Does anyone use the heavy machine gun?

[Marcus]

Hello all, I been recently using the HMG against the bots and I find it is fairly good against the devastators and beserkers. As they are the main threat to you in the mission I been doing well. I never use it on the basic troopers, I use my primary rifle, which is the laser rifle.

Downside is you need teamates with the really heavy armour piecing such as recoiless rifle or expendable anti tank to deal with the super units like the Hulk and striker. I normally just use call downs for them. I do find if you shoot the Hulk in the eye or the back, the HMG can kill it.

Does anyone else use the HMG? What is your take on it?

[Masterdoddy]

Personally, I really enjoy the HMG. Against Automatons, I pair it with heavy armour with the 30% reduction to recoil, a supply backpack, and the dominator and revolver. It may not be the most efficient loadout, but half the fun is to take what you enjoy and find a way to make it work in each situation.
I do suggest dropping it to the slowest rate of fire unless getting swarmed. It's damage output per shot is sufficient that it will save you a lot of ammo.

[Sirre]

I am the dedicated RR guy of my team and if I were not I would definitely use the AC over HMG anyway, but we do have one guy that occasionally runs the HMG against bots for good effect.

[Marcus]

Originally posted by Masterdoddy:

Personally, I really enjoy the HMG. Against Automatons, I pair it with heavy armour with the 30% reduction to recoil, a supply backpack, and the dominator and revolver. It may not be the most efficient loadout, but half the fun is to take what you enjoy and find a way to make it work in each situation.
I do suggest dropping it to the slowest rate of fire unless getting swarmed. It's damage output per shot is sufficient that it will save you a lot of ammo.

Thanks for the tip. That would be helpful in conserving ammo. I shall try that next mission I do.

[Vanta]

The HMG is super good at practically anything that isn't stationary

Whilst it's great for devastators, you can use it on Tank weakspots, Hulks weakspots, Gunships and even Factory Strider weakspots

It's very much on par with the AC

It trades the accuracy and power of the AC for versatility against multiple targets, full auto fire and a free backpack space

My personal recommendation is to run it with the heavy armor that reduces recoil as this gives you a lot of control over it, making it very accurate

[𝙈𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙡𝙤]

Yeah. for bugs... and?

[StaunchStache]

It's a lot of fun against bots. Not the most optimal compared to other options like the AC, but still very versatile and able to take on any moving target.
You usually want to pair it with a supply pack and/or and armor that reduces recoil or improves ergonomics, though.

It only suffers against Heavy Devastators, as it can't stagger them if you hit the shield - you have to take several paced and accurate shots to its exposed parts without getting shot in return, as the recoil and flinching will make follow-up shots very hard, if not impossible.

[Masterofgaming22]

You can kill everything with the HMG. I use it on hulks no problem. Same on the strider.

[Masterofgaming22]

Prone and aim for the head for the hulk. For the strider, shoot off its miniguns. aim for its eye or if you want to kill it faster, get under it and shoot its belly.

[Masterofgaming22]

Autocannon used to be my main support weapon against the bots but the HMG is so much more fun, plus the supply pack means practically infinite ammo and stims

[Masterofgaming22]

Its especially fun when you've got multiple on your team

[H.U.N.K]

I used it before the buff its my favorite weapon I just love the reload animation and the sound it makes when you fire but after the buff it's just a wrecking machine with a supply pack.
it tears everything in sight up and feels great as you do it.

[GoodGorilla]

Hmg supplypack > amr personal shield.

[Osloares]

It can kill every enemy Automatons can field (but then again so can AC) but it does keep your backpack slot open so you can bring some extra utility. All in all its one of my 2 support weapons of choice for automatons the other being the laser cannon

[Monolyth]

The HMG is basically just a faster firing, non-explosive autocannon. It can be used to reliably kill every automaton and technically every bug if you can somehow line up enough shots on a small spot on the bile titan's belly. It can even destroy certain structures like shrieker nests and spore spewers. I think where it shines best is on the bug front, versus hordes of medium armor enemies like nursing spewers and hive guards, or dealing with clusters of brood commanders. If you have stun grenades, it can be pretty useful for dealing with chargers as well.

I find it a bit harder to use on the bot front, simply because burst damage is king vs bots. The HMG requires you to be rooted in place or moving slowly to get the most value out of it, leaving you exposed to ragdolling rockets and bullet barrages for longer in order to get successive shots on a target compared to other options like the AMR or AC. But it's still viable versus bots for the same reasons that the AC or AMR are outside of the mobility issues.

[Tama]

I use it because i'm kinda bored of the AMR and AC for bots and FT for Bugs... it is pain and suffering most of the time though...