Helldivers 2 - a guide on the arc thrower and mastering arc lightning

I don't have epilepsy but already a plus in my book for thinking of the viewer. I like that man

The high damage against Bile Titans thing was the PS5 bug. It's also why the Arc Thrower's range was nerfed, a dev saw it "slapping Bile Titans" and nerfed it because of that. Also it used to be able to open crates, but can't anymore.

So before the range change you used to break crates. After you stop having the ability to break crates. It was like a hidden Nerf to the arc thrower as its destructibility was lowered. The Bile Titan was a crossplay bug, like the railgun. This bug let it one-shot bile titans. This was part of the reason the range was nerfed. I love the arc thrower, but haven't used it much because of all the bugs it still has. It should also have its 50 range back and be able to open up crates again.

The bit about breaking armor is interesting. Many people complain how there isn't any other way to deal with heavies besides AT Strategems. But someone with an Arc Thrower could open up heavies to be damaged by primaries.

Arc thrower blinds chargers. Shoot them 1x or 2x then step to the side sl8ghtly they charge your last seen position

Here's a pretty good arc thrower build that I've brought on multiple bug helldives for anyone who wants to have a go at using this weapon. Eruptor Redeemer Stun Grenade 500 kg Bomb Expendable EAT/Rail Cannon/Cluster Bomb/Orbital Airburst Strike (Your pick) Guard Dog "Rover" Arc Thrower (Obviously) Eruptor: closing bug holes, killing bile/nursing spewers/killing stalkers (This weapon should be your go-to stalker killer) Redeemer: killing any immediate threat that gets to close (mainly hunters) Stun Grenade: Easy charger killer (you need 6 headshots with the arc thrower to kill a charger. The stun lasts long enough to get 3-4) 500 kg Bomb: Bile titan killer, group of stunned charger killer, also a good way to get rid of a very specific light bug nest with 3 bug holes right next to each other in a pit. Expendable EAT: Kills bile titans, chargers, and spore spewers/shrieker nests from afar. Rail Cannon: Throw and forget solution to chargers and sometimes bile titans (you're gonna have to deal with the cool down, though) Cluster Bomb/Orbital Air Burst Strike: Chafe killer (Air burst is great for throwing on bug breaches, too. It can even kill chargers sometimes) Guard Dog "Rover": Kills anything that gets too close to your personal space (biggest weakness of this build is hunters getting within jumping range of you. It takes too long to charge an arc thrower shot, so you have to reposition while relying on your redeemer and guard dog) Additional notes: You could swap the Eruptor for another primary for handling enemies up close and swap your redeemer for the Grenade pistol, but the ability to take out bug holes from afar is very strong. People may not realize that bug holes only spawn bugs if you are within a certain range of the nest. A good example is the heavy bug nest with 10 holes. With the Eruptor, you can straddle the rim of the nest and close the bug holes without any extra bugs being summoned, barring a bug breach. The moment a person runs down the ramp into the nest, all the bug holes will start summoning bugs on a timer and won't stop until the person exits the nest.

Been waiting for a vid like this for the Arc Thrower, thank you

really informative and well put together video. i was trying to find info on how the arc thrower worked like 2 hours ago and could find something good, remember thinking to myself "i wish wallbouncing makes a video on it" and here you are. amazing timing. coincidentally.

It still staggers chargers, it's just that the stagger only slows them down a little and nerfs their turning instead of stunning them. I wish hulks got the same treatment instead of a complete stagger removal

As an Arc Thrower main, I learned so much from this! I was expecting this to be a basic guide I'd click out of. Really good stuff Might I suggest workshopping your title and thumbnail a bit more? I think you'd get more clicks if you highlight how thoroughly you breakdown the targeting. The current title/thumb wasn't that compelling to me, though I'm glad I clicked

You’ve inspired me to try out an arc build. Great video man. Continue showing ways to spread managed democracy 😤

Thank you for the flashing light warning. Love all of your content. I would love to see a feature on punisher plasma.

Thanks for this, great guide!

There was actually a short period of time around the Cutting Edge warbond where everyone on the bug front was using the arc thrower at the same time because it still had that 50m distance and destroyed the bugs It was basically a one shot sniper with aim assist

Fellow Arc Thrower enthusiast here. From my experience the close range misfire "bug" usually happens when there's corpses around. Haven't noticed an environmental factor to it, but also haven't really been looking at that in detail. Also, as a disclaimer, I haven't really enjoyed the Arc Thrower in bot missions, so all of the following is almost completely based on fighting bugs. You can get the lightning to behave pretty consistently in close combat, but it requires very precise aiming to get the lightning going if something's right in your face. You also need at least about an arm's length between the barrel and your target and aim directly at the enemy. If your aim even slightly off or if the target is right at the end of your barrel, it will likely misfire. To get the most consistent CC lightning behavior with bugs, fire at them right after they take a step back from you after striking. This is a rather unhealthy plan to begin with, so it's generally a better idea to just run or dive to get the distance. Scavengers and pouncers are quite harmless and easy to run around anyway, but hunters pose a real problem and require really good timing and reading their attack animation. The lightning is surprisingly powerful against Stalkers, but usually in situations where you can pick them off with the Arc Thrower, you would have fared just as well with almost any other weapon. So, after all this theorizing, I recommend using the Breaker or anything equally fast and powerful you're comfortable with against anything that gets within three steps of you. TL;DR: the Arc Thrower can be used consistently in close-quarters combat by aiming and timing the shots perfectly. It doesn't work at point-blank range, or if your aim is even slightly off. If you want to live the Arc life, get a shotgun too.

Btw, it's more on the topic of armor perks design failures, but I'd like to share OhDough's suggestion to make arc resistance from Superconduit armor perk spread to your teammates as well. That way if you bring Arc strategems you can ensure it's not instakilling fellow divers even if they get hit by stray lightning. Right now it's kinda pointless since it requires your entire team or at least someone other than you wearing it in order to benifit from it at all, unless you're standing still in your Tesla coil's range like a dummy. It's such a disappointing implementation of a really cool idea.

Thanks a lot, bro! Now finish strong with an ARC-12 Blitzer analysis. Did you think this would be easy?

The arc thrower does one shot hive guards. The problem is that you can't see their head get popped like with brood commanders or warriors. One distinctive feature of enemies having their head popped is they enter a "berserker" mode where they move incredibly fast after getting shot in the head, which is what happens with hive guards. They will eventually die if they bleed out

tbh . i think you need to be pretty blind to TK teammates with arc or blitzer .+ a little trigger discipline is required which not many have

Great video, thank you :)