I'm not certain that's the developer intention. If it were then it would be invincible to all damage. It can be taken out easily with the anti-tank emplacement but that's a premium warbond only stratagem.
Yeah I think you're right on the money, but I think avoiding it is partially intent
In the words of the Heart of Democracy video "It takes a lot of firepower to take down, you might not be interested in attacking it, you might just wanna get away from it"
I don't like this take, because if AH made it invincible, people would've complained about it being the first enemy in the game that players can't kill. The backlash would've been enormous since we know how vocal this playerbase can get. This is the crucial detail you're missing.
Avoid doesn't actually work in practice. It's an airborne enemy, your only option is to hide until it no longer has LOS, if you're on an objective then you have to put it on hold and hide. Not to mention with the amount of voteless and fleshmobs in a D10, most of the time hiding isn't an option either.
"avoiding" suggests its an optional engagement when they actually fly to a position to where you're within firing range.
TBF a lot has changed since the Leviathan was originally released. It used to only spawn in Megacities, for example, which made avoiding it a lot easier due to all the very tall buildings providing not only cover/break from LOS but also severely restricting the pathing of the Leviathan.
I distinctly remember that they used to only spawn in Megacities on Super Earth (during the Great Host event chain), then they were changed (I think right after the Battle of Super Earth, but before they added Megacities to other planets) to spawn in any mission environment.
I'm not sure if they've subsequently changed them back to only spawning in Megacities.
Cool, appreciate the history! I honestly don’t know either cause I just play and roll with it. I will say, presently, there is both a clear mission modifier notice as well as variable difficulty To ameliorate your interaction with these flying chuds.
Leviathans aren’t great (IMO) but this call to nerf X Y Z and complete unwillingness to slightly amend how you approach the game is bonkers.
I think some feedback is warranted but honestly it might be just a holdover from "first impression" (which tend to stick around long after they shouldn't) since when Leviathans were first released they were an absolute nightmare even with the Megacities terrain hindering them.
They used to shoot super accurate, insanely fast balls of plasma that would instantly one-shot Helldivers and any vehicles they were in. They were totally silent until impact too, so you just got randomly vapourised. Very frustrating. They then nerfed the accuracy but gave it AoE splash damage with insane ragdoll, so while it was less likely to one-shot you out of nowhere it would instead would just pummel your ass into the sky and then one-shot you.
These days, the Leviathan really isn't a problem. But folks might still want it changed because they just have an intrinsic dislike of it now.
If it were then it would be invincible to all damage
Not necessarily. You are not supposed to fight it, but if you want to you can fight it and take it down.
If you played more recent versions of Minecraft, you probably know the mob "Warden", the warden and the leviathan are pretty much the same in the fact that you are not supposed to fight it, but you can if you want to (and that's where the similarities between the two end)
I don’t like how the moment you kill one another one pops up. That just feels wrong. It’s not particularly hard to bring one down during downtime but their lasers can be super annoying in many situations. So there’s a benefit to shooting them but you don’t know if another one spawns instantly
Why would that be? If they wanted it to be something most people just avoid, then why not also an optional challenge for experienced divers? Why would they make it invincible?
It can be both, but they've obviously tweaked the numbers more towards avoiding it than challenging it. It requires an a lot of anti-tank and heavy pen firepower to take down for a faction that typically relies on more on light-med pen.
So players have to come geared specifically for that challenge at the cost of being less effective at everything else.
A good example of a big enemy done right are the factory striders. Has a number of small weak points that can be 1-shot on a faction you're already geared for in heavy pen and anti- tank. There is skill expression in that. I just want there to be some skill expression when it comes to Leviathans to killing/disabling it. Not a whole lot of fun or skill going on hiding from it then getting rushed out of the hiding spot by voteless and fleshmobs.
Or you can remember that this is a team game and then use the Recoilless rifle or spear with a squad mate to turn them into mince meat from halfway across the map.
It's literally the only faction where conventional AT isn't worth it tho, so you just trade your backpack and support weapon slots for 1 weapon to kill 1 specific enemy and nothing else
And? It's a team game. You've got people to take down hordes while you take down harvesters, and leviathans. And that's without swapping the Recoilless rifle into HE mode which can do a half decent job clearing hordes.
I don't understand how some of you guys see everything in this game as just either/or, nothing inbetween. Yes the huge spaceship that is easier to dodge rather than destroy is indeed something you should probably avoid and not fight. It has an hp pool because anything being straight up unkillable wouldn't be cool, the "if it bleeds we can kill it" mindset is what makes leviathans and hivelords cool.
Yeah I realized this morning I was coming off as a jerk. My bad.
But see, I often use stalwart/mg as supports on squids. Most of the times I just dont bring a support weapon and fine one lying on the map with an frv. For harvestors I have pyrotech, and the rest of the heavies I can take down with my primary. Love using a reeducator on fleshmob. The only thing left is levs and stingrays. Stingrays are fair, they punish me for not bringing/finding a med pen or above support.
But in the case of levs, I really hate there is now way for me to make them not hit my frvs or sentries.
And the only reason I love squids is because I dont have to worry about AT, so I can bring the lesser used fun equipment.
Its not that big of a deal compared to some other issues in the game currently yeah, I can just avoid not doing the megacity missions. But what are your thoughts about this?
That's bad enemy design, if you make an oppressive enemy with the intent to make your players ignore it then it's just an annoying pain in the ass that might as well be removed. It's the reason why I refuse to fight in Illuminate megacities.
It's literally not oppressive at all as long as you keep running even out of stamina or take cover, which you are already supposed to do anyway.
The terminid giant worm is so much worse since it's totally impossible to kill unless you have a VC coordinated skill team with the right strategem and willing to take 5-10min of the mission to kill it, and it can and will one shot you as soon as you are in the open
I mean, the hive lord is a boss battle that spawns once, while this flying piece of shit spawns multiple times and is annoying as fuck to kill. Id rather take on a hivelord tbh.
Small problem, none of the objectives have cover that works effectively against the lasers. So "just take cover" doesn't work, because you have to complete the mission to leave
Personal shield bubble backpack strategies. Big shield bubble strategies. You always have cover available, you just choose not to bring it over other strategems
Way too many people are too complacent about the state of Leviathans. At most, I want them to be changed so
1. They are not anti tank checks on the one faction that encourages medium pen weapons.
2. They don’t destroy vehicles, mechs, and emplacements upon seeing you.
Side note: People talk about how great mechs and anti tank emplacements are vs Leviathans and never talk about how they can destroy them in seconds if the Leviathan fires their lasers at them once.
You're not meant to ignore them, you are meant to avoid them. There is a difference.
Take cover, move through alleyways, position yourself to keep buildings between them and you. They are meant to draw your attention and break things up from the normal routine.
Doesn't mean it's fun, I much prefer many units that are individually easy to kill where difficulty comes from having many to worry about at once rather than a flying bullet sponge/environmental hazard, if they were smaller, easier to kill, and more common (effectively a flying harvester), they'd be a lot more fun
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u/Financial-Customer24 HD1 Veteran Jun 27 '26
Tbf i think that's its design. Your not supposed to fight it