Anti-bug primary?

[Solomon]

Used to love my incendiary breaker... Been struggling to find an alternative to it now that it's been nerfed. What do you recommend against bugs?

[SgtBubbles]

I run the dominator mainly because of the stagger. you keep the bugs far giving you time to use any other tools. (it will literally push the brood commander so far back you could fit 3 pelican-one's tip to tail in just a few shots))... secondary can vary for the cannon fodder, I usually just use the revolver

[Forblaze]

The dominator is more or less dependent on the peak physique armor perk but if you have that then it's probably the strongest all around option.

The blitzer is great. Kills everything really well except for shriekers. Infinite ammo is a big help.

The slugger has been my preferred bug primary since launch and remains so. You have to prioritize targets, but it kills everything well including shriekers.

The explosive crossbow is another great option. It kills alpha commanders, hive guard, and bile spewers really well and frees up your secondary weapon to use an actual pistol instead of the grenade pistol. It makes clearing nests *really* easy.

The counter sniper is similar to the slugger but trades a bit of ammo econ for dps. Just use it as a semi-auto assault rifle.

[Wutever]

Escrito originalmente por Solomon:

Used to love my incendiary breaker... Been struggling to find an alternative to it now that it's been nerfed. What do you recommend against bugs?

Nerfed, lmao. All you need to do is run a Supply Pack.

If you don't want to then just run a Cookout for clearing lights, Dominator for mediums or a Blitzer as an all-rounder. If you don't like Dominator run Slugger for mediums. Sickle is pretty decent as well. Pummeler is OK, but generally weaker than other options IMO.

[CheeseEnjoyer776]

punisher i was better than incin before nerf cuz it actually stuns enemies like brood comms, hive gaurds (even if it doesn't pen), stalkers, and it even kills hunters in one shot instead of having to wait a second before the Dot kills it which could lead to you getting hit still.

the only thing is the firerate but it does alot more dmg per shot to make up for it. make sure to target brood commander legs for a quicker kill and to demobilize them.

incin was kinda mid in my eyes cuz it had zero stun and hunters, stalkers, and brood comms would never be stuned and i would get hit more but the punisher can just stun lock stalkers and brood comms and it kills hunters on one shot if you hit like 60% of the pellets.

[Bait]

The Cookout is a worthy successor. Plus: it staggers, great against those pesky annoying stalker ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
Only bad against brood commanders, each shot takes them 2m back; distract for a bit and you'll need to go fetch them on the other side of the map/

[[Asgard] Thor]

I sometimes use the Scythe with the Laser pistol and laser dog since they all burn enemies now, but I've found the cookout (I-punisher) is pretty good because it stops the commander bugs mid charge

[Enforcer]

Escrito originalmente por Solomon:

Used to love my incendiary breaker... Been struggling to find an alternative to it now that it's been nerfed. What do you recommend against bugs?

It hasn't been nerfed. It only has less magazines, when i pick up one of these weapons they only have used a magazine or so. I have yet to see empty ones.
Try the Cookout, it doesn't have the volume of fire but actually does damage because it fires bigger projectiles ( iirc breaker mentions it's using birdshot, from the similarities to it the ibreaker should be firing the same shells...now what birdbrain uses birdshot on a charging Rhino ( Charger ) expecting it do drop?

[Enforcer]

Escrito originalmente por Bait:

The Cookout is a worthy successor. Plus: it staggers, great against those pesky annoying stalker ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
Only bad against brood commanders, each shot takes them 2m back; distract for a bit and you'll need to go fetch them on the other side of the map/

Escrito originalmente por Asgard Thor:

I sometimes use the Scythe with the Laser pistol and laser dog since they all burn enemies now, but I've found the cookout (I-punisher) is pretty good because it stops the commander bugs mid charge

Staggers and pushes them back.

[Solomon]

Escrito originalmente por Helldivers™ 2:

Incendiary breaker. Nothing changed

I burn right through all my ammo now though. It's less fun when I have to conserve - this isn't a horror-survival game IMHO.

Thanks for all the replies! I guess I'll try the cookout again, although first impression was that it's meh.

[Hariman]

If you have them, Breaker Incendiary and the Fire Punisher are good, as is the Torcher flamethrower when paired with a longer range weapon.

The various shotguns can work, as can blitzer.

Depending on your aim and skill, various assault rifles can work, though some are worse for crowds and directly say that.

This... isn't the most detailed set of suggestions, but a LOT of weapons are solid against bugs.

[Galahad]

Dominator one taps all small bug types up to warrior. Two - 3 taps the brood commanders. Magdump kills a charger in the back. High rate of fire so if you're accurate you can take down hordes. Kills spewer enemies quickly with headshots. Medium ARP so kills everything that comes at you. 15 rounds in each mag. Pretty long range. nukes Bile titan backside. Can take on impalers. Staggers everything up to spewers.

Downsides: Reload time+inconsistent, poor sound fx. Ergonomics. Prone to reload bug. Horrendous at killing shriekers.


Slugger, if you have good accuracy, can take down everything a bit slower than the dominator, doesn't need to reload, has a bit of spread so it can take on shriekers easier, and stagger is the same as the dominator, so it will stagger up to spewer enemies. Wipes the floor with stalkers.

Downsides: Limited ammo, can feel like it takes a while to kill things if not headshots, if inaccurate won't get much work done.

Adjudicator has a lot of damage, the same as the LMG I think, and has medium ARP, with a fast reload time. One of the best scopes in the game, very accurate at range. Is like a halfway house between a DMR and assault rifle. Imho the only assault rifle that actually feels like an assault rifle but anyway.

Downsides: no meaningful stagger.

I used the scorcher against bugs for a while but without explosive resist armour you two shot yourself at close range with it.

I see lots of people using the sickle as well, but I don't recommend using anything that doesn't have medium armour penetration, occasionally you'll get put on a map with loads of bile spewers, or crap loads of hive guards.

[Galahad]

Peopel also have great fun using the fire weapons, but I find the incen breaker kinda boring, and if you come across bile spewers it's kinda useless. And the new flame punisher has amazing stagger and spread, making it great for clearing chaff, but hitting enemies with durable parts is a slog. It takes like 20 shots to kill the new brood commander. Just comically pushing it back miles with every shot.

[Mike]

Escrito originalmente por Solomon:

Used to love my incendiary breaker... Been struggling to find an alternative to it now that it's been nerfed. What do you recommend against bugs?

Ok - the only nerf that the incendiary breaker got was that it now has 2 magazines less...
that's literally it.
everything else is the same as pre-patch.

less spraying and a little bit more waiting for the fire damage tick to do it's job and it is just as good as it was before.

other than that - good anti-bug primaries are:

the Slugger and the Punisher - both strong enough to stagger stalkers and pack quite a punch with the former having medium armor pen

the Adjudicator does a solid 80 dmg/boolet with medium armor pen even though ammo can be a problem so maybe bring an ammo pack too

the Crossbow hits pretty hard against mediums but something like the Stalwart would be required for stuff that's getting too close

in general, incendiary grenades can help a lot too when setting bug breaches on fire

[Hariman]

Escrito originalmente por TunaHematoma:

If you bring supply pack the iBreaker is mostly the same.

Being careful with your shots can make ammo last even longer than before.

4 or 5 shots can do as much as a magazine, if they cover an entire group.


That being said... pairing it or the fire punisher with the HMG handles most of the bug faction, with only Bile Titans requiring stratagems, and Impalers being better handled with some stratagems if you can't get on their face.

[Get Donked On]

BI just feels bad now only really worth bothering with if you have a supply pack, pairs alright with a nade launcher and stuns but overall the ammo eco nerf was bad. its awfull on 50% of bug missions and always was even pre nerf due to spewers.
Honestly if ARs could fire for more than 3-4 seconds closer to the sickle in duration.
The BI wouldnt have been so top tier but the idiots will always defend the idiotic changes no matter how bad they are.
Iit would have made a lot more sense to switch up the per shot dmg of the BI and the spray and pray. and maybe give it a max range where it ignites stuff. the current change they made is genuinly the laziest worst way they couldve done it and I'm getting kinda tired of all the idiots and their supply pack copium.
If a primary needs a supply pack just to be usable at all then its designed badly. Hell id argue the same for support weapons (Grenade launcher could really use more reloads than 2)