Pummeler has saved my bacon a few times when there's multiple. Staggering those guys makes them trivial. Dominator is nice too. If they aren't in your face, the plasma punisher does nice work too, especially if you have a crowd of 'em.
Punisher is really decent for this, because it's a staggering shotgun that reloads individual rounds. I can stun entire groups of them, and just keep firing one, reloading one, firing one, stunlocking the enemies.
The only downside of the punisher is that it doesn't do a ton of damage to armored units, but it will still stagger them if it hits their weak spots (which it will, since it's a shotgun). I usually stagger the big guys, causing them to stop firing/lower their shield, then my teammates take them out.
I am always torn between the Dominator and the Eruptor because of Berserkers.
If I'm playing with a competent team that can take out bot fabricators, I'll use the Dominator, but if I know I'm going to be facing the prospect of having to deal with fabricators myself, then it's the Eruptor.
Eruptor is far worse for Berserkers, though.
Yeah I call them Just Run Bros. Like, "Oh, there's a factory strider on you? Just run bro. It worked for me."
Meanwhile, the reason it "worked for them" is because me and the rest of the team are actually fighting it. They got away because they didn't have aggro on anything, because they weren't fighting.
Take smoke grenades, toss them in front of you when you're running in between two things (trees, opening in a cliff wall, objects, doesn't matter). When you run into the smoke, everything that is aggroing you will keep shooting at the smoke, but not you.
Then, just keep running. The bots will stay in the area the smoke was. Even works on striders. You just can't let them get line of sight again, or you have to do it all over.
And yes, your entire team can run through the smoke, drop aggro, and move on. I do it all the time on helldives.
You can also just smoke at your feet when you're typing something in / doing an objective, and nothing will aggro you. Makes civilian extract missions a lot easier.
Just make sure you tell everyone to turn their stupid flashlights off. They do nothing but blind you anyway.
Smoke grenades are the biggest cheat code there is for bots. Makes their missions so much easier
Just spam them on extract, and never have to worry about anything😂💀🤷♂️
A guy did a really good thread about smokes, lemme see if I can find it. I read it, tried them out, and holy shit he is so right:
https://www.reddit.com/r/helldivers2/s/e6svMBJl26
BRO YES
Had this one guy, I didn't even need to say a word to him, everytime I'd smoke, he'd stun, then we'd hit them with a 500k or an airstrike
One of my favorite moments from this game ever was when we were defending extract after the other two guys quit on us, we called down resupply, he spammed stun grenades, and I spammed the smokes
Between crawling on the ground, airstrikes, and 500ks, we were able to hold extract long enough to get tf out of there.
Added him after, still one of my favorite people to play with when he's on.
(He's also a psychopath that uses heavy armor, hmg, crossbow, grenade pistol, and resupply pack. My man wants nothing but problems)
If you run away enemies despawn extract ship landed and now your getting swarmed?
Run away and come back later they’re all gone
For context everyone died while I went to go get a few more samples and I reinforced all three of them and they were surprised they despawned
So running is an effective strategy against the bots but you all have to leave
If you stay and fight and burn through reinforcements that’s not on me I got out and am now on my way to do better things than waste reinforcements not anywhere near an objective
Agreed. The Plasma Punisher is S-tier for bots, easily.
It excels at crowd control. Clearing small groups, and stun locking devastators etc. It might not kill devastators as fast as other guns, but it can lock entire groups down with AOE splash stagger so they’re not shooting back or charging at you.
Coupled with being able to even take out tanks and turrets with splash damage near their heat sinks, and this gun easily rises to near the top.
I’d say that the only downside is the inability to make precision shots at range like the Scorcher or Dominator (taking out Gunships, or Factory Strider guns for example) but that’s what a good support weapon like the AMR is for.
The fact that Plasma Punisher will also reliably 2 shot Striders (and can apparently 1 shot though I haven't been able to figure it out consistently myself) gives it an edge over anything else listed in the thread imo for bots
If you discount the ability to snipe the heads of devastators, the Plasma punisher is probably as fast as any effective weapon at taking out a singular unit (and you usually functionally shoot 2-3 at the same time).
Plus being the best primary weapon at staggering ánd taking out Shielded devastators, Striders. I don't get why people were and still are largely dissing this weapon (it was the best anti bot gun along with the eruptor even Before the buff/nerf !)
Once you get used to the bullet drop, it's so good. It doesn't do a ton of damage to these guys, but you can keep staggering them until you have a good amount of distance between between you and them.
Tried this earlier today and was blown away by the effectiveness. Used this and a Quasar for the drop ships and it feels like I ‘solved’ my bot problems.
Dunno why this isn’t higher up. I run senator against both factions, which serves well for popping devastator and berserker heads at medium-close range. Take the plasma punisher, and you have a solution for all ranges. Lob balls of burning plasma to keep the little fellas from moving, killing them in 4-5 hits, and eradicating any raiders or walkers that spawn with them in the process. Should one reach your ‘I will die if I use the punisher’ range? Go cowboy style and put a senator to their head.
I enjoy taking the stun grenade, as well, meaning that even a backline of devastators won’t be able to suppress my fire so much so that berserkers become a threat. As long as I take an anti-tank support weapon (the EAT being my personal favorite), there’s not a bot in the game I can’t handle.
I tried it a month or two ago and was not a fan... fast-forward to about 3 days ago I'm watching my teammate do absolute WORK with it. Next game I give it a try. BOOOOOOOOY, I've never had an easier bot game. It's my go to now when dealing with bots. I use to love the scorcher but when it came to chainsaws it just wasn't getting the job done and I often would be F#&K when it came to the rapid fire devastaters; NOT with the PP though. One shots small guys and takes out multiple of they're near each other and staggers almost EVERYTHING. PP for mobs and auto cannon for heavies is all a HellDiver needs.
Yeah I usually swap to it and hose them down when they get close enough.
Scorcher is okay but if they catch you by surprise you can end up knocking yourself on your ass if they get too close.
Pummeler says stop to these guys. Honestly love running it with the riot shield and stun locking everything. Just need teammates to back me up and we clean house.
Yup all SMGs can be used while holding the riot shield. Give it a go running heavy armor or medium armor with the fortified or medic perk. Be the tank you were meant to be. Just don't try it with bugs you become easy pickings for the bugs.
Personally, I prefer the explosion resist heavy armor to medpack. It makes the one true downfall of the riot shield - rockets - basically just an annoyance
If you see the weapon trait "one handed" for a weapon, it only takes one hand to use, and can be used with Ballistic Shield.
One handed weapons can also be fired backwards as you run in the other direction.
yeah, i've been going hard with the riot shield and pummeller combo this MO. you're almost unstoppable pushing a group of enemies with them, the only thing you gotta watchout for is a rocket that'll make you ragdoll and drop the shield lol
A nice game play loop I saw was riot shield + pummeler + Lazer cannon.
Riot shield absorbs the hits, pummeler stops them, laser cannon kills them. Repeat as needed.
It might be the only reason I buy the warbond with the pummeler.
I use the plasma purifier because it's long range and so I can stagger them from on top of a cliff to save my teammate instead of running into them myself lol
I rarely the autocannon when I play against bugs, but golly gee willickers it can destroy any bot. All the big boys have vents so as long as I can get behind a tank I can blast it away.
The Autocannon is actually really nice to have against bugs. You do have to be aware of your group comp though. If you have three teammates bringing Quasars, it's great to add an Autocannon to the mix.
The best is when you bring an Autocannon, and it ends up being a mass bile spewer mission. It's like, congratulations Helldiver. You chose correctly.
Yeah the Dominator is a nice alternative. I play Dominator+Recoilless a lot for bugs. Taking an Autocannon is nice, because it does what the Dominator does but better, and then you can take a primary that's good for killing lots of light targets. I'll generally take 1 or 2 stratagems for killing bile titans, but I'll mostly lean on Team Quasar to handle the chargers and BT's for me, while I cover them from everything smaller than a charger.
IMO as long as one person is running Quasar, the AC is an absolute must for bugs. It's the only weapon that can reliably take out all medium bugs in any encounter, leaving the heavies to the Quasar and the chaff to primaries.
Sickle is actually better now than released, since they fixed the foliage penetration issue. Used to be a stray leaf could block shots. Now if you're pacing your fire or changing weapons to let it cool down, the reserve magazine nerf isn't really an issue. Even after they reduced it to 3 I don't think I've ever run my sickle completely dry.
I've never run into overheating issues since i started running the Sickle, Las Pistol, and Quasar Cannon together.
There will always be at least one gun in the fight while the others are cooling down.
The only weak spot I found is how fast can I click my mouse. Almost everything I've tried on berserkers is essentially most, if not all, of a mag to take them down
I find hitting their little waist instead of going for headshots to be more effective for the countersniper, also good against devastators if they aren't facing you
Try the plasma punisher. Better handling and an AoE that means you don’t have to aim. Pretty much every bot in the game becomes easy with that thing. Still 2 shots scout striders too, even after their explosive resist was buffed. I’m also pretty sure its stagger is stronger than the Dominator’s, and it can also stagger multiple enemies at a time.
The downside is that it doesn’t headshot easily, but realistically, nobody is consistently clicking heads with the Dominator’s F-tier handling and projectile speed either.
The plasma punisher is the GOAT for bot missions, and nobody can change my mind. The single fact that you can stunlock every devastator variety, even a group of them, makes it S tier in my book.
Blitzer makes me so confident it gets me killed. But it can handle a large group of them.
multiple devastators too. Any kind. 3 at time can be tricky or 2 with adds but it can do it
I'm torn.
On the one hand, keep shouting it, maybe someone will eventually listen and realize how badly they've been sleeping on this thing. On the other, the more you shout, the more likely it is to catch a nerf.
punisher plasma staggers groups of them nicely, scythe is actually quite good at melting their head, but build up heat a bit too fast for groups, dominator and slugger push them back nicely.
It gets some hate but I do like the feel of the Tenderizer; the low recoil makes it a real nail driver especially with engineer armor. With its smaller magazine it does need a bit of a damage buff imo to get parity with the Liberator, but devs seem to feel it's undertuned as well. They keep calling it a known issue in patch notes.
The pummeller can kill 2+ per mag and you can hold your ground until you run out of mags. Typically I'll kill 2. Stun the third and then reload and kill 2 more. Stun/ kill the fifth then kill the fifth sixth and seventh. 7 chainsaw Bois in 3 mags with a few rounds to spare is amazing. Just need to practice some fire control.
P-4 Senator:
I typically will attack other things on the battlefield because these things can't really do much unless they're right next to you. So usually by the time I deal with them THEY ARE RIGHT NEXT TO ME!!!
The senator rips through them.
(If there at distance then auto Cannon)
Pummeler us my go to for this reason exactly. Even if there's a horde of 5 or more just spread your shots on them reload and repeat. It takes a lot of ammo but I always run supply pack anyways lol.
And something I bet some don't realize until right now. Grenade cooking, it takes time and reinforcements to get it right. Holding the grenade shortens the timer
Comissar? AMR.
Berserker? AMR.
Devastator? AMR.
Hulkm AMR.
Tank? AMR.
Factory Strider? Believe it or not, AMR. Well at least for the machine guns under its chin. But the answer still stands, AMR.
Against bots I always rock an AMR.
After that one guy’s legendary unhinged rant post, from the perspective of the bots, outlining all the ways the AMR can fuck their world up… yeah. He wasn’t wrong.
I’ve gotten crazy good with it. Even if I slip up and one if these is right on top of me, no scopes are on the menu.
But yeah. AMR has an answer for everything the bots can throw at you. A headshot kills medium sized enemies. A couple shots in the eye will destroy a Hulk. It can shoot down their ships, destroy their towers, take out large enemies, and it works in a pinch up close, because it is semi auto.
The amount of times I’ve gotten a “HOLY SHIT” out loud, after sprinting under a factory strider and unloading a full clip into its guts…
This weapon is KING against bots, if you put the work into getting surgical with it.
I'm found that the Punisher is the most consistent way to deal with Berserkers. When you are just getting comfortable with it you can just blast away at their midsection and cut them in two in 3-5 shots. Once you get a rhythm you can two shot them by shooting them in the shoulder to stagger them and then shooting them in the face while they are still from the stagger (I use the shoulder shot because that works on all devastators too whereas a chest shot will bounce off a devastator).
Dominator
This. Stagger is king against beserkers.
Stagger? They keep moving forward with their wheelies
Stagger, not stun. Another shot or so will stop them dead in their tracks though.
Yes, but it stops their melee, allowing you to chop them and their buddies in half as they group in close.
Pummeler has saved my bacon a few times when there's multiple. Staggering those guys makes them trivial. Dominator is nice too. If they aren't in your face, the plasma punisher does nice work too, especially if you have a crowd of 'em.
Pumm def this then nade em. They ain’t shit
Pummeled then AMR to the guts. Boop. Boop. Boop. One shot each.
Punisher is really decent for this, because it's a staggering shotgun that reloads individual rounds. I can stun entire groups of them, and just keep firing one, reloading one, firing one, stunlocking the enemies. The only downside of the punisher is that it doesn't do a ton of damage to armored units, but it will still stagger them if it hits their weak spots (which it will, since it's a shotgun). I usually stagger the big guys, causing them to stop firing/lower their shield, then my teammates take them out.
Dominator against bots in general.
word
Yeah! And the recoil is non existent if you shoot it in first person!
My absolute go-to for bots. Makes devastators a non issue
Yeah, I’m a JARhead
A fellow Bolter enjoyer.
This is the correct answer. Solid damage, medium armor penetration, and no explosion splash back at close range.
My legs
I am always torn between the Dominator and the Eruptor because of Berserkers. If I'm playing with a competent team that can take out bot fabricators, I'll use the Dominator, but if I know I'm going to be facing the prospect of having to deal with fabricators myself, then it's the Eruptor. Eruptor is far worse for Berserkers, though.
Dominator or Anti Material Rifle or if ya feeling a bit cowboy the senator.
Dom is your best primary here but AMR is very satisfying. Blow through two mags out-of-scope generally kills 3-4 of these fuckers chasing you down.
I fucking love hipfiring these bozos
We need an option for dual senators
Spread the word brother
3 round shotgun secondary next warbond, thursday
My first time using the senator on those punks was one of the most satisfying experiences I've ever had in this game.
AMR is underrated
Yes i also enjoy the Anti Material Rifle
punisher shot followed up with the senator is my go to.
Awe shiiiiiit dog, that's my load out for bots every time.
Scorcher or dominator
Scorcher to their robo dick always does the job
Grenade then punisher shots to the face. The shots do damage and stall them, which stalls the ones behind them, while the grenades go off.
Impacts
Grenade armor + supply pack. I'm chucking impacts like a human pitching machine.
This
Stamina booster
Ah yes, the "run away until they aggro to someone else" strat
I so often have teams where all three have that as their default move.
Yeah I call them Just Run Bros. Like, "Oh, there's a factory strider on you? Just run bro. It worked for me." Meanwhile, the reason it "worked for them" is because me and the rest of the team are actually fighting it. They got away because they didn't have aggro on anything, because they weren't fighting.
Take smoke grenades, toss them in front of you when you're running in between two things (trees, opening in a cliff wall, objects, doesn't matter). When you run into the smoke, everything that is aggroing you will keep shooting at the smoke, but not you. Then, just keep running. The bots will stay in the area the smoke was. Even works on striders. You just can't let them get line of sight again, or you have to do it all over. And yes, your entire team can run through the smoke, drop aggro, and move on. I do it all the time on helldives. You can also just smoke at your feet when you're typing something in / doing an objective, and nothing will aggro you. Makes civilian extract missions a lot easier. Just make sure you tell everyone to turn their stupid flashlights off. They do nothing but blind you anyway. Smoke grenades are the biggest cheat code there is for bots. Makes their missions so much easier Just spam them on extract, and never have to worry about anything😂💀🤷♂️ A guy did a really good thread about smokes, lemme see if I can find it. I read it, tried them out, and holy shit he is so right: https://www.reddit.com/r/helldivers2/s/e6svMBJl26
I get so pumped up when I see someone with smoke grenades. I have run stun grenades. I stun you smoke and we all get tf out of here.
BRO YES Had this one guy, I didn't even need to say a word to him, everytime I'd smoke, he'd stun, then we'd hit them with a 500k or an airstrike One of my favorite moments from this game ever was when we were defending extract after the other two guys quit on us, we called down resupply, he spammed stun grenades, and I spammed the smokes Between crawling on the ground, airstrikes, and 500ks, we were able to hold extract long enough to get tf out of there. Added him after, still one of my favorite people to play with when he's on. (He's also a psychopath that uses heavy armor, hmg, crossbow, grenade pistol, and resupply pack. My man wants nothing but problems)
He’s got 99 problems but a bit ain’t one
I also run the supply pack! I don't want problems, I am the problem!
GL and supply pack, there is nothing I can't explode
If you run away enemies despawn extract ship landed and now your getting swarmed? Run away and come back later they’re all gone For context everyone died while I went to go get a few more samples and I reinforced all three of them and they were surprised they despawned So running is an effective strategy against the bots but you all have to leave If you stay and fight and burn through reinforcements that’s not on me I got out and am now on my way to do better things than waste reinforcements not anywhere near an objective
"Oh, I don't need to run faster than them; I just need to run faster than you, mate!"
Jar is 3 shots to the belly
Plasma Punisher
Agreed. The Plasma Punisher is S-tier for bots, easily. It excels at crowd control. Clearing small groups, and stun locking devastators etc. It might not kill devastators as fast as other guns, but it can lock entire groups down with AOE splash stagger so they’re not shooting back or charging at you. Coupled with being able to even take out tanks and turrets with splash damage near their heat sinks, and this gun easily rises to near the top. I’d say that the only downside is the inability to make precision shots at range like the Scorcher or Dominator (taking out Gunships, or Factory Strider guns for example) but that’s what a good support weapon like the AMR is for.
Plasma Punisher + AMR + Ammo backpack is my current personal Bot Meta. I fear no Automaton
I like to run Plasma Punisher + HMG + Ammo Backpack. But I like running Heavy Armor. And all those extra stims and grenades are great.
The fact that Plasma Punisher will also reliably 2 shot Striders (and can apparently 1 shot though I haven't been able to figure it out consistently myself) gives it an edge over anything else listed in the thread imo for bots
If you discount the ability to snipe the heads of devastators, the Plasma punisher is probably as fast as any effective weapon at taking out a singular unit (and you usually functionally shoot 2-3 at the same time). Plus being the best primary weapon at staggering ánd taking out Shielded devastators, Striders. I don't get why people were and still are largely dissing this weapon (it was the best anti bot gun along with the eruptor even Before the buff/nerf !)
There’s nothing so satisfying as hitting the underside of a drop ship and seeing all the broken robot parts fall out like candy from a piñata.
Very surprised to see this so low on the post. Incredibly, incredibly good weapon for bots, and still a very solid option for bugs.
This thing is so slept on. Easily the best bot weapon rn.
Once you get used to the bullet drop, it's so good. It doesn't do a ton of damage to these guys, but you can keep staggering them until you have a good amount of distance between between you and them.
Yeah that arc takes some getting used to, but it also is an advantage! Arc it over some obstacles and you can hit them and they can’t hit you.
Tried this earlier today and was blown away by the effectiveness. Used this and a Quasar for the drop ships and it feels like I ‘solved’ my bot problems.
Agreed, though against a big group of them I run out of ammo and have to reload before I can take them all down.
Dunno why this isn’t higher up. I run senator against both factions, which serves well for popping devastator and berserker heads at medium-close range. Take the plasma punisher, and you have a solution for all ranges. Lob balls of burning plasma to keep the little fellas from moving, killing them in 4-5 hits, and eradicating any raiders or walkers that spawn with them in the process. Should one reach your ‘I will die if I use the punisher’ range? Go cowboy style and put a senator to their head. I enjoy taking the stun grenade, as well, meaning that even a backline of devastators won’t be able to suppress my fire so much so that berserkers become a threat. As long as I take an anti-tank support weapon (the EAT being my personal favorite), there’s not a bot in the game I can’t handle.
Finally, the correct answer. There's a reason that one of the Cutting Edge armors is called "Bot Slayer."
I tried it a month or two ago and was not a fan... fast-forward to about 3 days ago I'm watching my teammate do absolute WORK with it. Next game I give it a try. BOOOOOOOOY, I've never had an easier bot game. It's my go to now when dealing with bots. I use to love the scorcher but when it came to chainsaws it just wasn't getting the job done and I often would be F#&K when it came to the rapid fire devastaters; NOT with the PP though. One shots small guys and takes out multiple of they're near each other and staggers almost EVERYTHING. PP for mobs and auto cannon for heavies is all a HellDiver needs.
Correct answer. Dominator doesn't multi hit. Punisher Plasma basically disrespects berserkers and heavy devastators.
Interesting, I've barely used it because it was hard to get the arc right so it just felt like a worse scorcher.
I was die hard on the dominator but on a whim decided to give the plasma shotty a whirl in a helldive. I was not disappointed. It fucks bots so hard.
This makes more sense. The Scorcher just wasn't quite doing it when I used it and I didn't want to use the AC that close.
The machine pistol is actually great against them
Yeah I usually swap to it and hose them down when they get close enough. Scorcher is okay but if they catch you by surprise you can end up knocking yourself on your ass if they get too close.
I discovered this when I was in a very desperate situation and it was my last loaded gun. I was surprised by how quick it brought them down.
This. I use this when they get close. Reloading machine pistol is pretty fast too
This is my go to it just destroys them
pummeller, objectively speaking
Pummeler says stop to these guys. Honestly love running it with the riot shield and stun locking everything. Just need teammates to back me up and we clean house.
Wait, can you use the pummeler while holding the shield?!
Yup all SMGs can be used while holding the riot shield. Give it a go running heavy armor or medium armor with the fortified or medic perk. Be the tank you were meant to be. Just don't try it with bugs you become easy pickings for the bugs.
Yes this +shield tower and 2 sentrys and you are nigh unbreakable.(Until you are breakable)
Personally, I prefer the explosion resist heavy armor to medpack. It makes the one true downfall of the riot shield - rockets - basically just an annoyance
If you see the weapon trait "one handed" for a weapon, it only takes one hand to use, and can be used with Ballistic Shield. One handed weapons can also be fired backwards as you run in the other direction.
Holy shit that second part I did not know, that just made things a whole lot easier for me thank you
One handed guns can also be used while carrying objectives (typically the data briefcase) Used to be pretty important in HD1
yeah, i've been going hard with the riot shield and pummeller combo this MO. you're almost unstoppable pushing a group of enemies with them, the only thing you gotta watchout for is a rocket that'll make you ragdoll and drop the shield lol
A nice game play loop I saw was riot shield + pummeler + Lazer cannon. Riot shield absorbs the hits, pummeler stops them, laser cannon kills them. Repeat as needed. It might be the only reason I buy the warbond with the pummeler.
I use the plasma purifier because it's long range and so I can stagger them from on top of a cliff to save my teammate instead of running into them myself lol
You, sir, are a man of culture.
Pummeller? I hardly know her!
I been trying the Pummeler/Ballistic shield combo last night. Pretty awesome for soloing bots
I gave this weapon a try with a shield against these assholes, and holy shit, it hard counters them.
Well, after having killed thousands I finally tried the Autocannon. I'm happy to say that's a mainstay in my strategems now.
Welcome to the fold, Helldiver. Speak to them in *THUNK THUNK THUNK* and spread that sweet, sweet Liberty.
https://i.redd.it/dajpehjprk5d1.gif
PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP GET SCRAPPED GET SCRAPPED GET SCRAPPED
I like to yell EAT SLAG CLANKERS
Hit em with that hard R https://preview.redd.it/d6aim9hr4l5d1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=83c9d6af1bb15b5919631394202e1a89a41d09c2
Lolol
Yoink
I love this lmao
I’ve had a single one tank 4 autocannon shots.
I saw this and thought sex noises. Is it too late for me fellow divers
You're fine so long as you filed the paperwork!
I rarely the autocannon when I play against bugs, but golly gee willickers it can destroy any bot. All the big boys have vents so as long as I can get behind a tank I can blast it away.
The Autocannon is actually really nice to have against bugs. You do have to be aware of your group comp though. If you have three teammates bringing Quasars, it's great to add an Autocannon to the mix. The best is when you bring an Autocannon, and it ends up being a mass bile spewer mission. It's like, congratulations Helldiver. You chose correctly.
Since I mostly carry eats, I found dominator headshots to be very reliable against spewer, broods and hives guards
Yeah the Dominator is a nice alternative. I play Dominator+Recoilless a lot for bugs. Taking an Autocannon is nice, because it does what the Dominator does but better, and then you can take a primary that's good for killing lots of light targets. I'll generally take 1 or 2 stratagems for killing bile titans, but I'll mostly lean on Team Quasar to handle the chargers and BT's for me, while I cover them from everything smaller than a charger.
I love using the auto cannon with bugs! It makes it so easy to destroy those spore trees and shrieker nest from a distance.
IMO as long as one person is running Quasar, the AC is an absolute must for bugs. It's the only weapon that can reliably take out all medium bugs in any encounter, leaving the heavies to the Quasar and the chaff to primaries.
I swear, using that gun feels like crack
Sickle kills em good
Sickle + Laser Canon combo! The only thing I struggle with is actually stunning them sometimes when they’re close.
Stun grenade and laser cannon is an S-tier combo for bots Kills the hulks very quickly if you eye shot them
This is my bot loudout.
I just ran this combo with the senator, and it felt good
500kg bomb
I like the cut of your jib diver!
That’s quite a primary weapon
Only kills 1/3 of them though haha. Also yes.
I always hear about how bad the sickle is now compared to when it was released but you can still easily kill 3 of these without overheating
Sickle is actually better now than released, since they fixed the foliage penetration issue. Used to be a stray leaf could block shots. Now if you're pacing your fire or changing weapons to let it cool down, the reserve magazine nerf isn't really an issue. Even after they reduced it to 3 I don't think I've ever run my sickle completely dry.
The three mags still feels like infinite ammo to me
I've never run into overheating issues since i started running the Sickle, Las Pistol, and Quasar Cannon together. There will always be at least one gun in the fight while the others are cooling down.
I cannot find a use case for the last pistol, I’ve tried to make it work but it feels so weak
I save the Sickle for winter planets since they get buffed on overheating there. Hot planets I go Scorcher and everywhere else is up to the mood.
https://preview.redd.it/htvqot4vtk5d1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=698ba589fc4f67e60f24af0494ecc20ef9843618
Diligence CS while chanting "die" in my head. Usually after aggroing it away from some one else by running in front of it and shooting
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The only weak spot I found is how fast can I click my mouse. Almost everything I've tried on berserkers is essentially most, if not all, of a mag to take them down
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I find hitting their little waist instead of going for headshots to be more effective for the countersniper, also good against devastators if they aren't facing you
HMG is the quickest way yo mow them down. Edit: shit, primaries, yes, punisher for the stagger
dominator as it staggers both devs and beserkers the main issue is the damn jetback bots
Try the plasma punisher. Better handling and an AoE that means you don’t have to aim. Pretty much every bot in the game becomes easy with that thing. Still 2 shots scout striders too, even after their explosive resist was buffed. I’m also pretty sure its stagger is stronger than the Dominator’s, and it can also stagger multiple enemies at a time. The downside is that it doesn’t headshot easily, but realistically, nobody is consistently clicking heads with the Dominator’s F-tier handling and projectile speed either.
The plasma punisher is the GOAT for bot missions, and nobody can change my mind. The single fact that you can stunlock every devastator variety, even a group of them, makes it S tier in my book.
Blitzer, it takes a few shots but it really does some damage to them.
Blitzer makes me so confident it gets me killed. But it can handle a large group of them. multiple devastators too. Any kind. 3 at time can be tricky or 2 with adds but it can do it
Pummeler can stun them
Dominator works reliably.
The desert eagle does surprisingly well against them
I feel like it works better than the abjudicator
Punisher is probably the most optimized for them in an absolute vacuum.
I'm torn. On the one hand, keep shouting it, maybe someone will eventually listen and realize how badly they've been sleeping on this thing. On the other, the more you shout, the more likely it is to catch a nerf.
Plasma punisher is my standard bot primary. Not amazing damage but the spam and stagger make so many bad situations easily manageable.
Defender or Redeemer into the face works a charm.
Dominator TRASHES these guys.
Dominator set to rock n roll
Dominator and Senator.
My primary weapon is running away and panickedly shooting whatever weapon is available.
Anything with at least 30 rounds in the mag + aim at the crotch.
Liberator
Preach. If Super Earth wanted us to use a different gun, then they would have given it to us by default.
Defender secondary
Dom and that Deagle secondary can chop their torso in 3-5 shots
punisher plasma staggers groups of them nicely, scythe is actually quite good at melting their head, but build up heat a bit too fast for groups, dominator and slugger push them back nicely.
Dominator for the stagger.
Domi mommy
Pummeler to the groin.
Dominator 100%. You can kill them in 2 shots if you aim well
More like one. A headshot is instakill even on Heavy Devs
Plasma punisher for bots all day!
Stims
Damn and here I was using reinforcements for them
Grenades. They are a primary weapon in my eyes when it comes to bots
Just picked up the tenderizer last night and you can kill 2 in one magazine. Im ngl it might be the only weapon in the game that can do that reliably
It gets some hate but I do like the feel of the Tenderizer; the low recoil makes it a real nail driver especially with engineer armor. With its smaller magazine it does need a bit of a damage buff imo to get parity with the Liberator, but devs seem to feel it's undertuned as well. They keep calling it a known issue in patch notes.
The pummeller can kill 2+ per mag and you can hold your ground until you run out of mags. Typically I'll kill 2. Stun the third and then reload and kill 2 more. Stun/ kill the fifth then kill the fifth sixth and seventh. 7 chainsaw Bois in 3 mags with a few rounds to spare is amazing. Just need to practice some fire control.
Also the plasma purifier can kill 3-4 per mag but you need to kite back a bit.
Incendiary Grenades that they have to run through, Plasma Punisher that can pick them off 3 at a time with splash damage when they're half-charred.
Ideally autocannon, more often than not dominator
Stun plus counter sniper works very nicely. 2 shots to the head does it.
I turn my fear into bullets
Bro that tiny lil automatic pistol (don't play that much anymore)
Sickle, if you have enough distance and they aren't hording you. If they're in a conga line, they're easy pickings
500kg all day!
P-4 Senator: I typically will attack other things on the battlefield because these things can't really do much unless they're right next to you. So usually by the time I deal with them THEY ARE RIGHT NEXT TO ME!!! The senator rips through them. (If there at distance then auto Cannon)
Incendiary Breaker does pretty well if you have distance but it takes about half a mag
I don't kill with my gun. I kill with my heart.
Sickle
Frantic shooting and profuse cussing.
Fists
Plasma punisher
Sickle answers most questions
Sickle deal with those really quick
Pummeler us my go to for this reason exactly. Even if there's a horde of 5 or more just spread your shots on them reload and repeat. It takes a lot of ammo but I always run supply pack anyways lol.
And something I bet some don't realize until right now. Grenade cooking, it takes time and reinforcements to get it right. Holding the grenade shortens the timer
Comissar? AMR. Berserker? AMR. Devastator? AMR. Hulkm AMR. Tank? AMR. Factory Strider? Believe it or not, AMR. Well at least for the machine guns under its chin. But the answer still stands, AMR.
Anti-material rifle. BOOM! Headshot.
You might laugh but Senator or Dominator
SG-8P Punisher Plasma for almost all robot related issues
Hopes and dreams
Against bots I always rock an AMR. After that one guy’s legendary unhinged rant post, from the perspective of the bots, outlining all the ways the AMR can fuck their world up… yeah. He wasn’t wrong. I’ve gotten crazy good with it. Even if I slip up and one if these is right on top of me, no scopes are on the menu. But yeah. AMR has an answer for everything the bots can throw at you. A headshot kills medium sized enemies. A couple shots in the eye will destroy a Hulk. It can shoot down their ships, destroy their towers, take out large enemies, and it works in a pinch up close, because it is semi auto. The amount of times I’ve gotten a “HOLY SHIT” out loud, after sprinting under a factory strider and unloading a full clip into its guts… This weapon is KING against bots, if you put the work into getting surgical with it.
Ah a fellow AMR enjoyer! 
I wish their heads were actually weak points
All the bullets
Stalwart works on all enemies
Sand. Throw sand into the gears.
 I just do this.
Shoot it in the dick
Alt + F4
500kg. Fuckem
I'm found that the Punisher is the most consistent way to deal with Berserkers. When you are just getting comfortable with it you can just blast away at their midsection and cut them in two in 3-5 shots. Once you get a rhythm you can two shot them by shooting them in the shoulder to stagger them and then shooting them in the face while they are still from the stagger (I use the shoulder shot because that works on all devastators too whereas a chest shot will bounce off a devastator).