Testing the Firebomb Hellpods Booster

[Gundug]

I wanted to see if the new Firebomb Hellpods booster might have some combat usefulness, so I tried a solo mission using short cooldown stratagems like the Expendable Anti-Tank, Commando and Shield Generator. The blast radius for Hellpods is approximately 8 meters and can do some initial damage and knockback in that area, but is inconsistent, and the burning effect seems to be similar to or the same as the burn from incendiary shotgun pellets, or from stepping in flame, as it lasts a few seconds and can potentially kill small enemies. There is no burning effect on the ground, so after the initial blast, it is perfectly safe to immediately approach the pod.

Since enemies were almost always immediately alerted to me when I dropped anything near them, it was very common for them to simply move toward me and not take any hit whatsoever, even when dropping items with lead time in mind. The best strategy seemed to be to try to land the stratagem on the back of an enemy so it would remain stuck to them, and sometimes the blast would harm other nearby enemies. The greatest effect I was able to get from this was one case of three stacked up Bile Spitters being killed by a pod that was stuck to one. This also works on Chargers, but the fire blast component seems to do almost nothing to them, as while a drop on the front of their body resulted in the usual kill that occurs with any pod, a badly placed drop toward the rear of their body only weakened them. The only positive I could find with this pod kill strategy was that I always at least had plenty of anti-tank weapons lying around, since the pod blasts did very little work for me. The Shield Generator was not that helpful on a bug planet, except as a lure, and actually seemed to deflect the flame from my flamethrower while I was well inside of it, literally shoving the muzzle right up to a bug that was attacking it.

I decided to then see what use this booster might have combined with throwing turrets into enemy groups, so I loaded out with the Machine Gun Turret and Tesla Tower, since they have the shortest cooldown. Here, the Firebomb is a little more useful in some situations, since it clears out any smaller enemies in the landing zone, and can possibly give the turret a little space to get readied, due to the knockback, especially for the Tesla. I was also able to close bug holes by dropping these next to them, but I don't believe the Firebomb version has any advantage over normal Hellpods in that regard.

I tested standing near a dropping Hellpod at various distances. At 9 meters, the visuals of the blast seemed to pass over me, but there was no effect. As I mentioned before, the blast radius effect is seemingly inconsistent. In one case, at 8 meters, I was knocked down and dropped to around 50% health, and only barely able to stim just before death. In another, I took no damage and had no knockback at all at 8 meters where I was at around a meter lower elevation from the pod while on a slope. In another case, on level ground I was knocked back at 8 meters and unable to stim in time. I tested laying prone on level ground at 8 meters, and the blast did nothing to me whatsoever in one case, while I was knocked back in another case and unable to escape ragdoll before death. Prone does reduce the initial blast damage, but possibly makes the recovery time from being knocked back longer, as I could never survive blasts that hit me while prone. Anywhere closer than 8 meters, I took progressively worse damage, up to instant death when within 5 meters of a dropped Shield Generator. I am not sure if all pods have exactly the same damage and blast radius, as the Shield Generator seemed to hit me the hardest, but that may be due to other factors. I wear the lightest possible scout armor, so heavier armored players will likely do much better, especially if they have fire resistance. Either way, taking damage and set on fire while being knocked down and stunned is never welcome. Stay at least 10 meters away from anything dropping in, to be safe.

In my opinion, this booster is a gimmick that adds some visual drama to Hellpod landings, but has very little practical effect against enemies, and creates a great potential for many annoyances among players, who will need to be completely aware of where all supplies and weapons are being dropped near them, as well as hoping dropped in reinforcements will be considerate enough to maneuver their Hellpod away from friendlies on the ground. I feel that anything that would make this more useful against enemies would make it an absolute nightmare for players, if it proves not to already be so. I would suggest the developers implement a distinctive bright laser beam warning sign on the ground directly below the center of a dropping reinforcement Hellpod if this booster is going to be a thing, since the blowing dust effect is subtle enough to miss in heavy action, and it's not always obvious where the center of the landing zone is.

[Irion]

Stop right there, you're having fun
Ps: the AH police

[Hawk]

Sounds like the visual effect for the 500KG, it looks like a small nuke but in reality it's nothing but a fire cracker. The VFX team really overdoes it versus the hitbox and programming side of the game.

[DeMasked]

Originally posted by Hawk:

Sounds like the visual effect for the 500KG, it looks like a small nuke but in reality it's nothing but a fire cracker. The VFX team really overdoes it versus the hitbox and programming side of the game.

The 500KG remains to be a stupid disappointment. It can be inconsistent in doing damage.

More like a 200KG with a bunch of fireworks duct taped to it.

I agree that the new Booster is a meme. Might be better if it also stunned or feared enemies for like 2 seconds.

[ObsidianKey]

New pvp Hellpods: ✅
- Hellmire Anti Liberation Party (H.A.L.P) approved.

[[SCZ]Celestrian]

too much text.

some guy spawned in with that s__t. suicided twice before my brain adapted.
maybe it would be ok-ish when it would only trigger for respawn, but it´s extremly annoying ON EVERY SINGLE WEAPON CALL.
(yes i play EATs+commando launcher, however i prefer to NOT spawn them into the enemy swarm, bc that´s ret.. dumb)

[Gundug]

Originally posted by SCZCelestrian:

too much text.

I know. It seems few people, including myself can stand reading anything more than a short paragraph on a screen. It’s difficult being concise while also conveying all the information I wanted to share. I guess a YouTube video would be the way.

[[SCZ]Celestrian]

Originally posted by Gundug:

Originally posted by SCZCelestrian:

too much text.

I know. It seems few people, including myself can stand reading anything more than a short paragraph on a screen. It’s difficult being concise while also conveying all the information I wanted to share. I guess a YouTube video would be the way.

nah it´s just that i´ve seen it in use and it was horrible. there´s no need to read more than 10s about this complete garbage "boost"... actually it´s worse than complete garbage bc something like the 49 ARs are complete garbage.
it would be compareable to the 54 ARs but only if all of them would have a 2% chance to instantly kill you. a difficulty increase if you will.
it´s also more effective than playing one of the 71 useless ARs, bc with that you´re only gimping yourself, while this "boost" actually infects the whole team.

or in other words: how often does one call a weapon, backpack, etc very close to oneself? it´s quite common for me. the only time i dont call stuff close to me is when pre-dropping EATs + cobras while moving across the map
or
dropping EATs + cobras while being charged by a biletitan (not a charger).
or
dropping EATs + cobras towards a teammate.
in every other scenario i´d kill myself or a teammate.

♥♥♥♥ this boost. it´s bad. really bad.

[[SCZ]Celestrian]

Originally posted by Helldivers™ 2:

Ok so why did they make it? Did they try it? Did it test it and decide that it actually is effective? I don't get this team

i assume the people who tested it are about as good at the game as the people from the last livestream of which i´ve only seen 20 seconds, after which my sides got orbitally railgunstriked from sheer incompetence and/or not knowing absolute basics of the game like "armor exists, autocannon doesnt do s__t".

it´s current year and we´re dealing with "gamedevelopers, not gamers", thus a "boost" that´s just a detrement to the whole team is somewhat expected. dumping your weapons & packs into the enemy swarm... not the best strat.

i also assume that AH pays for it´s employees velcro shoes.
yes, this is avoiding the bad ret-word, bc the feefees of velcro shoe people need to be protected... usually only on reddit or heavily infected discords (like this games one), but that´s offtopic so yeah... whatever.

[PhellAsleep]

I want to point out that blue stratagems draw the enemy's attention to where it lands. Red stratagems will alert the enemy to where you are.

[[SCZ]Celestrian]

Originally posted by PhellAsleep:

I want to point out that blue stratagems draw the enemy's attention to where it lands. Red stratagems will alert the enemy to where you are.

so the only use-case would be to drop equipment into a patrol or a PoI and hopefully no bugbreach / landing ships are called, bc then that equipment is likely within the swarm.
vs
calling explosions on defense points like "long-term" objectives & evac, causing FF.

the velcro shoe level is rising.

[Jazz]

Originally posted by Gundug:

In my opinion, this booster is a gimmick that adds some visual drama to Hellpod landings, but has very little practical effect against enemies, and creates a great potential for many annoyances among players, who will need to be completely aware of where all supplies and weapons are being dropped near them, as well as hoping dropped in reinforcements will be considerate enough to maneuver their Hellpod away from friendlies on the ground. I feel that anything that would make this more useful against enemies would make it an absolute nightmare for players, if it proves not to already be so. I would suggest the developers implement a distinctive bright laser beam warning sign on the ground directly below the center of a dropping reinforcement Hellpod if this booster is going to be a thing, since the blowing dust effect is subtle enough to miss in heavy action, and it's not always obvious where the center of the landing zone is.

Thank you for your observations.
The text is good

[Alvin]

it is quite fun to bring on unsuspecting helldivers, especially if you join in mid missions. But the damage and effects leave much to be desired. Only thing good is for clearing small bug chaff swarms, otherwise, kinda useless.

[Gundug]

I think the only cases where this has any positive use is when dropping in your Hellpod and purposefully targeting a tight group of enemies, and for dropping turrets in the middle of groups. You won't do noticeably more against large enemies with this though. I don't feel it does nearly enough to actually warrant building a play style around it, and it's more of a nuisance or outright threat to teammates, especially if they are unaware someone has chosen it, like in the case when players join already active missions. I will be happy for anyone to pick any other booster or even no booster at all over this at any difficulty level.

Originally posted by PhellAsleep:

I want to point out that blue stratagems draw the enemy's attention to where it lands. Red stratagems will alert the enemy to where you are.

My experience in testing was that enemies pretty much immediately noticed me, since they were put into aware mode, but I expect better results would occur if the player was well hidden when deploying blue stratagems. Alerted enemies tend to wander a lot though, and the blast area is not wide. I have dropped red stratagems near enemies with no reaction at all in some cases. I think it depends a lot on whether they have a visual on the ball and if there is a visual to the player.

[St0rmFury]

Should've been a red stratagem instead imo. Fireburst orbital strike.

[Anticitizen 1]

As opposed to the previous worst booster which was the extraction reduction booster, this one isn't merely useless but instead, it is actively detrimental to the team. It wouldn't even be good for solo play since just about any other booster would be more beneficial.