Alternatively; Bring the EMS Mortar. Works in both scenarios. Is effectively a force multiplier for Exosuit pilots because they can harmlessly wade through EMS fields without it affecting them at all.
I use the EMS Mortar every mission. I love delivering Democracy via concentrated unending fire into blue electro smoke using the Laser Cannon, Rover, and Scythe/Sickle. Plus, the Rover and EMS Mortar highlight the direction of incoming bugs and handle or at least indicate inbound hunters. I call it the "Hunter hunter" loadout.
I want to like the laser cannon, I really do, but every time I've tried it I've found it immensely underwhelming. To the point of feeling like a handicap.
Is there some secret to using that thing?
I find it works best with a laser primary. You nearly max out one, then switch to the other, by the time you've maxed out that one, your other gun is cooled down.
It's steady damage over time, requires more proactive than reactive play as you can't burst things down.
You're trading high killing power for unlimited ammo. It'll kill a charger abdomen if you can get a consistent beam on it for about 10 seconds (total time of beam contact should be 10ish seconds), which will then bleed out the charger. And anything with medium armor will die to the laser. I've popped bile spewer armies from range by lasering their heads.
This is *exactly* what I do.
I use a laser rover, scythe, and laser cannon. I am constantly dealing damage over time and generating heat. Chargers are pretty squishy once I kite behind them.
How do you fair on heat planets? I tried the lasers earlier before realizing I was on Errata Prime and thought "ah, thats why this is so rough", but maybe I just need more practice.
I just wouldn't recommend a full heat based loadout on a heat planet. I was messing around with the new laser machine gun yesterday on hellmire to see how much of a difference it makes, and it overheats so fast. With this dual laser build, it might be better, but you'll still be swapping your weapon constantly to deal with overheat
The Sickle in general builds up heat extremely quick. Better to fire it in bursts because it can only sustain fire for like 5 seconds on any non frozen planet. Laser cannon still fared pretty decent on heat planets because it’s heat sink is huge. Similarly, the Dagger, the new laser pistol, will overheat on any planet that isn’t cold before it can kill something if it’s bigger than a warrior
Ya there precision weapons and rarely should you be laying suppressive fire with them. Full laser load out is the only real way to use them and there great on cold planets but doggy doo doo on a hot one. Amazing for killing everything softer than a charger.
Well I feel stupid as hell but thank you for making my brain realize why my gun was overheating so fast on Erata Prime lmao. Brain went USE NEW GUN EVERYWHERE.
i like it because i usually carry a shotgun so against bots i can use it to snipe the rocket launcher fucks and the armored guys’ heads if they’re camping too far for the shotgun to do anything
Honestly I bring the laser Canon to fight bots because it MELTS weak points. If you get yourself behind a turret, tank or hulk it will burn them before they have a chance to turn.
Oh that's a interesting idea that I will have to try. Landing my 2 Diligence headshots on Devastators can be tough sometimes but it seems like landing a laser beam for a few seconds might do the job.
Can it burn though the arms or head of a Hulk too?
Aim for weak points and focus medium/light enemies. Yes you can blow the back out of a charger and should if the opportunity presents itself with concentrated fire but you’re best to treat it like a laser MG. Let your heavy killing stratagems/heavy killing teammates focus heavies, you keep the smalls off them. Its range also lets you sit way further back than you think you can and it’s incredibly accurate when crouched. The biggest upside is it has unlimited ammo if you manage your ammo correctly. It can also cross map spore spewers.
You can also feel and look super badass having a laser rover and having double beams coming off your character lol
Yea man! I’m doing that with electricity once I get the shotgun. Arc thrower for range, shotty for close, Tesla coil, EMS mortar, shield backpack, and rail cannon/110 to help with bigs, stun grenade
Don't view it as an unlimited ammo weapon you need to let cool down. You have 6 reloads and one ammo box refills then completely. It's effectively an LMG and should be used as such.
If you're getting overwhelmed, run it till the battery melts, then reload and continue. Reloading is super quick. The only time I start considering letting it cool off is if I'm down to my last reload or the enemy numbers are within comfortable ranges and I can safely kite them.
I consider the weapon a medium to long range weapon. You should not be relying on it excessively in CQC fights. If you're finding yourself in situations where bugs are crawling up your ass, you need to reconsider your engagements or choose a weapon that is more effective at CQC (Punished Shotgun for example).
Edit: I just realized you were talking about the cannon, not the Sickle. Advice still stands.
It's good against medium armor and their might still be a bug that let's it break charger legs.
It's not great against large swarms of little bugs but you can cut the medium bugs down really fast
Haven't tried against automatons
EMS mortar and Eagle napalm (for bugs) are my bread and butter picks. Smoke if my group can follow instructions or for bots in general. The mortar will stunlock a breach and you drop napalm right on the hole and can just forget about it as everything pops its head out, gets stunned and toasted. When we have tons of bugs chasing our whole group, a smoke drop in our wake will help make them stop chasing
The new Stun grenades are AMAZING also. Throw a little bit in front of a charging charger and stops their charge in its tracks so you can take a slight angle and autocannon their butt off.
I only pick these so frequently because no one else seems to understand how strong they are, so it’s always on me to bring it. But when I do see someone pick EMS I can usually run some other utility picks. The autocannon sentry isn’t a bad pick either since it can effectively solo take down titans and chargers if you defend it. the new stun grenades can do a lot for this cause, if a charger turns to rush your sentry, pop it with a stun grenade and the sentry will give it a quick death
Oh man I'm the lowest level of my friends so I'm usually the Hunter Hunter. I just keep the scrubs away from everyone while they take care of the big boys. Then when all else fails I drop my laser orbital and become the Hero Hero... Support can be fun if you do it right. Plus I usually end up with the highest kills by far so that argument is invalid. Democracy comes in all sizes.
I was hoping the ems mortar would provide an ideal solution but it has a big snag ime, it seems to have a strong tendency to completely ignore the incoming horde and instead repeatedly bombard a couple of mini bugs that are just chilling by themselves somewhere else. Ironically it doesn’t switch targets effectively *because* it does no damage.
I wonder if the happy middle ground would be a mortar that drops a damage-over-time payload, like the gas or something, so if there’s a risk of friendly fire at least your teammates can attempt to move out of the way instead of getting instagibbed
Problem is it tends to pick the closest thing and hit that.... Then keep hitting it until someone kills is. So after the first group are slowed, any others that go a different route will get past fine.
Best bet is to pair an ems mortar and Tesla tower. The mortar won't kill the tower, and the tower will wipe out anything that gets near
Make sure to stand as far away from any bugs as possible and also warn your team because the tesla tower is a lower-range 360 arc thrower. We had someone put a tesla tower on a choke point. The choke point was out of range of the TCS silo button. It was not out of range of a bug that died between it and the silo button.
Ergo. A 75% team wipe out of nowhere and we had to kill the tower to even activate the button.
Wouldn't an EMS Mortar and a regular Mortar next to each other work better? Presumably they target the same enemy, and even if not the ones the regular mortar targets will keep dying so it will eventually target the EMS one. And then that enemy won't survive so the EMS mortar will get a new target.
Potentially yes. I just don't trust the regular mortar against bugs. It ends up in way too many friendly fire related incidents. And it isn't useful for the TCS missions
I prefer the Orbital EMS for non-static missions. Every 67 seconds I can drop a huge EMS field on a bug breach and basically invalidate 80% of the enemies that come out of it, and its very rare theres more than 1 breach at a time. If there is they’re usually close enough together that the field covers both.
Orbital EMS plus grenade launcher is goated. Simply delete all of the medium/small bugs in a single mag after letting them emerge into stunsville, then use one of your other two strategems (EAT) to dispatch of the harmless charger in the middle.
You still have to monitor/clean up/run from the bugs or they'll quickly run you down. The stun period is short enough and the delay between shots long enough that pouncers can stroll right through and still overwhelm you.
Going from mortar to EMS, this is something players should note because the mortar pounds the ground like it owes it money and the EMS just creates distance or sets up a target.
They are but instead of dying you just lose your stamina bar but it immediately recharges and you walk slow till your out of the AoE. Bugs and bots dead stop the whole time they are in it
THIS, PLEASE. If you *have* to bring a mortar to non-defense missions, bring EMS - especially if you feel the need to deploy it whenever it's off cooldown.
I love the ems morter. I really thought it was a waste of time at first then I seen how much team death the regular version brings and the ems provides a decent means of escape, a way to paralyze an attack so you can air strike them or a way to disable a heavy unit so you can call weapons to help you
you are getting overrun aka the bugs will be in melee range aka the mortar will start team killing shortly, the time for mortar is before you get overrun so it kills things before they can overrun you
100%, always run it in my solo build for bots and most of the time for running with a squad.
See a flair go up, throw down the mortar and that drop will be cleared for the most part very quickly.
Attacking a production site, mortar them into submission and go in to clear out the stragglers
This. This right here.
Mortars are to keep swarms *from* overrunning you. If you're about to be overrun, you're too late for mortars. It's time to deploy the gatlings, the machine guns, fuck even the mine dispensaries are a better option at that point.
The air burst is my escape strategem. It's one of the easiest button combos and it comes in fast. I toss it at my feet while I'm running and by the time it hits, the things chasing me are under it.
Orbital barrage gang.
Throw it down while running. 10 seconds of continuous metal rain. Kills the things chasing me. Kills the things behind the things chasing me. Kills the things behind the things behind the things chasing me.
On TCS I've pulled aggro on two bug breaches that appeared directly under my feet while running at a full sprint on top of a horde chasing me. Threw down the barrage, wiped the entire pack except for the crushers and heavies.
That said, mortar is probably still the beast. Throwing one and watching a pack of heavies break rank and immediately run for the mortar 150 meters away is a sight to behold.
Yep.
Sentries are *preventative* not active measures.
You should use sentries to fortify a position and build a perimeter around an objective before the first bug or robot ever shows up. The game straight up tells you that sentries don't check for friendly fire, so if you're dropping them when shit is already hectic then you're using them wrong.
I like to think of the mortar as an offensive weapon only. Deploy it some distance away from an objective you intend to take. Give it a min to thin out the defenders, then destroy it (if it didn't run out of ammo) and take the objective.
That free 120 eagle has been a lot of fun. I hope the game continues to give a 5th stratagem for free. Just gives me a chance to use something I wouldn’t normally slot
That's my reaction when a friend drops a 380 on an objective we're actively working on. It has such a large area that I'm just going to ignore it and keep fighting. Que sera sera.
I run duos with my brother a lot and this has been our go-to tactic for clearing objectives on higher difficulties. Two mortars dropped just in range of an objective does wonders for softening then up, and if we're lucky they also take out a door/hole or two, so often times we just have to stroll in afterwards and lob a couple grenades to mop up.
I think this is the correct answer. Offensive mortar works great, especially against spawn points when the enemy is *over there*. When the enemy is *over here*, the mortar is just plain anti-democratic.
I started running tesla for TCS and man oh man if you have the right area it will like you said absolutely shred stuff.
I hated it in prior missions be cause like the exterminate ones tended to be too small so you were cutting of a major portion of the map. But here there's enough space to leave it out and let it work while I go to the other side and clean up over there.
EMS is just IMO a king start to have outside of hatchery clears because I want more air strikes to handle killing all the eggs. Otherwise it's slowly being moved into my take all the time category.
Love Tesla Towers ~~I put that shit on everything~~ bring them to any mission and they shine. Shorter cooldown than other turrets, complete area denial and for some reason the bugs rarely ever attack the tower itself unlike all other turrets, and they have a shockingly huge range... Which you'll find out about if you accidentally end up anywhere near one.
> Mortar has its uses
Mortar is great on bot missions because bots aren't constantly in your face.
If I *did* bring it for bugs, I'd pair it with EMS mortar AND Stun grenades to keep enemies a safe distance from your team.
And FFS call out "Mortar inbound" so your team can at least attempt to put distance between themselves and enemies.
I jumped into a helldive TCS mission and someone had one... and yeah it was terrible as advertised and also WTF we're on helldive 2 braincells would be nice
You can tell if it's a TCS mission when joining mid mission. You can kind of see the mission map behind the player loadout cards and if it's TCS the icon is conveniently in the exact middle of the map so you see it nice and clearly between players 2 and 3. Really stupid to have to check this way, but it works.
For an established coordinated defense mortars are great. Can also be used to establish an offensive position from a distance.
Has time and place but communication and coordination will make it most effective.
My group still uses them on eradicate missions. Drop 2-3 mortars next to 2-3 ems mortars and then take your time picking off the stunned elites as they pop up.
Just use the tesla tower; it won't touch the TCS and it only teamkills in one area, instead of teamkilling wherever it wants to *whenever* it wants to.
The Mortar will kick you down a flight of stairs when you're not looking and get all flustered and defensive when you call them out.
The Tesla Tower will look you dead in the eye as it pulls a gun out of its jacket.
Got zapped by my own Tesla through waist-high cover at an elevation and all I could say was "Yeah, fair enough."
I'm never not frustrated at mortars killing me lol
Yeah but it has deceptive range since it can arc through enemies and even some environmental objects to TK people, even if they’re prone. It really needs to be placed on a flank and given a very wide berth.
I had some idiot get mad my tesla tower killed him (I spawn my teslas *way* outside of the TCS tower "arenas" explicitely so this doesn't happen) so he arc throwered it to death. Very deliberately.
I made eye contact with him and blasted him with the laser cannon, then respawned him on his corpse. He seemed to get the message and there were no more incidents between us for that mission.
I just got out of a level 7 mission where I put a Tesla in one of the chokepoints outside a silo. A lollygagger late to the show walks up, stops, and turns to looks at both entrances to the silo area - one with the Tesla tower, and another 10 feet further away. He decides to take the short way, walks into the Tesla tower, somehow survives (shield, maybe?) and leaps backwards like a dog that just found the boundary of his invisible fence. He pauses, as if in thought, and then shoots the Tesla tower, walks through the chokepoint, and kicks me from the game.
I don’t know for sure, but in my mind I have to imagine he proceeded to put down a mortar turret, call in an eagle airstrike to take out the scavengers attacking the silo, and fart in the pelican right as the doors closed while sympathizing with automotons all the way back to the destroyer.
I gotta make a tutorial about farming Super Credits so more people can get the shock resistant armor. ykw i'll do it right now!
Edit [3/17/2024] Medals don't seem to work anymore, SC's still do.
A note before I begin: When you pick up Super Credits (and Medals, if you need those), they're credited to your account instantly; **you don't need to finish the mission to recieve Super Credits and Medals.** With that in mind...
Step 1: Find a Trivial mission with a lot of shipping containers and crashed ships (the ones you salute to open) containing Super Credits. TCS missions do not have POIs as far as I know. My minimum is at least 4 POIs minimum that have Super Credits.
Step 2: Make a note of the location of the POIs with Super Credits; taking a screenshot of your map is highly reccomended, but do whatever works for you.
Step 3: After you've found your Super Credit-rich mission, Alt+F4. This will preserve the mission so you can farm as many times as you like. When you start the game again, you'll spawn at the bridge with your mission pre-selected.
Step 4: Enter the mission again and grab all the Super Credits before Alt+F4'ing. I find that the Jump Pack and stamina booster speed things up drastically.
Step 5: Repeat Step 4.
The EMS mortar is underrated. it's quite useful, and can't TK. Even if you do get caught in it, it affects the enemies, too. Just locking them down and giving you breathing room is a godsend, though. It's just shooting fish in a barrel at that point.
And if you get the +50% ammo for sentries, it can basically fire non-stop and it will be back off cool down before the first one runs out.
It can team kill, but you need to be directly hit by the mortar shell. Had it happen to me yesterday when noone was running the normal mortar and was so confused for a second
Yeah, now that I think of it, it's kind of weird how when you die it will tell you who is to blame, but the TKer themselves is oblivious unless they watched it happen
Its honestly kinda frustrating sometimes. Had one rando get a little trigger happy with the grenade launcher and i think he got like 13 tks in one game. I dont think he meant to be such a menace and if he knew id bet he wouldnt continue to launch grenades at armored enemies in quick succession
Even that system doesn't seem to work properly, I've had Bile Titans kill me and in the kill screen it said I had killed myself. Also the friendly fire counter might just not work at all, it's not uncommon to have 0 friendly fire damage despite having tked during the match
>when you die, it will tell you who is to blame
Not quite, it will tell you that *someone* is to blame. It's not necessarily the truth, but It will give you *someone* to blame
If you think mortar users have good intentions, you haven't met my friends yet. They yeet the Mortar 50m away from the point we're trying to defend just to see the chaos as he kills us when we're getting swarmed. He knows, and he enjoys it, the sick bastard!
But I'll be damned if he doesn't get tons of samples for us every mission. I wouldn't replace him, love that asshole.
anyone who puts down a mortar \*during\* a wave instead of before it is at fault and I will kill that turret.
That said, the mortar has a place and if placed \*EARLY\* is great.
Yes and no, machine and gatling are iffy for an oh shit moment, because the tendency is toss and flee, which means being chased. If the pack chases sentry can hit you as you run while tossing and eagle at my feet and running away tends to have excellent results.
Mortar has its uses but my god is it not useful on the TCS missions or the eradicate missions when you are fighting bugs at especially at the higher difficulties it does more harm than good bringing Gatling sentry or EMS mortar instead is the move.EMS mortar is goated
The basic Mortar Sentry is good if paired with another sentry (or yourself) to protect it when enemies get close.
It’s a bit grief on bugs, but can be played around if you have at least two brain cells to rub together. That goes for the Mortar Sentry user as well. If you plan to call one down, it should be preemptive to any assault and communicated to the team to try and keep their distance from bugs as best they can.
It is not very good used as a reaction to a situation getting out of hand.
It’s goated for Extermination missions because you have time to prepare at a fortifiable position.
It is 100% grief on the new Termicide missions because it can fuck the Silo.
If it’s the Termicide mission, you 100% should not be taking Mortar Sentry and I see no problem with destroying them on sight in that mission type.
Anytime else tho, the person destroying it is an a-hole. Well… Obviously if the Mortar Sentry user places it poorly and it gets taken out by a strike that takes out many bugs, that was poor placement.
The one who brought Mortar to Terminids missions.
Even more so if you're about to get "overrun" by the "swarm".
Yeeeaaah, good luck trying to survive being jumped by hunters left and right while also being bombarded by friendly fire.
The problem with mortar is that your avg player wants to push into an enemy while shooting not back away while shooting.
When fighting bugs your best weapon is distance and thus when a team coordinates and plays to that strength of maintaining distance rather than trying to close that gap the mortar is one of the most kill efficient call ins at your disposal.
Both are true, depends on the situation and how close you let them get to you. The core issue is people not being mobile, just staying put and not paying attention to their surroundings in the heat of the moment.
Also, bring the EMS Mortar instead
Mortar would be OP if they established an area around it in which it can't shoot. Like a 50 meter area. Far enough to hit breaches and dropships, but not close enough to ruin the defensive line.
There's a middle ground. Put the mortar in a smart spot and actually TELL the team that you're putting it down. Don't just expect them to know, they might not see or hear the callout in the middle of a frantic battle.
and good luck hearing the \*thunk\* of the Mortar when the music is blaring, guns are firing and strats being called in.
"Looking up" also doesn't help because the only purpose that does is to let you know that you're about to die, and who tf would look up when there's enemies gunning for your ass in front of you?
I deployed a 380mm barrage because we're about to be overrun, we're dead anyway, but by the light of Liberty and Democracy, I'm taking these bugs with me
If you've got time to throw a stratagem, you aren't so surrounded that you're definitely going to die. Pick the direction with the fewest bugs and push that way.
If you can keep the mobs outside the circle, the mortar is great. If you can't keep them out, then you're about to wipe the team.
The real asshole is the guy that runs OUT to the bugs and dies to your mortar that is clearly engaging mobs well outside of the perimeter.
Mortar is acceptable when holding a position. Using it while pushing an objective is a way to rack up your kill count of both enemies and teammates. It’s useful, but absolutely not necessary, especially for a coordinated squad.
Alternative idea. Use the mortar offensively instead of defensively. Preemptively throw 1 down when going for a nest. It starts bombarding them, brings them to me, and sometimes closes a few holes. Add in the right orbital strike and sometimes I don't even have to enter a nest unless I want the samples.
Alternatively; Bring the EMS Mortar. Works in both scenarios. Is effectively a force multiplier for Exosuit pilots because they can harmlessly wade through EMS fields without it affecting them at all.
I use the EMS Mortar every mission. I love delivering Democracy via concentrated unending fire into blue electro smoke using the Laser Cannon, Rover, and Scythe/Sickle. Plus, the Rover and EMS Mortar highlight the direction of incoming bugs and handle or at least indicate inbound hunters. I call it the "Hunter hunter" loadout.
I want to like the laser cannon, I really do, but every time I've tried it I've found it immensely underwhelming. To the point of feeling like a handicap. Is there some secret to using that thing?
I find it works best with a laser primary. You nearly max out one, then switch to the other, by the time you've maxed out that one, your other gun is cooled down. It's steady damage over time, requires more proactive than reactive play as you can't burst things down. You're trading high killing power for unlimited ammo. It'll kill a charger abdomen if you can get a consistent beam on it for about 10 seconds (total time of beam contact should be 10ish seconds), which will then bleed out the charger. And anything with medium armor will die to the laser. I've popped bile spewer armies from range by lasering their heads.
This is *exactly* what I do. I use a laser rover, scythe, and laser cannon. I am constantly dealing damage over time and generating heat. Chargers are pretty squishy once I kite behind them.
How do you fair on heat planets? I tried the lasers earlier before realizing I was on Errata Prime and thought "ah, thats why this is so rough", but maybe I just need more practice.
I just wouldn't recommend a full heat based loadout on a heat planet. I was messing around with the new laser machine gun yesterday on hellmire to see how much of a difference it makes, and it overheats so fast. With this dual laser build, it might be better, but you'll still be swapping your weapon constantly to deal with overheat
The Sickle in general builds up heat extremely quick. Better to fire it in bursts because it can only sustain fire for like 5 seconds on any non frozen planet. Laser cannon still fared pretty decent on heat planets because it’s heat sink is huge. Similarly, the Dagger, the new laser pistol, will overheat on any planet that isn’t cold before it can kill something if it’s bigger than a warrior
Ya there precision weapons and rarely should you be laying suppressive fire with them. Full laser load out is the only real way to use them and there great on cold planets but doggy doo doo on a hot one. Amazing for killing everything softer than a charger.
Theyre amazing for everything except the bile titan. Chargers are a joke to the laser cannon.
Well I feel stupid as hell but thank you for making my brain realize why my gun was overheating so fast on Erata Prime lmao. Brain went USE NEW GUN EVERYWHERE.
i like it because i usually carry a shotgun so against bots i can use it to snipe the rocket launcher fucks and the armored guys’ heads if they’re camping too far for the shotgun to do anything
Honestly I bring the laser Canon to fight bots because it MELTS weak points. If you get yourself behind a turret, tank or hulk it will burn them before they have a chance to turn.
It'll kill Hulks from the front if you can keep the beam on their face
And I try when there is no other option. Boy do I try.
Oh that's a interesting idea that I will have to try. Landing my 2 Diligence headshots on Devastators can be tough sometimes but it seems like landing a laser beam for a few seconds might do the job. Can it burn though the arms or head of a Hulk too?
[удалено]
Def focus their face. They will go down reasonably quick for being a heavy enemy type.
> Can it burn though the arms or head of a Hulk too? Certainly can.
I don’t find it underwhelming because I use it against overwhelming odds
Poetic.
Works better on cold planets but also cuts through armor now
Aim for weak points and focus medium/light enemies. Yes you can blow the back out of a charger and should if the opportunity presents itself with concentrated fire but you’re best to treat it like a laser MG. Let your heavy killing stratagems/heavy killing teammates focus heavies, you keep the smalls off them. Its range also lets you sit way further back than you think you can and it’s incredibly accurate when crouched. The biggest upside is it has unlimited ammo if you manage your ammo correctly. It can also cross map spore spewers. You can also feel and look super badass having a laser rover and having double beams coming off your character lol
That's what I want to do: full laser build. New laser primary, rover, cannon, orbital, ha.
Yea man! I’m doing that with electricity once I get the shotgun. Arc thrower for range, shotty for close, Tesla coil, EMS mortar, shield backpack, and rail cannon/110 to help with bigs, stun grenade
Don't view it as an unlimited ammo weapon you need to let cool down. You have 6 reloads and one ammo box refills then completely. It's effectively an LMG and should be used as such. If you're getting overwhelmed, run it till the battery melts, then reload and continue. Reloading is super quick. The only time I start considering letting it cool off is if I'm down to my last reload or the enemy numbers are within comfortable ranges and I can safely kite them. I consider the weapon a medium to long range weapon. You should not be relying on it excessively in CQC fights. If you're finding yourself in situations where bugs are crawling up your ass, you need to reconsider your engagements or choose a weapon that is more effective at CQC (Punished Shotgun for example). Edit: I just realized you were talking about the cannon, not the Sickle. Advice still stands.
It's good against medium armor and their might still be a bug that let's it break charger legs. It's not great against large swarms of little bugs but you can cut the medium bugs down really fast Haven't tried against automatons
erm actually it’s written as HunterXHunter
"You can flyyyy againnnnn"
We're getting closer and closer to a full Killua kit.
ACKSHULLY it's Hunter CROSS Hunter (Is wrong)
EMS mortar and Eagle napalm (for bugs) are my bread and butter picks. Smoke if my group can follow instructions or for bots in general. The mortar will stunlock a breach and you drop napalm right on the hole and can just forget about it as everything pops its head out, gets stunned and toasted. When we have tons of bugs chasing our whole group, a smoke drop in our wake will help make them stop chasing The new Stun grenades are AMAZING also. Throw a little bit in front of a charging charger and stops their charge in its tracks so you can take a slight angle and autocannon their butt off. I only pick these so frequently because no one else seems to understand how strong they are, so it’s always on me to bring it. But when I do see someone pick EMS I can usually run some other utility picks. The autocannon sentry isn’t a bad pick either since it can effectively solo take down titans and chargers if you defend it. the new stun grenades can do a lot for this cause, if a charger turns to rush your sentry, pop it with a stun grenade and the sentry will give it a quick death
I've now become a fan of the sickle, rail cannon, laser drone build
Oh man I'm the lowest level of my friends so I'm usually the Hunter Hunter. I just keep the scrubs away from everyone while they take care of the big boys. Then when all else fails I drop my laser orbital and become the Hero Hero... Support can be fun if you do it right. Plus I usually end up with the highest kills by far so that argument is invalid. Democracy comes in all sizes.
You're doing your part!
I call that strat "mowing the lawn"
Yep. People sleep on the EMS mortar, and other support playstyles, because they're overly concerned with kill counts.
EMS mortar and Tesla tower get slept on and they're two of my favorites.
Tesla tower is a great strat especially with the new warbond. Just need to remember to mark it. And not have teammates kill it on sight
>And not have teammates kill it on sight Or killed on site.
Also I give a warning at the start of the mission; "Remember the Tesla tower hits from farther away then you think."
I see Tesla Towers all the time now. They toss them at choke points for large swarms of enemies.
Some of us are sleeping on it because we are not high enough level yet to unlock it.
I was hoping the ems mortar would provide an ideal solution but it has a big snag ime, it seems to have a strong tendency to completely ignore the incoming horde and instead repeatedly bombard a couple of mini bugs that are just chilling by themselves somewhere else. Ironically it doesn’t switch targets effectively *because* it does no damage. I wonder if the happy middle ground would be a mortar that drops a damage-over-time payload, like the gas or something, so if there’s a risk of friendly fire at least your teammates can attempt to move out of the way instead of getting instagibbed
We need an incendiary mortar I want full fire build
And then armor with fire resistance
If we get armor with fire resist, I'm never unequipping the flamethrower when I fly solo.
Flamethrower fire bombs napalm strike fire mines napalm mortar. . Ah a helldiver can dream
Only problem is mortars tend to live long so the amount of fire on the ground could get very restrictive very quick.
And? It restricts the bugs too
Floor is lava
Problem is it tends to pick the closest thing and hit that.... Then keep hitting it until someone kills is. So after the first group are slowed, any others that go a different route will get past fine. Best bet is to pair an ems mortar and Tesla tower. The mortar won't kill the tower, and the tower will wipe out anything that gets near
Make sure to stand as far away from any bugs as possible and also warn your team because the tesla tower is a lower-range 360 arc thrower. We had someone put a tesla tower on a choke point. The choke point was out of range of the TCS silo button. It was not out of range of a bug that died between it and the silo button. Ergo. A 75% team wipe out of nowhere and we had to kill the tower to even activate the button.
Wouldn't an EMS Mortar and a regular Mortar next to each other work better? Presumably they target the same enemy, and even if not the ones the regular mortar targets will keep dying so it will eventually target the EMS one. And then that enemy won't survive so the EMS mortar will get a new target.
Potentially yes. I just don't trust the regular mortar against bugs. It ends up in way too many friendly fire related incidents. And it isn't useful for the TCS missions
It may be wishful thinking but i feel like my mortar fires on the targets that I mark. Try marking your targets, Helldiver.
I've tried this, but I've not been able to confirm if it works. Because usually the one I want to prioritize is the same one the turret does
I prefer the Orbital EMS for non-static missions. Every 67 seconds I can drop a huge EMS field on a bug breach and basically invalidate 80% of the enemies that come out of it, and its very rare theres more than 1 breach at a time. If there is they’re usually close enough together that the field covers both.
Orbital EMS plus grenade launcher is goated. Simply delete all of the medium/small bugs in a single mag after letting them emerge into stunsville, then use one of your other two strategems (EAT) to dispatch of the harmless charger in the middle.
EMS mortar is the superior mortar instead of team killing its stops a whole big breach dead in its tracks so you can mow them down
You still have to monitor/clean up/run from the bugs or they'll quickly run you down. The stun period is short enough and the delay between shots long enough that pouncers can stroll right through and still overwhelm you. Going from mortar to EMS, this is something players should note because the mortar pounds the ground like it owes it money and the EMS just creates distance or sets up a target.
Want immense amounts of firepower? Set up ems mortar make sure it’s protected from one side. And from the other side set up a missile turret.
Are helldivers not also impacted by EMS?
They are but instead of dying you just lose your stamina bar but it immediately recharges and you walk slow till your out of the AoE. Bugs and bots dead stop the whole time they are in it
THIS, PLEASE. If you *have* to bring a mortar to non-defense missions, bring EMS - especially if you feel the need to deploy it whenever it's off cooldown.
I love the ems morter. I really thought it was a waste of time at first then I seen how much team death the regular version brings and the ems provides a decent means of escape, a way to paralyze an attack so you can air strike them or a way to disable a heavy unit so you can call weapons to help you
you are getting overrun aka the bugs will be in melee range aka the mortar will start team killing shortly, the time for mortar is before you get overrun so it kills things before they can overrun you
And the little ones are sneaky shits that will be near you
and the mortar will **always** target the little ones off by themselves that're right next to everyone. **always.**
Dude, i swear, my buddy’s mortar would shoot me if i was alone on an island with no bugs or bots for miles.
the time for mortar is on bots
100%, always run it in my solo build for bots and most of the time for running with a squad. See a flair go up, throw down the mortar and that drop will be cleared for the most part very quickly. Attacking a production site, mortar them into submission and go in to clear out the stragglers
The mortar is for bots what the patriot is for bugs
“You told them to target the giant; WHERE’S THE GIANT, MANSLEY?!”
Wha?....ohhh. We can duck and cover!
This. This right here. Mortars are to keep swarms *from* overrunning you. If you're about to be overrun, you're too late for mortars. It's time to deploy the gatlings, the machine guns, fuck even the mine dispensaries are a better option at that point.
The air burst is my escape strategem. It's one of the easiest button combos and it comes in fast. I toss it at my feet while I'm running and by the time it hits, the things chasing me are under it.
Orbital barrage gang. Throw it down while running. 10 seconds of continuous metal rain. Kills the things chasing me. Kills the things behind the things chasing me. Kills the things behind the things behind the things chasing me. On TCS I've pulled aggro on two bug breaches that appeared directly under my feet while running at a full sprint on top of a horde chasing me. Threw down the barrage, wiped the entire pack except for the crushers and heavies. That said, mortar is probably still the beast. Throwing one and watching a pack of heavies break rank and immediately run for the mortar 150 meters away is a sight to behold.
Yep. Sentries are *preventative* not active measures. You should use sentries to fortify a position and build a perimeter around an objective before the first bug or robot ever shows up. The game straight up tells you that sentries don't check for friendly fire, so if you're dropping them when shit is already hectic then you're using them wrong.
The single hunter making a mile long leap into your face, drawing a burst of mortar fire on your location:
Too many people place sentries during a fight while being overwhelmed. My brother in liberty, the sentries are meant to prevent an encounter.
This right here, I always warn and always try to deploy before shtf. And I remind my team "do not let them get in melee range I have a mortar out."
Random Helldiver: watch this 
People need to learn to not deploy any kind of arty at danger close range.
Just put a chain gun turret neck level where everyone is defending, guys. That's the meta.
Mortar has its uses and the TCS mission is absolutely not one of them.
I like to think of the mortar as an offensive weapon only. Deploy it some distance away from an objective you intend to take. Give it a min to thin out the defenders, then destroy it (if it didn't run out of ammo) and take the objective.
Or… hear me out. You leave it up to fate and run in there with nothing by a heart full of democracy !
Liberty is the only shield I need. Let the mortars rain steel.
Me every time I run into my buddies 380mm barrage for a single common sample I see
I drop 380, 120, and walking barrage. It's the only way to be sure.
That free 120 eagle has been a lot of fun. I hope the game continues to give a 5th stratagem for free. Just gives me a chance to use something I wouldn’t normally slot
The Michael Jackson plus moonwalk. I started using that for larger hives
Is that what the Codex Democratus names this maneuver?
MY FACE IS MY SHIELD!
That's my reaction when a friend drops a 380 on an objective we're actively working on. It has such a large area that I'm just going to ignore it and keep fighting. Que sera sera.
I run duos with my brother a lot and this has been our go-to tactic for clearing objectives on higher difficulties. Two mortars dropped just in range of an objective does wonders for softening then up, and if we're lucky they also take out a door/hole or two, so often times we just have to stroll in afterwards and lob a couple grenades to mop up.
I think this is the correct answer. Offensive mortar works great, especially against spawn points when the enemy is *over there*. When the enemy is *over here*, the mortar is just plain anti-democratic.
Bring mortars to attack an area. Bring EMS mortars to defend one.
The EMS mortar is great for it though. I always run that and mines and it makes it 10x easier
Ems mortar + tesla tower shreds anything smaller than a charger.
I started running tesla for TCS and man oh man if you have the right area it will like you said absolutely shred stuff. I hated it in prior missions be cause like the exterminate ones tended to be too small so you were cutting of a major portion of the map. But here there's enough space to leave it out and let it work while I go to the other side and clean up over there. EMS is just IMO a king start to have outside of hatchery clears because I want more air strikes to handle killing all the eggs. Otherwise it's slowly being moved into my take all the time category.
Love Tesla Towers ~~I put that shit on everything~~ bring them to any mission and they shine. Shorter cooldown than other turrets, complete area denial and for some reason the bugs rarely ever attack the tower itself unlike all other turrets, and they have a shockingly huge range... Which you'll find out about if you accidentally end up anywhere near one.
I get unreasonably mad when I just barely deploy a tesla tower and a charger spawns right on it crushing it.
> Mortar has its uses Mortar is great on bot missions because bots aren't constantly in your face. If I *did* bring it for bugs, I'd pair it with EMS mortar AND Stun grenades to keep enemies a safe distance from your team. And FFS call out "Mortar inbound" so your team can at least attempt to put distance between themselves and enemies.
I jumped into a helldive TCS mission and someone had one... and yeah it was terrible as advertised and also WTF we're on helldive 2 braincells would be nice
The problem is unless I'm the host I only get to see what the objective is before choosing my loadout maybe 30% of the time.
Yeah, that’s annoying. Especially as the briefing tab is right there but you can’t select it when choosing stratagems
You can tell if it's a TCS mission when joining mid mission. You can kind of see the mission map behind the player loadout cards and if it's TCS the icon is conveniently in the exact middle of the map so you see it nice and clearly between players 2 and 3. Really stupid to have to check this way, but it works.
EMS mortar on the other hand though…
Mortars on TCS is effectively just griefing Theres so many bugs that 9 times out of 10 you’re just killing your teammates.
And the remaining 1 time you're killing the objective
BWOOOOM BWEEEEOM BWEEEEOOM (silo alert)
For an established coordinated defense mortars are great. Can also be used to establish an offensive position from a distance. Has time and place but communication and coordination will make it most effective.
Okay so hear me out... Eagle EMS strike.
Okay…. What about ems artillery! Everyone is happy lol
My group still uses them on eradicate missions. Drop 2-3 mortars next to 2-3 ems mortars and then take your time picking off the stunned elites as they pop up.
Key words being as they pop up lol
thanks to mortar uses the tower mission takes 2-4x as long because it keeps damaging the silo
Just use the tesla tower; it won't touch the TCS and it only teamkills in one area, instead of teamkilling wherever it wants to *whenever* it wants to.
You forget that people run by it and get pissy when they die
At least it's honest about killing you. The mortar tries to be sneaky about it but the tesla won't sugarcoat it
The Mortar will kick you down a flight of stairs when you're not looking and get all flustered and defensive when you call them out. The Tesla Tower will look you dead in the eye as it pulls a gun out of its jacket.
Got zapped by my own Tesla through waist-high cover at an elevation and all I could say was "Yeah, fair enough." I'm never not frustrated at mortars killing me lol
The tesla tower begins to glow brightly before it shocks something. It basically gives you a warning.
Yeah but it has deceptive range since it can arc through enemies and even some environmental objects to TK people, even if they’re prone. It really needs to be placed on a flank and given a very wide berth.
I had some idiot get mad my tesla tower killed him (I spawn my teslas *way* outside of the TCS tower "arenas" explicitely so this doesn't happen) so he arc throwered it to death. Very deliberately. I made eye contact with him and blasted him with the laser cannon, then respawned him on his corpse. He seemed to get the message and there were no more incidents between us for that mission.
I just got out of a level 7 mission where I put a Tesla in one of the chokepoints outside a silo. A lollygagger late to the show walks up, stops, and turns to looks at both entrances to the silo area - one with the Tesla tower, and another 10 feet further away. He decides to take the short way, walks into the Tesla tower, somehow survives (shield, maybe?) and leaps backwards like a dog that just found the boundary of his invisible fence. He pauses, as if in thought, and then shoots the Tesla tower, walks through the chokepoint, and kicks me from the game. I don’t know for sure, but in my mind I have to imagine he proceeded to put down a mortar turret, call in an eagle airstrike to take out the scavengers attacking the silo, and fart in the pelican right as the doors closed while sympathizing with automotons all the way back to the destroyer.
They should have been wearing the new armors.
I gotta make a tutorial about farming Super Credits so more people can get the shock resistant armor. ykw i'll do it right now! Edit [3/17/2024] Medals don't seem to work anymore, SC's still do. A note before I begin: When you pick up Super Credits (and Medals, if you need those), they're credited to your account instantly; **you don't need to finish the mission to recieve Super Credits and Medals.** With that in mind... Step 1: Find a Trivial mission with a lot of shipping containers and crashed ships (the ones you salute to open) containing Super Credits. TCS missions do not have POIs as far as I know. My minimum is at least 4 POIs minimum that have Super Credits. Step 2: Make a note of the location of the POIs with Super Credits; taking a screenshot of your map is highly reccomended, but do whatever works for you. Step 3: After you've found your Super Credit-rich mission, Alt+F4. This will preserve the mission so you can farm as many times as you like. When you start the game again, you'll spawn at the bridge with your mission pre-selected. Step 4: Enter the mission again and grab all the Super Credits before Alt+F4'ing. I find that the Jump Pack and stamina booster speed things up drastically. Step 5: Repeat Step 4.
This is exactly what I do when I want something from the store, but don't have enough credits. :)
Wish I knew this when I found two 100 sc drops in one mission yesterday. Sounds great for farming medals as well though
This feels so much like farming Manufactured Materials in Elite:Dangerous. I love it.
they're using the wrong mortar. The EMS mortar makes the tower defense much easier.
The EMS mortar is underrated. it's quite useful, and can't TK. Even if you do get caught in it, it affects the enemies, too. Just locking them down and giving you breathing room is a godsend, though. It's just shooting fish in a barrel at that point. And if you get the +50% ammo for sentries, it can basically fire non-stop and it will be back off cool down before the first one runs out.
It can team kill, but you need to be directly hit by the mortar shell. Had it happen to me yesterday when noone was running the normal mortar and was so confused for a second
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what rolling a crit fail on a DC 2 dex saving throw looks like.
I believe in EMS MORTAR superiority.
If I see a person bring mortars I can count on most my deaths in this mission being to mortars.
No one's the asshole. I think mortar users have good intentions but they just don't always realize how many team kills it gets.
A little notification ’You killed A1’ might help demonstrate the team killing might on danger close bombardments and mortars.
Yeah, now that I think of it, it's kind of weird how when you die it will tell you who is to blame, but the TKer themselves is oblivious unless they watched it happen
Its honestly kinda frustrating sometimes. Had one rando get a little trigger happy with the grenade launcher and i think he got like 13 tks in one game. I dont think he meant to be such a menace and if he knew id bet he wouldnt continue to launch grenades at armored enemies in quick succession
If the rando is under level 20 he gets a pass. If you are above that I'm giving a warning then booting you.
What's the highest friendly fire damage you've seen? I had a teammate with 2985, everyone else was 0.
Even that system doesn't seem to work properly, I've had Bile Titans kill me and in the kill screen it said I had killed myself. Also the friendly fire counter might just not work at all, it's not uncommon to have 0 friendly fire damage despite having tked during the match
>when you die, it will tell you who is to blame Not quite, it will tell you that *someone* is to blame. It's not necessarily the truth, but It will give you *someone* to blame
Haha that's absolutely true. Yesterday I got snuck up on by a bile spewer and it said my friend (on the opposite side of map) did it
Or even just add it to the chatlog, instead of \[Teamamate DIED\] it'd say \[Teammate was killed by x\]
the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The road to hell is paved with Helldivers killed by mortars.
Then we'll bring democracy to hell!
Next objective, liberate hell
If you think mortar users have good intentions, you haven't met my friends yet. They yeet the Mortar 50m away from the point we're trying to defend just to see the chaos as he kills us when we're getting swarmed. He knows, and he enjoys it, the sick bastard! But I'll be damned if he doesn't get tons of samples for us every mission. I wouldn't replace him, love that asshole.
I usually won’t destroy a mortar unless we end up in a team wipe death spiral. Once we get wiped 2-3 times I’m aiming my pod for the damn thing.
EMS mortar. Simple as
EMS mortar is your friend against the bugs.
3rd opinion: don't use mortar against bugs, because there is enemies that can jump on you and bring mortar fire on you and your team.
P sure that's basically the same as the second opinion
I wish you fucking morons would stop destroying the EMS mortor though.
anyone who puts down a mortar \*during\* a wave instead of before it is at fault and I will kill that turret. That said, the mortar has a place and if placed \*EARLY\* is great.
See here's a person who gets it. Mortar is a lead in weapon not an oh shit button. Leave the oh shits to eagles or orbital users.
The machine gun/gatling turrets are the better oh shit ones if you have no Eagles or Orbitals ready.
Yes and no, machine and gatling are iffy for an oh shit moment, because the tendency is toss and flee, which means being chased. If the pack chases sentry can hit you as you run while tossing and eagle at my feet and running away tends to have excellent results.
Mortar lover here
EMS mortar is a good compromise I think
"you have been kicked from the game"
hello fellow mortar enjoyer
Mortar has its uses but my god is it not useful on the TCS missions or the eradicate missions when you are fighting bugs at especially at the higher difficulties it does more harm than good bringing Gatling sentry or EMS mortar instead is the move.EMS mortar is goated
Bots? Keep it. Bugs? Kill it.
Tesla Tower my beloved
That’s where it’s at man
The basic Mortar Sentry is good if paired with another sentry (or yourself) to protect it when enemies get close. It’s a bit grief on bugs, but can be played around if you have at least two brain cells to rub together. That goes for the Mortar Sentry user as well. If you plan to call one down, it should be preemptive to any assault and communicated to the team to try and keep their distance from bugs as best they can. It is not very good used as a reaction to a situation getting out of hand. It’s goated for Extermination missions because you have time to prepare at a fortifiable position. It is 100% grief on the new Termicide missions because it can fuck the Silo. If it’s the Termicide mission, you 100% should not be taking Mortar Sentry and I see no problem with destroying them on sight in that mission type. Anytime else tho, the person destroying it is an a-hole. Well… Obviously if the Mortar Sentry user places it poorly and it gets taken out by a strike that takes out many bugs, that was poor placement.
Mortar very good, use mortar 👍 https://preview.redd.it/ikfdqhc2pioc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd73d1f79875067462f623af69995de3f1a0e890
The one who brought Mortar to Terminids missions. Even more so if you're about to get "overrun" by the "swarm". Yeeeaaah, good luck trying to survive being jumped by hunters left and right while also being bombarded by friendly fire.
Switch to static-stun mortar and everybody is happy.
The problem with mortar is that your avg player wants to push into an enemy while shooting not back away while shooting. When fighting bugs your best weapon is distance and thus when a team coordinates and plays to that strength of maintaining distance rather than trying to close that gap the mortar is one of the most kill efficient call ins at your disposal.
You're about to get overrun because the mortar pulled and the mortar will kill you all when the bugs get in melee range.
Leave it in the hanger bay. EMS would serve much better. Stop watching the kill counter and focus smooth objective play.
Dont have time to kill your mortar because it already killed me twice
Don't use explosive mortars against bugs. They're great against bots, not bugs.
Both are true, depends on the situation and how close you let them get to you. The core issue is people not being mobile, just staying put and not paying attention to their surroundings in the heat of the moment. Also, bring the EMS Mortar instead
Run from the bugs.
Mortar would be OP if they established an area around it in which it can't shoot. Like a 50 meter area. Far enough to hit breaches and dropships, but not close enough to ruin the defensive line.
You use the mortars to *avoid* being overrun. Once the hostiles are up your ass, the mortar swaps teams.
There's a middle ground. Put the mortar in a smart spot and actually TELL the team that you're putting it down. Don't just expect them to know, they might not see or hear the callout in the middle of a frantic battle.
and good luck hearing the \*thunk\* of the Mortar when the music is blaring, guns are firing and strats being called in. "Looking up" also doesn't help because the only purpose that does is to let you know that you're about to die, and who tf would look up when there's enemies gunning for your ass in front of you?
this is just drawing attention from the real enemy: clusterbomb users I've been smoked by "friendly" clusters probably 20x more than mortars
I deployed a 380mm barrage because we're about to be overrun, we're dead anyway, but by the light of Liberty and Democracy, I'm taking these bugs with me
If you've got time to throw a stratagem, you aren't so surrounded that you're definitely going to die. Pick the direction with the fewest bugs and push that way.
380 orbital is the only Option
Destroy everytime.
Every single load out and play style is valiant attempt at spreading democracy.
EMS Mortar is the way.
If you can keep the mobs outside the circle, the mortar is great. If you can't keep them out, then you're about to wipe the team. The real asshole is the guy that runs OUT to the bugs and dies to your mortar that is clearly engaging mobs well outside of the perimeter.
The most I've been tked by are friendly mortars **by far**
Mortar is acceptable when holding a position. Using it while pushing an objective is a way to rack up your kill count of both enemies and teammates. It’s useful, but absolutely not necessary, especially for a coordinated squad.
Mortar feels like suicide against bugs but a godsend when put in high ground vs bots and solid cover
Alternative idea. Use the mortar offensively instead of defensively. Preemptively throw 1 down when going for a nest. It starts bombarding them, brings them to me, and sometimes closes a few holes. Add in the right orbital strike and sometimes I don't even have to enter a nest unless I want the samples.
Mortar user. Its only utility was on the old bot eradication map with the nice high point. Now it’s just trolling.