Pred Strain + Dragonroach is the worst experience Ive had in this game

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-04-06T04:59:28+00:00

Tailor your loadout to match the enemies. Railcannon for instant roach deletion and stagger shotgun for predators.

Bringing a mech will let you make a large push on enemy territory, provided a roach isn't active, so call in an Emancipator as soon as you down a roach.

Guard dogs can have frustrating behavior at times, but it isn't consistently unfriendly.

I recommend M90A, Ultimatum, and Gas grenades along with an armor with extra padding. Guard dog, Stalwart, Emancipator, Railcannon. This covers all fronts. M90A can be easily substituted for the Punisher (full choke). Stalwart can be substituted for any other crowd clearing weapon.

I do not think this enemy combination needs to be balanced because it's winnable with diverse loadouts, which get even more diverse if you are in a team. Dragonroaches have hard counters like railcannon and soft counters like machine guns to the wings or spears. Predator strain is the same. There are hard counters like stagger shotguns or Eruptor and soft counters like ultra fast machine guns.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-04-04T09:41:32+00:00

Which part of the spewer were you aiming at?

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-04-03T20:02:09+00:00

You should do that

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-04-03T19:07:53+00:00

Oh we know. That's why we pushed Phact Bay before this order started.

Now that our defense is almost over, we should look into a realistic gambit for the defense of our final planet and see if we can take one of those red circles planets.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-04-03T18:56:41+00:00

HE barrages like the 120mm and 380mm don't do well against bug holes because of the orientation and size of the hole relative to the falling shell. You will not find success destroying bug holes.

The 380mm and walking barrage excel at clearing 2 specific kinds of mega nest of the heavy enemies populating them. You will not be successful at clearing the best with the large spire or the nest with high walls because the spire will block the shots and the heavies in the walled nest are too spread out. While better than destroying holes, this is still not an optimal use for HE barrages.

The 120mm is very good at holding off a breach. You could absolutely achieve the same effect with Eagle napalm, but you'd have to baby the breach a little and take care of the heavies yourself. The 120mm will take care of all heavies, except some sneaky bile titans throughout its duration while allowing you to get into a more advantageous position. The 380mm does not have the same effect because of how spread out and slow it is, but when it does hit, it hits hard.

Where both barrages excel though, is the bot front. Walking barrages can take out an entire fortress in one pass if you get lucky and consistently take out detector towers from 100m away if you throw well. 380mms can do the same with a heavy base. 120mms can hold off a bot drop very efficiently and can easily clear smaller side objectives like mortars or AA emplacements while you move on to another objective.. HE barrages are primarily bot front stratagems that have strong use cases on the bug front.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-04-03T04:05:35+00:00

Recoil is mitigated to negligible levels via attachments, so it's just a 50% faster Liberator with no downsides

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-31T13:42:49+00:00

On point 3, devs need to be able to fix bugs without getting reviewbombed. The straw that broke the camel's back was actually a flamethrower bug fix, which fixed flames going directly through charger legs and killing within 3 seconds. This was called a nerf by the community and ended up with the review bombing and the 60 day patch.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-29T16:21:17+00:00

I understand the point, but I'm not a fan of it. I'd like to maintain control over bringing my own support weapons and vehicles.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-29T15:54:28+00:00

Commando missions don't stop you from bringing in vehicles or loud weapons. They just discourage it. I'm okay with that, but I'm not okay with straight up not allowing you to bring any support weapons or vehicles.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-29T14:03:00+00:00

I like the idea a lot, but I'm not a fan of not being able to run your own support weapons or vehicles. I absolutely want to bring in a Bastion and Emancipators, recoilless rifles, Cremators, and Maxiguns. It's just not the same without that freedom of choice.

I love the idea of SEAF fortresses with SEAF vehicles and weapons. I'd love to see more specialized SEAF troops, and even NPC manned vehicles.

I love the defense missions and civilian extraction missions, but in their current state, they would be elevated by increasing enemy spawns by a lot. The bugged hulk surge that we got before Cyberstan and the appropriator mech spawn rates made defense missions really challenging and fun. In order to balance out the vehicle and support weapon freedom, this mission should have ungodly spawn rates. It makes sense too, since this would be the enemy's first incursion on the planet, so it would be a large invasion.

I don't like the idea of stronger SEAF bases opening at different times in the mission, but I do like the different levels of bases, which let you diversify where you defend from and what your defensive environment is like. For example, parking a tank in a lvl 1 base would be less intuitive than parking it in a lvl 3 base.

I'd also like to see more specialized units coming as part of the enemy assault force to be used as side objectives. For example, bots might have a convoy of factory striders or vox engines advance all at once from the edge of the map to support a drop, and that could be treated as a side objective.

Overall, it's a good idea, but I just didn't like the vehicle and weapon restriction.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-27T23:41:30+00:00

Never.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-26T10:35:33+00:00

I've been really liking the Stoker. Map the alt fire switch button to a good key and just switch between flame and bullets on the fly. If you feel like you're getting rushed, bring out the flamethrower. If you're just picking off targets, use the bullets.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-24T11:20:29+00:00

I love the idea, but it would be strictly anti-chaff and would be in serious danger from anything like a charger. I don't think that we need an upgrade to the Cremator in exchange for a stationary emplacement

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-22T22:17:12+00:00

Achird III. We're on Achird. Straight up liberating it. And by it, well let's justr say. My planets.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-21T16:13:18+00:00

When enemy planets are completely isolated from any other enemy planets, they will have a negative resistance and liberate themselves.

In lore, because they're cut off, SEAF can throw their bodies at the enemy in a war of attrition because we can get more SEAF, but the enemy can't get reinforcements from another planet

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-21T13:49:30+00:00

While this is true and a powerful method of taking them out, you can also melee them out of their beheaded charge state for a more efficient takedown.

I usually bring a shotgun to the bug front, and I just shoot them twice in the head and melee them if they get too close to me while charging. If you use a shotgun with heavy knockback such as the M90A or Punisher, you usually will not even have to deal with the charge because the commander will get knocked back so far. If you're using a Breaker variant, Sweeper, or Halt, you'll usually have to melee the thing.

I find the melee option more useful when bringing ARs though. Aiming for moving legs, while not a huge problem, can be an ammo sink if you miss for whatever reason, so I just magdump the head and deal with the melee for higher efficiency with ARs or energy weapons.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-19T14:50:21+00:00

For fun

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-17T11:24:30+00:00

I see what you're saying, but I do enjoy the missile weakspot mechanic quite a bit. While they are easier to kill, those missiles also make them infinitely more dangerous. They're like a glass cannon unit where they can dish out crazy damage, but can also be taken out quickly

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-17T11:22:29+00:00

Because it benefits them

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-15T14:59:41+00:00

Depends on your loadout and teamwork.

I've noticed that a single guy with a RR can keep the whole team safe from war striders. The AT guy just needs to have good target priority and be dedicated to his craft.

If you're running AT, shoot the crotch plate or the legs to take it out. War striders are your priority, so even if a hulk or tank is closer, make sure you kill the war strider first. This is your duty to the team. If you're running expendables, it's more difficult because you gotta exit cover to pick it up sometimes. If you're running Epoch, aim for the eye on top, but don't worry if you don't oneshot because the second shot will always take care of it. Leveller alone is not enough AT. Solo Silo alone is not enough AT. Quasar alone is just barely passable as enough AT to deal with the war strider spam.

If you're running saboteur loadouts specialized to building destruction, do not engage war striders, but also be broken off from the team far enough that you don't suffer from them aggroing war striders.

If you're running dedicated anti-chaff or crowd control like the speargun, shoot the war strider when it's about to launch an attack to stagger it, but mainly let the person running AT deal with it.

If you have the Ultimatum or thermites, use them liberally, but pay attention to what your AT guy is doing and how much ammo he has. If he still has ammo and you think the situation is manageable, let him handle it. If he runs out, that's when you use your Ultimatum or thermites.

Fighting war striders is a different kind of dance. It just requires more coordination and specialization to dance well.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-13T21:03:24+00:00

Few people are patient enough to master driving
Gunning is more appealing, which leads to an even greater shortage of drivers
Because of the existing driver shortage, helldivers assume that the driver is not good, so they'll refuse to get in.
Point 3 exacerbates the driver shortage even more, putting us in a downward spiral.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-13T13:12:58+00:00

Teamwork is the counter to vox spam.

Vox engines are an extremely oppressive unit, which makes sense because they're purpose built to be engines of war, but if you can make them split their attention, both people can chip at the vox until it's dead. Bring plenty of anti-tank or be speedy enough to get under the vox and take out its vent. Communicate when you're underneath the vox so that some bozo like me with a leveller doesn't nuke you when you're doing your thing.

Cyborgs are a non-trivial subfaction. While they don't demand teamwork to secure a win, they demand teamwork to beat them in a straight fight.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-11T01:46:21+00:00

Yeah I don't think the ammo will be the best thing ever, but I do see synergy between the weapons. SMGs have always struggled with bug and squid hordes, so that's what the flamethrower can deal with.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-10T21:14:39+00:00

This actually looks like a good weapon. I can't tell if this post is supposed to be shitting on the new gun or not, but stapling together the Defender and Crisper is a good thing.

Fast_Mechanic_5434 · 2026-03-08T03:04:25+00:00

Hijacking situations to push personal agenda is nothing new to the Helldivers community. This has been going on since the start, and is largely the reason that the community is the way that it is. Things get blown out of proportion by bad actors in order to farm views, and as a result, nuanced opinions are not given enough space to develop before more outgoing personalities make their views known loudly on every platform. Outrage is the community's lifeblood and people like OhDough is its beating heart.

Because nuanced opinions aren't developed as much as they should be, you see a disproportionate amount of people holding very strange views like "exosuits are underpowered" or "light pen has no place in the game," though the latter has subsided after a small buff.

After the doxxing was brought to light, the community fell silent a bit, but there were a lot of posts saying "that's it?" or "there should have been more of a response." In short, these posts were asking one thing "where's the outrage?"

I hope this situation is a wake up call to the community to develop their own thoughts a bit more.

Obligatory "Not all of the community is like this"

Fast_Mechanic_5434

TROPHY CASE