What is the best weapons and stratagems against the illuminate?

[Yulapboy]

I’m confused as to how to handle this monstrosities and I need help!

[Ary]

You want Medium pen with high damage and accuracy, the gun rover can help with the enemy numbers as for the leaders you want to go for head shots with a strong gun (anti material for example it one shots on a head hit) while they are a horde faction the zombies are not too dangerous but they are tanky, The one unit that is really dangerous is the harvester since it has a lot of range and firepower, but the joints that go into the main body are a weakspot (medium pen can hurt it) aside of that the glowing eye is the major weakness,

[Zeromentor]

Machine Gun, Heavy Machine Gun are both effective as Call-In weapons. For primaries I suggest accurate rifles with a high rate of fire, such as the Tenderizer or Adjudicator.

[Ary]

also fire or gas grenades are good for crowd control

[Yulapboy]

Thanks for the advice!!! :D

[Mepho]

Since for some reason nobody mentioned it yet: Arc Thrower.

You don't really anything else, just try it out once and you'll understand.

[Yulapboy]

Originally posted by Mepho:

Since for some reason nobody mentioned it yet: Arc Thrower.

You don't really anything else, just try it out once and you'll understand.

Ok

[Joe da Immortal]

Other great things not mentioned here, which also worked against Illuminate in HD1:

Laser Cannon support weapon
Punisher
Strafing Run

[Dwolite]

The flamethrower works surprisingly well. You can absolutely obliterate Harvesters with the flamethrower, as well as all ground units. A good combo is lightning resistant armor plus the flamethrower. As long as you can avoid the laser eye blast, you can waltz right up to a Harvester and toast it very quickly.

[Mepho]

Originally posted by Joe da Immortal:

[...]
Laser Cannon support weapon
[...]

I really like the LC so I tried it out and I found it to be in the same frustrating place as it is with bugs and bots.
It's workable but the damage is too low. The amount of effort and time to kill are both too high to justify it against any other good support weapon.

I would go as far as saying if you like the mechanic just bring a laser pistol and an AMR or Arc Thrower instead.

LC could really use a damage buff.

[Joe da Immortal]

I don't personally use the LC, but my friend does. He always runs Scout armor, and is very good about solo positioning and not dying. I think the point of the LC over the other weapons you mentioned is its capability to work as a sniper-range weapon.

[LSDoverdose]

Good weapons against the illuminates :
-Any
I have been running breaker spray and pray, adjudicator and the stun SMG into the illuminates. They all seem to work well. Just take into account that the illuminates are somewhat hard to hit where you want. Try to get a synergy with your support weapon, or maximize chaff clearing and use stratagems to kill tripods.

Good support stratagems against the illuminates
-Machineguns (any)
-AMR
-Laser cannon
-EAT/RR
-Commando
-Flamethrower
-Backpacks (any)

I run laser cannon extensively as infinite ammo, fire DoT damage, range and pinpoint accuracy is amazing against the illuminates, whether it's zombies or actual illuminates. The only issue is that you can't really kill tripods fast, but you can strip shields and then use a stratagem. Machinegun with ammo backpack is also very fun.

Good sentry stratagems
-Gatling
-Machinegun
-Flamethrower (don't own it but the illuminates are close range)

Good damage stratagems
-Literally any
I run 500kg, gatling, orbital airburst, precision strike, napalm orbital, 380mm or even eagle machinegun strike depending how i feel.

Strategy against the illuminates is generally the same as fighting bugs :

Clear the chaff unless it's not threatening you directly, focus fire and try to headshot OR focus the same spot to strip overseers and jetpacks of their armor. Tripods are excessively slow, so ignore them and run around the block until you can either stratagem them dead or shoot them without being interrupted. You can use your primary to shoot at tripods once shields are off, but results may vary.

Priority target above all else is the watchers, as they call reinforcements. They are easy to spot with their bright blue/purple spotlight, but sometimes they do take you by surprise.
If you are overwhelmed by the enemy, drop a stratagem at your feet and run the other way.

Kite. If the enemy is on your position you need to start running around. until it's dead or no longer a problem. You can outrun zombies and overseers. Jetpacks will stay on your back until you kill them, but shooting accuracy of the illuminates suck and they don't one shot you either (unless it's a tripod).

My last loadout was breaker SnP, laser cannon, orbital gatling, 500kg, 380mm barrage. cleared the mission rather well.

[Joe da Immortal]

^Great comment.

I've also seen Watchers stalk people from 100 meters, so look to the skies. Sometimes, they fly high.

My successful loadout against Illuminate has been:

150 armor, or Democracy Protects.
Eruptor, Verdict, Frag Grenades
Strafing Run, Machine Gun support weapon, Smoke Orbital, Shield Generator tower.

Pistol and Shield gen I might replace. Also want to test Fire armor and Electric armor vs various illuminate weapons.

[Khloros]

Halt Shotgun, grenade pistol, Thermite
Shock resistant armor
Gatling turret
500KG
Anti Tank turret
Free slot

You can normally run around and find a MG which is one of the best weapons against the illuminate right now.
To deal with harvesters, you can just clear out the ground boys run up to the harvesters which dont melee but will shock you but because you have 95% reduced damage to shock its nothing, and then just toss a thermite grenade onto it. OR you can just unload into its leg joint and drop it in no time.

[FatPuggy]

Me personally, i've been running either the Stalwart or the MG-43 with a supply pack and a 500lb bomb and eagle strafing run. I use the machine guns for the hoards of voteless. For the illuminate overseers I ramp up my rpm on my machine gun.

[Mulqueeny]

The AR guard dog works really well, also bringing sentries helps a ton too.