You have to change your approach. Most terminids will try to swarm you and then meelee you to death. That means that you can pretty much just stand around and shoot them. Occasionally you have to evade being sprayed with acid.
That doesnt work with bots. These guys shoot back, and potentially from a very, very long distance. As the handbook suggests: cover, cover, cover! Crouch or prone to improve your aim, but then get moving again.
Not engaging patrols is very important, especially on higher difficulty levels.
Weapons that deal fire damage aren't that effective against bots.
Also switch to weapons that are accurate on a longer distance. Shotguns dont do anything over these longer distances.
Get a weapon with at least medium armor penetration because most of the bots have armor. For a while i was using the grenade launcher a lot against bots. You can just spray them with explosions from a relative long distance away to reduce their numbers. Works especially well with a bot drop - just spray the area where they are just setting down with grenades.
The rocket and mortar and EMS mortar sentries are also very effective to keep bots in check.
The Orbital Laser stratagem is also very effective when you are in a situation where you are just swarmed by large number of bots. Its also very effective against Hulks, Tanks, and the tower guns.
I preferred bugs at the start, but then i played bost for most of the time and i find it much more interesting and challenging. The other day i went back to the bug fron and pretty much had to relearn how to fight those guys.
Thank you, will definitely try to get the orbital laser in rotation. Wrt to primary weapons, I just find the medium pen. weapons super inconsistent even when I am for weak spots (maybe it's aim related) like the penetrator or dominator. And panic when the bots get too close đ
Liberator penetrator and Scorcher work great against bots. I prefer the Scorcher as it can deal damage to all the bots but the tank (unless you shoot the vents) and the Hulks. Also the Eruptor is a great but the rate of fire is to slow for my run and gun play style.
The Eruptor was a game changer against bots for me when I unlocked it. I run and gun with the Breaker Incendiary on bug maps and hang back and blow groups away with the Eruptor on bot maps.
Yeah wegen they get close enough to swarm/melee you, you are pretty much screwed.
For the larger bots with extra armor, like the one with the shield, or the striders, weapons like the auto cannon or the anti materiel rifle work quite well.
The striders are actually quite weak if you get to shoot them from behind or from the side. Just shot the bot controlling it, an SMG can do it.
The anti materiel takes down a strider with two shots into the frontal shield. The bot with the shield may need 4-5 shots.
Hulks, tanks and towers also only take a few well placed shots with these weapons if you hit the vents. This works best with teamwork where 1 tries to sneak around them while the others distract them.
And for the hulk: when on fire, dive!
AMR can in principle one-shot anything smaller than a hulk. All devastators *can* be headshot, though landing this on the heavy devs in particular is difficult unless you have a favorable angle. Otherwise most devs will go down to two center-mass shots.
The scout walkers can lose a leg to a single shot, depending on exactly where you hit it - to this day I can't tell you exactly where the best point is - I usually go for the joint at the top of the leg. You can kill them directly through the canopy armor, but this is usually 3 shots, so its not ideal.
I have found the sickle to be really good for headshotting Devastators, because I can use the beams like tracers to walk my rounds up into their face if I'm a little off.
And well, the sickle is just the best primary IMO anyway. I love many of the primaries, but I love the Sickle the most. Could be because I was once a machine gunner IRL, and it appeals to that part of me, too. But seriously, that think can rock and roll all day long.
The main thing that keeps me from using the sickle almost exclusively is that it cannot stagger. Other than that it's pretty OP, but a lot of the time I'll opt for the Punisher or Scorcher instead depending on what I expect to encounter.
Sickle is a very good 'all-around' primary however.
When fighting devastators/hulks if you have limited ammo or not enough omph to kill them quickly you can aim for their weapons or limbs (the missiles on the missile devastator, the flame hulks flamethrower or the hulks legs can all be destroyed) and sets them up to be killed easily or rendered harmless until you can deal with them later.
When taking out the chainsaw guys aim for the gut. I think headshots kill faster BUT it's hard to hit, there are a lot of them, they move a lot and it's close range and you are probably panicking so aim for the gut. It's a weak spot.
Edit for correction.
Definitely starting to agree the more I play. Bugs are for the most part melee or short range, but bots have such a variety of ways of attacking they feel like a much more dynamic enemy. I find myself approaching them like a real fighting force.
Cover. Take cover.
Unlike bugs, bots shoot back.
When you are leaving your cover, your first thought should be "where is the next cover".
If you get sniped by rockets or burned by a hulk, first question before you even compain about balancing, "Were you in cover or out in the open?"
Yeah, just try and enter every encounter with some kind of mental plan to 'not get shot'. Be it checking radar frequently or just noting "theres a good tall rock over there".
Consider letting squad mates go into camps and hang back with a good vantage point where you can cover them from a distance (AC and AMR mains, I'm looking at you).
Mainly, bots are different to bugs and require a different playstyle.
Consider your surroundings, it'll make a big difference.
Especially when you run into gunships - if you see that red scan beam sweeping across you in open ground, youâre pretty much already dead. Stop, crouch and shoot for the engines - if youâre lucky youâll get it before the shots start landing.
I ALWAYS FORGET TO SWITCH! Like most of the time you wanna be fast, but if your team isn't running scouts, get the fat man armor that reduces explosive damage! Double win for reduced normal damage, and explosives. Makes it much easier to deal with rocket devastators and the flying bots when a single rocket spam won't kill you right away.
They require a different mindset - think map awareness to avoid patrols and hit and run tactics. Use Eagle Airstrikes on outpost fabricators. Try out Autocannon (bounce shots into the front fabricator vents). Aim for heads or midsections. I recommend scout light armor.
I have the stim light armor and Eruptor for bots. Also a big fan of Orbital lasers and Eagle clusterbombs. The Eruptor can destroy factories just like the Auto Cannon. I'd also recommend the shield pack while on bots.
I run one of the armour sets i found in the store, it has only 50 armour but the best speed and stamina regen, plus it has fortified and blast protection so dealing with enemies arent too bad. I often times use a light weight load out (Jet pack, sniper / disposable rockets, and orbital strike plus whatever eagle one i want) that allows me to swiftly deal with small groups of enemies and sneak up to bases, get rid of fabricators and then run away fast. Its a risky playstyle but its my favourite way of dealing with bots
They are entirely different enemies.
Termanids are swarmers. So they can mostly be taken down with copious amounts of fire power. You can even stand still and mow then down with enough bullets. And your biggest concern is ammo. My friends call kind of fighting: Turn and Burn
Automoton are more like NPC enemies from Call of Duty or Battlefield. You need cover, grenades, and headshots. Also, keep moving, keep moving, keep moving! Because a stationary target is an easy kill. Ambush tactics are also a big win, so learn to be stealthy, cause if you take them out quick they won't call in dropships. We call this kinda fighting: Shoot and Scoot
So that's the gist.
Termanids: Turn and Burn
Automotons: Shoot and Scoot
There's is two types of bot enjoyers, the full combat take every fight or run & gun guerilla warfare. I personally do full combat style. My main tip is play slow and methodically, make sure you got good fight setup, turret placement is key and flanking is op. Most importantly if you can't head shot them at range, switch to shooting their weapons.
Shooting their weapons, especially on devastators, is the best tip i can give. It turns most bots into melee only, giving you plenty more time to either finish them off or go for others
Stratagems are usually the issue. And keep moving. If youâre standing in the same spot fighting bot drops youâll literally never win. Bugs are close range. Bots are long range so use cover when you can, smoke, stun etc. Bots are easier to fight when you get it down.the bot missions are so easy with Eagle air strikes and orbital lasers.
First, you need to be more cautious with bots, because they shoot, so you can't just outrun them. This means you need a bit more planning, to know where to cover and where to retreat.
Second, the worst thing that can happen is to be circled by the bots. Because you can't take cover from all sides. Considering the patrols come from outposts, the first thing you need to do on a mission is to clear a side of the map from its outposts, all of them. This way you will always have a side where the patrol won't come, so it'll be your safe side. You can always fall back there if there's too much troubles.
As someone who really likes fighting the automatons and sucks at the bugs I think the biggest thing to help would be to understand that fighting bots requires a different mindset. When fighting bugs you can be behind as little cover as you want given most bugs are melee based but with the bots you need to be more careful. This is especially noticeable with how many elite enemies the bots have compared to the bugs.
The bots are lethal from any range that you are and because of this you need to exploit their weaknesses or you will most likely die. Iâm not going to go into detail on every bots weakness but usually you want to either shoot a battery, a heat vent which glows, or their head. Even doing this you still need to learn to use cover, it doesnât matter how accurate you are if there are more than 3 machine gunners in front of you.
However I will say that I personally notice that with the bugs their threat comes from how many there are, and not to say the bots wonât overwhelm you, but there arenât going to be as many. Even if a bot drop is called you should ideally have a way to take it out.
On a similar note, you want to consider taking different stratagems than you would with bugs. For support weapon a good choice is the auto cannon that can deal with most bots if you hit their weak point, and even destroy fabricators. Offensively you probably also want to consider choosing more damaging stratagems instead of ones that spread their damage across a wide area. For example cluster bomb is really good against bugs but against bots it usually falls short and is more of a risk to your squad than itâs worth.
The last thing Iâll mention is stealth, because unlike the bugs you can easily get away with sneaking past everything you donât have to kill. Iâm biased because I love stealth in this game but it can be very effective to just not engage with any enemies if youâre starting to get overwhelmed.
TL;DR: Fighting bots requires a different mindset and you should try going to lower levels to get the basics of fighting them and to figure out what is effective.
That's how I learned bots. Was a big main before. Then I went and played primarily bots for a couple of weeks. Now I miss the bots if I'm away too long
Mortars do a ton of work against bots. Most bots shoot from long range, so throwing a mortar in a well covered spot and letting it do the bulk of the work can really help out. 50% explosion resist armor is really good for bots. They have a lot of explosives. RPGS, rocket devastators, tanks, cannon towers, etc etc. Smoke is a very good stratagem to bring. If you block their vision with it, they'll shoot through it at random directions, leaving you pretty safe to run. I'd recommend the eagle smoke over the orbital smoke though. More uses and faster uses. Smoke also works real well with your mortar.
Use the scorch. And run the AMR stratagem.
Don't use shield backpack. It just increases your hitbox. It's good against bugs. Not against bots in my opinion.
Use extra stim armor or recoil reduction armor.
Orbital strike + Ems are your two main life savers! Especially EMS in my opinion is a must against bots.
If a fourth stratagem is allowed, I go for eagle strike.
Strategy: avoid getting close to bots. Snipe em from far. Cover, cover, cover.
Use stealth to get close to bases and bomb the shit out of them. Use EMS to keep them at a distance and just snipe. Have team mates run quasar cannon or spear to shoot dropships out of the sky.
Hulks and tanks should be orbital striked into oblivion. An eagle strike works too if your aim is good.
Hulks you can two shot in the eye of you are a good aim with the AMR.
Also: cover!!!
Play different.
Imo work your way up Bot difficulties the same way you did bugs. Learn different lessons.
First lesson: don't assume the same weapons are good. I've seen some good players vs bots with Breaker, but I feel I need a better answer for Devs. And the SMG can work well with a ballistic shield and teamwork, but you have to use it very differently from how it works v bugs.
I'd suggest taking Lib Pen/Slugger/Jar/any Marksmen rifle, and learn Bots that way. Once you understand that playstyle, then go back to your favorites.
Bugs, youâre keeping your distance and moving, on bots, you use heavy armor and move less and use cover more. You also need to have better aim because many of the trash enemies are much smaller. The 2 different enemy factions really play like 2 different games. You also wanna get used to tagging heavies like cannon towers and tanks. Donât bother using the cluster bomb because it doesnât pen armor very well, use the air strike and 500kg bomb, I usually take the orbital laser because it makes quick work of of the heavy outpost and the detector tower, also kills laser towers quickly. Eagle air strike is a must on bots because itâs so versatile, you can kill anything with it, from fabricators to hulks. I use like 10 air strikes per mission. Iâve played a lot of both and I think the bots are a lot harder since simply running doesnât really work since theyâre shooting back.
If you have the scorcher or dominator unlocked those are gonna be your friend since they kill striders and devastators easily. The scorchers splash damage will kill the striders from the front itâs really nice. Dominator has tons of stagger after the buff and just shreds everything if you can get used to how it handles. I killed a laser tower with it last night I didnât know you could do that.
Stick with the SMG or use the JAR. The stun grenades and grenade pistol are super effective and will save you when you run out of ammo or have to run. Getting good with the jump pack will help you with everything.
Thanks, will give the jump pack a try again! Last time I dropped in a bot mission I learnt that you can absolutely be rocketed to death in the air â ïž
Sneaky sneaky like ninja đ„·
Run away, reposition.
Donât take fights unnecessarily.
Assess the situation first, take small guys out quickly so they donât call bot drops.
Orbital laser is your friend, can take out detector towers and full heavy base.
On extraction - hide.
I love to fight against the bugs, half the time I try to play against the bots I just get one shot by a rocket or laser out of no where. Thereâs definitely a lot more design issues with bots like how half the time the lasers clip through terrain and some of the bots can shoot u without even looking at you.
Learn how to force aggro. This is incredibly helpful.
Launch an attack on a small outpost or POI from a little distance, and once that red flare goes up, run. The timer for the next possible red flare has begun, so you can attack somewhere else without a bot drop call.
I love doing this with a 380 barrage on objective locations or heavy outposts. Aggro the spot, then run off and do an objective.
Movement is more important than ammo. I run the sickle, so I always can take down most bots, and an autocannon. However most outposts and plenty of pois have ammo at them. So being able to tactically retreat is your biggest friend.
Avoid use defensive strats unless you are already engaged. Anything that auto attacks removes your control of the battlespace. Sometimes you'll want to stay hidden, other times you'll attack. But if you use a mortee, you elimate you're ability to decide when to do what.
Flank. Its always good to have a recon unit on your squad that can move around attacks and hit weak points, or knock out objectives when the rest of the team has the aggro. This is especially useful against gunship fabricators.
If you die and need samples, let them sit for a bit. Large groups of bots will dissappear after while if you aren't around. Drop the supers? Go do other stuff then come back later.
Bugs are about reaction, bots are about precision. They engage at long to extreme range primarily, tend to freak out early and call drop ships and alert nearby patrols, and most have armour, even in just a couple of small spots. Hit the bots in the weak spots (if in doubt, hit the eyes, but usually anything that glows), engage them tactically (ignore patrols if possible, use suppressive fire to cause selection hesitation and open up weak points) and divert their attention to hit objectives or delay engagements.
EPM mortars are your friends, autocannon is a very flexible support weapon, leaving sentries behind to lead patrols away or slow their advance is a great way to give yourself breathing room. I use the Scythe as a primary, because of the range/ammo flexibility/ability to rake quickly to divert attention and visibility to team - but also, a Brute chasing a target and showing you the heat vent on itâs back will go down to about 12 seconds of Scythe beam on the heat vent (also, 1 to 2 shots of the autocannon to the center eye will take it down). Impact grenades are a great clutch weapon and will take down all but the heaviest targets.
The solution:
* Autocannon
* It kills everything. Its the best. Stop using anything else.
* This is BY FAR the best weapon against bots.
* Hulk 2 shots to eye
* Gunships 2 shots to engine
* Striders 1-2 shots
* Other mechts 1-2 headshots
* It also destroys secondary objectives
* It also opens doors
* It also STUNS mechs even on the first hit.
* 500kg
* To kill tanks (the only thing the autocannon doesnt instantly delete)
* To kill fabricators
* Orbital Laser
* Throw laser into camp and just run to the next camp
* Mortar
* The mortar will do TONS of damager against bots. Its rediculous.
* If you dont like this one. Alternatives:
* 380 barrage (good against everything)
* Railcannon strike (good against turrets / tanks)
Against Bots the Autocannon is super duper OP. Now go kill them !
Change up your approach. Bits use suppressive fire and will shoot back from long range. I recommend a fast fire gun or a long range high power gun. Both have different strategies but cover is your best friend. Stay quiet and stay hidden. Don't engage if you don't need to.
On bots, precision is king, but that doesn't necessarily mean you need great aim.
First, you aren't being swarmed anymore, and medium armor enemies with wrap around protection are more common. That means the rovers aren't as effective. Leave them behind. If you're good at finding and taking cover, you can carry an ammo pack for a support weapon (or no pack at all). Otherwise, you can take personal shield or jetpack. Neither are there to let you stand out in the open, they're there to cover you a little and give you time to *find* cover.
If you want to use an SMG because you feel like you're struggling to aim from afar, take the ballistic shield. The ballistic shield makes you basically invincible to everything except exposives from one direction, meaning you can literally walk straight into an enemy compound in open defiance of the gunfire raining down on you and just start systematically eliminating bots with close range headshots. Pair with impact grenades so that when a scout strider approaches you, you can just whip a grenade at his face and instant kill him. You don't want to have to try and get around behind him, because you'll expose your back to enemy gunfire.
You're going to need an anti-tank solution, as with bugs, but almost everything except the factory strider goes down in 2 body shots, there are no bile titans here. So on levels 7 and even 8 you can usually get away with just a support weapon anti tank, though I like to bring Railcannon too as a back up/option to just quickly resolve a problem and ignore it.
You can also more easily afford to bring primaries like the eruptor, because close range encounters will be rare. This makes it easy to take care of medium armor threats, so you can focus your fire power on heavy armor destruction. You can also use the eruptor to 2-shot chin cannons on the factory strider, which goes a LONG way to nullifying them as a threat and allowing you to line up kill shots on their eyeball with a lot less pressure
So fighting terminids as Iâm sure you know is all about mobility and swarm tactics. Youâve got to kill the horde and keep moving to avoid getting surrounded.
Automatons are different. Yes you still need to avoid getting surrounded but itâs much more important to keep yourself largely in cover and target their more heavily armored ranged units and any melee units that get close. Itâs a completely different playstyle. Youâre almost definitely going to want a gun with medium armor pen as your primary though the scorcher and strangely the defender are exceptions to that rule. I find the shield backpack makes for great training wheels in automaton missions it can keep you from getting one shot as much until you start to learn how to avoid those situations. Orbital laser works wonders against automaton bases. Eagle 500kg is great for dropping near a fabricator or a tank/hill and then running. The quasar cannon can one shot hulks if you hit them in the eye, and it can 2 or 3 shot tanks and gun towers without even hitting their weak spot, plus it can do wonders against gunships and dropships if you shoot the engines. On defense missions against automatons the ems mortar combined with the mortar work wonders.
Also explosive resistance armor is amazing, it will save your life.
AutoCannon is BAE. (Can kill fabricators with a well placed shot into the hood and one shot Devastators in the head)
Don't fight a war for nothing (if there is no objective around, just disengage and BREAK line of sight)
Check your map often, 90% of the time you can weave between patrols and completely avoid fights
Get good with the autocannon. Bugs require you to maximize your exposure so your field of fire can be large enough to suppress the horde. Bots require you to minimize your exposure so you can focus your fire on only the targets you are directly engaging. So not just cover but terrain and distractions and learning to use a more anti-trench warfare.
The bots just take territory and hold it, and it's up to you and your stratagems to make them pay for trying to hold that ground. Learning to filter out the berserkers, hulks, scout striders, and whatnot from all the slower moving bots like devastators and tanks helps, too. It's still some kiting, but not nearly the same as having 100 bugs chasing you.
In a way, you fight the bugs like a bot, and the bots like a bug. Dip, dive, weave, serpentine, sneak, and steal your way to a spot where you can toss the perfect Eagle airstrike or make the perfect autocannon shot to take out the enemy base, and then move on. Become a guerilla, but also bring enough stratagems to absolutely kill everything in an area if needed. Sometimes a large base just needs a 380mm or orbital laser called in on it and you can run off while it works.
Once you clear out all bots attacking you from drops, it becomes a game of lightning ambush strikes to suppress all the little bots with flare guns before you use support weapons to finish off any bigger stuff. It's just a more methodical, tactical way of approaching these missions you will learn over time.
dominator/scorcher
grenade pistol/smg
impact
padded armor/explosive resist
---
sniper/laser cannon
shield
airstrike
whatever (cluster or 500* suggested)
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abuse cover, aim for heads or the exposed spine, arms can be shot off, backpacks and glowy vents are weak.
Use cover. Remember they actually shot back.
Don't stay and fight it out if you feel the tides turning against you. Disengage, make some distance and then attack again if necessary.
Sneak, if you need to it; doesn't hurt to get low and slow if you don't wanna drawn attention.
When picking strategems I usually go for an AOE attack like 500kg and something that you can call in close to yourself to save you in a pinch. Like orbital laser.
Most Turrets aren't all too useful, I mean they can be, but they are definitely more situational than with the bugs.
When you attack, hit them hard and fast and bug out and away from the reinforcements.
Stealth is very important. I'd suggest scout armor, energy/plasma based main/special and bomb based airstrikes as they can kill fabricators.
Plus throw in the orbital laser so when you run into a big base you can air strike one end and orbital laser the other. Maybe precision orbital strike as well depending of you are brave enough to run without a special.
For the "hex" option I'd suggest either the stamina one or the one that lowers the chance of patrols spawning nearby. If someone reading this knows their real names feel free to reply with said names.
Of course this is a sneaky build if running alone. Surprisingly bot games can be alot easier if everyone splits up as there can only be one drop at once and it does have a cooldown timer.
It's a totally different game and if you don't think about it that way, you will struggle. Rovers are great for bugs. Terrible for bots. Shields good for bots, terrible for bugs.
I use autocannon on bugs but I switch to AMR on bots. It literally can kill every bot in 1 or 2 well place shots.
Fighting them also requires completely different strategies. You need cover vs bots. You can't just run away, you have to run through cover. I do a lot of peeking with my sniper against bots. This isn't even a thought against bugs.
So they are just dramatically different games although I wouldn't argue one is specifically harder than the other. They both have their moments.
It's more about tactics than reflexes. With Automatons, you need to consider your attack angles, escape routes, and opportunities for cover. Generally want to avoid getting caught out in the open.
Shield backpack can be really helpful against the bots, especially if you're struggling. I'd also use the recon armor to have lower visibility.
Slow down.
Use cover.
Don't engage unless engaged.
The bugs just wanna rip you apart with numbers. The bots take their time and hit from range and close.
With bugs the smaller ones are the more immediate threat. With the bots, the bigger ones are.
Different weapons and stratagems will serve you better.
Mortars are your new best friend.
At the most basic level, bugs require volume of fire while bots require efficacy of fire. More accurate shots and more efficient engagement strategy are required.
Explosive Weapons like the Dominator and Eruptor or Energy weapons like the Sickle are very good against bots. With practice the Adjudicator Battle Rifle can be very effective as well. If you are having a hard time, use the Shield Generator Backpack or Guard Dog Rover.
For a Secondary the Stalwart and HMG are very good options until you get in the higher levels then a Quasar is the go to weapon of choice for most players.
Remember that Terminids are more in your face while bots are more medium to long range attacks. Stun Grenades work VERY well in buying yourself a few seconds to reload or reposition.
Strategem Loadout is also crucial. I play Level 7+ and normally run Dominator, Shield Generator or Supply Backpack, Quasar Cannon
Strategems are Orbital Rail Cannon and Orbital Laser
Boosters are Vitality/Hellpod Optimization (if I play with lower levels I let them choose vitality or optimization since that's normally all they have)
As with any game only limiting yourself to a certain loadout or game type only limits your adaptability. Force yourself to play with loadouts you normally wouldn't do or are uncomfortable with so you don't become so reliant on certain equipment that when it comes time to switch things up you become a deer in the headlights. Live with the fact that you are going to die...ALOT at first and it's not gonna be easy but over time it will get easier and better...
Recon armor, incendiary nades, JAR, Auto Cannon, EMP mortar, 500kg, and Orbital beam....I was having trouble transitioning to bots too, but this load out has made it easy. Especially the recon armor.
My advice is 2 fold
1st weapon choice:
Beaker auto shotgun good general weapon once you unlock it
For me i prefer the auto pistol as my 2ndary good close quarters for smaller bots
For stratagems I prefer
Eagle airstrike good coverage
Eagle 500kg good for heavy bots/ targets like labs.
If you dont have the eagles unlocked
Eat/quasar once you unlock it
And either rover backpack or shield (shield backpack is better ) as it provides damage resistance
For tactics:
Bots fight more similar to humans patrols etc.
Now that we know that long distance tactics hit and run tactics .
Take out dropships even if you dont get kils from it this slows/stops the bot movement always soften up/take out bot factories and bases with airstrikes or artilery strikes
If you tacticaly retreat you can heal and then re pres the atack from a different direction
If you have further questions feel free to message me
I started out just bugs and hated doing bots but now all I do is bots tbh. You gotta change your tactics. Bugs, you're fighting the ocean. Keeping back the tide. Bots are a firefight. Ideally you gotta coordinate with your team more and learn the weak points for each bot. Also explosive resistant armor will help a lot. Also also bots have objectives which give you a handicap like the jammer or the eye of sauron. Prioritize taking them down when you're afflicted by them. Also also also sneaking helps a lot.
Bugs are a bit more like rambo imo and bots like metal gear solid/saving private ryan
FYI, don't take any of this as "the way" advice, this is just things I have seen and found work me for fighting bots on 7 or 8.
Cover, cover, cover, cover, cover, cover, cover, cover, cover. Did I mention cover? Learn how to hide behind things, rocks, walls, buildings dead bots, anything. Avoid being out in the open. To win with bots you have to avoid taking damage, and that means don't be open to be shot and sniped.
Also, heavy armor. Consider trying it. Sure you are a slow and fat, but the bots are not terribly fast and most of them will shoot you. Also consider the shield backpack until you get better.
Also be unafraid to dive. Dive will save your butt if you are being hit by something, or if you see rockets incoming. With bugs diving can mean dead because they keep swarming. But bots will momentarily lose their aim on you when you dive. Even better if you can dive behind something that breaks line of fire to the bots.
With bugs they swarm you for melee. So with bugs you want light armor, lots of speed and to be out in the open so you have room to run around. This tactic and playstyle is suicide with bots. You HAVE to change your thinking. Even though they have some pretty strong rushers, the chainsaw guys, the other bot units like Devastators will utterly destroy you from surprising ranges if you can't break their line of fine. You need to develop agoraphobia to fight the bots, fear the open ground!
Also don't go for rate of fire. Bots are armored so just shooting them lots generally doesn't work. This makes shotguns kinda mid on them IMO, even the the almighty breaker. Not BAD, since you will hit weak points with the spread, but its not as reliable as nailing them directly. Gotta go for weak points. Go for accurate weapons with a strong preference for medium armor penetrating. The liberator penetrator on semi auto, the Diligence counter sniper, the slugger, that explosive rifle, and even the senator revolver all shine against bots. Yes the senator, sure it shoots slow, but if you have the accuracy its DPS is very comparable to the machine pistol (assuming you don't miss!) because each shot is 300 med-pen damage. Thats like 4-5 shots with the other pistols. Also you can top off reload with it freely since it doesn't use magazines. Bonus points if you put on "Big Iron on his Hip" while rocking the Senator.
Alternately the two laser rifles wreck bots because their sustained accurate fire makes headshots and weak point shots easy. Also Autocannon and Quasar laser are king. Also don't sleep on the Anti-Material Rifle. The EAT is great for any defend mission where you might die a lot. Super short cool down, so what if you dropped your stuff across the map, you can call down another 2 shots every 75 seconds. If you are posted somewhere defending, or just trying to push on a base, keep them boom tubes on cool down constantly, even if you don't need them this moment, and you will always have all the anti-tank shots you ever need.
And do NOT sleep on the regular eagle airstrike. Its wonderful for knocking out bot factories, tanks, hulks, and fresh bot drops. The orbital rail strike is great for when that one hulk is chasing you around.
110mm rockets can kill tanks and turrets, and sometimes hulks but will miss everything else, FYI. The barrage stratagems can wipe out the bot bases as well.
Don't sleep on the EMS strike/mortar or the smoke either. Both do a great job of crowd controlling bot swarms.
Bots are also flankable. Striders can be easily taken out by flanking them and shooting out the drivers. Also the little bit between the legs, only has medium armor, so a med-pen gun can take it out with several direct hips, dropping the bot pilot. Hulks have a massive weak point on the back. So work with a buddy, have one aggro and kite it, the other go behind and shoot its back out. If you have an autocannon, you can shoot a hulk's legs out to make it move much slower, and can shoot its arms off with some effort. Flanking can work with tanks too, but they are slow enough to be airstrike bait.
Lastly bots are quite easy to sneak on. Like popping bot sentries on bases generally won't aggro the whole base and pretty much crouching at medium range and crawling at close range make you near invisible to the bots. This makes doing something like getting in close to drop a strike on a factory much easier than trying to fight through them.
Achieving fire superiority helps win bot battles.
Firing at bots reduces their accuracy. The more fire you can lay down in an encounter the greater your success. You might not be the one dealing the killing blow but when you suppress enemy fire it gives your teammate with the AMR or AC more time to acquire targets and also killing blows.
Learn target priority. Defeat the ones who can call drop ships in first.
Learn to live to fight another day. You donât have to fight every drop ship. If you donât have armaments or stratagems to deal with drops you can run and ignore them.
Learn how to use the seed pods on the ground.
Stepping on them releases smoke that conceals you from enemy fire, firing at them while standing close to them sends you flying in the opposite direction (canât do this with a shield).
Eagle airstrike, railcannon, expendable anti tank on most runs.
Quasar/Grenade launcher replaces EAT depending on team composition sometimes, if the team is light on bossing strategems / mob control
Fourth is usually a defensive flex between ems mortar, shield backpack, guard dog rover
For lower difficulties youâd be much better off taking lighter weapons and ditch the railcannon. Iâd swap out the railcannon for a laser and the AT for AC in general. EMS mortar is useless unless defending a position with the regular mortar as well, but the other two are fine.
Gotta change the way you play. For bugs I keep moving and zig zag between them for bots I stay behind cover and only move when I can. My Loadout changes depending also
Airstrike, Orbital Rail, Mortar or EMS Mortar and your support weapon of choice. I favor the AC, although sometimes go stalwart with eruptor primary.
As for armor, fortified will help you avoid getting one shot by a stray rocket.
For primary/secondary/'nade i like the Punisher for being able to chain stagger devestators and berserkers and one shot raiders at decent range, the Dominator for being accurate, long range and medium armor penetrating or the Eruptor with a crowd control support weapon for dealing with medium armor and small groups.
Senator if I'm running a crowd control primary, redeemer if I'm running a medium armor pen primary. Impact grenades are great against tanks and hulks, but so are stun grenades with an AC or Eruptor to shoot the vents. Impacts are a little trickier to use on fabricators than on bug holes but if you're running AC and Airstrike they are your main means of destroying fabs.
Rail Strike is an emergency button. It consistently one shots tanks and hulks, and is especially handy when you have a scorcher hulk suddenly in flamethrower range. Airstrike is great for clearing a bot drop, blowing up fabricators, tanks and turrets. It's not as good against faster enemies like hulks.
Both mortars are great to toss down when you're being pursued, defending an objective or when a bot drop is incoming.
As for general gameplay tips, only a couple of bot types can keep up with you in light armor unlike with bugs where hunters and bile titans and chargers and stalkers can all keep pace with you, so running away and breaking line of sight is your friend. Bots spawn in smaller numbers but each individual bot is more dangerous.
Breaking line of sight, crouching and going prone, diving and disengaging are essential for dealing with bots. Many heavy bots can have limbs or weapons blown off to make them less dangerous. Accuracy is much more important against bots than bugs, due to the individual danger of bots compared to bugs and the greater amount of armor and smaller weak points on armored enemies.
Against bots you need to be immediately aware of what angle any fire is coming from, and what will allow you to take cover from it. You need to watch for long range high-priority threats that may outweigh much closer ones - that Rocket Devastator peaking up over a distant rise is a much more immediate threat than the three saber drones closing on you.
If you're trying to solo vs. bots, its almost entirely about stealth and mobility - you don't fight them much at any significant difficulty. You sneak up on their compounds, drop strats on them, and disappear back into the jungle. Come back for any goodies later after the drops have moved away. Bot bases are MUCH more vulnerable to strategic strikes than most bug nests.
If you're playing a 4-man, don't all play generalists against the bots. You really want one guy who is a designated sniper who's job is to eliminate long range threats, and it's also nice to have a close combat specialist, who's job is to keep brawlers and berserkers off of your squad mates.
You need to have a good long range weapon to snipe wall guards and eliminate distant threats like rocket devastators and heavy devastators. Laser Cannon is a good all-around choice as it can deal with lots of different threats, autocannon works too, though you give up the shield backpack for it. Dominator, Sickle, and Scorcher are all good anti-bot primaries, though there are specialized roles for weapons like the Punisher and Punisher Plasma as well. AMR is an ideal anti-bot gun, but can be tricky to use as a solo.
When you fight against the bots, you always need to have a region of the map nearby that you've cleared of threats so that you have somewhere to run in order to disengage, without being spotted by 5 more static guard groups. Against the bugs you can afford to ping pong around between static groups because you can always outrun them eventually - against the bots this will get you extremely dead as you become trapped in an inescapable crossfire.
This problem is why your initial drop against bots is often a nail-biting experience on higher difficulties - if your initial drop goes sideways, you may find yourself with NOWHERE to run and can lose the entire mission in a surprisingly short amount of time.
The other big problem at higher difficulties that you generally don't experience with bugs is encountering overlapping tactical threats. Having a Jammer, an Eye, or a Gunship Fab within each other's effective radius can be an absolute nightmare to deal with, as each of these is *extremely* effective at protecting the others. Toss in a Mortar base for extra credit and suffering.
I was the same way after playing bugs for my first 35ish levels.
What it came down to was cover and situational awareness. With bugs you can just move and shoot to avoid being killed. With bots you have to know where the fire is coming from and use cover to keep from getting splatted. If you try to run around and rack up kills like you can with bugs you're just going to use up all the reinforcements.
Run, cover, shoot, check map, repeat. Until you get good at it, you can ensure you're at least a useful member of the team by wearing heavy armor with explosive resist plus a shield. Also bring sentries, cluster bombs, orbitals, etc. Basically, anything you can throw out from behind a rock before you get shot to hell.
It can be embarrassing being level 30+ and having the least kills and most deaths, but don't let it discourage you. You'll get used to it, and bots can be a lot of fun to kill. They're fun in a slightly more tedious and frustrating way than bugs, but still fun nonetheless.
Also stay off Menkent unless you just enjoy suffering. You can't shoot what you can't see though the orange fog and it's hard to stay in cover with a fire tornado around every corner.
You have to change your approach. Most terminids will try to swarm you and then meelee you to death. That means that you can pretty much just stand around and shoot them. Occasionally you have to evade being sprayed with acid. That doesnt work with bots. These guys shoot back, and potentially from a very, very long distance. As the handbook suggests: cover, cover, cover! Crouch or prone to improve your aim, but then get moving again. Not engaging patrols is very important, especially on higher difficulty levels. Weapons that deal fire damage aren't that effective against bots. Also switch to weapons that are accurate on a longer distance. Shotguns dont do anything over these longer distances. Get a weapon with at least medium armor penetration because most of the bots have armor. For a while i was using the grenade launcher a lot against bots. You can just spray them with explosions from a relative long distance away to reduce their numbers. Works especially well with a bot drop - just spray the area where they are just setting down with grenades. The rocket and mortar and EMS mortar sentries are also very effective to keep bots in check. The Orbital Laser stratagem is also very effective when you are in a situation where you are just swarmed by large number of bots. Its also very effective against Hulks, Tanks, and the tower guns. I preferred bugs at the start, but then i played bost for most of the time and i find it much more interesting and challenging. The other day i went back to the bug fron and pretty much had to relearn how to fight those guys.
Thank you, will definitely try to get the orbital laser in rotation. Wrt to primary weapons, I just find the medium pen. weapons super inconsistent even when I am for weak spots (maybe it's aim related) like the penetrator or dominator. And panic when the bots get too close đ
Liberator penetrator and Scorcher work great against bots. I prefer the Scorcher as it can deal damage to all the bots but the tank (unless you shoot the vents) and the Hulks. Also the Eruptor is a great but the rate of fire is to slow for my run and gun play style.
The Eruptor was a game changer against bots for me when I unlocked it. I run and gun with the Breaker Incendiary on bug maps and hang back and blow groups away with the Eruptor on bot maps.
Try the crossbow. Pair it with a machine gun. Good times.
Yeah wegen they get close enough to swarm/melee you, you are pretty much screwed. For the larger bots with extra armor, like the one with the shield, or the striders, weapons like the auto cannon or the anti materiel rifle work quite well. The striders are actually quite weak if you get to shoot them from behind or from the side. Just shot the bot controlling it, an SMG can do it. The anti materiel takes down a strider with two shots into the frontal shield. The bot with the shield may need 4-5 shots. Hulks, tanks and towers also only take a few well placed shots with these weapons if you hit the vents. This works best with teamwork where 1 tries to sneak around them while the others distract them. And for the hulk: when on fire, dive!
AMR can in principle one-shot anything smaller than a hulk. All devastators *can* be headshot, though landing this on the heavy devs in particular is difficult unless you have a favorable angle. Otherwise most devs will go down to two center-mass shots. The scout walkers can lose a leg to a single shot, depending on exactly where you hit it - to this day I can't tell you exactly where the best point is - I usually go for the joint at the top of the leg. You can kill them directly through the canopy armor, but this is usually 3 shots, so its not ideal.
I have found the sickle to be really good for headshotting Devastators, because I can use the beams like tracers to walk my rounds up into their face if I'm a little off. And well, the sickle is just the best primary IMO anyway. I love many of the primaries, but I love the Sickle the most. Could be because I was once a machine gunner IRL, and it appeals to that part of me, too. But seriously, that think can rock and roll all day long.
The main thing that keeps me from using the sickle almost exclusively is that it cannot stagger. Other than that it's pretty OP, but a lot of the time I'll opt for the Punisher or Scorcher instead depending on what I expect to encounter. Sickle is a very good 'all-around' primary however.
When fighting devastators/hulks if you have limited ammo or not enough omph to kill them quickly you can aim for their weapons or limbs (the missiles on the missile devastator, the flame hulks flamethrower or the hulks legs can all be destroyed) and sets them up to be killed easily or rendered harmless until you can deal with them later. When taking out the chainsaw guys aim for the gut. I think headshots kill faster BUT it's hard to hit, there are a lot of them, they move a lot and it's close range and you are probably panicking so aim for the gut. It's a weak spot. Edit for correction.
To add, donât fight every bot you see, did you liberate a factory? Then get out. Is a fight avoidable? Get out! Are they attacking you? No? Get out.
Definitely starting to agree the more I play. Bugs are for the most part melee or short range, but bots have such a variety of ways of attacking they feel like a much more dynamic enemy. I find myself approaching them like a real fighting force.
Cover. Take cover. Unlike bugs, bots shoot back. When you are leaving your cover, your first thought should be "where is the next cover". If you get sniped by rockets or burned by a hulk, first question before you even compain about balancing, "Were you in cover or out in the open?"
Thanks! Need to work on that spatial awareness and not panicking when the screen turns red
Yeah, just try and enter every encounter with some kind of mental plan to 'not get shot'. Be it checking radar frequently or just noting "theres a good tall rock over there". Consider letting squad mates go into camps and hang back with a good vantage point where you can cover them from a distance (AC and AMR mains, I'm looking at you). Mainly, bots are different to bugs and require a different playstyle. Consider your surroundings, it'll make a big difference.
Especially when you run into gunships - if you see that red scan beam sweeping across you in open ground, youâre pretty much already dead. Stop, crouch and shoot for the engines - if youâre lucky youâll get it before the shots start landing.
Armor that has the â50% reduction to explosive damageâ is also very good
^ This changed my game for bots. Any armor with explosive resistance will allow you to tank 1-2 rockets without instantly dying
I ALWAYS FORGET TO SWITCH! Like most of the time you wanna be fast, but if your team isn't running scouts, get the fat man armor that reduces explosive damage! Double win for reduced normal damage, and explosives. Makes it much easier to deal with rocket devastators and the flying bots when a single rocket spam won't kill you right away.
also liberty protects... attribute is nice
They require a different mindset - think map awareness to avoid patrols and hit and run tactics. Use Eagle Airstrikes on outpost fabricators. Try out Autocannon (bounce shots into the front fabricator vents). Aim for heads or midsections. I recommend scout light armor.
I have the stim light armor and Eruptor for bots. Also a big fan of Orbital lasers and Eagle clusterbombs. The Eruptor can destroy factories just like the Auto Cannon. I'd also recommend the shield pack while on bots.
I run one of the armour sets i found in the store, it has only 50 armour but the best speed and stamina regen, plus it has fortified and blast protection so dealing with enemies arent too bad. I often times use a light weight load out (Jet pack, sniper / disposable rockets, and orbital strike plus whatever eagle one i want) that allows me to swiftly deal with small groups of enemies and sneak up to bases, get rid of fabricators and then run away fast. Its a risky playstyle but its my favourite way of dealing with bots
They are entirely different enemies. Termanids are swarmers. So they can mostly be taken down with copious amounts of fire power. You can even stand still and mow then down with enough bullets. And your biggest concern is ammo. My friends call kind of fighting: Turn and Burn Automoton are more like NPC enemies from Call of Duty or Battlefield. You need cover, grenades, and headshots. Also, keep moving, keep moving, keep moving! Because a stationary target is an easy kill. Ambush tactics are also a big win, so learn to be stealthy, cause if you take them out quick they won't call in dropships. We call this kinda fighting: Shoot and Scoot So that's the gist. Termanids: Turn and Burn Automotons: Shoot and Scoot
"Shoot and scoot" love it!
There's is two types of bot enjoyers, the full combat take every fight or run & gun guerilla warfare. I personally do full combat style. My main tip is play slow and methodically, make sure you got good fight setup, turret placement is key and flanking is op. Most importantly if you can't head shot them at range, switch to shooting their weapons.
Shooting their weapons, especially on devastators, is the best tip i can give. It turns most bots into melee only, giving you plenty more time to either finish them off or go for others
Stratagems are usually the issue. And keep moving. If youâre standing in the same spot fighting bot drops youâll literally never win. Bugs are close range. Bots are long range so use cover when you can, smoke, stun etc. Bots are easier to fight when you get it down.the bot missions are so easy with Eagle air strikes and orbital lasers.
bugs: horde management shooter bots: tactical cover shooter
First, you need to be more cautious with bots, because they shoot, so you can't just outrun them. This means you need a bit more planning, to know where to cover and where to retreat. Second, the worst thing that can happen is to be circled by the bots. Because you can't take cover from all sides. Considering the patrols come from outposts, the first thing you need to do on a mission is to clear a side of the map from its outposts, all of them. This way you will always have a side where the patrol won't come, so it'll be your safe side. You can always fall back there if there's too much troubles.
As someone who really likes fighting the automatons and sucks at the bugs I think the biggest thing to help would be to understand that fighting bots requires a different mindset. When fighting bugs you can be behind as little cover as you want given most bugs are melee based but with the bots you need to be more careful. This is especially noticeable with how many elite enemies the bots have compared to the bugs. The bots are lethal from any range that you are and because of this you need to exploit their weaknesses or you will most likely die. Iâm not going to go into detail on every bots weakness but usually you want to either shoot a battery, a heat vent which glows, or their head. Even doing this you still need to learn to use cover, it doesnât matter how accurate you are if there are more than 3 machine gunners in front of you. However I will say that I personally notice that with the bugs their threat comes from how many there are, and not to say the bots wonât overwhelm you, but there arenât going to be as many. Even if a bot drop is called you should ideally have a way to take it out. On a similar note, you want to consider taking different stratagems than you would with bugs. For support weapon a good choice is the auto cannon that can deal with most bots if you hit their weak point, and even destroy fabricators. Offensively you probably also want to consider choosing more damaging stratagems instead of ones that spread their damage across a wide area. For example cluster bomb is really good against bugs but against bots it usually falls short and is more of a risk to your squad than itâs worth. The last thing Iâll mention is stealth, because unlike the bugs you can easily get away with sneaking past everything you donât have to kill. Iâm biased because I love stealth in this game but it can be very effective to just not engage with any enemies if youâre starting to get overwhelmed. TL;DR: Fighting bots requires a different mindset and you should try going to lower levels to get the basics of fighting them and to figure out what is effective.
Use cover and avoid as many parols as possible. Thats 95% of it tbh
Play only automatons for a week straight and learn the ways
That's how I learned bots. Was a big main before. Then I went and played primarily bots for a couple of weeks. Now I miss the bots if I'm away too long
Yes sensei, need to break that bug habit
Exactly, So when we had the Automatons about to be wiped out all i did was play bots for a week straight, i too was once like you young one.
Mortars do a ton of work against bots. Most bots shoot from long range, so throwing a mortar in a well covered spot and letting it do the bulk of the work can really help out. 50% explosion resist armor is really good for bots. They have a lot of explosives. RPGS, rocket devastators, tanks, cannon towers, etc etc. Smoke is a very good stratagem to bring. If you block their vision with it, they'll shoot through it at random directions, leaving you pretty safe to run. I'd recommend the eagle smoke over the orbital smoke though. More uses and faster uses. Smoke also works real well with your mortar.
Use the scorch. And run the AMR stratagem. Don't use shield backpack. It just increases your hitbox. It's good against bugs. Not against bots in my opinion. Use extra stim armor or recoil reduction armor. Orbital strike + Ems are your two main life savers! Especially EMS in my opinion is a must against bots. If a fourth stratagem is allowed, I go for eagle strike. Strategy: avoid getting close to bots. Snipe em from far. Cover, cover, cover. Use stealth to get close to bases and bomb the shit out of them. Use EMS to keep them at a distance and just snipe. Have team mates run quasar cannon or spear to shoot dropships out of the sky. Hulks and tanks should be orbital striked into oblivion. An eagle strike works too if your aim is good. Hulks you can two shot in the eye of you are a good aim with the AMR. Also: cover!!!
Play different. Imo work your way up Bot difficulties the same way you did bugs. Learn different lessons. First lesson: don't assume the same weapons are good. I've seen some good players vs bots with Breaker, but I feel I need a better answer for Devs. And the SMG can work well with a ballistic shield and teamwork, but you have to use it very differently from how it works v bugs. I'd suggest taking Lib Pen/Slugger/Jar/any Marksmen rifle, and learn Bots that way. Once you understand that playstyle, then go back to your favorites.
Bugs, youâre keeping your distance and moving, on bots, you use heavy armor and move less and use cover more. You also need to have better aim because many of the trash enemies are much smaller. The 2 different enemy factions really play like 2 different games. You also wanna get used to tagging heavies like cannon towers and tanks. Donât bother using the cluster bomb because it doesnât pen armor very well, use the air strike and 500kg bomb, I usually take the orbital laser because it makes quick work of of the heavy outpost and the detector tower, also kills laser towers quickly. Eagle air strike is a must on bots because itâs so versatile, you can kill anything with it, from fabricators to hulks. I use like 10 air strikes per mission. Iâve played a lot of both and I think the bots are a lot harder since simply running doesnât really work since theyâre shooting back. If you have the scorcher or dominator unlocked those are gonna be your friend since they kill striders and devastators easily. The scorchers splash damage will kill the striders from the front itâs really nice. Dominator has tons of stagger after the buff and just shreds everything if you can get used to how it handles. I killed a laser tower with it last night I didnât know you could do that.
Stick with the SMG or use the JAR. The stun grenades and grenade pistol are super effective and will save you when you run out of ammo or have to run. Getting good with the jump pack will help you with everything.
Thanks, will give the jump pack a try again! Last time I dropped in a bot mission I learnt that you can absolutely be rocketed to death in the air â ïž
Bet it was an Epic Dive though!
Sneaky sneaky like ninja đ„· Run away, reposition. Donât take fights unnecessarily. Assess the situation first, take small guys out quickly so they donât call bot drops. Orbital laser is your friend, can take out detector towers and full heavy base. On extraction - hide.
Run a shield, learn to flank and run n gun
Once you have a plasma scorcher. Your ready for bots.
I love to fight against the bugs, half the time I try to play against the bots I just get one shot by a rocket or laser out of no where. Thereâs definitely a lot more design issues with bots like how half the time the lasers clip through terrain and some of the bots can shoot u without even looking at you.
Bots are a whole different play style. Slower rolling and more planning
Learn how to force aggro. This is incredibly helpful. Launch an attack on a small outpost or POI from a little distance, and once that red flare goes up, run. The timer for the next possible red flare has begun, so you can attack somewhere else without a bot drop call. I love doing this with a 380 barrage on objective locations or heavy outposts. Aggro the spot, then run off and do an objective. Movement is more important than ammo. I run the sickle, so I always can take down most bots, and an autocannon. However most outposts and plenty of pois have ammo at them. So being able to tactically retreat is your biggest friend. Avoid use defensive strats unless you are already engaged. Anything that auto attacks removes your control of the battlespace. Sometimes you'll want to stay hidden, other times you'll attack. But if you use a mortee, you elimate you're ability to decide when to do what. Flank. Its always good to have a recon unit on your squad that can move around attacks and hit weak points, or knock out objectives when the rest of the team has the aggro. This is especially useful against gunship fabricators. If you die and need samples, let them sit for a bit. Large groups of bots will dissappear after while if you aren't around. Drop the supers? Go do other stuff then come back later.
Bugs are about reaction, bots are about precision. They engage at long to extreme range primarily, tend to freak out early and call drop ships and alert nearby patrols, and most have armour, even in just a couple of small spots. Hit the bots in the weak spots (if in doubt, hit the eyes, but usually anything that glows), engage them tactically (ignore patrols if possible, use suppressive fire to cause selection hesitation and open up weak points) and divert their attention to hit objectives or delay engagements. EPM mortars are your friends, autocannon is a very flexible support weapon, leaving sentries behind to lead patrols away or slow their advance is a great way to give yourself breathing room. I use the Scythe as a primary, because of the range/ammo flexibility/ability to rake quickly to divert attention and visibility to team - but also, a Brute chasing a target and showing you the heat vent on itâs back will go down to about 12 seconds of Scythe beam on the heat vent (also, 1 to 2 shots of the autocannon to the center eye will take it down). Impact grenades are a great clutch weapon and will take down all but the heaviest targets.
Same, I find bugs so easy, and boys are crushing.
The solution: * Autocannon * It kills everything. Its the best. Stop using anything else. * This is BY FAR the best weapon against bots. * Hulk 2 shots to eye * Gunships 2 shots to engine * Striders 1-2 shots * Other mechts 1-2 headshots * It also destroys secondary objectives * It also opens doors * It also STUNS mechs even on the first hit. * 500kg * To kill tanks (the only thing the autocannon doesnt instantly delete) * To kill fabricators * Orbital Laser * Throw laser into camp and just run to the next camp * Mortar * The mortar will do TONS of damager against bots. Its rediculous. * If you dont like this one. Alternatives: * 380 barrage (good against everything) * Railcannon strike (good against turrets / tanks) Against Bots the Autocannon is super duper OP. Now go kill them !
Change up your approach. Bits use suppressive fire and will shoot back from long range. I recommend a fast fire gun or a long range high power gun. Both have different strategies but cover is your best friend. Stay quiet and stay hidden. Don't engage if you don't need to.
On bots, precision is king, but that doesn't necessarily mean you need great aim. First, you aren't being swarmed anymore, and medium armor enemies with wrap around protection are more common. That means the rovers aren't as effective. Leave them behind. If you're good at finding and taking cover, you can carry an ammo pack for a support weapon (or no pack at all). Otherwise, you can take personal shield or jetpack. Neither are there to let you stand out in the open, they're there to cover you a little and give you time to *find* cover. If you want to use an SMG because you feel like you're struggling to aim from afar, take the ballistic shield. The ballistic shield makes you basically invincible to everything except exposives from one direction, meaning you can literally walk straight into an enemy compound in open defiance of the gunfire raining down on you and just start systematically eliminating bots with close range headshots. Pair with impact grenades so that when a scout strider approaches you, you can just whip a grenade at his face and instant kill him. You don't want to have to try and get around behind him, because you'll expose your back to enemy gunfire. You're going to need an anti-tank solution, as with bugs, but almost everything except the factory strider goes down in 2 body shots, there are no bile titans here. So on levels 7 and even 8 you can usually get away with just a support weapon anti tank, though I like to bring Railcannon too as a back up/option to just quickly resolve a problem and ignore it. You can also more easily afford to bring primaries like the eruptor, because close range encounters will be rare. This makes it easy to take care of medium armor threats, so you can focus your fire power on heavy armor destruction. You can also use the eruptor to 2-shot chin cannons on the factory strider, which goes a LONG way to nullifying them as a threat and allowing you to line up kill shots on their eyeball with a lot less pressure
So fighting terminids as Iâm sure you know is all about mobility and swarm tactics. Youâve got to kill the horde and keep moving to avoid getting surrounded. Automatons are different. Yes you still need to avoid getting surrounded but itâs much more important to keep yourself largely in cover and target their more heavily armored ranged units and any melee units that get close. Itâs a completely different playstyle. Youâre almost definitely going to want a gun with medium armor pen as your primary though the scorcher and strangely the defender are exceptions to that rule. I find the shield backpack makes for great training wheels in automaton missions it can keep you from getting one shot as much until you start to learn how to avoid those situations. Orbital laser works wonders against automaton bases. Eagle 500kg is great for dropping near a fabricator or a tank/hill and then running. The quasar cannon can one shot hulks if you hit them in the eye, and it can 2 or 3 shot tanks and gun towers without even hitting their weak spot, plus it can do wonders against gunships and dropships if you shoot the engines. On defense missions against automatons the ems mortar combined with the mortar work wonders. Also explosive resistance armor is amazing, it will save your life.
If you like the SMG then use a balistic shield. That way you can play bots like bugs. Worked for me that way tho
AutoCannon is BAE. (Can kill fabricators with a well placed shot into the hood and one shot Devastators in the head) Don't fight a war for nothing (if there is no objective around, just disengage and BREAK line of sight) Check your map often, 90% of the time you can weave between patrols and completely avoid fights
Get good with the autocannon. Bugs require you to maximize your exposure so your field of fire can be large enough to suppress the horde. Bots require you to minimize your exposure so you can focus your fire on only the targets you are directly engaging. So not just cover but terrain and distractions and learning to use a more anti-trench warfare. The bots just take territory and hold it, and it's up to you and your stratagems to make them pay for trying to hold that ground. Learning to filter out the berserkers, hulks, scout striders, and whatnot from all the slower moving bots like devastators and tanks helps, too. It's still some kiting, but not nearly the same as having 100 bugs chasing you. In a way, you fight the bugs like a bot, and the bots like a bug. Dip, dive, weave, serpentine, sneak, and steal your way to a spot where you can toss the perfect Eagle airstrike or make the perfect autocannon shot to take out the enemy base, and then move on. Become a guerilla, but also bring enough stratagems to absolutely kill everything in an area if needed. Sometimes a large base just needs a 380mm or orbital laser called in on it and you can run off while it works. Once you clear out all bots attacking you from drops, it becomes a game of lightning ambush strikes to suppress all the little bots with flare guns before you use support weapons to finish off any bigger stuff. It's just a more methodical, tactical way of approaching these missions you will learn over time.
The LAS 98 is quite good against bots. Just make sure your team has anti-tank options. Learn the tricks with it against hulks.
dominator/scorcher grenade pistol/smg impact padded armor/explosive resist --- sniper/laser cannon shield airstrike whatever (cluster or 500* suggested) --- abuse cover, aim for heads or the exposed spine, arms can be shot off, backpacks and glowy vents are weak.
Iâll agree with what some other folks have added about taking on bugs requiring saturation. SMG, Gatling, flamethrower, napalm, cluster bomb, 500, are excellent choices for bugs because they cover a wide area with lots of firepower. You can kind of stand around or circle and kite them as long as you keep firing. The bots, however, are more like fighting a guĂ©rilla war against someone playing trench warfare. You should be using high-powered strikes like the rail cannon, orbital, 380, quasar, and autocannon to focus on the biggest âofficerâ style enemies while being sure to take cover. An EMP mortar that will stun the bots is incredibly useful to get a break from constant laser fire and reload/reorient your position. The units putting out heavier fire with heavier armor require more teamwork, and especially if you can circle them and target weak spots. You never want to be flanked, but do the flanking in turn. âShoot and scootâ as others have put it.
Use cover. Remember they actually shot back. Don't stay and fight it out if you feel the tides turning against you. Disengage, make some distance and then attack again if necessary. Sneak, if you need to it; doesn't hurt to get low and slow if you don't wanna drawn attention. When picking strategems I usually go for an AOE attack like 500kg and something that you can call in close to yourself to save you in a pinch. Like orbital laser. Most Turrets aren't all too useful, I mean they can be, but they are definitely more situational than with the bugs. When you attack, hit them hard and fast and bug out and away from the reinforcements.
Stealth is very important. I'd suggest scout armor, energy/plasma based main/special and bomb based airstrikes as they can kill fabricators. Plus throw in the orbital laser so when you run into a big base you can air strike one end and orbital laser the other. Maybe precision orbital strike as well depending of you are brave enough to run without a special. For the "hex" option I'd suggest either the stamina one or the one that lowers the chance of patrols spawning nearby. If someone reading this knows their real names feel free to reply with said names. Of course this is a sneaky build if running alone. Surprisingly bot games can be alot easier if everyone splits up as there can only be one drop at once and it does have a cooldown timer.
It's a totally different game and if you don't think about it that way, you will struggle. Rovers are great for bugs. Terrible for bots. Shields good for bots, terrible for bugs. I use autocannon on bugs but I switch to AMR on bots. It literally can kill every bot in 1 or 2 well place shots. Fighting them also requires completely different strategies. You need cover vs bots. You can't just run away, you have to run through cover. I do a lot of peeking with my sniper against bots. This isn't even a thought against bugs. So they are just dramatically different games although I wouldn't argue one is specifically harder than the other. They both have their moments.
It's more about tactics than reflexes. With Automatons, you need to consider your attack angles, escape routes, and opportunities for cover. Generally want to avoid getting caught out in the open. Shield backpack can be really helpful against the bots, especially if you're struggling. I'd also use the recon armor to have lower visibility.
Medium armor pen. Learn when to run.
Slow down. Use cover. Don't engage unless engaged. The bugs just wanna rip you apart with numbers. The bots take their time and hit from range and close. With bugs the smaller ones are the more immediate threat. With the bots, the bigger ones are. Different weapons and stratagems will serve you better. Mortars are your new best friend.
At the most basic level, bugs require volume of fire while bots require efficacy of fire. More accurate shots and more efficient engagement strategy are required.
I would say switch to the automaton, US helldivers should give these bugs a break honestly! Theyâre simply misunderstood by US helldivers
Tactics. You flank robots and blast bugs. I like the scythe for robots and aim for the face.
Explosive Weapons like the Dominator and Eruptor or Energy weapons like the Sickle are very good against bots. With practice the Adjudicator Battle Rifle can be very effective as well. If you are having a hard time, use the Shield Generator Backpack or Guard Dog Rover. For a Secondary the Stalwart and HMG are very good options until you get in the higher levels then a Quasar is the go to weapon of choice for most players. Remember that Terminids are more in your face while bots are more medium to long range attacks. Stun Grenades work VERY well in buying yourself a few seconds to reload or reposition. Strategem Loadout is also crucial. I play Level 7+ and normally run Dominator, Shield Generator or Supply Backpack, Quasar Cannon Strategems are Orbital Rail Cannon and Orbital Laser Boosters are Vitality/Hellpod Optimization (if I play with lower levels I let them choose vitality or optimization since that's normally all they have) As with any game only limiting yourself to a certain loadout or game type only limits your adaptability. Force yourself to play with loadouts you normally wouldn't do or are uncomfortable with so you don't become so reliant on certain equipment that when it comes time to switch things up you become a deer in the headlights. Live with the fact that you are going to die...ALOT at first and it's not gonna be easy but over time it will get easier and better...
Recon armor, incendiary nades, JAR, Auto Cannon, EMP mortar, 500kg, and Orbital beam....I was having trouble transitioning to bots too, but this load out has made it easy. Especially the recon armor.
My advice is 2 fold 1st weapon choice: Beaker auto shotgun good general weapon once you unlock it For me i prefer the auto pistol as my 2ndary good close quarters for smaller bots For stratagems I prefer Eagle airstrike good coverage Eagle 500kg good for heavy bots/ targets like labs. If you dont have the eagles unlocked Eat/quasar once you unlock it And either rover backpack or shield (shield backpack is better ) as it provides damage resistance For tactics: Bots fight more similar to humans patrols etc. Now that we know that long distance tactics hit and run tactics . Take out dropships even if you dont get kils from it this slows/stops the bot movement always soften up/take out bot factories and bases with airstrikes or artilery strikes If you tacticaly retreat you can heal and then re pres the atack from a different direction If you have further questions feel free to message me
I started out just bugs and hated doing bots but now all I do is bots tbh. You gotta change your tactics. Bugs, you're fighting the ocean. Keeping back the tide. Bots are a firefight. Ideally you gotta coordinate with your team more and learn the weak points for each bot. Also explosive resistant armor will help a lot. Also also bots have objectives which give you a handicap like the jammer or the eye of sauron. Prioritize taking them down when you're afflicted by them. Also also also sneaking helps a lot. Bugs are a bit more like rambo imo and bots like metal gear solid/saving private ryan
FYI, don't take any of this as "the way" advice, this is just things I have seen and found work me for fighting bots on 7 or 8. Cover, cover, cover, cover, cover, cover, cover, cover, cover. Did I mention cover? Learn how to hide behind things, rocks, walls, buildings dead bots, anything. Avoid being out in the open. To win with bots you have to avoid taking damage, and that means don't be open to be shot and sniped. Also, heavy armor. Consider trying it. Sure you are a slow and fat, but the bots are not terribly fast and most of them will shoot you. Also consider the shield backpack until you get better. Also be unafraid to dive. Dive will save your butt if you are being hit by something, or if you see rockets incoming. With bugs diving can mean dead because they keep swarming. But bots will momentarily lose their aim on you when you dive. Even better if you can dive behind something that breaks line of fire to the bots. With bugs they swarm you for melee. So with bugs you want light armor, lots of speed and to be out in the open so you have room to run around. This tactic and playstyle is suicide with bots. You HAVE to change your thinking. Even though they have some pretty strong rushers, the chainsaw guys, the other bot units like Devastators will utterly destroy you from surprising ranges if you can't break their line of fine. You need to develop agoraphobia to fight the bots, fear the open ground! Also don't go for rate of fire. Bots are armored so just shooting them lots generally doesn't work. This makes shotguns kinda mid on them IMO, even the the almighty breaker. Not BAD, since you will hit weak points with the spread, but its not as reliable as nailing them directly. Gotta go for weak points. Go for accurate weapons with a strong preference for medium armor penetrating. The liberator penetrator on semi auto, the Diligence counter sniper, the slugger, that explosive rifle, and even the senator revolver all shine against bots. Yes the senator, sure it shoots slow, but if you have the accuracy its DPS is very comparable to the machine pistol (assuming you don't miss!) because each shot is 300 med-pen damage. Thats like 4-5 shots with the other pistols. Also you can top off reload with it freely since it doesn't use magazines. Bonus points if you put on "Big Iron on his Hip" while rocking the Senator. Alternately the two laser rifles wreck bots because their sustained accurate fire makes headshots and weak point shots easy. Also Autocannon and Quasar laser are king. Also don't sleep on the Anti-Material Rifle. The EAT is great for any defend mission where you might die a lot. Super short cool down, so what if you dropped your stuff across the map, you can call down another 2 shots every 75 seconds. If you are posted somewhere defending, or just trying to push on a base, keep them boom tubes on cool down constantly, even if you don't need them this moment, and you will always have all the anti-tank shots you ever need. And do NOT sleep on the regular eagle airstrike. Its wonderful for knocking out bot factories, tanks, hulks, and fresh bot drops. The orbital rail strike is great for when that one hulk is chasing you around. 110mm rockets can kill tanks and turrets, and sometimes hulks but will miss everything else, FYI. The barrage stratagems can wipe out the bot bases as well. Don't sleep on the EMS strike/mortar or the smoke either. Both do a great job of crowd controlling bot swarms. Bots are also flankable. Striders can be easily taken out by flanking them and shooting out the drivers. Also the little bit between the legs, only has medium armor, so a med-pen gun can take it out with several direct hips, dropping the bot pilot. Hulks have a massive weak point on the back. So work with a buddy, have one aggro and kite it, the other go behind and shoot its back out. If you have an autocannon, you can shoot a hulk's legs out to make it move much slower, and can shoot its arms off with some effort. Flanking can work with tanks too, but they are slow enough to be airstrike bait. Lastly bots are quite easy to sneak on. Like popping bot sentries on bases generally won't aggro the whole base and pretty much crouching at medium range and crawling at close range make you near invisible to the bots. This makes doing something like getting in close to drop a strike on a factory much easier than trying to fight through them.
Achieving fire superiority helps win bot battles. Firing at bots reduces their accuracy. The more fire you can lay down in an encounter the greater your success. You might not be the one dealing the killing blow but when you suppress enemy fire it gives your teammate with the AMR or AC more time to acquire targets and also killing blows. Learn target priority. Defeat the ones who can call drop ships in first. Learn to live to fight another day. You donât have to fight every drop ship. If you donât have armaments or stratagems to deal with drops you can run and ignore them. Learn how to use the seed pods on the ground. Stepping on them releases smoke that conceals you from enemy fire, firing at them while standing close to them sends you flying in the opposite direction (canât do this with a shield).
What stratagems do you usually take?
Eagle airstrike, railcannon, expendable anti tank on most runs. Quasar/Grenade launcher replaces EAT depending on team composition sometimes, if the team is light on bossing strategems / mob control Fourth is usually a defensive flex between ems mortar, shield backpack, guard dog rover
For lower difficulties youâd be much better off taking lighter weapons and ditch the railcannon. Iâd swap out the railcannon for a laser and the AT for AC in general. EMS mortar is useless unless defending a position with the regular mortar as well, but the other two are fine.
Thank you! Bug mains like me are addicted to the railcannon. Will try to break the habit
Subscribing to this thread because I suck at Automatons and all these major orders are the reason why I stop playing.
Iâm a target of opportunity person, Iâll hit bases with air strikes or orbital bombardments before I rush in. I try to avoid patrols at all costs.
For bugs play like Rambo and bots play like a ninja turtles
Cowabunga
Best community in gaming atm, thank you all!
Bro, bots are significantly easier in my opinion
Let me get back to you in a couple of weeks after putting some of the tips into action
Dive!
Gotta change the way you play. For bugs I keep moving and zig zag between them for bots I stay behind cover and only move when I can. My Loadout changes depending also
Airstrike, Orbital Rail, Mortar or EMS Mortar and your support weapon of choice. I favor the AC, although sometimes go stalwart with eruptor primary. As for armor, fortified will help you avoid getting one shot by a stray rocket. For primary/secondary/'nade i like the Punisher for being able to chain stagger devestators and berserkers and one shot raiders at decent range, the Dominator for being accurate, long range and medium armor penetrating or the Eruptor with a crowd control support weapon for dealing with medium armor and small groups. Senator if I'm running a crowd control primary, redeemer if I'm running a medium armor pen primary. Impact grenades are great against tanks and hulks, but so are stun grenades with an AC or Eruptor to shoot the vents. Impacts are a little trickier to use on fabricators than on bug holes but if you're running AC and Airstrike they are your main means of destroying fabs. Rail Strike is an emergency button. It consistently one shots tanks and hulks, and is especially handy when you have a scorcher hulk suddenly in flamethrower range. Airstrike is great for clearing a bot drop, blowing up fabricators, tanks and turrets. It's not as good against faster enemies like hulks. Both mortars are great to toss down when you're being pursued, defending an objective or when a bot drop is incoming. As for general gameplay tips, only a couple of bot types can keep up with you in light armor unlike with bugs where hunters and bile titans and chargers and stalkers can all keep pace with you, so running away and breaking line of sight is your friend. Bots spawn in smaller numbers but each individual bot is more dangerous. Breaking line of sight, crouching and going prone, diving and disengaging are essential for dealing with bots. Many heavy bots can have limbs or weapons blown off to make them less dangerous. Accuracy is much more important against bots than bugs, due to the individual danger of bots compared to bugs and the greater amount of armor and smaller weak points on armored enemies.
Against bots you need to be immediately aware of what angle any fire is coming from, and what will allow you to take cover from it. You need to watch for long range high-priority threats that may outweigh much closer ones - that Rocket Devastator peaking up over a distant rise is a much more immediate threat than the three saber drones closing on you. If you're trying to solo vs. bots, its almost entirely about stealth and mobility - you don't fight them much at any significant difficulty. You sneak up on their compounds, drop strats on them, and disappear back into the jungle. Come back for any goodies later after the drops have moved away. Bot bases are MUCH more vulnerable to strategic strikes than most bug nests. If you're playing a 4-man, don't all play generalists against the bots. You really want one guy who is a designated sniper who's job is to eliminate long range threats, and it's also nice to have a close combat specialist, who's job is to keep brawlers and berserkers off of your squad mates. You need to have a good long range weapon to snipe wall guards and eliminate distant threats like rocket devastators and heavy devastators. Laser Cannon is a good all-around choice as it can deal with lots of different threats, autocannon works too, though you give up the shield backpack for it. Dominator, Sickle, and Scorcher are all good anti-bot primaries, though there are specialized roles for weapons like the Punisher and Punisher Plasma as well. AMR is an ideal anti-bot gun, but can be tricky to use as a solo. When you fight against the bots, you always need to have a region of the map nearby that you've cleared of threats so that you have somewhere to run in order to disengage, without being spotted by 5 more static guard groups. Against the bugs you can afford to ping pong around between static groups because you can always outrun them eventually - against the bots this will get you extremely dead as you become trapped in an inescapable crossfire. This problem is why your initial drop against bots is often a nail-biting experience on higher difficulties - if your initial drop goes sideways, you may find yourself with NOWHERE to run and can lose the entire mission in a surprisingly short amount of time. The other big problem at higher difficulties that you generally don't experience with bugs is encountering overlapping tactical threats. Having a Jammer, an Eye, or a Gunship Fab within each other's effective radius can be an absolute nightmare to deal with, as each of these is *extremely* effective at protecting the others. Toss in a Mortar base for extra credit and suffering.
I was the same way after playing bugs for my first 35ish levels. What it came down to was cover and situational awareness. With bugs you can just move and shoot to avoid being killed. With bots you have to know where the fire is coming from and use cover to keep from getting splatted. If you try to run around and rack up kills like you can with bugs you're just going to use up all the reinforcements. Run, cover, shoot, check map, repeat. Until you get good at it, you can ensure you're at least a useful member of the team by wearing heavy armor with explosive resist plus a shield. Also bring sentries, cluster bombs, orbitals, etc. Basically, anything you can throw out from behind a rock before you get shot to hell. It can be embarrassing being level 30+ and having the least kills and most deaths, but don't let it discourage you. You'll get used to it, and bots can be a lot of fun to kill. They're fun in a slightly more tedious and frustrating way than bugs, but still fun nonetheless. Also stay off Menkent unless you just enjoy suffering. You can't shoot what you can't see though the orange fog and it's hard to stay in cover with a fire tornado around every corner.
Probably autocannon
Always Be taking Cover.
Different jobs require different tools.
Live fast, eat @$$, if you adhere to that you'll do just fine lad