Orbital 120mm/380mm barrages bad? Or am I bad?

[Your Lord and Savior]

Whenever I use either of these strategems, the shells seem to hit everything except the target. I tend to use them (mostly the 380) by walking up to a sufficiently sized outpost, throwing it in the middle, and running. Every now and then I hear a boom and see 10x kills pop up, but that's rare.

Is there a better way to use them? Or do I just hope they hit the right spot?

EDIT: Yep I guess they suck. Fingers crossed they get some kinda aim buff, cuz I do like the boom

[Vali Riversong]

I find that they just have a way too wide of a spread to be useful. They have a lot of power, but I'd rather just use Eagle AirStrike, or an Orbital Precision Strike, things that I can predict where the attack will land and not need to worry about getting killed by the random barrage drops.

[Steak]

You got the right idea, they're just too rng depended. Both can do insane damage or literally nothing and i find on average they just do nothing.

[Zeddy]

Barrage get a bit better with the inner radius and extra barrage upgrades but to be honest on 380s I've given up.

Walking Barrage has even odds of wiping an entire large base for you and doing absolutely no structural damage, but either way it should be relatively clear to run in behind it (with some safety margin distance).

[PapaSloppy]

120 and 380 is pretty much useless unless your goal is team killing, it sucks i like the boom 380s make but their never accurate enough to be useful and it literally seems like if you or a teammate is in range it purposefully targets you even on the very edge of its radius.

[FOXXOF]

I love it I use the 120mm a good bit, you need to aim high and far so it doesnt hit people and need to talk to your team, unless of course you are cornered and about to all die go for it. Used it to finish off a titan earlier.

[Chaos]

Well what you see is what you get, these strats have no redeeming quality.
SImply trash, just use laser orbital instead.

[BananaBadman]

These stratagems are intended to be used as anti-helldiver ordinance. You'll notice that they seemingly target random spots in wide area UNLESS a helldiver is located within this area, at which point they will accurately turn said helldiver into meat paste.

[DarkFenix]

They're just bad, a complete waste of resources to buy. If the devs want to make them worthwhile, they need to completely saturate their target zone.

[Lucky Cat]

The 120mm Orbital Barrage is considered a "Precision" Strike and yet it does anything but be precise, if anything, seems more like a choice to use to soften the area or as you're dealing with a incoming enemy reinforcement. Same with the 380mm Barrage.

[Clive Hawkins]

Agreed with all posts.

We were given a Daily awhile back that was something like "Get 50 kills with the 120mm Barrage." Let's just say more Helldivers died that day than in the entire war 100 years ago.

[McKillerroy]

Originally posted by Your Lord and Savior:

Whenever I use either of these strategems, the shells seem to hit everything except the target. I tend to use them (mostly the 380) by walking up to a sufficiently sized outpost, throwing it in the middle, and running. Every now and then I hear a boom and see 10x kills pop up, but that's rare.

Is there a better way to use them? Or do I just hope they hit the right spot?

They are the best stratagems in the entire game if you want:

-hit barely anything
-kill team m8's
-kill yourself
-have a redicolous CD for what it is and what it is capable of, especially compared to the eagle.

I'm lvl 44.
Eagle is meta. Fully upgraded, there is no alternative to it.

[Quackers]

they're bad, its not you.

As impressive as they look they fire not nearly enough shells into much too large of an area. I swear I've gotten more accidentals with the 380 than actual enemies. The 120 is slightly more useful on account of it just hitting a smaller area, but it also does less damage. I hate to say it but the eagle..... anything is better.

[Cryptic]

They are barrages. Not made for accuracy. But the 120 is accurate enough imo. Hits my target most times. 380 is good but too spread out.

Level 41 here. I use the 120s a lot

[Keyes]

The Megumin barrage: two players each launching a 120mm and 380mm at the same location simultaneously. Bonus if you save your walking barrages to cover another direction.

[Black Magic]

They are bad for what they are; the RNG involved given the radius of both Orbitals is very inconsistent and unreliable (they need to make the initial explosion a guaranteed hit where the beacon lands and tweak the RNG of the following explosions). You're much better off taking Cluster Strike and 500kg bomb.

Cluster is always going to wipe chaff and the 500kg is always guaranteed to kill the target (assuming you know where the throw them).