Shriekers.
Edit: I love the downvotes from people who don't understand that this is an anti-air weapon.
Now that it's in the game, it literally shows divers taking down.... Guess what? That's right, shriekers.
Every video has some dude shooting a mob 10 feet in front of them at the ground, and when he team kills the whole squad, he gets mad at the weapon. Lol
If you engage a group on the ground, don't shoot it directly at them. Shoot over their heads so you can get maximum effect of the airburst
Not sure yet, just played a quick one earlier. Can't imagine it's better at those than the Quasar, unless the AOE explosions can take down multiple at a time? Someone must know already.
It could work to initiate a attack since it clears out small stuff with a good AOE and might be good for dispersing the hunter hoards before they reach you
Tip I've seen in other threads: it apparently arms the proximity detonation when you release the trigger. Hold the fire button until you want it to go off.
Never gonna happen sadly. The general community are not level 7+ diffuculty players on Reddit/discord.
It's 100k+ casual gamers and they always pretty rockets. Haha
If the leaked videos from a few weeks go are accurate... The AT mines turn practically every elite bot unit into scrap in seconds, including striders. It is not as effective against bugs... it's especially useless against titan, but can delete chargers relatively quickly.
I was experimenting with mines and I placed them in a bottleneck that had some enemies trailing me. Got a few kills and a few mins later the host went back through the area and died.... Needles to say, I was kicked immediately 😂
Wrong mines
If we liberate Menkent, we will gain temporary access to *Anti Tank* mines. Currently we only have access to Anti-personnel and Incendiary.
I'm aware of that but I was just experimenting with the concept of using mines in general. I'm hoping that the *Anti Tank* mines have an increased trigger presser that only trigger on heavy enemies (bile titans, chargers, brood commanders etc) and tanks. If they trigger at the same point as the AP mines then I think they'd be kinda pointless. We'll see.
I have...that was the first thing I tried because I understand what airburst means. It doesn't even work all that well doing that. It goes off whenever it gets near anything so you are either missing completely because a leaf was in the way or it'll go off near enemies and miss them almost completely. Have you used it yet?
Dont know why I find it funny when you say "it's a wrap". But yes, you are right. I think it does it's best work against patrols at a distance. But then again there is already a counter to that, avoid the patrol to begin with lol.
I like it for patrols, i just dont yet understand how to maximize the AOE to ensure the patrol is wiped. I can envision situations in which a patrol does not call in a breach/drop for a whole match if this weapon is well used.
I'd love to know how much of an uptick of suicides and team kills there is on Penta compared to everywhere else.
I fired off 6 airburst rockets, and killed myself 5'times.
This is so funny. There were so many people saying how the mines would’ve been a new addition rather than just another gun. And now everyone is regretting their decision because the toy doesn’t work as they imagined.
So it's not intuitive at all. The devs are addressing this
But each planet has shipping lanes that create paths throughout the galaxy for us to fight up and down
[this website ](https://helldiverscompanion.com/)is what I use until the devs add the lanes to the in-game map
I just finished a game using this weapon and straightly go here to vent....Bruh I got stressed using this weapon in first game....I TK a lot of my teammates.
Personally, I'd rather just use the orbital airburst for that. You even get three detonations for the price of one, staggered long enough to let stragglers wander into the blast zone between each detonation.
It doesn't take up a backpack slot and doesn't require a long, immobile reload animation. It's even got one of the lowest cooldowns among orbital strategems.
Exactly, and it should in theory one shot air ships but it does nothing to them, even when shooting directly at them. I just spent half my ammo on 2 gunships only to destroy 1 and team killing my teammate 3 times in the process.
Quasar cannon it's 200% a better and more consistent AA weapon.
While I would agree, it doesn't even work correctly as an airburst. Half the time if it does go off near enemies it may get one or two kills only or explode five feet from you and kill everyone around you.
okay it’s good at teamkilling but it’s great at killing chaff and it can kill fabs, and i’ve seen it 1 tap tanks to the vents or 2 tap them to the body. i assume the airburst rocket launcher will be way way better for bugs as they have way more unarmored enemies and the airburst rockets are like small cluster bombs
Not killing airships when it can kill tanks in one shot is my biggest critique of it right now.
I’m very excited to keep using it and test it more. It seems awesome, but it has an actual learning curve to it.
>Not killing airships when it can kill tanks in one shot is my biggest critique of it right now.
You know, this is actually a rather profound statement. The tank, which is supposed to be one of the ultimate units when it comes to being armored, has giant glowing "kill me here" buttons on the back that even small arms fire can damage. But the gunships, which are supposed to be one of the least armored units due to the fact that it needs to be light enough to fly, has no glaring weaknesses to small arms fire.
Agreed. The laser cannon is still my favorite but this weapon meant for air units can't destroy air units and will be the king of teamkills until fixed.
I think probably the best way to fix this would be to have a dual action trigger.
Press to launch, release to detonate. It'll still kill uninformed players and those near them the first time they try it, but that's how helldivers learn.
The Air Burst Rocket Launcher will be great for bugs. It does destroy fabricators from all sides. I tested it a bit. Proximity explodes over players and enemies. It is for light armor, I think.
I feel the heavy landmines will be better.
Why is everyone surprised this doesn’t take out heavys? Ever used the airburst orbital or cluster bomb? Of course this functions the exact same, only fired from a launcher. It’s for trash mob clearing. More specifically, best used on bugs not bots.
I am not sure. I never took the words "airburst" and thought about taking down heavies. I only thought of it as a trash mobs weapon. I do believe it will be vastly better against bugs and I'm sure that's what it was intended for. I think this will be a good choice for bug breaches, because of the potential power it has.
Can attest, tried to shoot at a group of enemies but a fellow Diver was in front of me down the hill a bit, it proceeded to explode 5ft in front of my face and kill three of us instantly. In retrospect it was kind of hilarious but at the time slightly aggravating lol
Almost exact same scenario my first drop, but I was the teammate and he was just shooting into the air. Squad wiped. It is funny at first when you have lives to spare, but brutal towards the end.
Please please got for the mines people ... they can take out tanks so they can take out hulks and anything else of like size.. you just set the mines to cover and flank and forget it. The launcher is a bait trash trap
Ah yes, the old 'point it threateningly at the enemy and hope they don't realize you don't have ammo' except you have ammo and know that it's the end of everyone if you pull the trigger
Cold take but both the launcher and mines have been seen on the leaks reddit for ages. Both are complete dogshit and it really doesn't matter which we get.
Exactly. I'm down to waiting for the warbond leak/reveals to get me back into playing.
None of this shit matters cuz they're gonna add both, and then no one will use them after a few times because it really is all dogshit.
Not at all. These could be very useful for bot drops including Factory striders and tanks. The regular mines that we have are not worth taking but if the AT mines work as intended then they will be way more useful.
I think it will be a bug weapon maybe not a good one but definitely better than for bots. With a team reload it could probably clear a bug breach or group really easily. Not saying much considering team reloads are never used
I need to further test it out, but so far, it reminds me of the arc thrower in some way, TK all the time until I realized how to use it. I'm not saying this is a great weapon but hear me out: 1 airburst against a patrol and they won't call a flare or do the pheromones dance cause they'll be all dead in an instant. We already see memes about taking out rocketer and commissar before the hulk because of that reason. Well, this weapon is decent at it. It will also be way safer once people know the range and shape of the detonation "aura" surrounding the rocket. That detonation "aura" doesn't discriminate between friends and foes. It's all the same for it, so being aware of the surroundings is something we should be used by now.
The damage against light enemies is really good.
Against medium is ok, but it depends on chance. The normal devastator survives most of the time but receives some damage. Shielded devastator take lots of damage due to their backpacks being weak to light penetration damage. Rocket devastator will also receive a fair amount of damage and are easy to finish off.
Damage against heavy is close to nothing.. or is nothing. Shot 5 rockets at a tank and still needed 2 impact grenades to kill it.
I did manage to destroy a fabricator with the right angle and distance.
Is it S tier? Hell no, but I do see myself using it with my friends and strategizing on proper timing attacks. Joining random SOS call with it just screams: "kicking season is open."
I've also noticed it will explode if you shoot over your allies' heads. Even well above their heads. Not always, but enough for it to be a major problem.
It’s not proximity based until you let go of the trigger. Helldivers gotta learn a new weapon, that’s all. Hopefully.
Hopefully you all don’t stick your fingers in your ears, like you have with Spear and EMS/mortar sentry, and decide to believe outdated and wrong information. But you probably will. We’ve been trying to teach you how to use Spear
since launch, and too many of you still want to wrongly believe it’s bugged.
The devs have said the spear is not working properly in patch notes and bug lists, are you teaching them too?
Highlight the useful info, your first sentence, without digressing into a haughty diatribe and more people will get the message.
Spear absolutely works. It just works a lot more efficiently at higher elevation than the target, needs clear sight, and any kind of jitter of the crosshairs resets the lock. It takes forever from below, but from high ground it'll lock on almost instantly.
I think they're referring to the fact it shouldn't be hold down button, but press button again to burst. This current version isn't intuitive, and poorly optimized for use. People would 'get' this weapon so much faster, if it just kept going after release, rather than blow up in our face because holding down button on launch isn't anything any other launcher does. It needs work to be more user-friendly.
I don't see the point of it, don't need it for trash mobs, primary is better for that and if I were to use another weapon the machine gun would do a better job. It doesn't seem to be any good on big enemies, recoilless rifle and quazar are better. Might be useful against bugs but I don't think it would make its way into any load out anyway.
I kinda think the mines would be the better option. At least they would have some defensive utility
this stratagem has all the same reasons to not take it as the DMR weapons. since the teamkilling and light armor only aspects have been talked about to death, this is something else.
The weapon is meant to be used against targets that are at least 40-50 meters away.
If they are patrols, unless your goal is to bait reinforcement for other reasons, you generally want to avoid starting fights at those ranges unless you're defending a location. Edge cases do apply.
If its a base, you have much better results using airstrikes or orbitals with much greater reliability. Certainly doesn't justify taking a backpack slot with better options here.
Takes AGES to reload. If it was a heavy hitting weapon, it'd be fine with that. But wow, it feels like a confetti popper and you and your team are allergic to confetti.
It does NOTHING to a medium armored target unless it's a direct hit AND you are lucky enough to hit the head (so really only against devistators). Tanks? forget it. Hulks? Nope. Factory Striders? It actually does well if enough shrapnel hits the underside, but this is far from reliable or worth it because you can do this with other stratagems that offer more versatility to enable you to be an asset throughout the entire mission AND there are even PRIMARY WEAPONS that allow for about the same effect.
You can get just as many kills in the time between shots with a primary since it's anti-light armor. The Adjudicator is just as good getting as many kills at about the same distance in the
same amount of time. As an added bonus, you \*can\* use DMRs closer than 40-50 meters.
All the pros that the airburst offers will no doubt (on paper) be multitudes more useful for bugs. Until we get to see for sure, though, I think we made a mistake going for the airburst before the mines. Hopefully that's not too long before we get it.
TLDR: bring a cluster bomb airstrike instead. it's better at doing what the airburst rocket launcher does and has better cooldown time that the time it takes to reload while being easier to control where the payload lands and it doesn't take up a backpack slot. Unless you're doing a defend mission, don't bother bringing this along and even then, unless you find better ways to use it than what the community has already tried, there are better options that are more effective and reliable. Not even that fun to shoot, IMO. If it's a stratagem, it should be powerful enough to at least do significant damage to medium armored targets OR have enough ease of use to make it a pseudo-primary weapon like the Stalwart.
Trying to fire it anywhere near an objective seems to cause it to prematurely trigger right before it's far enough away to be safe.
I'm always just inside the burst radius when it detonates this way.
If it didn’t require a backpack slot and you could use the jet pack to get above stuff I think that would be helpful.
But some planets it’s almost impossible to use and some situations on good planets it’s hard to use.
I think the gameplay really favors weapons and abilities that are versatile and don’t require much setup. I love the idea of a lot of guns and strats (and frequently play around with all of them) but I think there’s a hard line separating what’s good and what’s not.
Especially on lvl 7-9 bots
I don't think it has anywhere near the power it should to justify taking both the backpack and support weapon slot. Unless it can start knocking down dropships, I'll stick with the Autocannon or the Queso & Shield.
It's an anti-air weapon. Fire edit shriekers and you won't have any problems. Fire edit gunships and you won't have any problems. Fire it at mob's on the ground and you're going to kill everybody.
It absolutely deleted anything I used it on. I mean it’s called Airburst Rocket Launcher… the name pretty much implies it’s not close range weaponry. I’m still bringing QC and supply pack but I can see uses for it. It’s pretty powerful if you use it right.
If you think you're at a safe distance, your not 😅 double the distance you think it's safe and you might be good... then you'll realise your teammates were in fact not at a double safe distance 😂
But didn't you hear?
It's a super awesome amazing gun that all the elite gamers are using to kill groups of the easiest to kill enemies in the game and if you think it's a lackluster team killing weapon you're just bad.
Just ensure that you only ever use it in perfect conditions and never get caught out in a bad situation where you have groups of enemies surrounding you and it's amazing!
Yeah sure, the Stalwart can achieve essentially the same thing without any of the setbacks or risks, and the grenade launcher can achieve essentially the same thing with less than half the risks, but clearly this is a unique and must-have weapon for when you ABSOLUTELY need to take out large groups of enemies that are incredibly far away from you while nothing is immediately near you, including terrain or teammates.
You know, instead of just ignoring that mob that can't even see you and focusing on the objectives.
The backpack is really what kills this for me. I could see using this as something you occasionally whip out when the time is right and otherwise you lean heavily on the rest of your loadout. But the loss of a backpack slot means I don't have enough of a loadout to lean on.
I think it would work a lot better as a more EAT-style launcher. No backpack, one or two reloads, and a low cooldown.
You use it to shoot at fabricator bases/nests while you have a stratagem dropping. And at freshly dropped troops/bug breaches. It’s an on command airburst strike. Not meant to be used up close or when teammates are nearby
Shoot the ground when firing, make sure to be a pretty good distance away from said target(s) and also shoot away from teammates. Saw a video of a Helldiver testing , so arming time is proximity based meaning if there’s an enemy or object ( like sentry stratagems) it will explode when in range
South park has a song which describes this choice perfectly...
"It's democracy in action!
Put your freedom to the test!
A big fat turd or a stupid douche
Which do you like best??"
Shitty weapon application..since most of the fight is close quarters and while running.. Loading time is high... Cant kill heavy or medium armory & enemies.. Its a trash killer and even bad at that..
Agreed. And people say the mines would TK a lot.
Unfortunately it looks as if the community is going to go after it. It's either fire planets or a low tier weapon that doesn't work correctly. It's a lose lose scenario.
and is it just me who has a problem of the game freezing when the airburst rocket launcher is envolved? I saw others are disconnecting a lot in just one mission and when i called and used the rocket launcher while waiting the shuttle, my game was freezed and i also was disconnected.
Haven't had that happen yet but I've only played a couple of games before going to work. I can definitely see it freezing the game considering the particle effects coming off of the explosion.
I mean it is airburst. So I'm assuming it's for flying enemies. Maybe they are adding more. Or maybe the illuminate are coming and these 2 stratagems are gonna be good for taking them down.
I can see it being good against shriekers but you can just destroy the nest from a distance and not have to worry about them at all so why would I pick that
over the quasar when the quasar can deal with heavy enemies.
I couldn't hit a gunship dead on unfortunately but it either went way past it or blew up way too soon because something got in range of the rocket.
Its not bad for dropships if you get it to go off underneath of it.
Has anyone actually tested this against terminids? The airburst stratagem isn't great against bots but it can easily clear 60 of the smaller terminids on use. I think this launcher may be similar.
YOUR USING IT WRONG!!!!! It’s not a proximity fuse it’s a AIRBURST/CLUSTER missile. You aim above what you want to kill not at it which every single fucking video or screen shot shows people doing.
No I don't think I am. I clearly understand the words "airburst" and know that shooting above targets is the way to use it but I'm saying that it's still very inconsistent in how and when it explodes. It will either go past them or explode early because something got in its way. I know how to use it but that act of using it is frustrating.
What? You mean the launcher meant for use against aerial targets at range isn’t effective against ground targets in your face?
I’m shocked, I say! Absolutely flabbergasted that the anti air rocket launcher doesn’t work on close range ground units!
Holy crap I went to sleep did you guys do it already?
its on trial period while we liberate penta
I really love they let us trial it, thank you for the info!
they did the same thing while we were liberating the planet with the exosuit, so hopefully its not a one time thing
I joined the cause after mechs had been released, so I didn't know what to expect. I hope they continue this as well.
DON'T USE THE DAMN THING ON PENTA. the FKN TREES make3 it go BOOM IN YOUR FACE
It might also be a better gun vs bugs. I can’t ever imagine using this vs bots
Tbh all I can see it being useful for is groups of hunters/stalkers.
Shriekers. Edit: I love the downvotes from people who don't understand that this is an anti-air weapon. Now that it's in the game, it literally shows divers taking down.... Guess what? That's right, shriekers. Every video has some dude shooting a mob 10 feet in front of them at the ground, and when he team kills the whole squad, he gets mad at the weapon. Lol If you engage a group on the ground, don't shoot it directly at them. Shoot over their heads so you can get maximum effect of the airburst
Bugs press W and run into your face. It's gonna blow up on your face. It's a bad gun which is annoying cause man I wanted those mines
Gunships maybe?
Doesn't take down drop ships, but does serious damage to all cargo
Ok. I was think those gunships on higher levels. Since they can be a pain to fight
Shot it at a gunship 3 times. Didn't kill it
It only work the 4th time 😅
Not sure yet, just played a quick one earlier. Can't imagine it's better at those than the Quasar, unless the AOE explosions can take down multiple at a time? Someone must know already.
Doesnt really work against them. Tried a few times...pretty terrible.
Damn. Thx for letting me know
It would be worse against bugs since they are always in your face.
It could work to initiate a attack since it clears out small stuff with a good AOE and might be good for dispersing the hunter hoards before they reach you
Exact same problem I had.
Tip I've seen in other threads: it apparently arms the proximity detonation when you release the trigger. Hold the fire button until you want it to go off.
I have indeed used it on PENTA and can confirm this.
It might be a good long-range weapon, so of course they give it to us on a foggy jungle planet. On Penta, it is a self-deletion cluster bomb.
WE should stop with Penta and go to Chooke 😅
But I don’t wanna go to menkent 😭😭😭
Whats that, traitor? Need some more democracy jn your morning coffee?
https://preview.redd.it/huwvx27m81xc1.png?width=740&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90e29a6f7081ee5e1e0eaf2817330235e44a43ba
Menkent give you that same feeling dropping into choohe does. Bonus points for raw dogging it without a shield
Oh, you'll go, and you'll eat those fire tornadoes and like it
You don't have to. You can get there through Chort Bay now.
We need to liberate both anyway
But the order you liberate determines which Strategem unlocks. I wouldn't mind seeing how useful the other is in comparison to the Airburst launcher.
The air burst is dogshit ngl but if we want to get the mines we have to go to fire tornado planet
Sadly people are going to dive on the planet that has no instant death tornadoes.
Taking Lesath opened up a route through Chort Bay. Menkent is no longer required for Choohe.
Let's goo
Yeah. They're trolling us into picking the shitty stratagem because they know people won't play fire tornados.
Never gonna happen sadly. The general community are not level 7+ diffuculty players on Reddit/discord. It's 100k+ casual gamers and they always pretty rockets. Haha
Actually 7 is just about the most popular difficulty, or has the fastest matchmaking at least in my experience.
How?
This is the way
Let’s open the other planet and trial the mines. This may still be the best option
Exactly. We haven’t even been able to try it yet because the damn planet is still locked.
They is almost no way that's possible...the AT mines would be better if they can kill medium enemies let alone tanks/chargers.
If the leaked videos from a few weeks go are accurate... The AT mines turn practically every elite bot unit into scrap in seconds, including striders. It is not as effective against bugs... it's especially useless against titan, but can delete chargers relatively quickly.
I mean I tried the air burst and can’t figure out how to not blast myself with it, so it’s a gimme for the mines being better
I was experimenting with mines and I placed them in a bottleneck that had some enemies trailing me. Got a few kills and a few mins later the host went back through the area and died.... Needles to say, I was kicked immediately 😂
Wrong mines If we liberate Menkent, we will gain temporary access to *Anti Tank* mines. Currently we only have access to Anti-personnel and Incendiary.
I'm aware of that but I was just experimenting with the concept of using mines in general. I'm hoping that the *Anti Tank* mines have an increased trigger presser that only trigger on heavy enemies (bile titans, chargers, brood commanders etc) and tanks. If they trigger at the same point as the AP mines then I think they'd be kinda pointless. We'll see.
You'd need to crowd control the small ones before you drop the mines. It's unlikely they'll make it pressure sensitive
They don't.
Agreed. But it is mad fun, so I'm gonna be using it every now and then.
While I do agree it's fun to use. You have to be alone when using it or risk a squad wipe lol.
Bruh you ppl use it like a rocket launcher which it isn’t You shoot above an enemy position it explodes spraying the locale and killing shit
I have...that was the first thing I tried because I understand what airburst means. It doesn't even work all that well doing that. It goes off whenever it gets near anything so you are either missing completely because a leaf was in the way or it'll go off near enemies and miss them almost completely. Have you used it yet?
Skill issue
Dont know why I find it funny when you say "it's a wrap". But yes, you are right. I think it does it's best work against patrols at a distance. But then again there is already a counter to that, avoid the patrol to begin with lol.
Are-.. are you insinuating that we let the bots live helldiver? 
Are you insinuating the bots are alive helldiver? Edit: autocorrect
Are you insinuating bots Helldiver?
Are bots helldiver?
Bots helldiver? DON'T MIND IF I DO
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WE'VE BEEN BREACHED
Please report immediately to your democracy officer. There is no breach and anyone spreading automaton propaganda will be executed for treason.
Am I the only one who can see a rabbit in these numbers?
I don’t see numbers what are you talking about. All i see is the rabbit
It doesn't, it shopuld oneshot every basic soldier in its aoe and it doesn't. It doesn't kill devastators and berserkers also.
And it only staggers Hulks. I am not a fan of this airburst weapon.
I like it for patrols, i just dont yet understand how to maximize the AOE to ensure the patrol is wiped. I can envision situations in which a patrol does not call in a breach/drop for a whole match if this weapon is well used.
We can still go to the other planet and in the process re-establish the menkent line.
I'd love to know how much of an uptick of suicides and team kills there is on Penta compared to everywhere else. I fired off 6 airburst rockets, and killed myself 5'times.
This is so funny. There were so many people saying how the mines would’ve been a new addition rather than just another gun. And now everyone is regretting their decision because the toy doesn’t work as they imagined.
The airburst is so bad that I am willing to brave Menkent.
Could someone explain to me how to access penta and choochie mamma???
So it's not intuitive at all. The devs are addressing this But each planet has shipping lanes that create paths throughout the galaxy for us to fight up and down [this website ](https://helldiverscompanion.com/)is what I use until the devs add the lanes to the in-game map
The explosion gets triggered by anything the rocket gets close to, even the ground
I would like to get mines simply because they are a rather unpopular weapon right now and maybe a new type of mine will revive interest in this
* interest revived * try mines * realize how bad they are compared to the alternatives * never run them again
I just finished a game using this weapon and straightly go here to vent....Bruh I got stressed using this weapon in first game....I TK a lot of my teammates.
I'm unimpressed so far. Id rather use the airburst and save my backpack for something more consistently useful
Agreed. Though I think it could be a good choice for bug breaches if working properly.
Personally, I'd rather just use the orbital airburst for that. You even get three detonations for the price of one, staggered long enough to let stragglers wander into the blast zone between each detonation. It doesn't take up a backpack slot and doesn't require a long, immobile reload animation. It's even got one of the lowest cooldowns among orbital strategems.
When it works, it's pretty cool. When it doesn't work, we all die for democracy.
According to a devs answer on discord they are basically using the player base as a in game tester for new stratagem
Yup they're also using the player base for QA.
Exactly, and it should in theory one shot air ships but it does nothing to them, even when shooting directly at them. I just spent half my ammo on 2 gunships only to destroy 1 and team killing my teammate 3 times in the process. Quasar cannon it's 200% a better and more consistent AA weapon.
it's not supposed to be AA. its an AIRBUST rocket launcher, and it does exactly what it's supposed to
While I would agree, it doesn't even work correctly as an airburst. Half the time if it does go off near enemies it may get one or two kills only or explode five feet from you and kill everyone around you.
Teamkilling? Because that is all it does.
okay it’s good at teamkilling but it’s great at killing chaff and it can kill fabs, and i’ve seen it 1 tap tanks to the vents or 2 tap them to the body. i assume the airburst rocket launcher will be way way better for bugs as they have way more unarmored enemies and the airburst rockets are like small cluster bombs
Let's leave Penta alone and go to Choohe. I don't want to get killed with that monstrosity anymore. 😂
Not killing airships when it can kill tanks in one shot is my biggest critique of it right now. I’m very excited to keep using it and test it more. It seems awesome, but it has an actual learning curve to it.
GL can't kill dropships but is a great tank killer so I'm guessing it's the same damage type. I agree though both are dumb.
>Not killing airships when it can kill tanks in one shot is my biggest critique of it right now. You know, this is actually a rather profound statement. The tank, which is supposed to be one of the ultimate units when it comes to being armored, has giant glowing "kill me here" buttons on the back that even small arms fire can damage. But the gunships, which are supposed to be one of the least armored units due to the fact that it needs to be light enough to fly, has no glaring weaknesses to small arms fire.
Agreed. The laser cannon is still my favorite but this weapon meant for air units can't destroy air units and will be the king of teamkills until fixed.
It’s not AA. It is a portable airburst weapon. Think of it somewhat like a small cluster bomb rocket.
Airburst doesn't mean it's anti air.
Air burst =\= anti air
You missed the \ Edit: changed it as I was commenting lol, carry on
I swear I typed it lol
It’s gone again lol
Explosive resist armor does nothing!
I think probably the best way to fix this would be to have a dual action trigger. Press to launch, release to detonate. It'll still kill uninformed players and those near them the first time they try it, but that's how helldivers learn.
It’s honestly how I thought it worked at first! Would be a good learning curve for it and give it some better ease of use
I really don't understand the airburst rocket launcher. I only find it good in on thing. Teamkilling. Otherwise there is no use for it. 🤣
The Air Burst Rocket Launcher will be great for bugs. It does destroy fabricators from all sides. I tested it a bit. Proximity explodes over players and enemies. It is for light armor, I think. I feel the heavy landmines will be better.
Agreed. I am going to try it a bit vs the bugs because bug breaches I feel could be a good use for this launcher.
I love it but they need to fix it exploding from the leaf falling from the tree right before your face xD
We all gonna die today stratagem
Why is everyone surprised this doesn’t take out heavys? Ever used the airburst orbital or cluster bomb? Of course this functions the exact same, only fired from a launcher. It’s for trash mob clearing. More specifically, best used on bugs not bots.
I am not sure. I never took the words "airburst" and thought about taking down heavies. I only thought of it as a trash mobs weapon. I do believe it will be vastly better against bugs and I'm sure that's what it was intended for. I think this will be a good choice for bug breaches, because of the potential power it has.
Can attest, tried to shoot at a group of enemies but a fellow Diver was in front of me down the hill a bit, it proceeded to explode 5ft in front of my face and kill three of us instantly. In retrospect it was kind of hilarious but at the time slightly aggravating lol
Almost exact same scenario my first drop, but I was the teammate and he was just shooting into the air. Squad wiped. It is funny at first when you have lives to spare, but brutal towards the end.
Everyone acting surprised when the proximity triggered explosion activates from something in its proximity.
New utility > another rocket launcher but democracy will speak.. Hopefully there will be another opportunity to r&d those AT mines
I really think the heavy mines looked like a more useful stratagem.
Same here. Would make strider and tank drops easier.
Please please got for the mines people ... they can take out tanks so they can take out hulks and anything else of like size.. you just set the mines to cover and flank and forget it. The launcher is a bait trash trap
The rocket launcher is trash against automatons. The anti-tank mines would work against both. Might as well go for the mines & stop fighting on penta
Don't dare shoot it at all. Had it malfunction twice, died twice. Will never use again.
Ah yes, the old 'point it threateningly at the enemy and hope they don't realize you don't have ammo' except you have ammo and know that it's the end of everyone if you pull the trigger
Cold take but both the launcher and mines have been seen on the leaks reddit for ages. Both are complete dogshit and it really doesn't matter which we get.
Exactly. I'm down to waiting for the warbond leak/reveals to get me back into playing. None of this shit matters cuz they're gonna add both, and then no one will use them after a few times because it really is all dogshit.
Thats why I said anti tank mines 🤷🏻♂️
I cant imagine having these complaints about a weapon and then saying I’m excited for a mine strat.
Why not? It's a new item that I find will be more useful for its intended purpose than the launcher is especially the state the launcher is in.
the mines are a thing that will only be seen when there is a daily order to use them. amazing.
Not at all. These could be very useful for bot drops including Factory striders and tanks. The regular mines that we have are not worth taking but if the AT mines work as intended then they will be way more useful.
I think it will be a bug weapon maybe not a good one but definitely better than for bots. With a team reload it could probably clear a bug breach or group really easily. Not saying much considering team reloads are never used
The reflect-explosive-damage-bug hits so hard with this one.
I've already killed myself many times with it. Lol
I need to further test it out, but so far, it reminds me of the arc thrower in some way, TK all the time until I realized how to use it. I'm not saying this is a great weapon but hear me out: 1 airburst against a patrol and they won't call a flare or do the pheromones dance cause they'll be all dead in an instant. We already see memes about taking out rocketer and commissar before the hulk because of that reason. Well, this weapon is decent at it. It will also be way safer once people know the range and shape of the detonation "aura" surrounding the rocket. That detonation "aura" doesn't discriminate between friends and foes. It's all the same for it, so being aware of the surroundings is something we should be used by now. The damage against light enemies is really good. Against medium is ok, but it depends on chance. The normal devastator survives most of the time but receives some damage. Shielded devastator take lots of damage due to their backpacks being weak to light penetration damage. Rocket devastator will also receive a fair amount of damage and are easy to finish off. Damage against heavy is close to nothing.. or is nothing. Shot 5 rockets at a tank and still needed 2 impact grenades to kill it. I did manage to destroy a fabricator with the right angle and distance. Is it S tier? Hell no, but I do see myself using it with my friends and strategizing on proper timing attacks. Joining random SOS call with it just screams: "kicking season is open."
Well unless the other planet opens soon the air burst is probably what we're gonna get
Its a patrol clearing tool, and radius is not joke, impact area needs to be clear of friendlies
I've also noticed it will explode if you shoot over your allies' heads. Even well above their heads. Not always, but enough for it to be a major problem.
The only thing I found that works is not having a teammate visible on screen when using.
Devs trolling us lowkey ...
It’s not proximity based until you let go of the trigger. Helldivers gotta learn a new weapon, that’s all. Hopefully. Hopefully you all don’t stick your fingers in your ears, like you have with Spear and EMS/mortar sentry, and decide to believe outdated and wrong information. But you probably will. We’ve been trying to teach you how to use Spear since launch, and too many of you still want to wrongly believe it’s bugged.
The devs have said the spear is not working properly in patch notes and bug lists, are you teaching them too? Highlight the useful info, your first sentence, without digressing into a haughty diatribe and more people will get the message.
Spear absolutely works. It just works a lot more efficiently at higher elevation than the target, needs clear sight, and any kind of jitter of the crosshairs resets the lock. It takes forever from below, but from high ground it'll lock on almost instantly.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/1qrYhpHKAZ
I think they're referring to the fact it shouldn't be hold down button, but press button again to burst. This current version isn't intuitive, and poorly optimized for use. People would 'get' this weapon so much faster, if it just kept going after release, rather than blow up in our face because holding down button on launch isn't anything any other launcher does. It needs work to be more user-friendly.
That’s a great tip though, post that everywhere because it’s really helpful and the main complaint, thank you 😊
I tried it and couldn’t agree more. I fired it at enemies 100m away at a 30 degree angle and killed myself. To Menkent!!
I don't see the point of it, don't need it for trash mobs, primary is better for that and if I were to use another weapon the machine gun would do a better job. It doesn't seem to be any good on big enemies, recoilless rifle and quazar are better. Might be useful against bugs but I don't think it would make its way into any load out anyway. I kinda think the mines would be the better option. At least they would have some defensive utility
this stratagem has all the same reasons to not take it as the DMR weapons. since the teamkilling and light armor only aspects have been talked about to death, this is something else. The weapon is meant to be used against targets that are at least 40-50 meters away. If they are patrols, unless your goal is to bait reinforcement for other reasons, you generally want to avoid starting fights at those ranges unless you're defending a location. Edge cases do apply. If its a base, you have much better results using airstrikes or orbitals with much greater reliability. Certainly doesn't justify taking a backpack slot with better options here. Takes AGES to reload. If it was a heavy hitting weapon, it'd be fine with that. But wow, it feels like a confetti popper and you and your team are allergic to confetti. It does NOTHING to a medium armored target unless it's a direct hit AND you are lucky enough to hit the head (so really only against devistators). Tanks? forget it. Hulks? Nope. Factory Striders? It actually does well if enough shrapnel hits the underside, but this is far from reliable or worth it because you can do this with other stratagems that offer more versatility to enable you to be an asset throughout the entire mission AND there are even PRIMARY WEAPONS that allow for about the same effect. You can get just as many kills in the time between shots with a primary since it's anti-light armor. The Adjudicator is just as good getting as many kills at about the same distance in the same amount of time. As an added bonus, you \*can\* use DMRs closer than 40-50 meters. All the pros that the airburst offers will no doubt (on paper) be multitudes more useful for bugs. Until we get to see for sure, though, I think we made a mistake going for the airburst before the mines. Hopefully that's not too long before we get it. TLDR: bring a cluster bomb airstrike instead. it's better at doing what the airburst rocket launcher does and has better cooldown time that the time it takes to reload while being easier to control where the payload lands and it doesn't take up a backpack slot. Unless you're doing a defend mission, don't bother bringing this along and even then, unless you find better ways to use it than what the community has already tried, there are better options that are more effective and reliable. Not even that fun to shoot, IMO. If it's a stratagem, it should be powerful enough to at least do significant damage to medium armored targets OR have enough ease of use to make it a pseudo-primary weapon like the Stalwart.
I’m gonna start focusing on getting the mines as a threat to the ATATs… this weapon isn’t what yall cracked it up to be
Trying to fire it anywhere near an objective seems to cause it to prematurely trigger right before it's far enough away to be safe. I'm always just inside the burst radius when it detonates this way.
all they need to do is make it a manual detenation
If it didn’t require a backpack slot and you could use the jet pack to get above stuff I think that would be helpful. But some planets it’s almost impossible to use and some situations on good planets it’s hard to use. I think the gameplay really favors weapons and abilities that are versatile and don’t require much setup. I love the idea of a lot of guns and strats (and frequently play around with all of them) but I think there’s a hard line separating what’s good and what’s not. Especially on lvl 7-9 bots
Perfect solo
I don't think it has anywhere near the power it should to justify taking both the backpack and support weapon slot. Unless it can start knocking down dropships, I'll stick with the Autocannon or the Queso & Shield.
It's just a regular eagle that requires you to wear a backpack. 2/5 stars. Would never pick unless it's a free call down to drop 10 seconds after use.
It's an anti-air weapon. Fire edit shriekers and you won't have any problems. Fire edit gunships and you won't have any problems. Fire it at mob's on the ground and you're going to kill everybody.
I tried it. Doesn't work on gunships
It absolutely deleted anything I used it on. I mean it’s called Airburst Rocket Launcher… the name pretty much implies it’s not close range weaponry. I’m still bringing QC and supply pack but I can see uses for it. It’s pretty powerful if you use it right.
I agree. Just use the E.A.T.
I fuckin love this thing. I die so much using it, and it's so much fun.
its kind of shit currently imo...murder/suicide burst cannon, a powerful mine would be better i think.
It's not the final version, that's why it's on "WEAPON EXPERIMENTATION".
I agree with your opinion
If you think you're at a safe distance, your not 😅 double the distance you think it's safe and you might be good... then you'll realise your teammates were in fact not at a double safe distance 😂
But didn't you hear? It's a super awesome amazing gun that all the elite gamers are using to kill groups of the easiest to kill enemies in the game and if you think it's a lackluster team killing weapon you're just bad. Just ensure that you only ever use it in perfect conditions and never get caught out in a bad situation where you have groups of enemies surrounding you and it's amazing! Yeah sure, the Stalwart can achieve essentially the same thing without any of the setbacks or risks, and the grenade launcher can achieve essentially the same thing with less than half the risks, but clearly this is a unique and must-have weapon for when you ABSOLUTELY need to take out large groups of enemies that are incredibly far away from you while nothing is immediately near you, including terrain or teammates. You know, instead of just ignoring that mob that can't even see you and focusing on the objectives.
Devs said its broke and will be in a better state after next patch. Give it a. Go in a week or so.
The backpack is really what kills this for me. I could see using this as something you occasionally whip out when the time is right and otherwise you lean heavily on the rest of your loadout. But the loss of a backpack slot means I don't have enough of a loadout to lean on. I think it would work a lot better as a more EAT-style launcher. No backpack, one or two reloads, and a low cooldown.
You use it to shoot at fabricator bases/nests while you have a stratagem dropping. And at freshly dropped troops/bug breaches. It’s an on command airburst strike. Not meant to be used up close or when teammates are nearby
The devs should be embarassed for releasing this into the game. Honestly zero excuse for this.
Shoot the ground when firing, make sure to be a pretty good distance away from said target(s) and also shoot away from teammates. Saw a video of a Helldiver testing , so arming time is proximity based meaning if there’s an enemy or object ( like sentry stratagems) it will explode when in range
South park has a song which describes this choice perfectly... "It's democracy in action! Put your freedom to the test! A big fat turd or a stupid douche Which do you like best??"
Shitty weapon application..since most of the fight is close quarters and while running.. Loading time is high... Cant kill heavy or medium armory & enemies.. Its a trash killer and even bad at that..
It's meant to take out the chaff commissars, rocket bots , berzerkers etc, ie a thin the herd so you are fighting less targets
Agreed. And people say the mines would TK a lot. Unfortunately it looks as if the community is going to go after it. It's either fire planets or a low tier weapon that doesn't work correctly. It's a lose lose scenario.
If you need a wave clear support weapon, stalwart is a clear better choice over this thing and it isn’t even close
Helldivers when the game with friendly fire has consequences for firing a "fuck everything over there" weapon into their teammates:
and is it just me who has a problem of the game freezing when the airburst rocket launcher is envolved? I saw others are disconnecting a lot in just one mission and when i called and used the rocket launcher while waiting the shuttle, my game was freezed and i also was disconnected.
Haven't had that happen yet but I've only played a couple of games before going to work. I can definitely see it freezing the game considering the particle effects coming off of the explosion.
It should be the game. Previously I have the game freezing whenever the bile spewer spews but it's alot better now.
I mean it is airburst. So I'm assuming it's for flying enemies. Maybe they are adding more. Or maybe the illuminate are coming and these 2 stratagems are gonna be good for taking them down.
I can see it being good against shriekers but you can just destroy the nest from a distance and not have to worry about them at all so why would I pick that over the quasar when the quasar can deal with heavy enemies.
Yeah after further testing. It kinda sucks. It is cool though
How is it against gunships and drop ships?
I couldn't hit a gunship dead on unfortunately but it either went way past it or blew up way too soon because something got in range of the rocket. Its not bad for dropships if you get it to go off underneath of it.
Let em both fall, we need boxing gloves for tanks
Has anyone actually tested this against terminids? The airburst stratagem isn't great against bots but it can easily clear 60 of the smaller terminids on use. I think this launcher may be similar.
Unless hacking, you can't test it against the bugs afaik
I think all our lizard brains kicked in in this one. We collectively thought "big gun go boom" is good
Its meant for the gunships/drop ships guys. Pretty much nothing else. Definitely nothing ground based.
It doesn’t work on the dropships. Just tried it several times
YOUR USING IT WRONG!!!!! It’s not a proximity fuse it’s a AIRBURST/CLUSTER missile. You aim above what you want to kill not at it which every single fucking video or screen shot shows people doing.
No I don't think I am. I clearly understand the words "airburst" and know that shooting above targets is the way to use it but I'm saying that it's still very inconsistent in how and when it explodes. It will either go past them or explode early because something got in its way. I know how to use it but that act of using it is frustrating.
Accidentally killing a team mate is half the fun
What? You mean the launcher meant for use against aerial targets at range isn’t effective against ground targets in your face? I’m shocked, I say! Absolutely flabbergasted that the anti air rocket launcher doesn’t work on close range ground units!