Ranking ALL 11 Orbital Stratagems!!! Which is Best? / Orbital Tier List! | Helldivers 2

We're going through all of the Orbital Stratagems in Helldivers 2 so far. These are extremely fun and can give you the edge on the battlefield.
As with my Eagle video I'll be ranking them for aesthetics/how cool they are as well as giving a tier list from my opinion on how practical they are.
Did you enjoy this format? Please let me know down below & I will get similar videos out for other Stratagem.
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this content.
Check out Reginald's channel: / @reginald-sc9tk
00:00 Intro
01:05 Ship Upgrades: Exploding Shrapnel
01:45 Ship Upgrades: More Guns
02:53 Ship Upgrades: Zero-G Breech Loading
04:09 Ship Upgrades: Targeting Software Upgrade
05:20 Pre-Breakdown Details
05:43 Orbital Gatling Barrage
06:52 Orbital Airburst Strike
07:37 Orbital Railcannon Strike
08:39 Orbital Laser
09:54 Orbital Gas Strike
10:51 Orbital Smoke Strike
11:35 Orbital EMS Strike
12:21 Orbital Precision Strike
13:08 Orbital Walking Barrage
14:06 Orbital 380mm HE Barrage
15:16 Orbital 120mm HE Barrage
16:22 Orbital Stratagem Quirks
16:52 Tier List (Practicality)
18:09 Tier List (Aesthetics / Coolness)
18:34 Outro
#helldivers2
#helldivers2gameplay #gameplay #arrowhead #gameplayvideo #gaming #gamers #patch #update #news

[@TheNumber86]

99% of Helldivers stop using the 380mm Barrage right before it hits all the targets perfectly.

[@istealurskin9261]

haha too true

[@anstorner]

i had one get over 50 kills, although it was retrieve personel 15 minutes so the amount of enemies in there is stupidly high

[@LondaBell]

Couldn't agree more lol

[@glasscannon1815]

That's part of the absurd or satire of the game. All the upgrades are like that. Collect 90 samples to have a guy rip out the seats and airbags so he can fit more bombs on the plane etc.

[@dragonrider30001]

No joke, I used a single 380 to destroy a whole heavy automaton base. The only downside was my randoms sprinting into the continuing barrage to get samples

[@t900HAWK]

The final upgrade is such a meme. It’s like we realized sending people outside the ship to reload the cannons was way too inefficient. Like geeee what makes you think that.

[@TheWileSpice]

Hahaha, my thoughts exactly. Those little details really add to how over the top Super Earth culture really is.

[@mrjoe9305]

@@TheWileSpicetreason?

[@Destroyer.2000]

I always thought it meant it was being loaded the same way the mortar sentry loads the next round.

[@badjer4328]

If you think that's over the top, you should see the way literally any kind of automation works in warhammer 40k. All servators pretty much a labotomized human spliced into whatever cybernetics is necessary for whatever task they perform. A loader servator would be equipped with grapplers for arms on a rotating chassi, only programmed to grab the next round and load it

[@johnson7156]

@@badjer4328and the dude that does the refuel. Basically carrying his own coffin alone with the fuel rod. Watching his flesh slowly melting away while being pump with shit load of psychedelic painkillers.

[@hotcoldman9793]

Casino 380 is my favorite game!!! WILL IT HIT WILL IT MISS PLACE YOUR BETS NOW!!!

[@TheWileSpice]

Hahahaha, the only form of innocent gambling. Not for the bugs or bots though of course.

[@JC-Alan]

Will it kill your whole team? (Money on that last one is a sure bet)

[@Bossman50.]

For me it usually hits since there’s so many salvos. More often than not it is actually handy for bases

[@zero11010]

Try using the 120. You only need about 50m of space. It’s about as useful for bug lairs and bot bases. But, the reduced range and duration means it’s less likely to get teammates. At the same time it will generally fully close any bug lair with fewer than 10 holes with no real effort. Toss it in. Let the team know. Get to safety. Wait a little for it to end then go pick up resources if you want them, or just leave after you throw it knowing that it will be done or maybe have one single bug hole remaining when it ends. Pretty drama free. And, if the 120 solves the problem and it’s safer and doesn’t take as long … why use the 380? There are fewer instances where the 380 is better. Usually it’s as good, or less good (firing well outside of the target radius). EDIT: After the new 4th tier ship module I think the 380 becomes better than the 120. Until then I think the 120 is stronger.

[@grlt23]

The accuracy [or lack of it] is the real downside of this stratagem... I once used 380 at Creek and after a few seconds of totally inacurate fire got a message that bug hole was destroyed...

[@VGLounge]

I once ran the 380, Walking, and 120 barrages at the same time. I completely melted the first bot base we found, then could call in nothing while they all cooled down.

[@TheWileSpice]

Haha, once the dopamine has worn out. The realisation you're alone until cooldown is up kicks in.

[@blastmole299]

grab an EAT so you can still help, or Quasar if you can stay alive long enough

[@nurgle333]

380 and walking seem to be enough most of the time imo

[@annemayguine8918]

I usually run a Smoke/EMS Precision, and 120/380/Walking as my first three strategems and it works out well as you get a utility, a quick charge Orbital and an area bombardment with the fourth for a weapon or backpack. This seems to work for me but find what works for you. Although the funniest is four people landing in the heaviest enemy presence and all deploying Orbital Lasers at once.

[@jackymok4848]

Running a 120 and 380 at the same time gives you quite a bit of freedom (quite literally and democratically) when you're lone wolf rushing into outposts by yourself. Call both in, run away and just listen to the distant explosions as you run off to the next outpost. Although given that the 380 is pretty inaccurate, I never expect it to clear the large ones all the time so I usually need to make a return trip and chuck a couple of grenades inside fab or bug holes.

[@primalmonkegaming2275]

Nah, railgun strike definitely has some major fear factor. Imagine your biggest teammate has a laser point at them and then they just die, no big explosion or flames, just death

[@TheWileSpice]

Definitely would be quite a horrific thing to witness in real life. As if they just spontaneously combust!

[@dredgendorchadas6770]

"Dude! Why would you use that!? You know I'm in a mech!" -5 seconds before death

[@elinederpelt4406]

Yeah it’s a giant space lobotomy.

[@LAJ-47FC9]

It's understated and difficult to comprehend in motion, just like what I reckon most futuristic weaponry is going to be. When things get into extremes like railguns, the human mind utterly fails to understand them properly because they're just so far from what we evolved with that they fall entirely outside those parameters. Having said that, it really needs a trail of plasma from compressing the air in front of it so much, like real-life experimental railguns.

[@melonman2064]

My team mate used one on a small bot for a bit and there wasn't even a body left

[@Aeternum_Gaming]

1:02 i love that eagles drop flares on their way out to cover their escape. nice touch of detail

[@TheWileSpice]

Agreed! I wonder if they will ever be threatened by ground units.

[@George_M_]

For now they're just refusing to attack bases with AA. Funny that they also flare after dropping on bugs. The SEAF must've made it automatic on weapon release.

[@mikzpwnz_3199]

​@@George_M_ To be fair, the AA base uses guns which flares do nothing against.

[@arthurvilain7270]

@@mikzpwnz_3199 The Eagles may very well be releasing a mix of chaff and flares, but we only really see the latter from where we stand.

[@mikzpwnz_3199]

@@arthurvilain7270 chaff deals with radar guidance, flares deal with heat seeking, unless the automatons use either for their detection (which the eagle's countermeasures don't work against as notching is most likely a foreign concept to them), nothing outsmarts "bullet".

[@ToxicAtom]

I think the best way to fix the 120/380mm barrages is to make it so the first salvo always impacts where the beacon is placed. That way it still keeps its random nature, but you still have some level of consistency to put your faith in.

[@javs2199]

The developers need to hear this fr

[@TheWileSpice]

My thoughts exactly.

[@Mark-in8ju]

or a spotter drone that guarantees accuracy.

[@airekofvinlandslayerofthes7965]

Or just have it target enemies. All types of enemies

[@airekofvinlandslayerofthes7965]

@i_heart_rena I agree, personally I run both the 120 and 380 barrages. If they simply made the radius tighter, these guys would be much more effective

[@IceyJones]

i think the railgun has the best SOUND, making up a lot in terms of BOOM-factor

[@TheWileSpice]

To be fair it does sound pretty good! When its accompanied by the shriek of a perishing bug its even better!

[@TheQcjoe47]

Cluster and rocket pod are rely hard to beat sound wise for me. Those sound like actual real explosion not movie one. Kinda like the icbm sound when the shockwave hit.

[@jaywerner8415]

Well yeah, its BRAKING THE FREAKING SOUND BARRIER!

[@danielearl3591]

Honestly the railcannon is cool because of what it doesn't show. It doesn't need a loud boom and a bright flash. It's precise, targeted and lets the results speak for themselves

[@TheQcjoe47]

@@danielearl3591 I find that some of the best boom in movie and sci-fi are always the one that cut all other sorounding sound instead of making one like it Suck up the air

[@saltylemon4436]

Something to note about the Super Destroyers location in the sky is that its in the center of the map, so a good way to know what angle bombardments are gonna be coming from you can look at your map.

[@TheWileSpice]

Great point!

[@travisgath3855]

i thought the super destroyer is placed above where you pick to drop.

[@Mark_Oskar]

Of note. Gas orbital is really good to deal with eggs as at it will insta kills all eggs in its radius.

[@TheWileSpice]

Very true! If you can get a decent throw you can deal with them without even getting close

[@MrDmadness]

I love my orbital "can of raid" :)

[@jalontf2]

Gas Strike is an underdog for sure. Can spam it like crazy due to low cooldown. For the more patient diver I suppose..

[@TheWileSpice]

100% yeah, the cooldown makes it a beast. Can't go wrong with being able to do huge damage if the projectile itself hits something as well.

[@blastmole299]

Wish it's more visible though cause some of the randos,my friends, even me in some situations can't tell that there's a gas nearby (especially combined with Bile Spewer mortars)

[@TheQcjoe47]

I don't know how to aim with that thing. I am a beast at landing those bulleyed trow but I feel like the actual cloud sometime go way to the left or way to the right of where I called it. Exemple I trow the ems and the gaz back to back and the gaz is always on the side of the static cloud but never the same. Do you know why it does that to me?

[@PandorasFolly]

I've used a several dozen times but have yet to kill anything with it. Even putting it down on bug breaches and where a horde is going through

[@shadowkhan422]

@@PandorasFolly Did you have the scatter modifier? You have it often on high level and it neuters the gas strike (it becomes inaccurate like a barrage )

[@Tamachii12]

People swear that the gunner on the barrages are automatons in disguise since it has a penchant of aiming where you and your team is even when they are far from the orb.

[@TheWileSpice]

It is a little suspicious sometimes.

[@cattysplat]

Receiving liberty is not limited to your enemies.

[@ADMTyRenn]

Nah. The Atmospheric Interference hurts alot. I wish they would remove it. Game is challenging enough.

[@NarutoHigh160]

70m is safe zone, 50-60 is kinda safe, any closer to a 380 and you'll be on the martyr wall

[@themarlboromandalorian]

Half the time, the democracy officer at the map table has an eye patch. I think they let him fire the orbital barrages.

[@XZ0N3D]

as someone whose consistently playing on 9, i can guarantee the jetpack, ems, and smoke all have their own uses that can prevent a bot from throwing out a flare to spawn 6 hulks, 2 tanks, and 35 mauraders/rocket devestators

[@MaximusTheGreat509]

They should give us suppressed guns

[@flyinmehkite384]

I do have to say, EMS is S tier. The amount of control it provides is second to none. It helps the strikes kill, stops breaches / bot drops from happening to begin with and bogs those down if they are dropping. EMS followed by air burst, 120 or a grenade launcher can safely clear groups and keep them in place so the orbital can hit them more effectively. OFC it is Orbital Gas's best friend. People don't tend to use it because they think they, themselves, have to be able to kill everything and not accept it being a team game and you get greater value out of having 1 person take it than taking yet another 500kg. Also it can make the 500kg actually hit something, which is nice.

[@TheWileSpice]

Its definitely really good when its utilised in a good way! Using it with gas is brutal though I agree, the low cooldown synergy is beautiful as well. I suppose people like big explosions though, myself included!

[@dantalien6591]

Don't the stun grenades do better job now though? EMS can't stop a titan

[@flyinmehkite384]

@@dantalien6591Yes and no. It can give a more immediate stun but in a much much smaller area and for only like 4 seconds. It does stun Bile Titans though that the EMS Strike cannot, for some reason.

[@dantalien6591]

For me it's just not a much reason to take it when there's much better options, as long as you're good in predicting enemy paths you don't need to stun them, that being said I could see myself using it when it starts to stun titans (heavies alone is not much worth even more now when new AT came out and when you're getting mauled by hunters,warriors you're doing something wrong)@@flyinmehkite384

[@academicq]

I mean you're not wrong and stunlock is really good in the game but just use ems mortar which is a superior choice for CC role to orbital one or bring stratagems to actually kill things. Stun nades are cool if you're running something that can kill fabricators/bug holes! Helps a lot as a panic button while getting overwhelmed.

[@Stirrups]

The trick to the 380 is to have your whole team bring one on those tiny defense missions. When you get overwhelmed to the point you know you're going to die anyways, you just throw them all down and pray to Democracy.

[@ludewich]

Actually, it makes the tiny arena missions against bots quite trivial, even at level 9: just bring 380, 120, and walking barrage plus the laser - and you have a huge part of the mission done just by one player. Don't know if it is as good against bugs.

[@geminiangels5653]

Did a 4 man all having 380 and 120. We cleared 80% with the bombardment alone.

[@DavidSmith-mt7tb]

The shield relay can protect you from some 380 hits. Not sure on the exact number, but if you wanna chuck a couple 380s "danger close", you can use it for a good chance of survival in the AoE, allowing you to shoot enemies at the same time.

[@HuntShowdownLab]

we do this, but just consider ourselves overwhelmed from the get go and throw them down as soon as we spawn. Then when that barage ends, throw the smaller barage. Yeah, we usually die, but it makes clearing the mission a easy regardless of difficulty.

[@misscookiesncrime]

A tip for the Walking Barrage, if you're being chased by an army of bugs, and you know you're gonna be running pretty far, you can throw it forward at your feet and then book it, so that the barrage follows you and takes out everything right behind you.

[@arbiterally101]

Legitimately think people sleep on the Walking Barrage because they undersell what it actually does. Because it covers such a large area in functionally a straight line, you can reach out and poke objectives with it while still well outside detection range. It's remarkably good for clearing out well defended positions like Automaton camps with turrets or Stalker nests.

[@misscookiesncrime]

@@arbiterally101 holy shit Chris Jacobs profile pic in 2024, actually wow.

[@Mandemon1990]

A lot of weapons that people consider underwhelming become very powerful once you think outside of the box. "Run away and throw the orbital at your feet without turning" can make so many "weak" orbitals so much powerful, as you can clear the impact zone while enemies move in.

[@ledfloyd9035]

​@@arbiterally101I run most missions with the walking barrage. It's even good for level7+ exterminate missions. A nice boost I've found is to wear 30% throwing increase armor. Being able to throw the barrage 70m in front of you to bombard a heavy outpost is always enjoyable. And even if it doesn't destroy the base entirely, it clears a nice little path for you to clean up.

[@zanaduz2018]

One of the most interesting orbital combos that is very underrated is using both EMS + gas strikes. Both share the same cooldown length, so throwing them in short succession can let you keep enemies stuck in the gas for a long time for maximum DoT. This combo is particularly potent against bugs, as you can place them on bug breach and watch bugs melt and be helpless until the EMS expires. EMS strikes also synergize well with the EMS mortar, as the strike can initially fix targets in place for the mortar to keep them locked in place.

[@TopG_KnightofOne]

Does the gas have to hit bug holes straight on to kill them?

[@TheWileSpice]

Yeah its super potent. Gives you plenty of time to deal with Chargers safely as well. @TopG_KnightofOne Yes, the gas strike has to hit directly to destroy a bug hole

[@jonataneriksson8216]

I've learned that the gas strike is effective against bug breaches, but I rather use the ems sentry over the orbital one

[@zanaduz2018]

EMS sentry will last longer, but isn't as liable to capture as many enemies (since it has a smaller area of effect). The extra duration for the mortar is (sort of) wasted if you're using it in conjunction with gas; and the mortar doesn't have the same cooldown as gas either.

[@MrDmadness]

Ofbital ems and mortar are akso a great combo.. ems mortar and orbital ems if you want to stop a huge amount of enemies and pucj them off with headshots :)

[@lordhelmchen3154]

I absolutely love the Airburst Strike. I used to throw a Gatling Barrage on Bug Breaches, then I tried out the Airburst Strike and was blown away (just like all the bug limbs and pieces) by how much more effective it was. You can regularly rack up 30+ kills, and I think it can also damage heavier armored enemies a decent bit. Also it just looks so damn satisfying. It's like God's Divine Fly Swatter with how it just flattens everything in that area.

[@pointlessdude]

god's divine fly swatter is now my favorite name to call the airburst

[@nikelsad]

I love the Airburst Strike too. But I found it's weakness is uneven terrain. If it blows up just above a lower ground it does nothing to a higher ground :,-(

[@ninjin_ninja4783]

It's also particularly good against bots due to more consistent top down damage which usually hits the heads of bots for instant kills of like the scout striders.

[@lordhelmchen3154]

@@ninjin_ninja4783 Huh, I have to try that. So far I always just used it against bugs since I assumed it might not be as good against bots. I'll take it for a spin next time on the northern front. :D

[@ninjin_ninja4783]

@@lordhelmchen3154 ah yeah, my typical load out for Bots is Slugger, redeemer, impact grenades. Precision strike, Orbital Rail gun, either airstrike or 500kg. And 4th slot varies from jetpack, Quasar/Expendable. Or just if I want to try out something new. Overall this is the layout I take up to even Helldiver difficulty on Bots

[@Neo2266.]

The gas strike melts egg nests

[@Slam_Chunky]

I love the rail gun effects. The shot hits, the body drops (and then the bots explode). The raw precision nature of it is very appealing to me

[@inquisitorMence]

See, I like the aesthetic for the orbital railgun strike. It has a wonderful cinematic quality of watching your prey get laser painted as the sword of Damocles becomes a when, and not an if. I think it's extra dramatic.

[@denisquarte7177]

I give you style points for giving style points. You Sir have my democratic thumbs up.

[@TheWileSpice]

I happily accept these style points. And give you my democratic thanks!

[@wenny6783]

finally someone who actually sees the gas strike for what it can do. most tier list ive seen put it really low because it "doesn't deal with large targets" despite that not being its purpose.

[@TheMadRatKing]

A full team of divers with 380s used all at once on a single large base all but guarantees its complete, magnificent annihilation. Youll never see a more majestic rain of hellfire short of the ICBM missions.

[@Mr.Ford3350]

One 380mm has good enough coverage to level a bigger base in one go, but overkill is certainly more fun. Love the 380mm so much

[@Raikos100]

Just time each 380 1 second apart so you just get non stop booms

[@Ifyoucanreadthisgooglebroke]

I feel like the implication that they were doing non-breech loading before you get that upgrade to be right up there with the humor of any of the Eagle upgrades. Edit: But Hand Carts still takes the win. Hand carts. That is what we needed rare and exotic samples to find inspiration for. That is the technology innovation our warp 9.999999 capable ship was waiting for.

[@TheWileSpice]

Hahaha, to be fair youre right, the idea that some poor person or people had to manually load those guns outside the ship, in space I just hilarious. The smallest of things in life are celebrated the most in Super Earth culture hahaha.

[@danielearl3591]

@@TheWileSpice Either that or they were pulling the gun back inside the ship likes it's an age of sail pirate ship

[@RepChris]

technically the samples arent what is used to actually make the upgrade, the samples are just a way of proving your loyalty and dedication to the cause; the actual upgrade gets done by offense contractors who get paid by the SEAF budget, and already had the idea.

[@dorianodet8064]

The precision strike is awesome for another thing : It can destroy any (and I mean any) autonmaton structure : Jammer, detector, tower turret ... It also work well on tanks. That's about it, but against automaton that's also a lot.

[@TheWileSpice]

Aye, good to chuck at objectives from a distance

[@robbytherob]

The precision strike can actually kill anything in the game. The problem is its blast radius. Hence, you need to be precise with it. If you learn how to stick it, it’s better than the 500kg

[@snarlbuckle]

380 is by far my favorite. My wife and I both bring it on nearly every mission. Why? When we run into massive hordes (whether assaulting a base or running away), one of us calls down 380 and we both high tail it out of there. That clears about 3/4 of the enemies in the area. This is especially helpful when we are running for our lives. When one of us is on cooldown, the other is probably up. Massive hordes don't scare us so much anymore.

[@TheWileSpice]

They are definitely best used when theres more than one on the squad. I enjoy chucking them into bases, moving on and praying they hit all the structures.

[@TheQcjoe47]

I do the same thing. I bring them because I am the first to go alone when we split team. With the 380 in my pocket if I stumble on something to big to chew solo it save the conundrum of waiting for team mate, taking a detour around lose time and coming back later or being a skull admiral and gambling my life. If you die you have to do the walk of shame alone again and lost a ton of time. With the 380 you get close trow in the middle and high tail befor it start to rain. It can destroy any structure and as huge area of effect. I am testing the walking barrage as an option to see if It can destroy every structure too then it might be as good

[@darby2314]

With the gas strike: it continues to damage units after it ends and after they exit the zone. The green cloud persists around their bodies and ticks away at their health. It's best used VS atomotons as it will eradicate their small units while heavily weakening their larger units. Greatly reducing the amount of rounds needed to finish them off. It's a life saver. Especially when facing a cluster of drop ships

[@TheWileSpice]

Yep its a beast. Its perfect for dropping directly onto Bug Breaches as well.

[@Elthenar]

It never seems to do much dot damage, even against small bots. I've EMSd them so they are slow to get out and they live

[@darby2314]

​@@Elthenar I think EMS is definitely a good option VS Gas strike as long as you have the ammo or grenade reserves to capitalize on it. You might try dropping the gas ahead of them a little so that they have to walk through it. I usually see 5-8 kills count up when I do the call in. The tick damage is the same if they are in the gas or have exited the gas. Once the gas effects them it starts a DOT tick that follows them around (shown by a small green cloud surrounding their bodies). Staying within the zone may cause the DOT to refresh itself but I haven't seen any testing on that yet.

[@cal7281]

it hardly does and dmg it's pretty trash I drop it right in breaches and it does nothing

[@GreasedJesus]

@@cal7281 There is a bug where sometimes only the network host (who is not necessarily the game host) does DOT, the other players don't. That is why gas and napalm sometimes don't seem to work as they should.

[@cashcrop_]

I dig your delivery, as always. As far as ranking videos go, I like 'em fun. Like this one.

[@TheWileSpice]

Why thank ya Cash! & Yeah, nothing to serious and of course have to put more emphasis on how cool everything is!

[@sarbe6625]

You know how automatons have this thing where suppressive fire can reduce their accuracy? Well tossing the 380 into a base will allow you to start picking off bots far more safely from a distance since the constant barrage is tanking their accuracy. And if you're lucky, it might actually kill something too.

[@sahilm483]

Laser Orbital: Arguably the best stratagem in game. Downside: "huge cooldown and 3 usage per match"

[@danparts9333]

i absolutely love the orbital laser

[@kojikashiin319]

I find the 120 barrage extremely consistent. I’ve taken on a stealthy play style where I scout around the map and recon areas thoroughly before engaging; I bring the 120 every time to call in on bases/detector towers, and of all the times I’ve ever used it on a base, it’s only ever let me down twice. Amazing strat, can’t go without it.

[@TheWileSpice]

For smaller bases it has been for me, but in my experience it's the medium/large bases that it feels like a 50/50 whether I get value from using it

[@OrdoMallius]

I used orbital gas strike to kill a automaton tank. It was held by static field and it took the whole duration.

[@TheWileSpice]

Hahaha, must be a pretty aggressively corrosive gas?!

[@skytheannur6168]

Walking Barrage with a friend is the best to do ever, makes good for clearing out Bot Bases

[@TheWileSpice]

Yeah, big fan myself as well. Feels better in Bot bases because everything's so slow it doesn't move forward out of the blast zone fast enough!

[@TheQcjoe47]

I have to test the walking barrage more. I would take it instead of the 380mm barrage. I just need to know what obj structure it can or cannot destroy.

[@ghoulthebraineater]

​@@TheQcjoe47take them both as well as the 120mm.

[@skytheannur6168]

@@TheQcjoe47 having a second person with walking barrage, and you can easily clear out a base.

[@Ziiphyr]

Honestly the Walking Barrage is one of my favorite to use especially against the bots. I usually pair it with the Orbital Laser and you can knock out a Heavy base with both of them in use with ease. The 120mm HE barrage is a close second because of the more consistency with the grouping and you don’t have to worry about killing teammates. I just tried the Orbital Airburst yesterday for the first time on bugs and it was really effective and fun! It has a nice cool down and easy to remember statagem pattern.

[@p016264]

With the latest patch introducing a 15% tighter spread for barrages, I’ve seen lots of divers use the 380mm on bot bases, bunkers and air bases. Almost a guaranteed “fire and forget win” Keyword “almost” But it has to be used when you’re in a team that communicates because friendly fire isn’t.

[@KaaneDragonShinobi]

If you get to an objective worthy of a 380 first and throw it, as far as i'm concerned it's fair game. If someone wants to run into the glowing beam of death from 150 meters away, that's on them.

[@meka806]

I honestly love number crunching so these videos are fun to watch and it's great to learn more about orbitals since I don't use them that often. Id love to see sentry's next.

[@TheWileSpice]

Glad you enjoy! Its interesting because in the case of deployment times, some of their own stats sheets display the wrong times completely. Sentries could be a fun one!

[@AkamexAris1023]

Once you brought up the frames, I instantly subbed. Great content to help us spread democracy my Friend!

[@TheWileSpice]

Welcome to the club! For Liberty.

[@MyViolador]

Orbital laser always especially vs bots, you can use it as a siege weapon that destroys their fabricators . It also reminds me of the hammer of dawn fron Gears of war 1,2,3 (4 and 5 dont exist)

[@TheWileSpice]

I love the feeling it gives, it's as if it's accompanying you into battle, rather than just briefly assisting.

[@lockelewandosky2599]

Galling can get 30+ kills if you drop it right on a bug breach. Also the cool down is roughly 70 seconds so it's up all the time. And it's great as a FPF for when you are retreating from a swarm

[@binny_y]

The barrages do something entirely different than the laser and rail cannon do. They are verrry practical 💜

[@fleshdog5931]

I always use orbital walking for its intended purpose and i have to say its one of my favourites for bots. Throw it in front of a heavy base and advance as each salvo lands, it'll soften up everything inside making it a little less chaotic.

[@YureiOni]

The EMS strike is one of the best orbitals for solo players. You can launch one of these into a large group of enemies and then just go in while they’re all stunned and take them all out without any suppressed fire. And to top it off, it has unlimited uses.

[@TheWileSpice]

For solo I can see the value being huge yeah. As for uses, they should make the laser have more or unlimited really.

[@kamikeserpentail3778]

​@@TheWileSpicethe laser wipes bases. If it had unlimited uses it'd need a longer cooldown which would suck

[@alexanderzippel8809]

The Orbital Laser is hilariously OP. You have found a large Bot Base with 2 turrets? Just throw in a laser and all fabricators and turrets are gone. You just need to go in, kill the remaining bots and take essentially free samples

[@TheWileSpice]

It is essentially a 'Kill bot base for free' button you're right hahaha.

[@scoople6]

I recently did a solo run on Draupnir with Walking, 120mm, and 380mm barrages and it was a BLAST. Being able to rotate them and just slam all objective sites was effective and very fun.

[@TheWileSpice]

Full on Bombardment loadout hahaha. As long as they cleared the bases properly!

[@Bcd31997]

I'd love to see a update where after fully upgrading your destroyer you can move on to a more powerful ship like a battleship or dreadnought, i can just imagine that type of ship having a 1000mm orbital strike strategem to use on stuff

[@reeddragon5250]

How to use 380mm : - throw 380mm stratagem - find and stand on the highest rock near the beacon - use hug emoji towards the raining barrage Did it kill the enemy? no Did I looks cool? Yes

[@TheWileSpice]

I concur.

[@ccsam1516]

I've been using gas strike a lot recently. Starting in the recent new defense mission where you protect the rockets down a small lane, I've realized that it's a rather strong option. Even if it doesn't straight up kill all enemies, it severely hurts them and make most enemies rather weak to any gunfire. Combine gas strike with a breaker and you can kill everything from a bug breach under a charger without breaking a sweat. That is at least for helldive difficulty. I've found that gas strike seems to kill way more enemies at a lower difficulty. Whether it has to do with enemy speed, health or just the quality of units being lower, I have no clue, but it kills way more. Simply the utility of it putting most enemies under half health at helldive difficulty on a 75~ seconds cooldown is something that I am in love with. Breaker, light armor, shield, railgun OR quasar and gas strike are almost always part of my loadout.

[@Gerardheime]

Barrages are not random. They follow a pattern. They are essentially an area effect weapon and the greater the area of the target (and enemy saturation within the area), the better the effect. They work wonders on Automaton command bunkers, heavy outposts, and are perfect for extermination missions. With 3x 380mm, a good team can destroy 3 commands bunkers on Impossible in 7 minutes (including extraction) by going solo and using this strategem.

[@atticlion7648]

Combining the EMS & gas can be really, really effective while kiting large amounts of bugs in higher tiers. The matching low cooldowns synergize well and help make up for using two slots. Though apparently on current patch all dot effects, like gas, are not working if you aren't the host. Which is very unfortunate.

[@TheWileSpice]

For sure. The low cooldowns really boost just how practical they can be. DOT not working if you aren't the host really sucks, but will hopefully be fixed soon!

[@atticlion7648]

@@TheWileSpice Oh and another great thing about the gas strike (when it works again) is that you can drop it on your position and stim through the poison damage. Again, really handy vs bugs. Doubly so with medic armor.

[@TheWileSpice]

That's actually a pretty cool tactic, I'm going to give that a try haha.

[@SuperRookie117]

8:21 I feel kinda bad for the little guy XD

[@TheWileSpice]

He gave his life for Democracy hahaha.

[@MagnumPierce]

Ew a furry 🤮

[@macumezahn]

I use the smoke for times when the squad gets overrun. placing smoke during a tactical retreat breaks line of sight and gives time for quick resupply. the gas is great for those choke points (bridges, canyons, etc) where the enemy has to go through the cloud to reach you, those that live, are weakened considerably. cheers.

[@yanngerard2566]

You sound like a really nice person, a pleasure to watch your vids !

[@TheWileSpice]

Thank you for watching! Happy you're enjoying the content!

[@Gobeldeg00p]

Hell yeah new wile spice style list

[@TheWileSpice]

You know it!

[@LeafBlade3436]

orbital precision strike is amazing against high difficulty clankers as it can kill everything with this low CD, its a bit harder to use then railcannon but u get to spam it more. Unless u got the 2 time deployment modificator (which make it feel terrible to use due to the whopping 10 sec) I actually prefer to run precision strike to railcannon

[@TheWileSpice]

That deployment modifier is awful for the precision and makes it completely unusable in most combat situations haha. But I generally prefer to use it over the railcannon as well!

[@lewchootrain]

Does it take out objectives too?

[@LeafBlade3436]

@@lewchootrain such as?

[@lewchootrain]

@@LeafBlade3436 factories, destroy objectives etc

[@johanullen]

I love running the 380 and walking barrages, use them all the time to clear out bases. They are particularly nice to have on blitz missions, where you can get 80% of your needed destructions from a large base with a single barrage. While it is random you tend to get enough use from them that way. And it looks coool.

[@user-hv1fw8cr8c]

When you test the stratagems alone trying to control for variables, you may indeed value these precision strikes like railgun and laser because they can always give you decent value, while the less predictable barrages possessing higher variability but potentially higher value, might seem too unpredictable to rely on. I think what most people don't appreciate enough is that most of the time you're playing with 3 other helldivers who all bring their stratagems into battle. If you coordinate just a little bit and throw your 380mm barrages into a thick base, you effectively negate the unpredictability by increasing the numbers and get maximum value for your stratagems. Higher numbers virtually eliminate the variability. 3x 380mm barrages beats 3x laser or 3x railgun any day of the week in terms of destructive value it provides. You can always bring in a support weapon like the always reliable EAT to deal with the individual big threats that require more cutesy precision.

[@KillFrenzy96]

I'm personally not a fan of the rail cannon. It can only be used for big targets and has a very long cooldown, making it poorly suited for higher difficulties where large enemies are very common. I generally prefer the 500 kg bomb. You get 2 uses and a shorter rearm time than the rail cannon's cooldown. Even if you don't get a direct hit on a bile titan, it will be very weak and easy to finish off. The orbital laser though is excellent. Accurate, takes out objectives, and minimal friendly fire. Large targets significantly slow it down but it will take them out if you need it to.

[@TheWileSpice]

I generally agree to be honest! Its amazing for what it does and its super consistent, but I do wish it (and most of the orbitals tbh) had a lower cooldown. The Eagles for the most part completely outshine them due to how quickly you can use them, with the re-arm being faster than many of the orbital cooldowns anyway!!

[@superiornicholas412]

I honestly just bring all 3 and the auto cannon and then I just go MGS mode and just take out bug holes/ fabricators and collect samples while my teammates are doing the objective and taking the majority of the heat.

[@theresnothinghere1745]

Railcanon is very good for when you have the modifier that doubles deployment time. The 500kg's range is short enough that the time difference can make it miss. The railcanon has no risk of that making it a bit more consistent.

[@theresnothinghere1745]

@@TheWileSpice "The Eagles for the most part completely outshine them due to how quickly you can use them" I find that actually just depends on the situation. The main disadvantage of Eagles is that bringing too much of them makes you unable to use your whole kit for longer periods of time, as you either need to re-arm more frequently (removing your options as a whole) or you are running around unable to use some of them. So when you want to run a specific eagle (say airstrike for example) the other options become less appealing for every eagle you use. That's why I prefer running 1 eagle and 1 orbital. For example against bots I prefer the precision strike to the 500kg, its not that much slower than the 500 kg, can still destroy optional objective structures and tanks/hulks. All the while not competing with space against the airstrike, all of that makes me get more use out of them than the 500k despite it theoretically having more uses per minute.

[@Sylv925]

suggested rework for orbital barrages: give the 120 and 380 barrages a tracking area around where you throw it. As of current barrages are extremely slow to deploy and have very little effect on any faction or difficulty, giving them aiming would help them in being more effective. In the same vein I think that eagles should have a bit more randomness to their deployment area since aside from railcannon, airburst, and laser none of the orbitals are worth running over any eagle strike aside from eagle smoke.

[@TheWileSpice]

Those would be funky changes to the Barrages. Would definitely make them much more powerful, even if the tracking was only vague. I do agree though that the Eagles are much better for the most part.

[@andrewboyer7544]

@@TheWileSpice I think they are already pretty good, I take both at the same time and run around the map clearing every automaton base by myself as one throw of each has had a 100% clear rate on bases.

[@Elthenar]

I don't like the idea of them tracking. It's a barrage, not a series of precision strikes. The area is just impractical in it's huge size. The area the shells land in should be shrunk a fair amount on both the 380 and 120. Also, there needs to be a better definition between the 2. Thr 120 just seems like a weaker version of the 380.

[@default_liver1641]

now we’re just describing the Thunderer barrage here 😂

[@Rlogsdon100]

We ran 4 380 barrage the other night against the bots. All 4 of us threw them at once on a large base. The ensuing destruction was hilarious lol

[@waltermattiko23]

Love to see the appreciation for the gas strike. Always one of my choices against bugs since you basically never have to worry about breaches again

[@Azrael178]

Railgun doesn't have a lot of style? That's a bold face lie my mate! It isn't flashy, but there is something beautiful in simple, direct effect of a hit. The grace of a single decapitating strike that just does what its supposed to, without unnecessary fanfare is a quintessential beauty of professional efficiency at its finest. It has a style. Its own unique, terryfying style.

[@RureLyther]

Yeah slapping a 4/10 on that says nothing but bad taste.

[@dudeydude77_clips]

I’m glad Laser and Railcannon are at the top, but I’m not sure why Airburst and Gas are in A, I personally think there is a large cap between Laser/Rail and Precision, which I think is fine in B, and then everything else is below Precision. Nobody is actually using any of these orbitals except laser and railcannon. If you are running Helldive Bots, and you only get three stratagems, you just use autocannon, laser, railcannon. There’s no reason to consider anything else from orbitals. If I get a 4th spot, it’s going to be Eagle Airstrike for fabs.

[@TheWileSpice]

Gas is A over precision in my opinion because it can destroy buildings and most targets with a direct hit, as well as clearing and weakening a lot of enemies caught within the AOE, whilst having the lowest cooldown. It also deploys much faster than the precision which also needs a direct hit to deal enough damage to a larger target to kill it anyway. & Airburst because I've personally found it to consistently provide much more value in Helldive difficulty than the Precision Strike.

[@AzureIV]

@@TheWileSpice How many can destroy Research Facility side objectives beyond the Precision Strike?

[@blastmole299]

@@AzureIV Any explosive based red stratagems except for eagle cluster should be able to do it

[@arthurmorgan9224]

One thing i use the walking barrage for is helping an advance to a big bot outpost, because as soon as we get spotted the bots will most of the time send out a squad or two to defend it. Its a badass sight, especially when you are fighting through a field or up a hill.

[@BETRvids]

Walking barrage is very useful during those elimination missions on higher difficulties. We've all seen it, where the enemy completely overwhelms your position and pushes everyone back, where they're on the run for their lives constantly. Get your team to equip themselves with the following loadout: - Eagle bombing run (for dealing with smaller targets) - Eagle 500k (for bombing hulks / titans) - Orbital Laser (for clearing larger swaths of enemies) - Walking Barrage (for when you're on the run and desperately need the area cleared) Even with just 2 or 3 people with this setup, the enemies won't stand a chance. When I'm on my own with randoms and the only person running this setup, I regularly have the most kills.

[@Shadow-me1oz]

For purposes of historical archiving, please reply to this comment with your current date and time in the format of, DD/MM/YYYY, [TIME]. Thank you.

[@CtrlAltElite_JG]

Love farming samples just to have a modifier of +50% cool downs.... Also, great vid with awesome info.

[@TheWileSpice]

Thats definitely one of the worst modifiers to go against! & Thank you! Glad you enjoyed and found it useful!

[@BubbleShield570]

For me, Gatling is SStier : - Almost instant deployement - Very small cooldown time - Can wipe an entire patrol/drop ship squad in an instant. Perfect for clearing all the small and medium groups of bugs and bots plus you can just spam it every minutes or something. I find the airburst too long to deploy and too inconsistent mainly because its SO SLOW (For what it's designed to do obviously it's kinda quick compared to the rest) I also think that it's way easier to land it on a target (even moving) than the airburst because of that. You throw your beacon, it lights up, and the thing is teared to shreds instantly. No need to predict it's movement. It also stun small and bigger ennemies for the duration of the bombardement, so the ennemy won't, you know, take advantage of the 4 VERY LONG SECONDS between two shots to leave the area or you can throw another stratagem to deal with the big guys while they're stunned. I love it. It's awesome. Spam it.

[@tomfrien]

I love the 380 and the 120 they’re a must for really hard bot missions sneak up to a base throw both in the middle of the base walk out that base will most likely be completely destroyed. You never even had to enter.

[@weaversong4377]

The Orbital EMS Strike is insanely useful for Bot missions. Pair it up with an autocannon user and suddenly that horde of devastators and/or hulks turns into a point and click adventure. I personally run Rocket Pods, Orbital EMS Strike, Railcannon Strike and Autocannon, alongside the JAR-5 Dominator, (any secondary, usually Grenade Pistol or Senator) and stun grenades. The EMS factor of this build is it’s bread and butter, efficiently stopping most of the bots in their tracks and opening up opportunities to easily deal with Heavy Devastators, All Kinds of Hulks, and those oh so easily hated Rocket Devastators. You can even pop an EMS down to completely leave an engagement. Just throw it down and run for the hills.

[@anomalyanom4145]

I think that the artillery barrages other than walking could use a minor amount of aiming at enemies. I was thinking it would randomly place small zones where a shell would land, and prioritize landing on the largest enemies. That way, it stays random and wide, but becomes more consistent

[@IvanskiYakinovski]

railgun cannon being a 4 is wild. The sound of it coming down is memorable and watching it come down at night in the heat of battle really adds to the ambiance.

[@tiestofalljays]

Getting all four people to run the 120mm + 360mm barrages is awesome lol. It looks insane, and the area where the bases used to be looks like photographs from WW1.

[@spittyrides]

The Orbital Laser is my go to for a hot drop. It will deal with most of the aggro while giving you time to find space to call in your support weapons and get your bearings.

[@RiceCubeTech]

Stun grenade + orbital Gatling is actually an insane pick. 80 second recharge time makes it even incredible and stun grenades guarantee multiple hits on chargers. I’ve full killed two with a Gatling barrage and a couple erupter shots using the stun grenade method. It’s extremely time efficient if you don’t want to run a quasar or other larger weapon that “one shots” bigger targets. Meanwhile fi there’s any smaller targets around it pulverizes them too vs only being a single enemy targeting weapon.

[@fermitupoupon1754]

The best thing about the 380 barrage is that I can just toss it in the general direction of things that seem undemocratic and it makes them go away. Though I find it's best paired with a second 380 barrage aimed for generally the same location.

[@talon24]

I love the orbital lazer, it kills things like detector towers (does not target it, but if u throw the ball inside it, it works), and the rail strike because it kills command bunkers.

[@CryuYT]

EMS goes really well with gas and precision strikes. Helps keep targets in gas or blast radius. Also with a short cooldown the value can be well worth it.

[@justjason7662]

I’ve been have pretty good success planning the walking barrage by checking where my destroyer is first. It seems like the pattern is consistent and you can plan for it if you have time. Can usually walk it right in to a fabricator stronghold and consistently land hits.

[@florentdonnet7825]

EMS strike is the most underrated orbital out there, especially against bugs. Being able to place a nogozone beetween you and your enemy or right on a bug breach trivialize all encounters that doesn't include a bunch of bile titans.

[@UnknownSquid]

One thing key to using the barrages well, is that it's absolutely vital to check the mission modifiers before picking them. The precision strike for example can be great, but it unfortunately suffers really badly from the increased call-down time which makes it far too sluggish to use with the accuracy it needs, and also becomes almost worthless if the increased scatter modifier is in effect. Which is a shame, since I think this effects the strikes reputation and usage quite a lot. Increased call down isn't as bad for most. For the big artillery barrages, it makes basically no difference in the typical use cases. Walking barrage perhaps hurt just a little, since it's more often used against incoming patrols or clusters of enemies. The Gas strike isn't much effected in it's role. The EMS can be hurt a bit since you have to use it more pre-emptively, than reactively, but still viable. And the gatling and airburst are still viable, but again will be a bit trickier to get on target. The increased call-down modifier generally hurts more against speedy bugs more than bots. Increased Scatter is the worst for orbital strikes. Gas and EMS get spoiled significantly by inaccurate placement, with Gas being especially dangerous to your own team when not landing where expected. The gatling barrage is less impacted, but will space it's shots out enough that it's going to lose a lot of it's damage, and fail to kill the specific cluster you wanted it too. The airburst strike can actually become more deadly than usual, with the extra spread being super effective at trash clearing, BUT it also becomes incredibly dangerous to use and very difficult to predict how far is safe or not, especially near the edge of the map. And all the larger artillery barrages force you to evacuate further, and have even less chance of hitting their targets. Generally, favour airstrikes or turrets if increased scatter is on.

[@PhabioTheHost]

The 380 should have one out of every salvo target the position of a random enemy or ally in its aoe. Basically one of the shots out of every salvo should hunt targets like the mortar. I dont even care if it has the same mortar issue of travel time. I just want it to purposefully target something. Maybe give priority to bug holes/bot fabs

[@IroneaterFinya]

I picked up Gas fairly recently and I do have to agree that it is really good if your aim is true and you gotta deal with tons of trash just piling up on you. Downside I personally experienced tho is that people mistake it for the smoke and then suffocate subsequently.

[@Showgingah]

I will say that the barrages are fun to use now with the ship module decreasing the spread. Though in the end, there are still better options that reliably hit their target. However, they do have significant advantage now with extermination missions. Ever since they changed them, I noticed on higher difficulties you reach a point where everyone more or less will get overrun. Chucking one of them down is a great way to clear out those extra enemies when it happens, even with the risk of the friendly fire. Of course I'm referring to people that only bring sentries and they dont even last us half way through.

[@zenofthezealous1582]

Hearing how the Orbital Walking Barrage is essentially just a straight line 380 with 3 or 4 shots makes me honestly think it should be at least in B Tier with the Vanilla Precision Strike or maybe even A Tier. Im definitely grabbing this to try an “upgrade” from the vanilla I always bring😂

[@Mushroom1882]

The only way I feel like the orbital barrages would be really good is if they picked a target for each salvo to shoot within 5 or 10 meters of, inside their full salvo radius. Not as accurately as the Orbital Railcannon obviously, but enough that it can like, you know, hit things lol.

[@Henkibojj]

The EMS Strike is the most used strike in HD1 because of the chasing nature of most of the enemies in that game. It's also excellent for area defense near geological drills etc.

[@warmuptheleftovers]

The walking barrage and 380 are amazing when paired with another player, my buddies and I always run it together.

[@andrewmiller6264]

As someone who mostly uses the Air Burst orbital, it’s nice to see someone else give it some love.

[@Ushio01]

In 1881 HMS Inflexible was commissioned with 16 inch (406mm) muzzle loaders the guns would lower into the hull the shell would be manoeuvred into the barrel end then the guns would raise allowing the shell to slide down the barrel. With these space ships I can imagine the barrels raising into the bottom hull of the ship in a similar principle. The Italians had 17.7 inch (450mm) muzzle loaders built by the UK on some ships to and this was in the 19th century.

[@TheWileSpice]

That could definitely happen to be fair! Though I do enjoy the ridiculousness of them doing it from outer space

[@hariman7727]

What's crazy is that it's only 10% faster.

[@DrEldritchPlays]

I treat the 380 as a softener for large bases. One good throw and you're bound to hit a few good things. When ran with localization confusion, I can bait out the bot drops and shoot them down, and by then the barrage is over. The rest is sweep and clean.

[@DualEagle]

The EMS strike is such a good combo weapon. Being able to stop a hulk in it's tracks so I can line up an EAT or anti-materiel rifle , or pairing it with a gas strike atop a bug breach to really melt some bugs. I just wish they would make the gas much more visible, I'm starting to lose track of how many divers run towards breaches and melt themselves in the storm of gas and electrical energy.

[@jobbbigt]

Another + for the gas is that it don't care for line of sight, so if you have downed any bot ships and have (as usual) enemies stuck in the wrecks you can chuck it in there and it kill or at the very least damage everything besides a hulk or tank.

[@theinfinitydie1582]

I am new to the game and play with randoms so maybe I am not the best point of comparison, but I like the EMS since it won’t do friendly damage. The gas strike and a number of other lower tiered ones pose a massive threat of your too close or remains a lingering threat a while after their deployed. The EMS is nice since you can toss it wherever you need without worry and stave off some chaos, on top of the extremely short duration.

[@SIMULACRA37]

I thought the EMS sounded lame, but 18 seconds is a LONG TIME. That is more than enough time to get behind a charge and chunk it down, or wipe out a slew of automatons. Then again, you could easily bring an airstrike and just kill all of those enemies right off the bat.

[@RandomCarrot2806]

Another bonus to the orbital precision strike is how easy it is to do the combination for it fast, so especially as you are learning the combos that one is much harder to mess up on and losing valuable seconds while being chased or under threat.

[@TheWileSpice]

That quick combination is really good I agree. No stress in the heat of battle.

[@shadownoiz]

After the Orbital Laser, Precision Strike is the best for me. Managed to line up the shot perfectly earlier today and it one shotted a Bile Titan.

[@serioussponge6416]

There's few things more satisfying to me than when I absolutely nail a Hulk or a Bile Titan with an Orbital Precision Strike. Getting that timing down makes you feel like a god damn genius. XD

[@hotfightinghistory9224]

The orbital EMS strike while wearing the armor that gives you 95% resistance to arc damage is an incredible combo. You can freeze a bile titan then just walk right under it and shoot the center weak spot on the underside for an almost instant kill. Probably the only way to do it!

[@etiennegirard2286]

love the 380, especially when you have 2 or 3 fellow helldivers launching it at the same time. just sit and watch

[@idfask]

With the newest ship mods, the 15% reduction in spread may have been to the radius because they feel great to use now. 120mm for call-ins/medium outposts, 380 for bases or a get out of jail free card when there are multiple patrols and a call-in heading your way. Current loadout im running usually is the auto cannon for general purpose clear, and the 500kg for single hard target like the stray tank or bile titan means i end up with something for everything. As a side note, the walker factory and destroy objectives dont stand a chance against the barrages.