HELLDIVERS "Should I buy this DLC" Guide

Overview

It's one of the biggest questions on the forums so I figured I'd throw my two cents worth in. Note that these are only the opinions of one player, your mileage may vary. I hope to at least familiarize you with the different packs and their offerings. I'll work start top to bottom through the steam store list.

Ranger Pack

The Camper is a designated marksman rifle. High accuracy, massive damage. From what I can tell it's not armor piercing so a lot of that damage is wasted if you're using it on trash.

The real gem of this pack is the Humblebee UAV. It pings enemies from farther away which is... okay. More usefully it immediately spots objectives that are 'area search', meaning you waste less time hunting them down. Most importantly, they ping every research sample on the map! Make sure to inform your group of any nearby samples.

Verdict: Sniper rifle useful into midgame, UAV excellent for research runs.

Commando Pack

The Ninja is disappointing as a primary. It can barely shoot half the length of the screen, and it takes an entire magazine to destroy a single Illuminate walker with shield. Pathetic, and its ROF upgrade only exacerbates the magazine size issue. If you're considering using it as a black box carrier, the Defender does just as well and its mini-stun upgrade is arguably more useful.

The Commando MLRS on the other hand is fairly decent. It has four tubes and seeks out warm targets. It comes with a support pack meaning someone will have to give up a backpack spot to service it, usually you, which means long reload. The first upgrade doubles its capacity to 8 missiles and the final one makes it viable against armored targets. But alas, it's just too damn squirrelly. Sometimes you'll take out an armored unit with a couple rockets and others it'll seem like you're shooting spitwads. In the end-game you can't afford such inconsistency.

Verdict: One item has good utility midgame, useless for endgame.

Defenders Pack

The Suppressor easily obliterates small groups, much like a plasma weapon. It's quicker than the Commando above and handles soft targets better with less waste. It can eventually be upgraded to effectively engage upgraded enemy units but against medium or hard armor it's not very effective.

If you don't know what to take in your backpack slot, try the Guard Dog. It'll help take out foes at close range which is helpful against the bugs. Its upgrades allow it to fire on the move and do more damage to lightly armored foes. At least it would it its range wasn't so short. If it's doing a good share of the combat you're getting overrun far too much.

Verdict: Decent gun and an okay backpack item.

Support Pack

Okay, I may be slightly bias but I believe the Sickle to be the most effective trash-clearing gun in the game. This rapid-fire laser won't run out of ammo unless you overheat it, and if you tap the mouse trigger instead of holding it you can attain close to its max ROF without generating nearly as much heat. It's also hit-scan (meaning the projectile crosses the screen instantly) and can hit things well outside a full screen-length. Endless pew-pew! Upgrades increase power and cooling. Consider if you want to get that last upgrade. You'll be trading volume of fire for hitting harder, which is a must late game.

The Angel backpack is another amazing item. It can heal you and your allies in close range and even do some minor repairs to your mechs and armored units! This means you can leave the heal gun at home. If you're downed by small arms fire it's capable of healing you up that last bit of HP and have you standing again in quick time. Always a crowd favorite. Definitely worth upgrading.

Verdict: Get it.

Pilot Pack

I may not be using it right but the ARC Shotgun seems useless. It's range is so short that those Illuminate walkers can hit you with their zap gun if you can hit them. Worthless! You shouldn't be letting stuff get that close. Upgrades improve it slightly but not enough to match the breaker.

The Obsidian on the other hand does massive damage straight out of the box and has ammo for days. This NOT an anti-armor weapon however, making it not worth much against Cyborgs or Bugs. Against the Illuminate, however, it still excels.

Verdict: Useless shotgun and a decent mech that's only useful against Illuminate late-game.

Demolitionist Pack

Some players swear by the Demolisher charges and I'm starting to come around to them. You only get three at first but that's upgradeable, along with the explosive range. Like the EAT-17, it's an unlimited use call-down, meaning if you lose your stuff you can just call down another, restoring at least some of your team's AT capability. Unlike the EAT, you have to get dangerously close to the enemy to use it, but its uses are many and you get more of them. Its cooldown is a full three minutes.

The Stalwart is a great MG. Lighter and more portable than the other MG calldown, it takes up your primary slot, freeing up your support slot for other goodies. It places slightly below the calldown MG when both are fully upgraded.

Verdict: Possibly. Both items have utility but do the same things others do.

Hazard Ops Pack

The Paragon is sort of a poor man's Justice. It starts out as a middling battle rifle with one important trait, it poisons (and therefore slows) the enemy. This alone keeps it effective into the late-game, where durable enemies rush you frequently. The first upgrade gives it a three-round burst and next set lengthens its mag and gives it AP capability. The speed at which you can mag-dump with this weapon is amazing and requires a constant supply line. Most consider the Justice the best AR in the game due to its Unstoppable rounds upgrade, so you may abandon this when you unlock it.

The lackluster Avenger is some kind of sludge thrower. It takes time for the projectile to reach its target and even longer for it to die. Too slow for my taste.

Verdict: Again, different flavors of existing armaments.

Specialist Pack

The Tanto is yet another weapon that can't fire further than half the length of your screen. Mediocre! How are you supposed to take out baddies before they sound the alarm? It takes up your primary weapon slot too, and that's for a glorified pistol. If you want to run and gun with a black box, take the plasma pistol upgrade from the Pistols pack, or just upgrade the old standby.

The Eagle airstrike seems a little bit of everything. It's supposed to be a combo of a gun-run and missile strike for a AP and AT double whammy. It also has an instantaneous activation time. Unfortunately I find that the gun run is too narrow to be effective against soft targets and the missiles fly right past the strike zone unless there are armored targets to lock onto, any armored targets, including allied mechs. Upgrades only increase the amount of missiles so if there's no armor it's a lot of nothing.

Verdict: If you like airstrikes?

Weapons Pack

This pack gives you three weapons instead of two. The first is the Scortcher, a primary plasma weapon. It only fires two-thirds the length of the screen but obliterates anything it finds. Its mag feels a bit shallow until you upgrade it and eventually it sets things on fire. Friendly-fire nightmare if you don't know how to aim and occupies the same role as many other primaries.

The Rumbler is an interesting bird. Each attack fires a volley of three shells on a parabolic arc. Its magazine of two volleys can be upgraded to four, and toxic after-effects can be added. It has no support pack as the extra mags are carried with the weapon, which frees up a backpack slot but ensures a slow reload for you. You have to hold down the mouse button to increase the arc and you can't really turn or abort once you've started. This makes it a rather slow but undoubtedly devastating weapon against medium armor and anything below, just make sure at least two of the shells hit the big cyborgs or all of them for the tank. (which is hard) At maximum it can carry 4 magazines and 4 shells in the tube for 20 total volleys and 60 shells of high explosive goodness. Gotta respect that.

The Dum-dum works well on paper. It SAYS it's AP but don't try using it on armored targets. It's mostly designed for small clusters of critters and upgraded enemy units. You don't need to upgrade it but doing so makes it quicker and easier to use. Its utility wanes in later difficulty levels.

Verdict: If you want a little variation and one unique and powerful dual-purpose weapon, go for it.

Vehicles Pack

The Bastion is quite the trade-off for what it does. It takes two to crew, the driver and gunner. The single weapon has a narrow firing ark but makes minced meat out of anything. It's slow going and needs protection until you can unlock the coax machine gun. The sheer brutality of this vehicle makes a difference however at tougher levels.

The Hammer is more or less a joke vehicle, though some find it useful getting around the map during solo sample-hunts.

Lumberer is the rare weapon that actually gets better in the late game. One arm is a godly AT cannon and the other is a respectable flamethrower. You'll want to take all the upgrades as they improve its pitiful ammo stores.

Verdict: If you fancy yourself a mechwarrior or a tank commander, don't be afraid to pick this up.

Entrenched Pack

The AT-47 AT gun requires 7 seconds to call it down, a long time to be dodging tank fire. It also removes your mobility so make sure you have support. Essentially meant for those long 'protect' objectives or 'arena' missions. Upgrades assist its slow turn rate and magazine.

Barbed wire is an interesting protective measure. Toss it into a choke point and it'll slow critters down to a crawl as well as heavily damaging them if they aren't armored. It won't stop those that teleport or drop inside your lines however. Upgrades increase its length for those big choke points and reduce cooldown to 40 seconds so you can use up to two in those long engagements. It really earns its keep in harder difficulty levels and the arena missions, slowing down waves of upgraded critters and making the whole encounter more manageable. You get 5 and doubling up on them increases their effectiveness even more. Tip: To get through them without damage, jump.

The Kinetic Shield is another interesting one. It mitigates small arms fire but only from the front. So no help if you're running away. And I seem to recall it's the gimicks and big booms that end up killing me and not the occasional pecking from cyborg gunners. Angel might be more useful to mitigate damage.

Verdict: I love my barbed wire but it's might not be worth the cost of the whole pack. Watch people and see if you like it.

Pistol Perk Pack

The pistols I'll talk about together. They all take up your perk slot, giving them a black mark right out of the gate. None of them can be upgraded either, another black mark. The Gunslinger is a six shot revolver that takes a while to reload. With a small handful of research points the standard pistol can do better. The flamer pistol is short range and takes time to kill. The plasma pistol is the only outlier with great range and an AOE explosive effect capable of taking out small groups of trash critters. Just remember, when you go down you automatically switch to your sidearm to fight off nearby foes. Remember that AOE? Yeah.

Verdict: Use your perk slot for something more useful. Pass.

Terrain Specialist Pack

A lot depends on your mobility. All-terrain boots let you travel at standard pace through snow, water, just about anything short of lava with no apparent penalty. This might tempt you to run out ahead. Don't. Grabbing the odd sample here and there is okay but you'll have to keep pace with the rest of your squad, even if they don't have the boots. (And there will always be one)

Missile barrage occupies the same territory as the 'Thunderer' Barrage, but goes in a different direction. While the former promotes the 'missiles forever' school of thought, the latter upgraded to have a quicker reaction and a toxic aftertaste. Be careful to pull back after throwing the beacon, they have quite a kick. It also has an arguably easier calldown code than the other heavy hitters.

Verdict: Those all-terrain boots are pretty nice but again, judgment call if you want to spend the money. I take them to every snow or forest planet I visit.

Precision Expert Pack

The precision call in perk is good if you're making a build that uses short-delay call-ins. Certain artillery strikes and defenses have 3-5 second call down times and this will certainly help with that. Priority is usually taken instead since the cooldowns are MUCH longer.

The 'Sledge' Precision artillery strike is exactly what it sounds like, a cluster of high explosive bombs dropped precisely onto the target beacon. However its guided so if there are large targets on the field, it'll lock onto them and land on their predicted position. It does this because it takes three seconds to come in once called. Don't expect to be taking out one armored unit after another since the cooldown is a full two minutes. Its calldown code is also rather complex. I'd rather take Close Air Support from from the specialist pack since it does about the same thing, is instantaneous and has almost half the cooldown.

Verdict: Unless you REALLY love airstrikes, I'd pass on this.

Updates

11/15/2015

Updated entries for Paragon, Obsidian, Demolisher, Commando and Ninja.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=573575644

"Should I buy this DLC" Guide