A generalist bots loadout?

[Malidictus]

Yeah, I know that's asking a lot, because "this is a team game", etc. Fair enough, but humour me in a bit of theorycrafting



My current bots loadout has served me pretty well, offering sufficient tools for almost every occasion. The Scorcher is good for anything up to Hulks, the HMG can deal with the bulk of everything else, Shield + Senator can keep me alive when outnumbered and Strafing Run does a decent job of both clearing crowds and dealing with heavily armoured threats - albeit unreliably. Throw in an Autocannon Sentry and it's pretty well-rounded.

The issue is that it's kind of... crap for long-range anti-armour damage. The Strafing Run is not reliable against tanks, much less towers, and does fairly little to Factory Striders. Which leaves me with... kind of nothing on that front. That Autocannon Sentry can SOMETIMES deal with these threats, but that's if "these threats" don't deal with it first. Which they often do. I could take a Railcannon Strike in place of the Sentry, but that's kind of limited in scope and not the best fit for either Tanks (which tend to come in groups) nor Factory Striders (which it doesn't one-shot).

Can you think of any one thing to replace in the above for a bit more long-range firepower? I mean short of going with a completely different build, which isn't really what I'm after. Right now, the only thing I can think of is... maybe actually going back to my old stand-by from back around Launch, which is expendable anti-tank stuff - Commando or EAT-17. Could replace the cannon with those, but I'm not sure if it's a fair trade.

Any ideas?

[AnemoneMeer]

Crossbow. Talon. Quasar Cannon. Ballistic Shield. Thermite Grenades.

Your choice for stratagems, based on what you feel you need.

[⚜︎Dmitry Light]

Originally posted by AnemoneMeer:

Crossbow. Talon. Quasar Cannon. Ballistic Shield. Thermite Grenades.

Your choice for stratagems, based on what you feel you need.

I usually take beside shield a jetpack, it's great for mobility.

And yeah, it's hard to call "team game" when 90% joined players are dead silent in chat and most of the time they just burn whole reinforcement budget in minutes.

[Titan Exodos]

Adjudicator, senator, thermite
Strafing run, hmg, EAT, rocket turret

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by AnemoneMeer:

Crossbow. Talon. Quasar Cannon. Ballistic Shield. Thermite Grenades.

Right, but that falls in the category of "just take a completely different build". I like theme and spirit of the one I have right now, and would like to consider a few ways of updating it, rather than scrapping the whole thing and starting over.

That and I really don't like the Crossbow. There's nothing wrong with the weapon, it just sounds like a wet fart. If I end up bringing an explosive Primary, I'd rather go with the Eruptor because at least that sounds like a sodding tunderclap.

Not to mention - the above seems a bit vulnerable to Berserker swarms, no? Those require a lot of sustained damage to work through.

[AnemoneMeer]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by AnemoneMeer:

Crossbow. Talon. Quasar Cannon. Ballistic Shield. Thermite Grenades.

Right, but that falls in the category of "just take a completely different build". I like theme and spirit of the one I have right now, and would like to consider a few ways of updating it, rather than scrapping the whole thing and starting over.

That and I really don't like the Crossbow. There's nothing wrong with the weapon, it just sounds like a wet fart. If I end up bringing an explosive Primary, I'd rather go with the Eruptor because at least that sounds like a sodding tunderclap.

Not to mention - the above seems a bit vulnerable to Berserker swarms, no? Those require a lot of sustained damage to work through.

Talon onetaps them on headshot and has perfect accuracy. Crossbow drops them in two and stuns entire packs. Onetaps on headshot too, but crossbow headshots are very unreliable. Failing that, there is always stratagems.

[Cryptic]

Assault rifle of your choice, quasar or recoilless rifle, mac-10 (redeemer), incendiary grenades, legionaiire light armor.

pretty much been running this build on bots since release and it has not failed me yet

[Wutever]

If you're dead-set on running Shield + Senator get a Quasar instead of the HMG, especially on a cold planet. You do not need an HMG in that build, more so if you run Thermites.

Stuff I've been running for solo lately against Incinerator Corps:

Diligence / Diligence CS
Ultimatum / GP / Talon (honestly what you run doesn't matter, but Ultimatum kills Jammers)
Gas nades

RR
Rocket Sentry
Strafing Run
Flex stratagem (literally just get whatever you feel like you will need)

Can clear Convoys and everything else.
Diligence vs Diligence CS depends on what you feel like and whether you think you will need to kill Gunships. Literally everything else below a Hulk can be killed just as efficiently with the Diligence as with the DCS, but the Diligence has better handling and more than 2x the total ammo.

Alternatively:
Diligence / some plasma gun or whatever else you feel like
Ultimatum
Gas / Thermites

Supply Pack
Strafing Run
Rocket Sentry
AMR / RG

Basically, your solution to Tanks and above is the Ultimatum and Thermites if you run them. You spam RG and AMR as much as you want because you have infinite ammo. Kill light enemies with your primary. If you need to push something you can just spam gas nades at the objective if you run them.

Rocket Sentry vs. Autocannon Sentry
I generally prefer Rocket Sentry because:
1. more range
2. faster turn speed
3. wastes less ammo
4. locks down an area for ages, including airspace

Downside: less burst DPS

You can also run two Sentries in the RR build.

One thing to note:
Quasar + one shot of Eruptor kills Cannon Turrets from the front. Don't as me why or how. If you run a Senator + Shield you can probably run an Eruptor and Quasar for your long range armor needs.

[LegPuller]

Recoilless rifle, either rocket sentry, autocannon sentry, or tank emplacement (mix of them works), and 500kg.
If you don't want to bring the recoilless, use the supply pack and the railgun.

Primary weapons the crossbow, purifier, scorcher, jar dominator (anything with med pen).
Secondary the senator, talon, ultimatum, and the dagger are all decent. I like the senator with crossbow, ultimatum with purifier. Crossbow doesn't work as well close range and suffers from a low mag size, so having the secondary to use in a pinch is nice. Ultimatum is nice for jammers and detectors.

Use either thermites, high-impact, or gas. Thermites are the best AT, gas is good for crowd control and HI for general dmg.

[Tactical Drongo]

HMG is great, I usually take it with ammo backpack so I can just fire away

thermite is great for tanks and hulks (and to a degree for factory striders)

Primary I usually use the sickle, with a bit of aiming and fire discipline you can destroy devastators and all the chaff and barely need a reload
the new talon is also great vs devastators, not quite as good at cleaning mass chaff

if you like energy try the laser cannon, can melt everything with a bit of time (and a weak spot - try climbing on the tanks)

scorcher is fun but imo its a bit out of place on the bot front as the flame weapons are best against melee hordes

[TamTroll]

personally i run Impact Grenade, Diligence (Counter-sniper if i have the "Peak Physique" armour), Anti-material rifle, and the Senator.

All have pretty good armor peircing and long-range abilities. The only Automoton i don't think i can hurt with the AMR is the dropship. everything else has a weakpoint somewhere, or gets chewed right through.

[LegPuller]

Originally posted by Tactical Drongo:

scorcher is fun but imo its a bit out of place on the bot front as the flame weapons are best against melee hordes

The Scorcher[helldivers.wiki.gg] is a plasma weapon. I believe you are thinking of the the Torcher[helldivers.wiki.gg].

[Midas]

My three general-purpose bot builds are:

Crossbow, Talon(or Loyalist), Thermite
Light explosive armor (or light fire armor against the new fire bots)
500kg, laser cannon, ballistic shield, rocket sentry

Deadeye(formerly DCS, which works fine too), Talon, Thermite
Med Scout armor
Strafing Run, AC, AC Sentry, Rocket Sentry

DES, Grenade Pistol, Thermite
Light fire armor
Strafing Run, WASP, Anti-tank emplacement, Rocket Sentry

[[MD]Fox]

AC Dillegence Senator Thermite Estrafe WalkingBarrage/120mm + whatever

AMR/Railgun Libpen/Sickle Bushwacker Estrafe WalkingBarrage/120mm JumpPack/SupplyPack. Railgun needs Supplypack.

These are probably the best bot loadouts in the game.

[Pronnu]

Scorcher, Dagger, Thermites, Strafing, MG Turret, Gas, Quasar, Groundbreaker armor.

[Delta Dagger]

Diligence (not the CS) or Dead Eye
Senator
Thermites
Jetpack
Armor with scout passive
Quasar
One call in strike of choice
Autocannon sentry.