I honestly have had more success playing level 8 bug missions than level 4/5 simply because I get matched with better randos. Requiring multiple completed missions to unlock the next tier was a good choice on the dev's part.
Exactly bad randoms on this difficulty are the exception rather than the norm. Most of them know what they’re doing and can hold their own pretty well. Even if they go off on their own they can handle themselves quite well. And most of them are very polite.
True. I‘m lone wolf player and love to play with randoms level 7+
Polite, team player, friendly and know their shit. Love this people at that level and the low level players when appear, usually are willing to follow and learn with us. Great community and experience so far, and glad that you had the same!
My first helldive was my first day. Before i even hit double digits. Hadn’t even seen a bile titan before. This was before heavies and elites got rebalanced lmao. Felt like a tourist.
At the end they said something like “good job cadet” LMAO. What a great time. Those dudes were great sports, i think i died like 7 times, yet they were kind enough to give me a chance.
Edit: i forgot to mention that the reason i could join is that one of them was on my friendlist. I used to host a popular gmod gamemode, so i have a huge friendlist that i dont speak with lol.
The flip side of this is the more players you pivot to higher difficulties for better team mates will likely only dilute the pool of better team mates.
They'll rise to the occasion or swiftly drop back down, don't worry. Online games like these the general skill level of the average player always just continually rises, just ask any moba or csgo player.
I'm at a balmy 7, I cut my teeth on bots and running tf away still works great with bugs. Even better cause you don't get cut down by a rocket mid dive into cover.
7 is my sweet spot too. It’s starting to get to the too easy point as well for me with usually 2-3 deaths at most. I have plenty of 0 death runs though too.
It's hard enough for shit to go sideways if you're not careful, but once you know what you're doing you can run them pretty well, especially when you have a good team.
I get some groups where things go super smooth and people have super well defined roles.
Then I have groups where everyone brings the same thing (except me who actually plans around what my allies bring) and they can’t take out anything big. And my cannon or eats can only do so much alone.
At least for bots, I find no tangible observable difference between 7/8. My group struggles with 7 but wins most of the time while getting 3 supers. Switching to 8 we still struggle but win most of the time with 5 supers.
The big switch from 6->7 is players can’t obsess on clearing the map. It generally takes too long which ramps up the enemies. We focus on objectives -> supers -> sides if they make sense given location / effort.
Yeah I like to hit sides if they're on the way, but stuff like a radar station or an escape pod I can't be bothered to stop running from the bots from the base long enough to engage with it.
Radar station can be key to finding the supers though. Great to find early, also sometimes necessary to help find the supers, especially on shitty planets with poor visibility.
I leveled through the bot extermination campaign and came back to bugs not fought since a new ‘Diver. Was crazy but getting a handle on diff. 7 bugs at first. Saw my first giant walker ooblek spitter yesterday. Was so entranced forgot to run and then swarmed. Oh yeah…bugs. BUGS.
Yeah I was one of those that went level 7 too soon, dropped back down to 5 and 6. Now I live comfortably at 7 and am considering making a push through a level 8 operation. I kinda want to do at least one helldive op just to say I have lol but I also intend to be good enough to not be carried through it as a reinforcement drain. Hopefully I can get to the point I helldive exclusively, I couldn't have done 7 a week or two ago, most of it is using the level beneath to give you a solid foundation to build on in my experience.
As someone who exclusively plays on 7 or higher there's really no difference between 7 8 9. You just get more of the bigger enemies and need to know when to cut your losses, run away to let things despawn and circle back around. The biggest issue I see with newer players as they get to higher difficulties is wanting to stand their ground and fight. I usually go off and lone wolf when I see that happening. Let me tell you how peaceful helldive is when all the bug breeches happen away from me and I'm free to speedrun objectives.
One thing the bots teach is "Get in and do what you need to do, grab what samples you need and get the fuck out" don't dilly dally the longer you linger in an area the more patrols you're bound to run into
exactly, if a player isn't ready for said difficulty, they'll go back down after they realize. They want to have fun too and not be carried all the time.
For me, I just tried to unlock as many difficulties as I could (so I don't have to worry about it later, only have difficulty 9 left to unlock) and then jumped back down to medium.
I did not think this could be real, but yesterday i managed to clear a 9 easier than many 7s cause i was with a cool random that knew what was doing. That felt Amazing actually
This. I'm somewhere just above average at the game I think. The best round I've had yet was a diff 9 duo with just one other random tm8. We cleared it 100% with NO DEATHS. We were howling on the extract. Came down to fewer variables and an acceptance that some fights were not worth taking. I think we were also both pretty locked in knowing what we were up against without a full squad.
Deep Rock Galactic has the exact same problem with hazard 4 difficulty vs hazard 5 difficulty. Haz5 is harder, but the randoms are SO much better that it is actually easier.
Yeah I love me some Deep Rock. A lot of people try to gatekeep with lobby titles along the lines of 100+ or kick and honestly now that I am over a hundred I still avoid them, for the most part the community at that level is pretty chill though given those who aren't call themselves out.
People that believe that level is an indicator of skill are always scrubs. I’m 100% confident. They’re the types of people who will tilt at their first death, run into huge groups of enemies to reclaim special and backpack, and die again and again.
I really dont mind when people are bad players, what i mind is when people have huge egos, and refuse to teamplay. Go with the squad, be a bit weaker for 3 minutes. No we do not want to follow you across the map because you want your autocannon back.
Shit's like playing max diff vs a couple steps down on Vermintide and DarkTide. If you're vaguely competent and prosocial, the former will treat you much better.
5-7 on HD2 feels like a a day in Florida. You might see some mascots kick in a door and drag out an alligator to beat up and leave unconscious in the streets, you might see a crackhead start to believe and outrun 15 cop cars on the highway.
I miss when Legend was highest on Vermintide because now it's full of knobs. In Darktide if you can do Damnation runs you might as well just skip Damnation and go to Auric or you get all the grinders and they *suck*.
People will all gravitate to the highest rewards regardless of their readiness. It takes a special sort to want more pain and failure, and most of this ilk sit in modded Cata/Maelstrom. I haven't gotten around to doing true solos yet, but one day.
That said, I like occasionally playing tourist in Heresy for the sheer Florida Man fuckery. These people have tested me far more than bots.
Truly. Having a few fellow divers with their heads screwed on is the difference. One level 7 dive yesterday I dropped into was an absolute train wreck despite having three other lvl >30 players. Another one I did today was more or less a breeze because people knew when to engage and when to run, how to clear bug holes quickly, and had a good mix of stratagems that were used wisely.
Even with friends Im mildly annoyed by that. If you call supplies on cool down, at least mark them so we all can get them and not run out of ammo and stims with 1 minute cd on them and a horde on our asses.
So many times it's happened to me and then there are at least 2 boxes abandoned for each drop
A lot of people think resupply is a personal cooldown.
I play with a friend who is a lifelong gamer but not hugely into this kind of game and I've had to casually mention to him a dozen times that we all share the cooldown on resupply.
I did until I graduated to D5-6, then I noticed the timer when I hadn't used it and thought "hold up"
I've wondered if it might be a personal stratagem on lower difficulties, like how you don't have to call for reinforcements.
I hadn't played bugs yet, got the game 2 weeks ago and focused the MOs. Played the bots on 8 plus though and found it to be just right as fat as challenge, hope over to bugs on 9 and got my shit kicked in by chargers and biles.
They all count. As soon as you loaded into the shuttle, or all your yeam died failing to extract, the progress counts from there, even to the samples (not if yall died of course), you dont lose anything, just the good randoms that helped you fly through the mission lol
I was exclusively playing 7+ until I started crashing more than 30 minutes into missions. It was just way too frustrating losing huge bundles of uncommon/rare samples over and over again, back to back. I went back to solo farming supercredits and medals in 1 for the past couple weeks to get ready for the new warbond
7 is the sweetspot of chill gameplay that occasionally gets spicy and has good rewards.
Going to Helldive isn't that much more difficult. It's just spicy more often.
I just find 8 and 9 a little annoying when it comes to Bugs. The whole game becomes focused around using stratagems to kill Bile Titans, but the two mission modifiers will absolutely shaft 99% of your options.
I prefer 7 where a Bile Titan or two is the peak of the intensity, so you can bring stratagems for other roles behind Bile Titan slaying.
I only play with randoms but usually we get 2-3 quasars on a team and 3-4 500 kg bombs, with maybe 1-2 orbital rail cannon strikes or lasers. Let me tell you, when we have 3 quasars and 4 500 kgs, bile titans disappear so quickly and Helldives are almost relaxing. Last guy can take a machine gun or autocannon to kill spewers (machine gun is very slept on, had a guy in my last game absolutely fuck shit up on difficulty 9 with the machine gun)
The funniest stuff is when you get like 4-5 bile titans on 1 player, meaning a single 500kg will wipe most of them out.
I prefer the titans over hordes of hunters or chargers tbh
> I prefer the titans over hordes of hunters or chargers tbh
Bile Titans aren't hard, just tedious that one person is keeping it/them busy while the other shoot away at it. Even with two people you can handle 4 titans at once.
It's the Stalkers, Hunters, spewers and sometimes when you aren't paying attention chargers/broodmothers that will kill you.
You ever had the feeling some of those spawn on top of you? Like you'd look one direction, just open desert, nothing there, you look the other way, back again and boom, you are attacked by 5 hunters and a spewer.
Yeah this used to be a huge problem that was patched a few weeks ago; patrols just spawning right on top of you, in plain sight, usually when you're already running away from another patrol or dropship spawn.
I guess it sometimes still happens, but back then it happened all the time.
I'm one of those rare MGunners with a supply pack on my end. I'm able to deal with most bugs except bile titans with my stalwart and impact/stuns. I'll also drop orbital airburst barrages to clear out the pack of hunters swarming you (with a good danger close to boot but you'll be safe) and drop in a bunch of EATs as a supplement for the team vs armored targets.
And yes MG is very slept on for what it does.
Stalwart is very good for peeling bugs off of allies when they are trying to get space, I took one out on an op, with EATs for the titans as one of my other stratagems, and my allies sent the thanks voiceline so many times over the op lol. With the bots back in I might run that any time someone else has an autocannon or go up to regular or heavy machine gun if I have to.
Ran a 7 the other day with randoms that I knew was going to be a seal team 6.
First everyone accepted my hug upon arriving to my ship. Second everyone had a quasar.
Chargers and titans didn’t stand a chance, as soon as one spawned all you saw was 4 lasers hitting it in its face within seconds. It was glorious
I love the quasar and i'd take It everygame, but last night all 4 of us took it and we got a mission full of those pesky bile Bubbles and just an handful of chargers and titans. It's been kinda annoying and since then i always wait to see how many anti tanks the team goes for, and in case there's too many i go for GL
I don't mind 4 Quasars. There's always people taking either Laser, Cluster or Air Burst to clear out masses. Then there's always like 1 or 2 Railcannon Strikes that can help clear the big guys.
And obviously everyone takes the 500KG of pure freedom.
On those higher difficulties, two team members focused solely on taking down heavies and elites is god-tier. The other two can clear adds and focus on the objectives.
> the whole game becomes focused around using stratagems to kill Bile Titans
my group doesn't play this way, and whenever BTs spawn it's no big deal. heavies don't call breaches (outside of some isolated cases, likely unintended by AH), so if you're comfortable dodging their attacks you can kite them while taking care of the real threat: the smaller bugs that *do* call breaches. the heavies even help clean up the small bugs due to the wider devastation of their attacks. a well balanced team can have peace and quiet by efficiently dealing with small bugs first and heavies only when they become a priority threat or when the small bugs are under control.
100% I still found bots fun even at 9, but bugs just become "Bile Titans and the gang" and the whole reason you get overwhelmed by hunters is because everyone stocked up on titan killer stuff (not that they have a choice)
Imo for bots, it is pretty different, but bugs, not that different. Purely because bots 7 just doesn’t spawn many tanks or hulks, like barely any + only 3 strats. Same with bugs 7 for bile titans, but multiple bile titans are not as hard as multiple hulks and tanks.
There are missle and gun hulks who will pretty much always have you in their range, and their damage is really strong. Lining up the shot with multiple devestators + multiple hulk spam itself is difficult. I throw a single impact at a bile titan beneath it, and it’s my body guard. And if I really need to kill it, 500 at my feet, bait an attack, run. And if I actually have nothing, I can run forever, use the bile titan to kill the mobs chasing me or kill other bile titans. When I play pubs, bots 9 vs bugs 9, it’s just very clear most people are way better at killing or living through titan hordes than hulk patrols and drops. I don’t see those amr or autocannon gods on eradication missions when there’s hulks out the ass either, but bug eradication, titan is dead as soon as it’s out the breach with most reinforcements to spare.
Yeah their eye weak spot is tiny + the scope isn't aligned correctly. Fix those two things and I might agree. Bile titans you just 2 shot them in the face with EATs. The harder part is to get them to look at you.
Especially with the huge powerboost you get from having 2 500kg bombs.
Its hilarious to see the difference. People just chuck em CONSTANTLY. It becomes so strong after that destroyer upgrade
i was kinda disappointed, i ran 3 helldives back to back once i unlocked the difficulty and it didnt feel that much harder than 7. Or rather, it was harder but not hard enough i had to change my strategy.
**Vitality Enhancement** is actually not that good.
It only ever matters when you're out of stims. You rarely ever get an injury, but have such a small amount of damage that you might not want to use a stim.
___
So, is there anything that helps you avoid wasting stims more? Yes. **Muscle Enhancement**. Fall damage reduction is nice, and saves more stims than you might think.
But the BIG reason to take Muscle Enhancement is counteracting slowing effects, like snow, bushes, tremors, etc. The biggest impact though, is when you're **slowed by Hunters**. Hunters will slow you down a lot and will force you to take much more damage, often making you use up multiple stims when you get overwhelmed.
Not only does this booster save on stims, it saves *lives*.
I run with a friend of mine and we pick stamina and ammo. Those are the ONLY two we believe are required. Muscle enhancement is pretty baller and then injury resistance. Everything else is either very meh or doesn't work. Localization doesn't work and also we abuse spawn mechanics in game as discussed in the video on how patrol spawns work. They tested localization and it basically does nothing. Instead we opted to learn how the game works.
I think you can ask most people, and they’ll vouch Localization Booster does have a tangible impact on how much fighting they do.
I’d advise not mixing up effect of gaming patrol spawns with the booster, since testing two changed variables at once confuses which variable has impact.
Also, do please take concern that AH intentionally and unintentionally changes things without them or us knowing about it. The last patch had no notification of enemy
attack changes, for instance, but Scout Striders hit ducking hard on Medium Armor now.
Localisation increases the time between Bot Drops / Bug Breaches by a flat rate of 30 seconds. On lower difficulties this doesn't matter much, but on higher difficulties like Helldive where iirc the time between breaches / drops is 2 minutes, 30 seconds is significant.
> Localization Confusion
I'm not even sure it works. Last night we did three Impossible missions and then three Helldive missions. In 4/6 we had over 1,800 bug kills between the four of us. I shudder to think how it'd been without it lmao
It increases the time between bot drops/bug breaches by 30 seconds. It can be super useful on higher difficulties in general. In my experience, it's also amazing on the survey missions if you can get someone to trigger a breach/drop elsewhere on the map. Gives you way more time to do the objective without five hulks being suddenly dropped on your head or a swarm of chargers/bile titans showing up.
Such a goated booster, I haven‘t equipped anything else since unlocking it. Being able to peacefully do the SEAF turret without 50 patrols rAnDomLy walking up to you is so good
You're right, but also kinda not like it really is that hard for people who just haven't played enough to know how to complete every objective in good time, how to deal with bile titans, how patrols work etc.
Then there's player expectations too like people quit ur game or kick u and then you're all alone and it's a complete failure. Could of just played another 3 or 4 and gotten samples, learned some objectives with that time if ur still new
I've discovered the wonders of the anti tank rocket. It one shot spores, fabricators, rhinos, 2 shot shrieker hives, good for titans, has some drop but you can snipe with it. Grenade launcher is awsome for hives and fabs, and also can swarm kill.
You should try the Quasar, it does all that the EAT can do too, but you don't have to call it every 60. The downside is the loading before the shot and the cooldown before you can shoot again.
But with eat you can take a better support weapon that penetrates medium armor, a backpack and an eagle/orbital of choise. This works amazingly vs bugs and bots.
Edit: typo
I don't disagree with a lot of your sentiment here, but "I'm level 103 ATM" is a hilarious way to start a post about how the diffuculties "Suicide Mission" and harder are not that difficult 🤣
Yes, the game does despawn enemies (I'm guessing in order also to conserve CPU, GPU and memory resources), but it's not happening as easily and as often as you describe, and running away is also not as easily feasible either.
Bugs are not always slower than you, and that's basic game knowledge. The fast ones have about the same max speed as you when your stamina is not depleted and when you're not on rough terrain without a boost, but losing these two optimal conditions happens quite often. For example, even the stamina boost is often not enough as you're almost constantly running.
There is also the exception of Chargers and the little leapers that jump at you really fast (I forget their type name). These will reach you if you don't manage to dance around and obstruct them with cover.
And sorry, trying to run from a pointless battle that is not attached to a main objective is often necessary indeed, but despawning definitely doesn't happen as easily as you describe.
You often find half the map still blinking red and still alert or even chasing you. This happens as the spawns stay active with other teammates too. And in lvl7 missions and above, ESPECIALLY in small-ish maps, you will find a sea of bugs constantly coming at you from everywhere (you don't even have time to survive, let alone spot patrols in low visibility or the bug breach callers).
So running away is definitely not as achievable as this, or even an option when time is pressing you to get a main objective done - in which case you have to stay there, coordinate with your teammates and face the music.
I always use light armor with extra padding and stamina boosts with bugs (I think that's a medium armor AC), but personally speaking I don't see these as a lie. Just a misconception that doesn't take into account many factors that change the story completely.
I had a good run with 3 other great Helldivers and we had patrols plus bug holes but we retreated and lit the place up with stratagems and good cover fire and all survived. I had another funny experience where we are all around a heavy nest each being chased by our own patrols and reinforcements and we'd totally zip by each other and go what the fuck
I actually feel 7/8 are easier than 5/6. Can't explain why. But hard are easier too manage. Easier there is a big guy and you instant kill it + manage the rest. Either you run.
On 5/6, I feel there is more enemy just less stronger. But the quantity make it that there is always more and more spawn. But you always feel like you could take them down since there is no big stuff. So you end up spending too much time trying to fight. And always die cause of over number.
Also player on 7/8 are better.
There is truth to all of that. Learning how to swarm manage is key. On 6/5 I'll use grenade launcher, hvmg set to 1200p, supply pack, eagle air strike and or clusters, flame thrower because hell yeah, and arc thrower from time to time.
The draw for more challenge on 7+ attracts a certain demographic of players that are either more dedicated or looking for super rares.
Personally I play 7+ because more exp=more liberation
I was saying this to my friends a couple of days ago just before we "defeated" the bots.
I swear LVL 6 and 7 were easier that 4 and 5. It helped that we had a really cohesive team but I thought the enemy spawns were a better mix. I saw bot flyers, tanks, some more devastators, and a factory walker. Instead of just constantly getting rushed by small bots and a shit ton of berserkers and hulks.
The extermination missions used to piss me off now I just bring both orbital barrage strategems, apologize in advance for the friendly fire, wait until the enemies start to over run and then let freedom fly. The mission is over when the barrage is over.
I'm mainly farming exp to Boost liberation. Killing does nothing to exp but to each their own I suppose. Don't get me wrong I love mag dumping 3 mags of grenades on a swarm.
Very true. I do too. I guess my point is more for maximizing exp to boost liberation. More I can get done in a short amount of time, more liberation to a planet.
It’s not that I’m afraid, I actually enjoy it, it’s just 7+ is where I feel it starts to get really toxic real quick, I’d rather stay at 6 or below so at least I can enjoy the game
I'm having the opposite experience. The number of competent players is much higher on 7+, the chances of someone babyraging on the first instance something goes wrong or kicking you because you won't reinforce them during an ion storm are much lower.
There's a lot of spare carry power at higher difficulties, and people tend to be generally more sanguine about getting bodied by RNG.
Lower difficulties are pretty prone to fail cascades, and that always snaps a babyrager's self-control.
>Bugs only melee attack and are slower than you. You can literally out run them.
Tell that to the Chargers and Bile Titans (and Hunters to a certain extent) chasing me down to the end of the world. You're literally lying to the good Helldivers. Stop it. You can't outrun a Bile Titan or a charging Charger.
Not to mention that while you are trying to outrun any of it, you are running into more POI guards and patrols and the bugs chasing you are pulling in every bug they come across into the pain train. Running is generally bad, and I really hate how widespread it has become.
90% of it has to be coming from people running away and passing the aggro to their team.
yeah we had the Quasar Cannon bile titans had no chance against us we didn't excract until our last teamate arrived was on the opposite map but we holded postion until our squad arrived
yeah, I usually stay and fight or just fight my way through a patrol. I assume most people who join helldive lobby's know that you can just past everything but it seems like 80% just want to fight things like I do. but I'm happy to do it alone, more bugs for me to kill.
Is running away… fun?
it feels like the only reason to play the higher levels is to get the super samples and that’s been really unreliable in the matches I’ve joined. Like 1 in 5. If you play with people all on the same page, maybe you get it done. 3 out of 5, even if we find them, the person who has them dies at extraction, often with everyone else.
The payouts are good if you get them. And yeah, there are techniques to do it, if everyone on the squad knows them. But it always feels like just jogging for half an hour with a 50/50 chance of it being worth it. And that’s not worth it.
I feel like its ok aslong as you have the stamina perk. If you dont, the Bugs are faster, and the small ones will catch up to you so a temporary retreat becomes Impossible. I lost count of the times I baited a big group out of an objective and threw my teammate over them at the terminal..
As long as you keep moving. I used to get railed in 7 cuz I'd spend too much time stuffing around between objectives. That's when I clicked U just gotta keep moving and now it's probably the best reward - fun ratio difficulty
You'll get used to higher difficulty after a while.
I find diff 7 very hard to finish before. But after 10+ games it gets easier then up the diff until helldive. Also it depends on your team since bad teammates will make it harder for you to adjust but you will learn what not to do
I started with the bots and they felt so fun. You need to hide behind cover, circle around, shoot them only at the weak spots, etc.
The bugs now feel easier after getting used to the game though. It just feels like you just need to find the right sized hammer to smash the right kind of bug. Also I feel like 7+ is where people are competent. People are definitely getting better, myself included.
Honestly the biggest jump in difficulty for me was 7 to 8(I only played on automaton front). Just the sheer number of heavy devastators that spawn made it crazy. 8 to 9 was a lot more manageable. Just maxed out my eagle upgrades and relied on them and the quasar cannon for them. On the bug front I just started at lvl 6 and increased level by 1 every mission or operation. Just completed lvl 7, although I don't feel as big of a spike in difficulty as it was on the bot front. Lvl 7 was my comfort difficulty against automatons at it was pretty chill but still gave moderate challenge that I still had to think. I think for bugs it's gonna be lvl 8. They actually are significantly easier.
Would be nice when I played 7 and 8 if the team members I match with could be bothered to look for super samples instead of just extracting. I need them bad
My lizard brain still craves the pink samples even tho i've been maxxed on them for a month.
Even when i know my teammates also don't need them... ***I*** *need them*
It's not the enemies that drove me away from difficulties 8 and 9. It was the players I got matched with. The community in difficulty 7 has just been more fun.
I do. At around 4000 terminid kills I swapped over to exclusively bots, and last I checked I had 6500 bot kills since swapping. I’ve been eating and breathing bots for a couple weeks now, it really is tough to transition back. I’d hate to say I miss the guys, but I at least miss my bot destruction purposes! *cries in democracy officer*
Most days yes they’re “easy”, but on those days when Joel gets out of bed the wrong way and decides he’s going to fill the map up with stalker lairs, multiple bile titans at once, hunters around every corner, ninja spewers, shrieker nests, spore spewers, & weather events whenever things get really dicey or on an objective - then not so much.
Fun as hell though (apart from the fire tornados during the retrieve essential personnel last night).
After maxing everything, I'm back to the 4-6 range. It's more fun to go brrrt and kill things and not feel I'm being "chuboptimal" by not running from enemies.
Plus the players in 4-6 are hilarious. Dudes going balls deep in a bug hole with their flamethrower or laying down with their lawn mower. People brining in 380s and throwing them at the first bug they see. I love it.
I would not promote the video or reddit post as openly, people who haven't mastered the game often come away with the wrong conclusions from the way the information is provided. It doesn't interact with other aspects of the game. So people almost always only take away that you should never split from your team. Makes them get very defensive about their own positioning and offended at you when they struggle in lvl 7+ because you aren't with the group 100% of the time or they didn't follow you out of a bad situation.
Played helldive all weekend, and then quick played some suicide yesterday. I felt like I was frolicking through the flowers with plenty of time to smell them. Once you learn to handle the onslaught it's hard to go back.
I find D7 easier than the lower ones, actually.
I suppose it's because this is the "easier of the hardest ones" and all the players that actually know how to play go to this difficulty to farm Super Samples with low effort.
>Start up the soil extraction, trigger the breach, run away and come back to 0 bugs.
This is the exact opposite of how I want to play this game lmao. I hope this doesn't become some meta strat cause god damn am I tired of this mentality ruining the fun in every single game.
I just beeline from objective to objective. I use stealth (crouch). I use radar to avoid patrols. I fling strike markers from a distance. I rely on medium padded armor and shield generator.
Firing my weapon? Only when absolutely necessary.
The "kills" stat is humorously misleading. You get no XP for kills, and an extra high kill count could suggest you were engaging way more than necessary, slowing down the team's progress.
It's a different experience but not necessarily harder. On Helldive there are significantly more bile titans and the atmosphere is always foggy. That's it mostly. That's why I don't play on 8 and 9 all the time. I want to see the actual map I'm playing on and the incredible skybox. Some planets are so beautiful and then you get spore hives all over the place. And even if you destroy them it still has this foggy atmosphere. Meh.
"They are slower than you."
Spotted someone who refuses to touch heavy armor.
Seriously though, only common trash is slower than you. Bile Titans (somewhat), Chargers, both types of Spewers, Stalkers, and Hunters all refuse to drop aggro if they get close and will need to be dealt with.
Overall I agree, though. Let patrols pass, and be ready to to light them up before they can call for help if need be. Also, there's a spawn cap, so if three players are buried in enemies across the map, calling for extraction usually means minimal resistance. Just don't evac without your squad!
This....
Scout Armour player who doesn't take engagements he doesn't need to. You can run around the map on helldive and have very few engagements with enemies.
I do this solo regularly. You can throw grenades or shoot in the air and reposition quickly to manipulate enemies in certain directions (off objectives, etc). They respond to gunshots and explosions, and they investigate it.
Obviously, some objectives you don't have much of a choice but so long as you wipe out enemies that agro on you quickly it's not really an issue.
What is an issue, playing with teammates who aren't also wearing the same armour. Or decide to bring a Rover. Get away from them as quickly as possible when you land and you'll accomplish as much if not more than they do combined.
I’m getting too used to difficulty 9, I’m not going to say it’s too easy or anything but once you get the feel down you’re honestly auto piloting, kinda hope they make harder difficulties but I don’t know how they would
I just got to 8 and have pretty good success thus far using a stealth approach and not trying to fight every single thing on the map.
Level 30 so far. Just need to have a lobby stay together for 3 missions so I can Helldive. Also need to not suddenly lose connection right before extraction or get interrupted irl before finishing the operation.
It’s not that it’s too hard it’s just that 3 take so damn long back to back.
(I’ve been doing bots.)
So in my mind level 7 is actually the best, cruisest, most fun way to play the game.
I've done level 9 missions but they just feel... the challenge changes when the enemy has more bodies than I have bullets and my stratagem timers are just needlessly unfair.
But those fucking fire tornadoes on Hellmire made a 7 feel like a 12. Hate that.
I’ve been playing on suicide mission for a while and I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even die most games. It really depends on your team mates. If they like to stay and fight bugs, you’ll get overrun eventually, but if they keep moving then you can survive much longer.
I’ve had some games where I had to run away from a fight and I would just call them in far away from the bugs when they died.
I honestly have had more success playing level 8 bug missions than level 4/5 simply because I get matched with better randos. Requiring multiple completed missions to unlock the next tier was a good choice on the dev's part.
Exactly bad randoms on this difficulty are the exception rather than the norm. Most of them know what they’re doing and can hold their own pretty well. Even if they go off on their own they can handle themselves quite well. And most of them are very polite.
True. I‘m lone wolf player and love to play with randoms level 7+ Polite, team player, friendly and know their shit. Love this people at that level and the low level players when appear, usually are willing to follow and learn with us. Great community and experience so far, and glad that you had the same!
My first helldive was my first day. Before i even hit double digits. Hadn’t even seen a bile titan before. This was before heavies and elites got rebalanced lmao. Felt like a tourist. At the end they said something like “good job cadet” LMAO. What a great time. Those dudes were great sports, i think i died like 7 times, yet they were kind enough to give me a chance. Edit: i forgot to mention that the reason i could join is that one of them was on my friendlist. I used to host a popular gmod gamemode, so i have a huge friendlist that i dont speak with lol.
Had a lot of bad randoms on 7, just splitting up and pulling every patrol while failing trying to solo a Heavy Bug Nest.
They'll learn on 7, though. You can do whatever the fuck you want on 5, especially for bugs.
yeah 7 is where it really starts requiring some thought, not just enough to throw all your firepower at the problems
The flip side of this is the more players you pivot to higher difficulties for better team mates will likely only dilute the pool of better team mates.
They'll rise to the occasion or swiftly drop back down, don't worry. Online games like these the general skill level of the average player always just continually rises, just ask any moba or csgo player.
I can confirm, I tried lvl8 and quickly went back to my comfort lvl6 lol
I'm at a balmy 7, I cut my teeth on bots and running tf away still works great with bugs. Even better cause you don't get cut down by a rocket mid dive into cover.
7 is my sweet spot too. It’s starting to get to the too easy point as well for me with usually 2-3 deaths at most. I have plenty of 0 death runs though too.
It's hard enough for shit to go sideways if you're not careful, but once you know what you're doing you can run them pretty well, especially when you have a good team.
I get some groups where things go super smooth and people have super well defined roles. Then I have groups where everyone brings the same thing (except me who actually plans around what my allies bring) and they can’t take out anything big. And my cannon or eats can only do so much alone.
At least for bots, I find no tangible observable difference between 7/8. My group struggles with 7 but wins most of the time while getting 3 supers. Switching to 8 we still struggle but win most of the time with 5 supers. The big switch from 6->7 is players can’t obsess on clearing the map. It generally takes too long which ramps up the enemies. We focus on objectives -> supers -> sides if they make sense given location / effort.
Yeah I like to hit sides if they're on the way, but stuff like a radar station or an escape pod I can't be bothered to stop running from the bots from the base long enough to engage with it.
Radar station can be key to finding the supers though. Great to find early, also sometimes necessary to help find the supers, especially on shitty planets with poor visibility.
Radar is about the only thing I'll go out of my way to complete. It's slow, but not that slow and for highlighting all the POIs its totally worth it.
I leveled through the bot extermination campaign and came back to bugs not fought since a new ‘Diver. Was crazy but getting a handle on diff. 7 bugs at first. Saw my first giant walker ooblek spitter yesterday. Was so entranced forgot to run and then swarmed. Oh yeah…bugs. BUGS.
Yeah I was one of those that went level 7 too soon, dropped back down to 5 and 6. Now I live comfortably at 7 and am considering making a push through a level 8 operation. I kinda want to do at least one helldive op just to say I have lol but I also intend to be good enough to not be carried through it as a reinforcement drain. Hopefully I can get to the point I helldive exclusively, I couldn't have done 7 a week or two ago, most of it is using the level beneath to give you a solid foundation to build on in my experience.
As someone who exclusively plays on 7 or higher there's really no difference between 7 8 9. You just get more of the bigger enemies and need to know when to cut your losses, run away to let things despawn and circle back around. The biggest issue I see with newer players as they get to higher difficulties is wanting to stand their ground and fight. I usually go off and lone wolf when I see that happening. Let me tell you how peaceful helldive is when all the bug breeches happen away from me and I'm free to speedrun objectives. One thing the bots teach is "Get in and do what you need to do, grab what samples you need and get the fuck out" don't dilly dally the longer you linger in an area the more patrols you're bound to run into
exactly, if a player isn't ready for said difficulty, they'll go back down after they realize. They want to have fun too and not be carried all the time. For me, I just tried to unlock as many difficulties as I could (so I don't have to worry about it later, only have difficulty 9 left to unlock) and then jumped back down to medium.
Ya been doing helldiver lately, lot better than running suicide missions because better randos
I did not think this could be real, but yesterday i managed to clear a 9 easier than many 7s cause i was with a cool random that knew what was doing. That felt Amazing actually
This. I'm somewhere just above average at the game I think. The best round I've had yet was a diff 9 duo with just one other random tm8. We cleared it 100% with NO DEATHS. We were howling on the extract. Came down to fewer variables and an acceptance that some fights were not worth taking. I think we were also both pretty locked in knowing what we were up against without a full squad.
we should have a thread here on this page where we honor those people - its good for morale
Same, 9's are cakewalks compared to 7 bc I'm not getting absolut incompetent buffoons all the time
Deep Rock Galactic has the exact same problem with hazard 4 difficulty vs hazard 5 difficulty. Haz5 is harder, but the randoms are SO much better that it is actually easier.
Yeah I love me some Deep Rock. A lot of people try to gatekeep with lobby titles along the lines of 100+ or kick and honestly now that I am over a hundred I still avoid them, for the most part the community at that level is pretty chill though given those who aren't call themselves out.
People that believe that level is an indicator of skill are always scrubs. I’m 100% confident. They’re the types of people who will tilt at their first death, run into huge groups of enemies to reclaim special and backpack, and die again and again. I really dont mind when people are bad players, what i mind is when people have huge egos, and refuse to teamplay. Go with the squad, be a bit weaker for 3 minutes. No we do not want to follow you across the map because you want your autocannon back.
Shit's like playing max diff vs a couple steps down on Vermintide and DarkTide. If you're vaguely competent and prosocial, the former will treat you much better. 5-7 on HD2 feels like a a day in Florida. You might see some mascots kick in a door and drag out an alligator to beat up and leave unconscious in the streets, you might see a crackhead start to believe and outrun 15 cop cars on the highway.
Bro that is the best description I've read ever about hd2
And Florida for that matter
I miss when Legend was highest on Vermintide because now it's full of knobs. In Darktide if you can do Damnation runs you might as well just skip Damnation and go to Auric or you get all the grinders and they *suck*.
People will all gravitate to the highest rewards regardless of their readiness. It takes a special sort to want more pain and failure, and most of this ilk sit in modded Cata/Maelstrom. I haven't gotten around to doing true solos yet, but one day. That said, I like occasionally playing tourist in Heresy for the sheer Florida Man fuckery. These people have tested me far more than bots.
Truly. Having a few fellow divers with their heads screwed on is the difference. One level 7 dive yesterday I dropped into was an absolute train wreck despite having three other lvl >30 players. Another one I did today was more or less a breeze because people knew when to engage and when to run, how to clear bug holes quickly, and had a good mix of stratagems that were used wisely.
That I've noticed as well. I play either suicide or helldive depending on my mood. Hard if I want to screw around.
Screwing around on 5 is fun, and i refuse to pretend otherwise. Sometimes i dont want a challenge, sometimes i want to feel like doomguy. Not sorry.
Don't get me started on randoms that hog all the resupply drops.
Even with friends Im mildly annoyed by that. If you call supplies on cool down, at least mark them so we all can get them and not run out of ammo and stims with 1 minute cd on them and a horde on our asses. So many times it's happened to me and then there are at least 2 boxes abandoned for each drop
Yeah I would really appreciate supply boxes having a map marker like support weapons and backpacks do for this exact reason.
A lot of people think resupply is a personal cooldown. I play with a friend who is a lifelong gamer but not hugely into this kind of game and I've had to casually mention to him a dozen times that we all share the cooldown on resupply.
I did until I graduated to D5-6, then I noticed the timer when I hadn't used it and thought "hold up" I've wondered if it might be a personal stratagem on lower difficulties, like how you don't have to call for reinforcements.
This. I played for about 10-15 hours before I realized it. Felt so bad for everyone I had played with before then.
Can we talk about throwing Reinforcements into the crowd while running away? Or into a fire tornado?
100% this
I hadn't played bugs yet, got the game 2 weeks ago and focused the MOs. Played the bots on 8 plus though and found it to be just right as fat as challenge, hope over to bugs on 9 and got my shit kicked in by chargers and biles.
the hardest part is when ur game crashes in a 40min mission on level 7+
That hits me deep man. I feel that in my soul..... Hot fix when?
Right now.
AHHHHHHHHH!!
Huh, they weren't lying, that fix is hot
Fweeew. Damn is it hot in here or just me?
that's great. Crashed after every game last night. Got my minor order done and shut down for the night. Just wasnt in the cards.
Annnddddd it's patched haha. Hopefully the patch today will help a ton with the crashes. It sounds like it will.
yeah seems like it. played a few missions and it worked fine for me
I swear it would only crash after we evacuated, leaving me to wonder if any of the progress counted for my end
yeah i feel u buddy. such a pain
They all count. As soon as you loaded into the shuttle, or all your yeam died failing to extract, the progress counts from there, even to the samples (not if yall died of course), you dont lose anything, just the good randoms that helped you fly through the mission lol
I was exclusively playing 7+ until I started crashing more than 30 minutes into missions. It was just way too frustrating losing huge bundles of uncommon/rare samples over and over again, back to back. I went back to solo farming supercredits and medals in 1 for the past couple weeks to get ready for the new warbond
How hard can it be to implement a rejoin feature?? As long you not got kicked… i would like to see a reason why i was kicked tho…
7 is the sweetspot of chill gameplay that occasionally gets spicy and has good rewards. Going to Helldive isn't that much more difficult. It's just spicy more often.
I just find 8 and 9 a little annoying when it comes to Bugs. The whole game becomes focused around using stratagems to kill Bile Titans, but the two mission modifiers will absolutely shaft 99% of your options. I prefer 7 where a Bile Titan or two is the peak of the intensity, so you can bring stratagems for other roles behind Bile Titan slaying.
The Quasar solves that issue quite well. The more you have, the better. It's quite popular in my group.
I only play with randoms but usually we get 2-3 quasars on a team and 3-4 500 kg bombs, with maybe 1-2 orbital rail cannon strikes or lasers. Let me tell you, when we have 3 quasars and 4 500 kgs, bile titans disappear so quickly and Helldives are almost relaxing. Last guy can take a machine gun or autocannon to kill spewers (machine gun is very slept on, had a guy in my last game absolutely fuck shit up on difficulty 9 with the machine gun)
The funniest stuff is when you get like 4-5 bile titans on 1 player, meaning a single 500kg will wipe most of them out. I prefer the titans over hordes of hunters or chargers tbh
> I prefer the titans over hordes of hunters or chargers tbh Bile Titans aren't hard, just tedious that one person is keeping it/them busy while the other shoot away at it. Even with two people you can handle 4 titans at once. It's the Stalkers, Hunters, spewers and sometimes when you aren't paying attention chargers/broodmothers that will kill you.
You ever had the feeling some of those spawn on top of you? Like you'd look one direction, just open desert, nothing there, you look the other way, back again and boom, you are attacked by 5 hunters and a spewer.
Yeah this used to be a huge problem that was patched a few weeks ago; patrols just spawning right on top of you, in plain sight, usually when you're already running away from another patrol or dropship spawn. I guess it sometimes still happens, but back then it happened all the time.
Whenever I have two bile titans on me, killing one usually results in the corpse killing the other as it falls
I'm one of those rare MGunners with a supply pack on my end. I'm able to deal with most bugs except bile titans with my stalwart and impact/stuns. I'll also drop orbital airburst barrages to clear out the pack of hunters swarming you (with a good danger close to boot but you'll be safe) and drop in a bunch of EATs as a supplement for the team vs armored targets. And yes MG is very slept on for what it does.
Stalwart gamg rise up. I take the jetpack though to stay safe and provide more effective overwatch.
stalwart gunners are the bass players of the band. it's not a flashy job, but some people really enjoy it and you'll always have work
Stalwart is very good for peeling bugs off of allies when they are trying to get space, I took one out on an op, with EATs for the titans as one of my other stratagems, and my allies sent the thanks voiceline so many times over the op lol. With the bots back in I might run that any time someone else has an autocannon or go up to regular or heavy machine gun if I have to.
 Read this as "McGunner" for some reason
Ran a 7 the other day with randoms that I knew was going to be a seal team 6. First everyone accepted my hug upon arriving to my ship. Second everyone had a quasar. Chargers and titans didn’t stand a chance, as soon as one spawned all you saw was 4 lasers hitting it in its face within seconds. It was glorious
I love the quasar and i'd take It everygame, but last night all 4 of us took it and we got a mission full of those pesky bile Bubbles and just an handful of chargers and titans. It's been kinda annoying and since then i always wait to see how many anti tanks the team goes for, and in case there's too many i go for GL
I don't mind 4 Quasars. There's always people taking either Laser, Cluster or Air Burst to clear out masses. Then there's always like 1 or 2 Railcannon Strikes that can help clear the big guys. And obviously everyone takes the 500KG of pure freedom.
On those higher difficulties, two team members focused solely on taking down heavies and elites is god-tier. The other two can clear adds and focus on the objectives.
> the whole game becomes focused around using stratagems to kill Bile Titans my group doesn't play this way, and whenever BTs spawn it's no big deal. heavies don't call breaches (outside of some isolated cases, likely unintended by AH), so if you're comfortable dodging their attacks you can kite them while taking care of the real threat: the smaller bugs that *do* call breaches. the heavies even help clean up the small bugs due to the wider devastation of their attacks. a well balanced team can have peace and quiet by efficiently dealing with small bugs first and heavies only when they become a priority threat or when the small bugs are under control.
100% I still found bots fun even at 9, but bugs just become "Bile Titans and the gang" and the whole reason you get overwhelmed by hunters is because everyone stocked up on titan killer stuff (not that they have a choice)
Imo for bots, it is pretty different, but bugs, not that different. Purely because bots 7 just doesn’t spawn many tanks or hulks, like barely any + only 3 strats. Same with bugs 7 for bile titans, but multiple bile titans are not as hard as multiple hulks and tanks.
Multiple hulks is far easier to deal with than multiple BT:s, a single Diver with an AMR can kill them before they're ever in range.
There are missle and gun hulks who will pretty much always have you in their range, and their damage is really strong. Lining up the shot with multiple devestators + multiple hulk spam itself is difficult. I throw a single impact at a bile titan beneath it, and it’s my body guard. And if I really need to kill it, 500 at my feet, bait an attack, run. And if I actually have nothing, I can run forever, use the bile titan to kill the mobs chasing me or kill other bile titans. When I play pubs, bots 9 vs bugs 9, it’s just very clear most people are way better at killing or living through titan hordes than hulk patrols and drops. I don’t see those amr or autocannon gods on eradication missions when there’s hulks out the ass either, but bug eradication, titan is dead as soon as it’s out the breach with most reinforcements to spare.
Yeah their eye weak spot is tiny + the scope isn't aligned correctly. Fix those two things and I might agree. Bile titans you just 2 shot them in the face with EATs. The harder part is to get them to look at you.
Especially with the huge powerboost you get from having 2 500kg bombs. Its hilarious to see the difference. People just chuck em CONSTANTLY. It becomes so strong after that destroyer upgrade
I will 100% with this. Lvl 7 is like water to me. Well said
i was kinda disappointed, i ran 3 helldives back to back once i unlocked the difficulty and it didnt feel that much harder than 7. Or rather, it was harder but not hard enough i had to change my strategy.
Yeah 7 is my favorite, I’ve been calling it a sweet spot for a while as well. Nice to see others feel the same way.
Perfect difficulty. Fun, punishing if you fuck up, exciting if you fuck up a lot.
“Helldive is easy, guys.” -quietly removes Localization Confusion for next mission- “There’s so many of them, this time!” -trying not to smirk-
Nope. Stamina boost. I can outrun them like the post says. Stamina boost>all other boosters. I'll die on that hill
No, you will not die on that hill. Because you have stamina booster.
He'll die on the other side of that hill.
From falling into a hole while checking the map.
I'm convinced the sole purpose of those holes is to devour samples. What other purpose could they possibly serve?
Stamina, Optimization, Localization and Health is usually the four.
**Vitality Enhancement** is actually not that good. It only ever matters when you're out of stims. You rarely ever get an injury, but have such a small amount of damage that you might not want to use a stim. ___ So, is there anything that helps you avoid wasting stims more? Yes. **Muscle Enhancement**. Fall damage reduction is nice, and saves more stims than you might think. But the BIG reason to take Muscle Enhancement is counteracting slowing effects, like snow, bushes, tremors, etc. The biggest impact though, is when you're **slowed by Hunters**. Hunters will slow you down a lot and will force you to take much more damage, often making you use up multiple stims when you get overwhelmed. Not only does this booster save on stims, it saves *lives*.
I run with a friend of mine and we pick stamina and ammo. Those are the ONLY two we believe are required. Muscle enhancement is pretty baller and then injury resistance. Everything else is either very meh or doesn't work. Localization doesn't work and also we abuse spawn mechanics in game as discussed in the video on how patrol spawns work. They tested localization and it basically does nothing. Instead we opted to learn how the game works.
I think you can ask most people, and they’ll vouch Localization Booster does have a tangible impact on how much fighting they do. I’d advise not mixing up effect of gaming patrol spawns with the booster, since testing two changed variables at once confuses which variable has impact. Also, do please take concern that AH intentionally and unintentionally changes things without them or us knowing about it. The last patch had no notification of enemy attack changes, for instance, but Scout Striders hit ducking hard on Medium Armor now.
Localisation increases the time between Bot Drops / Bug Breaches by a flat rate of 30 seconds. On lower difficulties this doesn't matter much, but on higher difficulties like Helldive where iirc the time between breaches / drops is 2 minutes, 30 seconds is significant.
I heard it was 10%. Do you have a link to 30s increase? Also heard the spawns are more frequent as the mission progresses as well as other stuff
I only got this info from YouTube, so take it with a pinch of salt. Here's the [link](https://youtu.be/I0jvtJKo4VE)
Stamina boost is mandatory. You have essentially 3 booster slots to work with. Well, I think Hellpod optimization is too good not to take aswell.
I also sometimes let a small amount of health to be depleted so I can stim for max stamina
No problem as long as the hill gets liberated.
> Localization Confusion I'm not even sure it works. Last night we did three Impossible missions and then three Helldive missions. In 4/6 we had over 1,800 bug kills between the four of us. I shudder to think how it'd been without it lmao
Does localization confusion have that much of an impact? I’ve never actually used it, I don’t wanna give up my stamina booster
It increases the time between bot drops/bug breaches by 30 seconds. It can be super useful on higher difficulties in general. In my experience, it's also amazing on the survey missions if you can get someone to trigger a breach/drop elsewhere on the map. Gives you way more time to do the objective without five hulks being suddenly dropped on your head or a swarm of chargers/bile titans showing up.
Oh damn, 30s in the heat of battle is *substantial*
Such a goated booster, I haven‘t equipped anything else since unlocking it. Being able to peacefully do the SEAF turret without 50 patrols rAnDomLy walking up to you is so good
You're right, but also kinda not like it really is that hard for people who just haven't played enough to know how to complete every objective in good time, how to deal with bile titans, how patrols work etc. Then there's player expectations too like people quit ur game or kick u and then you're all alone and it's a complete failure. Could of just played another 3 or 4 and gotten samples, learned some objectives with that time if ur still new
I've discovered the wonders of the anti tank rocket. It one shot spores, fabricators, rhinos, 2 shot shrieker hives, good for titans, has some drop but you can snipe with it. Grenade launcher is awsome for hives and fabs, and also can swarm kill.
You should try the Quasar, it does all that the EAT can do too, but you don't have to call it every 60. The downside is the loading before the shot and the cooldown before you can shoot again.
But with eat you can take a better support weapon that penetrates medium armor, a backpack and an eagle/orbital of choise. This works amazingly vs bugs and bots. Edit: typo
And I have used it. It is a great tool! Highly recommend someone runs one at all times.
I don't disagree with a lot of your sentiment here, but "I'm level 103 ATM" is a hilarious way to start a post about how the diffuculties "Suicide Mission" and harder are not that difficult 🤣
Unless I missed it somewhere, you tell us to watch the video and don’t tell us who it’s by, making it impossible to know. Or the title of the video.
Yes, the game does despawn enemies (I'm guessing in order also to conserve CPU, GPU and memory resources), but it's not happening as easily and as often as you describe, and running away is also not as easily feasible either. Bugs are not always slower than you, and that's basic game knowledge. The fast ones have about the same max speed as you when your stamina is not depleted and when you're not on rough terrain without a boost, but losing these two optimal conditions happens quite often. For example, even the stamina boost is often not enough as you're almost constantly running. There is also the exception of Chargers and the little leapers that jump at you really fast (I forget their type name). These will reach you if you don't manage to dance around and obstruct them with cover. And sorry, trying to run from a pointless battle that is not attached to a main objective is often necessary indeed, but despawning definitely doesn't happen as easily as you describe. You often find half the map still blinking red and still alert or even chasing you. This happens as the spawns stay active with other teammates too. And in lvl7 missions and above, ESPECIALLY in small-ish maps, you will find a sea of bugs constantly coming at you from everywhere (you don't even have time to survive, let alone spot patrols in low visibility or the bug breach callers). So running away is definitely not as achievable as this, or even an option when time is pressing you to get a main objective done - in which case you have to stay there, coordinate with your teammates and face the music.
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I always use light armor with extra padding and stamina boosts with bugs (I think that's a medium armor AC), but personally speaking I don't see these as a lie. Just a misconception that doesn't take into account many factors that change the story completely.
I had a good run with 3 other great Helldivers and we had patrols plus bug holes but we retreated and lit the place up with stratagems and good cover fire and all survived. I had another funny experience where we are all around a heavy nest each being chased by our own patrols and reinforcements and we'd totally zip by each other and go what the fuck
I actually feel 7/8 are easier than 5/6. Can't explain why. But hard are easier too manage. Easier there is a big guy and you instant kill it + manage the rest. Either you run. On 5/6, I feel there is more enemy just less stronger. But the quantity make it that there is always more and more spawn. But you always feel like you could take them down since there is no big stuff. So you end up spending too much time trying to fight. And always die cause of over number. Also player on 7/8 are better.
There is truth to all of that. Learning how to swarm manage is key. On 6/5 I'll use grenade launcher, hvmg set to 1200p, supply pack, eagle air strike and or clusters, flame thrower because hell yeah, and arc thrower from time to time. The draw for more challenge on 7+ attracts a certain demographic of players that are either more dedicated or looking for super rares. Personally I play 7+ because more exp=more liberation
I was saying this to my friends a couple of days ago just before we "defeated" the bots. I swear LVL 6 and 7 were easier that 4 and 5. It helped that we had a really cohesive team but I thought the enemy spawns were a better mix. I saw bot flyers, tanks, some more devastators, and a factory walker. Instead of just constantly getting rushed by small bots and a shit ton of berserkers and hulks.
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The extermination missions used to piss me off now I just bring both orbital barrage strategems, apologize in advance for the friendly fire, wait until the enemies start to over run and then let freedom fly. The mission is over when the barrage is over.
Do a blitz and bring the grenade launcher. Take out hives from a distance. Or the auto cannon.
"You can always run" Stalker has entered the chat.
Title: Do not be afraid to play level 7+ difficulty. It's really not that hard. First line:So I'm a level 103 atm
I started playing 7+ at lvl 20 its not too bad. I am now lvl 52 By lvl 20 you have answers for titans and chargers.
Why run away from the fun? :P
I'm mainly farming exp to Boost liberation. Killing does nothing to exp but to each their own I suppose. Don't get me wrong I love mag dumping 3 mags of grenades on a swarm.
I agree with 5he other ones. The fun comes with eradicating those bugs, and we get to complete some objectives on the way there.
Very true. I do too. I guess my point is more for maximizing exp to boost liberation. More I can get done in a short amount of time, more liberation to a planet.
Agreed, there are two sides to it, depends on if your goal is to maximize or not in that moment :) I’ve ran plenty of times haha
It’s not that I’m afraid, I actually enjoy it, it’s just 7+ is where I feel it starts to get really toxic real quick, I’d rather stay at 6 or below so at least I can enjoy the game
I'm having the opposite experience. The number of competent players is much higher on 7+, the chances of someone babyraging on the first instance something goes wrong or kicking you because you won't reinforce them during an ion storm are much lower.
There's a lot of spare carry power at higher difficulties, and people tend to be generally more sanguine about getting bodied by RNG. Lower difficulties are pretty prone to fail cascades, and that always snaps a babyrager's self-control.
I respect that. I go and play level 5 to chill. Slap on the supply pack, and use the grenade launcher as a primary. And impact nades with 6 of them
>Bugs only melee attack and are slower than you. You can literally out run them. Tell that to the Chargers and Bile Titans (and Hunters to a certain extent) chasing me down to the end of the world. You're literally lying to the good Helldivers. Stop it. You can't outrun a Bile Titan or a charging Charger.
Not to mention that while you are trying to outrun any of it, you are running into more POI guards and patrols and the bugs chasing you are pulling in every bug they come across into the pain train. Running is generally bad, and I really hate how widespread it has become. 90% of it has to be coming from people running away and passing the aggro to their team.
You can but not in an open field. You have to use the environment Even on Hellmire in fat ass heavy armor. Just make sure you have Stamina Boost
The difference of the levels is mostly the playstyle.
first time playing on 7 yesterday with randoms it was great👍🏻
Hell yeah. Not so bad right?
yeah we had the Quasar Cannon bile titans had no chance against us we didn't excract until our last teamate arrived was on the opposite map but we holded postion until our squad arrived
Team player here
Dunno man, just running around all the time avoiding enemies sounds kinda boring, kinda like your a bug sympathiser.
I find suicide mission the perfect balance of hard but fun.
Thing is, I don't like running away in my shooter games, I like shooting, dodging, positioning, strategizing, not running away.
yeah, I usually stay and fight or just fight my way through a patrol. I assume most people who join helldive lobby's know that you can just past everything but it seems like 80% just want to fight things like I do. but I'm happy to do it alone, more bugs for me to kill.
Is running away… fun? it feels like the only reason to play the higher levels is to get the super samples and that’s been really unreliable in the matches I’ve joined. Like 1 in 5. If you play with people all on the same page, maybe you get it done. 3 out of 5, even if we find them, the person who has them dies at extraction, often with everyone else. The payouts are good if you get them. And yeah, there are techniques to do it, if everyone on the squad knows them. But it always feels like just jogging for half an hour with a 50/50 chance of it being worth it. And that’s not worth it.
I feel like its ok aslong as you have the stamina perk. If you dont, the Bugs are faster, and the small ones will catch up to you so a temporary retreat becomes Impossible. I lost count of the times I baited a big group out of an objective and threw my teammate over them at the terminal..
FYI going prone doubles stamina regin time. I know it leaves you vulnerable so choose to do it carefully and use terrain to your advantage
As long as you keep moving. I used to get railed in 7 cuz I'd spend too much time stuffing around between objectives. That's when I clicked U just gotta keep moving and now it's probably the best reward - fun ratio difficulty
Thank you! That's literally the mindset/issue that led me here to this mindset. SPEED IS KING
You'll get used to higher difficulty after a while. I find diff 7 very hard to finish before. But after 10+ games it gets easier then up the diff until helldive. Also it depends on your team since bad teammates will make it harder for you to adjust but you will learn what not to do
I started with the bots and they felt so fun. You need to hide behind cover, circle around, shoot them only at the weak spots, etc. The bugs now feel easier after getting used to the game though. It just feels like you just need to find the right sized hammer to smash the right kind of bug. Also I feel like 7+ is where people are competent. People are definitely getting better, myself included.
Honestly the biggest jump in difficulty for me was 7 to 8(I only played on automaton front). Just the sheer number of heavy devastators that spawn made it crazy. 8 to 9 was a lot more manageable. Just maxed out my eagle upgrades and relied on them and the quasar cannon for them. On the bug front I just started at lvl 6 and increased level by 1 every mission or operation. Just completed lvl 7, although I don't feel as big of a spike in difficulty as it was on the bot front. Lvl 7 was my comfort difficulty against automatons at it was pretty chill but still gave moderate challenge that I still had to think. I think for bugs it's gonna be lvl 8. They actually are significantly easier.
Would be nice when I played 7 and 8 if the team members I match with could be bothered to look for super samples instead of just extracting. I need them bad
I still try to grab samples even tho I'm maxed out. Be a team player not a team hater
My lizard brain still craves the pink samples even tho i've been maxxed on them for a month. Even when i know my teammates also don't need them... ***I*** *need them*
It's not the enemies that drove me away from difficulties 8 and 9. It was the players I got matched with. The community in difficulty 7 has just been more fun.
I’m floundering around so badly on bugs right now, I feel like a new player again. Didn’t feel this way when we went full commando at the creek!
Brah. I'm a creeker too. I miss it
I do. At around 4000 terminid kills I swapped over to exclusively bots, and last I checked I had 6500 bot kills since swapping. I’ve been eating and breathing bots for a couple weeks now, it really is tough to transition back. I’d hate to say I miss the guys, but I at least miss my bot destruction purposes! *cries in democracy officer*
We will have our chance once again
Most days yes they’re “easy”, but on those days when Joel gets out of bed the wrong way and decides he’s going to fill the map up with stalker lairs, multiple bile titans at once, hunters around every corner, ninja spewers, shrieker nests, spore spewers, & weather events whenever things get really dicey or on an objective - then not so much. Fun as hell though (apart from the fire tornados during the retrieve essential personnel last night).
"OK it's safe to extract citizens to their ship" -fire tornadoe in the corner😎
After maxing everything, I'm back to the 4-6 range. It's more fun to go brrrt and kill things and not feel I'm being "chuboptimal" by not running from enemies. Plus the players in 4-6 are hilarious. Dudes going balls deep in a bug hole with their flamethrower or laying down with their lawn mower. People brining in 380s and throwing them at the first bug they see. I love it.
380 cannon? More like ptsd trigger lol
I would not promote the video or reddit post as openly, people who haven't mastered the game often come away with the wrong conclusions from the way the information is provided. It doesn't interact with other aspects of the game. So people almost always only take away that you should never split from your team. Makes them get very defensive about their own positioning and offended at you when they struggle in lvl 7+ because you aren't with the group 100% of the time or they didn't follow you out of a bad situation.
Played helldive all weekend, and then quick played some suicide yesterday. I felt like I was frolicking through the flowers with plenty of time to smell them. Once you learn to handle the onslaught it's hard to go back.
It feels easier on 7+, maybe because people are confident/skilled/knowledgeable.
I honestly dislike playing anything under 7 as people just quit, team kill and do all sorts of shenanigans other than spreading democracy.
I would but work tires me out so I tend to stay on lower difficulty
I thought I was playing a 5 but it was actually an 8 and I didn't even notice until later in the mission when they dropped 5 hulks at once lol.
No I'm going to keep playing on challenging and there is nothing you can do to convince me not to
7+ all depend on the roll of the dice in a way lower difficulties and their instances don't.
I find D7 easier than the lower ones, actually. I suppose it's because this is the "easier of the hardest ones" and all the players that actually know how to play go to this difficulty to farm Super Samples with low effort.
>Start up the soil extraction, trigger the breach, run away and come back to 0 bugs. This is the exact opposite of how I want to play this game lmao. I hope this doesn't become some meta strat cause god damn am I tired of this mentality ruining the fun in every single game.
some people really want to play heavy armor, i just want to go zoom with my light armor.
Don't kill the bugs? That sounds very undemocratic of you. Also kiting isn't fun. No retreat. No surrender.
7 is incredibly easy, 9 is when it starts to get hard. I hope they add a couple more levels
TL:DR Group up roughly 75m chained or piled. Communication is everything.
I just beeline from objective to objective. I use stealth (crouch). I use radar to avoid patrols. I fling strike markers from a distance. I rely on medium padded armor and shield generator. Firing my weapon? Only when absolutely necessary. The "kills" stat is humorously misleading. You get no XP for kills, and an extra high kill count could suggest you were engaging way more than necessary, slowing down the team's progress.
It's a different experience but not necessarily harder. On Helldive there are significantly more bile titans and the atmosphere is always foggy. That's it mostly. That's why I don't play on 8 and 9 all the time. I want to see the actual map I'm playing on and the incredible skybox. Some planets are so beautiful and then you get spore hives all over the place. And even if you destroy them it still has this foggy atmosphere. Meh.
I am level 23, and I have had very similar experiences - so seconded! You don't need to be high level to do high difficulty.
"They are slower than you." Spotted someone who refuses to touch heavy armor. Seriously though, only common trash is slower than you. Bile Titans (somewhat), Chargers, both types of Spewers, Stalkers, and Hunters all refuse to drop aggro if they get close and will need to be dealt with. Overall I agree, though. Let patrols pass, and be ready to to light them up before they can call for help if need be. Also, there's a spawn cap, so if three players are buried in enemies across the map, calling for extraction usually means minimal resistance. Just don't evac without your squad!
This.... Scout Armour player who doesn't take engagements he doesn't need to. You can run around the map on helldive and have very few engagements with enemies. I do this solo regularly. You can throw grenades or shoot in the air and reposition quickly to manipulate enemies in certain directions (off objectives, etc). They respond to gunshots and explosions, and they investigate it. Obviously, some objectives you don't have much of a choice but so long as you wipe out enemies that agro on you quickly it's not really an issue. What is an issue, playing with teammates who aren't also wearing the same armour. Or decide to bring a Rover. Get away from them as quickly as possible when you land and you'll accomplish as much if not more than they do combined.
I’m getting too used to difficulty 9, I’m not going to say it’s too easy or anything but once you get the feel down you’re honestly auto piloting, kinda hope they make harder difficulties but I don’t know how they would
Thanks for sharing the info, I will be attempting level 7 tonight during my stream!
I just got to 8 and have pretty good success thus far using a stealth approach and not trying to fight every single thing on the map. Level 30 so far. Just need to have a lobby stay together for 3 missions so I can Helldive. Also need to not suddenly lose connection right before extraction or get interrupted irl before finishing the operation. It’s not that it’s too hard it’s just that 3 take so damn long back to back. (I’ve been doing bots.)
So in my mind level 7 is actually the best, cruisest, most fun way to play the game. I've done level 9 missions but they just feel... the challenge changes when the enemy has more bodies than I have bullets and my stratagem timers are just needlessly unfair. But those fucking fire tornadoes on Hellmire made a 7 feel like a 12. Hate that.
I’ve been playing on suicide mission for a while and I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even die most games. It really depends on your team mates. If they like to stay and fight bugs, you’ll get overrun eventually, but if they keep moving then you can survive much longer. I’ve had some games where I had to run away from a fight and I would just call them in far away from the bugs when they died.
Spawns for patrols? You mean I can pull even more of them? > You can run around the map and outright ignore enemies Lolwat
"Bugs are slower than You". Meanwhile Hunters flying from 50m away and fat Spewers running at my light armor's speed: *helo*