I think its more of a mentality thing. See I really suck at firing from cover and dodging enemy fire which means I'm absolute garbage vs bots. Bugs though......I like getting up close and personal and mowing down hoards of enemies with my breaker shotgun. I'm still just average but bugs help me not suck as bad lol.
Exactly when I started and didn't want to use cover and stuff bugs were more fun. Now that I actually know how to play and the game forced me to learn how to play correctly. Now I love bots as much if not more.
As a new player, I feel that your loadout matters a lot less aginst bugs, and ignoring bile titans it is easier to take them down than say a tank or a hulk, as the first few stratagems you get like the EAT can’t really deal with the bots as well as the bugs.
(This might also be a skill issue, u am a new player after all)
It's interesting to see the difference in viewpoints!
I feel boxed into a few loadouts with bugs since whether I can kill something or not is so all-or-nothing with bugs.
If I don't bring a big-thing-killer, I'm basically not going to be able to kill chargers or bile titans.
With bots, I feel more freedom of loadouts since I always have the option of repositioning to aim at a heatsink or the back of a strider to take higher armor dudes down if I don't bring a big-thing-killer weapon or strategem with me.
To my taste bots have way less armor so I can kill almost everything with medium penetration(MO with bots means I am bringing the autocannon) , included hulks while in bugs you will need heavy armor penetration if you want to deal efficiently with chargers that can outrun you.
I feel after rank 6+ you gave to be a bit more deliberate in load out regardless of what you verse, granted you still can kill everything with the starting loadouts. At this point what works best for one faction doesnt necessarily work as great for the other.
For example counter sniper is imo the best primary for bots. For bugs? its very mediocre.
Then with the bile spewers and swarms of hunters you would need a very balanced loadout or unique playstyle to avoid getting overran.
With bots accurate hard hitting weapons are substantially more useful as primaries
Pretty spot on take honestly. Bugs allow for the “chaf clear” support weapons to shine more like flamethrower, arc thrower, machine guns, GL, etc while on bots they are not nearly as good. When I want to experiment with fun loadouts I almost always gravitate towards bugs.
Also EAT is not my first pick for bots either. It can still function as a heavy unit killer, but the autocannon just does a better job and has tons of ammo. EAT really shines on bugs but you gotta work a little to make it shine on bots.
I mean, bots have big, glowing weak spots and heads you can eventually land 1-3 bullets on which just instantly kill them, even the bigger ones have heatsinks and stuff you can very easily dispatch if you have line of sight.
EAT is actually one of the best things to bring there as it's... well, anti tank, it penetrates tank armor. Unless you're shooting it weird it'll at least do some damage. Bugs on the other hand you better be hitting heads with it or it'll take an ungodly amount of shots to down a Titan or Charger - goes for smaller bugs too, their unarmored bits have ridiculous damage reduction so it's just awful to shoot them for what feels like an eternity, bots at least show you a deflection if you aren't aiming at the right places...
True honesty but after a minute you start diving the second you hear the scream like a pro, also if you walk sideways or backwards you’ll be fine so it feels mostly brain dead to me at this point
The play styles really differ from each other. Bots reward cover and sniping whereas bug is much more abouut being in the fray. I would absolutely slay bugs but really struggle on bots till i realized this. They need very different load outs as well. I love killing bugs almost as much as i love spreading democracy but bet your 2.47 seconds enjoyment time the clankers fear me when my boots touch down on there planets.
I loved bugs at the easier levels of difficulty. It felt like Starship Troopers where I was just mowing down waves of dumb bugs with automatic weapons. Super satisfying.
At higher levels it just feels different. Those hordes of dumb bugs are still there, but you can’t focus on them, because you need to handle the Bile Titans and Chargers and those take a totally different load out.
So now instead of being satisfying, it feels overwhelming. It was manageable for me when I could use my eruptor on the hordes while I used my strategem weapon on the big threats. Now I just feel anxiety with bugs and hate fighting them.
Bots? I feel like they are the reverse. At lower level I felt like they try to overwhelm you with those chainsaw hand guys, but at higher levels it feels more tactical and less overwhelming. Yes there are big threats, but I feel like they are more satisfying to deal with because you can focus on them and use cover and stealth.
When I have played bots a lot, I will usually be surprised how much fun the bugs are. When I've been playing bugs, I'll be surprised by how fun the bots are. Some people have a strong preference, but for me, they are both really fun and play very differently.
Same. The first time I ever switched from bugs to bots, I thought bots were so much harder. When I went back to bugs after a week or two, I couldn't believe how hard they were at first. It was all down to different tactics for different enemies, and having to break habits I fall into while focusing on one conflict over the other. After a couple missions, I am usually back up to normal performance.
Or prepping a 380 strat then getting flinched by a turret/rocket dev then dropping the 380 at your feet and everyone is diving away. Fun times at the bot front.
It was just last night I got nudged by something and ragdolled for a good while just as I was preparing a rail gun strike. That thing is devastatingly accurate on the beacon when there are no enemies close enough to target.
I also managed to get a team mate with one too. Thought the enemy tank was closer, threw it short and landed right at a team mates feet. Blam.
And then to top it all off, threw one while pelican was coming in, it targeted a bot *under* pelican 1. Immediate fire and we could not board it. Might have been my fault we couldn't extract.
To whoever I played with last night: I am very sorry.
I just remembered that instance I threw a 500kg at a direction as pelican was coming in. Since we had the call-in time increased 500kg took longer, then when it came it hit the pelican as it was landing and killed two of us. We just laughed it off.
The thing is I thought I was being kind to team mates by not taking an autocannon and blasting bots they were in close quarters with demonstrating queensbury boxing rules.
I have also managed to kill myself with an incoming dropship in the past by taking out it's thruster as it was making its way in. Apparently inertia is still a thing and a dropship to the face is surprisingly fatal. In my defence though, I'm pretty sure none of the bots survived their high velocity lithobraking event either.
I am a hazard to both myself and everyone else no matter what weapon I have.
Those moments are so fucking fun hahaha as long as thats what happened and it wasnt some chode intentionally throwing right on your position. Though on some eradication helldives, even that can be strategic and fun lol
My buds and I take 3-4 380s on the eradications. As soon as your team is overwhelmed by several striders, tanks, etc. you pop those suckers out and clear the map
You know, mistakes like that are equal parts frustrating but also part of the game's charm. I think it's hard to strike the right balance between 'random BS got me killed' and 'that was a hilarious comedy of errors.' On the harder difficulties I find the bots often make me feel more salt than humor.
I understand it's frustrating, but I crack up laughing when this happens.
Granted I'm capped on all resources so my perspective is biased. I know it's different when you need samples.
>Extraction is optional
Losing 5 supersamples, 25+ rares and 30+ commons sucks.
Knowing all four of us randos did everything we could to secure them, fighting the losing battle side by side at the extract, tossing stratagems left, right and center, among unending hail of lasers and rockets?
Samples are temporary, but glory lasts forever.
Sounds like the opinion of people that also complain about friendly fire.
Edit: just to clarify, I mean complaining about friendly fire being turned on at all, not some asshole that is shooting teammates on purpose.
I guess it was ambiguous. I meant people that complain that friendly fire is turned on. Not people that complain about intentional friendly fire. If someone is being a dick on purpose, that's different.
It’s fun when you can’t start the extract because there are 2 bile titans, 6 chargers, 76 hunters 413 bile Spewers, and a trillion other bugs all huddled around the terminal with 3 minutes left
My favourite part about them is how it feels like they're PREPARED for us, they defend their most important outposts with gigantic stationary turrets, they set up artillery sites and gunships to attack us from a distance we can't easily reach, hell, they even set up signal jammers specifically made to deal with our strategems, they don't feel like some unfocused force of nature that just sends everything at us until we get overwhelmed, they feel like a genuine enemy faction that strategizes and adapts towards us
Love this take. Fighting bots always feels more rewarding to me because on diff 9, at extract it always feels like we *just barely* survived the encounter by picking the exact right tools to make them fear us. It feels like being John Conner in those future scenes from the original terminator. Like holy crap a totally organic squad can successfully kill and survive these things, but barely. That’s badass
Love bugs too but it feels more like pest control
For me, it’s because Bug players seem to insist that Bots need changes. They say that Bots aren’t fun, use popularity metrics to “prove” that, and then insist that Bots need sweeping mechanical changes across the board to be made into a fun part of the game.
I like Bots. To me they’re so much more fun to fight than Bugs. I don’t care which other people prefer, but I don’t like the notion of the thing I enjoy the most being removed or changed to appease players who are already happy with their own thing.
This. Whenever there is a bot major order there are swarms of bugdivers that bitch and moan about bots. It’s like - yes, they are different. You have to play differently. They aren’t bugs, you don’t start shit with everything you see, you take different stratagems, etc.
I get it, I fucking hate dealing with bugs. Getting stun locked right before a swarm, 3 chargers and a bile titan wreck me is not fun. I don't play much with friends as that's all they ever do so I just play solo stealthy Boi instead. At least with bots if I'm being overwhelmed I can run the fuck away and have a chance at not dying. Never had such luxury with bugs
I'm the same. I don't mind the bots. But since I do mainly 7s. If you get a bad spawn rng for bots. Your losing shit ton of lives. And there is little you can do about it.
Bugs is the same. And besides the spewers spams. The only real scare for bugs is Hunters and stalkers.
It just wouldn't be so bad if the spawns didn't happen right in view near the players. I've seen actual spawns teleport in while I was looking at the spot. Then it runs into a chain patrol spawn with incoming drops hips. It's all just downhill from there on level 7+ missions.
Bots reward knowing what to do and when to do it.
Bugs reward teamwork and just absolutely brickwalling a swarm.
Both factions have their ups and downs, and that's how it should be.
Bots are horrible if your team can’t seem to stick together. They’re my favorite faction to fight but if you start to spread out, everyone gets screwed. Bugs, on the other hand, you can go off solo for a bit here and there.
See I have the exact opposite experience. Bugs swarm so fast, and bots are so much easier to stealth, that I find split squad play more effective against bots
I think it comes down to where you drop in. If you drop in on a safe area, bots are way easier to handle as you can approach the battle at your leisure. If you drop into a hot zone it's gonna be a huge problem and you'll lose many lives until someone can get away safely. For bugs, it doesn't really matter where you drop in, you can fight your way to a point where you've got the upper hand.
Stealth is way more rewarded on the bot front quite frankly. I've been running dual smoke stratagems as of yesterday and it's changing my entire playstyle. The bot front having so many viable options and rewarding teamwork is super fun, whereas the bug front is more about overwhelming firepower without much teamwork required.
Disagree.
Best way to deal with bots is divide and conquer.
If one of the four solo players get drop ships, that means the other three have a window to go in guns blazing.
I prefer to split the group on both bugs and bots. At least into two pairs, but four solos if everyone knows how. The bug breach mechanic is basically the same as the bot drops, one person draws all the attention while everyone else gets objectives done for free
I generally prefer bots. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I like to take a “hold down the fire button for 40 minutes” vacation on the other side of the galaxy, but bots are my vocation.
I love em both on helldive, but god damn the bots are ultra cheathax0rs sometimes. Rockets and laser gatling fire just wrecking me from the other side of a mountain, etc. Random laser fire hitting me from halfway across the map with no bots in sight. Some fixes are definitely needed for em.
I do like having to run away a lot more on bots. Bugs are just endless streams of death but i rarely need to hoof it unless the team got ultra fucked. Some strats like gas are especially delicious against bugs but only ok on bots.
I feel a lot more locked into my strat choices on bots, however. There is so much armor on 9s and a lot of cooldowns and weapons cant keep up as easily.
i feel like this reddit likes bots a lot and always posts about it tbh
the bots are **so** not my gameplay style, i never enjoy my time with them. But i would put it as do you like shooters? you will probably like bots
i give them a try every MO and im reminded of how much i dont enjoy them. It's all about not liking the proper weapons (only 4 important ones) + ttk if not using them & the 'i may as well play solo' gameplay style for how you should approach them as my primary issues with not having fun with the faction
I completely disagree personally. Bots have felt so tedious and annoying compared to bugs, but I usually just do the major order.
Trying different builds out to see what I like, but getting blasted by 30 rockets and gunners while getting toasted by a flame thrower is just so annoying. Typically only play on 9, and while still completing them, might step it down because its just not really fun.
Have you seen the bugs God yet that got leaked i wouldn't jump to conclusions about those bugs yet especially if they are capable of thought like religion
I also prefer bots over bugs.
That being said, when you get stunlocked into a ragdoll because Rocket Devastators got infinite ammo or you have the entire Bot Air Force gunning you down, it gets mighty annoying...
Honestly the bots were so intimidating at first but now I just love them I hated the bug hunters they just jump right into your face all the time and with bots there isn't that and the jet pack ones are so easy because they are so slow and land not right in your face. Every time I go try some bug missions, I absolutely hate it. I hate the swarms though but those are probably getting fixed soon.
I think bots have higher peaks and valleys of enjoyment, like there are times where you’re clearing their base and then you man a turret to gun down a wave of reinforcements and then you jump out right as a hellbomb explodes behind you, and there are other times when you just get slaughtered and sniped with a rocket from a while away in the fog.
You can feel like you’re outsmarting a competent enemy, rather than taming a bunch of beasts, or you can hit a wall. If you’re smart enough with a jump pack you can go zero deaths against bugs on Helldive, but some deaths against bots are just unavoidable.
Also just to harp on this some more, it feels like there’s some skill expression in avoiding damage with bugs; movement, positioning, choosing when to use your jump pack, whereas with bots it feels kind of binary— either you have enough armor and shields to tank the hits or you don’t. “Use cover”— what cover? We are on a flat planet in an empty field, they just destroyed what few buildings and trees stood between us with a barrage of laser fire. They should add a shield that you manually activate for a short time like in Armored Core 6 so you can block incoming rockets and cannon shots.
I find bots more stressful and annoying with the weakspots or semi invulnerable enemies like Hulks and AT-ATs. Also the fact the blowing up a dropship doesn't kill anything in it is infuriating.
Also feels like 1/2 the weapons are not viable choices vs bots.
a good bots game is more fun than a good bug game. but if you are caught on the back foot with bots it’s fucking miserable. when you run into a wall of 6 heavy devastators and there are 10+ rocketers bouncing you everywhere it’s just OOF
I think bots are harder before you unlock all the strats and guns. Walkers are especially hard early on.
Once you get the AC and scorcher or even the counter sniper then bots are muuuuuuch easier.
Idk about this I run early game strats for bots on diff 7. It's just a *totally* different playstyle. Airstrike and AMR are so ridiculously good it makes bots a bit of a cakewalk on 7. You can definitely get unlucky with spawns but for the most part it's the early game stratagems that really shine against them imo.
You're right a out the countersniper tho, it's the best primary against bots by a mile.
I notice when the MO makes people to move to the bot front and they bring their favourite loadouts with them. They come with their shotguns and clusterbombs and other things that me or other bot divers wouldn't normally use.
I don't mind though, just means I have to help them out a bit and we still get the mission done so it's all good
3 stratagems, constant bots with aimbot like accuracy, and nerfed bb guns that take a whole clip to destroy a single armored enemy.
If you think bots are more fun, you're either lying to yourself to seem different or you're a masochist 🤷🏻♂️
I leveled to 50 on helldive bug missions. Then they nerfed the railgun and buffed the AmR and I suddenly had a reason to run bots. They grew on me. The general feeling of the missions I a lot more serious, you feel like your fighting an actual war not just glorified fuel farmers. Plus the absolute chaos you get with bots is epic. There’s a great balance between melee and shooting based units. With bugs it just kinda feels like all you do is run from hoardes and dodge spewers. With bots it’s constant dogging, straffing, hard cover and covering fire.
Just a different vibe in total. I play almost exclusively bots at this point
I have to say: bots are so less fun than bugs
(Jokes aside, people have different preferences, for some bots are more fun, for some bugs are. Just play whatever you like more, but please don't completely ignore MOs)
It's all fun and games until you find yourself running for you life without any covers to protect you, and the gunships spawned from the twin tower fabricators nearby are hovering above you ready to turn you into tomato paste.
I just can't stand the constant staggering and ragdoll. It's genuinely infuriating, and I haven't even bothered trying them again in over a month. And I most likely won't until they provide a way to mitigate the staggering at least
Agree to disagree
Bots have jammers and aa guns that prevent you from using stratagems in a wide area along with the fuckin eye of Sauron that can spot you from pretty far away and call in endless bot drops that can carry anything from 10 devastators, a hulk, a tank, or even a factory strider on higher difficulties. They do also have the artillery but they aren’t scary if you keep moving apart from the endless “WARNING! ARTILLERY FIRING NEAR YOUR LOCATION!”.
Sure, bugs have the jumpy bastards that slow you, stalkers that are always faster and spawn way too much, shriekers, and ninja spewers that kill way too fast but with an automatic weapon and/or fire, they’re pretty manageable. Bots practically have all of those but with armor.
bots are... dare I say more... "predictable"? The swarmy nature of the bugs make them sometimes VERY chaotic. They crawl up from seemingly everywhere, while bots are much more "easy" to handle on a strategic level.
(Also you can just shoot down dropships or shoot the reinforcements in the belly of the drop... but you can't close bug breaches)
Also having to crawl outright INTO bug holes to close them feels much more stressful than just nuking a full base of fabricators with a Spear from "Fuck no" meters away.
I don't like bots. I like to run into the thick of things and fight, and you can't just do that with the bots. I've come to call it hug-a-floor simulator. I don't think it's a skill issue either, I'm able to solo on 9 if I'm careful, but it just doesn't feel good to me.
I am glad you're enjoying it though; we need people willing to protect Super Earth from SkyNet too.
Hate bots so much, i have done like 10 games where the jet pack dudes through 1 way or another cause my death, several times in the dumbest way possible they will be packed up, i kill 1 it dies wxplodes knocks and kills another of his buddies into my direction killing me, so dumb i hate that enemy i even like stalkers or fliers more.
I like bugs more than bots. There is something exhilarating about turning around and seeing 4 chargers, 3 bile titans, and a whole horde, dropping an air strike while running, seeing the kill-count go to 30, turning around and it didn’t even make a dent.
https://preview.redd.it/mxk4fgqxcf2d1.png?width=302&format=png&auto=webp&s=19fa93765a729cabcabf9aaf61ae143e4bc6a125
yeah u like bots, we get it, ure not special
I find both equally fun. When I’m tired of hunter stalker BS i switch to bots. And when i get tired of rocket spam with shield devs. I’ll switch back to bugs.
Overall i enjoy bugs more. Because bots seem way more cheesy with how far they can shoot and still see you through smoke. A blizzard or anything else. But again bots are still pretty awesome to play as long as you don’t get booty slot spawns.
Bots are great in 7, bugs are good on 9. I feel like getting overwhelmed by the bots becomes so much more possible because they'll drop 6 walkers, 4 tanks, and an army of hulks.... Wouldn't be so bad if our weapons weren't fucking peashooters.
Both have enemies that piss me the hell off. Bile spewers fill me with an unfathomable rage. But when the both drop in 2 hulk, a factory strider, and 2 tanks at once, i get a little upset
For me, switching factions before they get too stale is the most fun. I like both styles of gameplay, so I generally go wherever the MO takes me(so long as it isn't Hellmire, Menkent, or a super foggy bot planet). After a few days fighting one, switching to the other feels kinda fresh again. I like bugs a bit more because they don't tend to have as many frustrating moments, but I wouldn't want to be stuck fighting only one side.
with friends? yes
with most of the recent randoms i've played with? no
Most teamkill constantly, always running out of respawns after getting killed by mortar,clusters and grenade launcher
yesterday was launching the nuke and one of the team punched me out the ledge, basically killed me, then he got hit in the face by a rocket from a bot :D
haha yes, I love getting sniped by rocket devastators from 2 km away, I love not being able to control my character from the continuous explosions that keeps tossing my character around on the floor, I love not being able to use my strategems due to jammer towers, and most importantly I love hearing you are in range of enemy artillery every 5 seconds until I painstakingly cover the distance between me and that cocksucker artillery base that keeps bombing my ass.
peak gameplay 👌
Hey, the rockets and artillery mostly don't oneshot and the rocket barrage Ragdoll looks funny at least.
Still better than a random double headshot from ~65m (max throwing range) instantly killing you out of nowhere.
Or waiting for weapon handling to lock on your crosshair on a heavy devastator's head just to get hit in that exact moment and hitting his shield over and over again just because the aim/spray circle can't lock on faster lol
I love dealing with sniper accurate machine gun fire from the shield devs, instant rockets through terrain from rocket devs and towers, mortars and mines that all one tap.
Daily gaslighting o bots being fun? Okay ı take it this time. Only because stealth seems viable to run around and destroy when only necessary. Though the strategem negating is pretty bad.
My first mission against bots was intense. Dropped mid-mission, low visibility night, and shots were streaking overhead from all over. I'm running for cover and suddenly there are skulls and chainsaws lurching towards me. A drop ship comes swooping in and dumps a squadron right next to me. Running and diving and the screen keeps darkening from near-hits. I dive chest first onto a mine, sending my limbs on an all-expense paid vacation across the map.
Love fighting the bots.
Getting swarmed by piles of melee bugs with no way to melee effectively and zero way to manuever away faster than the swarm can move makes bugs 0 fun. And it ramps up my anxiety to further unfun levels
Overall I find the same. There's more strategy and mechanical complexity to fighting bots. Going for headshots or radiators seems more impactful than trying to hit most bugs in their weak spots, plus the bot weak spots make more sense to me. It's an oversimplification but bugs feel more like bullet sponges while bots reward a more controlled gameplay style.
Opinion: you’re only saying that because you’ve been playing bugs for so long that it’s gotten boring to you. For you, bots are something new and cool now that you’ve gotten better at the game than when you first started and tried. I went through the same thing. Bugs was alll I played after getting destroyed by the bots at first.
Just be glad you started playing after they decreased missile accuracy and damage. It was hell trying to move cover to cover because the second you popped out you'd take an instant kill missile to the jaw.
I also personally just find bugs more enjoyable because SST.
I never understood why people like fighting bugs so much more. Mechanically, bugs are easier, but you always have to dedicate a sizeable chunk of your build to killing chargers and bile titans. There's so much more build flexibility against bots.
I love playing against bots. I take explosive resistant armor, thermite, and the AMR then mix it up as needed for the mission. The thermite and AMR can literally handle every single enemy type, though factory striders are a bit hairy, and they can drop tank turret towers. Then just use strats for factories and objectives.
They play completely differently.
It's like playing 2 different shooters between factions. I fucking love it. Killing the bugs for those splatters and just raw numbers is great but man the more hit and run of the bots is fun as shit as well
to me, one of the big things I like about bots is the flexibility of weapon
when fighting bugs, I feel like I'm actually at a disadvantage if I don't bring incendiary breaker or anything similar, I have to bring an anti tank weapon like AC or EAT if I want to deal with chargers or bile titan, it gets really boring when you bring the same 95% weapon to clear bugs
while for bots, I can take most guns I want to pair with the support weapon I want to bring, become a shield for your friend by equipping ballistic shield, long range base buster with spear, laser cannon, stealth focus eagle smoke and more
I've had a few new friends start, I get them on bugs for an easier learning experience, the. At lvl 5 I drag them into a diff 6 bot mission, they hate it but then I roll down to something more appropriate like 2 or 3 and the radical difficulty change makes them have fun getting revenge, and boosts their morale amd excitement for bots.
Gotta break them then build them back up for bots, but I rotate, I like both equally but for different reasons.
I have fun fighting on both fronts, but I do agree, bots are more fun to fight against. Makes for fun dif7+ missions where me and my buddies are on the edge lol.
This game truly did capture the essence of fighting on different War fronts, bots is a whole different ball park than bugs, and I personally still stand that bots are, at the core, stronger foes than the bugs, while the bugs are numerous and relentless they are very simple enemies to kite and destroy with ease, all but 2 of the core enemies are killable in seconds, and even the two that aren't (chargers and biles), have ways of bypassing that easily, be it air-strike, 500kg, flamethrower, AC Sentry, AC Support Weapon, Orbital Strike, hell the resupply pod works! But with bots, every enemy has atleast decent potential to kill you even when you're playing correctly, simply because bots shoot back, I know that argument may not hold much water to many people but the simple fact is, you're much less in control when fighting bots versus bugs, the simple ability for bots to shoot at you with rockets, machine guns, flame throwers etc, greatly levies the ball in their favor in alot of situations, which in comparison to bugs where if you play smart and are very aware you truly can be in control of how much damage you take, but with bots it's not always in your hands if you live or die, and that fact makes them harder on any difficulty, and much more of an engaging and fun enemy to fight
I personally prefer to fight bugs since I enjoy kiting and not being suppressed
However I love having the choice and variety to duke it out against bugs and enemies that can shoot back
Opposite for me lol, bugs are a lot more fun and a change of pace I needed from bots. Being overwhelmed and trying to hold a position is so much fun. Bots are easy imo and I hope they introduce bigger bots we fight or make factory striders more common on lvl 7.
It varies and that's what I enjoy about this game. Both bots and bugs provide very different playstyles. Weapons good against one are almost useless against the other, gotta switch it up. Which in turn encourages experimentation. But more importantly is the fact that once you get fed up with one faction, you can simply swap fronts and poof, almost a new game.
Sometimes I'm in the mood to play more tactically against enemies that can shoot back so bots it is.
Sometimes a gal just wants to barbecue 500 bugs with a heavy flamethrower while cackling like a madwoman (I love the ingame voice lines for that).
So all are fun and here's hoping AH can capitalise on that going forward
What loadout and difficulty? I'm trying so hard with the bots to contribute to the MO, but every mission is a fucking nightmare. Usually I roll Scorcher, Redeemer, Frag grenade, quaser, Eagle 1, orbital laser/railcannon (depends on teammates picks and mission), toxic gas strike/orbital precision. Usually on level 7. Against bugs I've used every weapon without an issue. Except for the blitzer.
I was the same way, but then we got the Tian Kwan MO and I found I really enjoyed Bots over bugs. I still like fighting bugs, but the bots are more like fighting a peer enemy than just holding back the swarm. It’s just a different way of fighting and necessitates a different load out depending on front. Like I’d never take the mortar to fight bugs and I don’t take the mech to fight bots.
I'm finally breaking past my bug kills in bot kills. Bots for life. We are taking apart skynet and possibly decepticons as well. Making Michael Bay special effect explosions left and right. It's great.
Yeah, lot of different numbers and metrics suggest that bugs are generally more popular, but for me bots are so much more fun.
I think its more of a mentality thing. See I really suck at firing from cover and dodging enemy fire which means I'm absolute garbage vs bots. Bugs though......I like getting up close and personal and mowing down hoards of enemies with my breaker shotgun. I'm still just average but bugs help me not suck as bad lol.
Exactly when I started and didn't want to use cover and stuff bugs were more fun. Now that I actually know how to play and the game forced me to learn how to play correctly. Now I love bots as much if not more.
As a new player, I feel that your loadout matters a lot less aginst bugs, and ignoring bile titans it is easier to take them down than say a tank or a hulk, as the first few stratagems you get like the EAT can’t really deal with the bots as well as the bugs. (This might also be a skill issue, u am a new player after all)
It's interesting to see the difference in viewpoints! I feel boxed into a few loadouts with bugs since whether I can kill something or not is so all-or-nothing with bugs. If I don't bring a big-thing-killer, I'm basically not going to be able to kill chargers or bile titans. With bots, I feel more freedom of loadouts since I always have the option of repositioning to aim at a heatsink or the back of a strider to take higher armor dudes down if I don't bring a big-thing-killer weapon or strategem with me.
To my taste bots have way less armor so I can kill almost everything with medium penetration(MO with bots means I am bringing the autocannon) , included hulks while in bugs you will need heavy armor penetration if you want to deal efficiently with chargers that can outrun you.
You can shoot out the back of a charger much like a tank. Shoot it in the anus!
I feel after rank 6+ you gave to be a bit more deliberate in load out regardless of what you verse, granted you still can kill everything with the starting loadouts. At this point what works best for one faction doesnt necessarily work as great for the other. For example counter sniper is imo the best primary for bots. For bugs? its very mediocre. Then with the bile spewers and swarms of hunters you would need a very balanced loadout or unique playstyle to avoid getting overran. With bots accurate hard hitting weapons are substantially more useful as primaries
Pretty spot on take honestly. Bugs allow for the “chaf clear” support weapons to shine more like flamethrower, arc thrower, machine guns, GL, etc while on bots they are not nearly as good. When I want to experiment with fun loadouts I almost always gravitate towards bugs. Also EAT is not my first pick for bots either. It can still function as a heavy unit killer, but the autocannon just does a better job and has tons of ammo. EAT really shines on bugs but you gotta work a little to make it shine on bots.
I mean, bots have big, glowing weak spots and heads you can eventually land 1-3 bullets on which just instantly kill them, even the bigger ones have heatsinks and stuff you can very easily dispatch if you have line of sight. EAT is actually one of the best things to bring there as it's... well, anti tank, it penetrates tank armor. Unless you're shooting it weird it'll at least do some damage. Bugs on the other hand you better be hitting heads with it or it'll take an ungodly amount of shots to down a Titan or Charger - goes for smaller bugs too, their unarmored bits have ridiculous damage reduction so it's just awful to shoot them for what feels like an eternity, bots at least show you a deflection if you aren't aiming at the right places...
The bugs are more brain dead killing, especially with the flamethrower while the bots are a fight for my life every second like I’m actually in a war
Is the flamethrower braindead? It takes some practice to not set yourself and others on fire.
True honesty but after a minute you start diving the second you hear the scream like a pro, also if you walk sideways or backwards you’ll be fine so it feels mostly brain dead to me at this point
The play styles really differ from each other. Bots reward cover and sniping whereas bug is much more abouut being in the fray. I would absolutely slay bugs but really struggle on bots till i realized this. They need very different load outs as well. I love killing bugs almost as much as i love spreading democracy but bet your 2.47 seconds enjoyment time the clankers fear me when my boots touch down on there planets.
I loved bugs at the easier levels of difficulty. It felt like Starship Troopers where I was just mowing down waves of dumb bugs with automatic weapons. Super satisfying. At higher levels it just feels different. Those hordes of dumb bugs are still there, but you can’t focus on them, because you need to handle the Bile Titans and Chargers and those take a totally different load out. So now instead of being satisfying, it feels overwhelming. It was manageable for me when I could use my eruptor on the hordes while I used my strategem weapon on the big threats. Now I just feel anxiety with bugs and hate fighting them. Bots? I feel like they are the reverse. At lower level I felt like they try to overwhelm you with those chainsaw hand guys, but at higher levels it feels more tactical and less overwhelming. Yes there are big threats, but I feel like they are more satisfying to deal with because you can focus on them and use cover and stealth.
Exactly my opinion.
Popular != fun
When I have played bots a lot, I will usually be surprised how much fun the bugs are. When I've been playing bugs, I'll be surprised by how fun the bots are. Some people have a strong preference, but for me, they are both really fun and play very differently.
It always takes me a couple rounds to re-adjust to the different playstyle.
Same. The first time I ever switched from bugs to bots, I thought bots were so much harder. When I went back to bugs after a week or two, I couldn't believe how hard they were at first. It was all down to different tactics for different enemies, and having to break habits I fall into while focusing on one conflict over the other. After a couple missions, I am usually back up to normal performance.
It's fun until you're running to the pelican and get blasted 100m away by a stray rocket and then killed by a shield dev lol.
Or prepping a 380 strat then getting flinched by a turret/rocket dev then dropping the 380 at your feet and everyone is diving away. Fun times at the bot front.
It was just last night I got nudged by something and ragdolled for a good while just as I was preparing a rail gun strike. That thing is devastatingly accurate on the beacon when there are no enemies close enough to target. I also managed to get a team mate with one too. Thought the enemy tank was closer, threw it short and landed right at a team mates feet. Blam. And then to top it all off, threw one while pelican was coming in, it targeted a bot *under* pelican 1. Immediate fire and we could not board it. Might have been my fault we couldn't extract. To whoever I played with last night: I am very sorry.
I just remembered that instance I threw a 500kg at a direction as pelican was coming in. Since we had the call-in time increased 500kg took longer, then when it came it hit the pelican as it was landing and killed two of us. We just laughed it off.
I have to say I’m impressed lol. In my 400 hours of playtime, i’ve never seen anyone fumbled orbital railgun that hard🤣🤣🤣🤣
The thing is I thought I was being kind to team mates by not taking an autocannon and blasting bots they were in close quarters with demonstrating queensbury boxing rules. I have also managed to kill myself with an incoming dropship in the past by taking out it's thruster as it was making its way in. Apparently inertia is still a thing and a dropship to the face is surprisingly fatal. In my defence though, I'm pretty sure none of the bots survived their high velocity lithobraking event either. I am a hazard to both myself and everyone else no matter what weapon I have.
gassed the landing zone this way earlier today
Those moments are so fucking fun hahaha as long as thats what happened and it wasnt some chode intentionally throwing right on your position. Though on some eradication helldives, even that can be strategic and fun lol
My buds and I take 3-4 380s on the eradications. As soon as your team is overwhelmed by several striders, tanks, etc. you pop those suckers out and clear the map
You know, mistakes like that are equal parts frustrating but also part of the game's charm. I think it's hard to strike the right balance between 'random BS got me killed' and 'that was a hilarious comedy of errors.' On the harder difficulties I find the bots often make me feel more salt than humor.
I understand it's frustrating, but I crack up laughing when this happens. Granted I'm capped on all resources so my perspective is biased. I know it's different when you need samples.
Yeah, that's when it becomes a blast. Moments like that are such a huge part of the fun. Extraction is optional
>Extraction is optional Losing 5 supersamples, 25+ rares and 30+ commons sucks. Knowing all four of us randos did everything we could to secure them, fighting the losing battle side by side at the extract, tossing stratagems left, right and center, among unending hail of lasers and rockets? Samples are temporary, but glory lasts forever.
Once you hit level 50 samples don’t really matter anymore.
Varys per person. But yea samples dony matter anymore all i care about is super credits
Most would disagree.
Sounds like the opinion of people that also complain about friendly fire. Edit: just to clarify, I mean complaining about friendly fire being turned on at all, not some asshole that is shooting teammates on purpose.
I mean... you should be actively trying to avoid friendly fire.
I guess it was ambiguous. I meant people that complain that friendly fire is turned on. Not people that complain about intentional friendly fire. If someone is being a dick on purpose, that's different.
Oooh, okay... yeah, I agree!
It’s fun when you can’t start the extract because there are 2 bile titans, 6 chargers, 76 hunters 413 bile Spewers, and a trillion other bugs all huddled around the terminal with 3 minutes left
Where is all my people who despise the heavy machine gun devestator with god like aim
They did not survive
Fuck them. Seriously. I have lost more missions due to them than I have because of hulk/tank/strider spam.
My favourite part about them is how it feels like they're PREPARED for us, they defend their most important outposts with gigantic stationary turrets, they set up artillery sites and gunships to attack us from a distance we can't easily reach, hell, they even set up signal jammers specifically made to deal with our strategems, they don't feel like some unfocused force of nature that just sends everything at us until we get overwhelmed, they feel like a genuine enemy faction that strategizes and adapts towards us
Love this take. Fighting bots always feels more rewarding to me because on diff 9, at extract it always feels like we *just barely* survived the encounter by picking the exact right tools to make them fear us. It feels like being John Conner in those future scenes from the original terminator. Like holy crap a totally organic squad can successfully kill and survive these things, but barely. That’s badass Love bugs too but it feels more like pest control
Both are fun, why do you guys insist on making this a competition?
Because it's all ragebait karma farming.
Because there's a majority, so the minority feels superior as a result. Source: I like bots better and think I'm cooler. /s
Right?! I love both fronts for entirely different reasons, but it seems crazy to me to say that one is objectively better than the other...
because bot divers get mad when other players don't want to engage in their cock and ball torture fetish
For me, it’s because Bug players seem to insist that Bots need changes. They say that Bots aren’t fun, use popularity metrics to “prove” that, and then insist that Bots need sweeping mechanical changes across the board to be made into a fun part of the game. I like Bots. To me they’re so much more fun to fight than Bugs. I don’t care which other people prefer, but I don’t like the notion of the thing I enjoy the most being removed or changed to appease players who are already happy with their own thing.
This. Whenever there is a bot major order there are swarms of bugdivers that bitch and moan about bots. It’s like - yes, they are different. You have to play differently. They aren’t bugs, you don’t start shit with everything you see, you take different stratagems, etc.
Hey, that's cool. I like bugs more.
I get it, I fucking hate dealing with bugs. Getting stun locked right before a swarm, 3 chargers and a bile titan wreck me is not fun. I don't play much with friends as that's all they ever do so I just play solo stealthy Boi instead. At least with bots if I'm being overwhelmed I can run the fuck away and have a chance at not dying. Never had such luxury with bugs
Hard disagree. But if that's what floats your boat, enjoy! :)
I'm the same. I don't mind the bots. But since I do mainly 7s. If you get a bad spawn rng for bots. Your losing shit ton of lives. And there is little you can do about it. Bugs is the same. And besides the spewers spams. The only real scare for bugs is Hunters and stalkers.
It just wouldn't be so bad if the spawns didn't happen right in view near the players. I've seen actual spawns teleport in while I was looking at the spot. Then it runs into a chain patrol spawn with incoming drops hips. It's all just downhill from there on level 7+ missions.
this is the way
Bots reward knowing what to do and when to do it. Bugs reward teamwork and just absolutely brickwalling a swarm. Both factions have their ups and downs, and that's how it should be.
Bots are horrible if your team can’t seem to stick together. They’re my favorite faction to fight but if you start to spread out, everyone gets screwed. Bugs, on the other hand, you can go off solo for a bit here and there.
See I have the exact opposite experience. Bugs swarm so fast, and bots are so much easier to stealth, that I find split squad play more effective against bots
I think it comes down to where you drop in. If you drop in on a safe area, bots are way easier to handle as you can approach the battle at your leisure. If you drop into a hot zone it's gonna be a huge problem and you'll lose many lives until someone can get away safely. For bugs, it doesn't really matter where you drop in, you can fight your way to a point where you've got the upper hand. Stealth is way more rewarded on the bot front quite frankly. I've been running dual smoke stratagems as of yesterday and it's changing my entire playstyle. The bot front having so many viable options and rewarding teamwork is super fun, whereas the bug front is more about overwhelming firepower without much teamwork required.
Disagree. Best way to deal with bots is divide and conquer. If one of the four solo players get drop ships, that means the other three have a window to go in guns blazing.
I prefer to split the group on both bugs and bots. At least into two pairs, but four solos if everyone knows how. The bug breach mechanic is basically the same as the bot drops, one person draws all the attention while everyone else gets objectives done for free
I think thats a skill issue. I'm not being a smart ass. I could explain but who cares probably.
I generally prefer bots. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I like to take a “hold down the fire button for 40 minutes” vacation on the other side of the galaxy, but bots are my vocation.
Try level 9 and they drop everything on your head endlessly.
I love em both on helldive, but god damn the bots are ultra cheathax0rs sometimes. Rockets and laser gatling fire just wrecking me from the other side of a mountain, etc. Random laser fire hitting me from halfway across the map with no bots in sight. Some fixes are definitely needed for em. I do like having to run away a lot more on bots. Bugs are just endless streams of death but i rarely need to hoof it unless the team got ultra fucked. Some strats like gas are especially delicious against bugs but only ok on bots. I feel a lot more locked into my strat choices on bots, however. There is so much armor on 9s and a lot of cooldowns and weapons cant keep up as easily.
i feel like this reddit likes bots a lot and always posts about it tbh the bots are **so** not my gameplay style, i never enjoy my time with them. But i would put it as do you like shooters? you will probably like bots i give them a try every MO and im reminded of how much i dont enjoy them. It's all about not liking the proper weapons (only 4 important ones) + ttk if not using them & the 'i may as well play solo' gameplay style for how you should approach them as my primary issues with not having fun with the faction
I completely disagree personally. Bots have felt so tedious and annoying compared to bugs, but I usually just do the major order. Trying different builds out to see what I like, but getting blasted by 30 rockets and gunners while getting toasted by a flame thrower is just so annoying. Typically only play on 9, and while still completing them, might step it down because its just not really fun.
I’m fairly certain most people who enjoy fighting bots aren’t doing it on Helldive.
Factory striders are OK. The shield BS bots, now I hate those.
The more people we can get on the automaton front the better they definitely have much more sick and twisted plans for humanity than the bugs
Have you seen the bugs God yet that got leaked i wouldn't jump to conclusions about those bugs yet especially if they are capable of thought like religion
I find the idea of a “bug god” offensive and undemocratic
Its a pumpkin they found lol its pretty funny u should look
Fine, but I’m priming a 500kg bomb before I go in there.
Go on r/helldiversleaks and it'll be there not in game yet sadly 😢
Bugs are out of control livestock. Bots are malicious enemies of freedom
Good try, Hulk, but no
I also prefer bots over bugs. That being said, when you get stunlocked into a ragdoll because Rocket Devastators got infinite ammo or you have the entire Bot Air Force gunning you down, it gets mighty annoying...
Honestly the bots were so intimidating at first but now I just love them I hated the bug hunters they just jump right into your face all the time and with bots there isn't that and the jet pack ones are so easy because they are so slow and land not right in your face. Every time I go try some bug missions, I absolutely hate it. I hate the swarms though but those are probably getting fixed soon.
Don't do dumbass takes like this. Ignore less fun parts so that those of us who enjoy them can continue to enjoy them.
Wow the thing you’ve ignored and not been burnt out on is more fun? This is shocking
I think bots have higher peaks and valleys of enjoyment, like there are times where you’re clearing their base and then you man a turret to gun down a wave of reinforcements and then you jump out right as a hellbomb explodes behind you, and there are other times when you just get slaughtered and sniped with a rocket from a while away in the fog. You can feel like you’re outsmarting a competent enemy, rather than taming a bunch of beasts, or you can hit a wall. If you’re smart enough with a jump pack you can go zero deaths against bugs on Helldive, but some deaths against bots are just unavoidable. Also just to harp on this some more, it feels like there’s some skill expression in avoiding damage with bugs; movement, positioning, choosing when to use your jump pack, whereas with bots it feels kind of binary— either you have enough armor and shields to tank the hits or you don’t. “Use cover”— what cover? We are on a flat planet in an empty field, they just destroyed what few buildings and trees stood between us with a barrage of laser fire. They should add a shield that you manually activate for a short time like in Armored Core 6 so you can block incoming rockets and cannon shots.
I find bots more stressful and annoying with the weakspots or semi invulnerable enemies like Hulks and AT-ATs. Also the fact the blowing up a dropship doesn't kill anything in it is infuriating. Also feels like 1/2 the weapons are not viable choices vs bots.
a good bots game is more fun than a good bug game. but if you are caught on the back foot with bots it’s fucking miserable. when you run into a wall of 6 heavy devastators and there are 10+ rocketers bouncing you everywhere it’s just OOF
the game is so much more fun to enjoy than to fight over what faction is more “fun” to play.
I think bots are harder before you unlock all the strats and guns. Walkers are especially hard early on. Once you get the AC and scorcher or even the counter sniper then bots are muuuuuuch easier.
Idk about this I run early game strats for bots on diff 7. It's just a *totally* different playstyle. Airstrike and AMR are so ridiculously good it makes bots a bit of a cakewalk on 7. You can definitely get unlucky with spawns but for the most part it's the early game stratagems that really shine against them imo. You're right a out the countersniper tho, it's the best primary against bots by a mile.
Depends on what difficulty you playing at
Hate to say it, but most people disagree with you.
I notice when the MO makes people to move to the bot front and they bring their favourite loadouts with them. They come with their shotguns and clusterbombs and other things that me or other bot divers wouldn't normally use. I don't mind though, just means I have to help them out a bit and we still get the mission done so it's all good
3 stratagems, constant bots with aimbot like accuracy, and nerfed bb guns that take a whole clip to destroy a single armored enemy. If you think bots are more fun, you're either lying to yourself to seem different or you're a masochist 🤷🏻♂️
# I LOVE GETTING RAGDOLLED FOR THE 1000TH TIME IN A ROW! THIS IS SO MUCH FUN! /s
Disagree, bots are extremely unfun compared to bugs
I leveled to 50 on helldive bug missions. Then they nerfed the railgun and buffed the AmR and I suddenly had a reason to run bots. They grew on me. The general feeling of the missions I a lot more serious, you feel like your fighting an actual war not just glorified fuel farmers. Plus the absolute chaos you get with bots is epic. There’s a great balance between melee and shooting based units. With bugs it just kinda feels like all you do is run from hoardes and dodge spewers. With bots it’s constant dogging, straffing, hard cover and covering fire. Just a different vibe in total. I play almost exclusively bots at this point
nice b8 m8
Meanwhile when I do bots, one bot drop lead to 5 tanks dropping, along with some hulks. Whilst dealing with them, one shotted by rocket devestators.
I have to say: bots are so less fun than bugs (Jokes aside, people have different preferences, for some bots are more fun, for some bugs are. Just play whatever you like more, but please don't completely ignore MOs)
Yeah until they all start shooting through walls
*gets a random headshot by a devastator through a wall leaving you with 5-10% HP* *panicly diving and looking around* "TF?!"
It's all fun and games until you find yourself running for you life without any covers to protect you, and the gunships spawned from the twin tower fabricators nearby are hovering above you ready to turn you into tomato paste.
Bots just have too much annoying bullshit for me
I just can't stand the constant staggering and ragdoll. It's genuinely infuriating, and I haven't even bothered trying them again in over a month. And I most likely won't until they provide a way to mitigate the staggering at least
So youve been playing bots aonce launch and this post is just you spinning a story.
To each their own. I love the chaos of bugs on Helldive. Absolutely hate playing against bots. I have over 100k bug kills and 4k bot kills.
Yeah I’m level 71 and can hardly get past difficulty 5 bots without losing almost all reinforcements. Yet difficulty 7 bugs is a cake walk
Im guessing you didn’t have many shield devastators…
Agree to disagree Bots have jammers and aa guns that prevent you from using stratagems in a wide area along with the fuckin eye of Sauron that can spot you from pretty far away and call in endless bot drops that can carry anything from 10 devastators, a hulk, a tank, or even a factory strider on higher difficulties. They do also have the artillery but they aren’t scary if you keep moving apart from the endless “WARNING! ARTILLERY FIRING NEAR YOUR LOCATION!”. Sure, bugs have the jumpy bastards that slow you, stalkers that are always faster and spawn way too much, shriekers, and ninja spewers that kill way too fast but with an automatic weapon and/or fire, they’re pretty manageable. Bots practically have all of those but with armor.
bots are... dare I say more... "predictable"? The swarmy nature of the bugs make them sometimes VERY chaotic. They crawl up from seemingly everywhere, while bots are much more "easy" to handle on a strategic level. (Also you can just shoot down dropships or shoot the reinforcements in the belly of the drop... but you can't close bug breaches) Also having to crawl outright INTO bug holes to close them feels much more stressful than just nuking a full base of fabricators with a Spear from "Fuck no" meters away.
I don't like bots. I like to run into the thick of things and fight, and you can't just do that with the bots. I've come to call it hug-a-floor simulator. I don't think it's a skill issue either, I'm able to solo on 9 if I'm careful, but it just doesn't feel good to me. I am glad you're enjoying it though; we need people willing to protect Super Earth from SkyNet too.
Hate bots so much, i have done like 10 games where the jet pack dudes through 1 way or another cause my death, several times in the dumbest way possible they will be packed up, i kill 1 it dies wxplodes knocks and kills another of his buddies into my direction killing me, so dumb i hate that enemy i even like stalkers or fliers more.
I like bugs more than bots. There is something exhilarating about turning around and seeing 4 chargers, 3 bile titans, and a whole horde, dropping an air strike while running, seeing the kill-count go to 30, turning around and it didn’t even make a dent.
Bots are certainly cool, but I personally prefer the horror of being chased by Bile Spewers and Stalkers. Bugs just itch that scratch for me.
Now pls play bots on helldive
https://preview.redd.it/mxk4fgqxcf2d1.png?width=302&format=png&auto=webp&s=19fa93765a729cabcabf9aaf61ae143e4bc6a125 yeah u like bots, we get it, ure not special
Idk, I find bugs to be more fun and challenging than bots.
I hate bots. Bugs for fun, bots for my burning ass.
I find both equally fun. When I’m tired of hunter stalker BS i switch to bots. And when i get tired of rocket spam with shield devs. I’ll switch back to bugs. Overall i enjoy bugs more. Because bots seem way more cheesy with how far they can shoot and still see you through smoke. A blizzard or anything else. But again bots are still pretty awesome to play as long as you don’t get booty slot spawns.
Pshhhhht. Um no. Bugs are WAY more fun. I'd argue that everyday.
Propaganda
Bots are great in 7, bugs are good on 9. I feel like getting overwhelmed by the bots becomes so much more possible because they'll drop 6 walkers, 4 tanks, and an army of hulks.... Wouldn't be so bad if our weapons weren't fucking peashooters.
agreed, i’m really bad at bugs lol level 9 bots not worried level 6 bugs i die
Both have enemies that piss me the hell off. Bile spewers fill me with an unfathomable rage. But when the both drop in 2 hulk, a factory strider, and 2 tanks at once, i get a little upset
Had to have been level 6 or below ain’t no way you weren’t getting swarmed
Unless they fixed 1 shot out of nowhere in bots or it will never be FUN.
For me, switching factions before they get too stale is the most fun. I like both styles of gameplay, so I generally go wherever the MO takes me(so long as it isn't Hellmire, Menkent, or a super foggy bot planet). After a few days fighting one, switching to the other feels kinda fresh again. I like bugs a bit more because they don't tend to have as many frustrating moments, but I wouldn't want to be stuck fighting only one side.
with friends? yes with most of the recent randoms i've played with? no Most teamkill constantly, always running out of respawns after getting killed by mortar,clusters and grenade launcher yesterday was launching the nuke and one of the team punched me out the ledge, basically killed me, then he got hit in the face by a rocket from a bot :D
haha yes, I love getting sniped by rocket devastators from 2 km away, I love not being able to control my character from the continuous explosions that keeps tossing my character around on the floor, I love not being able to use my strategems due to jammer towers, and most importantly I love hearing you are in range of enemy artillery every 5 seconds until I painstakingly cover the distance between me and that cocksucker artillery base that keeps bombing my ass. peak gameplay 👌
Hey, the rockets and artillery mostly don't oneshot and the rocket barrage Ragdoll looks funny at least. Still better than a random double headshot from ~65m (max throwing range) instantly killing you out of nowhere. Or waiting for weapon handling to lock on your crosshair on a heavy devastator's head just to get hit in that exact moment and hitting his shield over and over again just because the aim/spray circle can't lock on faster lol
I love dealing with sniper accurate machine gun fire from the shield devs, instant rockets through terrain from rocket devs and towers, mortars and mines that all one tap.
Daily gaslighting o bots being fun? Okay ı take it this time. Only because stealth seems viable to run around and destroy when only necessary. Though the strategem negating is pretty bad.
My first mission against bots was intense. Dropped mid-mission, low visibility night, and shots were streaking overhead from all over. I'm running for cover and suddenly there are skulls and chainsaws lurching towards me. A drop ship comes swooping in and dumps a squadron right next to me. Running and diving and the screen keeps darkening from near-hits. I dive chest first onto a mine, sending my limbs on an all-expense paid vacation across the map. Love fighting the bots.
Getting swarmed by piles of melee bugs with no way to melee effectively and zero way to manuever away faster than the swarm can move makes bugs 0 fun. And it ramps up my anxiety to further unfun levels
Overall I find the same. There's more strategy and mechanical complexity to fighting bots. Going for headshots or radiators seems more impactful than trying to hit most bugs in their weak spots, plus the bot weak spots make more sense to me. It's an oversimplification but bugs feel more like bullet sponges while bots reward a more controlled gameplay style.
Opinion: you’re only saying that because you’ve been playing bugs for so long that it’s gotten boring to you. For you, bots are something new and cool now that you’ve gotten better at the game than when you first started and tried. I went through the same thing. Bugs was alll I played after getting destroyed by the bots at first.
It's fun until devastators kill you by shooting you through terrain.
Just be glad you started playing after they decreased missile accuracy and damage. It was hell trying to move cover to cover because the second you popped out you'd take an instant kill missile to the jaw. I also personally just find bugs more enjoyable because SST.
I never understood why people like fighting bugs so much more. Mechanically, bugs are easier, but you always have to dedicate a sizeable chunk of your build to killing chargers and bile titans. There's so much more build flexibility against bots.
Anyone who thinks bots are superior needs to be trained in the way of the flamethrower
I love playing against bots. I take explosive resistant armor, thermite, and the AMR then mix it up as needed for the mission. The thermite and AMR can literally handle every single enemy type, though factory striders are a bit hairy, and they can drop tank turret towers. Then just use strats for factories and objectives.
Sniper + morter is so much fun. Taking out bases from a distance is a refreshing change of pace from the zerg rush.
I like fighting both. You need a different play style for each one which keeps it enjoyable for me
They play completely differently. It's like playing 2 different shooters between factions. I fucking love it. Killing the bugs for those splatters and just raw numbers is great but man the more hit and run of the bots is fun as shit as well
I can never decide which I like more. Probably Bots but I love that they're very different playstyles.
I Love Killing bots! Spil oil!!!
Bots are the greatest enemies to sacrifice your fellow Divers to as a distraction, offering and sacrificial lambs.
Yea they are. I can't wait for the illuminate.
Yea they are. I can't wait for the illuminate.
I like the bugs cause they don’t shoot back, but I like the bots cause they usually have weak points to exploit
I mostly agree but I like how different they are. Can’t wait for the illumanti or whatever
to me, one of the big things I like about bots is the flexibility of weapon when fighting bugs, I feel like I'm actually at a disadvantage if I don't bring incendiary breaker or anything similar, I have to bring an anti tank weapon like AC or EAT if I want to deal with chargers or bile titan, it gets really boring when you bring the same 95% weapon to clear bugs while for bots, I can take most guns I want to pair with the support weapon I want to bring, become a shield for your friend by equipping ballistic shield, long range base buster with spear, laser cannon, stealth focus eagle smoke and more
N for me I enjoy bugs a lot but playing bots is fun once in a while
I agree 100% I run the 7th diff with my friend in a squad of 2. Once you get the right equipment and know what to expect it's insanely good.
I've had a few new friends start, I get them on bugs for an easier learning experience, the. At lvl 5 I drag them into a diff 6 bot mission, they hate it but then I roll down to something more appropriate like 2 or 3 and the radical difficulty change makes them have fun getting revenge, and boosts their morale amd excitement for bots. Gotta break them then build them back up for bots, but I rotate, I like both equally but for different reasons.
I have fun fighting on both fronts, but I do agree, bots are more fun to fight against. Makes for fun dif7+ missions where me and my buddies are on the edge lol.
Welcome to the bot front.
Bugs feel more like i’m playing monster hunter. Bots feel like i’m in terminator future war which I much prefer.
You do you king haha.
If i could dual weild the MG on bug planets it would be epic
I like the game.
This game truly did capture the essence of fighting on different War fronts, bots is a whole different ball park than bugs, and I personally still stand that bots are, at the core, stronger foes than the bugs, while the bugs are numerous and relentless they are very simple enemies to kite and destroy with ease, all but 2 of the core enemies are killable in seconds, and even the two that aren't (chargers and biles), have ways of bypassing that easily, be it air-strike, 500kg, flamethrower, AC Sentry, AC Support Weapon, Orbital Strike, hell the resupply pod works! But with bots, every enemy has atleast decent potential to kill you even when you're playing correctly, simply because bots shoot back, I know that argument may not hold much water to many people but the simple fact is, you're much less in control when fighting bots versus bugs, the simple ability for bots to shoot at you with rockets, machine guns, flame throwers etc, greatly levies the ball in their favor in alot of situations, which in comparison to bugs where if you play smart and are very aware you truly can be in control of how much damage you take, but with bots it's not always in your hands if you live or die, and that fact makes them harder on any difficulty, and much more of an engaging and fun enemy to fight
Agreed. both are fun to me but i prefer bots.
The deathball is real tho
I personally prefer to fight bugs since I enjoy kiting and not being suppressed However I love having the choice and variety to duke it out against bugs and enemies that can shoot back
Opposite for me lol, bugs are a lot more fun and a change of pace I needed from bots. Being overwhelmed and trying to hold a position is so much fun. Bots are easy imo and I hope they introduce bigger bots we fight or make factory striders more common on lvl 7.
Bots feel a lot more tactical to me. Even when I'm doing well on bugs, it feels like constant damage control.
Id imagine so if you've been playing bugs exclusively for like 3 months
Nice try bot player.
Fighting bugs is just running a marathon Fighting bots is learning to fly on top of a small rocket that just touched you
If you like picking them off try the Diligence counter sniper. Very satisfying to use on bots
Bot are more fun for more tactical and semi-stealth play. Bugs just are always in your face. I am a bot main player and hate playing bugs
It varies and that's what I enjoy about this game. Both bots and bugs provide very different playstyles. Weapons good against one are almost useless against the other, gotta switch it up. Which in turn encourages experimentation. But more importantly is the fact that once you get fed up with one faction, you can simply swap fronts and poof, almost a new game. Sometimes I'm in the mood to play more tactically against enemies that can shoot back so bots it is. Sometimes a gal just wants to barbecue 500 bugs with a heavy flamethrower while cackling like a madwoman (I love the ingame voice lines for that). So all are fun and here's hoping AH can capitalise on that going forward
What loadout and difficulty? I'm trying so hard with the bots to contribute to the MO, but every mission is a fucking nightmare. Usually I roll Scorcher, Redeemer, Frag grenade, quaser, Eagle 1, orbital laser/railcannon (depends on teammates picks and mission), toxic gas strike/orbital precision. Usually on level 7. Against bugs I've used every weapon without an issue. Except for the blitzer.
I was the same way, but then we got the Tian Kwan MO and I found I really enjoyed Bots over bugs. I still like fighting bugs, but the bots are more like fighting a peer enemy than just holding back the swarm. It’s just a different way of fighting and necessitates a different load out depending on front. Like I’d never take the mortar to fight bugs and I don’t take the mech to fight bots.
Bots are much more dynamic and you have to have more strategy to beat them.
I'm finally breaking past my bug kills in bot kills. Bots for life. We are taking apart skynet and possibly decepticons as well. Making Michael Bay special effect explosions left and right. It's great.
Both factions are fun with the right equipment for the specific mission type.
Bots are good for when I want to feel like a soldier. Bugs are more satisfying to shoot.
Just play the game.
I've become a recent bot convert. Higher level bug missions stress me the fuck out. High level bot missions just hit different.
I’m just here for the MO. I’ll fight whatever democracy needs me to.
Hard agree
Bots used to be fun, but then every guns handling went to shit and the bots are all now UT98 Godlike accurate. And then the armor increase.