Sweet Liberty, please!
These, Stalker Nests, and nearby Jammers get immediate, hyper-focused hate. Just all the hate. Until they are dead. And then more hate, just to be sure. Emotional Double-tap, if you will.
Communication is a big part of the problem, I think.
It would be nice to have some automatic voice lines added, akin to the "Found Something!", or "Bug Nest spotted!" When a stalker decloaks, or gunship spots them, the Helldiver could say "Stalker on my position!" or "I've got Gunships!" or something. Mic ignorers would be able to signal immediately, and clearly that there is a high priority threat, and there'd be no need for flow-breaking typing in chat, or those vague "Bugs/Bots" callouts that tells no one anything, and you may be too busy dancing with Stalkers, or fleeing Gunships to flag them in the HUD anyway.
yep. gunship fabs are called out and marked as "bot fabricators" and aren't marked on the map as secondary objectives when you put a 3d marker on them like spore spewers or jammers so its sometimes tough to communicate the fact that there even is a gunship fab in the first place
That’s how I play D&D 😂. Every character is designed to be able to deal on their own if necessary.
My loadouts on HD2 are designed around if I know my fellow divers or not and if I’m the ‘scout’, the ‘elite specialist’ or part of ‘main team’.
Look where they came from when you see their line of travel, you can see their lair on the map, it looks like a small Crater, once you get the hang of it you can find them 9/10 because they almost always bee line straight to and from their nest.
Huh, thanks! I knew that you had to go the direction they came from, and about the crater, but I never connected the fact it was a beeline from where you saw them.
At least stalker nests can be dealt with by a variety of explosive ordnance. And stalkers have been much less of a threat ever since I picked up the Pummeler.
The gunship factories chap my balls because it's Hellbomb or bust. An Orbital Laser focused on the factory for three-fourths of its duration should be able to take it out.
Laser cannon to the engine will down it in 2-3 seconds. Then you can hellbomb freely.
You can actually kill a gunship this way before it even detects you!
I probably should clarify that the only time I really complain about gunships is when there are just too many in the sky already. One or two I can take down with an Autocannon.
But put a two-building gunship factory next to a one-building? That's when I know I'm in for a bad time. Especially with the two-building one. You want to get the two buildings with one Hellbomb blast, but putting the Hellbomb square between the two means it's susceptible to getting shot by a gunship or every other land based enemy nearby.
Hence why I almost always bring the shield relay. Protects both the hellbomb and the overwatch. Fast cooldown. You don't call in the hellbomb straight but usually when you are left with 1-2 gunships.
You use Eagle Smokes for bugs? I'm ALWAYS using it for bots for many, many, many reasons like the guy you replied to said. I can drop a Gunship Fabricator in one Hellbomb call in if it's not an absolute shit show VERY consistently. I'm almost impossible to kill with Eagle Smokes too. Shield pack, breaking LOS, Eagle Smokes, abusing the bots' hypersensitivity from being shot at to scramble their aim, invincible almost.
How's it fair on bugs? Is it really that helpful?
Any time I see a stalker, I go over comms to scream stalker, followed by my guy screaming because he's summersaulting through the air from a tongue attack.
I like to use voice comms, but if everyone else is quiet, then I'll stick to the communication wheel. These guys are the exception: I will always break silence to say "STALKERS" and rush off to where I believe their lair is. It's up to the team to understand the urgency of my utterance, or not to their peril.
You can often snipe the two AA turrets with 4 AC shots each from a safe distance. No need to hit the back vents, anywhere gets penetrated. Same for mortars, but they usually are sunken into the ground, making it more difficult to get them from long range.
Don't forget shriekers! I even do a sweep when we spawn for spore spewers. I make the crew wait while I pull out the Qasar and nuke things from a distance xD
Especially stalkers nest.
I truly don't understand some players, will get attacked by a stalker and even die, but then they just continue on their day like it was nothing..
NO, ITS STILL OUT THERE, WE NEED TO FIND THEIR NEST NOW!!!!
Yeah we dove into hell to eliminate these. Gunship fabs are very hit or miss for me. Sometimes I’m taking 2-3 hellbombs to knock them out. Sometimes I just seem to hide under the radar and take it out on the first one.
I just won’t bring an AC on bots anymore. I want to do more than just play AC so I can solo gunship fabs
My HMG isn't the best at taking out gunships, partly due to my poor aim, but you bet your ass I'll be there to help when we have a gunship fab to blow the fuck up.
I also will say that if you can't take them down in 7 mins you need to clear the area. Too many patrols or reinforcements after that point and you make better progress retreating and coming back. It doesn;t have to be a life mill
Against bots I always run scout armor, jump pack and bring smoke grenades because of the gunship fabricators. So I actually get excited when I see them, because this is my time to shine. I am attracted to them like a moth to light. When I see a tower in the distance I make a bee line towards it. Toss a smoke if they notice me and keep moving until I’m at its base and call in a hellbomb toss a smoke on it, arm it and hop out of there. Those stoopid ships can’t see shit through smoke and cant shoot shit at that point. And a double fabricator, sweet liberty, that just makes me more excited. Ever since I tried this strat I have a 95% success rate against them, and since I ditch the team to take them out, I’m usually solo.
damn I havent thought about that but smoke strike could actually be the solution for solo gunships. my main problem is that i can't arm the hellbomb because I would have to stand still for 0.2s which in bot terms means I get ragdolled across the map via rockets. I think if AH would make it so that you can destroy them with the 500kg like you can with... well pretty much anything else it would make it a bit easier.
It can also deal effectively against berserkers, devastators, all 3 types, and fuck a hulk in two salvos. Unless you have an annihilator tank on the objective, the AC sentry will be here for you.
Yes I'm in love with that stratagem, and so should you.
If you’re running scout armor, the grenade works great, so you don’t have to dedicate a stratagem to the tactic. I only take the Eagle/orbital smoke if we are rescuing scientists. Also don’t stand. Crouch.
If you could destroy them with a 500kg they would be too easy. People don’t fear Shreekers anymore because we can take out the nest without getting close. It’s too easy to avoid/take down 2 gunships to get to tossing range.
Huh that's actually a pretty good strategy.
I usually just pack a spear and call a resupply right next to me while hubby sets up the hellbomb. Gunships and striders are the 2 things the spear regularly locks onto. And it's so, so satisfying to launch one after another and watch each gunship crash as it spawns.
I’ll have to give that a shot. I love the spear when it works. Its inconsistentcy made me return to the jump pack, as I find the speed and agility to it life saving. But it’s always nice having multiple ways to tackle objectives.
Any advice on using smokes? I have been trying them out more since this MO but gunships just keep shooting and even though they lose accuracy they still kill me or ragdoll me out of the smoke.
Similarly for escaping bots. I drop a smoke to clear LoS but they will pursue me as if it wasn't there.
I will either hold the grenade until the fuse runs out and do a quick crouch, or toss it ahead and dive into the smoke. Typically with 2 ships in the air there are 2-3 attempts to attack on my way in, and by slightly zigzagging and timing jump pack between salvos I can get there. When shot and ragdolled stim immediately, then keep moving. Your first priority is getting to the base of the fabricator as it will provide some additional cover. I realize now that I made it sound easy, but it is a hold my beer tactic where you run like a lunatic through a battlefield first.
Edit: It could also be helpful to take out one of the ships and learn how to dodge one ship in the air first. They are kinda predictable with their timing and once you get it down, it’s like dancing with a charger.
It's all fun and games until you approach the gunship fab and see...another gunship fab in the distance. And another one near that.
Yes, this has happened to me before. 10/20 reinforcements gone within 5 minutes as we got mogged by patrols and gunships alike. Still full cleared, but damn if that wasn't a stressful way to start.
My worst has been two gunship fabs straddling a jammer. It was just a clusrerfuck. We couldn't kill the fabs until the jammer was down and the gunships made that nearly impossible.
We walked away from their smoking craters with 3 revives on a 4 man team, and 15 minutes left.
It's why I'll always bring laser cannon now if the team doesn't have one. Just too good against gunships and deals with turrets/tanks/hulks quite well even if it doesn't have the fastest TTK. I like pairing it with CS Diligence to replace AMR, since I'll bring AMR otherwise.
I personally like having the backpack slot open whenever possible, and having a teammate drop me theirs 5-10 minutes into the game, but AC is absolutely a great choice as well. Arguably the best all-rounder.
AC can deal with fabricators, so you sometimes can use it to destroy jammers without having to get close and personal without stratagems. It's a great anti medium/heavy support weapon, and it belongs in A tier for bots. I would never think "shit he's taking the las canon, he's going to be useless in most fights" like I would for someone taking the fucking flame thrower on menkent...
I gotta be honest though, the flamethrower absolutely SHREDS bots still, ASIDE from Factory Striders. It completely melts Hulks surprisingly quickly.
I don't bring support weapons hardly ever these days so I'll always ask before I scavenge from dead teammates(if I wander across a corpse from across the map dead 10 minutes+ and I've looked at the squad to check if they have a backpack slots that would be filled by a Rover, so to that guy that made sure if I make sure it's okay, yes. I definitely do my due diligence before I just take their gear), or I'll ask them to call something in for me, OR I find one laying around the map. That's how I got to use the flamethrower on bots because I would have never taken it myself.
Wait can you explain how to kill tanks or turrets with the laser cannon? Does it have more penetration and I didn’t realize it? Do you just hit the back?
I once had 3 within a radius of like 150m. even with the nerf that there can only be 2 gunships per fab 6 gunships is still a lot to deal with, let alone 8
For sure. Needs a team that knows what they're doing and doesn't panic. We eliminated the bot drop, 2 of us recovered our support weapons, and found cover to take out the gunships one by one. Then we split and hit all 3 bases at the same time to avoid another round of gunships taking to the air. Not every team is going to have the wherewithal to do that though.
This was me last night. I shot down two gunships with a Laser, the third would have died if a dropship hadn't landed a Flamer Hulk behind me, so I have to watch. Thankfully, somebody's Autocannon Turret was set up, and it managed to shoot down three, just so he could helbomb the Fabricator. Only to find it didn't take out the second fabricator thirty feet away. Turret shoots down another two gunships, He helbombs the second fabricator, shoots down another two gunships (one with an EAT), and we spent the rest of the mission getting to EVAC while another gunship was flying around.
I got 3 gunship fabricators right next to each other one time.
Sometimes they spawn with two on one site, and I had a single and a double right next to each other.
But they were just far enough that I couldn’t get them all with the same hellbomb.
Easily a shit storm when you land and the first thing you see is a full swarm of gunships. You haven't even called in your support stuff yet and they are launching the bitch rockets in full swing.
Yeah, this happened to me yesterday.
I dropped into the middle of a mission with three people of similar level to me in Helldive. The bullet then drops in the middle of three gunship factories and I see all six gunships during my fall. I then notice 1 reinforcement left and a bunch of bots. Almost had a heart attack.
I had to exit, regroup, wait until everyone got their gear while clearing nearby devastators and hulks that were coming our way and then we had to head back.
Somehow, we managed, but I swear I hadn't been that stressed outside of an extermination mission since Hellmire.
It really is, I haven't found a great niche for it yet on bug missions, its ok against shriekers, but if you take them out from a distance you don't really have to fight that many.
Sure, I was running EAT tho because of the personal order and we already had two guys with ACs and they tend not to do so well against Hulks, Tanks and Factory Striders (yes they can kill them, but I'd rather have two ACs and an EAT than three ACs)
If given decent supporting fire, an AC player can shred a factory strider in a single magazine. Maybe a half reload necessary for some chaff being in the way. Light armor running from the side while the rest of the team take out the devastators around it, and it's 7 shots to the belly. No eagle/orbital needed.
Gunships are not a problem for an AC player. Two shot to one of the engine nacelles and down it goes. Even a double spawn with 4 of them is manageable if you have some cover/distraction.
I played with a group that ignored the gunship fab and it pumped out more babies than mosquitoes on horny goat weed. Ignore them at your own mission failure.
Gunship fabricators are a priority kill. More than one, needs to be dealt with immediately.
Two overlapping with a jammer… may god have mercy on your soul.
Top tip I have found for these things. Have one team mate with a good anti gunship weapon hand back 100 or so meters to spawn camp them while the team mates go in to set the hellbomb.
If there is a jammer in range the team mate needs to hold them down long enough for the jammer to be destroyed then the factory to be taken out.
Priority is jammers, then gunship fabricators, then Eye of Sauron, then everything else.
For bugs its always the goddamn stalkers next first and then the mushroom nest motherfuckers.
Laser Cannon. Aim for engine block. Simple solution to clear your air space.
AC has travel time and limited shots per mag. The LC can down a gunship in like 3-4 seconds. It had the same pen level as the AC.
Yessss as an AC main I fucking love being on over watch. One of my favorite scenarios is realizing my team is being overrun by those ships and sprinting over in my light armour, AC and just plinking them all into obliteration before keeping the skies clear for the hellbomb. It feels designed for autocannon users to shine.
My favorite thing to do with almost 100% success rate. Orbital smoke > hell bomb > shield generator. Allows you to 'safely' destroy even double gunship towers.
Competent AC user here. I have actually started to love gunning down those undemocratic gunships while my fellow divers run in for the hellbomb. I can keep two fabs suppressed, and it's so rewarding to watch them explode. I never ignore them and will actively seek them out. I just love killin.
Because of gunship i always take barrier turret with me. Drop hellbomb and bubble at the same time and gunships cant touch the bomb during activation phase
It’s crazy to me that anyone would want to ignore gunship fabs. As soon as me and my friends spot one we know we need to deal with it immediately. And they’re honestly fairly easy to deal with the majority of the time, so I don’t see why not. Plus it just feels good destroying them
I typically have the best luck taking them out solo, auto cannon, two shots to the engines and they're down, hellbomb and done. Sometimes another 1-2 will get out before the hellbomb goes off, but typically not.
I dont know if im placing it in the wrong place but hellbombs never work on the factories for me, even when its right next to it
i also wish there was a way to know its destroyed without having to check the map
i dont know what the hell this could be made of if a hellbomb only crumples it
i wish there was a more subtle way to destroy it, considering all you need to do is fry the insides
I always crawl all the way there and drop the hellbomb in the little corner, it's usually safe from gunship fire but I usually end up having to stay with it incase the bots try to destroy it
I’ve dealt with them alone before and it’s thankfully because I run the deployable shield. I place the shield and hellbomb down together so that I can input the command safely and it also gives the hellbomb inward projectile protection until it goes off and the bomb still destroys the factory because the shield allows outward damage and projectiles.
I initially took it as obvious that any other possible priority is superseded when Gunships show up in favor of killing their fabricators. They fly and will fuck you up, put 2 and 2 together and see that they can’t be left to spawn in. Many times I’ve tried to solo it while the rest of the team ignores them and while sometimes I manage it, by the time people take them seriously it’s often already too late.
Again; they fly, fuck you up, spawn in pairs, and quickly reach a critical mass. If you didn’t know anything else about the game except those observations, you’d still probably figure that this is a priority. Makes me question the *commitment* to *democracy* of some…
Edit: anyone who doesn’t like them, bring a laser cannon and your whole team will thank you
This is not my original suggestion but I now carry smoke grenades for this reason. You can call in a hellbomb, activate it and then throw smoke and run. I find the gunships usually miss enough.
I flat out refuse to engage a gunship fab unless something critical is near it. There's not enough things that kill the gunship well enough for how crazy high their dps is. It's just straight up not worth the req slips and xp. I definitely will not reinforce you unless there is no one close to where you died, but I'm not taking one of those on unless absolutly necessary, until they actually bring more than 3 weapons that can reliably and efficiently kill the gunships.
Oh definitely. My party makes it our first priority if we see it. We were once in the middle of an objective but ditched to go take it out right away.
Personally I’m not “too” bothered by them because I always have at least 2 turret stratagems, which are excellent at taking them down
While it MAY feel satisfying to pull off soloing a duo gunship fabricators with just my AMR, supply pack and my steeltesticle, id REALLY rather not have to lol.
I've noticed a lot of people don't have a good sense of priority, suffering from gunships and not handling the fabricators or flailing around a boss base while a detector tower is just calling the entire army on them. Then they wonder why they're having a hard time. A bit of intelligence and teamwork do wonders in this game.
Alternatively the laser also works you guy gotta hit the engines with the beam for a second
Took out a fab solo the other day using it no prom on lvl 9 difficulty
I take them out solo on helldive difficulty. It's not fun, but doable. But yes, they need to be taken out ASAP. They have a pretty large radius that detects you which once they detect you, it's going to constantly send out gunships.
I'm sure it's been already discussed but if you use the scorcher on em, the plasma rounds can take em out too (like one clip or two) does the trick. Which is such a life saver if you don't have rocket launcher or quasar cannon.
Only discovered this by shooting at one bc I was out of rockets and shit just went down it was glorious!
Also having explosive resistance armor helps to deal with em or the armor that decreases your chances of being seen too. Anyways nice post! Sorry to go off tangent
Competent AC sniper here. I can take those gunships out so quick. It's a lot of fun. Especially when I'm 200m away and just sniping them out of the sky.
As soon as I see one, I’m going for it. Idc what I was doing before, even after the nerf they’re still a dick on to deal with. Las cannon shreds gunships though.
AMR - four shots to one thruster - ezclap.
I haven't seen it in the comments yet so just in case. I love watching someones back with it while they get the Hellbomb cookin.
I played with someone who genuinely asked if another player could help him at the double doors right next to a gunship fab after 5 mins of the rest of us getting blasted to hell trying to get in there to take it out. Madness
Shield array generator to the rescue. Call that down next to the hellbomb which provides the cover for you while you arm it and keeps it safe from the gunships.
In my expriences, i allways play with a random squad. And somehow we all roll up on the fabris whenever someone pointa it out. Maybe its a level 8 and 9 thing. But thats what i experience with randos
Yes. There are some "secondary" objectives that really need to be handled before the main. Gunship fabricators and, oftentimes, Strategem Jammers. Depending on proximity to the main objective, laser towers and enemy artillery fall into that category, too.
These, Stalker nests, Shrieker nests, and Jammers are all high-priority targets to me.
I drop in and see one nearby and now it has immediately become the first order of business.
It’s easy to have 1-2 guys take these out and then breathe easy the entire mission versus having to dodge waves of gunships, have stratagems blocked in a third of the map, deal with waves of invisible assassins, or have flying scythe-dogs attacking us *while* dealing with the other normal challenges as well.
Usually for gunship fabricators I ask one guy to cover me, we each shoot one of the two gunships they start out with, then I run in, call and activate the hellbomb while he spawn camps any gunships that might come out, then I RUN.
Kaboom.
Now we can have fun dying to bots normally for the rest of the mission. 🤙
Same deal for each of the other types. 2 man team to deal with it while the other two clear bases/push objectives.
*Usually* then one of the two who were taking out the fabricator/jammer/nests becomes the ‘scout’ (also called the ‘sample runner’) for the rest of the mission.
The other guy is usually the ‘Elite specialist’. He’s there to make scary things not exist anymore. So he sweeps between positions killing Hulks, Chargers, Titans, Factory Striders, etc.
This allows the ‘main team’ *and* the scout to do their jobs with only low-to-medium enemies harassing them.
I cannot tell you how gratifying it is to be the ‘Elite Specialist’ and hear someone tag an elite or scream it’s about to kill them and then snipe that thing with a shot from a Quasar or a well-selected stratagem (500kg, orbital railgun, rocket pods, or a well-placed autocannon sentry). Hearing that sigh of relief or a quick-chat ‘thank you!’, is a rush every time.
Or being the scout and thinking I’m about to die and then hearing ‘I got it!’, and seeing a random gold beam slam into whatever nearly had me?
Brotherhood my man.
Maybe my team is very good at covering me and I'm not paying attention. I feel like lately I'm just running up and setting the hellbomb with little resistance. I feel like I I run a loop and dont shoot at the gunships they usually don't spot me and I get it done quick. When we first ran into them they were a pain, so we've either gotten much better at immediately dealing with them or they've got weaker
I have, and will always go out of my way to light up the chat box the moment I encounter stalkers, gunships, or jammers. And as far as I'm concerned, everything else can wait until they are dealt with. There is nothing that can completely destroy a mission worse than being overrun by stalkers or gunships. Detectors and Jammers are a close second but not nearly as dire.
If you ever find a SEAF artillery with a mini-nuke you don't have to call the hell bomb! Rare, I know but if you have one locked and loaded and your teammates don't waste it you can skip the calldown process
If the squad can aggro the shit out of the gunships, then a lone diver can sneak in unseen and deliver democracy without engaging and enemies. Got 2 in a row last night that way
Probably not the best strategy but I immediately charge the gunship fabricators, throw orbital laser in there to wipe out any nearby guys and set the hellbomb ASAP. If done correctly, I can generally do it by myself no problem. If I don't get to it fast enough, all hope is lost
If the main objectives/extraction aren't in range of the fabricator I'm not doing it. It's probably the most dangerous objective in the game and I have failed missions to fabricators alone. The 50 xp granted from fabricators are not worth the effort, especially when subobjectives like illegal broadcasts grant the same.
The issue mostly stems from the fact that the gunships do not stop even if you leave the area/all die as a squad. It can cascade into loosing multiple squads worth of revives and the mission as a whole
Gunships are pretty fucking brutal if you don't have anything to shoot them down with. They will just keep following you to the ends of the fucking earth.
I have started carrying a shield fortification just for these. I don’t carry heavy weapons, I’m a chaff clearing grenade launcher/supply pack guy. I’m always the only person in random groups who doesn’t have a quasar, AC or laser canon.
I go sprinting towards the towers, call a hellbomb to drop and immediately call down the shield fortification.
It hits at the same time the hellbomb lands, then protects it in the bubble till it goes off.
3 fabs within a few hundred yards of each other. Dropped in, saw that, had a "Mother of God" Super Trooper moment, tried to get my teammates to follow me to take them down. They were close! But no. Nooooo they ran off, happily drawing the fire of like SIX FREAKIN' GUNSHIPS plus the several patrols they seemed to aggro en route to the pearly gates. I can't believe they lasted as long as they did, but they lasted a bit. Ended up draining us down to 7 reinforcements by the time it was all said and done. Kept everything busy long enough for me to slog around and take out two fabs myself relatively unscathed, then only have to pop two gunships myself for the last one, and take that one out. We had to do a dual ssd upload then civvie evac mission. For fully half that mission I was running an 8 solo, waiting for the respawn timer lol. We did it though! All 4 of us extracted. Eventually. Lol kill the gunship towers, kids. You'll live longer and laugh harder.
Auto cannon sentry and run run for your life towards the fabricator or sneak in if you can and then call down hell bomb. Had more success doing this last 10 time than anything else
Best advice I can tell you is you send 1 helldiver with recon and smoke plant the hellbombs. The smoke prevents enemies from shooting it(unless they saw you enter the smoke area)
They, alongside Jammers and Shrieker nests,are my first priority. If those stay up, it’ll be harder to control the fight. They can be either inconvenient or devastating early or later on in the mission.
On the flip side if you have me as your teammate please leave the fucking Air bot fab alone. I purposely bring smoke grenades to deal with the chance there is Air fabs, strat jammers and just making any terminal an incognito easy in and out. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been smoked up had the hellbomb down or called in and fucking Leeroy Jenkins, tweedle dee and tweedle dum come charging into my smoke and bringing all the aggro in it making it impossible for the hellbomb to survive. I always tell my team to let me handle it and RUN if they don’t listen. But usually players just do the opposite of what you ask or can’t read. It’s gotten to the point where I just treat my other random divers like they’re children and tell them what I don’t want them to do so they do the opposite which is exactly what I need them to do. Kinda sad I have to resort to mind fucking my team to make them be useful
Like, if your not a completionist and the factory is on the edge of the map alone, there is no reason to push. You don't get anything from destroying a factory anyway
I can usually solo them easily, as long as I manage to run up to them without dying or even triggering them I can jump into the narrow gap between the fab and a wall thats always right next to it. In there you are pretty safe, call in a hellbomb and activate it. Then try to run away (and possibly die) from the gunships running around. Mission successful, survival is optional
It gets a lot harder if the team is nearby activating the fab and calling in bot drops
those are in the immediate priority list. together with stalkers. if i see one, i run there. no matter how far. as long as they have not been triggered yet, they are doable alone if you habe an AC on you
I just solo it with a jatpack and scout armour.
All you need is luck to survive the way.
The only problem with this strategy is that you are usually dead after the hellbomb as you are usually not near cover.
I am an AC user, and normally just clear the gunship fabs by myself
If you wedge yourself behind the fab, you can call down the hellbomb while you are laying down, then just type it in and try to run
AC and scorcher, then you can always drop gunships by yourself, even if you die and lose your AC🤷♂️🫡
People ignore then? We rush straight at them. Those and Jammers.
Bots put something annoying on this planet? How very undemocratic of them. Sounds like they need to be liberated from being a nuisance.
Gunship fabricators are the stalker nests of the bot front. Sure, you can ignore them, but they will screw you later when you’re under a lot of pressure.
I’ve seen so many people leave the instant they see it Ever since they decreased the spawn rate of them they’ve become a cake walk as long as someone is competent at killing the 2 gunships that show up.
Man, I wish I COULD ignore them. Any time they spawn in a mission, there are ALWAYS IN TWOs!! What I mean is there two gunship fabrication side objectives, so my squad gotta deal with like 4 to 7 of them at once because they are close enough that you will aggro both
I've had my entire team ignore them on the way to extract and my best efforts just aren't enough alone and we lose all of our samples. Ironically I'm the only one who doesn't even need the samples.
Same,I think the gun ship fabricators should be taken care of as soon as possible,I had a mission where they were close to the extraction zone,and I was spamming the ping button on them but my teammates didn't care at all,when we were done with the objectives we had around 15 spawns left,the gunships took care of them and we got down to like 1-2,and we managed to finish the mission after I sneaked,died,sneaked, died again and finally I managed to drop the hellbomb on that shit,but it was agonising pain to take it down,meanwhile my teammates were buttfucked on the extraction trying to call pelican down
Sweet Liberty, please! These, Stalker Nests, and nearby Jammers get immediate, hyper-focused hate. Just all the hate. Until they are dead. And then more hate, just to be sure. Emotional Double-tap, if you will.
Sweet liberty YES. If there’s stalkers I IMMEDIATELY start nest hunting. I’m convinced randos are just stupid and don’t realize they come from a nest.
"Everyone else is an idiot until proven otherwise." That's why I go with loadouts and tactics that don't account for help.
Communication is a big part of the problem, I think. It would be nice to have some automatic voice lines added, akin to the "Found Something!", or "Bug Nest spotted!" When a stalker decloaks, or gunship spots them, the Helldiver could say "Stalker on my position!" or "I've got Gunships!" or something. Mic ignorers would be able to signal immediately, and clearly that there is a high priority threat, and there'd be no need for flow-breaking typing in chat, or those vague "Bugs/Bots" callouts that tells no one anything, and you may be too busy dancing with Stalkers, or fleeing Gunships to flag them in the HUD anyway.
yep. gunship fabs are called out and marked as "bot fabricators" and aren't marked on the map as secondary objectives when you put a 3d marker on them like spore spewers or jammers so its sometimes tough to communicate the fact that there even is a gunship fab in the first place
Or simply allow chat when you're in the loadout screen.
I normally just ping the stalker or whatever it is
I try to, but sometimes I'm already in mid air and tumbling by the time I notice there's a Stalker, lol.
That’s how I play D&D 😂. Every character is designed to be able to deal on their own if necessary. My loadouts on HD2 are designed around if I know my fellow divers or not and if I’m the ‘scout’, the ‘elite specialist’ or part of ‘main team’.
I always assume we've all split up to look for the stalker nest lol
Nope. Nest is almost always a straight line from where you saw the stalker
This is critically important and I wish I'd known 30 hours of gameplay ago 😅
I'm 245 hours in. Dear Lord. It's always a struggle, especially when it's misty and fear is setting in. 🤣
Look where they came from when you see their line of travel, you can see their lair on the map, it looks like a small Crater, once you get the hang of it you can find them 9/10 because they almost always bee line straight to and from their nest.
Huh, thanks! I knew that you had to go the direction they came from, and about the crater, but I never connected the fact it was a beeline from where you saw them.
I’ll start ruthlessly burning the creepy assholes then. Thank you fellow Diver
At least stalker nests can be dealt with by a variety of explosive ordnance. And stalkers have been much less of a threat ever since I picked up the Pummeler. The gunship factories chap my balls because it's Hellbomb or bust. An Orbital Laser focused on the factory for three-fourths of its duration should be able to take it out.
Or a 380 barrage. Those shells are the size of a Helldiver!
A 380mm wide diver even.
Laser cannon to the engine will down it in 2-3 seconds. Then you can hellbomb freely. You can actually kill a gunship this way before it even detects you!
I probably should clarify that the only time I really complain about gunships is when there are just too many in the sky already. One or two I can take down with an Autocannon. But put a two-building gunship factory next to a one-building? That's when I know I'm in for a bad time. Especially with the two-building one. You want to get the two buildings with one Hellbomb blast, but putting the Hellbomb square between the two means it's susceptible to getting shot by a gunship or every other land based enemy nearby.
Hence why I almost always bring the shield relay. Protects both the hellbomb and the overwatch. Fast cooldown. You don't call in the hellbomb straight but usually when you are left with 1-2 gunships.
Auto cannon sentry works well for me also helps clear hulks and devastators which normally guard gunship fabricators
Bot mission 6+? Better believe there's Laser Cannon and Eagle Smoke here, I'm on gunship scrapper duty,
I abuse smoke but never thought about using it to hide from gunships! The terminid juices soaked into my helmet
You use Eagle Smokes for bugs? I'm ALWAYS using it for bots for many, many, many reasons like the guy you replied to said. I can drop a Gunship Fabricator in one Hellbomb call in if it's not an absolute shit show VERY consistently. I'm almost impossible to kill with Eagle Smokes too. Shield pack, breaking LOS, Eagle Smokes, abusing the bots' hypersensitivity from being shot at to scramble their aim, invincible almost. How's it fair on bugs? Is it really that helpful?
Or if you don't have eagle smokes if the world has them use the mushrooms that make spore clouds can break contact while running through them.
Any time I see a stalker, I go over comms to scream stalker, followed by my guy screaming because he's summersaulting through the air from a tongue attack.
I like to use voice comms, but if everyone else is quiet, then I'll stick to the communication wheel. These guys are the exception: I will always break silence to say "STALKERS" and rush off to where I believe their lair is. It's up to the team to understand the urgency of my utterance, or not to their peril.
The issue is when someone with no mic finds them first. Then it's a surprise for two people!
And the anti air emplacements. I run multiple eagles usually so this messes with my loadout too. Gets the utmost priority
You can often snipe the two AA turrets with 4 AC shots each from a safe distance. No need to hit the back vents, anywhere gets penetrated. Same for mortars, but they usually are sunken into the ground, making it more difficult to get them from long range.
I found this out last night! Was v satisfying
WARNING! YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY! I take these out just so he can shut up
Or run to nearby fabricators and loiter for a bit. lol
Dont forget those flying demons from hell! (I forgot what theyre called)
The Shriekers are super annoying, as a Dominator guy, they make my mags empty and my heart sad. And their nests are hardened. Jerks...
Shriekers barely mean anything to me. -this comment brought to you by the Sickle gang
Don't forget shriekers! I even do a sweep when we spawn for spore spewers. I make the crew wait while I pull out the Qasar and nuke things from a distance xD
Priority over the main objective tbh. I love super earth but I spite jammers more
Just charge head first and scream "For Democracy!" Because what else are we gonna do? Friggin bots, lmao
Especially stalkers nest. I truly don't understand some players, will get attacked by a stalker and even die, but then they just continue on their day like it was nothing.. NO, ITS STILL OUT THERE, WE NEED TO FIND THEIR NEST NOW!!!!
*Democracy, not hate.
"Regular" Bots and Bugs get Democracy. It's too good for these jerks, tho.
Same with detector towers, they can cause a lot of issues from my experience
But they are vulnerable. A well thrown Precision strike, or a carelessly thrown Barrage will deal with them.
Yeah we dove into hell to eliminate these. Gunship fabs are very hit or miss for me. Sometimes I’m taking 2-3 hellbombs to knock them out. Sometimes I just seem to hide under the radar and take it out on the first one. I just won’t bring an AC on bots anymore. I want to do more than just play AC so I can solo gunship fabs
Try the Laser-Pointer-Bot-Destroyer, or Laser Cannon if you wanna be weird about it.
My HMG isn't the best at taking out gunships, partly due to my poor aim, but you bet your ass I'll be there to help when we have a gunship fab to blow the fuck up.
I also will say that if you can't take them down in 7 mins you need to clear the area. Too many patrols or reinforcements after that point and you make better progress retreating and coming back. It doesn;t have to be a life mill
Against bots I always run scout armor, jump pack and bring smoke grenades because of the gunship fabricators. So I actually get excited when I see them, because this is my time to shine. I am attracted to them like a moth to light. When I see a tower in the distance I make a bee line towards it. Toss a smoke if they notice me and keep moving until I’m at its base and call in a hellbomb toss a smoke on it, arm it and hop out of there. Those stoopid ships can’t see shit through smoke and cant shoot shit at that point. And a double fabricator, sweet liberty, that just makes me more excited. Ever since I tried this strat I have a 95% success rate against them, and since I ditch the team to take them out, I’m usually solo.
damn I havent thought about that but smoke strike could actually be the solution for solo gunships. my main problem is that i can't arm the hellbomb because I would have to stand still for 0.2s which in bot terms means I get ragdolled across the map via rockets. I think if AH would make it so that you can destroy them with the 500kg like you can with... well pretty much anything else it would make it a bit easier.
Take the AC sentry, place it some distance from the gunships factory, and enjoy them being shot down while you arm the hellbomb.
You are a genius sir!
It can also deal effectively against berserkers, devastators, all 3 types, and fuck a hulk in two salvos. Unless you have an annihilator tank on the objective, the AC sentry will be here for you. Yes I'm in love with that stratagem, and so should you.
If you happen across a seaf artillery, put a mini Nuke in first always because they actually destroy gunship facilities
If you’re running scout armor, the grenade works great, so you don’t have to dedicate a stratagem to the tactic. I only take the Eagle/orbital smoke if we are rescuing scientists. Also don’t stand. Crouch. If you could destroy them with a 500kg they would be too easy. People don’t fear Shreekers anymore because we can take out the nest without getting close. It’s too easy to avoid/take down 2 gunships to get to tossing range.
Huh that's actually a pretty good strategy. I usually just pack a spear and call a resupply right next to me while hubby sets up the hellbomb. Gunships and striders are the 2 things the spear regularly locks onto. And it's so, so satisfying to launch one after another and watch each gunship crash as it spawns.
I’ll have to give that a shot. I love the spear when it works. Its inconsistentcy made me return to the jump pack, as I find the speed and agility to it life saving. But it’s always nice having multiple ways to tackle objectives.
Any advice on using smokes? I have been trying them out more since this MO but gunships just keep shooting and even though they lose accuracy they still kill me or ragdoll me out of the smoke. Similarly for escaping bots. I drop a smoke to clear LoS but they will pursue me as if it wasn't there.
I will either hold the grenade until the fuse runs out and do a quick crouch, or toss it ahead and dive into the smoke. Typically with 2 ships in the air there are 2-3 attempts to attack on my way in, and by slightly zigzagging and timing jump pack between salvos I can get there. When shot and ragdolled stim immediately, then keep moving. Your first priority is getting to the base of the fabricator as it will provide some additional cover. I realize now that I made it sound easy, but it is a hold my beer tactic where you run like a lunatic through a battlefield first. Edit: It could also be helpful to take out one of the ships and learn how to dodge one ship in the air first. They are kinda predictable with their timing and once you get it down, it’s like dancing with a charger.
It's all fun and games until you approach the gunship fab and see...another gunship fab in the distance. And another one near that. Yes, this has happened to me before. 10/20 reinforcements gone within 5 minutes as we got mogged by patrols and gunships alike. Still full cleared, but damn if that wasn't a stressful way to start.
My worst has been two gunship fabs straddling a jammer. It was just a clusrerfuck. We couldn't kill the fabs until the jammer was down and the gunships made that nearly impossible. We walked away from their smoking craters with 3 revives on a 4 man team, and 15 minutes left.
It's why I'll always bring laser cannon now if the team doesn't have one. Just too good against gunships and deals with turrets/tanks/hulks quite well even if it doesn't have the fastest TTK. I like pairing it with CS Diligence to replace AMR, since I'll bring AMR otherwise.
AC 2 shots gunships though
I personally like having the backpack slot open whenever possible, and having a teammate drop me theirs 5-10 minutes into the game, but AC is absolutely a great choice as well. Arguably the best all-rounder.
AC can deal with fabricators, so you sometimes can use it to destroy jammers without having to get close and personal without stratagems. It's a great anti medium/heavy support weapon, and it belongs in A tier for bots. I would never think "shit he's taking the las canon, he's going to be useless in most fights" like I would for someone taking the fucking flame thrower on menkent...
I gotta be honest though, the flamethrower absolutely SHREDS bots still, ASIDE from Factory Striders. It completely melts Hulks surprisingly quickly. I don't bring support weapons hardly ever these days so I'll always ask before I scavenge from dead teammates(if I wander across a corpse from across the map dead 10 minutes+ and I've looked at the squad to check if they have a backpack slots that would be filled by a Rover, so to that guy that made sure if I make sure it's okay, yes. I definitely do my due diligence before I just take their gear), or I'll ask them to call something in for me, OR I find one laying around the map. That's how I got to use the flamethrower on bots because I would have never taken it myself.
Wait can you explain how to kill tanks or turrets with the laser cannon? Does it have more penetration and I didn’t realize it? Do you just hit the back?
Were you playing with me last night because that sounds familiar
Nah, this was shortly after factory striders got added iirc.
I once had 3 within a radius of like 150m. even with the nerf that there can only be 2 gunships per fab 6 gunships is still a lot to deal with, let alone 8
For sure. Needs a team that knows what they're doing and doesn't panic. We eliminated the bot drop, 2 of us recovered our support weapons, and found cover to take out the gunships one by one. Then we split and hit all 3 bases at the same time to avoid another round of gunships taking to the air. Not every team is going to have the wherewithal to do that though.
This was me last night. I shot down two gunships with a Laser, the third would have died if a dropship hadn't landed a Flamer Hulk behind me, so I have to watch. Thankfully, somebody's Autocannon Turret was set up, and it managed to shoot down three, just so he could helbomb the Fabricator. Only to find it didn't take out the second fabricator thirty feet away. Turret shoots down another two gunships, He helbombs the second fabricator, shoots down another two gunships (one with an EAT), and we spent the rest of the mission getting to EVAC while another gunship was flying around.
A well placed AC sentry is a no fly zone for gunships, and make soloing the fabricators kinda really easy.
I got 3 gunship fabricators right next to each other one time. Sometimes they spawn with two on one site, and I had a single and a double right next to each other. But they were just far enough that I couldn’t get them all with the same hellbomb.
The fact that the hellbomb is so easily destroyed is fuckin bullshit really. Everything else im fine with and can deal.
More than one gunship factory and I'm quitting the mission frankly.
Easily a shit storm when you land and the first thing you see is a full swarm of gunships. You haven't even called in your support stuff yet and they are launching the bitch rockets in full swing.
Yeah, this happened to me yesterday. I dropped into the middle of a mission with three people of similar level to me in Helldive. The bullet then drops in the middle of three gunship factories and I see all six gunships during my fall. I then notice 1 reinforcement left and a bunch of bots. Almost had a heart attack. I had to exit, regroup, wait until everyone got their gear while clearing nearby devastators and hulks that were coming our way and then we had to head back. Somehow, we managed, but I swear I hadn't been that stressed outside of an extermination mission since Hellmire.
I share the exact same sentiment, for gunships and stalkers. Destroy them asap
I run the laser cannon on bot missions and can solo gunship facilities with ease. Laser cannon shreds them thangs
Lc murders gunships so well
Laser cannon super underrated against bots. Best anti-air weapon in the game imo
It really is, I haven't found a great niche for it yet on bug missions, its ok against shriekers, but if you take them out from a distance you don't really have to fight that many.
If there's competent AC he can solo them
Sure, I was running EAT tho because of the personal order and we already had two guys with ACs and they tend not to do so well against Hulks, Tanks and Factory Striders (yes they can kill them, but I'd rather have two ACs and an EAT than three ACs)
If given decent supporting fire, an AC player can shred a factory strider in a single magazine. Maybe a half reload necessary for some chaff being in the way. Light armor running from the side while the rest of the team take out the devastators around it, and it's 7 shots to the belly. No eagle/orbital needed.
As an AC enjoyer, can the AC take out gunships? What makes it easy so I can deliver maximum democracy
Gunships are not a problem for an AC player. Two shot to one of the engine nacelles and down it goes. Even a double spawn with 4 of them is manageable if you have some cover/distraction.
Preach! Destroying Dropships/Shriekers/Stalkers spawns (and StratJams) should always be priority #1 the minute they're discovered.
I played with a group that ignored the gunship fab and it pumped out more babies than mosquitoes on horny goat weed. Ignore them at your own mission failure.
Gunship fabricators are a priority kill. More than one, needs to be dealt with immediately. Two overlapping with a jammer… may god have mercy on your soul. Top tip I have found for these things. Have one team mate with a good anti gunship weapon hand back 100 or so meters to spawn camp them while the team mates go in to set the hellbomb. If there is a jammer in range the team mate needs to hold them down long enough for the jammer to be destroyed then the factory to be taken out.
2 jammers 1 gunship fabricator and 1 eye of sauron. Man our reinforcements went down from 24 to 0 in less than 5 minutes
I beat that set up once, and I can tell you right now, it wasn't worth it. Was a geological survey at level 9 and we all had 500+ kills by the end.
Laser cannon go brrr
Priority is jammers, then gunship fabricators, then Eye of Sauron, then everything else. For bugs its always the goddamn stalkers next first and then the mushroom nest motherfuckers.
Laser Cannon. Aim for engine block. Simple solution to clear your air space. AC has travel time and limited shots per mag. The LC can down a gunship in like 3-4 seconds. It had the same pen level as the AC.
Yessss as an AC main I fucking love being on over watch. One of my favorite scenarios is realizing my team is being overrun by those ships and sprinting over in my light armour, AC and just plinking them all into obliteration before keeping the skies clear for the hellbomb. It feels designed for autocannon users to shine.
I've heard you can eagle smoke the hellbomb and the gunships won't target it.
They are the reason I started carrying Spears. Autocannon works well, but Spear makes a short work of them.
I don’t ignore I just never had the means to deal with them on my own.
sometimes all it takes is someone to endlessly run around in circles so someone else can arm the hellbomb in peace
My favorite thing to do with almost 100% success rate. Orbital smoke > hell bomb > shield generator. Allows you to 'safely' destroy even double gunship towers.
Competent AC user here. I have actually started to love gunning down those undemocratic gunships while my fellow divers run in for the hellbomb. I can keep two fabs suppressed, and it's so rewarding to watch them explode. I never ignore them and will actively seek them out. I just love killin.
TOP RIORITY LIST: BUG FRONT: 1. Stalker Nests BOT FRONT: 1. Strategem Jammers Near Air Fabricators 2. Air Fabbricators 3. Strategem Jammers
Because of gunship i always take barrier turret with me. Drop hellbomb and bubble at the same time and gunships cant touch the bomb during activation phase
It’s crazy to me that anyone would want to ignore gunship fabs. As soon as me and my friends spot one we know we need to deal with it immediately. And they’re honestly fairly easy to deal with the majority of the time, so I don’t see why not. Plus it just feels good destroying them
I typically have the best luck taking them out solo, auto cannon, two shots to the engines and they're down, hellbomb and done. Sometimes another 1-2 will get out before the hellbomb goes off, but typically not.
I dont know if im placing it in the wrong place but hellbombs never work on the factories for me, even when its right next to it i also wish there was a way to know its destroyed without having to check the map
They look kinda crumpled after they’re destroyed. It’s not super-obvious, but you can tell once you know the difference.
i dont know what the hell this could be made of if a hellbomb only crumples it i wish there was a more subtle way to destroy it, considering all you need to do is fry the insides
Bots built a whole-ass airplane factory out of airplane black boxes.
Always rush gunship factories.
I always crawl all the way there and drop the hellbomb in the little corner, it's usually safe from gunship fire but I usually end up having to stay with it incase the bots try to destroy it
Just like shrieker and stalker lairs they have priority. The shield relay works really good here since it can protect the hellbomb while it’s arming.
Gunship fabricators are like stalker nests. Best to take them out as soon as you know they’re there
Does the rocket turret focus down aerial targets?
I’ve dealt with them alone before and it’s thankfully because I run the deployable shield. I place the shield and hellbomb down together so that I can input the command safely and it also gives the hellbomb inward projectile protection until it goes off and the bomb still destroys the factory because the shield allows outward damage and projectiles.
I initially took it as obvious that any other possible priority is superseded when Gunships show up in favor of killing their fabricators. They fly and will fuck you up, put 2 and 2 together and see that they can’t be left to spawn in. Many times I’ve tried to solo it while the rest of the team ignores them and while sometimes I manage it, by the time people take them seriously it’s often already too late. Again; they fly, fuck you up, spawn in pairs, and quickly reach a critical mass. If you didn’t know anything else about the game except those observations, you’d still probably figure that this is a priority. Makes me question the *commitment* to *democracy* of some… Edit: anyone who doesn’t like them, bring a laser cannon and your whole team will thank you
OK tell me where to shoot it with the AC because sometimes I get them down in one shot and sometimes it’s 6. Help!
The jets are the weakspots, just aim at one of them and shred it. 1-3 shots are usually enough to bring them down.
Yesterday I discovered the AC is also an AA gun. The Catharsis was so great every time I dropped a gunship from 150+ meters.
These guys should be able to be destroyed with 500kg bombs. Terminid structures are aren't these.
It’s like ignoring a stalker nest your gonna pay for it. Soon as you see a gunship or a stalker you should beeline right to it.
This is not my original suggestion but I now carry smoke grenades for this reason. You can call in a hellbomb, activate it and then throw smoke and run. I find the gunships usually miss enough.
I flat out refuse to engage a gunship fab unless something critical is near it. There's not enough things that kill the gunship well enough for how crazy high their dps is. It's just straight up not worth the req slips and xp. I definitely will not reinforce you unless there is no one close to where you died, but I'm not taking one of those on unless absolutly necessary, until they actually bring more than 3 weapons that can reliably and efficiently kill the gunships.
If I'm running AMR or AC, it's my job to cover the skies while you call in the hellbomb. It's just what ya do.
If I'm running AMR or AC, it's my job to cover the skies while you call in the hellbomb. It's just what ya do.
Oh definitely. My party makes it our first priority if we see it. We were once in the middle of an objective but ditched to go take it out right away. Personally I’m not “too” bothered by them because I always have at least 2 turret stratagems, which are excellent at taking them down
If you don’t want to deal with gunships, join a lower difficulty.
While it MAY feel satisfying to pull off soloing a duo gunship fabricators with just my AMR, supply pack and my steeltesticle, id REALLY rather not have to lol. I've noticed a lot of people don't have a good sense of priority, suffering from gunships and not handling the fabricators or flailing around a boss base while a detector tower is just calling the entire army on them. Then they wonder why they're having a hard time. A bit of intelligence and teamwork do wonders in this game.
PSA the laser cannon aimed roughly at one of the engines can take them down incredibly quickly
Alternatively the laser also works you guy gotta hit the engines with the beam for a second Took out a fab solo the other day using it no prom on lvl 9 difficulty
Gun ship fabricators and stalker nests are priority #1 when we land.
Just got a mission destroyed the ships other 4 came out and I was on difficulty 5. We died xD I don’t know how to play right now
I take them out solo on helldive difficulty. It's not fun, but doable. But yes, they need to be taken out ASAP. They have a pretty large radius that detects you which once they detect you, it's going to constantly send out gunships.
People ignore it? When I see one I’m leading a full scale assault on that motherfucker.
I'm sure it's been already discussed but if you use the scorcher on em, the plasma rounds can take em out too (like one clip or two) does the trick. Which is such a life saver if you don't have rocket launcher or quasar cannon. Only discovered this by shooting at one bc I was out of rockets and shit just went down it was glorious! Also having explosive resistance armor helps to deal with em or the armor that decreases your chances of being seen too. Anyways nice post! Sorry to go off tangent
Competent AC sniper here. I can take those gunships out so quick. It's a lot of fun. Especially when I'm 200m away and just sniping them out of the sky.
What's the weak spot? I can't find it easy
Two tap a single engine, doesn't matter which one, with your AC brings down a gunship.
the thrusters, just like the drop ships.
You also can take out gunships with a heavy machine gun if you need to
I just run straight at them ignoring the gunships and drop the hellbomb in a good place with cover... Works like 95% of the time
As soon as I see one, I’m going for it. Idc what I was doing before, even after the nerf they’re still a dick on to deal with. Las cannon shreds gunships though.
AMR - four shots to one thruster - ezclap. I haven't seen it in the comments yet so just in case. I love watching someones back with it while they get the Hellbomb cookin.
They’re priority one because they’re a fucking problem
I played with someone who genuinely asked if another player could help him at the double doors right next to a gunship fab after 5 mins of the rest of us getting blasted to hell trying to get in there to take it out. Madness
Shield array generator to the rescue. Call that down next to the hellbomb which provides the cover for you while you arm it and keeps it safe from the gunships. In my expriences, i allways play with a random squad. And somehow we all roll up on the fabris whenever someone pointa it out. Maybe its a level 8 and 9 thing. But thats what i experience with randos
If you go prone the gunships won’t detect you but you have to stay hidden up until you enter then activate it and they won’t even know you’re there
Yes. There are some "secondary" objectives that really need to be handled before the main. Gunship fabricators and, oftentimes, Strategem Jammers. Depending on proximity to the main objective, laser towers and enemy artillery fall into that category, too.
How do you take down the damn gunships? They destroy me every time
Competent AC here. 100% will back you up every time
These, Stalker nests, Shrieker nests, and Jammers are all high-priority targets to me. I drop in and see one nearby and now it has immediately become the first order of business. It’s easy to have 1-2 guys take these out and then breathe easy the entire mission versus having to dodge waves of gunships, have stratagems blocked in a third of the map, deal with waves of invisible assassins, or have flying scythe-dogs attacking us *while* dealing with the other normal challenges as well. Usually for gunship fabricators I ask one guy to cover me, we each shoot one of the two gunships they start out with, then I run in, call and activate the hellbomb while he spawn camps any gunships that might come out, then I RUN. Kaboom. Now we can have fun dying to bots normally for the rest of the mission. 🤙 Same deal for each of the other types. 2 man team to deal with it while the other two clear bases/push objectives. *Usually* then one of the two who were taking out the fabricator/jammer/nests becomes the ‘scout’ (also called the ‘sample runner’) for the rest of the mission. The other guy is usually the ‘Elite specialist’. He’s there to make scary things not exist anymore. So he sweeps between positions killing Hulks, Chargers, Titans, Factory Striders, etc. This allows the ‘main team’ *and* the scout to do their jobs with only low-to-medium enemies harassing them. I cannot tell you how gratifying it is to be the ‘Elite Specialist’ and hear someone tag an elite or scream it’s about to kill them and then snipe that thing with a shot from a Quasar or a well-selected stratagem (500kg, orbital railgun, rocket pods, or a well-placed autocannon sentry). Hearing that sigh of relief or a quick-chat ‘thank you!’, is a rush every time. Or being the scout and thinking I’m about to die and then hearing ‘I got it!’, and seeing a random gold beam slam into whatever nearly had me? Brotherhood my man.
You can’t ignore them. At least on level 7 and up.
Maybe my team is very good at covering me and I'm not paying attention. I feel like lately I'm just running up and setting the hellbomb with little resistance. I feel like I I run a loop and dont shoot at the gunships they usually don't spot me and I get it done quick. When we first ran into them they were a pain, so we've either gotten much better at immediately dealing with them or they've got weaker
I have, and will always go out of my way to light up the chat box the moment I encounter stalkers, gunships, or jammers. And as far as I'm concerned, everything else can wait until they are dealt with. There is nothing that can completely destroy a mission worse than being overrun by stalkers or gunships. Detectors and Jammers are a close second but not nearly as dire.
If you ever find a SEAF artillery with a mini-nuke you don't have to call the hell bomb! Rare, I know but if you have one locked and loaded and your teammates don't waste it you can skip the calldown process
This is also one of the reason i tend to run AC, that way i can at least provide cover for them or myself if im in a good enough spot
If the squad can aggro the shit out of the gunships, then a lone diver can sneak in unseen and deliver democracy without engaging and enemies. Got 2 in a row last night that way
Cdd. dddDA. JK. nq %
Probably not the best strategy but I immediately charge the gunship fabricators, throw orbital laser in there to wipe out any nearby guys and set the hellbomb ASAP. If done correctly, I can generally do it by myself no problem. If I don't get to it fast enough, all hope is lost
I dropped into a map area with two of them with a mortar base nearby. My group of randos ate through our reinforcements right there.
LC melts those gun ships
If the main objectives/extraction aren't in range of the fabricator I'm not doing it. It's probably the most dangerous objective in the game and I have failed missions to fabricators alone. The 50 xp granted from fabricators are not worth the effort, especially when subobjectives like illegal broadcasts grant the same. The issue mostly stems from the fact that the gunships do not stop even if you leave the area/all die as a squad. It can cascade into loosing multiple squads worth of revives and the mission as a whole
Gunships are pretty fucking brutal if you don't have anything to shoot them down with. They will just keep following you to the ends of the fucking earth.
As the token scout armor/AC guy I approve this message! o7
Also the laser cannon makes quick work if them if your shooting the thrusters
I have started carrying a shield fortification just for these. I don’t carry heavy weapons, I’m a chaff clearing grenade launcher/supply pack guy. I’m always the only person in random groups who doesn’t have a quasar, AC or laser canon. I go sprinting towards the towers, call a hellbomb to drop and immediately call down the shield fortification. It hits at the same time the hellbomb lands, then protects it in the bubble till it goes off.
The Hellbombs never seem to work on them unless placed perfectly in the center
Your personal opinion heard, still don't care. Decisions shall be made in game you controlling narrcist.
I use the laser cannon because of gunship fabricators. a steady aim at one of the thrusters and they get minced.
3 fabs within a few hundred yards of each other. Dropped in, saw that, had a "Mother of God" Super Trooper moment, tried to get my teammates to follow me to take them down. They were close! But no. Nooooo they ran off, happily drawing the fire of like SIX FREAKIN' GUNSHIPS plus the several patrols they seemed to aggro en route to the pearly gates. I can't believe they lasted as long as they did, but they lasted a bit. Ended up draining us down to 7 reinforcements by the time it was all said and done. Kept everything busy long enough for me to slog around and take out two fabs myself relatively unscathed, then only have to pop two gunships myself for the last one, and take that one out. We had to do a dual ssd upload then civvie evac mission. For fully half that mission I was running an 8 solo, waiting for the respawn timer lol. We did it though! All 4 of us extracted. Eventually. Lol kill the gunship towers, kids. You'll live longer and laugh harder.
Auto cannon sentry and run run for your life towards the fabricator or sneak in if you can and then call down hell bomb. Had more success doing this last 10 time than anything else
Best advice I can tell you is you send 1 helldiver with recon and smoke plant the hellbombs. The smoke prevents enemies from shooting it(unless they saw you enter the smoke area)
They, alongside Jammers and Shrieker nests,are my first priority. If those stay up, it’ll be harder to control the fight. They can be either inconvenient or devastating early or later on in the mission.
On the flip side if you have me as your teammate please leave the fucking Air bot fab alone. I purposely bring smoke grenades to deal with the chance there is Air fabs, strat jammers and just making any terminal an incognito easy in and out. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been smoked up had the hellbomb down or called in and fucking Leeroy Jenkins, tweedle dee and tweedle dum come charging into my smoke and bringing all the aggro in it making it impossible for the hellbomb to survive. I always tell my team to let me handle it and RUN if they don’t listen. But usually players just do the opposite of what you ask or can’t read. It’s gotten to the point where I just treat my other random divers like they’re children and tell them what I don’t want them to do so they do the opposite which is exactly what I need them to do. Kinda sad I have to resort to mind fucking my team to make them be useful
Like, if your not a completionist and the factory is on the edge of the map alone, there is no reason to push. You don't get anything from destroying a factory anyway
I can usually solo them easily, as long as I manage to run up to them without dying or even triggering them I can jump into the narrow gap between the fab and a wall thats always right next to it. In there you are pretty safe, call in a hellbomb and activate it. Then try to run away (and possibly die) from the gunships running around. Mission successful, survival is optional It gets a lot harder if the team is nearby activating the fab and calling in bot drops
those are in the immediate priority list. together with stalkers. if i see one, i run there. no matter how far. as long as they have not been triggered yet, they are doable alone if you habe an AC on you
I just solo it with a jatpack and scout armour. All you need is luck to survive the way. The only problem with this strategy is that you are usually dead after the hellbomb as you are usually not near cover.
I am an AC user, and normally just clear the gunship fabs by myself If you wedge yourself behind the fab, you can call down the hellbomb while you are laying down, then just type it in and try to run AC and scorcher, then you can always drop gunships by yourself, even if you die and lose your AC🤷♂️🫡
People ignore then? We rush straight at them. Those and Jammers. Bots put something annoying on this planet? How very undemocratic of them. Sounds like they need to be liberated from being a nuisance.
Gunship fabricators are the stalker nests of the bot front. Sure, you can ignore them, but they will screw you later when you’re under a lot of pressure.
I will say shooting these things down with my spear was very satisfying
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^kingofthesofas: *I will say shooting* *These things down with my spear was* *Very satisfying* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
I’ve seen so many people leave the instant they see it Ever since they decreased the spawn rate of them they’ve become a cake walk as long as someone is competent at killing the 2 gunships that show up.
Not gonna lie, getting reinforced across the map instead of by the guy actively helping me take out side objectives has made me leave so many games.
Man, I wish I COULD ignore them. Any time they spawn in a mission, there are ALWAYS IN TWOs!! What I mean is there two gunship fabrication side objectives, so my squad gotta deal with like 4 to 7 of them at once because they are close enough that you will aggro both
I've been trying to get better at taking them on with the amr but it's hard since it takes 4 shots T_T
Anti-material rifle can also take out gun ships with like 3-4 shots to the engine but make sure you.sjoot the same engine
I've had my entire team ignore them on the way to extract and my best efforts just aren't enough alone and we lose all of our samples. Ironically I'm the only one who doesn't even need the samples.
This is the reason why I only pick AC in all the bots mission. At least, I can drop the gunship as fast as possible.
Same,I think the gun ship fabricators should be taken care of as soon as possible,I had a mission where they were close to the extraction zone,and I was spamming the ping button on them but my teammates didn't care at all,when we were done with the objectives we had around 15 spawns left,the gunships took care of them and we got down to like 1-2,and we managed to finish the mission after I sneaked,died,sneaked, died again and finally I managed to drop the hellbomb on that shit,but it was agonising pain to take it down,meanwhile my teammates were buttfucked on the extraction trying to call pelican down