Guard Dog with bullets

[McDinglefart]

Still trash. Runs out of ammo so quickly and I think there's some bug there where he starts refiling ammo just after a couple of shots and can only be resupply via resupply drops.

[Chewie]

Use the laser version. Very rarely does it need to return to the backpack, in my experience.

[𝒞𝒶𝓈𝓊𝒶𝓁 Sinner]

I find the laser is great against bugs and the standard one is great against bots. But yes, the issue of ammo makes it a hard pick. Especially because it can only be rearmed from strategem loot drops.

[Menghis Khan]

Would be nice if the total ammo supply for the Guard Dog was shown in the UI rather than just its current "until next reload" amount (or at least how many reloads it has left). Increasing ammo supply before it has to reload would also be nice I suppose, the Guard Dog Rover is just so good compared to it still even though it does less DPS.

Would also be nice if it was at least smart enough to not fire at enemies it can't do anything against. Like Factories and other buildings, and Dropships. I can understand if lore-wise its AI isn't smart enough to know not to shoot at Hulks and Chargers and such, since none of the AI is even smart enough to use IFF and stop firing if a friendly Helldiver is in the way.

[Hand's Hermit Permit]

I dont know what the point of it is. Guard dog bullet version runs out of ammo and the rover doesn't. I don't know in what world that would ever be good.

[Menghis Khan]

Originally posted by SKAPPELTON:

Originally posted by 𝒞𝒶𝓈𝓊𝒶𝓁 Sinner:

But yes, the issue of ammo makes it a hard pick. Especially because it can only be rearmed from strategem loot drops.

Someone doesn't read the patch notes

The patch notes just say "Guard Dog: now restores full ammo from supply boxes." (used to take 3 I think). Not that it also rearms from in-world ammo containers, unless the in-world ammo containers also count as "supply boxes" (AFAIK "supply boxes" only refers to the ones you get from the Resupply and Supply Pack stratagems). I've never had a Guard Dog get more ammo and be able to reload itself and start firing again after just picking up in-world ammo containers.

[Undying Void]

why would you willingly use the guard dog over its laser variant or.... hear me out.... even better...... use a good backpack stratagem instead of a crap one like idk.... the guard dog backpacks

[Jhea]

Any guarddog is stupid if you get past level 5 in difficulty...

More enemies that have lots of armor and the laser does nothing against that.
It attacks anything that you possibly don't want attacked...

No - just use a useful stratagem, like minefield or a redundant experimental weapon (nothing beats having 2 Quasar or 2 EATs ;) )

[Menghis Khan]

Originally posted by Undying Void:

why would you willingly use the guard dog over its laser variant or.... hear me out.... even better...... use a good backpack stratagem instead of a crap one like idk.... the guard dog backpacks

They're really good for playing solos or duos to not have to worry about basic adds (mostly bugs) in mid-difficulty missions. Also good at lower levels before you have access to the shield backpack, if you really want to bring a backpack rather than another orbital/Eagle/defensive stratagem.

[󠀦󠀦★ ⁧⁧RockyLight]

Originally posted by Menghis Khan:

Originally posted by Undying Void:

why would you willingly use the guard dog over its laser variant or.... hear me out.... even better...... use a good backpack stratagem instead of a crap one like idk.... the guard dog backpacks

They're really good for playing solos or duos to not have to worry about basic adds (mostly bugs) in mid-difficulty missions. Also good at lower levels before you have access to the shield backpack.

They're valuable up in Helldive even when solo or in a 2-man team, the fact that they can get some of the stragglers out of your field of view before they call in breaches is huge. Laser dog is also a great trash mob clearing tool in general.

I wouldn't take it against bots though.

[Redeyeflight]

The other ammo backpacks resupply from in world ammo boxes. I wonder why the ballistic guard dog doesn't?

[Frosty the Pyro]

Originally posted by 󠀦󠀦★ ⁧⁧RockyLight:

Originally posted by Menghis Khan:

They're really good for playing solos or duos to not have to worry about basic adds (mostly bugs) in mid-difficulty missions. Also good at lower levels before you have access to the shield backpack.

They're valuable up in Helldive even when solo or in a 2-man team, the fact that they can get some of the stragglers out of your field of view before they call in breaches is huge. Laser dog is also a great trash mob clearing tool in general.

I wouldn't take it against bots though.

I use rover vs bugs as the slugger is akward at point blank ranges. From what I understand the clasic (liberator) guard dog has better dps and range than the rover, so would be better vs bots, assuming it doesnt just waste all its ammo bouncing off a scout strider or devistator shield.

[Forge Master]

They should just delete the bullet one. ZERO point in using it

[Loot]

Originally posted by Menghis Khan:

Would be nice if the total ammo supply for the Guard Dog was shown in the UI rather than just its current "until next reload" amount (or at least how many reloads it has left). Increasing ammo supply before it has to reload would also be nice I suppose, the Guard Dog Rover is just so good compared to it still even though it does less DPS.

Would also be nice if it was at least smart enough to not fire at enemies it can't do anything against. Like Factories and other buildings, and Dropships. I can understand if lore-wise its AI isn't smart enough to know not to shoot at Hulks and Chargers and such, since none of the AI is even smart enough to use IFF and stop firing if a friendly Helldiver is in the way.

Can't you just look at the backpack and see the remaining magazines? I didn't even bother unlocking it, but it looked like it showed the mags on the back.

[Menghis Khan]

Originally posted by Forge Master:

They should just delete the bullet one. ZERO point in using it

It's better vs bots than the rover, higher damage (and penetration too I think) and better range.

The problem right now is that it also still wastes ammo against enemies that it can't do anything against (not just Hulks and such but also buildings like Factories), and still has to rearm/reload way more frequently than the laser rover does (in addition to using ammo that has to be resupplied frequently). Being able to fully resupply from a single supply box is an improvement, but it should really also be able to carry more of its ammo supply in between rearm/reload.

I think ideally the Guard Dog Rover is supposed to fill the "good at keeps trash adds off your back to focus on higher-threat enemies" role for bugs, while the Guard Dog is meant to fill the same role against bots and more mid-tier enemies while being worse against the larger trash-mob swarms you get from bugs (but currently doesn't really do too well at that due to magazine size being slightly too small and it wasting ammo against Factories because they technically count as destructible enemies whereas bug Nests don't seem to).

[Menghis Khan]

Originally posted by Loot:

Can't you just look at the backpack and see the remaining magazines? I didn't even bother unlocking it, but it looked like it showed the mags on the back.

If it does, it's hard to make out because I've tried to check that and couldn't tell. I still think it would make more sense either for the ammo display to show total ammo rather than "ammo until next reload" (since you can't manually tell it to reload anyway), or at least add an "xN" indicator next to it to show explicitly how many mags are left like you have for your actual weapons.