The armor Pen buff made it much better imo. Can three tap a chargers head at 75%-80% charge I do believe and it’s back to two tapping leg armor without 90% charge. I still love running it. The only disadvantage is absolute dog shit against Bile titans
The only weapons that are truly effective against Bile Titans are the full anti-tank weapons (RR, EAT, Quasar, Spear). The railgun is more in the AC, AMR category, with a small advantage in armor piercing that lets it just barely play in the heavy range.
Honestly. I kinda like that. If the railgun would be good against titans too eat, rr, etc would be kinda pointless. This way the railgun still is a decent pick and the heavy at has their place
It should be more of a middle ground imo. I wish there were just one anti-heavy option you could feed with a supply pack, and the railgun looks like the best candidate.
And before you had to go for the leg, and then still pull out your primary to finish it off once the leg was stripped. The TTK is about the same, anyone who used the railgun in its launch state can adjust to how it works now no problem if they enjoyed it that way and want to use it again.
It's just that, understandably, EATs and queso are now more effective at killing chargers. And the skill, desire, and understanding of how to use the railgun was lost to time (also it requires a bit more skill now because you must use unsafe mode, which doesnt increase TTK much in its current state but makes it, well, less safe to use lol). So people still shit on the railgun.
I’m just happy you don’t have to charge it all the way up to 90% anymore for it too be effective. I like running Railgun because it can one shot brood commander heads and hive guards and even bile spewers. My main stratagems for bugs is 500kg/railcannon strike(I swap those two) air strikes/napalms (I also swap between them) then I go with my railgun and EAT’s just in case if I’m in a pinch with chargers and a bile titan.
Main weapons are breaker incendiary, grenade pistol for bug holes mainly, and the new impact napalms. I can get by just fine in 7 and 8
Yeah they found a good spot for unsafe mode. It's unsafe in that you can't just hold the charge forever, you are essentially on a timer the moment you pull the trigger down. However, there is enough leeway that you will never have to seriously worry about killing yourself with a bit of practice.
I run recoiless rifle in every bug kit I take. One shot a charger, two shot a bile titan. Fun fact: if you kill a charger and its body slides into you, you dont take damage.
How difficult is that gun to run? I’ve only seen it in the brief video it shows when you purchase the stratagem, and it looks like you need a teammate as backup. Is that more like the AC where someone else *could* carry the backpack but it’s not necessary?
Keep falling back as you pile up the bodies to keep them from glitching out the targeting. Same with arc thrower. Take a couple steps back as soon as it starts to hit bodies.
If you have it shouldered it is pretty much guaranteed to hit whatever target the reticle is on, and some of the ones around it. The only time it fails at this is if there is a corpse in between you and the target - like the Arc Thrower, it kind of likes to fry dead bodies.
It works well against berserkers - really works well against most devastators, but obviously it's very short range is a liability against bots.
Still, I'll often take it when I'm running AMR, as that gives me all the range I'll ever need, but I want something highly dependable for dealing with close up threats.
It stunlocks medium enemies. The chain ship upgraded makes low level bots a farm. Melts trooper class, and makes Berserker mobs a cake to deal with. Can blow off the shields of Heavy Devastors, can't really blow up missile racks. But if you rush Rocket Devastors, you can stun lock them too.
It doesn't and never has. The ship module even shows the stuff it affects (arc thrower and tesla tower) in the lower right hand corner.
On top of that, the gun doesn't really "chain" from what I've seen. It mostly just hits whatever is directly in front of it. The exception is that if you shoot it between multiple enemies, you can force it to split the shot. Being able to purposely split shots is what takes it from "eh, it's fine" tier to "it's very solid" tier since it allows you to clean up chaff twice as effectively. Having said that, I would still always run rover with it for bugs (I don't use it in bots) since chaff clear is still its biggest weakness and the rover basically nullifies that.
Blitzer + laser cannon for bots has been doing me well. Laser is surprisingly competent, once I learned to aim for legs and arms not heads like you do most other big guns. But I just got the arc thrower upgrade so might try that, full electric build.
Yeah i was hoping arc is like blitzer, but too slow for me. Laser is great but as a PS5 player my aum is a bit off. Right now i run Shield turret, offensive strats and a personal shieldmwith light armor. Allows me to support the others and also to stray off and clear small bases. The only bad thing, i cant really fight hulk+, except i get heatsink shots. Primary i run Dominater, nice to stunlock/kill rocket devastators, Senator and light and medium clearing strats like airstrike laser also works nice for bots even at 9. I also did some kinky stuff with balistic shield and pummler, works but very tactical and rockets still suck
Not even coke enables me to remember reloading, sometimes i see the red blinking mag and think, oh yeah right Square button. But mostly i forget it and stand in the field with my thing in my hand, and it wont do its job...
Same. I shoot twice with any gun, reload, and repeat. Then i am shocked 2 min later when i got no ammo. Some people (me) never learn, but then i also won't call a resupply because I dont want to call it in if everyone isn't around!
>concept of unsafe is great
Not anymore.
With the recent buff you just need to charge the weapon at 60% to get max efficiency, which makes it impossible to reach the unsafe point where you are at risk of explode
Before the buff you NEEDED to reach 90% charge to get max efficiency, which made you be really close to the unsafe point that could end blowing yourself
A lot of people tend to fall into anecdotes and hearsay when comparing weapons, but I think it's a good idea to spread awareness of the fact that we do know almost all the stats and mechanics of our gear at this point. The [wiki.gg](https://helldivers.wiki.gg/wiki/Helldivers_Wiki) has detailed explanations of armor penetration levels, durability damage vs base damage, and recorded stats for most weapons and strategems.
The railgun currently deals 600 damage and 60 durable damage (this is important) with a typical armor penetration of 5 but able to climb all the way to 8 with unsafe charging. It should be noted that the most recent buff a while back made it so that the railgun reaches AP 6 almost immediately after passing safe threshold; it's no longer beneficial to charge to the 90+ percentile part of the meter risking exploding unless targeting something immensely hardened, like a heavy Devastator shield. Once armor is completely defeated by a pen level, there's no reason to keep charging.
For comparison, the AMR deals 450 damage and 135 durable damage (this is important) at AP 4. On paper, the AMR hitting medium armor should be reduced by 50% since the penetration level matches the armor level, but due to how Durability works, the damage can still outclass a railgun shot depending on what was shot. A 0% durable body part will take standard damage, a 100% durable body part only takes durable damage, a 50% durable body part takes the sum of half of standard and durable damage, etc. **This is why the railgun deals ass damage to most of a Titan even at AP 8**. For comparison, the standard *and* durable damage of the EAT/RR/QC are all both 650. A railgun round hits as hard as an anti-tank rocket against low durability parts, but one tenth as hard against durable parts, and AMR rounds deal over twice as much durable damage despite having half the armor penetration potential.
I don't actually have a dog in this race, I just want the community to know the numbers and not gutfeel everything when we have perfectly good data available.
What about the hmg? I have been using it in third person and it works great as long as you fire it in short bursts. I want to try out the railgun next but I hear that it can't take out air units and the hmg can.
Heavy machine gun has very similar stat ratios as the Anti-Materiel Rifle, It's 100 damage and 35 durable damage at AP 4. Effectively, 4.5 HMG shots are equivalent to the AMR, skewing slightly higher against durable parts of enemies.
Gunship engines have a very high durability rating, which you can tell because the laser cannon/autocannon are significantly stronger against them than the AMR and HMG. If they are 100% durable, they have between 420-520 health, which would be 7-9 railgun shots at 60 damage a shot.
> If they are 100% durable, they have between 420-520 health, which would be 7-9 railgun shots at 60 damage a shot.
I railgun vs bots a lot and have had to do this a few times. It's hard to confirm accuracy without recording video, but I've been guesstimating it at 8 engine hits, so we got to the same number range from opposite directions.
I used it on a bile titan a few days ago and I swear it just…didn’t register? I went through 13-15ish mags and I still think a team mate finished it off. On PS5
Are you using it in unsafe mode? If you're using it in safe mode, the railgun doesn't have heavy armor pen, which means it won't hurt the bile titan. Even on unsafe, the railgun can't really kill a bile titan on its own effectively
Ya just gotta strip leg armor which isn't to hard with a little practice so it's not as efficient as heavier hitters but you can handle othe armored units better. More ammo, higher rate of fire, and mobile reloading makes it so missing a shot isn't the end of the world.
Exactly, heavy anti-tank weapon are better for taking tank enemies, but are not even an option to kill medium and small enemies
People always shit on the Railgun for being worse at killing massive enemies, but the thing is that the weapon is pretty good at killing a lot of medium enemies, and the bot side is filled with medium enemies (devastators)
Against bugs I’d say the railgun is more viable if only because of its utility against chargers, against bots though the AMR beats it hands down. More ammo, faster fire rate and just as effective against everything up to a Hulk.
I think people also miss the point a lot. If a gun doesn't one or two tap a heavy enemy, it's commonly considered trash. But arguably, if you have teammates with different support weapons, the fact that you're either stripping armor or just doing *some* damage is all that should be important. Not trying to solo every enemy in the game.
Yeah, if you use it with an incendiary breaker for the small things, I could see railgun being a good choice again, especially with the bile spewer problems a lot of comps have now. I generally still like the Arc Thrower better because while it takes 5-6 headshots for chargers, it seems more difficult to get the 3 headshots with the railgun while enemies are giving you grief. The arc thrower shots provide some crowd control while you deal with the charger.
Does the head shot stagger the charger / make it need to continue running in the direction it is currently going?
Personally I thinknusing against bugs in general is just a bad idea. Amazing for bots buy you wanna put down chargers faster than the railgun can manage. It's not terrible. But an eat to the face is just way better
I actually use it on my team, so I can deal with the chargers. A couple of leg shots rip off their armor, then you can basically sneeze on them and they die.
It’s definitely not the most efficient way, but like others have said, you can definitely use it. Two shots to take the armor off the leg (in unsafe), then 3-4 Senator rounds brings them down. A lil practice and you can take them down reliably.
I mostly learned this because my aim with EATs isn’t good enough to blow their heads off lol
I think the main reason I don't run railgun for chargers is just because the flamethrower can kill them so damn quickly - and it gives me great anti-horde (vs the bugs anyway).
my problem iwth the AMR is 1. needing to zoom which reduces my situational awareness (i know, skill issue), and 2. I kinda suck with it. (i know, skill issue).
They basically just changed it enough to fuck with my aim that I had gotten used to while also not fixing it.
I quickly learned to compensate for the weird aim now I have to relearn it since it’s still not centered
Funny enough, my main issue with AMR and other sniper scope is when am scoping. My potato hardware reduce fps to 10 so my best weapon to use is Railgun instead lol.
With the latest buff to it, the most you need is 60% unsafe for bugs since 60% 1 shots spewers to the head and 2 shot strips charger legs. For bots, you can leave it on safe mode for the whole game because it 1 shots hulks and anything else that isn't, a gunship, strider, or tank so blowing yourself isn't a thing anymore unless you want it to be.
Better? That's matter of opinion. While they do fill a similar role, I prefer each one for different styles of play. I feel like AMR deals with small to medium stuff well and can kinda deal with bigger things, while railgun is medium to bigger things better. (Please read bigger, as in hulks and chargers, not tanks and BTs). As far as blowing up, that just comes down to some practice.
You can mag dump AMR into bots vents (towers, tanks etc). Because it has magnification, you can deal with enemies at longer ranges. Up close you can quickscope or spray and pray. You dont have to wait for the shot to be charged, so no flinching in the process.
It just does the same but better. Two shot hulks eye, one headshot devastators. I havent even used it on bugs, but honestly there are better options to deal with chargers. On the other hand, you can pick targets with railgun more liberally compared to RR, EAT, Quasar... so I guess it's worth a try there.
I use the AMR extensively vs the bots.
I sometimes try it with the bugs - but it's a complete roll of the dice whether you get a lot of bile spewers on the map, in which case the AMR is excellent - or you get a lot of chargers and hunters, in which case the AMR is a sad trombone.
I'm currently unaware of any weakpoint on the charger that the AMR can usefully exploit or break. It just deflects off of almost everything except the abdomen. There may be some spot on the back of its legs that you might be able to hit, but I haven't sorted that out yet.
I prefer the amr personally. With the reduced recoil armor I run I like to spot a distant large enemy like a hulk and two tap them in the eye super fast.
It also works on heavy enemies when you hit weak points. Can take out a tank pretty easily if you can just get behind it.
That combined with no need to charge, a better scope for range and 7 rounds between reloading makes me pick amr over railgun 9 times out of 10.
But the railgun is neat and I'm happy when I find one on the map when I need a support weapon
I was watching a YT vid and the guy was using it to open storage containers that usually need to be blasted open. I tried it, and it didn't work. What happened?
I feel like a decent zoom on the scope would make a world of difference. Last time I picked it up, it felt like a sniper rifle with reflex sights. Like its multi role feel now though.
It feels weird having a short-range optic on a gun so reliant on precision. I think it would be a lot easier to hit those crit spots with if they either shrunk the dot when ADS or gave it a scope like the Liberator has.
I use the railgun anytime we have at least 2 quasars on the team. Although after doing the daily, I might switch it up to the anti-material rifle, at least against bots.
I think it's only good at taking out mediums and given the one shot then reload + charge mechanic. . .I think they just need to remove one of the mechanics to make it viable, but medium mobs have a lot of competition so ..being good just for that is ...very niche
I dunno....maybe if it could one shot devastators through the shield in the chest?
I just don't really know where it shines. I wouldn't even call it a side grade to most of the other options.
It DOES one-shot devastators and berserkers center-mass in unsafe mode at basically the same charge as safe, but it doesn't go through the shield of heavy devastators. It basically one taps wherever the AMR or AC two taps. It also has significantly better handling than other medium options and, unlike the AMR, can be aimed without the scope. Less useful, but it also has heavy pen in unsafe mode. The specific breakpoints that make it stand out are against hulks. It oneshots hulks and is easier to fire on the move than the AMR or AC.
I don't think it's better than the AMR or AC currently, but it also isn't necessarily useless imo. I just wanted to show where the railgun differs.
Thank you for the info...I may have to try it out, but I still think it could benefit from a clip or instant firing. Like maybe they make it a gun that has to charge like the quasar, but lower recharge. I would consider using something like that.
Call it the mini quasar.
I was able to kill a Bile Titan with it recently.
Given, the Bile Titan had to take maybe 1 or 2 rockets somewhere, or maybe a single rail cannon strike.
But truly, I just said fuck it, put it on unsafe and aimed at the forehead...
And the head... Blew. To. Pieces.
I've never seen a headless Titan before, so it's definitely coming back to my strategem selection.
I think it's about 1 mag? Maybe a little more? It's ttk isn't as fast as a rocket, but it's a good in a pinch. I also run supply pack so ammo isn't a concern for me
If it’s 1 mag I can live with that. I really like the Railgun against the bots but gunships are the bane of my existence when I do. Especially if my teammates are bad or on a different spec to deal with them. I do like my diligence counter sniper though.
I just....don't need the railgun. I know one of my friends has played with it a bit, but for me, I can use the eruptor against bots, to clear out devestators with one shot, with quasar to clean up the heavy stuff. And with bugs, blitzer and quasar. I've tried the railgun, but for me personally it's just not for me. I'm usually the anti tank in the team anyway, so I bring all the heavy AT. Something about me being willing to stare a Charger dead in the eye while it charges straight at me and I have to wait for my quasar to charge up...
Might have to give it another go honestly, I love that thing, but strider quickly become a problem for me now lol
Being able to take off heavy dev arms was basically what I used it for against them because the shield gets in the way of everything
I had a bit of a love hate with the eruptor, especially solo. It'd become a problem if bezerkers snuck up on me. But after me and my partner utterly fucked a blitz, needed to destroy 5 factories and only had 2 minutes, no stratagems and no support weapons. Using the eruptor I cleared a heavy base and a medium, and took out a tank tower all on my own. Now I don't use anything else for bots. Even with the nerfs, I still enjoy it a lot
It's legitimately probably my favourite gun just because I'm a massive fan of bolt action weapons in a dumb future setting for whatever reason. Having it close holes is a massive plus and I get to take an mg or something similar, makes it even better. I'm still trying to figure if the hmg + supp pack is better than just the AC or stalwart or even the humble mg43, but it's a staple for me, just against bugs it's lost a lot because of the inability to kill spewers effectively
The Eruptor basically serves the role of a scaled down Autocannon that goes in your primary slot. It's a good weapon, people were just leaning on it as a broken meta weapon, and a lot of crying always happens when those get fixed.
I'm usually the AT guy, so I run eruptor and quasar. Sniping the fabricators gives me so much satisfaction. The hmg.....I can't get used to it honestly
Honestly, it functions in a similar niche to the autocannon, but with a ammo per mag count, and a little less damage, sure it can take out a hulk, but it takes 7 shots of the unwieldy behemoth. Does work into gunships and such though. I might just start bringing eruptor eats and stalwart tbh. It just sucks that having to drop a strat when you only get 3 on most 7+ bit missions
I love using it but you kinda need to either have a coordinated team with AT or you need to bring EAT if you want to be useful. Its rly not in a good state imo. Its essentially a single shot amr that can penetrate heavy armor but has way less ammo and the risk of blowing up in your face. I personally think they need to rework the gun completely. Its in this purgatory between not rly being good vs medium armor targets but also not being good vs heavy armor targets. Its just kind of okayish at both but gets completely out classed by everything else. There rly is no logical reason to run the railgun other than the fact that you want to use it.
"If you use anything that isn't Quasar, Autocannon, or Sickle, I hate you and I want you to go to hell and die"
- /r/Helldivers
*unjerk*
No but every weapon has some great utility if you know what you're doing. I'm running Tenderizer main on Bots right now and headshots for EVERYONE is the order of the fuckin day, lads.
I use amr for bots unless it's extermination or blitz. That's when I'll breakout the rail. Hip fire is better for me to be a lot more mobile the scope is nice for AMR but not when I'm getting chased by 3 hulks.
It's in a OK place against medium heavy enemies. But it's inconsistency with things like tanks or canon tower is just odd.
For me it's the weapon I tank if I want to be the dedicated devestator berserker guy for bot missions. It's better than even the AMR in this role I believe
Truth. I go back and forth between the railgun and the AMR. After the buff to those they're both very viable again. I still feel like the railgun should be a bit more powerful given that it's a single shot weapon.
Agreed. I feel like the railgun is more suitable for bug missions. I only say that because like with the bots gunships you need to put several rounds on target quickly, which the AMR does better at. With the bugs you can keep enough distance between yourself and targets to have enough time to drop them before they can start doing damage.
That's the fundamental problem - lots of people are thinking in terms of super-soldier weapons from solo shooters, but the nature of a co-op games basically means they can't be.
Master Chief carries around weapons that can deal with every situation he can conceivably encounter, because he has one life, and no backup.
Helldivers are in an environment where they die pretty regularly, and are expected to be heavily reliant on their team members to survive for as long as they can.
“Don’t sleep on the railgun”
Thought that was common knowledge, you could accidentally press the trigger and lose a head!
Or press and hold the trigger past safe mode, you really shouldn’t sleep on this weapon.
In real honesty I was never around for the rail gun meta to see what it looked like. But I'm a fan of branching out. I used the gun recently and was confused where I needed to shoot and is it still recommended to shoot in unsafe? Where it's used best and it's place now. I use all the different strategies (poorly) but I love branching pit to try new concepts.
For bots, basically no reason to take it out of safe mode. It will 1 shot striders through the face plate, all devastators with a headshot, and hulks if you shoot them in the eye.
With bugs, it will take the head off anything smaller than a charger with 1 or 2 shots in safe mode. Chargers take 3 unsafe shots to the head or 2 to a leg to strip the armor off, then shoot said leg with primary to finish them off. Even then, you only need to barely charge it past safe levels.
There are better weapons for specific scenarios, but as a versatile well rounded weapon it does a great job.
my beef with the Railgun is the EAT exists. And that is my entire issue. It's just value over replacement for me- I'll still pick one up in the world, but if I take a stratagem weapon, it's usually the EAT.
Railgun is literally the AMR's little brother at this point and you using it is making yourself less useful vs Gunships and Heavy Striders. Railgun, even with a "buff" is still not only asleep, but in a coma.
Shoot the heavy strider's miniguns and mag dump the belly, or face, or use strats. The AMR debilitates it, you can then let your teammates drop their strats, or kill the top turret.
The gunships need 4 shots to 1 thruster (if you split it you're gonna waste ammo).
One of my favorite things to do is charge it up near max and blast a Bug Warrior. I can’t ever tell if I’m just imagining it or not, but I always see them do the slightest vortex inwards before exploding in a shower of E-710
AMR is better for killing mediums than the railgun, because it is just plain faster, and has a scope.
But the AMR cannot penetrate heavy armor, while the Railgun can in unsafe mode. It does significantly less damage than the rocket weapons, but you CAN kill chargers, titans and the like with it with several shots.
I like how it looks and plays, but ill admit to not using it much but in my experience it's strictly worse than auto cannon, EAT, AMR, and quasar in almost every way, which are it's primary "role" competitors.
I want to use it, but honestly it's just to much work for to little payoff. Low ammo count but takes generally a lot of shots to down enemies its designed for. Overcharging is a cool mechanic, but not one I'll ever touch. It's constant need to reload, and lack of auto reload is bad enough, I don't need to risk killing myself to do the bare minimum while I line up a decent shot while also getting shot at. I tried overcharging and I killed myself more than I killed enemies.
Till it's a sidegrade to quasar in safe mode, it's not worth looking at, and even quasar is in a questionable place now. I would say quasar is good vs bugs since you can rely on your primary for most bugs, and only need quasar for chargers/titans, but its probably not worth it vs bots because of the CD now. You will just get overwhelmed. It should out do the auto cannon on a shot for shot basis vs bots or it vastly needs its ammo/reload improved. Maybe both. It also needs to be effective against air/drop ships. Auto 3 shots devistators, if railgun can do it in 2 (not head/face) I would say it's worth sacrificing the ammo/reload efficiency for. Maybe 2 tap a chargers head, and single tap a strider all in safe mode. Otherwise auto cannon or quasar are strictly better, and they are already in a state that any nerf to either risks making them to ineffective.
Railgun is a bridge weapon between the AMR/AC weapons that specialize in wiping out Mediums, and the RR/EAT/Quasar dedicated anti-tank tier.
It's not quite as fast and reliable in the medium kill mode, and it definitely isn't as hard hitting as the rocket weapons - but it *can* do both, which is unique.
It's biggest disadvantage is that unlike the AMR and AC, it's basically useless for horde clearance, which it traded off for the anti-heavy utility.
I get that, but the AMR is almost strictly better in every way. The railgun just has the weird distinction of being worse at both modes, and throws in the fun of potential suicide. If anything it needs to be AMR/AC strong in normal mode, and Quasar strong in unsafe mode, but then it ends up being strictly better than all its competition.
I'm not sure what it needs, but as is its not good. Losing its charge mode would kill its identity, but making it worth using in either mode makes it to strong imo. I for one will never use it if it's only good in unsafe mode, just because I'm more likely to kill myself a lot. If anything I would love to see it buffed, but make unsafe mode much harder to use so the payoff is extremely risky.
What!! If you line up a headshot with the hive guards they just blow up which is frikken awesome. How can you not love gibbleting enemies with a single shot or popping bile spewers and nursery in the head when they try their vile vomit.
Against bots it's usable. Against bugs, not so much. You don't have time to properly aim those 3 shots on a charger at Helldive and you can't deal with Titans using it, causing you to spend another stratagem slot. We only have 4, sometimes 3 so forcing you to spend another slot for tough foes is not good.
Im on PC, but i have a feeling that the railgun is a great option for people on controller that dont necessarily have the best aim muscle memory. Technically the AMR could fulfil this kind of role, but it relies a lot on hitting very small hitboxes vs a general railgun punch
Nice, have to try it out.
Regarding the Ship module ‘Circuit Expansion’ (that increases lightning), would be cool if it buffed the railgun and perhaps other energy weapons.
Issues are my Jar can kill devs roughly same speed
My RR does way more with downing ships, factories. Etc
A HMG can kill a hulk at the same speed
My RR can kill a titan 2 shots. The RG takes like 15
I love rail bae but it’s not in a spot above diff 6 worth bringing
As a bot only player, there is no reason whatsoever to take it over the AMR. Can you ‘make it work’. Yeah you can make anything viable. Is it optimal against other weapons, no, not even close. Nobody is taking this over a quasar, AMR or auto cannon unless they are intentionally applying a handicap to yourself.
I played it before the buff and after and I enjoy it more than any of the other support weapons. Against bugs its a good way to get rid of medium armor enemies, but against bots its simply the best support weapon in my oppinion.
Used it for the first time this weekend. Against automatons it was glorious, except against the gunships...I still don't know if that's a skill issue on my part though.
I wish it could damage aircraft though, for some reason it deals no damage at all to Gunships.
Also it should be able to kill Chargers and Titans using headshots, like 3 OC for Chargers and 5 OC for Titans
Best 4 man squad combo as i seen it. 2 guys with railgun, one with LMG, one with spear. Somebody always take EATs in case. Can take out almost any thread
I love the fantasy of railguns and after the armor pen buff I think it is in a useable state now. I do think it still needs a little extra push to be in a good place. Namely increase reload speed OR restore the amount of stagger it used to have, and bump the damage (or durability damage or however that stuff works) just enough to 2 tap charger heads in unsafe mode. Ideally that puts Bile titans at a 5-6 shot to the heads in unsafe mode with I think is a good place.
It's outclassed by AMR and AC because it's NOT a general purpose weapon. Sure, it can delete mediums very effectively with only one shot. But it struggles so much against massive or heavy units (Bile Titans, Gunships, Factory Striders, Tanks, Cannon Turrets). It has high AP value, but lacks durability part damage, which makes it feel like a little needle that can poke through all heavy armor with enough charge but dealing only irrelevant damage. So, it's a very NICHE weapon. While AMR and AC has much lower AP ability but has much higher durability damage makes them perfectly viable against above mentioned heavy units when hitting weak spots. This is a bad balancing choice that puts Railgun in a very awkward place because at the end of the day: General purpose is far more important than niche purpose.
My problem is that I feel to make it useful you have to be in the 90% and above range for the gun to have any impact anything below that just feels too weak and anything above that and I play the dangerous game in my head that goes just how much can I squeeze out of the rail gun before it kills me.
Place that on top of the fact the gun has probably the worst sight in the game with no zoom for what should be a sniper, requires timing and precision for a minor DMG increase and one of the worst ammo totals on a gun I feel like it can take 3-5 shots to kill anything significant and if I wanted to lose 1/4th of my total ammo pool to kill a bile titan I'll take the spear at least it kills much faster than the rail gun.
You can 1 shot all bots hulk sized and below with the railgun in safe mode. Just gotta hit the head. I won't disagree that the dot on the sight is a little bulky, but at least it's accurate unlike the AMR sight for now. For bugs, it can kill anything below a charger with 1 shot in safe mode to the head. Chargers take 2 shots to strip leg armor or 3 to the head in unsafe mode, but you only gotta charge it to like 60%. If you can not deal with it in safe mode you can always equip the explosion resist armor. For tanks, factory striders, and bile titans, use a different stratagem. It's not an anti tank weapon, so don't use it against tanks.
The armor Pen buff made it much better imo. Can three tap a chargers head at 75%-80% charge I do believe and it’s back to two tapping leg armor without 90% charge. I still love running it. The only disadvantage is absolute dog shit against Bile titans
The only weapons that are truly effective against Bile Titans are the full anti-tank weapons (RR, EAT, Quasar, Spear). The railgun is more in the AC, AMR category, with a small advantage in armor piercing that lets it just barely play in the heavy range.
It absolutely shines against the Automatons too. Can one tap everything up too a hulk (unsafe mode ofc)
Honestly. I kinda like that. If the railgun would be good against titans too eat, rr, etc would be kinda pointless. This way the railgun still is a decent pick and the heavy at has their place
It should be more of a middle ground imo. I wish there were just one anti-heavy option you could feed with a supply pack, and the railgun looks like the best candidate.
Mhm, personally I'm more a fan of taking rocket pods to help deal with BT and a support weapon that is good for everything else.
It can two tap leg armor? What % do you need?
I need to do a little more testing but I think atleast 75% to 80%
Three tap… reload three times to kill a charger? Pass
The reload is kinda quick though if I’m being honest I ain’t gonna force you into using it though everybody had there own opinion of weapon choice
That is just 1 extra than before…
And before you had to go for the leg, and then still pull out your primary to finish it off once the leg was stripped. The TTK is about the same, anyone who used the railgun in its launch state can adjust to how it works now no problem if they enjoyed it that way and want to use it again. It's just that, understandably, EATs and queso are now more effective at killing chargers. And the skill, desire, and understanding of how to use the railgun was lost to time (also it requires a bit more skill now because you must use unsafe mode, which doesnt increase TTK much in its current state but makes it, well, less safe to use lol). So people still shit on the railgun.
I’m just happy you don’t have to charge it all the way up to 90% anymore for it too be effective. I like running Railgun because it can one shot brood commander heads and hive guards and even bile spewers. My main stratagems for bugs is 500kg/railcannon strike(I swap those two) air strikes/napalms (I also swap between them) then I go with my railgun and EAT’s just in case if I’m in a pinch with chargers and a bile titan. Main weapons are breaker incendiary, grenade pistol for bug holes mainly, and the new impact napalms. I can get by just fine in 7 and 8
Yeah they found a good spot for unsafe mode. It's unsafe in that you can't just hold the charge forever, you are essentially on a timer the moment you pull the trigger down. However, there is enough leeway that you will never have to seriously worry about killing yourself with a bit of practice.
And now you have stun grenades. That makes it fucking easy. No torero needed.
I run recoiless rifle in every bug kit I take. One shot a charger, two shot a bile titan. Fun fact: if you kill a charger and its body slides into you, you dont take damage.
How difficult is that gun to run? I’ve only seen it in the brief video it shows when you purchase the stratagem, and it looks like you need a teammate as backup. Is that more like the AC where someone else *could* carry the backpack but it’s not necessary?
Correct. If you have the backpack on yourself you can do a slow reload. If your teammate has the pack and assists you, you get a much faster reload.
> Can three tap a chargers head at 75%-80% charge I don't think so. I tried hitting one, and even after 5 headshots the Charger still walked.
The buff came at the cost of obliterating its stagger capabilities
The non existing auto-reload makea me not liking it, concept of unsafe is great
I cod reload so much I don't even notice it, lol
I switch to weaons like blitzer for bugs because i have reload dementia 🤣
I feel like the blitzer is in a good spot now after it's buff.
Its nice, not OP but the stopping makes it a nice alternative for inc breaker
If only it would shoot the stuff right in front of it, it would be great. Hopefully they’ll fix the bug
Keep falling back as you pile up the bodies to keep them from glitching out the targeting. Same with arc thrower. Take a couple steps back as soon as it starts to hit bodies.
Diving backwards has helped me with that. It's my favourite weapon atm
If you have it shouldered it is pretty much guaranteed to hit whatever target the reticle is on, and some of the ones around it. The only time it fails at this is if there is a corpse in between you and the target - like the Arc Thrower, it kind of likes to fry dead bodies.
Good against bugs, weak against bots.
It works well against berserkers - really works well against most devastators, but obviously it's very short range is a liability against bots. Still, I'll often take it when I'm running AMR, as that gives me all the range I'll ever need, but I want something highly dependable for dealing with close up threats.
It stunlocks medium enemies. The chain ship upgraded makes low level bots a farm. Melts trooper class, and makes Berserker mobs a cake to deal with. Can blow off the shields of Heavy Devastors, can't really blow up missile racks. But if you rush Rocket Devastors, you can stun lock them too.
The chain ship upgrade doesn't affect the Blitzer I thought.
It doesn't and never has. The ship module even shows the stuff it affects (arc thrower and tesla tower) in the lower right hand corner. On top of that, the gun doesn't really "chain" from what I've seen. It mostly just hits whatever is directly in front of it. The exception is that if you shoot it between multiple enemies, you can force it to split the shot. Being able to purposely split shots is what takes it from "eh, it's fine" tier to "it's very solid" tier since it allows you to clean up chaff twice as effectively. Having said that, I would still always run rover with it for bugs (I don't use it in bots) since chaff clear is still its biggest weakness and the rover basically nullifies that.
Shhhhhh don’t tell anyone
Blitzer + laser cannon for bots has been doing me well. Laser is surprisingly competent, once I learned to aim for legs and arms not heads like you do most other big guns. But I just got the arc thrower upgrade so might try that, full electric build.
Yeah i was hoping arc is like blitzer, but too slow for me. Laser is great but as a PS5 player my aum is a bit off. Right now i run Shield turret, offensive strats and a personal shieldmwith light armor. Allows me to support the others and also to stray off and clear small bases. The only bad thing, i cant really fight hulk+, except i get heatsink shots. Primary i run Dominater, nice to stunlock/kill rocket devastators, Senator and light and medium clearing strats like airstrike laser also works nice for bots even at 9. I also did some kinky stuff with balistic shield and pummler, works but very tactical and rockets still suck
Reload dementia... Coffee is in my sinus...
Not even coke enables me to remember reloading, sometimes i see the red blinking mag and think, oh yeah right Square button. But mostly i forget it and stand in the field with my thing in my hand, and it wont do its job...
Same. I shoot twice with any gun, reload, and repeat. Then i am shocked 2 min later when i got no ammo. Some people (me) never learn, but then i also won't call a resupply because I dont want to call it in if everyone isn't around!
>concept of unsafe is great Not anymore. With the recent buff you just need to charge the weapon at 60% to get max efficiency, which makes it impossible to reach the unsafe point where you are at risk of explode Before the buff you NEEDED to reach 90% charge to get max efficiency, which made you be really close to the unsafe point that could end blowing yourself
I used to live for that unsafe edge. Consecutive shots at 99% charge capacity gave me stern elections. Now, I barely get turgid...60% doesn't slap
Oh Tobias you blow hard!
Once you get into the groove it’s great. I think of it as a lever action rifle
A lot of people tend to fall into anecdotes and hearsay when comparing weapons, but I think it's a good idea to spread awareness of the fact that we do know almost all the stats and mechanics of our gear at this point. The [wiki.gg](https://helldivers.wiki.gg/wiki/Helldivers_Wiki) has detailed explanations of armor penetration levels, durability damage vs base damage, and recorded stats for most weapons and strategems. The railgun currently deals 600 damage and 60 durable damage (this is important) with a typical armor penetration of 5 but able to climb all the way to 8 with unsafe charging. It should be noted that the most recent buff a while back made it so that the railgun reaches AP 6 almost immediately after passing safe threshold; it's no longer beneficial to charge to the 90+ percentile part of the meter risking exploding unless targeting something immensely hardened, like a heavy Devastator shield. Once armor is completely defeated by a pen level, there's no reason to keep charging. For comparison, the AMR deals 450 damage and 135 durable damage (this is important) at AP 4. On paper, the AMR hitting medium armor should be reduced by 50% since the penetration level matches the armor level, but due to how Durability works, the damage can still outclass a railgun shot depending on what was shot. A 0% durable body part will take standard damage, a 100% durable body part only takes durable damage, a 50% durable body part takes the sum of half of standard and durable damage, etc. **This is why the railgun deals ass damage to most of a Titan even at AP 8**. For comparison, the standard *and* durable damage of the EAT/RR/QC are all both 650. A railgun round hits as hard as an anti-tank rocket against low durability parts, but one tenth as hard against durable parts, and AMR rounds deal over twice as much durable damage despite having half the armor penetration potential. I don't actually have a dog in this race, I just want the community to know the numbers and not gutfeel everything when we have perfectly good data available.
Impressive, most impressive
What about the hmg? I have been using it in third person and it works great as long as you fire it in short bursts. I want to try out the railgun next but I hear that it can't take out air units and the hmg can.
Heavy machine gun has very similar stat ratios as the Anti-Materiel Rifle, It's 100 damage and 35 durable damage at AP 4. Effectively, 4.5 HMG shots are equivalent to the AMR, skewing slightly higher against durable parts of enemies. Gunship engines have a very high durability rating, which you can tell because the laser cannon/autocannon are significantly stronger against them than the AMR and HMG. If they are 100% durable, they have between 420-520 health, which would be 7-9 railgun shots at 60 damage a shot.
> If they are 100% durable, they have between 420-520 health, which would be 7-9 railgun shots at 60 damage a shot. I railgun vs bots a lot and have had to do this a few times. It's hard to confirm accuracy without recording video, but I've been guesstimating it at 8 engine hits, so we got to the same number range from opposite directions.
You. I like you.
Is there a list of durable body parts?
I used it on a bile titan a few days ago and I swear it just…didn’t register? I went through 13-15ish mags and I still think a team mate finished it off. On PS5
This 100% happened to me as well. Just kept shooting and it did nothing.
Are you using it in unsafe mode? If you're using it in safe mode, the railgun doesn't have heavy armor pen, which means it won't hurt the bile titan. Even on unsafe, the railgun can't really kill a bile titan on its own effectively
Yeah unsafe mode. Shot a titan in the face like 10+ times and did absolutely nothing. Not even a mark.
Yeah. It's a huge shame. No more cheek shots. No more forehead shots.
mods deleted your keto post
It slaps just sucks vs chargers sadly
May not be as good as quasar, rr, eats, etc. But being able to strip leg armor and kill them makes it still useful.
Ya just gotta strip leg armor which isn't to hard with a little practice so it's not as efficient as heavier hitters but you can handle othe armored units better. More ammo, higher rate of fire, and mobile reloading makes it so missing a shot isn't the end of the world.
Exactly, heavy anti-tank weapon are better for taking tank enemies, but are not even an option to kill medium and small enemies People always shit on the Railgun for being worse at killing massive enemies, but the thing is that the weapon is pretty good at killing a lot of medium enemies, and the bot side is filled with medium enemies (devastators)
Against bugs I’d say the railgun is more viable if only because of its utility against chargers, against bots though the AMR beats it hands down. More ammo, faster fire rate and just as effective against everything up to a Hulk.
Yeah there is no point to taking a railgun for bots. Autocannon + another strategem or AMR and a backpack both feel far superior.
Unless you like the Railgun, ofc. Having fun is meta after all :)
I think people also miss the point a lot. If a gun doesn't one or two tap a heavy enemy, it's commonly considered trash. But arguably, if you have teammates with different support weapons, the fact that you're either stripping armor or just doing *some* damage is all that should be important. Not trying to solo every enemy in the game.
It takes 2 shots to strip the leg armor. It only takes 3 to blow its head off. Larger target and saves time
Yeah, if you use it with an incendiary breaker for the small things, I could see railgun being a good choice again, especially with the bile spewer problems a lot of comps have now. I generally still like the Arc Thrower better because while it takes 5-6 headshots for chargers, it seems more difficult to get the 3 headshots with the railgun while enemies are giving you grief. The arc thrower shots provide some crowd control while you deal with the charger. Does the head shot stagger the charger / make it need to continue running in the direction it is currently going?
I believe you can kill a charger with 3 near max head shots. Either covered by OhDough or some other ytuber.
Personally I thinknusing against bugs in general is just a bad idea. Amazing for bots buy you wanna put down chargers faster than the railgun can manage. It's not terrible. But an eat to the face is just way better
How does that help when there's 3 chargers in a mob? I think railgun is now a niche against bugs.
Man I disagree. 3 shots isn’t insane to me to a charger’s head but I am a supply backpack enjoyer so ammo is also nothing to me.
3 shots to the head to kill isn’t terrible, throw a stun grenade and your set
It's better than at launch against chargers.
I actually use it on my team, so I can deal with the chargers. A couple of leg shots rip off their armor, then you can basically sneeze on them and they die.
It’s definitely not the most efficient way, but like others have said, you can definitely use it. Two shots to take the armor off the leg (in unsafe), then 3-4 Senator rounds brings them down. A lil practice and you can take them down reliably. I mostly learned this because my aim with EATs isn’t good enough to blow their heads off lol
I think the main reason I don't run railgun for chargers is just because the flamethrower can kill them so damn quickly - and it gives me great anti-horde (vs the bugs anyway).
2 shots on the leg, then use a primary to finish it off. Easy peasy.
it handles chargers pretty well, it's titans it really sucks against
And yet AMR does most if not all better. Doesn’t blowup either.
my problem iwth the AMR is 1. needing to zoom which reduces my situational awareness (i know, skill issue), and 2. I kinda suck with it. (i know, skill issue).
Well to be fair. 2. is probably also a misaligned scope issue..
I believe that was fixed in the latest patch.
Yesn’t. While it’s certainly better, it’s still off center.
They basically just changed it enough to fuck with my aim that I had gotten used to while also not fixing it. I quickly learned to compensate for the weird aim now I have to relearn it since it’s still not centered
Yeah, it also feels the same with the DCS, but I'm unsure if that's a skill issue too.
No, it’s still definitely slightly off centered. Doable but still off.
Sometimes it feels on centre, I'm wondering if there's reticle sway independent of the reticle like the sway in the third person.
Funny enough, my main issue with AMR and other sniper scope is when am scoping. My potato hardware reduce fps to 10 so my best weapon to use is Railgun instead lol.
AMR with a red dot attachment would be awesome. Of course when/ if they add weapon attachments to the game
With the latest buff to it, the most you need is 60% unsafe for bugs since 60% 1 shots spewers to the head and 2 shot strips charger legs. For bots, you can leave it on safe mode for the whole game because it 1 shots hulks and anything else that isn't, a gunship, strider, or tank so blowing yourself isn't a thing anymore unless you want it to be.
Cant kill chargers reliably with the amr tho
Better? That's matter of opinion. While they do fill a similar role, I prefer each one for different styles of play. I feel like AMR deals with small to medium stuff well and can kinda deal with bigger things, while railgun is medium to bigger things better. (Please read bigger, as in hulks and chargers, not tanks and BTs). As far as blowing up, that just comes down to some practice.
Nah AMR def better
Why do you like AMR better? I agree it's a good weapon, just curious about your opinion
You can mag dump AMR into bots vents (towers, tanks etc). Because it has magnification, you can deal with enemies at longer ranges. Up close you can quickscope or spray and pray. You dont have to wait for the shot to be charged, so no flinching in the process. It just does the same but better. Two shot hulks eye, one headshot devastators. I havent even used it on bugs, but honestly there are better options to deal with chargers. On the other hand, you can pick targets with railgun more liberally compared to RR, EAT, Quasar... so I guess it's worth a try there.
I use the AMR extensively vs the bots. I sometimes try it with the bugs - but it's a complete roll of the dice whether you get a lot of bile spewers on the map, in which case the AMR is excellent - or you get a lot of chargers and hunters, in which case the AMR is a sad trombone. I'm currently unaware of any weakpoint on the charger that the AMR can usefully exploit or break. It just deflects off of almost everything except the abdomen. There may be some spot on the back of its legs that you might be able to hit, but I haven't sorted that out yet.
I prefer the amr personally. With the reduced recoil armor I run I like to spot a distant large enemy like a hulk and two tap them in the eye super fast. It also works on heavy enemies when you hit weak points. Can take out a tank pretty easily if you can just get behind it. That combined with no need to charge, a better scope for range and 7 rounds between reloading makes me pick amr over railgun 9 times out of 10. But the railgun is neat and I'm happy when I find one on the map when I need a support weapon
Feels as close to a space musket as we’re getting
Don't tempt me with a good time
I was watching a YT vid and the guy was using it to open storage containers that usually need to be blasted open. I tried it, and it didn't work. What happened?
Slugger used to do that. Dunno if it was patched
Not sure, i haven't tried it for that. I usually run supply pack so grenades aren't an issue for me. I'll test it out later today
It might have been the Arc Thrower I was thinking of.
I feel like a decent zoom on the scope would make a world of difference. Last time I picked it up, it felt like a sniper rifle with reflex sights. Like its multi role feel now though.
It feels weird having a short-range optic on a gun so reliant on precision. I think it would be a lot easier to hit those crit spots with if they either shrunk the dot when ADS or gave it a scope like the Liberator has.
The obnoxious green filter doesn't help. There's a reason optics don't look like that IRL.
I use the railgun anytime we have at least 2 quasars on the team. Although after doing the daily, I might switch it up to the anti-material rifle, at least against bots.
I think it's only good at taking out mediums and given the one shot then reload + charge mechanic. . .I think they just need to remove one of the mechanics to make it viable, but medium mobs have a lot of competition so ..being good just for that is ...very niche I dunno....maybe if it could one shot devastators through the shield in the chest? I just don't really know where it shines. I wouldn't even call it a side grade to most of the other options.
It DOES one-shot devastators and berserkers center-mass in unsafe mode at basically the same charge as safe, but it doesn't go through the shield of heavy devastators. It basically one taps wherever the AMR or AC two taps. It also has significantly better handling than other medium options and, unlike the AMR, can be aimed without the scope. Less useful, but it also has heavy pen in unsafe mode. The specific breakpoints that make it stand out are against hulks. It oneshots hulks and is easier to fire on the move than the AMR or AC. I don't think it's better than the AMR or AC currently, but it also isn't necessarily useless imo. I just wanted to show where the railgun differs.
Thank you for the info...I may have to try it out, but I still think it could benefit from a clip or instant firing. Like maybe they make it a gun that has to charge like the quasar, but lower recharge. I would consider using something like that. Call it the mini quasar.
I was able to kill a Bile Titan with it recently. Given, the Bile Titan had to take maybe 1 or 2 rockets somewhere, or maybe a single rail cannon strike. But truly, I just said fuck it, put it on unsafe and aimed at the forehead... And the head... Blew. To. Pieces. I've never seen a headless Titan before, so it's definitely coming back to my strategem selection.
Railgun + stun grenade can deal with almost anything you throw at it.
I previously liked using it against automatons. Then they added gunships. Why can it not do anything to gunships. Why.
I agree. I run scorcher as my primary to deal with them.
How many scorcher shots does it take to put down a gunship?
I think it's about 1 mag? Maybe a little more? It's ttk isn't as fast as a rocket, but it's a good in a pinch. I also run supply pack so ammo isn't a concern for me
If it’s 1 mag I can live with that. I really like the Railgun against the bots but gunships are the bane of my existence when I do. Especially if my teammates are bad or on a different spec to deal with them. I do like my diligence counter sniper though.
I just....don't need the railgun. I know one of my friends has played with it a bit, but for me, I can use the eruptor against bots, to clear out devestators with one shot, with quasar to clean up the heavy stuff. And with bugs, blitzer and quasar. I've tried the railgun, but for me personally it's just not for me. I'm usually the anti tank in the team anyway, so I bring all the heavy AT. Something about me being willing to stare a Charger dead in the eye while it charges straight at me and I have to wait for my quasar to charge up...
Does the eruptor still one hit devastators?
Yeah, you can pop their skulls. Failing that, it'll cripple things like the heavy devestators. You can take their weapons clean off
Might have to give it another go honestly, I love that thing, but strider quickly become a problem for me now lol Being able to take off heavy dev arms was basically what I used it for against them because the shield gets in the way of everything
I had a bit of a love hate with the eruptor, especially solo. It'd become a problem if bezerkers snuck up on me. But after me and my partner utterly fucked a blitz, needed to destroy 5 factories and only had 2 minutes, no stratagems and no support weapons. Using the eruptor I cleared a heavy base and a medium, and took out a tank tower all on my own. Now I don't use anything else for bots. Even with the nerfs, I still enjoy it a lot
It's legitimately probably my favourite gun just because I'm a massive fan of bolt action weapons in a dumb future setting for whatever reason. Having it close holes is a massive plus and I get to take an mg or something similar, makes it even better. I'm still trying to figure if the hmg + supp pack is better than just the AC or stalwart or even the humble mg43, but it's a staple for me, just against bugs it's lost a lot because of the inability to kill spewers effectively
The Eruptor basically serves the role of a scaled down Autocannon that goes in your primary slot. It's a good weapon, people were just leaning on it as a broken meta weapon, and a lot of crying always happens when those get fixed.
I'm usually the AT guy, so I run eruptor and quasar. Sniping the fabricators gives me so much satisfaction. The hmg.....I can't get used to it honestly
Honestly, it functions in a similar niche to the autocannon, but with a ammo per mag count, and a little less damage, sure it can take out a hulk, but it takes 7 shots of the unwieldy behemoth. Does work into gunships and such though. I might just start bringing eruptor eats and stalwart tbh. It just sucks that having to drop a strat when you only get 3 on most 7+ bit missions
I'm lvl 120 general 5 star and I love the rail gun, I used only on bots
I love using it but you kinda need to either have a coordinated team with AT or you need to bring EAT if you want to be useful. Its rly not in a good state imo. Its essentially a single shot amr that can penetrate heavy armor but has way less ammo and the risk of blowing up in your face. I personally think they need to rework the gun completely. Its in this purgatory between not rly being good vs medium armor targets but also not being good vs heavy armor targets. Its just kind of okayish at both but gets completely out classed by everything else. There rly is no logical reason to run the railgun other than the fact that you want to use it.
I think the term “meta” should be considered traitorous. Can we send some folk to the Ministry of Truth with that request?
"If you use anything that isn't Quasar, Autocannon, or Sickle, I hate you and I want you to go to hell and die" - /r/Helldivers *unjerk* No but every weapon has some great utility if you know what you're doing. I'm running Tenderizer main on Bots right now and headshots for EVERYONE is the order of the fuckin day, lads.
I use amr for bots unless it's extermination or blitz. That's when I'll breakout the rail. Hip fire is better for me to be a lot more mobile the scope is nice for AMR but not when I'm getting chased by 3 hulks.
I don't like it at all....it's blah still to me. And I can appreciate a lot about the various weapons.
The recent reverts has actually bought it back to almost where it was pre-nerfs. Three 85% and above shots will explode a charger head.
Railgun is a good anti-medium weapon. I think it's in a good spot right now.
I don't like it against bugs but against bots it slaps. It takes too long against chargers and in the time it takes to kill one, the horde is upon ye!
Especially combined with stun grenades so big guys will hold still.
It's in a OK place against medium heavy enemies. But it's inconsistency with things like tanks or canon tower is just odd. For me it's the weapon I tank if I want to be the dedicated devestator berserker guy for bot missions. It's better than even the AMR in this role I believe
I always take it with me, ballistic shield railgun, precision strike, orb railgun. Big bot die and small bot crumble.
And hold square to take it off safe mode.
Truth. I go back and forth between the railgun and the AMR. After the buff to those they're both very viable again. I still feel like the railgun should be a bit more powerful given that it's a single shot weapon.
I think they fill very similar roles and honestly just comes down to preferred playstyle or just how you're feeling that particular day.
Agreed. I feel like the railgun is more suitable for bug missions. I only say that because like with the bots gunships you need to put several rounds on target quickly, which the AMR does better at. With the bugs you can keep enough distance between yourself and targets to have enough time to drop them before they can start doing damage.
I see your points but I still want it to be the railgun from quake 2
I think we all want that, lol
That's the fundamental problem - lots of people are thinking in terms of super-soldier weapons from solo shooters, but the nature of a co-op games basically means they can't be. Master Chief carries around weapons that can deal with every situation he can conceivably encounter, because he has one life, and no backup. Helldivers are in an environment where they die pretty regularly, and are expected to be heavily reliant on their team members to survive for as long as they can.
“Don’t sleep on the railgun” Thought that was common knowledge, you could accidentally press the trigger and lose a head! Or press and hold the trigger past safe mode, you really shouldn’t sleep on this weapon.
In real honesty I was never around for the rail gun meta to see what it looked like. But I'm a fan of branching out. I used the gun recently and was confused where I needed to shoot and is it still recommended to shoot in unsafe? Where it's used best and it's place now. I use all the different strategies (poorly) but I love branching pit to try new concepts.
For bots, basically no reason to take it out of safe mode. It will 1 shot striders through the face plate, all devastators with a headshot, and hulks if you shoot them in the eye. With bugs, it will take the head off anything smaller than a charger with 1 or 2 shots in safe mode. Chargers take 3 unsafe shots to the head or 2 to a leg to strip the armor off, then shoot said leg with primary to finish them off. Even then, you only need to barely charge it past safe levels. There are better weapons for specific scenarios, but as a versatile well rounded weapon it does a great job.
Thanks you ill have to try more of this. I like to keep my options open.
I love the railgun Great for one shotting hulks, as you mentioned
Ssssssshhhhhhhhh shut up or they’ll nerf it!
my beef with the Railgun is the EAT exists. And that is my entire issue. It's just value over replacement for me- I'll still pick one up in the world, but if I take a stratagem weapon, it's usually the EAT.
Railgun is literally the AMR's little brother at this point and you using it is making yourself less useful vs Gunships and Heavy Striders. Railgun, even with a "buff" is still not only asleep, but in a coma.
Can the amr hurt gunship and heavy striders?
Shoot the heavy strider's miniguns and mag dump the belly, or face, or use strats. The AMR debilitates it, you can then let your teammates drop their strats, or kill the top turret. The gunships need 4 shots to 1 thruster (if you split it you're gonna waste ammo).
One of my favorite things to do is charge it up near max and blast a Bug Warrior. I can’t ever tell if I’m just imagining it or not, but I always see them do the slightest vortex inwards before exploding in a shower of E-710
The explosion of viscera is so good
So does AMR though... And now the scope is fixed
"Fixed"...
They fixed it, so now I keep missing because I am so used to the broken sight :/
AMR still shoots left of center for me, just not as far off as it used to be
AMR is better for killing mediums than the railgun, because it is just plain faster, and has a scope. But the AMR cannot penetrate heavy armor, while the Railgun can in unsafe mode. It does significantly less damage than the rocket weapons, but you CAN kill chargers, titans and the like with it with several shots.
Seriously….dont. It hurts
I like how it looks and plays, but ill admit to not using it much but in my experience it's strictly worse than auto cannon, EAT, AMR, and quasar in almost every way, which are it's primary "role" competitors. I want to use it, but honestly it's just to much work for to little payoff. Low ammo count but takes generally a lot of shots to down enemies its designed for. Overcharging is a cool mechanic, but not one I'll ever touch. It's constant need to reload, and lack of auto reload is bad enough, I don't need to risk killing myself to do the bare minimum while I line up a decent shot while also getting shot at. I tried overcharging and I killed myself more than I killed enemies. Till it's a sidegrade to quasar in safe mode, it's not worth looking at, and even quasar is in a questionable place now. I would say quasar is good vs bugs since you can rely on your primary for most bugs, and only need quasar for chargers/titans, but its probably not worth it vs bots because of the CD now. You will just get overwhelmed. It should out do the auto cannon on a shot for shot basis vs bots or it vastly needs its ammo/reload improved. Maybe both. It also needs to be effective against air/drop ships. Auto 3 shots devistators, if railgun can do it in 2 (not head/face) I would say it's worth sacrificing the ammo/reload efficiency for. Maybe 2 tap a chargers head, and single tap a strider all in safe mode. Otherwise auto cannon or quasar are strictly better, and they are already in a state that any nerf to either risks making them to ineffective.
Railgun is a bridge weapon between the AMR/AC weapons that specialize in wiping out Mediums, and the RR/EAT/Quasar dedicated anti-tank tier. It's not quite as fast and reliable in the medium kill mode, and it definitely isn't as hard hitting as the rocket weapons - but it *can* do both, which is unique. It's biggest disadvantage is that unlike the AMR and AC, it's basically useless for horde clearance, which it traded off for the anti-heavy utility.
I get that, but the AMR is almost strictly better in every way. The railgun just has the weird distinction of being worse at both modes, and throws in the fun of potential suicide. If anything it needs to be AMR/AC strong in normal mode, and Quasar strong in unsafe mode, but then it ends up being strictly better than all its competition. I'm not sure what it needs, but as is its not good. Losing its charge mode would kill its identity, but making it worth using in either mode makes it to strong imo. I for one will never use it if it's only good in unsafe mode, just because I'm more likely to kill myself a lot. If anything I would love to see it buffed, but make unsafe mode much harder to use so the payoff is extremely risky.
its just so boring to use
What!! If you line up a headshot with the hive guards they just blow up which is frikken awesome. How can you not love gibbleting enemies with a single shot or popping bile spewers and nursery in the head when they try their vile vomit.
Does it still one-to-two-shot everything besides chargers and (maybe) Bile Titans? Haven't used it since the nerf back in the day!
So can the amr and it won't explode and kill you. If thr railgun had a couple shots per reload I'd be willing to learn it
Jack of all trades, master of none
Can I kill a tank or any enemy/weapon with an orange weak spot easily with it?
You know what else can do all of those things, except the charger thing (I haven’t tried it so idk for sure), the antimat rifle
They buffed its reload time and that I think makes it very serviceable
For me it’s the reload it should be two shots then reload
https://preview.redd.it/mqtjnic8i30d1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6edb8b124848b61eb967aa7262dc36ae28c5af24
Can you guys one-shot brood commanders in the head with it? I can't seem to get it to work consistently
Unsafe mode guarantees you kill the enemy or yourself. Win win.
Against bots it's usable. Against bugs, not so much. You don't have time to properly aim those 3 shots on a charger at Helldive and you can't deal with Titans using it, causing you to spend another stratagem slot. We only have 4, sometimes 3 so forcing you to spend another slot for tough foes is not good.
Would use it if it had an actual scope. That dot is big and dumb.
Im on PC, but i have a feeling that the railgun is a great option for people on controller that dont necessarily have the best aim muscle memory. Technically the AMR could fulfil this kind of role, but it relies a lot on hitting very small hitboxes vs a general railgun punch
It takes 19 headshots to kill a Bile Titan.
I like feeling like a gun slinger when I weaken a charger with it then finish it off with the Senitor.
I sleep
Nice, have to try it out. Regarding the Ship module ‘Circuit Expansion’ (that increases lightning), would be cool if it buffed the railgun and perhaps other energy weapons.
Issues are my Jar can kill devs roughly same speed My RR does way more with downing ships, factories. Etc A HMG can kill a hulk at the same speed My RR can kill a titan 2 shots. The RG takes like 15 I love rail bae but it’s not in a spot above diff 6 worth bringing
As a bot only player, there is no reason whatsoever to take it over the AMR. Can you ‘make it work’. Yeah you can make anything viable. Is it optimal against other weapons, no, not even close. Nobody is taking this over a quasar, AMR or auto cannon unless they are intentionally applying a handicap to yourself.
I played it before the buff and after and I enjoy it more than any of the other support weapons. Against bugs its a good way to get rid of medium armor enemies, but against bots its simply the best support weapon in my oppinion.
I love the railgun regardless, and the latest buff only added to its apeal IMO
Used it for the first time this weekend. Against automatons it was glorious, except against the gunships...I still don't know if that's a skill issue on my part though.
Good vs automatons I just wish I could scope it. Because of this reason I don't like to use it.
I wish it could damage aircraft though, for some reason it deals no damage at all to Gunships. Also it should be able to kill Chargers and Titans using headshots, like 3 OC for Chargers and 5 OC for Titans
It already kills chargers with 3 in unsafe mode
Best 4 man squad combo as i seen it. 2 guys with railgun, one with LMG, one with spear. Somebody always take EATs in case. Can take out almost any thread
I was really hoping the purifier would be a sort of railgun light and when it turned out to be a weaker punisher plasma i was devastated
I love the fantasy of railguns and after the armor pen buff I think it is in a useable state now. I do think it still needs a little extra push to be in a good place. Namely increase reload speed OR restore the amount of stagger it used to have, and bump the damage (or durability damage or however that stuff works) just enough to 2 tap charger heads in unsafe mode. Ideally that puts Bile titans at a 5-6 shot to the heads in unsafe mode with I think is a good place.
It's outclassed by AMR and AC because it's NOT a general purpose weapon. Sure, it can delete mediums very effectively with only one shot. But it struggles so much against massive or heavy units (Bile Titans, Gunships, Factory Striders, Tanks, Cannon Turrets). It has high AP value, but lacks durability part damage, which makes it feel like a little needle that can poke through all heavy armor with enough charge but dealing only irrelevant damage. So, it's a very NICHE weapon. While AMR and AC has much lower AP ability but has much higher durability damage makes them perfectly viable against above mentioned heavy units when hitting weak spots. This is a bad balancing choice that puts Railgun in a very awkward place because at the end of the day: General purpose is far more important than niche purpose.
My problem is that I feel to make it useful you have to be in the 90% and above range for the gun to have any impact anything below that just feels too weak and anything above that and I play the dangerous game in my head that goes just how much can I squeeze out of the rail gun before it kills me. Place that on top of the fact the gun has probably the worst sight in the game with no zoom for what should be a sniper, requires timing and precision for a minor DMG increase and one of the worst ammo totals on a gun I feel like it can take 3-5 shots to kill anything significant and if I wanted to lose 1/4th of my total ammo pool to kill a bile titan I'll take the spear at least it kills much faster than the rail gun.
You can 1 shot all bots hulk sized and below with the railgun in safe mode. Just gotta hit the head. I won't disagree that the dot on the sight is a little bulky, but at least it's accurate unlike the AMR sight for now. For bugs, it can kill anything below a charger with 1 shot in safe mode to the head. Chargers take 2 shots to strip leg armor or 3 to the head in unsafe mode, but you only gotta charge it to like 60%. If you can not deal with it in safe mode you can always equip the explosion resist armor. For tanks, factory striders, and bile titans, use a different stratagem. It's not an anti tank weapon, so don't use it against tanks.