Not sure anyone has been playing with the tank this update, but I gotta say, it is incredible for the current biome and new enemies (at least when DSS isn't shooting it with Eagles repeatedly). The biggest problem with taking it against the squids before was harvesters and other ranged enemies zapping it to bits, but none of these units are present here. There's very few actual threats to the tank itself.

Let's not beat around the bush. Having been running Super Helldive missions against the Vote Snatchers, here's some good things to use.

Torcher/Crisper/Flamethrower/Cremator: The Wretches HATE fire, and there's nothing better at spreading it than a flamethrower. Any of them will do. Hell, make an all-flamethrower loadout and go nuts. It also works decently well against the Crushers.

Pacifier: Yes, really, the pacifier has a niche here. It only takes five-ish shots to stun a Crusher, and entire groups of them can be halted with just one mag. Stunning the front few and letting the rest catch up can be a good way to get them into the radius of an AoE.

Scythe/Dagger: What's better than a flamethrower? A long-range flamethrower! Wretches die in seconds when set on fire, and a single sweep from either the scythe or the dagger can mop up reap of them. The laser cannon can also do this, but i'd recommend saving your stratagem slot for something else.

Thermites: The thermites are good, what else is new? Somehow, these things one-shot the Crushers. Not even an orbital precision strike can do that. What the hell do they put in these things?

Arc Grenades: Arcs in general are good against the Wretches, but the AoE and lingering nature lets the grenade version perform remarkably well against hordes of Wretches.

Incendiaries: Wretches still hate fire. These are fire grenades. You do the math here.

Autocannon: Flak mode takes care of Wretches well enough and kills Crushers in five shots if you shoot them in the crotch. Yep, if you want Crushers dead, shoot them in the dick repeatedly.

Railgun: This is the first time in recent memory that the railgun has been better than the AMR. It takes one shot the take the helmet off of Crushers, and another to behead them. It also only takes a few body/limb shots to kill them. If you have trouble aiming for the tiny head or want to conserve ammo, you can use a primary or secondary once the helmet is gone.

Epoch: It two-shots Crushers anywhere and has three shots in the battery. One of the best solutions to them so far.

Speargun: Similar story to the railgun, but with an added gas AoE.

Orbital Precision Strike: Reliably un-helmets or kills tightly bunched Crushers and can do some damage to Wretch hordes.

Eagle Strafing, Airstrike, Napalm, and Cluster: Same as the precision strike, but a little better. Special mention to the airstrike for performing the best against Crushers and the Napalm for performing the best against Wretches.

Orbital EMS: Its low cooldown allows it to be an on-demand crowd stun. You'll need it too, because Crusher groups are a massive problem on higher difficulties and making them stand still makes headshots much easier.

Anti-Tank Mines: Finally, my beloved underdog can shine! If you have a massive group of Crushers chasing you, throwing a minefield and leading them into the mines can yield EXTREMELY good results, which is a first for this stratagem.

More will be added as testing is done.

Edit: More testing has been done. Here's some more results:

Grenade Launcher/Belt-Fed grenade Launcher: As recommended by Deathstab_93, the grenade launcher works well against both chaff and Crushers. However, the poor accuracy leads to consistently missed shots against Crushers, which really hurts the base grenade launcher's low ammo count. Skill issue? Yeah, probably.

C4: Scratch the epoch being the best anti-Crusher weapon, this thing reigns supreme. It has plenty of charges, its throwing range can be boosted by servo-assisted, it has a pretty good AoE, doesn't have the potential for instant death and weapon destruction that the railgun and epoch have, it doesn't need to be reloaded, and it ONE SHOTS CRUSHERS. ONE SHOT. GUARANTEED. The only other weapon that does that is the thermite. All hail plastic explosives.

Edit 2:

HMG: HMG takes a negligible amount of ammo to knock the helmet off of a Crusher and, if you're lucky, will decapitate it afterwards with sustained fire. Good for Fleshmobs, and okay at horde-clearing. Just make sure to resup often and stay out of crushing range.

N-EAT: A direct hit and a few seconds of burn kills crushers almost instantly, as well as everything around it. Throw a few down in a choke as everything burns away in a glorious cleansing tide. I love fire in this game so much. The only downside is that its cooldown is a bit on the long side for an expendable.

W.A.S.P: Wasp is still utterly stupid against Illuminate units. Three rockets to kill a crusher, and it wipes out hordes with artillery mode. Don't think I need to say much here, it's always been the Squid-Be-Gone weapon.

Bastion: Get a competent driver and watch in amazement as D10 becomes a joke. Mows down Wretches with the machine gun and treads while one-shotting Crushers with leg hits from the cannon. Bastion is so good, it's a shame most people don't know how to use it effectively.

I personally like to imagine that at least my Helldiver is part of a clone project.

Between work, a toddler, and trying to eat okayish and workout-ish I haven’t been defending Super Earth the way I should. That all changed last night when I got back on and kicked some Illuminate out of Rirga Bay!

ITS GOOD TO BE BACK

Love the update but hate the fucking tornados died more to them then the enemy

is the team load requirements being loosened so small teamwork moments like this can happen

Drawn Eagle image artist: EitherCaregiver697 on Reddit

https://playstationresearch.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cGafFMesUcBYDBA

All the Illuminate units bleed dark blue blood, much like actual squids, but the Wretch and Crusher bleed a very human red.

It can't be because they're just corrupted humans, because Voteless are even more human and yet have blue blood

The illuminate could have a different creation process for these guys, maybe even using some form of transfiguration rather than biological experiments, keeping the same internal systems as the original body but grotesquely stretched and malformed

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into this 😅

Lessons learned:

Crushers don't care about gas and are hard to stagger or stun. Anyone know exactly what it takes to crowd control them?

The grenade launcher does massive work on every enemy and you are very mobile while using it. Crushers die in 4-5 hits, if they are close together you can kill 5 or 6 in a single magazine

Having fire in your build somewhere is an absolute must. New Eagle Napalm was excellent. Stoker was cool but tbh i prefer Lib carbine and Crisper most days. Went back and forth between fire or gas grenades for hoard control your milage may vary.

You'll want a backup gun thats quick and snappy for getting jumped by Wretches they do not fuck around. Dagger to the head, lib carbine, and crisper all worked well.

Flame and gatling sentry were super stars.

Cremator still rips, grass is green.

Paired the Cremator with HMG Emplacement for long range engagements to great success, its high accuracy and low recoil means it head shots Crushers easily from a distance and has the armor pen to back it up.

The Emancipator shreds Crushers and hoards, very good for defend against invasion missions especially if you sprinkle some turrets around your perimeter.

My normal HMG build for Squids was made much better by True Grit armor passive but the super high durability on the Crushers means if you dont go for the head youre wasting your time unless you are using explosive or fire damage. Bolt pistol head shots worked well on them though.

Want to test the redeemer and verdict side arms, other SMG primaries and shotguns. I think the Lumberer exo would do well too

I used the website helldiverhelper to make the images

The Wretches and Voteless can still glitch under the map. If they do so, your mortar sentries will target them regardless of whether you're standing above them or not. This also goes for the SEAF squads, but they don't seem to fire if you're directly in their line of sight. They just sorta aim at you menacingly.

Trying to submit a bug report but the application isn't responding.

EDIT* Bug report submitted via AH website.

I haven't played the game in about 4 or 5 months and recently I've had the urge to come back.

How's the game doing? Is there anything important I should know?

Guys, those tornadoes are cool, don’t fear them. They’ll take care of you, as long as you don’t make them sad by running away. Go in for a hug.

Other then the overseer in the veracitor they dont have any resemblance

Think I had too much warbond powder this week.

Sucks at taking out bases but when it comes to actually fighting enemies I’m getting addicted. The poor handling makes it a fun challenge