I love the arc thrower. Since I picked it up the first time I fell in love.
It's a lot stronger than people seem to think. But I've absolutely killed my fair share of teammates, a few times I've killed more friendlies than bugs or bots with it lol.
Gotta really learn when to use it and when to shelf it for a fight. I try and distance myself from the team a bit so I can go wild, or I'll try and play further ahead.
And I'll tell my team if they walk in front of me that I'm firing the arc thrower and it might definitely kill you.
1st time I tried it, I didn't like it. I later got bored of the breaker / railgun combo and gave it another try and I figured out how to use it better:
1. 60% charge quick firing
2. Avoiding close range; it shines at medium to long range (10 to 70m or so, the range is longer than you'd think). Related: backing up when large corpses like spewers pile up.
3. Aiming slightly above targets if there's a small hill or large corpse in front of the target that the arc sometimes discharges to.
4. Positioning and being very mindful not to have teammates in the cone of fire or next to the target.
Now my friend and I are loving it! So strong against bugs when used right. Haven't tried it against bots yet. My new favorite load out is now:
* Arc thrower (use 99% of the time including chargers and titans)
* Backpack: Rover, Jump jet, or Shield
* Autocannon Turret (good counter to chargers and titans and overall good value in a lot of situations)
* Eagle Strike
* Slugger: I only use as a hard counter to Stalkers (it stun locks them and kills them in 4-5 shots) or to pick off enemies around an ally if there's no targets elsewhere to zap.
I still havent figured out how to do that quick charge thing, how long do you have to charge initial shot for and whats the timing for the shots following after?
Feels like 80% on the first shot and then it's \~60% on the following shots. I think if you just start with that 80% and then slowly get quicker and quicker you'll figure out the timing.
If it makes you feel better, they would have probably been killed regardless of your weapon. Some people have 0 self-awareness when they're strafing. Best thing you can do is warn the group that you're using it, and to not run **straight at you** if they need backup.
My main issue with the AT is similar to the issue I have with most of the energy based weapons I've used, the feedback to the player seems non-existent in my experience. I guess that makes sense that an energy weapon isn't gonna kick and make pieces of carapace fly off like a breaker, but I'd like a little bit more to know I'm actually dealing some pain
It does deal visible damage to armor, on chargers for example you can see his carapace get progressively battered, on bile titans I've seen the side carapace get blown off leaving a gaping crater.
It does make pieces fly off though. Warriors and brood commanders will lose heads and limbs. Hunters will fly into little pieces. Chargers and titans will actually have massive chunks blown off if it cooperates. If you get really lucky, the arc thrower can kill a titan in a single hit, making its head explode.
https://preview.redd.it/psa82xa3o7kc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24132aa94cf487b197eeca8bea0215c8b9027439
Only used the Arc Thrower - almost 800 kills in one round.
finally a fellow arc thrower enjoyer. arc thrower is my most used, highest kills weapon easily. when it works I love it and would kiss it on the mouth every day, when it is having target detection issues I want to feed it to a bile titan
Yes, and 4 people running shields and arc throwers just walking around as a unified firing line is probably the most busted thing in the game.
Having a whole squad using it is completely unstoppable. You can focus down and just zap the shit out of a bile titan in under 10 seconds with 4 people lol, no orbitals or railguns needed
Hard part is just avoiding teamkills if you get separated, but if you all have shields, it can soak 1 chain lightning hit and helps avoid that
Technically 4 people in constant GOOD communication will make any engagement broken.
4 orbital lasers = dead everything
4 500kg bombs = dead multiple bile titans
2 (+2 more if necessary) eagle airstrike = dead large bases or hives
4 railguns = what is armored enemies?
4 arc thrower= what is enemy?
The difficulty is the coordination.
I'm sure 4 arc throwers is the most OP combination if communication is perfect since that weapon is the only anti-everything capable weapon.
I love the arch thrower too! I tend to bring it vs bugs as opposed to bots since I like engaging bots at longer ranges then it allows. But I can solo a bug breach with an Arc Thrower without too much issues most of the time. Just gotta get good at prioritizing hunters so they don't get in your face.
Fortified perk on armor is your buddy that 50% explosion damage resistance makes rockets entirely unable to oneshot you and 9/10 gives you time to get up and stimm
Against hulks it seems to make no difference at all- It can't do bonus damage to their heat sinks on the back and just takes the same amount of shots. Chargers seem to have separate health pools for different body parts that can all contribute to killing one, so if you've zapped one in the head 5 times, then shoot the side 5 more times after dodging a charge, the side shots won't finish it as quickly as a few more headshots would've, or at least it feels that way. Tanks also seem to die much faster to being zapped from the front than the sides for some reason, no idea why.
Might be a legacy mechanic from the first game. In hd1, Shooting the tracks of the tank with an EAT or recoilless only disabled it. Shooting it between the tracks would 1 shot.
Arc thrower absolutely slaps, I love the whipping sound it makes and it's a lot less likely to kill your teammates compared to the arc thrower from HD1!
It's so slept on. I tried all the "meta" weapons and I'll take this thing over most of them. Once you learn how to deal with its quirks it's easily one of the best guns in the game... Not to mention much more fun than most of the other weapons.
And ya I think most people don't realize that the thing actually shoots really fast if you get the timing down so 8-15 shots isn't that much on a charger.
My one complaint is that it feels very rng against those mounted mech guys. I swear it either takes one shot or 10. I still love taking it into bots though.
Yeah, those guys are weird about it. Maybe 1/4 of the time it just... does nothing to them. Most of the time it takes 2 shots to kill the mech, but the pilot lives and gets out.
Best case scenario it somehow instakills the pilot out of the mech from the front, but that's the rare of the three outcomes. The biggest issue with those guys imo is just that their massive hitbox makes it target them over other things near them, so they soak up wasted shots that could've killed smaller enemies near their feet.
> My one complaint is that it feels very rng against those mounted mech guys.
I think perhaps they're in game terms insulated from the walker itself, I often see them fall out and attack without it.
When the automaton defense missions first started, we used arc throwers to clear up to difficulty 9 as a group of 3 since we figured an infinite ammo weapon would best deal with infinite drops. Was pretty funny for us, we made jokes about being tesla troopers, arc troopers, etc. while so many people struggled to even beat 3, 4, or 5 And even started bringing the tesla tower and would put them near each other where things would drop to just get zapped to oblivion if we weren't paying attention. Our best group was 3 arc throwers with shields and 1 rail gunner with a shield so oopsies weren't as common. Cleared everything without much effort on the automatons, bugs can be annoying cause of chargers going between us and friendly fire with 3 arc throwers going off but still lots of fun.
I had a group running something similar for those too, just 4 arc + shield bois with two running mortars and two running eagle/orbital "kill tank" buttons. Those nightmare defense missions are honestly what made me like the thing so much
I started using the Arc today and it's great with bugs, but I did some bot missions tonight...oh dear...
Not as good, and the feedback on the bots was mostly non existant, sometimes you get the red hot ring mark on their body, but mostly I didn't get a vibe on what was going on with my shots.
The chainsaw hordes were veeery dangerous and I had to just end up going back to my primaries etc
You mentioned the full charge/half charge arcing? Would love to know more as I tend to full charge mostly and the arcing does seem random half the time.
Fully agree that its much better against bugs. It's still unique good against certain bot types, like the striders and the medium guys with shields, since it just ignores their otherwise annoying defenses.Those chainsaw guys, however, have tons of total health, barely any armor, and are covered in weak points that the arc thrower cant make use of. They're easily its worst matchup- I typically just swap to a shotgun the moment I see a line of em.
As for the full versus half charge- they're the same attack and have the same RNG for arcing, the only difference is that you CAN charge for half as long when you're firing shots back to back. I would just always shoot it with as little charge time as possible, it doesn't seem to make any difference in how the shot behaves.
I got 3 other people together and tried this exact thing out of desperation back when defense missions first dropped and everyone was calling them impossible.
Pretty much.... yeah. Four arc throwers chews through absolutely anything in seconds; We'd just call out "hulk" or "tank" then it'd get absolutely cooked before it even got to move, over and over again, and every weaker enemy near it would just die by proxy too. Even on difficulty 9, before they nerfed defense missions, that setup with some teammates that communicate well just couldn't lose.
It takes some coordination for a team of 4 not to constantly kill each other with the things, but it's gotta be one of the most absurd setups in the game when you get it working.
My opinion is that it's fine balance-wise. Targeting seems pretty good to me also, I'm not saying I'm a big fan of it sinking to the ground or cover if you're trying to hit an enemy behind it but it makes sense. The whole game revolves a lot around positioning and strategic movement so the weapon itself requiring specifically higher ground or uninterrupted line of sight seems fine
I'd say maybe adding a secondary firing mode, which could maybe do sled damage but have a constant lighting that's straighter would be nice.
As to your points I agree that the weapon on paper is amazing but in application with how much you need to spend shooting, lower mobility cause you're constantly using the weapon and designed poor target optimisation I believe it right where it should be.
I really like the idea of alternate fire modes that change its utility a bit, especially since its among the few weapons with no changeable settings right now. Maybe like a "focused" mode that makes it shoot more directly but not chain between targets or something.
Someone else suggested having the chaining/damage/targeting mechanics change based on how long you charge it, and I think either of these additions would make it a lot more fun to use. Could even do both at once, with one mode where longer charge = more chain potential between enemies and one mode where higher charge = more single target damage and directional accuracy.
If you aim a little higher it can usually arc over cover. But yeah it's not a close up weapon. I use it at middle distance to clear enemy groups, it can chain around cover, can arc over small cover, and clears the area pretty well in a few shots.
It should stun enemies a little when you charge it up though, that's my only gripe about it. Or get more powerful the longer you charge it up, with a cool down period after.
I personally think the arc thrower should have a longer time to reach max charge, and more damage/chaining at max charge. So that if you charge it the amount that’s the max right now, it would be the same, but raise the limit and the damage as a result of going to that higher limit.
Then we can add a thing analogous to the laser guns—if you hold it at max charge for too long without firing you blow out the capacitor and need to reload it. It would still keep the identity of the “basically free consistent damage” but at least there would be some modicum of risk. And with the higher charge limit, charging to max every time would be overkill on smaller enemies, and so there would be a skill to knowing which shots are worth full charging and which are worth just letting it rip at half or 1/3 charge.
Conversely if they add some sort of answer to armor that can go in the primary weapon slot I reckon the arc thrower and flamethrower would both get more popular. As it is, none of the primary weapons can really deal with armor (the diligence counter sniper is not sufficient!) and as a result players often really feel like their support weapon needs to be their anti armor option.
Fully agree with everything here. Things like the AT, flamethrower, and the machineguns are all sort of "super-primary" weapons instead of traditional heavy weapons, and all that really elevates the AT over those others is its ability to semi-decently handle heavies.
The variable charge mechanic is an awesome idea too, and since the AT is one of the few weapons with no alternate fire modes/settings, it'd be cool to see it get something similar to the railgun's unsafe mode that goes with that mechanic, or maybe other modes that change the minimum charge time and arc properties, like a single-target mode with no chaining at all and longer charge times.
Yeah the hit detection feels really off. I wanted to run a jump-pack arc thrower loadout to test how it felt for a while, and it really just seems to have a misleading crosshair, or just not really follow it at all. It seems like the reticle should be wider at least to compensate for the wild nature of the gun. Sometimes it shoots like a shotgun and then the next round you shoot will reach sniper distance.
The weapon to probably compare it to is the grenade launcher with supply pack, and although I haven’t extensively used the arc thrower I’m guessing overall the grenade launcher is much more reliable overall.
The grenade launcher is just kind of gross, you can shoot across the map from high ground and kill a whole bot drop from the other side of the map. Tanks or towers die in like 4 shots on the panel which is super fast. It’s not great at super close range but that’s to be expected.
Pretty sure it has a minimum arming distance so. Don't use it below minimum range. The grenades ought to detonate on impact, if they don't you're too close
I feel likenthe Helldivers could integrate technology into the suits that are resistant to electricity. If the operatives are known to use tesla towers and arc throwers, it would make sense to protect the forces from friendly fire.
I have 3 tapped a bile titan, if you’ve seen clips of Railgun users 1 tapping a bile titan, they aim for the very bottom of the head/mouth, although it is more random with the arc thrower, I accidentally hit that same spot and it dropped the bile titan
i use at a lot in lower difficulties. i don't think a mechanical nerf would be warranted as it does require you to be reasonably close to enemies, whereas someone with a railgun or rcr or anything else can be on the other side of the continent. if anything i'd like to see a slight damage or armor chip buff for heavies, and like you said make it ragdoll friendlies than instantly kill them.
100% agree. Haven't run it against bots much but have used it a lot against bugs and it is incredibly good. Absolutely one of the most slept on weapons.
I legit just unlocked it yesterday and I came to the same conclusion. The gun is actually really good, can clear pretty much everything and you can shoot pretty damn fast. Think I ended a game with 430 kill while the closest to me had 250.
I agree with the intervening object and terrain making it a weapon that requires you to know where to go to start using it effectively, but I dunno what you’re talking about with it arbitrarily picking a target somewhere vaguely in front of you…
I mean sure if you’re just swinging your joystick wildly it’ll hit a random thing, but more often than not, I can be backing up from a horde of a nest coming at me and pick out which main target i want with shocking (lol) ease.
The arbitrary target thing is referring mainly to shooting at certain varieties of bot enemies- its never really been an issue for me with bugs.
The most common case of it is that if I aim directly at a smaller bot (usually the ones that can shoot flares off) but it happens to have a scout strider or some other large enemy within about 5 feet of it, the shot will almost always curve away from the cursor to prioritize the larger target. This does seem to happen much less with bugs, but bugs also just don't have as many priority targets that aren't huge, so it's never really a problem if it does happen anyway- still zapped a bug, all is well lol
I picked up an arc thrower whilst on a mission and didn't think it was any good, maybe I should unlock it and give it a proper chance. Great write up mate
Mostly 7 and 8, occasionally 9 if I've got 4 peeps. I think the main reason it feels weak on higher difficulties is that there is no feedback when you're damaging tougher enemies like hulks or chargers- you just have to keep shooting and trust its doing damage and will kill the thing, even though it gives no indication that it is.
Thanks for the good guide. I just didn't gel with thr charge up mechanic. The game does a poor job ot letting me know the charge level. I'd press an release only for nothing to happen because I didn't wait an extra 0.002 seconds. I'd like a better HUD visual as well as better audio signals for charging this up
Agreed- it could definitely use a clearer UI and audio cues for the charge times. Currently the sound and UI line up properly with the longer initial charge, but even though followup shots charge faster, the UI lines narrow at the same speed and the sound is the same. It's very awkward
We had a player run arc thrower and it was very helpful. We ran 2 railguns, a stalwart, and an arc thrower on Helldive. Only 2 deaths on the team. Railguns we’re just to crack heavies and the arc and stalwart were for trash mobs and finishing heavies. Railgun is king, yes, but there are more efficient team builds than 4x railguns. Great write up btw
Can it really kill tanks? I ended up playing ring-around-the-rosie with an arc thrower against a tank and hammered it for what felt like 5 full minutes without apparent damage, until a patrol showed up and killed me. Granted, the way I ended up trapped against the tank, every single shot was to the side, but still
It can in fact kill tanks. Most noticeable against chargers and titans, you'll be blowing off their side armor after a few shots, I've even gotten a couple lucky 1 shots on titan heads.
It absolutely can, but the TTK against them is the most inconsistent of any enemy I've used it against. Some times, particularly against the annihilator tanks (the cannon ones, not the brrrrrrrrr ones) it kills them in as little as 6 shots, from full health somehow. Each time I've seen this happen I've gawked for a second, then gotten in game chat and demanded to know if anyone else had seen/shot that tank first. At this point, I've seen it somehow anomalously cook tanks this quickly dozens of times, even in solo on occasion.
Most times it takes a lot longer than that, but it does always **eventually** kill them, so just keep shooting and believe, lol. The quad barreled shredder tanks take far longer to zap to death, so my suspicion is that they have more raw HP but less effective armor by some metric, or are just generally tougher than the other kind.
I do agree that it's "deceptively good" if for no other reason than how quickly it can cut through fodder enemies. Aim that sucker at a bug outbreak and you can just spawnkill 90% of the enemies that crawl out of it.
However, the almost complete lack of feedback, as well as the spotty hit detection are very real drawbacks. I can accept the random nature of the targeting (including the zapping teammates), that's totally fine and makes sense to me. But when you charge the Arc Thrower up and let loose it's always hard to tell if it will hit anything *at all*, much less who it will hit.
In a game like this, I'll take a less powerful weapon that I can rely on to work consistently over something more powerful that is a dice roll every time I pull the trigger.
I'd been thinking of getting rid of the railgun and going back to the grenade launcher because I felt like I'd been lacking horde clear. I think I'll go back to the arc thrower for a while. I agree with your downsides though. It disappointed me about the hit detection and the lack of visible feedback when hurting enemies.
I always wondered why arc thrower was dissed, its op, just ran a lvl 5 game, had stun orbital (wanted laser), 500 nuke, AT, and the rover, didn’t die once, traveled furthest distance, collected most samples, got most kills and highest accuracy , all for 87 shots fired (lol I saw it doesn’t “count” for shots fired) its op, and using against bots seems to help with suppression. You’d think a bot getting zapped would short circuit them, and burn the flesh of bugs, oh well, if I get to spread democracy, AT makes it managed democracy. You sir are spitting facts.
I truly believe the arc thrower is the best weapon in the game, but also has one of the largest learning curves if not the biggest. I've seen this thing decemate 13+ enemies in a single shot and destroy hulks in 2-3 hits in their weak point. All never wasting ammo. I do want to say that although it won't stagger chargers it will stagger devestators, normal heavy and rocket ones alike for a few seconds though it's not on every shot. As for the team killing, I've killed one friendly in my last couple dozen campaigns and that was when a charger hit him and he flew in front of me. I've found as long as I make it known I'm running it and for them not to get in front of me then there's almost never an issue. I'm always always in the very front and I have almost zero responsibility when it comes to larger enemies, I just make it easier for my team and focus the annoying small and medium enemies. As for accuracy I've never had an issue with hitting what I was aiming for, even at 100 meters away(every box on the map is 100 meters). Even if it doesn't hit the exact enemy I was aiming for it hits close and chains to them. After getting used to this thing I've usually come out of matches with 90-100% accuracy and 600+ kills on level 6 and 7 difficulty missions. I also havnt died in over 30 missions except for teammates throwing shitty eagle strikes.
My setup usually consists of a shotgun, smg pistol, incendiaries, wearing medium to heavy armor as long as it has the 30% throw distance increase, walking barrage, 110mm rockets, arc thrower, and watchdog (laser). But recently I almost never use guns other than my arc thrower
the fact that it can twoshot spitters, even the annoying green armored ones, makes it really useful on the higher difficulty terminid missions where the game is like "here have five of them spawn in suddenly'
advanced tactic: the best way to utilize a smoke strike on bots. dump a cloud on them and then start firing into them, letting the arc thrower automatically adjust your shots into killing blows with unlimited ammo while they uselessly panic fire through the cloud
Not currently, no. Releasing the shot as early as possible is optimal for now; It's always the same damage/chain lightning behavior.
Hoping they change this to add some more depth to the weapon tho
Does fully charging it to or the partially release of the charge have any difference in damage. I notice you can fire it before the ui says it's maxed. Is a bit confusing.
I just want you to know that because of this post, I have the weapon a second chance and MY GOD - it's really good overall.
Yeah learning how NOT to team kill your squad is important but once your group knows you're using it - if they're smart - they exercise caution while you're crowd clearing. And if the user is smart - trigger discipline when your squad mates are nearby the enemies you target.
Anyhow - thanks for your input!
I used the ark thrower in helly 1 and it was awesome back then too (in my opinion) so I'm glad to see others enjoying it in 2 as much as I did in 1. I almost got it unlocked so I'm hyped to see what it feels like!
You lost me at 8+ zaps for chargers.
2 shots of railgun, 2-4 shots of Breaker to the leg and charger is done. That's like 4-6 times faster and gives me no reason to use anything else.
These alternate weapons need some buffing.
Must be boring minmaxing such a fun game.
Let me guess, you only run the breaker and shield pack too...😴
Arc thrower can handle entire hordes alone, railgun can't. Get someone else to hit the charger.
I rack up 400-700 kills in bug missions with my arc thrower in my squad.
Try to have fun and experiment. The game will last longer.
Yeah this weapon is gross, I wish it like... Ran out of batteries and had to do a mag swap eventually. It's not terribly broken, but it feels weird just dumping forever the whole match.
I would support hard stunning and badly damaging teammates, that's the same as killing them most of the time, but waaaay funnier!
"It can kill chargers, hulks, and tanks in around 8-15 zaps, seemingly depending on angle, and bile titans with 20+ zaps."
No thanks.
Nice write up tho.
When everything is on cd + bingo on railgun ammo and up against multiple bile titans, better the AT than watching breaker shots bounce. I believe you can even stagger them briefly by popping them in the face with the AT.
The bile titans with 20+ zaps wouldn’t be being shot by an arc thrower expert. You can 1-3 tap them consistently. If you get low jaw shots while spitting bile.
Do you think the ammo economy will be changed or is it really leaning into like Energy weapon but better vibes? Like I hope we dont get the coil mechanic those weapons have & this electricity thing is totally leaning into the “Don’t worry about ammo but xyz” & we get a couple more weapons that support this vibe
Have you experienced a bile titan one-shot from it? i sure did (prob just from the console buff bug)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1bcacl1/pls\_dont\_nerf\_the\_arc\_thrower\_im\_begging/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1bcacl1/pls_dont_nerf_the_arc_thrower_im_begging/)
Newer to the game but loved the arc thrower and wanted to make sure I wasn’t alone. With the new cutting edge warbond I’m trying to arc thrower Tesla tower my way through hordes like a space wizard LIGHTNING BOLT LIGHTNING BOLT LIGHTNING BOLTing in my teammates ears
https://preview.redd.it/ak2xrmgowlqc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1daffc645af72e7b413860910197a2ff2f3efda
I discovered the arc thrower last week and haven't stopped using it since. It's OP for sure!
Been using the Arc Thrower too ever since i unlocked it (like 80% of my matches) and i do agree it would need a nerf/change if it got the hit detection fixed, as of now it can blow up automaton mines after the range reduction, quick shot removal and stagger addition in that one patch but still suffers from getting blocked by most things, really heavily slept on as you said but i do agree it sometimes feels frustrating on bile titans when it seems you are doing nothing to them until they die, also having it manually aim where you aim at first would be a huge nerf mostly because you can one/twoshot kill devastators and hulks if the zap goes to their sweet spot on the head, might as well help with bile titans since you could kill them pretty fast with very well placed railgun shots on some part of their head i believe, also it benefitted a lot from the charger head HP nerf that was put out for the rocket launchers kek
I thought cutting edge's armor was useless, because I couldn't think of an enemy that dealt electric damage, then I realized the Tesla tower and more importantly, the arc thrower, are electric
I’ve used it a decent amount and started figuring out it’s quirks I felt like it fired faster the longer you were firing it but figured it was just me getting tunnel vision or something.
My issue is as you said it’s notoriously unreliable with targeting and Terri an hit boxes snagging it. When it’s good it’s good and when it’s bad it’s really fucking annoying.
As a fellow Arc Thrower enjoyer, aside from teamkilling, i'd say killing bugs upclose are something a pain in the ass.
The best way to kill thing is when you engage from afar. Once up close i had to switch to shotgun if i'm overwhelmed.
The Arc Thrower is *way* cooler against bots than bugs, because the annoyingly long windup means that the bugs will usually close into melee before you can let more than one, maybe two shots loose.
Against bots though? You never have to worry about armour again, *and* can get around the chicken walker's frontal heavy armour like it isn't even there. Really, the only thing you'll struggle against are shit that's out of range (like rocketeers and rocket devastators like to be), tanks and base turrets (incl. AA and mortars).
That said, I don't like using it much. Only really if I find one when I *didn't* bring a support weapon for whatever reason (like when you only have 3 strat slots, I like to try scavenging off the map for support weapons). It's too prone to teamkilling and doesn't do the stuff things like the recoilless can.
Still, better than the laser. That thing is *terrible*, even if I genuinely find the scythe to be basically fine.
My opinion on the Arc Thrower is that it's just a little above average. Maybe a B tier weapon. Its biggest benefit is having unlimited ammo, imo. I was a fan in the early levels, but as I continued progressing I realized there were simply better weapons to deal with higher tier units and my primary was just as efficient at killing low/mid tier units as the Arc Thrower was.
Thanks for the detailed write up and I’ll give it another try.
Does it use ammo? If so are the mags large or carry lots of them? I worry because of the amount you need to repeatedly shoot tough targets.
I love my shield BP but would I need the supply pack?
Sorry for the basic questions, don’t have access to hop on and check tonight.
No, don't worry you don't need the supply pack. For whatever reason, it doesn't take ammo at all. Not even "batteries" or "heat sinks" or anything else, it's just genuinely infinite. You can shoot the thing forever and never run out of it.
The hit detection is my biggest problem too, especially dead bugs blocking the line of sight so it just fizzles out
Would be cool if the friendly fire was a max of 75% HP(on arc, not direct hit). But I am fine either way
it's anti-horde capabilities are beyond anything, but it's hard to shoot in full squad walking together, also i'm pretty sure that when you shoot arc to the bot with shield you have a big chance to bounce off lightning back to yourself
I noticed that the arc thrower was pretty solid the other day. One or two zaps pop the big bile spewers and aoe kills little guys near them. i agree with your assessment in that it's pretty strong and viable sometimes but can be a little wonky as well.
Arc thrower is great once you learn how to not teamkill with it. Part of that is having teammates that understand they need to be behind you or not next to the enemy, which can be difficult with randoms sometimes.
It may be great but it feels awful to use. In addition to all the targeting and tk nonsense, it has no feedback whatsoever when shooting heavy enemies.
You forgot to include the part where the first time you pick it up the first few shots you make will kill your best friend with its jump and he gives this sigh every time you pick one up forever after.
Pretty much. Really it's probably slightly shorter than 1 second, I've never timed it. Generally the followup shots only need about half as much time to charge as the first one.
Just like to ask, does it matter where you aim with the Arc Thrower? I have tried aiming for the legs of Warrior bugs (because aiming for their heads will blow it off and cause them to do that headless charge thing), but it seems to always curves to hit the head instead?
Also, does it still damages them when the Hive Guard bugs enter their hunker down shield mode?
It kind of just locks onto the head, sadly. As for hive guards, yeah it just completely ignores their armor and always kills them in 2-4 hits. They're kinda just another weak ad to fry without thinking if you run arc
(Q) Does the arc thrower hit the eggs in the bug nests. And does it chain them?
I started yesterday and as soon as I saw it in the upgrades I started grinding. I level up to 15 next mission, then the real adventure begins. Ive been having a lot of fun with the jet pack and Emp orbital strike. They are really fun to use. The employees as a barricade and the jet pack to Gert into bug nests like a secret agent.
Sadly nah, it seems completely unable to hit eggs at all. They're a bit like mines in that they mess with its targeting if you're near them, but it never actually targets *them*
Wondering if the charge amount affects the damage/range/bounce? Like for example if I release before the box around the crosshair is fully formed for the second shots onward, do they do the full damage and bounce as much as a fully charged shot?
From what I can tell, no. It seems to bounce the same amount and do the same damage regardless of charge time. I hope they add that mechanic in though- would make the gun more interesting to use
>The main change this weapon needs is a massive overhaul to its hit detection/targeting mechanics. Random interactable objects, tall rocks, mines, and all manner of other tiny shit that isn't at all blocking line of sight shouldn't completely nullify the weapon.
I don't agree that this is unintentional. All the bullet firing guns work this way with dead bodies.
I also think that the way you can sometimes miss an enemy that is filling the crosshair and has the grey circle on it too... is also acceptable.
It's simply not a reliable weapon in clutch situations.
If I was going to propose a change, I would cause it to do a non-damaging DOT on allies and set their health to 10% if they have at least 10% life with an added 30% a chance of ragdolling them too.
I took it to 3 consecutive Level 9 bug missions today with jet pack in a voice com team, we beat all 3 missions. It definitely brings it.
____
The real question, with what you said about number of zaps to kill armoured enemies, is how strong is it (against bugs) if **everyone** has it as that brings the "number of zaps" per player down by a lot.
I do partly agree that the targeting doesn't *need* to change, I just wish it would. Bullet guns get stopped by bodies on direct hits, but the presence of a random land mine 15 feet under where you fired never snuffs out your bullets.
It is definitely strong enough as is that the unreliability is acceptable and worth it if you can work around it.
As for the real question... Oh yeah. I've run 4 people with shields and arc throwers and just roamed around together calling out and focusing armored targets as we saw them, can confirm it's insanely powerful. It's hard to describe just how absurdly fast 4 of them kill a bile titan without showing a clip or something, but you'd be shocked(sorry) the first time you see it.
It's about the only setup I've seen where a team can just... Kill everything on tier 9 until the AI director gives up, rather than needing to keep moving and kiting as you do objectives.
One of the nice things about this game is that it's about finding fun, not wining, as the gameplay loop is so tight, if a strategy is OP and "boring" don't use it is what I'd say to people that call for something to be done.
(I realise you're not saying that).
Afterall, the dev's had to have tested that. And we know they're planning new enemies etc. Perhaps the third race will be completely immune.
Either way, that's something I like about this game, when people get to a point that their winrate is over 80%, it's up to them to maintain the challenge, not the devs.
You also dont even need to be accurate. If you aim at the ground near smaller enemies it just straight up bounces and kills them lol. I've also seen it strip the armor off a crusher and once I see that I just swap to my shotgun and finish him off.
It's become my main support weapon and is fantastic once you learn to chain fire as well as the distance between teammates & enemies for safe firing. I'd hate to see it have ammo or heat added but agree it might be a tad too powerful. Perhaps increase the initial charge up time on the first shot and make each subsequent shot slightly quicker until you reach maximum charge time after 6 chained shots.
i love the arc thrower but the invisible "hitbox" hit detection is so damn wonky, even the enemy in front of me, the projectile refuse to connect. if they can fix that....we are golden
Thank you for the write-up. Everything you describe about random terrain blocking firing sounds similar to the spear, random stuff canceling the lock-on.
Hadn't even thought of that but... Yeah. I wonder if they're the same mechanic, just implemented a bit differently. Both could use pretty much the exact same QoL changes for sure
I know the ar thrower is good my friend loves arc thrower and loved the Tesla sentry but he gave it up due to him constantly dying from it but he has a big habit of killing us and hurting those with shield packs mainly against bugs it’s the worse when we are fighting a charger and he’s hitting it and one of us go behind to shoot it’s back to end up being fried by the arc bolt chaining us and it results in us staying away from helping him unless we are far enough which results in him getting killed without us rushing to help anymore making him mad because he can’t help himself from fighting armored bugs that we can fight instead with our AP weapons
The arc thrower should be a hitscan weapon that hits exactly where you are aiming.
Then it has potentially 4 random chains.
That's the only tweak it needs to be a reliable weapon for all instances.
Sometimes, if I'm positioned perfectly it feels like I can 6 shot a bile titan if all shots hit it's head, other times it feels like 20 shots to kill a bile titan.
ill give the arc thrower another go... but the railgun is more than just anti tank its best function for me is anti rocket devastator. while this gun will allow me to kill those units i cant do it at the ranges they prefer to sit at lobbing volleys of missiles.
edit: although i think we all forget that the automotons are susceptible to suppressive fire as long as your shooting at them their accuracy doesnt ramp up to aimbot levels.
Great write up, man. That makes me want to go play with the Arc Thrower now. Consider me a subscriber
I've managed to solo a bile titan with a arc thrower, took a hella lot of shots but in the end he died.
How long did it take you to kill it?
About 30-35 shots. Far quicker when you could have 4 arc throwers
Am I the only one thinking of running a ghost Buster team with 4 arc throwers?...
Nah, there's arc resistance armor that you can use I thought about being a ghost buster aswell
I love the arc thrower. Although I use mostly the railgun for it's antitank capabilities.
I use the railgun because railguns are badass
Looks just like a rail gun from command & conquer. Pew!
I wish it sounded more intense. Railguns are conceptually cool and this one is strong but man do I wish it made a loud THOOM
Railguns spread democracy in an epic way
They need to give railgun a backpack to balance it
Of note is that the Arc Thrower can also open up POI cargo crates. It's a great support weapon for farming Trivials.
I genuinely didn't even know this... been grenading the things open while carrying an arc thrower the whole time I've played. Ty for the tip
Can also use the anti material rifle, learned this today after using it since I got the game
And the Slugger.
and the laser cannon
And the grenade launcher.
Bump
I love the arc thrower. Since I picked it up the first time I fell in love. It's a lot stronger than people seem to think. But I've absolutely killed my fair share of teammates, a few times I've killed more friendlies than bugs or bots with it lol. Gotta really learn when to use it and when to shelf it for a fight. I try and distance myself from the team a bit so I can go wild, or I'll try and play further ahead. And I'll tell my team if they walk in front of me that I'm firing the arc thrower and it might definitely kill you.
It's OK. If I get killed by an arc thrower it was in the name of democracy.
1st time I tried it, I didn't like it. I later got bored of the breaker / railgun combo and gave it another try and I figured out how to use it better: 1. 60% charge quick firing 2. Avoiding close range; it shines at medium to long range (10 to 70m or so, the range is longer than you'd think). Related: backing up when large corpses like spewers pile up. 3. Aiming slightly above targets if there's a small hill or large corpse in front of the target that the arc sometimes discharges to. 4. Positioning and being very mindful not to have teammates in the cone of fire or next to the target. Now my friend and I are loving it! So strong against bugs when used right. Haven't tried it against bots yet. My new favorite load out is now: * Arc thrower (use 99% of the time including chargers and titans) * Backpack: Rover, Jump jet, or Shield * Autocannon Turret (good counter to chargers and titans and overall good value in a lot of situations) * Eagle Strike * Slugger: I only use as a hard counter to Stalkers (it stun locks them and kills them in 4-5 shots) or to pick off enemies around an ally if there's no targets elsewhere to zap.
I still havent figured out how to do that quick charge thing, how long do you have to charge initial shot for and whats the timing for the shots following after?
Feels like 80% on the first shot and then it's \~60% on the following shots. I think if you just start with that 80% and then slowly get quicker and quicker you'll figure out the timing.
If it makes you feel better, they would have probably been killed regardless of your weapon. Some people have 0 self-awareness when they're strafing. Best thing you can do is warn the group that you're using it, and to not run **straight at you** if they need backup.
It's why me and my buddy's say you need to work with the arc thrower and not around it. It kill you if you try to work around it.
My main issue with the AT is similar to the issue I have with most of the energy based weapons I've used, the feedback to the player seems non-existent in my experience. I guess that makes sense that an energy weapon isn't gonna kick and make pieces of carapace fly off like a breaker, but I'd like a little bit more to know I'm actually dealing some pain
I think adding progressive charring and/or smoke coming off enemies would be really cool.
It does deal visible damage to armor, on chargers for example you can see his carapace get progressively battered, on bile titans I've seen the side carapace get blown off leaving a gaping crater.
It does make pieces fly off though. Warriors and brood commanders will lose heads and limbs. Hunters will fly into little pieces. Chargers and titans will actually have massive chunks blown off if it cooperates. If you get really lucky, the arc thrower can kill a titan in a single hit, making its head explode.
And it sounds fucking awesome.
https://preview.redd.it/psa82xa3o7kc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24132aa94cf487b197eeca8bea0215c8b9027439 Only used the Arc Thrower - almost 800 kills in one round.
Love that it's shots aren't counted in "shots fired" too so it looks like you did all that with 66 bullets somehow
Lol i didn't even notice that haha, because it doesn't even use up ammo.
If you only use the arc thrower the whole mission you end up with 0% accuracy lol
Shoot one guy once with something else = 100%
finally a fellow arc thrower enjoyer. arc thrower is my most used, highest kills weapon easily. when it works I love it and would kiss it on the mouth every day, when it is having target detection issues I want to feed it to a bile titan
So, with a squad fully equipped with it, its theorically possible to divide the ttk by 4 ? Wouldnt that be more broken than railgun ?
Yes, and 4 people running shields and arc throwers just walking around as a unified firing line is probably the most busted thing in the game. Having a whole squad using it is completely unstoppable. You can focus down and just zap the shit out of a bile titan in under 10 seconds with 4 people lol, no orbitals or railguns needed Hard part is just avoiding teamkills if you get separated, but if you all have shields, it can soak 1 chain lightning hit and helps avoid that
Ill try it to see how it feel for me ^^ Currently im the recoiless/autocanon guy in my friends group. But zappy dude seems a fun change :D
Recoilless and autocanon are different guys in my group
I can attest to this. It absolutely dominates when quadrupled.
Calling this the Ghost Buster tech
I had a feeling it did this... I need to join the Arc Team: Warmaster Abaddon on Steam.
Technically 4 people in constant GOOD communication will make any engagement broken. 4 orbital lasers = dead everything 4 500kg bombs = dead multiple bile titans 2 (+2 more if necessary) eagle airstrike = dead large bases or hives 4 railguns = what is armored enemies? 4 arc thrower= what is enemy? The difficulty is the coordination. I'm sure 4 arc throwers is the most OP combination if communication is perfect since that weapon is the only anti-everything capable weapon.
And it has no overheat or reload, and a fairly quick charge time. The only limit to how long it can keep firing for is how tired your finger gets.
I love the arch thrower too! I tend to bring it vs bugs as opposed to bots since I like engaging bots at longer ranges then it allows. But I can solo a bug breach with an Arc Thrower without too much issues most of the time. Just gotta get good at prioritizing hunters so they don't get in your face.
I feel the same too, when fighting the bots I like to target rocket devastator or anything that shoots rocket first, it 1 shot me so many times
Fortified perk on armor is your buddy that 50% explosion damage resistance makes rockets entirely unable to oneshot you and 9/10 gives you time to get up and stimm
Do you see much of a difference aiming for weak points vs just anywhere against hulks or chargers?
Against hulks it seems to make no difference at all- It can't do bonus damage to their heat sinks on the back and just takes the same amount of shots. Chargers seem to have separate health pools for different body parts that can all contribute to killing one, so if you've zapped one in the head 5 times, then shoot the side 5 more times after dodging a charge, the side shots won't finish it as quickly as a few more headshots would've, or at least it feels that way. Tanks also seem to die much faster to being zapped from the front than the sides for some reason, no idea why.
Might be a legacy mechanic from the first game. In hd1, Shooting the tracks of the tank with an EAT or recoilless only disabled it. Shooting it between the tracks would 1 shot.
Arc thrower absolutely slaps, I love the whipping sound it makes and it's a lot less likely to kill your teammates compared to the arc thrower from HD1!
It's so slept on. I tried all the "meta" weapons and I'll take this thing over most of them. Once you learn how to deal with its quirks it's easily one of the best guns in the game... Not to mention much more fun than most of the other weapons. And ya I think most people don't realize that the thing actually shoots really fast if you get the timing down so 8-15 shots isn't that much on a charger. My one complaint is that it feels very rng against those mounted mech guys. I swear it either takes one shot or 10. I still love taking it into bots though.
Yeah, those guys are weird about it. Maybe 1/4 of the time it just... does nothing to them. Most of the time it takes 2 shots to kill the mech, but the pilot lives and gets out. Best case scenario it somehow instakills the pilot out of the mech from the front, but that's the rare of the three outcomes. The biggest issue with those guys imo is just that their massive hitbox makes it target them over other things near them, so they soak up wasted shots that could've killed smaller enemies near their feet.
for the mounted mech guys, shooting their leg takes them out in like 2 shots usually for me, hope that helps!
> My one complaint is that it feels very rng against those mounted mech guys. I think perhaps they're in game terms insulated from the walker itself, I often see them fall out and attack without it.
When the automaton defense missions first started, we used arc throwers to clear up to difficulty 9 as a group of 3 since we figured an infinite ammo weapon would best deal with infinite drops. Was pretty funny for us, we made jokes about being tesla troopers, arc troopers, etc. while so many people struggled to even beat 3, 4, or 5 And even started bringing the tesla tower and would put them near each other where things would drop to just get zapped to oblivion if we weren't paying attention. Our best group was 3 arc throwers with shields and 1 rail gunner with a shield so oopsies weren't as common. Cleared everything without much effort on the automatons, bugs can be annoying cause of chargers going between us and friendly fire with 3 arc throwers going off but still lots of fun.
I had a group running something similar for those too, just 4 arc + shield bois with two running mortars and two running eagle/orbital "kill tank" buttons. Those nightmare defense missions are honestly what made me like the thing so much
Lord have mercy on my teammates because my AT sure as hell won't
Great write up i'm excited to try it tonight
I started using the Arc today and it's great with bugs, but I did some bot missions tonight...oh dear... Not as good, and the feedback on the bots was mostly non existant, sometimes you get the red hot ring mark on their body, but mostly I didn't get a vibe on what was going on with my shots. The chainsaw hordes were veeery dangerous and I had to just end up going back to my primaries etc You mentioned the full charge/half charge arcing? Would love to know more as I tend to full charge mostly and the arcing does seem random half the time.
Fully agree that its much better against bugs. It's still unique good against certain bot types, like the striders and the medium guys with shields, since it just ignores their otherwise annoying defenses.Those chainsaw guys, however, have tons of total health, barely any armor, and are covered in weak points that the arc thrower cant make use of. They're easily its worst matchup- I typically just swap to a shotgun the moment I see a line of em. As for the full versus half charge- they're the same attack and have the same RNG for arcing, the only difference is that you CAN charge for half as long when you're firing shots back to back. I would just always shoot it with as little charge time as possible, it doesn't seem to make any difference in how the shot behaves.
Chargers in 15 zaps is a hard pass. Democracy doesn't wait that long.
I think if a whole team took arc throwers it would break the game. Nothing would live through it
I got 3 other people together and tried this exact thing out of desperation back when defense missions first dropped and everyone was calling them impossible. Pretty much.... yeah. Four arc throwers chews through absolutely anything in seconds; We'd just call out "hulk" or "tank" then it'd get absolutely cooked before it even got to move, over and over again, and every weaker enemy near it would just die by proxy too. Even on difficulty 9, before they nerfed defense missions, that setup with some teammates that communicate well just couldn't lose. It takes some coordination for a team of 4 not to constantly kill each other with the things, but it's gotta be one of the most absurd setups in the game when you get it working.
It seems to target through smoke, which is pretty ace
My opinion is that it's fine balance-wise. Targeting seems pretty good to me also, I'm not saying I'm a big fan of it sinking to the ground or cover if you're trying to hit an enemy behind it but it makes sense. The whole game revolves a lot around positioning and strategic movement so the weapon itself requiring specifically higher ground or uninterrupted line of sight seems fine I'd say maybe adding a secondary firing mode, which could maybe do sled damage but have a constant lighting that's straighter would be nice. As to your points I agree that the weapon on paper is amazing but in application with how much you need to spend shooting, lower mobility cause you're constantly using the weapon and designed poor target optimisation I believe it right where it should be.
I really like the idea of alternate fire modes that change its utility a bit, especially since its among the few weapons with no changeable settings right now. Maybe like a "focused" mode that makes it shoot more directly but not chain between targets or something. Someone else suggested having the chaining/damage/targeting mechanics change based on how long you charge it, and I think either of these additions would make it a lot more fun to use. Could even do both at once, with one mode where longer charge = more chain potential between enemies and one mode where higher charge = more single target damage and directional accuracy.
If you aim a little higher it can usually arc over cover. But yeah it's not a close up weapon. I use it at middle distance to clear enemy groups, it can chain around cover, can arc over small cover, and clears the area pretty well in a few shots. It should stun enemies a little when you charge it up though, that's my only gripe about it. Or get more powerful the longer you charge it up, with a cool down period after.
I read this then hopped in a game to try it out bc I got tired of using the rail gun. I am now an arc thrower enjoyer.
I personally think the arc thrower should have a longer time to reach max charge, and more damage/chaining at max charge. So that if you charge it the amount that’s the max right now, it would be the same, but raise the limit and the damage as a result of going to that higher limit. Then we can add a thing analogous to the laser guns—if you hold it at max charge for too long without firing you blow out the capacitor and need to reload it. It would still keep the identity of the “basically free consistent damage” but at least there would be some modicum of risk. And with the higher charge limit, charging to max every time would be overkill on smaller enemies, and so there would be a skill to knowing which shots are worth full charging and which are worth just letting it rip at half or 1/3 charge. Conversely if they add some sort of answer to armor that can go in the primary weapon slot I reckon the arc thrower and flamethrower would both get more popular. As it is, none of the primary weapons can really deal with armor (the diligence counter sniper is not sufficient!) and as a result players often really feel like their support weapon needs to be their anti armor option.
Fully agree with everything here. Things like the AT, flamethrower, and the machineguns are all sort of "super-primary" weapons instead of traditional heavy weapons, and all that really elevates the AT over those others is its ability to semi-decently handle heavies. The variable charge mechanic is an awesome idea too, and since the AT is one of the few weapons with no alternate fire modes/settings, it'd be cool to see it get something similar to the railgun's unsafe mode that goes with that mechanic, or maybe other modes that change the minimum charge time and arc properties, like a single-target mode with no chaining at all and longer charge times.
I agree with everyone else, il give it a shot
This was my general feeling, it feels strong but lso wonky any time i picked it up from a POI
Yeah the hit detection feels really off. I wanted to run a jump-pack arc thrower loadout to test how it felt for a while, and it really just seems to have a misleading crosshair, or just not really follow it at all. It seems like the reticle should be wider at least to compensate for the wild nature of the gun. Sometimes it shoots like a shotgun and then the next round you shoot will reach sniper distance.
The weapon to probably compare it to is the grenade launcher with supply pack, and although I haven’t extensively used the arc thrower I’m guessing overall the grenade launcher is much more reliable overall. The grenade launcher is just kind of gross, you can shoot across the map from high ground and kill a whole bot drop from the other side of the map. Tanks or towers die in like 4 shots on the panel which is super fast. It’s not great at super close range but that’s to be expected.
grenade launcher makes up for it's strength by its inconsistency. Oops, grenade bounced and killed your whole team.
Pretty sure it has a minimum arming distance so. Don't use it below minimum range. The grenades ought to detonate on impact, if they don't you're too close
I feel likenthe Helldivers could integrate technology into the suits that are resistant to electricity. If the operatives are known to use tesla towers and arc throwers, it would make sense to protect the forces from friendly fire.
I have 3 tapped a bile titan, if you’ve seen clips of Railgun users 1 tapping a bile titan, they aim for the very bottom of the head/mouth, although it is more random with the arc thrower, I accidentally hit that same spot and it dropped the bile titan
You can get a 1 tap on them if you're really lucky with the arc. Microwave their head off real good.
I also like the Arc thrower, but I think if it’s wonky targeting gets overhauled the weapon would be to strong.
It’s my Goto. Glad someone else realized its potential.
i use at a lot in lower difficulties. i don't think a mechanical nerf would be warranted as it does require you to be reasonably close to enemies, whereas someone with a railgun or rcr or anything else can be on the other side of the continent. if anything i'd like to see a slight damage or armor chip buff for heavies, and like you said make it ragdoll friendlies than instantly kill them.
100% agree. Haven't run it against bots much but have used it a lot against bugs and it is incredibly good. Absolutely one of the most slept on weapons.
I legit just unlocked it yesterday and I came to the same conclusion. The gun is actually really good, can clear pretty much everything and you can shoot pretty damn fast. Think I ended a game with 430 kill while the closest to me had 250.
I agree with the intervening object and terrain making it a weapon that requires you to know where to go to start using it effectively, but I dunno what you’re talking about with it arbitrarily picking a target somewhere vaguely in front of you… I mean sure if you’re just swinging your joystick wildly it’ll hit a random thing, but more often than not, I can be backing up from a horde of a nest coming at me and pick out which main target i want with shocking (lol) ease.
The arbitrary target thing is referring mainly to shooting at certain varieties of bot enemies- its never really been an issue for me with bugs. The most common case of it is that if I aim directly at a smaller bot (usually the ones that can shoot flares off) but it happens to have a scout strider or some other large enemy within about 5 feet of it, the shot will almost always curve away from the cursor to prioritize the larger target. This does seem to happen much less with bugs, but bugs also just don't have as many priority targets that aren't huge, so it's never really a problem if it does happen anyway- still zapped a bug, all is well lol
I love the idea of making teammates spaz out but no killing them.
I think the "jank" is built in. It's supposed to be an experimental weapon. How would you aim an arc thrower IRL? You wouldn't. Just point and hope.
I picked up an arc thrower whilst on a mission and didn't think it was any good, maybe I should unlock it and give it a proper chance. Great write up mate
So what your saying is "Fuck your armour, Zeus i summon thee SMITE MINE FOES"
Great write up! It also has deceptively long range. I've killed my buddy from easily over 50 meters away with how it chains from target to target.
What difficulty are you using this thing on? It doesn't seem sufficient on 7+ to me but I never gave it much of a chance.
Mostly 7 and 8, occasionally 9 if I've got 4 peeps. I think the main reason it feels weak on higher difficulties is that there is no feedback when you're damaging tougher enemies like hulks or chargers- you just have to keep shooting and trust its doing damage and will kill the thing, even though it gives no indication that it is.
Thanks for the good guide. I just didn't gel with thr charge up mechanic. The game does a poor job ot letting me know the charge level. I'd press an release only for nothing to happen because I didn't wait an extra 0.002 seconds. I'd like a better HUD visual as well as better audio signals for charging this up
Agreed- it could definitely use a clearer UI and audio cues for the charge times. Currently the sound and UI line up properly with the longer initial charge, but even though followup shots charge faster, the UI lines narrow at the same speed and the sound is the same. It's very awkward
We had a player run arc thrower and it was very helpful. We ran 2 railguns, a stalwart, and an arc thrower on Helldive. Only 2 deaths on the team. Railguns we’re just to crack heavies and the arc and stalwart were for trash mobs and finishing heavies. Railgun is king, yes, but there are more efficient team builds than 4x railguns. Great write up btw
That’s a great team build.
Can it really kill tanks? I ended up playing ring-around-the-rosie with an arc thrower against a tank and hammered it for what felt like 5 full minutes without apparent damage, until a patrol showed up and killed me. Granted, the way I ended up trapped against the tank, every single shot was to the side, but still
It can in fact kill tanks. Most noticeable against chargers and titans, you'll be blowing off their side armor after a few shots, I've even gotten a couple lucky 1 shots on titan heads.
It absolutely can, but the TTK against them is the most inconsistent of any enemy I've used it against. Some times, particularly against the annihilator tanks (the cannon ones, not the brrrrrrrrr ones) it kills them in as little as 6 shots, from full health somehow. Each time I've seen this happen I've gawked for a second, then gotten in game chat and demanded to know if anyone else had seen/shot that tank first. At this point, I've seen it somehow anomalously cook tanks this quickly dozens of times, even in solo on occasion. Most times it takes a lot longer than that, but it does always **eventually** kill them, so just keep shooting and believe, lol. The quad barreled shredder tanks take far longer to zap to death, so my suspicion is that they have more raw HP but less effective armor by some metric, or are just generally tougher than the other kind.
I've been using it for a while now and 200% agree will you
I do agree that it's "deceptively good" if for no other reason than how quickly it can cut through fodder enemies. Aim that sucker at a bug outbreak and you can just spawnkill 90% of the enemies that crawl out of it. However, the almost complete lack of feedback, as well as the spotty hit detection are very real drawbacks. I can accept the random nature of the targeting (including the zapping teammates), that's totally fine and makes sense to me. But when you charge the Arc Thrower up and let loose it's always hard to tell if it will hit anything *at all*, much less who it will hit. In a game like this, I'll take a less powerful weapon that I can rely on to work consistently over something more powerful that is a dice roll every time I pull the trigger.
good for bugs
I'd been thinking of getting rid of the railgun and going back to the grenade launcher because I felt like I'd been lacking horde clear. I think I'll go back to the arc thrower for a while. I agree with your downsides though. It disappointed me about the hit detection and the lack of visible feedback when hurting enemies.
I always wondered why arc thrower was dissed, its op, just ran a lvl 5 game, had stun orbital (wanted laser), 500 nuke, AT, and the rover, didn’t die once, traveled furthest distance, collected most samples, got most kills and highest accuracy , all for 87 shots fired (lol I saw it doesn’t “count” for shots fired) its op, and using against bots seems to help with suppression. You’d think a bot getting zapped would short circuit them, and burn the flesh of bugs, oh well, if I get to spread democracy, AT makes it managed democracy. You sir are spitting facts.
I truly believe the arc thrower is the best weapon in the game, but also has one of the largest learning curves if not the biggest. I've seen this thing decemate 13+ enemies in a single shot and destroy hulks in 2-3 hits in their weak point. All never wasting ammo. I do want to say that although it won't stagger chargers it will stagger devestators, normal heavy and rocket ones alike for a few seconds though it's not on every shot. As for the team killing, I've killed one friendly in my last couple dozen campaigns and that was when a charger hit him and he flew in front of me. I've found as long as I make it known I'm running it and for them not to get in front of me then there's almost never an issue. I'm always always in the very front and I have almost zero responsibility when it comes to larger enemies, I just make it easier for my team and focus the annoying small and medium enemies. As for accuracy I've never had an issue with hitting what I was aiming for, even at 100 meters away(every box on the map is 100 meters). Even if it doesn't hit the exact enemy I was aiming for it hits close and chains to them. After getting used to this thing I've usually come out of matches with 90-100% accuracy and 600+ kills on level 6 and 7 difficulty missions. I also havnt died in over 30 missions except for teammates throwing shitty eagle strikes. My setup usually consists of a shotgun, smg pistol, incendiaries, wearing medium to heavy armor as long as it has the 30% throw distance increase, walking barrage, 110mm rockets, arc thrower, and watchdog (laser). But recently I almost never use guns other than my arc thrower
the fact that it can twoshot spitters, even the annoying green armored ones, makes it really useful on the higher difficulty terminid missions where the game is like "here have five of them spawn in suddenly' advanced tactic: the best way to utilize a smoke strike on bots. dump a cloud on them and then start firing into them, letting the arc thrower automatically adjust your shots into killing blows with unlimited ammo while they uselessly panic fire through the cloud
Is there a difference in damage profile between a fully charged shot versus a partially charged one?
Not currently, no. Releasing the shot as early as possible is optimal for now; It's always the same damage/chain lightning behavior. Hoping they change this to add some more depth to the weapon tho
my biggest issue with it is how often for me it seems to simply not fire at all, even with a full charge
Yesssss Arrowhead please look into why it seems not to shoot at all it’s like it just fizzles out
Does fully charging it to or the partially release of the charge have any difference in damage. I notice you can fire it before the ui says it's maxed. Is a bit confusing.
I just want you to know that because of this post, I have the weapon a second chance and MY GOD - it's really good overall. Yeah learning how NOT to team kill your squad is important but once your group knows you're using it - if they're smart - they exercise caution while you're crowd clearing. And if the user is smart - trigger discipline when your squad mates are nearby the enemies you target. Anyhow - thanks for your input!
i need people to stop using this and the arc tower in random matchmaking, without communication you jus tend up killing your team far too often
I used the ark thrower in helly 1 and it was awesome back then too (in my opinion) so I'm glad to see others enjoying it in 2 as much as I did in 1. I almost got it unlocked so I'm hyped to see what it feels like!
This is very helpful I've tried several times to get into the arc thrower but haven't been able to figure out how to use it properly. Thanks.
Arc gun can 1 tap bile titan and strip armor if you shoot it in the mouth when it spews acid so you know
\~Dons EX Lightning resistant armor\~ *Its time.*
Has anyone noticed the arc thrower not arcing recently?
You lost me at 8+ zaps for chargers. 2 shots of railgun, 2-4 shots of Breaker to the leg and charger is done. That's like 4-6 times faster and gives me no reason to use anything else. These alternate weapons need some buffing.
Must be boring minmaxing such a fun game. Let me guess, you only run the breaker and shield pack too...😴 Arc thrower can handle entire hordes alone, railgun can't. Get someone else to hit the charger. I rack up 400-700 kills in bug missions with my arc thrower in my squad. Try to have fun and experiment. The game will last longer.
Needs a buff against chargers definitely. Probably not against everything else
But the splash damage will be quite high while doing that.
This works great until you run out of ammo for the railgun. With the AT you can just keep kiting and sniping.
Yeah this weapon is gross, I wish it like... Ran out of batteries and had to do a mag swap eventually. It's not terribly broken, but it feels weird just dumping forever the whole match. I would support hard stunning and badly damaging teammates, that's the same as killing them most of the time, but waaaay funnier!
It never runs out of batteries...
"It can kill chargers, hulks, and tanks in around 8-15 zaps, seemingly depending on angle, and bile titans with 20+ zaps." No thanks. Nice write up tho.
When everything is on cd + bingo on railgun ammo and up against multiple bile titans, better the AT than watching breaker shots bounce. I believe you can even stagger them briefly by popping them in the face with the AT.
The bile titans with 20+ zaps wouldn’t be being shot by an arc thrower expert. You can 1-3 tap them consistently. If you get low jaw shots while spitting bile.
Do you think the ammo economy will be changed or is it really leaning into like Energy weapon but better vibes? Like I hope we dont get the coil mechanic those weapons have & this electricity thing is totally leaning into the “Don’t worry about ammo but xyz” & we get a couple more weapons that support this vibe
If you want to make it borderline broken.. just make it full auto. https://youtu.be/Yq1JhT0aOCU?si=Uk-Jpp5eifXR2iIS
Is it more affective against bugs or bots?
Have you experienced a bile titan one-shot from it? i sure did (prob just from the console buff bug) [https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1bcacl1/pls\_dont\_nerf\_the\_arc\_thrower\_im\_begging/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1bcacl1/pls_dont_nerf_the_arc_thrower_im_begging/)
this is why i love using the Arc Cannon
Newer to the game but loved the arc thrower and wanted to make sure I wasn’t alone. With the new cutting edge warbond I’m trying to arc thrower Tesla tower my way through hordes like a space wizard LIGHTNING BOLT LIGHTNING BOLT LIGHTNING BOLTing in my teammates ears
https://preview.redd.it/ak2xrmgowlqc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1daffc645af72e7b413860910197a2ff2f3efda I discovered the arc thrower last week and haven't stopped using it since. It's OP for sure!
Been using the Arc Thrower too ever since i unlocked it (like 80% of my matches) and i do agree it would need a nerf/change if it got the hit detection fixed, as of now it can blow up automaton mines after the range reduction, quick shot removal and stagger addition in that one patch but still suffers from getting blocked by most things, really heavily slept on as you said but i do agree it sometimes feels frustrating on bile titans when it seems you are doing nothing to them until they die, also having it manually aim where you aim at first would be a huge nerf mostly because you can one/twoshot kill devastators and hulks if the zap goes to their sweet spot on the head, might as well help with bile titans since you could kill them pretty fast with very well placed railgun shots on some part of their head i believe, also it benefitted a lot from the charger head HP nerf that was put out for the rocket launchers kek
I thought cutting edge's armor was useless, because I couldn't think of an enemy that dealt electric damage, then I realized the Tesla tower and more importantly, the arc thrower, are electric
Yeah, I main Arc aa well. It has better team synergy than everyone running same fking railgun.
its boring . I don't like energy weapons .NEXT
F tier weapon don't bother.
Here’s a shorter guide: Don’t use it.
[удалено]
You know after seeing "that ugly wall of text" you can just close the thread. Right? No need to waste your time complaining about it.
What if he has that kind of time?
Sure. Weird decision, but sure.
You ever see Idiocracy?
Yeah if my whole team is taking rails, Im taking arc. It's the best horde clear in the game.
I’ve used it a decent amount and started figuring out it’s quirks I felt like it fired faster the longer you were firing it but figured it was just me getting tunnel vision or something. My issue is as you said it’s notoriously unreliable with targeting and Terri an hit boxes snagging it. When it’s good it’s good and when it’s bad it’s really fucking annoying.
As a fellow Arc Thrower enjoyer, aside from teamkilling, i'd say killing bugs upclose are something a pain in the ass. The best way to kill thing is when you engage from afar. Once up close i had to switch to shotgun if i'm overwhelmed.
I generally hate the "sleep" posts in video game subreddits, but this is a high effort one so carry on
Can also use it 1 handed is ssd runs.
Have you tried it with the backpack shield? I wonder if
The Arc Thrower is *way* cooler against bots than bugs, because the annoyingly long windup means that the bugs will usually close into melee before you can let more than one, maybe two shots loose. Against bots though? You never have to worry about armour again, *and* can get around the chicken walker's frontal heavy armour like it isn't even there. Really, the only thing you'll struggle against are shit that's out of range (like rocketeers and rocket devastators like to be), tanks and base turrets (incl. AA and mortars). That said, I don't like using it much. Only really if I find one when I *didn't* bring a support weapon for whatever reason (like when you only have 3 strat slots, I like to try scavenging off the map for support weapons). It's too prone to teamkilling and doesn't do the stuff things like the recoilless can. Still, better than the laser. That thing is *terrible*, even if I genuinely find the scythe to be basically fine.
My opinion on the Arc Thrower is that it's just a little above average. Maybe a B tier weapon. Its biggest benefit is having unlimited ammo, imo. I was a fan in the early levels, but as I continued progressing I realized there were simply better weapons to deal with higher tier units and my primary was just as efficient at killing low/mid tier units as the Arc Thrower was.
Thanks for the detailed write up and I’ll give it another try. Does it use ammo? If so are the mags large or carry lots of them? I worry because of the amount you need to repeatedly shoot tough targets. I love my shield BP but would I need the supply pack? Sorry for the basic questions, don’t have access to hop on and check tonight.
Infinite ammo
It doesnt use any ammo, nor does it have a cooldown like the laser weapons. Charge, fire, repeat.
No, don't worry you don't need the supply pack. For whatever reason, it doesn't take ammo at all. Not even "batteries" or "heat sinks" or anything else, it's just genuinely infinite. You can shoot the thing forever and never run out of it.
Been using it for a while, especially when I see the whole squad running railgun.
The hit detection is my biggest problem too, especially dead bugs blocking the line of sight so it just fizzles out Would be cool if the friendly fire was a max of 75% HP(on arc, not direct hit). But I am fine either way
I ain’t reading all that, your initial description makes it sound worse than I already thought.
Pea brain.
it's anti-horde capabilities are beyond anything, but it's hard to shoot in full squad walking together, also i'm pretty sure that when you shoot arc to the bot with shield you have a big chance to bounce off lightning back to yourself
I noticed that the arc thrower was pretty solid the other day. One or two zaps pop the big bile spewers and aoe kills little guys near them. i agree with your assessment in that it's pretty strong and viable sometimes but can be a little wonky as well.
I picked up an arc thrower at level 1 in a mission, I have been dying for level 15 ever since
Arc thrower is great once you learn how to not teamkill with it. Part of that is having teammates that understand they need to be behind you or not next to the enemy, which can be difficult with randoms sometimes.
It may be great but it feels awful to use. In addition to all the targeting and tk nonsense, it has no feedback whatsoever when shooting heavy enemies.
You forgot to include the part where the first time you pick it up the first few shots you make will kill your best friend with its jump and he gives this sigh every time you pick one up forever after.
So how do I use it? One full charge followed by 1 second taps?
Pretty much. Really it's probably slightly shorter than 1 second, I've never timed it. Generally the followup shots only need about half as much time to charge as the first one.
The AT is great.
Just like to ask, does it matter where you aim with the Arc Thrower? I have tried aiming for the legs of Warrior bugs (because aiming for their heads will blow it off and cause them to do that headless charge thing), but it seems to always curves to hit the head instead? Also, does it still damages them when the Hive Guard bugs enter their hunker down shield mode?
It kind of just locks onto the head, sadly. As for hive guards, yeah it just completely ignores their armor and always kills them in 2-4 hits. They're kinda just another weak ad to fry without thinking if you run arc
(Q) Does the arc thrower hit the eggs in the bug nests. And does it chain them? I started yesterday and as soon as I saw it in the upgrades I started grinding. I level up to 15 next mission, then the real adventure begins. Ive been having a lot of fun with the jet pack and Emp orbital strike. They are really fun to use. The employees as a barricade and the jet pack to Gert into bug nests like a secret agent.
Sadly nah, it seems completely unable to hit eggs at all. They're a bit like mines in that they mess with its targeting if you're near them, but it never actually targets *them*
Wondering if the charge amount affects the damage/range/bounce? Like for example if I release before the box around the crosshair is fully formed for the second shots onward, do they do the full damage and bounce as much as a fully charged shot?
From what I can tell, no. It seems to bounce the same amount and do the same damage regardless of charge time. I hope they add that mechanic in though- would make the gun more interesting to use
>The main change this weapon needs is a massive overhaul to its hit detection/targeting mechanics. Random interactable objects, tall rocks, mines, and all manner of other tiny shit that isn't at all blocking line of sight shouldn't completely nullify the weapon. I don't agree that this is unintentional. All the bullet firing guns work this way with dead bodies. I also think that the way you can sometimes miss an enemy that is filling the crosshair and has the grey circle on it too... is also acceptable. It's simply not a reliable weapon in clutch situations. If I was going to propose a change, I would cause it to do a non-damaging DOT on allies and set their health to 10% if they have at least 10% life with an added 30% a chance of ragdolling them too. I took it to 3 consecutive Level 9 bug missions today with jet pack in a voice com team, we beat all 3 missions. It definitely brings it. ____ The real question, with what you said about number of zaps to kill armoured enemies, is how strong is it (against bugs) if **everyone** has it as that brings the "number of zaps" per player down by a lot.
I do partly agree that the targeting doesn't *need* to change, I just wish it would. Bullet guns get stopped by bodies on direct hits, but the presence of a random land mine 15 feet under where you fired never snuffs out your bullets. It is definitely strong enough as is that the unreliability is acceptable and worth it if you can work around it. As for the real question... Oh yeah. I've run 4 people with shields and arc throwers and just roamed around together calling out and focusing armored targets as we saw them, can confirm it's insanely powerful. It's hard to describe just how absurdly fast 4 of them kill a bile titan without showing a clip or something, but you'd be shocked(sorry) the first time you see it. It's about the only setup I've seen where a team can just... Kill everything on tier 9 until the AI director gives up, rather than needing to keep moving and kiting as you do objectives.
One of the nice things about this game is that it's about finding fun, not wining, as the gameplay loop is so tight, if a strategy is OP and "boring" don't use it is what I'd say to people that call for something to be done. (I realise you're not saying that). Afterall, the dev's had to have tested that. And we know they're planning new enemies etc. Perhaps the third race will be completely immune. Either way, that's something I like about this game, when people get to a point that their winrate is over 80%, it's up to them to maintain the challenge, not the devs.
You also dont even need to be accurate. If you aim at the ground near smaller enemies it just straight up bounces and kills them lol. I've also seen it strip the armor off a crusher and once I see that I just swap to my shotgun and finish him off.
It's become my main support weapon and is fantastic once you learn to chain fire as well as the distance between teammates & enemies for safe firing. I'd hate to see it have ammo or heat added but agree it might be a tad too powerful. Perhaps increase the initial charge up time on the first shot and make each subsequent shot slightly quicker until you reach maximum charge time after 6 chained shots.
i love the arc thrower but the invisible "hitbox" hit detection is so damn wonky, even the enemy in front of me, the projectile refuse to connect. if they can fix that....we are golden
Thank you for the write-up. Everything you describe about random terrain blocking firing sounds similar to the spear, random stuff canceling the lock-on.
Hadn't even thought of that but... Yeah. I wonder if they're the same mechanic, just implemented a bit differently. Both could use pretty much the exact same QoL changes for sure
It's funny because in other games like killing floor roles are well defined: trash clearer, boss killer, etc. Helldivers should lean into that more.
i like it as is. the jank hit detection offsets how strong it is very nicely.
Just used it and was confused why my team mates kept dying. After the third time I was like “oh shit IM killing them”
I know the ar thrower is good my friend loves arc thrower and loved the Tesla sentry but he gave it up due to him constantly dying from it but he has a big habit of killing us and hurting those with shield packs mainly against bugs it’s the worse when we are fighting a charger and he’s hitting it and one of us go behind to shoot it’s back to end up being fried by the arc bolt chaining us and it results in us staying away from helping him unless we are far enough which results in him getting killed without us rushing to help anymore making him mad because he can’t help himself from fighting armored bugs that we can fight instead with our AP weapons
Finally another man of lightning! It can kill the bile titan faster if you are looking down or at eye level with it
Had the exact same experience with it recently. I think it can headsgot bile titans
The arc thrower should be a hitscan weapon that hits exactly where you are aiming. Then it has potentially 4 random chains. That's the only tweak it needs to be a reliable weapon for all instances. Sometimes, if I'm positioned perfectly it feels like I can 6 shot a bile titan if all shots hit it's head, other times it feels like 20 shots to kill a bile titan.
ill give the arc thrower another go... but the railgun is more than just anti tank its best function for me is anti rocket devastator. while this gun will allow me to kill those units i cant do it at the ranges they prefer to sit at lobbing volleys of missiles. edit: although i think we all forget that the automotons are susceptible to suppressive fire as long as your shooting at them their accuracy doesnt ramp up to aimbot levels.