How to Kill the Illuminate

The Illuminate can be a bit tricky to fight, so this guide is intended to make that fight a little easier

Enemies Types

There are a small, but formidable variety of Illuminate enemies on our southern front. They are as follow:

• Voteless
  
• Watcher
  
• Overseer
  
• Elevated (flying) Overseer
  
• Harvester
  
• Squid Tesla Tower
  
• Warp Ships (grounded + flying)

Voteless

Voteless are zombie like enemies. Stripped of their vote, and physically stronger than your typical colonist, voteless are quick and only capable of melee attacks, which are also capable of striking Helldivers seated within an FRV. Weapons with high capacity magazines are ideal for dealing with these enemies as they gather in swarms.



Recommendation:

Stalwart - 250 rounds without the need to take a knee and reload. Hold your reload button and make sure to switch this to it's highest fire rate.

Other Recommended:

Eagle Strafing Run: Up to five uses before rearm, and can kill every voteless in a line behind you when you're in a bind



Orbital Gas Strike: Damage over time with a blinding/disorienting effect on Voteless. Cloud sticks around for a moment, very useful

Turrets:

Machine Gun Sentry

Gatling Sentry

HMG Emplacement

Watcher

It watches, but more importantly, it calls. Watchers are the enemy type that calls in Illuminate warp ships, so prioritize shooting these things in their undemocratic faces.


There's a right way and a wrong way of killing Watchers. The right way is to kill them immediately. No need for anything special. Do not allow them to call for Warp Ships.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qdRlOdOPn0&ab_channel=Dakota

Overseer & Flying Overseer

Overseers are a bit tanky because of how their armor works. There are two variants. Ground based Overseers have shields, and a weapon that doubles as a rifle and a melee tool capable of caving your helmet in with one swipe. Flying Overseers throw grenades and will constantly fire at you, so make sure to toss them away from yourself and teammates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqlc1VkDi2g&ab_channel=Dakota

Their secret weakness, much like our own, is explosive weapons. Scorcher, Dominator, Plasma Punisher, etc, make a joke out of Overseers


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t6ghqWbgbQ&ab_channel=Dakota

The recommended stratagems for Overseers are the same as the Voteless. Strafing runs will instantly kill them, and turrets are powerful at stripping their armor and destroying them. Gas will just as well disorient them and deal damage over time.

Additionally, I also like using

Machine Gun

Heavy Machine Gun

Harvester

The War of the Worlds is upon us, and with it came this new type of tank unit. At first glance you may want to make like Tom Cruise and make a break for it, but fear not Helldiver. Beyond the tough exterior of this looming crustacean lays a soft and meaty filling, and to get to it just requires cracking a leg open or shoving something sharp through its eye.


Take down a Harvester shield with high fire rate weapons or stratagems. Primaries, stalwarts, strafing runs. All quick and easy ways to drop a Harvesters shield.

Then aim at a weak point with any weapon that has at least medium armor penetration. Most Primaries that have enough pen can usually kill a Harvester in a mag or two.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtDf01UOuZc&ab_channel=Dakota

Harvesters are not worth an airstrike because of how fragile they are.

Additionally, any launcher stratagem can one-shot the Harvester aside from the Spear & the WASP. Avoid the Spear and WASP as they both seem to target a strong point. Railcannons, Anti-material rifles, and autocannons also all do solid damage against a Harvester.

Squid Tesla Tower

Throw or shoot a grenade or crossbow bolt at this.
Additional tip: laying down prevents the tower from targeting you

Warp Ships

Warp Ships are enemy spawners. They are both parked around the map, and will fly in to drop enemy reinforcements.

Grounded Warp Ships:

Cheap & Dangerous way:
If you intend to run up to the ships, first strip the shields with gun fire or stratagems like the Eagle Strafing Run, then throw a grenade in the doorway, or use a grenade pistol.

Not so cheap but not so dangerous way:
120mm Barrage into the center of a camp: this will often kill every ship. For larger camps consider using a 380mm barrage.

120mm Barrage

380mm Barrage

Walking Barrage

Orbital Gas Strike: A direct hit will destroy a warp ship: Credit to professorZman for figuring this one out


The "Feels like cheating" way:
Drop an emancipator, ignore all enemies, and run throw the map clearing every outpost.
Emancipator Exosuit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L47Z57ns8Rk&ab_channel=Dakota

Flying Warp Ships

Take any launcher, or the anti-tank emplacement and shoot it in the circle in the center of the ship.

[CrazyJ]

I strongly recommend the guard dogs, they can kill any watcher that sneaks up behind you before it calls a ship and keep the voteless off of you long enough for you to nail them with an aoe

[sanguin]

Thank goodness, an informational guide that isn't some worthless shitpost saying "shoot da ting to kill da ting."

[Doc Healdiver]

The Arc Blitzer is one of my favorite primaries for squids. Infinite ammo, can kill multiple voteless per shot, and best of all can stunlock both overseers and watchers. The arc thrower is okay too, but not really worth taking up the support weapon slot.

[ding_dongus524]

Tip: The new marksman rifle from Borderline Justice can 1-shot headshot overseers.

[Casual Horizon Player]

tip: the thermite can one shot harversters, so you can destroy the shield and throw a thermite on and they die! i completed a ''kill harvesters'' with only thermites to kill them!

[CarrotLord]

sythe+quasar can clear entire outposts from afar. works espcially well on cold planets.

[Banri]

Crossbow + Strafing Run makes great warp ship clearing. Plus crossbow shot placed well can clear an entire horde.
Guard Dog (Regular One) can help clear strays getting to close and also quickly kills overseers.
Laser Cannon can deal with Harvesters easily if you target the joint, half a charge just about. My standard loadout is:
Crossbow, Verdict, Gas Grenade
Strafing Run, 500 KG, Guard Dog, Laser Cannon. Works well.

[RedCloud53]

is the railgun very good against squids? from experience it can one-shot Watchers quickly and kill Overseers with a single headshot

[Dogsalad Salad]

there is a wrong way to kill watchers.... stun prod. very bad at it.

[sprinkles]

couple things i want to add onto the guide, you can use orbital precision strike for a fast and simple ground warp ship kill, and remaining prone near the tesla towers wont kill you since it's similar to our tesla tower stratagems.