These are very general things to be aware of that apply to all strategems discussed here.

• Dialing - "Dialing" a stratagem will keep it active until you switch weapons or it leaves your hand. This can be useful if you want to prime it and have it ready in a hurry; but this most commonly results in you accidentally dropping it from being ragdolled and planting something destructive right on top of your position. In short, don't hold offensive strategems in your hand until you're ready to throw them to avoid accidents.
  
• The Toss - Assuming flat terrain, a good angle, running at a sprint, and nothing is in the way, a Helldiver can chuck a strategem roughly 40-50 meters. This is safe for a majority of them. Sprinting, height, terrain, or diving from a crouch can all affect your maximum throwing distance. Armors with the Servo-Assisted perk provide a 30% throwing power increase, which allows you to land strategem calls about 75m from your release point.
  
• Out-Of-Bounds - Strategems get called in and consumed as soon as the ball lands in a valid spot. If a toss lands out-of-bounds or in the water, it disappears and will not be called in. If it lands on an invalid spot (ex: a normally unreachable play area, like a cliff) it will try to keep bouncing until it hits a valid area. If it can't land in a valid area, it disappears.
  
• Call-in Time - Call-in time used herein refers to about how long it takes for the ordinance of the strategem to start hitting the ground after it has been called. Generally speaking, a shorter call-in time is desirable as it makes it easier to predict where enemy units will be when the ordinance actually strikes. Certain ship upgrades can reduce call-in time of some strategems.
  
• Salvos - Some artillery strategems fire in "salvos" which is just a group of shots evenly spaced out. A barrage is made up of a set number of individual salvos, and a salvo is made up of a set number of rounds. For example, the 120mm HE Barrage fires about 6 salvos of 3 shots each, for a total of about 18 shells. Each salvo has a small pause between it while the artillery piece reloads.
  
• Limited Uses - Some strategems can only be used a limited number of times per mission and will be indicated as such. The only exception is any Eagle strategem. Eagle strategems are limited, but you can use them again after the aircraft goes back to the Super Destroyer to rearm.
  
• Classes - All strategems roughly fall into four categories: Mission-specific (yellow), Offensive (red), Defensive (green), and Support (blue).
  • Mission-Specific strategems handle things like reinforcing, resupplying, on-map artillery, hellbombs, and objective equipment.
    
  • Offensive strategems are simple as they are straightforward - throw towards enemy.
    
  • Defensive strategems are generally better for fortifying a position or moving the attention away from yourself instead of direct engagement. They can be handy when planning to stick around an area for a bit or during extraction.
    
  • Support strategems will deliver a piece of equipment to the battlefield. Generally this is a support weapon or backpack.

Since there's a bunch of upgrades and the developers are constantly changing things and provide no direct information that is easily accessible in the game itself, I will be using a generalized star rating system to try and gauge what each strategem is good for. The classifications are:

• Cooldown (Uses) - This will be the fully upgraded cooldown time and the limited number of uses if limited per mission. Strategems with lower cooldown are usually less powerful but more flexible since they can be spammed more often.
  
• Flexibility - How generally useful a strategem is in most circumstances. More flexible strategems can generally be applied to a wider array of circumstances and usually have a good amount of uptime, while less flexible ones are usually purpose-specific and don't help much outside of their specific intention, or suffer from significant drawbacks like long cooldowns.
  
• Anti-Small - How good a strategem is at dealing with small & fast targets, or groups of weak targets in general. Strategems better against small targets and groups often have a quick response time and decent explosive area-of-effect, but typically lack armor-penetrating capability.
  
• Anti-Medium - How good a strategem is at dealing with medium-sized targets or medium armor. Most strategems can do something to medium armor, but few can handle lots of medium armor well.
  
• Anti-Tank - How good a strategem is at dealing with massive & heavily armored targets. Most heavily armored targets need something with heavy armor penetration to do any appreciable damage.
  
  
• Uses/Rearm - For Eagle strikes, how many times this strategem can be used before Eagle 1 needs to rearm. If using multiple different Eagle strikes, the strategem won't rearm until Eagle 1 is either told to manually rearm or all Eagle strikes have no more uses. Of note, a destroyer upgrade increases the uses of all Eagle strikes by 1 per rearm, and this is the value shown.
  
  
• Accuracy - Specifically for orbital strategems, this is generally how precise an orbital barrage is at the point it lands at. Some strategems fire directly at the beacon while others can wander a significant distance away.
  
  
• Survivability - Specifically for sentries and fortifications, it reflects how long this strategem can reasonably last when deployed before it either gets destroyed or runs out of ammo. Low survivability usually means the sentry is either destroyed or runs out of ammunition quickly, whereas high survivability is typically effective for a longer period of time.
  
  
• Ammo Economy - Specifically for supply strategems, this is generally how easy it is to keep the weapon topped off with ammo. Weapons that resupply more ammunition from supply boxes or points of interest generally are easier to keep a good reserve of ammo for.

For the ratings, they follow something like this:

• ☆☆☆☆☆ - Not effective or generally impossible to do, or a pure desperation strategy. For flexibility, this usually means the strategem cannot be used for virtually anything but its intended role or is difficult to use effectively almost all of the time.
  
• ★☆☆☆☆ - Barely passable, might get you out of a tight spot if the enemy is on death's door. For flexibility, this usually means the strategem has very narrow applications in general and it is difficult to use outside of where it shines at.
  
• ★★☆☆☆ - Lacking in effectiveness, but can still do the job when in a pinch. For flexibility, this indicates the strategem sometimes has some difficulty being used outside of its comfort zone or suffers from low availability (like high cooldown or limited uses).
  
• ★★★☆☆ - Average performance. Can perform in the specified role well enough to succeed majority of the time. For flexibility, this usually indicates a strategem can work in most circumstances generally well without too much added demand.
  
• ★★★★☆ - Good performance and effectiveness, great application in the specified role almost all of the time. For flexibility, this usually indicates a strategem can easily be applied to most situations safely and still be effective.
  
• ★★★★★ - Almost always excels when deployed in the specified role with little extra demand of the user. For flexibility, this usually indicates the strategem can be tossed at pretty much anything and expect at least a halfway decent result, combined with fairly good uptime from a low cooldown.

I got silly with the ratings on the backpacks.

Changelog 07-02-25

• Added the ArcDog. It is a teamkilling machine and has justifiably taken the throne as the strategem I hate the most.
  
• Added the hoverpack. I honestly forgot it existed.
  
• Added the portable hellbomb. I should not have forgotten this existed.

Changelog - 06-11-25

• Hot new FRV driving tips were added with some correction to its mechanics which have since been fixed.
  
• Orbital airburst's description was updated to reflect my disdain for how ineffective it's become after arrowhead "buffed" it with an extra salvo.
  
• Updated the eagle strafing run to reflect how insanely good it is at everything.
  
• Updated the eagle 110mm Rocket Pods to reflect its 4 uses instead of 3.
  
• Critical analysis of the flame sentry was completed (the verdict: it's not that good compared to the MG sentry)
  
• Added a footnote of gas mines in the mines section.
  
• "People who use it" added to almost every support weapon.
  
• Autocannon was updated to be less rambling and more descriptive.
  
• Revisited some incorrect information on backpacks, most notably the ballistic shield now blocking melee attacks.
  
• Rewrote the directional shield's description to more accurately describe how much I think it sucks compared to everything else, even smoke strikes.

These things were recently changed:

• Fast Recon Vehicle (FRV) - And a whole lot about driving and using it in the "vehicles" section.
  
• AT Emplacement - The Almighty Chair™ was added and moved with the HMG Emplacement to a new "Emplacement" section.
  
• Directional Shield Bag - Added next to the ballistic shield.
  
• Flame Sentry - Sits quietly next to the other better sentries in the second sentry section.
  
• WASP Launcher - In with the other team reloadable weapons like the RL-77 and Autocannon.

A note to myself that I last touched this guide on 01-12-25.

Orbital barrages can be somewhat slow to respond to a request, but can generally make up with it using pure destructive power. A little bit of planning and caution is generally needed to get the barrage near its maximum effectiveness.


Desc: A continuous barrage of high explosive 30mm rounds saturating a small area.
Players who use it: Enjoy watching the spray of lead fly from the Super Destroyer to hit the ground below, likely American and infatuated with the A-10C Warthog.

Quick response time, very low cooldown, and a decently long lasting barrage (10-15 seconds) make the gatling barrage a very flexible strategem to throw at pretty much anything. This makes it rather effective for throwing in the area of breaches or drops and makes it good at killing or softening most medium targets and lower, however its accuracy and precision can leave a lot to be desired.

While capable of damaging heavily armored enemies, most heavily armored units move too quickly for the barrage to cause significant damage, perhaps barring automaton tanks. The ship's angle to the call location can also significantly skew the affected area compared to the beacon by a large margin.


Desc: One salvo of four rounds of airburst munitions, which seperate into multiple bomblets just before hitting the ground and shower the area in medium sized explosions
Players who use it: Constantly misjudge the minimum safe distance.

The airburst is most comparable to the gatling barrage, but has a wider area of effect and hits much more quickly. Common monikers include "Orbital Clap Strike" or "Hand of God", since each burst instantly "slaps" the designated area with many dispersed explosions at once. Orbital airburst struggles to find its niche as the gatling barrage generally out-performs it. After its changes a few months ago, the subsequent shots of the salvo move too slowly to reliably deal with medium enemies and the radius is too large to reliably kill most small enemies within.


Desc: A canister of lingering corrosive gas which causes light damage, blindness, and confusion to majority of enemies in its area of effect
Players who use it: Are likely professional fumigation experts in real life practicing their reps at home before their next shift.

The gas strike boasts an extremely low cooldown and an extremely high effectiveness against most trash units, making it very simple and effective to throw at almost any concentration of enemy units and especially bug breaches. It lacks the upfront damage of other strategems, but the confusion/blinding aspect against enemy units helps it find its niche as a diversionary or softening tool for larger enemy clusters.

Enemies struck by the gas' effect will take damage over time, begin moving in random directions, and may blindly attack in a random direction. For bugs, this is kind of funny watching them flail around. For bots, they might blindfire, so its slightly less funny to watch. In all, this sort of makes it a hybrid between a Napalm strike and an EMS strike.


Desc: Electromagnetic Stun projectile that creates a large static field upon impact, stunning all enemies within until it expires.
Players who use it: Are likely handicapping themselves to test their abilities, or use it exclusively to hold enemies in place so they can immediately hit the same spot with another strategem because they like the number on the bottom of the screen it makes.

What the EMS strike lacks in direct lethality it makes up for in spammability, boasting a very low cooldown. This can make it a decent supportive tool to help relieve some pressure from your team, as the stun radius is quite large and lasts for quite a few seconds, giving your team some time to regroup or make a hasty retreat. It may also buy you the time you need to set up fortifications or call in other strategems (orbital strikes, AT weapons, or turrets). Unfortunately, EMS strike's greatest weakness is the need for followup if you want to clear the designated area out.

Desc:One salvo of four smoke shells which land perpendicular to the direction it was thrown, creating a wall of smoke.
Players who use it: Are desperately trying to find a use case for it versus taking literally any other strategem.

Its low cooldown makes it available, however it can be difficult to find appropriate times to use it. deploying smoke significantly inhibits the enemy's ability to see you and for automatons inhibits their ability to accurately fire on your position as you move. While this can be desired to escape, evade, or flank an enemy force, blocking your line of sight to the enemy can also be a disadvantage for you and your team. Most of the time, smoke grenades are a better pick instead of using a strategem slot.

Desc: A single shot from the destroyer's "ATLAS" cannon aimed directly at the designated area.
Players who use it: Just started and have no better strategems, doesn't like the Rail Cannon's cooldown, or is actually capable of perfectly predicting enemy movement 4 seconds in the future and orbital scatter (probable telepath or fortune teller)

The OPS boasts simplicity and flexibility against armored units, making it a solid pick for almost any application. While its blast radius from the point of impact is relatively limited, it will still (generally) instantly kill almost anything it hits, which it does so with exceeding accuracy.

These factors make the OPS good to throw at bug holes, fabricators, warp ships, armored units, tanks, buildings, spewers, and just about anything else besides loosely clumped small enemies or lone targets that may move before impact. There can be some difficulty in predicting enemy movement before impact, but with enough skill you can compensate for it. Particularly the OPS can breach a warp ship's shield and hull in one go. Its low cooldown also makes it readily available against most enemy armor. Combined with a stunning weapon (grenades, HALT shotgun), it is a very potent way to deal with close range heavy targets.


Desc: A high-powered and continuous laser beam which sweeps over the designated area and changes targets as needed
Players who use it: Are constantly saving it "for something better" due to limited uses, despite the entire screenspace being filled with enemies or gunfire, or uses it exclusively to deal with bot fabricators because they're lazy. Likely burns ants with a magnifying glass.

Above anything else, the orbital laser boasts ease-of-use. After being thrown, the laser automatically tracks nearby enemies in the target area for its duration and keeps them targeted so as long as they're alive. This makes it decent for burning larger problem enemies or clumps of enemies, but the laser can take a significant amount of its duration on singular heavy targets which is problematic combined with its limited uses and long cooldown.

Notably, it can be an effective tool at destroying several fabricators in a bot outpost without too much extra input from the user, but otherwise its utility outside that scenario is limited and its cooldown is too high to make it a valuable asset in most missions.


Desc: A single high-powered slug from a railcannon delivered to the largest target nearby the designated area.
Players who use it: Absolutely despises Bile Titans or Tanks/Hulks. Despises regular AT weapons killing their intended target just after throwing this, promptly causing it to re-target an enemy right on top of them (see: "The railcannon incident" [expunged]). Likely has tried to kill insects with a thumbtack.

Most similar to the Orbital Precision Strike in application, but boasting ease-of-use over flexibility. The railcannon strike very quickly identifies the largest target around the designated area and splats it with a rod from god, usually killing it instantly. This makes it a very effective "remove this armored bloke from my screen now" tool that can quickly and easily be tossed anywhere remotely nearby and still be effective.

While great at what it does, it has a significantly longer cooldown compared to other anti-tank strategems and lacks any form of explosive radius or area of effect, making it useless in any scenario except dealing with a single armored unit. The railcannon's overall effectiveness begins to sharply drop as the amount of armored enemies encountered starts increasing significantly, and it can very easily be wasted if everyone tries to use AT weapons on the same target at once.

Most of these barrages have a long cooldown but a high amount of ordinance and affected area. Most often they are useful to attack a general location (bot drop zone or bug breach), soften a fortification before entry (bug nest or automaton fabricator), or provide cover for a retreat and deny the enemy the ability to easily move through the area being barraged temporarily.


Desc: Six salvos of three 120mm projectiles saturating a medium-sized area for a prolonged duration.
Players who use it: Enjoy being able to offload this in the vague direction of any problem and watch it become slightly less of a problem.

A fairly long-lasting barrage of powerful artillery shells in and around the targeted area. Due to the relatively slow firerate and arrival time, the 120mm barrage doesn't work well against many things that are moving unless you can anticipate their movement. Even so, the barrage is widespread and won't always hit every target in the designated area.

This makes it very effective against fortified positions, stationary targets, facilities, and bug breaches, but not as useful in open battles or targets that are expected to move significantly before arrival. Its call-in time is short enough to be reasonably used against pursing enemies as long as there is a decent amount of space between you and your pursuers.


Desc: Six salvos of three 380mm high explosive shells which saturate a large area over an extended period of time
Players who use it: Either throw it with reckless abandon usually requiring you to full-sprint out of its radius, use it to absolutely shatter 3 scavengers while tenderizing the ground, or rakes in a 70 kill streak. Really likes watching videos of Operation Rolling Thunder.

The bigger cousin of the 120mm barrage. More damage, more deadly, wider range, lasts longer, but disperses its munitions over an wider area which can make hitting desired targets a gamble. Due to these factors, it is generally only useful to soften a stationary target or position prior to moving in or disengaging from it, and has no promise of hitting everything in the area designated. The long duration (30 seconds) can also hamper a timely push in if needing to wait for the shells to finish splashing.

Do not use the 380 anywhere remotely nearby where you need to be, and don't throw it from cover and stay in the same spot (without servo assisted). Move back. If you are feeling lucky, you can try running through a 380 barrage and you might come out alive, but there is a high chance a 380 shell lands directly on you killing you instantly. Sprint out of its area at your own risk, crawling sometimes might not get you killed.


Desc: Five salvos of three 380mm shells that progress forward from the designator's position as the salvos progress, allowing advancement while the barrage proceeds
Players who use it: Likes this barrage because its "safer" and "more predictable", probably puts Bugles chips on the ends of their fingers before eating them.

This version of the 380mm barrage "walks" away from its designator as each salvo lands and has a much faster arrival time compared to the other orbital barrages. While it lacks the duration, concentration, and overall shell count of the other barrages, it strikes quickly and then backs off of the target area it struck, giving you some more breathing room after the first salvo. This can also make it a good pick if you lack the range to throw a barrage exactly where you need it -- as long as you throw this somewhere in front of your target, you'll usually hit it with the walking barrage.

After gaining extra salvos and some reduced 'walk' distance per salvo, the Walking Barrage is able to more consistently hit the entire length of a targeted formation of fortification, making it a good option (like the 380mm) to throw in anticipation of moving into an area when it finishes.

Desc: Five salvos of five 380mm shells that explode and disperse a volatile napalm payload, igniting a very large area around the beacon with a lingering fire.
Players who use it: Want to watch it all burn.

This is the "380mm barrage if it killed chaff enemies". It ignites a massive area, almost 100 meters in diameter, over the course of the barrage. This makes it a very valuable tool to burn to death any pursuing small or even medium enemies that are even remotely nearby the beacon.

Unfortunately, its cooldown is long and the flames last a long time, meaning this is only doing its best work when covering an escape or burning down an area you don't plan to move in to. The napalm shells also look a lot less dangerous than the 380mm shells, generally drawing you and your allies to the flames like a moth, where you'll instantly get set on fire and die. So give it the space its due.

Eagles are fast-response aircraft that are constantly on-station around your area waiting to be called in. Eagle strikes generally lack a lot of individual power, but make up for it with very low cooldowns, very fast response times to call-in, and generally more predictable behavior.

All Eagle strategems have a number of uses before it becomes unavailable, but all share a very short (8s) cooldown with one another. The uses are recharged if you manually tell your Eagle pilot to resupply, or if all Eagle strategems have been exhausted. Eagle-1 takes approximately 150-180s to resupply at the destroyer before she will be ready for new orders.


Desc: A quick-responding linear gun-run from the Eagle's 30mm main cannons that hits a narrow band forwards from the designator
Players who use it: Enjoy having a "delete this chaff chasing me" button and the tangy zip of ginger ale.

The strafing run is easily one of the most flexible, spammable, and reliable stratagems you can pick. It is extremely predictable and minimally destructive outside of the area ahead of it, working to its advantage to be used in close quarters or where your teammates are close by or on the flank of an enemy force and may get hit by airstrikes or other ordinance. The strafe is very quick to respond and very useful for clearing bands of enemies, especially those that may be pursing you in a line because they're dumb and form congalines while chasing you.

The gatling rounds fired kill almost any chaff nearby and either significantly injure or kill most medium-sized enemies. The strafing run is capable of dealing damage to heavily armored targets, but rarely finishes them off unless they're already damaged. Overall, the strafing run is very flexible and spammable at just about any breach/drop to clear out light targets quickly, but it will generally leave behind heavier targets to deal with.


Desc: A perpendicular salvo of 4-5 250kg bombs, deployed horizontally on where it was thrown.
Players who use it: Will probably throw it at literally anything they can't immediately kill with a personal weapon. Anything.

An extremely effective if extremely bland all-rounder strategem. You can throw an Eagle airstrike at pretty much anything: groups of chaff, medium enemies, armored enemies, or facilities and bugholes, and it will usually destroy or at least severely injure the target. This makes it a personal favorite of pretty much everyone.

Due to the attack pattern, a single one of these can usually seal multiple bugholes or destroy multiple fabricators with an accurate toss. The horizontal attack pattern also makes it generally easy to hit most targets combined with the blast radius.


Desc: A perpendicular salvo of 4-5 200kg cluster bomblet dispensers, deployed horizontally on where it was thrown. Each dispenser explodes into several sub-munitions that carpet the entire area in explosive payload.
Players who use it: Similar to airstrike users, except they will even throw this at heavily armored enemies repeatedly despite no outward effect and kill teammates much more often.

The bane of every small enemy and every teammate's existence. The cluster airstrike is one of the most effective cleaners for small units spread out over a decently sized area, and the area the bomblets cover is fairly massive by itself. Combined with a very high number of uses-per-rearm make this a fan favorite to throw at pretty much any group of enemies that takes more than a magazine of your primary to kill.

While effective, it lacks any armor penetrating power at all, making it wasteful to throw at heavily armored units besides clearing nearby small targets. The bomblets also have a habit of sometimes scattering a significant distance, making it extremely accident prone. Don't just throw these willy-nilly without at least checking around to see if anyone else is going to be caught in the blast.


Desc: A perpendicular salvo of 4-5 incendiary munitions deployed horizontally on where it was thrown. Each bomb releases and ignites a volatile chemical payload that ignites any enemies in the blast radius and ignites nearby terrain for a significant time.
Players who use it: Likely just finished watching Apocalypse Now (1979), probably saying things like "LOST MY LEG BACK IN 'NAM"

A variation of the airstrike which distributes lingering flames instead of flat explosions. This makes it exceedingly useful for generating a "wall of fire" where needed to significantly damage or kill most small and medium enemies that try to cross through it. Popular locations to deploy these are on top of bug breaches or behind you when retreating as to thin out the ranks of most enemies chasing you.

The fire is capable of damaging heavy armor, but not by a lot. If they are already about to die, this may finish them off, but primarily you are only going to see success against most small enemy types and some medium enemies.

Desc: A targeted ripple of six to eight 110mm dumbfire rockets targeted at the largest enemy near the designator.
Players who use it: Really like the sound it makes and really hate not having an anti-tank option at any moment.

One of the dedicated anti-armor Eagle strikes. Compared to the 500kg, what the 110mm Rocket Pods lack in pure destructive power it makes up for with extra uses-per-rearm and limited auto-targeting capability. This makes it a bit easier to use against most larger targets and a little more available compared to using and timing an airstrike.

The rockets lack significant area damage and are generally only useful against one armored unit at a time. The damage can also be somewhat inconsistent depending on the angle of attack; sometimes you can hit the head and get an instant kill, but other times it may take two or the attack may miss due to the enemy moving too much. The pods can be used against facilities in a pinch, but since Eagle 1 will try to target the largest nearby enemy sometimes causing a miss, other strategems usually do a much better job.

Personally, the targeting can sometimes choose the wrong target, and most often a single salvo of rocket pods isn't enough to kill a single heavy target unless already wounded. It does compound well with something like a stun grenade or heavy armor penetrating weapons (like the HMG) and has a faster response then something like the 500kg Bomb, but it significantly struggles to remain viable.


Desc: A single 500kg bomb dropped directly on the targeted area.
Players who use it: Enjoy watching a bomb directly bonk the target on the head shortly before exploding wherever possible

What it lacks in finesse it makes up for in destructive power. Just about anything hit directly with a 500kg bomb won't wake up to feel it the next day. Combined with a relatively short call-in time and the comical impact of the bomb just before exploding, this makes it a very attractive go-to for anti-armor.

The 500kg's blast radius looks huge but is really only modestly sized. Its primary application is anti-armor, so while it can deal with densely packed groups, its best saved for tougher enemies where possible.


Desc: A payload of smoke canisters dropped horizontally at the designator.
Players who use it: Are either trolling or a strategic mastermind. I'm not actually sure I've ever seen anyone use it. Probably used by serial killers.

A quick option for breaking line-of-sight with an enemy contact, though such a manuver would usually require a good degree of coordination with your team that you intend to break contact. Otherwise you'll just obscure your team's view while you leave and they continue fighting.

It does create a fairly significant barrier of smoke on quick demand that is hard to achieve with handheld grenades or smoke strikes, giving it somewhat of a niche, but this is largely only useful if you want to break an engagement. If you are in such a situation, usually just moving the other direction is sufficient, negating the need for a smoke strike occupying one of your valuable strategem slots. If you are in such a situation where you really need smoke, you'd probably be flanked on multiple sides and done for anyways.

General notes about using sentries deserves its own little section.

Sentries all share similar characteristics: they have limited ammo, limited health, automatically engage enemies within their range, and have no concept of trigger discipline. If you place them poorly, they will repeatedly kill you and your team until they run out of ammo, get destroyed, or someone on your team shoots it and destroys it for you. Here are protips for you gearheads to avoid this scenario:

• Always deploy sentries at a different elevation if possible - Sentries at different heights from you and your teammates have a much harder time catching you in crossfire unless you are also fighting up or down a slope (which would be stupid). If you're holding on a ridge, put the sentry in front of you and below it. If you are holding in front of the same ridge, deploy the sentry above you. This way you and your team have minimal interference with the sentry's line of fire.
  
• Deploy sentries on flanks of an enemy force or position where possible - While you won't be as able to effectively cover a sentry on a flank, throwing them significantly left or right from where you expect to be attacked can both split an enemy force's attention towards the sentry or allow the sentry a lot of opportunity to attack the enemy force in the side, often bypassing medium armor in the process. If you can find a clear area to throw a sentry away from your team while getting swamped, it can help alleviate pressure either by splitting the enemy force or killing them from another angle.
  
• Deploy sentries out of your view if there are no other good spots - It may seem counter-intuitive to deploy your sentry to where you can't see it or cover it, but deploying it this way makes it virtually impossible for your sentry to accidentally shoot you if you can't directly see it. If you are holding a chokepoint for example, deploy the sentry out front around one of the chokepoint's corners instead of behind or in front of you. This way it should mulch most things that come towards it and if you get flanked it won't swivel around and shoot towards you.
  
• Change position if sentry fire whizzes past you/Don't stand in the line of fire - If you see a rocket or tracers fly past you from a sentry, don't stay in the same spot and remark how close that last shot was. You will eventually get shot. Change position or flanks to get out of the way. You also shouldn't move up into the location a sentry was just shooting at because it will absolutely shoot you. It is amazing how many people try to press forward into an area a sentry was targeting. Flank around it instead.
  
• Get low - If you have to fight on the same elevation, stay nearby the sentry and low to the ground (prone, preferably). If you're certain you won't be flanked, you can stand to the sides or behind it, or on top of it if you're feeling brave.
  
• Don't deploy them in chokepoints - Don't use sentries to block off chokepoints directly. This just means the sentry will fire at whatever side of the chokepoint has enemies on it, regardless of if that also means you're there or not. Deploy them off to the sides of the chokepoint and further back from it. Your goal is to kill the enemies as they go through the chokepoint, not before they get to it.
  
• Deploy them against walls to minimize field of view - Sentries love to wheel around and shoot things behind them, often catching you in crossfire. Throwing them against a wall makes it so they only need to watch half as much and makes their firing arc more predictable. They're still dangerous, but at the least they're dangerous at less of an angle.
  
• for the love of christ do not just throw mortar sentries out willy nilly - EMS mortars are survivable, but regular mortars will absolutely kill any teammate that gets a single enemy close to them. Try not to just throw them out whenever, make sure your team has some comfortable space first.
  
• Turrets draw enemy attention - Enemies like to spontaneously switch targets to newly deployed sentries or sentries attacking them, especially chargers and bile titans. Without support, the sentry usually gets destroyed. This can also be used to your advantage, as throwing a random MG sentry out to left field may distract some enemies chasing you, even if it can't kill all of them. On armor-heavy seeds, this can really hamper sentry effectiveness as most armored enemies will immediately seek out and attack any sentry that even grazes them, so have a backup plan.

Hopefully that gets most of the sentry-sins out of the way.

Desc: An agile turret affixed with a mounted medium machine-gun. Most similar in caliber to the MG-43.
Players who use it: Despise shriekers and chargers for vastly different reasons.

While generally inferior to other turrets in terms of damage output, the MG sentry is accurate and rotates quickly, making it great for taking out mobile targets and covering a wider range of angles more reliably than slower turrets. This makes it great for shooting down aerial targets as well as rapidly eliminating smaller targets. It also boasts a much lower cooldown than most other sentries giving it a significant edge in flexibility, allowing it to be deployed almost any time to help mop up trash targets that may be swarming the area.

It does, however, lack a significant ammo supply and usually uses its reserves quickly. It will also be quickly hard-countered by any heavy armor, where its role is changed to "distraction" rather than an offensive tool. Try to cover it from heavy armor if you can.


Desc: An turret affixed with a high-speed gatling gun. Most similar in caliber to the MG-43.
Players who use it: Greatly enjoy seeing hunters, brood commanders, and shriekers get massacred by the dozens, has had to play limbo with the stream of red tracers rotating past their head at least twice.

The bigger cousin of the MG sentry, the Gatling is not a fast to switch targets and has a higher cooldown, but has a much higher rate of fire and larger ammo reserves to compensate. This allows it to absolutely chew into any group of targets it can sink its teeth into and makes it very effective against anything its ammunition can penetrate.

It is unfortunately a little more friendly-fire prone as the stream of lead will assuredly injure anyone it passes in front of as the gatling sentry does not pause firing to switch targets. This can make it significantly more dangerous if placed in a bad position. Just like the MG sentry, it will also be hard-countered by heavy armor.


Desc: An turret affixed with a high-caliber autocannon. Most similar in caliber to the handheld version of the autocannon, however the sentry's ammunition is notably more powerful in terms of armor penetration.
Players who use it: Like hearing the rythmic thump of explosive shells hit a bile titan from 100 meters away.

This turret's ammunition is capable of penetrating the armor plates of Chargers, Bile Titans, and Hulks with direct hits. This makes it quite capable of taking those targets down when they are focused and at a reasonable distance, and the explosive nature of the shells also makes it decent at taking out dense clusters of smaller enemies. Provided a good vantage point and ample cover, an autocannon sentry can be an extremely powerful asset against both armor and smaller targets alike and is able to do a significant amount of cleaning up by itself.

It comes with notable drawbacks: the three-round burst tends to waste ammunition on smaller targets. It has a very slow traverse speed, giving it great difficulty in tracking smaller and more agile targets; it can easily be overwhelmed or distracted by small enemies if it is not given adequate cover or is flanked. It also may need support or distraction to completely kill heavier armor; a charger beelining for this sentry at a fairly close distance will probably find its mark and destroy it pre-emptively. Overall, while powerful, it is a good idea to babysit this sentry a little to make sure it gets full effectiveness.


Desc: A turret affixed with a battery of dumbfire missiles and programmed to target larger enemies where possible.
Players who use it: Giggle each time someone gets ragdolled by the backblast.

The rocket sentry lacks the overall damage output of the autocannon but makes up for it in longevity and flexibility. While it can't kill armor as quickly, the rockets it fires do have a significant splash radius which makes them greatly effective at thinning out groups of medium and small enemies. The relatively slow but paced rate of fire and several reloads also keeps the sentry in the fight for a significantly longer duration, allowing it to exert constant pressure instead of expending most of its ammo immediately.

It does come with some drawbacks: It has a hard time dealing with armor exclusively by itself and has a lot of trouble dealing damage quickly in comparison to the autocannon. Like the autocannon sentry, it needs some support to make sure it doesn't get overwhelmed or jumped by an armored unit at close range, or a good vantage point to help it get the edge over an enemy force. The sentry's firing will also generate backblast which will ragdoll anyone caught in it, so don't dial offensive strategems and walk behind it unless you want to drop it on your own position.


Desc: A turret affixed with a close-range flamethrower.
Players who use it: Create a dangerous game called "fire limbo" where they would attach bottle rockets to a can of hair spray and lighter, then try not to get burned by the resulting inferno.

It is just what it says on the tin. It is very close-range and can toast multiple enemies in the same direction at once, but the lack of crowd control of flame weapons means many enemies can walk up to it and whack it anyways. The turret struggles (but can usually kill) with medium enemies and can't usually kill large enemies by itself.

Overall you will get much better results from an MG sentry due to its range and higher lethality, allowing it much more breathing room to operate. The only upside to the flame sentry is it explodes on death, and it very often gets killed. Even then, the explosion is pretty underwhelming.

Desc: Stationary, limited lifetime tower that shocks targets within approximately 25 meters periodically with electricity. The electric arcs can chain through multiple enemies, even those outside the immediate range of the tower.
Players who use it: Are either trying to kill teammates or will probably use something else as soon as it gets instantly blown up by another strategem, gunfire, a charger, or they get instantly killed by it 20 meters away.

Misunderstood but understandably so, with a well-earned reputation for killing careless teammates, often repeatedly. Tesla towers are great on the Bug front, not just for watching your back or a choke point from small and medium stragglers. Since the tesla tower is also a sentry, it attracts enemy attention like the placement of any other sentry does, often causing a significant portion of enemies to try and walk towards it and hit it like a bug flying into a mosquito zapper.

The tower itself is mostly able to handle even medium sized groups of medium and small enemies, instantly killing most small enemies and stunning or killing most medium enemies with 2-3 shocks. The range is not to be underestimated; the tower will gladly kill you instantly if you wander closer than 25 or so meters to it without being prone. If you absolutely have to, you can crawl up to the tower while prone to fight nearby it, but this is insanely ill-advised at best as the lightning can also chain through enemy targets and hit you anyways.

The tower also has a limited duration and will also expire on its own if it somehow wasn't shot, killed by a charger, or hit by a teammate's strategem within about three minutes.


Desc: Indirect fire 40mm mortar capable of engaging targets within its range without line-of-sight to the target. Fires three-round bursts before adjusting aim.
Players who use it: Think they're always helping when they throw a mortar down and blame the other player if the mortar kills them when a pouncer snuck up on them from behind (unless that player is the mortar user, in which case they blame the mortar)

The mortar gets a one in survivability only because it most often gets shot by teammates after they're killed by it and usually runs out of ammo without killing a lot of things. It gets a zero in flexibility because if you throw it out without thinking you will kill yourself and any nearby teammates easily. Mortars can be helpful to soften things up when you're holding a position with very good sightlines and not being flanked, but the moment something sneaks up on you (which happens almost all the time regardless of your vigilance), the mortar will be more than happy to shoot directly at your feet, often killing you.

The shells each have decent explosive effect and kill most things they land on, but since the mortar doesn't have very exceptional range (around 80-100 meters), it isn't the greatest.


Desc: Indirect fire 40mm mortar firing electromagnetic charged rounds which stun targets on impact for several seconds.
Players who use it: Sometimes don't understand they actually need to kill what the mortar is firing at themselves.

A version of the mortar that fixes one major issue with it which is not killing you when it shoots at your feet. It is suprisingly helpful if deployed in a timely manner to help lock down medium sized groups of enemies, but its rather random targeting sort of leaves it up to chance if it locks down a worthwhile target or not. The other major issue is actually needing to kill whatever it is shooting at yourself, or leaving the area.

Battlefield fortifications generally make an area easier to hold and generally stay put in a single place.


Desc: A pod containing an automated dispenser which distributes 48 anti-personnel mines in several bands around the drop point. Incendiary mines do less direct damage but ignite the ground and targets. AT mines deploy only 18 mines but do much more direct damage. Gas mines disperse corrosive gas which damages and confuses targets caught within.
Players who use it: Point out their own minefields in advance and enjoy seeing teammates wander into them anyways. Somehow manages to step on their own mines. Somehow manages to deploy pristine minefields in locations nobody has been to yet or that no enemies pass through.

Until Arrowhead actually decides to take a genuine look at mines, all of them will remain absolutely terrible options unless you are clowning around. These are the current issues with mines:

• A single enemy and enemy corpses can detonate several mines at once, clearing whole minefields with just one corpse
  
• Multiple minefields deployed over one another usually just cause both fields of mines to be wasted
  
• Mines frequently turn completely invisible to players yet still retain their feet-destroying abilities leading to instant death (allegedly, this was fixed)
  
• Minefields do not do appreciable damage to heavy units, even AT mines
  
• Teammates frequently either walk directly into mines and die or throw strategems on top of known minefields to kill enemies, destroying all of the mines in the process
  
• Most map terrains lack clear, open, effective areas where these can be efficiently deployed
  
• The nature of constantly needing to move to new locations in most missions is almost completely mutually exclusive with covering an area in mines (covering an area you're going to revisit is a good way to blow everyone's ankles off)

Tip of the iceberg with these things. When they decide to work, they are a powerful if volatile way to cover approaches, especially chokepoints where possible. They can also be used as a good escape cover as they require a bit of time to arm after being deployed, allowing you to run through a deploying minefield while catching the pursuing enemy in the ordinance.

All that being said, AT mines have been made the barest degree of passable - because they no longer instantly explode the moment anything touches them. But they still won't survive your teammate's stratagems, gunfire, explosions, or really anything else, and a single heavy unit still needs to step on a few of them to actually die. To their credit, the dispenser throws them a very far distance, but they can become an occupational hazard if you don't remember you're standing on one when something shoots towards you.

Gas mines are passable if only because having one go off near you doesn't instantly kill you. The gas clouds generated also last long enough to be a fairly reasonable delay to any attacking force moving through them.


Desc: Portable, short cooldown shield generator that generates a protective bubble that blocks incoming fire and allows outgoing fire for approximately 30 seconds or until it takes enough damage to collapse it. While the shield can be collapsed, it does recharge when not actively taking damage and not already collapsed.
Players who use it: Really wants to be beloved by their team for protecting everyone with the shield, or really hates their sentries/HMG getting instantly vaporized by enemy attack.

While not offensive, it finds a lot of use on the Bot front as a protective anchor against spammy enemy fire. Its short cooldown makes it very easy to call upon when needed and can give your team that little bit of foothold that lets you peek from cover and punch back without getting staggered by lasers or rockets. This is especially useful when paired with the HMG Emplacement or sentries as it gives them a good amount of cover where they might otherwise be destroyed.

The shield constantly regenerates itself even under fire until it either collapses or expires, so it works best under light or moderate, but not heavy fire. It won't completely stop Ragnarok from killing you, but it might at least soften the blow for the diver behind you.

The shield can take a significant amount of punishment by itself, but it will quickly be collapsed when taking excessive amounts of fire (ex: from a shredder tank or cannons). Don't stake your life on it entirely if taking a ton of fire, but under light or medium attack it can hold strong. Notably, missiles from reinforced scout striders can easily be blocked by this shield, and although the shield will likely collapse, it can also block at least one shot from a cannon turret or similar turret. It can also provide limited protection from some types of strategems in a pinch.

Desc: A manned emplacement with a high-caliber cannon loaded with 30 HEAT shells and a built-in optic for engaging targets at long range.
Players who use it: Spam the Ranchero Relaxo emote in TF2 as an engineer all game.

The almighty Chair(TM) looks goofy but kills anything that moves and a lot of things that don't. It takes only two or three shells to kill most heavy enemies when hitting a weak point, and each shell has a decent explosive radius making it useful against tightly clumped targets. The sizable ammo pool for its role and long effective range makes this piece of equipment a menace when properly set up and supported.

Even more than the HMG emplacement, the AT-12 is prone to being flanked by trash enemies both due to its slow traverse and explosive payload making it dangerous to shoot enemies at point blank. Having someone nearby to keep trash off of you is recommended. The AT-12 also can take a while to set up unlike man-portable AT, so it is much harder to use on the move or when overwhelmed.



Desc: A pod containing a manned HMG emplacement with 300 rounds of ammunition, suitable for dealing with moderately armored targets.
Players who use it: Despises sentries and prefers the good-old-fashioned way of cutting down trash enemies. Likely to be an enjoyer of tower-defense games.

This monster of a turret takes a second to call down and place, but once in a good position it can cut down enormous numbers of enemies quickly with a skilled operator. To boot, the turret itself has a fairly sizable health pool and can take a surprising beating without being instantly destroyed. The turret's traverse speed is somewhat slow, so it is best used to cover a narrow angle or choke point and has difficulty when flanked or trying to track highly mobile aerial targets flying overhead.

The armor penetration of the turret can't directly penetrate heavy vehicle armor, but it can penetrate the weak points of most heavy vehicles and enemies. The emplacement is very capable of dealing with any medium enemy (ex: brood commanders, scout striders, devastators) and especially effective against Hulks when targeting the eye slit. It has limited effectiveness against the front of heavy armor like Chargers and Bile Titans, but can still damage and kill them with enough sustained fire (somewhere around 100-150 shots for titans). Factory Striders are mostly impervious to direct HMG fire, but it can still de-fang its frontal miniguns and attack the eye slit directly for a kill. The generous ammo pool will also let you clear out most trash and medium enemies with ease.

Try to pick a good position. Elevation helps, as does having a good field of view of oncoming attackers and no obstructions. In a pinch, you can also directly attack most bug structures (spore towers and shrieker nests) by shooting it with the HMG.

This covers backpack-based support weapons, which is generally any support weapon that needs a backpack carried with or provided with it to be reloaded. A Helldiver carrying the appropriate backpack for a team support weapon can perform an assisted reload by approaching the right side of the Helldiver with the weapon and using the interaction prompt.

Assisting in a reload consumes the assistant's ammo, is many times faster then an unassisted reload, happens automatically so as long as there is ammo, and allows a limited amount of movement while loading and firing. This comes with the downside of requiring two divers to be in extremely close proximity, both necessitating intelligent positioning and caution to ensure your position is not overwhelmed. A team busy loading and firing also needs to be protected on its flanks, either by the loader when not busy loading or another diver.

Limited movement is possible while assisting in a reload, to include walking and changing stance. Moving too far away from the assistant, sprinting, or changing weapons will stop the assistant from loading. Uneven terrain will also prevent a loader from assisting, and sloped terrain may require one diver to change stance. For best results, try to stand somewhere flat with space to your right side.

Unassisted reloading will require you to stand still during the weapon's loading process and will also require you to carry the associated backpack. If you operate with a close team, you can trade or give your weapon backpack to another diver, but this will require you to link up with that diver to reload your weapon. Later in a mission, you can also call your team weapon down a second time and give the spare bag to someone else.

Sometimes your arms will get bugged and stuck in the reloading animation. Switching weapons and using your melee attack is enough to usually fix this.

Desc: A high-caliber semi-automatic rifle designed to engage and disable armored targets from a significant distance.
Players who use it: Are likely to aim for the heads of enemies even if not necessary just for the extra challenge and cinematic head explosion.

This weapon delivers excellent damage over distance to anything it can penetrate the armor of, which is just about everything. It also fires about as fast as the trigger can be pulled, giving it some flexibility in a pinch against a target at close range (though unlike other weapons, it lacks a reticule from third person).

Most often this weapon finds its niche in a supporting role off the frontlines, picking off or crippling heavier targets as its ammo is quickly exhausted trying to take down lighter enemies. In particular, brood commanders, nursing/bile spewers, devastators, and scout striders are all very attractive targets that the AMR has an easy time disabling or killing in just a few shots. The biggest limiting factor of the AMR is the difficulty of using it up-close and its somewhat limited ammo pool.


Desc: A handheld fire delivery system that sets enemies and terrain within a very short distances ablaze.
Players who use it: Mischievous. If no problems can be readily found nearby, they will be created.

The subject of endless controversy because players can't enjoy it and the developers repeatedly fail to fix it. The Flamethrower could and should be much better at what it does, but it ends up rather lacking in many departments due to a number of reasons. Namely:

• Range - Needing to be within 10-18 meters of your target means you're right at the front lines where everyone else is shooting or throwing strategems. Careless teammates often kill flamethrower users. This also naturally puts your position much closer to the enemy than is comfortable if something goes wrong.
  
• Teamkill Potential - Fire lingers where it is shot and helpfully bounces around off surfaces, often causing you and your teammates to ignite. Being ignited is almost always fatal unless you stim or dive to put yourself out. This is not only annoying but often gets you killed even if the fire doesn't directly kill you. Fire-resisting armor is an ugly bandaid for this problem and still requires you to put yourself out.
  
• Lackluster performance - The damage against most targets is OK and capable of killing most small and medium enemies quickly, but the flamethrower provides no crowd-control effects like slowing, so enemies can often sprint through your flames and kill you as they burn to death, sometimes also causing you to ignite yourself due to proximity.
  
• Mediocre anti-armor performance - After anti-armor performance was "patched" it was "reimplemented" after backlash and now the flamethrower is merely below average at killing enemy armor, whereas dedicated anti-armor strategems do much better for obvious reasons. Essentially, it isn't really a good idea to engage heavy armor with the flamethrower if there's other anti-armor around.

All of this makes majority of flame-spouting weapons rather lackluster. They're still okay for mopping up trash units though.


Desc: A chemical thrower that vomits a cloud of noxious gas that both damages and blinds targets hit by it. Its effects are similar to the orbital gas strike.
Players who use it: Imagine the smell.

The only noteworthy leg up this weapon has over the flamethrower is it is slightly less teamkill prone as the gas is easier to escape from and less damaging then if you set yourself on fire. It also, unlike the flamethrower, has some crowd control ability as enemies blinded by the caustic stream have a much more difficult time attacking you.

It loses out on style points though. It fires a green cloud of gas. People call it the brap blaster for a reason.


Desc: A magnetically-driven railgun firing ferromagnetic slugs at velocities approaching a small factor of c.
Players who use it: Will fully charge and edge it to 99% charge just to hit a scavenger with it to see them evaporate in a puff of smoke. Will also sometimes spontaneously explode (due to overloading).

Most similar to the AMR, but with a bonus mechanic called "unsafe mode". Under normal conditions, the railgun has to be charged to shoot and charges to a maximum level, indicated by the gauges on the side of the weapon. If so inclined, you can switch this safety feature off and continue charging the weapon as much as you want, right up until it explodes and kills you and the weapon.

Unsafe mode shots can deal up to 250% more damage at maximum charge, giving higher damage output to those with a more consistent and rhythmic control of how much they charge the weapon before releasing. The weapon is also capable of penetrating most heavy armor from the front like the AMR, making it possible to kill enemies like Bile titans and Factory Striders by consistently nailing weak points.

Essentially, the railgun is trading the AMR's ease of followup shots and ammo economy for raw damage and precision. The Railgun also only has a red dot, reducing its use at long range.

Desc: A belt-fed 40mm rifle grenade launcher effective at splashing groups of lightly armored enemies.
Players who use it: After only one or two experiences with it, fully understand that the proximity safety fuse on each grenade does not mean the weapon is safe to fire at close range.

Its simplicity and straightforwardness make it generally easy to use and hard to explain a lot about. It is great for controlling groups of enemies and only takes a handful of grenades to deal with medium enemies. Its only rough spot is ammo economy, but it is better than it was with three spare belts instead of two. Each grenade also has a proximity safety fuse that prevents it from detonating within the first 10-15 meters or so of flight, but grenades that direct impact terrain or enemies like this have a high chance of bouncing and finding their way back to you. The grenades may also bounce at oblique angles.

As a tactical protip, if you shoot the GL-21 directly into the air above you, the grenades land about 40 meters in front of you after about 7-8 seconds. You can use this as a funny form of indirect artillery to impress your friends.


Desc: A continuous-beam laser cannon operating off of heat sinks for ammunition. As long as a heat sink is allowed to cool before being fully used, the LAS-98 has functionally infinite ammo.
Players who use it: Will not stop reciting the "eggman has an announcement" meme in their head for the entire mission.

The Laser Cannon has decent armor penetration and can damage most things, in addition to setting them on fire, had near perfect accuracy and no recoil. It comes with the significant drawback of no area-of-effect damage making it a poor choice for dealing with dispersed or numerous targets at medium or close range. It also has rather lackluster upfront damage and no capability to delay or stagger enemies, which makes the user very prone to losing ground and being forced off of their position by advancing enemies.


Desc: An energy-based weapon that fires a projection of electric bolts. When hitting an enemy, the bolts will arc and jump to other targets (and allies) in close proximity.
People who use it: Probably saw a bug zapper as a kid, then later saw a tesla coil demonstration at school, and wondered why they don't just make really big tesla coils to kill all of the bugs at once.

The Arc Thrower is effective at clearing small and medium enemies from the field by virtue of its repeated stunning when firing. The chaining bolts also tend to quickly clear out swarms of small enemies that may be in proximity. This is where my praise of the Arc Thrower ends.

The Arc Thrower is also time-consuming against larger enemies. You can kill larger enemies with it, but you will commit a significant amount of time to stunning it repeatedly while chipping away at its health. This makes the thrower somewhat prone to being overwhelmed on its flanks if trying to control heavier enemies by itself. The bolts are also jump-happy and will merrily arc their way to nearby teammates that may be around your target, making it rather teamkill prone if not fired judiciously.

This weapon is best used in conjunction with a nearby team that can more quickly kill things you may be struggling with. Its best tool is its ability to stunlock heavier enemies and clear smaller ones, so work with your teammates to ultimately clear them out.


A support slot melee weapon. Functionally, its collision model and strike animations are identical to the stun prod.

Only take if it you want to LARP. The flag functionally has no other purpose other than being a mediocre melee weapon without stunning, has an 8 minute calldown time, and doesn't do more damage than other melee counterparts. If you want to LARP with it, some extra know-how:

• Holding your weapon wheel key (R default) waves the flag.
  
• Dropping the flag from your inventory plants it into the ground. Flags will only stick in terrain and concrete, not props, so it will fall over if it can't stick in the ground.
  
• The flag's banner does a pretty good job of obscuring your third person reticule from accurately hitting things.

Machine Guns are rather vanilla-flavored support weapons that come in three sizes: light, medium, and heavy. They are generally good at sustained and somewhat stationary fire against numerous enemies and generally excel at controlling or killing lightly armored or general trash enemies. Most MGs have an adjustible rate of fire (by holding R). This is useful for a number of reasons:

• Low ROF - Less sustained recoil makes the weapon easier to keep on target, especially on the move. When stationary, it helps conserve ammo by making sure you don't overkill enemies too much and reduces the need to fire in bursts. It obviously doesn't put out damage as quickly so it can falter if killing things quickly is more important.
  
• Medium ROF - Cozy default mode. Usually a good balance of power versus ammo efficiency.
  
• High ROF - More dakka. Provides more upfront damage if you are especially certain of your target and have good recoil control. Especially useful if prone and using recoil-reducing armors. While using full ROF all the time is possible, it tends to be more wasteful on small enemies as you may accidentally use a lot more bullets than needed.

Type: Belt-fed Light Machine Gun (LMG)
Feed: 250 rounds, 3+1 magazines (1000 rnds total)
People who use it: Will probably have <50% end-mission accuracy but >5,000 rounds fired.

A lightweight machine gun trading overall power for volume of fire and ease of use. Capable of reloading on the move, a high fire rate, and good sustained fire, but lacks armor penetration.

Functionally, this is a Liberator if it had an excessive rate of fire and had over five times the magazine capacity. This weapon boasts the most mobility out of the MG family by allowing reloads on the move, controllable recoil, and generous accuracy even when standing or on the move for an MG. This makes it very comfortable to use as a stand-in for your primary weapon as the large magazines also give a lot of potential damage per reload, making ammo much less of a concern.

It does have a few drawbacks, especially when dealing with anything significantly armored. Having only light armor penetration, it significantly struggles to deal with medium-armor enemies and has a hard time specifically targeting weakpoints. Unless dealing with large numbers of light enemies (as is typical on bugs with Hunter spam), the Stalwart can tend to struggle a bit.


Type: Belt-fed General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG)
Feed: 175 rounds, 3+1 magazines (700 rnds total)
People who use it: Are roleplaying as John Helldiver, John Rambo, or just really like its dependability.

A general-purpose MG designed for firing from a relatively stable position and for cutting through medium armor with ease. It has a moderate rate of fire and decent magazine capacity which compliments is armor penetration and general accuracy well, but it suffers from mobility and ammo economy issues.

This MG boasts a lot more functionality against medium armor and can cut down anything with less. This makes it perfectly capable of killing just about anything it can damage easily, making only heavily armored enemies you would typically save AT weapons for a problem it cannot deal with by itself easily.

This weapon does suffer from mobility problems: standing still to reload is a downside that is hard to overlook, especially when the best time to move is right when you just bought yourself some time by emptying the MG's magazine. The reduced magazine size also starts butting into ammo economy, making it harder to keep this weapon topped off with just casual ammo grabbing. Unlike the Stalwart, blindly spraying or being overzealous on the trigger tends to run you out of ammo a lot faster.


Type: Belt-fed Heavy Machine Gun (HMG)
Feed: 100 rounds, 2+1 magazines (300 rnds total)
Players who use it: Really just want the AMR to have a similar magazine capacity so they can use that instead.

A man-portable HMG designed for dealing with significantly armored targets. Effective at dealing with armor, but difficult to use without a stationary position and spare ammunition.

The HMG is the opposite end of the spectrum, for when no matter what the target is you want to kill it with bullets. Like the HMG emplacement, the man-portable version can penetrate the armor of just about anything, even heavy armor provided you are hitting a weakpoint. This means it can be used to kill Hulks, Factory Striders, Bile Titans, and Chargers with direct fire for the most part.

Its biggest limiting factors are awful ammo economy, cumbersome recoil, and very limited magazine capacity. Each of these are in turn often bandaided by running a supply backpack, using recoil-reducing armor, and pacing your fire in very short bursts, which is very un-machinegun like.

This weapon also suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. While it is capable of attacking some heavy armor directly, it usually isn't the best idea to be wasting most of your ammo supply shooting at a bile titan unless there's no other option. This sort of sticks the HMG as a sidegrade to the MMG, and most people seem to take the MMG since it suffers from all of the HMG's issues less while being a bit more flexible. In all, you may want to save the HMG's belts for tough medium targets or the occasional heavy, and not make it your go-to for heavy enemies all together.

The great debate among everyone of which is the best AT weapon.


Desc: A single-shot disposable anti-tank launcher. The stratagem itself deploys two disposable launchers per call-in.
People who use it: "Don't you worry little Helldiver, our Super Destroyer has got enough ordinance to feed you your ENTIRE LIFE. SHIPMASTER, BRING ME SOME MORE EAT-17'S, BOY'S HUNGRY!"

Despite being relatively simple, the EAT benefits from availability above everything. With a very short cooldown and two launchers per call-in, it can be quite easy to litter the battlefield with extra EAT launchers just in case they're needed. In the event they are, anyone can simply grab one and attack an armored threat to get rid of it. This makes them good to shore up your AT defenses, especially if you have teammates without support weapons or who have been separated from them. It is also a flexible strategem to take alongside another support weapon like a Machine Gun, allowing you to change between the MG and EAT when needed.

There are downsides: sometimes calling in and waiting for another EAT drop is difficult and it can be easy to get pushed off of your launchers while waiting for them. Missing your shots is also punishing and requires waiting for another drop. They also have to be called in frequently which can be inconvenient.


Desc: A four-shot, laser-guided, disposable anti-tank launcher. The laser guidance can be manually disabled if desired.
People who use it: Really just think it sounds and looks cool.

Most similar to the EAT, however each rocket does just over half the damage of a single EAT rocket. This is sort of like packing two EATs together into one laser-guided package, but it suffers from a bit longer cooldown overall. Its flexible and the four rockets makes it easier to use less than the whole launcher on a target, while the laser guidance can be forgiving of aiming mistakes at launch. This comes down to preference more than performance, really.


Desc: An energy-based anti-tank weapon firing a powerful bolt after a chargeup period. Similar in destructive potential to the EAT.
People who use it: Will comically get hit in the face by a charger mid-quasar-charge.

The Quasar trades lethality for convenience of not needing to worry about ammo, taking only about 15 seconds to recharge for another shot after firing. By far its biggest drawback is the need to come to a near complete standstill for three seconds to charge and fire the weapon, which makes it very difficult to use on short notice, especially against Chargers or Hulks barreling in your direction. Because of its chargeup period and cooldown period, it makes it a very difficult to use AT weapon when you don't have sufficient breathing room to charge it.

Its sole benefits in this department is you can swap weapons while its recharging and continue fighting, and the infinite ammo makes it less taxing to waste it on something that's not armored (ex: medium enemies).


Desc: A reloadable 84mm recoilless rifle for engaging armored targets. Additional ammunition is held in a backpack which must be used to reload the weapon. The ammunition is "programmable" and can be used in a high-explosive (HE) mode more effective against soft targets in addition to "HEAT" mode more effective against armor.
People who use it: Wishes that most weapons were point-and-click adventures like this one.

Powerful, accurate, deadly, and with a decent number of shots. A solid strike from the recoilless will kill most armored targets instantly, and if not, a second one almost assuredly will. The recoilless is somewhat cumbersome when first starting out, but it is a deadly and efficient tool in the hands of a skilled operator.

Using the shells on HE mode is a mixed bag. You'll kill light targets in a wider radius more easily, but using the recoilless for this purpose isn't particularly efficient. It comes in handy to blow up very dense groups of light enemies, especially those that are prone to explosive damage (such as spewers). Otherwise, it is usually wiser to conserve your ammo for the HEAT mode.

Unlike disposable launchers, the recoilless does not require a deploying period other than pointing the weapon in the correct direction. This makes it easy to switch to and take a single shot quickly, then reload whenever there is time. The launcher is also quite accurate out to distances of up to 400 meters, though requires a bit of finnesse to aim correctly. Utilizing the rings on its built-in optic can be useful for estimating distance, as the inner ring's bottom is approximately 200m and the outer ring's bottom is about 300m.

The backpack requirement of this weapon and long cooldown makes it a bit of a consideration if you want to use a backpack slot for something else. Team reloading a recoilless rifle brings its rate of fire to almost one round per second, allowing for ludicrous and impunitive armor destruction.


Desc: A reloadable fire-and-forget missile system which launches optically guided missiles at a designated target in a top-down attack fashion, increasing hit probability. The weapon is only capable of locking specific targets and buildings. Lock range is approximately 300m.
People who use it: Are probably regretting not taking the Recoilless after the second SPEAR missile fails to kill a heavy unit (again).

Nowhere near as flexible as other AT options, but packs the most punch and has the greatest accuracy so as long as the shot can make it to its target. The Spear is most useful in situations where you may not be able to clearly see the target or when supporting from a long distance. With other weapons requiring careful aim, the Spear simply requires a vague understanding of where the enemy is and an unobstructed line of sight.

Spear missiles fly up, toward the target, then splash down. While they almost always hit the target, they have a very difficult time intentionally hitting weak points like other AT weapons. You can try diving while firing to 'hook' a missile in the direction you want it which can help. Spear missiles can also be used to target fabricators, bug holes, spore towers, shrieker nests, and some other fortifications, making them valuable for clearing such things out at a distance.

By far the biggest drawback is ammo economy. The Spear only gets four missiles; which isn't enough to last it too far away from nearby ammo. Consider keeping a resupply close at hand or someone with a supply pack.

Desc: An automatic 20mm cannon fed from stripper clips five rounds at a time.
People who use it: PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP GET 20-MIL'D GET 20-MIL'D GET 20-MIL'D

The autocannon boasts decent effectiveness against just about everything barring heavily armored units, which it struggles to kill. The ammunition is "programmable" and the fuzes can be set for a flak-detonation mode which automatically detonates in close proximity to an enemy, releasing a spray of fragmentation effective against unarmored targets.

You've got two modes:

• APHET - Armor-piercing High Explosive Tracer. Deals the most direct damage, has decent armor penetration, and a small explosive radius. Best to use against structures and armored targets.
  
• Flak - Proximity fuze detonation mode. The projectile detonates on striking a surface or passing nearby an enemy. On detonation, it deals damage in a slightly larger explosive radius than AP mode and releases several shrapnel projectiles which can cause additional damage against soft targets. Effective against groups of light enemies and flying targets.

The autocannon is flexible and has decent ammo economy, but can still run dry rather quickly without being regularly topped up. Team reloading can vomit a very potent amount of lead downrange very quickly, though sometimes the direct damage and area of effect can leave something more to be desired.

Flak mode is great against anything with exposed fleshy bits, especially impalers with their faces deployed into the ground and the rear ends of chargers. It also boasts great effectiveness against clusters of light enemies. Otherwise, APHET is more preferable for direct damage or when a more precise shot is needed (ex: shooting close to a team member or trying to hit a specific enemy or weak point).


Desc: A shoulder-fired rocket propelled grenade launcher firing warheads that release cluster munitions on detonation.
People who use it: The "accidentals" counter should probably read "purposefuls" instead.

Like the autocannon, you have two firing modes:

• Flak - When the rocket passes within a close distance of an enemy, hits a surface, or flies 300 meters, it will detonate. Detonation disperses bomblets in all directions which detonate after a random timer from about 0.5 to 1.5 seconds. Most effective against faraway and aerial targets.
  
• Cluster - When the rocket hits a surface or travels approximately 90 meters, it will detonate. Detonation disperses bomblets in all directions which only explode once the bomblets hit the ground. Useful for saturating an area or concentrating the bomblets at a specific point.

Once the SPEAR's targeting was fixed, its schizophrenia was offloaded onto the RL-77. This weapon has a long and storied history of teamkills and has probably killed more Helldivers than some trash units in other factions. It only took a few months for its most glaring flaws to get fixed (detonating on vegetation, teammates, particle effects, and for no reason at all).

When used correctly, RL-77 rockets can wipe most or all of a patrol with a well-placed shot. Learning to space the rockets for optimal coverage is a bit of an art - Aiming at the top of an enemy is better for dispersing the bomblets in a wider area, while aiming at the ground in the front of the enemy can focus the bomblets in one area, usually allowing them to kill heavily armored enemies if detonated near a weak point.

The cluster mode is most useful at a fixed distance of about 40-60 meters. Since the rocket does not detonate in enemy proximity in this mode, it is relatively safe to shoot when enemies are very close as long as the rocket can travel its full distance away from you. The saturation radius and distance of the bomblets can effectively be controlled with the elevation of your shot: shoot straight to get the most distance and a narrower radius, aim 30-45 degrees up to disperse the bomblets in a wider area and closer to you - just don't aim too high or you'll rain bomblets on yourself (though a shield relay can mitigate this issue).

Team reloading lets you drop clusters indiscriminately, but it is difficult to convince anyone to stand next to you while you're carrying an airburst, let alone team reloading you.


Desc: A surface-to-air and surface-to-surface guided micro-missile launcher fed from canisters of 7 missiles each. The launcher is capable of locking on and firing upon medium or larger enemies. Fired missiles disperse in random directions initially before homing in on the target. An alternative Artillery firing mode fires all remaining missiles in the magazine in a top-down attack at the locked target, saturating the area.
People who use it: Want to enjoy the SPEAR, but also want to actually kill more than 10 things per mission with it.

The WASP is a peculiar launcher and is really only outstandingly good at one thing: deleting medium enemies in one or two missiles in open terrain. Entire canisters can be shot at heavy enemies to some effect, but this will quickly eat your ammo supply. Due to how locking on a single target works, identifying, locking, firing, and waiting for impact on numerous medium targets can be rather difficult to do. The drunken launch of the missiles also tend to hit nearby obstacles if not fired in the open.

When used from an advantageous position (open ground at long range), the WASP absolutely eviscerates anything you can lock onto that dies in only a missile or two, making it a great backline support weapon in open areas. On the downsides, it tends to eat through ammo very quickly, especially when faced with harder targets.

These occupy your backpack slot. You can't have one of these and a backpack required for a support weapon at the same time.


A portable bag carrying up to four standard resupplies, which comes fully loaded when it arrives. Each resupply will give the same amount of ammunition a standard resupply drop with no upgrades gives (full primary and secondary ammo, half ammo for support weapons, two grenades, two stims). You can give ammo to your teammates by approaching and using the interaction prompt, and you can give ammo to yourself using the backpack key (5, default).

This is a great way to lug around an emergency trap card just in case your team gets split up or overwhelmed. Regular resupplies suffer from needing to be called down, waiting for it, and having to call it down in an area everyone can reasonably get to it. With the B-1, you can simply shove ammo at people whenever it is needed. This is especially useful for stims, grenades, and support weapon ammo as those usually run out first.

When combined with other support weapons that have low ammo economy (ex: the Grenade Launcher) this is a very effective way to carry much more ammunition for yourself if your teammates don't need it. As a bonus, in addition to normally restocking your ammo at a regular resupply call-in, B-1 supply packs also regain one extra supply, effectively doubling how much you get from a single resupply. The pack can also be called in again after 8 or so minutes, fully loaded. It essentially makes ammo a non-issue.


A portable pack allowing for a brief jump at an enhanced speed and height, allowing for traversal to normally inaccessible terrain, faster movement, and the ability to scale some gaps and cliffs quickly.

A great traversal tool that allows quick escape options from dangerous areas, a way to create space during an engagement, and more options to traverse terrain obstacles. It also allows elevation to take momentary shots with weapons like the grenade launcher and allows easier access to usually inaccessible areas like the roofs of some low buildings. It can be especially useful as a good entrance/exit tool from larger bug nests and automaton holds when you find your usual exit blocked by bugs or bots.


A portable and modified version of the jump pack, the Hover Pack launches the user into the air and sustains its maximum altitude for about 6 seconds before lowering back to the ground. Limited mid-air movement is possible for the duration of the hover. Can also be used to slow a user's fall if activated while falling and not ragdolled.

A modified version of the jump pack. While not as adept at traversing terrain horizontally, the hover pack is a great escape tool from most melee units and allows you to plan your next move or more accurately fly over rough terrain or obstacles without as much precision required as the jump pack. The jump pack also makes it very easy to attack nearby massed melee units with low radius explosive weapons like a grenade launcher, as the height offered by the jump is usually enough to keep you out of the immediate blast radius.

It does, however, have very limited horizontal movement when flying. If the targets below you are not taken out or dealt with in some manner, they'll usually already be on you by the time you land. Effective use of the hover pack requires flying over something the enemy cannot path through or neutralization of the enemy so they don't immediately chomp your ankles on landing.


A man-portable version of the deployable hellbomb for certain destruction objectives. The portable hellbomb can be activated by the wearer by using the backpack key (5) or activated by another helldiver standing in close proximity with the use key (E). The hellbomb has a 10 second timer once activated and cannot be deactivated.

If you've ever wanted to literally nuke something annoying, the portable hellbomb is your tool. While effective, it is immediately apparent that it is logistically difficult and dangerous to get the portable hellbomb in an appropriate position. You have two main options:

• Cautious but Effective - Activate the hellbomb, then drop it off nearby where it is to detonate. If this area is covered in enemies, it may be difficult to drop and get enough distance, but the pack will roll down inclines and carry some momentum if dropped while moving.
  
• Radical Suicidal Anarchy - Don't bother dropping it and instead stand right where you want it to explode. Pros: nearly 100% accuracy. Cons: nearly 100% of your body will be vaporized.

The hellbomb itself will absolutely vaporize literally any target within about 17 meters of the epicenter and will usually kill anything within 25m. It is also highly effective against objective structures, fortifications, clustered bug holes, and literally any significantly large or clustered enemy formation. A badge of honor is being able to get at least 50+ kills with every hellbomb deployment.

A backpack that projects a personal-sized energy bubble that absorbs most damage. The shield will block projectiles, bile spit, and melee attacks among other things. If it takes too much damage, it temporarily breaks and must recharge.

This is more a personal gripe than anything, but using this shield tends to invite lazy situational awareness. You start to worry less about covering against flanking enemies because random scavengers, hunters, or commisars can't run up on you and damage you as easily. The bubble also may block shots from nearby teammates when fighting in an enclosed space.

While it provides good personal protection, I would equate this more as training wheels. Other backpack strategems or weapons are a much larger help to your team and the survivability afforded by this pack you can afford yourself with skilled play.


A ballistic shield that folds up into a near little backpack when not in use. Due to its nature, it can only be wielded with a one-handed weapon. While equipped, the ballistic shield blocks any projectiles and melee attacks from the direction it is currently facing. Each shield has a limited durability and will break when reaching 0. Significantly heavy attacks may throw the shield from your grip without breaking it.

Ballistic shields can be used to block both projectiles and melee attacks, significantly increasing your survivability in close quarters. This makes them valuable as a fallback tool alongside your sidearm, when using a melee weapon, or as a general survivability tool. Its usefulness is somewhat limited by the fact that most enemies are likely to swarm and flank you, negating most of the shield's benefits. While capable of blocking chargers and bile titan leg stabs, it will usually break immediately after only one or two attacks.


A forearm-mounted shield barrier that can be used with one-handed weapons. The projected barrier is approximately two meters wide and one meter tall, and only blocks projectiles from the front. This behavior allows you and any teammates standing behind you to shoot through the shield from behind and utilize it as cover against projectiles from the front.

I haven't seen a single one of them since its release. Its niche is so impossibly small it is hard to imagine any scenario where it would be good to take, even if it were free. Unlike the ballistic shield, this shield does not block melee attacks. Despite being wrist-mounted, it also occupies your backpack slot. The mechanic of allowing your teammates to shoot through it requires too much coordination in manuvering and pacing to be useful. The wide area of the shield works against it as explosive projectiles will still ragdoll you when impacting its surface. The ballistic shield is pretty much superior in every way.

All types of autonomous drones that cover the wearer. Drones can be temporarily stowed or activated by using the backpack key ("5" by default) to conserve ammo or stop them from shooting something dumb. All drones fire autonomously at enemies within their range and will attempt to shoot nearby enemies, helping cover your flanks from most trash enemies.


Equipped with a scaled-down Scythe laser beam, it continuously attacks targets and ignites them with laser fire. It must return to the backpack to cool down if firing for too long.

Unfortunately the continuous beam will sweep as it changes targets, and sometimes the stupid thing just fires at nothing. Since you can't control what it shoots, it has no problem lasering and setting your teammates on fire, sometimes even killing you too. Its great when it works right, but it is possibly the most annoying strategem for your teammates to pick.


An autonomous drone equipped with the SEAF-standard AR-23 liberator, fed by magazine. Notably, this drone uses ammo with medium penetration, allowing it to attack most medium enemies effectively. The drone is reliant on ammo and must return to the backpack for a fresh magazine.

Essentially the LAS-5 with a leash. The liberator variant is much less teamkill prone and comes with the added benefit of being able to instantly aimbot devastator heads on the bot front. This makes it surprisingly effective, though its ammo reliance tends to put it out of action at inopportune times for reloads. Fortunately, small ammo boxes from points of interest can give it a ton more magazines from just a single box. This makes it rather easy to keep topped off and fairly deadly against most non-tank targets.

Notably, recalling this drone to your backpack with "5" will force it to discard its current magazine and reload. This can be useful to force the drone to reload when nearly empty.


An autonomous drone equipped with a downscaled version of the Sterilizer. It vomits nasty brap gas on anything that draws too close, sometimes your teammates too. Functionally, it helps prevent you from being outright overwhelmed by swarms as the caustic spray blinds them, but it has difficulty dealing with enemies by itself due to the much lower damage.

Uniquely, this dog will prioritize trying to gas enemies that are not currently suffering a gas effect, helping it control crowds more efficiently.


An autonomous drone equipped with a downscaled arc-thrower and none of the trigger discipline that may even have a small chance of appearing on a helldiver with an actual arc thrower.

The arcdog. We knew it was going to be a trip. We all saw it coming. And it was just as bad, if not worse then we thought. The Arc dog is an absolute teamkilling machine. Unlike other dogs that have to hit you directly to seriously injure you, the arc dog can teamkill you instantly simply by chaining lightning accidentally through a target you happened to be nearby. The only way to avoid this is to give all arcdog users a 50 meter exclusion zone or to put the dog in your bag when teammates are too close for comfort.

Functionally, if you didn't have to worry about teamkills, the arcdog both stuns and instantly kills most small and some medium enemies, making it better than the gas dog in almost every way. It also has unlimited ammo making supply runs virtually a non issue. Since the lightning can arc to different targets, it is also effective crowd control.

A single-man exosuit for frontline combat, brought to the battlefield by a Pelican. Only three suits of your chosen type may be called per mission. The Pelican provides some limited fire support while delivering the exosuit. For absolutely stupid developer reasons they are lying about, you cannot equip more than one exosuit to bring into a mission at once.

Exosuits will trample and damage small and medium entities nearby them when moving, including your fellow Helldivers. Exosuit pilots should be mindful of their positioning when working nearby their teammates, and you should give an Exosuit at least ten meters of space on each side to work unless you want to get stepped on.

Exosuits can initiate a melee attack with "F" which will stomp the area directly in front of them, damaging most enemies.


The Patriot is armed with a minigun on the right and a rocket pod on the left.

The Patriot is a generalist exosuit with a generous supply of minigun ammo and some rockets for heavier units. It makes it a great tool to turn around a bad situation or clear a difficult objective quickly, as the minigun can spray down almost any medium or small enemy in close proximity while missiles can be reserved for dense groups or armored targets.

Unfortunately it finds itself running out of ammo fairly quickly, even when being conservative. It will also get shredded by enemy fire on the automaton front as it has a very large profile making it hard to miss. The Patriot finds it is best used as quickly as possible as it is likely to be destroyed if it overextends itself.


The Emancipator is armed with dual autocannons on each arm, each with a 100 round reserve of ammunition.

The Emancipator boasts heavier firepower than the Patriot, making it much better at engaging hardened targets. This kind of makes it somewhat a waste to use its ammo pool on smaller targets, but they can usually be trampled to save ammo. Sustained fire from all four autocannons is enough to kill most heavy enemies quickly, and the exosuit can easily be used to stomp through a large bug nest and close every hole on the way.

Unfortunately, just like the patriot, its ammo pool runs out just as things are looking good. Even using the ammo cautiously, you can usually only kill 4-5 heavy enemies before you have to ditch the suit. Just like the patriot, use it for a lightning strike and then get rid of it.

A lightly-armored vehicle with space for a driver, three passengers, and a gunner in the rear mounted HMG. The mounted HMG is identical to a man-portable HMG in function and comes with five magazines of ammunition (500 rounds total). The vehicle is dropped off by Pelican-1 who provides some fires support while arriving.

Capable of moving quickly and providing a small amount of protection to its occupants, the FRV is a good tool for someone to take just so you don't have to walk everywhere. Driving can be somewhat tricky as there's a distinct lack of wide-open areas that allows you to really open up the throttle. There's a lot to mention so i'll break it down:

Damage
The FRV can take damage to independent pieces just like Exosuits can. The only thing i've noticed that gets actually destroyed is your tires. Losing tires on the FRV makes it much more difficult for that tire to grip the terrain. On the front tires, this results in significantly increased turning radius. On the rear tires, you will notice massively reduced traction and acceleration making it difficult to climb most inclines. Rear tire loss also tends to cause sharp acceleration to "fishtail" the vehicle as it loses traction much more aggressively. If the FRV itself overall takes too much damage, it will burst into flames and be destroyed. The FRV will take constant damage if overturned, but it can be flipped over with any small nearby explosion (fragmentation grenades work great and don't damage it too much).

Collisions will deal some damage as well, mostly to the occupants. Occupants seated inside the vehicle will take some impact damage proportional to the speed difference. Occupants that are not seated (passengers leaning out or the gunner) may be thrown from the vehicle if you crash hard enough. The same applies if the vehicle rolls over. Keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle while it is in motion.

Driving
Key binding is remapped for driving. W/S applies throttle and brake respectively, A/D turns left and right. If you left your accessability options on the default, using the brake while stopped will throw you in reverse and apply throttle. Otherwise, you have to shift to reverse and apply throttle yourself. The FRV has a tendency to roll away when unoccupied or if you get out while still moving, so make sure you come to a complete stop.

Space engages the handbrake, locking your rear tires even if the vehicle is in motion. This causes the rear tires to slide along the ground instead, resulting in what most people approximate as "drifting". Using the handbrake while turning at medium or low speed is a good way to quickly reorient the vehicle sharply. Using the handbrake while turning at high speed is a good way to enter a rollover and eject any passengers who are not properly seated. If you hold the handbrake on and dismount the vehicle, the handbrake will stay on which can help stop it from rolling away on slight inclines.

The FRV can get up to a top speed of about 100 km/h given enough open space and flat terrain, but this is rare outside of urban areas. The FRV is capable of climbing rocks and other obstacles but obviously loses some traction and has some difficulty on significant inclines.

Ctrl and Left Shift shift the clutch back and forwards respectively. There are five spots for the clutch: Reverse, Neutral, Drive, and Low Gear 1 & 2:

• Reverse - Applying throttle moves the vehicle backwards.
  
• Neutral - The throttle does nothing. The vehicle rolls in whatever direction it is moving.
  
• Drive - Applying throttle drives normally and the clutch automatically proceeds through higher gears (1-5) as the vehicle's speed increases.
  
• Low Gear 1 - The clutch is locked into first gear, which has the most torque but the lowest top speed. This is useful both for climbing steep obstacles and limiting your top speed (to about 30 km/h) when driving in narrow areas.
  
• Low Gear 2 - The clutch is locked into second gear. Same as the previous, but a higher top speed (about 55 km/h) and a little less power.

Some other driving hot tips:

• Obey the speed limit - Really this just means: slow down a bit. Going full throttle the whole time is a great way to immediately flip.
  
• Less Acceleration = More Traction - The FRV grips the road much better when not accelerating. If you find yourself losing control, lay off the gas a bit and feather it instead of holding it down to maintain speed.
  
• Use low gears to climb hills or uneven terrain - Low gears limit your speed but give much better climbing power and control. They are also useful to limit the amount of fishtailing the vehicle does when missing rear ties.
  
• Signal when it is safe to get out - Passengers will immediately get out as soon as you slow down or may be confused when you intend for them to get out. Try not to drop them right on top of enemies, but drive a short distance away and honk twice to let them know its time to dismount.
  
• Artillery deforms terrain - Large explosions like barrages and mortars turn your nice, flat road into a death trap. Slow down from full speed in areas that have deformed terrain or you'll flip.

Pressing F honks, by the way.

Passengers
Passengers in the vehicle's cab can switch to an adjacent unoccupied seat using C. You can also lean out of the vehicle and use your personal weapons (including support weapons) by holding right mouse. Note that while leaning out, you are insanely vulnerable to friendly fire from your gunner or other passengers, so don't stick your head out at random or you'll get it blown off, and be mindful of your teammates.

While leaning out of the vehicle, passengers can also throw grenades and open/utilize their stratagem menus, making drive-by objective completion a very viable reality.

Gunner
The gunner's mount in the back sports an HMG which can have its fire rate changed just like the man-portable version. Currently there's no way to get more ammo for it and you cannot use your personal weapons from the back seat. The gunner is very prone to being thrown from the vehicle during a collision or rollover, so be mindful of your driving.

Manuvers
Heres a list of hot manuvers you can try:

• The Peelout - While stationary, lightly tapping the handbrake while turning and accelerating the vehicle can allow you to quickly swing the vehicle around about 180 degrees while stationary. This is useful to quickly change directions when stopped without reversing.
  
• The Peel-in - At high speeds and flat terrain, you can use the handbrake and turn sharply to spin the vehicle 180 degrees while throwing the vehicle into reverse, allowing you to maintain some speed while driving backwards or adjust for parking.
  
• Initial D - Tapping the handbrake at high speed and turning a bit can be used to make sharp corners at the cost of a good amount of speed. Its usually better then crashing into something.
  
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - When approaching a sharp enough ramp, timing the handbrake into a sharp turn just before the vehicle goes airborne can be used to enter the vehicle into a flat airborne spin. Super Earth Scientists are still assessing the tactical flexibility of such a manuver, but all agree it is cool as hell.

at some point I had it in my head i'd have the motivation to write a guide on personal equipment but I don't think that's happening soon given how much info I vomited in this one.

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