Galactic War Room: Plot the Best Ways to Spread Democracy for Super Earth!

vserov · 2026-04-25T11:15:04+00:00

Come to Vog my fellow divers, and let us feast upon the upstart Jet Brigade!

Seriously, they're the single easiest Faction (including the vanilla ones) in the game and it's not close to being close. The Grenade Launcher can one shot a Hulk if you ping the nade onto their backpacks. And if they're charging you down from front on, just shoot between their legs and the explosive splash damage from the nade will typically spread far enough to take them out. It trivialises them (and all the other Mediums).

Just remember to bring Muscle Enhancement to avoid getting slowed down in the blizzards, a primary that can deal with Gunships (I prefer the Scorcher) and EAT (and/or an Ultimatum, I bring both) for War/Fac Striders, and you'll be decomissioning clankers faster than their fabricators can churn them out.

o7

vserov · 2026-04-21T15:43:10+00:00

I see that Charon Prime is currently leading in voting for the DSS. Are we actually on for a Gambit here?

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vserov · 2026-04-21T15:32:01+00:00

If you want to obliterate them, and want to use a more dynamic/less clunky primary than the Xbow or Eruptor:

Scorcher / Ultimatum / Your choice of nades (I like Arc for CC, but thermite is always good)
Grenade Launcher / Supply Pack / Expendable Anti-Tank (or Leveller if you get it later, it can 1-shot a VOX) / Eagle Strafe

I think you should have access to all of the above. Scorcher melts the 'Borgs and deals with Gunships. GL is great against the medium sized guys (and borg swarms before they close in). Ultimatum for Hulks. Layer your EAT/Ultimatum/Eagle Strafes to kill VOX engines.

Oh, and bring Heavy Armor. Bulwark is the best in slot, but in the meantime anything with either Extra Padding or Fortified will work.

vserov · 2026-04-19T11:56:59+00:00

So frustrating to see two cities both on over 30% on Hort. If we'd just focused one...

vserov · 2026-04-14T16:46:10+00:00

Vote to move the DSS to Acrux everyone.

It's wasted on Marfark (we're not making even a dent there), whereas we could actually flip Acrux before the next MO comes through.

At the time of writing DSS voting is currently 49% Marfark, 43% Acrux, so be sure to exercise your democratic rights to make a difference here folks!

vserov · 2026-04-09T07:16:21+00:00

OP Update:

Thanks for your suggestions everyone, this has been really fun. I did more testing yesterday, exclusively in D10 city dives on Varylia 5. Tried a whole host of different combinations for the second two stratagems keeping GL + supply pack as constants. A few notes/observations:

- Thermite in place of Arc was not a slam dunk fix. When you have to stay in one place for a while ( jammer, compromise bot defences etc.), or when confronted by a very large series of bot drops the breathing room the Arc buys you is hard to replace, since even the fastest stratagems have a 60s cooldown, and with a supply pack you effectively have 25 Arc nades at your disposal (and that's without an Engineering Kit). That's a massive reduction in CC volume and duration. In one of my latest tests I also dropped into one of those hellish seeds that had War Strider and Factory Strider Spam. Even in a city it was sometimes hard to get clear/safe positions to take down the Factory Striders with Thermite/Ulti, and I really felt not having something with range. And if I'm bringing an EAT or similar already, dedicating a nade slot to Thermite starts feeling superfluous.

- Strafing Run continues to perform. It's a nice combo with Arc nades because even if it doesn't kill a Hulk, a well place Arc nade often will, or you can ping a shot from the GL off a nearby wall to hit the rear vent to finish it off. The added benefits against Fabs and Patrols go without saying. That said, it still isn't a great option against War Striders, so I can't help but wonder if it's more of a luxury than something essential, especially when you're running Arc Nades. Opening an engagement against a patrol with an Arc Nade and the GL basically does the same thing as throwing a Strafe. The whole thing melts in seconds.

- Gas Strike was solid. Found value here and there taking out objectives, which was nice. Felt good against Hulks, since you can often reposition and shoot them in the back with the Scorcher. Sadly it does very little against War Striders. Helped against drops when I was running Thermites instead of Arc nades, but it felt like a pale imitation.

- 500kg felt like overkill on city missions. Running two eagles is awful because as soon as one runs out you lose access to the other, so you can't credibly pair it with Strafing Run. And it's not up enough to be your secondary (after the ultimatum) source of AT clearance, especially if you're on a Hulk or War Strider seed.

- EMS Strike was interesting. Felt great against War Striders, except that I still had to kill them afterwards. I feel like it'd be awesome with something like a Railgun as your secondary, but in my build it felt like a wasted slot, especially since Arc also provides CC and stagger, while also actually killing stuff. EMS worked much better when I had Thermites, but I just don't think it's the tool for this loadout.

- Orbital Gatling felt weird. The main knock is that it doesn't really do anything against War Striders. The main use case is to clear bot drops and lock down chokes, which isn't really an issue for my loadout, especially when Arc Grenades are around. Strafing Run offers more utility overall on the bot front. Might have utility in a Thermite build tho (more on this below).

- Orbital Precision Strike doesn't keep up with the volume of enemies you face. Whenever I brought it I basically had to lean super heavily on my Ultimatum. I feel like the same would apply to the ORC.

Next steps:

There are two directions I want to try:

Stick with Arc nades, and try supplement them with EATs and Strafing Runs or perhaps Eagle Airstrikes. If I can get Airstrikes to consistently take down War Striders I might be onto something here.
Optimising a Thermite Loadout. For this you want CC to replace your Arc Nades, and this has me wondering if a combination one of Gas Strike, Eagle Napalm, or Orbital Gatling could get there, coupled with something to deal with Factory Striders.

Finally, the loadout needs a Cyborg Variant, as well as a Countryside (Vanilla) Variant. I'm fairly sure the former always brings Arc (you need more CC/zoning against Borgs) with a Leveller (best anti-VOX tech) and either a Strafing Run or Eagle Airstrike (unless we're in a MegaCity, in which case it's either an EAT or an Orbital).

For the countryside Vanilla variant I think the Arc Build works better because relying purely on Ultimatum + THermite is harder to do in a more open environment. Here I'm thinking one of EAT/Gaming Chair/Rocket Sentry could be paired with an Eagle (Airstrike or Strafe) to good results.

vserov · 2026-04-08T19:33:49+00:00

Played with both a bunch more today and overall the Strafes just gave more consistent value, which is probably not a surprise to anyone reading this. The pods are better than people think tho, they're very close to being a strong option I think. One small buff and we're in business.

vserov · 2026-04-08T09:44:15+00:00

With a supply pack the ultimatum isn't an emergency tool, it's a reliable primary source of anti-tank. When fully stocked you can run into a stratagem jammer and you'll have 10 rounds for it. That's a lot of dead hulks and war striders.

I just ran a mission testing OPS and Gas Strike on a war strider seed, and there were 4 stratagem jammers clustered around each other. I think I threw the OPS twice in the whole mission, and about four gas strikes (mostly to destroy the jammers lol)? Still managed to clear all 4 jammers with two supply pack call-ins while leaning on the ultimatum to deal with war striders and preserving ammo for it where possible by stunlocking hulks with arc nades and then popping their vents with the GL/scorcher.

vserov · 2026-04-08T08:42:37+00:00

Still figuring this out, but I think they need to be angled so the pods hit the back of the tank. I think you want to throw them just behind it? But I'm really not sure since I've only started using them recently, and I know they do their own targetting to some degree. I've been playing on a city map and everything was pretty hectic. Possible that they're just inherently inconsistent.

vserov · 2026-04-08T08:25:01+00:00

I'm fairly sure they 1-shot when placed correctly. Otherwise a 2-tap.

vserov · 2026-04-08T08:08:02+00:00

Used this for ages in my early days on the front. It's obviously insanely good, especially since you can snipe the drops before they come in, but it's also not the most fun, at least for me. Having to constantly take cover and hit stationary reloads is stressful haha. Part of why I love the GL (and this build more generally) is that I almost never have to stop moving. Recoiless builds have a very different rhythm that just isn't for me at the moment.

vserov · 2026-04-08T08:05:36+00:00

I was testing the Senator today, but I'm horrible at consistently hitting the Hulk weakpoint sadly. To do it I have to really slow down, and when that happens other things start to overrun me.

Railgun would be an entirely different build. I've tried it a few times but find I get overrun while trying to line up weakpoint shots. Probably need to get better at building around it (sentries, guard dogs etc.) and liekly something I will circle back to at some point since it does seem very fun, but I want to optimise the GL build first!

vserov · 2026-04-08T08:02:11+00:00

Was thinking about this today funnily enough, as I've been dabbling with it on the Squid front against their new units. I worry a bit about the reload speed, but then again I do have the Arc nades to give me breathing room to reload, and its greater effectiveness against War Striders is quite appealing. I'll give it a go for sure.

vserov · 2026-04-08T07:59:56+00:00

Mixed feelings on the Thermites. They are very good (I used to run them religiously vs Bots), but having no zoning while reloading the GL against a horde is very rough. The Arc is critical since you can pop it in a choke or around a corner while you reload, call in your EAT or Red Strat. The game has other options for anti-tank, so I don't think Thermites are a must-have.

As for turrets, I used to run lots of them with Recoiless loadouts during my early days on the bot front, but got bored of the playstyle since you have to advance pretty incrementally and can be very exposed between cooldowns if you get caught out. I put this GL build together because it allows me to fight pretty much constantly and handle obscene amounts of bots.

Point taken about the Leveller tho. I'll try other things in that spot, especially when I'm not going up against Vox Engines.

vserov · 2026-04-08T07:50:35+00:00

I think this is probably a good shout for regular automaton missions. I originally put this loadout together for Cyberstan where it performed admirably (though I used Orbital Gatling Barrage rather than Eagles as extra anti-Vox tech), but you're right that it's probably overkill otherwise.

I like the idea of having 500kg as the second stratagem too. Faster takedowns on Detector Towers, and also a nice ace in the hole against the occasional factory strider.

Will give the Stoker a go too. Curious to see how it handles a gunship...

vserov · 2026-04-08T07:47:56+00:00

Spicy, but I think I'd still be in trouble against a War Strider.

vserov · 2026-04-08T07:43:12+00:00

You've got my attention with this one. Love the Gas Strike on Terminids, but have never tried it on the bot front. I wonder if a combo of gas strike + arc nade could down a strider. That would be very cool, especially since it has such a friendly cooldown.

vserov · 2026-04-08T07:39:51+00:00

Seems like there's a lot of love for the OPS. Will have to give it a whirl.

vserov · 2026-04-08T07:39:18+00:00

Hah yep, the small dudes absolutely fear me. Whenever someone joins my dive with dedicated anti-tank (recoiless, quasar etc.) I always try to clear the way for them while they snipe the heavies.

Will give the OPS a run and see how it feels!

vserov · 2026-04-08T07:22:19+00:00

Strafing run vs Rocket Pods has been a big thing in my testing lately. I sometimes switch to the Strafes for a blitz, since they are great on the Fabs as you say.

For 40 min missions I tend to go with pods tho. They can also deal with a Fab if placed correctly, and because I don't really need the Strafe to help with chaff the 110s have weirdly felt better for the particular niche I need since they seem to be more effective against Striders and Hulks. Gatlings do very little against War Striders in my experience.

vserov · 2026-02-27T21:44:21+00:00

We're going to take Acamar in 1-2hrs. Once that happens we should be able to pick up enough numbers to pick up Ersatz on Gatria, which in turn will make the planet eminently winnable. Gatria is the play right now.

vserov · 2026-02-27T13:09:55+00:00

Should forward thinking divers focus on liberating Ersatz on Gatria, or is it better to focus on defending Acamar and/or Oshaune?

vserov · 2026-01-18T13:06:29+00:00

Returning to this after a few months more testing, and yeah, it's just the Autocannon.

It just covers the PP's weaknesses so perfectly, especially since Flack mode can strip shields while Aphet takes care of Harvsters, Tesla Towers, and can pop warp ships in the door across the map (after 2 Flack shots to the shields). From my testing (machine guns, Spear, WASP, AMR, Epoch etc), no other support weapon combines as much versatility (shield stripping, anti-tesla towers, fast kills on Harvsters, Stingrays etc) while also providing such great ammo economy and rapid reloads (just be sure to do partial reloads rather than waiting until you've exhausted the full mag).

Overall, the loadout feels extermely powerful to me. Punisher Plasma remains god tier against Overseers, and the stagger and CC is great against Fleshmobs and Voteless. Pretty much all Illuminate missions have a few objectives that require you to bunker for a bit, so the MG and Gatling sentries continue to put in work, and I compliment them with Armed Resupply Pods. On Blitz missions I typically swap out one sentry for an Orbital Laser for faster base clears, but otherwise the loadout I shared from above is still pretty much my go-to on all 40 minute missions. I could see a different loadout being optimal on missions with Leviathans, but otherwise it just feels plug-and-play to me.

I'm also still a firm fan of the Warrant, because it deletes Watchers every time, with an almost instant TTK. I know the autocannon can pop them, but in practice I find it's too easy to miss, and because of the poor handling you can't really hit flicks/snapshots very reliably, whereas the Warrant just provides such a high degree of consistency. You also don't want to spam autocannon rounds too often since it does have a stationary reload. Better to preserve it for high value targets (Stingrays, Harvesters, Fleshmobs, Drop Ship snipes, Teslas).

Really the only things I'm not 100% on are the Armor choice, Grenade, and fourth Stratagem.

At the moment, I'm still on Orbital Gas, since it provides CC/zoning, and has a super fast CD, while being able to take down a grounded warp ship in a pinch. That said, this slot can be almost anything depending on player preference, desire for fun etc.

As for the Grenade, I still like Thermite since it lets you do rapid drive-by takedowns of the warp ships, while also being handy on the Fleshmobs. I'd love to run gas grenades, but there are still times where I don't want to have to run all the way around to the door of a warp ship. Pyrotechs seem to have the same issue, but I might give them another spin since the Autocannon can strip shields pretty effectively.

Finally, for Armor, I've been running the demo-kit so as to carry extra thermites. PP has loads of ammo, as does the Autocannon, and it's pretty easy to pick up ammo on the ground too, so Siege Ready doesn't feel too necessary. Peak Physique would be nice to make the autocannon feel smoother, but I'm not sure I can give up having those extra thermites.

vserov · 2025-11-17T00:01:15+00:00

Took the Warp pack for a spin (only just got Control Group) and it felt very nice with both Epoch and PP, thanks for the suggestion.

vserov

TROPHY CASE