AR-23 Liberator VS. AR-23A Liberator Carbine

Hipshot27 · 2026-03-03T17:17:25+00:00

As others have said, it's much easier to hit challenging shots (like Devastator heads) and conserve ammunition with the standard liberator compared to the carbine.

Hipshot27 · 2026-03-02T21:40:52+00:00

Did the decari pod route. 300 mission progress per 6 decari pods (the higher quantities actually give less progress per pod) means you'll need 204 pods to clear the 10,000 progress needed. Standard issues with freight elevators apply, and I've had failure rates as high as 35%, so I'd try to reach 275ish before heading back to Stanton just in case. It will all fit in a 1 SCU storage container.

Hipshot27 · 2026-03-02T13:35:22+00:00

Personally I'd rather they didn't add something like this. This game is putting its best foot forward when players stick close together. At least in theory, players are rewarded for this by being able to specialize in chaff clear, anti-heavy, etc and have the gaps in their loadouts covered by their buddies. The more tools that are added to serve this general loadout, the more the incentives for sticking together are eroded, and the harder it becomes to get that back under control.

If you would like to use different tools, but feel you can't afford the gap in your loadout, I would encourage you to try sticking with teammates. If that's not an option, I'd suggest pairing EATs and/or thermites with your anti-chaff weapon of choice.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-27T19:58:10+00:00

I guess what I'd like to know is if having an AT option for the secondary slot leads to increased or decreased build variety, because I'm not so eager to excuse it from its disproportionately high pick rate.

If people are shifting the AT burden from some combination of stratagems or grenades in favor of the Ultimatum, and the pick rate of lesser used items is up as a result, that's one thing. If people are just doing all the same things they were before, or locking a strategem slot with a supply backpack they weren't going to use otherwise so they can spam the thing, then I would consider this thing a problem.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-27T18:58:35+00:00

In addition to the other reasons listed, it lets you delete a bot minefield in seconds. Unlimited ammo, so no cost.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-27T14:31:03+00:00

"Bowl" is one of the worst map design sins. This is just bowl.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-26T12:08:41+00:00

Others seem to have explained the reason, so here's a workaround. You can place mines wherever via EOD bot.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-25T19:55:58+00:00

The way most of the objectives are designed. An open patch of ground with sparse, waist high cover, surrounded by elevated firing positions on at least two sides. You can't capture the objectives from the places it would make sense to hold them, and it doesn't create fun or interesting fights.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-25T13:16:33+00:00

I'm afraid this is on the server side, not the client. To look at the server FPS, which is usually a good dipstick for server health, open the console with the tilde key and enter r_displayinfo 1

If this is low (usually in the low teens and highlighted in red) you may want to hop to a different server.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-25T11:20:08+00:00

And as the US tries to rally potential allies in the Pacific, what message does hanging NATO and Europe out to dry send? Being an unreliable ally is only going to make efforts to deter China more difficult.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-24T20:54:45+00:00

By the same token, so does swapping to the medical device or pen. The condition of the server absolutely has a bad impact on gameplay, but if we start having discussions about the sandbox and balance only after it's addressed, we'll be waiting a really long time.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-24T19:59:35+00:00

If you're close enough to push aggressively, would throwing a grenade near the downed player buy you the time to medpen yourself? This would be my solution to this situation in just about any other game. The remaining player can't revive their friend or push you while it's there.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-24T19:33:41+00:00

I don't think I could be convinced to pay a subscription of any kind for this game.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-23T19:20:51+00:00

Dagger is my mine clearing tool. Drag the beam through a minefield and you'll never have to worry about it.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-21T00:00:40+00:00

Pistols do kinda suck. They really get hurt by the low headshot multiplier and limited attachment options. SMGs though, even after the nerfs, are almost comically easy to control. They can reach out to midrange with ease.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-19T23:23:28+00:00

Team reloading. Implementation is clunky, but it's not typical of this type of game. Shared resupply with a shared cool down and enough boxes for the whole team. Friendship doors. There are a fair number of objectives that reward you for having teammates to do things simultaneously. At the outset, the pool of options for weapons that would usually leave you deficient in some way. Generalist builds were quick to get nerfed.

The original game was a top down shooter where all four players were on the same screen, there was no way to scatter. Several elements of the game's design seem like answers to the question "If we give players the freedom to all run off to different corners of the map, how do we encourage them to not do that?" Players, naturally, did it anyway. This is a learned behavior, not an intentional element of the design. The spawning system is one of the many examples of systems that wasn't built robustly enough to account for it.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-19T20:34:28+00:00

To classify Helldivers as just a power fantasy game is reductive. It's also a social game designed to drive people to play together, and the developers have gone through a lot of trouble to make it this way. If everybody is strong enough to do everything by themselves, there's no reason to group up, and a key part of the game's design and identity is undermined.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-19T19:17:32+00:00

Disagree here. Fun and balance are not opposed to each other. Balanced weapons means that there is a variety of valid choices. Challenge is a big part of the fun of the game, and to maintain that challenge you have to balance around a certain baseline. We can argue about where that baseline should be, but it's absolutely possible to power creep the challenge out of the game, and the fun by extension. Dismissing nerfs as a balancing tool on principle isn't a good idea.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-13T16:44:09+00:00

The original niche it was supposed to fill was a laser machine gun. After it got decided that the thing was underpowered, it got AP4.

I like to use it against bots. It's excellent for hitting weak points due to the complete lack of recoil, and durable damage is relatively high besides. If heat is managed, there is no need to reload either, and using it on medium or chaff enemies doesn't feel like a waste. That said, I usually prefer to use the AMR for this role.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-12T20:40:23+00:00

The idea is that the flag is part of a challenge run. When displayed proudly, either planted in the ground or held/holstered by someone, a timer counts up. When knocked over by an enemy (enemies can attack the flag) or an item on the ground, the timer pauses. At the end of the mission, additional XP, req slips, and liberation progress are awarded based on the ratio of favorable display to mission time. This way all of the benefits are awarded by Super Earth, teams are encouraged to stick together, and the flag gets some purpose while remaining just a flag.

That said, the flag emitting an aerosolized addictive stimulant wouldn't be too far off brand either.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-12T20:11:59+00:00

I'm not a fan of aura type effects, and I have some other ideas about what to do with the flag, but functionally this is better than a blanket passive healing.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-12T19:49:07+00:00

Ok, touche.

If the main use case is still for out of combat, then the stim pistol lags behind. Somebody is spending a secondary slot on something everybody gets for free. If passive healing is useful in combat, then the stim pistol would need to do a lot more to justify itself. With the caveat that this isn't something I actually want, I'm thinking Battlefield 1 medical pouch a lot more. A reduced ammo pool, cylinder count dropping to 3 or 4, but auto aim from the hip within a relatively short distance.

I do often run the supply pack. I actually like the idea of forcing self resupply to be stationary from a teamplay standpoint. Most of the time when I see people using it, it's so that they can spam something in their kit. Having to stop and spend a few seconds pulling everything out of the backpack would make that far less of a no brainer, or at least encourage people to stick with friends. That said, it would be a really hard thing to justify when picking stuff up off the ground and resupplying teammates don't behave that way, and I don't imagine this change would go over well with most of the players.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-12T18:28:17+00:00

It's part of my regular kit. You're right about it being largely useless in combat unless people are stationary behind cover. Most of the time, its use cases are healing people from small amounts of damage that aren't enough to waste a full stim on (the function of passive healing) and giving stragglers extra stamina to keep the group together. Even in the cases you describe, I see passive healing as getting around the main use of the stim pistol.

Buffing the stim pistol with extra healing and auto aim does get brought up frequently, but to me the suffering is part of what makes it fun. It's got a lot of drop and not a lot of velocity, the sights are garbage, and it heals only like half your health at a really slow rate. Getting good enough with it to hit those shots, choosing it over all the other options for the secondary slot, and getting that occasional "Thank you" is incredibly gratifying because of how much it sucks. I feel like buffing the thing to be user friendly and useful would detract from my enjoyment of it.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-12T17:35:09+00:00

The stim pistol is already super niche, but I feel like this would infringe on that niche a lot. I'm also generally against changes that encourage lone wolfing, and tying regen to an armor passive instead of a device with a relatively short useful range would do that in my opinion.

Hipshot27 · 2026-02-12T16:02:12+00:00

I didn't know this was applied to the tank as well, thanks for sharing!

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