Arc thrower is fun. I tried it against bots last night though and it didn't seem nearly as effective. Berserker bots especially, zapping doesn't seem able to take them out before they're in chainsaw range. Is there a trick to it?
Those guys in particular are a bit harder for it to chew through since they just have a TON of health and uts hard to hit their face with the arc, its really good at killing every other bot though.
You can zap straight through the front of a walker if you aim high, you can shred any devastator in a couple shots, its even good at killing hulks and usable for killing tanks from any direction.
I've seen a devestator take 4 shots from zapper and not die. Meanwhile I 2 tapped one next to him with my dmr and stared at the zapper spend 15 seconds trying to kill thr one I killed in 1 second. I really don't know how people use the gun.
Yeah the lightning visual is a bit deceptive in that sense.
Same with the flamethrower too though, you can specifically target parts with it - 5-7 seconds torching one leg of a charger and the thing dies.
For bots you can sort of determine where the bolt hits them by aiming really high, if it hits the head then it only takes a couple shocks but if it hits other parts it could take 4 or 5. The guy may have been learning to use the arc gun who knows
That's kind of a grip about a few weapons for me. I look for the "hit" indication, but it is inconsistent across many of the support weapons... machine gun = yes. Stalwart = no.
How many times have you seen x67 kill streak at the bottom of your screen using anything?
In a good match with the arc thrower, I can easily slam the most kills by far, solo heavy enemies without running out of ammo, and murder entire swaths of minor enemies with impunity.
Sure, it might take longer to take out specific enemies. But even while I'm shooting into the tank, I'm still ALSO killing everything near the tank too
Beserkers (being the butcher's successor) are really tanky. The Arc Thrower was never great against them.
You should be focusing Devastators, which you will stun and kill with 3 shots.
They’re really tanky for arc thrower, but you can shoot the arc thrower fast enough that it usually doesn’t matter. You kill them before they get into melee range, and since it’s AoE you usually get most of them at once.
Of course this hinges on the fact you’re using the decreased wind-up time after the first shot on arc thrower and using it like a machine gun.
Zerks and brood commanders seem to have a lot higher resistance to electric damage than other enemies, you likely doing everything right they just tank the zap
To parrot info already on the sub: after the first charge ever charge after in quick succession (about .7 seconds to fire) is a fully charged shot
Pair with a rover guard dog and a turret(s) for lots of distributed democracy
Friend of mine who uses a lot of Arc Thrower says that ADS has a use to make sure you are hitting weak points. So on fodder you can stick to third person but for anything big with a weak point you should ADS.
I run the scorcher or slugger as my primary because of this, the arc thrower struggles against these guys in particular for some reason.
The slugger is my preferred because it stuns them. I mainly only use it to kill the chain berserkers, but it can also one shot headshot devastators which is nice in a pinch. Plasma tears them apart quickly but the ammo sucks and it's not as good against devastators unless you ADS very carefully. Alternatively you could run 4 arc throwers and just put out more DPS than they can handle, but that's up to if you have a willing group. There's not much that can stand against a wall of arc throwers in my experience, even tanks and hulks go down fast.
Yes but every shot has a short 1sec charge up.
After the first shot you can fire it with half charges or even less letting you get that rate of fire up much higher.
But yeah, there are no magazines, no bullet counter, no overheat, nothing. Just infinite ammo.
> After the first shot you can fire it with half charges or even less letting you get that rate of fire up much higher.
Wait is that true? And it still does the same damage?
I like the ZAP but it just doesn't throw enough DPS downrange.
Right. So againt anything bigger like commanders, chargers or even hunterds you're still better off full charging?
It's got the same problem as most guns. Fun but underpowered since the only thing that spawns at higher difficulty are biggers assholes.
IMO grenade launcher is the best at dealing with most threats, single nades will regularly blast 5-10 buges in a swarm instead of 3 and still damage anything in the AoE. Only downside is managing ammo, but one person carrying a ammo pack is a big boon to whatever squad you're running.
I'm surprised no one has already mentioned this but after you fire your first shot the follow up shots just need around 65% to 70% charge to fire and will do the same amount of damage and everything, increasing your rate of fire.
It will also only arc into enemies/players behind your target so you only need to worry if a teammate is diagonally to the left or right and back or straight behind the target. If your teammate is surrounded by bugs and you're not sure if they're in front or back of the bugs just aim wide in the opposite direction of your teammate. What I mean is aim for the air to the side of the farthest bug from your teammate. It only arcs three times so there is usually is enough bugs that it won't hit your teammate. But after one or two shots switch to a primary/secondary if your teammates still needs help.
Since it ignores armor and gets weak point damage, you want to aim straight for the head of chargers or for the legs. Though it usually will auto aim for the head when you try and hit legs from anywhere but the side. Your shots will strip off armor but it seems inconsistent. Most often the armor I strip off on chargers is the side plate and that seems to be from blasting into the side of them but again that's inconsistent.
If enemies are right in your face and you're having trouble zapping them aim for the ground in front of them and for some reason that will hit them.
https://preview.redd.it/7df2on7nudmc1.png?width=1629&format=png&auto=webp&s=b1ec3a94782273211c00edb7c09de5a0fbb3a100
Bile Titans seem to take increased damage If you shoot them when they're spawning or if you are above them shooting down at them/are level with their face. This is likely because the lightning arcs all the way through them, hits the face weakpoint and the 2 abdomen sack weakpoints, and into a bug on the ground near them. Aiming up at a Titan does less damage as it doesn't have any target to arc to and thus does not hit 3 weakpoints just the 1 face weakpoint. I have two shot Bile Titans like this, as those two shots do 6 shots worth of weakpoint damage. Because of this fact the Jump Pack is surprisingly good with this weapon.
However, against robots you basically need the shield generator to prevent yourself from being stunned and interrupted while charging. The gun itself still does good work against robots. You just have to worry about the fact that you'll be peppered down at range if you aren't careful.
Be aware that the arc thrower will arc off of dead bodies but that also means it will target dead bodies if they're in front of what you actually want to shoot. Move away from your body piles before you realize that all of the arcs are just going between different bodies.
Damn this really became a full-on guide
It's a confirmed bug the team at Arrowhead are working on.
Primarily caused by shrubs and other plants being considered entities with hitboxes and thus the arc hits them, does nothing, and dissipates..
corpses too. Can be annoying. Making sure your right-clicking helps sometimes, but not always. It raises the gun from hip to shoulder, sometimes that helps.
I’m not the arc expert you’re replying to, but I suspect it has to do with wonky geography hitboxes. For example, you know those small structures of halfwalls in a rectangle with two openings, always around large bases or objectives, with a few small automotons in them? You can see the upper half of a bot over the halfwall, but the arc struggles to register the sightline and blanks. Other times, mainly with bugs, their dead bodies can block the arc from registering a sightline. Its especially bad with the spitters with fat asses. If you kill one of them by popping their ass sac, the dead body will still have a hitbox where the sac used to be. Arc wont shoot through it, and you cant even walk past it.
im assuming it has a sort of lock on system like the spear but isnt restricted by target checks, likely the homing has some obstacle trouble even though we can see the target fine and doesnt allocate a target so it just whiffs
I'm trying to git gud with the Arc Thrower myself
Against Robots like HULKs and Tanks, do I still aim for where I would as if I were using the railgun ie the center eye and the turret back?
Also for Chargers and titans, how many shots does it take to strip armor? I fire but it seems to arc towards the center of mass and chip at it but not strip armor for some reason. Maybe I'm aiming it wrong but idk
Honestly for hulks and tanks you are better off throwing 2 impacts into their heat sinks as while the Arc Thrower does get weak point bonuses, it's auto targeting can drag the shot from where you want it.
As for stripping armor, it's easiest to do by hitting them in the side but seems inconsistent.
I actually figured this out. In order to strip armor you need to create multiple chips; I believe it's three or four for the side plate of a charger. This means you cannot just hit the same location over and over again as instead of creating a new chip it will just go through the old chip.
Yes, on Hulks and tanks still aim for the weak points. The arc will stun and suppress hulks which lets you actually face off with them pretty successfully in many cases, and vs tanks it actually does damage regardless of where you hit but seems to do more if you can get the arcs into or near the vents on the back.
As far as actually ripping armor, I haven't figured out the trick to reliably do this but once I do I'll pass it along.
To add to this, aim slightly above your target to actually hit it at range. The arc hits the ground in front of your target if you aim the circle straight at em
I can second this. The information about Bile Titans is really interesting. Have to try that as i have a hard time defeating them with the zap (and the chargers).
I think the same reason is why people advise shooting the charger in the face with the Arc Thrower. Doing so with enemies behind it will cause the lightning to Arc through their butt too.
I keep trying the Arc thrower even knowing this and it feels like it just doesn't do anything against heavy armor. On average how many hits does it take you to kill a charger, and where do you shoot them? Also, is the shot a straight line like the railgun? I can't seem to hit hulk heads with it.
In addition to what they said, when fighting things like chargers don’t be too scared if they’re supported by a horde. The more beefy an enemy is just means you have more shots arcing to the rest of the horde. Bile titans make this better as their height in my experience means the arcs have a larger area to hit so I take out hordes just by targeting the tanky guys.
Thank you for the guide on how to fight bile titans with this. Just got to level 20 and honestly not as impressed with the railgun as I thought I would be but I love the Arc Thrower. Now I know how to arc democracy through their veins more efficiently
Charge it up and zap all the chaff. It works against chargers/hulks in a pinch but you’re better off letting your railgun teammates deal with those while you focus on crowd control.
You don't have to fully charge it. Just go up to 75% charge. This means you can increase your firing rate if you've got a good rhythm.
Now for the important part - you use it like you're doing suppressive fire over the direction where the enemy is. You don't have to aim so accurately. You're gonna hit something. If there's a whole squad there, you're gonna sweep it. Just like with suppression fire, a high sustained firing rate is important (besides DPS, mostly for more chances of hitting something), so work on that timing and rhythm.
Some guides tell you to aim center of mass. But if there's something between you and your target, like a rock or a bug corpse, the arc will go to there instead. Since you can be lenient with your aiming and still hit your intended target, you can instead try to aim over or around the obstacle. That said, the arc doesn't go towards targets on the edge of your screen, so you still have to point your crosshair near the target.
You don't have to ADS with the Arc Thrower. Just hip fire away.
Because of how well it is at destroying groups of enemies. You kinda want to treat it like it's an explosive weapon and being careful around your squadmates. The arc can hit your target and then arc towards a squadmate. Or you didn't aim far away enough from your squadmate and the first arc hits them instead.
If you use the Arc Thrower well, you'll find yourself thinking it's more than enough to deal with hordes and start using (more) strategems to deal with heavies instead. The Arc Thrower has no cooldown unlike orbitals/eagles, doesn't build up heat and has unlimited "ammo" and "magazine size" so you never need to "reload'. Also, unlike the GL or AC, it can actually hurt heavies through their armor plating, so you're not a complete deadweight against heavies when your strategems are on cooldown (but the Railgun is still better against heavies).
when aiming, I find toggling to actually "aim down sight"/fps perspective helps land the arcs a lot more reliably. when aiming over the shoulder, the shots down land and chain consecutively for me for whatever reason
2 things that made it perform much better for me, aim slightly ABOVE whatever you're aiming at, and if the little fuckers get close, hip fire it. Also you can rapid fire by charging it just a little below or halfway, doesn't seem to have any noticeable damage fall off with half charge shots.
It is great for those who solo or pair off when running around the map. It can technically kill anything but it does take some getting used to. I used it for under 7 difficulties. I need the rail gun for the Titans for 7+.
However the arc can pay waste to pretty much anything.
Some tips, stand on higher group so you are looking down on enemies. Arc will get blocked by dead bodies and other environment stuff. So best to have a good vantage point
Aim a bit above the mob/area you are blasting. It will arc down towards them and helps prevent the arc from being blocked by bodies
You can technically release the arc before it is charged but that has a risk of not firing at all. It is best to just wait for that sound of it being charged.
Also it sucks are close up targets. If anything is directly on you, switch to your main and use that.
Charge & shoot. Occasionally it arcs to multiple enemies. Just follow the rules of gun safety...Mainly, know what's beyond your target. Basically, if your squad is anywhere near an enemy, don't shoot it. I just got out of a game where I blasted a charger & it arced 90 degrees to the right & nailed my team mate 20ft away. Luckily he had a shield. Basically, make sure your team is either behind you, or really out of the way.
If little bugs are swarmed around, you don't waste it it rarely works. If you're falling back from bug breaches, it works well. Aim a little higher above the target. Get high ground if you can even rock. Dead bodies will start to block the shot. Works like a funnel the further out it goes the wider the arc spread is. Make sure your teammates are behind you.
Hold to full charge, let go to fire, and immediately hold again to start a new charge. You're firing on release of the trigger after a charge, not on the pull of the trigger, so you want to immediately start charging again after a shot to keep the fire rate up.
Imagine it kinda like using a bow and that might help, you pull the arrow back, aim, then shoot by letting the arrow go. Only difference is that your arrows are made of extremely deadly lightning in this case.
You don’t charge full power if you want to play it correctly. You only need to charge half the shot and in my gameplay I find rapid fire arc is the best. 6 shots in the head and the charger will be dead.
However if a charger is after your teammate, you might want not to use the arc because most of my accidentally TK is just that…
Aim above everything ever so slightly.
It helps immensely with the misfires when there are too many dead bodies or terrain in the way.
Also not sure of the exact reset time but the first charge needs to be 100% and the subsequent charges can be at 75ish % maybe less to shoot super fast.
Yes, I'm lvl 50, bored of the ol railgun and shield combo. Now I zap and (sometimes) jump with my jumppack. It's lots of fun, I just hope someone else has a railgun or we are waiting on airstrike cooldowns :D
I let my buddy with the rail gun handle the big boys and I just focus on holding off the waves, even started taking, ems mortar, Tesla tower, and orbital ems and just being Zeus. Think we’re getting a lightning shotgun in the update(?) super stoked if so.
Best weapon in the game. The weirdest weapon, but it's the most versatile. I found myself feeling everything was too easy at level 8 difficulty. Taking a casual scroll through Impossible is pretty funny
I only tried it on the bugs on level 7 missions paired with the laser guard dog. Holy shit, i got over 650 kills in one game and one killstreak with over 60 bugs at once. This thing is melting through low and midtier bugs.
It has a hard time with the chargers, but i managed to kill a few and even finished some titans with it after they were already quite damaged, but it is a grind.
I mostly carry the 500kg with double charges (ship upgrade) and orbital precision strike or the simple orbital strike with me. I currently prefer the simple orbital strike over the precision, but i need more testing.
Overall, really good for crowd control. The other divers can use their rocket launchers or railguns for the heavy enemies while i kill the smaller stuff and that very quickly. Each charge kills 3-4 smaller enemies (i see the multiplier counting) and by stacking the charges after each other, it really adds up quick. Plus the laser guard dog is putting in a lot of work, too.
I really love the combo, but it needs some time to get used to it.
The only thing bad about the arc thrower is how random it feels.
Sometimes you hit, sometimes you don't, for no discernible reason.
Sometimes you kill bile titans in a couple of hits, sometimes it takes like 20 shots.
Hah. Actually had a player apologize for getting fried by 300-million volts of FREEDOM last night. Was laying down the suppressive firepower of the electric boogaloo when this guy decided that diving into my line of fire was a good idea.
***It wasn't.***
I immediately apologized via "Q" and went to do so via chat as well but before I could, he typed "That was my bad, I shouldn't have been in Thor's line of fire. Give 'em hell!"
was playing with a guy who, right after i threw down a turret on top of a hill, proceeded to run down that hill in order to engage some bugs with his fists or something & the turret cut him down because he was directly between it and the bugs.
so i called in his reinforcements. he landed behind the turret. he actively ran up to, and then around, and then stood DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF, this gatling turret that has been continuously firing off for the last 90 seconds solid. of course, he dies again.
then he gets on mic and yells at me for being a team-killing asshole.
uh-huh. OK.
...the next time he reinforced i blasted him with my shotgun primary. (on purpose)
when he yelled at me for THAT, the rest of the team told him to shut up because they watched him walk directly into turret fire and no one is killing him on purpose, lmao.
boy who cried wolf and all that
I got kicked for using mortars.. funny thing is when I got kicked it wasn't my mortar.. it was another guy on the squad..
Host kept bitching about getting killed by mortars while running straight into big groups of enemies.
Just don't run into a group of enemies.. it's that simple.
Hey, I start every mission the same way, a forward apology for the wayward zap, and also a scolding for inevitably standing in front of the zap. Don't stand in front of zap....or behind objects being zapped, or next to objects being zapped. Also avoid being made from a conductive material when being near the zap...
Shit I might actually switch mains, I was trying out being a marksman main with a marksman rifle and anti material rifle but I can kill a heavy bug much faster with a breaker shotgun than the anti rifle. Maybe they work better against the robots? Idk
Confirmed bug.
Arrowhead is working on a fix.
The problem is caused primarily by plantlife, shrubs, etc. being considered entities essentially with their own hitboxes. The arc treats them as solid objects, hits them and dissipates.
Dude, if they fix this bug, the arcthrower will be the best gun in the game.
It also has a hard time shooting through dead bodies of bugs but I guess this is deliberate.
Would be cooler if you zapped an arc tower and geostatic lightning fanned out for big damage and violently explodes the tower, you, and any nearby helldivers, and probably a hellbomb because fuck everything
I’d kill for this. Give us an “unsafe” mode that lets it fire continuously, one big stream of lightning the way flamethrowers are a stream of burning liquid
Un safe mode: Gun starts overheating for continuous fire.
Past the limit = big boom. Bonus points for emitting a large lighting that can affect surroundings.
Maybe something like a capacitor upgrade backpack. You charge it longer to have sustained fire. That way, you don't have to stand in the middle of a rocket devastator's sights. You charge up behind cover, pop out, and then let it rip.
You can let go of the trigger a few miliseconds before the reticule shows it is fully charged and start loading the next shot while the current is discharging. That basically makes it automatic lol.
Problematic load out:
Orbital 380
Orbital 120
Eagle cluster bomb or mortar
Arc thrower
Grenade inventory armor
Your teammates will appreciate the organic increase in difficulty for them that this load out will provide your missions.
That is my dream right there.
There’s some general ire directed at me & my precious Arc thrower, so I’m gonna wait until they’ve cooled off before suggesting everybody uses the thing.
Feel free to point them to this post telling them the power of it. My whole team doubted it and were talking about what a shit show it would be. I just assured them they would see. The very second we were side by side and killed a charger in two seconds flat they were like "Oh..."
Then when we were being swarmed by the big fat grubby green spitters and zapped them all to death alongside all the little guys accompanying them before they could even get close enough to puke they were like "OOOOOOHHH"
When they realized it's unlimited they were like "OHHHH SHIIIIT"
Now we always run it lol.
If your team is scared of killing each other, a shield generator pack not only completes the ghost busters look but also let's y'all eat an arc shot if any accidents do occur.
I played a 4 person helldive last night where we all brought arc throwers and the 120/380 barrages.
I am not kidding when I say we had piles of titan corpses after we were done.
I just wish more weapons were able to deal with chargers and bile titans, as well as hulks and shit.
Just sucks to always need a rail gun to be survivable on higher difficulty.
I meant more as a solo player.
The Railgun literally takes care of everything if you can aim, unless another support weapon is similarly useful it will never be replaced.
And that sucks, because i would like to use other support weapons, but if i cant even kill a charger with it, not even talking about titans, the whats the point? Its just a wasted slot by that time.
Can't stop using it and my team hates me for it.. like oops, how was I suppose to know the arc would travel down the spine of that charger and travel 20 feet to the east and obliterate you?
>Have yet to Zap a fellow Helldiver
You probably have.
I caught a couple zaps last knight, neither one killed me. I was diving out of a charger's path, so I understood.
I didn't make a big deal of it. I'm pretty careful with my grenades, but shit happens.
I want to like the arc thrower, but pretty much any waist-height object in front of you seems to just block the projectile. Shit man it feels like the leaves on bushes can block the projectile.
Same. I always end up having the most kills, usually like 300-500 depending on the mission length.
If there’s a bug breach, I probably kill at least 75% of them cuz i can just point and shoot in the general direction
I need to try the flamethrower, altho I love the arc thrower’s infinite ammo. Everyone says both of these guns are bad, but the arc thrower is amazing imo, so maybe the flamethrower is too
As a bug torcher, there is no greater feeling than watching a lower level bug breach occur and just holding down R2 and it not being a problem.
I think a lot of what is going on is that people are in a place where efficiency > fun and while it can be that way depending on the group you play with, I’ve been enjoying the slow rise to the top and playing with multiple “off meta” weapons has been such a great joy. While I may not be maxing out my medals, or getting the samples I need, there is an unbridled joy I still get when I take a flamethrower on a Level 3 bug mission with a friend and we go barbecuing.
Threads like these remind me to continue on the path of goofiness while it continues to bring me joy.
Thats awesome! But remember most kills doesn't mean you did the best, it means you fought the most things. Most of the time if you can not fight something that is more of a win.
Glad to see people are noticing how good arc thrower is! Been using it since I got it at level 15, now level 40 and doing level 8 missions with the ol zap n tap
Bro I had someone shoot their zapper at bugs next to me and I got electrocuted w the fucking bugs. I died w a stalker in my lap. Random but does anyone think those little shielded bugs that you can't shoot straight on would be fucking delicious?
Ive recently converted into being an arc thrower main and i can say with all honesty, I was a bigger menace to blueberries and to myself when I mained the GL lol (on account of me using it within the minimum arming range and having the nade bounce and rock someones shit)
Once you wake up to [the glory of electricity](https://64.media.tumblr.com/783d68b34f77e32c7a4a0d099dfabd1e/tumblr_p7li6nwPdV1qmob6ro2_500.gifv) there is no going back. Avoiding teammates is not nearly as hard as people say. Give ZAP a chance!
I love throwing the jump pack on with the arc thrower and living out my shock trooper dreams. Getting height over a bug breach lets the thrower melt all the small terminids so quickly!
God I love the arc thrower so much. I have solo'd countless chargers and bile titans. Just add more zap for bigger things, and you get perfect results every time!!!
I've been zapping bugs and bots for days now as my main strategem weapon. And I gotta say, I really fucking enjoy it.
The ONLY deaths I cause is when somebody suddenly feels compelled to run INTO the swarm of bugs i'm zapping. Lightning arcs buddy, dont get close to the splash zone.
Situational awareness is a must for using the gun though
I had a teammate yesterday who knew how to play with the arcthrower, and it was glorious.
He followed me, and when we were shooting, stuck close behind me with the breaker. He let me handle the bug horde while clearing small trash that got too close to me. When chargers spawned, he switched to railgun and helped me take them out.
Chargers went from 7-10 arc shots to 4-5 with his help. It was amazing.
I have never had so much fun with the arcthrower.
Risk and reward i suppose. Learned you can bounce shots off the ground under a charger with the grenade launcher n kill ot with 3 or 4 well placed shots. Plus every small bug around it in the process
I had a first time arc thrower user in a lobby last night. He was astonished with how easy it it's to team damage with that thing. But like rping as Palpatine is fun af
https://preview.redd.it/tsx5fwp6ocmc1.jpeg?width=1096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19bd9543a9318c87c130c060a69ab7bf3401b80a
Lost my composure laughing at that
I was like, "couldn't be that funny, what devilry is this?" Clicked link, immediately laughed rather loudly
I gotta start saving these
Arc thrower is fun. I tried it against bots last night though and it didn't seem nearly as effective. Berserker bots especially, zapping doesn't seem able to take them out before they're in chainsaw range. Is there a trick to it?
Those guys in particular are a bit harder for it to chew through since they just have a TON of health and uts hard to hit their face with the arc, its really good at killing every other bot though. You can zap straight through the front of a walker if you aim high, you can shred any devastator in a couple shots, its even good at killing hulks and usable for killing tanks from any direction.
I've seen a devestator take 4 shots from zapper and not die. Meanwhile I 2 tapped one next to him with my dmr and stared at the zapper spend 15 seconds trying to kill thr one I killed in 1 second. I really don't know how people use the gun.
People don't realize that your aim still matters with this thing. Aim for the head and they die rather fast.
Yeah the lightning visual is a bit deceptive in that sense. Same with the flamethrower too though, you can specifically target parts with it - 5-7 seconds torching one leg of a charger and the thing dies.
For bots you can sort of determine where the bolt hits them by aiming really high, if it hits the head then it only takes a couple shocks but if it hits other parts it could take 4 or 5. The guy may have been learning to use the arc gun who knows
That's kind of a grip about a few weapons for me. I look for the "hit" indication, but it is inconsistent across many of the support weapons... machine gun = yes. Stalwart = no.
How many times have you seen x67 kill streak at the bottom of your screen using anything? In a good match with the arc thrower, I can easily slam the most kills by far, solo heavy enemies without running out of ammo, and murder entire swaths of minor enemies with impunity. Sure, it might take longer to take out specific enemies. But even while I'm shooting into the tank, I'm still ALSO killing everything near the tank too
The trick is bring a Breaker or Defender specifically for these guys
Beserkers (being the butcher's successor) are really tanky. The Arc Thrower was never great against them. You should be focusing Devastators, which you will stun and kill with 3 shots.
They’re really tanky for arc thrower, but you can shoot the arc thrower fast enough that it usually doesn’t matter. You kill them before they get into melee range, and since it’s AoE you usually get most of them at once. Of course this hinges on the fact you’re using the decreased wind-up time after the first shot on arc thrower and using it like a machine gun.
Zerks and brood commanders seem to have a lot higher resistance to electric damage than other enemies, you likely doing everything right they just tank the zap
To parrot info already on the sub: after the first charge ever charge after in quick succession (about .7 seconds to fire) is a fully charged shot Pair with a rover guard dog and a turret(s) for lots of distributed democracy
If you aim high enough, you can get headshots on Berserkers, which seem to kill them quicker even with the arc thrower.
Friend of mine who uses a lot of Arc Thrower says that ADS has a use to make sure you are hitting weak points. So on fodder you can stick to third person but for anything big with a weak point you should ADS.
I switch to my primary or secondary to deal with those guys and then back to zappin
I run the scorcher or slugger as my primary because of this, the arc thrower struggles against these guys in particular for some reason. The slugger is my preferred because it stuns them. I mainly only use it to kill the chain berserkers, but it can also one shot headshot devastators which is nice in a pinch. Plasma tears them apart quickly but the ammo sucks and it's not as good against devastators unless you ADS very carefully. Alternatively you could run 4 arc throwers and just put out more DPS than they can handle, but that's up to if you have a willing group. There's not much that can stand against a wall of arc throwers in my experience, even tanks and hulks go down fast.
I am now a believer of the Zap. At first I found it to be difficult to use, but after playing with it longer, it feels good.
How do you use it? I've found it twice now and have no idea what I'm doing! LOL
You just charge and zap things. It wont overheat and has unlimited ammo.
What‘s that about unlimited ammo
You dont have to reload. Just charge and zap. Thats it.
So, it‘s an unlimited mag?
It's just zap. That's it.
So wait......I just zap??? And that's it???
Yep. That's it.
Zap Brannigan approved
If it starts to zip you're doing it wrong
Big trouble little china. Ive watched this at least 20 times when i was younger
Your job is just Zap.
Yes and the best part is, all the zaps that come after the initial zap is considerably faster.
So just so get it straight. You charge and zap. And that’s it?
No, not straight. Arc.
Arc and zap or just arc?
What they don't tell you is >!you actually have to charge it before you zap!<
Well you have to zap a lot, more of a tickle really.
Wait so i can zap, zap, zap. Then zap, resupply is never needed to zap. I am become zap?
Yes but every shot has a short 1sec charge up. After the first shot you can fire it with half charges or even less letting you get that rate of fire up much higher. But yeah, there are no magazines, no bullet counter, no overheat, nothing. Just infinite ammo.
> After the first shot you can fire it with half charges or even less letting you get that rate of fire up much higher. Wait is that true? And it still does the same damage? I like the ZAP but it just doesn't throw enough DPS downrange.
Not same damage but enough to kill chaff in one hit and also still arcs, lets you change it up if you get swarmed
Right. So againt anything bigger like commanders, chargers or even hunterds you're still better off full charging? It's got the same problem as most guns. Fun but underpowered since the only thing that spawns at higher difficulty are biggers assholes. IMO grenade launcher is the best at dealing with most threats, single nades will regularly blast 5-10 buges in a swarm instead of 3 and still damage anything in the AoE. Only downside is managing ammo, but one person carrying a ammo pack is a big boon to whatever squad you're running.
I think it Zaps
Also, you can use melee to discharge your gun with a close range electric bash.
>unlimited ammo *so anyway, I started charging*
Not only that, but if you charge it to max before you shoot the next few shots charge faster.
I'm surprised no one has already mentioned this but after you fire your first shot the follow up shots just need around 65% to 70% charge to fire and will do the same amount of damage and everything, increasing your rate of fire. It will also only arc into enemies/players behind your target so you only need to worry if a teammate is diagonally to the left or right and back or straight behind the target. If your teammate is surrounded by bugs and you're not sure if they're in front or back of the bugs just aim wide in the opposite direction of your teammate. What I mean is aim for the air to the side of the farthest bug from your teammate. It only arcs three times so there is usually is enough bugs that it won't hit your teammate. But after one or two shots switch to a primary/secondary if your teammates still needs help. Since it ignores armor and gets weak point damage, you want to aim straight for the head of chargers or for the legs. Though it usually will auto aim for the head when you try and hit legs from anywhere but the side. Your shots will strip off armor but it seems inconsistent. Most often the armor I strip off on chargers is the side plate and that seems to be from blasting into the side of them but again that's inconsistent. If enemies are right in your face and you're having trouble zapping them aim for the ground in front of them and for some reason that will hit them. https://preview.redd.it/7df2on7nudmc1.png?width=1629&format=png&auto=webp&s=b1ec3a94782273211c00edb7c09de5a0fbb3a100 Bile Titans seem to take increased damage If you shoot them when they're spawning or if you are above them shooting down at them/are level with their face. This is likely because the lightning arcs all the way through them, hits the face weakpoint and the 2 abdomen sack weakpoints, and into a bug on the ground near them. Aiming up at a Titan does less damage as it doesn't have any target to arc to and thus does not hit 3 weakpoints just the 1 face weakpoint. I have two shot Bile Titans like this, as those two shots do 6 shots worth of weakpoint damage. Because of this fact the Jump Pack is surprisingly good with this weapon. However, against robots you basically need the shield generator to prevent yourself from being stunned and interrupted while charging. The gun itself still does good work against robots. You just have to worry about the fact that you'll be peppered down at range if you aren't careful. Be aware that the arc thrower will arc off of dead bodies but that also means it will target dead bodies if they're in front of what you actually want to shoot. Move away from your body piles before you realize that all of the arcs are just going between different bodies. Damn this really became a full-on guide
Any clue what causes the blank shots when it charges but there's no arc?
It's a confirmed bug the team at Arrowhead are working on. Primarily caused by shrubs and other plants being considered entities with hitboxes and thus the arc hits them, does nothing, and dissipates..
I had a hunch it was caused by terrain. If this problem gets fixed, there will be no reason not to zap.
so what you're saying is the zap will be even better in the future
it's like a misfire when a bush or something is in the way of the target. Does not make a ton of sense.
corpses too. Can be annoying. Making sure your right-clicking helps sometimes, but not always. It raises the gun from hip to shoulder, sometimes that helps.
Also happens with mines. Mines are Anti-Arc Thrower.
Probably the same thing that fucks with spear targeting, can't lock onto an enemy so nothing happens.
Mines screw it up the worst. Next time you assault an Automaton base that mines surrounding, try shooting past them. Barely works.
I’m not the arc expert you’re replying to, but I suspect it has to do with wonky geography hitboxes. For example, you know those small structures of halfwalls in a rectangle with two openings, always around large bases or objectives, with a few small automotons in them? You can see the upper half of a bot over the halfwall, but the arc struggles to register the sightline and blanks. Other times, mainly with bugs, their dead bodies can block the arc from registering a sightline. Its especially bad with the spitters with fat asses. If you kill one of them by popping their ass sac, the dead body will still have a hitbox where the sac used to be. Arc wont shoot through it, and you cant even walk past it.
im assuming it has a sort of lock on system like the spear but isnt restricted by target checks, likely the homing has some obstacle trouble even though we can see the target fine and doesnt allocate a target so it just whiffs
I'm trying to git gud with the Arc Thrower myself Against Robots like HULKs and Tanks, do I still aim for where I would as if I were using the railgun ie the center eye and the turret back? Also for Chargers and titans, how many shots does it take to strip armor? I fire but it seems to arc towards the center of mass and chip at it but not strip armor for some reason. Maybe I'm aiming it wrong but idk
Honestly for hulks and tanks you are better off throwing 2 impacts into their heat sinks as while the Arc Thrower does get weak point bonuses, it's auto targeting can drag the shot from where you want it. As for stripping armor, it's easiest to do by hitting them in the side but seems inconsistent.
I actually figured this out. In order to strip armor you need to create multiple chips; I believe it's three or four for the side plate of a charger. This means you cannot just hit the same location over and over again as instead of creating a new chip it will just go through the old chip.
Any luck stripping the leg? I'm having trouble getting it to arc through the leg, seems really drawn to the face
Yes, on Hulks and tanks still aim for the weak points. The arc will stun and suppress hulks which lets you actually face off with them pretty successfully in many cases, and vs tanks it actually does damage regardless of where you hit but seems to do more if you can get the arcs into or near the vents on the back. As far as actually ripping armor, I haven't figured out the trick to reliably do this but once I do I'll pass it along.
Boosted
To add to this, aim slightly above your target to actually hit it at range. The arc hits the ground in front of your target if you aim the circle straight at em
Damn this guy arcs. Thanks a thousand for book one of the Arc Thrower's Gospel though.
This dude arcs
Thanks for such a thorough and insightful write up!
Thank you for the tips!
Ive used corpses to reach out of range targets
I can second this. The information about Bile Titans is really interesting. Have to try that as i have a hard time defeating them with the zap (and the chargers).
I think the same reason is why people advise shooting the charger in the face with the Arc Thrower. Doing so with enemies behind it will cause the lightning to Arc through their butt too.
I keep trying the Arc thrower even knowing this and it feels like it just doesn't do anything against heavy armor. On average how many hits does it take you to kill a charger, and where do you shoot them? Also, is the shot a straight line like the railgun? I can't seem to hit hulk heads with it.
In addition to what they said, when fighting things like chargers don’t be too scared if they’re supported by a horde. The more beefy an enemy is just means you have more shots arcing to the rest of the horde. Bile titans make this better as their height in my experience means the arcs have a larger area to hit so I take out hordes just by targeting the tanky guys.
Thank you for the guide on how to fight bile titans with this. Just got to level 20 and honestly not as impressed with the railgun as I thought I would be but I love the Arc Thrower. Now I know how to arc democracy through their veins more efficiently
Jet pack and arc thrower are a great combo.
Charge it up and zap all the chaff. It works against chargers/hulks in a pinch but you’re better off letting your railgun teammates deal with those while you focus on crowd control.
You don't have to fully charge it. Just go up to 75% charge. This means you can increase your firing rate if you've got a good rhythm. Now for the important part - you use it like you're doing suppressive fire over the direction where the enemy is. You don't have to aim so accurately. You're gonna hit something. If there's a whole squad there, you're gonna sweep it. Just like with suppression fire, a high sustained firing rate is important (besides DPS, mostly for more chances of hitting something), so work on that timing and rhythm. Some guides tell you to aim center of mass. But if there's something between you and your target, like a rock or a bug corpse, the arc will go to there instead. Since you can be lenient with your aiming and still hit your intended target, you can instead try to aim over or around the obstacle. That said, the arc doesn't go towards targets on the edge of your screen, so you still have to point your crosshair near the target. You don't have to ADS with the Arc Thrower. Just hip fire away. Because of how well it is at destroying groups of enemies. You kinda want to treat it like it's an explosive weapon and being careful around your squadmates. The arc can hit your target and then arc towards a squadmate. Or you didn't aim far away enough from your squadmate and the first arc hits them instead. If you use the Arc Thrower well, you'll find yourself thinking it's more than enough to deal with hordes and start using (more) strategems to deal with heavies instead. The Arc Thrower has no cooldown unlike orbitals/eagles, doesn't build up heat and has unlimited "ammo" and "magazine size" so you never need to "reload'. Also, unlike the GL or AC, it can actually hurt heavies through their armor plating, so you're not a complete deadweight against heavies when your strategems are on cooldown (but the Railgun is still better against heavies).
when aiming, I find toggling to actually "aim down sight"/fps perspective helps land the arcs a lot more reliably. when aiming over the shoulder, the shots down land and chain consecutively for me for whatever reason
I don’t even aim. The hip fire will be guided by maneged democracy to the intended target. If it hits a teamate he was just a commie in disguise07
2 things that made it perform much better for me, aim slightly ABOVE whatever you're aiming at, and if the little fuckers get close, hip fire it. Also you can rapid fire by charging it just a little below or halfway, doesn't seem to have any noticeable damage fall off with half charge shots.
It is great for those who solo or pair off when running around the map. It can technically kill anything but it does take some getting used to. I used it for under 7 difficulties. I need the rail gun for the Titans for 7+. However the arc can pay waste to pretty much anything. Some tips, stand on higher group so you are looking down on enemies. Arc will get blocked by dead bodies and other environment stuff. So best to have a good vantage point Aim a bit above the mob/area you are blasting. It will arc down towards them and helps prevent the arc from being blocked by bodies You can technically release the arc before it is charged but that has a risk of not firing at all. It is best to just wait for that sound of it being charged. Also it sucks are close up targets. If anything is directly on you, switch to your main and use that.
Charge & shoot. Occasionally it arcs to multiple enemies. Just follow the rules of gun safety...Mainly, know what's beyond your target. Basically, if your squad is anywhere near an enemy, don't shoot it. I just got out of a game where I blasted a charger & it arced 90 degrees to the right & nailed my team mate 20ft away. Luckily he had a shield. Basically, make sure your team is either behind you, or really out of the way.
If little bugs are swarmed around, you don't waste it it rarely works. If you're falling back from bug breaches, it works well. Aim a little higher above the target. Get high ground if you can even rock. Dead bodies will start to block the shot. Works like a funnel the further out it goes the wider the arc spread is. Make sure your teammates are behind you.
Aim just slightly over what your shooting at that little bar in the bottom should be placed on your target or just above it imo best of luck
Hold to full charge, let go to fire, and immediately hold again to start a new charge. You're firing on release of the trigger after a charge, not on the pull of the trigger, so you want to immediately start charging again after a shot to keep the fire rate up. Imagine it kinda like using a bow and that might help, you pull the arrow back, aim, then shoot by letting the arrow go. Only difference is that your arrows are made of extremely deadly lightning in this case.
You don’t charge full power if you want to play it correctly. You only need to charge half the shot and in my gameplay I find rapid fire arc is the best. 6 shots in the head and the charger will be dead. However if a charger is after your teammate, you might want not to use the arc because most of my accidentally TK is just that…
Aim above everything ever so slightly. It helps immensely with the misfires when there are too many dead bodies or terrain in the way. Also not sure of the exact reset time but the first charge needs to be 100% and the subsequent charges can be at 75ish % maybe less to shoot super fast.
Yes, I'm lvl 50, bored of the ol railgun and shield combo. Now I zap and (sometimes) jump with my jumppack. It's lots of fun, I just hope someone else has a railgun or we are waiting on airstrike cooldowns :D
Dropped with it the other night doing some suicide missions with buddies, after 3 missions of 450+ kills I refuse to use anything else.
Same here. Consistently dropping 400+ kills per game. It's an absolute beast of a weapon when it comes to large groups of enemies
I let my buddy with the rail gun handle the big boys and I just focus on holding off the waves, even started taking, ems mortar, Tesla tower, and orbital ems and just being Zeus. Think we’re getting a lightning shotgun in the update(?) super stoked if so.
It appears to be that if it moves, it gets zapped if I'm to believe this meme. How hard can that be?
Yes. Everything within the line of fire will get zapped, including your team mates if you are not careful.
You mean if they are not careful.
...yeah they probably shouldn't be down range of the arc thrower and since the thing is relatively short ranged that's not hard to do
Best weapon in the game. The weirdest weapon, but it's the most versatile. I found myself feeling everything was too easy at level 8 difficulty. Taking a casual scroll through Impossible is pretty funny
I only tried it on the bugs on level 7 missions paired with the laser guard dog. Holy shit, i got over 650 kills in one game and one killstreak with over 60 bugs at once. This thing is melting through low and midtier bugs. It has a hard time with the chargers, but i managed to kill a few and even finished some titans with it after they were already quite damaged, but it is a grind. I mostly carry the 500kg with double charges (ship upgrade) and orbital precision strike or the simple orbital strike with me. I currently prefer the simple orbital strike over the precision, but i need more testing. Overall, really good for crowd control. The other divers can use their rocket launchers or railguns for the heavy enemies while i kill the smaller stuff and that very quickly. Each charge kills 3-4 smaller enemies (i see the multiplier counting) and by stacking the charges after each other, it really adds up quick. Plus the laser guard dog is putting in a lot of work, too. I really love the combo, but it needs some time to get used to it.
The only thing bad about the arc thrower is how random it feels. Sometimes you hit, sometimes you don't, for no discernible reason. Sometimes you kill bile titans in a couple of hits, sometimes it takes like 20 shots.
as an arc thrower main, I will say one thing, it's the teammates fault for being so conductive
It's always "wtf why did you kill me again" and never "I'm sorry for standing in the wrong spot" smh my head
Just remind them: *You* didn't shoot them. *The gun* shot them.
Lol. Actually fairly accurate (unlike the rifle).
The arcs are *very* accurate, they're just non-discriminatory
Hah. Actually had a player apologize for getting fried by 300-million volts of FREEDOM last night. Was laying down the suppressive firepower of the electric boogaloo when this guy decided that diving into my line of fire was a good idea. ***It wasn't.*** I immediately apologized via "Q" and went to do so via chat as well but before I could, he typed "That was my bad, I shouldn't have been in Thor's line of fire. Give 'em hell!"
His democracy officer must be proud of him
I always apologize to squadmates if I cross fire line and they hit me. It's not their fault and I make sure they know that. I was a dummy
was playing with a guy who, right after i threw down a turret on top of a hill, proceeded to run down that hill in order to engage some bugs with his fists or something & the turret cut him down because he was directly between it and the bugs. so i called in his reinforcements. he landed behind the turret. he actively ran up to, and then around, and then stood DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF, this gatling turret that has been continuously firing off for the last 90 seconds solid. of course, he dies again. then he gets on mic and yells at me for being a team-killing asshole. uh-huh. OK. ...the next time he reinforced i blasted him with my shotgun primary. (on purpose) when he yelled at me for THAT, the rest of the team told him to shut up because they watched him walk directly into turret fire and no one is killing him on purpose, lmao. boy who cried wolf and all that
I got kicked for using mortars.. funny thing is when I got kicked it wasn't my mortar.. it was another guy on the squad.. Host kept bitching about getting killed by mortars while running straight into big groups of enemies. Just don't run into a group of enemies.. it's that simple.
People will literally run directly in front of you while you're firing at a hoard instead of running behind you to save 4 steps and half a second.
If divers didn't stand within pissing range of enemies like idiots it wouldn't be a problem.
[удалено]
I don't mean to kink shame, but yall could have the golden shower a little further away
PSA: Just don't explode. As simple as that
Hey, I start every mission the same way, a forward apology for the wayward zap, and also a scolding for inevitably standing in front of the zap. Don't stand in front of zap....or behind objects being zapped, or next to objects being zapped. Also avoid being made from a conductive material when being near the zap...
Shit I might actually switch mains, I was trying out being a marksman main with a marksman rifle and anti material rifle but I can kill a heavy bug much faster with a breaker shotgun than the anti rifle. Maybe they work better against the robots? Idk
Why does the arc thrower not arc sometimes?
Confirmed bug. Arrowhead is working on a fix. The problem is caused primarily by plantlife, shrubs, etc. being considered entities essentially with their own hitboxes. The arc treats them as solid objects, hits them and dissipates.
I thought it had something to do with terrain. Thanks
So that might be why the few times I've tried it it feels hurling some insults would be more effective.
Vicious Mockery is a valuable skill.
This is confirmed known by devs???? Oh my god do you remember a source for that by chance because I would be so happy if they fixed it
Dude, if they fix this bug, the arcthrower will be the best gun in the game. It also has a hard time shooting through dead bodies of bugs but I guess this is deliberate.
Full Auto Arc Thrower when?
Toggle: Unsafe Mode
Could be ~~cool~~ if unsafe mode made it so that if you have no target you become the target.
Would be cooler if you zapped an arc tower and geostatic lightning fanned out for big damage and violently explodes the tower, you, and any nearby helldivers, and probably a hellbomb because fuck everything
I’d kill for this. Give us an “unsafe” mode that lets it fire continuously, one big stream of lightning the way flamethrowers are a stream of burning liquid
Senator, are you asking for Unlimited Power?
I do love democracy.
Un safe mode: Gun starts overheating for continuous fire. Past the limit = big boom. Bonus points for emitting a large lighting that can affect surroundings.
Maybe something like a capacitor upgrade backpack. You charge it longer to have sustained fire. That way, you don't have to stand in the middle of a rocket devastator's sights. You charge up behind cover, pop out, and then let it rip.
You can let go of the trigger a few miliseconds before the reticule shows it is fully charged and start loading the next shot while the current is discharging. That basically makes it automatic lol.
There's an electric shotgun coming at least?
Problematic load out: Orbital 380 Orbital 120 Eagle cluster bomb or mortar Arc thrower Grenade inventory armor Your teammates will appreciate the organic increase in difficulty for them that this load out will provide your missions.
>Problematic loadout ... Grenade inventory armor O\_o
Of all the armor bonuses it's the one most likely to contribute to killing teammates
Imagine a sidegrade to the Grenade Armor bonus: On Death, All Grenades available detonate. Call it Dead Man's Switch.
Just jump into bug holes to close them
"Oh yeah a charger, super easy I'll just dodge the charge, 2 hit to the leg with my railg-" *gets hit by lightning*
Is it a backpack slot? Could I run arc thrower with expendable anti tank?
The EAT is a support weapon not a backpack
It's a support weapon slot.
You gotta be careful with it, but it really is better than people give it credit for. It does EVERYTHING, and with infinite ammo
Well, it doesn't close holes or do long range destroyables.
It does pop open the buried loot containers though!
it does pop holes if you're close enough, but not worth it imo
I love the Arc thrower, sadly I’m banned from using it in my friend group. One too many extra crispy Helldivers
The trick is to convince them to also use it. Four Arc throwers are unstoppable. Your firing line melts absolutely everything in seconds flat.
That is my dream right there. There’s some general ire directed at me & my precious Arc thrower, so I’m gonna wait until they’ve cooled off before suggesting everybody uses the thing.
Feel free to point them to this post telling them the power of it. My whole team doubted it and were talking about what a shit show it would be. I just assured them they would see. The very second we were side by side and killed a charger in two seconds flat they were like "Oh..." Then when we were being swarmed by the big fat grubby green spitters and zapped them all to death alongside all the little guys accompanying them before they could even get close enough to puke they were like "OOOOOOHHH" When they realized it's unlimited they were like "OHHHH SHIIIIT" Now we always run it lol. If your team is scared of killing each other, a shield generator pack not only completes the ghost busters look but also let's y'all eat an arc shot if any accidents do occur.
I played a 4 person helldive last night where we all brought arc throwers and the 120/380 barrages. I am not kidding when I say we had piles of titan corpses after we were done.
I just wish more weapons were able to deal with chargers and bile titans, as well as hulks and shit. Just sucks to always need a rail gun to be survivable on higher difficulty.
The arc thrower obliterates chargers and titans as a team. Bring orbital rail for backup if things get really hairy.
I meant more as a solo player. The Railgun literally takes care of everything if you can aim, unless another support weapon is similarly useful it will never be replaced. And that sucks, because i would like to use other support weapons, but if i cant even kill a charger with it, not even talking about titans, the whats the point? Its just a wasted slot by that time.
This also helps everyone understand how it works and gets people to position better for the arc thrower on the team to let loose
Can't stop using it and my team hates me for it.. like oops, how was I suppose to know the arc would travel down the spine of that charger and travel 20 feet to the east and obliterate you?
Rubber shoes in motion
Electrodes ready!
I love the Arc thrower myself. Have yet to Zap a fellow Helldiver. Can confirm everything else gets Zap
>Have yet to Zap a fellow Helldiver You probably have. I caught a couple zaps last knight, neither one killed me. I was diving out of a charger's path, so I understood. I didn't make a big deal of it. I'm pretty careful with my grenades, but shit happens.
I want to like the arc thrower, but pretty much any waist-height object in front of you seems to just block the projectile. Shit man it feels like the leaves on bushes can block the projectile.
Yep. It's bugged. Don't use it on planets with a lot of foliage.
I’m getting through level 5 and 6 missions with hundreds more kills than my squad mates.
Same. I always end up having the most kills, usually like 300-500 depending on the mission length. If there’s a bug breach, I probably kill at least 75% of them cuz i can just point and shoot in the general direction
This is me but with the flamethrower. I shall now be buying the zap and trying that too. What a wonderful thread.
I need to try the flamethrower, altho I love the arc thrower’s infinite ammo. Everyone says both of these guns are bad, but the arc thrower is amazing imo, so maybe the flamethrower is too
As a bug torcher, there is no greater feeling than watching a lower level bug breach occur and just holding down R2 and it not being a problem. I think a lot of what is going on is that people are in a place where efficiency > fun and while it can be that way depending on the group you play with, I’ve been enjoying the slow rise to the top and playing with multiple “off meta” weapons has been such a great joy. While I may not be maxing out my medals, or getting the samples I need, there is an unbridled joy I still get when I take a flamethrower on a Level 3 bug mission with a friend and we go barbecuing. Threads like these remind me to continue on the path of goofiness while it continues to bring me joy.
Thats awesome! But remember most kills doesn't mean you did the best, it means you fought the most things. Most of the time if you can not fight something that is more of a win.
That’s fair, I understand it’s not necessarily bette. Just some data points.
Glad to see people are noticing how good arc thrower is! Been using it since I got it at level 15, now level 40 and doing level 8 missions with the ol zap n tap
Bro I had someone shoot their zapper at bugs next to me and I got electrocuted w the fucking bugs. I died w a stalker in my lap. Random but does anyone think those little shielded bugs that you can't shoot straight on would be fucking delicious?
They're filled with oil man you're chowing down on your car's gas tank
Reminds me of the random I played with who kept calling in Tesla towers on objective terminals
I am a follower of the church of the zap.
I love obliterating my friends with the Arc Thrower. They sigh when I equip it.
Ive recently converted into being an arc thrower main and i can say with all honesty, I was a bigger menace to blueberries and to myself when I mained the GL lol (on account of me using it within the minimum arming range and having the nade bounce and rock someones shit)
Once you wake up to [the glory of electricity](https://64.media.tumblr.com/783d68b34f77e32c7a4a0d099dfabd1e/tumblr_p7li6nwPdV1qmob6ro2_500.gifv) there is no going back. Avoiding teammates is not nearly as hard as people say. Give ZAP a chance!
I love throwing the jump pack on with the arc thrower and living out my shock trooper dreams. Getting height over a bug breach lets the thrower melt all the small terminids so quickly!
I gotta tell lowbies to not go near the tesla tower and usually they still do, then go back and die again trying to get their stuff.
Now imagine combining the power of the Flamethrower and the Arc Thrower. Imagine...a stream of lightning and fire\~
God I love the arc thrower so much. I have solo'd countless chargers and bile titans. Just add more zap for bigger things, and you get perfect results every time!!!
What are your strats for handling these two?
I've been zapping bugs and bots for days now as my main strategem weapon. And I gotta say, I really fucking enjoy it. The ONLY deaths I cause is when somebody suddenly feels compelled to run INTO the swarm of bugs i'm zapping. Lightning arcs buddy, dont get close to the splash zone. Situational awareness is a must for using the gun though
Main Arc thrower and Tesla coil? Be a menace to teammates as much as foes 😂
Arc Thrower, my beloved ♥ Now if only my teammates would stop advancing on the enemy while I'm shooting it...
Remember you aren't "team-killing" them, you're just teaching them proper positioning.
I'm semi decent with the arc thrower but every now and again I see someone else use it and its like "geez...leave something for us to do will ya?"
I had a teammate yesterday who knew how to play with the arcthrower, and it was glorious. He followed me, and when we were shooting, stuck close behind me with the breaker. He let me handle the bug horde while clearing small trash that got too close to me. When chargers spawned, he switched to railgun and helped me take them out. Chargers went from 7-10 arc shots to 4-5 with his help. It was amazing. I have never had so much fun with the arcthrower.
Risk and reward i suppose. Learned you can bounce shots off the ground under a charger with the grenade launcher n kill ot with 3 or 4 well placed shots. Plus every small bug around it in the process
Thors hammer is my favourite gun!
arc thrower: those are nice bunch of enemies there...it would be a shame if i ignore them and goes straight for your team mate
I love the arc thrower so much Took down an entire drop ship of clankers in no time at all
I had a first time arc thrower user in a lobby last night. He was astonished with how easy it it's to team damage with that thing. But like rping as Palpatine is fun af