Primary recommendation against Automatons?

[Is This Your Card? 69]

Hi, new-ish, well at least vs Automatons.
Been killing bugs most of my hours.
I was wondering what primary is good against Automatons, Ive been using regular breaker, but I find it lacking sometimes.

For my support weapon Im using the AMR, Im going to try out the railgun when I reach lv20.

[First5trike]

I just use the MP-98 Knight on burst and go for head shots. Probably not the most efficient way but its quick.

Having the guard dog pack helps soften them up too.

[xDDD]

I've never played Automatons at a high level or anything, but it seems like a lot of people really sleep on the Ballistic Shield. Pair it with the SMG or something and you can be a bit of a tank.
It's a little janky, and you drop it when you get blown up, but it blocks A TON of the incoming small fire.

[Pure Hostility]

Diligence, Slugger, Punisher (Good stagger), Dominator (Poor Man's Slugger, still fun), Liberator (basic, Penetrator may help with striders but... ehh...), Defender.

Any weapon is good really, try them all, find what fits your playstyle.

[Razaah !!!!]

Autocannon can be used to great effect against the bots. Both the sentry and the support.
You will miss out on the shield backpack so you will have to try and utilize the enviroment to you advantage.
Or bring the shielddome if you can.
Arcthrower is fun too because it basically ignores armor and shreds through the trash but it takes a while to kill bigger bots.

You can also bring the rocket pod eagle. That one can onetap tanks and hulks pretty reliably if you time it right.

//EDIT: JFC.. i cant read. You wanted primary recoms...
I usually carry a penetration liberator.
Other people swear on laser rifles. Now im pretty sure they mean the Lasercannon support but why not give the scythe a go against bots.

[Belyth]

Slugger, Scorcher (takes down ATST's in two shots to the legs)
Railgun (even after the nerf it's still able to one-shot the Hulks)
Shield (even after the nerf it's still good)

[Himars-TT]

The Plas Scorcher is really good if you've gotten it unlocked. The biggest nuisance for me vs. bots are the Striders, and the Scorcher has enough splash on it to ignore armor and kill the rider.

Accurate, low-recoil, damages Devastators and Striders, decent enough mag-size and ammo reserve to comfortably grab a support weapon or backpack, it's my go-to for bots.

[Anndy578]

Scorcher

[Zipcouda]

Really hard to say. You need to find what suits you. I use defender primary for those who suicide with jetpacks into me, as well as the smaller unarmored botts when attacking an outpost. Grenade launcher is good for most situations of patrols.

Autocannons are very good for hitting weakspots and hitting hulks in the head if you have a moment. 2 shots to a hulk head destroys it... hard to hit though. Railgun on unsafe is still good 3/4 shots to the head. I use ammo pack with anything I have aside from the autocannon.

Sentry's aren't great because 1 rocket pod boy shoots it and its gone.

[ImHelping]

Defender SMG is also amazing against robots, because the low RoF (keep it full auto, burst will fire only 2 out of 3 bullets on a quick tap) and high raw damage will let you drill holes in multiple robo skulls per mag even while crouch strafing.

It can struggle if surrounded by chainsaw bots at melee range, but it will let you stop flares from being fired a lot better than an assault rifle (any variety) and drop big bots at range with harassing fire better than a shotgun.

Slugger is still good vs big bots, but the wacky wobble moving and flinching when being shot back at makes it (and the punisher) shockingly bad at dealing with small bots already shooting at you. You get shot 0.1 seconds before you fire, throwing your aim off, repeat. Defender will sweep across an entire group of robo soldiers and they will die before they can hurt you.

penetrator lib meanwhile? Just a lot of cases of "Didn't actually kill the robo soldier I burst fired at", not enough damage to make it worth it even when it does not bounce, like wasting 4 mags on a tower vent or tank vent and it is still fine.

Anything the penetrator assault is allowed to kill in under a mag, is something that will die to the defender faster.

[Kharn the Bloody]

I'd recommend trying:

- Shield Generator Pack. Found in "Engineering Bay" of your Stratagems menu.
- Medium armor with 50% less explosive damage since Bots have rockets, artillery, and there is just lots of stuff exploding vs bots.
- Weapon of your choice. Experiment. See what works. Breaker is still good if you tap tap tap fire. 2 round bursts drop most skinny bots. Breaker Incendiary is fun and works. Defender SMG is great and it sounds and feels good man.
- Railgun is still good. Use the "Unsafe Mode" of fire versus medium targets. With Railgun you can shoot 3 times or more the white glowing grill on the back of tank turret, tower turrets, anything with a glowing white grill on it's back to make it explode.
- Auto Cannon is really good. Make sure to equip the backpack that comes with it.
- Eagle Airstrike. Takes out bunkers/bot Fabricators and most medium armor targets. Takes out tanks.
- Orbital Railcannon Strike. Takes out Heavies, Bot Fabricator, Tanks, Tower Turrets.

You can't pick fights standing straight up out in the open like you can with bugs. Try to have some rocks, blown up vehicles, or whatever cover is nearby before you kick off a gunfight with the Bots. Use cover! Use firing from crouched behind cover! It does help.

[Katitoff]

SMG, Slugger, Dilligence, Basic Liberator or Liberator Penetrator.

Anything that is useful on 50+m range is good.

AMR is good and flexible.
Autocannon will let you kill frontally everthing except for tank, but they're super easy to hit with precision strike.

[The Colgate King]

I typically run the defender primary against bots. Its got good damage and a controllable rate of fire, range is decent. Can take out everything up to devastators fairly reliably. The big perk is that its one handed, so you can fire behind you without losing speed. Good for preventing an impromptu chainsaw colonoscopy from zerker packs.

[TreesAreTough]

Plasma Rifle is pretty good

[Zipcouda]

To many people rely on the shield gen to help them through the game. Smoke grenades help a lot for obscuring you to avoid death. Keep moving, don't shoot patrols unless they are engaged with you. You can move away easily just use LOS.

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Zipcouda:

To many people rely on the shield gen to help them through the game. Smoke grenades help a lot for obscuring you to avoid death. Keep moving, don't shoot patrols unless they are engaged with you. You can move away easily just use LOS.

Did they finally make it so smoke grenades can bust factories? Pyro grenades might be worthless even against bugs (whyyyyyyy) but they are still a step up from smoke because they can bust buildings between not actually doing their job as utility grenades.

I see a smoke grenade user, I see a corpse complaining rockets are overpowered when they are shot through the smoke anyways.