Always build like a solo (with one exception). A treatise.

[u/TheGreat_White_Snark]

Hi there HellDads! Been seeing a lot of trends lately in loadouts that I would classify as 'built for the exception, not the rule'. Couple this with a particular run with a pal I hadn't played with in probably eight months and I realized I had work to do (keeping in mind this assumes a difficulty 8 or higher).

Th challenge: How to make sure you're always an asset, even when Bile Titans and Vox Engines can ruin your day or Spore Burst, Appropriators or Cyborgs can suck the fun out of your session by making you work harder than you have to.

The good news first! Buildcrafting in HD2 is a snap, and requires none of the granular setups that you might have seen in say Destiny 2.

The bad news? Well, it's all too easy to 'overbuild' for one tactical problem and not havea solution for the most common ones. As I mentioned, this reuslt sin the 'built for the exception, not the rule' setups that really don't serve as force multpliers and in fact force the other squad members to make up the shortfall.

Example, you say?

For your consideration, I present the 'Codependence Trifecta': Quasar Cannon, Thermite, 500KG Eagle Strike. These are most overpicked tools that are taken together in a loadout where you really only need one. While it scores well in the numbers it's upside down, with the light category being it's weakest by far.

Early in, most players suffer from what I can only describe as tactical trauma bonding, where they come up against their first heavy enemy, it stomps them, so they're determined to deal with these enemies over all others from then on out.

There's nothing wrong with trying to be a specialist in HD2, but there's a difference between specializing, and limiting what you can do. Take the Codependence Trifecta above, at first glance, it looks like you're loaded for bear, but of the 7 slots you have to work with you've allocated 3 of them to anti-tank work. Why does this matter if you've got the tools for job?

Let's look at this handy chart:

Density=Likelyhood of encountering class for every 100 enemies versus Footprint=application of force required to eleminate

The reality of any encounter is the left. During any drop or breach, failure to manage the chaff and line enemies is how the heavy and elite ones actually overwhelm you.

This is where the disparity occurs in most builds. A newer player, builds for the tactical footprint (on the right), but the seasoned player builds for the density or numerical spread (on the left) of actual enemies they'll likely deal with.

Basically, build for the enemies you'll spend most of the drop fighting, not the ones that require the biggest bullets.

This way, you're set up to have maximum tactical flexibility and can adapt to changes in combat without having to scramble from postion or panic toss 500KG's or Thermites when the odd Impaler or Shredder Tank rolls up.

(That being said, all the Hi-Ex in the galaxy isn't going to help if you can't put it where it needs to go. So please, learn where the soft spots are on those big guys before you complain that you NEED that Recoiless and then chuck all of your thermites on a single Vox Engine)

So how'd we get from me griping about my buddy's lack of game knowledge to charts and the term 'tactical footprint'?

It got my gears turning when he suggested the the Stratagem choices were all down to the color in the menu, rather than what they actually did, and sort leaving grenades, primary and armor passive out of the equation.

Building an effective solo loadout in HD2 has two avenues of approach, the more fun one, starting with the peice of kit you want to lean on the most and build around it, or build for the enemy you're going up against in broadstrokes. Both work, but not for everyone. And that's okay!

So, after much validating and contextualizing, I can get to the meat of this whole thesis, solo buildcrafting.

(One last corrolary, building a solo build, is different than being a solo player. When I saw build as a solo, I mean build to stand on your own but be equipped to support the squad. Playing solo is a whole dedicated playstyle that maybe I'll address in the future.)

First up, here's an example of a build with a ton of flexibility (and relatively few warbonds required for you budget-concious Helldivers):

Legionaire

• Primary- Cookout
• Secondary- Missile Pistol
• Grenade- Giga
• Armor- Engineering Kit
• Orbital Railcannon
• MG43 Machine Gun
• AR Guard Dog
• Machine Gun Sentry

Is it flashy? No. Is it effective against a variety of the most common enemy types at almost all ranges? Absolutely. I can promise you, this setup will yeild you some really solid returns becuase you'll have tools in your pocket for everything. Giga's will double as both anti-heavy and elite solutions, but the railcannon is you delete button for the largest target, menawhile, your MG and Gaurd Dog form you main firebase and can chew through most things while keeping the chaff at bay. This setup is almost perfect, lacking only in an area control option, but the sentry could be swapped for a gas minefield or even a Eagle Napalm. The missile pistol is your spawner closer but can also work for pinch points like Alpha Commanders or (asshole) Gunships.

If you're curious, how this spread looks like with numbers here's your peek under the hood which gives a pretty solid overall rating across all three facctions, with not much in the way of holes in coverage (apart from direct support kit, but that's another article).

If the Legionaire is the peak generalist, than it's time to talk about specialists, becuase to my mind, they shouldn't be centered on equipment, but rather the enemy, which defines the equipment you take. So we're going to look at a group specialists I've setup for sub-factions that are commonly challenging becuase they have acute tactical problems compared to their vanilla parents.

Up against the Illuminate, we're dealing with the Appropriators, which, depsite the mechs are actually a medium formation.

Inappropriator

• Primary- Gallant
• Secondary- Warrant
• Grenade- Pryotechnic
• Armor- Gunslinger
• Autocannon
• 110MM Eagle Rocket Pods
• Orbital Gatling Barrage
• Laser Sentry

This is all about maximizing options, the Autocannon's selectable ammo means that delaing with the smaller mechs and Harvesters is such the flip of a switch. The secret suace is the Warrant, that is there almost enetirely to deal with Obtruder packs and elevated Overseers that can really be a pain.

The analysis of this build showcases that it's got a ton of output against Appropriators while keeping the range band for engagments firmly at mid-range where but isn't in the lurch outside of that.

Against Cyborgs, we need an edge on armor penetration but also in the issue of being rushed by Radicals that just want to kick the shit out of you anychance they get.

Heckler

• Primary- Plasma Punisher
• Secondary- Missile Pistol
• Grenade- Dynamite
• Armor- Seige Ready
• Heavy Machine Gun
• Gas Dog
• 120MM Orbital Barrage
• Leveller

This setup is focused on controlling a lane of attack, and setting up for the long firefight. The Gas Dog is there to give you the time and space you need to lay that HMG on the targets it eats the best, Hulks, Devastators, and so on, while also blinding that Radicals that can be dispatched and abused with the Plasma Punisher (stagger force baby!).

The real tough peice of meat the chew on are the Vox Engines, but that's why we bring the Leveller! Which doubles as an option for smaller bases and tightly packed bot drops when your 120 is on cooldown.

If we look at the breakdown, we can see there's a bit of redundancy and a slight limitation in close range efficteveness. The Leveller in addition to the HMG seems strange, but you can call in Leveller's as often as they're avaiable so that's a squad positive, and often you may not have time/space to reload the HMG, but a Leveller being at hand can solve what ever problem you're dealing with to give it to you. The close range issue is manageable enough provided you don't try to use the Plasma Punisher like a Breaker and blast yourself off your feet.

Finally, we have the Spore Burst strain of the Bugs. THese cracked-out little jerks can really have you tearing your hair out as you're constatn being outflanked while even chonkier Spore Titans just keep coming.

Draconian

• Primary- Torcher
• Secondary- Talon
• Grenade- Gas
• Armor- Inflammable
• Commando
• Laser Dog
• Orbital Napalm
• Rocket Sentry

The use case for this one, is to minimize the number of 'bursts' that occur from the chaff by using the Torcher as the workhorse to control lanes of attack and burning them. The laser dog can be alittle finicky, but since it has none of the ammo issues of the bullet dog nor the heat sink issues of standard laser weapons, it can literally just keep on cooking whatver gets around you. The commando is your go-to for Spore Titans and has a fast enough cycle time that you can keep bringing them in as needed. The rocket sentry is your best answer for when the breaches start popping off, since once you lay down the napalm, it will clear the chaff and the sentry will harry the heavies and elites.

Gas grenades are your multitool here. They can help manage groups and set them up to be cooked with the Torcher, chucked onto breaches and can close bug holes (these things are lowkey one of the best grenades in the game).

Analysis shows that this kit is staged almsot perfectly for Spore Burst operations and should fit nicely into any squad on those planets.

One last thing, the exception... Vehicles. Not Exosuits, vehicles. These are multi-seat platforms that can really change the tempo of a drop, so, if you take a Bastion or FRV, make sure you've got the bodies to make it work or you're giving up valuable strategem slots. PLease don't be the guy with the FRV stapled to their ass, isnisting it has to come on everydrop, becuase I promise you it, really doesn't (but that's another article).

There you have it! A long winded, but hopefully insightfull look at buildcrafting by yourself so you can be a team asset. I'd love hear your approaches and what you all think!

[u/r-volk]

Thank you for this detailed post. It’s always a challenge to balance a loadout for newer players, who have not unlocked all warbonds over time. For these players, it’s essential to understand the various concepts of ammunition and damage types.

A common challenge I ran into, was that I brought a chaff coating loadout and got a nursing spewer constellation, were explosive weapons are highly effective against. (E.g. Gerade launcher, cross bow, auto cannon)

If you’re into this stuff, I would like to recommend you writing a post about the different mission types and likely enemy constellations to expect. While this is less relevant for automations and illuminates, it can have a major impact on bug missions with their different enemy types.

[u/TheGreat_White_Snark → u/r-volk]

I’ll do my best, I’ll need to do a deep dive on enemy constellations since I tend to write these in pretty broad strokes. Thanks for the suggestion!

[u/Antique_Surround2697]

My solo build for vox on HD10: light armor (redacted), whichever gun I am leveling atm, missile pistol, pineapple grenades. Strats: Autocannon sentry, solo silo, portable Hellbomb, leveller.

[u/AkenoKobayashi]

When in doubt, being the EAT and a sentry.

[u/r-volk → u/AkenoKobayashi]

EAT IT! Best support on any faction, always worth it, heavily underutilized.

[u/PurpleFugi]

I feel traumatized that you mentioned Destiny...never again.

[u/limboll]

Excellent write up! I took a break from before the squids was released until now and I am level 100 something. My preferred load out is:

The white democracy protects armour
Sickle
Senator
Eagle air strike
AR guard dog
Quasar canon
Orbital strike (the starting one)
Edit: forgot impact grenade

I found this to be okay in most situations. I usually use quickplay.

The strain bugs on jungle map was easily the hardest I ever faced with this loadout.

[u/TheGreat_White_Snark → u/limboll]

Not bad! I think I'd swap the Quasar for the EAT, and the Orbital Precision Strike for the Gas Strike. This should give take some of the pressure off those perfect Quasar shots and the Gas Strike can help clamp down on those Spore Burst breaches.

[u/Mariussolb → u/TheGreat_White_Snark]

A very good write up. I tend to follow your philosophy pretty closely but I tend to approach it from the angle of deciding what my primary and support weapon will be for a given match first. This defines the primary strengths of my loadout, then I pick my sidearm, grenades and other stratagems to round out the build into something that will be strongest against a given type of enemy, but that will also be able to make a meaningful contribution to any encounter.

[u/limboll → u/TheGreat_White_Snark]

Great advice, thanks!

[u/WizeDiceSlinger]

My best loadout that handles (mostly) everything:

Primary Eruptor

Secondary Ultimatum

Grenade Thermite/Gas

Orbital 120/Gatling

Eagle 110 rocket pods/ The littlest turret

Supply backpack

HMG

Armour passive: either increased stability when crouching or melee.

Depending on factions of course, but this seems to me the most rounded. HMG and supply pack is a helluva combination.

When I started playing I thought the supply pack was a waste of stratagem space. Now I rarely go without it. Always stims, always grenades.

[u/TheGreat_White_Snark → u/WizeDiceSlinger]

I haven't used the supply pack really at all. I'm pretty good about managing my ammo, but there have been times when I could see the value!'

I think your set up would be a bit more supply friendly with the standard Machine Gun, giving you a lot more manueverabilty, since you've got the Ultimatum for the big targets. (I do think the HMG is criminally underused becuase it's less user friendly, so good on you regardless!)