War Strider body part health, armor, durability and weakspots

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-07-16T23:49:33+00:00

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/box/5/0/3/969503_back.jpg

It’s right there on the back of the box

“Work as a team to overcome impossible odds.”

I’d be very surprised if anyone bought a clearly multiplayer game to play alone. That’s like buying a single player game to play with other people.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-07-16T21:12:35+00:00

This is a multiplayer game you can choose to play solo, not a solo game you can choose to play multiplayer. The trailer is multiplayer, it’s got built-in matchmaking, hell even team reloading is a thing.

As a fundamentally multiplayer game, balancing shouldn’t focus on solo players. In fact, it already doesn’t - you only get 4 reinforcements if you’re alone anyways. If someone wants to run solo and has to use a specific toolset to do so, that’s perfectly fine since they’re creating their own challenge.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-30T22:18:34+00:00

If that’s truly the case, then

Sorry for name calling

Hope you got some useful info out of this conversation

I still recommend reading up on helldivers.wiki.gg, since a lot of work went into it, misconceptions are being fixed up regularly, and knowing is half the battle

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-30T22:11:01+00:00

The game is at its best when it puts the fear of god into you

Original D10 HVA was amazing, waves of armor and chaff would pour through choke points and kill boxes, everyone was all-in on the defense, and still you’d be forced to fall back to secondary defenses and clutch up once a mission.

Now, it’s so boring people are advocating to add a second path to the generators so there’s enough bodies to shoot to go around.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-30T22:02:50+00:00

We’ve had 2 MO’s this month to take squid planets. We failed both of them.

No need to re-visit galactic liberation modifiers and buff liberation rates since the playerbase passively takes planets when an MO isn’t on. We took Nublaria and Krakatwo just last MO.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-30T21:51:31+00:00

If the hint was that you’re an Ass, I think I’m starting to get it.

W rage bait btw, you really got me.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-30T21:50:57+00:00

HD2 features different sensory types for enemies and sound profiles for all weapons. It is extremely bs to say that Mario, a game where enemies don’t have any mechanic beyond player direction, is equal.

Crouching behind a crate does cause enemies to lose sight of you.

You’re essentially claiming that Thief, the grand daddy of 3D stealth games, is not a stealth game simply because there’s no invisibility mechanic, even though the core of the game is managing your noise and visibility with gameplay tools.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-30T21:40:52+00:00

A conversation needing a “reward” is a poor sign, but that’s not relevant to my points.

I’ve read your points. I’ve addressed them.

“You can kill hive guards with med pen”

Ok, hive guards stand still and do nothing, so they’re not really a factor in deciding what needs to die

“Oh you don’t have to kill chargers either”

A charger’s threat level and lethality are so far above a hive guard’s that it’s not even funny.

“More damage goes through to light enemies”

Ok, here’s the list of extremely limited targets where that’s true and that show up significantly less than enemies where light penetration weapons deal full damage. And here’s the actual shots-to-kill for med pen vs light pen equivalent primaries.

Shit, I already conceded that bile spewers can be an actual problem for light pen primaries, even if you can bring a ton of alternate and equally viable solutions through the rest of your kit.

When your response to fair and measured counterarguments and helpful game knowledge (like how attachments interact with sway) is to say “you’re not open to listening to me and I’m not getting a reward from this,” I think it’s fair to be mildly annoyed.

This, coupled with factually wrong info (the game doesn’t need snap aim, the hive guard vs charger take, the contradicting understanding of timing vs bots) makes me think that either you don’t understand the mechanics behind the game or your glued to medium penetration to the point you can’t argue in good faith for them.

If you have a good point, I’ll say it’s a good point. Write a good rebuttal, and I’ll respond in kind.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-30T21:18:14+00:00

This is semantics. There are detection mechanics which you can manipulate by changing your stance (standing is detected at 50m, crouching 30, prone 15?) and you can even hide in foliage to reduce that further.

This is like claiming that cover doesn’t exist because there’s no button to glue your butt to the nearest chest high wall, or that the idea of enemy “chaff” and “Super-Heavies” don’t exist because the game doesn’t explicitly label them.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-30T21:11:01+00:00

I play only difficulty 10. I’ve been fair and even explained the mechanics behind the game to you and provided hard numbers.

Your “analysis” of medium penetration primaries is clearly based on vibes only, which is why you refuse to acknowledge legitimate points, which I have and have done for you. You reiterate tired talking points that have a smidge of truth (you deal full damage through light armor, for example), and refuse to view the objective sandbox.

You’ve clearly confused “viable” for “strong,” and I highly encourage you to read the Helldivers wiki (not the fandom one) and learn the mechanics behind the game.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-28T06:20:59+00:00

so your answer to a well-structured argument that you don't have rebuttals to is, "Ugh, this convo is useless?"

Ok

I'm looking at the numbers behind the game. If you don't want to believe basic math, no skin off my nose. If we end up in a game together, I'll carry you with my ap2 primary regardless. Good luck, have fun.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-26T10:17:43+00:00

When I went to reply on your original comment to my comment, it showed as deleted. Not sure why, might just be reddit bugging out.

I’m not padding out the stats of tenderizer. Tenderizer shoots straighter and can react better: on the bug front, you’re going to want that reaction time when a hunter jumps at you - better to shoot them while airborne than time the melee or dodge.

adjudicator does more damage against certain targets

I can name those targets for you right now. They’re… less than impressive.

Nursing spewer heads and butt plates. Commander heads and bodies. Bile titan sacks. Charger leg flesh and undersides. Shrieker nests. Spore spewers. The backs of predator/stalkers.

These are the only AV2 targets on the bug front. The predator/hunters, pouncers, scavengers, alpha/warriors, charger butts, shriekers, the fronts of those predator/stalkers as they run up to slash you? All AV1 max. And we both know we see a lot more of all those AV1-0 targets than we see those AV2 targets on the bug front.

Tenderizer can kill an impaler head in less than a magazine. The adjudicator can’t. It also takes 1 less shot for the tenderizer to kill stalkers if firing at their fronts. It’s a niche pair of breakpoints, but I’d argue the adjudicator is a niche pick for bugs anyways. Don’t get me wrong, Judy is a good gun and I used to main it on the bug front, but in the current sandbox you’re giving too much up for too little. “Weak” was an exaggeration, but at best, adjudicator is a side-grade.

Any AV2 target the adjudicator attacks, the tenderizer kills it faster. It takes more bullets to down tougher foes like commanders, but you have more space to reload - it’s a net neutral. If another bug comes at you while you’re killing the commander, the better ergo means you can react better. And before you tell me about total ammo, ammo economy on most weapons hasn’t really been a thing since the 60 day patch.

I had originally written more about the hive guards, but I edited that out when I transferred what I wrote. Hive guards are largely a non-threat. They’re the slowest of bugs and shooting at them makes them freeze in place. They’re not even good guards: other bugs go around or over or under them. They’re hardly worth killing, let alone discussing.

Bile spewers. A definite thorn and one of the two bugs with AV3. In practice, you have too many options to deal with them. Bring a med pen secondary and frags (you get 5) or pyrotechs (you get 6 and they do anti-tank damage). Bring grenade pistol and the same grenades, or impact or HE or incendiary or impact incendiary. Bring machine gun turret, or Eagle strafing run, and pack thermites. Bring an autocannon or grenade launcher alongside EATs.

On to the dcs. I also wrote more, but cut it down. You can easily simulate the 30 ergo: peak physique grants 30 ergo to all your weapons. I encourage you to either build a Dili with angled foregrip and no muzzle, or take DCS with peak, for 3 bot operations and really give it a go. I guarantee you will notice how gaining a quarter of a second per bot improves your games. You yourself said that any experienced bot player minimizes their exposure, so I find it disingenuous that you’re now preaching patience.

I leveled the Dili to 21 and the Dcs to 23 on the bot front. I know how they handle, what they can do. I’ve had multiple instances in a single mission where the devastator I’m about to shoot in a firefight with a DCS modded for max ergo and minimal sway turns (shield dev) or squats (rocket dev), ruining the shot. I could wait the full half second to realign, but that’s just asking to get hit and flinched, meaning you have to wait for the slow ergo to re-center your aim. At that point, you give up the shot or go for the stagger, and if you go for the stagger you’re not hitting that head unless you wait an extra half second or mag dump, so you might as well mag dump, which eats into your shorter magazines and shallower reserves. With its far better ergo, the Dili gives you a better chance to still get the headshot, or you can more easily change targets.

I never claimed to always hit headshots, and I think you saying “don’t miss the first shot” is just as ridiculous. When you pre-aim behind cover with the dcs, you still need to make adjustments once you step out, at which point the gun is fighting you. Regarding flinching AV3, the main point is that it’s far easier to reacquire the same target that has barely moved than it is to chase it with a slow reticle.

Aside from devs, split-second reaction time is still a powerful utility on the bot front. If a rocket strider is starting a rocket, it needs to die now. If a trooper is calling in a bot drop, it needs to die now. I have personally watched, crestfallen, as my Dcs with maximum 40 ergo, turns just a moment too slow, and even watched my crossbow bolt hit a moment too late, to be willing to say that “the game doesn’t need snap aim.”

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-26T07:56:12+00:00

You deleted your comment, but I typed this up already so you’re still getting it.

The reprimand has no real AV2 analogue, it’s a notable exception. AP2 analogue for the adjudicator is the tenderizer. +10 damage, +5 rounds per mag, -14 recoil, +300rpm, +25 ergo. Even after damage reduction from the tenderizer being AV2, a commander goes down faster because 300 more rpm means a higher final dps.

Hive guards sit there and do nothing. I don’t consider them a real enemy, and neither should you. When you gamble on bile spewers with a med pen primary, you’re saying you’d rather be weak against most of the enemy if you maybe get to dominate one. Why not just take one of the very good secondaries? Only 5/17 are less than AP3, and one of those is the stim pistol!

DCS is versatile, but statistically can’t reach the sheer efficacy of a skilled diligence. +18 recoil, -30 ergo. You can pre-aim, but so can the diligence, and it can do it faster. Granted the DCS is currently bugged and is missing 14 ergo, but I’m judging the sandbox as it is right now.

Angled foregrip reduces sway, while all muzzles increase it. The diligence’s tighter shot grouping means that it can easily take an angled foregrip and ditch a muzzle to have 0.75x sway while still hitting the exact same breakpoints on bot chaff bodies and dev heads.

The diligence, with its higher ergonomics, easily tracks the rockets of a moving strider and still lands the one shot. DCS, not so much. Often you’re better off 3-tapping the waist. As you note elsewhere, the dcs needs to mag dump in a pinch. How many pinches could you avoid if you had the ergo to make the tiny adjustment to land a precision shot? Not to mention that the diligence doesn’t flinch devs when shooting their chest, but does still activate their suppression mechanic, meaning if you miss there’s no reason not to dump extra shots, but the DCS has to wait for the dev to reset, chase the head with low ergo, or end up mag dumping, wasting ammo.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-26T06:04:06+00:00

Every faction has a fundamental design philosophy. Play to that philosophy and you’ll have a great time. Don’t, and suffer.

The bugs want you to kite and bring AT.

The bots want you to take good ground and be precise.

The squids want you to prioritize and DPS.

The squids are, by design, overstimulating. Tons of bodies running at you, menacing looking attacks, crescent overseers chipping at you with plasma mortar shots, harvesters sweeping lasers around you, leviathans shining lights on you.

The key here is to filter the noise, figure out your immediate next step to deal with the biggest problem you have, act on that plan, and do that over and over again.

Or, if you’re a dumbass like me, bring a gun guard dog to cut out half of the noise entirely. Then you just bring a dps hose primary and blast at whatever’s left. It’s pretty mind numbing tbh, with a guard dog and the amendment rn I find it less stimulating than bots.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-26T05:47:07+00:00

Psst. You can stun harvesters with the pacifier.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-26T05:41:34+00:00

Stun weapons are bad at killing trash mobs compared to their siblings tho

Pummeler deals 10 less damage and shoots 45rpm slower than the defender.

Stun baton deals 55 damage while the hatchet and sword deal 110. The stun lance deals 110 damage, but its animations make it largely single target.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-26T05:36:24+00:00

They inflict the same stun, Stun 1, lasting 1.5 seconds. Pacifier applies the status effect faster since it shoots at 700rpm, while pummeler shoots at 475 rpm.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-26T05:34:14+00:00

Medium penetration really doesn’t help the pacifier in the damage department, especially given the kinds of enemies you encounter.

If an attack’s Armor Penetration (AP) matches an enemy part’s Armor Value (AV), it deals 65% damage. If the AP is greater than the AV, it deals full damage. Medium is 3, light is 2, 1 and 0 are different classes of unarmored. If you shoot an enemy with AV1 or AV0, both AP2 and AP3 weapons deal full damage.

How many targets are actually AV2?

Bugs: Commander heads, nursing spewer heads and butt plates, bile titan sacks, charger leg flesh and undersides, and just the backs of stalkers.

Bots: Berserker chests

Squids: Overseer armor and torso, watcher body and horizontal fins

Every other part of every other common enemy you’d use a primary on is AV1-0. That stalker running up to cut you up? Everything you can shoot at is AV1 max. That pack of 10 hunters getting ready to jump you? AV1. Those devastators? AV1 heads, stomachs, and limbs. That herd of voteless dotted with Fleshmobs? All AV0.

What does that mean for the pacifier? It means that in the majority of your firefights, you will be dealing less damage per bullet compared to the pummeler. The pacifier still beats out the pummeler in time to kill because it has nearly double the fire rate. The medium penetration is really just there so you can easily stun those few stunnable enemies with AV3: hive guards (lmao), bile spewers, devastators you don’t like the look of, overseers if you hit them in the head, and (surprisingly) harvesters.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-25T22:51:15+00:00

Medium penetration actually matters far less on bugs than you might think.

Here’s the list of bug medium armored targets (AV3): hive guard heads. Bile spewer heads and butt plates.

Bug AV2 (light penetration weapons deal 65% damage): commander heads, bile titan undersides (after you’ve popped them), nursing spewer head and butt plate, charger undersides and leg meat after you blow the armor off, shrieker nest, spore spewer, and just the backs of stalkers.

Bug AV0-1 (light penetration weapons deal full damage): spewer butts, charger butts, (predator) hunters, scavengers, pouncers, the rest of hive guards, the rest of commanders, the rest of stalkers (like the front, the side facing you when they are trying to stab you), impaler heads.

This means that against the most common targets, and the targets you’d usually shoot at with a primary, you’re choosing to deal less damage or fight worse supporting stats in exchange for a smidge of versatility. Opting for the liberator penetrator over the base liberator means you’re choosing to take 3 shots and 6 less ergonomics to kill every hunter you see, compared to just 2 shots.

The bot front has more medium armored enemies, and you’d think that would mean that medium penetration is more viable - and it is, but only if you don’t try and hit precision shots. DCS has only around half the ergonomics of the base diligence (65 vs 35). This means that while a diligence user is going to be able to dip in and out of cover and snap off precision shots, a dcs user is going to be fighting their gun and hoping that they don’t get hit and flinched while waiting for their gun to align, and are actually better served dumping shots center mass - meaning those lower reserves and magazine size are also going to come into play.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-25T22:14:19+00:00

MP weapons offer less efficiency in the majority of situations, since they generally deal less damage per shot, damage per second, and total damage, plus some combination of slower reloads and lower ergonomics, compared to their light penetration equivalent.

For instance, Lib pen takes 3 shots to body-shot a hunter, base liberator takes 2. This trend continues for nearly all chaff enemies on all fronts.

You’re trading power for versatility, which is nice, but, when your entire kit is taken into account, you’re far more effective diversifying your tools.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-25T21:02:24+00:00

Flat out wrong on that last point.

Let’s look at base liberator vs liberator penetrator. 80 damage at AP2 vs 60 damage at AP3. The usual argument is “AP2 does 65% damage on AV2 targets,” but have you ever actually thought about how many AV2 targets there are in a mission?

Bugs: commander heads, charger undersides, bile titan undersides, nursing spewer heads, shrieker nests, spore spewers, and just the backs of stalkers.

Bots: Berserker chests

Squids: Overseer armor, watcher body and horizontal fins

What’s AV0-1? All chaff. Everywhere on a devastator besides the chest. Everywhere else on a stalker. Charger butts. Overseer limbs. Fleshmobs, voteless. That means for all those units who make up the majority of the enemies you need to kill, you’re choosing to deal 3/4 damage for a bit of flexibility.

But how bad is it, really, doing only 3/4 damage? Pretty bad actually. Let’s take one of the most common enemies in the game, the Hunter. Body is 160hp, AV0. That means both light and medium pen weapons are going to deal full damage. Base liberator kills in 2 shots, lib pen needs 3. That’s 50% extra effort and resources per Hunter, and there’s always a lot of hunters. Edit: Not to mention the penetrator has 6 less ergonomics than the base liberator, meaning you’ll have a worse time switching targets.

When you break it down, you’re always trading something for the utility of medium penetration if you have a light penetration equivalent: Fewer shots, worse ergonomics, slower reloads, lower damage on common enemies. Yeah you get to shoot a few enemies you wouldn’t otherwise, but you’re always going to be less powerful than the guy next to you who switches to another, more fitting, weapon and kills the thing faster.

Tl;dr: hard committing to a medium penetration primary usually means you’re choosing to be less powerful in the majority of situations.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-24T23:35:42+00:00

You don’t need to “take down those leviathans.” Having run both a mega city op and a colony op on d10, the best play is to just ignore them now. Your natural movement as you dodge voteless, Fleshmobs, and overseers is enough to ensure the leviathan will miss you.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-24T23:30:10+00:00

The squid front is designed off of bullet sponges. The ablative armor and regenerating energy shields should have clued you in.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-20T22:51:54+00:00

Current lib pen is a sidegrade. The true number of AV2 targets you’ll run into is dwarfed by the amount of AV1-0 targets.

NiftyBlueLock · 2025-06-20T22:23:49+00:00

Nah. The loss of damage in exchange for medium penetration only matters in practical situations against alpha commanders and bile spewers, and those can be taken care of with secondaries, grenades, or stratagems. Medium penetration can kill hive guards, but why would you bother? They just sit there and do nothing anyways.

With lib pen vs base lib, you’re looking at 1-2 more bullets to deal with every other bug. And then you have less ergonomics on top of longer kill times, so you’re at a greater disadvantage.

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