Tips on Marauder?

[ᴛᴀʟᴜ 🐦]

Playing trough the game on UV, having a lot of problems with this guy whenever he shows up. Alot of outdated videos 2 years old, show him beaten in seconds, but he takes about 5 shots with the ballista before he dies. I figured he always melees after an axe throw. Did they buff the marauder or something?

[Vex Hilarius]

No he wasnt buffed, you just have to be quick. Once his eyes flash green shoot him with something. The most common "exploit" is to use ballista-ssg-ballista. But other ways can work as well. Like the sniper mod for the heavy cannon or a well timed rocket. If going the rocket route, try firing it while he's running towards you not when he's swinging (green eyes). Might be risky, but 9 times out of 10 he's running towards you to do his swing.

Grenades also faulted him a bit and while BFG shots don't damage him, he holds up his shield for you to attack.

Less common ways include once stunning him use the full auto combat shotgun for some great damage, but this is more useful in the Ancient Gods part 2 when you get the hammer. Still a well timed attack could have him dead in 2-3 turns. One other way I actually like doing is using the chain gun. Once you stun him pull out your chain gun with the mobile turret mod and similar results happen.

Just keep your distance while keeping him on the screen. Avoid his axe throws, don't shoot his shield, and if he sends his dog on you make that your priority, not him.

Despite what many others are lead to believe, you can take him down with any weapon besides the BFG. You just have to know your weapons and how they fire. But obviously the quickest and easiest for more players would be the ballista+ssg combo.

Also, blood punch him when he's about to get out of his stagger. This will give you like an extra half second to get out of his attack range.

[ᴛᴀʟᴜ 🐦]

Yeah i been using the SSG + Ballista, but he recovers so fast, barely getting 2 shots in before i have to wait for the next melee.

[Vex Hilarius]

Originally posted by ᴛᴀʟᴜ 🐦:

Yeah i been using the SSG + Ballista, but he recovers so fast, barely getting 2 shots in before i have to wait for the next melee.

That's pretty much the gist of the marauder. Hit him then avoid. Repeat until he's dead.

[Sar]

Do you have Fast Switcher suit upgrade? You should be able to hit him thrice pretty reliably.

He’s also NOT immune to the BFG, just resistant. There are tricks to kill him with it without even stunning him, but you can also just stun, switch to the big gun and immediately fire at close range. If the green ball hits him, he’s dead.

[Dessicator]

His behaviour is usually pretty consistent when there is just one of him. He should throw an axe if you are at "medium range" and then he will almost always charge at you and melee. Ballist to interupt then SSG->Ballista before he recovers. Retreat to medium range when he recovers and then repeat once and he should be in glory kill state (if not then 1 bullet from the HMG will do so). Sometimes he will fake you out and dodge sideways instead of melee, but this is pretty rare. When he does deviate from the standard pattern it's usually because of other enemies hitting him with their projectiles when they are trying to attack you.

Without seeing video footage of what's happening when you fight him it's tough to give concrete advice but if you stick to this general guideline and pick up the "Hot Swapper" suit upgrade like Sar said (honestly, I would recommend getting that as your first upgrade in every playthough) then you should be able to handle all of the Marauders that the vanilla campaign throws at you.

Once you get into the DLC/Master levels and the game starts throwing more than one at you at a time things get a lot more interesting.

[ᴛᴀʟᴜ 🐦]

Im almost done with the main campaign, on the final mission i think with the icon. Marauders and Archevils have propably been the most trouble to deal with.

[ktulu84]

Ballista + SSG + Ballista

[Sar]

SSG - ballista - SSG - feet ballista
https://youtube.com/watch?v=I8hXmZqd5FM

Edit: despite the name of the tech and what the guy in the video says, you aren’t supposed to shoot Marauder’s model/feet, you must shoot the ground close to Marauder so the small splash damage Ballista has on hit staggers him. This only works if Marauder had been damaged recently, could be damage from a traditional cycle or a sticky bomb splash.

[o_dey]

Originally posted by Vex Hilarius:

No he wasnt buffed, [...]

Actually he has been quietly buffed a bit over time, not only were some of his "flaws" patched out (for example the Ice Bomb trick), but also his resistance to certain weapons was changed, most notably rocket, SSG, and splash damage have been found to be reduced (or capped).

Lots of old videos are showing techniques that don't work on him anymore, or do now take more cycles or additional damage from ground shots or grenades.

[kennyminot]

If you're fighting just one of them, it's super easy. You wait until he throws an axe, dodge, and shoot him after the flashing green light. It takes about 5 hits to kill him. I find him to be one of the more annoying enemies, though, partially because he demands precision, and the game isn't designed around it. You're supposed to moving quickly and dodging crap. Whenever you see a Marauder, though, you need to stop and focus your attention on it.

They have another precision aiming enemy in the DLC. Not a fan. Hopefully, that doesn't become a trend in the next game.

[MedievalPepe]

https://youtu.be/7lfsMzankFc

[kennyminot]

Originally posted by Caesar:

https://youtu.be/7lfsMzankFc

Wow! This was actually super helpful! I learned a number of things from this video

[QUAKETALLICA]

Originally posted by Vex Hilarius:

Less common ways include once stunning him use the full auto combat shotgun for some great damage, but this is more useful in the Ancient Gods part 2 when you get the hammer. Still a well timed attack could have him dead in 2-3 turns. One other way I actually like doing is using the chain gun. Once you stun him pull out your chain gun with the mobile turret mod and similar results happen.


Despite what many others are lead to believe, you can take him down with any weapon besides the BFG. You just have to know your weapons and how they fire. But obviously the quickest and easiest for more players would be the ballista+ssg combo.

Also, blood punch him when he's about to get out of his stagger. This will give you like an extra half second to get out of his attack range.

Wow. This game is one of my most played games on Steam ~150 hours or so having done the main story many times on both UV and Nightmare, all the DLC expansions, Battlemode, etc.

This is still my first time hearing that you can use chaingun on Marauder. I have heard about the auto-shotty before, though I don't regularly use it myself.

Oh, and you can use BFG on Marauders I believe, they just have to be stunned first obviously. There are some fights in Master Levels that are just ridiculous and near-impossible to beat if you don't BFG the Marauder. (Anytime there's more than one Marauder on screen, especially in a tight corridor or small arena, is just hell otherwise.)

[MedievalPepe]

Originally posted by kennyminot:

Originally posted by Caesar:

https://youtu.be/7lfsMzankFc

Wow! This was actually super helpful! I learned a number of things from this video

Glad I could help

[xXLaokinXx]

Originally posted by Vex Hilarius:

No he wasnt buffed, you just have to be quick. Once his eyes flash green shoot him with something. The most common "exploit" is to use ballista-ssg-ballista. But other ways can work as well. Like the sniper mod for the heavy cannon or a well timed rocket. If going the rocket route, try firing it while he's running towards you not when he's swinging (green eyes). Might be risky, but 9 times out of 10 he's running towards you to do his swing.

Grenades also faulted him a bit and while BFG shots don't damage him, he holds up his shield for you to attack.

Less common ways include once stunning him use the full auto combat shotgun for some great damage, but this is more useful in the Ancient Gods part 2 when you get the hammer. Still a well timed attack could have him dead in 2-3 turns. One other way I actually like doing is using the chain gun. Once you stun him pull out your chain gun with the mobile turret mod and similar results happen.

Just keep your distance while keeping him on the screen. Avoid his axe throws, don't shoot his shield, and if he sends his dog on you make that your priority, not him.

Despite what many others are lead to believe, you can take him down with any weapon besides the BFG. You just have to know your weapons and how they fire. But obviously the quickest and easiest for more players would be the ballista+ssg combo.

Also, blood punch him when he's about to get out of his stagger. This will give you like an extra half second to get out of his attack range.

They did buff him; you used to be able to throw a grenade behind him; he'd turn to shield it and BFG him for a 1 second kill. You can't do that anymore. He's a lot more aggressive, and that shotgun move he's got happens more frequently, there are less stun moments, and more dogs.