Wyvy's Standard Weapon Briefing

The tutorial robot only teach you about Liberator and P-2 Peacemaker, that's only 2 guns in the Helldiver's armory, so I will be that tutorial guy give some instruction that the tutorial robot didn't.

What when how?

What are standard weapons?

• You will always drop down with a standard weapon, you can call that type of weapon by many names like primary weapons, starting weapons, etc.
  
• One-handed weapons can be used while carrying heavy objects and when downed like Double Freedom, Tanto, Pistols.

When to use standard weapons?

• Starting weapons are PDW (Personal Defend Weapon) against small to medium threats, any higher threats are recommended to use bigger firepower against it.

When to reload?

• Standard weapons will discard the entire bullets in the clip when reloading (except Punisher and Constitution with their own reload mechanics), if there is 1 round in your gun and you reload, that 1 round will stay and will be fired with the next clip.
  
• There are 2 ways to reload in this game, tactical reload and empty reload. Tactical reload can be performed when your gun has more than 1 round in the clip. Emptying your gun before reloading will makes your reload time will be much longer than tactical reload's time. Helldivers' logistic team sure put some special "low ammo" rounds in near the end of the clips for a purpose, these rounds will sound and look different than other normal rounds and indicate when you need to reload.
  
• I almost forgot the Laser weapons, those weapons will Overheat when their heat gets over 100%. Just like other weapons, Laser weapons have their own "low ammo" indicator, it's the steam/smoke they produce when the heat is more than 50% heat capacity and will play a warning sound and emit even more steam/smoke when the gun reach 80% heat capacity.

How to use standard weapons?

• That stupid robot taught you how to operate those guns, aim, and fire.
  
• You can instantly aim to a target behind you with melee aiming (which can be performed by melee dodging), and shoot instantly (use [Fire button] to aim melee dodge will shoot with better accuracy than [Aim button] to aim melee dodge then shoot instantly, it will cause some weapons to shoot to the right relative to the point of aim).

Pistols

P-2 Peacemaker

Description:

• A decent sidearm for small to medium threat, fast reload time. This gun has high accuracy but then will decrease as you rapidly fire it, firing in bursts to maintain high accuracy is recommended.

Summary:

• Normal Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Can deal with Hounds and medium threat fast, won't do much against Butchers (about 2 clips for 1 Butcher).
  
• Normal Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Bugs. Can deal with Patrols rather fast but not too good against medium threats, I won't recommend using Peacemaker against Brood Commanders because it would take a load of ammo to kill a few of them.
  
• Bad Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Illuminates. Kinda horrible but still decent, short-range means it can't kill Hunters effectively, spreads meaning it will be harder to deal damage to Tripods/Striders and the only place where this little boy shine is killing Outcasts?

P-6 Gunslinger

Description:

• Time to be a cowboy. 6 shots per clip, cool reload animation, no tactical reload. Pin-point accuracy with extremely high damage shots. A fast fire rate allows a higher DPS than other pistols.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Cyborgs. 1 clip can kill a Butcher or Hulk, it is even capable of damaging Warlords, an instant kill to the medium threat.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Bugs. 2 shots can kill a Stalker/Shadow, overkill small threats, and Brood Commanders will die within 1 clip.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Illuminates. 1 shot everything, even Striders, deal a decent and good amount of damage to Illusionists/Council Members.

FLAM-24 Pyro

Description:

• Mini flamer do shorter range and lower damage, also create smaller fire puddles. No tactical reload. Enemies will still try to avoid walking on these little cute tiny fire puddles although they deal less damage than their bigger brother's fire puddles.

Summary:

• Normal Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. I forgot to mention this can kill Warlords with fire damage too, anyways, decent single target with fire damage and crowd control fire puddles to deal with small to high (except IFVs) threats.
  
• Normal Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. This gun can also kill Behemoths with fire damage too, good crowd control with fire puddles, and decent single target against patrols,
  
• Normal Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. Nice gun to use, good single target, and good crowd control against a horde of Tripods/Striders/Outcasts.

PLAS-3 Singe

Description:

• Just like small PLAS-1 Scorcher, Singe when compared to un-upgraded Scorcher is slightly better (based on wiki), with slightly higher damage per shot, and a 33% faster rate of fire.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. This little boy can kill Warlords, single target ability and crowd control ability is good too.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. Just be careful when firing this little boy when there are jumpers in the mission, they may jump right to your face when u firing the gun and deal self-damage, anyways good gun.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. A good gun against a horde of Illuminates units.

Assault Rifles (AR)

AR-19 Liberator

Description:

• A newbie-friendly gun, the "low ammo" rounds come sooner than other AR guns intended to train new recruits on how ammo management and tactical reloading work. Other than that, this gun deal with medium threat is nice but not so good overall. It's just a learning tool for new people, but in a veteran's hand, it can be a decent tool against enemies (another good side of this gun is that it got a bayonet to do advanced techniques).

Summary:

• Normal Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Decent patrol killer, pretty bad against Butcher hordes because of its DPS being considerably lower than other ARs.
  
• Normal Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Bugs. Good patrol killer, Brood Commanders can charge to you without slow effect.
  
• Normal Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Illuminates. Kinda good against many enemies but its DPS makes it just kinda good.

AR-22C Patriot

Description:

• Better version of Liberator, faster fire rate, slightly better accuracy, and significantly larger clip size, however, this gun has a slightly lower off-center damage. Controlled bursts are recommended to have better ammo efficiency (higher damage output).

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. You can clear a pack of Hounds running toward you with only about half a clip, you can also dump your entire clip on Hulk or Butcher and they will just die after your low ammo sound is played.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. Because of its fast fire rate, the run reach max spread sooner making medium to long-range targets harder to hit, it can melt any close-range threat fast with its high DPS tho.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Illuminates. Striders/Tripods(I haven't tested with Tripods yet) don't take damage on their feet making Patriot perform rather worse because it's a higher starting spread than Liberator.

AR-20L Justice

Description:

• This gun is what you will have after breeding Breaker with Liberator. High caliber rounds make your shots pack more punch and pierce through enemies easily, in exchange, for a low fire rate and magazine and bad accuracy after a few rounds. Decent weapons against any enemy type (except heavy armors).

Summary:

• Normal Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. It can do what Breaker can do to a horde of Butchers, super efficient against them.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. Good and cool bug-killing gun.
  
• Normal Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Illuminates. Low clip size means more frequent reload and it can be fatal sometimes when you just then get swarmed by impenetrable shielded enemies (Tripods/Striders).

AR-14D Paragon

Description:

• Time to break the Geneva Protocol boys. Justice with semi-auto and toxic rounds, note that these toxic bullets just slow enemies down and do not damage them. Super high accuracy and DPS make this gun dangerous from any distance. Also, a dumb low ammo indicator for this gun when they can only be triggered if you have 2 or fewer rounds in your clip, with burst fire upgrade making this gunfire in bursts of 3, you can't even know exactly if your burst is exactly 3 per burst because on PC, there is a Paragon fire technique called half-tap allowing you fire less than 3 shot per bursts, so your best tactical reload indicator is to look at your gun, not to hear your gun.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Butchers are bullet sponges, just support your team by applying a slow effect on them instead of trying to kill them.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. Same as Cyborgs Butchers, try to apply slow effect on Brood commanders (note that Paragon can't pierce armors and apply slow effect so don't shoot them) and only kill them if they get near.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Illuminates. Pretty bad against Crowd because Paragon will need to shoot more than Bugs and Cyborgs because of shields, and robots don't take slow effect, Illusionists/Council Members are just staying in their place and not moving much.

LMG (Just only 1 gun lol)

MG-105 Stalwart

Description:

• Patriot with a bigger clip size and better accuracy. Stalwart is one of the three guns that gets more accurate the longer you fire it. Un-upgraded clip size Stalwart has the same amount of rounds as Patriot's upgraded, the Stalwart's clip size upgrade will double the rounds. Tactical reload is only faster about 0.5 seconds than empty reload.

Summary:

• Normal Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Need a few rounds to gain a good long-range accuracy, you also have a well-sustained fire against hordes of enemies.
  
• Normal Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Bugs. Same as the Cyborgs, but you need a slow effect to support your Brood Commander killing because those Bugs get faster the lower their hp.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Illuminates. Well sustained fire means you rarely even have to reload, and the good accuracy means you can hit Striders/Tripods center easily.

Shotguns

SG-225 Breaker

Description:

• I have a Punisher, I have a Double Freedom, ugh, Breaker (yeah that was PPAP reference, what can you do? This is my guide). Breaker is like the part in the middle of Punisher and Double Freedom, medium range, medium spread, and also a good fire rate. Breaker is most famous when you talk about dealing with Butcher hordes, efficiently and fast. A handy close to medium range combat against light to medium armor enemies.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Kill patrols fast, handle hordes of Butchers easily.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. Decent bug-killing just like Justice.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. Shotguns are good to bully Illuminates, Breaker can handle any threat in Illuminates easily.

SG-8 Punisher

Description:

• Sniper shotgun, you can think of it as a mix of Precision weapons and Shotguns. Super high accuracy, decent damage against light to medium enemies. Advice uses other better crowd control against horde because this gun has a quite low rate of fire and only reloads one round at a time. Punisher and Constitution are the only 2 guns that reload by inserting each round in. Tactical reload will be faster than empty reload in 0.4 seconds.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Punishers can easily kill a single medium enemy with 1 shot, but for a horde of Butchers, I recommend using other guns.
  
• Normal Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Bugs. 2 shots a Stalker/Shadow, need precise aim to shoot all 3 small patrols in 1 shot (theoretically it's possible), Brood Commanders' armor are just a big problem to Punisher's lack of AP ammunition.
  
• Good Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Illuminates. Completely dominate Illuminates patrols, bad against a horde of Striders/Tripods, Punisher can take care of Obelisk and Outcasts just fine.

DBS-2 Double Freedom

Description:

• Don't trust that fire rate, it's faster than Punishers. Double Freedom has the widest spread of all shotguns, the only shotgun that can compare with it is the AC-5 Arc Shotgun. The best use is to shoot 2 shells then run away while reloading and repeat.

Summary:

• Normal Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Cool gun against most Patrols, can 2 shots a Butcher.
  
• Normal Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Bugs. Get annoyed too much by Stalkers/Shadows? Get so angry because another gun can't kill those annoying flies (they are more like mantis) fast? Well, here is your best gun, if they jump in your face, then just unleash leads and phosphorus rounds back in their face as a greeting gift, Brood Commanders won't die in 2 shots and will spit poison on your face if you get too close.
  
• Normal Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. The most high-risk high reward shotgun in Illuminates missions, you can choose to get close and personal with a horde of Tripods/Striders/Outcasts and enjoy the sound of burning and dead sounds or die trying, stay close to Illusionist/Council Members are not advised because they can instantly kill you with orb attack if not protected by an SH-20.

SMGs

SMG-45 Defender

Description:

• The worst SMG of the 3 available SMGs for Helldivers. A low fire rate with a low caliber makes Defender has a low DPS and would be rated bad by most helldivers. Like the SMG version of Liberator.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. A low fire rate means longer shooting time before reloading, this gun has the best-sustained fire in all 3 SMGs, and with mini-stun, this gun excels in controlling Butcher hordes.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Bugs. You would get a bad time killing Stalkers/Shadows with this gun, your shots need to hit Brood Commanders' center mass to do a mini-stun effect.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Illuminates. Pretty bad against Patrols, robots are immune to mini-stun, but sustained fire can help with Outcasts horde.

MP-98 Knight

Description:

• SMG version of Patriot, upgraded version of Defender. You can melt a Hulk/Butcher with 1 clip of Knight, pretty much the same as Patriot. Note that this little boy eats a ton of ammo, Resupply pack is advised.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Same as Patriot but you can't stay in your comfort zone and snipe them.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Bugs. Same as Patriot but you have mini-stun to help apply slow effect on Brood Commanders.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. A decent, good DPS, you would have a bad time trying to kill Hunters.

SMG-34 Ninja

Description:

• The devs must be super lazy when designing SMGs, they just literally turn ARs into SMGs, like Ninja is Justice's SMG version, well, sad that they didn't turn Paragon into SMG. Anyways, Ninja is like the upgraded Defender, with more damage, higher accuracy, and higher fire rate.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Just better than Defender a bit, lacking mini-stun ability make this gun suffer lack of crowd control, Ninja's most useful is to self-defend from enemies escaped your teammates' heavy firearms.
  
• Normal Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Bugs. Kinda bad, no mini-stun means you will have more chance of letting your prey run away, but your damage is high enough to kill it before it gets away, but Brood Commanders just don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about running away, you would love to run when a Brood Commander is committing "target locked" and charges toward you.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. Higher DPS, good.

Precision (Sniper if you like)

LHO-63 Camper

Description:

• Good example of what a sniper would look like and operate, well, this gun in a pro's hands will be used to perform many dances in combat moments (yes melee dodging is like dancing). Camper does pack a heavy punch against medium size enemies, instantly killing them. Dum Dum's smaller version.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Camper is designed to do good in single target and bad crowd control, but due to lag, Camper can penetrate medium size enemies that it can insta-kill (check my Notes in Anti-Tank Guide), killing 2 enemies in 1 single shot.
  
• Good Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Bugs. Camper suffers a bad time killing small Patrols but only 2 shots to kill Stalkers/Shadows/Warriors/Elite and would need more than 5 shots to kill a Brood Commander (Camper can only have 8 shots per clip and 9 after tactical reload).
  
• Good Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Illuminates. Insta-kill any medium enemies but need to disable their shield first.

RX-1 Rail Gun

Description:

• The best support gun in the game, apply stun to any enemies that can be damaged by Rail Gun (even Behemoths). Slow fire rate and low ammo capacity. Only announce the "low ammo" after its last shot, can only have 5 shots per clip.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Can stun everything except IFV, can penetrate everything except Warlords and IFVs.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. Can stun everything, can't penetrate Behemoths/Tanks/Impalers, a great tool to control a Brood Commander horde.
  
• Normal Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Illuminates. Can't penetrate the shield, nor deal damage through the shield, and would have a bad time supporting it unless killing Illusionist/Council Members because robots are Immune to stun.

M2016 Constitution

Description:

• A decent gun, in new player's hands they would be like "This gun sucks, low clip capacity and wacky reload mechanic + slow fire rate, I don't like it" but in pro's hands it would be more like "stab -> dance -> shoot -> repeat -> retreat to reload -> do it again". The gun that has the longest melee range in the game, is most liked by the veteran players by its long-range melee and decent damage output. This gun relies on mixing melee dodging skills to make the most out of it, the skill that the veterans have mastered so it can be quite wacky for a new player to use it effectively.

Summary:

• Normal/Good Single Target and Bad/Normal Crowd Control against Cyborgs. With MD-99 Autoinjector, you can stand after getting burned and extend your time standing and melee dodging, increasing your survivability in close-range combat. Be careful with Butchers and Berserkers too, 1 good grab and you are laying down calling for help.
  
• Normal Single Target and Bad/Normal Crowd Control against Bugs. The combo against Stalker/Shadow is Shoot -> Stab -> Shoot (if you stab first, you have more chance to get spit on, this combo is recommended in medium range because you need to be close to it to stab it) and it's dead, you can do the combo with Brood Commanders to efficiently kill it but aware that you can't melee dodge once you get spit on.
  
• Bad Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Illuminates. Decent damage to one-shot Tripods/Outcasts, 1 stab is enough to disable a shield (to conserve ammo) but you get at the risk of getting zapped and died, a high-risk medium-reward gun. Also, you would need to get in close range with an Illusionist/Council Member to do a stab because dealing damage by only shooting is slow.

Explosive

CR-9 Suppressor

Description:

• Compare to Scorcher, Suppressor is louder and does more AoE damage but less direct damage. Suppressor is more Crowd Control oriented than Scorcher, because of this, any shot that explodes near helldivers would be fatal and can result in deaths (Heavy Armor perk and SH-32 both reduce the self-damage from the gun, I tested with SH-32 that you will only be downed. SH-20 and Displacement Field will provide some protection from close range shots). Pistols are advised to use instead in close range.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. You can explode your shells behind Legionnaire to deal damage to them, note that the explosion can't penetrate their shields. Take caution when using Suppressor to kill Butchers/Berserkers near your teammates.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. Aware of the jumping bugs, you have a good Crowd Control weapon against Brood Commanders but be careful when they charge toward you (Pistols are advised to finish off close-range enemies).
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. Nice DPS against big enemies, would handle clustered enemies easily.

PLAS-1 Scorcher

Description:

• Compare to Suppressor, Scorcher has a shorter range, lower AoE damage but higher direct damage, and a fire upgrade allowing for a higher damage potential (theoretical damage if you perform perfectly according to the theory). Scorcher ignites everything in its explosion radius, it can ignite Legionnaire by shooting its shield. The same close-range issue as Suppressor but because Scorcher has a lower AoE damage, you can only be downed by either explosive damage or burn damage. Same advised protection as Suppressor but Heavy Armor and SH-32 won't reduce burn damage so no need to take them.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Good Crowd Control against a horde of Butchers.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. The same issue as Suppressor, careful of jumpers, can kill Brood Commanders rather more quickly due to higher direct damage and burn damage.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. Scorcher can ignite enemies if their shield is down in the same shot (the game does the damage first then checks the shield then apply the effect if able to) making Scorcher able to kill Patrol in 1 shot with their shield on. Explosive + burn damage are both good Crowd Control options for Illuminates hordes.

Laser

Unlimited powahhhh

LAS-5 Scythe

Description:

• Just like Liberator, a pretty bad laser weapon but good training weapon to learn about overheat function. Scythe can do sustained damage for a long time if you don't mess up and overheat the gun.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Cyborgs. A good single-target weapon, but it has a long time killing big targets due to its low DPS, it has a slow-medium turn speed and low DPS making Scythe, not a good gun to use against a horde.
  
• Normal Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Bugs. If a Stalker/Shadow targeted you and have already run past the medium range, you have no chance avoid being spit on with Scythe unless you quickly change to your Pistol and shoot it, Scythe's low DPS is a problem in Bugs, Brood Commander as an example, the lower their health gets, the faster they get, with Scythe, you would love to change to your Pistol to kill it in their berserk state.
  
• Good Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Illuminates. If you have any chance to 1v1 an enemy in Illuminate, Scythe is your best friend, but to deal with the horde, Scythe performs quite badly, recommend using other weapons.

LAS-16 Sickle

Description:

• God, the devs just turn Patriot into a Laser Weapon, how lazy are they (jk, you did awesome job devs). Sickle is Scythe but in burst fire mode (maybe?), dealing much higher DPS and producing more heat per shot.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Because Sickle produces more heat per shot, Sickle has a much shorter sustained fire than other laser weapons. Its high DPS and big center mass bonus make it a great Single Target weapon.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Bugs. Good DPS can kill Stalkers/Shadows from far away, nice DPS to kill Brood Commander quickly in its berserk state.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Illuminates. Nice DPS to disable shield and damage, a short sustained fire means a short time shooting making Sickle not so good against a Horde.

LAS-12 Tanto

Description:

• Scythe but with higher DPS, in exchange for a short range. Tanto is the better Scythe with a faster turn speed, and higher DPS (Scythe and Tanto have the same heat production and heat cooldown rate). For someone who doesn't know: Tanto is a type of small sword or dagger used by samurais in Japan.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Tanto can quickly take a medium size enemy down but should take caution when trying to eliminate a horde of enemies because a shorter range means you need to be closer and in a more dangerous combat position compare to other Laser guns.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Bugs. Same as Cyborgs, but keep more caution when dealing with Brood Commanders.
  
• Good Single Target and Normal Crowd Control against Illuminates. Be careful when taking down Illusionists/Council Members because their orbs can one-shot or knock you down.

LAS-13 Trident

Description:

• A decent weapon, high DPS like Sickle. Trident is the most special Laser weapon because it's super expensive to upgrade, has a short delay after firing to cool down, and has a slower cooldown speed. Trident is considered a meta weapon by many pros. Its spread encourages people to get close to enemies to deal more damage, and the beams have low off-center damage.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Good.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. Good.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. Good.

ARC

AC-3 Arc Thrower

Description:

• A strong weapon if the user knows how to use it, when operating this gun, be aware of your teammate's position too, AC-3 is capable of damaging many targets in 1 shot in 1 line (I once had a weird shot connection that connects back to my teammate behind me but it's a super rare case) and helldivers can be a "node" in that string too. SH-20 can protect a helldiver from being killed by AC-3 and AC-5, and also help AC-3 and AC-5 users have a better time standing and charging up their shot. AC-3's linking ability depends on how much energy you charged up before releasing the fire button, the longer you hold, the more "nodes" you can connect. "Nodes" don't reduce your damage.

Summary:

• Normal Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Note that Legionnaire won't take damage from AC because their shield is up their front and ARC damage will always be the front hit.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. Your speed is reduced when charging the shot, Bugs are fast, you need to position yourself with your team to have protection while charging the shot.
  
• Normal Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. Full charge is not recommended because the time between your full charge is long enough for enemies to start to get their shield back on, after getting their shield down, use a short burst of electricity to damage them or ask your teammate to damage them while you charging up.

AC-5 Arc Shotgun

Description:

• Same as AC-3 but this shotgun version perform quite a bit differently. Instead of using enemies and helldivers as "nodes" to form a string of electricity, AC-5 shoots wide electricity ignoring terrain (according to wiki) and in a fixed range (means no extended range through "nodes"). AC-5 charge up faster than AC-3 a lot but deal less max damage (but still enough to one-shot medium size enemies). Any defensive perk and shield backpack is advised to have a better time doing things in close combat.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. The same issue as AC-3, can't properly kill Legionnaire, can't extend your range by "nodes" means you have to stay in the range of some dangerous enemies.
  
• Normal Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. You would have a bad time killing Stalkers/Shadows due to charge time + range, also you need support to kill Brood Commanders.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. Quite good against most enemies in Illuminates.

Saber

It's a PG (Proving Ground) exclusive weapon and you can use it in condition Up Close and Personal
To simple sum up this weapon, it's a bayonet damage with punch melee speed.

Honorable Mention: Grenades

Standard Grenades

No Selection Image Available

Description:

• A default grenade for all helldivers. Deals good damage to enemies/helldivers surrounding it.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Can be thrown to kill Legionnaires, not so good against Butchers, and can damage and eventually kill Warlords (as support fire).
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. You can use 2 grenades to kill 1 Brood Commander instantly or spread them out to spread the damage to the horde.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. These grenades can take care of Tripods/Striders/Outcasts easily and can be thrown before reloading your gun to destroy upcoming orb from Illusionists/Council Members.

Stun Grenades

Description:

• Swap your grenade with the Stun variant of it, need a perk slot. The Stun Grenades' radius is slightly smaller than Stun Mines' radius. Stun can apply on anything that is not IFVs, Shield Protected. Deal no damage at all. Advised to throw 1 grenade at a time because stun time doesn't stack.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. You can use it to stun anything while being down, you can stop a horde of Butchers with only 1 grenade.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. You can use it to stun a running Behemoth/Tank (if timed correctly) or to stun a pack of Brood Commanders.
  
• Bad Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Illuminates. Lmao, Illuminates' robots are immune to stun, Illusionists/Council Members also have their shields that are immune to stun too, you would like to bring a Fire grenade or Default Grenade to deal damage to them.

Smoke Grenades

Description:

• Smoke Grenades do 0 damage to everything, a similar effect as Thunderer Smoke Rounds but have a rather slightly smaller smoke radius.

Summary:

• Bad Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Hounds will not run to you if you are in the smoke or there is smoke between you and them, Ranged will try to get closer to shoot.
  
• Bad Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Bugs. Behemoths/Tanks won't try to run over you if there is smoke between you and it (same effect as when you stay inside the smoke).
  
• Bad Single Target and Bad Crowd Control against Illuminates. Hunters will not try to shoot you through the smoke.

Incendiary/Fire Grenades

Description:

• Usually called Fire Grenades, a pocket version of Hellfire Incendiary Bombs, create a smaller fire puddle when explode, and also ignites any nearby enemies/helldivers. Enemies will try to avoid the fire puddles.

Summary:

• Normal Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Can be used to change Butchers' path
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. Can ignite nearby Bugs.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. The explosion damage is enough to disable their Tripods/Striders shield and apply a burn effect on them.

Honorable Mention: Heavy Weapons

Some of these weapons have already been talked about in my previous guide. Now I will focus on the rest.

MG-94 Machine Gun

Description:

• The very first heavy weapon stratagem you can call and use. MG-94 is the worse version of machine gun used in vehicles (the mounted version has a 50% more fire rate).

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. A decent Hulk/Butcher destroyer.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. Good against Pack of Brood Commanders, can also be used as a primary gun.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. Good DPS can handle a pack of Tripods/Striders/Outcasts easily.

MGX-42 Machine Gun

Description:

• It's like the slightly better version of MG-94, you have 300 (400 after upgrade) MGX-42 rounds instead of 150 (250 after upgrade) MG-94 rounds, and a higher fire rate. In exchange, you can't move while firing MGX-42 and have 120 reload (stratagem cooldown time). You can use multiple MGX-42 stratagems or Stratagem Priority perk to use the gun more often.

Summary:

• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Melt Hulks/Butchers even more quickly.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Bugs. MGX-42 can melt Patrols and Brood Commanders faster than MG-94.
  
• Good Single Target and Good Crowd Control against Illuminates. Melt everything faster.

REP-80

Description:

• When you take this gun up, you are now the medic of the team, your primary job isn't shooting ♥♥♥♥♥ anymore, it's now become heal your comrades.

Summary:

• No Single Target and No Crowd Control against Cyborgs. Try to heal your teammates when they are down far from a Warlord, let them move a bit then heal them when they are targeted by an IFV, and heal when your team is close combating with Berserkers/Butchers.
  
• No Single Target and No Crowd Control against Bugs. Always heal your team, unless they are near the Impaler's tentacle, let them crawl away then heal them up.
  
• No Single Target and No Crowd Control against Illuminates. Heal your teammates if there is no orb flying toward them or any laser above them.

ME-1 Sniffer Metal Detector

Description:

• Mainly used to detect unexploded ordnance, and to smack things. You can have a weird bug that makes you hold the Sniffer like a gun instead of a Metal Detector and it will affect your metal finding ability.

Notes and Feedbacks

Notes:

• I write this guide based on my experience and not based on any other weapon guide already existed on steam.

I need Feedback:
I'm quite a new player, I just take the information from the wiki and mix it with my game knowledge and then write things in this guide, I haven't touch some guns in a long time so I might get something wrong.

[Hagon Wyvon]

Well yes, I actually had spent quite an amount of time in this game at the time of writing this guide so it's quite precise, tho I'm not very sure about some guns I just use much like Ninja and Sickle.

[Nykozeh]

This guide is great. Has all the tricks and quirks of each and every weapon mentioned accurately, as far as I know. Very informative.

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