CountVon

Rares are gonna be the limiting factor for me. Total cost to buy all 6 new upgrades is 1050 Common, 900 Rare and 100 Super samples. I was capped for samples before today, so I actually need to collect 550 Common, 650 Rare and zero Supers.

PSA, Superior Packing Methodology is apparently bugged, so maybe give that one a pass for now.

Edit: From the official Discord, confirmed to be bugged:

One more update re: Superior Packing Methodology. We are aware that the upgrade is still not working and we're currently investigating a fix for it. We will update you as soon as we have more information!

Yeah, it's all the same guys that inspired this meme.

I looked at BGrizzy1989's tweets so no one else has to, and hooboy. Pro-Trump, transphobic, anti-woke, fat-shaming. As one might expect, it takes a pretty gross human being to freak out about less-than-supermodel looks on a video game character.

What the hell do these people want in their games? Supermodels? Porn stars?

My guess would be they want both of those things. Related ice-cold take on the Horizon series:

Lots of stability fixes in this patch. Personally I was only running into the crash during extract, but hopefully everyone has an improved experience after this patch. I'd recommending everyone verify their game files and clear shader cache post-patch as well. The shader cache file is %appdata%\Arrowhead\Helldivers2\shader_cache\pipeline_library.cache on Windows.

Also nice to see them officially acknowledge some long-standing annoyances like misaligned sights, Spear lock-on issues, and the ground being made of rubber around bot Eye of Sauron towers.

Hardly the first time. I'd argue the US made the same mistake in Afghanistan in 2003, diverting resources to Iraq because Bush Jr. had such a hard-on for Saddam.

Shield pack is still really good to prevent Hunter slows. If I'm giving that up for anything, it's gonna be the Autocannon backpack.

I didn't even realize, that cooldown is so long I'd be hard-pressed to use it more than twice.

I'm at level 65 and I'd say the whole notion of a single loadout meta died with the OG Railgun. We might have been on the cusp of a Slugger meta when that got nerfed (RIP my beloved, that stagger was so good), but it wasn't as prevalent as the Railgun. I don't see much mech strat usage now, the 10-minute cooldown just feels too long. The mech is less fragile now than it was initially, but the rocket aiming is a lot worse after the most recent changes so it's a real mixed bag. Still potentially worth taking on any mission where you're going to spend a long time on an objective (e.g. civilian extraction, geological survey).

I see a fair amount of variety in loadouts, it's more like there's a range of preferences that end up dictating each player's loadout:

• Backpack choice. Personal Shield is still good even after the nerf (nothing else prevents Hunter slows), but the Autocannon is extremely versatile and effective. These are the two most common backpack choices I see, but there's a fair amount of laser drone too vs. bugs, sometimes Recoilless Rifle backpack.
• Heavy clear tool. Some people bring 500kg, some bring Quasar, some like EATs, or the aforementioned RR. Orbital Rail also appears in this role, though the cooldown is very punishing at higher difficulties. Personally I like the Quasar, but some people really dislike the cooldown between shots and that gets worse on a hot planet.
• Chafe clear tool. The vanilla Eagle strike is my personal preference because it can destroy objectives, but the Eagle cluster strike gets one extra usage and a wider area of effect. Sometimes I'll see Gas Strike or Napalm in this role, but I think the damage over time is currently bugged if you're not the host. Hopefully that bug gets fixed so we've got a wider range of effective options. Don't sleep on turrets either, they can really shine in this role, especially after all the upgrades are in place. It requires that they be placed in a good spot to succeed, but if they are then they can absolutely carry. EMS Mortar, regular Mortar and Autocannon turret seem to be the standouts. On small maps like eradication missions, mass mortars will do a ridiculous amount of work as long as they're placed somewhere that they won't get immediately smashed. Most of the eradication maps have a couple spots that work well for this. Friendly fire can be a concern with non-EMS turrets, but it doesn't take many missions to learn how to pay attention to where the AC turret is placed or listen for the sound of the mortar turret firing.
• Oh-shit button. Orbital Laser seems like the standout by a wide margin. Even with the long cooldown and max 3 shots per mission, it seems to do more work than any other Orbital. I have seen Orbital Walking Barrage used to good effect though, it's the one Orbital artillery strike that seems consistent enough to make it worth taking. 120mm and 380mm still need more help in this regard.

The mech can be really good for any mission type where you need to spend an extended period of time on an objective. Off the top of my head I'd say that includes civilian rescue (all variants except the 15-minute bot one) and geological survey, in addition to the eradication mission type you mentioned. You're going to spend a significant amount of time on the extraction / main survey site, with multiple patrols / dropships / breaches. You can get a lot of value out of a mech call-in during that time.

If it were up to me I'd change the mech strat to work like the orbital laser. Shorten the cooldown but cap the number of mechs you can deploy during a mission. The 10-minute cooldown feels overly punishing if you do the main objective shortly before extraction.

I guarantee at least a third of the player base would pitch a fit if they put some stratagems behind a high level requirement. As it stands, the level requirements are largely meaningless after your first 30-ish hours of playtime and I don't think that's a problem.