So, What's the 'Best Build' in Helldivers 2 NOW? 

Bugs: - Stratagems: - 1. Orbital Rail Cannon - 2. Expendable Anti-Tank / Quasar Cannon - 3. Shield Generator / Jetpack - 4. Orbital Laser / Eagle Airstrike / Eagle 500kg / Grenade Launcher / Exosuit - Armour: - - Medium Armour (Med Kit / Democracy Protects / Extra Padding) - Primary Weapon: - - Breaker / Breaker Incendiary / Slugger / Sub Machine Gun - Booster: - - Vitality / Stamina / Hellpod Space Optimization / Muscle Enhancement / Localisation Confusion Automatons: - Stratagems: - 1. Orbital Rail Cannon - 2. Quasar Cannon / Expendable Anti-Tank / Anti-Material Rifle - 3. Shield Generator/ Jetpack - 4. Orbital Laser / Eagle Airstrike / 380mm / EMS Mortar Sentry / Mortar Sentry - Armour: -- Medium Armour (Engineering Kit / Democracy Protects / Fortified) - Primary Weapon: - - Plas-1 Scorcher / Dominator / Slugger - Booster: - - Vitality / Stamina / Hellpod Space Optimization / Muscle Enhancement - Grenade: - - Stun

Lack of AutoCannon for bots is very undemocratic

No mention of autocannon especially on bot is kinda criminal Even when considering it took your backpack slot , it has so many use that can easy be a top tier choice . 1 tap headshot devastators , 2 tap headshot hulk ( or 3 shot in exposed back on hulk , giant cannon ,tank or mortal emplacement ) , easy blow up fabricator vents , 2 tap flying gunship , bla bla . If you have teammates using that too , it can even be much better . Wish it can also dealt with dropship tho

Pro tip for hulks. Tag them in a leg with a rocket or quasar shot and it will destroy the leg drastically reducing their movement. Shoot the other leg to kill. 2 shots vs 1 but it's also 2 body shots to kill as well but this way you immobilize while waiting for reload or cool down. Also don't sleep on the sickle. Can't handle striders but chews through all other bots in seconds from extreme range and can kill all dominators super quick if you nail them in the face.

No sickle mention against bugs is criminal ngl. Sleeping on the autocannon and arc thrower hard too. I feel like theres a lot of really strong stratagems rn that there isnt really a clear as day meta like there was when the game first came out.

That ship falling on the bots was truly a helldivers moment

Man I wish they’d have loadouts sort of like destiny so I can switch between bug and bot loadouts or have heavy, med, light armor builds

Just note that Armor works perfectly now. ie. You can now run a Heavy (Fortified), with triple strata with the auto cannon. Auto cannon is also amazing against those flying gun ship~

Surprised you didn't mention laser backpack against the bugs. It kills a ton of trash mobs and makes your life so much easier when kiting so you can focus on chargers and bigger enemies.

The best build is one that synergies with your teams builds. If everyone uses the same things we won't be as efficient.

I'm surprised the sickle didn't make your list. It can't kill heavies but it'll easily deal with everything else. Super comfy to use because it almost never needs to reload. I find it to be the perfect partner for the Quasar cannon. The only place I find it lacking is on hot planets that increase how fast it overheats. Everything else though I agree with besides the slugger. That gun cannot stagger chainsaw bots anymore so I'd rather just sickle their weakspot and down them that way instead. One quasar tip is that it can also easily knock dropships out of the sky before they can drop their bots. One shot to an engine will kill them and any weak enemies that happen to be near the area of impact. If you have multiple quasar users in your group it kinda makes bot drops a non-issue.

With bots, having everybody on your team run autocannons and an extra offensive stratagem is my favourite for very quick mission clears. The best defence is offense when it comes to bots, blow everything up before they have time to push you. 4 autocannons, 4 orbital lasers, 4 eagle airstrikes, last slot is flexible (more bombs recommended)

I actually just finished a helldive run with two of my friends. Fighting bugs, they used the quasar and the orbital railgun. Rather than using the same loadout, I went with the autocannon, the sentry autocannon, the sentry rocket launcher, and the sentry mortar. All too often, my friends were on cooldown with the railgun, so the autocannon sentry and rocket combo was essential for keeping us safe. Mortar is really useful for covering your retreat.

I feel like your loadout really depends on your teammates loadout. Also the eagle 110 is fantastic as it one shots tanks and cannons and the basic orbital strike is amazing when paired with stun grenades. Toss the orbital at a group and follow up with stun grenade and it will wipe a group and the low cd is great. Also there is some weird things with orbital gas strike and fire as it doesn't always do damage if you're not the host

The plasma shotgun is amazing in bot missions. It can one shot striders and can effectively stun lock devastators and hulks.

for bugs: light armor with medic incendiary grenade dominator quasar rover eagle airstrike 120mm barrage armor to stay mobile and cover more ground while getting as many of those 4 second duration heals as possible incendiary grenade is pretty much best in slot right now. it will eliminate a bug hole. it's better on a breach than any other grenade. all you want from it is the fire damage over time to kill the scavengers and hunters. wait for the second spawn at a breach then hit it with the grenade. it'll eliminate the smaller units, damage the larger units, and set fire which will finish off medium units in the area and continue to damage the next 1-2 spawns which would otherwise require your grenades/strategems/attention. this frees you up to focus on other things. dominator for the ability to eliminate medium bugs. breaker incendiary is outstanding. sickle is fantastic. but that breaker and sickle basically do what the rover does. so, pick a primary that specializes on different units. switch to your secondary to assist the rover if needed. quazar for heavy units. also useful to eliminate broadcast tower from distance, spore mushroom from distance, shrieker nest from distance, and bug holes. if you're defending or need extra support bring in a second and hot swap between them. fire one, while it cools down, pick up and fire the other. rover to eliminate small units and for horde clearing. use dominator to eliminate medium bugs (single shot on stalker or either of the fat bile spewing bugs, single shot on hunter, double shot on hive guard or brood commander), let the rover take out small units and finish off any mediums as needed. basically eliminates shriekers that get close without any need for you to even look up. this frees you up to focus on other things. eagle airstrike for versatility. damages heavies in a way that a cluster cannot. closes 2-3 bug holes in a single throw in a way that a cluster cannot. does great against breaches and patrols. 120mm barrage. this can be replaced with something else, but nothing else does what this does. the orbital railcannon is great for taking out a charger, but the cooldown is WAY too long for that, and it doesn't reliably take out a bile titan and it still has the long cooldown. the barrage can solo any nest with fewer than 10 bug holes (give or take angle of attack). you can throw it in, and just run off to the next objective. instead of throwing it into the center of a 10 hole hive throw it off to one half of it, and it will eliminate about half leaving you with airstrikes, grenades, and quasar to close it out. the barrage will defeat heavy armor, though, it's hard to rely on. this essentially frees you up to focus on other things. lvl 85. I only do full clear and only do difficulty 7,8,9. can run solo in a group of 4 or keep with the team and my kill count is always extremely high (highest) even while I focus on clearing all hives and all sub-objectives and interact with terminals instead of feeling like I need to farm kills (rover keeps you safe and puts in work, barrage can be used as on-going support, and so can those incendiary grenades). but, the game is in such a horrible state I'm taking a break until it's more stable. sick and tired of crash after crash after crash while the levels themselves are still filled with problems and the stats screen is still pretty much garbage even 2 months after release while they continue to release new content that brings new problems into the game with a cycle of ever increasing tech debt.

The rail cannon strike can be substituted for the 110 rocket pods as well, not as much damage, or consistency but the upside is you get 3 charges before they go into a short cooldown. One quasar shot and a rocket pod will drop a bile titan.

I find the guard dog rover pretty effective in bug missions. It really helps with ammo conservation on small bugs, leaving the bigger targets to focus on. Granted friendly fire is an issue.

I just run shield pack, quasar cannon, sickle, heavy armour that has the 50% lethal damage chance, and whatever orbitals I think are best for that mission. I am basically a walking tank.

Don't sleep on the orbital walking barrage. That thing always racks up kills when I throw it down during a drop pod. It requires a bit of foresight to use but really good.

I have a pretty solid loadout for bugs that can do everything. It takes some luck and good sentry placement to kill a titan though. Incendiary Breaker - SMG pistol - Stun nade Eagle airstrike - gatlin sentry - autocannon sentry - autocannon support weapon

Solid video. I really think people overlook the Punisher Shotgun because of it being one of the first weapons. However after the buff it got a few updates back it is incredible against the Terminids.

One gripe i Have with the quasar cannon is that if you DIE you have to go back and find it, which can be dangerous in of itself, the EATs on the other hand have such a low cooldown that dying with one on you won't make the biggest difference, and you can call down not one but two more

If you're bringing the stun grenades, you can even bring the Precision Strike as a Railcannon replacement, since you can stun most anything then Precision Strike them

My Squad and me running only Helldive Missions (with all side objectives and everything for maximum liberation) linked to the current MO. Which means recently we fought a lot against Bots. We usually run 2 AMR's and 2 Quasarcannons. The two snipers taking Stun Grenades (easy kill on Hulks and Heavy Devastators if necessary) and the two with Quasarcannons run Impact Nades. Sidearm is usually the Redeemer, but the Senator might also work really well. Primary is for me the sickle (accurate and long range), but the rest of our Team uses the scorcher. The remaining Stratagems are usually Shield Backpack, Eagle Air-Strike (kills Tanks in one Hit, can clear big groups and destroys Fabricators), and the Orbital laser. Because of the total 12 Laser uses you don't have to worry if things go bad and it's easy to toss one or two in a big outpost and let the laser do the work. Me and my Sniper Buddy having kind of the scout role and we can also provide cover when someone has to close the distance to an Objective. This whole Team build works incredibly well, but it depends on good communication and Teamwork. Especially for the Snipers (but in fact for the whole Team) the following rules are important: 1. Always make sure you have a good position - that means roughly three things - good sightlines - cover - a way to retreat 2. Count and ping enemies before you engage Communicate who shoots which enemies and which have the highest priority Doing this will get you a lot less Botdrops than usual 3. Avoid Patrols and share information about the location of Patrols, which direction they are heading and how strong the patrol is As an example: Patrol in the East walking towards us (on your left D1) 2 Hulks, 6 Rocket Devastators, 2 Heavy Devastators 4. If you have to engage plan an ambush attack from two sides (in an L shape for example) If the group you want to engage is a patrol see if there is a choke point nearby you can make use of Use the terrain and the weather to your advantage (Blizzards are really good to retreat) 5. If you're sitting on an objective and it's done but you got a bot drop on you Don't fight all of them Toss an orbital laser and use that opportunity to retreat There are probably a lot more rules/tips you could think of but these came first and best to my mind to describe the whole concept of my squads playstyle There are definitely a lot more viable options and concepts in how to fight Bots and having fun at the same time But if you have a group of 4 with good comms and you play together on a regular basis I recommend to give it a try On average it takes us about 18-20 mins to clear the whole map (all outposts and all side objectives included) before we call Pelican one, on Helldive difficulty. This goes for all Mission types (40 mins) excluding the evac important personnel (15 mins) and the eradicate missions (loadout there is a lot different) Edit: Of course you should always communicate your stratagem uses so you don't waste two air strikes on one tank or even worse two lasers on one drop or one base You can also make sure your teammates are safe by calling out the stratagem you use and where you use it For example "Air-Strike on the Tank in the East" This prevents a lot of potential friendly fire incidents Also track your teams stratagem uses and let each other know about your cooldown timer By doing that you are a lot better prepared for every situation Let your Team know when you send your Eagle to rearm or when you use your last one "I'm using my last Eagle Air-Strike on this small outpost, it's on cooldown now"

You just had to put a railcannon nerf into the universe...tbh it's probably the most balanced. locks onto the largest hitbox, one and done, doesn't obliterate everything at once

A "bit" on the armor is underwhelming statement Fallout, running heavy with the fortified perk nowadays lets you tank a couple of rockets in the face and its god damn amazing!

No mention of the Sickle. Everyone and their mother is using it and it shreds!

The fact that Arc Thrower wasn’t mentioned for Automotons is criminal, it now can kill Hulks in 6 shots and stagger locks them.

I knew I liked that cannon, we both have an after shot cooldown

500kg needs to be bigger or have less damage drop off it just feels like someone turned on a light next to you rather than dropping a bomb.

i’m surprised that you didn’t mention the autocannon for fighting bots. i find it can land shots better with it compared to the AMR. i suppose having your backpack slot takin’ up is a bit of a hard sell though

Always cool to see that a ton of different builds are viable in this game. Personally for Lvl 9 missions I use: Bugs: Recoilless Rifle/Autocannon, Eagle Cluster Bomb, Railcannon Strike, Patriot Exosuit Bots: Quasar Cannon, Shield backpack, Eagle Airstrike, 500kg Bomb/Orbital Laser Honorable Mention: Eradicate Missions -> Turret Spam but its exciting to try out new builds and see how they do :D

My favorite stratagem builds at the moment for Automaton is: Eagle Airstrike Orbital Laser Quasar Shield Backpack For Bugs: Orbital Precision Strike Expendable Anti Tank 500 KG Laser Backpack

I love the guard dog rover for bugs and recoiless for automatons. Forgoing the back pack strat lets you bring an eagle air strike, rail cannon, and orbital laser which is insanely fun. You also can be more accurate against flying enemies since you don’t need the quasar to charge, but reloading is annoying

No autocannon or sickle mention against bots is insane to me. While the Quasar is amazing, your primary is rarely enough to deal with the waves of devastators, heavy devastators and berserkers, you just need to wait too long for it too cooldown. It's great for shooting down the reinforcement ships (though those bots rarely die) and picking off hulks one by one. The autocannon can take down every bot in the game, one shotting devastators and 2 shotting hulks. While the Quasar can shoot down the airships, again cooldown, you can shoot these down with the autocannon do a quick reload and keep firing. While I do love to have someone run a Quasar on my high level bot missions, if there isn't a single autocannon we will be in trouble, as we'll get overwhelmed eventually. If you as a Quasar player are able to focus on the big stuff, it's likely someone with an autocannon took care of the 5 rocket devastators that spawned in. The sickle is able to accurately deal with the smaller bots, in fact I think it's the best weapon to very quickly take out groups of static bots so they cannot call in reinforcements, which is a lot harder with any kind of shotgun at the moment. Especially on cold planet this thing is insane.

For bugs, now I run scorcher, grenade pistol, stalwart, orbital laser, ea, and 400kg, usually with med-kit. On long co-op missions I can probably grab a shield backpack or an autocannon/recoilless backpack to assist reload a teammate

In my opinion you are right on a lot of things. What i disagree on: this is a solo/play with 3 randoms META build. I feel like that in a 4 player premade enviroment there are so many better options then this. Plus I dont get why so many people are going all out on the orbital laser. Maybe its fun if you play with all randoms but for me the 3 uses limit and the lacking dps killing this stratagem for me 500g bomb is also a mixed bag. We used it for 1 day. Then we ditched it and never looked back on it I want to hear your opinion on our bug loadout. And we cleared 9ers on day 3 i have to say 1 Rocketeer 1 MG Loader 1 MG Support 1 Autocannon Player Rocketeer brings: Recoiless, Eagle Cluster Airstrike, railcanonstrike and Supply Backpack to reload the loader if needed MG Loader (buddy of rocketeer useing the recoiless BP): the medium MG. Eagle Cluster Airstrike, railcanon strike, autocannon sentry MG Support: Medium MG. Eagle Cluster Strike, railcanon strike, resupply pack(for himself and the autocanon player) Autocannon we bring for its sheer utility power against Bugs. You can close bugholes, destroy sporetrees, easy time against flyer nests, easy egg due to aoe. And destroy the illegal broadcast tower cross map. Autocannon, eagle cluster airstrike, rqilcannon strike, and autocannon sentry. If we run this we have 4 railstrikes ever 4 minutes, 20 clusters every 3:50 minutes, 2 sentries for various occasions. Be it to stop and ammo up or bug breach, or on geo missions to just fortify our positions. Imo AC sebtries work very good against bugs doe to good dps against any enemy type. They can thin out weak enemies but can also "solo" biletitans and chargers. About the clusters. If there are a lot if weak enemies. 1 cluster. If there are to many medium armored bugs just stack 2 clusters to clear the field of low and med armored enemies. 20 clusters means a lot of clear power. For me peronaly far superior to the orb laser. And yes. We have all over 400 hours and never ran shield packs cause theres no need for it. I dont want to sound toxic if i do so. I also dont want to sound like i know it better blah, i think you get what i mean. I just would like to hear your opinion on this good sir. Thanks for your content and i cincearly hope on a reply.

For automatons: Sickle or Dominator Stun Grenades AutoCannon Eagle 110M Rocket Pods Eagle Airstrike 380M Orbital AutoCannon + Stun Grenade for Hulks Eagle Airstrike for Fabricators Eagle 110M for Tanks 380M for Detector Tower/Large Bases Dominator or all Devastators

Great video. Straight and to the point on all subjects. No wasted time on needless info like most videos.

I agree for the most part, though I don't often bring the Rail Cannon. I've had it miss a bunch, and then waiting for the cooldown if it's missed is ass. I end up doing Quasar, Shield, Laser, Eagle Strike. I run Light scout armor, and often run around on my own. That set lets me solo basically everything. I've been trying different primary weapons lately. (My ship is maxed on all upgrades)

110mm rocket pods are very good for bots. Get them loads, always hit the target and can comfortably kill tanks, towers and groups in a single hit

Autocannon and Breaker just feels like finding the pocket and living in it.

The biggest advantage of anti-tank is if you die in messy situation you are not forced to go there to get weapons. Quasar has long cooldown so you are without weapon or you are forced to fight for it.

I nearly lost it when that drop ship wholesale splattered that small army of bots on your left flank.

The arc thrower is a lot of fun against bugs, but especially against bots. Being able to stunlock and kill a hulk without it even getting the chance to fight back is amazing. I'll usually look at what the others are running, but it's mostly quasars. I like to then flank the enemy and zap them, they usually don't have time to turn toward my direction.

Grenade launcher with supply pack, railcannon and 500kg is so fucking goated I feel like big pipe

I know it's not great after the nerfs, but I really like the railgun. It feels great to fire and can drop hulks pretty quickly and one tap devistators with good aim. The reload is super fast, and the risk of overcharging it and getting as close to max charge as possible is super fun. Running it with the SMG or sickle makes you feel invincible, mowing down hordes of enemies before quick switching to the railgun to 1 tap a heavy, then switching back like nothing happened all without giving up my backpack or suffering intense barrel drag. My only complaint is the scope and that it doesn't come down in unsafe mode.

It should be noted that Muscle Enhancment also works against the slows from the spewers, titans, hunters and stalkers.

"If you think we're never gonna see them again" bro is a cyborg spy and helped facilitate the sneak attack

Fav loadie for botsquasar cann,expendable AT, rail strike, shield gen. Best when running with a squad. They focus large strats and crowds you focus tanks,hulks,dropships, and gunships

My #1 favorite primary against bots right now is the Plasma Punisher. It takes practice to get the aim right, but it 1-shots scout walkers, will stun-lock devastators, and can do damage to glowing weak-points on turrets and tanks in a pinch.

cluster bomb, railcannon strike, shield backpack and quasar cannon is the most deadly combo ever

I remember winning 4 coin flips in a row, and it was hilarious. Grenaded, landed, grenaded again, landed again

I would say I put Eagle Cluster Bombs for flex on stratagems for bug missions. While weak against heavy armored targets, it can kill large swaths of medium and smaller enemies instantly in large areas. Combined with multiple uses and a low cooldown, it is great for clearing out a large chunk of enemies before focusing on the heavies. Mainly, use them to instantly clear out patrols before firing a single shot. Also, an arc thrower is another great option between a quasar and expendable anti-tank weapons, for it can go through armor and zap multiple enemies at once, making it good for crowd control or anti-heavy armor bugs. Also, recommend checking out the new sticky grenades. Stuck three on chargers, and it kills it instantly after it burns through its armor. For bots, it's a completely different loadout. I say either an autocannon with nothing but offensive stratagems using range combat to take down enemies from afar (including automaton factories) or Qusar, an anti-material rifle or expandable anti-tank weapon when combined with shield generators. Or have two teammates loud out, where one focuses on getting up close and another is for support range combat.

1. Ol reliable: Eagle Strike/cluster/500kg 2. Support weapon (quaso, AC AMR or EAT), remember to share with the team. 3. Anti-heavy/spawner: deathray, railgun, precision, AC-turret, rocket-pods(imo need a buff) 4. flex/defence slot: shield, ems, gatling, backpack or some BIG boom. Most orbitals are in need of a serious re-balance and I don’t mean an eagle nerf. At the least they need to be able to store up to 2 charges per orbital and maybe give deathray an extra use given it takes 24 seconds to kill a bile Titan

Bro really said the “golden tricorn of success” 😂 love a sneaky D2 reference

My current build for fighting bots is Dominator, Redeemer, Impact Grenades, Airstrike, Orbital Laser, Autocannon (or Quasar, depending on what others are running) and EMS Mortar. Wrap that up in Medium Engineering Kit armour. I generally hang back to pop high value targets but I've got options for swarms.

For the flex spot each teammates could use all those mentioned like for bots someone could use the mortar another could use the laser or the airstrike

Auto lock on is not always guaranteed. Yesterday, 2 seperate times rail was thrown with 2 tanks on the field, only to lock on to a rocket raider.

The quasar cannon gets a lock almost every mission from me. It's just so damn flexible

Pro tip: What i like to do whenever i meet a bile titan, especially when I'm playing with randoms is to use the Rail cannon 500kg 2 hit combo, it makes it so that the bile titan will be stunned from the rail strike and their health would be lower which would make the 500kg delete it instantly

The time it take to line up the E.A.T and quasar cannon charge up make them basically the same. I like the versatility the expandable gives being able to find a true support weapon later on in the operation and having both👌🏾

recoilless rifle is still one shotting chargers too but it has to be a head on impact. kinda feels like a "your trapped in here with me!" table turn when you catch one by yourself if your running with a squad thats a few rounds short of a magazine.

I'd say keep the AC8 autocannon in mind as it's extremely useful against bots, and a monster against gunships. The tacpack with the LAS-5 drone is also fairly underrated against terminids.

Fun fact, the explosive armor resistance on fortified armor works on the bile spew from bugs too.

Me and my squad usually don’t care about what each other pick, we just leave it to them to be as effective as possible with what they choose. Except for the laser. Laser is mandatory.

Underrated Setup ive had so much fun and died so little from, 1. Stewlat 2. Resupply Pack 3. Grenade Pistol 4. AnyPrimary Armor: anything that gives you more Grenades are Stims Depending your playstyle* I kid you not, you can just resupply yourself to get almost unlimited amount while also picking up ammo from the ground. By the time you're out of your backpack just call it in again. Unlimited Slims Grenades. Alot of firepower , unlimited ammo basically. And the speed boost if using Slims is endless

It really depends on the mission type, playstile, personal preference and many more, use what you want

For the bugs I like the eagle airstrike, flamethrower, mech, and quasar cannon.for the bots, I like the airstrike, the eagle smoke strike, the shield pack, and the quasar cannon. Like that d2 reference.

"All for the low, low cost of needing to charge up your shot AND a post shot cooldown" Damn... That sounds relatable.

People underestimate the smoke options especially in these defence missions! They cannot hit the civilians as long as it’s down. Having 1-2 people with it makes a huge difference when the heavies show up

Dominator is totally my new favorite for bot missions. Even over scorcher. The buff definitely helped him.

I run only light armor and just use stealth to my advantage. My teammates are usually way louder and less aware that stealth works to get into a better ambush position

I enjoy running both the eagle airstrike and the 500kg. The railcannon is definitely better than the 500, but I like that you get two with the hangar fully upgraded.

I've found that the Quasar effectively makes the Orbital Rail cannon redundant. It is useful in very niche scenarios where you're being chased down by multiple tanks, but I've found that the Orbital laser is better overall in that is not only can do the same thing as the rail cannon, just slower, but it also improves your swarm control.

Laser canon support weapon clears flying bot gunships very quickly and is overall a very good pick against bots. Surprised it wasn’t mentioned)

just a reminder: railgun is still great against bots! (just make sure its on unsafe) its like the quasar cannon but it attacks faster, is a tad less powerful (doesn't matter against anything except fabricators which admittedly hurts and tanks which you can just bomb) and has limited ammo (which doesn't even matter suprisingly)

muscle enhancement is top tier for bugs, because it makes you resistant to the hunter's slow effect in addition to the other stuff it does, and that alone is enough to take it imo

Muscle enhance will actually help with the acid slow effect. It's not a huge difference but it's something

Me and my buddy ran quasar and anti rifle… we were speed running level 7 as a 2 man. Good combo and great when you got that communication

Lot of comments about Autocannon and such, but I'd like to add a reason why the Scorcher is so darn good against bots: it can kill things it probably has no business being able to kill. Pop a tank or cannon vent with a quasar/EAT, and you can one-shot it with a scorcher shot afterwards. Gunships can be shot down with ~15 shots from a scorcher as well. Striders can't hide their drivers - the splash catches them too. Calldown pods can be used to bust fabricators if you're running stun grenades. Toss the calldown for resupply/EAT next to the front door of a fab, and it'll land on the porch, nicking the front of the fab and killing it outright. Lets you get even more functionality out of EAT calldowns.

Can’t believe no one mentions the punisher, still hits like a truck and staggers

I think orb laser, eagle cluster/airstrike, 120mm barrage, autocannon with the new marksman rifle released April 11th, impact nades is going to be nuts against bots once they come back. I preferred 120 over 380 because I use it on bot drops AND outposts. The amount of kills I get is insane, add heavy armor with explosive resistance and an autocannon and its impossible to die. Spear is also a good pick for those wide open maps with no concealment

I honestly love bringing the autocannon on bot mission and sometimes on bugs, sure you sacrifice a backpack slot to reload the weapon but the amount of things it could do, it has decently fast rate of fire if you can handle the recoil, it one shots a strider, two or three shots a devastator, kills about any objectives on the map like fabricators radars, really destroys the backside of a cannon tower or a tank or hulks, its very versatile, i feel like i use it more than the primary weapon and you can reload it often faster if you do it after 5 shots or so, pretty solid weapon in my opinion if you already have other squad mates packing the quasar or other heavy anti armor loadout

I rock the liberator penetrator for bugs, only downside is that ammo can get scarce quickly. Scorcher for bots is nice too.

A tad late to the party, but I FINALLY picked this game up this past weekend. And sure enough, it's a blast discovering which builds/weapons work best for you. I'm currently a level 11 Cadet, but learning the ropes quickly.

Without watching the video I can answer this question. What’s the New Best Build? The answer is “Whatever fits your play style and whatever is effective against the enemy type. Seriously we don’t have to go by the Meta cause more often than not the players that watch these videos either are new or don’t have the orbitals, aerial strikes, or support weapons/tools to be able to do the meta. Part of the fun in “player choice games” is that we can choose what ever is comfortable for us.

I’ve got a tank build 6 stims, heavy armor vitality, shield generator, eagle air strike, orbital laser, and of course railgun. I heal through objects and walk through them when I’m ready to kill I use either my eruptor explosive sniper and railgun for hulks and demos. Secondary is the redeemer.

Tyranid build: 0:47 Automaton build: 7:13

For Bugs… I use Arc Thrower, Guard Rover (Laser), Orbital Laser, & 500kg. Literally covers every enemy. I found the biggest issue is when you get overwhelmed by 3-4 Bile Titans in Helldive difficulty (but even then I’ve killed 3 titans with 1 500kg so yeah it covers everything) Bots isn’t as of a refined build but… Anti-Material Rifle, Shield Backpack/Ammo backpack, orbital laser, air strike/ems mortar.

Everything works with their own play style. This game offers multiple play styles. Some require you to run and gun, some conservative, some stealth, a mix of everything, basically everything. Just don’t expect to run and gun with a load out you don’t understand yet.

7:48 You're sleepin on how good the gas is right now. Short cool down, takes the stress of the little homies off you, short cooldown and unlimited usage

Qsaar, shield, railgun cannon, and orbital laser

You can also close bug holes with the Quasar Cannon

Orbital gas strike is criminally underrated for bugs. If you can put it directly on the bug breach, you can get 50-70 kills and it won’t miss the way airstrikes do Also the shield emplacement for Bots. Backpack shield is nice but will go down after one rocket or maybe 5 lasers. The emplacement can tank way more damage, protect your whole team, gives you a safe zone to chuck air strikes, and the cooldown is only 1 minute. If you have at least 2 on your team, you can be in the shield for the majority of your fights. With how little damage the backpack shield takes, its worth being less mobile but safer imo

The cluster bomb has to be a meta pick for the bugs, definitely above the airstrike and/or the 500 mg. With the ship module upgrade you can take 5 of them on a single resupply, and they’ll completely wipe out low level bugs giving you 20-30+ kills on a single use. It’s my “meta” pick for bugs now

If you're not running with full FOV you're missing out. Takes a little getting used to but so worth it!

Whenever I’m not running jet pack and AMR, it’s a definite auto cannon equip. Autocannon is by far top3 support weapon

That charge time can hurt way too much some times. Quasar quickly becomes problematic when you get in a big fire fight