The automatons can be quite an easy beast to go up agaisnt once you start understanding how the race works Enjoy! Timestamps: #helldivers #helldivers2 #helldiver
@@the_takibo Can u explain your new keybindings pls?) I tried probably all combinations but always stuck with open strategem menu and no movement, seen that comment on previos video but still can find a way to make it work.
@@maximus_ted I think what he's talking about is binding up and down to the mouse wheel (up and down respectively) and then left and right would still be set to A and D. I have the stratagem menu set to press to open (as opposed to hold) bound to the arrow keys for the same reason, can tap ctrl once to open my stratagems and can continue to sprint while inserting commands with my mouse hand
@@maximus_ted it's a config bind change. if you search binding mouse5 to sprint + open stratagems, there is a forum post somewhere that goes over how to do it. you basically paste in some lines into the config how he says to do it and then your mouse side button opens up the stratagems pane + makes you sprint as well in the same button press, then you can do WASD with your other hand. I think it's important to bind holding mouse 4 (the rear side button) to just open stratagems without running forwards so you can call in stuff standing still as well.
solo-ing kind of makes it easier in a way as well. much easier to get around the map without a bunch of teammates shooting everything that moves XD when shit goes down you kind of wish you had some teammates though...
the scaling is always 4 players, the more players the easier, thats how it should be, having shit teammates isnt always a problem, just get friends to play with you
Solo, isn't that bad if you play smart. The main issue is sometimes you just get unlucky with the spawn and usually there is nothing you can do about it. Tldr, if you gonna attempt it don't expect a 100% completion rate.
Only thing that's bothersome is how the musical stings work. Newer players may use it as an alert that can tell them "Hey, you just been AGGRO'D tenderly" but you will RAPIDLY notice that doing stealthy things and sneaking between patrols, the fight music will start and stop depending on their alert level, and hearing it swing back up to fight music when you walk up a hill can make newer players play extra defensively and not keep moving. Understanding the difference between "Bots are shooting at my Democracy Parts" and "Bots are shooting where they THINK Liberty is" helps a lot in establishing the awareness you need for higher difficulties.
I agree. Obviously this would probably be difficult to implement, but they should try making a system like doom eternal has. Where there 3 levels of music. Light, heavy and super heavy tracks, Depending on the combat scenario. Light tracks would play for standard bot encounters, heavy would be for the more intense encounters like walkers, shield heavys and devastators. And the the super heavy tracks is when shit hits the fan and the entire roster of enemies (whether bugs or automatons) shows up and your fighting for your life. Doom eternals music system really made every encounter very memorable in my opinion. And I would love to see it added to helldivers 2
I saw someone who blew up their ammo pods as soon as they landed everytime just to reduce the chance of dying to autoclimb if they need ammo during combat
In case you're curious, the expression "Getting out of Dodge" comes from getting out of Dodge City. It's an old expression from the American West. (That's my understanding at least.)
the moment automatons lose sight of you they forget that you can move and will just walk and aim to where you used to be. You can have a tank on you, loop around a reasonably sized rock and flank it.
Just did my first challenging solo automaton run and it was rough. I'm using almost everything you recommend but I'm also just grinding out the first war bond then so on and so on. Impact nades and the punisher for now and it's all surprisingly working but I do enjoy how immersed I feel when doing solo lol. Dying for sure makes you aware of what you did wrong too. Using the same stratagems as well but since I can't start a mission without a 4th strat I brought in airstrikes. Thanks for this video. Just made my life easier by watching you play and explain things. Knowledge is power.
When I was a noob I thought the automatons were way harder than the terminids. Until I got better. The automatons don’t rush you like the bugs do which makes them much easier as a solo.
Yeah people just start with Bugs and then when the fight bots thy get wrecked cause they dont use cover well. Bugs you gotta stay moving more cause they just throw numbers at you and always close the gap, but Bots are mostly positioning and Cover
i think when you start out, the weapons and strategems you have access to are more useful for bugs than bots even on the starting difficulties. shield devistators require headshots at a distance and they shoot at you to mess with your aim. while warriors can't hit you unless they get close, so you can at least aim for their weak points. and if they turtle up they don't move, so it makes it easy to take them out without taking any damage. so stalward/lmg + orbital strike + strafing run and the staring guns all being light armor penetration only.
@@vincentdeluca4485Hmm am i playing the same game ? bot's are mobing way more than bugs now for me and i play both usually... like sometimes i see 4-6 hulks + 3 tanks around.
@@Tamachii12 To me the bots are just easier to "contain" than the Bugs are, if the bots call for help i can just toss a strat when they land and completely shut down the wave. Bug holes are just fire hydrants lol it doesnt matter what you do they will just keep coming. They also just walk in a straight line at me if advancing at all, Bugs I gotta worry about Hunters circling around and Jumping/stun locking me. I dont care about the heavies much, Charger/Bile Titans are just as common and difficult to deal with as Hulks/Tanks imo.
@@Tamachii12 for me it’s the Hunters and the Pouncers as a solo. I just cannot deal with them for some reason. The only Automaton’s that really charge you are the berserkers and those kamikazi dudes that fly all up in your face. The other little guys that get close are extremely easy to deal with.
When I first did Automatons I hated them, but after about 15 missions, plus watching you play, is making me utilize a different playstyle and now Automatons are much more manageable. Thanks for your work, the people of SuperEarth appreciate you!
Definition of making it look easy. Thank you for the tips. I can see how automatons videos are less exciting than terminids, but I’m glad I watched this one. Shooting the floor/feet of kamikazes tip is a gem.
Absolutely love the videos. So glad that you got recommended to me since just watching has significantly helped me with a number of things in this given how often I'm solo running. On the topic of which is more difficult, I feel like when people say, "Automatons are hard" it's because of a variety of things. The fact that stealth is more of the ideal play, which really doesn't sell well in a game with basically zero stealth stratagems or even marketing. The fact that you've got Devastators that you either need armor pen, which most guns don't have, or have to shoot for exposed areas whereas with bugs it's really only a couple that will bounce bullets and the main one you encounter that isn't a heavy is the hive guard. The fact that they shoot back, sometimes for days and days, and if you're not on a map with cover they'll potentially chase you across the whole map. Rockets that one shot you and sometimes go through terrain (or even just bots which will phase through terrain to chase or shoot you, or sometimes even shoot you from INSIDE terrain). A lack of anything like a bleed mechanic which you can get by like popping bile titan stomachs to have them slowly bleed out if you need to. All of this blends together into a lot of stuff that makes fighting them much more difficult for a lot of people. The big ones though are likely the instant kill rockets and all the armored enemies that you can't solo as easily. Like if a charger runs at you, you can dive out of the way then line up to blow its head off. If a hive guardian is walking towards you then you can toss grenades at it. Meanwhile if multiple Scout Strider walks up on you while you're solo your options are much more limited. If you don't have a weapon that punches through, or impact grenades, then you have to sprint up close and run circles to get shots off. Then there's Hulks which have a much smaller target you need to hit in their eye compared to a Charger's head, and they come in close/medium range flamer saw type and long range shoot you with lasers and rockets type, the latter of which requires you to take cover before they kill you with the rocket spam. And it's not exactly easy to run a ring around them as a solo to pop their backs. Then you've got Devastators that come in 3 types, one of which rockets you and another which sprays you with machine gun fire from behind a shield that will deflect heavy ordinance. It just doesn't play into the "Starship Troopers" fantasy that a lot of people buy into for the game given the up front terminids in the trailer and such, plus the fact that it feels like you can fight bugs even on harder difficulties whereas with bots the game heavily shifts into a totally different play style most people aren't a fan of.
I like the knowledge gained from your vids; learning good tactics and load outs against each faction. The Live commentary feels better to learn from than standard tip&tricks videos but the tips videos provide good supplemental information for commentary vids. Each type of content layers nicely with one another.
Quick tip. If you start pinging the map and manage to find a side objective, the compass at the top of your screen will tell you what type of side objective it is. I find it great against bots since i can figure out where jammers, detectors, mortars, and anti airs are. Works great especially when you're a solo in a hurry.
Also if you are tired of the scout armor, the combat tech medium armor has the same perks including the POI cursor scan and looks great with the hero of the federation helmet.
does this let you know about sites of interest? like if i was running around trying to get samples medalions and super credits can i just ping around the map constantly to figure out where they are and grab them all? since i struggle with finding them and its about time i get enough samples for the double 500kg bomb upgrade.
Fantastic gameplay, tips, and commentary. I’d imagine the automaton forces shaking in their boots hearing a solo Helldiver drop when your Capital ship is in orbit.
Some advice for when doing the SEAF Artillery: The enemies get "triggered" when you start a terminal. So you better collect the shells first and put them next to the artillery. After that you start the terminal and put the shells inside. Before the Bots/Bugs can get to you, you are already done and can vanish off.
I always try and tell my team to do that and they either argue about it or they just start the terminal and trigger the bugs. I always just leave em to it when they ignore me and they end up dying anyways 😭
Honestly I've tested this one pretty extensively and have found that that this is just placebo. The terminal does nothing for the enemy alertness. You can activate it without dealing with scout parties sometimes, and you can _not_ activate it but get scouts anyway. There's little to no correlation. I believe people just heard from word of mouth that the terminals alert enemies, and then let confirmation bias carry them the rest of the way.
This is incorrect, patrols always spawn on a timer can spawn when people die outside of the timer and the times you've noticed it aligning with pressing the terminal is pure coincidence. Before you disagree and get upset, open our map the next time you get to a seaf and press the terminal, look again there will be nothing there.
@@Zebo12345678 Can confirm I've used terminals less than 5 meters from enemies and they were not alerted, patrol spawns are increased while you're near side objectives iirc so the longer you're around the more enemies you'll see simple as, doesn't really matter how you do it just that you do it quick.
Thank you! I have never played Helldive against the Automatons, but you made it look so easy. All the free trips are sure going to save us a lot of reinforcements :D
I'm excited to see more videos like this! I definitely don't think they're boring. Automatons are still very difficult in my book, so the more tips the better. Maybe playing different objectives? The aircraft control tower is so heavily guarded and throwing a 500lb on it doesn't seem to do the trick. Super tough. Great video!
One, I think the game balances based on how many players are in the mission; but two, there are whole videos on how the game ramps up dropship and bug breach spawns as you complete either primary or secondary objectives (I forget which).
Both factions are fun to watch to me, because I learn a LOT. I don't care about the action time because it's an objective based game. Thanks for your time creating this content and explaining your train of thought for every decision you make. Please keep it up!! Liked and subbed.
I agree, once you understand how to fight the Automatons, they are the easier enemy. I like your Stun grenade choice - I went with the Impact grenade but rarely use them. Stunning the Hulks would be awesome! Great vid! 👍
I like the Automaton vids because: 1 it is proof they can be done, and *solo* xD, 2 you will have those “oh shit” moments where everything goes to hell and chaos emerges. But in the end all the vids are epic, keep up the great content
Just got into the game a few days ago and am focused more on bots bc I find them a little more interesting rn and make solo play more viable since I had already noticed stealth to be a big factor when dealing with them. I learned so much from this video thank you so much. Personally I hope that they add a cloaking support backpack one day to for the covert ops type feel. I have so much fun being a rat running up to fabricators and just chucking grenades in them. If I had momentary invisibility I can be more of a menace than I already am. Thanks again for the video.
I don't find your automaton gameplay video bland at all because hearing your insights on your actions is actually very compelling. I hope you keep doing these rundown videos for automatons.
As someone affected by the connectivity issues and cannot play multiplayer, this video is helpful for playing higher difficulties solo so you have my thanks
It's crazy how different your gameplay is to what me and my friends experience. We see way more bots on the field, including a plethora of roaming bot scouts. We also get 2-3 drop ships per bot drop, while in this video you got 1 ship. We also have bots following us across the map, due to the soft alert bug. This had the feel of a much lower difficulty.
Just want to let you know that you're my favorite helldiver! Thank you for your videos! I'm learning a lot just by watching. Taki, is it cool if you upload videos on how to deal with different objectives while solo. Like that jammer and detect towers. For some reason everytime I do it, I always get swarm by bots and there's always multiple drops. If I'm unlucky drops will have tanks. New to the game, but I want to learn solo hunting just like. Accept me as your Padawan, master taki!
After fighting the automatons for 5 days in a row I decided I wanted to go back and "chill" and play some bug missions, even went down to Diff 5. Somehow they were waaay more difficult to deal with than the automatons so I fully agree with you on that part.
> "Let's make our way here to the CF Artillery. It should be quite useful to us. IF we remember to use it." (16:16) So true 😆always seems to slip my mind. Great runs and advice! Learning a lot from your solo plays.
gonna be brutally honest. at first i thought this was just another clickbait garbage video with someone talking about what they feel is best/the way to go, without showing/proving anything, but i felt pleasantly surprised within the first 6 minutes that actually included worthwhile information while also showcasing and providing proof that the information isn't just some feeling. good stuff
I put my strategems on the arrow keys next to the number pad. I can keep moving while I input the strategem extremely quickly. The bots require a more deliberate strategy to keep them at range. If they get up close to you enmass you are dead. I'm impressed at how clean you run with extremely few bot drop ships. Last round we were having 2-5 showing up at a time.
Amazing lesson on how to git gud against the bots! If I may suggest a possible audio improvement to your mic's signal, I'd play around with removing subs (
Id love to see a senator only challenge. Whatever grenades and strategems you want. But no primary or support weapons. I tried going cowboy, but it was a bit too much for me.
Still trying to figure out my bot loadout. Love Scorcher + supply backpack. Means I need non-backpack support weapon. AMR seems nice. Backpack helps with weapons, nades, and stims. 50% explosion resistance armor is a must against getting oneshot. I'm still not convinced on rocket pods and 500kg for bots. Hard to hit targets. I prefer airstrike, railcanon, or laser. You're making me reconsider using stun grenades tho. Thanks for the vid!
I agree with you regarding the Automaton vs. Terminid gameplay. Now, with that said I do no play this game the same way as you, I play a lot solo with random squads which implies when playing against the robots that you are forced into certain loadouts. For example; the autocannon is a must, taking up a backpack and support weapon slot. The bugs have more of a 'relaxed' meta which allows for trying out different fun loadouts like flamethrower, grenade launcher w/ support backpack, different stratagems etc.
autocannon is not a must. AMR is great vs bots, railgun works okayish. And you can take backpack with it. I think on lvl 8-9 both bugs and bots push you into certain loadouts due to enemy types and amount
It's mostly about weapons that can stagger a lot in each shot or weapons that deal explosive damage. You can skip autocannon and go with slugger if you're confident with your aiming since most bots can be one-tapped with a well placed slugger shot (heavy bugs are more susceptible to high pen damage from slugger as well btw). Also, you can go with a scorcher as well and save up the backpack slot for other utilities i.e. jetpack or shield backpack. Since Quasar cannon is now a thing, you can swap between it and autocannon depending on your preferences and playstyle basically. I tried my bots loadout on bugs mission and vice versa. They're doable most of the time tho some missions may need a different approach.
I kinda like arc thrower vs bots. You can kill every enemy with it, including tanks and hulks. Hulks take around 8-10 shots. Its not the most reliable way to handle the heavies, but it works. Kills Striders easily, and can clear out bot drops as they land. The infinite ammo is very useful, and you can fire it around cover if you aim it right. You dont need to aim at the enemy for it to hit them, which is what lets you shoot around cover. Means you can wait for them to come to you, and kill them before they can even fire back. Doesnt work so well on "eliminate automaton forces" missions, "evacuate essential personnel" missions, or "Blitz: Search and Destroy" missions because you get swarmed so heavily on those missions, and the melee berzerker enemies will close the gap and flush you out of your cover.
Autocannon is fantastic but have you tried the quasar? Running missions while it was free let me explore some stratagem options whenever I died and dropped far from my quasar while it's on cooldown. Plus the vast majority of bots can be killed with your primary by aiming at weak spots. Quasar can kill cannon turrets, mortars, hulks, tanks, dropships by aiming at the engine, striders, etc
That was great, I learned a lot. Have to try the easy extract. You hardly used any strategems, or the SEAF Arty. One big lesson i learned recently, bugs and bots, is that you don't "need" to fight everything you see. You can just not engage, and you'll be better off.
Autocannon for striders is one shot to the hip. Also, the grenade launcher one shots striders. I've taken out two striders side by side with a single GL to the front panel of one of them. The Sickle melts most of them up to hulks as a good alternate. Use your autocannon on drop ships as they come in, aim at the stowage area where the bots are dangling. Splash the small guys for easy kills and soften up medium/heavy units. SOMEtimes the medium units will kind of get stunned if you damage them, and when they land they'll just stand there for a few. And I bound my keys to the arrow keys ;)
I agree and have always maintained that bots are easier than bugs at the highest difficulties, but it also feels like they "cheat" more. Flares going off 3 POIs away from your location, seemingly always knowing where you are and shooting through rocks, and rockets flying in from outside render distance. Plus, the stratagem modifiers are straight up anti-fun.
Turn their omniscience to your advantage. If a flare is launched three POIs away that means any bots you take on elsewhere won't be able to call in dropships for a while. And their tendency to home in on your last location from multiple outposts means that if you play your cards right, you can empty out an objective while they go out on a hunt for you
Tips vs heavy devastators if you can get behind cover peek to the right since they have the machine gun on the right if you peek out just enough you can shoot the head and they cant aim at you. If your a teammate you can help even with the sickle to take out the heavies machine gun arm so the person getting pinned can finish the job it does take a good ammo dump but can be done or hit the back pack if you have an angle.
I also love the diligence for automatons. I would use the plasma but I love having a scope too much... BTW That container door could have been busted by your auto cannon since it has splash.
It's actually refreshing how different the playstyles are between bugs and bots. I started bots only, and so got confident and switched to bugs; It was rough at first and then felt fine, only recently switched back to bots to help the push but holy a 4 on bots was feeling like a 7 on bugs. Only lvl 25 so plenty of democracy learning and spreading to go. First time i've seen that primary and now have a new goal weapon.
The slugger also works, breaks most small map objects too if they're in the way, like the 2 boxes on a ramp at the end of the wall in that one SEAF Artillery layout
Well, I personally prefer fighting bots than bugs because, as you stated yourself, they are easier to manipulate, have very poor detection (with a good armor) and are generally not as overwhelming as bugs that just endlessly swarm you. The one thing that pisses most players off - for somewhat of a reason, truth be told - is the fact that bugs have to get in melee range, which despite their numbers gives you more breathing room and thus more options, notably to use your assets. Bots on the other hand are deadly at ridiculous ranges, being able to land perfect headshots on you from halfway across the map with a rocket launcher or a gatling gun. If they weren't so ludicrously annoyingly accurate, they would immediately become favorites of a number of players. But because every mission can become so quickly hit&miss because of a single mistake, people hate them and find bugs more consistent, which is not entirely false. Also, bots come with a number of heavy handicaps - ion storms, stratagem jammers, increased stratagem deployment delays that often make your strikes miss, those uber-annoying mortars, Sauron Eyes... - which contribute each in its own way to the feeling of frustration and unfair games. In a nutshell, bots are still my faction of choice but definitely deserve a much better balancing to smoothen the learning curve and the difficulty step-up. Fun fact: I played with a friend the other day on difficulty 7, then 5, and after (hardly) winning both games we agreed that we actually didn't see that much of a difference... which is concerning considering the difficulty & rewards gap between those supposedly very different tiers.
A couple of silly little tips that I found out while I was learning the game: 7:30 Autocannon is one of the weapons that can break through those crates, so unless you're using it on every single enemy, it's very easy (and pretty worth it imo) to burn a shot on them and collect some nifty loot. :D 10:57 If you're struggling against Heavy Devastators, I've actually found that the grenade launcher is pretty good against them, especially if you struggle with precise aiming. It's able to consistently stagger and kill one with three shots, no matter where you hit. It might fall off at higher difficulties, though, so maybe take this tip with a grain of salt. :P 20:48 Remember that the artillery cannon is not just for XP. If you load up an artillery cannon, then you can use it, and it will almost always prove to be very useful. 21:28 It's very useful to know that you can very easily destroy the broadcast towers with any decently strong explosion, which saves you the hassle of dealing with the reinforcements caused by using the terminal. Even a simple grenade can easily destroy it.
Personally love the technical challenge the automatons give and love seing ppl introduce me to new ways to deal w them, i figured out the autocannon but i sometimes get overwhelmed
the only solo helldive automatons ive done is destroy airbases and i used the orbital laser to make it easy. stealth is definitely the way to do it too. i dont see other people go against the bots and this is why you are the prime example in my book of how to solo helldive
On the Quasar part, it's worth noting that it can oneshot hulks and make easy work of tanks and turrets, given you've got a good distance between you and your target. Autocannon's biggest cons is you have to crouch still while reloading which may be detrimental if you tend to move and retreat a lot. Stun grenade effect lasts ~2 seconds. It may sound not so much, but you can use that 2 seconds to run around stunned hulk and rip the batteries on its back apart with your primary weapon. Excellent run btw. Keep up the good work!
I'm using the Breaker Incendiary for now, DoTs are awesome and I don't have you fancy Scorcher yet. Also sometimes when I need to clear a path, I toss a grenade as far as I can at my flank and these bots will go over there like a bunch of dumbs. It's amazing how close you can get to them without them even noticing you cause "they've got a noise complaint". And I love using the P-19 sidearm versus the cannon fodder bots, it makes less noise and saves on big gun ammo
I've noticed I was playing all wrong as well, holding my ground as some kind of "badass" only to get overwhelmed. Bots got one thing going for them and that's mobilization using their movement speed and of course those damn dropships. Guerilla warfare by being evasive and using distractions so they've got no clue where you are is the way to go
Scout armor lets you avoid automatons and bugs with ease, if you keep distance of 20 meters you can crawl past them, also, each enemy has that 2-3 seconds of I think i saw something where u can dive away from them and they lose sight of you. Usually they ignore grenades that are impact type, as they lack arming time and sound, it seems like they are responding to that. But they do not usually follow those grenades or explosion sound but rather run after where it came from. If they do not see you, you can get attention from nearest enemies with a single shot if you do it while lying down, but if you really want to get their attention, big explosions. That's what draws them in like ants to sugar. Autocannon is great for solo, and for ease of repelling automatons, yet i see that it has a major flaw compared to quasar. Ammo. You are burning through ammo really quick, and need to refill alot, quasar has a bit more power, but 10sec cooldown before you can fire again, but it recharges so, its more self-reliable for coop. I usually run with punisher as it has enough impact to stun devastators and stop them from firing, and then you can slowly chip away at their heads, can't do much when im surrounded, thats where impact grenades come in handy, 1 for walkers, 1 for small groups of enemies, 2 for medium ones and on weak spot suffice on tanks/hulks/cannons, but without those stun grenades, you can't really get close and behind them safely. What i mostly find annoying with automatons is that they either can't see you, or stalk you through entire map, pulling additional aggro of nearby units, and when playing coop, other players in more visible armor can attract aggro on to you by just walking past you as they are getting shot at.
you videos are great but, you shall do a video on what a low lv person can do agaisn automatons if they dont have any of the weapon u said, specially autocannons and scorcher
I have watched every upload since I bought the game. Thank you for all the enjoyment. I also swapped my stratagem arrows to my mouse buttons, but had to get off for work. I'll be trying that out tonight also.
31:40 for the question, what i (as a viewer) would prefer watching: I would prefer watching, depending on what the grand orders are. if we have to fight Bots then i would like to see a video where you fight Bots aswell. I get a lot of information on playstyle, and choosing a loadout depending on the faction from an experienced player and that helps a lot for my helldives
I'm glad that so many loadouts work against bots. Personally I hate taking the auto-cannon since it takes up both a support and a backpack slot. But groups work so much better together when there's some variability in their kits. Yesterday I joined a game and both people on my team brought the quasar, so I told them that the first one of them to die was going to be looted by me- cause daddy needs a quasar! All 3 of us chaining shots at cannon turrets was magnificent.
I love using the anti-mat rifle with a jetpack, get up on some tall rock and just snipe away in peace. The most they can do is ragdoll you from the splash of the rockets but you can just jump back up. The jetpack also lets you throw stratagems really far, and also get away fast from stratagems, so you can do both of these: snipe objectives with a 500kg, or throw one ON YOURSELF and instantly gain 50m of distance with a single jump.
I used to take the AC all the time, but after I unlocked the Railgun I took that instead. The free back slot opens up so much more utility, especially if you want to primary mobility like the Jetpack.
You got to Aim a little higher on the hulks weak spot. I think its bugged at the moment so because of that if you go slightly higher it'll land more consistently. I know this because I mainly use the laser cannon against bots so you start to get very familiar with where exactly the weak spots are on the bots.
