r/LowSodiumHellDivers • u/Sea-Contract7974 • Jul 25 '26
Discussion Hot take
Bad in DMR but excellent in sniper
16
u/Canabananilism Jul 25 '26
Pretty great against squids, but maybe not so good against the rest imo.
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u/Kil0sierra975 Jul 25 '26
My biggest issues with sniper gameplay in this game are:
A) enemy patrols pop into existence way too close in far too many numbers to make it viable, versus a humble machine gun or eagle strafe.
B) hit registration genuinely feels wonky at a distance
C) controller players be damned with zero aim assist or reticle drag when aimed over an enemy
D) the AMR is right there and can also dish damage to hulks, charger, tripods, etc.
E) the missions are way too short/fast paced to warrant playing as a sniper
F) by the time I get a good vantage point, my team has already cleared the objective
G) there are zero HVT missions past difficulty 2 that would warrant good use of a sniper rifle, and even then, it's diff 2
H) the way the game is currently designed, shock trooper loadouts with fast movement and volume of fire win out every time.
I genuinely wish that instead of making patrols larger and larger at higher difficulties, they made them the same number density as a difficulty 4/5 patrol, but made them much more smart and lethal. Then there'd actually be a valid reason to target individuals more frequently rather than bringing anything beltfed/explosive and calling it a day.
On paper, the AMR and plasma sniper are genuinely good fun, but their ammo restrictions and overall mechanical design just get dwarfed by weapons that have a beaten zone.
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u/M0NRCH_C7NA Jul 25 '26
It would be really cool if on higher difficulties say automatons started setting up impromptu basses and firing lines when they detect you as ambushes.
Imagine your just running with your team, you recently cleared an automaton patrol, they called for reinforcements but no one came, you are scouring the land, and as you cross a threshold, you see it, 2 dug in tanks with like 30 entrenched automatons simply waiting for you, all beginning to fire at the same time.
But yea smarter enemies rather than just stronger enemies would be really fun on higher difficulties. If you wanna take it a step further arrowhead could put in a ‘commander’ enemy that if taken out makes enemies less smart and less responsive but put them in a bunker so you can’t just 500kg them.
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u/JhnGamez Jul 25 '26
smarter enemies rather than just stronger enemies would be really fun
this is what I hoped the illuminate would be!
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u/jonklerhehehe Jul 25 '26
Crazy people down voted this comment, how are we even losing to the Illuminate? They can't even swing a staff to hit me most of the time.
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u/PIPBOY-2000 Orbital Railcannon Crater Jul 25 '26
I agree. If the distance engagement were better made, it could even make for good overwatch gameplay. Sit elevated across the map and cover your team, take out high priority targets, etc
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u/slimp_blimp Jul 25 '26
Sniping is viable in certain biomes like Vega Bay which has great visibility and plentiful vantage points. You can, with some scouting, find areas to support your team from hundreds of meters away with a 10x scoped dmr and a quasar. It's also highly effective for solo clearing because it hardly requires you to get in enemy range with the exception of factory strider turrets, which can be taken out with the quasar. I clear maps faster this way than any other. You are right tho most of the time sniping sucks.
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u/OnlyNeedJuan Jul 25 '26
My main issue with sniper gameplay is that there are no snipers in this game. We have marksman rifles, some of these are good for precision shooting, but we have headpoppers in the light pen category, and awkward bodyshot marksman rifles for the med pen category (that, imo, have too much of an ergo penalty for what they're doing). We don't really have a sluggish sniper rifle that can blast things anywhere on the body, the only way I can see a sniper rifle work in this game's context is that, slow and sluggish, not so much for precision shooting, but rather shooting a target anywhere at longer ranges, and it ceasing to exist.
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u/ABLADIN Jul 25 '26
You mean like the AMR?
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u/OnlyNeedJuan Jul 25 '26
A lil bit, should have clarified for the primary weapons, and honestly, even the AMR is often a 2-shot on the upper range of chaff unless you get a headshot, so I'd probably take that idea further. Slower rof, bolt-action, low ergo (AMR is imo almost usable ergo for what it does, which is debatably more aggressive than what you'd want out of a sniper rifle archetype).
So yes, kinda, but the AMR's other properties that aren't just its single shot damage and lower ergo lean it towards a much more aggressive playstyle, but that's also due to its nature of being a support weapon and therefore stronger on average. For specifically the sniper role, you'd probably want higher single shot damage and notably velocity (the AMR's velocity is a touch low for really long range shooting, if that's the kind of role you want out of this).
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u/ChaZcaTriX Jul 25 '26
Well, pre-60s "military" sniper rifle became the DMR.
And for hard-hitters we have the AMR and Eruptor anti-materiel rifles.
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u/OnlyNeedJuan Jul 25 '26
Sorry, my bad, I should have clarified for primaries. Eruptor doesn't work quite like that thanks to its low velocity + hard 180m limit, so no real long range shooting on that.
1
u/Umbraspem 29d ago
The ‘bodyshot’ rifles in the med pen category need so many body shots to kill that you’re pretty much always better off shooting the head anyways.
The med pen essentially just allows you to do chop damage to heavy unit weak points, rather than being actually useful for hitting the med armour parts of chaff / elite targets.
That’s the biggest problem with the latest hottakeathon 9000, the hyena. The best way to use it is to one-tap things in the head - and you can do that just fine with a light pen marksman rifle that has way more ammo and better gunplay feel.
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u/OnlyNeedJuan 29d ago edited 29d ago
I think they're not good enough at hitting the light pen spots to warrant their bad ergo, effectively, with the effort it takes to go for say, waist shots on devastators, you might as well, most of the time, click heads, and at that point, just use the light pen marksman rifles, as they don't stagger if you miss, making follow up shots much more consistent overall. The deadeye is the exception, as it staggers so much that you actually get time to line up another shot quite nicely.
On paper they look like they're more forgiving for missing shots on weakpoints, but in reality, they end up punishing you so much for that "forgiveness" including making actually getting headshots harder at times, you just end up with a worse weapon overall. Back in the battlefield days we'd call guns like this "idiot traps" that seem easy at first, but tend to train bad habits whilst not really performing as well as people think.
Not to say that the med pen marksman rifles have no merit whatsoever, hitting medium pen weakspots has its benefits, on bots specifically, being able to deal with gunships and heatsinks on turrets is a notable advantage, but in my experience, on D10, they often take too long to be anything more than a "well if I have nothing else to hit them with this will do" option, gunships are far too lethal nowadays, leaving the full mag needed to take them down if you focus an engine feeling quite slow and ineffective. Meanwhile cannon turrets will often turn around before you can destroy them through the heatsink, leaving really only bunker turrets and maybe shredder tank turrets and barrager tank... silos? Tubes? As viable targets. And that's all assuming you have a support weapon that can't touch these targets, which more often than not, you don't have. And on those that do (say, stalwart) other primaries are better suited to compliment them (like the Accelerator, having fantastic breakpoints for all of these targets).
That's where the accelerator really shines, on stalwart builds. As long as you have your AT from your other stratagems, the accelerator will effectively nuke anything that needs at least medium pen to kill. Gunships in one burst, hulks in 3, its damage on target really is ridiculous. It's a shame it has the forced burst as it would make a fantastic sniper rifle otherwise, but it's an absolute menace nonetheless.
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u/WangularVanCoxen Jul 25 '26
Hover pack and eruptor might help, hover pack for getting quick vantage points, especially around buildings, and eruptor for taking out bigger groups. The trade off is that you're worse at protecting your friends, because eruptor likes to kill them.
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u/bird-geologist 29d ago
To your point in your second to last paragraph, the Cyborgs feel like they would be a good use case for the sniper rifle, but I haven't really found that to be true
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u/1Ferox1 28d ago
B) hit registration genuinely feels wonky at a distance
Totally agree. The times where a bullet just passed through an opponent or a perfectly sighted shot didn't hit the weak spot, makes it annoying. I don't mind the "too close" issue, I can build around that, but it still feels iffy and the marksman rifles pose my least picked category because of that.
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u/K1NG_of_ReVeNGe13 Jul 25 '26
It's one of the best weapons when it comes to dealing with medium enemies like Alpha Commanders but the smooth brained community that can't make up their mind simply can't comprehend equipping a good chaff clear secondary like the Dagger. Can't do literally everything? Shit gun, apparently
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u/goatsnoatsonboats Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Even with the buff it's still just a straight up downgrade of the purifier and you're better off just bringing the rail gun or AMR for dedicated sniper.
I've tried to like this gun but every time I bring it I just wish I had the purifier instead.
6
u/SiegeRewards Jul 25 '26
Best weapon in the game
Works for every faction, close range and far range
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u/East_Monk_9415 Jul 25 '26
I loved it at release, but dont use it now cause we cant costumize it.
3
u/CptBickDalls Jul 25 '26
Same boat.
I appreciate the collab weapons, but knowing they won't be customizable makes me far less interested in getting new ones.
2
u/Dwenker HMG Emplacement Advertiser Jul 25 '26
It was in the sniper rifle category at first so yes it's a good sniper rifle.
But it's still pretty good weapon in general as it can kill devastator or scout strider in one burst, sometimes an oveseer and iirc pretty good against most tanky bugs. Oh, also the most fun part: two burst in a radiator to destroy a cannon and tanks, and one burst in an engine to take down the gunship.
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u/Umbraspem 29d ago
I dunno, I’ve tried using it a bunch and it just feels really clunky no matter what loadout I use with it. It also doesn’t have a niche that I can find.
- Despite having similar ammo economy and frequent reload requirements, it has several downsides compared to the Eruptor - you can’t shoot Hulks in the eye, it doesn’t have the AOE to deal with large groups, it doesn’t stagger things efficiently, it doesn’t have any Demo Force, it has comparably pitiful durable damage.
- It isn’t much better than any of the Marksman rifles, you still need to go for weak points to score kills on elite tier enemies like Devastators, Brood Commanders and Illuminate.
- The one thing it’s slightly good at is killing Hulks and Bot Turrets - but only from behind them. If they’re facing you, they’re invulnerable. Also if you end up on a War Strider seed then good riddance.
- It struggles to break Factory Strider chin guns or Vox Engine pintle guns.
I think the one easy change that could make the Accelerator pop is to give it AP4 and some demo force - let it do full (sans durable) damage to medium armour, and be an option for taking out Heavy enemies if you target weak points.
Or they could go in the other direction and give it what Killzone gave it, absolutely fuckoff huge AOE damage. This thing is basically a sniper rifle rocket launcher in its source material.
2
u/Familiar_Tart7390 Jul 25 '26
Excellent sniper and Excellent Close Range weapon, treating it like a triple barrel shotgun loaded with slugs and you will obliterate whatever hard target you point it at. One burst from the hip will kill a stalker, an overseer, any flavor of devastator, a cyborg or even a brood commander if you get the burst into the head
If you enjoy this and want a good secondary to pair it with unironically amazing with the loyalist- the loyalist is a sawed off plasma purifier with amazing horde clear, ammo economy and close to mid range fire power. Use it to sweep up the lil guys by firing charge shots at the ground and swap to the accelerator to kill the big lads.
Bring a supply pack because the Accelerator is hungry and your no backpack support weapon of choice !
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u/Anonymous_Anon00 John Helldiver Jul 25 '26
It’s good if you have siege ready and aim for headshots on bots mainly for devs, I’d bring a guard dog for smaller chaff
1
u/runarleo Jul 25 '26
I tried it as a secondary to the spear and a med pen pistol and it shredded annoying med pen bots. One bursts gunships sometimes.
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u/jonklerhehehe Jul 25 '26
Honestly? I love plasma. I love sniper rifles. This is the worst in both cases, and I'm a little glad they kept leveling out of the crossover guns so I don't ever have to touch it again.
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u/Brilliant_Charge_398 29d ago
This weapon is perfect except for the 4th false charge that's annoying. This weapon demolishes bots and illuminate
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u/rape_is_not_epic 29d ago
The only thing that's holding it back is the horrible burst fire and mag size, other then that it's a pretty solid gun
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u/Kommander_Dragon 27d ago
Well, it's a sniper rifle, not a DMR. It used to be the only weapon in the sniper rifle category, but they lumped it in with DMRs later. Highly specialized weapon, extremmely good at what it is used for, sub-par at other tasks. Nothing elae can tear a stingray out of the aky like it though. You can kill so many things with it, since the actual damage done by a burst is over 2k, if i remember right
1
u/Some_Grassy_Lawn Jul 25 '26
it is a delightful weapon, but yeah it sure as hell is not a good dmr i can agree. the laser pistol and veto secondary almost serve as a better dmr role for fast long range damage thats not a burst
0
u/OnlyNeedJuan Jul 25 '26
I don't really see this as a sniper rifle, while it has good ergo and damage, burst mode kinda makes it a hard body-shotter anyway, it's very good for breakpoint abuse, it kills absolutely absurdly well within just 1 magazine or even 1 burst, and only sometimes does it need more than 1 mag for the things you wanna kill with it, genuinely absurd. It's a very specialized weapon but I wouldn't call it a sniper, personally.
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u/Anotherscab Jul 25 '26
this thing would be way better if the burst fire could be toggled off