The only thing that can stop the bugs is A STRONG ECONOMY - HELLDIVERS

Okay, the new Warbond is a Premium Warbond, same 1000 super credits price tag as the other one (which is still around, as promised they're all perpetual).

On Tier 1 it has
  • the LAS-1 Sickle, a rapid-fire lasgun that fucks, in our testing it's been really good
  • a Booster that increases time between encounters
  • Medium Armour that provides 95% resistance vs. Arc Damage
  • various cosmetics
  • 100 supercredits
Tier 2 takes 60 medals to unlock and has
  • the SG-8P Plasma Punisher, an explosive shotgun which we'll test later today
  • the Stun Grenade
  • another Medium Armour that provides 95% resistance vs. Arc Damage (yes, there is no heavy armour in this warbond)
  • more cosmetics
  • 100 supercredits
Tier 3 takes 230 medals to unlock and has
  • the ARC-12 Blitzer, an arc shotgun which we've not yet unlocked
  • the LAS-7 Dagger laser pistol, which likewise
  • Light Armour that provides 95% resistance vs. Arc Damage
  • more cosmetics
  • 100 supercredits
 
On the LAS-1 Sickle:
  • it takes a very short amount of time to spool up before it fires (maybe half a second?)
  • it fires very rapidly but with basically no recoil
  • it has amazing DPS, e.g. shredding Berserkers faster than any other primary we've tested (this is likely also a matter of application since it doesn't recoil)
  • it has very good handling
  • it can fire for ~5-6 seconds continously before needing a reload
  • it cools down quickly - a short sprint away from incoming bugs and it's good to go again
  • it reloads quickly too and comes with 6 reloads
This may be tinted by an initial Wow-Factor, but it honestly seems really good. It's a highly accurate assault rifle that's ammo-independent and has amazing DPS.
 
On the SG-8P Plasma Punisher:
  • it fires a plasma grenade in an arc
  • this severely limits it's range, we don't have a number in meters but we'd say even at medium range it's hard to actually land shots, and beyond that it's impossible due to the arcing
  • it's damage and fire rate are decidedly anemic, it takes 5-6 shots to kill a Devastator or a Bile Spewer, with which it's fire rate makes for comparable or longer time to kill than other primary weapons
  • it does however Stagger Devastator, and possibly other enemies
  • and takes out Striders in one hit
  • it has very significant falloff damage, barely damaging enemies in it's outer radius - a small bug takes 2-3 splashes to actually die
  • it can not take out Outposts/Bug Holes
  • overall it left a poor impression on us, at least if you don't use a dedicated secondary or support weapon with it. It might be nice as dedicated anti-Devastator/Strider/"Medium" weapon, while you use a Revolver or Las Pistol or Teammates to clear out smaller automatons, and carry a Recoilless Rifle or Spear.
 
Glad to see usable energy weapons finally pop up with the laser cannon buff and the sickle. Granted you still probably want to keep to cold planets for best results but at least it can hold its own.
 
Also, new bot mech got leaked.

They already got AT-RT, now they are getting AT-AT.

Oh, and I saw those flying bugs on my last Termicide mission nothing. All rumors are false. Thermicide works.
 
Mandemon said:
Also, new bot mech got leaked.

They already got AT-RT, now they are getting AT-AT.
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ah, it will probably only show up in higher difficulty missions, like how in the first game the charger had an exposed rear in low-medium difficulties, but higher difficulty only had the behemoth, a version of the charger with no rear weakness and was only able to be killed with AT
 
Captainwolf said:
ah, it will probably only show up in higher difficulty missions, like how in the first game the charger had an exposed rear in low-medium difficulties, but higher difficulty only had the behemoth, a version of the charger with no rear weakness and was only able to be killed with AT
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Yeah. It's kinda like Devastors are "boss enemies" on Tier 2, but by Tier 4 they are part of basic enemy force. Or how Bile Titans are targets of entire missions until 5, and by 6 and above they are just part of the spawns.
 
Having done a bunch of the Termicide missions, my current feeling is that fighting bots is just so much more fun and less stress than fighting bugs. Fighting bugs is just a constant stream of stuff coming at you from all directions, and the spikes of terror as random chargers come at you from outside your field of view and ragdoll you into the swarm.
Bots on the other hand, feel like precision is very much rewarded. lay appropriate fire missions, use your optics, lay precision fires into whatever the weak point is, pick your fights and keep moving. It can be a lot to manage, especially when the air is bullets, but it feels less oppressive in a lot of ways.
 
Ithillid said:
Having done a bunch of the Termicide missions, my current feeling is that fighting bots is just so much more fun and less stress than fighting bugs. Fighting bugs is just a constant stream of stuff coming at you from all directions, and the spikes of terror as random chargers come at you from outside your field of view and ragdoll you into the swarm.
Bots on the other hand, feel like precision is very much rewarded. lay appropriate fire missions, use your optics, lay precision fires into whatever the weak point is, pick your fights and keep moving. It can be a lot to manage, especially when the air is bullets, but it feels less oppressive in a lot of ways.
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Interesting. I find the bugs less oppressive because when stuff goes wrong, you can usually just keep running and that negates like everything except chargers, hunters, and Stalkers. With robots, everything except berserkers (and a few other units) don't need to be close to hurt and kill you, and there are a lot more things that can 1-shot you from range.
 
It would be nice if chargers were a bit more noisy. It is a little strange how light on their feet the multi-ton rhino bugs are. It's the darktide mauler problem all over again.
 
Verdict on the Blitzer:
it performs okay against Terminids, have not tested it against Automatons. It one-shots any given light bug if the entire charge hits them, otherwise it's a two-shot. It can deal with Hive Guards, though it'll need several shots. It doesn't do well against Spewers, and doesn't do anything against Chargers unlike the Arc Gun.

We'd say it's role is as a gun that takes mental load off you. Pull the trigger, hit stuff, kill stuff. You'll put out more DPS with other primaries, at the cost of actually having to aim and worry about ammo/reloading. This will just keep putting out damage with ease even in a prolonged firefight.

Also fun fact: it doesn't count as shots fired, so we just finished a mission with 289 kills and 0 shots fired
 
Happened to be doing a bug op when today's AMR kills daily came in. I'd slotted it into my head as an anti-bot gun last time one of these came up. 'cause y'know, bots have the longer range engagements with fewer, more valuable, more stationary enemies, so obviously the AMR's a fit for that, and you also get that 4 penetration for hulk eye shots. But it seems real solid for bugs too, maybe better. It's capable of a lot more steady volume of fire than you'd expect from an AMR, so it's actually pretty solid at just putting shots into a horde and clearing chaff. And normal bugs are bulky enough that the high per-shot damage of the AMR isn't a ton of overkill like it is for bot raiders, while still being able to one-shot most of them with a good direct hit. While there's no juicy 4 armor hit zones like a hulk's eye among bugs, there are a lot of mid-tier bugs with 3 armor that having 4 pen to deal 100% damage against is really nice. Being able to just blow throw head armor on stuff like brood commanders or armored spitters is real nice.
 
With it's dying breath, a Bile Titan kamikazed Pelican-1, dragging him into the abyss. (Read: Someone took the BT's animation cel and just slid it downwards.) Unsurprisingly, everyone decided to bail out except me since I was the host. Just as I was about to go out in a literal blaze of glory by running into a horde with an incendiary, the evac terminal suddenly springs back up giving me one last chance to call in extraction. Twas a hectic two minutes, running around nearly crashing my game because an Eagle cluster run killed 60 bugs in a single pass. No joke, the game stuttered to a near halt when that happened.

Another Bile Titan showed up, but this time around I let it live* and got off planet safely. Boy, what a rush that was!

*To the Democracy Officer reading this: This was not done out of xenosympathy, I simply did not have any anti-large weapons on hand.

And to finish off that act, I had to do an Eradication mission all by myself possibly because of that bug that prevents players joining your game since it thinks there's still people with you. I got super lucky and ended up on a map that actually lets you put sentries on the high ground instead of going "lol. lmao even." before swatting it down. Contrary to popular belief, EMF Mortars are not non-lethal, just "less-than-lethal." It absolutely can kill things, including you assuming the physical projectile lands right on top.

Anywho, I've hit the cap on pretty much everything except for medals and Supercredits. Time to shelve this game til' the next big update, whenever that is. Fingers crossed the new ship module upgrades won't require new resources. I've worked hard for those 500 comms dammit!

EDIT: Oh yeah, Plasma Punisher? Pre-tty good. Shame it can't bust open cargo containers, bug holes n' bot fabs, plus it's AOE is a lil' lackluster in all aspects. Still, I like having a grenade launcher as a primary. Comes in real handy against bots where you can just lob nades all day from the safety of a boulder.

The stun grenade would be the only thing I'd be running if it could just destroy things. I feel like by the time the smoke blinds the enemies, they stopped firing because you've been dead for minutes now. Stun grenades is just fancy pocket sand. Need to make a get away? Pocket sand! Need to buy time for your sentry to blast whatever it is to bits? Believe it or not, pocket sand! It's so great it's almost worth those awkward times where you have to ask your teammates to blast open a door for you.

There was this one time where the two of us just stared at each other in front of a container as we both brought shock grenades. Ended up having to airstrike it open, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's "rare" samples. Yay.

Good ol' shock/stun grenades, busted regardless of franchise!

EDIT: New Major Order is out. tl;dr: Liberate 5 planets in two days. On a weekday. Well, at least they're bug planets so it's gonna be tough, but not impossible.
 
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Best outcome I've had so far on a high-difficulty Automaton Eradicate mission was a strategy I said as a joke:
Everybody brings 380mm barrages and just shells our own position.

The base gets overrun by bots faster than a Twitter thread, but you can work with that...
 
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Ralson said:
Best outcome I've had so far on a high-difficulty Automaton Eradicate mission was a strategy I said as a joke:
Everybody brings 380mm barrages and just shells our own position.

The base gets overrun by bots faster than a Twitter thread, but you can work with that...
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What about using that with stationary shield generators? Does that protect from 380?
 
Captainwolf said:
What about using that with stationary shield generators? Does that protect from 380?
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I don't know, but it definitely won't protect from the hundreds of automatons.

Don't think "heroically holding our position while explosions blossom around us." Think "backing away from waves of robots and into other waves of robots."

At Diff 7+, the density of enemies is completely insane. It only takes a few minutes to either hit 450 kills or run out of reinforcements. There's a 14 minute time limit but don't worry about it.
 
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Ralson said:
I don't know, but it definitely won't protect from the hundreds of automatons.

Don't think "heroically holding our position while explosions blossom around us." Think "backing away from waves of robots and into other waves of robots."

At Diff 7+, the density of enemies is completely insane. It only takes a few minutes to either hit 450 kills or run out of reinforcements. There's a 14 minute time limit but don't worry about it.
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I know, I've played it, I just am not sure how much damage the shield generator can take
 
Private Lee O'Malley said:
EDIT: New Major Order is out. tl;dr: Liberate 5 planets in two days. On a weekday. Well, at least they're bug planets so it's gonna be tough, but not impossible.
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Joel really woke up and chose violence, huh?

The general consensus seems to be focusing on Estanu to then take Fori Prime, after that we focus on liberating Hellmire and Nivel 43 until we can reach Zagon Prime.

But honestly I expect us to get our shit kicked in, the TCS barrier worlds to unravel, and then the Illuminate to come out swinging. Or something like that.

Or, the playerbase is going to rally and surprise the developers yet again and actually complete the Major Order in time. We'll see.
 
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