Bots: Enough BS Let's Talk Strats

[Draescan]

Don't care about the bellyaching.

What are the strats for dealing with the particularly annoying bot types?
Post below.

Walkers are easy just run up to them and shoot them in the bum.
The super armored robutts with a flamethrower have a heatsink or something on their back, shoot it. However, that's a ball-ache alone. What's the more comfy strat for them? I guess EAT but that's all I can figure out atm and it's not practical when their AI literally seems like " hold W and LMB " which btw I detest if I can just say real quick.

What the ♥♥♥♥ do you do for the berserkers? Yeah yeah shoot the arms but when there's genuinely like 5 - 10 of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on screen that's not ammo efficient. There HAS to be a better way if you MUST shoot them to kill them. What is it? 90% of my deaths are to them and the tanky ♥♥♥♥♥ with the flamethrower. Shooting in the midsection takes WAAAY too much ammo. Not efficient.


EDIT: Good stuff people. Hopefully this will help anyone else who is trying to figure out the bots.

[DMesse]

Originally posted by Draescan:

Originally posted by YariMurai:

EATs are very ineffective in this game compared to how it is HD1. Idk why it take 2 EATs to kill one berserkers but it's best to avoid doing automaton missions until you unlock the autocannon at level 10, or run for the hill instead.

Autocannon has definitely been hard to put down. That and the grenade launcher. EAT is both a necessity for me but a constant source of frustration. Recoiless made me soo sad.

You may use the disposable rocket launcher all you like in other missions. I wouldn't do it in the new mission type though. Those two shots are used too fast even if they're used to engine shot kill incoming dropships.

[Seth Abercromby]

Originally posted by DMesse:

You may use the disposable rocket launcher all you like in other missions. I wouldn't do it in the new mission type though. Those two shots are used too fast even if they're used to engine shot kill incoming dropships.

The disposable nature and short cooldown definitely make the EAT more suited for situations where you quickly need to deal with single armored priority targets while on the move between objectives as you can briefly replace your normal support weapon for rocket launcher, kill whatever is harassing the team, then pick your actual gun back up. For prolonged defense you're absolutely getting way more value out of the recoilless rifle in both firepower and ammunition.

[Roy]

Idk if it has been said but the big hulk heavies can be solo'd head on with an autocannon by shooting their "face" aka the red light.
Has to be a few VERY precise shots though.

[DMesse]

Originally posted by Seth Abercromby:

Originally posted by DMesse:

You may use the disposable rocket launcher all you like in other missions. I wouldn't do it in the new mission type though. Those two shots are used too fast even if they're used to engine shot kill incoming dropships.

The disposable nature and short cooldown definitely make the EAT more suited for situations where you quickly need to deal with single armored priority targets while on the move between objectives as you can briefly replace your normal support weapon for rocket launcher, kill whatever is harassing the team, then pick your actual gun back up. For prolonged defense you're absolutely getting way more value out of the recoilless rifle in both firepower and ammunition.

If you are juggling with a 2nd support weapon and you already have a fallback defensive line setup, yes, I agree on this being worthwhile. Unsure how well it's going to work for OP though, as he's obviously getting overrun constantly.

[Guardian_Angel]

Hulks, rocketeers and gunners are the most annoying (in a bad way) enemies in their fraction.

Hulks with flamethrowers outpace even the light-armoured player, their flamethrower is completely undodgeable and will damage you no matter what. Getting them to turn their back on you is impossible, so unless you have a railgun to shoot their eye out, they are an almost guaranteed death when fought solo.

Rocketeers are armoured all over, their rocket pods have enough HP to tank a magazine of patriot, and their head is very hard to hit multiple times in a reasonable amount of time (only the slugger can one shot them in the head from distance).
That would've been fine, if they hadn't had a rocket barrage attack, which launches around 6 high-velocity one-shot rockets in your direction. Which they can also spam every 2 seconds. Again, if you don't have a slugger to stunlock them or the railgun, fighting multiple rocketeers at range is a death sentence.

Finally, gunners. Same deal as rocketeers armour-wise, except even their head is generally unreachable, unless you have the high ground. However, instead of firing one-shot rockets every 2 seconds, they spam pew-pew lasers at you with surprisingly good accuracy. It might not hit too hard, but each hit they land on you sends your crosshair flying across the entire screen, making it impossible to hit anything.

Now, make all 3 of these spawn in together in groups of 2-4 — and you have an insanely oppressive AI squad that is very unfun to fight against. Unless, again, everyone runs railgun.

While I'm at it, I would also like to highlight the problem of AT guns in the game. Everything but the railgun sucks ass. Recoilless rifle and EAT hit like wet noodles for the amount of ammo you get for them. Spike is a bit stronger, but the auto-targetting is capricious trash that doesn't let you fire on the enemy for no particular reason, and the ammo count for it is abysmal.
Due to the nature of Spike rockets, hitting weak points is not possible with them. RL and EAT are not accurate enough, and their splash is too low, so even if you hit the very edge of the weak point, it won't count as a weak point hit.
Now, the railgun. Has 21 shots, with 10 shots restored per resupply. Hitscan with very high accuracy. Penetrates through all armour effectively. Staggers on every hit. Can be overcharged in unsafe mode for double damage.
Why is the railgun so massively superior to all other AT gun choices?
Why were AT guns so massively nerfed in the first place compared to HD1? HD2 literally has more elite enemy spawns per fight than HD1. What's the big idea?

Being anti-armour doesn't literally mean they only defeat armour and bounce off of everything else.

[Seth Abercromby]

Originally posted by Guardian_Angel:

While I'm at it, I would also like to highlight the problem of AT guns in the game. Everything but the railgun sucks ass. Recoilless rifle and EAT hit like wet noodles for the amount of ammo you get for them. Spike is a bit stronger, but the auto-targetting is capricious trash that doesn't let you fire on the enemy for no particular reason, and the ammo count for it is abysmal.

I'm going to just point out that the bruisers all count as light vehicle armor, so they're extremely vulnerable to the autocannon. A single shot from it can break the gun arm or rocket pods and heavily neuter their threat level. The round will also always stagger the heavy devastator to make shooting past its shield much easier.

You don't need the EAT or Recoilless too often against bots, as the only enemies with heavy vehicle armor are the tanks, hulks and drop ships. As I mentioned before despite their absurd bulk, a single EAT to the shoulder will immediately destroy that gun arm, so you can quickly rip both off after calling one down even if you're not confident in hitting any of the 'sweet spots' to kill it instantly. Tanks are a massive pain in the ass to kill with AT weaponry, but they are a lot more vulnerable to strategems than any other enemy with heavy armor.

Railgun is a great weapon since you can use it as AT or light vehicle killer depending on your needs, but it really doesn't feel that mandatory to use against automatons because of how much possible counterplay the game offers. They're a lot less linear to fight than bugs which by their nature primarily just try to overwhelm you at close range.

[Anode]

The Autocannon seems to be a good early unlock for killing a majority of the units for the Bots. One shots the scout striders from the front, kills all the heavier armored infantry bots in a couple of hits as well, or even 1 if you place the shot right.

Don't sleep on the... whatever the semi-auto rifle is called that you get early on. If you hit your shots in the head, it 2 shots any bot with the exception of the chainsaw bots.

Once you hit level 20 though, the Railgun is the best choice. That thing one shots HULKS if you hit it in the eye.

[TheSuit]

I don't remember their names but this should help people

1. Hulk
Shoot in Red eye with Gauss Rifle - dies in 1 hit.
You can also shoot off its arms. Back weak to to explosives

2. Devastator - Light AP can blow up rockets on top or shoot its eye

3. Shield Guy - Gauss to the eye kills it in 1 hit

4. Big Chainsaw guys - shoot its legs, its the weakpoint, very susceptible to explosive damage and laser.

5. Giant Laser cannon turret - Heatsink weak to explosive. Red light next to cannon can be killed with 2 shots with guass

6. Weakpoint is top armor and back of turret also barrel
Easier just to do air strike on it.

[Noun]

Walkers can be killed using elevation to pop their head, team coordination, a grenade between the legs or by just sprinting right past them and shooting them.

Devestators (little head guys), head shots head shots head shots, but if you are pressed you can shoot just below the shoulder to break their arms. The rocket pod ones are way scarier at a distance, but in a pinch you can break off their rocket pods to make them weak. The shielded ones are pretty scary if you don't have a railgun, but you can use a well aimed EAT or RR shot to take the minigun arm off, at that stage they are pretty useless and can be ignored. Autocannons are also very good vs these guys if you can target the right spots. Remember if you are not confident with the headshot aim just below the shoulder or at the rocket pods. Disabling their weapons is as good as killing them

The hulks (big ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with the flamers or autocannons), if fighting them from the front either railgun, EAT or RR shot to the face, if you are not confident in landing the shot you can shoot the flamethrower arm and with 2 hits it will break off, rendering them pretty weak. If it's the Hulk Bruiser with the 2 cannons your best bet is to split up and try to flank it, or land the railgun/EAT/RR shot to it's face directly, shooting both arms off is too time consuming.

Tanks, pelt the top of the turret with explosives, any explosions near the hear sink do damage, if you can get behind it then do so, but you can roll grenades over the top of them too or just pelt them using the GL.

Meatsaws/berserkers, kite them, have your team mate handle them for you, spray into the head or the centre of the abdomen, don't stay still.

Troopers, always focus the squad leads (they they have an X shaped antenna on their back) first, they can call for dropships, if you see them raise their hand and ignite a flare kill them as fast as possible before they can fire it. Jetpack troopers always explode.


Bot's in general lose accuracy the more you shoot at them, so keep firing back. They can also overwhelm a location very quickly so it's best to keep on the move.

[Tajin]

Afaik, Hulks go down with 2 autocannon shots to the face.

All the smaller stuff is easy enough to kill with the breaker.


ps.: I love oneshotting scoutwalkers with the autocannon.... there's just nothing like it.

[Roy]

Originally posted by Tajin:

ps.: I love oneshotting scoutwalkers with the autocannon.... there's just nothing like it.

Yeah it makes you feel really badass when multiple of them start blasting at your friendlies and you take them down rapidly like the climax in an action movie.