And everything you need to know to avoid the dreaded “8-9 titans” per mission on difficulty 8 and above.
Agro and you!
Before we begin with the juicy part, I sadly have to start with the basics of stealth. Hold onto your rifles, with stealth I mean the art of fighting the enemies of democracy 1 at a time, not sneaking around like bug.
Stealth is based on vision and proximity, crouching, foliage and going prone all help it, enemies will “warn” the player if they spot you by dancing and displaying their wings for the bugs and “scanning” for the bots.
In this state the player can still retreat and the enemies will return, you can even run into this range, throw a stratagem and then run away, it is likely that the enemies will investigate where the calldown landed over you.
The enemy, specially terminids are COMPLETELY lost if you dissapear from sight for about 30 seconds (basic testing, may require more), this includes using smoke stratagems or smart terrain usage, it will even despawn enemies after a while of searching your last known location. Bots prefer to shoot and grenade your last position as they slowly approach and then search.
Very well, now you know about stealth, let’s get EXPLOSIVE
Combat and reinforcements
Very well, you have found yourself an enemy to strike or the enemy has decided to strike you. Ideally you have all your mates with you.
Combat for democracy is swift and decisive, if the enemy stays alive for too long they will call for reinforcements, which can quickly get out of control and “swarm” your team.
As such you want to deploy everything available to clear the infantry as fast as possible, so none has a chance to call reinforcements and the bigger boys (chargers, more automatons, tanks, etc), this also means the enemy has less chances to get reinforced by patrols. If the infantry is accompanied already by one of the big boys, let them be, they won’t call reinforcements and are easily dealt with individually.
If all went well, you are now covered in oil or bug guts. Otherwise scroll down.
They just keep reinforcing!
It seems you have failed to deal with the infantry fast enough, your allies have ran away to warn a patrol or you simply have been unlucky.
Don’t panic, you still have a chance. For bugs throw a long term strat (gas works great, so do barrages and airburst) at the incoming tunnel and as previusly stated, focus on the infantry, try to get in touch with your team if you’ve been separated and most importantly, DO NOT run into more bugs, as this will make reinforcements more likely. For robots get some EAT-17s or other similar anti-vehicle weapondry and get ready to aim at the dropships, make sure to tell your teamates that you are the one doing this because you still need to clear the robots out, specially commisars.
If you don’t manage to swiftly deal with the infantry and they call reinforcement a second or third time, it is time for a tactical withdrawal, smoke aids this greatly as it obscures vision, throw smoke, get into a bush and run away when the opportunity comes, try to kite enemies away from objectives so they’ll “roam” in the middle of nowhere. If you find all the run away and smoke a bunch of cyber-commie hogwash, you can instead have a dedicated “anti-loop” teamate, with several turrets and any form of mass clear, like a 500kg, have him deploy and try to clear.
If you lack any of those, you could have someone try to lure most of the enemy away from objectives.
Summary.
1. Don’t pick fights while fighting, take the enemies of democracy, one at a time.
2. Stay together, more helldivers means more liberty and freedom dispensed in a smaller time.
3. End fights quickly. Don’t leave a single bug or robot alive, throw everything at them and don’t “save for later”, it’s better to over-do than under-do, specially when the later leads to a million enemies.
4. If reinforcements are called, don’t panic, focus their drops/tunnels.
5. Leave big boys for last!
5. If all else fails, disengage, smoke or have someone run away while objectives are completed.
6. Stealth is the friend of smaller groups, know where your enemy, pick your fights and end them fast.
