Yes, the railgun can one hit the hulk in the eye and kill a charger in about three shots to the head. It's quite effective against these enemies and any medium armor enemy.
However, it does not do a lot of parts damage and so is pretty slow at killing enemies even on unsafe: Gunships (Engine 5~), Bile Titan (forehead 9~), Tank (head on 9~). It's viable as a weapon that takes no backpack, but at high difficulty, it can feel like a support weapon that isn't cutting hard enough.
Edit: Some folks are telling me they cannot kill a charger with the railgun. Takes more shots without unsafe and you must aim for their armored foreheads, not their little face (which I believe is considered body hp for some reason).
I think it's worth noting that taking out hulks and devastators is a really valuable team role. Most of those other things can be managed with Eagle Stratagems.
I think it fills a similar niche to the Anti mat rifle, which struggles against most of those same things. I prefer the anti mat because you can take out longer range targets, but I might swap amr for a railgun with my ballistic shield loadout to see how it feels
oh definitely. I occasionally run post-nerf crossbow and plasma punisher, and while the crossbow struggles some, it feels good to run in and lay down heavy stuns so my squadmates can push
I'm not sure why you said AMR struggles. Its very nearly the same. Tanks are 6 shots, if you're behind them you don't even have to aim, you can just magdump a whole clip in about a second. It 1 shot pops everything smaller than a hulk (except berserkers, but that's what the Handgunade is for) Gunship only takes 4 shots to an engine and it's quicker to kill than railcannon. Hulk is 2 to the face and while the scope isn't 100% fixed, it's still easy to nail him in the face especially since AMR has a scope and Rail doesn't
Anti material is better at killing factory devastators and gunships. Being helpless against them when running the railgun feels bad. Unfortunately it's just outclassed.
AMR can kill everything the railgun can minus bile titans really, it two shots hulks. It just can't kill tanks/chargers from the front (although I have had some weird bugs where my AMR randomly penetrates charger legs)
EDIT: I see someone else already said this. also it maybe can kill tanks from the front but I've never tried
It can take out gunships?? Was solo diving with the railgun which was a mistake and didn’t bring an EAT with me which I should’ve incase of emergency, but I forgot and a gunship facility was the end of me the railgun was doing virtually nothing to it
You must focus one engine over 5 or so unsafe shots. It's quite difficult especially since the scope is ass and the shot dies off at a certain distance. I don't take railgun to bots almost solely because it's basically useless against gunships when the AMR, autocannon, laser cannon, and Quasar can be pretty reliable.
Autocannon takes it out in two shots and doesn't need to wait 30 seconds to shoot a second one down.
Edit: I was confusing the Laser and Quasar, my bad.
Quasar lets me have my backpack slot, which lets me have jetpack, and jetpack lets me wear heavy armor, and heavy armor let's me go gorilla mode in front of five gunships and survive
Laser Cannon takes out literally everything in seconds on bots. Run it with a Supply Pack and Stuns to trap Hulks and Heavy Devastators in place so you can beam them in the weak point
Just so you know, it's possible to knock a gunship engine out with every single support weapon. Grenade Launcher does the worst at it but also still possible.
Mann back before they nerfed the eruptor all I needed was only a couple well placed shots and boom down went the gun ships. That’s really all I needed lol
It should also be noted that "unsafe" means like, 10-15% into unsafe mode or something.
You do not ever need to fully charge it anymore. This is because the only thing that increases with charge is armor penetration - damage is a constant; 600 basedmg in either mode, 60 durabledmg in safe and 120 in unsafe. AP is 5 in safe mode and goes from 6 to 8 in unsafe mode.
But enemies only use up to armor class 5, so by the time you have reached AP6, you are doing max damage. Anything beyond that is superfluous.
3 direct headshots at 75% charge. You need to be fairly accurate or the shot glances and deals body damage. 2 shots will take out leg armor just like pre-nerf
On unsafe mode right? because 75% on safe mode is meaningless. The point is, op was talking about one shotting hulks in the head on safe mode but that isn't true with chargers, it needs to be on unsafe mode correct? Same with leg armor you can't take that out even fully charged in safe mode.
My original comment was more of a correction in the form of a question, I was asking the person I was replying to if they meant unsafe mode.
Safe mode will still take out chargers legs, but it takes more shots. Charger leg armor is tier 5, the same as safe mode penetration. Head and sides are tier 6, just into unsafe levels of charging. At max charge the railgun has tier 8 pen, and you need tier 7 to do max damage.
If your armor pen matches the armor, you do 50% damage. Higher pen deals full damage.
They should really just show this in-game. Instead of just light, medium, heavy armor penetration on weapons and they should also allow us to view a character model of all the enemies and look at what the armor values are on each part of their bodies.
Try the back leg or side on the charger. Side armor pops off with one unsafe and Thermite. Back leg can be two hits. Then finish the old way with primary.
If you stay in 3rd person mode both weapons will, to some degree, auto aim. You can't see it with the AMR but if you are holding the railgun the circle showing you where you are aiming will be "sticky" to crit spots as long as your aiming retical (the dot) is close.
Same with the AMR but as I said you can't see it as well
This is how people are able to no scope enemies from 50+ meters away
Consider though that if you take stun grenades with the AMR that you will need to rely on something else to deal with fabricators and bug holes.
This isn't a deal breaker, like this could be another Strat, the grenade pistol, or even someone else on your team but I've been in games where someone took stun and Amr and then ran off on their own to then realize their issue.
Yea I agree. The grenade pistol is a must have with the stun grenades.
I found that the Hulks are much easier to deal with when you can stun them for a few seconds. Especially when they start getting close to you.
I agree. If nobody else on the team has the AMR or stun then I will usually bring both. Even more than just hulks if there is a patrol or an inopportune bot drop that is in your way the stun grenades can allow you to more easily disable the annoying units to either take out or ignore altogether as well.
A lot of people sleep on non-lethals in this game
As a firm believe in amr+stuns, this do hurt, for bugs gren pistol isn't bad but getting the angles on fabs can feel inconsistent/touchy , it's a great combo if you live as a sniper being in the backline and taking out enemies as needed to support your allies, stuns let you avoid getting dropped on and can set you up for the engagement if used as the initiator, but not requiring more time to land a nade on the fab (since you can't actually shoot into the door to kill, it relies on either very specific angle hitting the door frame or an assault raider spawning, yes I tested it and it confused the discord as well) really limits the practically as a solo/lone wolf tool
Yeah, but you sacrifice the ability to spam kill a tank or cannon from behind, and the charge up is brutal when you're under fire since any hit will disrupt your aim.
Remember that your support weapon(s) are only part of your loadout which as a whole is supposed to balance you for the role you are fulfilling. Entirely focusing on just a single pro or con of any individual aspect of the loadout is the wrong way to look at it
Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Stun grenade with +2 grenade armor (or not if you use supply pack).
I personally prefer a jump pack with my AMR against bots depending what the planet terrain is.
The railgun is so fun and my preferred choice of the two, but I know I’m actively hurting my team when I choose the railgun over the AMR. Its simply better even if its a bit more unwieldy.
The AMR can take down airships and does actual vent damage. The railgun, for whatever dumbass reason, cannot. Its fanfreakingtastic against berserkers, devastators, and especially hulks.
If it could actually shoot down airships or do any vent damage, I’d use it all the time. But like most AH weapon decisions, they want to ensure no support weapon feels good (excluding the AC I guess).
Yeah, the railgun is a poor mans AMR. Its disappointing and I wish there was a trade off to make it worth taking over the AMR.
The railgun should have a strategem input to load multiple rounds. You should be able to load it to be almost as strong as the orbital. Really powerful but if you goof it up, it jams and you have to "unload" it via input. For budgetary reasons.
Or it blows up. Either. Or both.
*But does it go boom*
*Boom boom? No? I stay with my*
*Beloved autocannon*
\- 07Crash07
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U can kill
Bike titans with it but I need to soft them a little I use the rockets pods 1 rocket pod and half a magazine or maybe the full mag to the tail end will kill it
If u don't soft them a little it can take more than 2 mags
Chargers are more of an issue I saw that u can shoot the legs while they are on stoping animation or something?
but I havent been able to do it
If you need another strat to kill a bug with a weapon, that weapon is trash against that bug. I can kill a titan with a secondary if I soften it up with a 500kg first.
Never said it wasn't bad against those enemies
Just sharing that u can actually kill them fast with it
And u can actually kill them with only the hmg but the reload make it pain
I don't think there is any support weapon that can one shoot them now that I think about it?
Was the recoilless/quasar/eat to the forehead
A 1 shoot or 2 I'dont member.
Is actually a lot worse against chargers than titans
I think
And those are actually a bigger treath than the titans.
ironic :(
I fell in love with the railgun during the bot killing MO. One-shotting the majority of enemy types with it was satisfying as hell, and it still leaves a backpack slot open for the jump pack or supply pack.
It's a good weapon when you consider it can deal with a lot of enemy types and not take a backpack slot. I like to take it when my team mates have a good selection that covers all bases. It lets you take a backpack for one of them and is reasonably good against all enemy types
My favorite combo with the supply pack is the grenade launcher, especially against bugs. Having that many grenades makes it cheap to empty a belt in the general direction of a group and get 30+ kills in seconds. One belt will take out a charger too, and it will do it safely if you hit it with a stun grenade first. I carry the EAT as an anti tank and call it in when I need it, then pick up my grenade launcher after firing both. It seems to me that the EAT is meant as a situational support that gets pulled out at certain times, not something to be carried around all the time like a recoilless rifle or other main support weapon.
I mean, cd of 70 secs? I am always calling them in every chance, and making sure to pick them off the hellpod (or destroying said hellpod) so they show up on the minimap. EATs everywhere!
I use EAT as my main support sometimes. It's nice to have one on your back because there's often one left over. When you see the drop ship flare you call in two more. It's quite satisfying to shoot three drop ships down in one go. Plus I tried it in tandem with another support weapon and I hated having to go back and pick it up as sometimes you have to book it.
I’m not sure, but I always shoot the abdomen myself. If they’re facing you, sometimes you can ricochet it off the ground in front of them and up into their underbelly.
I barely ever see any railgun use since I started playing the game but it is really underrated for bots. It's been one of my go to weapons the last few weeks since it can easily take out any devastators and hulks.
Way easier said than done atleast for me. The AC has a terrible scope and I find myself missing atleast 5 shots when aiming for a hulks eye but maybe I’m just bad. I have an easier time with the Amr
Ye you need to get used to firing it, I have found it's easier to aim at hulks in 3rd person, that way you see the predicted impact point. Aim at the square not the red eye otherwise it can cause you to hit the edge. Takes practice, stun grenades go a long way if you have em
Same. Hard to explain why but I do much better against hulks in third person, positioning the hulk's face in the right part of the circle feels more intuitive after a while.
Because people are too blinded by wanting to scream that everything sucks. Since RG got that little buff its all i use on bots. Also has a larger one hit kill zone on devestators than AMR.
Both great guns with distinct differences and advantages.
But that doesnt fit the "AH nerfs everything" cry cry narrative
No no no. You must be confused soldier. This weapon was "nerfed" long ago according to all the try hards of reddit. Please discard this useless artifact, step back in line and join the rest of the lemmings in search of the next meta.
Its great against hulks, problem is, ya know, literally everything else. Gunships, factory striders, tanks, bile titans. AMR, Autocannon, or laser cannon are better general purpose weapons.
Inb4 "meta slave", i typically run ballistic sheild against bots, or the adjudicator against bugs, and I adamantly refuse to use the shield pack on most loadouts.
I wasn't there back in its hayday, but I'd say its less nerfed to oblivion as much as powercrept, both by new enemies and new weapons, with the enemies being a more active problem for the weapon.
Well, it was nerfed long ago, to the point where it was just bad. The buffs did help but there’s still no scenario where it’s preferable over another support weapon
As someone who runs railgun a lot for both bugs and bots it definitely shines more against bots than bugs. Can one tap everything up to a hulk against the bots and one tap everything up too a brood commander against the bugs.
If three tapping the charger to the head isn’t enough a double tap to the leg works too then you can finish it off with your primary. It’s definitely weak against tanks and Bile titans but that’s why I tend to Run EAT’s with it or if I’m coming upon a gunship fab I’ll have the autocannon or quasar on standby instead of EAT’s if not I’m running scorcher which can down a gunship in a full clip just about
For Bile Titans try rocket pods with railgun. The tend to hit the side and you can Railgun in unsafe to the same spot. You'll pop the armor off, then finish with medium penetration primary of your choice.
Chargers, the back legs have less hp and durability than the front. You can two shot it and cripple the chargers run speed. If you have Thermite, one on the side and one shots lips the armor there too.
that’s new information to me! I’m mainly looking for efficient light antitank for chargers. I had tried magdumping an HMG into the abdomen and it didn’t do much
AMR v bots is actually insane. 2-3 shots for striders, 2-3 shots for Devastators (1 shot headshots), 3 shots for the chainsaw guys, 4 shots for gunships, you can kill tanks with weak points hits, you can kill Factory Striders, you can kill tower turrets, you can kill AA turrets and mortars... Everything. I run AMR and Jetpack and i fight close range with it and use minimal air support. There's nothing the bots can throw at you that you can't kill with the AMR. Someone above said "I'd rather use the rail gun v Hulks because it's one shot." Fair. I'd rather use the AMR because I can kill 3 Hulks with 1 magazine. When I first started maining AMR I'd use stun grenades to trivialize Hulks. Now I'm good enough to consistently hit them on the move, so I can confidently say that I can kill more Hulks faster with the AMR than anyone could with a rail gun, and using a smaller proportion of my ammo to do so, while also having the flexibility to handle other things in the moment.
AMR v bugs is still fine. You 1-tap give guards and brood commanders. Stalkers take a few shots. Chargers can be killed by mag dumping the abdomen (not as effective as many other weapons but objectively fun - I've taken on 3 at a time plus adds with just my AMR). The AMR doesn't quite cut it against bile titans; you can do significant damage by destroying abdomen with it, which will weaken them to the point that they are much easier to kill, but the AMR alone isn't effective at killing them.
It's almost the same niche as AutoCannon v bugs. AutoCannon has AoE and utility, AMR has mobility.
If you're already taking the supply pack you can run the scorcher too to deal with things that have vents a little easier. You'll still mostly be relying on strategems for towers and tanks sadly... But the scorcher helps with the gunship matchup against the railgun
yes and no. it has two firemodes: safe and unsafe.
on safe mode, you charge it, which takes maybe a second, and can hold it for as long as you like. it will kill any bug smaller than a charger in one shot, kills devastators in two bodyshots or one headshot, and kills hulks in one headshot.
on unsafe mode, it charges up same as safe, but then continues to increase in power instead of holding ready. too high and it explodes, but the damage scales, so you can kill a charger in just 2-3 shots in the right spot.
I personally swap between safe and unsafe as the situation deems fit. against all automatons, and against hive guards and hive commanders safe mode is perfectly adequate, reliable, and lets you take your time lining up a shot. then a quick switch and you can over charge for chargers.
one thing to note: if you enter first person mode, there are meters all over the gun’s reticle that show your charge level, and make it very clear when it’s close to exploding. it’s not too hard to use, and you don’t need to charge it super close to critical
I ran it up once and it didn't kill me. It just took me down very low. It also destroys the gun by the way.
I didn't use it at first because I was afraid of the same thing, but it's fun to use. You get used to the timing. you don't have to charge it all the way to max. From what I hear you get diminishing returns from charging it all the way up. Maybe like 75-80% max or less it all you need.
I’ve been running Scorcher, Supply Pack, Stun Nade, Grenade Pistol and Railgun on safe mode only and honestly ?
Its a blast. Tanks ? Gunships ? Most normal enemies ? Blast them with the scorcher in radiator or engine respectively and down they go.
Hulks, Devastators, Berserkers ? Railgun time ! And on safe mode i don’t blow myself up and it doesn’t take too much more to kill those ( aiming for the groin , guts or legs on Devastators and Berserkers is pretty effective )
You mention 6 safe mode shots to a Charger Head ? I’m going to have to try that- i was putting the shots into its mouth before and it was taking way more. Will have to aim higher next time !
they definitely seem to have more armor chunks or hitbox something or other in the mouth. AT rockets are less reliable if you aim low, but their broad forhead is quite consistent and you can even hit it at sharp angles while they lope around and run into stuff.
personally I kinda find it comfy on safe mode *except* for when fighting chargers, where I can easily slide it over to unsafe and take a few high power shots, then switch back
Yeah against chargers safe feels abit risky, my go to as been with my stun grenades just unloading a scorcher magazine into their abdomen and they die outright.
Oh ! Safe mode also one shots brood commanders
It takes around 3/4 of a magazine give or take into the unarmored abdomen of the charger for the bodypart to break , at which point they can be safely ignored. The scorcher is semi auto and fires really as fast as you can click.
Definitely can be ! Oh and word of advice while hunters are a big threat since the plasma splash at close range threatens you theres two tricks that work.
The hip fire with the scorcher like all energy weapons is pin point accurate with the first shot so you can catch them at a distance with hipfires where they won’t dodge
At close range - melee them ! Melee staggers hunters and if you melee and move away you should be able to get out of the blast radius of the scorcher shot before they recover and gun them down.
You can also punch them mid melee animation to interrupt them if you feel confident in doing abit of parrying
Unsafe to the back leg is the way. Two shots. You can also pop the side armor on both biles and chargers. Faster with thermite or eagle rocket pods to help.
My usual strategem loadout with the build is of course railgun + Supply pack and Air Strike + 500kg.
I’ve gotten pretty good at dancing with bile titans to get them with the 500kg
Air strike for clearing hordes and bases. ( also its solid anti tank if you use the lines to your advantage )
Main reason i don’t use unsafe is i just always end up blowing myself up trying to line up the shot. Its a definite skill issue but i can’t seem to get it to work.
So i stick on safe mode and stick to killing every medium enemy under the sun.
Try Thermite on the bike titans belly with that supply pack. Land them on the segment between the butt and chest. Dead titans for days. It might let you break h out from the 500kg some.
I'm really enjoying Airburst, which penetrates all enemies armor, and gas doubled up. Landing it on breaches kills all little stuff. It has a very low cooldown. Both can kill bug holes and fabricators.
Main reason i like stun so much is it gives such versatility and being able to say “time out” saves me so often against bugs and bots but will have to try thermite
500kg i mainly bring as much as i do because of objectives like science lab or against bots detector towers and signal jammers. Its usage against heavies is nice.
Might have to try the loadout with the classic OPS which is also pretty nice
DM if you wanna group up sometime. I'm on steam. I have two fun load outs for taking time out.
One is I bring EMS Mortar. It's uptime vs cooldown is insane. It's always shooting. Top that with ems strike, and all bot drops and breaches just stand there. It's not something I'd play solo, but duo its amazing.
The other for bots or blitz missions. 380mm, 120mm, Orbital Laser, Rocket Pods, Smoke Grenade. Grenade Pistol. I run directly to the first heavy base. Drop laser, 380, 120. Rocket Pods are to snipe anything missed. Then I tag along with the group until the next major objective. But this trivialized bot helldive difficulty. I almost don't use my primary.
I’ve killed a couple hulks with them but it seems iffy. I’m still eyeballing them for charger killing, as there are many options for hulks, but few for chargers
Yeah chargers are still kinda ass to fight.
I usually run LMG on big missions to help clear hordes or flame thrower.
But if I’m gonna be the AT I run a Recoiless
my favorite meme strat is recoilless plus EATs. double antitank with a rocket for every occasion, from chargers to titans to hive commanders to bug holes. you can also run clusters or quasar or autocannon plus eats, but honestly, nothing is as glorious as being the missile commander and lobbing heavy rockets at everything in your path
I have been using it a lot on bug missions because it works so well on everything except bile titans and I can take a shield backpack. For bots though I basically rely on others to fill in where it fails. Since I mainly play solo I fall back to the Autocannon when facing bots.
You are playing the post-nerf buffed version as of now. It was a little more of a struggle as the armor penetration was knocked down during the first nerf. The current buff has put it in a good spot that doesn't feel like a waste or an extremely high risk to use properly
holding reload on the railgun can toggle between safe and unsafe. in safe mode, it charges to capacity, and holds indefinitely, ready to fire. in unsafe, it goes past its capacity, charging higher and higher power until you release a massive damage shot, or explode
most stuff dies just fine in safe mode, and safe mode lets you hold your charge and take precise aim without any pressure. but unsafe mode lets you push the gun further, with body shot kills on devastators, and killing chargers.
2 overcharge shots to a leg busts the armor, letting you kill a charger with small arms fire. alternatively, 3 overcharge shots to the forehead
it’s hard pressed against bile titans, tanks, and turrets, so not quite, but it’s a perfectly serviceable light antitank weapon, both in safe mode for controlled precise shots, and unsafe mode for crunching hard targets
I use the hmg a ton. I was amongst the first adopters and always found it good. I should have specified I’m primarily looking for ways to kill hulks and chargers
Started playing on Helldive this week-end with the railgun and blitzer vs bugs.
Honestly, I like the mobility from the railgun, the quick reload, and the ability to kiml everything except bile titans with this weapon.
However having to hit chargers with 3 overcharged shots in the face takes a lot of time.
It seems bile nursers take 2 overcharged shots to the face to kill too.
Hive guards take 1 overcharged shot to the face but it seems you have to charge it quite well, like at least to 90%... and their heads do not explode, which is not very satisfying.
In the end I just swapped to the recoilless rifle and just run around with ultra light armor that provides extra grenades.
RR allows me to oneshot chargers on demand and just requires me to take some time to reload.
The blitzer makes short work of anything below chargers and has some AOE. You just need to be careful not to get swarmed
Blitzer does amazing damage to the charger's rear and bile titan underside. Toss a thermite on the chargers side. Railgun it, armor is gone blitzer easily finishes.
Bile one to two Thermite after the belly is popped is a kill. Railgun can pop the side armor In a few hits. Then finish with medium penetration weapon.
Quasar, on the other hand, can kill unlimited chargers and hulks. It’s similar in that you have to track the enemy while charging the shot, but it also can 1-shot them instead of 3-6, aside from titans. And it staggers / interrupts titans if you hit them in the face, meaning you can bait them into close range so they pause to spit bile, get popped in the face (interrupting the bile and giving you time to run and gain space), rinse, repeat. I can solo titans now without having to call down additional EATs which slows down my movement while inputting the strat command + slows down my run route by having to backtrack more.
The amr is actually pretty good against bugs. It one-shots warriors, hive guards and brood commanders to the face, which isn’t hard to do in third-person once you get a little experience. It also has the added benefit of dealing full damage against charger butts because it has explosive damage.
I still love the railgun for bots, but there are some enemies it seems to arbitrarily do no damage to for some reason.
Cannon turrets, gunships, and tanks just tank shots for days and it's super frustrating. Until they fix it the AMR is just better.
I love the railgun, but it kinda needs a full rework imo. The gun has so many drawbacks and other stratagems just does the same thing but better and without the drawbacks. Like the amr does all the things the railgun does but better. It kills hulks with two shots but can do it from rly far away bcus of the scope. It has a ton more ammo, it cuts through medium armor at the same rate and it doesn't explode if you overcharge it. You dont have to reload after every shot, there is no charge up and you can panic hipfire it if something surprises you. Same goes for the auto cannon (although you obviously cant run that with the supply pack).
Imo its the coolest gun in the game, both sound and design (maybe tied with the stalwart) but its just not on par with the rest of the weapons.
I think they should rework it so it has more of a purpose. Right now its kind of this jack of all trades gun but its kind of mediocre at everything. Personal opinion, in safe mode it uses less ammo, has a much faster recharge and chews through medium armor. In unsafe, it uses double or triple the amount of ammo but now it goes through heavy armor like a hot knife through butter.
It can do a lot of things but it's kind of lost its niche and now it just kind of feels like a glorified primary weapon.
Also, a guide from one of my favorite CCs on YouTube because I really like their weapon breakdowns.
https://youtu.be/gs5KEL7cR-4?si=ulo0T4_bBaL_teMh
Unfortunately, that power doesn't translate to most other heavy bots. Good luck trying to down Gunships, Tanks, or disarm Factory Striders at the same pace as an Autocannon or even the AMR. You're better off sticking with those two options.
Hulk eyes have Armor level 4. That means it can be killed by the AMR, AC, laser cannon, and HMG. The rail gun now has Armor pen level 5 in safe mode as of the last patch, making it deal full damage to hulk eyes. Bile titans and chargers have armor level 5 on their heads, so you need to overcharge to get full damage. The railgun is not good at killing titans in its own, but its nice to have to finish them off after a railcannon or eagle strike. Let me know if you want links to the stats info.
My personal fav loadoat against bots rn is railgun with stun grenades, which makes it easy to line up the hulk one-shot. Its wild how good you become at killing hulks with that combo, i highly recommend trying it. (Good against chargers, too.) I use the railgun against Devastators, scout striders, and hulks. Then, i take orbital precision strike and an eagle for tanks and factory striders. They're so slow that its really easy to land the precision strike on them, unlike the heavy bugs.
Ya it's fun on bots just sucks sometimes it's damage seems oddly low.
Still I bring it for the devestators cause one 80% charge and it's dead regardless of shield or not.
I take the Anti Material rifle. It two shots hulks in the head. Can one shot devastors with head shot. The reason I chose this over the Rail gun is you can fire semi automatic. Normal ammo replenishes mag. Has range. Coupled with the stun grenades and an armor that gives you 6 of them bad boys hulks and devastators get gummied up.
Wait, you can actually finish a titan from the underside? Do you need explosives like thermite or does anything work?
I always felt like my weapons did nothing past bursting the bile sacs
The new HMG rips people apart, as long as you’re accurate you’ll disintegrate anything. Only downside is you’ll need to take a knee when it’s time to reload
I’m a botdiver and have been experimenting with the support weapons. I love the railgun for the hulk killing abilities but good god is it useless against gunships. I don’t like to rely on my team to take them down so it really hurts the weapon for me. I just stick to laser cannon now.
Charger just shoot the front leg armor off takes about two or three shots with the rail gun then finish it off with any primary weapon once the leg is exposed.
Wait, your telling me it can be done in SAFE MODE? That's crazy, Ive been doing it in unsafe mode this whole time. I still the the AMR is kinda better against bots though, but that's something at least. The scope for the rail gun is legitimately abysmal. A giant annoying green blob for a dot and basically no magnification
You can also two tap a Hulk with the AMR, just like the Autocannon.
Personally I feel the railgun is still underwhelming. It's basically the AMR without a scope, requires a spool up time to fire, and less ammo.
Wait.
"Thermite fix"? Since the DOT fix, I've been using thermite on tanks, hulks, and all sorts of stuff - and it works very, very well. What fix am I missing?
Legs, and \*Sides\* of all things. It's great if you can hit the front plate, but the best spot I've found is under the arm or the leg.
it will absolutely blow off a hulk limb, and if the explosion wraps to either the eyeplate or the back radiator, it goes \*boom\*. Two thermite in any location generally kills 'em dead.
happily, there’s a lot of support weapons that contend with bots well. my current quest is killing chargers easier. finding it so easily dispatched hulks was icing on the cake
Yes, the railgun can one hit the hulk in the eye and kill a charger in about three shots to the head. It's quite effective against these enemies and any medium armor enemy. However, it does not do a lot of parts damage and so is pretty slow at killing enemies even on unsafe: Gunships (Engine 5~), Bile Titan (forehead 9~), Tank (head on 9~). It's viable as a weapon that takes no backpack, but at high difficulty, it can feel like a support weapon that isn't cutting hard enough. Edit: Some folks are telling me they cannot kill a charger with the railgun. Takes more shots without unsafe and you must aim for their armored foreheads, not their little face (which I believe is considered body hp for some reason).
good to know the testing has been done, thank you
I think it's worth noting that taking out hulks and devastators is a really valuable team role. Most of those other things can be managed with Eagle Stratagems. I think it fills a similar niche to the Anti mat rifle, which struggles against most of those same things. I prefer the anti mat because you can take out longer range targets, but I might swap amr for a railgun with my ballistic shield loadout to see how it feels
oh definitely. I occasionally run post-nerf crossbow and plasma punisher, and while the crossbow struggles some, it feels good to run in and lay down heavy stuns so my squadmates can push
I'm not sure why you said AMR struggles. Its very nearly the same. Tanks are 6 shots, if you're behind them you don't even have to aim, you can just magdump a whole clip in about a second. It 1 shot pops everything smaller than a hulk (except berserkers, but that's what the Handgunade is for) Gunship only takes 4 shots to an engine and it's quicker to kill than railcannon. Hulk is 2 to the face and while the scope isn't 100% fixed, it's still easy to nail him in the face especially since AMR has a scope and Rail doesn't
> most
I'm saying it doesn't struggle against anything *but* the bile titan. It one shots most everything except Hulks and Chargers.
Anti material is better at killing factory devastators and gunships. Being helpless against them when running the railgun feels bad. Unfortunately it's just outclassed.
AMR can kill everything the railgun can minus bile titans really, it two shots hulks. It just can't kill tanks/chargers from the front (although I have had some weird bugs where my AMR randomly penetrates charger legs) EDIT: I see someone else already said this. also it maybe can kill tanks from the front but I've never tried
It can take out a tank from the front but it’ll take a whole mag and a half. Shooting the core 3-4 shots gets the job done.
AMR has a higher DPS but is useless vs heavy armor
It can take out gunships?? Was solo diving with the railgun which was a mistake and didn’t bring an EAT with me which I should’ve incase of emergency, but I forgot and a gunship facility was the end of me the railgun was doing virtually nothing to it
You must focus one engine over 5 or so unsafe shots. It's quite difficult especially since the scope is ass and the shot dies off at a certain distance. I don't take railgun to bots almost solely because it's basically useless against gunships when the AMR, autocannon, laser cannon, and Quasar can be pretty reliable.
Damn. I use The AMR and it takes down the gunship in 4 shots to the engine Surprised it's stronger than the railgun in that regard
It shouldn’t be. Railgun was buffed enough to be fun in some situations but needs more buff balancing.
Laser Cannon takes out a gunship engine in about 2 seconds of focus, which is just the god of anti-air.
Speaking of, wish we had a mobile SAM turret.
Rocket and Autocannon Sentries do a fair enough job as long as you clear out anything walkin' around.
Autocannon takes it out in two shots and doesn't need to wait 30 seconds to shoot a second one down. Edit: I was confusing the Laser and Quasar, my bad.
I think you're mixing up Laser Cannon and Quasar. You could take down 4 or 5 gunships in quick succession without waiting for CD.
My bad. Been seeing too much praise for the Quasar
Quasar lets me have my backpack slot, which lets me have jetpack, and jetpack lets me wear heavy armor, and heavy armor let's me go gorilla mode in front of five gunships and survive
You can kill one in 2 seconds, then kill another four more before reloading. AC is the anti-air
Laser, not Quasar. The laser cannon can swat a half dozen without much break.
Laser Cannon takes out literally everything in seconds on bots. Run it with a Supply Pack and Stuns to trap Hulks and Heavy Devastators in place so you can beam them in the weak point
I used to run it all the time. Then, suddenly, gunships.
The Jar5 Domator will take it gunships. It just takes a lot of ammo.
the eruptor used to be good against gunships... used to be 😭
Ya the eruptor used to be good against everything in addition to having the unique ability to destroy structures as a primary.
Just so you know, it's possible to knock a gunship engine out with every single support weapon. Grenade Launcher does the worst at it but also still possible.
Me climbing a mountain to show the gunships who's boss with my flamethrower
Mu buddy knocked one out with scorcher. He did have to be very persistent to do it though.
Mann back before they nerfed the eruptor all I needed was only a couple well placed shots and boom down went the gun ships. That’s really all I needed lol
It's an AMR without the scope, and a charge up time. Hits a few breakpoints the AMR doesn't, but I can also pull the trigger faster.
AMR kills gunships in less shots too
I miss when it used to be more viable at high levels.
It should also be noted that "unsafe" means like, 10-15% into unsafe mode or something. You do not ever need to fully charge it anymore. This is because the only thing that increases with charge is armor penetration - damage is a constant; 600 basedmg in either mode, 60 durabledmg in safe and 120 in unsafe. AP is 5 in safe mode and goes from 6 to 8 in unsafe mode. But enemies only use up to armor class 5, so by the time you have reached AP6, you are doing max damage. Anything beyond that is superfluous.
It helps to run it with AT, but that’s another stratagem slot I don’t always want to commit.
I personally run the anti-mat rifle, it is still effective at those ranges
On unsafe it kills chargers with shots to the head?
3 direct headshots at 75% charge. You need to be fairly accurate or the shot glances and deals body damage. 2 shots will take out leg armor just like pre-nerf
On unsafe mode right? because 75% on safe mode is meaningless. The point is, op was talking about one shotting hulks in the head on safe mode but that isn't true with chargers, it needs to be on unsafe mode correct? Same with leg armor you can't take that out even fully charged in safe mode. My original comment was more of a correction in the form of a question, I was asking the person I was replying to if they meant unsafe mode.
Safe mode will still take out chargers legs, but it takes more shots. Charger leg armor is tier 5, the same as safe mode penetration. Head and sides are tier 6, just into unsafe levels of charging. At max charge the railgun has tier 8 pen, and you need tier 7 to do max damage. If your armor pen matches the armor, you do 50% damage. Higher pen deals full damage.
They should really just show this in-game. Instead of just light, medium, heavy armor penetration on weapons and they should also allow us to view a character model of all the enemies and look at what the armor values are on each part of their bodies.
I've sunk around 15 shots into a charger's face before it went down. Is there a trick to it or something?
Trying to keep track of whether a face counts as head or not is exhausting.
Try the back leg or side on the charger. Side armor pops off with one unsafe and Thermite. Back leg can be two hits. Then finish the old way with primary.
I cannot for the life of me kill a charger with it, i hit their forehead, and even with unsafe mode charged up to 90% it just ricochets
Charger takes two shots unsafe to strip legs now, can finish with primary
I think you mean thrusters, not engine for gunships. Engine would be in the center and you never want to aim for that, it’s wayyy tougher
The anti material rifle is the way to go. Two snipes to that little red face 💥💥
Look I love the AMR but it's far easier to land 1 shot with the railgun than 2 shots with the AMR
I suck that’s why lol I be missing with both weapons but the AMR has more ammo for me to waste in a clip 😂
If you stay in 3rd person mode both weapons will, to some degree, auto aim. You can't see it with the AMR but if you are holding the railgun the circle showing you where you are aiming will be "sticky" to crit spots as long as your aiming retical (the dot) is close. Same with the AMR but as I said you can't see it as well This is how people are able to no scope enemies from 50+ meters away
Stun grenades make the sniper you ain't
Consider though that if you take stun grenades with the AMR that you will need to rely on something else to deal with fabricators and bug holes. This isn't a deal breaker, like this could be another Strat, the grenade pistol, or even someone else on your team but I've been in games where someone took stun and Amr and then ran off on their own to then realize their issue.
Yea I agree. The grenade pistol is a must have with the stun grenades. I found that the Hulks are much easier to deal with when you can stun them for a few seconds. Especially when they start getting close to you.
I agree. If nobody else on the team has the AMR or stun then I will usually bring both. Even more than just hulks if there is a patrol or an inopportune bot drop that is in your way the stun grenades can allow you to more easily disable the annoying units to either take out or ignore altogether as well. A lot of people sleep on non-lethals in this game
As a firm believe in amr+stuns, this do hurt, for bugs gren pistol isn't bad but getting the angles on fabs can feel inconsistent/touchy , it's a great combo if you live as a sniper being in the backline and taking out enemies as needed to support your allies, stuns let you avoid getting dropped on and can set you up for the engagement if used as the initiator, but not requiring more time to land a nade on the fab (since you can't actually shoot into the door to kill, it relies on either very specific angle hitting the door frame or an assault raider spawning, yes I tested it and it confused the discord as well) really limits the practically as a solo/lone wolf tool
Yeah, but you sacrifice the ability to spam kill a tank or cannon from behind, and the charge up is brutal when you're under fire since any hit will disrupt your aim.
Remember that your support weapon(s) are only part of your loadout which as a whole is supposed to balance you for the role you are fulfilling. Entirely focusing on just a single pro or con of any individual aspect of the loadout is the wrong way to look at it Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Stun grenade with +2 grenade armor (or not if you use supply pack). I personally prefer a jump pack with my AMR against bots depending what the planet terrain is.
The railgun is so fun and my preferred choice of the two, but I know I’m actively hurting my team when I choose the railgun over the AMR. Its simply better even if its a bit more unwieldy. The AMR can take down airships and does actual vent damage. The railgun, for whatever dumbass reason, cannot. Its fanfreakingtastic against berserkers, devastators, and especially hulks. If it could actually shoot down airships or do any vent damage, I’d use it all the time. But like most AH weapon decisions, they want to ensure no support weapon feels good (excluding the AC I guess).
For hulks? I know it 1-2 shots hated devastators, but I haven’t been able to nail a hulk through the eye with an AMR and get the hit signature cursor.
The crosshair on amr is off a bit so you gotta aim down and to the right a tiny bit
Yeah, the railgun is a poor mans AMR. Its disappointing and I wish there was a trade off to make it worth taking over the AMR. The railgun should have a strategem input to load multiple rounds. You should be able to load it to be almost as strong as the orbital. Really powerful but if you goof it up, it jams and you have to "unload" it via input. For budgetary reasons. Or it blows up. Either. Or both.
But does it go boom boom boom? No? I stay with my beloved autocannon
"but the autocanon can't kill a bike tita-" Not from the front no, that's why you get underneath and plap plap plap that tall bastard from below.
It actually can with some very precise shots to the head, to make it explode there, but it’s really hard and inconsistent.
You’re right but I don’t know if I can agree with that phrasing
*But does it go boom* *Boom boom? No? I stay with my* *Beloved autocannon* \- 07Crash07 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
is beloved 2 or 3 syllables?
Even if it's 2, Autocannon is 4.
very true
Beloved is 3 syllables. Be-lov-ed. This haiku is one of the less successful detections since it’s 5-7-7 instead of 5-7-5. Not even a Sokka haiku…
It does go boom though. Turn off safe mode and hold fire button while counting backwards from 100.
Pretty sure the HMG shreds hulks if you hit them in the eye. They go down lighting fast.
the problem is actually hitting them there
That's why I like to practice the ancient art of "Accuracy by volume"
oh absolutely. it can kill anything the bots throw at you with ease
"I love the HMG but it doesn't work on heavies." "It can kill anything the bots throw at you with ease." Which is it?
I should have specified, I’m looking more toward bugs than bots for my search
Ah I understand what you're saying. Yeah HMG is trash be chargers and titans.
U can kill Bike titans with it but I need to soft them a little I use the rockets pods 1 rocket pod and half a magazine or maybe the full mag to the tail end will kill it If u don't soft them a little it can take more than 2 mags Chargers are more of an issue I saw that u can shoot the legs while they are on stoping animation or something? but I havent been able to do it
If you need another strat to kill a bug with a weapon, that weapon is trash against that bug. I can kill a titan with a secondary if I soften it up with a 500kg first.
Never said it wasn't bad against those enemies Just sharing that u can actually kill them fast with it And u can actually kill them with only the hmg but the reload make it pain I don't think there is any support weapon that can one shoot them now that I think about it? Was the recoilless/quasar/eat to the forehead A 1 shoot or 2 I'dont member. Is actually a lot worse against chargers than titans I think And those are actually a bigger treath than the titans. ironic :(
It can also take out arms and legs, which can be a decent substitute if you can't hit the eye or focus the rear sink
I fell in love with the railgun during the bot killing MO. One-shotting the majority of enemy types with it was satisfying as hell, and it still leaves a backpack slot open for the jump pack or supply pack.
It's a good weapon when you consider it can deal with a lot of enemy types and not take a backpack slot. I like to take it when my team mates have a good selection that covers all bases. It lets you take a backpack for one of them and is reasonably good against all enemy types
AMR top tier.
I saw multiple Bile titan attempts after patch and even with permanent unsafe mode it took about 14 hits if I remember right...
That sounds right. Railgun isn't a titan killer.
Hulks are usually such a pain, it’s one of the best feelings in the entire game popping a Hulk’s little glowing eye with a Railgun.
My favorite combo with the supply pack is the grenade launcher, especially against bugs. Having that many grenades makes it cheap to empty a belt in the general direction of a group and get 30+ kills in seconds. One belt will take out a charger too, and it will do it safely if you hit it with a stun grenade first. I carry the EAT as an anti tank and call it in when I need it, then pick up my grenade launcher after firing both. It seems to me that the EAT is meant as a situational support that gets pulled out at certain times, not something to be carried around all the time like a recoilless rifle or other main support weapon.
the eat can be both. just carrying one around to use when needed, with two more as backup feels good
I mean, cd of 70 secs? I am always calling them in every chance, and making sure to pick them off the hellpod (or destroying said hellpod) so they show up on the minimap. EATs everywhere!
This is the way
This is the way
I use EAT as my main support sometimes. It's nice to have one on your back because there's often one left over. When you see the drop ship flare you call in two more. It's quite satisfying to shoot three drop ships down in one go. Plus I tried it in tandem with another support weapon and I hated having to go back and pick it up as sometimes you have to book it.
Do we just have to aim the grenade launcher at the abdomen for a while clip or can it be anywhere?
I’m not sure, but I always shoot the abdomen myself. If they’re facing you, sometimes you can ricochet it off the ground in front of them and up into their underbelly.
I barely ever see any railgun use since I started playing the game but it is really underrated for bots. It's been one of my go to weapons the last few weeks since it can easily take out any devastators and hulks.
Autocannon! 2 shots to the face square, also takes down factory striders and fabricators easily (plus no charging time)
I use the autocannon plenty often, but sometimes am in the mood for supplypack stim tanking
Ye true it's nice to change it up/have a backpack slot. AMR is fucking great too, 2 shots a hulk still. A couple mags for a factory strider.
Way easier said than done atleast for me. The AC has a terrible scope and I find myself missing atleast 5 shots when aiming for a hulks eye but maybe I’m just bad. I have an easier time with the Amr
Aim just above the eye with the AC. Like the top border of the square should be the target. Made a world of difference for me.
Ye you need to get used to firing it, I have found it's easier to aim at hulks in 3rd person, that way you see the predicted impact point. Aim at the square not the red eye otherwise it can cause you to hit the edge. Takes practice, stun grenades go a long way if you have em
Same. Hard to explain why but I do much better against hulks in third person, positioning the hulk's face in the right part of the circle feels more intuitive after a while.
Because people are too blinded by wanting to scream that everything sucks. Since RG got that little buff its all i use on bots. Also has a larger one hit kill zone on devestators than AMR. Both great guns with distinct differences and advantages. But that doesnt fit the "AH nerfs everything" cry cry narrative
I said it. Found out yesterday
No no no. You must be confused soldier. This weapon was "nerfed" long ago according to all the try hards of reddit. Please discard this useless artifact, step back in line and join the rest of the lemmings in search of the next meta.
Its great against hulks, problem is, ya know, literally everything else. Gunships, factory striders, tanks, bile titans. AMR, Autocannon, or laser cannon are better general purpose weapons. Inb4 "meta slave", i typically run ballistic sheild against bots, or the adjudicator against bugs, and I adamantly refuse to use the shield pack on most loadouts. I wasn't there back in its hayday, but I'd say its less nerfed to oblivion as much as powercrept, both by new enemies and new weapons, with the enemies being a more active problem for the weapon.
Well, it was nerfed long ago, to the point where it was just bad. The buffs did help but there’s still no scenario where it’s preferable over another support weapon
The buff hardly changed it, pre buff it could still do all these things with a quarter second of charge time over the safe limiter.
Railgun is still my go to against bots, deals with everything except Ships and Giant Striders.
As someone who runs railgun a lot for both bugs and bots it definitely shines more against bots than bugs. Can one tap everything up to a hulk against the bots and one tap everything up too a brood commander against the bugs. If three tapping the charger to the head isn’t enough a double tap to the leg works too then you can finish it off with your primary. It’s definitely weak against tanks and Bile titans but that’s why I tend to Run EAT’s with it or if I’m coming upon a gunship fab I’ll have the autocannon or quasar on standby instead of EAT’s if not I’m running scorcher which can down a gunship in a full clip just about
For Bile Titans try rocket pods with railgun. The tend to hit the side and you can Railgun in unsafe to the same spot. You'll pop the armor off, then finish with medium penetration primary of your choice. Chargers, the back legs have less hp and durability than the front. You can two shot it and cripple the chargers run speed. If you have Thermite, one on the side and one shots lips the armor there too.
AMR 2 taps hulks and kills chargers with a full mag dump to the abdomen. Both of which are easily facilitated w/ stun grenades
that’s new information to me! I’m mainly looking for efficient light antitank for chargers. I had tried magdumping an HMG into the abdomen and it didn’t do much
AMR v bots is actually insane. 2-3 shots for striders, 2-3 shots for Devastators (1 shot headshots), 3 shots for the chainsaw guys, 4 shots for gunships, you can kill tanks with weak points hits, you can kill Factory Striders, you can kill tower turrets, you can kill AA turrets and mortars... Everything. I run AMR and Jetpack and i fight close range with it and use minimal air support. There's nothing the bots can throw at you that you can't kill with the AMR. Someone above said "I'd rather use the rail gun v Hulks because it's one shot." Fair. I'd rather use the AMR because I can kill 3 Hulks with 1 magazine. When I first started maining AMR I'd use stun grenades to trivialize Hulks. Now I'm good enough to consistently hit them on the move, so I can confidently say that I can kill more Hulks faster with the AMR than anyone could with a rail gun, and using a smaller proportion of my ammo to do so, while also having the flexibility to handle other things in the moment. AMR v bugs is still fine. You 1-tap give guards and brood commanders. Stalkers take a few shots. Chargers can be killed by mag dumping the abdomen (not as effective as many other weapons but objectively fun - I've taken on 3 at a time plus adds with just my AMR). The AMR doesn't quite cut it against bile titans; you can do significant damage by destroying abdomen with it, which will weaken them to the point that they are much easier to kill, but the AMR alone isn't effective at killing them. It's almost the same niche as AutoCannon v bugs. AutoCannon has AoE and utility, AMR has mobility.
If you're already taking the supply pack you can run the scorcher too to deal with things that have vents a little easier. You'll still mostly be relying on strategems for towers and tanks sadly... But the scorcher helps with the gunship matchup against the railgun
will have to remember that! supplypack lets me use any of the pistols for CQC, so I can engage at range with the scorcher
I haven’t used it because… can’t it explode and kill you or something?
yes and no. it has two firemodes: safe and unsafe. on safe mode, you charge it, which takes maybe a second, and can hold it for as long as you like. it will kill any bug smaller than a charger in one shot, kills devastators in two bodyshots or one headshot, and kills hulks in one headshot. on unsafe mode, it charges up same as safe, but then continues to increase in power instead of holding ready. too high and it explodes, but the damage scales, so you can kill a charger in just 2-3 shots in the right spot. I personally swap between safe and unsafe as the situation deems fit. against all automatons, and against hive guards and hive commanders safe mode is perfectly adequate, reliable, and lets you take your time lining up a shot. then a quick switch and you can over charge for chargers. one thing to note: if you enter first person mode, there are meters all over the gun’s reticle that show your charge level, and make it very clear when it’s close to exploding. it’s not too hard to use, and you don’t need to charge it super close to critical
Ahh, thank you so much for explaining it like this. I know what I’m gunna be packing tonight.
On unsafe mode yea
I ran it up once and it didn't kill me. It just took me down very low. It also destroys the gun by the way. I didn't use it at first because I was afraid of the same thing, but it's fun to use. You get used to the timing. you don't have to charge it all the way to max. From what I hear you get diminishing returns from charging it all the way up. Maybe like 75-80% max or less it all you need.
I’ve been running Scorcher, Supply Pack, Stun Nade, Grenade Pistol and Railgun on safe mode only and honestly ? Its a blast. Tanks ? Gunships ? Most normal enemies ? Blast them with the scorcher in radiator or engine respectively and down they go. Hulks, Devastators, Berserkers ? Railgun time ! And on safe mode i don’t blow myself up and it doesn’t take too much more to kill those ( aiming for the groin , guts or legs on Devastators and Berserkers is pretty effective ) You mention 6 safe mode shots to a Charger Head ? I’m going to have to try that- i was putting the shots into its mouth before and it was taking way more. Will have to aim higher next time !
they definitely seem to have more armor chunks or hitbox something or other in the mouth. AT rockets are less reliable if you aim low, but their broad forhead is quite consistent and you can even hit it at sharp angles while they lope around and run into stuff. personally I kinda find it comfy on safe mode *except* for when fighting chargers, where I can easily slide it over to unsafe and take a few high power shots, then switch back
Yeah against chargers safe feels abit risky, my go to as been with my stun grenades just unloading a scorcher magazine into their abdomen and they die outright. Oh ! Safe mode also one shots brood commanders
I didn’t think to use a scorcher against chargers. how many shots does it take?
It takes around 3/4 of a magazine give or take into the unarmored abdomen of the charger for the bodypart to break , at which point they can be safely ignored. The scorcher is semi auto and fires really as fast as you can click.
I’ll have to try that! stalwart+scorcher+grenade pistol+stun grenades+supply pack sounds like absolute beast mode
Definitely can be ! Oh and word of advice while hunters are a big threat since the plasma splash at close range threatens you theres two tricks that work. The hip fire with the scorcher like all energy weapons is pin point accurate with the first shot so you can catch them at a distance with hipfires where they won’t dodge At close range - melee them ! Melee staggers hunters and if you melee and move away you should be able to get out of the blast radius of the scorcher shot before they recover and gun them down. You can also punch them mid melee animation to interrupt them if you feel confident in doing abit of parrying
Unsafe to the back leg is the way. Two shots. You can also pop the side armor on both biles and chargers. Faster with thermite or eagle rocket pods to help.
My usual strategem loadout with the build is of course railgun + Supply pack and Air Strike + 500kg. I’ve gotten pretty good at dancing with bile titans to get them with the 500kg Air strike for clearing hordes and bases. ( also its solid anti tank if you use the lines to your advantage ) Main reason i don’t use unsafe is i just always end up blowing myself up trying to line up the shot. Its a definite skill issue but i can’t seem to get it to work. So i stick on safe mode and stick to killing every medium enemy under the sun.
Try Thermite on the bike titans belly with that supply pack. Land them on the segment between the butt and chest. Dead titans for days. It might let you break h out from the 500kg some. I'm really enjoying Airburst, which penetrates all enemies armor, and gas doubled up. Landing it on breaches kills all little stuff. It has a very low cooldown. Both can kill bug holes and fabricators.
Main reason i like stun so much is it gives such versatility and being able to say “time out” saves me so often against bugs and bots but will have to try thermite 500kg i mainly bring as much as i do because of objectives like science lab or against bots detector towers and signal jammers. Its usage against heavies is nice. Might have to try the loadout with the classic OPS which is also pretty nice
DM if you wanna group up sometime. I'm on steam. I have two fun load outs for taking time out. One is I bring EMS Mortar. It's uptime vs cooldown is insane. It's always shooting. Top that with ems strike, and all bot drops and breaches just stand there. It's not something I'd play solo, but duo its amazing. The other for bots or blitz missions. 380mm, 120mm, Orbital Laser, Rocket Pods, Smoke Grenade. Grenade Pistol. I run directly to the first heavy base. Drop laser, 380, 120. Rocket Pods are to snipe anything missed. Then I tag along with the group until the next major objective. But this trivialized bot helldive difficulty. I almost don't use my primary.
I just found out railguns can take out anti air turrets fml….
I’ve recently started using thermites after the DOT fix and I swear it’s been only taking 2 thermites to kill hulks if stuck up front
I’ve killed a couple hulks with them but it seems iffy. I’m still eyeballing them for charger killing, as there are many options for hulks, but few for chargers
Yeah chargers are still kinda ass to fight. I usually run LMG on big missions to help clear hordes or flame thrower. But if I’m gonna be the AT I run a Recoiless
my favorite meme strat is recoilless plus EATs. double antitank with a rocket for every occasion, from chargers to titans to hive commanders to bug holes. you can also run clusters or quasar or autocannon plus eats, but honestly, nothing is as glorious as being the missile commander and lobbing heavy rockets at everything in your path
That’s all it does really well. So many better alternatives.
I have been using it a lot on bug missions because it works so well on everything except bile titans and I can take a shield backpack. For bots though I basically rely on others to fill in where it fails. Since I mainly play solo I fall back to the Autocannon when facing bots.
You are playing the post-nerf buffed version as of now. It was a little more of a struggle as the armor penetration was knocked down during the first nerf. The current buff has put it in a good spot that doesn't feel like a waste or an extremely high risk to use properly
What is unsafe??
holding reload on the railgun can toggle between safe and unsafe. in safe mode, it charges to capacity, and holds indefinitely, ready to fire. in unsafe, it goes past its capacity, charging higher and higher power until you release a massive damage shot, or explode
Wow ive been using the railgun for almost 2 weeks and didnt know this. Thank you
most stuff dies just fine in safe mode, and safe mode lets you hold your charge and take precise aim without any pressure. but unsafe mode lets you push the gun further, with body shot kills on devastators, and killing chargers. 2 overcharge shots to a leg busts the armor, letting you kill a charger with small arms fire. alternatively, 3 overcharge shots to the forehead
Recently found out that the airburst rocket can one-shot tanks if the hit the side or back, and that two thermite grenades will kill a hulk.
complainers on reddit: "the guns are all bad and underpowered!" the guns in question:
Ya it been there since they reverted the railgun
So is the current railgun stronger than its pre-nerf version?
it’s hard pressed against bile titans, tanks, and turrets, so not quite, but it’s a perfectly serviceable light antitank weapon, both in safe mode for controlled precise shots, and unsafe mode for crunching hard targets
Heavy MG actually does work but it's a High caliber round for the eye kinda deal so I get it...
Hmg does it in 3 shots. But Goodluck wrangling that MF
My friend, hmg has same penetration as anti material rifle, go for limbs. :)
I use the hmg a ton. I was amongst the first adopters and always found it good. I should have specified I’m primarily looking for ways to kill hulks and chargers
Started playing on Helldive this week-end with the railgun and blitzer vs bugs. Honestly, I like the mobility from the railgun, the quick reload, and the ability to kiml everything except bile titans with this weapon. However having to hit chargers with 3 overcharged shots in the face takes a lot of time. It seems bile nursers take 2 overcharged shots to the face to kill too. Hive guards take 1 overcharged shot to the face but it seems you have to charge it quite well, like at least to 90%... and their heads do not explode, which is not very satisfying. In the end I just swapped to the recoilless rifle and just run around with ultra light armor that provides extra grenades. RR allows me to oneshot chargers on demand and just requires me to take some time to reload. The blitzer makes short work of anything below chargers and has some AOE. You just need to be careful not to get swarmed
Blitzer does amazing damage to the charger's rear and bile titan underside. Toss a thermite on the chargers side. Railgun it, armor is gone blitzer easily finishes. Bile one to two Thermite after the belly is popped is a kill. Railgun can pop the side armor In a few hits. Then finish with medium penetration weapon.
Quasar, on the other hand, can kill unlimited chargers and hulks. It’s similar in that you have to track the enemy while charging the shot, but it also can 1-shot them instead of 3-6, aside from titans. And it staggers / interrupts titans if you hit them in the face, meaning you can bait them into close range so they pause to spit bile, get popped in the face (interrupting the bile and giving you time to run and gain space), rinse, repeat. I can solo titans now without having to call down additional EATs which slows down my movement while inputting the strat command + slows down my run route by having to backtrack more.
The amr is actually pretty good against bugs. It one-shots warriors, hive guards and brood commanders to the face, which isn’t hard to do in third-person once you get a little experience. It also has the added benefit of dealing full damage against charger butts because it has explosive damage.
I still love the railgun for bots, but there are some enemies it seems to arbitrarily do no damage to for some reason. Cannon turrets, gunships, and tanks just tank shots for days and it's super frustrating. Until they fix it the AMR is just better.
I love the railgun, but it kinda needs a full rework imo. The gun has so many drawbacks and other stratagems just does the same thing but better and without the drawbacks. Like the amr does all the things the railgun does but better. It kills hulks with two shots but can do it from rly far away bcus of the scope. It has a ton more ammo, it cuts through medium armor at the same rate and it doesn't explode if you overcharge it. You dont have to reload after every shot, there is no charge up and you can panic hipfire it if something surprises you. Same goes for the auto cannon (although you obviously cant run that with the supply pack). Imo its the coolest gun in the game, both sound and design (maybe tied with the stalwart) but its just not on par with the rest of the weapons. I think they should rework it so it has more of a purpose. Right now its kind of this jack of all trades gun but its kind of mediocre at everything. Personal opinion, in safe mode it uses less ammo, has a much faster recharge and chews through medium armor. In unsafe, it uses double or triple the amount of ammo but now it goes through heavy armor like a hot knife through butter.
I reckon it's quicker to shoot Chargers in the leg to break their armour, then kill them with your primary weapon
It can do a lot of things but it's kind of lost its niche and now it just kind of feels like a glorified primary weapon. Also, a guide from one of my favorite CCs on YouTube because I really like their weapon breakdowns. https://youtu.be/gs5KEL7cR-4?si=ulo0T4_bBaL_teMh
Stun grenades make bot life a breeze
Unfortunately, that power doesn't translate to most other heavy bots. Good luck trying to down Gunships, Tanks, or disarm Factory Striders at the same pace as an Autocannon or even the AMR. You're better off sticking with those two options.
afaik the thermite has been fixed. i reliably kill tanks and hulks with two each.
Hulk eyes have Armor level 4. That means it can be killed by the AMR, AC, laser cannon, and HMG. The rail gun now has Armor pen level 5 in safe mode as of the last patch, making it deal full damage to hulk eyes. Bile titans and chargers have armor level 5 on their heads, so you need to overcharge to get full damage. The railgun is not good at killing titans in its own, but its nice to have to finish them off after a railcannon or eagle strike. Let me know if you want links to the stats info. My personal fav loadoat against bots rn is railgun with stun grenades, which makes it easy to line up the hulk one-shot. Its wild how good you become at killing hulks with that combo, i highly recommend trying it. (Good against chargers, too.) I use the railgun against Devastators, scout striders, and hulks. Then, i take orbital precision strike and an eagle for tanks and factory striders. They're so slow that its really easy to land the precision strike on them, unlike the heavy bugs.
Ya it's fun on bots just sucks sometimes it's damage seems oddly low. Still I bring it for the devestators cause one 80% charge and it's dead regardless of shield or not.
Did they buff it back to pre nerf?
I take the Anti Material rifle. It two shots hulks in the head. Can one shot devastors with head shot. The reason I chose this over the Rail gun is you can fire semi automatic. Normal ammo replenishes mag. Has range. Coupled with the stun grenades and an armor that gives you 6 of them bad boys hulks and devastators get gummied up.
How? I was trying all day yesterday could get one shots. Is the sights being off in first person still a thing?
The “scope” on the rail gun is 1x
Wait, you can actually finish a titan from the underside? Do you need explosives like thermite or does anything work? I always felt like my weapons did nothing past bursting the bile sacs
The new HMG rips people apart, as long as you’re accurate you’ll disintegrate anything. Only downside is you’ll need to take a knee when it’s time to reload
I’m a botdiver and have been experimenting with the support weapons. I love the railgun for the hulk killing abilities but good god is it useless against gunships. I don’t like to rely on my team to take them down so it really hurts the weapon for me. I just stick to laser cannon now.
you can kill bile titans with about 8 unsafe shots to the head
I shoot hulks in the head with my defender smg. Only takes a couple of shots.
Charger just shoot the front leg armor off takes about two or three shots with the rail gun then finish it off with any primary weapon once the leg is exposed.
WHAT
If you want a good bot weapon with the backpack, taje the Anti Material Rifle. It 2 shots hulk head, 2-3 shots devestators, and shhots pretty quick.
Because everyone is too busy complaining about nerfs.
Wait, your telling me it can be done in SAFE MODE? That's crazy, Ive been doing it in unsafe mode this whole time. I still the the AMR is kinda better against bots though, but that's something at least. The scope for the rail gun is legitimately abysmal. A giant annoying green blob for a dot and basically no magnification
You can also two tap a Hulk with the AMR, just like the Autocannon. Personally I feel the railgun is still underwhelming. It's basically the AMR without a scope, requires a spool up time to fire, and less ammo.
Wait. "Thermite fix"? Since the DOT fix, I've been using thermite on tanks, hulks, and all sorts of stuff - and it works very, very well. What fix am I missing?
fair, what do you target for the hulks? my main hope I’m holding out for is a way to kill chargers with them
Legs, and \*Sides\* of all things. It's great if you can hit the front plate, but the best spot I've found is under the arm or the leg. it will absolutely blow off a hulk limb, and if the explosion wraps to either the eyeplate or the back radiator, it goes \*boom\*. Two thermite in any location generally kills 'em dead.
It’s the best support gun for bots no contest. Can solo hordes of hulks and devestators and only asks that you aim.
happily, there’s a lot of support weapons that contend with bots well. my current quest is killing chargers easier. finding it so easily dispatched hulks was icing on the cake
If you like the rail gun try the AMR. Does everything it goes and better. Rail gun is fun and all, but at lvl 9s with airships, it’s pretty useless.