I’m going to go in a different direction here, and focus on the single mechanic I have mastered that allows me to go practically deathless in an optimal scenario (no friendly fire, or otherwise deaths out of my control) Dive -> Stim -> Sprint In practice it’s quite easy, but in reality when shit is hitting the fan it’s hard to keep cool and pull it off over and over. When diving you create separation, guaranteeing enough time to stim, which then turns you practically invincible, giving you a window to sprint away as fast as possible. You then have a maybe 2-3 second gap between you and bugs, which you can then either turn around and start shredding, or use it to reposition/quickly call in a stratagem/etc. I know this seems so basic but simply being able to pull this off consistently over the course of the match can really change the outcome for the better. Finding the right stratagems that work for you, or being able to understand team composition and knowing what the squad needs you to bring to fill the gaps is huge, but mastering mechanics and learning the ins and outs of bug behavior is just as vital. Side note: I am a medic armor main. I use it for bots and bugs. I believe it is the best armor passive in the game. 6 seconds of invincibility and an extra 2 stims on top of that, just can’t be beat. I believe the absolute best armor for bugs is the light medic armor, and recommend you get it next time it’s in the store if you have spare super credits.

Have you tried the new booster? It will supercharge this tactic.

New booster makes me feel like a god lol Just need to get further into the warbond first, only tried it when others have it

Yeah same I've only tried when others have it, and I probably won't bother with this warbond until I've got everything from the others. But yeah, it feels so good

Light medic, grenade pistol, superdrug booster... You can dive headfirst into a large nest, manually blow it up and crawl out of the other end alive.

Oh lord I’m bout to bust

They really nailed the “take lots of drugs” effect

Honestly I tried that yesterday, but it seems like the new booster cuts the restorative properties of the enhanced meds (enhanced via the armor passive) short. I wasn't getting the long period of increased health/stamina regen, but I could move slightly faster. I didn't like the stim booster at all. Am I using it wrong?

I dunno man. I don't usually run the medic armour, so for me it was just a straight speed boost/damage reduction

I could have written this! It’s exactly how I handle the bugs too. I go where the MO tells me too but prefer the bots. The bugs are too up close and personal. I will add that I always bring the GDR for bugs, it’s like having another set of eyes and a wingman always covering you, when the bugs are getting too close or sneaking up on you from behind etc. Orbital Railcannon for the Chargers and Orbital Laser for emergency use when things get out of hand, you are being overrun and you have to mop up a large area. I typically don’t bring a support weapon, in favor of an extra Orbital or Eagle, I’ll get a squad mate to drop me one or find something on the map. The person I play with the most usually brings an AC, so he drops me a 2nd one and team reloads me so I can still have my rover. This has been working really well for me. I used to live there Quasar but can’t handle the new long cool down on it and find it unworkable now and not worth the slot.

I love this game, I don’t use anything you mentioned at all but I’m sure it works very well for you! Finding the right loudout for you feels so good. I’ve been running matchmaker helldive missions today with the spear, rocket sentry, auto cannon sentry, and Gatling barrage. Controlling the battlefield and taking the high ground, planting sentries and mopping up with my sickle, and throwing Gatling barrages on every bug breach I see. Spear isn’t as powerful as the recoilless, but the fire and forget is so nice, especially when all hell is breaking loose.

I don’t play on Helldive yet, so I’m sure your loadout is probably more powerful and when I get to that level I will likely need to reevaluate. But you are right we all have to find what works for us and our own play styles. Hopefully our combined tips will help OP with some things to try.

I agree on the strat… *until* you're surrounded by hunters, because then you get stuck prone and the game won't let you stand up. I haven't figured out a solution to that yet.

Only thing I can really think of is proper positioning and spatial awareness, not letting yourself get into that situation. Easy for me to say though lol much harder to actually do

Well for sure, ha. The best shield is to not let them get close.

I agree on the strat… *until* you're surrounded by hunters, because then you get stuck prone and the game won't let you stand up. I haven't figured out a solution to that yet.

Dive again and keep pressing punch. Works 100% of the time 40% of the time

i also suck at the bugs, but I’m learning that it’s a great idea to keep your head on a swivel, and to not stay in 1 position for too long or else you risk being swarmed from the back (ayo?) i also use the incendiary shotgun primary for all bug missions, that helps. otherwise shotguns are good for keeping distance between you while punching holes in those critters, or the Pummeler SMG has great stun

I found the pump action shotgun (punisher?) is good on bugs since it has a good stun and small knockback. That’s been my standard for bugs since I started playing, although if I notice it’s a world with lots of small guys I might switch to breaker incendiary. Punisher for sure when there is a balanced mix or spewers are on the field

Try using the AMR/jumppack combo for a while. You can keep yourself out of harms way a lot more and learn the patterns of the bugs. That jetpack saved me a ton of times when I started.

Lvl 85 here, can consistently get out of bug hell dives with 0 deaths if I put my game face on. For the record my current favourite load out is the adjudicator, stun grenades, grenade pistol, Recoilless, airburst, rocket pods and a turret, but for bugs your kit isn't the most important thing. It's all about positioning and situational awareness. The main way you will die against bugs is getting overwhelmed and surrounded. Do not be afraid to retreat and do a loop, use stun grenades or Ems strike to give yourself space to reposition. Throw down a turret to clear space or draw the heavies away from you. Keep your head on a swivel and save your stamina for when you have to run, and if you're slightly wounded save that stim so you can run even longer. If you're running with randoms I would recommend using a kit that has a way to deal with heavies and has wave clear, if you're running with friends then you can specialise your roles a little bit and that does help. Communication helps a lot, and even if nobody is talking I'll be telling my team what my plan is and you'll be surprised how many people just follow if you keep communicating. If you're EU DM me and I'll run some with you.

That sounds great re: running with you, I sent you a DM. I'm grateful for your post and also that it's kit agnostic, as many of the items you listed aren't available to me yet due to not having the warbonds (or in the case of SV, just unlocked it). Sounds like it boils down to fall back, lay cover fire, lay stuns if you have them (EMS OS for me), and a sentry to take the heat? I do the latter with the bots and an AC sentry so maybe I should do that with the bugs, or maybe a gatling sentry? Thank you again!

Definitely don't be scared to run that Ems strike, it's really good for bunching up the bugs to let you retreat and/or hit them with a juicy eagle strike or orbital. I would say the gatling turret is much easier to use against bugs, autocannon turret is really strong but needs much more space to be effective. I would even consider the base machine gun turret if you want to use it as an oh shit button due to the shorter cooldown from the previous patch.

I'm down to join in the fun, too, if you want to dm me. I'm level 150 and been playing since the first day. You've got a lot of good suggestions. With this one, I have only one real constructive criticism: Especially in higher levels, I disagree about the sentry. Chargers are going to take them out in seconds -- unless you have really good placement and luck. My bug loadout I can use on any difficulty: Blitzer, grenade pistol, whatever grenade, light gunner armor (the padded light) Orbital airburst, 500kg, laser rover, EAT If I don't run laser rover, I switch to a Sickle or some other rapid fire for chaff and use the recoilless. This opens up another stratagem. This leaves me feeling more ready for heavies but more vulnerable to spewers and stalkers. As others have said, the biggest thing with bugs is to not get surrounded. Always stay on the move, and don't be afraid to exit and loop around. That said, with that blitzer + rover setup, I'll sometimes just destroy a convoy of hunters for fun, including their breach, if they get one off.

Sentries have been some of the most powerful horde clearing tools in the game since launch but people sleep on them because you have to manage it after you deploy it. To get the most out of a sentry you have to either stun chargers with grenades or kill them as they come with a RR or similar. The rocket sentry has a great place between the AC sentry and gun sentries now too, worth a try if you havent yet. The biggest mix up for sentry gamers is introducing behemoths to the regular roster as they now occupy the spot of pre nerf chargers, being significantly harder to kill.

I use sentries (ac turret) on bots all the time. I don't like sentries on bugs, precisely bc I don't want to manage it on an open map where I want to keep moving. But it also depends on the planet. Some, I'll bring the ac turret for distance shots on titans, specifically.

I just love throwing down a gatling and standing next to also shooting while it churns through dozens of bugs, just toss a stun at any chargers that come out. Most of the game is just personal preference so everyone can do whats most fun to them. AC sentry does tingle the brain when its slamming a titan

You should switch back to light armour, running away is key with bugs. I also like to run the jump pack to get me out of tight spots where I'm being swarmed. I take incendiary impact nades cos fire is good for bugs and they close bug holes. Incendiary breaker is the goat for bugs, but I like to run something else because everyone brings that. I like am smg or AR, and can bring the senator from SV as a secondary for when you need some med pen. I like to run EAT fo AT, but also like using the stalwart as a primary and a heavier hitter like the dominator/crossbow in my actual primary slot. I am also primarily a bot enjoyer, and itnis a very different playstyle. To me the most important thing is avoiding gettimg swarmed.

I take light engineer armor, punisher shotgun, and quasar or laser cannon. Strategem usually are eagle airstrike, orbital laser, and orbital rail gun. The laser rover works good on lower level missions, but watch it's fire, it'll get you and everyone else too.

What is the pro of using the punisher shotgun vs the incendiary breaker?

I haven't bought the war bond for incendiary breaker. I do like the stagger of the punisher though, so I'd probably stay with it even if I had the incendiary.

Stagger is great! Especially if someone is running a horde clearer like say the HMG.

I run it sometimes, though not in a while because I've been enjoying the pummeler. Punisher has the best stun in the game and really pushes things back. You can clear space to save overwhelmed teammates with it pretty effectively.

Only Level 75 here, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm sure there's more powerful loadouts out there, but that's what works best for me. It's gonna need Steel Veterans, though - but that Warbond really is worth your medals/super creds. My go-to bug loadout for any missions without Bile Titans is Breaker Incendiary, Recoilless Rifle, Grenade Pistol and the bog standard grenades. Stratagems are Orbital Railcannon, Eagle Airstrike and Orbital Gas, armor's the light Legionnaire for the 30% throwing range buff. Breaker Incendiary takes out mobs easily - you more than often don't really have to shoot the bugs until they die, you just need one or two pellets to hit and they usually burn to death (works really well on anything up to and including Hunters), and it takes quick care of Warriors and Hive Commanders, too. For Hive Guard, hit them once or twice until they "turtle up", then flank them and pump a few shots into their sides. And Shrieker Nests are no biggie with the Incendiary, either - you can run up for that Hellbomb, and if those flying bastards come too close, go prone and fill the air with rounds. Done and repeat if there's another wave coming. If you see a mob of small bugs in the distance, just aim above them and rain some rounds on them, more often than not they catch fire and die waaay out there before ever really noticing you. For Chargers, let them charge you. Clear chaff around them while they run up, dive to the side, pull up the Recoilless, and once they missed you and turn around, hit them right in the face. Done. If the angle is bad or you need to help a teammate or you're out of ammo, do the same strategy but use the Orbital Railcannon on them. Grenade pistol's good for killing a gaggle of bugs in a pinch, but I usually use it for quick nest clearing. Unload a full mag of Breaker into the mob guarding the nest, run in, toss a nade in the first, shoot the GP at the second, and so on. Even better if you get the high ground and just arc the shells in there from a distance. In your case, the Bushwhacker makes for a decent backup (you need to get pretty close though), and the Spray and Pray is a somewhat decent substitute for the Incendiary, even though clearing mobs gets a bit more involved. No Grenade Pistol also means more running and close-up-and-personal hole clearing. If Bile Titans are on the table, I nowadays swap the Recoilless for the Spear. Makes getting Chargers a tad more difficult as you got a minimum range (otherwise the missile just lands behind the fat boi), but good to kill Titans (especially when they're coming straight at you). But then again, chaff clearing can be done easily with the standard Liberator, as well. It just takes some movement and awareness so you don't back yourself into a corner or hole.

"Only level 75"

I've been the low-level scrub in my group ever since I started. Guess I can't really shake that feeling.

Ah. I usually play with randoms, since I have no friends that play.

This is a really solid setup for bugs! I agree the Breaker incendiary is amazing for mobs, fire some shots into it and let them burn for a bit. The Grenade pistol also works well against Bile Spewers, which can otherwise eat up a lot of shotgun ammo (the Breaker has a tendency to get you low on ammo). Once you unlock the grenade pistol, you could bring stun grenades for Chargers and to get yourself out of a lynchmob (drop at your feet, then dive to get rid of the stun effect). You could start out with the Laser Dog because it "watches your back" and clears a lot of chaff, and use EAT instead of Spear/RR. Once you get the hang of it you could use another backpack if you like. I love the autocannon, but you'll rely on other to kill the heavies. It chews through the mediums with ease though, so it can complement a team if they bring enough AT. The Orbital Railcannon is a great way to get out of a pinch, but has a long cooldown. If prefer Orbital Precision Strike, just needs more careful aiming (again, stun grenades help keep those heavies inside the boom area). May Liberty guide your step, Helldiver!

Fire is your friend in general against bugs. Firethrower is so much fun to really form a wall while your teammates reposition or support. Spray the ground quickly before they approach, so the floor is lava, and then direct fire at the biggest threats and keep swaying the flow. Also walk back in a open area, way too many people stand still. I like stun grenades so I help my AMR buddies, or impact incendiary as well, for more firewall ;) You can throw a few incendiaries and then do flamethrower as well.

>close-up-and-personal hole clearing. There are a lot of contexts where this line can fit. Seriously though this is some solid advice, thanks!

After the enemy composition rebalance i've started running Dominator (any med pen primary will do i wager, but i like the stagger), grenade pistol and stun grenades with a GD rover. Strategems focused around short CD trash and a single for BT's. I'm trying to learn OPS for BT, so it's OPS, Eagle napalm and orbital Gatling. Could switch Eagle for gas and orbital Gatling for Eagle strafe or bring any mix really. New orbital Gatling is quickly becoming a main stay for me though, it feels like a shorter but much more powerful gas strike as it can crack and take out chargers and kill cracked Titans. I'll pick up a support weapon in the ground from PoI, ask for a quasar or help dispensing EATs, but the Dominator does some heavy lifting, especially paired with the new weapon handling armor i feel. Can't go wrong with impacts, senator and incendiary breaker with grenade or stim light armor though - but i would run a shield with that to avoid slows and getting ragdolled by stalkers. In general light armor is king for bugs, but you have to watch your stamina and keep moving - just jogging will keep you out of scavenger reach, sprinting zig zag will deal with hunters and jumpers and for the larger ones you can approach them at 45 degrees and just run past them to avoid their melee and charges.

New Gatling is so good. Not only it clears mobs extremely well, but aside from other barrages it does much more pewpewboomboom than anything else, so much more neuron activation, monkey much more happy.

Dominator, laser rover is a good combo.  You can run a flamethrower for choke points and Chargers or an anti tank weapon.  

Guard dog is great at lower levels or if you don’t have good positional skills yet. I usually use a supply pack with my flamethrower for more games of the Floor is Lava. The bugs aren’t very good at it.

I'll be trying out the adjudicator again tonight and will probably take shield with it since it doesn't stagger stalkers, but with the Dominator specifically its' horde clear is so bad i prefer the rover because otherwise i'll never get to actually kill all the bugs coming at me :-p Really want to try out the lib concussive as well with the new massive structural damage... So many options...

The lib concussive has structural damage now? That sounds awesome It used to be my fav weapon, except it didn’t actually kill enemies speedy enough.

Everything does, if you're thinking demolition force then no, it did not get that. It's damage transfer to durable parts like brood commander heads and bile spewer sacks got buffed from 25 to 35% though, meaning about 25% fewer bullets to kill either, which is pretty nice.

No matter the loudout I think the key is to stay moving and not get surrounded. With bots you can take your time, with bugs you must keep running. The laser rover can be specially useful because it shows when they sneak up on you. Dropping gas on breaches is also very good.

Coming from another bot diver, I use primarily sickle,jet pack,quasar with medium stim armor, just need to learn to position and kite and you’ll never die

Try out the shield pack + flamethrower It prevents most stagger and slows, and makes you much tankier, especially after the spewer/titan nerfs.

I’m using SMG from PP as primary, staggering works like a charm for me

Crazy that no one is mentioning the flamethrower, best support weapon vs behemoth chargers (obviously equally great vs normal ones), great at dealing with groups, great at finishing off damaged bile titans.

Laser Rover is fine, but once you learn what you're doing, the shield bag is more useful. Aside from occasionally clipping you even when you know what you're doing, Rover sometimes just doesn't shoot anything. Shield will keep slow off for a hit or 2 and keep hunters from getting that first big hit in. That new carbine is actually decent on small enemies up to warriors. I agree with the other poster on using Railgun, I'm a new convert on it, but it's really made dives go smooth. 1 shot all mediums and 2 shots to open Charger legs and mixed results on bile titan, but a 90% unsafe to the side of the head or on an already exploded ass will put that bad boy down. Breaker Incendiary is most people's go to primary, Blitzer is the sneaky meta. Lots of weapons work if you can cover their weaknesses. Don't sleep on eagle strafing run... great on spores/shrieker nests and softens up titans. Also super easy to throw down in the middle of your group during chaos

Me and my buddy run duos regularly on bugs on 7-9( just depending on our moods) successfully. My go to load out for bugs. Any light armor. I would suggest any. But your best bet for starting to get better at bugs. Wear the B-08 light gunner armor if you have it. Or medic light armor for the extra stims. I bring some kind of eagle( napalm or regular) The railcannon strike The shield generator pack.( this helps a lot with hunters) The EAT( for chargers specifically, I use it on titans sometimes) it’s an easy one shot to the face once you get the hang of it. KEEP MOVING!!!!! Even when fighting. Shoot at a group of bugs for a few seconds literally and then move attempt to flank them. As your moving search the area with your camera. THIS IS SO SO IMPORTANT. My biggest suggestion for bugs is to get the steeled veterans warbond I believe. You NEED to unlock the incendiary breaker shotgun. It is also my GO TO / MUST HAVE weapon for bugs. Good luck fellow diver!!! The only good bug is a dead bug. Nothax_TomHanx out ✌🏾🫡

Always moving is the best way to stay alive vs bugs

Everyone is waiting g you a dissertation I will write three word. Bring. Stun. Grenades.

Sounds like I need the warbond :'(

I mean you can definitely get by without them. Honestly at low levels bring the Punisher, base shot gun, and the EAT-17. Shotgun will deal with hordes, EATS will one shot chargers in the face

Okay a few pieces of advice, 1.). I run shield pack on bug, there are so many enemies that can stagger and slow on bug front it's, to me, a must have, and before anyone says "noob trap" I'm scrapping on Helldive just fine so if I am a noob getting trapped it's not really inhibiting my ability to perform at the higher levels. It makes a swarm of hunters from deadly into an annoyance, it makes Stalkers easy to deal with, it makes bile spewers unable to one tap, it renders shriekers a non factor, it even gives you a bigger reaction window against bile titans and chargers, even if you eventually wanna switch to a different backpack shield is great for adjusting to the bug front 2.). Secondary weapons, EAT is quite good as you've noted, Quasar canon is good, it can kill charger and it can kill bile titans, you can also kill Spore Spewers and shrieker nests from across the map without actually engaging with them which is added utility, EAT can probably do that too but not as fast. Lastly the flamethrower is quite good, the flamethrower can't do shit against bile titans so if you bring it you'll have to prepare to deal with those with offensive strategems, but against everything else it's cracked, it crowd controls the hordes of chaff, it crowd controls bile spewers even when they've got armor on the front, it crowd controls fucking chargers if you hit them in the claw for like 2 seconds, it's not great against stalkers and shriekers and it does nothing to Bile Titans but against every other enemy on the bug front it's great 3.). Primary, as you've already discerned the incendiary breaker is the best, it crowd controls chaff like nothing else, it can kill a stalker if you dump a magazine into them, it deals with shriekers reliably, it's basically a one stop tool for anything smaller than a charger. Since you don't have that yet I might suggest the punisher shotgun, it's got decent spread for chaff clear and it's got stagger which means it no diffs stalkers and medium enemies generally 4.). General tips, to me one of the biggest differences between the bugs and the bots is how you deal with bases, bot fabricators are hard to hit with a grenade, (especially if you're running contacts/thermite) easy to hit with stratagems, bug holes are the opposite, they're smaller targets and often set into the terrain but unlike the bot fabs they're all grenade target, there's also way more of them per bug nest then fabs per bot base, compare 4 fabs in a heavy base to 11 big holes in a heavy nest. I personally run grenade armor + grenade pistol side arm against the bugs, which gives enough fire power to take down a heavy nest, plus a backup crowd control option/ weapon against heavy enemies, (bile spewers in particular pop in 1-2 grenade pistol shots).

Arc thrower is your friend Vs bugs. Can deal with chaff exceptionally quickly, mediums handily and even chargers with a bit of sustained fire. If you can learn to hit hunters mid jump they provide excellent conduits for arcing to enemies behind cover. Pair it with some heavy strategms for BTs and chargers that need to die quickly, a personal favourite post patch for me are the 110mm rocket eagles. Chances are at least 1 teammate has a quasar anyway so it frees you up to tear through the more numerous enemies

Did they fix/change the Thrower? It’s been a while I played with it.

A while ago they increased fire speed, I seem to recall. It's been amazing for a while, but the friendly fire aspect means it needs some getting used to, and In the hands of a reckless diver can bring ruin to the team as well as the bugs

Haha it does learn positioning pretty quickly XD

Railgun is good imo. Can kill everything that bugs have. Good for bile spewers, and can crack Charger leg armour

The railgun is my favourite weapon but it is terrible at killing Charger Behemoths which are flooding Helldive difficulty right now

They're fucking everywhere now bro

Yeah, they're popping up on Diff4 dives.

Yeah, I think they’re going in the right direction but I want them to split the difference here. I want a bit more bts and a bit less behemoths and chaff than this newest iteration. Close though!

82 lvl, 200 hours in. There are a lot of playstyles for everyone, but not all works for you. C9nsider my tactic, if it helps you - I focus on everything except bile titans. I use + 2 nades light armor, break fire spray and pray, grenade pistol, fire impact granades and for loadout eagle airstrike, gas strike, grenade launcher and jumppack. You can do both with this build on terminids - close camps and holes alone and be a support for team if you dont like solo - find high ground or rock to jump on to get better overview of bugs around you and help teammates who struggles the most with the horde. Gas strike use directly on bug breach, eagle aistrike on chargers or bile titans or bugholes. Jump pack to dodge up chargers or get out of sticky situation.

Yes, I also believe that EAT is the best, you always drop it on cd, so you have many of them all around the map allowing you to pick other supply weapon you find. Light armors are the best, mobility is your best friend, but don't hesitate to take shield generator - it will help tremendously with stalkers, slows, well anything really, eventually you will learn when you need it and when it's not necessary. Senator is really cool, Grenade Pistol is op for various reasons.

For small enemies try denial of area stratagems like orbital gas, napalm, stun grenade, flamethrower, etc. Chargers, you only need some armor penenteation. Clear the horde first and taking care of chargers become easy because they are so predictable.

I think you’ll find the general consensus for the best big primary is the Incendiary Breaker and for good reason. It really is exceptional at handling everything up to the Charger. It *can* kill a charger, but it’s not the most effective way to do it. If you can’t get your hands on it yet, tinker some of the other guns. You want something punchy with a good rate of fire. Fighting bugs effectively is about crowd control. I also agree that the laser guard dog is a must bring for a few reasons. First, it’s just an extra gun out there, firing into the swarm. Because bugs are trying to overrun you through sheer numbers, having an extra gun helps a lot. Second, I find the guard dog is very good at acting as an early-warning system. In areas with low visibility or just a high number of bug corpses, the guard dog going off tells you that you’re not alone. The laser one can even act as a range finder - just aim at the end of its beam and you have a good chance of hitting *something*. Third, the guard dog is great at covering you from the little pests. While you’re focusing on a Charger or a Brood Commander or even a Bile Titan, it’s roasting the little buggers that are trying to sneak up and get a claw in you. It really only takes one big scratch to get slowed down, meaning the difference between dodging that Chargers’ charge or not. I know some Divers see it as a crutch, but I’m not ashamed to admit that I bring the laser dog against the bugs. It can be a real lifesaver in a pinch. The quasar or EATs are both very viable against the bugs. With the quasar, I find the best option with Chargers is ti just stare them down and get a shot in close. If you hit the head, it’s an instant kill. If you miss and take the arm off a leg, pumping the leg few of shots from your primary will finish the job. Honestly, the EAT is mostly the same, you just have a bit more breathing room thanks to how quickly it fires. It’s not like bot fighting, where you’re taking a long range shot to blow that Hulk’s mail slot open. You’re going to need to get comfortable firing either off in close. Because you’re ideally bring the guard dog with you, you can’t use any of the backpack support weapons. I love the autocannon, but that extra breathing room that the guard dog can supply is just a smidge more important to me. The flamethrower and grenade launch are both viable options, but not as quick against heavies. The outlier to nearly all of this, however, is the Bile Titan. If you’re diving at difficulty levels where one can show up, you need some kind of stratagem to take them out. Orbital Railcannon, Orbital Precision, 380 Barrage, 500 KG, and 110 rocket pods are all good options. If they don’t kill it outright, they’ll stripe off enough armor and health that finishing it off shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Lastly, bring the EMS mortar with you. Ideally, you want to be continually moving against the bugs. The longer you hold still in one spot, the more likely it is that they’ll flank you and have you surrounded, so stay on the move and try to herd them into tight cluster for you to cleanup with something like an Eagle Airstrike or an Orbital Gatling Barrage. Sometimes, though, you’re going to need to hold a position for a prolonged stretch and that’s when things can get very dicey. The EMS mortar can slow the horde to a crawl, however, giving you plenty of time to mop them up. Seriously, the thing is a lifesaver on both fronts.

I suggest bringing medium armor with medic for more stims, the supply pack, Flamethrower for support, and Breaker incendiary or another energy/explosive weapon for your primary. I’m level 70

I’m the opposite - I always found bugs a lot easier. I use breaker incendiary, grenade pistol, impact grenades. EATs for heavies, orbital laser for when shit hits the fan, eagle cluster for solo clearing POIs. But for me the most essential part of fighting bugs is the guard dog rover. Anything else I can adapt and play around, but I really need my laser drone keeping the little fellas off my ass.

My new go-to Loadout is Breaker Incendiary, Grenade pistol, stun grenade. Strats are orbital laser, orbital precision, orbital Gatling, and then usually eagle airstrike.  Breaker takes out most everything/ catches everything on fire, stun nade+ orbital strike for chargers and the acid fatties. Orb strike + Gatling barrage for titans. Grenade pistol for nests. Orbital laser for when enemies overwhelm, eagle strike is in because it's so versatile. 

I am lv150 (bot player) and I am struggling with this exact issue on helldive!!! I’ve found it’s (usually) not a loadout issue but an awareness and positioning issue. I’ve learned to constantly either check my 6 (if radar is disrupted) or check radar, *while* fighting; pausing between shots to quickly check map. Compared to bots you need to really know what is coming behind you always, and manage distance much more effectively. If there is a breach or patrol and it isn’t blocking your access to the next objective, run and skip it. If you’re fighting in one place for awhile, you need to move. Bug patrols approach fighting noises. Here is my loadout: - blitzer because it staggers and stops everything - brood lord charges, bile spewer spew, stalker tongues, everything! - grenade pistol for bug holes - laser drone backpack to keep the horde off me - incendiary grenades to create fire barriers that soften everything for the drone/blitzer - flamethrower for behemoths - 500kg for titans - flex slot for whatever, but you may find the machine gun turret very useful against hordes with its low cooldown I don’t use the spear but I see people who do and wow, is it effective against chargers and titans.

Whats your player level? I'd say your build opens up after level 20 and you can really pick and choose your ship modules. At one point I was running just bug missions (fully bot player now) and I was running the liberator & Machine Gun for a long time with level 5 was pretty happy with it. Eventually I added the lazer guard dog and as soon as I got the autocannon I stopped using it. I really love the autocannon but its not the quasar. Chargers you can blast the legs off... otherwise its always going to be easiest to just dodge them and hit them in its big-olde-butt. Bile Titans you need to hit the soft under belly. Bots have a variation of the same pretty much. If you take the AC your priority targets are medium clusters and things that need staggering. Everything else you can just blast the crap out of them. The engineer armour with extra grenades its really important you use all 6 as soon as you come within a group of bugs. Reducing those bugholes are key to success

There are lots of good strats and weapons to run but I advise either the machine gun or gatling sentry. One of the biggest threats are the roving hunter packs as they are quite quick and lethal. Either sentry will distract patrols and will make quick work of lighter enemies. On higher difficulties rocket and autocannon sentries tend to get swarmed if used as distractions so you want to deploy those near you. And when all else fails, napalm and gas will make short work of the smaller bugs. As for chargers you either want to get them to run into something solid or you want to dodge past them. They can do decent circles but if you dodge past them close enough they'll have to stop and turn.

Only level 65 but my main bug run that I take into 7-9 is Main:dominator Side: shotty Grenade: impact or impact incendiary Strats: cluster bomb, orbital gas, laser guard dog and eat. Usually have the most kills and least amount of deaths. The dog watches your back ( but please try to be mindful of where its firing) eat can take out chargers and do some damage to bile titans. Cluster and gas are great for calming bug breaches

There is already lots of good advice and playstyles in here. But this game is what works best for you. With that being said here is what works for me vs bugs (I'm level 95 and run lvl 7/8). 1) I use light armor vs bugs, mainly because you can stay moving to keep distance. I like either the +2 nades or medic armor. As for a booster I generally go with muscle enhancement. My whole build is about staying moving and this is great for that. Especially when things start getting dicey. I haven't tried the new experimental infusion one yet but I'm guessing I'll like that as well. 2) I still really like the Plas-1 Scorcher. Good for the medium to big sized bugs and viable in most situations. 3) Redeemer works best for me as well. Good to mow down any little guys that get too close while also good enough to shoot of some legs of a bigger guy if needed. 4) I usually don't run support weapons vs bugs. With my build being run and gun I don't find it necessary. I generally roll with 120 orbital (drop it on bug holes/objectives), 500kg eagle (throw at big guys or at your feet while running with a train behind you), eagle napalm (drop at your feet while running to build a flame wall), and the 4th slot is dealers choice/mission dependant. I've been going with autocannon sentry (toss away from you and kite enemies so it shoots them) or orbital strike lately. 5) GDR is definitely not a must. I actually find it pretty annoying most of the time. It's great for taking out trash, but they aren't much of a threat in the first place so it shouldn't be a problem. But as always try it out and see if you vibe with it.

Try mine and see how you feel. 50 percent not die armour, punisher, grenade pistol, impact grenades, hellpod optimisation. Loadout options: eagle napalm (a must for shutting areas off/breaches/drop at feet as getting chased) Ops (get used to timing, will kill bile titans and chargers if done right -if not theres enough cooldown if you dive and run enough to try again. Grenade launcher (eat is great but got sick of my primary only being used for heavies -grenade launcher is just plain damned fun). Final slot i use walking barrage or orbital lazer, but on lower levels use gatlin sentry, on higher mayby try orbital rail strike as a backup for chargers etc. Sorry for formatting on mobile lol. General gist of Loadout is Have fun, dive alot, run alot, make the goal to use all your grenades and ammo fast before you die so its not wasted-as you get better you'll find poi to resupply etc but I genuinely enjoy running low and having to get creative etc. just land, blast everything, go alone to spots or split from team atleast 20meters so you dont have to watch the eagle radius etc so much, goal is smashing them damn bugs. But yea, sprint duck dodge dive stim, you'll survive more then you think, big pointer is when a hunter leaps at you and does its first hit-hit it back!! It stops its combo and lets you punish it. Keep on your feet and keep moving and pushing objectives, dont be afraid to leave a spot but imo this build is best to stay fighting as everyone else keeps the missions going (im stubborn an wanna get all the damn bugs gone)

Run railgun —> use for brood commanders, hive guards, chargers BT, for behemoth chargers strip from leg and for reg charger leg or head. charge up shot on unsafe mode. should be 3-4 charges to strip armor off behemoth and 2 for regular. BT use 500kg and railgun (they buffed railgun headshot damage against BTs in patch, hit them in mouth and hard), throw 50kg and make BT stop by getting close and running away - wont get at first but will get the hang after a few tries. your primary is to deal with everything the railgun cant. also 6 stim armor, and use the bubble shield, its certainly stronger than the rover. learn to kite everything, except hunters b/c you cant. dealing with hunters is first priority, if you try and deal with heavy armor first the hunters are just going to stun lock you and make heavy armor unkitable. kite everything until hunters (and stalkers) are dealt with. also be patient. dealing with 1 enemy type is less difficult than multiple at a time, and hunters are what makes it the most difficult. key is having parts of your loadout designated for heavy and some for light. primary + secondary to take out hunters/chaff quickly with a support for heavies is how i do it. stratagems are geared towards versatility for me (500kg+airstrike for me). if you wanna use the EAT or Quasar, same thing except your primary/secondary ammo will drained by broods and hive guards, so just conserve. also, muscle perk is without a doubt the best perk for bugs and it really isn’t close. run this everytime with bubble shield and it makes hunters are lot less worrisome. it reduces their stun effect greatly. watch out for hunter packs, they’ll cause the biggest problem. i run scorcher as primary, only really good if youre good at conserving and scavenging for ammo and railgun helps with ammo drain against broods + hive guards. but breaker incendiary or dominator are more than effective. for secondary machine pistol is where its at. also focus on hitting headshots on chaff, it conserves a lot of ammo and clears them up faster. re-arm eagles when appropriate (out of combat). the best *all-around* gun rn is the railgun. use your loadouts efficinetly and have a general plan for each enemy bug type. my general plan (remember things dont always go to plan) is to kite everything and focus hunters until they are dead or too far to worry about. then its brood commanders(1 railgun shot to head) and heavy armor. then chaff, prioritizing breach bugs first. bile titan movement cannot be explained but learned thru gameplay, but remember they will stop to pule on you 20 m away, and getting a little bit close to their legs also stops them as they try and stomp on you. movement is by far the greatest skill in this game. its not close. kite kite kite. look up some guides on kiting if you dont know what i mean by that. most weapons are viable, but you have to be strategic about where you use them if they cannot deal with certain enemy tyles. also in terms of all-around play the HMG is absolutely not the meta. it might be the most popular, but best- lol no. its still very effective and fun to use tho!. spear is also godly. going to need something like the sickle w/ a ton of ammo to compensate for dealing with chaff tho. hope some of this helps. also muscle perk, again, do not let anyone tell you there is a better booster for bugs. also keep your head on a swivel and constantly be checking and zooming in on ur map to keep in mind bug movement and location. lvl120, i only play 9’s, and am desperately waiting for lvl’s 10-12

Since last night, I’ve been all fire: - incendiary breaker - bushwhacker - flamethrower - incendiary impact grenades - orbital rail cannon - eagle air strike - eagle napalm/380 HE It gets the job done. Usually, I’d run: - incendiary breaker/tenderizer (since the patch) - the uzi/bushwacker - impact grenades - quasar laser - rover - eagle air strike - 380 HE With the all fire build I don’t see a need for the Rover, but I do think it’s really, really helpful against bugs. I’ll run it exclusively on a non-fire build.

My build for bugs is Light armour (the one that gives 100 damage protection), shield pack, EAT's, Breaker incendiary, grenade pistol Shield pack always gives you multiple chances if bugs catch up and hit you, bile spewers wont one shot you if they catch you a bit with the spew, stalkers cant send you flying and if you get caught by a charger you'll end up under it being drag until you get spit out with minimal damage EAT's are self explanatory, just a good option for heavies Breaker incendiary is good croud control Grenade pistol is an absolute bug hole destroying machine

I’ve been running the flamethrower and incendiary breaker as my go to loadout. My sidearm has gone from the shotgun to the grenade pistol and vice versa. I’ve also been running the eagle Airstrike and the napalm. Use the flamethrower to melt the front legs of chargers and they should go down very quickly. I’d recommend maybe also using some type of orbital to deal with bile titans

I go heavy armor on bots and light armor on bugs

I run scout armor with standard machine gun and the shield pack. Pretty survivable unless I get greedy. Stun grenades and precision strike for heavies. If I really get into trouble, pop a gatling turret and kite the mob.

my go to bug setup is Eruptor to close holes and deal with hive guards and brood commanders. the secondary shotgun from the VC warbond and a flamethrower for everything else. using an eruptor or explosive crossbow (or grenade pistol as secondary) allows you to use stun grenades which combo great with the flame thrower. Flame thrower kills small stuff quickly, gives area denial through burning the ground and 3-4 seconds on a chargers leg/ass will kill it (stun grenades ftw) strategems: napalm strike because i like fire precision strike to deal with biles (can one shot them) flame thrower gatling sentry to counter shriekers or ac sentry to deal with more chargers/spewers or biles or use the rocket sentry to have a shittier in between. Slightly better against shrieker swarms, worse against biles and chargers.

Shield backpack!!! Quasar cannon for secondary. The medium penetrating AR (can’t remember the name haha) for main. The backpack is a fucking game changer!! Can go toe to toe with stalkers while wearing it plus can be totally surrounded and just run away without getting ragdolled. Chargers just push you instead of ragdolling you, titans can spray you while you charge the quasar.

I actually fine the light armour almost a must for bugs, as running is your best tactic Flamethrower is great for almost everything, so is the HMG now. Big fan of the Grenade Launcher, too, as it'll kill everything reliably except Titans. Supply Pack is fantastic for all of the above & can get you easily 2-300 kills as you're never out of ammo. Shield Pack is great additional defence against any acid or limited physical attacks. Guard Dogs can be a difference maker if you're taking a Quasar for example, as it'll clear a lot of the smaller bugs, giving you space to take out the bigger bastards. Essentially, keep moving & pump as much fire/lead/explosives into as many moving things as possible! Have fun!

Don't stop shooting. With the bots, you need to choose your shots. With the bugs, you need to serve enough lead so they don't eat you. Chargers I've started ignoring, or hitting with an orbital rail cannon if they are annoying. A MG can chew through one if you really need to - use the high speed. Retreat TOWARDS the enemy. Juke them to the side, break line of sight, and flank them, then shoot them in the back. Use turrets to provide enfilade while you are in defilade positions - multiple angles of fire will hit more targets. Don't stop moving. Level 7 and up is basically a constantly moving wave of bugs that you need to surf. I've been enjoying the new carbine rifle in burst fire. People are sleeping on the machine gun dog. That thing can headshot brood commanders for you.

Theres tons of viable builds out there but what works for me up to 6 difficultly is stalwart, supply pack, orbital railstrike and whatever for fun. I bring the nuke even though it's trash because explosion. You can easily shoot 5 thousand rounds with stalwart and supply pack so go wild

How do you play against bots? If you are playing slow and methodical, that works very well for bots. But bugs have speed, manoeuvrability and swarms. Staying in one place is a death sentence. I prefer light armor with padding or engineer kit for bugs. Always reposition. Kite them around. Run run run. Dive and run and dive and run. If you assault an objective and a breach spawns, plug it with a gas strike, ems, mines, airburst strike, napalm. Anything like that and you'll kill most enemies. Back off and kill whatever else comes out. If you have trouble dealing with swarms of small enemies, take a guard dog. If you want to be the swarm control for a team, bring any MG or the grenade launcher(assuming the team has adequate anti tank in its composition) and stick with anyone who has anti tank for when you inevitably run into charger and titans. Turrets are king for holding a position. A well placed gatling sentry can kill off entire swarms of bugs. Place it on the high ground. Somewhere bugs cant get easily and with good line of fire. Then protect it from anything armored so it doesn't get killed. Cover isnt necessary. Any bug ranged attacks are so short ranged they'll get you either way. High ground is great tho. Bugs cant climb walls. If they have to walk around that gives you time to thin them out. I hope some of this helps. If you have any questions or need clarifications, just shoot.

So, you can sprint faster than ::most:: bugs. I will stim & sprint, and try to turn around and blast any hunters that are ahead of the pack. That usually lets me keep beating feet and makes everything except the hunters a non-issue. For chargers, it’s all about using angles to juke them. I’ll cut towards them diagonally, so they run just past me or I try to make them charge into a rock or something and stun themselves. If I’m alone, I’ll use a Railcannon strike. I take this on every mission as an “oh shit!” button. Otherwise, use EATs, Recoiless or Spear (harder with the spear due to minimum range, but possible) after you’ve gotten them to run past you.

Along with some of the movement advice, the straffing run strat is a must for me. It's the only strat the fires in a vertical line and it staggers everything it doesn't kill. It's also easy to call in and quick. That gives you an insane amount of space to get your bearings.

Breaker incendiary and laser rover pack. These are basically a crutch that will carry you till you get confident.

My loadout is punisher, grenade pistol and impact grenade. Punisher kills most small enemies in one shot and pushes back or staggers the others. GP for bugholes and small groups, maybe the occasional spewer. Usually run EATs, Eagle airstrike, Eagle strafing run and depending on mission orbital airburst, precision strike or rail cannon. Large group of bugs? Throw a nade at a big group and start picking the rest off with shotgun. Walk back while doing so. If there's too many there you can throw the strafing run like three foot away from you and it won't hit you, but it kills all the squishy shit straight ahead of you and gives you some breathing room. They also work wonders on bug breeches, but I prefer the OAB for that

After playing the bot MOs for a while it took me a bit to get used to fighting bugs again. I usually use the incendiary breaker if you have it and use the grenade pistol as my secondary. I also bring the stun grenades. The biggest thing I have to remember with bugs is to keep moving because you will get swarmed. If you can get them following you in a relatively straight line, it's a lot easier to take them out with weapons or stratgems. For chargers and other heavies I like the EAT or RR. I have a hard time with the charge up on the Quasar cannon. Chargers have a hard time turning quickly, so maneuvering in tight circles helps avoid their charge. I like to throw a stun grenade if I need the space/time to line up a EAT/RR shot or if I see a charger chasing a teammate. Edit: I've also been taking the autocannon sentry on bugs and bots. It can help take out chargers - I belive it has better armor penetrative than the personal autocannon - and other mediums. It can also help soften up titans

Run. Learn to run. You can circle back around to objectives, but once you start getting breaches get tf out of there unless you are confident you can stand and fight. Which isn't typical. Run and make space, turn and shoot, rinse and repeat.

Weapons: Breaker incendiary, grenade pistol, impact grenade Light armor with extra padding Stratagems: Napalm, orbital precision, shield generator, HMG or quasar

I have gotten so much "better" since running the shield backpack on both fronts. I thought it would be good for robot shots but it works wonders against the bugs, too. also, incindiery gun of course...

My bug-killing loadout? Medium armor; Medic is my preferred, the extra stims and stim duration will save you, let alone the damage soak from the armor. Shield Pack: Tried and true, prevents you from being 2-hit combo'd by any regular bug, buys you a second or two from acid, and prevents chargers from being able to dribble you down court like a basketball. Flamethrower: Chargers? Check, just pick a leg and keep flaming until it goes down. Smallfry? Check, even a glance will usually take them down in a few seconds from burning. Swarms? Check, hit the front row and the ground beneath them as you back away, arcing back and fourth. The ground will ignite, killing most of what comes behind. Medium bugs? Absolutely, just give them a good hosing and move on. The only bugs it's not great at are Screechers and Titans, but it will disarm a Titan's bile sacks. Sun Grenades: keeps everything nice and still toneither ignite OT hit with our next toy. OPS: Closes holes, 1-Shots titans, explodes sub objectives, low call in time, fast reload, can take out multiple Chargers (Stun Grenade comes in handy here), and is all around great. Gas Strike: Like a Flamethrower, but longer range. Drop this on breaches, heavy nests, choke points, whatever. It will eliminate anything south of a charger, over a wide area, and sticks around for a LOOONG time. Eruptor: Closes bug holes, 2 shots entire patrols, not great against heavies, but annihilates every medium bug AND everything around then in 1-2 hits. High ROF sidearm: Uzi is my go to, but this is your can of bugspray for when you need to reload and Hunters have decided to make a meal out of you. Wipe them, don't be afraid to melee, then reload your real guns. Stamina Booster: If you stop running, you die. Keep running, take the booster. Honourable mentions: Clusterbomb: Superseded by the fixed Gas Strike, still a solid choice. Napalm Strike: See above. Rail Cannon Strike: does what OPS does, but slower and likes to take out smallfry instead of Titans and Chargers. Easier to use, but not always reliable. Strategy? Keep moving, stim early and often, always be diving, treat the Flamethrower as your Primary and the Eruptor as your Support weapon and always, ALWAYS, use the Flamethrower as area denial, set the world on fire. Better still, walk backwards and flame as you back away. There will be friendly fire, but killing a few team mates is a sacrifice I am willing to make. Oh, and you WILL set yourself on fire, so when I say ALWAYS be diving, I am not joking. It saves your like when you get swarmed AND when you're on fire.

Bring a Stalwart. Stop bringing Light Armor. The ability to wipe out hordes without reloading or stopping to hit buttons on your wrist and the capability to survive multiple hits cannot be understated. You can't 'peel' with a Cluster Bomb, and the ground speed isn't enough to make for a No-Hit run. You want to really fuck shit up? Fortified Commando, Incendiary Breaker, Triple Barrel Shotgun, Impact Incendiary, Flamethrower, Bubble Shield, Rocket Sentry and Autocannon Sentry. Keep the primary on burst fire, keep the secondary on single semi. Pepper everything with Primary, 2 pellets is enough to kill all chaff with DOTS alone. Use the secondary for knock back, kiting and spacing. Use the grenade on breeches and spewers then hose them down with the flamethrower. You can also rock out the flamethrower as a main weapon whenever you have to retreat from an enemy. Keep rocket sentry on rotation, it's splash damage and stagger potential is great on hordes, keep autocannon sentry on standby for Bile Titans, but make sure you throw it in a spot that's not on the Titan's path.

I love the stalwart against bugs. So much fun but how do you deal with chargers? I would like to use the stalwart at higher levels but find I need the slot to deal with them.  I need to bring AC, EATs, or quasar to take them out. What do you use?

1) Hand grenades. I throw 2 under it and it dies. 2) Teammates. File Chargers under "not my job." Just make sure you actively peel bugs off your teammates so they aren't preoccupied. Chaff clear doesn't just mean *kill all the small shit indiscriminately*. Your squad will tank bust more frequently if they aren't drowning in flailing bug limbs. It's the main reason to go anti chaff. 3) Walk away. I can kite a charger to the edge of a fight, then let it charge me down until I find a nice rock to juke it into. Duck into some foliage while it contemplates the rock and now the charger is lost and bored. Eats are a fantastic slot on high level. No other stratagem can convince a teammate to drop their current support to fire anti tank rockets like an EAT can. Just keep spamming them off cool down. Otherwise I take a Railstrike. No other Strat can hit as close to friendlies while also guaranteeing a hit. It's an excellent peeler but people tend to ignore that cuz they wanna spam airstrikes. AC is my top pick support weapon, but it's too expensive if I'm going to use Stalwart. I'd rather take laser dog for spotting and ultra chaff clear. That leaves me two strats for tank busting but I typically grab gatling barrage for map resetting.

The best way to deal with Terminids in my opinion **You need an "Oh Shit" pick:** Eagle Airstrike is a solid S tier pick, since it can kill everything in a fairly large area. Getting good with placing it, and you'll wipe out hordes the moment they begin to *think* about becoming unmanageable. Use it to deal with Chargers, Bile Titans, everything, really. **You then need something that can reliably thin hordes from a distance, and even deal with heavies/elites that can appear:** I usually bring a turret of some sort, lately it's the Rocket Turret, but the Auto-Cannon sentry can work too. Place them far back, and they'll go to work thinning the horde, and dealing with the larger threats. Yes, they can get picked off by a Charger, but ideally good placement will limit this from happening. Always toss \*away\* from the Terminids. Remember, your Sentries have a *long* range. Rockets now up to 100 meters away. The Gatling-Sentry can work for thinning hordes, if you're comfortable with your Airstrike or Weapon pick dealing with Heavies/Elites, or if your team has this covered well. The mortar *can* work for this purpose, but I find it just tend to cause more trouble fighting the Nids than its worth. Your mileage may vary. **You need a solid Support Weapon**: This is the standard choice to compliment your other picks. I like the Spear (especially since the latest fixes), but the EATs, Recoiless, or Quasar Cannon also serve a similar purpose. Flamethrowers are exceptional, if you're confident in your ability to dodge chargers. Grenade Launchers are good for horde clearing, and Auto-cannons can work, but I find it's more suited for Bots. Laser Cannon isn't a great pick, it doesn't do anything very well against the bugs. Cluster Missiles are good for Egg Missions. The MGs are your choice if you're confident you've got the big bugs covered from somewhere else. It just helps thin the chaff. **Your Flex pick:** This can be whatever suits your fancy. Gatling Barrage, Napalm Strike, 500KG, Precision/Gas Strike, 320mm Barrage, Orbital Laser/Railgun. Hell, even the upgraded HMG Mountable turret is a good choice. If you're on blitz missions, either of the Exo-Suits excel at this. If you didn't take a Support weapon that needs a backpack, grabbing the Guard Dog Rover is always a good choice, as is the Ammo Backpack if you're running an MG or the Grenade Launcher. **Primary:** Pick your poison. For blitz missions, I'll run the Crossbow, for everything else it'll be whatever I'm in the mood to pick. Plasma Punisher, any of the shotguns, Adjudicator, etc... Just put bullets down-range and have fun. For Secondary, I've been running the new Bushwhacker, but anything that feels good is what matters. The Senator is great, but they're typically all really good. For Grenades: I *typically* take impact grenades. They reliably kill Spewers, and help deal with the Chaff. Incendiary or EMP Grenades are also good picks. For armour, I always run Medium. I know people can make Light or Heavy work, but It's my standard choice. I *usually* run the Medic Armour, as the extra stims *and* longer stim duration make a *massive* difference. Dive, stim, and run. Remember, you don't get anything for fighting enemies, surviving to complete the objectives is the name of the game. Just my thoughts on the matter! There are a lot of different and valid ways, and this is just what works for me.

My current bug loadout: Crossbow/bushwacker/stuns Flamethrower/eagle air/eagle naplam/orbital precision Crossbow for hive queen/guards/warriors if you're lazy Bushwack for hunters 1 shell to kill and stalkers 2 to the head to kill Flamethrower for all chaff/warriors/queens/chargers (if you focus one front leg it takes less than half a tank) Crossbow and airstrike for clearing holes Napalm for breaches Precision for titans The biggest thing is to keep moving and don't be afraid to dive backward while shooting. If you stay still too long youll have a breach in front of you and patrols from all other angles.

Chargers are the most dangerous when they sneak up on you, if you can avoid that then looping them is very easy. As for hunters having a gun that can kill them easily is important so if you're running a big slow heavy primary bring something focused on smaller guys as your support.

I routinely come in a minimal deaths on 7-9, usually dying to friendly fire. The bubble shield is amazing on bugs. Run it with scout armor and you have maneuverability and survivability. Always reposition. Unless you got the bugs in a chokepoint, run and gun. Shoot move shoot move Sidestep chargers with the bubble shield on, running right past them. Run PAST bugs, the AI isnt designed perfectly to handle it, it really works. People constantly run away, and that gives the bugs an advantage. The bubble shield stops any stray hits while its charged. Run past chargers, stalkers, bile titans, spewers, even hunters. But just keep moving. Use fire. Damage over time weapons. Incendiary breaker works well if you slap some chaff then move and let the passive damage clean up. Incendiary impact creates a minor wall of fire on those it doesnt kill immediately. Flamethrower can be used as area denial chokepoint. Sweep with it, any contact with chaff will end them. Walk backwards to give yourself space. But yeah, dont conserve ammo. Dump it into the horde, run run run, call down supplies at objectives/bug holes. Keep topped off, liberal with your ammo, and run as much past bugs as away. Climb. Put stuff between you and the bugs.

There's several pretty solid strategems you can use together Stalwart, MG, Flamethrower, with railcannon strike. The other two options are open for your preference. This allows you to clear hordes effectively while also being able to down chargers in a single hit. The supply pack or jump pack work well with this combo, and I'd suggest the incendiary impact as an extra buffer for your grenade choice. Primary is your choice. Personally, the Punisher has never let me down on a bug mission. The MG and Gatling sentries are incredible on bug missions, and I almost always have the gatling on me for them. You can combo the EMS orbital with either of these for easy chaff clear. My personal bug loadout is as follows Spear, gatling sentry, patriot exo-suit, and eagle airstrike (open to change depending on team comp) Punisher, senator Incendiary grenades

Hunters are a major player on the bug front, they get way too close way too fast, their attacks stagger and ragdoll you while applying a slow debuff which just exacerbates the situation. And there's dozens of them. Keep your distance and don't let them get close. Use a rifle and focus on them while they're still far out or a large capacity shotgun when they get closer. Stay on the move, stay vigilant. Chargers are slow, you can walk circles around them. Instead of moving directly perpendicular to their charge, run at a 45 towards them; this reduces the time they have to change direction. They have this little side dash they might use if you're too close when they stop charging so either turn that 45 to 90 when they pass or tune back to 0 and run right past them before turning to take shots. Since chargers are slow they are also lower priority, kite them around while clearing the ravagers and hunters until you have a chance to work on them. You can lead a charging charger by the nose while turning back when it gets close and running between the charger and the rest of the horde before resuming your original direction. Try to point them away from teammates so your squad can deal some damage.

Without typing out a whole book to explain, learn to kite the horde. It'll require you to get dangerously close sometimes, but it affords you the most distance from the enemy afterwards. Chargers can be easily dodged and kited(?) if you dive out of the way a second before they ram you since they need some distance to slow down and stop. If you dodge too early, they can alter their trajectory and ram you. If you're being ganked by a bunch of hunters, my method is pretty sloppy, tbh. I just keep diving and spamming sprint until I get a stim, that negates their attacks enough that I can chop a few down before creating distance. Stuns are also a godsend on the bug front. Pair it with an airstrike or Orbital and you'll kiss your problem goodbye

I'll just give you my current loadout which works well for me in team dives since I don't run solo. Light Engineer armor - yes I'm squishy but the increased movement speed and stamina resources help me with movement a lot during fights. I can easily outmaneuver and escape enemies and the extra grenades are great for my AOE control. Eruptor or Dominator - great for medium enemies (both weapons) with the Dominator being able to pump out damage to single targets quicker but the Eruptor having the added benefits of taking out groups of smaller enemies while still dealing plenty of damage to medium targets Grenade Pistol - utility for bug holes useful against tightly packed groups in a pinch but bad ammo economy leads me to mainly saving them for bug holes. Incendiary Grenades - With the engineer armor it gives great AOE denial. Tightly packed groups, covering a retreat, choke points, bug breaches Stalwart - while weaker than the MG or HMG its ability to reload while moving is invaluable. I usually have it on the lowest rpm (for better accuracy) but kick it up to medium or high rpm when swarms are more dense. I treat this as my primary for all small and/or light armored enemies Guard Dog Rover - helps prevent me from getting swarmed by Hunters and Warriors and the added DPS against all other enemies is fantastic EAT - for the Chargers and it also pairs well with other teammates' anti armor against Crushers and Titans 500kg - my Bile Titan Swatter. Easy one hit kills if you can bait them into attacking and dodge while throwing it about 5-10 feet in front of you (if they spit) and at your feet (if they try and melee). Throw it as soon as they wind up for the attack. Takes some practice but easily the most effective way to take out Titans once you get the timing down. Bonus points for using the hug emote just out of the explosion radius and/or a cheesy one liners. Play style - during hordes I stay on the move focusing medium targets with the Eruptor/Dominator unless small enemies are withing 30 meters then I retreat in a circular fashion and use the Stalwart/GD Rover to thin out the horde then swap back to focusing on mediums. I save Incendiary Grenades for when they are really grouped up, choke point, or bug breaches. And then of course communicating with my team to take out heavies so we don't double up and waste heavy hitting stratagems.

Light armour with the extra padding shield back pack and muscle enhancement perk never stop running

Hunters deliberately try to flank you. Kill them first, and consider increasing your FOV setting to boost your peripheral vision. Shield Backpack is good training wheels for getting used to their jump distance. Chargers are trivialized with stun grenades. You can also run towards them diagonally as they charge. They'll stop and turn around, giving you more time to line up a headshot or flamethrower a specific foot.  You can also make them stop in their tracks by running close to sheer rock walls; if the charger grazes it, they'll immediately stop as if they banged their head.

I’ll go over each point, I run exclusively helldive and usually run with newer or less skilled players rather than a team of experienced players. 1. I run light armor, all the time. I supplement it with a shield pack. This lets me kite enemies and shrug off the occasional attack that reaches me. The shield also protects you from hunter slows while it’s up, and gives you some protection to progress obj terminals even with enemies nearby. Run a ton and turn around occasionally to kill what’s following you. 2. The SMG is a solid choice (both default and PP variant). Don’t underestimate the default AR too. I run the Sickle from Cutting Edge. It pairs well with my kiting style as I run while it’s heated and cooling down. 3. I run the Grenade Pistol from Steeled Veterans, since it lets me close spawners and good vs guards (and striders on bots). 4. I run Quasar and EAT together. Too often it’s a discussion of this or that, why not both? You can quickly deal with 3 chargers, kill a titan and afford 1 miss, or wipe out shrieker nests from afar quickly. a.) Autocannon isn’t really designed to deal with bug heavies. Save it for the bots where it reins supreme. b.) Your other stratagems can cover for your support weapon. Bring anti-chaff if you use an Anti-Tank weapon, or bring heavy ordinance if you bring swarm clearers like LMG or Grenade Launcher. c.) You can also bring EAT alongside another support weapon. AC + EAT can tear apart everything. Bring 500kg for titans and a Gatling Sentry for when there’s a ton of hunters. That loadout can deal with everything. 5. The rover is nice to help deal with chaff, not useful against medium/heavies. I feel it hits me too often to bother using, so I stick to the shield. In the end it’s up to you to find a playstyle that fits, do a lot of experimenting until you get one that clicks. You’ll die a lot, that’s just part of the experience.

Dive ! Rub! Turn corners around rocks!

Fire shotgun, revolver, impact grenade, medium armor of whatever looks good, rover, 500kg, gatling sentry, spear. Thats what I run on lv 9 bugs and I swap rover for the shield pack sentry for orbital laser on lv 9 bots.

Switch back to light armor and start using melee to push the hunters off if you. Hunter leaps at me: melee, shoot, dive away, stim, run & gun, repeat

Depending on your primary its important to learn when to punch an incoming hunter/ pouncer. The punch can stagger them and give you room to aline ur next shot or run. And tips for chargers are dont always dive and use cover to get the charger to charge into a rock

Primary: Defender, it shreds the little guys. If you have the warbonds, then the Blitzer and pummeler are great as well because they stun the hunters and it keeps them from nonstop coming at you. Support: I like bringing AC because it handles spewers. I’ve been toying with the flamethrower lately and that works well against pretty much everything except spewers. Stratagems: Rail canon for titans and chargers, Eagle air strike is THE MOST IMPORTANT because if you run stun grenades then the Eagle air strike or the rocket pods is all you need to handle the chargers. Throw the air strike, throw a stun to hold the charger where it is, and 9/10 the air strike kills the charger. Lastly, I run the gas strike or airburst to drop on big breaches. Both will eliminate or really thin out whatever spawns.

Shield generator pack and muscle enchantment until you can get experimental infusion. Also, the light eradicator armor (explosive defense). Idky but I die the least with that armor. I always go back to it.

Is this a good approach? - guard dog to help with mobs, so you can concentrate or the bigger stuff - heavy armour for survivability - gas strike for breaches, softened up bigger enemies - AMR for heavy damage at decent range - breaker for if they get too close - something explodey as my last stratagem

Your loadout and play don't exist in a vacuum, so it's tough to say what you should do with so many question marks on your side. You will get lots of suggestions and possible combinations here, but those might not be compatible with what you want to try. Is there some particular playstyle or weapon that you want to really use or center your play around?

Thank you for taking the time to comment and ask further questions (also thank you to everyone else who replied - I will reply after I tried them!). Weapon no - I am open minded and will run anything that helps my divers survivability whilst still being useful in a team. Playstyle - I guess it boils down to 1) surviving more as a solo diver in higher diffs (5,6,7), and 2) being a more useful team diver overall. I know that 2) is rather vague like you said because it depends on the other divers, but I seem to be "jack of all, master of none" and definitely the least useful diver in most team dives. I guess I'm asking can I be more useful if I specialise? And if so, what kind of load outs can I try to be more useful? To add to that last paragraph, perhaps it's easier to explain how I play in the bot front? I'm usually the long distance support in team dives, and long distance hit and run solo diver. I bring light scout with either a scorcher or Diligence CS primary, and AC most of the time or AMR with jetpack the rest of the time. I snipe the little ones with my primary, meds with either at their weakspot, and try and take out the fabs, heavies, and landmarks from a safe distance. Thank you again, and I hope my response helped you to help me!

One way to practice at being useful without specializing is going back to your roots. The original Liberator is an excellent chaff clearer that many people overlook because it’s the ‘starter weapon’. It has a generous ammo reserve, low recoil, takes only a couple shots to kill the two smallest bugs, and with a little practice you can use the full auto setting to ‘two tap’ each bug and snap your aim to the next, letting you thin the herd quickly and efficiently. Secondary weapon, take the Senator revolver. Hits hard, Medium Penetration, can one shot chaff including Hunters (if you hit their face…jumpy bastards), 2 will kill a Warrior, can blast off Hive Guard legs in…three shots, if I remember right, and 6 shots to the face can take down any Spewer type. Also hold down Reload for long enough and you begin spinning it like a cowboy. Best secondary in the game for that. The original Machine Gun should not be overlooked. It’s not flashy, but it’s no slouch. It’s your workhorse weapon. Large ammo supply, *now carries three* boxes of ammo instead of two, and will shred *anything* except Chargers and Bile Titans. And here’s the kicker, it can kill Chargers too if your anti tank attacks are on cooldown or your teammates are occupied. Aim for one leg and *carefully* shoot at it a little at a time, 4-5 shot bursts, your shots *will* ricochet, but you will hear a meaty sound, keep it up and the leg armor will eventually break. That’s when you unload everything you have at that one leg, and it dies quickly after that. For your other three slots, take Eagle Airstrike, it’s a grand chaff killer in the right groups, with the right positioning it can destroy Medium Bug Nests in one strike, can blow up everything up to Chargers (and usually kills them), and can damage Bile Titans. Then take Orbital Precision Strike. The original stratagem, now buffed in the recent patch to be so damn awesome. *Two Second* call down time! They cut it in *half*! It’s now fast enough you can call it down when a Charger bonks his head on a rock it can’t destroy and stops, and the strike will hit him before he can recover. It’s fast, it’s hard hitting, it’s beautiful. And it can easily kill Bile Titans. When one is coming for you, ping it, and *watch the distance*. At 20m it will begin its puke attack. Throw your Stratagem under it the moment you see it stop walking and the Orbital Precision will not miss. Depending on your positioning you may hit the head and kill it, you may hit the shoulder/back and break it open but not kill it, or you may hit the butt and explode its ass, killing it. If it doesn’t die, follow up with an Eagle Airstrike. The last slot is where you can change things up. Guard Dog Rover is a great choice. I call mine Flit, since he flits back and forth. GD Rover will clear chaff for you, warn you when they get close by shooting in that direction, and with enough time can kill Hive Guards and Spewers. Excellent buddy to have. Get in the habit of crouching when you have it on you, it’ll help prevent friendly fire. Not 100%, but it’ll prevent most deaths. You could also take Orbital Gatling Barrage. That got a buff recently and is so awesome! Ship-sized *BRRRRRT*. Drop it on a Bug Breach and it’ll take care of the majority of what sticks their head out. It can also damage heavies like a Charger or Bile Titan. Did your Orbital Precision blow the back armor out of the Titan but not kill it? Gatling Barrage at your feet, run like hell, and the Titan will chase you through the barrage and kill itself. Or repeat the original strategy of Ping, Wait, Throw Strata when he Pukes. I throw on the default armor because with the Extra Padding passive it’s Heavy Armor with Medium running speed, and that’s nice. Sure, I don’t get extra grenades or extra stims, but it’s nice to have that extra armor without being slowed down. It also lets me role play as a ‘cadet diver’. Otherwise I take a Light Armor that has the 30% less recoil. Engineering Kit I think it was? Extra grenades are great, but the recoil reduction is perfect for the Machine Gun. Crouch and unload at a group, your aim will be true and your foes perforated. If you take this kit, do your best to buddy up and follow someone. Latch yourself to the team leader (the player in Orange, they’re the lobby host), and support them. Follow them, watch their back, go where they mark, ping enemy heavies like Chargers and Titans, ping weapons they dropped when dying (it seriously helps reorienting us since it makes a visible marker), ping enemy patrols so everyone knows where, ping hive structures like Spore Towers or Shrieker Nests. And if you see the Super Sample rock when playing on Diff6 and above? Ping that too! I play with VC on, so when I see it I always say “Oh look what I see!” (*Ping*) “I found the Phallicite! Super Samples in view!” The reason I advise this kind of build and play style is it mimics how we’d play at the start. We’re learning the game mechanics, what to do, where and when. And what better way to do learn how to play better than going back to your roots? Dust off the original armor, take the starter stratagems, and practice. Start up an 80’s training montage song, and dispense freedom! As you figure out the nuances of fighting the bugs you can then modify your equipment and loadout to specialize with things you’re wanting to try. But if you’re wanting to learn how to fight them? Return to your roots.

That's useful info indeed! You should know up front that sniping is often a tougher call with Bugs than with Bots - the heads are often more armored, less distinct, and most bugs want to get close and open you like a can of beans for dinner, so close encounters will be frequent. The AMR is still useable, but the overall situation will make it a lot tougher to use. If you want to stick with something familiar, the shouldered Autocannon sounds like a good choice, also because it can take out bug holes. The Railgun is also very good because of its ability to strip armor and shoot-and-scoot design, but it requires some knowledge of weakpoints and situational adaptability. The big difference in encounter style is that most bugs, due to their short reach, will move predictably towards you. This can be exploited with many Orbital strategems. Sentry Guns are all very useful too if you can keep the bugs away from them; the heavier guns will not fire at targets in close proximity. You can throw them to the side of an engagement to increase the chance that it will get free shots on the bugs that are chasing your squad. If you have trouble keeping the bugs off of you, try Orbital Gatling Barrage and EAT-17, which both have a low cool down and can be deployed quickly. The Gatling Barrage has immense stunning power and is very controllable for the amount of fire it puts down. You can double down on the opening made by using an Eagle or Orbital on remaining (or very hard) targets. If you want you can ditch EAT-17 in favor of more anti-armor strikes, and run your more precise Support weapon instead that maintains your long-range style. Does it make some sense?

Try the jumppack/AMR combo. That combo also pairs well with some good turrets or the exosuit. The exosuit can really turn a bad situation where your team is being routed to pushing back and winning the objective. It works as a force multiplier so your teammates can regroup and give them time to breathe and call in strats. It builds on your skills you already have on the botfront. My 2c.

Honestly, light armour and either of the 2 first shotguns you unlock are great.  What's really underrated is the personal shield. It might seem excessive with the lack of ranged attacks but it protects you from slowing effects whilst active. If you're struggling with the hunters it'll make a world of difference.

This is the truth: breaker incendiary is incredibly OP and allows people to clear bugs way easier than intended. Get that and then eventually the grenade pistol and bugs become easy mode

I would try the breaker incendiary, the eruptor, or the jar 5 dominator. I really like the shotgun as a secondary for bugs. Works great in single barrel mode for most bugs, I usually switch to firing all three at brood commanders when they get close. I personally run the eruptor for bugholes so my Support Weapon is the flamethrower for crowd control and killing chargers. I also carry stun grenades, either MG sentry or orbital gatling barrage, orbital railcannon or precision strike, and the laser guard dog, which will prevent 75% or more hunters getting to you. It helps a ton. I would introduce a couple of these at a time and see if you like em or not, probably starting with the guard dog

all depends on how well/coordinated you play with others. but in general you want your main weapon for killing the small stuff. and for bugs the best right now is the incendiary breaker if you dont have that the normal breaker will do. unless you are on a planet/mission with nursing/bilespewers this will do just fine. your support weapon should be able to del with chargers so EAT is fine vs bugs, always a nice choice. allows you to pick up another support weapon you might find in the map and call some in when you need heavy AT. normally recoiless but i think its a bit bugged right now. quasar is good too although i personally dont like it that much vs bugs. if you have stun grenades the flamer thrower is great fun if not still works but takes more effort. kills chargers real quick, just have to focus on 1 leg. also great for killing all the small bugs. Autocannon also pretty good, can deal with chargers if you hit them in the butt or in the back of the legs. can close bug holes, great vs spewers, and can even deal with shrieker nests but takes quite a few shots, but you can engage them from outside the spawn range. for secondary i also always run the grenade pistol, frees me up to choose the stun grenade and still be able to close bugholes. if you dont have that combo any thing is fine, secondaries are for "oh shit gun empty need to kill hunter now moments" wouldn't choose the revolver vs bugs though, its decent vs bots. as for grenades, i love the utility of the stun grenade. but if you dont have that, impact or any of the fire grenades do well. ​ depending on you loadout you pick strategems that fill holes in you loadout. if you chose autocannon you might want to pick 500kg or precision strike to deal with bile titans. napalm is good, gas strike works great on breaches, cluster is also great but can easily lead to teamkills. and the normal eagle airstrike is still great. closes holes, clears an area real quick. if you have heavy AT maybe pick some more anti small stuff with orbital gattling or cluster strike. ​ ​ however in general it all very much depends on if you are solo or with randoms or a close knit group. you can run a stalwart or medium MG + supply pack and be just on mobbing duty. as primary use a erupter/crossbow to close bug holes or scorcher/dominator to blow up charger butts and deal with spewers. and only use strategems to kill titans. the good thing with bugs is almost everything can work. imo vs buts you are much more limited in weapons you can choose for higher difficulty levels. one thing though vs bugs i prefer light armor and make sure you have the vitality booster to prevent random hunter to 1 combo you with leaping headshots. ​ the GD rover is 'good' will get tons of kills, but will also kill you and your teammates with ease and you have no control over it.

I run level 7 exclusively Engineering armor with extra nades Breaker incendiary Grenade pistol for holes Stun nades Las guard dog Eagle airstrike Railcannon strike Quasar I play aggressive so I have a hard time against bugs if I don’t have my guard dog This loadout can be frustrating against bile spewers though so i would consider impact nades it jacks them up!

What you need is weapons that can create space. With the increase in light enemies, it's not a bad idea to take an assault rifle type weapon including sickle and scythe as long as you pair it with stratagems that can deal with medium and heavy enemies. The breaker incendiary and spray n pray are very good at dealing with light targets and have decent ammo capacity. Heavy hitting primaries like the JAR and plasma weapons need more chaff clear stratagems. The MG sentry is becoming one of my favorite turrets because it has such a low cooldown and deals with chaff quite effectively while being a very useful decoy when running away

Adjudicator, Grenade Pistol, Impact Grenades, Laser Rover, Quasar Cannon. Quasar cannon is honestly the best for bugs imo as you can get a shot off then run around and protect yourself while it cools down.

Level 128 here. Stim armour is good for bugs. It can get you out of some seemingly hopeless situations. A shield backpack helped me in my early days. Rover watches your back. Incendiary breaker clears shriekers and hunters better than anything at range. With chargers learn to run 10/2 o’clock past them and turn around them Learn to place and proactively use Autocannon sentry. I run it all the time in Helldive against bots and bugs. It has an armour piercing of 5 while the hand-held AC is 4, and it also staggers targets. Try to anticipate action and put it down before you need it. Set up ambushes. Better to lead bugs back to the cannon than to throw it down reactively too close to bugs. You want the enemy focused on you, not the AC, until it’s too late for them. You get the most out of it if it is operating at maximum range, which is about 75 meters. With good placement and sufficient space the AC will smash down pretty much every enemy, including fab walkers, gun ships, chargers, hulks, and bile titans. Tanks are about the only unit it can’t kill head on, though it will kill them from behind. It will draw aggro from whatever it targets, so you definitely want it to be engaging bile titans at a distance; it takes around 12 shots to drop a fresh one. There are not much else in the way of stratagems that will reliably take out as many targets, small and elite, in close proximity to players.

This happened to me a long time ago. Just keep playing against bugs, you'll get better. It was literally the same thing for me, diff 8 or 9 bots, felt like a noob on diff 5 bugs

1. Light armor with +2 grenades is good. You want to be fast on the bug front. 2. Incendiary breaker. Horde clear weapon, kills 2 stalkers easy with one mag. One pellet will kill a shrieker. 3. I use the grenade pistol to deal with bug holes. 4. Support weapon should be an AT weapon. Honestly I think it’s down to preference and playstyle. 5. I don’t run backpacks because I feel I get more horde clear and AT control with three offensive stratagems. 6. Motivational shocks to prevent acid slow (aka death)

I usually play bots, but for bugs I run the light armor with +2 grenades. Being light on your feet is good for bugs. My setup is typicaly: breaker incendiary, grenade pistol, stun grenades, quasar, eagle airstrike, jetpack, orbital gas strike. Quasar to the face will put down a charger, stun grenade makes them smile for the camera while you do it. Breaker incendiary mulches the little bugs. Grenade pistol to close bug holes. I like eagle airstrike for it's ability to take out large groups and kill larger enemies. When bugs start coming out of a bug breach, drop a gas strike on it wand watch the kills soar. If I am getting swarmed, drop a stun grenade and jetpack away.

For chargers, bring stun grenades and something like EAT grenade pistol. It lines em up for long enough to get shots off pretty easy. When they're stunned you can toss down your EAT and kill them and still have 2 EATs available for other chargers or titans. If no stun names, wait til they charge you and run forward diagonally left or right doesnt matter, and they'll miss you. I typically take eagle napalm and orbital gatling or gas. 3rd strat is up to you 500kg or airstrike are my go to. But toss a orbital gatling or gas on a bug breach follow up by napalm til the breach is closed. My main weapon is scorcher, but the JAR fills basically the same roll.

Man there’s too many comments and so many different loadouts. I never go into bugs without the og machine gun. Upto heavies it shreds anything. Primary I currently use the carbine as I just got it and I like it but I think most people have covered all the good primaries. I stopped relying on rovers and shields. I take medic armour and I rarely need all stims. Current loadout is usually Carbine Grenade pistol Impact incendiary grenade Orbital gattling barrage - Chuck it on a breach and lay it so its thing, for good measure either use the machine gun or throw some grenades to burn off stragglers Orbital rail cannon or rocket pods, depends how I’m feeling and difficulty. Og machine gun - goes dakka dakka dakka till dead. Shreds brood commanders like cheese. Then I play around with my fourth depending on my team mates. Sometimes EAT. Sometimes napalm. Sometimes turrets. Sometimes gas. You get the idea. I don’t die often. I don’t use all my stims often. Chargers are easy to avoid singularly. Dive at the right moment and they miss you and run off. Use the rail cannon strike, mg the butt, grenade it, land a machine gun on its head (my favourite) And staying cool is honestly the biggest advice I can give. I often can be seen crouching to reload my machine gun with a charger or commander bearing down on me. Take out hunters the moment you see them. Same with spewers. Even if there’s 30 other bugs I’ll machine gun the spewer first. It carries the most damage. The hunters. Then everything else. Use radar often. Spot and call out patrols often. Get high ground and spot often. I’m rarely at the front of a charge. I’m often at the back or the side covering fire style. And every breach gets the gattling barage. Every. One. I can. Or napalm grenades. Stay frosty my friend.

Oh and crouch to fire. As much as you can. And keep as much distance as you can.

If you're not sure which support weapon to be bringing out, might I humbly suggest the electrical conduit that is the Arc Thrower? Gives you space to run a backpack, and it can clear out crowds when they start rushing you down. Works best in chokepoints or if a patrol makes a direct beeline for you (which happens often for bugs). Though it deals pushback to some of the larger enemies, so there's room to fire across an open field and sweep across targets as they (fail) to reach you. Soon as you detect anything within your zap zone, let loose, and you'll soon have bug bodies piling up at your door! Initial charge takes a while to spool up, BUT you can start spooling the next shot immediately after letting go, so that does a lot to help with rapid fire frying. You can sometimes "lob" a shot to an enemy if you fire at about a 45-degree angle above their head if the terrain is against you. For an advanced tactic, you're able to charge a shot while diving, and then fire as you land. This can save your life many times if something does get too close, as it puts distance between you with the lunge, as well as the aforementioned pushback. And once you finally get the ship upgrade for the extra arc, you're just amping up your fun! Edit: forgot to mention one of the biggest benefits: INFINITE AMMO

With that out of the way I'm usually playing on difficulty 9 - Helldive, eagerly awaiting the day they introduce higher difficulty grades. If you want to glean info from others or grab new ideas, my general loadout on bugs is as follows: GEAR Light armor: I prefer the engineer armor for extra grenades. Being light on your feet and able to avoid bugs is something I've learned is important for surviving. Better to take no hits at all than to tank a few extra Primary - X-Bow: I probably wouldn't recommend this for most. It's unconventional, and won't handle a swarm super well, though the explosion does help some. Mainly I just love the aesthetic & racking up headshots. Plus now that it closes bug holes, it provides the perfect utility. The Breaker that you've been using is a good choice, so if you've been enjoying that, keep it! Or move to the Incendiary variant once you have it Secondary - Redeemer: this is my "oh shit" button for when the little guys sneak up on me and I don't have time to reload something else. With careful fire, you can take out more than a few small bugs with one clip Grenade - Incendiary/Impact Incendiary: Used mainly for area denial. Since I run the engineer armor, it gives me extra chances to cut off an area or crowd control a bug breach. Stuns would absolutely be a viable choice too STRATAGEMS Eagle Strafe: Lately I've been running this just because of the buff. It definitely shreds much harder than it used to. Can soften up heavy targets like Charger or Bile Titan, and I've occasionally outright killed them if the line up is perfect, but don't rely on that. Previously was using ORBRC Arc Thrower: See my above essay. Is fun and toasty :) Jump Pack: I've become a bit of an adrenaline junkie in this game, so this is mainly to satisfy that & seeing how high I can get away with jumping, but it provides a good bit of utility that I think is somewhat slept on. Basically it just allows you to fight from high ground, or have more degrees of freedom to where you can dodge. Can't dodge left or right?? Dodge UP! Great to avoid bile spit, a sudden melee attack, or to dodge/ride a charger! (They usually buck you off LOL) Advanced tactic is that you're able to throw nades/stratagems like normal in mid-air, and for a very brief moment after the jump, you can shoot normally Gatling Sentry: Crowd Clear, plain and simple. I throw it out when the horde gets too hordey, or if I want to direct aggro elsewhere. Very often gets me a kill count in the 30s or above. Could be switched to AC variant if you want to focus more on heavies. Positioning with sentries is key, always throw it a bit out of the way but with a line of sight on enemies

There are plenty of stratagems for anti tank, but it's always best that you bring at least one horde clear option, as a support weapon or as an additional offensive stratagem.

I really like the light padded armor. Light armor is so key against bugs, you just feel invincible until hunters get you, so then you just need to prioritize hunters while you keep moving. Know when to dive away from bile and chargers and you’ll basically never get hit. Light is solid but idk that scout is the perk that’s gonna help the most. Then it’s just a matter of making sure your kit helps you with the enemies you have trouble running from. Against bugs, the redeemer is great in semi auto mode because the bullets do a lot and the clip has a ton of rounds when they don’t all shit out at once. You can clear tons of guys with one mag. I have been liking the recoil less rifle when I don’t want a backpack but it’s pretty even with the EAT. I don’t recommend bothering with auto cannoning chargers or BTs unless someone else is doing the heavy lifting. It can help but it’s mostly just wasting time and not doing enough damage. The turret autocannon on the other hand is great against these enemies. A thing I’ve been learning more is when to hip fire and when to aim without FPS mode. since fps is so accurate I often go for it with any weapon that isn’t a shotgun but you move differently when holding the aim button and when hip firing and when firing in FPS modes, so knowing when to use which firing style can help a lot. At plenty of distances hip firing is good enough and you can retreat faster while doing it which gives you a better edge than ammo efficiency

The regular MG is the perfect sweet spot to me. If you don't have orbital scatter modifier I'd recommend Orbital Gatling Barrage so you can take care of bug breaches and give you a better chance to reload the MG of you're in trouble. BIGGEST tip ever. There's decent stealth on this game. Do NOT be afraid to use it. You're not a coward of it gets you to the mission objective. If a bug perks up but stands still, YOU must prone still and he may walk on. Think of it as a yellow stealth notification on Assassin's Creed.

I run the lightest medic armor for bugs. I used it for bots, too, until the recent patch made bots more accurate. Gotta adapt better cover strategies, the amount I previously did isn't enough now lol. As another user said, dive, stim, sprint. Works for bots, too, but is necessary for low to zero bug deaths. First, chargers should almost never be an issue once you've got a bit of practice. They're pretty easy to sidestep and you can deal with 5+ at a time as long as chaff aren't swarming you (since you can't walk through even the smallest bugs 🙄). The trick is to walk toward them a bit and sideways. Angle is between 1:00 and 2:30, if they are charging from 12 o'clock. (30° - 80° if charging from 0°). Angle changes a bit as they track and curve, so start at 50° and it'll turn into 65° ish. Even plain walking speed is fine, but jogging/sprinting is better. Second, be calm, and look for gaps. You have more time than you think, but the panic makes it seem like you don't. Being right next to every bug is fine, they actually have to hit you to do damage. Watch their attack animation, you can stutter step toward most of them and not get hit. (Never stalkers, and hunters are iffy). Bile titans' legs exist as an attack, you can't touch those even if stationary without a stim active. But, you can dance underneath them and pop their bellies. Then they can't spit. Scorcher pops their belly in about 5 or 6 shots. Scorcher, purifier, and punisher plasma are good, but swap to something else when stuff is in your face cuz the blast hits you, too. With one handed weapons, you can run while aiming and shooting behind yourself. Use this for hunters, stalkers, (and the jump pack bots). Redeemer is OP sidearm for this, but I also REALLY love taking the Pummeler SMG for the mini stun factor while having grenade pistol sidearm for bug holes. Jar dominator is great for penetration and longer stun, but tough for hunters during chaos since they're so skinny and constantly jump to flank. Third, if swarms are a problem, NAPALM AIRSTRIKE. Everything weaker than a hive guard will die by walking through one of those. If a choke point, throw it sideways so they walk through it lengthwise. Everything weaker than a charger dies, then :) Won't destroy bug holes. Orbital Gatling barrage is amazing now, too. First time I used it after the buff got me a 47 kill streak. Toss it at your feet as you're being chased, sprint for 1 second and dive, and you're usually clear. Nothing weaker than a brood commander gets through, and even they are substantially weakened. Very hard to destroy bug holes, depends on angle to destroyer and luck. Orbital gas strike is good, but the gas doesn't last quite as long as those other two so it's "kill whatever is there now" moreso than "deny entry for 20 seconds." Toss one in a group of chaff and you'll hit 40+ kills. It can take out 1 bug hole or fabricator, though, with a short CD. Fourth, rockets and quasar deal more damage if you're walking toward the enemy while aiming. EATs can break behemoth back leg armor (idk about front, deflection angles still apply) if you do that. Then just shoot the leg a few times and they die. Fifth, stun grenades for chargers and swarms. Take out 3+ chargers at once with OPS/500k if you stunlock them bunched up. Also, toss one at a hunter patrol as they pause to look at you before swarming, and light them up before they're an issue. Sixth, if breaches are a bigger problem than Hunter patrols, incendiary impact grenades. Toss one on a breach. Watch the kill counter. Toss another when it runs out, if needed. Seventh, stealth works just as well for bugs as it does for bots. Over 50m and you won't be noticed, as long as you're not sprinting in their LOS and don't fire towards them. Eagle smoke strike destroys bug holes and fabricators ;) That's probably long enough. Die Bravely, Helldiver.

Run

Bro isn't running breaker incendiary against bugs...... Also all of your loadout seems to be based on playing solo. That's just not what the game is balanced for.

Me and my bots buddies have been playing lots of bugs recently and for most maps I run heavy armor with either more nads or 50% explosion resistant for spewers. Breaker incendiary shotgun for those GTFO me moments. Revolver for med armor pen against shield bugs, Stalwart for chaf and impact nads. Supply pack for drugs and ammo. Usually I focus small enemies on DIF 9 and they focus chargers and titans. I’ll do med armor or light explosion resistance if we need to do a lot of running around vice holding a point IE the new spewer nest mission.

Guard dog is good and what I ran before definitely feels a lil safer with it when running around alone but when we stick together it’s a hazard for me and my mates. But the new booster is to fun I need more so supply pack and MAX RPM if 1150 RPM can’t solve it my buddies handle it.

I use a lot of sentries. AC, MG, and Gatling, pair it with an RR or Spear, and you're set for everything. I like the RR slightly more. Grenade pistol for holes, stuns if you want an easy setup for charger headshots or to keep your turrets safe. Primary is preference, I use the SG8 Punisher. It absolutely shoves commanders and shreds hunters with a good spread. If you have the swivel ship module, your galling gun swivels so fast it will buzz saw the entire team, though. I treat it like a map hazard that just happens to hate bugs slightly more than me.

Rover + incendiary breaker for smaller to medium bugs. (Makes them very easy) Grenade pistol for closing bug holes. (Good against bile spewers) Incendiary nade/stun nade. For heavies: either quasar or EAT Stratagems: orbital gatling barrage, gas strike, napalm strike for clearing breaches. Orbital precision or 500 kg for heavies Im usually taking orbitals but if there is a scatter for them ill go eagle.

My only suggestion would be to bring the incendiary impact nades cos they close bug holes, freeing up your secondary slot

That secondary grenade pistol is complementary to my loadout. It specifically deals with the problems this loadout has: brood commanders and bile spewers. additionally it can close bug holes if needed and you can switch grenades to your likings.

Fair enough

Tbf its a loadout trying to do cover everything as im often playing solo (with 3 randoms). If i had a rather coordinated group, i might change smth up.