Duration: 42:39

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4-player Coop Helldive, Max Difficulty Lvl 9, all objectives (Main + Optional) completed, all nests destroyed, no deaths
Modifiers: Tremors
Planet: Fori Prime
Patch version: 1.000 203

Out with new, in with the old...feels like forever since I've seen someone run the old Breaker + Railgun combo, so I thought I'd try it out again, though having used the default Breaker recently, I thought I'd try the buffed Breaker Spray & Pray instead.

The Breaker Spray & Pray performs very admirably, its firerate, spread and magazine size excelling at taking on those dangerous swarms of smaller enemies like Hunter packs, though lacking the burst damage of the default Breaker for tougher enemies. It's pretty comparable to the fan-favourite Incendiary Breaker, with a little less damage but a little faster firerate and without the threat of ricochets lighting teammates on fire. Perhaps a little buff to its mag size vs the Incendiary Breaker would help differentiate the two weapons a little more.

The Railgun has slid down the rankings as a heavy-killer - whereas it used to be the fastest way to take down Chargers with the classic 2 leg shots then primary finisher, that kill is now much slower, requiring full unsafe charged shots, and comparing unfavourably with the insta-headshots of stuff like EATs, Recoiless Rifle, and Quasar.

However, unlike those anti-tanks specialists, the Railgun also has the ammunition to be used for one-shotting medium fare like Brood Commanders, Hiveguards, and Bile Spewers - perfect for plugging the weaknesses of the Breaker Spray & Pray. Perhaps a better comparison would be allrounder support weapons like the Autocannon, which has a similarly tricky Charger kill (matador then unload on the back), a stationary reload vs the Railgun's reload on the go, a backpack vs the Railgun's free slot, and can take down Fabricators / Bug Holes but cannot penetrate Titan armour like the Railgun can.

If you look at it as an allrounder, the Railgun does feel like a decent bug weapon then - in coop, most of the time I'll be beaten to the Charger kill by a teammate with a Quasar, but that's ok if the Railgun can also deal with things like Bile Spewers that the Quasar is too slow for. I wouldn't say no to some buff still, perhaps a slight damage increase to make the leg kills fasster with 2 unsafe but not quite fully charged shots would feel fair, or perhaps better ability to penetrate through multiple enemies for better trash clear.

The Railgun is also still very useful vs the Bots - I have another run showing that side of things coming out tomorrow.

Big thanks to my teammates on this one, Inexorable Warrior (@inexorablewarrior aka crackshot with the supply drop) and Raven11!

If you're looking to join us for some coop games, or do runs with other like-minded players, check us out on Warrior's discord: https://discord.gg/hu3x8VbnrM

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Build:

Breaker Spray & Pray covers most of my trash-killing needs, excelling at large swarms of the smaller enemies. Against medium enemies, I'll be using the Railgun which can one-shot Hiveguards, Brood Commanders and Bile Spewers - not too shabby.

For Chargers, I'll clear as much of the area of trash enemies as possible, then go for the old leg kill - Stun nades help with locking them down if needed. If it's getting too busy, I won't hestitate to whip out the Railcannon Strike, though I also have free Eagle 110 pods on this mission from the Operation. The Grenade Pistol means I still have a way of closing Bug Holes.

With the Railcannon Strike matching the Railgun theme, I decided to bring the Orbital Airbust as my orbital Breaker - this thing has a surprisingly short cooldown, and is really useful for opening up on an objective or throwing ontop of a bug breach to wipe out lightly armoured enemies - just don't expect it to do much vs the heavies unless their armour's been stripped. For Titans and the like, the trusty 500kg is always ready.

The Medic armours are pretty amazing - the extended duration on the stims means you can stim for a brief period of near-invulnerability, letting you take on packs of enemies that would otherwise tear you to shreds in seconds. I'm going with the medium armour to make sure I tank the hits that get through before the stim kicks in, with enough mobility to kite those bugs.

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00:00 Intro
00:15 Insertion, Nest 1, Stalker Lair, Spore Spewer, Research Station, Uplink 1 / Supply drop kill no.1
09:40 Radar, Nest 2, Clearing Evac, Nest 3, Spore Spewer / Double Supply drop kill!
21:00 Nests 4 & 5, Uplink 2 / "That was a little too close"
31:20 Evacuation / "The Helldivers are here!"
38:00 Extraction / Backup...need backup
41:30 Mission Stats