**IMPORTANT: as many of you pointed out, i completely overlooked the leg weakspot on the Harvester, which has a decreased armor value and a much smaller health pool, which actually makes a lot of the weapons (most notably; mg, hmg, railgun, amr, laser cannon) A LOT better. The tips are still valid, and the information on the weapons are still valid when comparing them only with the "face weakspot" But DISREGARD the performance "ranking" because it is very innacurate (ive also removed it from the title). Ill re-test everything and share a more correct performance ranking in a later video
I was able to one shot a leg with the railgun, which instakills the things. However its VERY hard to consistently hit the weak points since it is constantly moving their spindly little legs around especially with the time constraints RG charge gives you. Have not tried yet but I feel like the autocannon or HMG would be the best alternative for leg shots.
@@jeffreywilliams3421 The commando can blow the leg weakpoint with a single rocket and the laser guidance makes it a little easier to hit the leg. I had really good results with it.
The more critically vulnerable parts of the harvester are the prime joints that connect the legs to the body, and they are placed right under. I prefer to go for the middle one. The leg comes off very quickly with HMG, MG, and gets 1-2 shot with a Railgun, dk about the other guns. It's a much better place to aim than the eye.
Nice that you mentioned this. I had this felling with the RR. A few times I 1-shoted the Harvester by hitting a leg joint. Looks like it is a weakspot.
Quasar 1-shots on leg joints, pop the shield with primary, aim to the side of the eye (joints of legs) and boom, gone. EDIT: Do NOT aim for the obvious weak spot (eye), it has a huge health pool. If you remember the chargers leg meta, it's similar.
@@the_takibo It's genuinely funny that you spent so much time shooting it without figuring it out. xD Thx for the arc tips tho, now flamethrower seems pretty op against squids.
6:46 DO NOT AIM AT THE EYE! Aim for the legs, precisely on the part that connects the leg to the main body - shooting there takes the tri pod in one single hit on enough charge.
LMG can cut legs off REALLY well. I see so many people shoot the body. I watched a guy shoot a shield with a Quasar then another used TWO EATs to body shoot it.
The shields were definitely meant to waste high value attacks like RR shots, EATs, rail gun and etc. They're meant to make these enemies last longer and protect them from precision weapons with high burst dmg from killing them so you have to weaken the shield first and then AT or throw something strong as 500kg and just take them out in one go. They're either meant to be the illumanate equivalent of a hulk/charger or strider/titan.
During my couple hours if playtime I've had multiple survive 500KG with and without shield. Some even survived direct impact. Since that happens with other heavy enemies aswell its probably not an issue with the new enemy itself. Just note that damage is inconsistent in this game.
@@maiy8786 Also, the Illuminate in general seem to be built around encouraging us to use different strategems and tactics. Massive single-strike attacks seem to be pretty ineffective against their shields in general.
Cannot stress how useful the stun melee weapons have been in my experience. Especially the Baton. It has less range, but its swing hits multiple enemies, letting you cut through a horde like Aragorn
With the viper commando +100% melee damage armor and the spear (or baton), you can wreck the voteless and overseers. The jetpack guys are an issue though. No loadout I've found that works for the hordes/walkers also works well against the flying overseers, which is where my hangup currently is. Luckily the guard dog takes care of them pretty well if you can get it to target them and not the little guys
@@chrissnider9555 I've found the blitzer to be pretty reliable against the infantry. While it doesn't insta kill the overseers, it stuns then long enough to get continued shots and will eventually take them out. Naturally if you have at least one other diver by your side, one of you can stun lock them while the other deals extra damage thus finishing them off.
Laser Cannon is the optimal weapon for taking them down. Drills through the shield and the leg in quick succession, from extreme range, with no recoil. What it lacks in burst, it makes up for in reach and precision, letting you deal with them from a mile out. With their shields recharging and the swarm of zombies, being able to engage from far enough out that you get uninterrupted damage is simply more efficient.
It's great in theory but the zombies really put a damper on that idea. Also it does not immediately drill through the shield, you have to stand there for a few seconds which you don't usually have the luxury of.
@@TheVoicelessPoet Range gives you that luxury. Also, it is an infinite ammo long range weapon that works well while moving, so lasering the zombies down at range is free. Doesn't have AoE to deal with the sheer swarm size, but you can easily use an AoE weapon too.
The harvester eye is not the actual weak spot, found out the leg joints are 1 shot(with AT) and a few easy shots with the AMR, easily bringing down the Harvester. I have yet to try out other support weapons with that. Gas grenade, Purifier, Tesla tower is the holy trinity so far for me. Purifier/Crossbow are godsend primaries so far, will see what other weapons work well with Illuminate
Brought a Tesla Tower in my last mission, it's fantastic against everything, only downside is the usual, teammates walking right into it, dying, and getting mad at you for taking it
@@evanhuizenga8626 You know where you put it. You know you are not gonna walk that same way. Can't say the same about teammates who need to cross the path you have just blocked out of the blue. It's not easy to spot that thing for people who see it rarely, especially with the Illuminats' estetic and when turning a corner in the city. You can't even get prone to calm it anymore. Its users put it way too close. Everybody gets surprised by its range. Now not only people bring it, but the enemy as well. I don't see or hear the users ping it or call it out on comms. They just throw it wherever and get mad at you for walking into their little trap.
The AMR is definitely one of the best weapons for the illuminate. The real weak spot of the harvesters is the joint, and the AMR kills it in 4 shots if you hit there. And like it was pointed out, it can one shot overseers with headshots (it can also oneshot the flyers if you hit their jetpack, great if youre sniping for your buddies)
Yeah … I feel like I’m the only one doing the double laser build… the one where you have the scythe and lazer cannon… my job is to make all the shields go away and deal with the little guys. Got 1000 kills the other day with this lol
2:05 the armor is especially good because there is multiple units that deal arc damage on illuminate missions, i think the spotting probe also deals arc damage, and there are also illuminate tesla towers on map
I really like the design of the harvester. Most weapons will deal damage to it, and even basic primaries are useful for taking out the shield. It simply has a ton of hit points, so it encourages team play. Being focus-fired by 2+ laser cannons or HMG's also works nicely, and those two weapons double up as useful against the hoards of voteless.
Shields tank your heavy weapons, but they seem to melt under quantity like the machine pistol. Also applies to their ships. That to break shield and a recoilless to the face or autocannon to the joints will bring it down quickly.
I love bringing the Sickle specifically to just Hold Left Click on Shielded troops. Works insanely well. LaserMaxxing against the Illuminates is an actual viable strat.
Harvester is considered small unit (just like chargers), bile titan is medium unit, big units are yet to come and arent a thing yet. (The brood commanders and the shield wielding illuminates are considered very small, and the what was once people, are very very small units )
I am suprised how many people did not know but you are actualy immune to ark damage if you are on the ground, they will not even connect to you, when you see tesla tower (ours or illuminates) or harvester charge up their arc attack just lie down and they wont even shoot.
Pretty sure this is not entirely true, afaik, while you are prone you cannot be the primary target of lightning type weapons, but it can definitely still chain to you off of teammates or enemies
Can confirm, not true. Was playing duo with a friend to explore the enemy types etc. and we jumped down near a tower; he got vaporized instantly, I immediately went prone expecting it to be like our tesla tower only for it to vaporize me a few seconds later while I was trying to crawl away thinking I'd be safe. Now, that's been my only experience being shot by/at by a tower thus far, so MAYBE it was a bug or it's inconsistent, but I can at least confirm that you are NOT 100% safe while prone.
I run 500kg, 120mm barrage, supply backpack, machine gun. I run the torcher, the dagger, incendiary impact, and I run the flame resistant light armor. TONs of fun. Very effective against everything pretty much. Tons of horde clearing and the 950rpm setting tears through overseers so easily. And it just sounds awesome. And it can strip shields easily allowing 500kgs to kill the squids
I like how you pretty much ranked the flamethrower the best strat against it while the recoiless rifle not only took you less time and did more damage but also exposed you less.
Yo guys if you're getting a bit overwhelmed by the voteless don't sleep on the Tesla Tower that thing melts is good crowd control (specially in the urban area) make sure to bring Arc resistance armor. Also for those who don't know to take out the outpost (the parked ships) take down the shield and throw a thermite at the entrance door (I know you can use regular/impact grenades but I bring thermites for the harvesters) Edit: Also I find the sickle ar very good for the voteless give it a shot
Sickle is amazing for dropping shields on the harvesters/base ships. I use high explosive grenades in the doors of the base ships and it takes them out in a single grenade with shields down. High explosive are also good for dealing with larger swarms of zombies.
@chrissnider9555 hey I tried it yesterday and it's takes down shield glad that it does! Also thanks for the grenade tip, since I'm attached to thermites I'm going to try it
Something to add about the autocannon: every shot staggers the harvesters. And when they stagger, they can't fire or charge up any attacks. Very useful harassment tool
Best way to kill Harvesters: Throw a 500kg, pop it's shield while you wait for the impact. Or yeet an orbital laser and don't even bother popping the shield. Even on Super Helldive they're not common enough to merit a dedicated support weapon slot. Save that for for MG or something to mow down the voteless.
one of the good things about this update is that we do get "urban" environments. if you use this to your advantage (sticking to the rooftops), you can avoid the hordes and deal with the harvesters fairly easily. the flying overseer guys and the scout things will be a problem, but much less so than the hordes of voteless.
From personal testing, RR can one shot tripods by hitting them in another lesser known weak point: the ball joints (the middle joint of its lobster legs). It is heavily armored, so RR and Quasar may be the only ones that have enough AP to one shot tripods via that weak spot.
One other thing to note, on harvesters, their horns are what manifest the shield, and provide most of its hp. If destroyed, they can drop fast, and lacking a shield makes them trivial to drop
Have not yet seen the video (I'm busy with work, busy time of the year), but skimmed it. What I came to find out from testing Day 1 was that Plasma weapons are fantastic in general against the illuminants in general so I heavily advise taking them. Specifically: Get the Plas-15 Scorcher, you can quickly mag dump (I haven't kept track) 8-12 (ish) shots, takes down the shields. Then mag dump the rest into the weak spot, pull out the Commando, double fire 2 rounds trying to aim for the weak spot, and it usually goes down. If it doesn't, reload, fire a few more plasma rounds into the thing, it falls. In a perfect world, you can take out 2 of these guys in about ~18-25 seconds (mostly reload time and swapping weapon time) using this loadout, and I believe the CD for the commando has been reduced to 90s or is just lower (again, very un-scientific recording), especially if an ally is firing their primary into the weak spot or providing additional fire. If you're in a pinch and there's only 1 walker, feel free to mag dump 3 Commando missiles into the walker for a guaranteed, quick & Easy take down, but with allies firing into the walkers, usually 2 is enough. If you're absolutely confident in your Recoilless Rifle skills however, def take this. If the walkers have yet to aggro on a player, they'll just stand around unmoving with their shields down. Easy 1-shot.
One thing to point out: It is a bit difficult to pull off, but I have managed to do so in a game. With the Quasar you can land an accurate shot at the leg and tear it clean off in one shot. This instantly kills the Harvester. You can do it from range, before the Harvester even engages the shield. But it takes careful aim.
The commando one-shots at the leg joint. It having a guided missile and four shots makes it forgiving and it's my favorite special weapon against the squids so far
Comparing the HMG TTK to the Laser Cannon... I feel like the Laser Cannon should be ranked much higher, especially given it's incredible range without damage falloff, and infinite ammo.
Thank you so much for this! I spent a few hours today testing techniques and support weapons with my brother and we came to the conclusion that running any form of machine gun then using a quick cooldown strat like the strafing run, Gatling barrage or airburst were among the better ways to take down the harvesters while keeping the horde off you simultaneously. This requires split attention and if you don't have turrets pulling security for you, (and also, if you lose track where they are firing that can be really bad lol) you will barely be able to take the harvesters before the shields come back, wasting a valuable support weapon's rocket or missile.
Gonna be a bit long but a breakdown of the illuminate (so far) can be covered entirely with med pen weapons, anti tank isn't required but is helpful of course. Voteless are general cannon fodder, headshots insta kill but can be hard to hit sometimes, the easiest way to deal with swarms without using fire or wasting grenades is shooting the legs, they crawl and bleed out at the same time, significantly reducing the threat. (Arc thrower clears these guys super easy.) Overseers are honestly the hardest unit since they can be numerous and push you especially the airborne ones. Shooting the waist or legs is easiest, head armor requires med armor pen and their lower armor falls of quickly. Jetpacks are explodable but hard to hit. And of course the harvesters. They seem intimidating but once you destroy their shield generator just shot the joints (darker parts on the legs) and they'll go down quickly. Weapons that have been good for me and my team consist of Arc thrower for swarms, W.A.S.P for overseers (one taps them) AMR can also one tap overseers and kill harvesters in 4 or so shots to the joint. And the machine gun works wonders for all units. Tesla tower, HMG, sentry machine guns can also help take pressure off of your team as well as divert crowds as theyll sometimes prioritize emplacements first.
I've found the stalwart is absolutely amazing for this faction. Crazy good crowd control and sheds shields in literally 1 second. Tons of ammo. Reload on the go. With harvestors just just strategems after instantly cutting their shield. Co-op just have someone run anti tank.
Teamwork is essential against the illuminate. You definitely need a balance of horde control and heavy hitters, both in support weapons and stratagems. Also harvesters become way easier to take down when one diver is using a machine gun to keep the shields down and draw aggro while the other lays down heavy attacks with spear or RR.
About to go off about hitting the joints, then realize that most of the comments already beat me to the punch, glad word spreads fast with the community 😊
I like that, just like the hulk the eyes are weak in armor. But unlike the hulk the tripods eye is like a false weak spot as it may be damage-able by less effective weapons, it doesn’t break as easily as hitting its legs. You can run against the illuminates with just the mg as it has lots of ammo and can kill out the tripods very quickly
In my own experience, the Pummeler can end the Harvester in only 1 magazine if most shots hit it in the eye. Drop their shield, reload, then engage it's eye from close range. At close up, it cannot shoot you at all, it seems. We've had great success with the Stalwart as well
Their "melee" is literally tesla tazing you, that attack is lethal just as the blue beam. It's like you got Arc Thrower zapped. So not too close, I suppose.
The machine gun is my favorite. It's really good against hordes, it shreds shields in a few seconds, and it CAN manage the harvesters IF you can hit their join. Yes the recoilless is more effective against Harvesters, but that's what teammates are for.
Yeah. This video should probably get a do-over. As many have already noted: the real weak-point namely isn't the tiny eye, but the leg joints which have a vastly reduced health-pool, is vulnerable to any kind of Medium armor penetration and snapping any one of them instantly kills them. If you or your team got a steady aim and/or focus fire on the joints, they will fall rapidly to most support weapons. Which definitely bumps up a good deal of weapons in this list. Most notably the Machine Gun, Heavy Machine Gun and the Laser Cannon.
HMG is my personal favorite atm, good for harvesters and all the smaller enemies. Supply pack for additional ammo or a shield pack to prevent chaff from knocking you around a bit can help.
The Spear seems to be one of the best options thus far for Harvester management. In all my time of using it, every single Harvester died in one shot after the shields were removed. I wasn't trying to align the missile for the eye or anything, and it didn't hit the weak spots most of the time anyway. So, needing two Spear shots is news to me. At least we finally get to dust off that Cutting Edge armor from so long ago lol
The lazer cannon is pretty effective at range. Can be fired easily while moving and doesnt require reload until overheated. I've yet to be surrounded and overwhelmed using a sickle and lazer cannon build. Plus use a shield backpack for security
in all cases, going for the leg joints has been infinitely more reliable for me. AMR: 5-6 for shield + 6-7 for the joint is a kill HMG: can take it down within a mag, but you better be prone, otherwise a lot of those are gonna go wide and you'll need a reload to get the job done Impact Grenades: surprisingly effect, but id only use them in a pinch and even then only on a wounded Harvester. Thermite Grenades: my beloved, you never let me down. Except when I forget to extend the spikes 0_o and yeah, ironically flamers are actually really fucking good
The arc thrower will also chain onto hordes running below them towards you.. so you end up racking up plenty of kills giving time for team mates to heal/setup to take it down.
As a new player, I'm finding the lazer cannon that fires non-stop to be rrally effective once the shields down and to all the other enemies as you can lay down consistent fire and they take fire damage as well
Another thing I wanted to add to the armour, is that the arc thrower from the harvester seems to bounce to enemies as well! So this means that if you are up close to it and it's arc throwing you, it will arc to the weaker swarmie enemies and kill them for you!
Another tip is the extra padding heavy armor and vitality enhancement let you not die to the arc blast instantly like most armors do. Idk if you just need the vitality or just the super heavy armor because I always use them in tandem, but even so I usually use it to get up close to throw thermite grenades
My personal with the recoilless is if youre brave you dont need the acr resistant armour. you can run in under its shield and shoot straight up at its leg and take it down in one hit
There’s also a weak point in between the leg joints. It’s small but if you hit it you can get a nice 1 or 2 shots of with any of the rocket launches with the commando and the rail cannon taking 2-3 (given you charged the rail cannon up to 90%
Machine guns going for the hip section seems to be the preference of most people, either MG-43 or heavy machine gun. Honestly both work well, but I actually like the laser cannon. Yes the machine guns are technically better, but you have to land shots on a relatively thin moving target. Laser cannon may not be great at bringing down shields quickly, but the TTK for me is faster because I can much more reliably hit the legs with the complete absence of recoil. I could see the machine guns doing better with recoil reduction passive, but otherwise they felt a bit more frustrating in my opinion, due to wasting ammo on not hitting the right spot. Also, side benefits of the laser cannon are freely bringing down shields of grounded ships (may not be as fast but it's essentially free) and it's also good at killing overseers. May not be great against the voteless, but I just stick to my primary and guard dog for them.
So far I've gotten good results with the Heavy Machine Gun as a general purpose Support weapon, taking down both the Overseers and Harvesters pretty decently if you can keep it on target. Obviously they can thresh the zombies pretty well too, but there are better options. Also good for tearing down the shields on the Illuminate spawn factories, so you can throw grenades in and take them out. Eagle Strafing runs are good for wiping out big groups of pursuing zombies and sometimes overseers. Incendiary grenades are also good for clearing those crowds. The secondary flamer is also not bad for this. And I've returned to the Slugger as my general purpose primary for Overseers and Picking off zombies. Reliance on grenade and rapid-fire support weapon has made me lean towards the Support Pack. The Orbital Rail Cannon is the only orbital I've found so far that consistently takes out their factories.
Try out orbital gas strikes. Will take out the factories through the shields in one shot. Throw it underneath so the projectile hits the factory. Super low cooldown too
The flame thrower might work on these level 3 scenarios when the Harvester is by itself, but this weapon is absolutely abysmal in higher difficulties when even one overseer is nearby. Weapons that can take down the Harvester from afar are far superior. I wouldn't recommend any fire weapons even for the hordes of voteless - you simply chew through too much ammo. I've found the is the best all-rounder for dealing with all enemy types - . As for the shields, it seems as long as they're up they have a regen rate so high rate of fire weapons bring them down more effectively (this goes for the shields on the spawners too). The most efficient loadout I've used is for hordes and inf. ammo, for spawners, for Harvesters and Overseers. Bring a for the rest of your strategems and you'll be fine.
In my experiance the sterilizer does apply the confused effect to the harvester. You want to take down the shield with something else but after that you can spray them down and they start dancing in place and shooting their laser at nothing in the distance
That bottom horn, from what I understand actually, doesn't affect the shield. It affects its targeting system and the laser intensity the harvester shoots. I blew the bottom horn off but not the top one, and the laser not only got noticeably thinner, it started targeting its own units.
When dealing with the Harvester you can aim for the shield generator, but it is still 86% combat effective! Here's a tip: aim for the leg stem, and put it down for good.
I suppose I’ll have to try out some different combos, because the ones I’m hearing about in the comments sound really good. What my friend and I figured out was that kinetics work a lot better against shields than lasers. So we brought stalwarts, they’re great for CC with the voteless, they burn through the shields on the harvesters and the landed ships like they’re nothing. Once the harvester shields are down I’d just use a rail cannon strike, or shoot at the eye (I was unaware of the leg weak spot) for primaries I kind of like running something a lil heavier, like the diligence, the tenderizer on single fire, or the purifier. They seem to work decently on the melee guys, the jet pack dudes, and if you’re aiming carefully (not always possible) the harvester eyes
The AMR is boss against the Illuminates. Don’t shoot the Harvester in the eye, shoot the joint of their legs. They die instantly when one comes off. It is viable
I miss the chaotic times where when a bilt titan appeared, everyone lost their shit and started throwing every strategem available cus noone knew the best ways to take them down yet. The harvesters remind me of that time.
I see your pinned comment. Was sitting here like "bro, the friggin leg joints to the torso what are you even...?" But yeah, Stalwart is my favourite support weapon but goddamn I went through all my ammo standing under one trying to hit the sweet spot since the legs are too well armoured for it.
it is crazy to me how every youtuber I have watched soo far that have published videos about the harvester has completely missed the upper leg weak spot until after upload. When I encountered the harvesters the upper leg is one of the first potential weak spots I tried; thinking back to the Scout Strider/Reinforced Scout Strider, whose weak spots are notably the crotch plate, the joints in the upper leg, and the pilot (or missiles on the reinforced variant). 2 shots with the autocannon can take out a leg.
My recommended support weapons vs the overseers and the tripods is usually the default MG or the HMG. Good amount of bullets to deal with shields and to pierce armor enough for weak points. During asset extract (done 3 of those vs the squids already), 2 times we brought mostly HMGs, supply packs and MG emplacements and we *shredded* them.
for shoulder fired AT options. Theres another option. Dont go for the eye, you can blow off a leg at the joint like a peice of armor, and it instakills the harvester. not a nice glowy dot to shoot at. and in the fog at a range the joints might blend with the body and be hard to spot, but you can one or 2 tap them off (2 with the commando, id say one in the spear but you dont really have a choice where its gonna hit. havent testing with others since spotting this additional weakpoint)
one thing i'd like to add with the eyeball. yea dont bother with bullets. but bombs and rockets will destroy it very fast. the grenade launcher or just regular impact grenades right in the eye can make it topple over very fast in my experience. IE; explosive damage is very effective. Just like with charger butts.
I actually enjoy using the medium machine gun against the walkers. Like i have single handedly destroyed these walkers and in my eyes it is quite effective. I shoot where the legs connect with the body and it is a pretty easy shot and although it takes like 1/3 or half my mag, i can still mow down the zombs.
Scorcher plasma rifle does well against the overseers, only takes about 4-5 direct hits & is also very effective against shields being a energy weapon.
If you use the Airburst Launcher when the ships drop off you can instantly kill all of the lighter enemies. Also I think the HMG implacement is a pretty good option for all enemies if you’re cornered or to melt the harvesters.
I've also found you can one shot them with the recoiless by hitting the joint where the leg meets the body. At least this way, you don't have to be directly in front of them.
I’m running sickle, grenade gun, thermite, and arcthrower. The sickle absolutely melts through the harvester’s shield and one well placed thermite grenade can one shot it. Never thought I’d ever use thermite in my entire hd2 career.
if you are using HMG to kill the bipods then I highly recommend using the emplacement version. Much less recoil so it can be done from much further away, shreds every other enemy lumminate has and allows use of other weapons. ALSO EATs are even worse than you think against illuminate than you think was they cannot kill the spawners from the side you have to shoot the entrance as the EATs bounce off the sides indicating it has higher armor than EATs can handle
Dude LMG with Guard dog is just to good. You can handle any enemy unit right now including the Tripods. Bring an explosive primary and you can solo whole bases.
Also do not sleep on the arc blitzer. I use it and clear the hordes super easily. I have my friend's deal with jetpacks and spotters. Then i use the recoiless against heavies. I might test the commando as that will let me use a guard dog then as well
I stumbled on the flamethrower while doing testing and it is one of my favorites for the squids. I pair it with something for the armored fliers and go to town. Burning a horde of zombies is mint
@@themissingpeace7956 I´ve been running the Scorcher and I love it. But yesterday I tried the buffed Plas-101 Purifier and I love it even more! Its a bit harder to hit, but it 2-shots Overseers with charged shots or you spam them down with half a mag in quick fire. It also adds some aoe damage against the hordes of Voteless.
**IMPORTANT: as many of you pointed out, i completely overlooked the leg weakspot on the Harvester, which has a decreased armor value and a much smaller health pool, which actually makes a lot of the weapons (most notably; mg, hmg, railgun, amr, laser cannon) A LOT better.
The tips are still valid, and the information on the weapons are still valid when comparing them only with the "face weakspot"
But DISREGARD the performance "ranking" because it is very innacurate (ive also removed it from the title).
Ill re-test everything and share a more correct performance ranking in a later video
I was able to one shot a leg with the railgun, which instakills the things. However its VERY hard to consistently hit the weak points since it is constantly moving their spindly little legs around especially with the time constraints RG charge gives you. Have not tried yet but I feel like the autocannon or HMG would be the best alternative for leg shots.
Dude you forgot the le... Oh, nwm.
The Bile Titans taught us NOTHING, we've always avoided the legs. @@jeffreywilliams3421
Also, if you’re able to shoot the feet bits that actually connect the unit to the ground, it seems to go down pretty fast
@@jeffreywilliams3421 The commando can blow the leg weakpoint with a single rocket and the laser guidance makes it a little easier to hit the leg. I had really good results with it.
The more critically vulnerable parts of the harvester are the prime joints that connect the legs to the body, and they are placed right under. I prefer to go for the middle one. The leg comes off very quickly with HMG, MG, and gets 1-2 shot with a Railgun, dk about the other guns. It's a much better place to aim than the eye.
Nice that you mentioned this. I had this felling with the RR. A few times I 1-shoted the Harvester by hitting a leg joint. Looks like it is a weakspot.
Pinned, i did not know about this second weakspot, is the health pool on it smaller than the eyeball? Damn gotta do some testing now
AMR takes like 4-6 shots, so it's definitly doable, also quasar cannon can oneshot it if you aim for those weak parts as well
Quasar 1-shots on leg joints, pop the shield with primary, aim to the side of the eye (joints of legs) and boom, gone.
EDIT: Do NOT aim for the obvious weak spot (eye), it has a huge health pool. If you remember the chargers leg meta, it's similar.
@@the_takibo It's genuinely funny that you spent so much time shooting it without figuring it out. xD
Thx for the arc tips tho, now flamethrower seems pretty op against squids.
6:46 DO NOT AIM AT THE EYE! Aim for the legs, precisely on the part that connects the leg to the main body - shooting there takes the tri pod in one single hit on enough charge.
The armor value is also lower so you don't need ap4.
What’s the lag armor level? 3? 2?
@@rickynicky4443 don't know but the mg 43 can deal a good damage of you go for the joint between the body and the legs
Yuh
LMG can cut legs off REALLY well. I see so many people shoot the body. I watched a guy shoot a shield with a Quasar then another used TWO EATs to body shoot it.
Do NOT sleep on the flame thrower side arm vs the Illuminates. It is great at clearing out the zombie hoards in the cities
Verdict is great for the overseers.
They are not called zombies, call them... The Voteless
@ no thx 🤓 i stay training them zombies
I never dive without it@@sunbreakerqueenofbronze621amen
@dreamingabyssif im running with a team and others have AT, i bring flamer
If not, i bring AT
The shields were definitely meant to waste high value attacks like RR shots, EATs, rail gun and etc. They're meant to make these enemies last longer and protect them from precision weapons with high burst dmg from killing them so you have to weaken the shield first and then AT or throw something strong as 500kg and just take them out in one go. They're either meant to be the illumanate equivalent of a hulk/charger or strider/titan.
I’m certain they’re charger/ hulk equivalent since they have an eliminate harvesters missions at level 3
I've gotten good results with the Heavy Machine Gun.
Sustained fire is definitely the better way to go with the Harvesters.
During my couple hours if playtime I've had multiple survive 500KG with and without shield. Some even survived direct impact. Since that happens with other heavy enemies aswell its probably not an issue with the new enemy itself. Just note that damage is inconsistent in this game.
@@maiy8786 Also, the Illuminate in general seem to be built around encouraging us to use different strategems and tactics.
Massive single-strike attacks seem to be pretty ineffective against their shields in general.
they definitely feel closer to a tank than a hulk. function-wise its basically a more fragile bile titan (despite the shield)
Cannot stress how useful the stun melee weapons have been in my experience. Especially the Baton. It has less range, but its swing hits multiple enemies, letting you cut through a horde like Aragorn
For Frodo
With the viper commando +100% melee damage armor and the spear (or baton), you can wreck the voteless and overseers. The jetpack guys are an issue though.
No loadout I've found that works for the hordes/walkers also works well against the flying overseers, which is where my hangup currently is. Luckily the guard dog takes care of them pretty well if you can get it to target them and not the little guys
@@chrissnider9555 I've found the blitzer to be pretty reliable against the infantry. While it doesn't insta kill the overseers, it stuns then long enough to get continued shots and will eventually take them out. Naturally if you have at least one other diver by your side, one of you can stun lock them while the other deals extra damage thus finishing them off.
You know what also really good in close range against the hordes? SPRAY AND PRAY WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
@@chrissnider9555 heard the melee damage buff only works if you use the melee key and not the left mouse button
Laser Cannon is the optimal weapon for taking them down. Drills through the shield and the leg in quick succession, from extreme range, with no recoil. What it lacks in burst, it makes up for in reach and precision, letting you deal with them from a mile out. With their shields recharging and the swarm of zombies, being able to engage from far enough out that you get uninterrupted damage is simply more efficient.
Thanks for the tip
I used the Lazer cannon and guard dog combo and absolutely obliterated everything
It's great in theory but the zombies really put a damper on that idea.
Also it does not immediately drill through the shield, you have to stand there for a few seconds which you don't usually have the luxury of.
@@TheVoicelessPoet Range gives you that luxury. Also, it is an infinite ammo long range weapon that works well while moving, so lasering the zombies down at range is free. Doesn't have AoE to deal with the sheer swarm size, but you can easily use an AoE weapon too.
@@iansagat2711yes, and the blitzer for when they get close. That’s gg
The harvester eye is not the actual weak spot, found out the leg joints are 1 shot(with AT) and a few easy shots with the AMR, easily bringing down the Harvester. I have yet to try out other support weapons with that.
Gas grenade, Purifier, Tesla tower is the holy trinity so far for me.
Purifier/Crossbow are godsend primaries so far, will see what other weapons work well with Illuminate
Yess, the crossbow is so op, I take it with me against all three threats when I need to get serious
Brought a Tesla Tower in my last mission, it's fantastic against everything, only downside is the usual, teammates walking right into it, dying, and getting mad at you for taking it
Can't wait till the purifier gets nerfed. That spam fire is annoying as hell. "Erm it's the best weapon in the meta so of course I'm gonna use it!"
Blitzery, incen gren and maybe the scorcher works very well for me.
@@evanhuizenga8626 You know where you put it. You know you are not gonna walk that same way. Can't say the same about teammates who need to cross the path you have just blocked out of the blue. It's not easy to spot that thing for people who see it rarely, especially with the Illuminats' estetic and when turning a corner in the city. You can't even get prone to calm it anymore. Its users put it way too close. Everybody gets surprised by its range. Now not only people bring it, but the enemy as well. I don't see or hear the users ping it or call it out on comms. They just throw it wherever and get mad at you for walking into their little trap.
The AMR is definitely one of the best weapons for the illuminate. The real weak spot of the harvesters is the joint, and the AMR kills it in 4 shots if you hit there. And like it was pointed out, it can one shot overseers with headshots (it can also oneshot the flyers if you hit their jetpack, great if youre sniping for your buddies)
Laser cannon actually melts them on their joins REALLY fast
Yeah … I feel like I’m the only one doing the double laser build… the one where you have the scythe and lazer cannon… my job is to make all the shields go away and deal with the little guys.
Got 1000 kills the other day with this lol
2:05 the armor is especially good because there is multiple units that deal arc damage on illuminate missions, i think the spotting probe also deals arc damage, and there are also illuminate tesla towers on map
I really like the design of the harvester. Most weapons will deal damage to it, and even basic primaries are useful for taking out the shield. It simply has a ton of hit points, so it encourages team play. Being focus-fired by 2+ laser cannons or HMG's also works nicely, and those two weapons double up as useful against the hoards of voteless.
Also it looks fucking amazing. It’s genuinely terrifying.
The Auto-Cannon is insanely good, aim for their under belly. It 4/5 shots them.
The flamethrower is actually amazing as long as it's alone. Just stay under it. It won't step on you like a bile titan.
@@jjrobledo24 it caaan fall on you tho so watch for that and dive
It can do a electric zone attack, i got killed trying to do that
Fire has always been the number one enemy for squids, even as far back as in the first game.
Using the Knight SMG to nearly instantly break shields and then a harder hitting single shot stratagem weapon works really well on the Harvesters
How do you get the Knight?
@natek3156 its part of the Super Citizen edition of the game
Shields tank your heavy weapons, but they seem to melt under quantity like the machine pistol. Also applies to their ships. That to break shield and a recoilless to the face or autocannon to the joints will bring it down quickly.
I love bringing the Sickle specifically to just Hold Left Click on Shielded troops. Works insanely well. LaserMaxxing against the Illuminates is an actual viable strat.
Harvester is considered small unit (just like chargers), bile titan is medium unit, big units are yet to come and arent a thing yet. (The brood commanders and the shield wielding illuminates are considered very small, and the what was once people, are very very small units )
I am suprised how many people did not know but you are actualy immune to ark damage if you are on the ground, they will not even connect to you, when you see tesla tower (ours or illuminates) or harvester charge up their arc attack just lie down and they wont even shoot.
Pretty sure this is not entirely true, afaik, while you are prone you cannot be the primary target of lightning type weapons, but it can definitely still chain to you off of teammates or enemies
Unfortunately that's bot propaganda, I just watched my teammate get zapped from 5 meters away while crawling
This isn't true. At least with the Illuminate. Their teslas still zap you if you're crawling 100%.
it rare really....because they have a chance to miss you while crawling but that does not meant it a good move because it have some Chance to kill you
Can confirm, not true. Was playing duo with a friend to explore the enemy types etc. and we jumped down near a tower; he got vaporized instantly, I immediately went prone expecting it to be like our tesla tower only for it to vaporize me a few seconds later while I was trying to crawl away thinking I'd be safe.
Now, that's been my only experience being shot by/at by a tower thus far, so MAYBE it was a bug or it's inconsistent, but I can at least confirm that you are NOT 100% safe while prone.
I run 500kg, 120mm barrage, supply backpack, machine gun.
I run the torcher, the dagger, incendiary impact, and I run the flame resistant light armor.
TONs of fun. Very effective against everything pretty much. Tons of horde clearing and the 950rpm setting tears through overseers so easily. And it just sounds awesome. And it can strip shields easily allowing 500kgs to kill the squids
I like how you pretty much ranked the flamethrower the best strat against it while the recoiless rifle not only took you less time and did more damage but also exposed you less.
Yo guys if you're getting a bit overwhelmed by the voteless don't sleep on the Tesla Tower that thing melts is good crowd control (specially in the urban area) make sure to bring Arc resistance armor.
Also for those who don't know to take out the outpost (the parked ships) take down the shield and throw a thermite at the entrance door (I know you can use regular/impact grenades but I bring thermites for the harvesters)
Edit: Also I find the sickle ar very good for the voteless give it a shot
Sickle is amazing for dropping shields on the harvesters/base ships.
I use high explosive grenades in the doors of the base ships and it takes them out in a single grenade with shields down. High explosive are also good for dealing with larger swarms of zombies.
@chrissnider9555 hey I tried it yesterday and it's takes down shield glad that it does! Also thanks for the grenade tip, since I'm attached to thermites I'm going to try it
Something to add about the autocannon: every shot staggers the harvesters. And when they stagger, they can't fire or charge up any attacks. Very useful harassment tool
Best way to kill Harvesters: Throw a 500kg, pop it's shield while you wait for the impact. Or yeet an orbital laser and don't even bother popping the shield. Even on Super Helldive they're not common enough to merit a dedicated support weapon slot. Save that for for MG or something to mow down the voteless.
best video I've seen yet. Good effort and thanks!
one of the good things about this update is that we do get "urban" environments. if you use this to your advantage (sticking to the rooftops), you can avoid the hordes and deal with the harvesters fairly easily. the flying overseer guys and the scout things will be a problem, but much less so than the hordes of voteless.
1:23 massive? You know ,hat else is massive??? LOOOOOOOOWWW TAAAAPEEEERRR FAAAAADEEEEE
I knew this would gonna be the first comment when i heard massive
I ran the jumpack and the EATS- and jumping into the shield and hitting them in the bottom is a pretty consistent 1 hit 👍
Salamander armor makes you feel like a God whenever you walk in the flames while you torch a horde
From personal testing, RR can one shot tripods by hitting them in another lesser known weak point: the ball joints (the middle joint of its lobster legs). It is heavily armored, so RR and Quasar may be the only ones that have enough AP to one shot tripods via that weak spot.
One other thing to note, on harvesters, their horns are what manifest the shield, and provide most of its hp. If destroyed, they can drop fast, and lacking a shield makes them trivial to drop
Have not yet seen the video (I'm busy with work, busy time of the year), but skimmed it. What I came to find out from testing Day 1 was that Plasma weapons are fantastic in general against the illuminants in general so I heavily advise taking them.
Specifically: Get the Plas-15 Scorcher, you can quickly mag dump (I haven't kept track) 8-12 (ish) shots, takes down the shields. Then mag dump the rest into the weak spot, pull out the Commando, double fire 2 rounds trying to aim for the weak spot, and it usually goes down. If it doesn't, reload, fire a few more plasma rounds into the thing, it falls.
In a perfect world, you can take out 2 of these guys in about ~18-25 seconds (mostly reload time and swapping weapon time) using this loadout, and I believe the CD for the commando has been reduced to 90s or is just lower (again, very un-scientific recording), especially if an ally is firing their primary into the weak spot or providing additional fire.
If you're in a pinch and there's only 1 walker, feel free to mag dump 3 Commando missiles into the walker for a guaranteed, quick & Easy take down, but with allies firing into the walkers, usually 2 is enough.
If you're absolutely confident in your Recoilless Rifle skills however, def take this. If the walkers have yet to aggro on a player, they'll just stand around unmoving with their shields down. Easy 1-shot.
One thing to point out: It is a bit difficult to pull off, but I have managed to do so in a game. With the Quasar you can land an accurate shot at the leg and tear it clean off in one shot. This instantly kills the Harvester. You can do it from range, before the Harvester even engages the shield. But it takes careful aim.
The commando one-shots at the leg joint. It having a guided missile and four shots makes it forgiving and it's my favorite special weapon against the squids so far
Comparing the HMG TTK to the Laser Cannon... I feel like the Laser Cannon should be ranked much higher, especially given it's incredible range without damage falloff, and infinite ammo.
I used the Laser Cannon all last night, amazing when combo'd with the Blitzer & shield pack. I was getting 50 kill streaks left and right
Thank you so much for this! I spent a few hours today testing techniques and support weapons with my brother and we came to the conclusion that running any form of machine gun then using a quick cooldown strat like the strafing run, Gatling barrage or airburst were among the better ways to take down the harvesters while keeping the horde off you simultaneously. This requires split attention and if you don't have turrets pulling security for you, (and also, if you lose track where they are firing that can be really bad lol) you will barely be able to take the harvesters before the shields come back, wasting a valuable support weapon's rocket or missile.
Gonna be a bit long but a breakdown of the illuminate (so far) can be covered entirely with med pen weapons, anti tank isn't required but is helpful of course.
Voteless are general cannon fodder, headshots insta kill but can be hard to hit sometimes, the easiest way to deal with swarms without using fire or wasting grenades is shooting the legs, they crawl and bleed out at the same time, significantly reducing the threat.
(Arc thrower clears these guys super easy.)
Overseers are honestly the hardest unit since they can be numerous and push you especially the airborne ones.
Shooting the waist or legs is easiest, head armor requires med armor pen and their lower armor falls of quickly. Jetpacks are explodable but hard to hit.
And of course the harvesters. They seem intimidating but once you destroy their shield generator just shot the joints (darker parts on the legs) and they'll go down quickly.
Weapons that have been good for me and my team consist of Arc thrower for swarms, W.A.S.P for overseers (one taps them) AMR can also one tap overseers and kill harvesters in 4 or so shots to the joint. And the machine gun works wonders for all units. Tesla tower, HMG, sentry machine guns can also help take pressure off of your team as well as divert crowds as theyll sometimes prioritize emplacements first.
I've found the stalwart is absolutely amazing for this faction. Crazy good crowd control and sheds shields in literally 1 second. Tons of ammo. Reload on the go. With harvestors just just strategems after instantly cutting their shield. Co-op just have someone run anti tank.
I was actually really surprised when i found out the illuminat was coming as well as a melee weapon
2 melee weapons
it felt so sudden
Teamwork is essential against the illuminate. You definitely need a balance of horde control and heavy hitters, both in support weapons and stratagems. Also harvesters become way easier to take down when one diver is using a machine gun to keep the shields down and draw aggro while the other lays down heavy attacks with spear or RR.
I love the fact how Helldivers pool their knowledge and experiences in order to help each other defeat this common enemy. Outstanding patriotism!
The eagle strafe is FINALLY getting recognition, dont sleep on it. It has saved me countless times, really good in a pinch.
Genuinely wasn't expecting flame thrower to be top of the list.
About to go off about hitting the joints, then realize that most of the comments already beat me to the punch, glad word spreads fast with the community 😊
If you see a recoilless on your team take care of that diver, they will return the favor!
I like that, just like the hulk the eyes are weak in armor. But unlike the hulk the tripods eye is like a false weak spot as it may be damage-able by less effective weapons, it doesn’t break as easily as hitting its legs. You can run against the illuminates with just the mg as it has lots of ammo and can kill out the tripods very quickly
In my own experience, the Pummeler can end the Harvester in only 1 magazine if most shots hit it in the eye. Drop their shield, reload, then engage it's eye from close range. At close up, it cannot shoot you at all, it seems. We've had great success with the Stalwart as well
Their "melee" is literally tesla tazing you, that attack is lethal just as the blue beam.
It's like you got Arc Thrower zapped. So not too close, I suppose.
ERUPTOR ONE SHOTS HARVESTER SHIELDS SPREAD THE WORD
🤔
The machine gun is my favorite. It's really good against hordes, it shreds shields in a few seconds, and it CAN manage the harvesters IF you can hit their join. Yes the recoilless is more effective against Harvesters, but that's what teammates are for.
Using a flamethrower up close for 10 seconds is an eternity
Yeah. This video should probably get a do-over. As many have already noted: the real weak-point namely isn't the tiny eye, but the leg joints which have a vastly reduced health-pool, is vulnerable to any kind of Medium armor penetration and snapping any one of them instantly kills them. If you or your team got a steady aim and/or focus fire on the joints, they will fall rapidly to most support weapons. Which definitely bumps up a good deal of weapons in this list. Most notably the Machine Gun, Heavy Machine Gun and the Laser Cannon.
HMG is my personal favorite atm, good for harvesters and all the smaller enemies. Supply pack for additional ammo or a shield pack to prevent chaff from knocking you around a bit can help.
The Spear seems to be one of the best options thus far for Harvester management. In all my time of using it, every single Harvester died in one shot after the shields were removed. I wasn't trying to align the missile for the eye or anything, and it didn't hit the weak spots most of the time anyway. So, needing two Spear shots is news to me.
At least we finally get to dust off that Cutting Edge armor from so long ago lol
Flame thrower, I've been SAYING!
Finally someone else recognizes this
The lazer cannon is pretty effective at range. Can be fired easily while moving and doesnt require reload until overheated.
I've yet to be surrounded and overwhelmed using a sickle and lazer cannon build. Plus use a shield backpack for security
in all cases, going for the leg joints has been infinitely more reliable for me.
AMR: 5-6 for shield + 6-7 for the joint is a kill
HMG: can take it down within a mag, but you better be prone, otherwise a lot of those are gonna go wide and you'll need a reload to get the job done
Impact Grenades: surprisingly effect, but id only use them in a pinch and even then only on a wounded Harvester.
Thermite Grenades: my beloved, you never let me down. Except when I forget to extend the spikes 0_o
and yeah, ironically flamers are actually really fucking good
The arc thrower will also chain onto hordes running below them towards you.. so you end up racking up plenty of kills giving time for team mates to heal/setup to take it down.
As a new player, I'm finding the lazer cannon that fires non-stop to be rrally effective once the shields down and to all the other enemies as you can lay down consistent fire and they take fire damage as well
Another thing I wanted to add to the armour, is that the arc thrower from the harvester seems to bounce to enemies as well!
So this means that if you are up close to it and it's arc throwing you, it will arc to the weaker swarmie enemies and kill them for you!
Another tip is the extra padding heavy armor and vitality enhancement let you not die to the arc blast instantly like most armors do. Idk if you just need the vitality or just the super heavy armor because I always use them in tandem, but even so I usually use it to get up close to throw thermite grenades
My personal with the recoilless is if youre brave you dont need the acr resistant armour. you can run in under its shield and shoot straight up at its leg and take it down in one hit
There’s also a weak point in between the leg joints. It’s small but if you hit it you can get a nice 1 or 2 shots of with any of the rocket launches with the commando and the rail cannon taking 2-3 (given you charged the rail cannon up to 90%
Machine guns going for the hip section seems to be the preference of most people, either MG-43 or heavy machine gun. Honestly both work well, but I actually like the laser cannon. Yes the machine guns are technically better, but you have to land shots on a relatively thin moving target. Laser cannon may not be great at bringing down shields quickly, but the TTK for me is faster because I can much more reliably hit the legs with the complete absence of recoil. I could see the machine guns doing better with recoil reduction passive, but otherwise they felt a bit more frustrating in my opinion, due to wasting ammo on not hitting the right spot. Also, side benefits of the laser cannon are freely bringing down shields of grounded ships (may not be as fast but it's essentially free) and it's also good at killing overseers. May not be great against the voteless, but I just stick to my primary and guard dog for them.
So far I've gotten good results with the Heavy Machine Gun as a general purpose Support weapon, taking down both the Overseers and Harvesters pretty decently if you can keep it on target. Obviously they can thresh the zombies pretty well too, but there are better options. Also good for tearing down the shields on the Illuminate spawn factories, so you can throw grenades in and take them out.
Eagle Strafing runs are good for wiping out big groups of pursuing zombies and sometimes overseers. Incendiary grenades are also good for clearing those crowds. The secondary flamer is also not bad for this.
And I've returned to the Slugger as my general purpose primary for Overseers and Picking off zombies.
Reliance on grenade and rapid-fire support weapon has made me lean towards the Support Pack.
The Orbital Rail Cannon is the only orbital I've found so far that consistently takes out their factories.
Try out orbital gas strikes. Will take out the factories through the shields in one shot. Throw it underneath so the projectile hits the factory. Super low cooldown too
The flame thrower might work on these level 3 scenarios when the Harvester is by itself, but this weapon is absolutely abysmal in higher difficulties when even one overseer is nearby. Weapons that can take down the Harvester from afar are far superior. I wouldn't recommend any fire weapons even for the hordes of voteless - you simply chew through too much ammo. I've found the is the best all-rounder for dealing with all enemy types - . As for the shields, it seems as long as they're up they have a regen rate so high rate of fire weapons bring them down more effectively (this goes for the shields on the spawners too).
The most efficient loadout I've used is for hordes and inf. ammo, for spawners, for Harvesters and Overseers. Bring a for the rest of your strategems and you'll be fine.
In my experiance the sterilizer does apply the confused effect to the harvester. You want to take down the shield with something else but after that you can spray them down and they start dancing in place and shooting their laser at nothing in the distance
That bottom horn, from what I understand actually, doesn't affect the shield. It affects its targeting system and the laser intensity the harvester shoots. I blew the bottom horn off but not the top one, and the laser not only got noticeably thinner, it started targeting its own units.
When dealing with the Harvester you can aim for the shield generator, but it is still 86% combat effective! Here's a tip: aim for the leg stem, and put it down for good.
I suppose I’ll have to try out some different combos, because the ones I’m hearing about in the comments sound really good. What my friend and I figured out was that kinetics work a lot better against shields than lasers. So we brought stalwarts, they’re great for CC with the voteless, they burn through the shields on the harvesters and the landed ships like they’re nothing. Once the harvester shields are down I’d just use a rail cannon strike, or shoot at the eye (I was unaware of the leg weak spot) for primaries I kind of like running something a lil heavier, like the diligence, the tenderizer on single fire, or the purifier. They seem to work decently on the melee guys, the jet pack dudes, and if you’re aiming carefully (not always possible) the harvester eyes
The AMR is boss against the Illuminates. Don’t shoot the Harvester in the eye, shoot the joint of their legs. They die instantly when one comes off. It is viable
Thanks you did your duty to spread managed democracy further!
I miss the chaotic times where when a bilt titan appeared, everyone lost their shit and started throwing every strategem available cus noone knew the best ways to take them down yet.
The harvesters remind me of that time.
Can't believe i been missing out on this awesomeness smfh
The ERUPTOR stalwart combo was smacking them up
I see your pinned comment. Was sitting here like "bro, the friggin leg joints to the torso what are you even...?" But yeah, Stalwart is my favourite support weapon but goddamn I went through all my ammo standing under one trying to hit the sweet spot since the legs are too well armoured for it.
it is crazy to me how every youtuber I have watched soo far that have published videos about the harvester has completely missed the upper leg weak spot until after upload. When I encountered the harvesters the upper leg is one of the first potential weak spots I tried; thinking back to the Scout Strider/Reinforced Scout Strider, whose weak spots are notably the crotch plate, the joints in the upper leg, and the pilot (or missiles on the reinforced variant).
2 shots with the autocannon can take out a leg.
Honestly I just love having a laser fight with the harvester it's really fun :)
My recommended support weapons vs the overseers and the tripods is usually the default MG or the HMG. Good amount of bullets to deal with shields and to pierce armor enough for weak points. During asset extract (done 3 of those vs the squids already), 2 times we brought mostly HMGs, supply packs and MG emplacements and we *shredded* them.
for shoulder fired AT options. Theres another option.
Dont go for the eye, you can blow off a leg at the joint like a peice of armor, and it instakills the harvester.
not a nice glowy dot to shoot at. and in the fog at a range the joints might blend with the body and be hard to spot, but you can one or 2 tap them off (2 with the commando, id say one in the spear but you dont really have a choice where its gonna hit. havent testing with others since spotting this additional weakpoint)
one thing i'd like to add with the eyeball. yea dont bother with bullets. but bombs and rockets will destroy it very fast. the grenade launcher or just regular impact grenades right in the eye can make it topple over very fast in my experience.
IE; explosive damage is very effective. Just like with charger butts.
Thanks for the info, very helpful!!
I actually enjoy using the medium machine gun against the walkers. Like i have single handedly destroyed these walkers and in my eyes it is quite effective. I shoot where the legs connect with the body and it is a pretty easy shot and although it takes like 1/3 or half my mag, i can still mow down the zombs.
Just realised that these Harvesters finally make the Arc armors have a use
Illuminates should have learned the lesson from Chargers that you've got to protect those legs.
You can kill a harvester by walking into the shield with arc resistant armor and using one mag from a scythe dumped into the eye.
Good thing to know is that grenades do not get blocked by the shield making thermites very good at taking them out.
My favorite weapon to take down Harvesters is the Recoilless Rifle, which can't take down the shield, but it will 1-2 shot the Harvester itself.
Scorcher plasma rifle does well against the overseers, only takes about 4-5 direct hits & is also very effective against shields being a energy weapon.
If you use the Airburst Launcher when the ships drop off you can instantly kill all of the lighter enemies. Also I think the HMG implacement is a pretty good option for all enemies if you’re cornered or to melt the harvesters.
Turns out there is more than one way to skin a squid.
Arc armor should have a second passive, like 50% immunity to EMS or something. Either way, it's gonna be my main illuminate armor forsure.
I've also found you can one shot them with the recoiless by hitting the joint where the leg meets the body. At least this way, you don't have to be directly in front of them.
I’m running sickle, grenade gun, thermite, and arcthrower. The sickle absolutely melts through the harvester’s shield and one well placed thermite grenade can one shot it. Never thought I’d ever use thermite in my entire hd2 career.
never thought you’d use thermite? afaik they’re really good taking down big enemies
You mean you weren't using the Thermites on Bots or bugs since the last couple updates? How have you been surviving.
@@_apsis I think a lot of people don't even realize it was given like what is it.. 2000 damage?
@@TheVoicelessPoet democracy protects
@@biggieforfun6727 fair, what about the other 50% of the time?
if you are using HMG to kill the bipods then I highly recommend using the emplacement version. Much less recoil so it can be done from much further away, shreds every other enemy lumminate has and allows use of other weapons.
ALSO EATs are even worse than you think against illuminate than you think was they cannot kill the spawners from the side you have to shoot the entrance as the EATs bounce off the sides indicating it has higher armor than EATs can handle
The flamethrower worked because the actual weak spot is the top of the legs.
Dude LMG with Guard dog is just to good. You can handle any enemy unit right now including the Tripods. Bring an explosive primary and you can solo whole bases.
They forgot to add some cooling systems in those three-legged walker 😂😂
Also do not sleep on the arc blitzer. I use it and clear the hordes super easily. I have my friend's deal with jetpacks and spotters. Then i use the recoiless against heavies. I might test the commando as that will let me use a guard dog then as well
I stumbled on the flamethrower while doing testing and it is one of my favorites for the squids. I pair it with something for the armored fliers and go to town. Burning a horde of zombies is mint
The scorcher would be a good pick to take down the overseers, it only takes about 5-6 shots to kill them
@@themissingpeace7956 I´ve been running the Scorcher and I love it. But yesterday I tried the buffed Plas-101 Purifier and I love it even more! Its a bit harder to hit, but it 2-shots Overseers with charged shots or you spam them down with half a mag in quick fire. It also adds some aoe damage against the hordes of Voteless.
Quasar cannon is by far the best for them as it one shots the legs and has infinite ammo