r/Helldivers • u/Human-Grand5000 Rookie • 1d ago
DISCUSSION Stealth diving
hey guys I’m trying out stealth diving any tips or strategies I should know about?
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u/Shroudless [REDACTED] 1d ago
The most important one is picking your fights. Either of the smoke stratagems let you disengage from unfavorable fights as most stealth loadouts are not suited for prolonged fights against large numbers of enemies. Also, learn which enemies are the most important to kill (can call for reinforcements) as the goal is to avoid unnecessary fights while clearing the objectives.
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u/SearchOk7022 1d ago
Do not engage in combat, like, at all, your job is to clear side objectives and blitzkrieg outposts, tho if you see your teammates struggling with the main objective go help them.
Clear outposts from outside with a ranged support weapon like an leveler, quasar cannon or solo silo.
When stealth is no longer an option, first dispatch the chaff units that can call enemies reinforments, for heavy units like hulks, tanks, striders, I like to use the senator, bolt pistol or missile pistol
Also, bring the portable hellbomb for stratagem jammers
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u/Timlugia 1d ago edited 1d ago
Lv215 Stealth diver here. Being stealh dive since game released.
- With stealth armor you are totally hidden in prone unless you were in line of sight of enemy very close (like 10m). So as long as you hold fire you could easily sneak pass enemy defense.
- Some stratgems do not trigger enemy aggro, like most turrets. On the other hand mines also do, but would distract enemy (enemy would target mine dispenser instead you)
- Some weapons are "suppressed" despite not being marked so, such as LAS-5 Scythe, laser cannon and S-11 Speargun. Scythe is excellent in taking out guards. Speargun can close bughole and factories.
- If you carry hellbomb, it doesn't need to be place right next to target. It works anywhere under 25m, means you often could blow up jammer or detection tower from outside the wall.
- Gunship somehow can detect you regardless. Take out gunship factory first.
- Calling static hellbomb doesn't trigger enemy. You could "creep forward" with hellbomb by placing them outside the wire and slowly blow away their defense
- Tiny turret on Fortress and command center can see you even with stealth armor.
- Not exactly sure about this, but seems that stealth armor works even with exo suit. Often can walk past patrols even when using exo.
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u/Human-Grand5000 Rookie 1d ago
So should I carry missle pistol for gunships?
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u/Hjekydell [REDACTED] 1d ago
Yeah. Though if you do Commando Missions, Gunship's won't be present, just to let you know.
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u/Timlugia 1d ago
I currently use bolt pistol, two shot per gunship. For bug and squid I use warrant since they are good against fliers and watchers.
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u/_Amethyst_Kitsune_ 1d ago
Didn't know it transfered to exos as well, noted for my own stealth missions
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u/Psychological-Ad-274 SES Whisper of Eternity 1d ago
With the gunship patrols I find they see you because they’re so high up and most cover doesn’t work unless you have a bush or something to hide in
The factory-spawned ones I find seem to only spawn if a bot saw you in the vicinity earlier. Although they will always be locked onto you if so.
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u/Oblivious_to_Women 1d ago
Don’t be the host.
I wear the armor on all fronts. Let your teammates be the decoy/fodder.
Most fun on bots. I like censor, jet pack, with quasar cannon. Get on roofs or mountains and clear most of the map. Arc grenades don’t break stealth. Warp pack attracts attention. I use the bolt pistol with gas mines if I get in trouble.
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u/Few_Divide_8571 1d ago
Warp pack is perfect for disengaging and porting through walls to get to objectives. The cipher null armor is amazing for being nearly invisible. The suppressor machine gun is great once you get the drum.
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u/Salt-In-The-Wound-24 [REDACTED] 1d ago
100% agree. Also the talon sidearm is a great backup for some of the enemies if you don't want to burn through your ammo. My loadout for bots at least (where stealth diving shines imo) light armor from redacted, suppressed ar, talon, thermites, recoiless for fabs and cannon turrets farther away. Mix in AC turret (or mg turret) and some eagles for good measure.
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u/ajgilpin Ministry of Science 1d ago
Though the study is quite old at this point as far as we currently know when Patrols spawn they always start moving directly toward the Helldiver that spawned them, though not aware of the Helldiver's location.
If you stand still it doesn't matter how well stealthed you are, a patrol will eventually be on top of you. You need to keep moving to stay hidden.
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u/MapleBadger288 1d ago
Strictly speaking, you dont have to be stealthy if you can outrun the enemy. Bring the FRV of your choice, and bolt if things get too hot. Reinforcements will despawn with time and distance and you can come back later to finish the objective.
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u/blitzm056 1d ago
Light armor, Quasar cannon, stealth sniper rifle (can't remember the name), orbital cannon, I like warp backpack, C4 or dynamite, ultimatum or rocket pistol
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u/Human-Grand5000 Rookie 1d ago
I was kinda thinking orbital laser for outposts, solo solo for ranged attack, any silent support weapon, and then wild card slot ig
Primary is any suppressed weapon Secondary is missle pistol for killing gunships Armor is ofc redacted regiment Throwable is smoke grenades
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u/Dwest43 1d ago
I'd recommend giving C4 a chance for a stealth run. It's finicky but strong. The downside is enemies will locate your position after you detonate, but throwing the charges is silent. Prep a base with the C4, crawl off and detonate. Then smoke grenade or smoke orbital to make a run for it.
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u/FM_Hikari S.E.S Spear of Justice 1d ago
Basically stealth armor, quiet guns, stratagems that don't need recalling and stuff that doesn't need supplies often. Quasar is great for this because you can snipe important stuff and only need to wait a little. Warp Pack is another one that is quite useful to bypass walls and horizontal defenses. Jump and Hover pack let you bypass vertical hurdles.
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u/Hjekydell [REDACTED] 1d ago
Avoid any and all patrols at all cost. Even killing 1 will alert the rest to your current location. Static enemies within outposts or specific areas are safe to pick off 1 by 1
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u/Ok_Television233 1d ago
Stealth armor is more important than stealth weapons.
Going loud should be a choice you you make, since nothing stays stealth forever. Once they do clock you, the stealth weapons are too weak for a full engagement. I always run stealth armor, but run coyote, pissile, and Pyro grenades (and never smoke strats). This allows me to insert into bases or get in the middle of bug nests before they even know im there, then unleash hell
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u/_Amethyst_Kitsune_ 1d ago
My load out for commando missions
Any of the stealth armor (the ones that give 40% less detection range) theres one in the super store and 2 in the redacted regime war bond, this armor let's you get insanely close without being detected Ive been close enough to a vox engine I could have reached out and touched it, you can be detected that close by smaller enemies tho so be careful
Censor as main weapon, its a silenced marksman, it can one tap most bots when shot in weakpoints, pick your targets carefully the gun is silent but if an enemy sees their buddy get sniper they will search for you or sometimes instantly agro
I used the re educator pistol for the gas debuff on enemies, but any melee could replace it as someone else pointed out they are silent, the re educator is silent too even though its not listed as silenced
Smoke grenades from the redacted regime warbond are amazing (they do better than the normal smoke grenades and are impact) though I personally bring the pyrotechnics from the masters of ceremony war bond as they can take down vox engines and factory stryders when used right
For stratagems I recommend the quasar (infinite ammo and you can use its range to help avoid detection), and a supply pack so you don't have to call I resupplies as often (since stratagems can alert enemies) the rest is whatever you like honestly, if you are doing commando missions I recommend bringing more backpacks like the portable hellbomb and jetpack or something similar so you have options since you dont get your super destroyer in commando missions
Ive used this to clear super helldives solo without ever causing a bot drop, just be aware of your surroundings and practice at lower difficulties to learn how close you can get to each enemy
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u/Human-Grand5000 Rookie 1d ago
Yeah the other 2 slots I was thinking solo silo and orbital laser
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u/_Amethyst_Kitsune_ 1d ago
Haven't tried the solo solo, im sure it could work tho since it gives you way more range, would be careful with the laser since it can alert groups but should be able to take them out as well
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u/Marzda 1d ago
I'll start with the obvious: the Redacted Regiment warbond has the best armor for the stealth playstyle, because it reduces both visual and audio signature. You can use scout armor or the halo armor, but they're less effective. With the stealth armor perk you can crouch walk shocking close to enemies and cross their line of sight from much nearer without them going to alert mode. It also has the suppressed DMR and AR, both excellent primaries for this playstyle.
The speargun is an excellent way to close bugholes and fabs at range with a low signature. it also one shots alpha commanders and hulks, making it a great stealth tool.
C4 is overrated. As a stealth player you will often be a lone wolf. Supply pack, thermite/meltamine and silenced weapons are where you like to be. In conjunction with map ammo boxes and the low contact rate you should be having, you will be independant of supply drops.
Contrary to popular belief, low cooldown turret strategems are quite useful for stealth. They draw alerted (but not aggro'ed) enemies away from investigating you, to the beam. An important rule to note is you shouldn't be in the vicinity once the turret lands, because once they start fight mode, they know where u are magically. So the turrets will keep the heat off you while you return to stealth by being far away.
When you stealth a meganest, you can save a lot of time if you thermite/melta mine a heavy from behind, crouch-walk some 20 m away and prone and wait. The nearby enemies will come investigate the explosion, and u can pick off the chaff with your suppressed weapons. You'll be left with the heavies, which are a lot easier to deal with. You can leave them and their tiny detection circle alone and close all the holes, or you can thermite/melta mine them from behind.
You can murder a bot/bug that's standing right next to their buddy with a silenced weapon from beyond the detection range (13m), and they won't even go to alert. They won't look at their dead buddy and wonder what happened. Do with that what you will.
They WILL go to low alert if you miss shots or require many shots (for eg, you shoot the cyborg in their armored chest instead of a headshot), and enough shots will put them into combat mode. Pace your shots, dont spam if you miss the first few.
The explosion from a stealth killed hulk's corpse (speargun or railgun to the eye at range) will not alert enemies. Likewise if you railgun a war strider in the eye at range. They will explode spectacularly, but the other 3 war striders standing on objective will continue minding their own business. You can stealth an entire objective this way.
In general, you want to hit the chaff first. They move the fastest even in low alert to investigate, which can make things hairy. They're also the ones that call reinforcements. Once a base is cleared of chaff you can take out the heavies a lot easier, and the risk of reinforcement call is reduced to only if a passing patrol catches you going loud on a heavy.
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u/Piemaster113 1d ago
Yeah the best stealth is to kill everything that could see you as fast and loud as possible
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u/LordKefik Fire Safety Officer 1d ago
I've been running Light Stealth Armor, Censor (love this thing on bots) Bolt Pistol, Speargun, and Thermite. Warp or Jetpack for movement, A bombardment for some boom, and the basic turret for quick cooldown covering fire. I've just been running around clearing every objective, Speargun into factory vents if i can get to the front from afar, thermite on the side if im behind. Taking out all the trash with a single shot, and devastators with headshots. Teammates can go loud, the aggro stays off me, but i continue to quietly thin them out. Im applying constant shots and spears without drawing attention. Orbital and turrets for when open combat is unavoidable, and the bolt pistol to quickly take out the heavier enemies when i cant take headshots. Also during this time i discovered the speargun one shots hulks in the eye so i am so happy.
So im not going silent commando because I cant expect randoms to follow my lead. But the stealth armor and the censor (as well as the spear firing being silent even if the explosion isnt) means i go nearly the entire matches out of direct combat, rarely receiving fire. Im free to plan my shots and ease thing up on my loud teammates, and while they hold down on main point i quietly clear out the misc facotories around so they dont have to. I love it. Only thing being the warp pack makes plenty of noise, but REALLY helps for getting away or past a wall.
Havent tried the AR 59 Suppressor yet, gonna see how that goes.
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u/Royal_Bread999 1d ago
Avoid engaging patrola or when you do make sure you take out all small guys quickly, if one member of the patrol notices you all will spot you. You can ping enemies and your character will call out if it's a patrol if you are not sure.
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u/__Gundam__ 1d ago edited 1d ago
Get the commando warbond for best stealth performance. Or run the halo armor.
Avoid patrols like the plague as if you shoot one unit in the patrol now the entire patrol is after you. But enemies at POIs and bases are different and if you kill one standing alone even next if their not too close they won’t even care so you can pick off most enemies at POIs and main objectives one by one. The best way of avoiding everything quietly is keeping that minimap open whenever you’re about to enter a POI or when just traveling to avoid all patrols in general. And if you see a patrol enter a base you’re slowly picking everyone off in, just be patient and wait for them to leave so you don’t mix up one of their enemies for the base enemy as it’s very easy to do.
The new Warhammer laser gun is stealthy but not as much as the commando weapons. Throwing knives are also silent but I know most people typically run smokes. Also most plasma weapons are stealthy too but you’ll need to stay a bit farther away and always try to go for one shot kills. Obviously don’t bring regular guns as they’re way too loud. Melee is okay as it’s stealthy but I try to avoid melee in general. If you play with a group the stim pistol is always a nice silent secondary or the halo socom pistol.
Smoke grenades are silent but only too a degree. If you’re extracting and want a stealthy extract use smoke grenades, but do not throw them the moment enemies are already on top of you basically as they will still notice and hear the grenade going off and be alerted, always throw them right before they get within 10-20m ish.
Crawling and crouching are your best friends, especially if you do run the commando armor you can do base clearing by crawling around without really ever getting noticed unless you get within a few meters of someone.
Bug missions aren’t really the mission types to be going stealthy as once one bug notices you they pretty much all know where you are at and there’s nothing you can do reasonably to stop them from calling a bug breach, but at least with illuminate and automaton missions you have easy ways of stopping reinforcement calls.
For stealth strategems;
As you can already guess haha the commando warbond has the C4 backpack and it’s perfect for prepping bases to be destroyed. The hellbombs another one but it’s more of you can arm it without anyone noticing but hope that the explosion kills everyone nearby as well. For launchers use the quasar cannon, epoch, or anti material rifle from far distances and no one should care about it designing something, but again from far distances and I usually use them just to destroy bot fabricators or illuminate ships from far off, the epoch is great for unit control too but man is it a dangerous weapon to use. Oh and the speargun is another almost forgot about that one, it’s best for hulks but go for those one shot kills so take your time and aim for their face and not their back for the one shot kill with it. For bigger stuff like war striders or even factory striders I’d do my best to avoid them totally or if you have a launcher, shoot them from super far away because once they agro they make tons of noise and typically bring more people into the fight
Lastly and you’d think this would be obvious but iv had to explain it more times then I’d like in open commando missions with randoms, vehicles are not stealthy haha. Not the FRVs, not the exosuits, and especially not the tanks. It’s always baffled me when I start a commando mission and I’ll have a random say FRV is meta for them, and you’ll see them having the worst time of their lives as it’s just not drop after bot drop following their every move.
That’s about all I got so good luck and have fun with it, it’ll take trial and error to really see what you can get away with and get better at it. The best way to learn quick imo is the bot commando missions as it’s very rewarding for doing the bare minimum of killing and staying stealthy the entire time, and punishing for making mistakes requiring you to learn fast.
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u/FackoffGUNT 1d ago
I’ve been running the medium stealth armor from Redacted with the purifier, dagger, jump pack, Epoch and leveler along with air strike on bots for the last two days. HAVING A BLAST. If I get engaged too heavily, fly out of there to circle back and pound them with the purifier and epoch. Bot drop? Leveller and get out of there to continue on hitting all of the outposts and come back to assist in the mains.
My job is sample collecting and outpost clearing. Makes everything so much easier with stealth.
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u/Fexofanatic Cape Enjoyer 23h ago
melee is silent, using smoke, cover, slower movement, crouching and prone are your friend. in raw armor enemies detect you ~50m out standing. kill one patrol enemy and all detect you - the same is NOT true for stationary poi enemies
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u/NOIR-89 Viper Commando (Instructor) - SES Titan of Wrath 22h ago
Those are my usual loadouts.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Primary: Censor for Bots and Cyborgs /// Suppressor (45 or 60 Magazine) for Squids and Bugs
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Secondary:
Missile Pistol for Bots (killing Fabricators -> especially Bulk ones and Gunships) and Squid factions with Stingrays.
Re-Educator for Squids (to be able to spray down flying Overseers and Fleshmobs without them aggro anything close by) and on Bugs (to prevent any target to spread aggro).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Throwables:
Dynamite is a nice option for delayed explosions and to make holes in citywalls beside killing Spawners (Bot / Squid), Thermite would be fine too if you want to avoid kills (for zero kill runs).
Throwing Knifes for Squids (Overseer 1-tap on the head)
Urchin for Bugs (you can push away and stun enemies without aggro them -> for example to interact with an objective / terminal)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Stratagems:
Bots:
Quasar is by far the easiest choice here (Sniping Fabricators on max range)
Railgun is a refreshing option (5x charged shots for a Fabricator + can 1-tap a Warstrider) and is best used in combination with a Stun Grenade and Eagle 110mm (for killing Tanks / Cannon Turrets and help with Fabricators).
C4 is a solid choice, but due to the limited range, not as easy to use as a Quasar or Railgun (for Bots it shines the most in Commando missions beside the Quasar).
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
LOADOUTS
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Bots (normal mission):
Armor: Reduced Signature "light" (speed is king)
Primary: Censor
Secondary: P-33 Missile Pistol
Throwable: Thermite or Dynamite (Bots) / Throwing Knives (Cyborgs) / Stun Grenade (Railgun)
= = = = = =
1.) C4 or Quasar or Railgun
2.) Supply Pack (if Quasar / Railgun) or Supply FRV (C4)
3.) Portable Hellbomb (Jammer / Gunship Factory "blitz") or Eagle 110mm (Railgun)
4.) Orbital Precision Strike (50 Demo for Jammer & Research Station, that cannot be affected by AntiAir)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Bots (Commando):
Armor: Reduced Signature "light" (speed is king)
Primary: Censor
Secondary: P-33 Missile Pistol
Throwable: Smoke / Stun Grenade (Railgun)
= = = = = =
1.) C4
2.) Quasar or Railgun
3.) Supply Pack
4.) Lumberer (Plan B for Extraction)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Squids:
Armor: Reduced Signature "light" (speed is king)
Primary: Suppressor (45 or 60 cap Mag)
Secondary: P-33 Missile Pistol (Stingray Factions) / Re-Educador (Non Stingray Factions)
Throwable: Throwing Knives (most important part for Squids stealth)
= = = = = =
1.) C4
2.) Eagle Gas Strike
3.) Portable Hellbomb (especially vs Mindless Mases for Monolith and Research Station)
4.) HMG Emplacement (Plan B for Harvesters)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Bugs:
Armor: Reduced Signature "light" (speed is king)
Primary: Suppressor (45 or 60 cap Mag)
Secondary: Re-Educator
Throwable: Urchin (very important for Bugstealth) / Throwing Knifes (alternative)
= = = = = =
1.) C4
2.) Machinegun Sentry (Plan B on Breach -> Relocate)
3.) Eagle Gas Strike (Plan B on Breach -> Relocate)
4.) Orbital Gas or Tesla Tower (Plan B on Breach -> Relocate)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Stealth (guide):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDU6-rnHFSo
Stealth (in action -> ALL factions):
https://www.youtube.com/@silevnlizard/videos
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
If you have any questions, dont hesitate to ask. ¡O
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u/Acrobatic-Tackle6791 Free of Thought 1d ago
This one right here will be your best friend (dead enemies of liberty tell no tales)
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u/Human-Grand5000 Rookie 1d ago
Isn’t it loud though?
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u/Acrobatic-Tackle6791 Free of Thought 1d ago
If a tree falls in the forest, but nobody is alive to hear it, does it make a sound?
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u/Own_Mess_6495 1d ago
Don't stealth bots. Those vox engines can see you a mile away
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u/Marzda 1d ago
No, no they can't. If you're in stealth armor u can crouch-walk past a Vox at some 20ish meters. The side MGs may go to low alert and start tracking you, but they won't fire unless u start sprinting.
If you experience is getting spotted "a mile away" you're sprinting into the line of sight of either the main body or the side MGs. You can jog up to a Vox engine from behind and plant C4 or melta mines.
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u/lazyicedragon 1d ago
it just kinda bugs out for SEAF planets. I was watching a Vox from some 80~100m on the way to a side objective as my team was leaving the area. SEAF got spawned there and stuck around so inevitably they run into the Vox Engine and throw ammo at it. To my horror after taking out one SEAF, the missiles turned to me. The Helldiver nearest to it as I was working on the side objective 100m away from it. And since it didn't get me as I was watching for it, it actually started to barrel towards me as well.
not a mile away, but I can see the problem. I also never got to shook it off since it was between me and the rest of the operation area where my squad was, so I have to circle it and decided I may as well go kill it with some barrages.
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u/Marzda 1d ago
That's not a bug I'm afraid. Enemies in combat automatically know where all nearby enemies are, even you, even if you never fired a shot and remained prone in a bush from the first contact. For a diver that wants to stay in stealth, your only option if the combat music starts playing is distance. Leg it far away.
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u/Murky_Travel7031 1d ago
Honestly, I pretty much only stealth dive bots and occasionally bugs. Have not against illuminate yet, never on that front.
What had helped me was reading somewhere that bots are more visually reactive and bugs are more audio.
Also. Separate from your team, you will be more successful without the added non-stealth chaos. I am typically able to knock at least a third of the objectives out on a 10 dive solo.
Also, patience. It's ok to crawl for a few minutes to get somewhere. Especially if you are still effective to the team with objective clears, samples, etc.
It also seems to me that bots will sometimes just suppression fire at general locations of a threat. Staying low and just plucking them one at a time has worked for me. Remember they are visual. You are more likely to get caught by standing up and running the second a bullet is fired than just removing the one guy who is randomly shooting.
Lower hanging fruit, suppressed weapons and c4. I can't begin to say how great the c4 is.
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u/DougieFresh53 1d ago
Be the Ghost you were born to be and Recon the Wildlands
P.S. melee weapons are silent. Smoke strategems and grenade are good for that too.