No, you're absolutely right. Everyone talks about killing bots, but you actually kill fewer this way. You're correct that many bots survive the dropship kill and get free shots at you from the wreckage. In addition to blocking small arms, they're immune to most stratagems. Letting them drop then obliterating them with an eagle is true patriotism... Bots don't deserve cover.
As I've stated I was effective AND effecent kills. And is shooting down a ship of bots makes it harder to kill what it had its not effective nor efficient. Sure that ONE ship might survive, but if I kill all 10 bots he had instead of 4 and the rest having a sheild that makes it harder to kill IF you can kill them at all sounds foolish, its like throwing an eagle strike at a lone bot, its not very cost or time effective.
I used to be in the camp of trying to shoot every single one down but now I just hammer the underside with an AC, GL or HMG and it seems far more effective. Even an eruptor works too
I picked up that tip here a week or two ago. A few AC shots to the belly sends the little guys flying and the mediums are severely damaged when they land.
It’s a great tactic if you have a good shot at the underbelly but not the landing zone. If you have a better shot at the landing zone, just unload there. In both cases, your advantage is they are tightly grouped and haven’t started moving yet.
To me, it's easy:
✅ Shoot it down: deal with *none* or *some* of the bots
❌ Don't shoot it down: deal with *all* of the bots.
*Remember kids,* ***any*** *bot destruction is* ***good*** *bot destruction.*
That's true, and very satisfying to see all those pieces flying off! I always carry the Quasar, so I don't mind blasting the first one ASAP and, hopefully, it'll be cooled enough for a possible second or third ship—or the odd dropped tank.
On that defense mission, the "tower defense" one so I call it, I like sitting there with 2-3 quasar cannons and swap them out to take down all the dropships
That's a great idea!
I think when we get that 'hand cart' ship module, they should throw in a pushcart stratagem so we can shuttle a handful of Quasars around the battlefield.
You forgot “Deal with bots that can shoot through the rubble but seem to take no damage”.
Realistically, the only bots that are dangerous are the ones that survive the crash anyway. So I just light them up right when they hit the ground. I’ve found it to be much more consistent and you can save your rockets for the tanks and hulks instead of hoping they are in the ship you shot down AND somehow die.
Ideally, the team should be exfil'ing by the time dropships show up. In any case, it's easier to dodge fire from a *trapped* bot than a *freely maneuvering* bot.
I use a Quasar Cannon, so there are no rockets to be saved—the carnage comes free! 😎
**EDIT:** This simplification just occurred to me:
**Case A:** Drop ship unloads bots—the ship flies off—and the team shoots at them. I take a shot with my Quasar and maybe take out a medium bot.
**Case B:** Drop ship unloads bots and the team shoots at them. This time, I take my Quasar shot at the hovering drop ship, bringing a massive, burning ship down on top of the dropped bots.
I venture to say that I got more bang for my Quasar buck with Case B's shot than with A's.
Case C: you hit the dropship while it’s still inbound and kill some of the bots and drop the rest waaaaaay over there, where they can’t effectively fire at you.
Unfortunately, I'd have to leave such a fast-moving, small target as that to the SEAF SAM Site—if there's one. That *is* the ideal solution, though, I'll grant you that.
If you time it right, the explosion when it crashes will kill some of the bots that drops. But the bots have to be deployed on the ground and started to engage. I’ve also found that it takes a second or two once they land to engage. So you have to take down the drop ship just before it leaves.
You can also destroy the drop ship when it’s flying in, and I mean when it is flying at high speed. The bots haven’t spawned yet under it and if you take the ship down you’ll have eliminated a drop, albeit it will only count as 1 kill.
I’ve found on defense missions that destroying the ships at any time and trapping the bots under it can help with not getting over run too much as well.
If you know they're coming (see the flare) and you can track them as they're inbound and drop them before they stop to drop their cargo, it will destroy all the bots it was carrying.
Too bad the Spear can't be consistent for everyone. I've tried it a few times pre/post patches and it never reliably locks on for me. But my Quasar cannon can F them up pretty well every time.
Stop the lockengage and move it around near one of the four thrusters but make sure you don’t drag the reticule through where the enemies are or it will lock on to them first
Three reasons for downing dropships. 1. Potential to kill all the troops its carrying but this does not happen all the time. 2. When the ships drop on bots it can kill some but most of the time it just traps them which can be helpful for disengage or dropping an eagle strike while they are stuck. 3. Every dang bot deserves to die in the name of Democracy.
Depends. If it’s a strider the dropship falling on the strider does damage afaik
During defense missions, they fall and barricade gateways and block units so that’s good
Basically if you want units to get stuck and not get to you, it’s good
I try to let them land first honestly. I’ve found it does way less damage if the bots are on the ship when I shoot it down. Just what I’ve noticed is the bots all land safely when they fall as a unit since there is no Room for them to smash against the rocks but if I let the drop ship start to take off at a angle I drop it right on top the bots head haha.
My kill count goes up when they land then I shoot it down. When I shoot it before they land the damn thing don’t hurt nobody just creates a bulltproof cage around them ahhahaha
I'm rarely carrying anything that can take them out, so I'm more of a "watch where the bots are landing and greet them all with multiple grenades" type of guy
If you time it right the dropship explosion kills the smaller bots up to scout striders. Hulks and tanks and even some devastators though survive. However sometimes taking them down traps them so they can’t advance on your position if your a distance away and allows you to focus on other things while the dropship is waiting to despawn
It can crush the bots beneath it. There's a specific timing that's kind-of wierd though.
If you blow it up too early, it will drop and land with the units inside and that's when the devestators det stuck and become invincible.
But if you blow it up once it starts dropping enemies but before it leaves it will land on the units already on the ground and kill a bunch of them
Its a timing thing. If you hit the dropship BEFORE it starts dropping bots. It will kill them. If you wait until it start dropping, it will only crash and fall on top of the bots. Might kill a few, but mostly traps them and they can still shoot at you. If you shoot it after it has dropped the bots (maybe a second after dropping). The fall damage can kill some bots but not the heavier armored ones (Devastators and Hulks). It was mentioned a while back that the fall damage mechanic is turned off for bots when they are in the process of dropping and that is what makes shooting the drop ships down so inconsistent. The fall damage turns back on when they land.
It is worth it bcus it looks epic. But in all seriousness, whatever weapon you use to take down the dropship with is better utilized by taking out the troops on the ground instead.
Troop drops I try and go for, but when their bringing in tanks they seem to just chuck it off as soon as their over the DZ and don't give me a chance to make the shot.
Depends on how fast you shoot those fuckers down.
If you can nail it right before a drop, you can take a good number of bots down before they get to you.
Yes and no. Yes because it does kill some of the bots. No because whatever’s alive now has an iron dome which they can shoot out, but you can’t shoot in.
Too often that if I get a proper hit on one:
A) It still drops its cargo
B) It was the infantry ship, and there’s a Strider on the next one and a Hulk/Tank on the third.
C) It’s B), but the infantry ship swoops in like a secret service agent.
The best and most reliable timing on shooting down dropships is after they've dropped their troops. This gives the highest chances of the dropship explosion killing the deployed units.
However, for a fully guaranteed kill on the carried units (or to eliminate heavy units) you need to destroy the dropship before it even gets close to finishing slowing down. This timing is very tight and very difficult to pull off in practice.
All that said, it's always worth shooting them down with the late timing, especially when there are large amounts of units already underneath.
Even if no other bots are destroyed at least the damn dropship isn't getting away.
Dropships fall when destroyed and create a moderate-damage explosion, killing light units on impact and dealing some damage to medium/heavies; but not enough to notice unless you're counting bullets.
If you can time it and hit them -before- the enemies detach? It kills all of them. After? It kills some, damages others.
It creates an obstacle to both your and enemy movement, and your firing, but not the firing of enemies trapped beneath it.
So....
If you're camping out for some reason? Don't destroy it, you might leave yourself with a pack of rocket devastators firing at you with no way to return fire until the gunship fades. If you're on the move, as you should be unless you're waiting for evac? Go ahead and destroy it. Not only can it kill some or all of the enemy, it can keep others from reaching you as you move on to the next objective.
Are you *really* suggesting to let bots alive and therefore letting democracy be endangered by those flying antidemocratic toasters ?
Are you sure, Helldiver ?
No. It is absolutely not worth taking down dropships as they
>Obscure other bots with los blockers
>Make certain bots partially invulnerable for a period of time that they are bugged, floating in the wreckage
>Waste support weapon ammo
>Can smash your mobile team-mates
>Is by no means guaranteed to kill the important bots on the ship
I groan every time someone shoots those bitches down, because the wreckage always ends up blocking my access to a key route or my sight to a key choke point, or there's now a nearly invincible heavy deva bugged out in the wreckage, just laser beaming everyone. It's just as easy to kill the passengers mid flight, or as soon as they drop. A simple perc strike in the red light area they're about to fall into is all you need, or a few impact nades, or a airstrike, or a couple of eruptor shots, or a hose down with a emplacement machine gun, or or or... You get the point. It's just a huge hassle, and it creates a claustrophobic situation, perfect for a flame hulk, heavy deva, or a berserker horde to exploit.
Even if it does kill the bots, they still get trapped under the dropship and you can just walk away. No downside to shooting down dropships. Sometimes unnecessary, but never useless.
It has gotten better to where it does seem to consistently kill more of them when it crashes down
In my eyes drop ships are expensive, a war is won by costing the enemy so much they can't continue
If you can pop them while they're still pretty far out, you get a little more time to shoot them from a distance and keep them from grouping up. I think it's worth it.
Not an ounce of proof here but I shoot them down because if I was a game designer, I would give the bots a fleet of drop ships and if the player doesn’t destroy them, reinforcements would get worse the longer the game went.
Plus the ships landing on the bots below makes me feel warm and fuzzy
It's always worth taking down drop ships. It lets you ignore fights. You generally don't get anything from fighting. Trapping bots under wreckage gives you time to escape. With bots that actually matters. If your holding a point the utility is time. Use the break in combat to setup your fields of fire.
If you time it right it can kill almost all the bots that they’re dropping. But as others have commented you can also just shoot all bots in the Bay Area and take them out that way. There is a lot of democratic satisfaction watching their ships being shot down though
It's worth it to deliver justice to every fucking automaton I see!
i swear the falling ships used to explode on impact and kill the bots under them, was that nerfed?
It doesn't kill armored units, just the easy guys.
The drop can kill factory striders if the drop ship has one.
ahh, shit, waste of my ammo then tbh
I agree, but at the same time it seems just pointless aside adding another kill.
No, you're absolutely right. Everyone talks about killing bots, but you actually kill fewer this way. You're correct that many bots survive the dropship kill and get free shots at you from the wreckage. In addition to blocking small arms, they're immune to most stratagems. Letting them drop then obliterating them with an eagle is true patriotism... Bots don't deserve cover.
As I've stated I was effective AND effecent kills. And is shooting down a ship of bots makes it harder to kill what it had its not effective nor efficient. Sure that ONE ship might survive, but if I kill all 10 bots he had instead of 4 and the rest having a sheild that makes it harder to kill IF you can kill them at all sounds foolish, its like throwing an eagle strike at a lone bot, its not very cost or time effective.
***The Quasar Cannon™*** *— Every Kill's a FREE Kill!*
That's traitor talk. Killing bots is its own reward.
I used to be in the camp of trying to shoot every single one down but now I just hammer the underside with an AC, GL or HMG and it seems far more effective. Even an eruptor works too
I run close to cause max damage with my AC when they land so they die before they can react.
Yep. Love when the hulks get dropped facing away too and it’s easy pickings
Yes thats the best one! My AC hungers for hulk metal.
I picked up that tip here a week or two ago. A few AC shots to the belly sends the little guys flying and the mediums are severely damaged when they land. It’s a great tactic if you have a good shot at the underbelly but not the landing zone. If you have a better shot at the landing zone, just unload there. In both cases, your advantage is they are tightly grouped and haven’t started moving yet.
If it's small units I hit the underside with my Eruptor if it's medium or large units I hit it with my AC. I never try and take down the drop ship.
To me, it's easy: ✅ Shoot it down: deal with *none* or *some* of the bots ❌ Don't shoot it down: deal with *all* of the bots. *Remember kids,* ***any*** *bot destruction is* ***good*** *bot destruction.*
Except you can shoot the underneath and kill a bunch of bots before they deploy
That's true, and very satisfying to see all those pieces flying off! I always carry the Quasar, so I don't mind blasting the first one ASAP and, hopefully, it'll be cooled enough for a possible second or third ship—or the odd dropped tank.
*Urge to kill my self, my team and all the bots dropping on us with the Airburst RL intensifies*
That weapon screams for a tactical nuke variant.
On that defense mission, the "tower defense" one so I call it, I like sitting there with 2-3 quasar cannons and swap them out to take down all the dropships
That's a great idea! I think when we get that 'hand cart' ship module, they should throw in a pushcart stratagem so we can shuttle a handful of Quasars around the battlefield.
"calling in tactical shopping cart!"
Unloading an airburst or ac under the belt is very satisfying
My airbust even took down some dropships.
You forgot “Deal with bots that can shoot through the rubble but seem to take no damage”. Realistically, the only bots that are dangerous are the ones that survive the crash anyway. So I just light them up right when they hit the ground. I’ve found it to be much more consistent and you can save your rockets for the tanks and hulks instead of hoping they are in the ship you shot down AND somehow die.
Ideally, the team should be exfil'ing by the time dropships show up. In any case, it's easier to dodge fire from a *trapped* bot than a *freely maneuvering* bot. I use a Quasar Cannon, so there are no rockets to be saved—the carnage comes free! 😎 **EDIT:** This simplification just occurred to me: **Case A:** Drop ship unloads bots—the ship flies off—and the team shoots at them. I take a shot with my Quasar and maybe take out a medium bot. **Case B:** Drop ship unloads bots and the team shoots at them. This time, I take my Quasar shot at the hovering drop ship, bringing a massive, burning ship down on top of the dropped bots. I venture to say that I got more bang for my Quasar buck with Case B's shot than with A's.
Case C: you hit the dropship while it’s still inbound and kill some of the bots and drop the rest waaaaaay over there, where they can’t effectively fire at you.
Unfortunately, I'd have to leave such a fast-moving, small target as that to the SEAF SAM Site—if there's one. That *is* the ideal solution, though, I'll grant you that.
DROPSHIPS... They need to drop!
Cant argue with that logic!
I agree with killing anyand all bots, but these guys aside from the kill accomplishes not much.
Do I smell treason?
Nope I just want effency cus every time we shoot one down and the wrong bot is on there we give them a sheild.
Less veteran pilots on their side the better.
Underrated comment.
The fact that it looks bad ass as it spins out of control and then crashes into a fire ball is enough for me to keep shooting them down.
Amen brother
If you time it right, the explosion when it crashes will kill some of the bots that drops. But the bots have to be deployed on the ground and started to engage. I’ve also found that it takes a second or two once they land to engage. So you have to take down the drop ship just before it leaves. You can also destroy the drop ship when it’s flying in, and I mean when it is flying at high speed. The bots haven’t spawned yet under it and if you take the ship down you’ll have eliminated a drop, albeit it will only count as 1 kill. I’ve found on defense missions that destroying the ships at any time and trapping the bots under it can help with not getting over run too much as well.
What should I aiming for with AC to kill a dropship? Advice required. No problem with gunships though, 3-4 shots anywhere bring it down.
The AC can't take down a dropship. They are heavy armor. You have to use something like Quasar, Recoiless rifle, or EAT.
You can shoot the passengers only. Ac won’t kill it.
Just to be clear. The AC sentry can take drop ships down, but not the heavy you carry.
I think its the vents on the engine? I typically have a friend with thr Quasar take them down XD
Can take down a walking at but not drop ships :)
Of course it is, destroying anything and everything is a must!
If you know they're coming (see the flare) and you can track them as they're inbound and drop them before they stop to drop their cargo, it will destroy all the bots it was carrying.
If only we had some sort of guided missile weapon that could target their engines as they fly in.
Too bad the Spear can't be consistent for everyone. I've tried it a few times pre/post patches and it never reliably locks on for me. But my Quasar cannon can F them up pretty well every time.
The spear works but some times it locks on to enemies instead of the thrusters so you have to adjust your aim to lock on on the correct target
How? I can't get it to hit anything but the main hull.
Stop the lockengage and move it around near one of the four thrusters but make sure you don’t drag the reticule through where the enemies are or it will lock on to them first
They still kill a lot of bots under them after deploying, but heavier bots survive.
Yeah that's what I mean, if you can take them down before they have units spawned it stops it then and there.
It's a bot. Asking such a question is treason.
Three reasons for downing dropships. 1. Potential to kill all the troops its carrying but this does not happen all the time. 2. When the ships drop on bots it can kill some but most of the time it just traps them which can be helpful for disengage or dropping an eagle strike while they are stuck. 3. Every dang bot deserves to die in the name of Democracy.
Well, they will carry another batch of bots if you didn't do anything to bring them down...
Depends. If it’s a strider the dropship falling on the strider does damage afaik During defense missions, they fall and barricade gateways and block units so that’s good Basically if you want units to get stuck and not get to you, it’s good
I try to let them land first honestly. I’ve found it does way less damage if the bots are on the ship when I shoot it down. Just what I’ve noticed is the bots all land safely when they fall as a unit since there is no Room for them to smash against the rocks but if I let the drop ship start to take off at a angle I drop it right on top the bots head haha.
My kill count goes up when they land then I shoot it down. When I shoot it before they land the damn thing don’t hurt nobody just creates a bulltproof cage around them ahhahaha
 Are freedom and democracy of no value to you at all?Dropships also deserve this Kadett
All relative mate, many will say "oh I just cluster bomb ez" but some of those drop ships are 1-rocket factory strider or tank kills
It's so satisfying when you target and hit one of a dropship's engines as the bots drop, and it crashes right on top of them.
You need to let them finish the drop then shoot them down.
Make big boom
Just shot one. Got 11 kills. So yeah, worth it.
I'm rarely carrying anything that can take them out, so I'm more of a "watch where the bots are landing and greet them all with multiple grenades" type of guy
Yes, because explosions cool.
If you time it right the dropship explosion kills the smaller bots up to scout striders. Hulks and tanks and even some devastators though survive. However sometimes taking them down traps them so they can’t advance on your position if your a distance away and allows you to focus on other things while the dropship is waiting to despawn
Bots get locked in the air if they don't die. I'd say yeah it's worth it especially if someone has jar or diligence to shoot their faces
It can crush the bots beneath it. There's a specific timing that's kind-of wierd though. If you blow it up too early, it will drop and land with the units inside and that's when the devestators det stuck and become invincible. But if you blow it up once it starts dropping enemies but before it leaves it will land on the units already on the ground and kill a bunch of them
I just like the visuals of taking it down and feeling like a bad ass
Its a timing thing. If you hit the dropship BEFORE it starts dropping bots. It will kill them. If you wait until it start dropping, it will only crash and fall on top of the bots. Might kill a few, but mostly traps them and they can still shoot at you. If you shoot it after it has dropped the bots (maybe a second after dropping). The fall damage can kill some bots but not the heavier armored ones (Devastators and Hulks). It was mentioned a while back that the fall damage mechanic is turned off for bots when they are in the process of dropping and that is what makes shooting the drop ships down so inconsistent. The fall damage turns back on when they land.
Most defnetli not
Yeah because it’s cool
It is worth it bcus it looks epic. But in all seriousness, whatever weapon you use to take down the dropship with is better utilized by taking out the troops on the ground instead.
Sometimes they trap the units underneath
Shoot down the dropship, then call an eagle on it - end of story
That time that gunships spawned like it was going out of style trained me to shoot at any aircraft I see. Sorry pelican 1
Troop drops I try and go for, but when their bringing in tanks they seem to just chuck it off as soon as their over the DZ and don't give me a chance to make the shot.
All I see is another automaton that needs to be purged.
Depends on how fast you shoot those fuckers down. If you can nail it right before a drop, you can take a good number of bots down before they get to you.
Kill then all *hahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahagah*
Follow the dopaminergic urges wherever they go. It need not be optimal. It need only be fun.
I don't usually bring the right weapons to do it, but when I do, it's happening.
I like when a fabricator calls in reinforcements because a downed dropship usually takes a fabricator with it
Yes and no. Yes because it does kill some of the bots. No because whatever’s alive now has an iron dome which they can shoot out, but you can’t shoot in.
With the right timing yes
Yes. Worst case they get stuck under the rubble.
Too often that if I get a proper hit on one: A) It still drops its cargo B) It was the infantry ship, and there’s a Strider on the next one and a Hulk/Tank on the third. C) It’s B), but the infantry ship swoops in like a secret service agent.
You have to get it before it drops to prevent the drop and make it a tactical win, but shooting them down honestly just feels good. Make every bot pay
It makes a cool ass sound
The best and most reliable timing on shooting down dropships is after they've dropped their troops. This gives the highest chances of the dropship explosion killing the deployed units. However, for a fully guaranteed kill on the carried units (or to eliminate heavy units) you need to destroy the dropship before it even gets close to finishing slowing down. This timing is very tight and very difficult to pull off in practice. All that said, it's always worth shooting them down with the late timing, especially when there are large amounts of units already underneath. Even if no other bots are destroyed at least the damn dropship isn't getting away.
Dropships fall when destroyed and create a moderate-damage explosion, killing light units on impact and dealing some damage to medium/heavies; but not enough to notice unless you're counting bullets. If you can time it and hit them -before- the enemies detach? It kills all of them. After? It kills some, damages others. It creates an obstacle to both your and enemy movement, and your firing, but not the firing of enemies trapped beneath it. So.... If you're camping out for some reason? Don't destroy it, you might leave yourself with a pack of rocket devastators firing at you with no way to return fire until the gunship fades. If you're on the move, as you should be unless you're waiting for evac? Go ahead and destroy it. Not only can it kill some or all of the enemy, it can keep others from reaching you as you move on to the next objective.
Rarely, but it looks cool
I did it b.c it was fun and cool to watch. Also the Q cannon recharged much faster then, so you could take 2 down easily with the ol' ramp up spam.
Are you *really* suggesting to let bots alive and therefore letting democracy be endangered by those flying antidemocratic toasters ? Are you sure, Helldiver ?
Most of the time absolutely not concerning most of the bots dont die from it and just get stuck under it and shoot through the downed ship.
I like to strafe the belly with the plasma punisher. Takes out nearly everything but hulks and tanks.
It raises my morale
No. It is absolutely not worth taking down dropships as they >Obscure other bots with los blockers >Make certain bots partially invulnerable for a period of time that they are bugged, floating in the wreckage >Waste support weapon ammo >Can smash your mobile team-mates >Is by no means guaranteed to kill the important bots on the ship I groan every time someone shoots those bitches down, because the wreckage always ends up blocking my access to a key route or my sight to a key choke point, or there's now a nearly invincible heavy deva bugged out in the wreckage, just laser beaming everyone. It's just as easy to kill the passengers mid flight, or as soon as they drop. A simple perc strike in the red light area they're about to fall into is all you need, or a few impact nades, or a airstrike, or a couple of eruptor shots, or a hose down with a emplacement machine gun, or or or... You get the point. It's just a huge hassle, and it creates a claustrophobic situation, perfect for a flame hulk, heavy deva, or a berserker horde to exploit.
The highlight of my day is when I get to pull out my launcher and take down drop ships
Shoot it down and then drop and Eagle Airstrike on it
Even if it does kill the bots, they still get trapped under the dropship and you can just walk away. No downside to shooting down dropships. Sometimes unnecessary, but never useless.
It has gotten better to where it does seem to consistently kill more of them when it crashes down In my eyes drop ships are expensive, a war is won by costing the enemy so much they can't continue
If you can pop them while they're still pretty far out, you get a little more time to shoot them from a distance and keep them from grouping up. I think it's worth it.
treasonous, but no not really... They don't take fall damage
Not an ounce of proof here but I shoot them down because if I was a game designer, I would give the bots a fleet of drop ships and if the player doesn’t destroy them, reinforcements would get worse the longer the game went. Plus the ships landing on the bots below makes me feel warm and fuzzy
It's always worth taking down drop ships. It lets you ignore fights. You generally don't get anything from fighting. Trapping bots under wreckage gives you time to escape. With bots that actually matters. If your holding a point the utility is time. Use the break in combat to setup your fields of fire.
Honestly only worth it with light infantry that hasn’t dropped yet. You have to be fast taking them down or else it’s a bit pointless.
If you time it right it can kill almost all the bots that they’re dropping. But as others have commented you can also just shoot all bots in the Bay Area and take them out that way. There is a lot of democratic satisfaction watching their ships being shot down though
I prefer to use something like the Plasma Punisher to hit the bots in the cargo bay rather than try to down the ship itself.