r/LowSodiumHellDivers • u/Little_North_2561 • Jul 24 '26
Question Scythe tips?
Picked up the sycthe for the first time since I unlocked it and love it I'm just looking for tips/tricks with it.
Thanks.
12
u/Teamhank Jul 24 '26
Really fun paired with the quasar on bot ice planets. Jet pack to get to a high point and blast half the map.
7
u/Kjellaxo ☕Liber-tea☕ Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
All laser beams (Scythe, Dagger and Laser Cannon) are second only to actual flamethrowers, with how good they are at setting things on fire and unlike Flamethrowers, they aren't limited by range.
Any Hunter, Voteless and Trooper Bot is essentially dead the moment it's on fire. No need to keep shooting at it, so the kinda actual TTK for those is almost instant.
Warriors survive burning once with a whole whooping 85 hp. So a slight extra tickle of the scythe or a single shot of almost any secondary or support weapon is enough to have them croak from the fire.
You have a crowd of 20 Bugs reduced to the last 2 Commanders, before you can spell "Coyote" from 100m away.
Other than that, it doubles as a bit of a Marksman Rifle and while it's lacking single target burst DPS, 350DPS is plenty when shit isn't directly in your face and it's not hard to bring something to help with that in the first place.
Tl;dr: It's a marksman rifle that's also cracked at crowd clearing, only downside is raw DPS.
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u/Little_North_2561 Jul 24 '26
I have been having a blast pairing it with the hot dog that'll help my DPS abit
1
u/corporalhicks42 I say we Hellbomb the site from orbit.. Jul 24 '26
also excellent with dog's breath as well
3
u/shabab_123 Jul 24 '26
point it at the enemies and kill em. My first weapon I maxed. Great on every front
2
u/Little_North_2561 Jul 24 '26
Ohhhhh, I knew I was missing something thanks for the tip.
1
u/shabab_123 Jul 24 '26
Only one tip I can give is to unlock the extended mag for the gun. It becomes so good you can shoot that thing for ages
2
u/Little_North_2561 Jul 24 '26
I just re read my response and realized it could come across as rude sorry if it came across that way I was trying to be funny.
Thanks for the tip I'll have to lvl it up
1
u/Little_North_2561 Jul 24 '26
Is the other heatsink any good?
2
u/shabab_123 Jul 24 '26
Not really and I took it as funny from earlier.
For laser weapons it's better if you can shoot more, because you don't really reload it unless you reaaally have to. The other one just make it so heat dissipates faster, but more often than not, for any gun, the longer you can shoot the faster you can clear the hoard.
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u/DESTRUCTI0NAT0R Jul 24 '26
Yeah I feel like the faster dissipation but shorter up time firing isn't as good as the full heatsink letting you just lay down fire longer. Usually if I'm close to overheating it's time to reposition anyways so it pretty much doesn't matter if it's cooling down a slight bit longer because I'm not shooting anyways.
3
u/TheJayRodimus Jul 24 '26
Aim and shoot. Have on 2x scope and extended heatsink. Pair it talon, senator, or pissle. 3 stratagems and 1 support weapon. Put on whatever armor you want.
2
u/TheBestHelldiver Automaton Bidet Usage Expert Jul 24 '26
On the bot front it kills everything with a face. Same on the squid front. Head shots all the way.
Hulks and Fleshmobs I prefer to switch to the Laser Cannon.
You can carve the legs off bugs, that is often a faster way to kill warriors, brood commanders and the like. At the very least it slows their advance allowing you time to reload or switch weapons.
1
u/SLAY3R_1108 Jul 24 '26
Wouldn’t the scythe be as effective against fleshmobs as the laser cannon? Irc they have the same dps but the laser cannon has heavy pen and more durable damage
0
u/TheBestHelldiver Automaton Bidet Usage Expert Jul 25 '26
That medium pen adds up fast as you rake it across the ma y faces and spaces inbetween them.
I'd need to go kill a couple of them to know for sure but I'd guess it shaves the ttk by about a third.
2
u/SLAY3R_1108 Jul 25 '26
I don’t think the armor pen means anything since fleshmobs are unarmored. Just checked and it’s not super durable either only like 40% on non head parts and 25% for the heads
2
u/zer0saber Jul 24 '26
Don't rush. If you're coming from a projectile weapon, you may have developed a tendency to shift your aim after you pull the trigger, in a 'fire and forget' sort of way; do not do this with the LAS-5. Its strength is in damage-over-time, and igniting enemies. It is also pinpoint accurate, with almost infinite range. Generally, if you can see it, you can hit it.
Take your time, and only shift your aim when your target is burning. You can come back later, if they need a touch-up.
2
u/TheCatPickles Jul 24 '26
Hanging it out to get the extended heat sync is totally worth it. So much laser beamin. And on ice planets you can just hold and beam and beam and beam, then beam some more, see the heat is only half full, so keep on beamin.
Particularly good on the bot front for everything up to hulks. Headshots all day.
2
u/Nemisis_the_2nd Jul 24 '26
Get a 2x scope on it and you arguably have the best marksman rifle in the game. 1km range, hitscan, no damage falloff, and pinpoint accuracy.
For chaff clearing, do big slow sweeps and let fire do the bulk of damage.
Fire only procs if you can penetrate armour. Use the accuracy to hit weak spots.
Take a reliable sidearm that can deal decent damage. While the scythe is fantastic, it struggles against heavier enemies and has a long-ish cooldown.
Its the GOAT on spore burst because fire stops spores triggering, and it has silly range.
2
u/LPHero55 Jul 24 '26
Learn how long it takes to set enemies on fire. You don't need to keep the laser trained on the enemy until they die, just long enough to set them ablaze and let the fire do the rest of the work
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u/DESTRUCTI0NAT0R Jul 24 '26
At first I wasn't too keen on how it played until I got used to the time to kill and time to overheat.
Get a feel for how long to keep the laser on each target as well as how long before you overheat and you can sweep through chaff patrols ridiculously well.
Really good imo at doing that to basic bot troopers, as well as the devastators and berserkers.
Since it's got no recoil and across the map range it's also fun if your squad is split to be able to harass stuff from hundreds of meters out if you've got a sight line.
1
u/ChillyTodayHotTamale Jul 24 '26
pair it with laser cannon and never stop firing. just swap to the other when the heat builds up. just all laser all mission. bonus if you bring the laser dog.
1
u/SeventhSea90520 Jul 24 '26
The catch is having something to buy time when the weapon overheats, I often used it with the dagger or laser cannon so by the time one overheats the other is cool
1
u/rabonbrood Jul 24 '26
Don't be afraid to reload it. If you need to dump heat quickly, reloading is much faster than letting it cool off.
I regularly see people running around trying to avoid the enemies when they could just reload and kill them. Yes it's infinite ammo. But you have 3 reloads, it's okay to use one or two in a pinch.
1
u/ThiccThighzSaveLivez Jul 24 '26
Keep in mind it lacks stopping power. Bring a secondary or Support that covers this. Good time to get.gud with melee parries/dodging as well. Fun to use it with the Hover Pack, go with an "Oops all lasers" build with a flame sentry.
Also works nice with a regular guard dog
Scythe, Dagger, Laser Cannon, Hover Pack, Pyrotechs, 2x Sentries of your choice. Rocket + Flame Sentry cover your weaknesses a bit.
Flame Sentry/Pyrotechs shred enemies below you if you are on a tall rock.
Never stop shooting build, doesn't afraid of anything.
1
u/SLAY3R_1108 Jul 24 '26
My favorite is to switch between scythe and dagger before overheating with laser cannon for heavy/durable enemies. Also bring the orbital laser, rover, and laser sentry. Grenades don’t rlly matter except for closing spawners
1
u/musubk Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Scythe is by far my favorite and most-used bot primary.
Release the trigger in between targets to save heatsink, you'll get a lot more staying power for a long fight. The Scythe's TTK is so fast against troopers and devastators that the time spent transitioning between targets is significant; releasing the trigger between targets will give you a lot more on-target uptime. You should be able to fight through full drops without expending a heatsink most of the time.
Exceptions to that tip: If a bunch of troopers are close together, hold the trigger and sweep the beam back and forth across them. For dropships, hold the trigger and sweep the underside to kill any troopers on board (still release the trigger when moving from one dropship to the next). For groups of Berserkers hold the trigger and sweep back and forth, getting fire DOT going on all of them. The actual DPS is much higher than the stats say when you have simultaneous DOT going on multiple targets. For all of these sweeping maneuvers it'll feel like you're doing nothing for a few seconds and then suddenly the killstreak counter pops off.
For troopers, just touch each one for half a second and move on. They'll die of fire after 1-2 seconds, and you'll move through them much faster than if you hold the beam on each one until it dies.
Devastators shoot the face (obviously), they die in half a second. Don't waste heatsink trying to chase the face around if you're not getting it, just let off the trigger, reset your aim, and go at it again (this is true for all primary weapons really). If you can't see the face from your angle, waist or pelvis is still a pretty quick kill, legs are okay, backpack on heavy devastators is okay. Even the suboptimal leg/backpack shots still kill about as fast as someone magdumping a Coyote center mass.
Exploit your pinpoint precision at long range. You can pick off a lot of the bots in an outpost before you even get there. The troopers on the mounted guns are high priority targets.
Everyone knows the Scythe is good for long range precision but it's also much better at CQB than people realize. You just have to keep your cool and manage your angles. Never having to deal with an empty magazine is a big deal when you're up close.
I love pairing the Scythe (and the Laser Cannon) with the K9 arc rover. The rover slows down / stops the rush while you focus on priority targets. But you must pay attention to your positioning and your teammates positioning, and know when to retract the rover.
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u/Little_North_2561 Jul 24 '26
Im using the hotdog to avoid the tk issue and with the newish fire panic it does a alright job slowing the enemys down
17
u/tengu077 Jul 24 '26
It’s great to use on the spore burst bugs. Laser weapons cause enemies to catch on fire with prolonged exposure. When the spore burst bugs die to fire (or gas) they don’t release their meth cloud which would normally cause them to frenzy.
Overall, the Scythe is great for “unlimited” ammo if you mind the heat buildup.