Tips VS Illuminates

[Mander]

ATTENTION to all Neophyte Helldivers fighting the Illuminate scourge on this most festive holiday.

Bring a primary weapon with medium penetration (liberator penetrator).
Bring a precise support weapon with medium/heavy armor penetration: AM Rifle, Laser Cannon, Machine gun, Heavy Machine Gun.
Voteless (zombie) can be moved down aiming for the head in 2 (two) hits. In case of a horde, deploy sentinels liberally.
Elite Illuminates need medium penetration to be killed at least, removing the armor on the chest. OR you can headshot them with heavy penetration (AM Rifle).
Flying Illuminate units can be destroyed in one hit on their rocket pack: it explodes when hit correctly.
Tripods can’t recharge their shield, if you remove the metal segment around the eye: destroy them and deploy 500kg or orbital bombardment to clear them out.
SAM sites are your friend! General Brasch encourages you to activate them to cover activity on the ground, negating Illuminates reinforcement!

Know how to kill the enemies of Super Earth, and augment today the chances of your success!

Do you wish to know more?

[Birdan]

Just an fyi you can actually kill any overseeer using light armor pen, you just need to sustain fire on one part of their body (chest is easiest) and it will visibly break the armor, allowing you to kill them by shooting their actual flesh.

[Nihil]

Pro tip
Stay away from them. Illuminati missions are suffering from heavy connection issues and 4 out of 5 games end in a DC

[靐]

place gattling/machinegun turret for distraction, go for objective. arc thrower to stun EVERYTHING illuminate have. guard dog for idk memes to scare off zombies near you? pick whatever you want as a 4.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Mander:

Tips VS Illuminates
ATTENTION to all Neophyte Helldivers fighting the Illuminate scourge on this most festive holiday.

Bring a primary weapon with medium penetration (liberator penetrator).
Bring a precise support weapon with medium/heavy armor penetration: AM Rifle, Laser Cannon, Machine gun, Heavy Machine Gun.
Voteless (zombie) can be moved down aiming for the head in 2 (two) hits. In case of a horde, deploy sentinels liberally.
Elite Illuminates need medium penetration to be killed at least, removing the armor on the chest. OR you can headshot them with heavy penetration (AM Rifle).
Flying Illuminate units can be destroyed in one hit on their rocket pack: it explodes when hit correctly.
Tripods can’t recharge their shield, if you remove the metal segment around the eye: destroy them and deploy 500kg or orbital bombardment to clear them out.
SAM sites are your friend! General Brasch encourages you to activate them to cover activity on the ground, negating Illuminates reinforcement!

Know how to kill the enemies of Super Earth, and augment today the chances of your success!

Do you wish to know more?

Scorcher for everything
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3388259347
even when the overseer put up their shields it is no problem and you might kill multiple of them at the same time

[Hailspork]

A commando to the hip of a Harvester will 1-shot it.
Avoid Black Box missions, they're bugged.
Jar-Dominator 1-shots voteless. Electricity "cures" them.

[Axis of Lint]

Originally posted by Hailspork:

Avoid Black Box missions, they're bugged.

I haven't had any problems completing a black box mission, what's bugged about them?

[AonGreyFox]

Get something full auto with you along with your usual loadout. Always prioritise those light searcher. Happy Holiday diver.

[Mander]

Originally posted by Birdan:

Just an fyi you can actually kill any overseeer using light armor pen, you just need to sustain fire on one part of their body (chest is easiest) and it will visibly break the armor, allowing you to kill them by shooting their actual flesh.

Yeah, but let's give super tips to neophytes, chief.
Before sending them in melee against the voteless.

[Mander]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Originally posted by Mander:

Tips VS Illuminates
ATTENTION to all Neophyte Helldivers fighting the Illuminate scourge on this most festive holiday.

Bring a primary weapon with medium penetration (liberator penetrator).
Bring a precise support weapon with medium/heavy armor penetration: AM Rifle, Laser Cannon, Machine gun, Heavy Machine Gun.
Voteless (zombie) can be moved down aiming for the head in 2 (two) hits. In case of a horde, deploy sentinels liberally.
Elite Illuminates need medium penetration to be killed at least, removing the armor on the chest. OR you can headshot them with heavy penetration (AM Rifle).
Flying Illuminate units can be destroyed in one hit on their rocket pack: it explodes when hit correctly.
Tripods can’t recharge their shield, if you remove the metal segment around the eye: destroy them and deploy 500kg or orbital bombardment to clear them out.
SAM sites are your friend! General Brasch encourages you to activate them to cover activity on the ground, negating Illuminates reinforcement!

Know how to kill the enemies of Super Earth, and augment today the chances of your success!

Do you wish to know more?

Scorcher for everything
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3388259347
even when the overseer put up their shields it is no problem and you might kill multiple of them at the same time

Another good idea, but Tripods are a tough nut to crack with a scorcher. XD
Personally, after some tests, I prefer the liberator penetrator and a good support.
I know, I know, anywhere else, Lib pen is abysmal... but a full clip of it disrupt shields on their ships.
Pistol grenade in the opening and you're done.
Quick, clean, efficient. You move to the next.

[Hailspork]

Originally posted by Axis of Lint:

I haven't had any problems completing a black box mission, what's bugged about them?

Sometimes, you can't interact with the terminal.

[Get Donked On]

pro tip just shoot the ufo like you are playing edf (in the weird round tractor beam thingy at the bottom) with any AT weapon and delete a good chunk of their reinforce.

[Zeromentor]

High Rate of Fire weapons (iberator, redeemer, Machine Gun as Call-in support weapon), and explosives for the landed UFOs. Weapons to not use are low rate of fire weapons (Eruptor, Pump Shotguns, 'Sniper' Rifles) and weapons with long reload times. As for Call-Ins it varies on use, but I suggest anything with wide Areas of Effect to kill the hordes of Voteless (zombies) such as Airstrikes, Gatling Barrage, and Cluster Bombs (beware, dangerous to user and friends). As for Tripods, either use Machine Guns and target the leg joints connecting to the body, or use a high rate of fire weapon to pop the shield and deliver a rocket to their blue eye (Recoilless Rifle, EAT, Spear, etc).

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Mander:

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Scorcher for everything
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3388259347
even when the overseer put up their shields it is no problem and you might kill multiple of them at the same time

Another good idea, but Tripods are a tough nut to crack with a scorcher. XD
Personally, after some tests, I prefer the liberator penetrator and a good support.
I know, I know, anywhere else, Lib pen is abysmal... but a full clip of it disrupt shields on their ships.
Pistol grenade in the opening and you're done.
Quick, clean, efficient. You move to the next.

Scorcher = bringing down the shield , then cut through it like through butter with HMG
The guide has a video - though the part of the harvester killing at 4:30 is really, really short

[Mander]

Originally posted by Cid:

I've had a lot of success with the Purifier against....pretty much every Illuminate unit that's smaller than a Harvester. Two charged shots will take down Overseers, and from what I've seen, it doesn't matter where they hit. Same with Watchers. Only annoyance there is that both Watchers and the Overseers with jetpacks tend to dart around a lot and can be kind of hard to hit with charged shots sometimes.

I don't really find Voteless scary at all. A lot of stuff will mow them down. Arc Thrower is my favorite weapon to use against them. Fart grenades will also clear them out. And damn near any sentry that does damage. And any stratagem that you'd normally use against bug fodder/hordes (napalm strike, gas strike, cluster bomb, orbital airburst, etc) works well against them.

Anything with a high rate of fire seems to work well against shields. I may be wrong here (I haven't tested extensively or anything), but those seem to be more about rate of fire than damage per shot. I tried to take down the shield around a spawner ship with just a Purifier once, and I had to mag dump it something like 3 times to get it down (charged shots vs regular shots didn't seem to make much difference). Swap to something like a Stalwart, and it goes down like nothing.

Happy for your success Helldiver!
This thread is more for tips the randoms who join in our mission should know (or at least, tips we wish for them to know).
Mainly, I'm... surprised by some hiccups I've seen in game by players, so keep tips coming. ;)

[Caldari Ghost]

Blitzer shotgun makes voteless and overseers a non-issue.