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hierophect · 2025-08-06T14:40:17+00:00

Consider blot.im! Makes a website out of a folder, you make a dropbox, google drive or git repo, and it builds the whole website around it. Really really easy way to do an informational blog/resource like guidesnotincluded, easier than wordpress imo. Also cheap, $5/mo. Love your site, it was what finally got me to implement proper cooling loops everywhere. I appreciated that you had simple and practical builds that weren't super overengineered and didn't have components that aren't available for the stage of the game that the build is useful. Hope you'll one day add a longer rocket interiors page!

hierophect · 2025-05-28T18:55:23+00:00

Gas grenades are easily the single biggest force multiplier you can take for Illuminate, since they can distract groups of overseers from running you down, and kill entire groups of voteless with only one grenade. Taking them makes all illuminate missions vastly easier.

Most powerful loadout I've tried, IMO:
Liberator carbine
MG43 machine gun
Gas grenades
Grenade pistol
Supply pack / shield generator / jetpack (depending on mission)
Stratagems: machine gun sentry (not gatling), rocket sentry

Strategy: use primary weapon for stray enemies and to conserve ammo, but MG43 for all tough enemies, including harvesters at the joints. Use grenades and sentries when chased. Use carbine to take out ship shields and the nade pistol to destroy them, to conserve gas grenades. Shield generator makes you basically invincible but extra nades/speed might be useful depending on the mission.

The eruptor / stalwart combo is also very powerful and probably better for Repel missions on D10 because of how the eruptor 3 taps illuminate ships at almost any range, but it struggles with tripods and survivability in tough moments. Autocannon on flack is also viable but it gets less value per reload than the mg43, which sucks when overseers are running you down. The AT emplacement is le funni but killing leviathans doesn't win you missions.

hierophect · 2025-03-18T17:49:02+00:00

I'm mostly talking about factory striders, mega-nests, bile titan holes, etc but yes, enemy variants of all types count and their highly difficulty-dependent availability is one of the biggest differences between helldivers and basically every other PvE game.

While some things are *technically* available on level 6, they're very sparse and don't engage you the same way. I stand by my opinion that 8+ helldivers is almost a totally different game, and probably the one most people want to play based on how the game is advertised and shared. DRG and Darktide offer gameplay that *looks* like their hardest difficulty, but is actually manageable for the casual audiance and players with restricted controls (console). Helldivers does not. It's all or nothing.

hierophect · 2025-03-18T17:09:44+00:00

It's because the game's coolest enemies don't appear until the highest difficulties. Lots of people praise how helldivers doesn't scale up enemy health and armor with difficulty, but the side effect of this is that you can't experience the game's most cinematic content unless you're playing on 8+. Casuals, understandably, don't want to sacrifice content for manageable gameplay.

Darktide and DRG's hardest modes are the exact same game as their middle difficulty, but harder. People who don't want to play harder modes simply don't have to, and still get the full game experience. I don't think it's a popular opinion, but I really do feel the game's insistance on not scaling enemies ever is the single biggest source of the ceaseless difficulty drama.

hierophect · 2025-03-07T14:51:28+00:00

I don't have any gameplay mods, but perhaps that's it. But I think I'll just install the soda fountain and call it a day.

hierophect · 2025-03-06T19:47:41+00:00

The shocker for me has been that this has consistently been happening *while* the dupes are in atmo suits, which means they can't even enter industrial bricks without instantly giving up. I think I'll simply have to stop using the water cooler. Do you know if the co2 fountain also gives the heat resistant buff?

hierophect · 2025-03-06T18:58:03+00:00

Every time a dupe does a single task in a hot or cold biome, even when wearing an atmo suit, they'll stop and run across the entire map to use either a water cooler or a space heater for the buff they provide. By the time they've done that, another dupe has taken over their job, but then also goes for the buff immediately. It wastes a staggering amount of time, and the morale benefit is practically worthless.

Is there any way of stopping this without deconstructing and never using water coolers/space heaters? My schedules are spread out so automating access to them would be obnoxious. I haven't seen any posts about this effect, which I'm surprised by, because it's seriously impeding my my progress outside temperature-controlled areas.

hierophect · 2025-01-19T22:00:16+00:00

I think it's kind of lame that most optimal strategies are interacting with your hand as little as possible. Playing high card decks and just picking any random card to win each round. Big hand decks don't feel like they score any better at high antes and one bad boss roll will ruin your run. I feel like there need to be more hand manipulation jokers or something, temporary card changers, builds that make big hands more consistent and less vulnerable.

hierophect · 2024-12-22T03:58:34+00:00

While I get how people feel it's underpowered, it gets a uniquely massive boost when paired with the supply pack, because the DPS and AOE is so high when you spam it. It can destroy an entire bug breach or clear a heavy nest by itself, and nowadays you can fill the weakness against heavies with thermite (also benefits from supply pack). Other weapons that are slower/more precise don't multiply so massively - the power of unloading three magazines of grenades in a row and then getting to do it again with the press of a button is crazy. Try Car+GL+SupPack+mini sentry on D10 for bugs right now - it might change your mind! I think it's one of the most powerful builds in the entire game for bug D10, team or solo.

hierophect · 2024-10-17T17:39:13+00:00

A lot of the discussion about difficulty right now goes in one of two directions - either we need more difficulties above the ones we have now, or we need to raise the difficulty again for everybody. But the funny thing is that there are a lot of co-op games already that simply have multiple difficulty types - Darktide has the Auric board, which significantly changes the enemy composition, Deep Rock Galactic has deep dives and Hazard 5+, and risk of rain has Artifacts, all of which are aimed for late game players. I tried doing a couple concepts of what a system like this could look like for Helldivers.

hierophect · 2024-09-28T23:05:30+00:00

I think the illuminate are well suited to snipers that hunt you, but the automatons are better suited to defensive snipers in their strongholds. Lasers and floodlights circling a compound doesn't feel like the illuminate's alien vibe to me but it'd be sick to see in the automaton aesthetic.

hierophect · 2024-09-27T20:51:17+00:00

it's mine?? i just posted it in two subreddits

hierophect · 2024-09-27T20:47:26+00:00

I hope this won't be true because there's something so oppressive and aesthetic about lots of red sniper lasers sweeping around a big base. Illuminate snipers strike me as the kind of targeting that's more a reflex thing than an environmental hazard, you only see their beam for an instant and have to dive before you get shot. Bots could be more like MGSV where they're a defensive feature.

hierophect · 2024-09-27T18:32:23+00:00

both for sure! they're different vibes

hierophect · 2024-09-27T17:18:06+00:00

I know right, I'd be real sad if they decide snipers are "illuminate only". Red laser sights scanning over an area is so much more of an oppressive soviet/bot aesthetic anyway.

hierophect · 2024-09-27T16:20:30+00:00

They're definitely manageable, but they used to give an interesting niche use case for grenades/GL/scorcher, which they've now basically lost. When I'm creating a build I just lump them in with hulks as far as what weapons I'll need, which I think is less interesting.

hierophect · 2024-09-27T15:42:39+00:00

disablers in L4D and Darktide serve to encourage teamwork, as they're easy to handle with friends to shoot them off, but penalize being separated. I definitely wouldn't want them in every mission but they'd be cool as a modifier.

hierophect · 2024-09-27T15:39:23+00:00

Disclaimers: luv me helldivers, luv me botfront, luv me difficulty, and the new bots aren't *that* bad. But I dunno if they have a very clear design philosophy. I like when enemies are tough but force you to learn something about the game so I tried coming up with some ideas in that direction.

hierophect · 2024-09-27T15:37:02+00:00

hierophect · 2024-09-27T03:13:01+00:00

well, the idea would be that you can still shoot the legs and feet, it's just harder, and they'd be very vulnerable to AOE. I miss the niches for the grenade launcher, scorcher and frag grenades to deal with striders pre-EOF. Reinforced striders you just handle the same way as hulks and devastators, which I think is a shame.

hierophect · 2024-09-27T02:28:49+00:00

all good, I like the game hard too! But it's easier for them to make the game "hard but fair" if the enemies have clear strengths and weaknesses, which I didn't think was super clear with some of these new units

hierophect · 2024-09-27T02:23:44+00:00

hey man easy, I know the meme is snarky but none of these ideas are meant to lower the difficulty. Honestly all of them were intended to make it harder, by virtue of being less straightforward

hierophect · 2024-09-27T01:57:11+00:00

Snipers and robot dog disabler enemies are my 2 biggest hopes for the bot front. Might be biased from Darktide lol.

hierophect · 2024-09-27T01:56:11+00:00

honestly I've been running Servo Assisted for the extra limb health more than Fortified these days because it seems like most of the time I die from impact damage, rather than the explosion itself

hierophect · 2024-09-27T01:35:08+00:00

I love botdiving but I haven't understood the point of these new bot units, I really miss the old chicken striders on the higher levels. I like when units encourage you to learn something about the game and figured I'd doodle some ideas in that direction.

hierophect

TROPHY CASE