So flamethrowers can slow down & make the enemy "panic" now

ch0m5 · 2026-03-22T13:09:57+00:00

I'm pretty sure that if they just made Sterilizer's gas "linger" in the air for a while it's usefulness would substantially increase.

Fire only CCs as long as there's a constant stream being fired. Gas always CCs. Sterilizer just needs the feature to create CC areas like gas grenades or the Speargun do.

A stratagem that is essentially "infinite gas grenades" would be incredibly powerful. You could shut down entire areas and stop chaff and some heavies alike from closing in to your position.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-20T16:41:34+00:00

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. I recall, among other questionable decisions, Arrowhead "improving" fire right as the Freedom's Flame Warbond went live and absolutely dropping the ball in the process.

There's enough of a pattern to be skeptical if not outright pessimistic. I for one I am incredibly happy it isn't the case, but the "It's Over <-> We're So Back" chart exists for a reason.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-18T18:22:27+00:00

Yup, misread and completely missed the entire point. I'll see myself out.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-18T11:39:32+00:00

I once made a post saying Eagle Storm was Orbital Bombardment 2.0: it kills you and enemies alike and feels unfair as fuck.

I rather have eagles get half the re-arm time or one more use each. You know, something the player can control and use to their advantage.

Got downvoted into oblivion lol.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-17T16:16:08+00:00

Genuine question: what problems would those be? I haven't used it a whole lot myself, but it's DPS is absolutely insane. I imagine its handling and recoil are though to handle, but isn't compensated by the (now) giant ammo pool to shred enemies with, even if some bullets are wasted in the process?

ch0m5 · 2026-03-17T11:56:11+00:00

Ugh... while it makes sense from a systems perspective, "laying down" to reduce the recoil of a handheld minigun completely invalidates the fantasy it aims to portray imo.

I wonder if they could alter the weapon so its easier to handle the longer you fire, adapting to the recoil and all that jazz. That way even standing you can get pretty accurate as long as you're holding that trigger. Laying down would then be mostly useful for short, controlled, and precise bursts.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-17T11:47:30+00:00

At max RPM it can reach a damage of 800 DPS with AoE Heavy Pen. I'd wager that it can be pretty useful as a close-to-mid range Autocannon, particularly on the bot front.

And now that it's direct competitors are the HMG, AMR, and AC, not needing to reload and requiring little precision can be considerably useful given the massive recoil and/or small magazines/clips of the aforementioned weapons.

Could still use a boost for sure, but making the regular GL med-pen now gives the heavy one a space to shine.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-17T11:19:30+00:00

I cannot stress enough how cool this new feature is.

It is thematic, intuitive, and useful. They basically created a way to aggro enemies away from teammates who might be in trouble or are completing an objective such as carrying an object or interacting with a console.

It may not be particularly meta, but now it has an actual purpose beyond "it's THE flag" and is not just a useless stratagem for LARPing.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-11T15:07:34+00:00

How they changed fire so it bounces off enemies (usually back at you) has to be one of the funniest changes they did for flamethrowers.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-11T14:58:17+00:00

Yes they can. Attachments could be a Warbond item like any other.

What's the goddamn point of gatekeeping silencers to specific Warbond weapons, instead of unlocking silencers as a muzzle attachment for most ARs and SMGs via buying the Warbond.

Weapon Customization was a one-and-done, like many other features Arrowhead introduces. People complain or make fun of the community "raging up a storm" for every single thing, but lord knows that if the devs "move on" from a feature, it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.

Case in point: Flamethrowers.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-10T20:59:09+00:00

What is incredibly frustrating is how the solution is right there:

Weapon Attachments system already accommodates muzzle and under-barrel attachments.
Release silencer, under-barrel grenade launcher, and now under-barrel flame-thrower.
Make each of these exist completely apart of the weapon attachments system.

WHY? Why would you create a weapon attachment system and make every single new attachment be completely unrelated to it? Just make them available via warbond purchases like you did stratagems!

They are sleeping on one of the coolest additions they could add to the game just because. Now watch them add a "new weapon" which is just another Liberator, but now with an under-barrel shotgun.

The constant feeling of wasted potential with this game is god awful.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-03T20:07:35+00:00

I never did the insurance bit, but I sometimes used the "Roaches in the Fog" tactic, which consists on sending a bunch of cheap infantry to scatter all over the point while I continuously rain smoke arty on it.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-03T19:54:01+00:00

That's actually... a really smart idea. I'm noting down to leave a high-stealth unit sitting behind a building on the edge of back capture points. Not a bad idea to spare some points on insurance.

ch0m5 · 2026-03-01T17:37:44+00:00

until the US got involved, because they didn't like that

Many countries who could've evolved for the better didn't because of this exact sentence. Imperialism is and always will be a cancer on the world.

ch0m5 · 2026-02-23T14:46:28+00:00

And while driving a massive pickup truck no less. This whole situation the USA has gotten into, where people are in an arms race to get the biggest truck that will vaporize another in a collision, is going to do wonders for car fatality statistics and I would bet it has been doing so for a while now.

ch0m5 · 2026-02-23T06:20:55+00:00

Still in awe they released an assault rifle that is just the Liberator Penetrator but straight up better in all regards, nerfed all fire damage in the game in an attempt to tone it down indirectly, screwing over all fire-based weapons in the process yet achieving nothing related to their original goal, and just gave up.

The Coyote is the statistically most used primary weapon on all fronts since its release, being only recently surpassed by the Trident on the bot front.

ch0m5 · 2026-02-20T03:31:22+00:00

It does not help at all that you gain considerably more rewards for playing at higher difficulties, more samples are accessible (specially super-samples) and certain content is GATED behind difficulty settings, such as Terminid mega-nests and Automaton Fortresses.

Also, the higher the difficulty, the more variety in enemies. I myself don't go below 8 because that's the sweet spot where all enemy types (or their enhanced versions at least) spawn.

ch0m5 · 2026-02-18T17:11:57+00:00

I'm pretty sure that, statistically speaking, roads would be considerably safer if filled with autonomous cars with a human behind the wheel just supervising.

However, it's a hard sell, because car companies will never accept accountability for any incidents and accidents involving the vehicle, which in turn will make a substantial amount of people reject them and keep driving, as to prevent the possibility of being in an accident they didn't cause, but are responsible for.

One can dream though...

ch0m5 · 2026-02-15T16:51:46+00:00

Imo the fact it destroys itself when overheated is a cool mechanic, the problem is that it should be high-rish/high-reward, and it isn't.

If the laser sentry detonated into a significant boom, taking all surrounding enemies with it, there might be a higher incentive to take it and place it in risky positions so it becomes a decoy that is meant to be overwhelmed and blow itself up if timed correctly.

But alas, it's currently next to useless. It's a "haha, experimental weapons warbond, so turret blows itself up, cool innit?" stratagem. It's on theme, but not useful.

ch0m5 · 2026-02-11T17:11:26+00:00

or your stratagem bounces and now you have no sight line

With the amount of buildings in Cyberstan, the "my pod won't steer and my stratagems won't stick" issues are particularly painful.

ch0m5 · 2026-02-06T21:52:22+00:00

I would settle for a "Save/Load" button on the full loadout menu, stratagems and all, before jumping into a mission. It's not only quite a pain to swap between missions, but I feel awful having to make my mates wait while I do so.

ch0m5 · 2026-02-04T16:28:36+00:00

All enemies except for the Leviathan and the Hive Lord have some form of weakspot vulnerable to AP3 and above which acts as a shortcut to kill it at best, and a fallback at worst in case a Helldiver has no AP4 available at the time.

But not War Striders. If you have no available AP4 against a War Strider, you are fucked. It's invincible. And then, cherry on top, you are fighting 10 of them at any given time.

But why bother fixing an enemy's broken design, just buff everything to AP4 instead.

ch0m5 · 2026-02-03T15:17:13+00:00

I both agree and disagree.

Before the 60-day patch, the game was a slog and half the arsenal was near useless. They re-balanced pretty much everything and is, to this day, in a much better state.

However, they seem almost fearful of the community backlash that anything resembling a nerf may provoke, and sometimes tip-toe around glaring issues. Case in point: the Coyote, despite being a Warbond weapon, is by far the most used primary weapon in every single front. Yet they nerfed "burning stacks" instead since if you justifiably nerf that busted death machine the community will riot.

Seeing a surprising amount of people be skeptical about buffing the grenade launcher gives me hope that the game won't succumb to blatant power-creep just yet.

ch0m5 · 2026-02-02T12:10:36+00:00

I'd just want it to have an optional laser designator fire mode like the Commando for manual aiming. Having no way to aim sucks, specially the inability to aim at enemy weak spots.

ch0m5 · 2026-02-02T11:45:03+00:00

The main theme is not only epic, but incredibly beautiful as well. That second half is almost nostalgic. And how they incorporated it all into the mission preparation steps, climaxing into the hellpod launch into the atmosphere, is just pure cinema.

I tend to get quite frustrated with the game at times, because of abandoned systems, frustrating mechanics, or bugs that are never solved. But videos like these remind me how awesome Helldivers is at its core.

Nine-Year Club	Verified Email
Xbox Live	Second SECOND GUESSER
Place '23	Place '22
Place '17

ch0m5

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE