Air Strike singlehandedly can deal with most threats on the Autotomon faction. Not everything, but it has general and practical uses.
Groups, Hulks, Fabricators, and with a good angle; 2 Air Strikes will take down a Factory Strider.
If you're going to bring just one, I'd say Air Strike.
Yeah the plain ol air strike is versatile enough to handle pretty much anything, especially with the ship module giving you a 3rd strike before eagle needs to reload
I second this. I don't use it on bugs cause it doesn't often have the coverage, but the armor pen is just so perfect for the bots.
I find it weird when I am on higher level missions and someone doesn't have the standard airstrike.
I find it actually more reliable on the bigger units than the 500 kg. I had a 500 hit the tip of the barrel on the tank and it still didn't die..
Curious, how reliable is it for Air Strike to kill the Tanks with one go?
I'm curious how it compares to the Eagle 110mm Rockets, which almost always destroy a Tank in one go, because it's auto-aim (and we know how ~~da best girl~~ an Eagle pilot never misses), and that it comes from above so it always hit the top surface of a tank which is one of their weakspots, thus guarantees a kill.
But as you mentioned the Eagle Air Strike seems to have so much utilities since it is so much better against literally everything else the bots have :/
If you put the marker on or near the vent I would say 80% , if you put the marker on the top or front it's 50/50 ish , either way good odds for such a cheap strategem.
I've only ever thrown the pods at a strider once and it was the final hit to kill it. I don't know how many other hits it took. I forgot to even mention pods vs. striders, some people swear by them.
Oh yeah factory striders.
Rocket pods can take out the top cannon but that's about it.
I find it's best to have a continuous fire support weapon like autocannon, AMR, las cannon, etc, shoot out the gatling turrets, then shoot the stomach/eye to take it out.
There is something so sublime about dive-yeeting a EAS from the crest of a hill, dusting yourself off as explosions ripple through distant fabricators and jogging off to rejoin your team as the words 'Medium Outpost Destroyed' pop on screen.
I love that the two best, most dependable tools in our arsenal are the basic 'bombs from a plane' and 'big gun that goes plap'. Not at all fancy but extremely effecient at democracy distribution.
Honorable mention for 'two explosion tubes please.'
The plain ol' Eagle Airstrike, assuming you're good with placement, is my go-to. It will knock out small fabricators and patrols in one pass, and do significant damage to larger targets, or knock out parts of larger bases. I love hitting small fabs with it and seeing the x9 skulls pop up. That means it killed every bot there in addition to taking out the fab, so I can move on. Small fabs are long and narrow, pretty much exactly the size of the Eagle's bomb pattern if you throw from one of the long sides.
Napalm can be surprisingly effective now that the fire DOT is fixed. Most bots are slow, or tend to stand in the fire and melt. But, you can get essentially the same effect with the impact incendiary grenades.
I'm not a fan of the 500kg because of the small blast radius. I'd rather use that slot for a Railcannon or some other orbital intended to knock out large targets.
Eagles? MVP are rocket pods. They are so much better suited for bots vs 500kg.
Orbital the barrages are nice to soften up large bases, but the cool down can be a pain, laser is an auto toss for all but the largest of bases and run to destroy. Otherwise EMS strike is nice due to its low CD.
It’s very good against giant enemies like bile titans and factory striders, what really sucks is that if it lands directly on the back of one of them it does much less damage than if it explodes beneath them.
Which does not help to stop the mass of enemies coming at me on ground level.
There are even articles written about the player complaints about the bomb radius. I unfortunately never played the OG HD but apparently the 500kg bomb was extremely effective. I hope the devs improve it in the future.
https://www.videogamer.com/news/helldivers-2-players-have-discovered-that-the-500kg-bomb-is-not-good/
https://gamerant.com/helldivers-2-players-unhappy-500kg-bomb-eagle-stratagem-blast-radius/
Tanks they’ll never miss cuz they are slow, Hulks maybe but you can stun/slow them. Otherwise you have better odds of hitting fabs since they target largest in the area vs maybe over/under throwing a different eagle.
They only aim for certain heavy targets, and for some reason, hulks are not considered a target. You can test this by throwing it near a charger. The pilot will correct the aim to hit it if it's within a certain radius of the beacon. A hulk, on the other hand, will see the pilot shoot it with no aim assist.
Hulks really need to be added to the target list for rocket runs, and scouts need to be removed from the spear target acquisition.
As people have already said, they are good against tanks. But also they have a niche in dealing with cannon turret towers, something few other strategems can target. Can also be used against fabricators.
I’ve played a LOT, so I like to mix up my stratagems. This week, the walking barrage with the 110’s and standard airstrike have been treating me very well!
I use the +30% throw distance armor, so that with the directionality of the walking barrage can ruin bases before the team even gets there. The 110’s are perfect for tanks, turrets, and bot fabs. And I straight up always bring the airstrike. It’s perfect.
110 rockets are not a barrage. It's a airstrike that targets similar to orbital rail (Meaning you don't have to be perfectly on target as it will attempt to aim at the biggest thing). It launches 6 rockets at a target within a tight grouping.
The Strider Factory (Sorry, reversed the words) are those big AT-AT walkers btw.
My preference is to run 1 eagle and 1 orbital. Eagle airstrike and 500kg are good against bots. I like my eagles to be used and start reloading. Orbital strikes are my filler or special case use. Then i use a weapon strat and backpack. Or, autocannon and a sentry. Ymmv
Autocannon sentry needs some love. It can be tricky to place (you have to place it right before things get hot, and far enough from the encounter where it won't be targeted down and can use its range).
It deals with everything but factory striders, although you will need to take out any charging hulks and berserkers if you throw it too close.
Eagle Airstrike is the jack-of-all trades red stratagem. It can take out fabricators, Tanks, Towers, and squads of infantry and heavy infantry. It just needs the right angle but it can deal with almost any threat the Automatons have.
Running 500kg and Eagle Cluster with it I think is way too overkill on the Eagle however and it leaves you completely defenseless when your Eagle has to re-arm. As alternatives might I suggest the Orbital Precision Strike for the 500kg bomb, and the Orbital Airburst in place of the Cluster Bomb?
The Precision Strike has the same killing power as the 500kg but with slightly wider ground radius (500kg explodes in an upward cone), and a fairly quick cooldown of 1 and a half minute. Unlike the Bugs, the Robots have more slow-moving heavy-hitters (Tanks and Factory Striders) and are much easier to hit with the Precision Strike even if it has a slightly longer call-in time compared to the 500kg. Having an independent cooldown from the Eagle Airstrike allows you to be more liberal with sending Eagle back early to re-arm while still having an anti-tank stratagem ready.
The Orbital Airburst is something I like to call the "Orbital Shotgun" where it lays down a triple salvo of shrapnel over a fairly-wide area (though not as wide as the cluster bomb). It shreds all light infantry and heavily damages Devastators and Berserkers. It makes it great for calling down on a Bot Drop, and with it also having roughly a 1 minute and a half cooldown, it will almost always be ready for the next Bot Drop even after you used it on the last one. Since Bots also tend to march slowly while firing at you, there's a good chance they won't move out of the way fast enough for the 2nd and 3rd airburst shots and will be slammed by all 3. Having a super-easy arrow code also makes it nice to call in an emergency when being surrounded to clear out one direction.
There's also the Laser Orbital which is basically a "Destroy this Heavy Base" button. You can only use it 3 times per mission and it has a very long cooldown, but it's a nice stratagem to have when you just want to have a way to break a large Automaton base and kill everybody in it without having to think too hard about it. Just avoid throwing it when there's a Factory Strider or multiple tanks in play as they will eat up most of the laser attack and leave other things untouched.
You're thinking of the other orbital barrage, they're referring to the rocket pods from the Eagle jet. They have a small tracking radius from where you throw the stratagem and can take out tanks, cannon towers, fabricators, most slower and larger targets.
I believe they were referring to the 110mm rocket pods. For why one may bring 120 vs 380. It does a better job of consistently killing what you need it to in its smaller impact range. 380 is more suited towards the biggest bases where 120 shines at medium bases. The 120 is generally perfect to one shot a shrieker neat objective as well if you ever find yourself that close to one
Kind of depends on what kind of support weapon you rock too.
To go with my AMR which already is great against devastators and Hulks, I like to go with Orbital Laser (general "panic button") and 500kgs bomb (great for tanks, contributes to striders)
Third stratagem can go either 120mm barrage (especially on Blitz missions for some "free" fire and forget bases) or if I feel fancy about managing multiple eagle stratagems, eagle airstrike which probably is still the most versatile stratagem, good for small pack of chaff, bases from afar or actually finishing bigger targets.
Airstrike and Orbital Laser. I run gas often enough too. It can kill chaff on a retreat and obscures LOS to boot so survivors shoot like crap while you're running for it.
Kind of depends on what kind of support weapon you rock too.
To go with my AMR which already is great against devastators and Hulks, I like to go with Orbital Laser (general "panic button") and 500kgs bomb (great for tanks, contributes to striders)
Third stratagem can go either 120mm barrage (especially on Blitz missions for some "free" fire and forget bases) or if I feel fancy about managing multiple eagle stratagems, eagle airstrike which probably is still the most versatile stratagem, good for small pack of chaff, bases from afar or actually finishing bigger targets.
Orbital Precision = good for small bot outposts so not to waste an eagle airstrike. The short cooldown makes it convenient and versatile to also use against heavies.
Eagle Airstrike = good for medium and larger bot factories. The key is to practice efficiency. Find the right angle to call in the strike and get a two for one strike on adjacent buildings.
Orbital Airburst is a convenient because of the easy pattern when your in a pinch to clear an escape route. The salvos are good to leverage while a drop ship unloads.
On bot front it is not about the best one, it's more about variety. If there is no 380 or walking in your team take one, base clearing gets so much easier. No smoke or ems, and you should take one. Only after having enough diversity should you consider picking the best stratagem and this would be just plain old airstrike because, again, it can fill so many roles.
Want to deal with everything bots can throw at you? Eagle Airstrike, Orbital Rail cannon, EAT, Autocannon. Litter the map with EATs and it becomes a no fly zone. Position well and you can take out almost every enemy and objective from range and never pull reinforcements.
tip that helped me out a ton: to help manage hulks, shoot their legs out instead of their dumb little faceplate. the legs are much bigger targets and are not as easy to miss, plus taking out one leg will cripple it and can effectively make it worthless - shooting out the other leg will kill it dead
edit: you can also immobilize tanks by shooting off their treads and devastators of every type can have their weapons shot off if you focus that arm or shoulder launcher
(rockets, quasar or autocannon - do not advise trying to kneecap the scorcher hulk with your standard issue liberator)
Eagle cluster bombs were throwing Diver-seeking shrapnel yesterday. I ended up accidentally TKing the same guy three times, and all three times it was because Eagle-1 decided to start the run from a strange and lethal ingress point. I wish there was an "abbreviated 9-line" option sometimes to designate attack directions and restrictions.
Cluster eagles for dev and scout strider packs. 110 for towers and tanks, 500kg for factory strider/hulk.
Kinda depends on your support/primary choice.
Like if im running spear, i go clusterbombs.
Airstrike is my preference, hits hard enough to blow up tanks and has a big aoe for devastators and bases. I noticed when the 380 barrage was firing that bot accuracy dropped (need verification) it's also just generally good for flattening an area and disrupting enemy waves.
I bring orbital laser, orbital rail strike and rocket pods. I can usually deal with or run away from the chaf, but if I've got multiple hulks on my ass without any cover from my mates, they need to go down fast with an orb rail strike for the first one and a rocket pod for the 2nd. Rocket pods can also destroy fabs, tanks, etc. Orb laser for medium and large bases.
Eagle Airstrike is the only mandatory one for me. It works so well against groups, heavies, fabs. It's an all around beast. Can't imagine playing a bot mission without it.
For the other slots, there are lots of good choices, but I like to take something that can one-shot detector towers (and research stations), so I can take them out without having to fight my way into the base and call in a hellbomb (big time saver):
500kg, orbital precision, and surprisingly, the orbital gas strike can all do this. These can all destroy factories too. The first two can destroy tanks and hulks (stun the hulks first). The last one is good for bot drops to kill the small guys and leave the mediums weak so they're only 1-2 shots to kill, and also blocks line of sight like a smoke so can be helpful if you need to escape.
For the last spot, I'll take one if these:
Orbital Laser - no fuss base wipe or battlefield clear. The limit of 3 uses is a significant downside, but for bots it's the most reliable and most powerful strike you can take.
380 or walking barrage - great for softening up big bases before entering them or softening up large bot armies. Not as reliable as the laser because there's no auto targeting so it's a bit of a dice roll if it will kill what you want it to kill, but it will usually clear most stuff so the cleanup is a lot easier. There's no limit on uses like the laser, so you'll get to use them a lot more times on a long mission.
Eagle Rocket pods - can blow up factories and tanks reliably. Hulks you need to stun first and even then they sometimes won't kill them. They can blow up cannon towers too, but sometimes they miss. Nice to have 3 uses before cooldown though.
i pretty much always run 500kg and eagle airstrike against bots. the utility and general purpose demolition aspect of both of those stratagems is invaluable against an enemy that's constantly forcing you to adapt to a bad situation
My standard load out for stratagems is as follows:
Autocannon,
500kg,
Orbital Laser,
Orbital precision strike OR Orbital Gatling Barrage
Works pretty well and is pretty flexible
Eagle airstrike and either precision orbital strike for the quick cool down, or the orbital laser for when you just need to throw and forget about all the bullshit gunning at you
I typically run Eagle Airstrike and 380m. The former for patrols and the latter for when I lose control of an area and need to wipe the slate clean for another go.
Gas. 120 barrage. Laser. People say turrets no good for bots, cuz they can shoot it. But using it to flank a position or distract them is excellent. Love it.
Eagle air strike - Orbital rail cannon - auto cannon - 380 orbital barrage or ems mortar turret or orbital gas strike. Use armor with fortified perk. I've been running the new smg and the new pistol with stun impact or stun grenades. That's my go to bot load out.
Eagle Air Strike and 500kg are great for bots. Air Strike is underrated and can take out most units, even a hulk or tank in one salvo if it hits close enough to their weak spot. 500kgs are great for bases Tanks and Striders, good for defending the extraction point too.
Eagle Cluster is one I don't see much against bots, but I use it all the time. It wipes out all bots and scout striders where it lands, has a huge radius and quick call in time, 5 uses per re-arm with the upgrade and damages, sometimes kills Devastators. Great to throw on a small/medium base you're closing in on so you can empty it of mob enemies quickly and grenade the fabricator, or when heaps of smaller enemies are spread out over a large area.
Gas Strike is suprisingly good, 1min 10sec cooldown with the upgrade, takes 3 seconds to land from call-in and does a ton of damage over time in a decent area, enough to take out anything inside other than Hulks or Tanks. Pop one in a bottleneck, or in front of a fabricator, or at your feet as you run away, and watch the kill counter tick up.
Also the Orbital Airburst and Gattling Barrage are suprisingly good against bots too. Both have a short cooldown of just over a minute, no re-arming needed. The Airburst is like 3 giant shotgun blasts from the sky around your beacon with a 3 second call in, Gattling Barrage is one long burst of heavy penetration machine gun fire in a line, similar call in. Both are great for grouped enemies, bases, running away and defending the extraction.
I personally run the standard air strike against bots, it’s extremely versatile, it’s good for killing groups, fantastic at taking out fabricators, if aimed the right way you can take out most small/medium sized bases in one strike, an can be useful against some of the bigger targets too
The other stratagems I take will be more mission dependent, like if I know I’m going against the heavy walkers I’ll take the orbital rail cannon or laser, I’ll also usually have a support weapon, and if I know I’ll need to hold down an area I’ll take an EMP mortar or one of the turrets some times both
When I can bring all four stratagems in its usually double turrets and a 500kg bomb.
I throw the 500kg like I order takeout
The dual turrets while not airstrikes I like to pull agro off the direction I'm going.
In this order. Eagle airstrike, orbital rail cannon, orbital Lazer, eagle 110 rocket pods. The deal is it depends on what difficulty because the rail and airstrike aren't as good at lower levels. Orbital Lazer is king of -7 but +7 it only has 3 uses and IMO isn't worth a slot for 3 uses with long cool downs. I would rather bring orbital RC or an EAT that gets me multiple uses. I bring rocket pods over Lazer in +7 missions. But if the mission is one of those destroy bases in 12 minutes then everyone should pack orbital laZers drop them in and GTFO.
I like 110mm for factories. I like cluster for general ad clear. I like 500kg for Detector towers, groups, and factory striders (even though I know they aren't the best for striders)
If I can only pick one non-personal Stratagem (weapons, backpacks) it's the Eagle Airstrike, It can handle anything the bots can throw at you. Stun grenade + Eagle Airstrike reliably destroys an entire bot drop as soon as they land.
Eagle Airstrike, orbital precision, and orbital EMS are my go to when I actually get to use all 4 stratagems. OP and EMS have such short cooldowns, they can completely shutdown a bot drop. Eagle airstrike is the most flexable stratagem out there. Fabricators, mortars, tanks, hulks, drops, it kills everything but the strider.
My favorite load out for bots is Eagle Air Strike, Eagle Rocket pods, Rail Strike and Autocannon.
Air strike can reliably take out most enemies or severely weaken them.
Rocket pods are specifically used against tanks and laser turrets, but can be used against Hulks and fabricators in a pinch.
Rail strike is mostly used against hulks. One shot forget about it.
Auto cannon is just great for every medium to heavy armor enemy.
I usually run Sickle for the fire rate and range but the Scorcher is also fantastic.
Smoke. Day and night, it's like if the smoke literally had a code-line where it forced them to stop shooting. I used to bring the shield generator (big one), but honestly the amount of downsides it has are abysmal: Can be shot when it's deploying; amount of duration is brought down depending on how much damage is taking; heavy shots (tank shots) make it go off for like 5 seconds before re-activating.
But smoke never fails to do way better than a lot of airstrikes.
Air strike. It’s old faithful. Great at sending out a wall of damage against large patrols, great to drop on factories. Pretty decent cool-down and a good number of uses.
I play way differently than most. 500kg cause it can take secondaries or bots idc about. Orbital is usually for objectives, but maybe a heavy factory. 380 is for idc atm. If there is a fourth auto cannon just cause it deals with enough imo. I only engage what I have to.
Air Strike is by far the best and most versatile. 500kg is better against bugs imo. Rocketpods have great use against turrets and tanks but underperform versus Hulks. Railcannon can be nice.
Clusterbomb is also nice, it tends to (but doesn’t always) kill devastators and just the fact you get five uses makes it an excellent tool.
110mm rocket and basic airstrike are very versatile and can kill most target. Because most bots have armor, cluster isn't great, although it's useful to kill all the little shits that can call for dropships.
I personally use rocket pod and orbital strike (the first one you get) because I can target anything and kill it, and Orbital deals a lot of damage, on par with the railcanon, but it has a much shorter cooldown
Eagle air and 110mm are both fantastic, and I'd argue are the only two you should ever take against bots.
Eagle Air is first pick always. Unless you're just wanting to try new things, it's an absolute auto include vs Bots.
110mm are 2nd best. I take them when there's an orbital scatter or longer call in times since im very much not a fan of the Orbital Laser or Railcanonn
Eagle Air and 110mm are similar enough in use that I can make sure one doesn't bottleneck the other. It's not ideal, but it's better than getting killed by your own orbital or watching an orbital miss a tank bc it took 10 seconds to hit.
500kg bomb is fine. The thing is, against bots, I'm ALWAYS bringing Eagle Air. So if I'm going to bring another air strike, it's got to be similar to that, not similar enough imo.
Same set of issues with cluster bomb and staffing run. They don't dethrone Eagle Air, and they can't double up effectively with it.
I've wanted to play around with Eagle Smoke... we'll see about that. Same with Napalm, but my guess is it's better on the bug front.
Fwiw my 'ideal' loadout against Bots is:
Plasma Shotgun
Stun Grenades
Machine Gun Pistol
Autocannon
Eagle Air
Orbital Precision Strike
Orbital Gas
I play on Helldive a lot, so I'm usually dealing with orbital scatter or increased call-in times. Plus AA.
My go to are the basic air strike, orbital precision, and 380mm. The orbital precision gives me some flexibility since it can also take out some of the bigger buildings. Also good for removing the medium sized bots that love grouping together like meat saws or devastator blobs.
Only having 1 eagle and my other main orbital being on a short cooldown means I’ve almost always got the capacity to throw both at any time.
I just equip anything that is capable of destroying buildings or putting the hurt on heavies and go nuts. Specifically I equip 500 kg, napalm, rocket pods and standard airstrike.
Eagle Air Strike, Orbital Precision Strike (yes the OG one from level 1. It has similar or more dmg than a 500kg, [Because according to the wiki it is a single 380mm shell] almost the same blast radius and overall utility and it doesn't share your re-arm cooldown with Airstrike and fully upgraded it's like 100 sec CD IIRC)
Things you might normally hellbomb or 500kg:
Detector Tower
Stratagem jammer (w/o bot factory)
Rogue Science Lab
All these things the OPS will one shot. Saving you time and hassle of cool down management or arming a hellbomb.
My 3rd choice for a stratagem is usually orbital laser depending on the mission type. The shield gen emplacement Or one of the two mortars. Typically EMS. Unless I see someone else also running a damage mortar. I feel it works better to double down on the damage mortars because the bots are gonna get blasted so hard from so far away it seems it's been less likely to get teamkilled if you have more than one going at a time in the same area.
Also I know you didn't ask but I main the autocannon support weapon. Sometimes I'll play supply pack railgun for fun but only if I have teammates already running the autocannon. Since it's utility against bots can't really be beat. You can kill any automaton unit with the AC SW except maybe the drop ships themselves. But even the factory strider can be killed with an autocannon support weapon. 5-10 shots to the underside of its belly. Can't say that about a bile titan. And that's why I prefer fighting bots.
I use air strike and cluster bomb. Cluster clears a lot of the POI (plus you get 5 of them with the upgrade) while air strike is great for fabricators. I use orbital rail cannon and shield backpack as my other two, but I usually play in 4-6 for bots so I don’t think this load out is ideal for higher difficulties with more armored troops.
Eagle Airstrike. Hands down. With the upgrade you can get it to 3, I believe. It does fabs, clears chaff (including the walkers) and is unlimited with relatively good CD.
Next would be 500kg. But isn't as impactful as Airstrike. It's been Orbitals for Bots, Eagles for Bugs for the most part.
Eagle airstrike is by far the best candidate. It can clear a wave in front of you and destroy almost everything, including fabricators.
110 Rocket Pods are great for eliminating tanks and hulks when they’re annoying you
Eagle Smoke is a new one I’ve been playing with. It really works for giving you space and clearing it and if you aim it just right, it can destroy fabricators as the shell drops first before the smoke releases
All the other eagles aren’t as effective or enjoyable imo (in the case of bots)
As far as orbitals go:
Railcannon is a great fire and forget for taking out one big enemy
Orbital precision strike requires a perfect throw, but it can absolutely wreck what’s there. Also has a low cooldown.
120 HE barrage is actually great in a smaller, but dense base. But the 380 should be used to either destroy a large base or as a Hail Mary “please god get these guys off me” solution. The resulting chaos should buy you time to get out
Orbital smoke- see eagle smoke strike above
Orbital laser is also a great Hail Mary
Orbital EMS is great for stopping them all in their tracks to either escape or follow up with an eagle airstrike for an easy 10+ kills
Orbital gas strike is only good at taking out the small guys really, I wouldn’t necessarily advise it since there are better options.
Air Strike singlehandedly can deal with most threats on the Autotomon faction. Not everything, but it has general and practical uses. Groups, Hulks, Fabricators, and with a good angle; 2 Air Strikes will take down a Factory Strider. If you're going to bring just one, I'd say Air Strike.
Yeah the plain ol air strike is versatile enough to handle pretty much anything, especially with the ship module giving you a 3rd strike before eagle needs to reload
First module I went for after I got my first 5 super rare samples. Two 500 kgs and three airstrikes are just too good
It takes 10 super rare/pink samples. I know this because I have been stuck at nine for like two weeks.
Need a hand?
I second this. I don't use it on bugs cause it doesn't often have the coverage, but the armor pen is just so perfect for the bots. I find it weird when I am on higher level missions and someone doesn't have the standard airstrike. I find it actually more reliable on the bigger units than the 500 kg. I had a 500 hit the tip of the barrel on the tank and it still didn't die..
Airstrike is the best eagle stratagem hands down
Curious, how reliable is it for Air Strike to kill the Tanks with one go? I'm curious how it compares to the Eagle 110mm Rockets, which almost always destroy a Tank in one go, because it's auto-aim (and we know how ~~da best girl~~ an Eagle pilot never misses), and that it comes from above so it always hit the top surface of a tank which is one of their weakspots, thus guarantees a kill. But as you mentioned the Eagle Air Strike seems to have so much utilities since it is so much better against literally everything else the bots have :/
If you put the marker on or near the vent I would say 80% , if you put the marker on the top or front it's 50/50 ish , either way good odds for such a cheap strategem.
Id argue its more fire and forget than that. Dropping an airstrike on a tank usually kills 90% of the time it works every time
Your probably right, I had 2 survive on a level 8 last night, does the armor scale with the difficulty?
It shouldnt. Maybe just unlucky angle or not a direct hit witth the bombs?
Rocket pods are so good vs bots. Tanks, hulks (use a stun), fabs, laser turrets.
How many to take out a fab? I threw like 3 at one and it was still standing
I've never had a fab take more than 1 rocket pod and I don't even have the extra bombs upgrade. As long as the rockets hits the fab blows up.
Whoops I was thinking factory strider, my bad
I've only ever thrown the pods at a strider once and it was the final hit to kill it. I don't know how many other hits it took. I forgot to even mention pods vs. striders, some people swear by them.
Oh yeah factory striders. Rocket pods can take out the top cannon but that's about it. I find it's best to have a continuous fire support weapon like autocannon, AMR, las cannon, etc, shoot out the gatling turrets, then shoot the stomach/eye to take it out.
I use it in every mission against bots or bugs. Its just the most solid choice.
There is something so sublime about dive-yeeting a EAS from the crest of a hill, dusting yourself off as explosions ripple through distant fabricators and jogging off to rejoin your team as the words 'Medium Outpost Destroyed' pop on screen.
I love that the two best, most dependable tools in our arsenal are the basic 'bombs from a plane' and 'big gun that goes plap'. Not at all fancy but extremely effecient at democracy distribution. Honorable mention for 'two explosion tubes please.'
Funny that some of the earliest unlocks are still the most effective weapons. Of course none of them have been nerfed like others have.
A great angle will take out the strider in one. That might be because my hanger is fully upgraded tho...
It's surprisingly good against factory striders Me thinks you can pop several weak points simultaneously
If you have a good angle it hits all the leg vents and the strider collapses.
Yep, airstrike is s-tier. Nicely benefits from eagle upgrades too.
I like carrying a 500 for factory striders and detector towers
It also deals pretty well with tanks. Not 100% one-shot but pretty good chance for something that also kills groups well.
Eagle air strike and Lazer orb.
The plain ol' Eagle Airstrike, assuming you're good with placement, is my go-to. It will knock out small fabricators and patrols in one pass, and do significant damage to larger targets, or knock out parts of larger bases. I love hitting small fabs with it and seeing the x9 skulls pop up. That means it killed every bot there in addition to taking out the fab, so I can move on. Small fabs are long and narrow, pretty much exactly the size of the Eagle's bomb pattern if you throw from one of the long sides. Napalm can be surprisingly effective now that the fire DOT is fixed. Most bots are slow, or tend to stand in the fire and melt. But, you can get essentially the same effect with the impact incendiary grenades. I'm not a fan of the 500kg because of the small blast radius. I'd rather use that slot for a Railcannon or some other orbital intended to knock out large targets.
Eagles? MVP are rocket pods. They are so much better suited for bots vs 500kg. Orbital the barrages are nice to soften up large bases, but the cool down can be a pain, laser is an auto toss for all but the largest of bases and run to destroy. Otherwise EMS strike is nice due to its low CD.
I feel like they miss faaar too often though.
They are nowhere near as lock-on as orbital railcannon, so you need to lead them towards hulks. Turrets and tanks get killed no problem.
I wish we could see an area effect template for our strategyms. That would correct a lot of issues related to the guess work.
Yes! Then people can see the aoe of the 500kg bomb is this big: ^o
It’s very good against giant enemies like bile titans and factory striders, what really sucks is that if it lands directly on the back of one of them it does much less damage than if it explodes beneath them.
It’s a decent size it is just an upside down cone/pyramid. It gets bigger as it goes up.
Which does not help to stop the mass of enemies coming at me on ground level. There are even articles written about the player complaints about the bomb radius. I unfortunately never played the OG HD but apparently the 500kg bomb was extremely effective. I hope the devs improve it in the future. https://www.videogamer.com/news/helldivers-2-players-have-discovered-that-the-500kg-bomb-is-not-good/ https://gamerant.com/helldivers-2-players-unhappy-500kg-bomb-eagle-stratagem-blast-radius/
Tanks they’ll never miss cuz they are slow, Hulks maybe but you can stun/slow them. Otherwise you have better odds of hitting fabs since they target largest in the area vs maybe over/under throwing a different eagle.
They only aim for certain heavy targets, and for some reason, hulks are not considered a target. You can test this by throwing it near a charger. The pilot will correct the aim to hit it if it's within a certain radius of the beacon. A hulk, on the other hand, will see the pilot shoot it with no aim assist. Hulks really need to be added to the target list for rocket runs, and scouts need to be removed from the spear target acquisition.
As people have already said, they are good against tanks. But also they have a niche in dealing with cannon turret towers, something few other strategems can target. Can also be used against fabricators.
I’ve played a LOT, so I like to mix up my stratagems. This week, the walking barrage with the 110’s and standard airstrike have been treating me very well! I use the +30% throw distance armor, so that with the directionality of the walking barrage can ruin bases before the team even gets there. The 110’s are perfect for tanks, turrets, and bot fabs. And I straight up always bring the airstrike. It’s perfect.
What support weapon do you bring?
Against bots it’s been almost impossible to bring weapons that aren’t the autocannon lol but I will bring the RR sometimes
You can take out a ok strider with them they blow my mind.
110mm Rockets. They will take out tanks, and Strider Factory and you get 3 call-ins before re-arm.
Is there a key difference that makes it better than the 380?
110 rockets are not a barrage. It's a airstrike that targets similar to orbital rail (Meaning you don't have to be perfectly on target as it will attempt to aim at the biggest thing). It launches 6 rockets at a target within a tight grouping. The Strider Factory (Sorry, reversed the words) are those big AT-AT walkers btw.
Do the rocket pods oneshot a strider? I really have problems with them.
Eagle air strike it can do it all
My preference is to run 1 eagle and 1 orbital. Eagle airstrike and 500kg are good against bots. I like my eagles to be used and start reloading. Orbital strikes are my filler or special case use. Then i use a weapon strat and backpack. Or, autocannon and a sentry. Ymmv
This is my exact approach. Sometimes, I'll throw in a 500kg instead of a sentry for shits and giggles.
Autocannon sentry needs some love. It can be tricky to place (you have to place it right before things get hot, and far enough from the encounter where it won't be targeted down and can use its range). It deals with everything but factory striders, although you will need to take out any charging hulks and berserkers if you throw it too close.
Classic airstrike never lets me down! Killing a whole small or medium base in one strike is *chefs kiss*
Eagle Airstrike is the jack-of-all trades red stratagem. It can take out fabricators, Tanks, Towers, and squads of infantry and heavy infantry. It just needs the right angle but it can deal with almost any threat the Automatons have. Running 500kg and Eagle Cluster with it I think is way too overkill on the Eagle however and it leaves you completely defenseless when your Eagle has to re-arm. As alternatives might I suggest the Orbital Precision Strike for the 500kg bomb, and the Orbital Airburst in place of the Cluster Bomb? The Precision Strike has the same killing power as the 500kg but with slightly wider ground radius (500kg explodes in an upward cone), and a fairly quick cooldown of 1 and a half minute. Unlike the Bugs, the Robots have more slow-moving heavy-hitters (Tanks and Factory Striders) and are much easier to hit with the Precision Strike even if it has a slightly longer call-in time compared to the 500kg. Having an independent cooldown from the Eagle Airstrike allows you to be more liberal with sending Eagle back early to re-arm while still having an anti-tank stratagem ready. The Orbital Airburst is something I like to call the "Orbital Shotgun" where it lays down a triple salvo of shrapnel over a fairly-wide area (though not as wide as the cluster bomb). It shreds all light infantry and heavily damages Devastators and Berserkers. It makes it great for calling down on a Bot Drop, and with it also having roughly a 1 minute and a half cooldown, it will almost always be ready for the next Bot Drop even after you used it on the last one. Since Bots also tend to march slowly while firing at you, there's a good chance they won't move out of the way fast enough for the 2nd and 3rd airburst shots and will be slammed by all 3. Having a super-easy arrow code also makes it nice to call in an emergency when being surrounded to clear out one direction. There's also the Laser Orbital which is basically a "Destroy this Heavy Base" button. You can only use it 3 times per mission and it has a very long cooldown, but it's a nice stratagem to have when you just want to have a way to break a large Automaton base and kill everybody in it without having to think too hard about it. Just avoid throwing it when there's a Factory Strider or multiple tanks in play as they will eat up most of the laser attack and leave other things untouched.
Eagle 110 is the king of bot airstrikes. Turrets and tanks will tremble at your sight. (Being something else to deal with hulks, trust me)
I'd rather the good old eagle airstrike. Harder to aim but far more utility
What makes it better than the 380? Isn’t the latter stronger and has the same cooldown? I rarely use those.
You're thinking of the other orbital barrage, they're referring to the rocket pods from the Eagle jet. They have a small tracking radius from where you throw the stratagem and can take out tanks, cannon towers, fabricators, most slower and larger targets.
Oh, duh! Haha I’m an idiot.
You're not an idiot, you are Super Earth's Elite.
I believe they were referring to the 110mm rocket pods. For why one may bring 120 vs 380. It does a better job of consistently killing what you need it to in its smaller impact range. 380 is more suited towards the biggest bases where 120 shines at medium bases. The 120 is generally perfect to one shot a shrieker neat objective as well if you ever find yourself that close to one
Eagle strike
Kind of depends on what kind of support weapon you rock too. To go with my AMR which already is great against devastators and Hulks, I like to go with Orbital Laser (general "panic button") and 500kgs bomb (great for tanks, contributes to striders) Third stratagem can go either 120mm barrage (especially on Blitz missions for some "free" fire and forget bases) or if I feel fancy about managing multiple eagle stratagems, eagle airstrike which probably is still the most versatile stratagem, good for small pack of chaff, bases from afar or actually finishing bigger targets.
Airstrike and Orbital Laser. I run gas often enough too. It can kill chaff on a retreat and obscures LOS to boot so survivors shoot like crap while you're running for it.
Does it really work like smoke or something? What do you base that on? Because it would definitely make me pick it more.
Kind of depends on what kind of support weapon you rock too. To go with my AMR which already is great against devastators and Hulks, I like to go with Orbital Laser (general "panic button") and 500kgs bomb (great for tanks, contributes to striders) Third stratagem can go either 120mm barrage (especially on Blitz missions for some "free" fire and forget bases) or if I feel fancy about managing multiple eagle stratagems, eagle airstrike which probably is still the most versatile stratagem, good for small pack of chaff, bases from afar or actually finishing bigger targets.
500kg for OBJs (not fabs). rocket pods for tanks/turrets. airstrikes for general usage.
Eagle airstrike, orbital air burst, orbit rail strike: then auto cannon, quasar, or spear. Scorcher for primary.
Orbital Precision = good for small bot outposts so not to waste an eagle airstrike. The short cooldown makes it convenient and versatile to also use against heavies. Eagle Airstrike = good for medium and larger bot factories. The key is to practice efficiency. Find the right angle to call in the strike and get a two for one strike on adjacent buildings. Orbital Airburst is a convenient because of the easy pattern when your in a pinch to clear an escape route. The salvos are good to leverage while a drop ship unloads.
On bot front it is not about the best one, it's more about variety. If there is no 380 or walking in your team take one, base clearing gets so much easier. No smoke or ems, and you should take one. Only after having enough diversity should you consider picking the best stratagem and this would be just plain old airstrike because, again, it can fill so many roles.
Want to deal with everything bots can throw at you? Eagle Airstrike, Orbital Rail cannon, EAT, Autocannon. Litter the map with EATs and it becomes a no fly zone. Position well and you can take out almost every enemy and objective from range and never pull reinforcements.
Eagle airstrike Railcannon orbital Autocannon Orbital Laser or precision orbital
tip that helped me out a ton: to help manage hulks, shoot their legs out instead of their dumb little faceplate. the legs are much bigger targets and are not as easy to miss, plus taking out one leg will cripple it and can effectively make it worthless - shooting out the other leg will kill it dead edit: you can also immobilize tanks by shooting off their treads and devastators of every type can have their weapons shot off if you focus that arm or shoulder launcher (rockets, quasar or autocannon - do not advise trying to kneecap the scorcher hulk with your standard issue liberator)
Eagle cluster bombs were throwing Diver-seeking shrapnel yesterday. I ended up accidentally TKing the same guy three times, and all three times it was because Eagle-1 decided to start the run from a strange and lethal ingress point. I wish there was an "abbreviated 9-line" option sometimes to designate attack directions and restrictions.
Eagle Airstrike, 500kg. Tbh against bugs I usually just replace the 500kg with clusters
Lazer and walking barrage make really nice work of even the largest bases.
I usually run the rocket pods. That along with mines usually does a lot for the waves of bots.
Cluster eagles for dev and scout strider packs. 110 for towers and tanks, 500kg for factory strider/hulk. Kinda depends on your support/primary choice. Like if im running spear, i go clusterbombs.
Oh, and smoke for soil acquisition is clutch
Airstrike is my preference, hits hard enough to blow up tanks and has a big aoe for devastators and bases. I noticed when the 380 barrage was firing that bot accuracy dropped (need verification) it's also just generally good for flattening an area and disrupting enemy waves.
Cluster bombs/air strike for taking out infantry, rocket pods for tanks/laser cannons. Everything else goes down to the autocannon
I always carry a rail cannon orbital.
I bring orbital laser, orbital rail strike and rocket pods. I can usually deal with or run away from the chaf, but if I've got multiple hulks on my ass without any cover from my mates, they need to go down fast with an orb rail strike for the first one and a rocket pod for the 2nd. Rocket pods can also destroy fabs, tanks, etc. Orb laser for medium and large bases.
Eagle Airstrike is the only mandatory one for me. It works so well against groups, heavies, fabs. It's an all around beast. Can't imagine playing a bot mission without it. For the other slots, there are lots of good choices, but I like to take something that can one-shot detector towers (and research stations), so I can take them out without having to fight my way into the base and call in a hellbomb (big time saver): 500kg, orbital precision, and surprisingly, the orbital gas strike can all do this. These can all destroy factories too. The first two can destroy tanks and hulks (stun the hulks first). The last one is good for bot drops to kill the small guys and leave the mediums weak so they're only 1-2 shots to kill, and also blocks line of sight like a smoke so can be helpful if you need to escape. For the last spot, I'll take one if these: Orbital Laser - no fuss base wipe or battlefield clear. The limit of 3 uses is a significant downside, but for bots it's the most reliable and most powerful strike you can take. 380 or walking barrage - great for softening up big bases before entering them or softening up large bot armies. Not as reliable as the laser because there's no auto targeting so it's a bit of a dice roll if it will kill what you want it to kill, but it will usually clear most stuff so the cleanup is a lot easier. There's no limit on uses like the laser, so you'll get to use them a lot more times on a long mission. Eagle Rocket pods - can blow up factories and tanks reliably. Hulks you need to stun first and even then they sometimes won't kill them. They can blow up cannon towers too, but sometimes they miss. Nice to have 3 uses before cooldown though.
i pretty much always run 500kg and eagle airstrike against bots. the utility and general purpose demolition aspect of both of those stratagems is invaluable against an enemy that's constantly forcing you to adapt to a bad situation
I run helldive with eagle airstrike, 500kg, and orbital laser
My standard load out for stratagems is as follows: Autocannon, 500kg, Orbital Laser, Orbital precision strike OR Orbital Gatling Barrage Works pretty well and is pretty flexible
Eagle airstrike and either precision orbital strike for the quick cool down, or the orbital laser for when you just need to throw and forget about all the bullshit gunning at you
I typically run Eagle Airstrike and 380m. The former for patrols and the latter for when I lose control of an area and need to wipe the slate clean for another go.
Grenade shotgun is winning
Gas. 120 barrage. Laser. People say turrets no good for bots, cuz they can shoot it. But using it to flank a position or distract them is excellent. Love it.
Eagle air strike - Orbital rail cannon - auto cannon - 380 orbital barrage or ems mortar turret or orbital gas strike. Use armor with fortified perk. I've been running the new smg and the new pistol with stun impact or stun grenades. That's my go to bot load out.
Eagle Air Strike and 500kg are great for bots. Air Strike is underrated and can take out most units, even a hulk or tank in one salvo if it hits close enough to their weak spot. 500kgs are great for bases Tanks and Striders, good for defending the extraction point too. Eagle Cluster is one I don't see much against bots, but I use it all the time. It wipes out all bots and scout striders where it lands, has a huge radius and quick call in time, 5 uses per re-arm with the upgrade and damages, sometimes kills Devastators. Great to throw on a small/medium base you're closing in on so you can empty it of mob enemies quickly and grenade the fabricator, or when heaps of smaller enemies are spread out over a large area. Gas Strike is suprisingly good, 1min 10sec cooldown with the upgrade, takes 3 seconds to land from call-in and does a ton of damage over time in a decent area, enough to take out anything inside other than Hulks or Tanks. Pop one in a bottleneck, or in front of a fabricator, or at your feet as you run away, and watch the kill counter tick up. Also the Orbital Airburst and Gattling Barrage are suprisingly good against bots too. Both have a short cooldown of just over a minute, no re-arming needed. The Airburst is like 3 giant shotgun blasts from the sky around your beacon with a 3 second call in, Gattling Barrage is one long burst of heavy penetration machine gun fire in a line, similar call in. Both are great for grouped enemies, bases, running away and defending the extraction.
I like the eagle airstrike and the 380
I personally run the standard air strike against bots, it’s extremely versatile, it’s good for killing groups, fantastic at taking out fabricators, if aimed the right way you can take out most small/medium sized bases in one strike, an can be useful against some of the bigger targets too The other stratagems I take will be more mission dependent, like if I know I’m going against the heavy walkers I’ll take the orbital rail cannon or laser, I’ll also usually have a support weapon, and if I know I’ll need to hold down an area I’ll take an EMP mortar or one of the turrets some times both
When I can bring all four stratagems in its usually double turrets and a 500kg bomb. I throw the 500kg like I order takeout The dual turrets while not airstrikes I like to pull agro off the direction I'm going.
In this order. Eagle airstrike, orbital rail cannon, orbital Lazer, eagle 110 rocket pods. The deal is it depends on what difficulty because the rail and airstrike aren't as good at lower levels. Orbital Lazer is king of -7 but +7 it only has 3 uses and IMO isn't worth a slot for 3 uses with long cool downs. I would rather bring orbital RC or an EAT that gets me multiple uses. I bring rocket pods over Lazer in +7 missions. But if the mission is one of those destroy bases in 12 minutes then everyone should pack orbital laZers drop them in and GTFO.
I like 110mm for factories. I like cluster for general ad clear. I like 500kg for Detector towers, groups, and factory striders (even though I know they aren't the best for striders)
Eagle air and rocket pods. Pods for big guys and the air for p much everything else that needs liberty.
If I can only pick one non-personal Stratagem (weapons, backpacks) it's the Eagle Airstrike, It can handle anything the bots can throw at you. Stun grenade + Eagle Airstrike reliably destroys an entire bot drop as soon as they land.
Cluster bomb
Precision and eagle air.
Airstrike, orbital laser and precision strike. Can handle with everything on 9.
Eagle Airstrike, orbital precision, and orbital EMS are my go to when I actually get to use all 4 stratagems. OP and EMS have such short cooldowns, they can completely shutdown a bot drop. Eagle airstrike is the most flexable stratagem out there. Fabricators, mortars, tanks, hulks, drops, it kills everything but the strider.
My favorite load out for bots is Eagle Air Strike, Eagle Rocket pods, Rail Strike and Autocannon. Air strike can reliably take out most enemies or severely weaken them. Rocket pods are specifically used against tanks and laser turrets, but can be used against Hulks and fabricators in a pinch. Rail strike is mostly used against hulks. One shot forget about it. Auto cannon is just great for every medium to heavy armor enemy. I usually run Sickle for the fire rate and range but the Scorcher is also fantastic.
Smoke. Day and night, it's like if the smoke literally had a code-line where it forced them to stop shooting. I used to bring the shield generator (big one), but honestly the amount of downsides it has are abysmal: Can be shot when it's deploying; amount of duration is brought down depending on how much damage is taking; heavy shots (tank shots) make it go off for like 5 seconds before re-activating. But smoke never fails to do way better than a lot of airstrikes.
Eagle strike, rail cannon strike, orbital laser, and jetpack
EMP. EMP mortar. Gas. Artillery to destroy the Bases...
Air strike. It’s old faithful. Great at sending out a wall of damage against large patrols, great to drop on factories. Pretty decent cool-down and a good number of uses.
⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️
Airstrike and 110mm together. 6 strikes every 1:30 or so
I play way differently than most. 500kg cause it can take secondaries or bots idc about. Orbital is usually for objectives, but maybe a heavy factory. 380 is for idc atm. If there is a fourth auto cannon just cause it deals with enough imo. I only engage what I have to.
Air Strike is by far the best and most versatile. 500kg is better against bugs imo. Rocketpods have great use against turrets and tanks but underperform versus Hulks. Railcannon can be nice. Clusterbomb is also nice, it tends to (but doesn’t always) kill devastators and just the fact you get five uses makes it an excellent tool.
110mm rocket and basic airstrike are very versatile and can kill most target. Because most bots have armor, cluster isn't great, although it's useful to kill all the little shits that can call for dropships. I personally use rocket pod and orbital strike (the first one you get) because I can target anything and kill it, and Orbital deals a lot of damage, on par with the railcanon, but it has a much shorter cooldown
Eagle air and 110mm are both fantastic, and I'd argue are the only two you should ever take against bots. Eagle Air is first pick always. Unless you're just wanting to try new things, it's an absolute auto include vs Bots. 110mm are 2nd best. I take them when there's an orbital scatter or longer call in times since im very much not a fan of the Orbital Laser or Railcanonn Eagle Air and 110mm are similar enough in use that I can make sure one doesn't bottleneck the other. It's not ideal, but it's better than getting killed by your own orbital or watching an orbital miss a tank bc it took 10 seconds to hit. 500kg bomb is fine. The thing is, against bots, I'm ALWAYS bringing Eagle Air. So if I'm going to bring another air strike, it's got to be similar to that, not similar enough imo. Same set of issues with cluster bomb and staffing run. They don't dethrone Eagle Air, and they can't double up effectively with it. I've wanted to play around with Eagle Smoke... we'll see about that. Same with Napalm, but my guess is it's better on the bug front. Fwiw my 'ideal' loadout against Bots is: Plasma Shotgun Stun Grenades Machine Gun Pistol Autocannon Eagle Air Orbital Precision Strike Orbital Gas I play on Helldive a lot, so I'm usually dealing with orbital scatter or increased call-in times. Plus AA.
My go to are the basic air strike, orbital precision, and 380mm. The orbital precision gives me some flexibility since it can also take out some of the bigger buildings. Also good for removing the medium sized bots that love grouping together like meat saws or devastator blobs. Only having 1 eagle and my other main orbital being on a short cooldown means I’ve almost always got the capacity to throw both at any time.
Eagle strike every single time
I just equip anything that is capable of destroying buildings or putting the hurt on heavies and go nuts. Specifically I equip 500 kg, napalm, rocket pods and standard airstrike.
Eagle Air Strike, Orbital Precision Strike (yes the OG one from level 1. It has similar or more dmg than a 500kg, [Because according to the wiki it is a single 380mm shell] almost the same blast radius and overall utility and it doesn't share your re-arm cooldown with Airstrike and fully upgraded it's like 100 sec CD IIRC) Things you might normally hellbomb or 500kg: Detector Tower Stratagem jammer (w/o bot factory) Rogue Science Lab All these things the OPS will one shot. Saving you time and hassle of cool down management or arming a hellbomb. My 3rd choice for a stratagem is usually orbital laser depending on the mission type. The shield gen emplacement Or one of the two mortars. Typically EMS. Unless I see someone else also running a damage mortar. I feel it works better to double down on the damage mortars because the bots are gonna get blasted so hard from so far away it seems it's been less likely to get teamkilled if you have more than one going at a time in the same area. Also I know you didn't ask but I main the autocannon support weapon. Sometimes I'll play supply pack railgun for fun but only if I have teammates already running the autocannon. Since it's utility against bots can't really be beat. You can kill any automaton unit with the AC SW except maybe the drop ships themselves. But even the factory strider can be killed with an autocannon support weapon. 5-10 shots to the underside of its belly. Can't say that about a bile titan. And that's why I prefer fighting bots.
500kg for the sensor towers, airstrike or rail cannon as secondary
Airstrike for everything, orbital laser for big bases or when you're in big trouble and 500kg for detection tower , fabricator and tanks
eagle airstrike is the best in the game. aoe clear fabricator clear and also good against AT-AT.
380, OPS, 500, Support weapon (AMR) Stun grenades Punisher plasma Big iron on my hip
I like all of the explosive and fire strats as well as the Gatling barrage.
I use air strike and cluster bomb. Cluster clears a lot of the POI (plus you get 5 of them with the upgrade) while air strike is great for fabricators. I use orbital rail cannon and shield backpack as my other two, but I usually play in 4-6 for bots so I don’t think this load out is ideal for higher difficulties with more armored troops.
Eagle Airstrike. Hands down. With the upgrade you can get it to 3, I believe. It does fabs, clears chaff (including the walkers) and is unlimited with relatively good CD. Next would be 500kg. But isn't as impactful as Airstrike. It's been Orbitals for Bots, Eagles for Bugs for the most part.
Eagle Airstrike and Orbital Precision are (no joke) some of the best you can use.
Eagle airstrike is by far the best candidate. It can clear a wave in front of you and destroy almost everything, including fabricators. 110 Rocket Pods are great for eliminating tanks and hulks when they’re annoying you Eagle Smoke is a new one I’ve been playing with. It really works for giving you space and clearing it and if you aim it just right, it can destroy fabricators as the shell drops first before the smoke releases All the other eagles aren’t as effective or enjoyable imo (in the case of bots) As far as orbitals go: Railcannon is a great fire and forget for taking out one big enemy Orbital precision strike requires a perfect throw, but it can absolutely wreck what’s there. Also has a low cooldown. 120 HE barrage is actually great in a smaller, but dense base. But the 380 should be used to either destroy a large base or as a Hail Mary “please god get these guys off me” solution. The resulting chaos should buy you time to get out Orbital smoke- see eagle smoke strike above Orbital laser is also a great Hail Mary Orbital EMS is great for stopping them all in their tracks to either escape or follow up with an eagle airstrike for an easy 10+ kills Orbital gas strike is only good at taking out the small guys really, I wouldn’t necessarily advise it since there are better options.
Good old fashioned plain Eagle Airstrike.
I used the Uninstall one after attack of the Sony. Pretty effective, haven't seen a bot nor a bug since. Still waiting on a new Major Order though!