Are machine guns (LMG and HMG) good against robots?

[Marcus]

Hello, I been using the machine guns with some success against bugs holding chock points. It kills most bugs apart from Chargers and Titans. How do the machine guns do against robots? Are they useful against the robots?

[dyra55]

They're useful because they have medium penetration and high medium penetration

LMG can deal with Berserkers and Devastators quite easily due to DPS and penetration and can be used to kill Tanks in weakspots and destroy Scout Striders legs

HMG can even kill Hulks in the eye, down Gunships and Factory Striders if shot at right spots but hard to control

Overall machine guns might be even better against automatons because they can deal even with strongest units

[Enkidu]

About the same.

LMG (Stalwart) generally ineffective against anything larger than trash, MMG (MG43) good against most things, HMG arguably "good" in general due to small ammo pool and high recoil but it can take out almost everything.

[sadchaos]

nope.
HMG can sometimes work, but for the same effort you could easily use something else.

[Midas]

They are good against bots, but you have to control the recoil more since you'll usually be engaging at longer ranges. It's a good weapon to consider if you are taking a primary that is very specialized and not as good for generic horde killing.

[黒人]

They work a little bit better against automatons than bugs since the stationary reload doesn't hurt as much.

Bugs are all about closing the distance and getting up close and personal. Automatons on the other hand prefer to shoot you from a far. Although, there are exceptions. But those exceptions aren't that commonly encountered.

Automatons will give you breathing room to reload your MGs. Bugs will not.

[Tigerhawk71]

bullets are good against things that take damage from bullets, yes

[黒人]

Originally posted by Tigerhawk71:

bullets are good against things that take damage from bullets, yes

Tanks don't take damage from bullets, DUH.

Debunked!

[Tigerhawk71]

Originally posted by 黒人:

Originally posted by Tigerhawk71:

bullets are good against things that take damage from bullets, yes

Tanks don't take damage from bullets, DUH.

Debunked!

Community Note:
Tanks are not robots. An automated tank is a tank first and a robot second.
Bullets don't work on tanks, only robots.

[BeltfedVendetta]

MG-43 and Heavy Machine gun (Medium Armor penetrating, so they're useful)? Yes. Run with the Resupply pack and laugh as you melt barrels and bots/bugs.

Stalwart? I don't see why anyone uses it past Difficult 5, even then... It's Light Penetrating and with the amount of enemies (both bot and bug) with Medium Armor at Difficulty 5 or higher... It's just garbage.

Yes, you can kill a billion chaff enemies with it. Too bad that you'll be facing Medium Armored enemies by the bucket load and most of your rounds are only going to accomplish making a pretty light show as they harmless ping off the enemies.

[黒人]

Originally posted by Tigerhawk71:

Originally posted by 黒人:

Tanks don't take damage from bullets, DUH.

Debunked!

Community Note:
Tanks are not robots. An automated tank is a tank first and a robot second.
Bullets don't work on tanks, only robots.

Ministry of Truth:
Tanks are tanks. Be it a robot or anything else. A democracy officer was sent to your location

[MechaSaurian]

The MMG used to be an excellent tool to pair with the Eruptor. The Eruptor could take out medium enemies and their escorts from a distance, while the MMG could kill up close and mag-dump-kill medium enemies.

Since the Eruptor has been horribly nerfed, I've stopped using the MGs.

[Wutever]

Originally posted by Marcus:

Hello, I been using the machine guns with some success against bugs holding chock points. It kills most bugs apart from Chargers and Titans. How do the machine guns do against robots? Are they useful against the robots?

Stalwart is pretty meh. It's great for clearing infantry and Berserkers, but it's largely ineffective against Devastators if the appear in large numbers. It can't touch any of the major threats at all unless you get to Hulk heatsinks.

MG is still pretty meh. It's still good vs. infantry and Berserkers, and can deal with Devastators better. It still can't touch any of the major threats from the front, but can penetrate cannon and Tank turret heatsinks, as well as Gunship engines. That said, it's not actually effective at taking them down because you need to shoot them A LOT. It can kill Factory Strider machineguns, but can't penetrate the Strider itself.

HMG isn't very good vs. infantry due to limited ammo, but shreds everything else. It can take out Hulks from the front by shooting weakpoints and can deal with Tanks and Gunships fairly quickly, as well as kill Factory Striders. That said, it's not a very good gun to begin with and has basically no ammo.

TL;DR: if you don't care about killing heavies running a machine gun is OK.

[dinkleberg]

the robots accuracy diminishes under sustained fire. They are susceptible to suppression. But i still just use Le autocannon and a shotgun

[Malidictus]

I would argue not particularly. The Stalwart has Light Penetration which is just not useful against even more common enemies. The MG43 is actually not much more useful. It has "Medium Armour Penetration", but that's Medium 1. As far as I'm aware, the only things that Automatons have with Medium 1 are radiators on tank turrets. Everything else is either Light or Medium 2.

The HMG is effective "in theory", but its effective range is brought down to nothing. The weapon is incredibly accurate, meaning you'll have to take shots from fairly close by. Long-range shots work against the bugs because Medium 2 penetration will hurt no matter where you hit, but Automaton units are both smaller and have smaller weak points. You're not going to be particularly effective against Hulks and Heavy Devastators will give you trouble because their shield is Heavy Armour, if not even higher than that.

[0strum]

I haven't spent a lot of time with them, but for me the HMG is less effective against the bots than against the bugs because the bots don't all yolocharge straight at us. HMG is decent at short range, but sucks at medium and especially long ranges.

I wouldn't even dream of using LMG or starter MG on anything other than the lowest levels of difficulty. And even then, there are much more fun support weapons.