Can you predict/prevent bug breaches?

[Riggex]

Only a month into the game and have almost exclusively played on bot/squid fronts, but in doing my part with MO's, i've been playing bugs a bit lately, and i'm not understanding how breaches work.

On bot front, you see the lil chaff guys aiming to the sky with a flare, and you can pop them to prevent bot drop.

On squid front, you see the disco snitches glow, and you can pop them to prevent saucer drop.

But on bug front, Is there an enemy type causing it? Is it purely just 'You aggro'd a bug so have a breach' ?

[scaarab]

As far as I know every bug is capable of releasing an orange cloud a pheromones to call in a bugbreach. Hovever it is usually the little ones responsible. They usually get on their back legs arch their backs to the sky and screech in a distinctive melody before and while they release the cloud. You can pop them during the whole process but once they finished the farting even if the rest of their animation is not done the breach will happen. In general if I see them and have to reload at the time I cancel the reload and call in a gattling sentry and fall back a bit.
So far I have seen every single small bug do it, hiveguards call it and I think even warriors I have seen call in help. Also Commanders(the big red ones that still come at you after you shoot the head off) Simply call in 3-5 warriors from any "ground" surface around them if and when they feel threatened.

[EazyMichael]

Most bug types can call in a breach. You prob have like a second to react and take out the bug to cancel the breach

[TheVipersFang]

As others have said, you might have a one to two second window to stop a bug screaming for reinforcements. The best way to handle a breach is to gently place an orbital gatling strike on the location while screaming something about democracy.

[Nakatomi]

As stated the small ones mostly do it but other I have seen do it, sometimes you can take them out before they even start and yet the breech still happens. You also can hear the call and have no clue where it is and it will spawn a breech if so a few things help

MG/Gatling Sentry
My fave Gatling Barrage especially with all upgrades
Napalm grenades do help but Napalm Barrage is overkill unless your ok higher difficulty

[Riggex]

Cheers everyone!

[Moth]

Not every bug can call in a breach. Only the ones that share a general 'shape' with the tinies can do it (warriors, hive guards, commanders, scavengers, etc). None of the heavies are capable of it, with commanders being the only large radar dot that can.
You can tell when they're about to release the pheremones, as they'll rear back and shoot them into the air, but you only have about half a second from when they start the animation to interrupt them. On the bright side, only 1 bug will try at any given moment, so if you're fast you can interrupt them in sequence.

[Wolfguarde]

Bugs you need to shoot before (not after - BEFORE) they start emitting orange smoke. Once that happens, the breach happens. And you need to be aware that as soon as you pop a bug summoning a breach, another bug among those currently alerted will start summoning it again.

You're basically playing a high-reflexes whack-a-mole minigame to stop a breach from popping. There's no room for mistakes.

[Void]

You got a know when to kill them, know when to sneak away, and know when to run. Never count your samples, when your headed to extraction, cause there's likely a patrol near, and your ammo's done.

[Wutever]

Most small and medium bugs can call breaches. The exceptions are:
1. all Stalker variants
2. all Spewer variants
3. Shriekers

No heavy bugs can call a breach.

Bugs under the effect of Gas cannot call in a breach.

Breaches have an internal cooldown that starts from the moment the breach text on the screen disappears. During that cooldown no bug can call a breach, but scripted breaches can still happen. Bugs also cannot call normal breaches during a scripted breach, but can do so right after one ends, so be careful.

Each faction has a different cooldown and the cooldown becomes shorter as you go up in difficulties. This cooldown is roughly 2.5 minutes against D9 bugs, but I'm not sure if anybody has all the exact numbers for all difficulties. This cooldown gets increased by ~30 seconds by Localization Confusion booster.

Breaches have a massive detection radius, but with Scout armor, being prone in a bush and during night, storm or fog missions it is very possible to avoid detection.

Enemies that cannot detect a player for around 30 - 60 seconds (I don't really remember the exact number) will despawn even if they are right next to you.

[Void]

Originally posted by Wutever:

Most small and medium bugs can call breaches.
...
Bugs under the effect of Gas cannot call in a breach.
...

I've seen Bugs under influence of the Gas Dog, call in breaches while green and smokey...
(graphics glitch, bug, or random changes of underlying code) but I've seen it.

Unsure of grenade and orbital...

...

[Paul Woods]

you can hear the sound and see the bug stop and start to release some spores. youve got about a second to kill it, but nearby enemies can also call in breaches without cooldown if there hasnt been a breach recently. your best best is to kill everything in one big alpha strike

[Parts]

on the highest difficulties i have witnessed already dead bugs call a bug breach.

[Midas]

Bugs give you way less time to react. They will make several gurgling/chirping noises when calling in the breach, and you basically have to shoot them before they finish the first one if you want to actually prevent them. You have a very short window to both see and kill the target, which can be very difficult since the types of enemies that can call it in are very broad.

Overall, bug breaches are the hardest reinforcements to stop of the 3 factions. It's doable, but you need to be aware of all the enemies around you that can be aware of you, and which ones can call in the breaches, which is most of them except for the larger bugs.

[Wutever]

Originally posted by Parts:

on the highest difficulties i have witnessed already dead bugs call a bug breach.

They're not dead. They're just bleeding out because their heads have been destroyed. This is part of the reason why weapons that can stagger are so good against bugs.

[Vivianite]

yes;
scavengers, pouncers, bile spitters, hunters, hive guards, warriors, and brood commanders, can call for backup.

only one can do it at a time and they have a distinct sound cue and unique animation they'll play when doing it. you need to be quick tho. this sound cue and animation is not the same across each bug, some sound more high pitched while others are more lower and gutteral.

severing their head doesn't prevent them from calling it in if they're mid-animation and are alive afterwards, a stagger or hard interrupt is needed.