Summary
While it’s understandable why there aren’t any loadouts for solo players that can handle the highest difficulties inHelldivers 2without using offensive Stratagems, the lower difficulties are a different story. Since heavily armored enemies are a rare occurrence on the bottom half of thedifficulty levels inHelldivers 2, it would be nice to see more weapon combinations that can handle missions and enemies on these difficulties.
Placing the utility of a given loadout inHelldivers 2on the weapons, allows players to take on large fights without having to manage the downtime between Stratagem call-in cooldowns. Such is the case for the R-36 Eruptor and MG-206 Heavy Machine Gun combo, which should arguably pave the way for similar weapon-based loadouts inHelldivers 2’s future.
Helldivers 2 Needs More Jack-Of-All-trades Primary and Support Weapon Builds
Helldivers 2’s Eruptor Sets a High Bar for Other Primary Weapons
TheR-36 Eruptor Riflehas the best of both worlds when it comes to mixing explosive damage with armor penetration. The weapon’s armor-piercing only applies to light and medium armor, but this is still impressive and rare for aprimary weapon inHelldivers 2.
The Eruptor can switch between 50, 100, and 150-meter variable scope zoom lengths.
With a few well-placed shots, the Eruptor can take down all but the heaviest of Automaton and Terminid enemies inHelldivers 2, like those annoying Armored Bile Spewers and Automaton Hulks. Not to mention, the Eruptor is also one of the few primary weapons that can destroy bot factories and bug holes, which sets it well above plenty of other, underwhelming primary weapons inHelldivers 2. Overall, the Eruptor is a powerful weapon that can handle a variety of use cases, all with relatively great ammo efficiency.
Players Shouldn’t Sleep On Helldivers 2’s Heavy Machine Gun Support Weapon
The main appeal of thesupport weapon Stratagems inHelldivers 2is typically their ability to handle the heavily armored targets that primary weapons can’t handle. Yet, despite theMG-206 Heavy Machine Gunnot being suited for heavily armored targets, it’s still a top-tier add-clear weapon because of its light and medium armor penetration, so players shouldn’t underestimate it without giving it a chance first.
The recoil of the Heavy Machine Gun can often limit it to being a close-range weapon. However, the weapon allows players to change its RPM to fire at a slower, more manageable pace. Additionally, this weapon pairs extremely well with any body armor that has aperk that improves weapon handling.
When used together, the Eruptor and the Heavy Machine Gun loadout inHelldivers 2is essentially as close to being a jack-of-all-trades as players can achieve when it comes to weapon-based loadouts, with few other weapon combinations being capable of such a wide variety of use cases. However, even builds like this still have a few shortcomings when taking on the variety of enemy types andmission objectives inHelldivers 2. The main weakness of this build is its ineffectiveness against enemy units whose weak points are protected by heavy armor, namely the Automaton Gun Ships and Terminid Bile Titans.
Consequently, this build truly shines when playing at or below difficulty level 5 inHelldivers 2, since heavily armored enemies typically don’t spawn on these difficulties. However, considering that the foundation of this loadout only consists of one primary weapon and one support weapon Stratagem, players can easily fill in some of the missing gaps for this build with grenades, secondary weapons, and the three remaining Stratagem slots. Otherwise, though, the Eruptor and Heavy Machine Gun weapon combo is a cut above most otherweapon loadouts inHelldivers 2, so it should arguably serve as a benchmark for new weapons and any balancing changes to existing weapons.
Helldivers 2
WHERE TO PLAY
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