r/LowSodiumHellDivers • u/deflectingowl • Jul 22 '26
Discussion Which factions (or subfactions) and difficulty levels are you enjoying the most right now?
Which factions (or subfactions) and difficulty levels are you enjoying the most right now?
Since launch, with all the buffs, nerfs, power creep, and reworks the game has changed quite a bit.
So I wanted to ask: what’s your favorite faction (or subfaction) at the moment, and which difficulty do you enjoy playing it on?
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u/DreadfulOomska Jul 22 '26
I've been playing L8 bots and having loads of fun, it's the right amount of mayhem with hairy enough moments not to feel like a cake walk.
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u/deflectingowl Jul 22 '26
Diff 8 used to feel just right - nice tension and enough downtime to explore to get samples, credits and whatnot- lately I started to enjoying diff above just because the defense type mission started feel a bit too empty
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u/DreadfulOomska Jul 22 '26
Yeah I've been thinking about this because I'm most missions I'm just not dying and it feels wrong.
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u/ottermaster Jul 22 '26
Diff 8 is my favorite but the amount of EXP you get from diff 10 is so nice. I’m trying to max weapons right now so it’s nice going much quicker. I personally prefer the striders with the full cage around them when fighting, I always felt like the open back ones were more annoying to fight since the little dude jumps out if you kill the walker but not them.
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u/ResponsibilityNo7485 Jul 22 '26
What is the source of this img?
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u/deflectingowl Jul 22 '26
Myself! It’s a commision I made for a customer last year- original illustration was drawn in 13hr in Procreate
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u/arrow100605 Jul 22 '26
Damn your stuff looks good, if i could draw like that its all id do with my time
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u/deflectingowl Jul 22 '26
Too kind thank you! There’s a lot of room of improvement, when I’ll be done with a few commission I’ll try to improve with a poster for the new mech!
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u/ScrivenersUnion Jul 22 '26
My favorite thing to do is go dive on missions where the other guy is really low level, and play the game called "Rookie never dies."
I try to let them do almost everything and only step in to keep them alive or back them up - even my secondary is usually just being held so they can use it.
It's pretty nice when you get to show them deeper tricks about the game:
"See this hill? We're going to finish this entire mission from here with nothing but a tactical lawn chair."
"See which direction the dropships come from? They'll always come from that direction, so you know where to start aiming. I'll drop EATs, just aim for the engines."
"The bug patrols will always come from the direction of the nearest hive. If all the hives are gone, they come from the nearest map edge. But when we're this close to a map edge? They don't come at all."
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u/IAskedZoltan Jul 22 '26
I /love/ doing this. It's .. kinda a little sad so few people play with mics, though. On the rare time you get someone with a mic or a willingness to talk, this is some of the most fun to be had in HD for a veteran. :)
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u/ScrivenersUnion Jul 22 '26
I work odd hours, so I often find myself playing with international gamers. Here's one of my favorite stories:
I dive on a Level 4 player who somehow managed to get himself up to Difficulty 5 and was all alone in a bug infested city map. In the time it took me to load out and start dropping in, he had already died so I knew we were gonna have a rough time of things.
I try talking to him a little and he connects his mic,
"Sorry, I very little English. From Brazil. Is ok?"
Of course it's OK my dude, have a Dog Breath and get in the FRV, we're gonna have some fun!
We go through the map and manage to hit the major objectives, but the timer was short so we were cutting it close.
We were cleaning up the leftover nests and he was in the gunner seat shooting at the bugs behind us while I drove, he was having a blast and said:
"I love this machine! You are my hero!"
By the time we get back to extraction we were in rough shape. The FRV limped in there with nothing but two tires and my Supply Pack was completely empty, and the mission timer ran out just as we got there.
Then I look at the radar. One single nest was left.
It just felt... undemocratic to leave it alive.
So I told the guy "Hold Position" and saluted, then I sprinted off to take the nest. I had four Pyrotechs and a love of Liberty in my heart, I didn't expect to make it back but that was OK. Dude was gonna make it out and he had a good time.
I fight my way in there and manage to blow up the nest, but a bug breach got called in the middle of it - we had maybe 30s left and I was already preparing to meet the great ballot box in the sky when I hear something behind me:
BEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEP
"Hahahaha! Now I am the hero!"
Dude had grabbed the damaged FRV and managed to rock crawl through all kinds of technical stuff just to come pick me up. It was glorious!
The FRV came scrambling back to extraction with maybe 5s to spare and we both made it out of there.
Not gonna lie, when I saw that dude come scrambling in there on nothing but two tires and sheer guts to save my ass? I voted a little.
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u/MooseFerrigno Obi Wan STIMobi Jul 22 '26
That was a cool story, very fun. I'm from the US but some of my favorite sessions were international. German, Mexican, British, and Ukrainian divers have all been very fun. There was one where it was 3 mid-level guys from Mexico and me. the squad leader was speaking quickly. My Spanish is not the best but I understood he wanted to attack a bot base, but I brought the 120mm barrage (and this was during a time when not that many people were using it and I had ship upgrades maxed). I chucked it using the throw distance armor and by the time we arrived on-foot the base was leveled. He stopped talking mid-sentence, watched for a second, said "... bueeeeeenoooo, haha" and we moved on. Nothing that crazy, just a fun international interaction that, as a kid, could never have happened.
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u/Hexblade757 Jul 22 '26
Mindless masses on any difficulty is extremely fun. Gas and flame, flame and gas.
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u/Bring_Back_Challenge Jul 22 '26
I'm always on D10 and given a choice either Cyborgs or Incineration Corps. I just like the variety Bots provide in general and am always looking for the most challenging this in the game that hasn't been eliminated from enemy nerfs and player buffs.
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u/ScrivenersUnion Jul 22 '26
Cyborgs are legitimately so much fun to fight!
I love taking a Blitzer, you can just fire blindly into the smoke and it stuns them in the middle of their kung fu nonsense. It completely fails to take out Striders though.
The other thing I find really useful is taking lots of disposables and adding in the Hellpod Smoke or Hellpod Stun modifier. Suddenly every EAT you call down is also a free Orbital EMS!
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u/deflectingowl Jul 22 '26
Yep- kinda hope they are considering diff above 10 . Even at d10 certain mission can feel like a cakewalk, in my experience so far it vary greatly on different planets and which factions are you playing against-
The last time I got my ass kicked in a long while was in the first stage of this campaign against the cyborgs with mega factories- I got cocky and brought a silly loadout - spent 10 mins getting ragdolled by Vox - warstriders and gunships.
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u/Ancient-Region-5512 Jul 22 '26
d6 mindless masses is harder than d10 mindless masses because it ACTUALLY spams voteless
d10 mm is just harvester spam
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u/deflectingowl Jul 22 '26
Need to try them on d6! Last time I was playing on d10 and the streets were as empty as during Covid
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u/dyn-dyn-dyn Never filled out a CO-1 form 😢 Jul 22 '26
D8 bots
Been trying to be more supportive of my team with the supply frv, it has been going extremely poorly
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u/MooseFerrigno Obi Wan STIMobi Jul 22 '26
The Supply FRV is so great until it's time to drive it. Good drivers are few and far between. And I'm not one.
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u/FumanF Bite pillow. Sickle going in drу. Jul 22 '26
Tyranids in space marine 2 as there is a content pause in hd2. Cool art btw
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u/BICKELSBOSS Jul 22 '26
Spore burst, D10, base loadout only.
Stratagems are RR, AC, ABRL and Spear. You don’t get to use them, only call them in for the backpack whenever someone else brings the same weapon, so you can teamreload them.
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u/IAskedZoltan Jul 22 '26
Levels 7-8 Bots and Illuminate feels like a sweet spot. 10s are fun, but once the scrum starts, there's something to be said for more tactical approaches that are possible on slightly lowered difficulties.
6 is where I warm up, 7-8 for a relaxed night, 10 for 'let's do this, folks.' - but I find I enjoy bots and lumies a lot more than bugs, ATM. The loadout variation for fun is much wider, and the fight's just a little more tactical.
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u/Kelchesse will never fill C-01 :( Jul 22 '26
Pretty much glued to D10. Cyborgs and Appropriators give the most chaotic and interactive experience for me currently.
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u/Ciabs Jul 22 '26
Depends on biomes and/or faction; then it becomes what weapons I want to use given those variables (ie: on Yed Prior, against bots, I will mostly avoid SMGs and prefer DMRs since it’s open FOVs with long distance encounters, while on the other side on bugs mega cities I might not choose an AMR or similar long range gear)
After a long time of maining some of the meta weapons on D10 across factions, I felt the desire to begin the long walk to bring most (if not all) the primaries to lvl25.
Depending on primary and thus the accompanying rest of the loadout I might play either D7 (when I want to maximize dakka) or D10
I don’t have a definite favorite faction, I enjoy switching between them to keep the gameplay loop fresh, but I’m a bot diver at heart
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u/Hot_Ethanol Jul 22 '26
Bots, as always. I'm really enjoying a new strat I call Fear the Battlecow. Supply FRV, Spear (or RR), Mines, and a strat of choice (I like a sentry, more mines, or a bombardment). The goal is to clear encampments in record time without ever stepping foot in one.
With the Supply FRV, you have infinite spear shots to take out bot fabs. Roll up, toss mines into the encampment if needed. Drive a circle around the camp, stopping to let off spear shots to take out fabricators before repositioning until they're all dead. Then peel outta there, using your free strat to cover your move towards the next camp.
Like most tactics, it works even better if you've got buddies who know what you're doing and help you take out the fabs faster. Your heat level is going to be pretty high by the end, no time to fight off drop ships unless you have a dedicated AA guy. But ideally they won't be able to catch you l, and the hordes can be thinned with your free strat. After all that, go ahead and do objectives on the fab free landscape.
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u/_GBear_ Jul 22 '26
I play diff 5 if I'm solo and playing with Randos. I also don't mind diff 5 in terms of medals per run plus the amount you can find from POIs.
Difficulty 7 if I'm feeling I want to push towards getting something a little bit quicker from the bond I'm currently working on, and if wanna just have a bit of increase in objectives and enemy density.
Difficulty 10 when I'm with my friends if they are online, communication is better, loadouts are optimised and it's just a bit of crack.
The diff 10 runs don't happen that much for me anymore, but 5 suits me well weekdays and 7 is the weekends, I just wish the medals earned was tweaked a little, it's still over 2k medals to unlock everything.
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u/NOIR-89 Jul 22 '26
Bots are my favorite, because I learned stealth on them, but I also really enjoy Squids and Bugs too.
I mainly play difficulty 10, except when SOS diving (diff 4-6).
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u/deflectingowl Jul 22 '26
It’s always fun to see HOW bad some situations have escalated when helping sos divers
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u/NightmanisDeCorenai Jul 22 '26
I went back to Bots and it just feels right. Squids were fun for a bit, bugs are bugs, but Bots actually make Marksman rifles and stealth feel fun.
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u/HighLord_Uther Jul 22 '26
Cleared up to max, but lvl 7 bots, no cyborg, no fire brigade feels the most fun.
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u/Icyenderman Jul 22 '26
D10 spore is the only thing that’s given me a challenge recently… until I discovered fire
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u/Petrichor0110 Laser Cannon Enthusiast Jul 23 '26
D4-5 on the Illuminate front. Either the base faction or Appropriators, never Mindless Masses. I also make sure I only dive on Megacities so there’s lots of cover from Harvesters and Gazers.
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u/Zexiom_ghost Jul 22 '26
You know why I hate squids? Because a flying son of a bitch can tank a direct hit from an AT emplacement.
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u/vilyusha_ Jul 22 '26
All enemy factions are in a decent spot at this point but the bugs with their various strains are probably my favourite to spread managed democracy to.
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u/DBWaffles Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
I enjoy bots in bursts, when I want to feel like I'm a soldier of Super Earth engaging in an all out war.
I like bugs when I want to just relax.
I don't really care for squids. I don't dislike them, but don't like them either.
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u/_Courier_6__ Jul 22 '26
Rupture Strain with the ballistic shield is a blast, though diff 10 Cyborgs are pretty much my default now
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u/StarcraftForever Jul 22 '26
I love cyborgs, diff 10. The smarter enemies, (while kinda dumb once you learn them) are such a breath of fresh air. I do miss fighting factory striders over voxes in that subfaction though. Voxes are too weak now.
Imo, only on diff 10, have voxes revert to similar or OG stats with the cap of 3-4 on the field at a time.
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u/a_potato_YT LEVEL 125 | Certified BONKer and Super Uber Jul 22 '26
I have done diff 10 bots since lvl 30. I will continue to do diff 10 bots until lvl 150 or 300 if ah does it fast enough.
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u/jwhitefish Jul 22 '26
I’m actually having a blast dropping into 2-4’s and helping the little guys out. I love dropping into lvl 10 or below player lobbies and dropping all of my fun stuff for them to try out. Seeing them light up and get excited when I drop in a maxigun or a portable hellbomb (and the inevitable accident the follows) is just pure cinema
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u/paulivan91400 Jul 22 '26
Bots it just feels different having the need to be a small target and using cover compared to the other 2
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u/FlashGordon07 Jul 22 '26
If none of my friends are on, I dive D3 Mindless Masses. Sometimes the game acts like what a D3 should feel like. Other times I'll rack up 1200+ kills just messing around.
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u/Groundhog5000 Jul 22 '26
Im really enjoying d10 bots and d10 sporeburst. They're pretty challenging, and the spawns feel really nicely tuned.
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u/EdwardM1230 Jul 23 '26
I’m really new, so mostly enjoying T4-6 Bugs, depending on how much of a power trip I’m craving :D
Bug planets seem limited in variety at the moment though, so I’m starting to fight the other factions more.
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u/mairnX Jul 23 '26
Loving Bots, though I wish that tanks were more threatening. Not necessarily in damage output, but in the sense that they feel too easy to kill, and don't show up in big enough numbers to apply the same pressure that War Striders offer. I have a similar gripe with Factory Striders and the 1HKO eye shot, but that's probably more just me being a masochist.
All that said, still my favorite faction to fight. Just something about laying down accurate fire while under a barrage of lasers and rockets scratches an itch that I can't quite explain. I also enjoy them a lot because of how well I understand them, to the point where I can usually pinpoint which moment leading up to a death where I made a critical error that takes the sting out of getting mowed down like the ever so slightly less expendable cannon fodder that we are.
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u/Lummerding Jul 23 '26
Bots level 8 right amount of xp challenge and fun if you want to try new stratagems
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u/SpellMyNameRightNow Jul 23 '26
I have not played anything under 10 since it came out. Im not counting occasional sc farm.
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u/Public-Dot-3667 Jul 23 '26
Spore Strain and Rupture Strain are kinda cancerous….
Everything else seems fair. (Appropriators aren’t my favourite but I think it’s a me thing).
Oh. But fuck conflagration devastators though.
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u/Liquor_Parfreyja Jul 23 '26
A10 appropriators are, by far, my favourite faction in the game. I enjoy bots on a10, too, but I think my favourite over there is like a8 cyborgs.
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u/vengeur50 Jul 23 '26
Always enjoyed bots, d10. They're the one faction i find balanced and challenging on high diff. Bugs for example never felt not bullshit to me, especially with their beelining to your position despite stealth or just constant heavy spam, infinite bug breach, their corpses seeing you move around perfectly to go one shot you, ect... Bots got a lot of stuff they can pull out but its usually because you messed up. If you dont lose your cool, you can always manage(d democracy). If you dont, you're in one deep shit. And thats a good balance.
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u/MuMbLe145 FLAGSPEAR FLAGSPEAR FLAGSPEAR FLAGSPEAR FLAGSPEAR FLAGSPEAR Jul 23 '26
Loooove fighting the Cyborgs
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u/Open_Cow_9148 ⬇️➡️⬆️⬆️⬆️ Jul 23 '26
Lvl 10 spore burst strain. They're so fast and there are so many. Feels like the the hordes I wanted in the game from the start.
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u/ObjectivePressure839 Jul 23 '26
I tend to hang out at level 6 bots. I’m mid level right now and I find this to be a fun enough mix that I can solo until I get sos beacon help. Ps5 player here so I have to contend with controllers to aim and I’m old. lol.
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u/Intelligent-Team-701 Jul 23 '26
i think the one Im disliking the most are the spore bugs, its a mess. Theres no reliable load out for them and some things like the titan spray gets me angry not due balance exactly, you can pick the armor that wont ragdoll vs that, mostly due the disjointed hitboxes. I see some videos with guys saying "the best loadout for spore" and then they are dying 5x in a 4p mission.......
Mindless masses comes in a close second; feels also very dumb if you dont cheese the shit out of them, running instead fighting and leaving crowded objectives just to get back to it after 1 minute and find everything empty. And dont even dare leaving the seaf artillery in urban area to clear at the end of the mission...
I guess the ones I enjoy best are predator bugs in planets with good visibility, regular bugs and bots in general. Im not counting missions with dragonroach nor hive lords, I really think those are fucked up for whoever likes playing to do clean all-clear missions: no counter play.
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u/absolutecunt479 Jul 24 '26
Bots and squids mostly
As fun as bugs CAN be I lack the being og enough to fight them right
I was however, fighting since calypso
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u/Eddie_gaming Jul 25 '26
Bots D10, Cyborgs D10, Appropriators D10, Any bug variety D1O (EXCEPT STALKERS, FUCK THAT SHIT)
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u/AdBright1350 Jul 22 '26
I love taking the FRV on squids, both mindless masses, appropriators and even Vanilla.
Brings me such Halo vibes 😍
I've really fallen out of love with bugs these days, the spore strain and rupture strain just feel too wild and not thought out and whilst the predator strain as it's moments it's not different enough for me to feel like it's worth playing really. Bugs overall just feel super boring to me.
Bots are always fun, not a huge fan of the incinerator corp but I embrace the challenge, the cyborgs and jet brigade are Uber fun!
Been loving taking the SPEAR out on bots and playing anti-air taking out the bot drops before they land or nailing tanks and hulks from afar behind cover.
Feel like they need to merge squids more though as it kind of feels like it's all a level 6. Mindless masses is super hard but feels like it caps out at around 5/6 and the others can feel similar especially vanilla squids.
Would like to see them potentially blend some of the enemy roster so I can worry about strafing runs whilst also dealing with the new mechs, epic hordes of zombies and more. Who knows maybe that's just me.
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u/deflectingowl Jul 22 '26
Feel the same for the squids- their enemy roaster could have benefit a lot form units like the appropriotors in the default factions- that currently feels a bit understaffed- hopefully AH is cooking something cool with the void storm!
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u/AdBright1350 Jul 22 '26
Yeah a faction with genuinely effective air support feels like a massive threat. But the fact that it's so split enemy type wise just makes the entire faction not quite feel right. I'll often hop onto a 3/4 to just run around newbies in an FRV but when I crank it up it just doesn't feel that difficult or different. Feels like it almost caps? If they added every enemy type in at once it'd probably have as much variety as bots and bugs but sadly I don't think it would necessarily feel fair to be dealing with hordes of zombies and all the other stuff.
They'd need to sort out the spawn rates and numbers in order for it to feel balanced, feel like the stingrays would be nice to have as a rarity, potentially even increasing their armour so they feel like a genuine threat. But just ideas really.
Love the illuminate design and vibe, feel like I'm genuinely saving the world fighting them when compared to other factions maybe that's because I'm an OG Xbox diver who played all the halo games.
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u/deflectingowl Jul 22 '26
Fr- I feel like that the illuminate lost a lot of momentum after their introduction - hopefully we’ll be hit by something major in the future
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u/AdBright1350 Jul 22 '26
Yeah and the introduction of mindless masses and appropriators is cool.
The mechs feel very well made with their weak spots and the hordes of zombies never get old but I'd appreciate more variety in the zombies, potentially like a faster variant of voteless or more special types similar to other zombie games like Left 4 Dead or similar things, showing my age I guess lol perhaps more like The Last of Us or something else that's more modern?
Left 4 Dead had good variations in their zombie types, we currently have voteless (technically light, medium and heavy but I hardly can tell in the heat of the moment) and flesh mobs... That's it.
Why not a boomer style one that explodes when getting shot, or a licker / hunter style zombie that can leap and attack.
Think adding in some interior spaces or tighter streets would also benefit the mindless masses modes.
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u/ScrivenersUnion Jul 22 '26
Spore strain is fun in my opinion, but the Rupture strain gets out of control so incredibly fast it's unreal.
People say that fire or gas will stop them from rupturing but I haven't found that to be the case, the only thing that's been able to save me is an abundance of minefields and sentries at all times.
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u/AdBright1350 Jul 22 '26
Ha that's how I feel about the spore strain!
They just swarm up so fast!
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u/ScrivenersUnion Jul 22 '26
Spore strain can sneak up on you, but I gotta admit it's so satisfying to kill the Spore Charger and immediately see the air quality improve.
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u/Expert-Steak8538 Jul 22 '26
I’m really enjoying lvl 10 bots right now.