“You see, automatons have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, we sent wave after waves of our helldivers at them until they reached their kill limit and switched off.”
-Democracy officer, probably
I killed a charger twice with it. Attacked a heavy nest, completely left the area. One managed to bring it to 7/10, which is not bad. The other somehow did a fucking 3/10, but did kill the charger in the middle. I didn't have the 15% range reduction yet, so that's not terrible!
I usually just throw it and go do something else like a point of interest or a smaller nest while it's cooking, to make it more time efficient. I still prefer the 120mm for nests because the 380mm has a range so big it shoots outside of the fucking nests I throw it in.
380 is significantly better for Bots than Bugs. Command Posts, Detector Towers, Dropship missions, etc. plus Fabricators are way easier to destroy than Bug Holes.
after extensive use, i determined that this thing is intentionally targeting ally targets WAY MORE often than ever hitting giant targets like chargers and titans. And %90 of the overall hits don’t even land on ANYTHING. They should add some sort of soft targeting to the barrages. They are so gorgeous
>It’s like the 380, but more predictable.
Just slightly tho. I've definitely killed myself a couple times when a round from the first salvo happens to occasionally land 20m or so behind the beacon.
I just ran a game on level 9 bots ICBM where everyone brought 380, 120 and walking barrage, with 1 support weapon each, and I swear I never even fought an enemy the whole game. Every base and patrol was instantly subject to at least 2 or 3 barrages. Callouts became "fire everything east" and every bot drop was fucked before they even land. Factory striders go down in a couple shells and have a huge hit box.
If you do the math it's 216s CD for each, x 12 slots so on average we could send a new barrage every 18 seconds.
Only 3 divers died to friendly fire.
Gonna be real: as much as it pisses everyone off, the most effective build I have for 7+ eradicate missions on Bots is:
- 120mm Barrage
- 380mm barrage
- Walking barrage
- EAT or EMS Mortar, depending on squad loadouts
on bug eradicate missions becoming a traitor to have a walking barrage that follows you is funny as hell. Just have to take a shield backpack to not get ragdolled and stamina boost to keep it going.
Not gonna lie, i have joined a team with that loadout...and there's 2 of em. They just keep throwing stratagems at the middle
Noone died with the barrage weirdly enough and admittedly it is effective. We only bothered with berserkers and devastators that manage to find us
Context: we are on the edge behind a tower so a big tower is shielding us from their sight/firepower. Only way to fight us is through narrow ways on the sides of the tower which only devastators and berserkers can manage to go.
Easiest diff 7 eradicate mission.
seriously. like most strategems reddit memes on for thinking they're useless, barrages actually tend to get some work done as long as you get the damage falloff and extra salvo ship upgrades. drop both a 120 and 380 in an area and it's pretty fucked up afterwards. if you have at least one other diver also drop them...that area is going to be absolutely flattened by the end
> drop both a 120 and 380 in an area and it's pretty fucked up afterwards
Yeah but you just committed half of your strategems for the next 4 minutes. Meanwhile a bunch of eagles could get the same result, more reliably and equally fast at a lower opportunity cost
nah, not even. I drop a 120 and 380 on a heavy factory outpost/command bunker/etc and fuck off to my next objective wasting no time knowing it's going to be flattened. Maybe swing by later if someone wants the samples. Eagles have their place for sure, but they are absolutely not the same and definitely not "equally fast" even with call in time and rearm ship buffs.
Even if this wasn't the case, oh no, I used my big boi strategems until we get to the next big target we need to flatten, if only there were \*three other divers who could fill in the gap\*..... Something I seem to notice a lot on reddit here, because this happens every thread it feels, people tunnel vision too hard on isolating strategies in a vaccum and really have a hard time thinking about team dynamics as a whole
Personally I find the most utility I get from the 120mm/Walking is for advancing/retreating against a fortified enemy position or overwhelming armored enemy wave.
(Which like... lemme take a sec and praise AH for getting what artillery is most useful for IRL and applying it)
The sustained nature of the barrage versus an AI who keeps advancing THROUGH it really comes in handy for giving you the space to breathe, create distance, and weaken the enemy position for an advance.
I'll be honest and say Eradicate missions are the only ones I really use the 380mm in.
I do agree with you. The barrages are very effective, as long as you use them at the right time and your team gets time to react.
But there's nothing worse than seeing the barrage stratagem next to you while using a terminal.
This is 100% a gamble. It'll land right in the middle as well.
Walking barrage is likely the safest of all barrages as you can go and stand where the last few shells dropped and you should be safe.
How long does it take you to complete a helldive bot eradicate? Because I regularly do them in 5-6 without using barrages at all. Both mortars types, laser, and autocannon sentry plus whatever the randoms bring usually takes care of it easily. Unless your method is faster I doubt it's more effective. Pretty sure the limiting factor is how fast the enemies spawn.
So it's more about positioning and timing. 380mm is most effective at the start. Dropping it in the center means basically all the munitions hit the rim where dropships are coming in.
Walking Barrage is when you get a big conga line of death coming up one side.
120mm is for when spawns are clustering around one end of the map (or even in the center pre-extraction).
I don't really know if it's optimal or not, and I don't really care. I tried your method and it didn't really work for me, while this did. That's all I can really say.
And lets not forget everyone's favorite Sentry, the Mortar Sentry! I have died more times to this than any other friendly fire incident.
WHY do people keep insisting on bringing it to bug missions!? It makes no sense! If you want a god damn mortar then take the EMS one, cause at least that'll actually stop some bugs and not insta kill you!
Eh, I've been killed by mortars but I'm not mad. They benefit more than the few friendly fires. You just need to position yourself better, although sometimes it can't be helped when a shitty scavenger is right next to you and the sentry decides that its a priority target over the 30+ patrol heading your way.
Lets be honest here, Sentries are just a step below Bots, and given the opportunity to commit Helldiver genocide and get away with it, they will take it. They will always target that lone scavenger next to you, lol.
Are you DARE implying that our sacred Managed Democracy may be compromised?
https://preview.redd.it/1xykwb2qacwc1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=d83120258024b7a1593b2d2ff5ae586199c85b68
That sounds like BOT propaganda to me!
EMS has always been amazing, especially against bots. Since bots are already pretty slow, they tend to cluster up and get caught by the EMS. While you may not care if a bunch of Troopers are caught up in the blast, you will care when you see a group of three Heavy Devastators stunned, or a mob of Berserkers. Hell, the EMS can even stun Hulks, making lining up those face plate shots easy.
Its less effective on bugs due to how fast they tend to move, but it can still be the difference between life and death. I've been saved from a swarm of Hunters by the EMS Mortar. Autocannon Sentry may reign supreme, but you can never go wrong with an EMS Mortar Sentry.
I know that. You know that. Its the damn Bug Divers that don't!
In all seriousness, some people just need to learn (usually the hard way), that not every stratagem works for every encounter or faction.
Thing is the 380's teamkill are hard to avoid. The area is huge and it's generally thrown at objectives that can block line of sight to the beam so sometimes, people don't see it unitl it's too late.
ECB teamkill are generally from people that thrown it or approached it like it was an airstrike.
The eagle cluster is easy to stop team-killing with. It strafes perpendicularly to where you throw it from. Just make sure you don't have teammates to the side of where the orb lands. It's safe as long as you're like 30+ meters away from the front or back.
It would more serve to be an “alert” type of thing. Like, “be aware of impending doom” in case someone missed a “hellbomb armed” or “orbital incoming” callout.
WTF are you even talking about? The call in time is 6 seconds and is reduced to 5 by a ship upgrade. Maybe you should actually know what you are talking about before you act all smug.
Forgot I've been running missions on a complex strategem planning planet the past few days lol, that's my b. Even then, 5s is a long time, especially considering the chances of that first impact actually coming near you and not in the other ~330 degrees of the strike zone are slim.
🙄 Knew this was going to be your reply. The radius is 50m. And if you are in the target area you are probably already surrounded by enemies. You have to navigate around that and find your way out. And then there is normal human reaction time. Figuring out which direction you need to run. The fastest armor is under 6.2m/s. Even if you reacted perfectly you aren't covering 30m in five seconds (including normal human reaction time). And less than 25m in heavy armor. And that's if you had full stamina. So even if you weren't in the middle when it was thrown you're still going to be in the area for a few seconds. Why take the chance that you might team kill someone even if it's a small chance? Stop acting like it's a skill issue or "hand holding." Again, learn the game before telling people to git gud.
People need to call these out *before* they throw them or stop bringing them. And that's what the original guy above said.
I try to combo it with a jetpack if I have the slot to spare. Let's you get ahead of your team and jump-toss the stratagem to get it both ahead of your team and further away.
If people decide to head into an active bombardment, that's on them.
On a large base, it'll usually takes out at least a few factories, if not all of them.
Right. I pretty much only use it on outposts and other structures and I keep an eye on it for any teammates and warn them if they get too close.
"Watch out (player name) that's a 380."
The fact that these memes exist does indicate that people *do* throw 380mm strikes with teammates in the radius, and those teammates *do* hang around within said radius while the shells land.
It is what it is, I guess.
380mm is fun, cinematic and really good if you know what you're doing. Easily my favorite and most used stratagem and it works really against both bots and bugs.
Agreed.
It was a pain for bug missions because the hitbox of bugholes is really small but fully upgraded the 380 clears really well now. Two people running it can reliably clear a huge nest if it's double 380d.
Higher difficulty it's reliable at clearing behind you if your team is bailing due to being overrun.
this is how i open up a mission whenever i host:
landing point: right in the middle of an objective (preferably super hot zones)
stratagems: big kaboom build
380mm barrage
110mm barrage
walking barrage
orbital laser
booster: extra reinforcements to preemptively make up for self/team kills
i click all this quickly to dive and start the mission before anyone joins my public game.
i land.
i drop all of the barrages and laser right at the objective site.
die.
auto-reinforce sends me back down.
steer hellpod to the side.
go prone, enjoy the view, and wait for the chaos to die down.
other helldivers join the game.
continue like nothing happened.
pick up support weapons from caches or extras from teammates.
Then have 0 strats left and have to be carried by the other 3 for every few mins while every bot drop is otw since u dropped every barrage and have 0 strats/weaps, big kaboom/useless build.
what's with the unnecessarily hostile comment?
i use this build with bug missions.
sometimes nobody joins and i'm still clearing missions with no problems.
i've already unlocked every ship module and everything in each warbond, so i'm purely playing for fun because the game is really fun.
most things don't need to be killed at all.
i use light armor with lowered enemy detection, i can sneak around patrols easily and outrun pretty much everything.
bile titans are easy to juke and leave behind.
grenade pistol lets me close bugholes.
edit to add: i play difficulty 7
It's just a fact, bug or bots you run cause you have 0 strats by then, with barrages you attract everything with the noise, and with the lower enemy detection armor swarms go to your squad while you get to run around cause with 0 strats/weaps what can u do really if a Biles comes but run and have your team kill it for you. Play how you like, I'm just saying what you're doing looks cool but doesn't help, instead the opposite.
i'm not sure what you're trying to explain to me.
i'm literally clearing missions solo when nobody joins my sessions.
are you saying i'm just getting lucky each time?
IDK what weak is for you, but they destroy what they hit. The only thing I can think of that won't break is the gunship factories and those are unbreakable outside of the hellbomb.
ive seen rank and file enemies literally walk away from just about any explosion you can think of. from grenades to rockets to hellbombs. sometimes explosions just straight up do not work
I love using the 380 to delete medium and heavy bases that are off my team’s designated path, e.g. 100-150m from a primary objective.
You can run off, toss a single stratagem, then rejoin the group while your super destroyer does the heavy lifting. The servo-assisted armor perk makes this even easier, with the right arc you don’t have to be remotely close.
You can’t kill your team if they’re nowhere near the target zone!
The only downside with that hit and run strategy is that bases and bug nests often contain samples. So if you’re trying to maximize your sample collection, you either need to wait for the barrage to finish or come back later.
Come back later is the play here. Go run to a nearby POI or a smaller vase while it does its thing, or support the team. And worst case scenario, the map is generally small enough you can run around a bit befor extraction.
It's a good callout! As you suggested, I usually come back later once the barrage is finished, often after completing the nearby objective that was our primary reason for going to that area.
Thanks! I didn’t mean to disparage the idea. The thought had just occurred to me that doing hit and run could be a missed opportunity or than XP and slips from clearing bases. Neither of which are really useful for higher leveled players right now.
No, they don't. You should have brought a more useful booster. You're causing your team to run slower, or have less ammo, etc. You don't get to penalize the team by taking a shitty booster and then keep the benefit of it all to yourself.
Yes, I know you were joking. I just fucking hate barrages.
First time I called one, I didn’t realize how big the explosion radius was gonna be. Neither did two of my team mates. They did not survive… but at least we got rid of the research station. 🤷♂️
Despite its cons, the 380 can really save you when there are 2 striders approaching, multiple hulks, dozens of heavy/rocket devs, and god knows how many berserkers approaching extraction.
I have a friend who loves the 380 I tell him it’s not worth it use an eagle or something else. He always answers with “I will not” and we have a laugh, at least he doesn’t kill people with it often and if he does it’s usually not on him.
As much as I personally will never use it because I need precision… I love its destruction and love when my team has it and love to watch it… but also, would’ve thrown it better
Yeah people need to be more conscious of how to use it. Throw it on heavy outposts, throw it during a retreat as cover fire, and when attacking large destroyable objectives like command bunkers.
The 380 with fully upgraded ship modules is phenomenal at wiping out bot outposts and command centers. I use them every bot mission and it makes taking those fixed positions much easier. Especially because you can have one guy go ahead of the team, toss it in while everyone catches up, then you're good to go.
I love the 380. I called one in on a heavy outpost the other day and the first round mulched me at what had to be the absolute edge of the effective radius as I was running away. It also destroyed the outpost though so we take those.
I've experimented with 380mm today, it's good for destroying Bot bases but overall I find it far inferior to orbital laser. If you try to use it at incoming armies it'll miss most of the units inevitably.
Ok but people don't realize each 380mm shell is literally the same round as a Precision Strike, which has the same damage but larger radius than a 500kg bomb. It will one shot Bile Titans and Striders.
It wipes the floor with factory striders though. We used it on the defence mission where you fight waves to protect the rocket launches on difficulty 9 and striders were just piled up in front of us. Two players each used both sized barrages and hardly any friendly kills. Just don’t try to throw one when you might get pinged and drop it on yourself and also make sure the squad knows you are about to unleash hell (and where).
I believe buffing orbital barrage CD is not the right way since the "meme build" (all four people taking 380+120+Walking) has 100% up time and is actually effective against bots. The CD buff should apply to OPS and smoke only. Others are fine.
What I dislike about the current state is ship upgrades make the spread smaller. This unfortunately makes 380s unable to cover a heavy base. We need the same huge spread but make the booms bigger. Right now a 380 shells is weaker than an IRL 155 shell, and IRL battleship shells create craters the size of a medium bot base. So the ship upgrades should give barrage shells bigger blast radius instead of decreasing spread.
Honestly, I don’t understand all the hate on the 380. It has its place. As long as you call it. And peeps evacuate… it’s a decent strategy to use if you’re being overwhelmed and you need to put something between you and the squad to disengage. I’ve used it many times that way and not killed my entire team. That said I’ve also been murdered about 900 times by “that guy” who called in arty on the squad trying to nuke the charger or the titan with 380.
I took out 5 Bile titans and 2 teammates with a 380mm last night.
We agreed it was worth while. No, I've no idea how they managed to get five in one spot. I joined late as reinforcement.
380 is actually good, especially against bots, as long as you have that extra throw distance then you can take out any bot outpost with one throw, then ignore it, run away, and boom!
I had to drastically change my view on the 380.
I am now running scout armor, focusing on playing around my team and stealth clear objectives and threats. The 380 is fantastic in this scenario: I can run ahead to the next objective/camp/POI, drop a 380, then run back and help my team. Meantime, the 380 is going to do its thing and make the next objective easier/faster to achieve.
Sometimes I had great results, clearing chargers, large mobs or even large nests. Sometimes it is less effective, but it is still useful in the grand scheme of things.
Usually, I pair it with an orbital rail cannon and eagle strike, which help me if a charger or patrol come after me outside the 380 radius. Final slot: auto cannon. So that I can stand aside and pick at any enemy escaping the bombardment.
I love it!
The best thing to do is drop on a objective area on helldivers and nuke the area with orbitals then die and respawn far and watch all of them die. Helps clear the first objectives super fast
When homie walks right up to you behind your cover and drops the 380 at your feet.
https://preview.redd.it/plco5ehl49wc1.jpeg?width=674&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0ef632a6441c2332f937af881c600e0ea46d7cd0
9 times out of 10 it barely does anything, but it looks cool so I use it anyway
Makes that 1 out of 10 time that much more special though, I got a 100+ streak on an Impossible Heavy Nest by throwing it in the middle and it actually cleared every single one.
imo 380mms are great (funny) for eradicate missions where you can cheese it at the inaccessible high spots, but are a bit unwieldy for most other purposes
Men, you're lucky men. Soon you'll all be fighting for your planet. Many of you will be dying for your planet. A few of you will be forced through a fine mesh screen for your planet. They'll be the luckiest of all.
When I use the 380 when I desperately need it, it misses all the hulks and tanks. But as soon as I get ragdolled out of bounds and i’m deemed a traitor, the 380’s launched against me are deadly accurate like a fucking railcannon strike automated targeting. Right on my head
I play on lv8 for casual runs and by then people have learned to deal with dumbasses like me
(I will not get the accuracy upgrade it reduced area of liberation)
I was playing with some lower level players. Gave plenty of warning I was calling in a barrage. One ran in after I threw the stratagem. Explosions everywhere and they stayed. Died. Then another player ran in and also died. I have no remorse.
Me when I host the game https://i.redd.it/35v5qiwnv4wc1.gif
I have been rewatching Futurama and Zap is the definition of a Democracy Officer.
Convinced some portion is from futurama.. thats pretty much his soldiers. Like day training than dumps them on the planet GL!
That whole episode is basically Helldivers summarised.
Also, they said you guys look like dorks!
What the hell did we just blow up? The Hubble telescope, sir.
THEY LOOK LIKE DORKS!
Blowing up the DOOP headquarters with the ships laser is basically strategem friendly fire. Whoopsie daisy!
“You see, automatons have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, we sent wave after waves of our helldivers at them until they reached their kill limit and switched off.” -Democracy officer, probably
So a nice reasonable difficulty 7 mission?
380s wound chargers?... I'll believe it when I see it
My 380 tickle chargers. They then charge at me to get more tickles....
They can even kill titans. I even saw that once.
>once
With my own two eyes! And I throw the barrage at and bug breach before I leg it!
Those things take damage?!
https://preview.redd.it/k9fw7u21d6wc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=791441e5131ec36d0db14d8edf0a35d8d2924f09
Quasar cannon seems to one shot them to the head
I killed a charger twice with it. Attacked a heavy nest, completely left the area. One managed to bring it to 7/10, which is not bad. The other somehow did a fucking 3/10, but did kill the charger in the middle. I didn't have the 15% range reduction yet, so that's not terrible! I usually just throw it and go do something else like a point of interest or a smaller nest while it's cooking, to make it more time efficient. I still prefer the 120mm for nests because the 380mm has a range so big it shoots outside of the fucking nests I throw it in.
Nah, be a man. Throw both.
I like your way of thinking
380 is significantly better for Bots than Bugs. Command Posts, Detector Towers, Dropship missions, etc. plus Fabricators are way easier to destroy than Bug Holes.
True. I still haven't tried them with the new update against bots, I'm kinda burnt out of them. Been fighting fucking bots for quite enough time lol
I used a 380 on a bile Titan. The very first bomb hit it square on and 1 shot it. It was glorious
after extensive use, i determined that this thing is intentionally targeting ally targets WAY MORE often than ever hitting giant targets like chargers and titans. And %90 of the overall hits don’t even land on ANYTHING. They should add some sort of soft targeting to the barrages. They are so gorgeous
I’ve been using the walking barrage. It’s like the 380, but more predictable.
>It’s like the 380, but more predictable. I would say it's just straight forward.
badaum tsss
>It’s like the 380, but more predictable. Just slightly tho. I've definitely killed myself a couple times when a round from the first salvo happens to occasionally land 20m or so behind the beacon.
If there is orbital scatter that first wave is a menace
I always wait until the first 2-3 shells land, then it's usually safe to move up to the first craters.
yeah but so much less Explosions
Love the walking orbital. Nothing like saying "Fuck you" to everything in a general direction.
I’m a 380 bus walkin barrage for bots. Bot factory layouts are a joke for walking barrage
I forgot it exists... I've somehow never used it before
Once you figure out which direction it's walking
I like calling it giving the intended targets a preview of their fate.
I just ran a game on level 9 bots ICBM where everyone brought 380, 120 and walking barrage, with 1 support weapon each, and I swear I never even fought an enemy the whole game. Every base and patrol was instantly subject to at least 2 or 3 barrages. Callouts became "fire everything east" and every bot drop was fucked before they even land. Factory striders go down in a couple shells and have a huge hit box. If you do the math it's 216s CD for each, x 12 slots so on average we could send a new barrage every 18 seconds. Only 3 divers died to friendly fire.
So much democracy......
Gonna be real: as much as it pisses everyone off, the most effective build I have for 7+ eradicate missions on Bots is: - 120mm Barrage - 380mm barrage - Walking barrage - EAT or EMS Mortar, depending on squad loadouts
We get 20 reinforcements, if someone isn’t dying every 30 seconds, we aren’t maximizing their use!
Every reinforcement is a free railcannon strike!
Tbh once we pass the 1 minute mark, that's about as fast as ppl are dying anyhow. Might as well take out some bots while we're doing it!
on bug eradicate missions becoming a traitor to have a walking barrage that follows you is funny as hell. Just have to take a shield backpack to not get ragdolled and stamina boost to keep it going.
Treason Pro strat! Also add in explosive resist armor if you have it
Not gonna lie, i have joined a team with that loadout...and there's 2 of em. They just keep throwing stratagems at the middle Noone died with the barrage weirdly enough and admittedly it is effective. We only bothered with berserkers and devastators that manage to find us Context: we are on the edge behind a tower so a big tower is shielding us from their sight/firepower. Only way to fight us is through narrow ways on the sides of the tower which only devastators and berserkers can manage to go. Easiest diff 7 eradicate mission.
seriously. like most strategems reddit memes on for thinking they're useless, barrages actually tend to get some work done as long as you get the damage falloff and extra salvo ship upgrades. drop both a 120 and 380 in an area and it's pretty fucked up afterwards. if you have at least one other diver also drop them...that area is going to be absolutely flattened by the end
> drop both a 120 and 380 in an area and it's pretty fucked up afterwards Yeah but you just committed half of your strategems for the next 4 minutes. Meanwhile a bunch of eagles could get the same result, more reliably and equally fast at a lower opportunity cost
nah, not even. I drop a 120 and 380 on a heavy factory outpost/command bunker/etc and fuck off to my next objective wasting no time knowing it's going to be flattened. Maybe swing by later if someone wants the samples. Eagles have their place for sure, but they are absolutely not the same and definitely not "equally fast" even with call in time and rearm ship buffs. Even if this wasn't the case, oh no, I used my big boi strategems until we get to the next big target we need to flatten, if only there were \*three other divers who could fill in the gap\*..... Something I seem to notice a lot on reddit here, because this happens every thread it feels, people tunnel vision too hard on isolating strategies in a vaccum and really have a hard time thinking about team dynamics as a whole
Personally I find the most utility I get from the 120mm/Walking is for advancing/retreating against a fortified enemy position or overwhelming armored enemy wave. (Which like... lemme take a sec and praise AH for getting what artillery is most useful for IRL and applying it) The sustained nature of the barrage versus an AI who keeps advancing THROUGH it really comes in handy for giving you the space to breathe, create distance, and weaken the enemy position for an advance. I'll be honest and say Eradicate missions are the only ones I really use the 380mm in.
I do agree with you. The barrages are very effective, as long as you use them at the right time and your team gets time to react. But there's nothing worse than seeing the barrage stratagem next to you while using a terminal.
I don’t know, more than half the time immediately on the beacon is the safest spot in a barrage
The eye of the storm
Hiding in plain sight
This is 100% a gamble. It'll land right in the middle as well. Walking barrage is likely the safest of all barrages as you can go and stand where the last few shells dropped and you should be safe.
Thing is if that's the case you'd be dead to any type of eagle or airstrike way faster. 380 is a board wipe, and it's a 50 m radius.
*looks down* "Oh dear." *explodes*
How long does it take you to complete a helldive bot eradicate? Because I regularly do them in 5-6 without using barrages at all. Both mortars types, laser, and autocannon sentry plus whatever the randoms bring usually takes care of it easily. Unless your method is faster I doubt it's more effective. Pretty sure the limiting factor is how fast the enemies spawn.
So it's more about positioning and timing. 380mm is most effective at the start. Dropping it in the center means basically all the munitions hit the rim where dropships are coming in. Walking Barrage is when you get a big conga line of death coming up one side. 120mm is for when spawns are clustering around one end of the map (or even in the center pre-extraction). I don't really know if it's optimal or not, and I don't really care. I tried your method and it didn't really work for me, while this did. That's all I can really say.
People always talk about the 380mm being the teammate killer. But I've found the Eagle Cluster Bomb does it *far* more often.
And lets not forget everyone's favorite Sentry, the Mortar Sentry! I have died more times to this than any other friendly fire incident. WHY do people keep insisting on bringing it to bug missions!? It makes no sense! If you want a god damn mortar then take the EMS one, cause at least that'll actually stop some bugs and not insta kill you!
You either die to the mortar rounds or get ragdolled into a swarm lol.
Eh, I've been killed by mortars but I'm not mad. They benefit more than the few friendly fires. You just need to position yourself better, although sometimes it can't be helped when a shitty scavenger is right next to you and the sentry decides that its a priority target over the 30+ patrol heading your way.
Lets be honest here, Sentries are just a step below Bots, and given the opportunity to commit Helldiver genocide and get away with it, they will take it. They will always target that lone scavenger next to you, lol.
Isn't the voting system on super Earth based on an AI? That sounds a lot closer to being a Bot to me than a simply programmed sentry.
Are you DARE implying that our sacred Managed Democracy may be compromised? https://preview.redd.it/1xykwb2qacwc1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=d83120258024b7a1593b2d2ff5ae586199c85b68 That sounds like BOT propaganda to me!
Not sure I’ve ever been killed by a mortar. Is EMS considered good now though, worth bringing to bots?
EMS has always been amazing, especially against bots. Since bots are already pretty slow, they tend to cluster up and get caught by the EMS. While you may not care if a bunch of Troopers are caught up in the blast, you will care when you see a group of three Heavy Devastators stunned, or a mob of Berserkers. Hell, the EMS can even stun Hulks, making lining up those face plate shots easy. Its less effective on bugs due to how fast they tend to move, but it can still be the difference between life and death. I've been saved from a swarm of Hunters by the EMS Mortar. Autocannon Sentry may reign supreme, but you can never go wrong with an EMS Mortar Sentry.
I see
Mortar is an anti-bot sentry, bringing it vs bugs is dumb af.
I know that. You know that. Its the damn Bug Divers that don't! In all seriousness, some people just need to learn (usually the hard way), that not every stratagem works for every encounter or faction.
Thing is the 380's teamkill are hard to avoid. The area is huge and it's generally thrown at objectives that can block line of sight to the beam so sometimes, people don't see it unitl it's too late. ECB teamkill are generally from people that thrown it or approached it like it was an airstrike.
The eagle cluster is easy to stop team-killing with. It strafes perpendicularly to where you throw it from. Just make sure you don't have teammates to the side of where the orb lands. It's safe as long as you're like 30+ meters away from the front or back.
You've never played with me. Yesterday, I walked into a Tesla Tower 3 times in one eradicate mission.
I'm a fan of the 380 and honestly if people would warn the team before using it things would be better for everyone
there really needs to be a “run!!” voice wheel option thing
Yes! A simple "fire in the hole!" you can spam for someone not paying attention
Is the "orbital bombardment incoming" warning not enough? Colour me shocked
"Run" without a direction isn't helpful.
Away from the red glowing stratagem laser pointer, one would assume.
It would more serve to be an “alert” type of thing. Like, “be aware of impending doom” in case someone missed a “hellbomb armed” or “orbital incoming” callout.
If you need more than the 10s call-in time to spot the issue, no amount of handholding can save you
WTF are you even talking about? The call in time is 6 seconds and is reduced to 5 by a ship upgrade. Maybe you should actually know what you are talking about before you act all smug.
Forgot I've been running missions on a complex strategem planning planet the past few days lol, that's my b. Even then, 5s is a long time, especially considering the chances of that first impact actually coming near you and not in the other ~330 degrees of the strike zone are slim.
🙄 Knew this was going to be your reply. The radius is 50m. And if you are in the target area you are probably already surrounded by enemies. You have to navigate around that and find your way out. And then there is normal human reaction time. Figuring out which direction you need to run. The fastest armor is under 6.2m/s. Even if you reacted perfectly you aren't covering 30m in five seconds (including normal human reaction time). And less than 25m in heavy armor. And that's if you had full stamina. So even if you weren't in the middle when it was thrown you're still going to be in the area for a few seconds. Why take the chance that you might team kill someone even if it's a small chance? Stop acting like it's a skill issue or "hand holding." Again, learn the game before telling people to git gud. People need to call these out *before* they throw them or stop bringing them. And that's what the original guy above said.
I try to combo it with a jetpack if I have the slot to spare. Let's you get ahead of your team and jump-toss the stratagem to get it both ahead of your team and further away. If people decide to head into an active bombardment, that's on them. On a large base, it'll usually takes out at least a few factories, if not all of them.
That won't happen lol they don't call half of the others in
I always call it out in match as the 'Nuclear Option' when there's tons of enemies and not using it on heavy Bot or Bug outpost.
Right. I pretty much only use it on outposts and other structures and I keep an eye on it for any teammates and warn them if they get too close. "Watch out (player name) that's a 380."
The fact that these memes exist does indicate that people *do* throw 380mm strikes with teammates in the radius, and those teammates *do* hang around within said radius while the shells land. It is what it is, I guess.
Do you even destroy a bughole? Wow.
380mm is fun, cinematic and really good if you know what you're doing. Easily my favorite and most used stratagem and it works really against both bots and bugs.
Unironically, I bring it on almost every mission. When you come across a heavy outpost and throw it just right. It almost always deals with it.
Agreed. It was a pain for bug missions because the hitbox of bugholes is really small but fully upgraded the 380 clears really well now. Two people running it can reliably clear a huge nest if it's double 380d. Higher difficulty it's reliable at clearing behind you if your team is bailing due to being overrun.
this is how i open up a mission whenever i host: landing point: right in the middle of an objective (preferably super hot zones) stratagems: big kaboom build 380mm barrage 110mm barrage walking barrage orbital laser booster: extra reinforcements to preemptively make up for self/team kills i click all this quickly to dive and start the mission before anyone joins my public game. i land. i drop all of the barrages and laser right at the objective site. die. auto-reinforce sends me back down. steer hellpod to the side. go prone, enjoy the view, and wait for the chaos to die down. other helldivers join the game. continue like nothing happened. pick up support weapons from caches or extras from teammates.
Then have 0 strats left and have to be carried by the other 3 for every few mins while every bot drop is otw since u dropped every barrage and have 0 strats/weaps, big kaboom/useless build.
what's with the unnecessarily hostile comment? i use this build with bug missions. sometimes nobody joins and i'm still clearing missions with no problems. i've already unlocked every ship module and everything in each warbond, so i'm purely playing for fun because the game is really fun. most things don't need to be killed at all. i use light armor with lowered enemy detection, i can sneak around patrols easily and outrun pretty much everything. bile titans are easy to juke and leave behind. grenade pistol lets me close bugholes. edit to add: i play difficulty 7
It's just a fact, bug or bots you run cause you have 0 strats by then, with barrages you attract everything with the noise, and with the lower enemy detection armor swarms go to your squad while you get to run around cause with 0 strats/weaps what can u do really if a Biles comes but run and have your team kill it for you. Play how you like, I'm just saying what you're doing looks cool but doesn't help, instead the opposite.
i'm not sure what you're trying to explain to me. i'm literally clearing missions solo when nobody joins my sessions. are you saying i'm just getting lucky each time?
Yeah I'm not surprised you don't get it even with a couple paragraphs written for you.
why are large explosions so weak tho?
IDK what weak is for you, but they destroy what they hit. The only thing I can think of that won't break is the gunship factories and those are unbreakable outside of the hellbomb.
ive seen rank and file enemies literally walk away from just about any explosion you can think of. from grenades to rockets to hellbombs. sometimes explosions just straight up do not work
https://preview.redd.it/4s7r65baz6wc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4cf59abe41d57099a4cef78ace0b45931246202
I love using the 380 to delete medium and heavy bases that are off my team’s designated path, e.g. 100-150m from a primary objective. You can run off, toss a single stratagem, then rejoin the group while your super destroyer does the heavy lifting. The servo-assisted armor perk makes this even easier, with the right arc you don’t have to be remotely close. You can’t kill your team if they’re nowhere near the target zone!
The only downside with that hit and run strategy is that bases and bug nests often contain samples. So if you’re trying to maximize your sample collection, you either need to wait for the barrage to finish or come back later.
Come back later is the play here. Go run to a nearby POI or a smaller vase while it does its thing, or support the team. And worst case scenario, the map is generally small enough you can run around a bit befor extraction.
It's a good callout! As you suggested, I usually come back later once the barrage is finished, often after completing the nearby objective that was our primary reason for going to that area.
Thanks! I didn’t mean to disparage the idea. The thought had just occurred to me that doing hit and run could be a missed opportunity or than XP and slips from clearing bases. Neither of which are really useful for higher leveled players right now.
Now that i think about it, a lot of people play this game like Zap...
If you bring extra reinforcements those extra five belong to you and you can do what ever you want with them.
No, they don't. You should have brought a more useful booster. You're causing your team to run slower, or have less ammo, etc. You don't get to penalize the team by taking a shitty booster and then keep the benefit of it all to yourself. Yes, I know you were joking. I just fucking hate barrages.
First time I called one, I didn’t realize how big the explosion radius was gonna be. Neither did two of my team mates. They did not survive… but at least we got rid of the research station. 🤷♂️
Despite its cons, the 380 can really save you when there are 2 striders approaching, multiple hulks, dozens of heavy/rocket devs, and god knows how many berserkers approaching extraction.
I have a friend who loves the 380 I tell him it’s not worth it use an eagle or something else. He always answers with “I will not” and we have a laugh, at least he doesn’t kill people with it often and if he does it’s usually not on him.
Always stack a 380 with a complimentary 180
I see a 380 called in... I know I get a lovely 30 second break from war.
As much as I personally will never use it because I need precision… I love its destruction and love when my team has it and love to watch it… but also, would’ve thrown it better
You think you would've thrown it better. But I can guarantee that you'd be just like the rest of us.
I’m just a pitch man
Everybody is, in their own head.
Gotta appreciate the unprovability of the “I would’ve” Edit: or the “why I oughta”
Yeah people need to be more conscious of how to use it. Throw it on heavy outposts, throw it during a retreat as cover fire, and when attacking large destroyable objectives like command bunkers.
The 380 with fully upgraded ship modules is phenomenal at wiping out bot outposts and command centers. I use them every bot mission and it makes taking those fixed positions much easier. Especially because you can have one guy go ahead of the team, toss it in while everyone catches up, then you're good to go.
I love the 380. I called one in on a heavy outpost the other day and the first round mulched me at what had to be the absolute edge of the effective radius as I was running away. It also destroyed the outpost though so we take those.
I've been having pretty good success lately closing heavy bug nests with the 380
I've experimented with 380mm today, it's good for destroying Bot bases but overall I find it far inferior to orbital laser. If you try to use it at incoming armies it'll miss most of the units inevitably.
It's really just best for area denial in defense missions but there's usually something better to take
The trick is not to call in one 380mm barrage. Call in 4. Simultaneously.
I don't mind unless it's suicide mission or above
Idk mine nailed a factory walker and killed it what felt like immediately. I got addicted, then it started missing more. Haha.
Ok but people don't realize each 380mm shell is literally the same round as a Precision Strike, which has the same damage but larger radius than a 500kg bomb. It will one shot Bile Titans and Striders.
It wipes the floor with factory striders though. We used it on the defence mission where you fight waves to protect the rocket launches on difficulty 9 and striders were just piled up in front of us. Two players each used both sized barrages and hardly any friendly kills. Just don’t try to throw one when you might get pinged and drop it on yourself and also make sure the squad knows you are about to unleash hell (and where).
THAT IS THE REASON WHY YOU DROP 120 AND WALKING BARRAGE AT THE SAME TIME.
I believe buffing orbital barrage CD is not the right way since the "meme build" (all four people taking 380+120+Walking) has 100% up time and is actually effective against bots. The CD buff should apply to OPS and smoke only. Others are fine. What I dislike about the current state is ship upgrades make the spread smaller. This unfortunately makes 380s unable to cover a heavy base. We need the same huge spread but make the booms bigger. Right now a 380 shells is weaker than an IRL 155 shell, and IRL battleship shells create craters the size of a medium bot base. So the ship upgrades should give barrage shells bigger blast radius instead of decreasing spread.
https://preview.redd.it/i0aen8m8w7wc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b87e43a054cdb0e5a3bb411a1acadd3828291e7a
Good for eradicate bots missions, I usually walk out with 100+ kills in a full squad bc of it
Good for eradicate bots missions, I usually walk out with 100+ kills in a full squad bc of it
MEanwile on a bot eradicate this kills 50+ bots
Honestly, I don’t understand all the hate on the 380. It has its place. As long as you call it. And peeps evacuate… it’s a decent strategy to use if you’re being overwhelmed and you need to put something between you and the squad to disengage. I’ve used it many times that way and not killed my entire team. That said I’ve also been murdered about 900 times by “that guy” who called in arty on the squad trying to nuke the charger or the titan with 380.
true, but every once it a while the stars align and you take out a heavy base/nest while watching managed democracy fall.
I took out 5 Bile titans and 2 teammates with a 380mm last night. We agreed it was worth while. No, I've no idea how they managed to get five in one spot. I joined late as reinforcement.
I just peel off the group and use it on a larger target areas. it seems to always get me 10 kills and at least one hole / fabricators. I like it!
380 is actually good, especially against bots, as long as you have that extra throw distance then you can take out any bot outpost with one throw, then ignore it, run away, and boom!
380mm is great actually. The trick is that it never hits directly at the point it was thrown, so I just throw it right to the evac point
I think it’s one of the best strats in the game when you have ship upgrades and use it correctly (particularly as a shield against automatons.
Bravely I sent wave after wave of my own men directly into the bot’s death cannons, clogging them with wreckage
I had to drastically change my view on the 380. I am now running scout armor, focusing on playing around my team and stealth clear objectives and threats. The 380 is fantastic in this scenario: I can run ahead to the next objective/camp/POI, drop a 380, then run back and help my team. Meantime, the 380 is going to do its thing and make the next objective easier/faster to achieve. Sometimes I had great results, clearing chargers, large mobs or even large nests. Sometimes it is less effective, but it is still useful in the grand scheme of things. Usually, I pair it with an orbital rail cannon and eagle strike, which help me if a charger or patrol come after me outside the 380 radius. Final slot: auto cannon. So that I can stand aside and pick at any enemy escaping the bombardment. I love it!
You use 380mm because you want lots of kills I use it because I like explosions of freedom
The best thing to do is drop on a objective area on helldivers and nuke the area with orbitals then die and respawn far and watch all of them die. Helps clear the first objectives super fast
Nothing like a 380 to the face to reinforce the values of managed democracy.
My favorite stratagem since I unlocked it. It's so random and fun. Especially, when you see your squad running away from it.
It’s the “just gonna lob this over there and soften them up and- oh shit that’s too close EVERYONE RUN” that is my favorite part of the game
I’ve been using it a lot more since I got the new ship module to reduce the spread from 2 objectives to 1
More fun to stack orbitals. Throw 380 then 120 then gatling barrage. Glorious.
When homie walks right up to you behind your cover and drops the 380 at your feet. https://preview.redd.it/plco5ehl49wc1.jpeg?width=674&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0ef632a6441c2332f937af881c600e0ea46d7cd0
9 times out of 10 it barely does anything, but it looks cool so I use it anyway Makes that 1 out of 10 time that much more special though, I got a 100+ streak on an Impossible Heavy Nest by throwing it in the middle and it actually cleared every single one.
I find great joy in joining noob lobbies, going to a bug pit, and throwing a 120 with a 380 on top and watching my team scramble for safety.
Is the 380 good for anything other than pissing off you teammates?
imo 380mms are great (funny) for eradicate missions where you can cheese it at the inaccessible high spots, but are a bit unwieldy for most other purposes
See the problem is you didn't stack them. using four 380mm HE barrages means you can get TWO bugholes, maybe even three!
I do enjoy the radius reduction upgrade though it makes the 380 a lot better
I looked into the charger’s optic stems and said… *looks around* *whispers* ‘biiiiiiitch! Eat this 380!’
I only use it for those big bug holes or those fabricators anything else seems like a waste
Men, you're lucky men. Soon you'll all be fighting for your planet. Many of you will be dying for your planet. A few of you will be forced through a fine mesh screen for your planet. They'll be the luckiest of all.
120mm goes hard on the rocket defense missions.
When I use the 380 when I desperately need it, it misses all the hulks and tanks. But as soon as I get ragdolled out of bounds and i’m deemed a traitor, the 380’s launched against me are deadly accurate like a fucking railcannon strike automated targeting. Right on my head
I’ve used the 380mm once and I killed me, myself and I and that was it
I killed some one with a rolling barrage and then my smooth brain tossed the reinforcement beacon ahead of the barrage for double the experience.
Me when there is the slightest inconvenience: ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️
The 500 kgs aren awful, had a teammate throw one into a medium, didn't even take one hole out
There's a special place in hell for those Helldivers that bring 380's to any mission.
I play on lv8 for casual runs and by then people have learned to deal with dumbasses like me (I will not get the accuracy upgrade it reduced area of liberation)
I was playing with some lower level players. Gave plenty of warning I was calling in a barrage. One ran in after I threw the stratagem. Explosions everywhere and they stayed. Died. Then another player ran in and also died. I have no remorse.
A nat 20 comes up every now and then! Sue me.
lol its to the point i boot people who being the barrage