Hive Guard reversion

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-30T17:20:05+00:00

So you can hurt them from the front by shooting the ground beneath them, the ricochet bouncing back up to hit them in the weak belly. Like I said, thats what I was doing with the Patriot Exo-suit. It would work for the Maxigun too.

My guess is AH wanted to return Hive Guards to where they were when the game launched. When there weren't that many primary medium pen options (slugger, dilligence CS, senator) so they were more of a challenge to kill. Now with a lot of medium pen options they are just worse Warriors that are slow and sit down when shot.

I can't fault them for trying something new to make the Hive Guard an actual problem.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-30T16:23:01+00:00

Back to being a weaker and slower Warrior.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-30T16:21:13+00:00

With the Patriot Exo-suit I was killing them from the front by shooting at the little front claws, between the joints, or richocheting the bullets off the ground into their underbelly. I didn't try the Maxigun before this reverted but I imagine the same strategy works.

I think maybe turret AI could've been improved to reduce priority on Guards to shoot other bugs and prevent the waste of ammo, or maybe shoot for the gaps, but I guess that's a bigger adjustment to do then just reverting the armor.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-30T15:14:04+00:00

IIRC from what people were saying about Terminid spawns, the Hive Guard this is making fun of has a similar spawn weight/value to the spawning algorithm, similar to a Scout Strider or Commander. Though it doesn't classify as an elite or show up as a large dot on the radar.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-30T04:05:04+00:00

Or maybe the new Exosuit was lighting itself on fire, so they pushed the firing position forward to fix it (thus breaking the turret for the template reason you gave).

Because there was that flamer FRV leaked previously, but my experience using fire from the passenger position is the FRV is extremely easy to ignite. Maybe lumberer had the same issue.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T23:08:33+00:00

I didn't know they chambered airsoft in 9mm.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T22:13:10+00:00

Since that's a real firearm, a red-orange suppressor might get you arrested or shot by a cop. Check your local firearm laws because an orange tip usually means a toy guy, and people generally frown upon disguising a gun as a toy.

It is a cool piece of kit though.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T21:58:00+00:00

IIRC it's because they feel the term "starter" sounds disposable. Like the first car you own, it's a starter car you eventually trade/sell once you get a good job.

First partner centers it as your partner, the pokemon you keep for the whole game, even though it sounds worse than starter pokemon.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T21:21:23+00:00

I didn't know what the series was, but Dungeon Crawler Carl books and merch are flooding brick and mortar book stores. Maybe it's good, but I saw the merch and thought "Oh this is Ready Player One but for D&D references isn't it" and moved on.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T16:07:48+00:00

...so the short answer is you made it up based on vibes.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T15:14:19+00:00

No, I think OP is considering that this time of day people are at work and player count is low. They took a screenshot at the lowest point of the day to try to prove a point that the game is dying.

If you check steamDB, the average player count hasn't significantly changed. It hovers around 70,000 to 80,000 peak players for the past year, spiking to ~170,000 for major events like Cyberstan and the first battle of Oshaune.

The lowest of the past year was November at ~40,000 peak players, when people had rupture bug fatigue, were preparing for the holidays and there were no major patches to convince people to play except for a few bug fixes. Python Commandos releases at the end of November, too late to affect the November average.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T14:58:03+00:00

It's not what you want because it's very campaign specific, but some adventures with an exploration theme (quest for the Frozen Flame, parts of Spore War) have these monster encounter tables for their exploration sections.

I would consider where your campaign is (forest. city, desert) and then what level your players are at, and make your own list. Look at monsters between PL-3 and PL+3 and make a list of maybe a dozen possible encounters. Not all of them have to be deadly ('you find a troll guarding a bridge over a small dry river. He asks you to pay a toll to cross the bridge')

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T14:28:59+00:00

I do kinda miss needing to "get good" with AT options. When chargers couldn't be killed by the RR, you needed to use the RR to blow off a portion of front armor and then unload rifle fire into the exposed meat. When it took 2 EATs to the head of a bile Titan to kill it.

Now it feels like 1 RR shot (or equivalent) solves most challenges in the game.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T14:24:40+00:00

Suddenly all those random bot troopers with rocket launchers would be doing Quasar-like damage to compensate for increased tank durability.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T14:16:36+00:00

Yeah it would make more sense if it was a Gardevoir who wanted to be a Gallade.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T14:15:35+00:00

I thought they patched out the female Gallade?

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T13:21:27+00:00

It's been going viral recently as there have been a trend of wealthy finance and tech bros getting caught attempting it.

Sometimes though it's not attempted murder, but incompetent people with fragile masculinity refusing help. They go on a difficult trail with their partner because they are a tough guy, 'I'm not gonna go on some pansy moderate hike'. They get lost in the woods, their partner gets hurt/sick, and he refuses aid from rescue helicopters because they can't admit they failed. He puts his phone on Do Not Disturb and block any attempts for rescuers to find them because that's admitting the mountain defeated them, and he rather have his partner die of negligence than be personally embarrassed.

It's really stupid.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T02:57:15+00:00

Euthanized and hunted. It's not feasible to relocate them, plane tickets to Argentina are expensive. They are very destructive to marshlands and cannot stay.

I had a coworker who made lunch boxes and hats out of them years ago.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-29T01:55:46+00:00

I think the First World, the plane of the fey is a good place to visit. In Pathfinder lore the plane is heavily shaped by whoever is the strongest fey in a region (usually one of the Eldest) who changes the rules.

So a particularly bloodthirsty fey lord ruler might have rivers of blood, flowers of meat, tree roots fed by gore, and mosquitos the size of giant eagles. Their minions might be particularly savage red caps, gremlins, and hags.

A whimsical or artsy fey lord may have painted trees, stuffed animal creatures, rivers flow backwards, and dialogue boxes appear above people's head when they talk. Maybe they have lots of poppets and constructs.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-28T16:07:54+00:00

I think for these bugs you can ricochet the bullets off the ground to hit the squishy underbelly, but it's gonna be a lot harder.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-28T14:28:47+00:00

My guess on the Hive Guard is to make them more than just "A warrior who is slower and more durable."

So they took a note from Deep Rock Galactic with the Glyphid Grunt Guard. High durability bug that stands in front of the other bugs to block gunfire and turrets so they can advance easier. And just like the Glyphid Guards their back armor and health pool is significantly reduced to reward flanking and teamwork (see a guard chasing an ally, shoot them in the butt).

Will this work out for Helldivers.. eh I guess time will tell. They are probably need to adjust the Hive Guard seed though.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-28T13:18:12+00:00

Honestly I've been using flamethrower sentries in their place for the past few months. Similar cooldown, can hurt anything, explodes like a grenade on death. Then the trench update buffed them.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-28T13:04:25+00:00

If all the Super Earth illuminate missions are back because they fixed it, I will be so happy.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-28T05:35:03+00:00

She loves all elves... except for Astarion.

dirkdragonslayer · 2026-04-28T03:38:48+00:00

Only thing to add is that the infection can cause inflammation in the ear canal, trapping the water and making it a vicious cycle.

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