0:14 "I won't be ranking these from 1-5, that's disingenuous. Number 1 rail Cannon" great start so far

I always wanted the gas strike to be corrosive to the robots and drop their armor rating just a tad.

I wouldnt be mad if Arrowhead made us collect samples for weapon improvements

I understand the ballistic shield being cosmetic against explosions, but doing nothing for melee is crazy. I would like to get the rational from the devs for this decision.

only single purpose i see for Railcannon currently is: Ohsh*t button when there's one heavy you need to kill here right now it autotargets, very quick, "almost never misses", rarely friendly fires, can be thrown on yourself safely and is unaffected by scatter and call in time modifiers. it won't work as your primary Anti Armor option, but in a pinch/situation gone wrong it can be lifesaver if you have free 3 slot from using support weapon with a backpack. 210s CD is definitely overkill given it's a side-grade to the Precision Strike with has 100s CD...

It would be cool if rail cannon (and 110 rocket pods) were configurable, and you could go into ship management and tell it what it should prioritize. If you want it to delete chargers even if a titan is nearby, you should be able to do that. You should be able to make it prefer turrets to tanks to hulks, or the other way around if you like.

The airburst launcher clearly detonates next to other helldivers due to the air molecules stored in their lungs. Luckily, the ingenious design of the airburst launcher removes this air from their lungs after it's detected by the proximity trigger. A truly cutting edge piece of weaponry.

I was thinking that the Rail cannon should be a one shot for titans, it only hits ONE target, meaning if it were to be buffed it's damage potential would stay generally the same. I think the 110 rocket pods are in the same boat, but if it hit the two biggest things in a larger area, that would make it much better, especially since were getting air-to-air missiles that do the pretty much the same thing.

I want the Orbital EMS to actually lock down bile titans. Yeah, it was stupid that stun grenades could and I'm glad they made changes to that. But a large EMS drop from Orbit should stun a bile titan. Orbital Gas needs to not only do damage but either a debuff (reduces armor by one stage) or a slow/confusion so they stay inside the cloud longer.

4:17 not just corners but through time and space as well.

"Hulks are bigger than you'd think!" - SES' Railcannon operator. Really, although impressive on the ease of use, the Railcannon strike CAN still target much smaller enemies despite having a much bigger one right next to it. I threw a Railcannon at a Bile Titan once, it goes and target the Brood Mother just because its the closest "big" target. I had a few days where the Railcannon just does no targeting at all, just because I threw it a few feet away from the large enemy. (I think they fixed this). I decided to just run with the good old Orbital Precision Strike. Surprise, surprise, I can one-shot bile titans if I'm lucky, or skillful enough. Otherwise love the Railcannon, just wished the cooldown is faster.

The orbital rail cannon definitely needs either a cooldown buff or it would be cool if it could target 3 targets, or do 3 shots like an airburst

Spear is one of my favorite stratagems. Sometimes it works 100% of the time. It's great fun.

the amount of times im running away from a swarm and the lazer goes after the 1 little bug behind me and toasts me as well lmao

I like quasar because you never need to reload it. The 3 second charge time isn't ideal, but it's better than sitting yourself down for a recoilless reload during a protracted battle, or if you're doing a fighting retreat. Sure, you never want to be caught in those situations, but they're going to happen regardless because no one plays a perfect game 100% of the time. You can also open any engagement with it because you don't need to worry about reloading it in case a tank or hulk gets dropship'd in. Not to mention the backpack slot gets opened up, so a shield generator can mitigate the charge up time, while a jump pack can just fly somewhere. You can even be a team player and wear a spare ammo backpack for a teammate if you don't feel like being a team player with a supply pack. It's just a good supplementary weapon for teams you have any amount of coordination with, whether you want to fill a more flexible role or you just wanna turn your brain off while still being effective. Also, there's no reason to shoot down dropships because half the time it just turns into invincible cover for the bots being dropped in.

I think you can work around the lack of Med pen on the Ballistic shield. Laser Cannon can be a good pick as a support slot since it can handle most things you're weak at on Automatons.

The spear could be laser guided by your teammates like the laser guided bombs or missiles in real life. Eg a teammate finds a target, marks it for you and boom. You hit exactly what you need

I run the spear. What I use it for: killing Fabricators, AT-ATs & Gunships. It is gr8 when it works, especially if stratagems are being jammed and you need to kill something big. Sometimes It decides to target the tower cannon, the tank and the hulk.. sometimes It just does not want to. You can use elevation and crawling on your belly to get it to aim better, sometimes it does work. Needs that fix from the devs. As a spear user you just pray to the RNG gods and sacrifice your kin at dawn be4 playing :). EDIT: vs bugs its not good, but bugs are easy and boring anyway.

Your medication ad analogy was wild but I respect you using the traditional Italian pronunciation of Buscemi

Rail cannon classifies tower as structure and not enemy, so if there is any enemy near to its throw in spot. It'll target the mobile enemy first

The problem with the rail cannon strike is that we have far better options, especially against bots. Orbital lasers, 500kg Bomb, Eagle Airstrike are permanent go-tos. Rail cannon comes back every 3 minutes and only kills 1 enemy. That's not enough uptime for bot drops, patrols and stationary enemies. The only way I see running rail cannon being decently viable is if It's a mission that allows you to carry 4 stratagems. And It's only decently viable If you aren't using extra slots like rovers or shield generators. Your uptime and loadout would be so bad.. that's why I agree It's definitely a top 5 overrated stratagem. Strong, but not great for uptime.

"Use what u wanna use" - but don't use useless scheise pls

the orbital laser issue comes from people not understanding its true purpose: base/horde clearing. the laser is not meant to be used on large enemies, thats terrible economy for it. instead it should be used for bases with bot drops called. its crazy good at mowing down devastators and anything below that level. once it runs into a tank or hulk (titans and chargers for bugs) you should kill that damage sponge or expect the laser to be over. railcannon strike is great for anything other than bile titans since that is the only enemy it doesnt instantly kill. i use it for chargers, hulks, tanks, and once i used it to kill a factory lol. the appeal for this one is its reliability. decent cooldown and one shots anything you run into except titans, i use it for bot missions alot

6:18 great ending

You just raised the bar for every other youtuber by making a top 5 with 7 items, no one can ever top this off 😂 This will be the new norm

Lol, I recently discovered your channel from Helldivers 2 content and am really enjoying your straightalking no-nonsense ways.

Man, wasn’t expecting Quasar on this list ESPECIALLY for Automotons. One shotting Hulks, Shooting off once against Tanks/Turrets then finishing off with an Eruptor. Having the option to shoot fabricators, and shooting drop ships RIGHT BEFORE they turn red effectively stopping an entire drop, or shooting down gun ships. Man I keep trying to finish the sentence then thinking of more uses, it’s so versatile. Just don’t use it against devastators? Leave that to the scorch or eruptor. Thought of two more things, LEAVES THE BACKPACK SLOT OPEN, NO AMMO CONSUMPTION, AND NO BULLET DROP OFF. EDIT AGAIN, YOU CAN ONE SHOT MORTORS, AND EAGLE GATTLERS, AND TWO SHOT STRIDERS

Dough just wanted to say, you make my day just a little better when you upload. Also Ballistic Shield video anytime soon?

Straight to the point and no bs. I appreciate contents like yours

My main issue with the rail cannon is the cooldown. It only takes out one big guy at once and takes so long that by the time you have it again, depending on the difficulty, you will have like 3 chargers or hulks to deal with and it’ll only take out one

I dont understand the ballistic shield slander, just bring a laser cannon or amr or something with range to take out high value targets, then move in with the shield and safely clear the fodder, or use stratagems for the big guys. Also the revolver is a much better option than the grenade pistol since you can oneshot devs to the head with it. grenade pistol doesn't support the sustain playstyle the shield promotes nearly as well.

Hey thanks for the protein shake review ,might try it with lucky charms with oatmeal.

I love rail cannon strike but i only use it for bugs im shit at handling chargers and it lets me kill bile titans with any primary by shooting the chunk that gets blasted off... it aiming at the helathy one is great that way you can use almost any weapon to finish it off.

The thing with the protein and cereals is genius. I've been doing it for months. Also, I personally love the grenade launcher because it helps me level up faster and compensates a bit for lack of friends

Well Quasar cannon makes automaton fun for me, cuz I love the shield backpack and Quasar is a great heavy killing weapon without the need for backpack, and yea I don't like having to call in EAT every time. At the end of the day, use whatever you want lol

Love your vids mate! I also want more single handed weapons for the ballistic shield and maybe two charges for the orbital railcannon strike

I started using the Quasar Canon yesterday, boy its a lot of fun taking down Titans

pro tip: of you use a railcannon strike on a fresh bile titan and have a auto cannon, you can finish it off with an auto cannon by popping its underbelly and tail belly.

I'd say the hulk over turret aiming is an expected result. Tower is technically smaller as the base isn't part of the turret.

I use Orbital Laser as a damage boost, using my support weapon(Arc or EAT/Quasar etc) to target whatever bigger target the laser gets stuck on. That way you takes groups of big things faster on the higher difficulties. No big targets and it mops up trash, always a bonus, and no risk of the Rail Cannon's...performance anxiety. I often have teammates running a Rail Cannon, so if it doesn't one-shot the bile, the laser will finish it off and move onto the next.

upon the alter of the auto cannon I pray, may the cannon be with you always.

The name of that rocket launcher, you know, „spear” hints at how you’re actually supposed to use it. The damn thing can’t lock on, so throw the rockets like a spear!

Imagine looking at the railcannon strike, realizing it gets to kill 1 thing every 3 and a half minutes, and thinking "Oh yeah, that's a MUST pick"

Orbital laser is great to clear a large robot factory and clears adds for a safe extract. I understand your point that an orbital laser will just be a waste on a bial Titan with a bunch of bugs but that’s if I am solo. I won’t bring it. If I am with a full squad, somebody else has a stratagem to help take out the Titan quickly and let the laser go off to clear other targets.

My Ballistic Shield build is the Knight in Burst fire mode, explosive damage reduction heavy armor, the Grenade Pistol and the HMG, never ADS with the HMG, hipfire it exclusively and run Stun nades. Crouch whenever you get into a firefight for the aiming bonus and better shield coverage, this is honestly the biggest thing about running the Shield, constantly crouching. When you need to reposition try to run so that the enemies are on your left since the Shield will cover your Left side while sprinting and when there's a Hulk hide behind a corner for him to get a bit closer then aim for the face, throw a Stun grenade to be completely safe then jump out behind the corner and just spray into his face, he'll go down shockingly easy at close range. If you come across a Tank lob your grenade pistol on top of the gun, outrun it or Eagle Airstrike it. The hardest part of this build is getting comfortable shooting the HMG without a reticle but it's surprisingly not that bad once you get used to it, just make sure to always have cover nearby to bait Hulks to getting closer. The Knight in Burst mode while crouching with the aiming bonus armor is a stunningly accurate weapon and if you're good enough to aim for the head will drop everything. This build needs to be crouching to do almost anything, domeing with the Knight, covering your shield or holding your HMG steady but you can take on literally anything the Automatons can throw at you as long as you're hunkered down like a turtle.

I’ve had the rail cannon strike a strider rider guy instead of the tank sitting 3 ft from him…. I am sending this message from the grave.

Nade launcher. Aim at the ground below the enemy. Makes it more consistent

The thing about the GL is that it can kill an entire group of medium enemies with the same amount of shots that it takes to kill one. That's how to get the most out of the limited ammo. It's an amazing weapon for ambushing patrols because you can kill a lot of light and medium enemies very quickly, not giving them a chance to retaliate or call in reinforcements. It's also great for thinning out extraction waves. It's weakness is obviously heavy enemies. If I'm playing solo I usually run it with the EAT or even the QC, which I'll call in at a good vantage point before assaulting a group of enemies so I have a good place to fall back to if I get chased by a heavy. While I agree that it would be great if there were more one-handed weapons, the BS is incredibly fun to use against bots. It allows you to be super aggressive when assaulting outpost. It feels great walking right up to a devastator and shooting them in the face. It's also great when you're retreating because you can put it on your back. The Defender is actually kinda nuts when you realize how strong, accurate, ammo efficient, and quick to reload it is. It pairs so well with the BS. I kind of agree with the ORCS and OL being overrated. Sometimes they don't target what you want and it seems like a lot of players use them as a crutch to deal with heavy enemies and don't know what to do when they're on cooldown. That said, I've played missions where everyone was running them and it was an absolute breeze.

Orbital laser is my go-to for when I don't trust my group and we might get overrun by small stuff as much as the big stuff. This applies to bugs a lot.

The rail cannon strike against the bots also tends to target striders if they're close enough to whatever it is you want to kill, like a hulk. It's happened to me more times than I'd like to admit and it's why I refuse to even bring it on bot missions

I've never had a problem with the railcannon strike not hitting what I intend it to hit when thrown.

That whole railcannon strike aim is giving me some, "Who made this man a gunner?!" vibes

"Railcannon didn't target the tower" after he throws it right at the hulk

I honestly would like to see a laser pointer secondary that buffs the damage of guided weapons as well as lock on time just to make it worth bringing

I use the quasar bc u can shoot turret towers and tanks from any angle, one shots hulks, one shots gunships shooting them anywhere, down dropship (even if dropping them makes them more anoying) and bc rocket launcher with unlimited ammo and low cooldown between shots

About the Quasar Cannon, for me it is a weapon that can do everything required even on bots, it can shoot down gunships and drop ships with one hit every time, nearly everything else in 2 shots or less. can destroy alot of objectives even from a far distance. infinite ammo and all of this is on one stratagem that I don't need a backpack for which all of the weapons that can do what the quasar does but "better" need.

lmao a crazy eyes reference from "Mr. Deeds." this is premium content

The railcannon doesn't really give me any issues. It's more of a problem of wanting it to just solve your biggest problem but I appreciate that it prioritizes the hulks and such. 500kg however will just kill nothing sometimes even when nearby. Just because hammer can do a job your might be better off with a saw.

Railcannon is good on like levels 4-5 were the Chargers are few and far between. It kinda needs a cooldown that decreases by difficulty level to stay relevant.

Lmfao its always good when you post. Ik its a video on gaming but they shit you say sometimes actually cracks me up 😂 0:14 for example

I still firmly believe that the Ballistic Shield is what makes Automaton missions playable. If you're working with at least one person who specializes in Anti-Tank stuff, the shield allows you to push into enemy territory and hold ground where you otherwise can't. Also, running away with the shield on your back while you have all the samples is a real lifesaver.

i remember the grenade launcher being better, perhaps in a previous patch because i'd have less rebounds and like take 2 to down a devestator give or take

I do like the rail cannon strike for when there is a hulk in my face and i need it to go away

I've tested both the gas and napalm, If youre using just napalm for ur eagles than napalm is better, but if ur using 500kg aswell as napalm (or any other eagle) the timing starts to get restricting with rearms. However the gas cloud is a must bring when using breaker incen (IMO). You can get the double DOT effect of the incen breaker as well as the cloud. Medium enemies die extremely quickly and the heavier ones are crippled from the double DOT. (tested in helldive) ALSO i believe the gas strike gets a very large initital impact radius. Ive noticed it basically instakilling small enemies outside of the lingering gasses range when it lands.

what are you favorite support weapons to use against bots and bugs respectively @OhDough

I used to run O. Rail cannon against bugs but I’ve found the 500kg works much better for Titans. Especially on the new defend mission. Being able to toss out two back to back with a shorter cooldown. The Queso cannon is great against gunships but I’d rather use Eat-17 and have an Arc Thrower or rail gun. The other two Stats I use are Autocannon sentry and Eagle Airstrike.

I'd love to hear what you would bring if you wanted to try hard against both factions. Play style is a good component, but what you bring can make things fit together.

I disagree with ballistic shield simply because I never see anyone actually paying with it. People should play with it more lol. And only use it for what it's good for, mg raiders, turrets, heavy devastators, shredder tank, using it against fabricator strider to rush under the belly.

4:16 "These Bots are prefiring corners" shows Bots shooting through walls and/ or possibly other map geometry.

Railgun is trash. A few days ago, a factory strider dropped near me. I tossed the railgun right on top of strider, but the railgun completely avoided every high tier enemy in the area and killed a trooper far away from where the beacon was.

The spear should have a little recon drone you can scout with and laser a target from a distance and shoot off the rocket n have it hit

I use Autocannon for bots and Quasar for bugs. If I’m solo I’ll take Arc Thrower and Blitzer for both. It’s really fun.

Ballistic shield is a mobile cover that must be used aggressively against enemies while thinking about where to go.

One the bug side, I've even seen a charger full tank a laser. It's very inconsistent at targeting bug weak points.

I'd love the rail cannon to get a buff. The thing is a good panic option between reloads, right out of the drop pod at mission or to safely deal with an enemy trying to kill a teammate. Never understood the orbital laser hype. Quasar... infinite ammo so I can carry more ammo for my erupter. Spear is literally the only weapon we can personally hold that can 1 shot a bile titan. It's also supposed to have been fixed about 17 days ago in but for PlayStation reasons we have to wait for the big patch. How fixed it will be we can only guess but at the vary least we can hope for it being the lock on

Good stuff man

I wrote off the ballistic shield when I took it to a desert planet and couldn't used the shield to sled down a dune

I actually swapped from sickle/quasar cannon to eruptor/arc thrower for bots lately....arc thrower stagger is just too fun 😂

so i give grenade launcher praise for new people as it unlocked early on so gives them a good early game bug hole closer and crown control tool all in 1

Quasar is equal to EAT and the RR. They each have their upsides and downsides, but the main thing that grouping brings is that they're not finicky about where you need to hit the heavy armor. So if you can't get a good angle or have a lot of flinch coming your way, you can just shoot them in the body and it's good enough. I'm not a fan of the windup and cooldown of the Quasar. I'm also running with three stratagems, so 'taking up' a backpack slot isn't that big of a deal to me since I'm not going to be using it anyways, which is why I prefer the RR over EAT.

Spear only locks on if it has a fully clear line of sight. It's not horrible if you can understand why it cant target something. It needs to see targets for itself. It's more for taking out objectives like bot factory's, Shrieker nests, etc. It could use a little targeting buff but it isn't as bad as people claim it to be when you understand what it's trying to do

Thank you! I feel vindicated lol. I feel the same way with the railcannon. I even made the same comment about the cd

you had me at hello. Lost me when you said gas strike :D

I find that if i impact grenade the sac under the bile titan and then railgun strike it it would 100% die. The sacs hold a good portion of the titan's hp

my Rail Canon strikes really like Scout Striders for some reason

Grenade launcher felt pretty good to me. It was competent at taking down groups of the bots' chaff, but primarily it was good at taking down nests and even the occasional factory (with the same issues as the 'nade pistol). That said, now that I have the grenade pistol, I don't take it anymore. I do think it could use some buffs to its max clips. Quasar is fantastic to me for two reasons: As you mentioned, it's great at taking down dropships (have not had the gate issue, but then I just don't target one over a gate). It also does not come with a backpack. Having access to a shield backpack, brought or shared, is a pretty big boon. It is very highly rated. But I'm not convinced that it's *over*-rated. I don't know that it needs a buff.

Orbital Rail-Cannon should get the ship upgrade that gives orbitals 1 more barrage.

The orbital rail cannon has a lot of issues, like sometimes it will hit a Hulk but do nothing. I think it might actually be bugged specifically when it comes to tanks tho, cause there's no way to make sense of how consistently it will target a Strider or Devastator nearby a tank instead of the obviously larger enemy... the tank... I still like to use it sometimes tho, u just have to know it's pitfalls so u can mitigate them. That said it definitely needs some work. I like the expediency of it, not so much the auto targeting and it's utter failure to appropriately prioritize enemies. It would be nice if u could ping the enemy u want it to hit if your near a group of large enemies and/or want it to target something specific, and it could use a damage or cooldown buff.

Finally, someone says the truth about dropship killing and using the Quasar cannon on the bot front. I barely like it on bugs Idk how people tolerate the potential "o no I flinched there goes my shot for 14secs" fact of life for bot planets.

I don’t see many players using the spear personally. But I’m still gonna use it for building destruction and or utility.

The railcannon can be effected by the scrambled operation modifier

the defender+ballistic shield is pretty good, not the best combo but it’s not bad at all and really fun to rock personally

Imagine the crossbow would be single-handed use...at least thats what i thought when it first was leaked. And it would make it at least useful to some degree

People definitely overhyped the quasar cannon a lot, its just a fairly well balanced option in the anti-tank role that trades DPS for excellent sustain and long range accuracy. When im away from my team and they are being attacked by gunships, being able to quickly take them out from several hundred meters away and then get back to whatever i was doing is very handy.

I personally love railcannon strike, I bring it on every mission along with 500 kg bombs. The way I see it is its a great charger, hulk and tank killer, then I'll just use 500 kgs on everything else like titans or stationary targets. Also if you crack the bile titans back armor it seems too make them very weak to explosives, I've been able to finish them off with a few grenades or auto cannon shots after cracking their back open. If anything this stratagem is mad underrated, I never see my teammates pick it besides me.

Railcannon buff that could be funny and good: it checks if the target it hit is still alive and if so it fires one additional time.

I like the quasar bc 1: infinite ammo and 2: free back pack slot. And you get both of those while being able to take out pretty much everything in one or at most two shots in the case of tanks and turrets, and it can destroy fabricators, holes, and dropships

The grenade launcher is great on bugs but is best used with a supply pack. If you like spamming firepower into hordes of enemies, the grenade launcher is great. Destroys bile spewers, kills chaffe, and while isn’t great for heavy enemies, it deals with the medium enemies well enough. However, you can use it to blow the bile titans sacks and spam the charger’s soft spot since it does explosive damage. My second favorite load out other than fire (I loved pyro stratagems before they were buffed and I love them even more now but it’s getting old using it all the time)

Railcannon is geeat but against bugs for some reason will prefer to target the commando even if you have changer or titan against you (probably a code error) but it's doesn't happen often

Railcannon is thee best option for immediately killing anything south of a Bile Titan or Factory Strider instantly, which can be a lifesaver in tight spots. I've very very rarely had it target the wrong enemy, if you need it to hit the Tower instead of the Hulk, try throwing the stratagem ball further away from the Hulk but closer to the Tower (if that makes sense). I swear there was a time where it one shotted Bile Titans, I usually bring Rocket Pods along with the RC to finish them off Orbital Laser is a GODSEND for taking out big Automaton bases (especially eye of Sauron towers). Can be super useful as well to deal with multiple Bot drops. Not so great against Bile Titans true, can be good for clearing out bug hordes but there's definitely better options against the bugs. Quasar Cannon is good for downing ships, and that's a coin flip dilemma in itself sure. Sometimes it kills the enemies, sometimes it causes them to get stuck and become immobile, sometimes it even destroys objectives. Then again, sometimes it doesn't do shite against enemies, gives them free cover, and adds an obstacle to your path. Still, you can take out Turret Towers and Fabricators from super far with it, with no worry for ammo and a free backpack slot (usually Shield for stopping flinch). It's a whole lot better against the Bugs, especially if two squad mates bring one. Grenade Launcher for some fackin reason does bugger all to Shrieker Nests, why?? It's good for taking out mobs quickly though if you learn the aim, great for stopping flares or bug snitching in groups. I wanna say it's still the best support weapon for dealing with mobs quickly? Spear yeah, it's poop. Hopefully not for long. I rarely host so the Gas Strike seems to be bugged for me, it doesn't kill anything :((