How to Get The MOST out of Assault Rifles in Helldivers 2

As my channel has a tendency to put numbers where there are none, I thought I would explore some concepts i've dabbled with on stream about why Automatic Weapons feel like they underperform in Helldivers 2. Thanks for watching and as always my favorite comment from this video will be featured in the next!

Actually super-useful tidbit of information regarding the way health pools function and damage is dealt. I wasn't aware that parts of enemy bodies all had separate health pools, which is why they can often feel strangely tanky at times if you're spraying-n-praying. Thanks for this.

Nice positive and informative video. The typical “this is killing/killed the game” is getting really old for this game.

Tbh, a secondary "tutorial" similar to the main one or a firing range with various enemies to shoot at would probably help people test and practice in a simple, controlled environment. Some enemies like stalkers or beserkers can be a bit hectic to just play aroind with in an ordinary mission.

Also, remember, there is recoil reducing armor, and all of this advice applies to the machine guns even more effectively

Great breakdown! My aim will have to get better before I take an AR over the Punisher, though. The Punisher staggers Berserkers, and that means they won't give me the condition known clinically as "Chainsaw Face."

Commenting for engagement, and stoping somebody from saying "bro fell off hahaha". While I can't watch currently I agree that alot of my automatic weapons are coming up short by a mag, or kills or another factor, will be intersection to see an analytic take. Your videos are an amazing reprieve in a sea of um low effort stuff. Thanks! Keep it up please!

Thank you. I have been trying to tell people this for weeks. The main draw of an AR is range and fire rate flexibility. Shotguns and smgs struggle at longer ranges and marksman rifles struggle at close range. ARs can do both just not as well as either. You can go from long range sharp shooting to close quarters full auto and back again on the fly The trick to making accurate shots with an AR is recoil control. The longer you use the weapon the more you get a feel for what range you can full auto while still staying on target. Crouch and prone are key to making fast accurate shots on weak points. Swapping fire rate is also a good idea for ammo conservation. There are several enemies that can easily be over killed in full auto leading to a waste of ammo. Many ARs have a burst fire which can one shot devastators in the head. This gives you a fantastic time to kill if you have good recoil control and a good vantage point. All of the ARs save for the tenderizer got buffed recently so I recommend testing them out again. The tenderizer has next to no recoil. If your prone you can just about do full auto at longer ranges with a little trigger discipline.

It was recently discovered that enemies have "main" health pool, and most limbs copy 40-60% of their taken damage to that pool. Focusing on one area usually more effective, though.

Let the left leg bot hunting begin!

I do appreciate the effort that went into this. I will personally still be sticking with my usual ( Jar-5 Dominator, Grenade Pistol, Stuns). Should the AR category get some very much needed buffs, I'll probably check them out again. Until then I'll stick to popping devastator in the face and being able to stunlock medium enemies reliably. Also the whole being able to destroy tanks/turrets thing.

Another thing I think could help automatic weapons is armor degredation after enough structure damage. Let us crack a devastator chest plate after enough hits.

The divers thank you for your dedication to well-formatted training from the field. Keep up the good work!

The way they decided to do armor pen in this game is strange because it pretty much means there's no downside to weapons w/ higher armor pen values aside from statistically doing slightly less damage, but also because for a game trying to make the gun ballistics function semi-realistically, armor pen and damage work in reverse, punishing matching armor and pen values and rewarding overpenetration.

This changes my understanding of assault rifles fundamentally. Thumbs up, great content! This makes the liberator penetrator a potential candidate to bring with the AMR for bot crowd control.

I know the videos old but, as a new diver. This video was SO helpful. Not just good AR info but enemy weak spot and health pools info… structure damage? I had no idea that was a thing. This video is a great resource and deserves a good spot in YouTube algorithm. For super earth!

When I first started fighting the bots I never thought a sniper build was viable (which is a shame since I love sniping) so I used the ARs. However, after the damage buff to the DCS it’s now my go to loadout for them for the exact reason that it’s a one shot to the devastators head and I left the ARs behind because peppering the bots doesn’t work well with their individual health pools for different parts. I honestly never thought I would reach Helldive difficulty with a sniper rifle but I finally got there. I do hope they buff the ARs since I really like the tenderizers handling, it would be great to see it be made more usable

Adjudicator is my favorite BAR because it can handle nearly anything, with care. It can tap heads, burst stun Devastators of all kinds, and shoot the legs off mini Striders. It’s also great at shooting off limbs and rocket pods. Its hipfire is perfect against Berserkers and Scavengers and many other hectic targets. The trick was definitely realizing that different body parts have different health pools. Good job bringing that to more people.

Despite it being seen as a 'worse liberator', I've been enjoying using the Tenderizer. It sounds great, and the damn thing is a lazerbeam for me. (Though I do crouch and use fortified/engineer armours a lot, so it could probably be similar with the lib.)

It's almost contradictory to state that Berserkers "feel" like having higher health pools then having 625HP on the torso, a supposed "weakspot". They really do have higher health pools requiring an additional bullet or three, and their lack of armor makes them literal bullet sponges. All Automatic weapons automatically deal better with them, including the trusty Redeemer. These things highlight Adjudicator's strengths to someone good with tactics, having Semi-auto on for most of the fights and aiming for Devastator heads and 1-2 tapping Troopers, then switching over to Auto fire once Berserkers are spotted. It's basically a versatile med-pen weapon. (alternatively, just use Auto and tap really well, but that's outside of my skill set) The numbers really are nice to have though, thank you for providing extremely valuable information. Almost reminds me I should really just stick to my DMRs too.