currently lvl 28 and it seems bugs are much harder than automatons.

[Marburger05]

The main reason is the ammount of slowness debuffs bugs give you via hunters, stalkers and bile spitters. the second reason is that the Charger compared too the Hulk is much more anoying too deal with (example Hulks can be one shot via a railgun and chargers will eat through half your ammo), the tank is slow and even slower too fire and can be one hit via even a missed 500kg or just insta killed via orbital railgun, while the bile titans are a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥ too fight as they will tank said orbital railgun most the time. i will still fight both but so far prefer automatons alot.

[Frostbeast]

Its all about practice. I played over 200h. 99% of the time against bugs. Automatons are too stressful for me.

[Marburger05]

yeah they are stressfull but i just mean weakspots are way easier too hit on automatons, making most big targets a easier time to deal with

[Akameka]

I hard agree here.

Also, it's interesting to note than the reinforcment spam of automatons is way less likely to happen the more you go up in the difficulties, due to the fact only one type of their unit can call backup. As more and more of thoses units deployed on your face get replaced by medium and Heavy armored, the probability of one of thoses being a comisar just calling reinforcment as soon as he hit the groud is less likely to happen.

Unless there is one hiding out of view somewhere, and doing it over and over again, but that's easily spotable, and a prioritary target if you see it happen.

Meanwhile about half the bugs type can call reinforcments. Including the medium armored ones.
So the probability of one calling backup as soon as he get out of the breach is way higher.


Also. There are armors protecting you from bots. Explosive resistance will alleviate a lot of the random OS they have. Meanwhile, your only armor protection against bugs is... running fast with ligh armor.... Which is still slower than about Half of their roster - Including the dreaded charger.

[DarkFenix]

If you need to use half your ammo on a charger, that's a you problem. Two railgun shots to one leg will destroy the armour, they don't even need to be charged up shots, then a quick burst from basically any weapon will kill them. A single recoilless shot will achieve the same, or even a couple of autocannon shots if you know just how to aim them (haven't done it myself, but seen a Youtube video of it).

[Marburger05]

Originally posted by Akameka:

Meanwhile about half the bugs type can call reinforcments. Including medium armored one.
So the probability of one calling backup as soon as he get out of the breach is way higher.

great call on that yeah, its also much easier interupting the bot reinforce call, the ammount of times i killed a bug that was calling just too still have a breach is too often. it feels like the playerbase gaslit themselves into thinking bots are harder

[Marburger05]

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

If you need to use half your ammo on a charger, that's a you problem. Two railgun shots to one leg will destroy the armour, they don't even need to be charged up shots, then a quick burst from basically any weapon will kill them. A single recoilless shot will achieve the same, or even a couple of autocannon shots if you know just how to aim them (haven't done it myself, but seen a Youtube video of it).

huh ill have too try it, but ive had 0 luck with the autocannon they just bounce off the legs instead, i just didnt know the rail gun could take out the leg armor so i just kept hitting the face

[Akameka]

Originally posted by Marburger05:

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

If you need to use half your ammo on a charger, that's a you problem. Two railgun shots to one leg will destroy the armour, they don't even need to be charged up shots, then a quick burst from basically any weapon will kill them. A single recoilless shot will achieve the same, or even a couple of autocannon shots if you know just how to aim them (haven't done it myself, but seen a Youtube video of it).

huh ill have too try it, but ive had 0 luck with the autocannon they just bounce off the legs instead, i just didnt know the rail gun could take out the leg armor so i just kept hitting the face

You need the railgun. Two shot to the leg will strip armor, then you can finish it. It alleviate the problem of 1-2 chargers, but won't help that much against more or those accompanied with tons of other critters. Still better than nothing.

Also, the energy shield backpack *mostly* protects from the slow debuff of acid. Meaning that unless you get hit while shield is down, you won't get slowed by acid spitters or hunters clawing at you, or walking on the spicky things on ground.

[Marburger05]

Originally posted by Akameka:

You need the railgun. Two shot to the leg will strip armor, then you can finish it. It alleviate the problem of 1-2 chargers, but won't help that much against more or those accompanied with tons of other critters. Still better than nothing.

Also, the energy shield backpack *mostly* protects from the slow debuff of acid. Meaning that unless you get hit while shield is down, you won't get slowed by acid spitters or hunters clawing at you.

that just leaves the issue of the bile titan spam, wich from my expirience is insane getting 1-3 titans per bug breach in a lvl 7-8 mission

[Yu Ryujin]

Originally posted by Marburger05:

Originally posted by Akameka:

You need the railgun. Two shot to the leg will strip armor, then you can finish it. It alleviate the problem of 1-2 chargers, but won't help that much against more or those accompanied with tons of other critters. Still better than nothing.

Also, the energy shield backpack *mostly* protects from the slow debuff of acid. Meaning that unless you get hit while shield is down, you won't get slowed by acid spitters or hunters clawing at you.

that just leaves the issue of the bile titan spam, wich from my expirience is insane getting 1-3 titans per bug breach in a lvl 7-8 mission

get some orbitals they got fried like chicken. Titans overall are pretty weak, might be why they get spammed to put more pressure on the fight. BUt they usually wont give that much of a fight apart from that.

strat prep team squad stuffs.

Bots high dif got rockets everywhere, and tanks, and mortars...

[Marburger05]

Originally posted by Yu Ryujin:

get some orbitals they got fried like chicken. Titans overall are pretty weak, might be why they get spammed to put more pressure on the fight. BUt they usually wont give that much of a fight apart from that.

ive had many missions needed up too 3 orbital railguns for 1 titan too go down, its very inconsistent unlike tanks that get 1 shot almost every time (so far every time from my playtime)

[DarkFenix]

Originally posted by Marburger05:

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

If you need to use half your ammo on a charger, that's a you problem. Two railgun shots to one leg will destroy the armour, they don't even need to be charged up shots, then a quick burst from basically any weapon will kill them. A single recoilless shot will achieve the same, or even a couple of autocannon shots if you know just how to aim them (haven't done it myself, but seen a Youtube video of it).

huh ill have too try it, but ive had 0 luck with the autocannon they just bounce off the legs instead, i just didnt know the rail gun could take out the leg armor so i just kept hitting the face

It's quite a specific trick with the autocannon, hitting them in the back of the leg when they've just finished a charge (could be a bug with that animation, it's possible they aren't supposed to be vulnerable to this) will blow through most of the armour. A second shot, now from any angle (apparently this degrades the armour enough that medium penetration will go through, but normal weapons won't) will outright kill (sometimes takes 3 shots).

Documented here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHZd8dGK0vQ

[Marburger05]

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

Originally posted by Marburger05:

huh ill have too try it, but ive had 0 luck with the autocannon they just bounce off the legs instead, i just didnt know the rail gun could take out the leg armor so i just kept hitting the face

It's quite a specific trick with the autocannon, hitting them in the back of the leg when they've just finished a charge (could be a bug with that animation, it's possible they aren't supposed to be vulnerable to this) will blow through most of the armour. A second shot, now from any angle (apparently this degrades the armour enough that medium penetration will go through, but normal weapons won't) will outright kill (sometimes takes 3 shots).

Documented here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHZd8dGK0vQ

ill give it a watch and shall atempt it myself sometime soon, currently trying too unlock helldive difficulty just waiting for the bois to get on

[Pandora's Actor]

Originally posted by Marburger05:

The main reason is the ammount of slowness debuffs bugs give you via hunters, stalkers and bile spitters. the second reason is that the Charger compared too the Hulk is much more anoying too deal with (example Hulks can be one shot via a railgun and chargers will eat through half your ammo), the tank is slow and even slower too fire and can be one hit via even a missed 500kg or just insta killed via orbital railgun, while the bile titans are a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥ too fight as they will tank said orbital railgun most the time. i will still fight both but so far prefer automatons alot.

yes bugs are harder.

99% of the enemies can be one shot with a rail gun when it comes to automatons. the only thing you cant one shot is a tank.

when it comes to the bugs though.. you can one shot everything besides the charger and bile titan.

so for that alone they are harder. but what truly makes them worse is the fact that the automatons are easy to deal with. they dont get to gang up on you so easily. (besides those stupid defend missions) however the bugs can easily gang up on you. it is a hive mind after all. and in my opinion they are smarter ai wise. like the hunters for example, they will literally wait for you to need to reload before attacking you in many occasions. the automatons simply just dont do this for what i can tell with my 100 hours.

[Nihil]

Feel the opposite way.
For me every automaton mission feels like the are +2 difficulty harder than the bug missions are on the same numerical level.
Mostly due to the fact that most automatons are armored and can be damaged from the back and they have the oneshot rocket sniper potential on you to kill you even from places you can't see them but they can you.
Which feels like a bs mechanic

[Yu Ryujin]

Originally posted by Marburger05:

Originally posted by Yu Ryujin:

get some orbitals they got fried like chicken. Titans overall are pretty weak, might be why they get spammed to put more pressure on the fight. BUt they usually wont give that much of a fight apart from that.

ive had many missions needed up too 3 orbital railguns for 1 titan too go down, its very inconsistent unlike tanks that get 1 shot almost every time (so far every time from my playtime)

one railgun strike, and if alive, 2 3 shots with railgun, they die very fast.

Laser, 500kg... there a lot of strong tools to deal with it, but timing might be in order for max dmg.