots alike.
Jumping over Impalers, behemoth and regular chargers is awesome. I also use it to sneak in and out of Bot Fortresses. When the commando could one-shot fabricators it was great! Hope they get an upgrade like the new Flying-Bot Brigades!
The drone toggle is actually very good for stealth. If you dont want it to fire at enemy unintentionally you just toggle it off. And it is very useful for gas guard dog since its stick to one target untill it died, you can cancel its chasing by toggle it off Edit: Now, when toggle off the drone will reload if it doesn't have full ammo. Very useful
@TheWileSpice I've been using guard dog religiously way before the buff, and the toggle has been a godsend. The additional firepower saved me and my teammates so many times, but the unintentionally firing also killed me a few times. Now I can stealth with my teammates, go deep into the enemy, then activate the drone and go wild. Pair it with the lib concussive, and you have both defensive and offensive.
sleeping on the jump pack, it lets you get out of so many bad situations and onto crazy places its nuts. like you avoid so many potentially deadly encounters with it if you play it right
Exactly. Especially with the (re)introduction of the jump pack trooper bots. And I’d also add the fact that it lets you play more aggressively, being able to rush in quicker, throw strats further, and reposition for a flank or to provide firepower from another angle faster to pincer move the enemy with your teammates. Additionally, I’d also give it some utility points for stealth as you could jump over walls and areas that you’d otherwise have to either blow up a fence to access or go around through a more predictable and potentially guarded route
@TheWileSpice don't forget the junppack can get you into spots that would prevent you getting hit more then a shield generator would. I take not getting hit over a shield that gets hit then you getting hit every time
I've been loving a loadout against autobots with Arcthrower, jumppack and heavy medic armour. I play quite aggressively to make space for the rest of the team by stunning, killing and taking aggro with this loadout.
About taking a point-blank 500kg with the generator pack, the bomb Itself hit the shield, causing it to break, but you can stand in the explosion as long as the bomb doesn’t hit you.
It did in the clip you are indeed correct! I did try it a few times moving a couple feet away at a time & found it still deleted me when too close. It's happened to me with Automaton mines as well but not every time, so I'm not sure why its inconsistent there.
@@TheWileSpice within a certain range it seems to do enough damage to both pop shield bubble and kill you in one blow, over damage sort of situation, im not sure of the radius of it but I would guess probably like 3 meters or so from point of impact (it could be more or less, again im not sure)
quick note: There is also the upgrade which reduced cooldowns for all stratagems by like 5% or something. that also affects backpacks but not specifically
I have been using Guard Dog vs. automatons lvl 10 helldive. Devastator headpop is satisfying af. I love it. The toggle is useful when stealthing, so it does not shoot patrols.
What do you use for AT? EAT? Commando, Thermite grenades or just strats or some combination thereof? I love the guard dog, but I feel like I struggle to keep up with AT on 10 if I don't bring an RR.
@Degarth I take thermite grenades with Engineering Kit armour perk +2 to grenades. I also take a Rocket Sentry and the Senator. Ingame, I'll find a random support weapon either from teammates later on or whatever I find early on, but if you take a medium armour pen primary, it's not really needed.
@@Degarthas scary as it is, with this strat you generally have to rely on teammates for dedicated AT support weapons. Bringing AT strategems, thermite, or stuns is recommended though so you at least have something to hit a hulk with if teammates are not in position to help you
@bongwatercrocodile315 On lvl 10 big bases have all these little turrets. Them and the big turrets are a problem sometimes, and I feel the need for a Spear. I take 380 mm barrage or Orbital Laser just to deal with these bases, sometimes both depending on the map. The guarddog is very useful when dealing with hoards of devastators and rocket jumper bots, tho.. so tradoff. I can deal with tanks and hulks easily just with the grenades and Senator. Having 5 thermite charges is also gr8 for killing hulks that defend jammers.
A quick tip for working around team killing guard dogs is to make them fly higher, when you look up they will fly up above head level making them shoot over the helldivers rather than through them. Obviously you don't stare up all the time, just remember to look up when passing behind a teammate or when you see the laser come too close to yourself or any allies.
Regarding AX/AR-23 "guard dog", You can see the reserve magazines on the backpack itself. It starts off with 8 mags and reloads from bottom row towards the top.
I found one good niche with the dog breath backpack: pairing it with a flamethrower for bugs. Normally, the flamethrower cooks whatever it touches which allows the guard dog to switch between targets fast. You'd think this is useless since the target is dead, but what actually ends up happening is the bulkier targets get gassed while set on fire. This keeps them off of me as I continue sweeping with the flamethrower. Great for stalkers, commanders and even keeps chargers off my tail. Everything else almost instantly dies to the flamethrower. I think what the sterlizer and dog breath desperately need is to be able to leave behind gas clouds that linger for a bit.
that's actually not a bad idea, eventually i'll try it out wasn't farming SC (or playing) while the game was in the 2%-peak-pop "we hate our game having gameplay", endless slog through teleport-ambushing silent-flankers, unlimited-ragdoll-works and introduction of omnipotent artillery enemies that could pinpoint you half a map away or just fog-machine an entire army in the soup they generate. what the dgs breath needs tho is a 30-45 degree cone and for the gas to linger 1-3 seconds (far enough a walking helldiver won't gas themselves, close enough any stray enemies or a running helldiver going into the belch will end up affected.
I disagree with it needing to linger a bit. Otherwise you won't be able to run through your own fields. Let the flamethrowers, grenades, and the orbital be the ones that linger I say. If a buff is necessary, increase the duration of the toxin effect. Also, a unique AI script that causes the dog breath to favor enemies that haven't been poisoned yet would be amazing.
I agree, when I wanna run gas I only take the grenades and gas strike because the lingering cloud is so useful and keeps re-apply the gas effect on enemies in it. You would definitely have to run the gas armor is the sprayers left clouds of gas, but I think it would be really cool and useful.
Supply pack is one of those stratagems where only one player really needs to bring it on the mission -- so long as they call extras down whenever its off cooldown for team members who don't have a stratagem that takes up a backpack slot. I generally take supply pack and Commando or E-AT specifically to scatter them around the map as I go so that my fellow Helldivers and I are well-supplied in case of emergencies or heavy casualties. After about 10 minutes, there's usually a couple "spare" support weapons lying around that I can grab up after the majority of the outposts are dead and the needs of the battlefield start changing. Supply pack also combines well with team reloading. Have the gunner take the supply pack so he can refill the loader, and a recoilless rifle team suddenly has over a dozen shots before they need to call in resupply or go scrambling for ammo.
Calling extras is on of those things I reckon a lot of people naturally forget to do, but helps so much. The team reloading with it is something I haven't seen as it requires a mild level of co-ordination but I can imagine its pretty beastly & fun!
@@TheWileSpice -- Team reloading on defense or eradicate missions against the bots can be a game-changer. A good recoiless team can shoot down an entire wave of dropships in the early going.
Jetpack is underrated. If you play the game face tanking every patrol and drop ship - it looks like a novelty. However, it allows you to pick your battles, cover area sooo much baster, and scout important areas and heights for your team. My strats have become Precision Strike, Eagle Strike, Jetpack and Railgun. Destroying all the objectives while my mates are trying to keep up.
Jetpack with stealth armor is amazing for sunning around and doing objective. Taking a commando with it on bot missions and you can just clear half the map at your own convenience.
The guard dog rover needs to be reevaluated with the introduction of the Jet Brigade. The rover can take them out in the air, preventing you from being swarmed by hordes of flying bots that explode on death.
I prefer the liberator guard dog. Just as good in hitting jet troopers out of the air and still mauls devestators and berserkers like its nothing. Unlike what the video says, it always goes for the head. It even goes for the scout strider crotch plate but often cant hit it because of the high angle and point of aim being in the centre of the hitbox. It is absolute S-tier against the jet brigade
@@bongwatercrocodile315 yes the lib-pen dog is better for bots in general but for jet brigade the rover dog provides more coverage against jet enemies in general cause light armour+jet explosions
@@bongwatercrocodile315 I take the sickle, so I don't need to pen troopers. I only need protection for the jumping troops, so light pen is sufficient. And the quicker reaction and no need to reload makes the rover better for this. Note I primarily play solo.
1:35 at first I said the same as you "It's pointless" ,but it's not. Actually sometimes if u wanna sneak somewhere it's better to "turn off" the Drone so it won't auto-attack enemies. I had to run between patrols so when I turned it off and I had zero problems, while.. if u walk somewhere near enemies with the drone flying - it will auto-attack and force you to fight - and on higher difficulties it can turn pain in the A... sometimes to fight patrols.
My favourites have always been the supply and shield backpacks. More ammo on-demand and extra durability against incoming projectiles are always welcome.
I'm not conservative with my ammo at all. So, the supply pack is my go-to nearly 100% of the time. It's almost a comfort thing as well. Knowing I'm good on ammo/meds/nades and can also help my fellow divers is always a great feeling.
Agreed. I also sometimes enjoy splintering off and single handedly taking on a mega nest safe in the knowledge I'm equipped to keep running circles around the horde
As a Jumpdiver Commander i'll tell ya the Jump pack is used to blitz upon any of the Fortresses or Hive Nests of both factions, you literally use it to boost the stratagem's angles of throw in the air, plus, the scouting and getting all the samples aspect of the Jump pack, because if you pack yourself with experimantal stims or you know where stims appear in every low interest locations you can pretty much stim and jump your way throughout the map, plus with the new modification we can do this task even faster i'll still grant you that compared to the Supply and Shield packs the only survivability aspect of it it's on using it to get cover or stay away of dropships/bug breaches, however it still lays practical depending on your loadout
The number of times the Ballistic shield has helped me deal with the bots is surprising. There have been times where we needed to push. Yes, if you have light armor you are insta dead from explosives and medium armor is 50/50. However with heavy armor you become the distraction your team needs sometimes. Especially pushing into a jammer base where the shield pack has to recharge after some damage. Very few times has the ballistic shield taken enough damage to break on dive difficulties of 6 and up.
Grenade launcher is very effective for aoe-killing any bot that is not a tank, factory strider, cannon emcampment, or gunship. Spamming a magazine will delete an entire patrol or camp's devastors, striders and raiders BEFORE they call in a bot drop, and sometimes blowing out the Hulk's fuel cells. It goes through ammo quick, so a B-1 support pack is essental for soloing multiple patrols or bot-drops.
If you got the jet pack in C tier then that’s a genuine skill issue. Gets you out of situations that would kill you even with the Shield Generator, away from swarms that the Gun Backpacks can’t handle on their own, on high ground where you have the advantage against bugs and bots, good for sample POI completion. It’s genuinely some of the highest skill expression in the game and deserves at the very least B tier, A tier if you’ve gotten good at it. Oh and slows? Even if you don’t get distance, it’ll still get you out of a Bile Titan/Spewers throw up if you ended up surprised by it when you’d die otherwise.
13:05 Oh yes, it will absolutely protect you, even if you are standing right besides the explosion. The only reason it didn't do it in this case is because the physical impact of the 500 kg shell destroyed the shield right before the explosion occured.
Now hold on, it's not fair to say that the ballistic shield doesn't protect you from explosives, the only ones shown in that video are player thrown ones. The cannon turrets, Factory Strider turrets, and rocket devastators all are blocked by the shield and it saves your life, but usually the shield will be destroyed and you will ragdoll And yes, I tested this. I walked up to a cannon turret, lifted my shield, and ate the shot, and I got flung backwards and lost my shield, but I got up at like half health The ballistic shield deserves the same tier as the shield generator for automatons because it is near full frontal cover against projectiles wherever you want it, allowing you to face tank an army and come out on top, and unless it destroyed by an explosion it will not go away, unlike the shield generator. Ballistic shield and heavy armor with padding is one of my favorite automaton loadouts for a very good reason
I do like the dog breath in particular with any of the flame weapons, mostly the support flamethrower. As it can give me enough time to get the thing roaring and can help confuse any bugs that sneak up on me. It’s enough of a benefit that I can at least take onto big missions and rack up the highest kills on the team. It does however mean I have to be reckless and get very close to bugs and in the line of fire of teammates.
In my experience and play testing in the past month with all the changes to all the backpacks in level 10s on both fronts. I think the nerf to the shield gen backpack, with it now not absorbing impact damage was a big enough nerf for me to not run it anymore. I would die more times with the shield backpack on bots due to being a bigger hitbox for anything with rockets, any cannon turret, bunker turret. Often I would find myself getting hit by this, the shield not absorbing the impact and it launching me far out of cover, and killing me either via impact, or putting me out in the open with now no shield to protect me, and lined up for a firing squad. The Medium Pen guard dog is now my go to backpack on bots. It covers your ass so much, it peeks around corners taking things out while you are reloading, it covers you if you are ragdolled and cant get up, it'll pop them in the head and allow you to recover. With the new Jump Pack Troopers as well, it shoots them out of the sky while they are advancing, while you are focusing fire on other things. Its incredible. Id personally swap the Med Pen Dog with the Shield Gen Pack on the bot front, personally putting the Dog in S and the Shield in A with the changes but either way, great video I agree with most everything else!
True, a favorite loadout of mine against bots when i started playing used the shield pack and fortified armor, but with the changes to the shield packand how enemy damage works neither is quite as effective as it used to be. I used to tank direct cannon hits all the time
Honestly dont even touch the Shield generator backpack anymore just because I always want more offensive, mobility, or supplies. I see it as the strat everyone should use to play higher difficulties and get better at the game and start switching it out once they get used to the enemies and different playstyles.
Being able to deactivate backpacks is crazy useful! It lets you choose which patrols you want to engage with or sneak around and reload the pooch in between combat.
i always take supply backpack in every single mission every single time, until they add a stim backpack ill keep using supply backpack since i only do it for the stim recharges. something i believe you missed about the backpack tho is that when you pick up supply boxes it not only gives your supply backpack a charge but also supplies your own character, so you can essentially multiply supply boxes by 2.
With the guard dog you can see the available magazines on the sides of the backpack to keep track of how many reloads are left. You can also use the toggle to "manually" reload the drone before picking up ammo or in between encounters.
Adding the feature to make the drones go back to the backpack whenever is great, let's say you were sneaking by a patrol and your drone (doing its job) shoots at the enemies, alerting them. Like said, its great to have regardless.
What i like about the jumppack is that you can reload all weapons while jumping as llong as they dont require a stationary reload (machine gun or rocket launcher for example cant be reloaded while jumping). gives you a good chance to disengage pop in a new mag and start firing again
I think the ballistic shield should be revisited. I don't know if it was reworked, but I was able to hold back Terminids as long as I kept moving back and didn't allow them to flank me from the sides. When it came to the charger, it was able to absorb most or all damage, but ragged doll me away. Note, despite how it sounds, it is not OP in the slightest. If the little bugs can get behind or to the side of you, they will gank your ass via death of a thousand cuts. Though, I was able to hold off the bigger bugs pretty well, stunning and meleeing them with the spear. I was able to kill a Charger twice with shield and spear combo, stun locking it and stabbing it into the sides until death. Took like twenty stabs though, not the quickest kill in the slightest.
Secret tip not mentioned in the video about the guard dog variants (that actually matter): If you toggle them off intentionally, you can avoid enemy patrols you don’t want to deal with thanks to the dog not attacking them earlier than you intend. It’s not the most practical, but it is something to keep in mind when using them due to patrols being in quite literally every single mission.
Toggling the drone is useful for when AP4+ enemies arrive and to prevent the Guard dog from wasting ammo/ time damaging an enemy it cannot penetrate like chargers and hulks
The point of the recall function for the drones is for those times when you need to stealth by an enemy force. Call it back, sneak behind, redeploy and destroy the enemy from behind!
7:05 this is actually the other way around! Flashing red means empty and solid red (in the case of stims) means they have one left. It's deceptive though because it refers to their reserve ammo, and weapons like the autocannon technically don't have a "reserve", just a backpack (which thankfully it in itself has a color indicator)
Jump pack is really really good when your role is grabbing the supersamples and clearing POIs/Secondaries I run it with the crossbow, dagger, thermite, and commando rocket launcher. I take out spewers/shrieker nests before they become a problem and can generally get back to extraction from anywhere on the map when it's called in. Once you start using it a lot, traversal options really open up.
For the shields, energy shield is for rockets and explosions whilst ballistic is for most infantry, ballistic works very well as long as you have support to watch your flank
I like to pair gas rover with flamethrower builds because having two streams of fire is not only sick AF! But they compliment each other because flames don’t have stun and gas don’t have damage. Put both together, close quarter combat against bugs has never been funner. But still, the engagement range on the gas drone is so small that it only works half the time, but when it works, by god does it work
The Backpack Shield could use a buff that allows you to activate a temporary forward facing shield like the SH-32 in HD1 but only while you're aiming down sight. It would allow you to tank a couple of explosions or bile attacks from the front while sticking to its niche and giving needed improvements/incentives. I love it in theory but its so useless right now.
also real quick, for the guard dog. when its on your backpack you can see how many magazines are left on the pack back itself. Like I belive its carries (visually) 8 magazines and each time the bot reloads 1 magazine will disappear off the back pack. So if you toggle it you can tell real quick how much is left. That is all :)
12:21 With a poorer connection or having another player be the host, the bile of terminids can still affect you even while your bubble is still up. Same thing for the slowing effect of hunter attacks.
I'm not a huge fan of the jump pack but i agree with comments saying it underrated, they have very good points. The only downside for me is that i often see mobility as time taken to go from point A to point B instead of including mobility in the mix. And in that sense, the supply pack works great as well since you can burn through your stims for stamina only if you're far behind your teammates or going for an objective solo. If you use experimental infusion booster, it also provides some defensive capabilities because you can just pre-stim before engaging a group of ennemies to tank the damage and heal instantly as you're loosing health. To me supply pack is just the most well rounded option, hence me taking it almost every time. I also don't prefer using the shield generator pack often because some new options we have can increase our effectiveness using cover (like charging a shot behind cover before shooting it when using the Purifier or the Quasar for instance). I think i'll reconsider using them on planets with hazards or swamp ones with their huge rivers.
I personally like the dog breath cause it’ll keep gassing chargers until they finally die due to the gas or I can easily destroy it, it’s more of a utility based weapon but it would be nice if the backpack launched more of the guard dogs or have a more efficient way of spreading gas at the very least
It definitely needs to be more consistent at hitting the targets for sure and a better way of spreading the gas as you said. Its super frustrating when its firing but evidently not hitting its target! Having 2 or 3 smaller dog breath drones would be cute and also a fun way to target more units.
For me, the point of taking the supply pack is that i can have a huge supply of nades and stims without bringing their respective armours, so i can get another passive while poping stims like candy.
ive been using the supply pack with the HMG just so i can shoot a bajillion bullets, but its also super useful for keeping me and my buddies alive because of the extra stims you get!!
I really hope they rework the gas rover to be honest. This has soooo much potential. Make it accurate and focus on applying gas, switching to a new target as soon as possible. Let the confusion and dot damage be the primary focus and apply it to as many enemies as possible. I love playing themes gas+fire builds, and this just sounds like such a fun concept. As of right now.. total garbage, sadly. How good it could be depends on how many enemies it can affect at the same time. With decent accuracy and targeting priorization changes that can easily be something like 6-10 targets. Right now it's, like.. 0.5? Edit: Also, it seems the blinking red icons are just as bugged as the player levels. When in coop i oftentimes ask my friend whether he is low due to the blinking items, and would like the last remaining supply in the drop, just for him to tell me that no he is indeed literally maxed, or one below max on said ressource. Not just useless, but actively confusing lmfao Edit 2: The shield backpack *does* protect you from boint-blank explosions. Just not when the 500kg bomb is literally *inside* the shield.
I agree. It surprises me that so many people are defending it, even after multiple showcases of it literally doing nothing which are common in-game occurrences. Looks like Arrowhead needs to fix the icons! & I did try a few close distances, it still deleted me when too close
Jump pack is kinda OP against bugs ngl. You can get out any spicy situation in a whim, if you can find any high ground, you can practically annhilate their entire population from a impossible to get height. Specifically during extraction, you can be even way out of touch for all terminids except the shriekers. Great tool, 9/10 Beein using jump pack with orbital napalm, quasar cannon and mg sentry. The amount of destruction you can bring is uncompareable
I've started to really like the Ballistic Shield lately, since I play mostly against the bots, and I almost always have the Defender, It's made attacking bases som much easier since I can push pretty hard without needing to take cover as much.
Disabling the drone from flying is critical when you're sneaking around enemy patrols and camps. Especially when evading an ambush or setting up an outpost or fortress/mega hive for an orbital. That drone will pull anything near you if it's out.
The jump pack has been my favorite now because I am still grinding rare samples for ship modules upgrades and it allows me to move around the map way faster
If you pay attention to the gaurd dod while its reloading you can see it: drop a magazine, land on the backpack, fold to either side, the. You can actual watch the backpack put a new magazine in the gun. Therfor you can count the magazines you have and know how much ammo you have
I think the jump pack should be a little higher personally. Not only is it great for covering ground quickly, but it allows you to skip over some environmental hazards (like a cliff, hole or water) and can be used to gain positional advantage very efficiently. It's also really funny to jump over chargers and make them run straight into the giant nuked out holes on nursery missions
2:23 You're probably aware already, but the labelings on your AP scale are outdated now, since AH reworked the classifications. AP-2 is still light penetration, and AP-3 is also still medium penetration. However, AP-4 is now considered heavy penetration, and 5+ is now anti-tank.
the drone toggle stops the guard dog from spending endless ammo on charger/atat/shielder center-mass, factories, fences and occasional turrets that it just ricochets off. also, as others have said, the dog-pack carries it's spar ammo on 2 rails so yo can see not only the ammo in the dog when it's shooting but also the spares left from glancing at your helldivers back. going to 45 ammo 8 reloads plus groud-pickups from 30 ammo 6 reloads and only supply-replenishment turned an previously maligned support item into something getting dangerously close to being used by streamers/content-creators then getting nerfed. edit2. las-guard got nerfe when the scythe got it's damage changed from 250-350, so the las0dog went from 250 to 350*.7=245 plus a fire-proc plus unlimited ammo (no overheat which it's had almost since launch but only recently got added as one of the never ending list of "know issues"). edit3 fart-hound needs a 30-45 degree cone of fire, WAY more freedom to move about and a 1-3 second lingering affect/puddle/ground-gas-puddle. as-is it's almost useless given gas got nerfed into the ground with the change as it can't kill and the random targeting still means the enemies can go for you while still operating on higher than cluster-bomb/strafe/rocket/strike/airburst cooldowns.
Saying that the guard dogs being toggles isn't a big desl when the primary reason I think they were straight up bad for anything other than heavy armour machine gun or flamethrower running straight into every enemy group you see is because it would pull aggro by shooting random patrols for no reason. Being able to toggle them is what makes them viable for more than 1 strategy
I play lvl 7+ pretty much exclusively and from my personal experience (don’t argue when I have clearly stated this is an opinion) the jetpack should be S tier for bugs, if you understand positioning and how the bugs react to your movements, you will almost never take damage. Also being able to jump large gaps, craters, or cavities, especially under pressure, is one of the most undervalued abilities in the game.
I find the Jump Pack is for the bugs what the Ballistic Shield is for the bots. In both cases they are absolutely better survivibility tools than the personal energy shield provided the person using them knows what they are doing with it. But that usefulness is very faction dependent, against bugs the ballistic shield has very limited attacks it can defend from, and the jump pack only really lets you attempt a quick escape or take high-ground positions against bots, but they'll still be able to attack you while using it.
I used the jump pack for pretty much every game after this video to re-evaluate, and would probably place it higher than I did here on the bugs side for sure. The personal shield is just too easy to get value from for me to not rate it so highly though imo.
I don’t like energy shields for reason only because it doesn’t allow me to heal my friends. I need to accurately destroy the shied and then heal. Thanks for telling me that supply back pack can help you as well if you click on 5. And there must be a synergy between it and railgun. Jetpack is a must try - too fun, and allows to throw stratagems even further away. Ballistic shield works greatly with crossbow.
The "pointless" function of the drones coming back to your back, is to keep them from firing if you're trying to stealth, if they're wasting ammo on things like hulks and tanks, ect.
my opinion is that the ballistic shield is the best against droids because when you combine the shield with the explosive crossbow you are a walking tank on the battlefield
Having Jetpack as a Heavy Armor main at the moment It's nice to have a movement option against bugs and it's nice with Bots but it's not that much better to have since they don't really miss on Super Helldive. But being able to move on the fly against bugs is so helpful. I've been doing a fire based build against bugs, and it's so fun. I'm trying to think of better themed builds, and I think I'm gonna do some kind of gas build, but I'm not sure how I'll pair the sterilizer with other stuff.
I love ballistic shield. I pray every night before bed that they buff it to at least block fire and bile, but also that they let it reduce knockback from explosions and remove the dropping mechanic
The jump pack should be at least B tier if not low A tier for Bugs. Being able to disengage from a hoard with the click of a button and reposition is extremely helpful. This factor allows you to kite a large group pretty well while you either whittle it down or your teammates take care of it for you while you hold the agro. Avoiding being hit is sometimes better than being able to take a hit. Being able to jump and more consistently planting thermites onto Titans is also a bonus. This is all not even the mention all of the utility and convenience factors of the jump pack.
I'd switch the placement of supply pack and shield pack. The shield pack is okay for some missions like blitzes or exterminations where you're expected to be under constant threat with little room or time to maneuver. But otherwise the majority of the damage that the shield pack would protect against can be simply avoided by utilizing cover, good movement, and situational awareness. Meanwhile the supply pack opens up a variety of team support options and playstyles since some weapons such as the HMG are only really usable with the supply pack, and it can also let you roam the map solo cleaning up sub-objectives and outposts with no worry of ammo or health while your teammates get to use the resupply to do main objectives.
Me and my friends are convinced the laser guard dog was designed by an automaton spy, that thing will literally turn around and target helldivers out of nowhere with no sight of any enemy in their line of fire, idk if the AR guard dog has a different AI or something but I've never seen a team kill while using them compared to the PILES of casualties from that laser drone
The ballistic shield's worst part is that it can break after an amount of damage and you can actually drop it by getting rangdolled. AH should remove these features. If the shield could absorb the explosive damage (without breaking or dropping it) but you still get the ragdoll then it would be a decent backpack considering that you can pick the crossbow with you as a primary weapon. The dogbreath is a really good idea the downside of that is the aiming as you showed.
1:42 returning a drone to your backpack is certainly not pointless for multiple cases. Wanna avoid a patrol with stealth - return drone to backpack. You're on a high ground and don't want a drone blasting your head off - return to backpack. You're fighting a charger/bile titan/tank/hulk and it's the only enemy near you - return to backpack, don't wanna waste that precious ammo.
13:04 your shield breaks here because of the 500's impact damage, so you ate the explosion without a shield so i'm not sure if you can actually survive it when you're right next to it??
It did indeed! Didn't notice in editing sadly. But I did try a few times from very close distances moving back a couple feet each try. It still deletes you if you are too close without physical contact from the shell. The same can happen with automaton mines, though its sometimes inconsistent with those.
barely touch packs but in farm runs i'll usually pull a guard dog instead of a support/spare-boom as any ground-drop weapon usually covers my needs and having a headshot-happy (and freshly double-buffed when i already liked it) less-likely-to-delete-the-user drone on hand to merc mid-air hunters and stray enemies is damned useful when running a marathon. Otherwise i generally take a spare form the pure-meta players as so few ever consider sharing up-front but 16-24 mins in there's bound to be a spare lying around near some abandoned samples and 2 booms plus a flex slot on top of a weapon (mandatory most runs) is remarkably effective when the stuff hits the fan and everyone else spams theirs on-cooldown against the same enemies (also why i trend towards strike over 500kg and pair it with 2/1 turrets and a precision/cluster previously, now occasionally a rocket/strafe/gatling). i never use the laser-dog as franky it kills me more than the enemies do and it seems to aim at heads way less while spamming it's fire for a longer uptime so i end up playing extreme-limbo with my own laser support.
You can actually shoot through it if you stick the gun's barrel through the shield. Get close enough to the friend and it will hit them underneath the shield. Still annoying though
Opinion about my game play Guard dog (liberator) work great with purifier, blitzer and Adjudicator. Is great to kill stun enemies, or max damage, the guard dog (laser) don’t have that power, specially vs bots Guard dog (gas) is very useful with blitzer or cookout shotgun. Can protect you vs chargers, stalkers and Alpha Commanders, give you space to have time for do the kill or run Gas thrower is not great, but with a Supply pack and a heavy gas armor, you can do aggro and let your teammates do the job. The confusion, specifically on bugs, is amazing 🥰 Jetpack and and experimental infusion make your heavy armor move like a small armor do, and I love it 🥰
1:45 certainly not pointless. Sometimes I just want to walk past a patrol or avoid some random enemies and the drone will be like "let's shoot that charger half a kilometre away, I don't like his face". The new function is a very welcome addition as it let's you better control when you want to engage the enemy. Also it can save ammo if that is a concern.
My brother. How do you not know how much ammo the guard dog has? It literally has the magazines it has left to use on your back, that way you can tell how many magazines it has left and thus an idea of how much ammo it has left
Had honestly never ever noticed that. You may have just blown my mind. I would prefer a hud element though!
@TheWileSpice I can't believe you never noticed this XD one of the main reasons why I love it is because it popa out the mag with a little ding, sets on your back and has a whole reload animation of a little arm reaching for the mag and popping it in the gun XD and has a less likely chance of killing ME then the rover
@thebaron9405 Yeah I'm very much mind blown hahaha. I've just been looking at all the guard dog footage I have with my mouth open. I definitely prefer it to the rover after the buffs as well!
I never noticed
@TheWileSpice it is a HUD element tho
If the jetpack is C-tier, you aint usin it right.
Thats why I came down here, love seeing jumppack fellows very underrated
Without context it's very much a C tier stratagem.
When used to make heavy armor dramatically more viable, it's absolutely A tier
@@Werepie interesting. Can you give more detail on that.
Jump jet, heavy armor. Quasar gun. Hmg mounted turret. I am tactical death
Idk I'm always faster than my team anyway so I can't do much with it
Putting the jump pack in C for bugs is criminal. The amount of times that pack has saved me from being surrounded, getting charged, or jumped by a stalker is staggering. Never fight terminids without it
I guess as cool as it is, I just prefer the other options!
Agreed, i would put the jump pack in S tier for bugs and B tier for bots. Against bots, it will still get you out of sticky situations, and you get a lot of value in flanking quickly or boosting yourself to the next objective in no time.
I have had solo helldive missions where I had to kill % amount of bugs, and I’m not kidding when I say jump pack let me hard kite every bug in a circle for easy kills. It’s now one of my go to’s on the bugs and bots alike.
Jumping over Impalers, behemoth and regular chargers is awesome. I also use it to sneak in and out of Bot Fortresses. When the commando could one-shot fabricators it was great! Hope they get an upgrade like the new Flying-Bot Brigades!
@@TheWileSpiceI respect your opionion even though its undemocratic and wrong.
The drone toggle is actually very good for stealth. If you dont want it to fire at enemy unintentionally you just toggle it off. And it is very useful for gas guard dog since its stick to one target untill it died, you can cancel its chasing by toggle it off
Edit: Now, when toggle off the drone will reload if it doesn't have full ammo. Very useful
Great points! Guess I'm not a very stealthy person.
It's great, until you forget to undock it for 75% of the mission like my dumbass lol
@TheWileSpice I've been using guard dog religiously way before the buff, and the toggle has been a godsend. The additional firepower saved me and my teammates so many times, but the unintentionally firing also killed me a few times. Now I can stealth with my teammates, go deep into the enemy, then activate the drone and go wild.
Pair it with the lib concussive, and you have both defensive and offensive.
@DMazz441 yep, happen to me a few times, hahaha. Keep making me wonder something missing.
man I don't even know how to toggle it
sleeping on the jump pack, it lets you get out of so many bad situations and onto crazy places its nuts. like you avoid so many potentially deadly encounters with it if you play it right
Exactly. Especially with the (re)introduction of the jump pack trooper bots. And I’d also add the fact that it lets you play more aggressively, being able to rush in quicker, throw strats further, and reposition for a flank or to provide firepower from another angle faster to pincer move the enemy with your teammates. Additionally, I’d also give it some utility points for stealth as you could jump over walls and areas that you’d otherwise have to either blow up a fence to access or go around through a more predictable and potentially guarded route
I do love the ability to get myself onto high-ground. Possible I was a little harsh on it in my ranking, I could see it fitting in B happily.
@TheWileSpice don't forget the junppack can get you into spots that would prevent you getting hit more then a shield generator would. I take not getting hit over a shield that gets hit then you getting hit every time
it's definitely skill based, i find myself forgetting i have it and dont use it.
I've been loving a loadout against autobots with Arcthrower, jumppack and heavy medic armour. I play quite aggressively to make space for the rest of the team by stunning, killing and taking aggro with this loadout.
About taking a point-blank 500kg with the generator pack, the bomb Itself hit the shield, causing it to break, but you can stand in the explosion as long as the bomb doesn’t hit you.
It did in the clip you are indeed correct! I did try it a few times moving a couple feet away at a time & found it still deleted me when too close. It's happened to me with Automaton mines as well but not every time, so I'm not sure why its inconsistent there.
@@TheWileSpice within a certain range it seems to do enough damage to both pop shield bubble and kill you in one blow, over damage sort of situation, im not sure of the radius of it but I would guess probably like 3 meters or so from point of impact (it could be more or less, again im not sure)
quick note: There is also the upgrade which reduced cooldowns for all stratagems by like 5% or something. that also affects backpacks but not specifically
Ah there is! Forgot to add that one.
I have been using Guard Dog vs. automatons lvl 10 helldive. Devastator headpop is satisfying af. I love it. The toggle is useful when stealthing, so it does not shoot patrols.
What do you use for AT? EAT? Commando, Thermite grenades or just strats or some combination thereof?
I love the guard dog, but I feel like I struggle to keep up with AT on 10 if I don't bring an RR.
@Degarth I take thermite grenades with Engineering Kit armour perk +2 to grenades. I also take a Rocket Sentry and the Senator. Ingame, I'll find a random support weapon either from teammates later on or whatever I find early on, but if you take a medium armour pen primary, it's not really needed.
@@Degarthas scary as it is, with this strat you generally have to rely on teammates for dedicated AT support weapons. Bringing AT strategems, thermite, or stuns is recommended though so you at least have something to hit a hulk with if teammates are not in position to help you
@bongwatercrocodile315 On lvl 10 big bases have all these little turrets. Them and the big turrets are a problem sometimes, and I feel the need for a Spear. I take 380 mm barrage or Orbital Laser just to deal with these bases, sometimes both depending on the map. The guarddog is very useful when dealing with hoards of devastators and rocket jumper bots, tho.. so tradoff. I can deal with tanks and hulks easily just with the grenades and Senator. Having 5 thermite charges is also gr8 for killing hulks that defend jammers.
A quick tip for working around team killing guard dogs is to make them fly higher, when you look up they will fly up above head level making them shoot over the helldivers rather than through them.
Obviously you don't stare up all the time, just remember to look up when passing behind a teammate or when you see the laser come too close to yourself or any allies.
Whaaaat! Gotta try this out.
Great, now I can _really_ blame my teammate when their Guard Dog "Rover" sets me on fire.
Regarding AX/AR-23 "guard dog", You can see the reserve magazines on the backpack itself. It starts off with 8 mags and reloads from bottom row towards the top.
Yeah, a detail I had never realised even after hundreds of hours, mind has been blown today.
always thought that was how much ammo it had left in the chamber
I found one good niche with the dog breath backpack: pairing it with a flamethrower for bugs.
Normally, the flamethrower cooks whatever it touches which allows the guard dog to switch between targets fast. You'd think this is useless since the target is dead, but what actually ends up happening is the bulkier targets get gassed while set on fire. This keeps them off of me as I continue sweeping with the flamethrower. Great for stalkers, commanders and even keeps chargers off my tail. Everything else almost instantly dies to the flamethrower.
I think what the sterlizer and dog breath desperately need is to be able to leave behind gas clouds that linger for a bit.
I've been wondering if the dog breath would be better or not if instead of spraying a single target, it dropped a gas grenade cloud at your position.
that's actually not a bad idea, eventually i'll try it out
wasn't farming SC (or playing) while the game was in the 2%-peak-pop "we hate our game having gameplay", endless slog through teleport-ambushing silent-flankers, unlimited-ragdoll-works and introduction of omnipotent artillery enemies that could pinpoint you half a map away or just fog-machine an entire army in the soup they generate.
what the dgs breath needs tho is a 30-45 degree cone and for the gas to linger 1-3 seconds (far enough a walking helldiver won't gas themselves, close enough any stray enemies or a running helldiver going into the belch will end up affected.
I disagree with it needing to linger a bit. Otherwise you won't be able to run through your own fields. Let the flamethrowers, grenades, and the orbital be the ones that linger I say.
If a buff is necessary, increase the duration of the toxin effect. Also, a unique AI script that causes the dog breath to favor enemies that haven't been poisoned yet would be amazing.
The dog breath has issues but it has a few perks. One of which is that it will roam far ahead of you and engage once it's aggroed
I agree, when I wanna run gas I only take the grenades and gas strike because the lingering cloud is so useful and keeps re-apply the gas effect on enemies in it. You would definitely have to run the gas armor is the sprayers left clouds of gas, but I think it would be really cool and useful.
Supply pack is one of those stratagems where only one player really needs to bring it on the mission -- so long as they call extras down whenever its off cooldown for team members who don't have a stratagem that takes up a backpack slot.
I generally take supply pack and Commando or E-AT specifically to scatter them around the map as I go so that my fellow Helldivers and I are well-supplied in case of emergencies or heavy casualties. After about 10 minutes, there's usually a couple "spare" support weapons lying around that I can grab up after the majority of the outposts are dead and the needs of the battlefield start changing.
Supply pack also combines well with team reloading. Have the gunner take the supply pack so he can refill the loader, and a recoilless rifle team suddenly has over a dozen shots before they need to call in resupply or go scrambling for ammo.
Calling extras is on of those things I reckon a lot of people naturally forget to do, but helps so much.
The team reloading with it is something I haven't seen as it requires a mild level of co-ordination but I can imagine its pretty beastly & fun!
@@TheWileSpice -- Team reloading on defense or eradicate missions against the bots can be a game-changer. A good recoiless team can shoot down an entire wave of dropships in the early going.
Love running supply pack on high difficulty so I can solo is necessary and dont have to take the resupply when the other group needs it.
Jetpack is underrated.
If you play the game face tanking every patrol and drop ship - it looks like a novelty.
However, it allows you to pick your battles, cover area sooo much baster, and scout important areas and heights for your team.
My strats have become Precision Strike, Eagle Strike, Jetpack and Railgun. Destroying all the objectives while my mates are trying to keep up.
Lonestar Badass... I bet you even do spinnies with the Senator
Jetpack with stealth armor is amazing for sunning around and doing objective. Taking a commando with it on bot missions and you can just clear half the map at your own convenience.
The guard dog rover needs to be reevaluated with the introduction of the Jet Brigade. The rover can take them out in the air, preventing you from being swarmed by hordes of flying bots that explode on death.
Not really unique to the Rover though, is it?
@@dingus5156yes, it's unique to all LAZER weapons, just glance in there general directions and the whole squad will explode.
I prefer the liberator guard dog. Just as good in hitting jet troopers out of the air and still mauls devestators and berserkers like its nothing. Unlike what the video says, it always goes for the head. It even goes for the scout strider crotch plate but often cant hit it because of the high angle and point of aim being in the centre of the hitbox. It is absolute S-tier against the jet brigade
@@bongwatercrocodile315 yes the lib-pen dog is better for bots in general but for jet brigade the rover dog provides more coverage against jet enemies in general cause light armour+jet explosions
@@bongwatercrocodile315 I take the sickle, so I don't need to pen troopers. I only need protection for the jumping troops, so light pen is sufficient. And the quicker reaction and no need to reload makes the rover better for this.
Note I primarily play solo.
The guard dog is sooo good against bots imo it’ll destroy the berserkers devastators and shoots down the jet pack dudes mid air
1:35 at first I said the same as you "It's pointless" ,but it's not. Actually sometimes if u wanna sneak somewhere it's better to "turn off" the Drone so it won't auto-attack enemies. I had to run between patrols so when I turned it off and I had zero problems, while.. if u walk somewhere near enemies with the drone flying - it will auto-attack and force you to fight - and on higher difficulties it can turn pain in the A... sometimes to fight patrols.
My favourites have always been the supply and shield backpacks.
More ammo on-demand and extra durability against incoming projectiles are always welcome.
I'm not conservative with my ammo at all. So, the supply pack is my go-to nearly 100% of the time.
It's almost a comfort thing as well. Knowing I'm good on ammo/meds/nades and can also help my fellow divers is always a great feeling.
Agreed. I also sometimes enjoy splintering off and single handedly taking on a mega nest safe in the knowledge I'm equipped to keep running circles around the horde
Stopped taking drones after they kept attacking while i was stealthing, so a toggle is a pretty nice feature
2:58 you are kidding, right? you can see the amount of remaining magazines in the backpack
I was gonna say the same thing, it’s the most “Clear cut and dry” moment in the vid, still, good tier list.
As a Jumpdiver Commander i'll tell ya the Jump pack is used to blitz upon any of the Fortresses or Hive Nests of both factions, you literally use it to boost the stratagem's angles of throw in the air, plus, the scouting and getting all the samples aspect of the Jump pack, because if you pack yourself with experimantal stims or you know where stims appear in every low interest locations you can pretty much stim and jump your way throughout the map, plus with the new modification we can do this task even faster
i'll still grant you that compared to the Supply and Shield packs the only survivability aspect of it it's on using it to get cover or stay away of dropships/bug breaches, however it still lays practical depending on your loadout
The number of times the Ballistic shield has helped me deal with the bots is surprising. There have been times where we needed to push. Yes, if you have light armor you are insta dead from explosives and medium armor is 50/50. However with heavy armor you become the distraction your team needs sometimes. Especially pushing into a jammer base where the shield pack has to recharge after some damage. Very few times has the ballistic shield taken enough damage to break on dive difficulties of 6 and up.
Grenade launcher is very effective for aoe-killing any bot that is not a tank, factory strider, cannon emcampment, or gunship. Spamming a magazine will delete an entire patrol or camp's devastors, striders and raiders BEFORE they call in a bot drop, and sometimes blowing out the Hulk's fuel cells. It goes through ammo quick, so a B-1 support pack is essental for soloing multiple patrols or bot-drops.
Jetpack is S tier. No question
If you got the jet pack in C tier then that’s a genuine skill issue. Gets you out of situations that would kill you even with the Shield Generator, away from swarms that the Gun Backpacks can’t handle on their own, on high ground where you have the advantage against bugs and bots, good for sample POI completion. It’s genuinely some of the highest skill expression in the game and deserves at the very least B tier, A tier if you’ve gotten good at it. Oh and slows? Even if you don’t get distance, it’ll still get you out of a Bile Titan/Spewers throw up if you ended up surprised by it when you’d die otherwise.
The true skill issue is getting in the situations that require the jetpack to survive in the first place. Pro tip: don't. Then you can get a dog.
@ bro you are not John Helldiver. while I’ll never claim to never die, you can only say “the true skill issue is…” if you’ve never died to the enemy
13:05 Oh yes, it will absolutely protect you, even if you are standing right besides the explosion. The only reason it didn't do it in this case is because the physical impact of the 500 kg shell destroyed the shield right before the explosion occured.
While it did physically hit me in the clip, I tested a few distances & it still deletes you if you're too close
Now hold on, it's not fair to say that the ballistic shield doesn't protect you from explosives, the only ones shown in that video are player thrown ones. The cannon turrets, Factory Strider turrets, and rocket devastators all are blocked by the shield and it saves your life, but usually the shield will be destroyed and you will ragdoll
And yes, I tested this. I walked up to a cannon turret, lifted my shield, and ate the shot, and I got flung backwards and lost my shield, but I got up at like half health
The ballistic shield deserves the same tier as the shield generator for automatons because it is near full frontal cover against projectiles wherever you want it, allowing you to face tank an army and come out on top, and unless it destroyed by an explosion it will not go away, unlike the shield generator. Ballistic shield and heavy armor with padding is one of my favorite automaton loadouts for a very good reason
I do like the dog breath in particular with any of the flame weapons, mostly the support flamethrower. As it can give me enough time to get the thing roaring and can help confuse any bugs that sneak up on me. It’s enough of a benefit that I can at least take onto big missions and rack up the highest kills on the team. It does however mean I have to be reckless and get very close to bugs and in the line of fire of teammates.
In my experience and play testing in the past month with all the changes to all the backpacks in level 10s on both fronts. I think the nerf to the shield gen backpack, with it now not absorbing impact damage was a big enough nerf for me to not run it anymore. I would die more times with the shield backpack on bots due to being a bigger hitbox for anything with rockets, any cannon turret, bunker turret. Often I would find myself getting hit by this, the shield not absorbing the impact and it launching me far out of cover, and killing me either via impact, or putting me out in the open with now no shield to protect me, and lined up for a firing squad. The Medium Pen guard dog is now my go to backpack on bots. It covers your ass so much, it peeks around corners taking things out while you are reloading, it covers you if you are ragdolled and cant get up, it'll pop them in the head and allow you to recover. With the new Jump Pack Troopers as well, it shoots them out of the sky while they are advancing, while you are focusing fire on other things. Its incredible. Id personally swap the Med Pen Dog with the Shield Gen Pack on the bot front, personally putting the Dog in S and the Shield in A with the changes but either way, great video I agree with most everything else!
True, a favorite loadout of mine against bots when i started playing used the shield pack and fortified armor, but with the changes to the shield packand how enemy damage works neither is quite as effective as it used to be. I used to tank direct cannon hits all the time
@@johnvanek9514 Same! I loved the pack, but not the new changes to it sadly.
Honestly dont even touch the Shield generator backpack anymore just because I always want more offensive, mobility, or supplies. I see it as the strat everyone should use to play higher difficulties and get better at the game and start switching it out once they get used to the enemies and different playstyles.
@ agreed!
9:32 😂😂😂 imagining Hive Guards screaming “I HATE YOU” gave me Super Satisfaction
Have a few 🪙s from me.. the ones that Alphabet lets you keep atleast
Hahaha, I was having a good chuckle while editing it, glad it got some laughs!
Thank you for the 5!
Being able to deactivate backpacks is crazy useful! It lets you choose which patrols you want to engage with or sneak around and reload the pooch in between combat.
i always take supply backpack in every single mission every single time, until they add a stim backpack ill keep using supply backpack since i only do it for the stim recharges.
something i believe you missed about the backpack tho is that when you pick up supply boxes it not only gives your supply backpack a charge but also supplies your own character, so you can essentially multiply supply boxes by 2.
7:00 Solid red is low, flashing red is empty.
Where have you been? Also Space Marine 2 content? I am pretty surprised you haven't made a video about it
Life put content creation on hold for a bit. Hopefully getting back into it :) Have wanted to do a lot for Space Marine 2.
With the guard dog you can see the available magazines on the sides of the backpack to keep track of how many reloads are left. You can also use the toggle to "manually" reload the drone before picking up ammo or in between encounters.
Adding the feature to make the drones go back to the backpack whenever is great, let's say you were sneaking by a patrol and your drone (doing its job) shoots at the enemies, alerting them. Like said, its great to have regardless.
What i like about the jumppack is that you can reload all weapons while jumping as llong as they dont require a stationary reload (machine gun or rocket launcher for example cant be reloaded while jumping). gives you a good chance to disengage pop in a new mag and start firing again
I think the ballistic shield should be revisited. I don't know if it was reworked, but I was able to hold back Terminids as long as I kept moving back and didn't allow them to flank me from the sides. When it came to the charger, it was able to absorb most or all damage, but ragged doll me away. Note, despite how it sounds, it is not OP in the slightest. If the little bugs can get behind or to the side of you, they will gank your ass via death of a thousand cuts. Though, I was able to hold off the bigger bugs pretty well, stunning and meleeing them with the spear. I was able to kill a Charger twice with shield and spear combo, stun locking it and stabbing it into the sides until death. Took like twenty stabs though, not the quickest kill in the slightest.
Secret tip not mentioned in the video about the guard dog variants (that actually matter):
If you toggle them off intentionally, you can avoid enemy patrols you don’t want to deal with thanks to the dog not attacking them earlier than you intend. It’s not the most practical, but it is something to keep in mind when using them due to patrols being in quite literally every single mission.
you can see all of the mags on the backpack for the ax/ar-23
So excited for a new video!
Jump Pack. It's Jump Pack.
Toggling the drone is useful for when AP4+ enemies arrive and to prevent the Guard dog from wasting ammo/ time damaging an enemy it cannot penetrate like chargers and hulks
Good point!
The point of the recall function for the drones is for those times when you need to stealth by an enemy force. Call it back, sneak behind, redeploy and destroy the enemy from behind!
7:05 this is actually the other way around! Flashing red means empty and solid red (in the case of stims) means they have one left. It's deceptive though because it refers to their reserve ammo, and weapons like the autocannon technically don't have a "reserve", just a backpack (which thankfully it in itself has a color indicator)
The best thing about the Las Dog is the beam is also a useful tsrgeting system, especially in dark or cloudy areas
Jump pack is really really good when your role is grabbing the supersamples and clearing POIs/Secondaries
I run it with the crossbow, dagger, thermite, and commando rocket launcher. I take out spewers/shrieker nests before they become a problem and can generally get back to extraction from anywhere on the map when it's called in. Once you start using it a lot, traversal options really open up.
!0:27 Brother, bulletproof is NOT explosion proof, they are different.
For the shields, energy shield is for rockets and explosions whilst ballistic is for most infantry, ballistic works very well as long as you have support to watch your flank
I like to pair gas rover with flamethrower builds because having two streams of fire is not only sick AF! But they compliment each other because flames don’t have stun and gas don’t have damage. Put both together, close quarter combat against bugs has never been funner. But still, the engagement range on the gas drone is so small that it only works half the time, but when it works, by god does it work
This guy is cooking with gas. I'll try that out aftrr this MO!
3:05 You do have a point of reference, you can literally see the individual magazines on the backpack.
Was going to say the same thing. Good on you for knowing
The Backpack Shield could use a buff that allows you to activate a temporary forward facing shield like the SH-32 in HD1 but only while you're aiming down sight. It would allow you to tank a couple of explosions or bile attacks from the front while sticking to its niche and giving needed improvements/incentives. I love it in theory but its so useless right now.
Btw the resupply pack still gives you the effects of a resupply crate when you refill a box, effectively doubling supplies
also real quick, for the guard dog. when its on your backpack you can see how many magazines are left on the pack back itself.
Like I belive its carries (visually) 8 magazines and each time the bot reloads 1 magazine will disappear off the back pack.
So if you toggle it you can tell real quick how much is left.
That is all :)
Brother I haven’t watched you in a while, I definetly missed your little shitty giggles, they are like so iconic, and it makes me giggle as well
Hahaha, glad I can bring a chuckle.
@@TheWileSpice hue heh hih.
Gosh i love it
12:21 With a poorer connection or having another player be the host, the bile of terminids can still affect you even while your bubble is still up. Same thing for the slowing effect of hunter attacks.
I'm not a huge fan of the jump pack but i agree with comments saying it underrated, they have very good points. The only downside for me is that i often see mobility as time taken to go from point A to point B instead of including mobility in the mix. And in that sense, the supply pack works great as well since you can burn through your stims for stamina only if you're far behind your teammates or going for an objective solo. If you use experimental infusion booster, it also provides some defensive capabilities because you can just pre-stim before engaging a group of ennemies to tank the damage and heal instantly as you're loosing health. To me supply pack is just the most well rounded option, hence me taking it almost every time.
I also don't prefer using the shield generator pack often because some new options we have can increase our effectiveness using cover (like charging a shot behind cover before shooting it when using the Purifier or the Quasar for instance). I think i'll reconsider using them on planets with hazards or swamp ones with their huge rivers.
I personally like the dog breath cause it’ll keep gassing chargers until they finally die due to the gas or I can easily destroy it, it’s more of a utility based weapon but it would be nice if the backpack launched more of the guard dogs or have a more efficient way of spreading gas at the very least
It definitely needs to be more consistent at hitting the targets for sure and a better way of spreading the gas as you said. Its super frustrating when its firing but evidently not hitting its target!
Having 2 or 3 smaller dog breath drones would be cute and also a fun way to target more units.
The guard dog on the bot front is fantastic, it gives suppressing fire causing bots to be wildly inacurrate. It is both offensive and defensive.
For me, the point of taking the supply pack is that i can have a huge supply of nades and stims without bringing their respective armours, so i can get another passive while poping stims like candy.
ive been using the supply pack with the HMG just so i can shoot a bajillion bullets, but its also super useful for keeping me and my buddies alive because of the extra stims you get!!
I really hope they rework the gas rover to be honest. This has soooo much potential. Make it accurate and focus on applying gas, switching to a new target as soon as possible. Let the confusion and dot damage be the primary focus and apply it to as many enemies as possible. I love playing themes gas+fire builds, and this just sounds like such a fun concept. As of right now.. total garbage, sadly. How good it could be depends on how many enemies it can affect at the same time. With decent accuracy and targeting priorization changes that can easily be something like 6-10 targets. Right now it's, like.. 0.5?
Edit: Also, it seems the blinking red icons are just as bugged as the player levels. When in coop i oftentimes ask my friend whether he is low due to the blinking items, and would like the last remaining supply in the drop, just for him to tell me that no he is indeed literally maxed, or one below max on said ressource. Not just useless, but actively confusing lmfao
Edit 2: The shield backpack *does* protect you from boint-blank explosions. Just not when the 500kg bomb is literally *inside* the shield.
I agree. It surprises me that so many people are defending it, even after multiple showcases of it literally doing nothing which are common in-game occurrences.
Looks like Arrowhead needs to fix the icons!
& I did try a few close distances, it still deleted me when too close
Jump pack is kinda OP against bugs ngl. You can get out any spicy situation in a whim, if you can find any high ground, you can practically annhilate their entire population from a impossible to get height. Specifically during extraction, you can be even way out of touch for all terminids except the shriekers. Great tool, 9/10
Beein using jump pack with orbital napalm, quasar cannon and mg sentry. The amount of destruction you can bring is uncompareable
I've started to really like the Ballistic Shield lately, since I play mostly against the bots, and I almost always have the Defender, It's made attacking bases som much easier since I can push pretty hard without needing to take cover as much.
Disabling the drone from flying is critical when you're sneaking around enemy patrols and camps. Especially when evading an ambush or setting up an outpost or fortress/mega hive for an orbital. That drone will pull anything near you if it's out.
The drone recall is good when you need to be stealthy or to manually reload it in down time.
The jump pack has been my favorite now because I am still grinding rare samples for ship modules upgrades and it allows me to move around the map way faster
If you pay attention to the gaurd dod while its reloading you can see it: drop a magazine, land on the backpack, fold to either side, the. You can actual watch the backpack put a new magazine in the gun. Therfor you can count the magazines you have and know how much ammo you have
I think the jump pack should be a little higher personally. Not only is it great for covering ground quickly, but it allows you to skip over some environmental hazards (like a cliff, hole or water) and can be used to gain positional advantage very efficiently. It's also really funny to jump over chargers and make them run straight into the giant nuked out holes on nursery missions
2:23
You're probably aware already, but the labelings on your AP scale are outdated now, since AH reworked the classifications.
AP-2 is still light penetration, and AP-3 is also still medium penetration. However, AP-4 is now considered heavy penetration, and 5+ is now anti-tank.
3:10 We actually can tell how much ammo the Guard Dog has left in reserve.
Watch its reload animation --- The magazines are physically on your back.
The gas drone would be great if it didn't focus fire. It should only fire at things not affected by the gas debuff
the drone toggle stops the guard dog from spending endless ammo on charger/atat/shielder center-mass, factories, fences and occasional turrets that it just ricochets off.
also, as others have said, the dog-pack carries it's spar ammo on 2 rails so yo can see not only the ammo in the dog when it's shooting but also the spares left from glancing at your helldivers back. going to 45 ammo 8 reloads plus groud-pickups from 30 ammo 6 reloads and only supply-replenishment turned an previously maligned support item into something getting dangerously close to being used by streamers/content-creators then getting nerfed.
edit2. las-guard got nerfe when the scythe got it's damage changed from 250-350, so the las0dog went from 250 to 350*.7=245 plus a fire-proc plus unlimited ammo (no overheat which it's had almost since launch but only recently got added as one of the never ending list of "know issues").
edit3 fart-hound needs a 30-45 degree cone of fire, WAY more freedom to move about and a 1-3 second lingering affect/puddle/ground-gas-puddle. as-is it's almost useless given gas got nerfed into the ground with the change as it can't kill and the random targeting still means the enemies can go for you while still operating on higher than cluster-bomb/strafe/rocket/strike/airburst cooldowns.
2:35 Guard dog is great to run with machine gun sentry, feels like running around with a mini strike team
Saying that the guard dogs being toggles isn't a big desl when the primary reason I think they were straight up bad for anything other than heavy armour machine gun or flamethrower running straight into every enemy group you see is because it would pull aggro by shooting random patrols for no reason. Being able to toggle them is what makes them viable for more than 1 strategy
I play lvl 7+ pretty much exclusively and from my personal experience (don’t argue when I have clearly stated this is an opinion) the jetpack should be S tier for bugs, if you understand positioning and how the bugs react to your movements, you will almost never take damage. Also being able to jump large gaps, craters, or cavities, especially under pressure, is one of the most undervalued abilities in the game.
I find the Jump Pack is for the bugs what the Ballistic Shield is for the bots. In both cases they are absolutely better survivibility tools than the personal energy shield provided the person using them knows what they are doing with it. But that usefulness is very faction dependent, against bugs the ballistic shield has very limited attacks it can defend from, and the jump pack only really lets you attempt a quick escape or take high-ground positions against bots, but they'll still be able to attack you while using it.
I used the jump pack for pretty much every game after this video to re-evaluate, and would probably place it higher than I did here on the bugs side for sure. The personal shield is just too easy to get value from for me to not rate it so highly though imo.
I don’t like energy shields for reason only because it doesn’t allow me to heal my friends. I need to accurately destroy the shied and then heal.
Thanks for telling me that supply back pack can help you as well if you click on 5. And there must be a synergy between it and railgun.
Jetpack is a must try - too fun, and allows to throw stratagems even further away.
Ballistic shield works greatly with crossbow.
The "pointless" function of the drones coming back to your back, is to keep them from firing if you're trying to stealth, if they're wasting ammo on things like hulks and tanks, ect.
my opinion is that the ballistic shield is the best against droids because when you combine the shield with the explosive crossbow you are a walking tank on the battlefield
Having Jetpack as a Heavy Armor main at the moment It's nice to have a movement option against bugs and it's nice with Bots but it's not that much better to have since they don't really miss on Super Helldive. But being able to move on the fly against bugs is so helpful. I've been doing a fire based build against bugs, and it's so fun. I'm trying to think of better themed builds, and I think I'm gonna do some kind of gas build, but I'm not sure how I'll pair the sterilizer with other stuff.
I love ballistic shield. I pray every night before bed that they buff it to at least block fire and bile, but also that they let it reduce knockback from explosions and remove the dropping mechanic
I agree, those buffs would make it amazing and a solid all round pick.
The jump pack should be at least B tier if not low A tier for Bugs. Being able to disengage from a hoard with the click of a button and reposition is extremely helpful. This factor allows you to kite a large group pretty well while you either whittle it down or your teammates take care of it for you while you hold the agro. Avoiding being hit is sometimes better than being able to take a hit. Being able to jump and more consistently planting thermites onto Titans is also a bonus. This is all not even the mention all of the utility and convenience factors of the jump pack.
The tox thrower from HD1 was the bomb. And I was as hyped when it got announced as disappointed when it got released.
Exactly the same thoughts here.
I'd switch the placement of supply pack and shield pack. The shield pack is okay for some missions like blitzes or exterminations where you're expected to be under constant threat with little room or time to maneuver. But otherwise the majority of the damage that the shield pack would protect against can be simply avoided by utilizing cover, good movement, and situational awareness. Meanwhile the supply pack opens up a variety of team support options and playstyles since some weapons such as the HMG are only really usable with the supply pack, and it can also let you roam the map solo cleaning up sub-objectives and outposts with no worry of ammo or health while your teammates get to use the resupply to do main objectives.
Thats fair. It does open up a lot more options for play than the shield for sure.
The new penetrating dog is godly
Me and my friends are convinced the laser guard dog was designed by an automaton spy, that thing will literally turn around and target helldivers out of nowhere with no sight of any enemy in their line of fire, idk if the AR guard dog has a different AI or something but I've never seen a team kill while using them compared to the PILES of casualties from that laser drone
Hahaha, you might be onto something. Especially after they added burn to the lasers!
Wish they would add a stratgem backpack that can carry another stratagem weapon.
Now that would be awesome.
That would be cool, but I doubt they’ll add it since you’d need to use 3 strategem slots to get value out of it
It would be nice to be able to pickup loose weapons laying about. Even if the backpack was able to hold primary weapons.
Dude the magazines are on your back and there is a cute animation when reloading
Hello mate, your game looks awesome, do you use some kind of reshade or something ?
Howdy, no reshade, just base game at max settings! :)
The ballistic shield's worst part is that it can break after an amount of damage and you can actually drop it by getting rangdolled. AH should remove these features. If the shield could absorb the explosive damage (without breaking or dropping it) but you still get the ragdoll then it would be a decent backpack considering that you can pick the crossbow with you as a primary weapon.
The dogbreath is a really good idea the downside of that is the aiming as you showed.
1:42 returning a drone to your backpack is certainly not pointless for multiple cases.
Wanna avoid a patrol with stealth - return drone to backpack.
You're on a high ground and don't want a drone blasting your head off - return to backpack.
You're fighting a charger/bile titan/tank/hulk and it's the only enemy near you - return to backpack, don't wanna waste that precious ammo.
13:04 your shield breaks here because of the 500's impact damage, so you ate the explosion without a shield
so i'm not sure if you can actually survive it when you're right next to it??
It did indeed! Didn't notice in editing sadly. But I did try a few times from very close distances moving back a couple feet each try. It still deletes you if you are too close without physical contact from the shell.
The same can happen with automaton mines, though its sometimes inconsistent with those.
You can very easy see how much your ammo your Ar-23 dog has left, because the magazines are visible on the backpack - just count :)
barely touch packs but in farm runs i'll usually pull a guard dog instead of a support/spare-boom as any ground-drop weapon usually covers my needs and having a headshot-happy (and freshly double-buffed when i already liked it) less-likely-to-delete-the-user drone on hand to merc mid-air hunters and stray enemies is damned useful when running a marathon.
Otherwise i generally take a spare form the pure-meta players as so few ever consider sharing up-front but 16-24 mins in there's bound to be a spare lying around near some abandoned samples and 2 booms plus a flex slot on top of a weapon (mandatory most runs) is remarkably effective when the stuff hits the fan and everyone else spams theirs on-cooldown against the same enemies (also why i trend towards strike over 500kg and pair it with 2/1 turrets and a precision/cluster previously, now occasionally a rocket/strafe/gatling).
i never use the laser-dog as franky it kills me more than the enemies do and it seems to aim at heads way less while spamming it's fire for a longer uptime so i end up playing extreme-limbo with my own laser support.
Another thing to note about the Shield Generator Backpack is that when active, it seems to completely block friendly stim pistol needles.
Seems a crazy oversight by arrowhead lol.
You can actually shoot through it if you stick the gun's barrel through the shield. Get close enough to the friend and it will hit them underneath the shield. Still annoying though
guard dog (liberator) is actually quite good for bots because it will shoot devistators heads like 80% of the time which is a lifesaver
The Shield backpack also allows you to use stun grenades close without stunning yourself.
Opinion about my game play
Guard dog (liberator) work great with purifier, blitzer and Adjudicator.
Is great to kill stun enemies, or max damage, the guard dog (laser) don’t have that power, specially vs bots
Guard dog (gas) is very useful with blitzer or cookout shotgun. Can protect you vs chargers, stalkers and Alpha Commanders, give you space to have time for do the kill or run
Gas thrower is not great, but with a Supply pack and a heavy gas armor, you can do aggro and let your teammates do the job. The confusion, specifically on bugs, is amazing 🥰
Jetpack and and experimental infusion make your heavy armor move like a small armor do, and I love it 🥰
1:45 certainly not pointless. Sometimes I just want to walk past a patrol or avoid some random enemies and the drone will be like "let's shoot that charger half a kilometre away, I don't like his face". The new function is a very welcome addition as it let's you better control when you want to engage the enemy. Also it can save ammo if that is a concern.