No reliable ways to kill Bile Titans? (HD)

[Big frank]

(This is all said with helldive difficulty in mind)

So since the update I've noticed one thing in particular, there's just no real ways to reliably kill Bile Titans. Not only that but killing them can be so wildly easy and or difficult (This was a problem before the patch) that I am honestly not sure what's really going on with their HP and weapon damage and whatever else is going on behind the scenes. Sometimes you pop their head in on shot with whatever you're using and sometimes you pop both their sacks and dump three recoiless rounds into them and they still keep trucking. Spear packs more punch but with limited ammo that's only really good for one of the four or five present at any given engagement, and with their awful reload time and janky lock on well... it's alright at best. Not to mention there's still the small issue of armor stripping not entirely working on their hitboxes, as the exposed fleshy bits still act as armored, so armor stripping isn't an effective answer either.

The railgun nerf fully exposes what I think most of us already knew, and that is that the current anti tank options available just aren't cutting it against Bile Titans. Their numerous, their spongy, and worst of all their buggy (pun slightly intended). I really hope they either increase the fire power of other AT weapons or let us strip and kill Biles like we can chargers soon because ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ these things have been the bane of my matches all day.

(Edit)
Stratagems are always a good answer, but they can be on inordinately long cooldowns depending on the map in question, and even then killing the target can be inconsistent on all but the good ol' 500kg boom boy. Plus focusing your stratagems on killing big boys can leave you vulnerable to trash mob swarms. So I still find myself in a tough spot when it comes to dealing with those Bile Titan swarms Hell Dives like to toss.

[Big frank]

Originally posted by Zalaster:

Originally posted by Alish:

Thats the intended experience. People only care about dealing with them. You know you can de agro them right?
Sometimes the best dps is no dps at all.
People underestimate the strength of the smoke nades or smoke orbital. Or the gas poppers that u find in the environment. Killing them isn't always the answer. Knowing which fight to fight and which to evade is the difference between t9 divers and the people who shoot everything.
Try new things

Obviously if im not at an objective running away is the answer, but maybe i should clarify that when at an objective with multiple stages, ive seen up to 9, you kind of have to power through the waves till its over. There is a mission timer that affects your overall rewards. i dont want to be that guy, but alot of these same comments that say "run away" or "your not supposed to fight everything" i feel like arent playing on HD. The sheer amount of armored mobs thrown at you is crazy, on top of the annoying ankle biters that slow you.

Its not so much what they nerfed that is the problem, its WHY they nerfed it that is. they did it based on what is used the most, not why its used the most. If the other AT weapons were as good people would be using them more.

Right, sometimes there's those stubborn mobs that will sit on objectives. Much worse with bugs than bots but they sometimes objectives will force a fight on you and it can burn some nasty amounts of time trying to kite mobs off an objective. Plus big defense missions have become a new kind of Hell (dive).

One thing is for sure though, my deathless runs seem to be at an end.

[kerplunkin]

Originally posted by Stratas:

Originally posted by Yagger:

500kg, air strike, rail cannon, space laser, auto cannon, recoiless. hey look, quite a few ways to dealing with bile titans

Hey whats your ingame tag so we can run some helldive, see how your handling the 3-4 titans and 3 chargers.

you dont even need that. add from steam and just join each others game from your friends lists.

[Wear No Thongs]

Originally posted by Badass_Ben:

Whats the guided missile launcher?
That does a lot of damage

A recoil-less rifle with a teammate reload can do a good number on them

Blow the armor off, then shoot the weak spots with regular weapons

Pretty straight forward counter

They just cant be solo'd well, which is a good thing.

You can easily spot a developer who never play his own game by nonsense comments like this.

[Big frank]

Originally posted by Qua2ar:

500 kg and that's it, you get 2.
I hope they nerf it next, it should not give you 2.

Weird take, but sure. If they would reduce the amount I'd hope they at least increase the blast radius though. It's always felt lacking for a 500kg bomb.

[c1K]

Originally posted by LunarisRuin:

Originally posted by Yagger:

500kg, air strike, rail cannon, space laser, auto cannon, recoiless. hey look, quite a few ways to dealing with bile titans

Hey look another person who doesn't know what they're talking about! Just spouting out nonsense to start fights.

Yeah let's use strategems to deal with one, maybe two bile titans while a further 3 or 4 are after us, guess we just play cat and mouse until 7 minutes pass so we can strategem another one or two titans... but then more titans spawn in that time and..oh wait...

and those people also forget that titans are not the only enemies on the screen. there are 4-6 chargers at a time, and many tiny bugs that keep annoying and 3-5shot'ing you. so let's think about if for a sec from a team play perspective.

To get rid of swarm of enemies you either have a aoe stratagem or an aoe weapon - 1 person. RESOURCES ARE LIMITED
To get rid of a titan(and there are 2-4) someone suggests 2 players.
To get rid of a charger(and there are 4-6) someone also suggests 2 players. The math is wrong here. I'm not even going to get into details of how many bullets and stratagems is required for this. Provided that this encounter absolutely must be fought(like at main objectives).

One could still one-2 shot the titan if aimed correctly, but it's less reliable now.
Chargers are a pain to deal with, because the overcharged mode is unrealiable as well. Sometimes it takes 5 5 seconds shots, sometimes it requires 2 5 seconds shots with half a clip of a breaker in their foot.

wtf

[Big frank]

Originally posted by c1K:

Originally posted by LunarisRuin:

Hey look another person who doesn't know what they're talking about! Just spouting out nonsense to start fights.

Yeah let's use strategems to deal with one, maybe two bile titans while a further 3 or 4 are after us, guess we just play cat and mouse until 7 minutes pass so we can strategem another one or two titans... but then more titans spawn in that time and..oh wait...

and those people also forget that titans are not the only enemies on the screen. there are 4-6 chargers at a time, and many tiny bugs that keep annoying and 3-5shot'ing you. so let's think about if for a sec from a team play perspective.

To get rid of swarm of enemies you either have a aoe stratagem or an aoe weapon - 1 person. RESOURCES ARE LIMITED
To get rid of a titan(and there are 2-4) someone suggests 2 players.
To get rid of a charger(and there are 4-6) someone also suggests 2 players. The math is wrong here. I'm not even going to get into details of how many bullets and stratagems is required for this. Provided that this encounter absolutely must be fought(like at main objectives).

One could still one-2 shot the titan if aimed correctly, but it's less reliable now.
Chargers are a pain to deal with, because the overcharged mode is unrealiable as well. Sometimes it takes 5 5 seconds shots, sometimes it requires 2 5 seconds shots with half a clip of a breaker in their foot.

wtf

Honestly I don't really bother using AT against chargers. They have this super weird mechanic/bug where after they finish charging and not doing one of those side bashes their legs are vulnerable to small arms fire. I usually kill them that way since there's so many that I try my best to reserve AT ammo for Biles. But yeah it seems like a lot of people who might claim things are totally okay all the time might not be playing the same difficulties as others. They might also just be getting lucky with enemy spawns or something. I'd prefer to think most people aren't lying when they claim Bile slaying isn't as rough as I think it is.

[c1K]

Originally posted by BaconX:

They were meant to be hard to kill, not 2-3 shots with the railgun when you're playing with a PS5 host.

Bile titans are now how they're suppose to be, spend your strategems or take more time kill them with EAT or spear.

Or you know, you can always deploy the oldest and best tactic in the book and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ run. If you have 3 or 4 titans and multiple chargers on your ass, you disengage.

you know you can still one-2 shot them when aimed correctly in an appropriate mode? the only problem now is the shadow 'dmg-reliability' stat that makes it impossible to know if you it's you missing your shots or the game being a ♥♥♥♥♥.

[Killer Tamashi]

Originally posted by Big frank:

Originally posted by Qua2ar:

500 kg and that's it, you get 2.
I hope they nerf it next, it should not give you 2.

Weird take, but sure. If they would reduce the amount I'd hope they at least increase the blast radius though. It's always felt lacking for a 500kg bomb.

500kg does not feel like 500kg with the explosion, you wanna take away one you gotta give us a better bomb.

It's the way I look at it at least, especially considering I STILL haven't unlocked the upgrade that tosses you an extra bomb, despite being nearly level 50.

[Veldaz]

Bile titans go one of two ways.

Either you get a lucky shot with an ET in the face and it goes down right away.

Or it's a tank that can take every shot.

They're very inconsistent.

[Big frank]

Originally posted by c1K:

Originally posted by BaconX:

They were meant to be hard to kill, not 2-3 shots with the railgun when you're playing with a PS5 host.

Bile titans are now how they're suppose to be, spend your strategems or take more time kill them with EAT or spear.

Or you know, you can always deploy the oldest and best tactic in the book and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ run. If you have 3 or 4 titans and multiple chargers on your ass, you disengage.

you know you can still one-2 shot them when aimed correctly in an appropriate mode? the only problem now is the shadow 'dmg-reliability' stat that makes it impossible to know if you it's you missing your shots or the game being a ♥♥♥♥♥.

First time I've head of that shadow stat. I am aware of the devs claim of around 50ish hidden stats weapons have though so I guess it shouldn't be surprising. Can't say i'm a big fan of that stat though. Wild inconsistency like that bothers me.

[c1K]

Originally posted by Big frank:

Originally posted by c1K:

and those people also forget that titans are not the only enemies on the screen. there are 4-6 chargers at a time, and many tiny bugs that keep annoying and 3-5shot'ing you. so let's think about if for a sec from a team play perspective.

To get rid of swarm of enemies you either have a aoe stratagem or an aoe weapon - 1 person. RESOURCES ARE LIMITED
To get rid of a titan(and there are 2-4) someone suggests 2 players.
To get rid of a charger(and there are 4-6) someone also suggests 2 players. The math is wrong here. I'm not even going to get into details of how many bullets and stratagems is required for this. Provided that this encounter absolutely must be fought(like at main objectives).

One could still one-2 shot the titan if aimed correctly, but it's less reliable now.
Chargers are a pain to deal with, because the overcharged mode is unrealiable as well. Sometimes it takes 5 5 seconds shots, sometimes it requires 2 5 seconds shots with half a clip of a breaker in their foot.

wtf

Honestly I don't really bother using AT against chargers. They have this super weird mechanic/bug where after they finish charging and not doing one of those side bashes their legs are vulnerable to small arms fire. I usually kill them that way since there's so many that I try my best to reserve AT ammo for Biles.

huh i did not know about that. i'll try to "hehe bug use" it and see how that'll go, because currently I feel like I don't have a reliable tool in my hands to deal with anything anymore. I'll also give a shot to buffed specials, I always wanted to have fun with the flamethrower, but i'm not sure how I can help my team with big bois, like I used to when running rail, because it seems FEW people actually know where to shoot with rail at them titans

PS. aim for membranes to the sides of their mouth, not dead-center of their mouth

PPS. reliably oneshoting a titan is possible when you are perpendicular to their face. when they are running at you, for me it takes 2 shots on average(after the nerf) provided that i don't miss.

[Yagger]

Originally posted by LunarisRuin:

Originally posted by Yagger:

500kg, air strike, rail cannon, space laser, auto cannon, recoiless. hey look, quite a few ways to dealing with bile titans

Hey look another person who doesn't know what they're talking about! Just spouting out nonsense to start fights.

Yeah let's use strategems to deal with one, maybe two bile titans while a further 3 or 4 are after us, guess we just play cat and mouse until 7 minutes pass so we can strategem another one or two titans... but then more titans spawn in that time and..oh wait...

all I did was name a few things other than the railgun that can take down a titan, you're the one that wants a fight lol

[c1K]

Originally posted by Big frank:

Originally posted by c1K:

you know you can still one-2 shot them when aimed correctly in an appropriate mode? the only problem now is the shadow 'dmg-reliability' stat that makes it impossible to know if you it's you missing your shots or the game being a ♥♥♥♥♥.

First time I've head of that shadow stat. I am aware of the devs claim of around 50ish hidden stats weapons have though so I guess it shouldn't be surprising. Can't say i'm a big fan of that stat though. Wild inconsistency like that bothers me.

ngl, i came up with that name myself, because i time my rail shots, and they all deal different damage. even safe mode does. Try it out on stalkers. shoot them in the face. once in 3-4 times you can actually oneshot them. in safe mode.

[Sokaku]

For all the moaning that goes on in the forum about "yeah, but what about when you have 4,6,8 Titans and Chargers" but then berating players that employ strategy, stealth, and target prioritization properly to complete missions at the highest difficulty, with, or without the meta load-out.

Helldive should 100% be about rewarding smart game-play because dumb decisions will result in more enemies than you, or even your squad will be able to handle. It's not about finding a meta configuration that gives you a reasonable chance to survive despite FUBAR-level enemy spawns.

So the question should be "So what the hell can you use to handle 4,6,8 Titans and Chargers?" rather it should be about approaching the game with the tools and tactics that you DON'T NEED to fight 4,6,8 Titans and Chargers at the same time to finish a mission.

[♥RGB♥Enjoyer♥]

Originally posted by Keet:

HD is supposed to be really hard
THAT BEING SAID

I was watching videos of the upcoming mechs and a volley of missiles can insta gib a titan literally in the face
maybe wait a bit to run HD till we have mech walkers?

Okay, so usually competent devs go ahead and do these changes at the same time then. Or buff up weak stuff to shortly after nerf the OP ♥♥♥♥. Why you ask? Well that's because of the animosity it creates if you don't and that is exactly what we are seeing rn.

The "balance" patch the way it came out is incredibly short sighted and it's being poorly received.
It gave no alternatives in the Armorpen department for higher difficulties, where multiple heavies and titan class enemies per engagment are over abundant.

Light armor is pretty much the only thing you play and see consistently in HD. You constantly gotta be on the move and the 1 extra hit you might survive in heavy armor doesn't help, if you consistently get hit more, since the AI simply outruns and combos you.

Shieldbackpack is continuosly being used, cause you still kinda have to with the armor "fix" and because the Arc Thrower is the new support weapon of choice, with its armor ignoring boon and the fact that it doesn't require a backpack. Additionally the Arc has unlimited ammo.

The meta just slightly shifted (Arc almost exclusively instead of the RG kek) and became even narrower than it used to...

Great Success!