So, What's the 'Best Build' in Helldivers 2 NOW?

Lack of AutoCannon for bots is very undemocratic

Bugs: - Stratagems: - 1. Orbital Rail Cannon - 2. Expendable Anti-Tank / Quasar Cannon - 3. Shield Generator / Jetpack - 4. Orbital Laser / Eagle Airstrike / Eagle 500kg / Grenade Launcher / Exosuit - Armour: - - Medium Armour (Med Kit / Democracy Protects / Extra Padding) - Primary Weapon: - - Breaker / Breaker Incendiary / Slugger / Sub Machine Gun - Booster: - - Vitality / Stamina / Hellpod Space Optimization / Muscle Enhancement / Localisation Confusion Automatons: - Stratagems: - 1. Orbital Rail Cannon - 2. Quasar Cannon / Expendable Anti-Tank / Anti-Material Rifle - 3. Shield Generator/ Jetpack - 4. Orbital Laser / Eagle Airstrike / 380mm / EMS Mortar Sentry / Mortar Sentry - Armour: -- Medium Armour (Engineering Kit / Democracy Protects / Fortified) - Primary Weapon: - - Plas-1 Scorcher / Dominator / Slugger - Booster: - - Vitality / Stamina / Hellpod Space Optimization / Muscle Enhancement - Grenade: - - Stun

No mention of autocannon especially on bot is kinda criminal Even when considering it took your backpack slot , it has so many use that can easy be a top tier choice . 1 tap headshot devastators , 2 tap headshot hulk ( or 3 shot in exposed back on hulk , giant cannon ,tank or mortal emplacement ) , easy blow up fabricator vents , 2 tap flying gunship , bla bla . If you have teammates using that too , it can even be much better . Wish it can also dealt with dropship tho

Pro tip for hulks. Tag them in a leg with a rocket or quasar shot and it will destroy the leg drastically reducing their movement. Shoot the other leg to kill. 2 shots vs 1 but it's also 2 body shots to kill as well but this way you immobilize while waiting for reload or cool down. Also don't sleep on the sickle. Can't handle striders but chews through all other bots in seconds from extreme range and can kill all dominators super quick if you nail them in the face.

No sickle mention against bugs is criminal ngl. Sleeping on the autocannon and arc thrower hard too. I feel like theres a lot of really strong stratagems rn that there isnt really a clear as day meta like there was when the game first came out.

Man I wish they’d have loadouts sort of like destiny so I can switch between bug and bot loadouts or have heavy, med, light armor builds

The best build is one that synergies with your teams builds. If everyone uses the same things we won't be as efficient.

Surprised you didn't mention laser backpack against the bugs. It kills a ton of trash mobs and makes your life so much easier when kiting so you can focus on chargers and bigger enemies.

Just note that Armor works perfectly now. ie. You can now run a Heavy (Fortified), with triple strata with the auto cannon. Auto cannon is also amazing against those flying gun ship~

That ship falling on the bots was truly a helldivers moment

I'm surprised the sickle didn't make your list. It can't kill heavies but it'll easily deal with everything else. Super comfy to use because it almost never needs to reload. I find it to be the perfect partner for the Quasar cannon. The only place I find it lacking is on hot planets that increase how fast it overheats. Everything else though I agree with besides the slugger. That gun cannot stagger chainsaw bots anymore so I'd rather just sickle their weakspot and down them that way instead. One quasar tip is that it can also easily knock dropships out of the sky before they can drop their bots. One shot to an engine will kill them and any weak enemies that happen to be near the area of impact. If you have multiple quasar users in your group it kinda makes bot drops a non-issue.

With bots, having everybody on your team run autocannons and an extra offensive stratagem is my favourite for very quick mission clears. The best defence is offense when it comes to bots, blow everything up before they have time to push you. 4 autocannons, 4 orbital lasers, 4 eagle airstrikes, last slot is flexible (more bombs recommended)

I actually just finished a helldive run with two of my friends. Fighting bugs, they used the quasar and the orbital railgun. Rather than using the same loadout, I went with the autocannon, the sentry autocannon, the sentry rocket launcher, and the sentry mortar. All too often, my friends were on cooldown with the railgun, so the autocannon sentry and rocket combo was essential for keeping us safe. Mortar is really useful for covering your retreat.

I feel like your loadout really depends on your teammates loadout. Also the eagle 110 is fantastic as it one shots tanks and cannons and the basic orbital strike is amazing when paired with stun grenades. Toss the orbital at a group and follow up with stun grenade and it will wipe a group and the low cd is great. Also there is some weird things with orbital gas strike and fire as it doesn't always do damage if you're not the host

The plasma shotgun is amazing in bot missions. It can one shot striders and can effectively stun lock devastators and hulks.

for bugs: light armor with medic incendiary grenade dominator quasar rover eagle airstrike 120mm barrage armor to stay mobile and cover more ground while getting as many of those 4 second duration heals as possible incendiary grenade is pretty much best in slot right now. it will eliminate a bug hole. it's better on a breach than any other grenade. all you want from it is the fire damage over time to kill the scavengers and hunters. wait for the second spawn at a breach then hit it with the grenade. it'll eliminate the smaller units, damage the larger units, and set fire which will finish off medium units in the area and continue to damage the next 1-2 spawns which would otherwise require your grenades/strategems/attention. this frees you up to focus on other things. dominator for the ability to eliminate medium bugs. breaker incendiary is outstanding. sickle is fantastic. but that breaker and sickle basically do what the rover does. so, pick a primary that specializes on different units. switch to your secondary to assist the rover if needed. quazar for heavy units. also useful to eliminate broadcast tower from distance, spore mushroom from distance, shrieker nest from distance, and bug holes. if you're defending or need extra support bring in a second and hot swap between them. fire one, while it cools down, pick up and fire the other. rover to eliminate small units and for horde clearing. use dominator to eliminate medium bugs (single shot on stalker or either of the fat bile spewing bugs, single shot on hunter, double shot on hive guard or brood commander), let the rover take out small units and finish off any mediums as needed. basically eliminates shriekers that get close without any need for you to even look up. this frees you up to focus on other things. eagle airstrike for versatility. damages heavies in a way that a cluster cannot. closes 2-3 bug holes in a single throw in a way that a cluster cannot. does great against breaches and patrols. 120mm barrage. this can be replaced with something else, but nothing else does what this does. the orbital railcannon is great for taking out a charger, but the cooldown is WAY too long for that, and it doesn't reliably take out a bile titan and it still has the long cooldown. the barrage can solo any nest with fewer than 10 bug holes (give or take angle of attack). you can throw it in, and just run off to the next objective. instead of throwing it into the center of a 10 hole hive throw it off to one half of it, and it will eliminate about half leaving you with airstrikes, grenades, and quasar to close it out. the barrage will defeat heavy armor, though, it's hard to rely on. this essentially frees you up to focus on other things. lvl 85. I only do full clear and only do difficulty 7,8,9. can run solo in a group of 4 or keep with the team and my kill count is always extremely high (highest) even while I focus on clearing all hives and all sub-objectives and interact with terminals instead of feeling like I need to farm kills (rover keeps you safe and puts in work, barrage can be used as on-going support, and so can those incendiary grenades). but, the game is in such a horrible state I'm taking a break until it's more stable. sick and tired of crash after crash after crash while the levels themselves are still filled with problems and the stats screen is still pretty much garbage even 2 months after release while they continue to release new content that brings new problems into the game with a cycle of ever increasing tech debt.

Don't sleep on the orbital walking barrage. That thing always racks up kills when I throw it down during a drop pod. It requires a bit of foresight to use but really good.

The rail cannon strike can be substituted for the 110 rocket pods as well, not as much damage, or consistency but the upside is you get 3 charges before they go into a short cooldown. One quasar shot and a rocket pod will drop a bile titan.

I just run shield pack, quasar cannon, sickle, heavy armour that has the 50% lethal damage chance, and whatever orbitals I think are best for that mission. I am basically a walking tank.

I find the guard dog rover pretty effective in bug missions. It really helps with ammo conservation on small bugs, leaving the bigger targets to focus on. Granted friendly fire is an issue.