Chopper Minigun

[Duke Mills]

Can anyone -actually- hit anything using the support chopper's chaingun? Because to me it is an extremely thin line of fire, the thing LOVES to go way up or down but turns side to side like absolute garbage. I've tried to use the chopper minigun to take out anti air emplacements or tower guards before and I managed to do it maybe a handful of times but even with the chopper moving in a steady direction it seems extremely difficult.

[[ACPL] Jon]

Finished C2A EXTREME with it so I guess I could. Depends on the helicopter movement.

[~⁧⁧kapacb]

You can change sides (left or right) by pressing W or S

Landing on risky zones always won't be safe, need to take out most of guards and anti air guns and there is still chance that Heli won't escape

[Duke Mills]

It just seems like it is nearly impossible to aim with it.

[[ACPL] Jon]

AFAIR there's two modes. Normal and "aiming", one is way more restricted in movement.

Don't do the restricted one or you won't hit a thing.

[Lar Dass]

glad im not the one who notices, almost died in c2w extreme

[abcd]

Yes. Find targets in third-person, then snap to first and tap tap brat brat. The grouping on bursts is actually quite small, and the recoil is controllable as long as you get a rhythm going. Remember to compensate for the helicopter's movement, particularly when you're following your tracers to see where they landed, and remember that the bullets fly in a very flat trajectory. You'll know you're doing it right and landing your full burst when they instantly fall over dead, as opposed to just stumbling.

Spraying wildly while you're switching between targets may cause suppression as well, but it can take a solid 1-2 seconds of spraying in someone's direction before they start taking cover. If you just pass over them real quick there's a good chance they'll either ignore it or double-down on panic fire instead.

[Duke Mills]

Originally posted by tausoldier:

Yes. Find targets in third-person, then snap to first and tap tap brat brat. The grouping on bursts is actually quite small, and the recoil is controllable as long as you get a rhythm going. Remember to compensate for the helicopter's movement, particularly when you're following your tracers to see where they landed, and remember that the bullets fly in a very flat trajectory. You'll know you're doing it right and landing your full burst when they instantly fall over dead, as opposed to just stumbling.

Spraying wildly while you're switching between targets may cause suppression as well, but it can take a solid 1-2 seconds of spraying in someone's direction before they start taking cover. If you just pass over them real quick there's a good chance they'll either ignore it or double-down on panic fire instead.

That's basically something similar to what I did when coming in to Nova Braga Airport one time when I was just bored and wanting an extra challenge on TRAITOR'S CARAVAN mission.

[Yukimare]

It is accurate enough to hit in first person if you know your target's locations ahead of time. Though 3rd person does become inaccurate, at least from what I used of it.

I don't use the minigun for killing infantry honestly, as I have a non-lethal playstyle, even on FoB missions. I do sorta wish there was a upgrade on the chopper that allowed it to use rubber bullets and live ammo interchangably. But then again, I wish they offered more upgrades for basically all the non-lethal weapons so that lethal weapons don't outlclass them so much, you're at a disadvantage if you don't use lethal beyond T7.

[Duke Mills]

Originally posted by Yukimare:

It is accurate enough to hit in first person if you know your target's locations ahead of time. Though 3rd person does become inaccurate, at least from what I used of it.

I don't use the minigun for killing infantry honestly, as I have a non-lethal playstyle, even on FoB missions. I do sorta wish there was a upgrade on the chopper that allowed it to use rubber bullets and live ammo interchangably. But then again, I wish they offered more upgrades for basically all the non-lethal weapons so that lethal weapons don't outlclass them so much, you're at a disadvantage if you don't use lethal beyond T7.

My only big issue with non lethal is it takes so many resources to use sleep grenades, and with smoke grenades they become useless as higher grade fobs has EVERYONE with NVG.

For some odd reason your soldiers get gas masks when set to non lethal settings but Big Boss doesn't and is vulnerable to every stun and sleep weapon there is including tranqs even if he wears battle dress.

[Lexal]

That's most likely down to being controlled by a player and thus not being constrained by AI's boundaries, nevermind having passive abilities that no other NPC has. Lastly, you have the ability to simply wake up from stuns and tranqs after several seconds.

TL;DR balancing

[Yukimare]

It's not really that much once you start to nail FoBs down. I use high end grenades all the time, and have so many resources, I don't even know what to do with hem.

But yeah, it's really down to how you handle things in FoB missions and how inventive you are with what you use. I often weaponize the smoke grenade by tossing it as a enemy and let them choke on it while I rush in for the CQC take down. As long as masks are not a thing, it stuns them. And if not, it makes the guards look the wrong way out of combat.

But like Lexal said, likely game balance. If you're good enough with the QTE (Or you have a Micro ready), you can easily just wake up from a knock out in as little as 2-3 seconds, Big Boss or not. So pretty much. I've yet to see if Ocelot has resistance (Since a Easter Egg found in the tutorial for Mother Base lets you shoot him over and over with a tranq gun and he just shrugs it off like a champ, even if he's disoriented for a brief second before continuing.) but so few people use him it's likely a non-factor.

Also a bit of a bonus tip, on FoBs that are set to non-lethal, you can get around their gas masks by exploiting the lack of battle dress and using the Wu S. Pistol +SB. It can and will one-hit KO them if they have a sneaking suit, regardless of hit area. How long they remain KOed depends on if they invested in anti-tranqs, but it's something to get around sleep grenades not working anymore.

[Lexal]

Originally posted by Yukimare:

Also a bit of a bonus tip, on FoBs that are set to non-lethal, you can get around their gas masks by exploiting the lack of battle dress and using the Wu S. Pistol +SB. It can and will one-hit KO them if they have a sneaking suit, regardless of hit area. How long they remain KOed depends on if they invested in anti-tranqs, but it's something to get around sleep grenades not working anymore.

In theory, body shot from +SB and highest anti-tranq should cancel each other out, due to both being grade 7, but I might be completely wrong on this one.

[Yukimare]

Originally posted by Lexal:

Originally posted by Yukimare:

Also a bit of a bonus tip, on FoBs that are set to non-lethal, you can get around their gas masks by exploiting the lack of battle dress and using the Wu S. Pistol +SB. It can and will one-hit KO them if they have a sneaking suit, regardless of hit area. How long they remain KOed depends on if they invested in anti-tranqs, but it's something to get around sleep grenades not working anymore.

In theory, body shot from +SB and highest anti-tranq should cancel each other out, due to both being grade 7, but I might be completely wrong on this one.

Sadly very wrong. The description of the Anti-tranq is misleading.

Instead of granting immunity to tranqs below a certain grade, it reduces stun damage from both the initial hit as well as the DoT from tranqs, as well as greatly shortens the stun duration for ALL forms of KOs. A FoB with a low grade anti-tranq typically won't start seeing people wake up from air-shock stuns until near the end of a PSNK run when I manage one, while one with a very high level anti-tranq will wake up VERY quickly, often before I'm done crossing the bridge after stealing the resources off the platform I was just on. Guess it's sorta for the best, considering that'd render the tranq pistols near useless, but.... still, a part of me wished they were more true to the description.

[Lexal]

When you were noting these observations, did you account for guard ranks, eg S in combat, or just different anti-tranq research levels?
I'm asking because I spoke to someone about the tranq durations and they claimed it seems to be influenced by combat unit stats, but neither of us took anti-tranq into consideration.
If it's both guard ranks and anti-tranq levels influencing this, then once again well done to Konami for failing to adequately explain things with words.

[Yukimare]

Originally posted by Lexal:

When you were noting these observations, did you account for guard ranks, eg S in combat, or just different anti-tranq research levels?
I'm asking because I spoke to someone about the tranq durations and they claimed it seems to be influenced by combat unit stats, but neither of us took anti-tranq into consideration.
If it's both guard ranks and anti-tranq levels influencing this, then once again well done to Konami for failing to adequately explain things with words.

It's reliably with various FoBs that use E rank guards thanks to insurance, as well as FoBs with S rank guards but one with a low anti-tranq and another with a high rank anti-tranq, and in SP where anti-tranq is not a thing.

And I don't think tranq duration is affected by the combat skill, as enemies in SP remain asleep for the same duration even with varrying combat skill levels. A enemy with a S rank in combat took just as long as a E rank grunt to reawaken. In SP, it all comes down to the knockout method, with tranqs providing the longest reliable duration, the 5-hit CQC combo being the longest outright, and a instant takedown CQC attack being the shortest KO duration universally.

I sorta wish in a way combat rank affected this, but nope. I think what got your friend confused though is that the combat rank DOES affect damage taken; a character with A++ in combat (Or Snake, Ocelot, or Quiet) take base damage, while lower combat ranks take more damage, and a S rank or higher have natural damage resistance superior to Snake's. So logic may have kicked in and came up with the theory that it also shortens KO duration.