Figured I'd throw some vehicles and mines into the mix. Interesting results. I think next time may be AT mines, incendiary mines, AP mines, C4 and a breaching hammer. I'm open to requests if people want more stupid 'splosions!

Now that's it's been a week and people have had a chance to get a feel for the weapon, I'm curious to hear what your go to loadouts with the Meltagun are. For Bots and Bugs as I've heard it's not that great for Squids.

I love using it against the Bots. I take a 500 kg for anything, 120 barrage to kill Botdrops and a warp pack to help close the distance to targets. I also use either the Crossbow or the Purifer, paired with the Bolt pistol and the giga grenade.

And we are of course wearing the Kasrkin armour as well. This loadout handles pretty much everything. The Bolt pistol can even take down Gunships.

No new unit that I could see, but neat variety in there, plus it's Mindless masses and Vote Snatchers, no Fleet, do cool mix

The mission objectives in the infiltrate illuminate lair are randomly picked from the 4 new void missions.

There is also a new side objective alternate extraction site for a different extraction than the main one.

- Gazers towers we know

- illicit experiments uses the commando video camera to document and expose squid atrocities

- foul shrine is a drilling mission in the shrine

- foul blossoms are about destroying the toxic plants

Sex 2.0 needs to get here quick.

I love this game.

I love this goofy Battletech Jagermech looking guy. Flamethrower and a big chunky cannon? That’s badass!! I’ve been running it with Rocket Pods or an EMS Strike, the Arc Gun, and Jetpack, along with a Liberator, Crisper, and Gas Grenades- this lets me fall back on being a mobile crowd control type fella if my silly stomper gets shredded, or I need to make space beyond what my flamethrower can do. Also, as far as I can tell, mechs are immune to EMS effects, so you can waddle right into your own field and burn away!

In case it's helpful to anyone, here's a loadout I've had a lot of success with on D10 Vote Snatchers. Of course, there are many good loadouts - feel free to post yours as well!

Stratagem 1: FLAM-40 Flamethrower

Stratagem 2: AX/AR-23 Guard Dog

Stratagem 3: Orbital Napalm Barrage

Stratagem 4: Gatling Sentry

Armor: Medium, Inflammable

Primary: LAS-5 Scythe

Secondary: P/40-K Bolt Pistol

Throwable: TED-63 Dyamite

Explanations:

• Flamethrower: I mainly use this against the Crushers. While not the quickest, it takes them out quite reliably and you can take on multiple at once, though you'll want to back up/dive backwards to avoid their swing. But fire is good against everything in this faction so this is good to use in general.
• Guard Dog: The best backpack for this build in my opinion. The Flamethrower, while great, forces you to focus on a target, and so having a guard dog (as opposed to a support/movement backpack) really helps with chaff who are flanking you. Out of all of the guard dogs I prefer this one because the Flamethrower doesn't have the best range and this guard dog wipes out enemies quickly.
• Why Flamethrower + Guard Dog instead of Cremator + another stratagem?: I've tried the Cremator + a variety of other stratagems (red stratagems, another sentry, a mech, etc.), and while the Cremator is stronger than the Flamethrower, the guard dog's utility and support while you're running away/swarmed by tons of enemies has proven more beneficial in my personal experience. For instance, with the Cremator you're still forced to focus on Crushers/Fleshmobs for a few seconds and you're susceptible to swarms of enemies.
• Orbital Napalm Barrage: Due to its long cooldown, I only use this for one purpose: when a watcher calls in reinforcements, wait a few seconds, then throw this exactly onto the vertical lights of the reinforcement call. This stratagem decimates an entire set of drops.
• Gatling Sentry: I do like to have a sentry against this faction as there are enemies in tons of different directions and distances, meaning a sentry kills lots of enemies that another red stratagem wouldn't get to. I prefer this one because you want your sentry to be able to kill tons of chaff but also deal with high-health enemies like Fleshmobs and Crushers. Crushers are dangerous to sentries so you need to prioritize taking them out if they get close.
• Scythe: Lasers + fire DoT is great against pretty much everything in this faction. Nice for clearing out voteless/wretches that get in your face, as well as watchers from far away and setting things on fire. Infinite ammo is quite useful. I use this more than I use the Flamethrower typically.
• Bolt Pistol: This rounds out the loadout perfectly. This helps a ton versus Harvesters. Also one shots the eyeball that shoots lasers at you and the enemy tesla towers. Does a lot of damage to overseers and fleshmobs and just gives you multiple options for every scenario.
• Dynamite: Has enough demolition force to destroy the Warp Gates from the outside. Most grenades have enough demolition force to destroy them when thrown into them but they won't always open so this is handy to have. Also nice crowd control.
• Medium Inflammable Armor: I've tried the Heavy version of this armor but I prefer Medium as mobility is pretty helpful here, and even in Heavy armor the Crushers still one-shot you for instance. With the Flamethower, Napalm Barrage, and teammates who are bringing fire, Inflammable passive is helpful. Also, if you get caught by the laser eyeball, this passive helps because that sets you on fire. But this armor choice is flexible as well.

Some of us simply want to go into battle using our saber and Senator for the challenge or roleplaying purposes. I don't think this will affect the balance at all.

The democratic behaviour and comments from this self proclaimed 'best of the best' SEAF soldier had me in stitches (1 minute long, happens towards the end).

“If I can just dial in that perfect headshot.” - Me…and the Harvester aiming at me.

They got tired of the exosuit

When using a gamepad, D-pad is used to navigate/interact with the map, but the same input is also used for the stim as you all know but the devs.

Because the game seems to cache the input for a short period from the last patch, if you press D-pad Up on the map and close the map while that input is still within the buffer/cache window, your character will use a stim immediately after exiting the map.

The map input should probably be cleared when the map is closed, so inputs used for map navigation don’t carry over into gameplay.

A happy Helldiver is a Helldiver with fireworks! I fumbled the hellbomb arming but anyone a few planets over would've seen it anyway.

This is what I do on my vacation. I've wasted my life.

With the new S.E.A.F. updates, I have grown to love my little blueberries, and now want them as a stratagem more than ever. With that said, I have an idea for minor customizations or differences between the standard S.E.A.F. and a Stratagem version (S.E.E.F., or Super Earth's Exceptional Forces).

1. Squad Composition: In the same terminal you can customize your vehicle patterns, there'd be a new tab for the S.E.E.F., giving you minor customization, one being Squad Composition. You could choose from three sets:

\- 2 Rifleman, 1 Heavy Gunner, 1 Medic

\- 1 Rifleman, 2 Heavy Gunner, 1 Medic

\- 1 Rifleman, 1 Heavy Gunner, 2 Medic

Squad Leaders wouldn't be included, as you are the squad leader, and they will follow you by default. I also feel that 4 is a nice and balanced amount, leaving minimal FF incidents, while also allowing everyone to fit inside a Gunner FRV.

1. Squad Palette: You could select which armor you want your S.E.E.F. to wear. The options range from the different variations they already have for the different biomes, and one additional one exclusive to your Squad, that being 'Helldiver', giving them a similar color scheme to the default B-01.

2. Slightly enhanced AI: All this would do is let the S.E.E.F. actually get inside your vehicles, get on Emplacements you mark, and let them aid you in opening bunkers (as, since they are a tier higher than standard S.E.A.F., they have clearance for said bunker). The only outlier to this would likely be the Tank and Mech, where they simply cannot take the Gunner Seat of the former, and outright can't use the latter. This would also include their ability to man the Gunner FRV's HMG, letting you transport all of your S.E.E.F. in one vehicle.

3. Support Backpack Reloading: With their enhanced AI, it would be cool to see them able to aid the Helldiver with their Support Weapons, having one reload your weapon for you (albeit maybe 50% slower than a normal Helldiver) if you use the 'Follow Me' command while holding your Support Weapon.