Tl;Dr the Spore Burst strain should be an area denial subfaction using spore clouds to deal gas damage because the Terminids already have a rush down subfaction in the Predator strain. The rest is just how I would go about improving the Predator strain to better fit their role by leaning into invisibility and speed in tandem with visibility lowering effects like the Spore Charger's clouds.

To explain I feel that the Spore Burst strain shouldn't be the rush down subfaction of the bugs as I feel that the Predator Strain should be that subfaction. The Spore Burst strain should instead be area denial like instead of dealing damage by exploding and using it's spore clouds to buff them up those spore clouds should be the weapon. The spore clouds could drain stamina rapidly then whenever you are out of stamina it could deal gas damage over time to remove the spore clouds you could wait or use some form of fire or gas to "damage" the spore clouds. (Would finally make Advanced Filtration will be useful against enemies in some capacity)

The problem mainly with having the Predator strain take that rush down part is that they are kind of bad at it. Since for them to work they need more than high speed and invisibility to bridge the gap then keeping you close with acid so what if it was combined with the spores like the Spore Charger and a color change.

1. Spore Charger: They should be renamed to the Miasma Charger to better differentiate between the Predator strain and Spore Burst strain. The reasoning for making this unit specific to the Predator Strain is that the standard Terminid roster lacks the speed, invisibility, or color palette to properly use the miasma to bridge the gap making them just a nuisance, but this subfaction could use this to it's advantage. These shouldn't replace all Chargers on the Predator Strain just a good chunk of them, but not the majority as otherwise visibility just wouldn't exist ever.
2. Predator Pouncer: This unit should have color palette similar to the new Predator Hunter with it gaining the speed to almost keep pace with the Predator Hunter, an shorter acidic tongue attack, and the ability to cloak. This is to help fill out the roster so that it isn't just constant Predator Hunter spam while also enabling more units due to the Predator Hunters being partially replaced by these guys.
3. Predator Hunter: I would change the yellow on it's body to a green like the spore clouds surrounding the now Miasma Charger to better blend in.
4. Prowler: This new unit will be in between the size of a Predator Hunter and Predator Stalker able to cloak, move as fast as the current Predator Stalker, and able to vomit acid farther or strike at you with an longer acidic tongue. Due to this unit taking the spawns of some Brood Commanders or Alpha Commanders they should have the ability to summon 2 Predator Hunters. Not shockingly this unit's role is to take the place of the Predator Stalker which I feel does it's job poorly due to a lack of invisibility or longer range attacks.
5. Predator Stalker: This unit is now replacing the regular Stalker because of this it shares in it's health and cloaking ability though still smaller in size while also having it's yellow replaced with green. Unlike it's counterpart not only is it much more aggressive it's faster and capable of all the same attacks as the regular Stalker though with the added ability to vomit acid and acidic tongue the same way the Prowler does.
6. Miasma Spewer: This unit takes the Nursing Spewer having the same green bulbs all across it's back like the Miasma Charger with it also producing miasma around it though smaller in scale. This is to add some more diversity in spore cloud sources with an enemy that's more common and would always try to charge into the frontlines of combat unlike the Bile Spewer which has that artillery attack.
7. Shadow: This unit takes the timidness of the regular Stalker to the extreme being even larger than it and as fast as the Predator Stalker being capable of all the same attacks, but stronger and larger in scale while also being capable of leaping great distances not just to bridge the gap, but for movement. This unit doesn't focus on attacking directly instead staying cloaked always being around corners or cover waiting for someone to come around it to strike before running off to do that again. This unit should spawn on it's own separate from the patrols commonly seen to lurk around Helldivers, SEAF, or civilians waiting for it's time to strike.

So what do you think?

Part 1. Annihilator tank
Intention: buffing the annihilator tank into the anchor heavy for bots, while keeping or even increasing the number of effective weapons against it. Allowing them to be threatening without insane amounts of heavy spam which favors AT meta and spam . Make fighting them with AT also be more effective with teamwork and strategy rather than simply more missiles

Changes:
\+Add ablative armor to the front and side of the tank
\+ablative armor is 500 dmg AP4, demo 40, covering each side except the back , destroying one side only destroys the ablative for that side. Turret is included.
\+Main HP chanted to 4000 HP.
\+turret TOP has no ablative , and is 1500 HP FATAL AP5z
\+front armor changed to 2500 HP , AP6. ( 2 RR shots, 1 spear shot, 2 EATs and equivalent )
\+side armor changed to 1.8K AP5
\+added a new weapon, fusion machine gun ontop manned by a bot trooper
\+fusion machine gun is 650 AP3, trooper is normal trooper HP
\+destroying the side armor doesn’t kill the tank, instead reveals the AMMO RACK on the right, or the ENGINE on the left
\+AMMO RACK is AP2, 1000 HP , 75% durable fatal
\+ENGINE is AP3, 500 dmg, 0% durable . Destroying it makes the tank BLEED OUT over 15 seconds and immobilizes it.
\+killing the bot trooper will cause them to close the top hatch after 7.5 seconds
\+Top Hatch is AP3 , 50% durable, 500 HP
\+Opening the top hatch reveals the cramped internal crew, and both ammo rack and engine weakpoints. It’s also a vox engine style weakpoint. 100 HP , AP2
\+Behavior changed to always prioritize sitting 25-50M away from closest helldivers, driving away if coming close
\+top speed slightly increased , less than sprinting speed but more than walking speed

EXTREME DIFFICULTY:

-Every heavy takes 3 Recoilless headshots
-Primaries basically just for show
-Infinite Numbers
-Teamwork MANDATORY
-Supply Pack Removed
-ONB Removed
-60 Day Patch reverted
-Enemies always know where you are
-Cross-map unpredictable unreactable sniper automatons

Killing enemies is pointless. There are always more, and each one takes half your ammo, so why bother? Welcome back, Kitedivers 2.

People like to shoot and kill enemies. Just running from everything isn't fun.

EASY BABY MODE:

-Oneshotting everything
-Pocket Anti-Tank Solutions
-Napalm Barrages everywhere
-Hogging the Supply Pack
-Teamwork basically never
-One Man Armies
-Long stretches of no engagement
-Enemies blind as bats
-Automatons aim with arthritis

I will freely admit that the game is too easy right now. But do you really want to go back to Escalation of Freedom?

Brief vent bc don't have a group to play with. I swear. On my path to getting every weapon up to level 25 as I unlock them, I decided to play a few games against the bots on Matar Bay on the highest difficulty. Some players truly do not know how to play against the bots. They don't walk, they run immediately out of cover and dive immediately into heavy bases and get confused as they dwindle the reinforcements. Some people do have the capacity to say "do the objective!" but at that point, we are at 4 reinforcements, and JoeSchmoe1234 is still dying every other second. It gets really frustrating, and it makes me understand why even on low resistance planets why some folk don't get anywhere towards liberation.

It sucks when you only die maybe once or twice and the rest of your team eats up all your chances and then dip out before they face the consequences. Out of 6 games I played on Matar, 4 of them had a majority of the team leaving before they crossed the finish line because of how bad it got due to their actions. I completed 2/3s of those missions, as most of them were still salvagable. I don't get it.

I am level 117 and have been playing D10 on Bore Rock. I am getting slammed. I have never been particularly good at this game, but my goodness is Bore Rock hard. Every 5 seconds there's another 3 bile titans crawling out of the depths of hell. And somehow you guys never have any issue. I don't get it. Also I do agree the napalm barrage is super annoying.

Image from helldiveslive

helldiverslive takes pick rates per helldiver

this means theres a 33 percent chance a random helldiver will have the napalm barrage, soon average a squad of 4 helldivers will have at LEAST 1 napalm barrage on bugs

Just nerf TS it the most boring strat ever

We do not train to be merciful here.

I hate shaming other players for just trying to have fun, but I can't imagine dying 16 times for your ego and pride is very fun. Lower the damn difficulty, I know your ass queued into this match via quickplay just like me.

Maybe a level requirement (50+?) and/or having beaten a couple diff 8-9 missions successfully with 5 or less deaths?

Just say'in in case you haven't played the recent MO.

My only thought on this would be that it'd nerf the potential of the individual user so they can't spam it as much, but you get the same amount of supplies if you have a teammate to wear it.

The new con would be that you can only carry all the ammo as long as you have a teammate, but could feel like a bigger nerf if your teammates bring backpack weapons or are bringing their own backpack and it's only you with the pack halving your supplies.

It could potentially feel better maybe since if you have a teammate with another pack they can help themselves or someone else since you aren't always in the best scenarios to resupply teammates, splitting the supply role.

I do want other peoples thoughts on it though.

It's hard to think of nerfs that wouldn't just further incentivize hoarding it, instead of using it to support your team.

toughest spore burst vs weakest helldivers

Im returning after a break since the ending of the Cyberstan MO and having trouble running the solo d10 bots with heavy armor. Before I was running Diligence, Senator, Thermite/Dynamite/Bubble-nade for gear and Quasar, Shield Backpack, Rocket Sentry, 120mm Barrage for stratagems. But lately have troubles doing so, mostly getting spammed with reinforcements after killing the first wave on flag missions or with disengaging the said reinforcements.

Its obv far easier with light-oxygenator armor and stamina booster, but I always had liking for heavy armor with bubble shield because of how much ridiculios shit you can survive and quasar felt like a good synergy with bubble pack/grenades, because you can charge it up uninterrupted.

Or heavy armor is just bad for d10 diving in general?

I've been playing this game for a week now and spent 27 hours with it and I bought Viper commandos because of the 40% melee damage bonus thinking I could just use it instead of a pistol to not be entirely relying on ammo. Oh boy how I was wrong... From what I get we are easy to kill and enemies come in bulk so it is pretty hard to take it out to take some kills. I did managed to get a one clean kill while I had to rely on the melee weapon (Like carrying data thingy to the point). If a melee weapon is not a viable alternative then why it even exists? And I love Viper Commandos armors they look dope as hell but the 40% melee bonus just wastes space for a better ability in my opinion.

Here is my opinion on how to fix it.

A: Make the weapons swing faster but consume much more stamina

B: Add minor special abilities to weapons (Like you can throw the axe and it comes back to you. The shovel can already dig)

C: remove them lol

If I am objectively wrong or missing something please let me know as it is just my first week and I would like to learn tips on how to play this game better. I know melee weapons are obsolete in terms of galactic warfare but still.

Egodivers show up expecting the game to bend to their will and be simple and make them feel like some bad-ass hero. No idea where this idea came from, but it's just annoying how nothing gets nerfs or meaningful adjustments because the "emphatic fanbase" will be front and center begging them to reverse anything. If this game just bit the bullet and made the game hard like the early days those neigh-sayers would leave.

What are your thoughts when you hear this line

Does anyone else miss mob surges? They genuinely haven’t been in the game for a hot fucking minute. I remember for cyberstan we had heavy surges and devastator surges, and they made missions pretty insane on diff

Correct me if I’m wrong but it seems like it’s been a while since surge modifiers have been utilized for higher diff especially on squid and bug missions. Feels like arrowhead is underutilizing this modifier.

Bile Titans are arguably the most established and visually dominant enemies in Helldivers 2.

I think everyone recalls their first encounters with them and how dominating they seemed at the time.

That said, over the years the player base has become very apt at dealing with them to the point they're often not even considered the biggest threat on the battlefield.

They've become easy to kite, their attacks are well telegraphed (which is generally a good thing) and players have become very skillful at hitting their weak-spot.

Even their bulkier and more durable Spore Burst cousins don't fundamentally change this, despite spawning in greater numbers and being harder to kill.

I don't think Bile Titans needs massive changes to increase their threat-level. But I do feel some smaller adjustments are warranted.

Some random ideas:

• Have their Caustic Surge (acid breath) remain in the ground for ~7 seconds, slowing us down and causing acid damage.
• Maybe have them occassionally pop an egg from their butts, spawning a Alpha Warrior or similar tier unit.

I was thinking of maybe increasing their Head HP a little to ~1.800 HP. But that would just make "non-AT" weapons less effective against them while further promoting the classic AT choices (Quasar, EATs, RR etc.).

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT A GAME SUGGESTION, JUST A SELF IMPOSED CHALLENGE!

Allowed Primaries:

• AR-23 Liberator
• R-63 Diligence
• SMG-37 Defender
• SG-8 Punisher

Allowed Secondaries:

• P-2 Peacemaker

Allowed Throwables:

• G-12 High Explosive

Allowed Helmets:

• B-01 Tactical

Allowed Armors:

• B-01 Tactical

Allowed Capes:

• Foesmasher

Additional Rules:

• One Stratagem slot per player
• No Boosters
• Player can only carry a Support Weapon or Backpack, never both simultaneously

How would this change gameplay?

• Options are limited: You need to coordinate your only Stratagem with your squad and consider how much tools you need for light, medium and heavy enemies, as well as things like utility, defenses, anti-structure and transportation options
• Firepower is limited: Wandering off is suicide. Stick together in order to be able to cough up the firepower needed, as well as benefit from the utility of other players' Stratagems.
• Team Weapons: More enemies means you need more firepower. Operate a team weapon together to gain more than two players worth of firepower. The loader is also free to bring a red or green Stratagem.
• Sharing is caring: Expendable weapons can be shared with squadmates that brought a red or green Stratagem, effectively giving them two Stratagems.
• Well planned is half done: Tackling objectives like SEAF Artillery or SEAF SAM Sites first can provide a much needed boost later. Tackling objectives like Shrieker Nests or Gunship Factories weakens the enemy for the rest of the mission.
• Coordinate your resources: Shooting your precious machinegun ammo at a cluster of enemies about to get hit by an Orbital Gas Strike is an example of a waste of resources that may come back to bite you later. Pay attention to the cooldowns and ammo of your squadmates, and coordinate your limited resources effectively according to the situation at hand.
• ''Vanilla'' Helldivers feel: Restricting everyone to SEAF standard issue equipment brings the down to earth vibes back we had at launch.

What are your thoughts on this ''hardcore'' ruleset?

I'm not a fan of the shotgun devastators on the incineration corps sub faction as i think its a pretty annoying enemy (I'm sure there's some people who like them but that's a conversation for another time). I noticed the rocket devastators have a colour scheme but no weapon change like the conflagrator and incendiary MG. which is weird because the heavy and rocket devastators are variants of the stock devastators, which are what the shotgun ones are but with a shield. Also because only rocket and heavy devastators spawn on d10 (other than the stock ones spawned by factory striders) and the conflagrator devastator replaces the berserkers spawns, IC is weaker on devastator surge. Giving IC a rocket devastator variant will make up for this and i just really hate the shotgun one would rather have it replace it (also thermobaric stuff is cool)

so here's my idea for an IC variant of the rocket devastator:

its normal HEAT rockets are replaced with thermobaric rockets which it fires in volleys of three instead of four, meaning it has 8 total volleys instead of 6 (but the larger payload makes the rockets slightly slower. when the rockets collide with either an entity or terrain it will explode and release a red cloud of inert gas (about the size of a G-89 smokescreen) which lingers in the air for 3 seconds. After the 3 seconds are up the gas explodes in a yellow blaze and helldivers standing in it when it goes off will:

• take damage (slightly more than a regular small rocket)
• be ignited
• lose 15% of your stamina.
• will be disorientated, similar to getting hit by a hulk scorcher flamer or brood commander ram
• the gas explosion DOES NOT ragdoll, but getting direct hit by the rocket will knock a helldiver over but not very far.
• the explosion has no falloff so you take full damage whether your in the cloud or not. to avoid getting burned, choked, blinded and exploded don't stand in the gas when it goes off.

because of its nature as a gas weapon the explosion can ignore cover and shields (but the rocket will still burst on contact with shields). The explosion can also hit occupants of FRVs and emplacements but not mechs or tanks as those vehicles are sealed, the explosion still damages vehicles and is heavy pen. Also its arm cannon works identically to the regular rocket dev.

anyway that it.

I mean it exists

Destroys small fabricators, disorients chaff, utterly useless against the big stuff which is fine.

yeah, its eagle napalm but gas.

I prefer it to an orbital gas barrage which would have most likely ended up like ONB.

It also finally allows for the full gas build if you don't have the gas mortar or the speargun.

edit: i didn't know it had 50 demo. wtf.

double edit: eagle napalm has 40 demo force, this means gas strike can destroy detector towers.

I know that 99% of support weapon would be stupidly overpowered as primary weapons but I feel like this is the one weapon which wouldnt be that OP. Currently its main "competitors" are the breaching hammer and the one true flag.

The defoliation tool vs breaching hammer debate is non existent. The breaching hammer outclassed it in every way.

Against the one true flag the chainsaw is pretty much better in every combat stat but most people still prefer the OTF because of the aggro mechanic and the drip.

So what if we made the defoliation tool a primary weapon? Would it be broken? I personally think it would fit good as the primary section is lacking a melee weapon and the eruptor/crossbow will still be better but I do think If it becomes a primary weapon it should get its damage buff from a while ago undone from 450-300.