Help with stealth

[Epsilon 7]

I want to try something different. I am trying stealth. the smoke doesnt seem to work even after they 'fixed the bug that made enemies lock on through cover'.

they still seem to lock on to me through smoke

if you throw knives they find you if you throw more than one.

how do you make stealth work? or is it just absolute trash?

[DADDY]

skill issue

[Hand's Hermit Permit]

I still couldn't tell you if smoke works or doesn't and when or under what circumstances. All I know that works reliably is calling a big bunch of smoke usually works when a bot drop is happening and you run away right away. In all honesty it's possibly the running away that's doing most of the work there.

All I know is you want to use the scout armors. The weight of your armor is actually part of the calculations that go into stealth, so keep that in mind, but there's only 1 medium scout armor anyway and I haven't bothered using it. Night time and fog plays a role into the distance enemies can detect you. During blizzards/sandstorms enemies are virtually blind unless they've already detected you.

EAGLE STRAFING RUN is a stealth stratagem The enemies will think the eagle is the threat, not you. You can destroy bot fabricators with it. So you can sneak up to the outpost, find a good spot to lob stratagems from, destroy fabs, and be gone before anything figures out what happened. Alternatively you can use this to do a big surprise attack where the eagle takes out one target, and you take out the other, preventing anything from being able to call reinforcements (easier on bots since most bugs can call backup)

[Teal V2]

First, do not listen that guy above. Just there to farm his own representation, the clowns.

Secondly..
I tried some stealth runs myself cuz it is a fun way to play solo missions.
There are some youtube videos which explain how visibility works, night and day, and the scout armor passive.
But there are some things to keep in mind when you are about to get into a firefight..

This game handles the source of attack not exactly on a fair way.
I think you already paid attention at that, if you throw a grenade, enemies will ignore where the grenade landed, and instead go from WHERE IT WAS THROWN.
Yes, it is extremely dumb, but it works that way.
Whenever you attack (or throw anything) from a distance, you have to change position cuz half of the planet will check the spot the attack was performed from.

It is also useful to know that enemies will look at you and have a "wtf" moment before they would actually recognize your present. If you quickly prone or crouch, they will just ignore you, or go there to check what they saw. So change position, again.

If you want to get rid of an army chasing you, the only way I found was to throw stuff in their way which makes them stuff. Like chem grenade, chem orbital or even the stun orbital strike.
One you run away, they forget about you and a lot of them even disappear, like leaving the area.

The scout armor is really great, it allows to sneak by enemies when you are closer to them. It is kinda fun to handle terminals with enemies around you.

It is the best to kill enemies from afar, since you do not need to run as much to make them lose your trace if they aggro on you. Anti-material rifle is a wonderful stuff to bring along as a stealthy helldiver! I can't even live without it.

I tell those to you as someone being new to the game, those are my own findings.
Hope there will be someone with more details.

[Hand's Hermit Permit]

Originally posted by Teal V2:

First, do not listen that guy above. Just there to farm his own representation, the clowns.

You missed

[DADDY]

Originally posted by Hand's Hermit Permit:

I still couldn't tell you if smoke works or doesn't and when or under what circumstances

kidding aside, yep. it's a live service game and given all the variables and pace of content, smoke and threat detection are out in the weeds for devs and players alike. have fun and try to make it work

edit: i'm really bad at hd2, so i fall back on experimenting off-meta as an excuse. it is fun though.

[LeftIsBest-James]

Originally posted by Epsilon 7:

(...)
they still seem to lock on to me through smoke
(...)

Think like a player:
Q: if you have 20-teammates in your patrol, and you see the enemy disappear behind smoke, what would you do?
A: nuke the smoke and fill it with laser fire (flush them out)

The devs specifically said; if they lose sight of the helldiver, it will still head in that direction (or shoot in that direction; depending on whether it was still 'in combat').

[DADDY]

Originally posted by LeftIsBest-James:

Originally posted by Epsilon 7:

Q: if you have 20-teammates in your patrol, and you see the enemy disappear behind smoke...

why does my orbital barrage always seem to lock in on me when i'm in the aoe? clearly the destroyer is using aim assist and trolling.

i can't figure out why this is displaying as nested quotes and lmao too lazy and tipsy to find/fix problem

[voidCaster]

Originally posted by Epsilon 7:

I want to try something different. I am trying stealth. the smoke doesnt seem to work even after they 'fixed the bug that made enemies lock on through cover'.

they still seem to lock on to me through smoke

if you throw knives they find you if you throw more than one.

how do you make stealth work? or is it just absolute trash?

Use LIGHT Stealth Armor. Use UAV Booster. Use any Marksman Rifle, or else use Scythe, Sickle, or Scorcher. Use Senator or Dagger.

Use PRONE and CROUCH as much as possible.

Learn to snipe from long range. From far enough away, you can blow up a Fabricator with a Recoilless Rifle and the bots in the base will all run over to the Fabricator instead of targeting you. Same goes for taking out units from long range. Moving around also helps -- especially if you are targeted, you should be able to go behind cover/concealment and then go around it and catch the bots unawares from behind.

Watch your radar like a hawk. Don't fire if enemy patrols are too close. Go to ground if they are going to pass right by you. Don't get over-excited and start shooting just because they stop and make noise while looking right where you are.

When you use Stratagems, use them and then vacate the area.

[Gundug]

Playing purely stealthy will be very slow paced, and you will need to avoid any unnecessary combat. Going prone and crawling through areas with enemies will reduce your likelihood of detection. You can use something like the Diligence CS to shoot sentries from a long distance, and depending on what is near them, you may be unnoticed. I don't feel the knives are a very good stealth option, since they have terrible range with an arcing trajectory, and any time you are that close to a group of enemies, once one is aware, they are all aware, and all around you. If you do not one-hit kill an enemy, the chance of a general alert occurring is high.

Keep in mind, all enemies have two systems of detection: audio and visual. Things you do that make noise, like shooting a weapon or sprinting can be heard by nearby units, and they will become wary, or even fully alerted. This is how enemies can chase you around terrain and buildings. Being quiet avoids this. Every weapon has a noise profile, and some will be heard from a greater range than others. Visual works by enemies having a direct line of sight to you. When they are unaware, their visual range is short, around 50 meters for standing Helldivers, or less in some cases. When they are aware, there does not appear to be a range limit, as they can fire at things they see from hundreds of meters away.

If you do want to be generally stealthy but also engaged in combat, and moving quickly, causing distractions can attract enemy attention. If you have a grenade launcher, you can use it to lob shells from concealment and enemies that are not aware of you will tend to move toward the explosion to investigate. You can also throw out things like sentries, which will draw considerable attention. The MG Sentry has a very low cooldown, allowing you to keep one or more up 100% of the time you are on a map, if you throw them frequently enough, and they are not destroyed.

When you first encounter an enemy, observe their "tell" that informs you they have noticed something, but are not yet in alarmed state. Bugs will make a noise and perk up, bots will make a noise and their eyes will flash red, and their nearby patrols will suddenly go silent. At that point, you can do a number of things: immediately engage, quickly withdraw in the other direction, or go prone and prepare for your next move. You can safely withdraw from enemies that are facing you but not alarmed from around 50 meters. Going prone reduces your visibility considerably, and enemies even at very close range will take longer to recognize where you are. If I intend to engage an enemy that has noticed me, I typically go prone if the position is decent enough, and then either open fire, or drop a stratagem.

I would suggest just being evasive, and you can practice this with any armor type. When you are about to enter combat, be aware of line of sight blocking objects near you. Every time you move out of visual range, the enemy then must either move to the last point they spotted you, or will eventually time out of their alerted status if they are static. Once you are out of visual, you can maneuver to other locations. All enemy types will be momentarily confused by you appearing from a different location, and their reaction time is slow.

Some things on certain planets like exploding puffballs can act as smoke for concealment, and any bushes that slow your movement (aside from the damaging thorn bushes) will also provide concealment while you are in them. Sandstorms and snowstorms are highly concealing, allowing you to get very close to enemies without them detecting you, even while sprinting.

Your greatest weapon against any faction is range. Terminids are mostly useless if they are not in melee range, and Automatons have atrociously low accuracy and damage at longer ranges. You can use a setup that enables you to keep most battles at a distance, and combat is way easier, while you also have more options for evasion, if necessary. Some mission types really don't allow for much evasion, just because of extremely tight maps with non-stop fully alerted enemies, but all the 40 minute types are good for this.

I personally run the Diligence Counter Sniper against bots, plus the Quasar Cannon. The Diligence kills any small enemy that you can hit and one-hit kills mediums with head shots from any range. The Quasar allows you to destroy things like fabricators, gun towers, Hulks, tanks, from long range. If you have enough visibility, you can shoot all the way across the map and destroy a base. My setup is pretty much the same for bugs, but I use the Liberty Concussive, since it hits accurately out to around 80 meters, and can clear or push away and stun anything below a heavy that comes closer. The main problem with bugs is generally garbage visibility, so on very foggy planets, you may prefer stuff that hits hard at close ranges. Note that you can be more stealthy on foggy planets, as long as teammates are not constantly alerting every nearby enemy.

[DADDY]

Originally posted by Gundug:

Playing purely stealthy will be very slow paced, and you will need to avoid any unnecessary combat. Going prone and crawling through areas with enemies will reduce your likelihood of detection. You can use something like the Diligence CS to shoot sentries from a long distance, and depending on what is near them, you may be unnoticed. I don't feel the knives are a very good stealth option, since they have terrible range with an arcing trajectory, and any time you are that close to a group of enemies, once one is aware, they are all aware, and all around you. If you do not one-hit kill an enemy, the chance of a general alert occurring is high.

Keep in mind, all enemies have two systems of detection: audio and visual. Things you do that make noise, like shooting a weapon or sprinting can be heard by nearby units, and they will become wary, or even fully alerted. This is how enemies can chase you around terrain and buildings. Being quiet avoids this. Every weapon has a noise profile, and some will be heard from a greater range than others. Visual works by enemies having a direct line of sight to you. When they are unaware, their visual range is short, around 50 meters for standing Helldivers, or less in some cases. When they are aware, there does not appear to be a range limit, as they can fire at things they see from hundreds of meters away.

If you do want to be generally stealthy but also engaged in combat, and moving quickly, causing distractions can attract enemy attention. If you have a grenade launcher, you can use it to lob shells from concealment and enemies that are not aware of you will tend to move toward the explosion to investigate. You can also throw out things like sentries, which will draw considerable attention. The MG Sentry has a very low cooldown, allowing you to keep one or more up 100% of the time you are on a map, if you throw them frequently enough, and they are not destroyed.

When you first encounter an enemy, observe their "tell" that informs you they have noticed something, but are not yet in alarmed state. Bugs will make a noise and perk up, bots will make a noise and their eyes will flash red, and their nearby patrols will suddenly go silent. At that point, you can do a number of things: immediately engage, quickly withdraw in the other direction, or go prone and prepare for your next move. You can safely withdraw from enemies that are facing you but not alarmed from around 50 meters. Going prone reduces your visibility considerably, and enemies even at very close range will take longer to recognize where you are. If I intend to engage an enemy that has noticed me, I typically go prone if the position is decent enough, and then either open fire, or drop a stratagem.

I would suggest just being evasive, and you can practice this with any armor type. When you are about to enter combat, be aware of line of sight blocking objects near you. Every time you move out of visual range, the enemy then must either move to the last point they spotted you, or will eventually time out of their alerted status if they are static. Once you are out of visual, you can maneuver to other locations. All enemy types will be momentarily confused by you appearing from a different location, and their reaction time is slow.

Some things on certain planets like exploding puffballs can act as smoke for concealment, and any bushes that slow your movement (aside from the damaging thorn bushes) will also provide concealment while you are in them. Sandstorms and snowstorms are highly concealing, allowing you to get very close to enemies without them detecting you, even while sprinting.

Your greatest weapon against any faction is range. Terminids are mostly useless if they are not in melee range, and Automatons have atrociously low accuracy and damage at longer ranges. You can use a setup that enables you to keep most battles at a distance, and combat is way easier, while you also have more options for evasion, if necessary. Some mission types really don't allow for much evasion, just because of extremely tight maps with non-stop fully alerted enemies, but all the 40 minute types are good for this.

I personally run the Diligence Counter Sniper against bots, plus the Quasar Cannon. The Diligence kills any small enemy that you can hit and one-hit kills mediums with head shots from any range. The Quasar allows you to destroy things like fabricators, gun towers, Hulks, tanks, from long range. If you have enough visibility, you can shoot all the way across the map and destroy a base. My setup is pretty much the same for bugs, but I use the Liberty Concussive, since it hits accurately out to around 80 meters, and can clear or push away and stun anything below a heavy that comes closer. The main problem with bugs is generally garbage visibility, so on very foggy planets, you may prefer stuff that hits hard at close ranges. Note that you can be more stealthy on foggy planets, as long as teammates are not constantly alerting every nearby enemy.

The stealth game in Helldivers is basically a slow dance with death, huh? You’re telling me I gotta crawl around like a bug on its back just to avoid some dude who’s about as alert as a cat at a laser pointer party? 🐱🔦 Listen, we all love the thrill of stealth, but if I wanted to move at a snail's pace, I'd just take my time on the way to the fridge! And don’t get me started on knives; are you kidding me? They have the range of a toddler throwing a tantrum! I mean, imagine sneaking up on a squad of enemies, knife in hand, and they just turn around like, “LOL, what are you doing, fam?” facepalm 🙄

And the audio/visual detection? Talk about a nightmare! You sneeze, and the whole squad's on you like they're bloodhounds chasing after a squirrel. I can hear the crickets chirping as I try to avoid the noise like it’s some kind of stealth yoga class. I mean, why even have weapons with noise profiles? Just put a “DO NOT FIRE” sticker on them and call it a day! And the range? I’m over here thinking I’m sneaky, and then BAM! They see me from a hundred miles away like some kind of horror movie! Like, dude, just let me live my life without being on a constant “Wanted” poster, okay? 🔫✨

But hey, if you wanna get all tactical, I guess you could use the Diligence CS to shoot sentries from afar? Sure, until you realize that you’re about as subtle as a moose in a china shop. "Hey, I'm just chilling in the corner, totally not shooting at your cameras or anything." The enemy’s gonna look up, roll their eyes, and be like, “Bro, what part of ‘stealth’ don’t you get?” 🙃 And can we talk about the “quick” escape? When you go prone and think you’re a ninja, but really, you look like a potato trying to blend in. You’re basically just waiting for them to look over and go, “What’s that lump on the ground? Oh wait, it’s just another Helldiver having an existential crisis.” 🤷‍♂️🥔

And listen, causing distractions? Major strategy! I mean, nothing says “stealthy” like throwing a grenade and then bolting like it’s a foot race. Boom! “Did someone just explode? Nah, it’s fine!” 🎉💣 Just lob a grenade, throw a sentry, and watch the chaos unfold. You can almost hear the enemy being like, “What’s happening? Did we order the ‘let’s panic’ special today?” And while they’re busy trying to figure it out, you’re already halfway to the next zone, just vibing with your poor life choices! Like, “Oops, did I just make a scene? My bad!” 😂🎭

Oh, and those “tells”? Gimme a break! 🥴 You’re telling me I have to study the enemies like they’re a homework assignment? Like, I’m just sitting there like, “Okay, the bugs are making noise—classic!” It’s like playing a game of charades, but I’m the only one trying to guess! Meanwhile, the bots are flashing red like they just got caught stealing from the cookie jar. “Oh no, they know! Quick, go prone and play dead!” But honestly, why can’t we just roll with it? Like, “Surprise! Here’s my blade! Oops, missed. Guess it’s time for Plan B: RUN!” 🏃‍♂️💨

But then you drop a stratagem, and it’s like you’re playing a game of cat and mouse, and the cat just woke up from a nap. “What’s that? Oh, just my friend trying to engage. Too bad!” 🐱🚨 If only the enemies had better attention spans, we might actually be able to sneak by without it turning into an episode of Survivor: Helldivers Edition! But nope, here we are, just fumbling around, waiting for the next alert. 😩

I mean, come on! You want to practice evasiveness? With what? A blindfold? At this point, I feel like I need to set up a stealth boot camp. “Welcome to Ninja Training 101: How Not to Be Seen While You Trip Over Your Own Feet!” You think moving behind a wall is enough? Nah, the moment you pop out, they’re all like, “Did you think you could just walk away?” Like, dude, can we not? 🙅‍♂️

And don't even get me started on the terrain! “Oh look, exploding puffballs! That’s totally not suspicious!” Like, please! I’m over here trying to blend in like a chameleon, and the terrain is like, “Surprise! Here’s an explosion for you!” I swear, it's a disaster waiting to happen. I’m just trying to get through the mission without giving away my location like I’m in a game of hide-and-seek, but instead, I’m just the first kid found every time. 🤦‍♂️

Sandstorms and snowstorms? Yeah, totally hiding me! Just the perfect cover while I try to figure out why the enemies are still aware of my existence! Like, “Oh, did you think you were safe? LOL, think again!” 🙃 It’s like trying to play stealth in a disco party—lights flashing, music blasting, and everyone’s like, “Did you see that?” I’m just sitting there like, “Nope, that wasn’t me! Just a figment of your imagination!”

And range? YES, FINALLY! That’s my jam! Keep those Terminids and Automatons at a distance, where they can’t touch me! “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you were trying to reach me! Maybe try again from 50 feet away, losers!” 🙌 I’m living for that sniper life—taking them out before they even know what hit them. But let’s be real, if the map is tight and enemies are swarming, even I’m starting to sweat a little. “Where’s my escape route?!” 🚪💨

So if you’re rolling with the Diligence Counter Sniper and Quasar Cannon, that’s the vibe! 🎯 You’re basically sitting in the back, throwing shade while watching your enemies get wrecked. Just know that bugs are gonna give you a hard time with visibility, and the last thing you want is to be out there swinging wildly like you’re at a rave! 🌌 “Oh look, I see nothing but fog. I guess I’m just blind now!”

But hey, if your squad is on point and not alerting every enemy within a five-mile radius, then maybe, just maybe, stealth is possible! But otherwise, welcome to chaos, my friend! Here’s to hoping your teammates have their headphones in and aren’t trying to go all Leroy Jenkins on you! 🐓💨

So there you have it! Stealth is a wild ride in Helldivers, and if you think you’re gonna just waltz through it, think again! Stealth is like a complicated dance you didn’t know you signed up for, and let’s face it: you’ll be stumbling through it the whole time! Get ready to trip over your own strategies, and don’t forget to keep it stealthy, fam! ✌️🎮

[Wutever]

Why are there so many walls of text ITT? It's not that complicated.

Play blizzard or sandstorm maps.
Play at night.
Wear Scout armors.
Prone and crouch a lot (especially in bushes).
Learn alert and aggro ranges, and patrol behavior from trial and error.
Use smoke if you like it and use it BEFORE you get aggro (it's honestly optional).
Use guns with low noise (Crossbow, DCS etc.).
Stay at long range where possible.
Make sure to one-shot enemies.
Accept that you will randomly aggro a static spawn despite one-shotting stuff from a distance because the game is weird like that.

[DADDY]

(redacted for stupidity on my end)

[Epsilon 7]

thanks all for the info everyone! I was not playing at night or with weather effects. i was using scout armor and combat crawling into places, but then they spotted me when I threw knives or smoke strat. So it seemed like they instantly found you if you did anything of note.

I did try hiding in a bush after evading the bots. but a random bot 'went searching' and happened to just know exactly where I was hiding so I was frustrated

it sounds like there are some mechanics that they could fix to make stealth more viable, but I was also not doing everything I could (only about half)

[RicardIII]

Originally posted by Mama Cass:

skill issue

fpbp /thread

[RicardIII]

Originally posted by Wutever:

Why are there so many walls of text ITT? It's not that complicated.

Play blizzard or sandstorm maps.
Play at night.
Wear Scout armors.
Prone and crouch a lot (especially in bushes).
Learn alert and aggro ranges, and patrol behavior from trial and error.
Use smoke if you like it and use it BEFORE you get aggro (it's honestly optional).
Use guns with low noise (Crossbow, DCS etc.).
Stay at long range where possible.
Make sure to one-shot enemies.
Accept that you will randomly aggro a static spawn despite one-shotting stuff from a distance because the game is weird like that.

wall of text lately = IA