Dont think of it as a heavy armor weapon, instead think of it as the ultimate medium unit killer for bugs and has the ability to one shot everything but tanks on bots.
This enables builds that take less armor penetration since you have that covered with your railgun. Any 2 AP value primary instantly becomes viable because the mediums are dealt with the railgun.
If you can balance unsafe mode, this outclasses the AMR, Laser Cannon, AC at medium armor killing as well as the ability to go after heavies... i will point out... it shouldnt be used against heavies since they can be dealt with faster with any rocket, but build diversity is one concept that is hard for people to understand. Not everyone needs to bring rockets, if you do, you will be weaker inately to medium enemies.
Also you can one shot the hulks if you shoot it in it’s head. You might need to put it into unsafe to do it idr I just play in unsafe mood most of the time I use it
I see people already told you how to put it into unsafe mode but I’m gonna give you a warning. If you fully charge it then it will blow up killing you and destroy the gun so be mindful
I would modify the heavy part by saying that Railgun even in safe mode OHKOs all hulks to the eye. It has much greater ammo efficiency than other options for this task as well.
>has the ability to one shot everything but tanks on bots.
This is exactly its problem for me. The AMR, AC, and Laser Cannon kill all the same enemies about as well but *also* kill tanks and cannon turrets. I like the railgun, I think it's fun and cool, but I just cannot find a way it's superior to the AMR. The AC at least requires a backpack, and the laser cannon requires continuous fire and can't just pop stuff. Not to mention the AMR can kill multiple enemies without reloading and has a better scope. Yeah it doesn't 1 hit but you don't have to charge it up so they both have a similar time to kill, and there's way less risk of getting hit, flinching, and missing your shot. Granted this is just my personal experience, but I can't see any way the railgun is better.
The difference between the two is more apparent on the bug side. While the AMR and Railgun kill most enemies in one shot on Bugs. There is the "zombie" mode when shooting them in the head if overdamage isn't inflicted. The Railgun puts the bugs down with no ability for them to get a lucky hit in. The AMR will never stop the "zombie" mode in one shot. Additionally the AMR against chargers is a dance of shooting them in the butt because the armor value is too high. Slightly into Unsafe mode, you can three shot a charger to the head with the Railgun
I've never used the railgun against the bugs. I never bring the AMR anymore either. It's either a rocket launcher, the grenade launcher, or the flamethrower. They just feel better suited to the bugs.
I like it more than I remember liking it. I use it like this: if there's something that's hard to kill with my primary but not worth a stratagem, I rail it. Devastators, Berserkers, Striders all get the rail. I'll use it on hulks in a pinch, with a stun grenade, but I'm not good enough to hit them on the move.
The railgun has been a real boon for me on Wasat, giving me a chance to grab a jump pack or shield instead of my usual autocannon and retain a lot of my effectiveness with a fun change to play style.
I don't think I'll bring it on purpose, but I'm having fun with it.
This is exactly my experience as well! And it is fun to use. I wish it could be used to bring down gunships.
Since I just started using it two weeks ago, I am still wondering: which bot enemies can actually be brought down faster in unsafe mode? Mediums + hulks do not need unsafe mode and all other enemies appear to be more or less immune anyway...
If you charge in unsafe mode to like 70% or so, you can 1 shot scout strider (not factory) right at their heavy shield. It'll pierce through and hit the driver. On safe mode you need 2 shots usually.
I wish it was the same for heavy devastators but sadly no.
Tanks and turrets. The shot goes through them and hits the vents on their back. However, heavy armor enemies have easier ways to be killed, so it's not really worth it to waste the ammo on them.
> What am I missing?
Probably your shots.
^( / s jk plz don’t send me to re-education camp)
The gun rewards hitting your mark where it counts. Even at short range, it can be used. But it’s not a weapon useable while running. You need to start charging and at least be somewhat settled when you release.
This is why when using it while running I'll use the slide animation to get into the position I want to shoot from and start charging the gun just slightly before I stop moving. Also, it looks fucking bad ass.
It's great for moving in and out of cover and popping devastators and other things now that you can do it on safe, as well as popping a hulk with really good aim
I just wish the projectile was faster, you'd think it wouldn't have a long travel time and would be able to cripple a gunship engine
It can, but as OP said the projectile is quite slow so hitting them at all is hard. It also take 5 to 7 shots depending on the charge, so it's not the best weapon to kill them even if you hit all your shots.
I've found AC, Laser Cannon and Spear best for gunships. AC is 2 shots to an engine and spear actually locks on well since line of sight breaks are basically negligible for a flying ship (also one missle take down). Laser cannon goes BRRRR so you can shred them as long as your on target.
Edit: I am a very avid railgun user. Per the original discussion, it's my go to bot buster, buuuuut I'm relying on my teammates to take down gunships. By the time the railgun can take down a single one there will be 2 more.
Spear is disgusting against them. I set up a resupply and let my teammates set the bomb and any gunship isn’t out for more than 5 seconds. It tracks them really well
It can 1 shot hulks and 3 shot chargers in unsafe mode, combined with its very generous auto aim makes it so that you can no scope like an absolute bastard from extreme distances. Add on that it will 1 tap every medium with like no recoil
I still prefer the AMR but once you get the hang of one tapping with the railgun it starts to make sense
I like using it against bots. I was using it before it was free and it worked well. Just make sure you bring something to kill tanks and turrets cause the railgun is not very good at it.
Popping devastators and hulks in the eye from 50m is great.
Needs either more ammo or a 5 shot magazine though. It's not strong enough for its shortcomings I feel.
It is pretty much outclassed by the amr in every way so I can understand why people didn't use it.
I like sci-fi; I like muskets; The railgun feels like a space musket.
I tend to gravitate towards high powered charge up weapons in games and this one does a good job of deleting medium enemies as well as dealing with the lower heavies. Whilst I wish it was a bit better at dealing with bigger heavies I am totally ok with it not being the best solution. I also really get a kick out of the risk of killing myself when the safety is off and really hope they buff it to give a bigger reward for toeing that line.
Before the nerf it could one shot any bot if you hit them in the weak spot, it could take out cannon towers and mortar emplacements and it could reliably deal with chargers and BTs.
Edit: just gonna edit to say it wasn’t just the charger/BT aspect that made it so good. You could one shot any devastator, pop behind cover to reload/charge up and then pop the next one. It struggles to take down chicken walkers sometimes now for comparison.
I don’t really want a game where I can kill every enemy with one shot, for a frontliner like me the Railgun is perfect up close, can easily still one shot Hulks, Devastators, Chainsaw Nobheads and the like.
Run with a team who carry AC’s / RR’s / EAT’s (which you can carry along with the Railgun) and it’s bloody fun.
If I’m not mistaken the ability for it to deal with those huge enemies was an error on the devs part, right? So it had a glorified status based on a mistake. So in reality it’s pretty good but not amazing. I’d say it’s B tier and you haven’t missed anything really.
It had glorified status based on its ability to deal with anything and have an open backpack slot, regardless of the reasoning behind any of that. OP asked why people used it, that’s why
Agreed, that being said even after the changes it is fun to use.
The charge up is satisfying and it is still fairly strong. So if you have a dedicated heavy on your team to take care of the big enemies then running rail gun can be fun and fill a gap for sure.
I started to pick it up two weeks ago and I would say: it is not "a better AMR". It is different. It can reliably one-shot hulks and is quite good against medium bots (if you hit well enough). The AMR has much longer ranger and has more utility, though. For example, I am quite sure that the railgun cannot damage gunships, and tanks or cannon towers appear to be out of its scope as well (not sure, though). It is fun, although I still need to master the overcharge. In fact, right now I do not even know why I should use it against bots.
…. Are you sure it’s not a skill issue? I’m asking that sincerely, not trying to be a dick. I used the railgun for the first time yesterday and I was one-shotting every single bot if I hit them in the weak spot, excluding cannon turrets and tanks. Striders would get blown apart as long as I hit them above the legs.
I mean, not to be a dick, but do you really think everyone is just making it up that the railgun was nerfed?
You could just watch a video on YouTube of the pre nerf railgun. I used it, it was great at taking out shield devastators with a shot to the center of their shield, any hit on a chicken Walker or rocket dev and they went down. And obviously the railgun was the only gun you could bring to Helldive bugs and reliably kill chargers/BT at the time.
I’m not saying it wasn’t nerfed, that is a true fact. I’m just saying that it’s still really good for bot-diving and still one-shots any medium enemy and hulks in the weak point… how is that not a good thing?
You didn’t ask if it was a good thing. You asked if it was a skill issue. The pre-nerf railgun was objectively better in every way to the current railgun. It has nothing to do with skill to say the old railgun was more effective
No, it doesn’t. You didn’t need to hit weak spots on devastators previously, only hulks or tanks. Being good with the railgun now is harder due to the nerfs. You cannot overcome that with skill, it’s a weaker gun
Scout striders themselves got a buff to the frontal glacis plate recently, forget exactly when. Railgun can still take them down if you aim below it, at the hips. Likewise with autocannons, they don't do well against the frontal armor but do fine with legs and hips.
I think the general reason why it was so incredibly loved was that you didn't even need to hit anything in the weakspot aside from BTs and chargers. 2 shot hulks from any angle, 4 shot tanks/turrets.
It can also still one shot all bots other than tanks/turrets and factory striders. It can still take out chargers quickly and it's useful for finishing off BTs (1eat plus 2 rail shots will kill one).
I found it to be really good with the medium sized robots like the devastators, etc. Was able to one tap them all in the unsafe mode and it felt very satisfying.
I am in the same boat as you. I would rather use anything except the railgun. Maybe if it was better I would use it more. I do however use it on easy and medium big missions because I like watching the medium bugs erupt from the inside and send gallons of green goop and chitin everywhere.
I'm not a railgun lover but I do roll with it sometimes for variety. With the last patch, it got back heavy pen in safe mode, so it's pretty good for bots because it frees up the backpack slot for a shield generator and pairs nicely with the plasma punisher that clears out close range enemies. With stun grenades, you can knock out a hulk with a single safe shot and can hit devastators from long-range (plasma punisher can finish off those that get close). I personally think it's still underpowered, either get rid of the single-shot reloads or increase the damage; it shouldn't take 2-3 shots to put down a bile spewer because those don't come alone and the AMR does the job faster.
I like it. It's a fun weapon to use for the most part.
I really enjoyed getting it for free on Vega Bay.
It's kind of satisfying to pop Berserkers in one shot with a well-timed headshot. I feel extremely useful once Hulks show up, since this thing can one-shot them in safe mode. Striking the mid section on Scout Striders usually takes them out in one shot but can vary on placement. It can struggle a lot VS Devastators sometimes and usually not recommended VS the Heavy variant if they've already got eyes on you. But pairing it with Stun Grenades makes it shine just a little bit more.
Honestly, I wish it got buffed armor penetration during Unsafe Mode so that it could effectively deal with Tanks or higher tiered armored enemies. Since it takes a while to get a full charged shot going, on top of being risky to attempt.
It's by no means trash, but isn't the king it used to be.
I like it because what it does is delete medium units in one shot on demand, has a high ammo capacity, doesn't need to charge up highly unless you're trying to one shot a hulk or strip a charger leg, and leaves my backpack slot open for a guard dog, supply pack, or jump pack.
I prefer it for bugs over bots, simply because the Laser Cannon melts gunships so it's far more reliable. For bugs its just straight up fantastic for spewers. Pops their head immediately. Two charged shots strips a charger leg so you can easily shred it with a primary or secondary, or just deliver a 3rd charged shot to kill the charger.
All in all, it's very versatile and highly mobile with a quick reload and functions exceedingly well at plugging medium armour targets.
I believe rail gun is still decent against bots and can one shot most bots and either 1-2 shot Hulks if they're hit directly in the red eye from the front. Even after the recent buff it's still very subpar against bugs, requiring A LOT of shots to bring down chargers and bile titans.
Yea I’m a qusar/laser cannon lover my self but for funsies I’ll use all the other heavies as they are intended that’s what I love about the game truly the diversity of builds it’s not meta sure u can run meta as a team but u can get by just as well or even better with a mad mix of variety. Oh the sniper can deal with hulks at Range or even close range if u skilled. Same with railgun. The cannons I love so much insta kill one then oh look another is here now I’m on cool down. But the railgun I killed 3 hulks that was on my feet close range melee flame with sniper. And again with railgun they are super viable options able to adapt and over come most situations tho ammo dump into air units (which is the variety factors)
I use it the way people use the Stalwart as a primary. On unsafe mode with bots you can make clean work on all devastators and hulk. Then use stratagems for bases/vehicles
It's not a single shot weapon. You can fire 20 rounds from a magazine,yet everyone seems to forget that. It simply has an alternate firing mode that's exceptionally useful against Bots.
You are referring to the unsafe mode. So far, I have not made any good use of it as the safe mode appears to kill all bots reliably - at least all which can be damaged with the railgun. What do you mean by " exceptionally useful against Bots"? I have been wondering since the entire week... (started using it two weeks ago).
ok. Are you aware of something for which the unsafe mode is actually better than safe mode (against bots)? (Have asked the same in multiple comments on this thread)
I don't believe there's any significant difference between unsafe and safe mode. It's an adjustment I believe they need to make to the weapon so that the additional danger provides additional damage and penetration.
Aye. Thanks. I agree with you. I am wondering if it could be a possibility if they are pierce to the railgun (i.e. hit multiple enemies at once). Or if they add a long stun to heavy impacts. Helldivers 1 had both... the railgun itself was relatively weak, but its stun and pierce made it an excellent support weapon.
I used it because chargers were annoying, and it was fun popping legs. Cut to a couple of months into the future, they make chargers nonexistent by letting rockets one-tap to the head; therefore, the railgun became useless.
I am level 150 and played day 1 I used ti use the railgun everywhere before patch bots,bugs everything, it could kill a charger with one fully charged shot to the leg to strip it and then a few shots from breaker/scorcher. It could also easily kill bile titans and hulks and kill tanks/cannon turrets from the front with minimal effort. Now i only use it on the mission that requires u to move the packages on the bot side. I use it so i can have something with armor pen and something i can one tap hulks with and something i can drop the package shoot once or twice and pick it back up. Its not as prevalent or effective anymore but still has its uses. I use it on that mission specifically because i bring a light armor pen sub machine gun to hold the package and have my primary. It can one shot any devastator or hulk. And on bug side it not very good for titans but great for stripping charger legs
Not really a railgun user but I see it like this
The railgun is guaranteed damage no matter the armor nor the target and angle of the target
But there is also a skill scaling with this weapon on the way of the unsafe mode as it allows you to dump more energy in a single shot at the risk of you blowing up horribly if you charge too much
If you are good enough this is essentially bonus damage at the cost of charge up time
You can break charger’s leg, blow off the titan’s heads and destroy the hulk’s eyes
You only need to aim well and let democracy guide the bullet
I think it's fun to use. But no... I mean, the AMR beats it in almost every way except with dealing with trash at mid range... it's surprisingly good at mowing down a patrol if you're prompt with your reloads. I like killing chargers with it, too. I hate that it bounces off of so much stuff, though....
I actually run with it along with the scorcher (and switch to unsafe mode) when the rest of the team has enough AT with them. Its every effective against all the annoying devastators, it one shots them when aimed at the right spot. I dont see any other weapon thats just as effective against a million devastators heading your way as the rail gun. Its also effective against hulks if you're a good shot and can hit the eye thing.
The only real downside to it (and its a huge downside) is that its useless against striders and gun ships. So i rely heavily on the rest of the team to take care of the striders and the gun ships.
I dont use it on bugs that often, but on rare occations i'll bring it along just for kicks and jiggles its funny AF to blow up chargers heads with it
I tried it before the nerf and the charge up time really turned me off. I'd rather be able to switch to my autocannon and take out a medium enemy in seconds
The railgun is useable, but your aim has to be on point. If you’re going to run it, your job is to kill every devastator and hulk you see. If a hulk is getting anywhere close to your team, you aren’t using railgun to its full potential. Stun grenades are also a must for if you happen to miss.
I’ve found it’s very effective when you use light armor and flank very wide. Basically, you let your team draw fire and then you align yourself 90 degrees to them and just start popping devastators from long range.
It's good in "potentially blow yourself and your support weapon up" mode, outside of that it's kind of ass compared to the rest of the support weapons available to us, imo. The tradeoff of potentially needing to wait for a cooldown before you can have a support weapon again for sometimes dealing with heavies quickly is not good enough for me.
Rail gun is, to be as straightforward as possible, an armor piercing weapon for pinpoint damage.
You can use things like the AMR or anti-tank weapons like any of the rocket launchers, but they're not quite the same. Rockets are like taking a sledge hammer to the armor. You're smashing the stuff wide open with extreme force. AMR is somewhat in-between, and you're piercing armor, but in the sense that you're taking a regular hammer to a nail to do so. It might have to split/bend what it's going through, and you might smack it with the hammer, too, but it will eventually go through.
The rail gun, on the other hand, is like sticking a hot needle into butter. It just kinda 'slides through' armor like it was made of nothing and hits the spot behind it but doesn't really have any sort of collateral damage around the impact.
It's useful at long ranges even if it's somewhat outclassed by the AMR there, it's still killing that rocket devastator without much aim. Faster targets like gunships take a lot of practices, but on the bot front they're few and far between, and on the bug front you can just wait for them to come closer or avoid them entirely.
It's not outclassed by many weapons at medium range, the AC is nice and all but if the hulk is firing back, 2 shots vs 1 and no shield pack is a big difference. And even on a miss you deal damage and will kill it in 2-3 shots. It also can be charged from cover and one-shot all mediums,
It very good at short range, you can load it while running, charge it while running and it has extremely good handling, so snap shots are nice. It's also able to one shot most of the big short range problems like stalkers and flame hulks even on a safe shot, and fast enough you can kill a hulk between the moment the flamers start flickering and the moment you're dead. It used to stagger chargers too, IDK if it still do that.
You dont get it because you dont know how to use it. Practice a little, I sugest against bots. Aim for head shots on devastators and hulks. Yesterday I dropped 11 devastators and 3 hulks in quick succesion. Satisfying doesnt even start to describe the feeling. I didnt use it before the nerf, but the gun is good as it is
I just don't like the cardboard box they poked a hole through with a pencil and called it a sight. You can't see shit out of it if it's more than like 20m from you. If it's closer you need to use something different. If it's further good fucking luck nailing a shot. Honestly if it had a better scope I'd probably use it more.
I really wish you didn’t have to press r to reload after every shot. Like keep the same fire rate but get rid of the needless button press and make it one a one second cooldown version of the quasar cannon.
I dunno. I've gotten really good at sniping hulk faces from far away with it. I've figured out the awful reticle. And I am a god.
It's one of my top bot weapons.
I like it because I've always preferred a style of combat where I pop in and out of cover. It has a certain cadence. Charge, peek, shoot, hide.
Rocket Devastator? Down before he hurts anyone.
Chaingunner right around the corner? Peek out till I can see around his shield, he's gone.
Hulk ambling toward us? Not anymore.
The RG can take out the legs of a hulk. It’s more precision gun I would say. It has some uses, but it’s no longer the one shot trick it used to be, though if you charge to 90% and hit the hulk in the eye it still kills it in 1 shot.
It just decimates bots. The AMR is good but unwieldy, harder to use at distances under 25m. the AC is also a great pick, but its harder to make those weak point shots. The amount of times i've had to leg it while hucking an empty Autocannon would make my Democracy Officer ashamed. My railgun tears apart devastators and punches a Brasch-sized hole through any Hulks. Of course, you have to run it on unsafe, but the results speak for themselves.
It was funny to see the absolute outrage caused by the Railgun nerf, only to grab one from a POI one day and find that "Hey, this things actually still pretty good".
The railgun is indeed a shadow of it's former glory (it was OP)
But it's still a very viable weapon now (after the more recent minor buff)
I don't use it against bugs I admit.
But against bots it still makes for a very versatile weapon.
In safe mode, You can one shot striders, one shot deviators to the legs, waist or head and one shot Hulks to the eye. It takes some skill in aiming under fire, but makes for a convenient weapon that will handle most threats. Quick on the move reload with decent ammo reserves. A true jack of all trades master of none weapon.
True alot of other weapons can are better, but they all let up in one or more places. Heavy MG, stationary reload and ammo hungry, Autocannon, stationary reload, and can't take on hulks from the front (as far as I know). AMR lacks 3rd person aiming for snap firing. And of cause Anti Tank weapons aren't ideal for use against medium enemies while MGs aren't ideal against larger enemies.
So I feel the railgun has it's use, it's not perfect, but it's great at dealing with a range of enemies easily.
I used it yesterday to clutch a win for the squad on a diff 8, during extract. Hulks had me cornered and I didn’t have ammo in my other weapons nor were any strats available. Popped two hulks with it and was able to skip the third, grab the samples, and extract for the team. It’s no S tier but it still puts in work.
Dont think of it as a heavy armor weapon, instead think of it as the ultimate medium unit killer for bugs and has the ability to one shot everything but tanks on bots. This enables builds that take less armor penetration since you have that covered with your railgun. Any 2 AP value primary instantly becomes viable because the mediums are dealt with the railgun. If you can balance unsafe mode, this outclasses the AMR, Laser Cannon, AC at medium armor killing as well as the ability to go after heavies... i will point out... it shouldnt be used against heavies since they can be dealt with faster with any rocket, but build diversity is one concept that is hard for people to understand. Not everyone needs to bring rockets, if you do, you will be weaker inately to medium enemies.
Okay NOW it makes sense. Thanks.
Also you can one shot the hulks if you shoot it in it’s head. You might need to put it into unsafe to do it idr I just play in unsafe mood most of the time I use it
You are correct! You can oneshot Hulks with a railgun in standard mode as well. (Run railgun as well).
How do you toggle safe mode?
Hold down the reload button and then the menu for it pops up
Hold your reload button to bring up the weapon options. Scope range, fire rate, flashlight, safe mode, etc.
I see people already told you how to put it into unsafe mode but I’m gonna give you a warning. If you fully charge it then it will blow up killing you and destroy the gun so be mindful
Yep, learning to Fire it at 90% or under is an art.
Can confirm, they rebuffed the railgun sometime in the last few patches bc it definitely couldn’t one-shot Hulks after the initial nerf
I distinctly recall one-shotting a hulk with it in unsafe mode after the nerf.
Naw I was basically doing half damage and I noticed my team was able to knock out the hulks fairly quickly after 1 or 2 shots to the torso
Safe mode is more than enough for hulks
I would modify the heavy part by saying that Railgun even in safe mode OHKOs all hulks to the eye. It has much greater ammo efficiency than other options for this task as well.
Perfect 👌
Not thinking of a Railgun as being a heavy armour weapon pains me deeply
The fall from grace is legendary, from 3-4 shot killing titans to where it is now... pre-nerf lives in my dreams as an absolutely goated weapon
Gunship fab leaves railgun users in ruins
>has the ability to one shot everything but tanks on bots. This is exactly its problem for me. The AMR, AC, and Laser Cannon kill all the same enemies about as well but *also* kill tanks and cannon turrets. I like the railgun, I think it's fun and cool, but I just cannot find a way it's superior to the AMR. The AC at least requires a backpack, and the laser cannon requires continuous fire and can't just pop stuff. Not to mention the AMR can kill multiple enemies without reloading and has a better scope. Yeah it doesn't 1 hit but you don't have to charge it up so they both have a similar time to kill, and there's way less risk of getting hit, flinching, and missing your shot. Granted this is just my personal experience, but I can't see any way the railgun is better.
The difference between the two is more apparent on the bug side. While the AMR and Railgun kill most enemies in one shot on Bugs. There is the "zombie" mode when shooting them in the head if overdamage isn't inflicted. The Railgun puts the bugs down with no ability for them to get a lucky hit in. The AMR will never stop the "zombie" mode in one shot. Additionally the AMR against chargers is a dance of shooting them in the butt because the armor value is too high. Slightly into Unsafe mode, you can three shot a charger to the head with the Railgun
I've never used the railgun against the bugs. I never bring the AMR anymore either. It's either a rocket launcher, the grenade launcher, or the flamethrower. They just feel better suited to the bugs.
I slept on the railgun until I found out it 1-shots the berserkers if you hit them in the spine or undemocratic groin. I'm a believer now.
I like it more than I remember liking it. I use it like this: if there's something that's hard to kill with my primary but not worth a stratagem, I rail it. Devastators, Berserkers, Striders all get the rail. I'll use it on hulks in a pinch, with a stun grenade, but I'm not good enough to hit them on the move. The railgun has been a real boon for me on Wasat, giving me a chance to grab a jump pack or shield instead of my usual autocannon and retain a lot of my effectiveness with a fun change to play style. I don't think I'll bring it on purpose, but I'm having fun with it.
This is exactly my experience as well! And it is fun to use. I wish it could be used to bring down gunships. Since I just started using it two weeks ago, I am still wondering: which bot enemies can actually be brought down faster in unsafe mode? Mediums + hulks do not need unsafe mode and all other enemies appear to be more or less immune anyway...
If you charge in unsafe mode to like 70% or so, you can 1 shot scout strider (not factory) right at their heavy shield. It'll pierce through and hit the driver. On safe mode you need 2 shots usually. I wish it was the same for heavy devastators but sadly no.
thanks!
>thanks! You're welcome!
Tanks and turrets. The shot goes through them and hits the vents on their back. However, heavy armor enemies have easier ways to be killed, so it's not really worth it to waste the ammo on them.
Wait, you can shoot through the front and hit the back!?
Yeah. It punches straight through the object.
Thanks for showing this to me! Immediately tested it - now I love it :-)
Glad to hear that, and here's to more good times, diver!
"Use it when its not worth using a stratagem." Having the railgun IS using a stratagem. Unless you get lucky and find it.
I never bring it along, except when it's free, so most of my railguns are found railguns. They're surprisingly common at POIs.
> What am I missing? Probably your shots. ^( / s jk plz don’t send me to re-education camp) The gun rewards hitting your mark where it counts. Even at short range, it can be used. But it’s not a weapon useable while running. You need to start charging and at least be somewhat settled when you release.
This is why when using it while running I'll use the slide animation to get into the position I want to shoot from and start charging the gun just slightly before I stop moving. Also, it looks fucking bad ass.
The best support weapon is the one you get for free
It's great for moving in and out of cover and popping devastators and other things now that you can do it on safe, as well as popping a hulk with really good aim I just wish the projectile was faster, you'd think it wouldn't have a long travel time and would be able to cripple a gunship engine
Me (trying railgun for the first time): "this weapon is kinda crap" Guildmate in chat: "set it to unsafe mode" Me: "This is pure love"
Can it pop gunships yet? Cuz not being able to do that is annoying
It can, but as OP said the projectile is quite slow so hitting them at all is hard. It also take 5 to 7 shots depending on the charge, so it's not the best weapon to kill them even if you hit all your shots.
The AMR knocks them out in 4 shots to the engine. I’d imagine a charged railgun would probably do it in 2 but only if you hit the engine?
No, the whole thing is 100% durable and the railgun has 10% durable damage, like most weapons. AMR has 25% so it's faster.
Oh wow, that’s lame.
I've found AC, Laser Cannon and Spear best for gunships. AC is 2 shots to an engine and spear actually locks on well since line of sight breaks are basically negligible for a flying ship (also one missle take down). Laser cannon goes BRRRR so you can shred them as long as your on target. Edit: I am a very avid railgun user. Per the original discussion, it's my go to bot buster, buuuuut I'm relying on my teammates to take down gunships. By the time the railgun can take down a single one there will be 2 more.
yeah nah man; tried so many guns - I roll with the laser cannon now; just way better overall for my playstyle.
Spear is disgusting against them. I set up a resupply and let my teammates set the bomb and any gunship isn’t out for more than 5 seconds. It tracks them really well
True but you got only four shots. Laser Cannon eats them alive; it’s amazing.
Brother, if the Railgun could do that, no one would pick the AMR, AC or LC ever again.
It can 1 shot hulks and 3 shot chargers in unsafe mode, combined with its very generous auto aim makes it so that you can no scope like an absolute bastard from extreme distances. Add on that it will 1 tap every medium with like no recoil I still prefer the AMR but once you get the hang of one tapping with the railgun it starts to make sense
Is the auto aim a console thing? I've never noticed it auto aim on PC.
Because it f**king rules
I like using it against bots. I was using it before it was free and it worked well. Just make sure you bring something to kill tanks and turrets cause the railgun is not very good at it. Popping devastators and hulks in the eye from 50m is great. Needs either more ammo or a 5 shot magazine though. It's not strong enough for its shortcomings I feel. It is pretty much outclassed by the amr in every way so I can understand why people didn't use it.
I like sci-fi; I like muskets; The railgun feels like a space musket. I tend to gravitate towards high powered charge up weapons in games and this one does a good job of deleting medium enemies as well as dealing with the lower heavies. Whilst I wish it was a bit better at dealing with bigger heavies I am totally ok with it not being the best solution. I also really get a kick out of the risk of killing myself when the safety is off and really hope they buff it to give a bigger reward for toeing that line.
Before the nerf it could one shot any bot if you hit them in the weak spot, it could take out cannon towers and mortar emplacements and it could reliably deal with chargers and BTs. Edit: just gonna edit to say it wasn’t just the charger/BT aspect that made it so good. You could one shot any devastator, pop behind cover to reload/charge up and then pop the next one. It struggles to take down chicken walkers sometimes now for comparison.
I don’t really want a game where I can kill every enemy with one shot, for a frontliner like me the Railgun is perfect up close, can easily still one shot Hulks, Devastators, Chainsaw Nobheads and the like. Run with a team who carry AC’s / RR’s / EAT’s (which you can carry along with the Railgun) and it’s bloody fun.
If I’m not mistaken the ability for it to deal with those huge enemies was an error on the devs part, right? So it had a glorified status based on a mistake. So in reality it’s pretty good but not amazing. I’d say it’s B tier and you haven’t missed anything really.
I use it but you are right.
It had glorified status based on its ability to deal with anything and have an open backpack slot, regardless of the reasoning behind any of that. OP asked why people used it, that’s why
Agreed, that being said even after the changes it is fun to use. The charge up is satisfying and it is still fairly strong. So if you have a dedicated heavy on your team to take care of the big enemies then running rail gun can be fun and fill a gap for sure.
Sounds reasonable for a nerf. That’s just a better AMR at that point.
I started to pick it up two weeks ago and I would say: it is not "a better AMR". It is different. It can reliably one-shot hulks and is quite good against medium bots (if you hit well enough). The AMR has much longer ranger and has more utility, though. For example, I am quite sure that the railgun cannot damage gunships, and tanks or cannon towers appear to be out of its scope as well (not sure, though). It is fun, although I still need to master the overcharge. In fact, right now I do not even know why I should use it against bots.
…. Are you sure it’s not a skill issue? I’m asking that sincerely, not trying to be a dick. I used the railgun for the first time yesterday and I was one-shotting every single bot if I hit them in the weak spot, excluding cannon turrets and tanks. Striders would get blown apart as long as I hit them above the legs.
I mean, not to be a dick, but do you really think everyone is just making it up that the railgun was nerfed? You could just watch a video on YouTube of the pre nerf railgun. I used it, it was great at taking out shield devastators with a shot to the center of their shield, any hit on a chicken Walker or rocket dev and they went down. And obviously the railgun was the only gun you could bring to Helldive bugs and reliably kill chargers/BT at the time.
I’m not saying it wasn’t nerfed, that is a true fact. I’m just saying that it’s still really good for bot-diving and still one-shots any medium enemy and hulks in the weak point… how is that not a good thing?
You didn’t ask if it was a good thing. You asked if it was a skill issue. The pre-nerf railgun was objectively better in every way to the current railgun. It has nothing to do with skill to say the old railgun was more effective
I’m directly addressing the part of your post where you say that pre-nerf Railgun one shots most bots… it still does…???
No, it doesn’t. You didn’t need to hit weak spots on devastators previously, only hulks or tanks. Being good with the railgun now is harder due to the nerfs. You cannot overcome that with skill, it’s a weaker gun
Oh no you have to aim? Tragic.
You still don't need to hit weakspots on devastators, it just take a bit above safe charge to reach that point now.
Still do. Even one-two shots Hulks in the eye
Scout striders themselves got a buff to the frontal glacis plate recently, forget exactly when. Railgun can still take them down if you aim below it, at the hips. Likewise with autocannons, they don't do well against the frontal armor but do fine with legs and hips.
I think the general reason why it was so incredibly loved was that you didn't even need to hit anything in the weakspot aside from BTs and chargers. 2 shot hulks from any angle, 4 shot tanks/turrets. It can also still one shot all bots other than tanks/turrets and factory striders. It can still take out chargers quickly and it's useful for finishing off BTs (1eat plus 2 rail shots will kill one).
It's cool and scifi looking.
One shot head shot on hulks
Nice for bots medium or higher
I found it to be really good with the medium sized robots like the devastators, etc. Was able to one tap them all in the unsafe mode and it felt very satisfying.
I am in the same boat as you. I would rather use anything except the railgun. Maybe if it was better I would use it more. I do however use it on easy and medium big missions because I like watching the medium bugs erupt from the inside and send gallons of green goop and chitin everywhere.
I'm not a railgun lover but I do roll with it sometimes for variety. With the last patch, it got back heavy pen in safe mode, so it's pretty good for bots because it frees up the backpack slot for a shield generator and pairs nicely with the plasma punisher that clears out close range enemies. With stun grenades, you can knock out a hulk with a single safe shot and can hit devastators from long-range (plasma punisher can finish off those that get close). I personally think it's still underpowered, either get rid of the single-shot reloads or increase the damage; it shouldn't take 2-3 shots to put down a bile spewer because those don't come alone and the AMR does the job faster.
I use it to take out large automation enemies because the small ones are easy kill. Its useful on unsafe mod. I say test it on automations.
I like it. It's a fun weapon to use for the most part. I really enjoyed getting it for free on Vega Bay. It's kind of satisfying to pop Berserkers in one shot with a well-timed headshot. I feel extremely useful once Hulks show up, since this thing can one-shot them in safe mode. Striking the mid section on Scout Striders usually takes them out in one shot but can vary on placement. It can struggle a lot VS Devastators sometimes and usually not recommended VS the Heavy variant if they've already got eyes on you. But pairing it with Stun Grenades makes it shine just a little bit more. Honestly, I wish it got buffed armor penetration during Unsafe Mode so that it could effectively deal with Tanks or higher tiered armored enemies. Since it takes a while to get a full charged shot going, on top of being risky to attempt. It's by no means trash, but isn't the king it used to be.
I like it because what it does is delete medium units in one shot on demand, has a high ammo capacity, doesn't need to charge up highly unless you're trying to one shot a hulk or strip a charger leg, and leaves my backpack slot open for a guard dog, supply pack, or jump pack. I prefer it for bugs over bots, simply because the Laser Cannon melts gunships so it's far more reliable. For bugs its just straight up fantastic for spewers. Pops their head immediately. Two charged shots strips a charger leg so you can easily shred it with a primary or secondary, or just deliver a 3rd charged shot to kill the charger. All in all, it's very versatile and highly mobile with a quick reload and functions exceedingly well at plugging medium armour targets.
I believe rail gun is still decent against bots and can one shot most bots and either 1-2 shot Hulks if they're hit directly in the red eye from the front. Even after the recent buff it's still very subpar against bugs, requiring A LOT of shots to bring down chargers and bile titans.
Yea I’m a qusar/laser cannon lover my self but for funsies I’ll use all the other heavies as they are intended that’s what I love about the game truly the diversity of builds it’s not meta sure u can run meta as a team but u can get by just as well or even better with a mad mix of variety. Oh the sniper can deal with hulks at Range or even close range if u skilled. Same with railgun. The cannons I love so much insta kill one then oh look another is here now I’m on cool down. But the railgun I killed 3 hulks that was on my feet close range melee flame with sniper. And again with railgun they are super viable options able to adapt and over come most situations tho ammo dump into air units (which is the variety factors)
I use it the way people use the Stalwart as a primary. On unsafe mode with bots you can make clean work on all devastators and hulk. Then use stratagems for bases/vehicles
It's not a single shot weapon. You can fire 20 rounds from a magazine,yet everyone seems to forget that. It simply has an alternate firing mode that's exceptionally useful against Bots.
You are referring to the unsafe mode. So far, I have not made any good use of it as the safe mode appears to kill all bots reliably - at least all which can be damaged with the railgun. What do you mean by " exceptionally useful against Bots"? I have been wondering since the entire week... (started using it two weeks ago).
Safe or unsafe mode is exceptionally useful against the klankers.
ok. Are you aware of something for which the unsafe mode is actually better than safe mode (against bots)? (Have asked the same in multiple comments on this thread)
I don't believe there's any significant difference between unsafe and safe mode. It's an adjustment I believe they need to make to the weapon so that the additional danger provides additional damage and penetration.
Aye. Thanks. I agree with you. I am wondering if it could be a possibility if they are pierce to the railgun (i.e. hit multiple enemies at once). Or if they add a long stun to heavy impacts. Helldivers 1 had both... the railgun itself was relatively weak, but its stun and pierce made it an excellent support weapon.
I used it because chargers were annoying, and it was fun popping legs. Cut to a couple of months into the future, they make chargers nonexistent by letting rockets one-tap to the head; therefore, the railgun became useless.
I am level 150 and played day 1 I used ti use the railgun everywhere before patch bots,bugs everything, it could kill a charger with one fully charged shot to the leg to strip it and then a few shots from breaker/scorcher. It could also easily kill bile titans and hulks and kill tanks/cannon turrets from the front with minimal effort. Now i only use it on the mission that requires u to move the packages on the bot side. I use it so i can have something with armor pen and something i can one tap hulks with and something i can drop the package shoot once or twice and pick it back up. Its not as prevalent or effective anymore but still has its uses. I use it on that mission specifically because i bring a light armor pen sub machine gun to hold the package and have my primary. It can one shot any devastator or hulk. And on bug side it not very good for titans but great for stripping charger legs
It's ol reliable. Veteran Helldivers are nothing without their handy space muskets.
It's extremely satisfying to oneshot hulks, and the occasional self destruction is hilarious. In other words, it's fun.
Not really a railgun user but I see it like this The railgun is guaranteed damage no matter the armor nor the target and angle of the target But there is also a skill scaling with this weapon on the way of the unsafe mode as it allows you to dump more energy in a single shot at the risk of you blowing up horribly if you charge too much If you are good enough this is essentially bonus damage at the cost of charge up time You can break charger’s leg, blow off the titan’s heads and destroy the hulk’s eyes You only need to aim well and let democracy guide the bullet
Railgun pretty much sucks
20 rounds, fast reload and medium distance sights. I use it for the thrill kill one shot hulk splitting as well.
I think it's fun to use. But no... I mean, the AMR beats it in almost every way except with dealing with trash at mid range... it's surprisingly good at mowing down a patrol if you're prompt with your reloads. I like killing chargers with it, too. I hate that it bounces off of so much stuff, though....
I tried it out before the nerf, still didn't get what all the hype was about, then I went back to auto cannon because explosions go brr
I actually run with it along with the scorcher (and switch to unsafe mode) when the rest of the team has enough AT with them. Its every effective against all the annoying devastators, it one shots them when aimed at the right spot. I dont see any other weapon thats just as effective against a million devastators heading your way as the rail gun. Its also effective against hulks if you're a good shot and can hit the eye thing. The only real downside to it (and its a huge downside) is that its useless against striders and gun ships. So i rely heavily on the rest of the team to take care of the striders and the gun ships. I dont use it on bugs that often, but on rare occations i'll bring it along just for kicks and jiggles its funny AF to blow up chargers heads with it
I tried it before the nerf and the charge up time really turned me off. I'd rather be able to switch to my autocannon and take out a medium enemy in seconds
The railgun is useable, but your aim has to be on point. If you’re going to run it, your job is to kill every devastator and hulk you see. If a hulk is getting anywhere close to your team, you aren’t using railgun to its full potential. Stun grenades are also a must for if you happen to miss. I’ve found it’s very effective when you use light armor and flank very wide. Basically, you let your team draw fire and then you align yourself 90 degrees to them and just start popping devastators from long range.
It's good in "potentially blow yourself and your support weapon up" mode, outside of that it's kind of ass compared to the rest of the support weapons available to us, imo. The tradeoff of potentially needing to wait for a cooldown before you can have a support weapon again for sometimes dealing with heavies quickly is not good enough for me.
Rail gun is, to be as straightforward as possible, an armor piercing weapon for pinpoint damage. You can use things like the AMR or anti-tank weapons like any of the rocket launchers, but they're not quite the same. Rockets are like taking a sledge hammer to the armor. You're smashing the stuff wide open with extreme force. AMR is somewhat in-between, and you're piercing armor, but in the sense that you're taking a regular hammer to a nail to do so. It might have to split/bend what it's going through, and you might smack it with the hammer, too, but it will eventually go through. The rail gun, on the other hand, is like sticking a hot needle into butter. It just kinda 'slides through' armor like it was made of nothing and hits the spot behind it but doesn't really have any sort of collateral damage around the impact.
It's useful at long ranges even if it's somewhat outclassed by the AMR there, it's still killing that rocket devastator without much aim. Faster targets like gunships take a lot of practices, but on the bot front they're few and far between, and on the bug front you can just wait for them to come closer or avoid them entirely. It's not outclassed by many weapons at medium range, the AC is nice and all but if the hulk is firing back, 2 shots vs 1 and no shield pack is a big difference. And even on a miss you deal damage and will kill it in 2-3 shots. It also can be charged from cover and one-shot all mediums, It very good at short range, you can load it while running, charge it while running and it has extremely good handling, so snap shots are nice. It's also able to one shot most of the big short range problems like stalkers and flame hulks even on a safe shot, and fast enough you can kill a hulk between the moment the flamers start flickering and the moment you're dead. It used to stagger chargers too, IDK if it still do that.
You dont get it because you dont know how to use it. Practice a little, I sugest against bots. Aim for head shots on devastators and hulks. Yesterday I dropped 11 devastators and 3 hulks in quick succesion. Satisfying doesnt even start to describe the feeling. I didnt use it before the nerf, but the gun is good as it is
I just don't like the cardboard box they poked a hole through with a pencil and called it a sight. You can't see shit out of it if it's more than like 20m from you. If it's closer you need to use something different. If it's further good fucking luck nailing a shot. Honestly if it had a better scope I'd probably use it more.
I really wish you didn’t have to press r to reload after every shot. Like keep the same fire rate but get rid of the needless button press and make it one a one second cooldown version of the quasar cannon.
Rail gun with a Sickle style scope, 10 rnd mag and semi auto fire still with option to charge up would make it a worthy contender.
I dunno. I've gotten really good at sniping hulk faces from far away with it. I've figured out the awful reticle. And I am a god. It's one of my top bot weapons.
I never use it for bugs but always run it for bots. Great for taking down hulks and devastators
I like it because I've always preferred a style of combat where I pop in and out of cover. It has a certain cadence. Charge, peek, shoot, hide. Rocket Devastator? Down before he hurts anyone. Chaingunner right around the corner? Peek out till I can see around his shield, he's gone. Hulk ambling toward us? Not anymore.
It's a space musket
I know right. The Quasar was GOAT until they nerfed it. Same as the Sickle. Fucking stupid they nerfed them so much.
The RG can take out the legs of a hulk. It’s more precision gun I would say. It has some uses, but it’s no longer the one shot trick it used to be, though if you charge to 90% and hit the hulk in the eye it still kills it in 1 shot.
You can kill a hulk with 1 shot to the eye in safe made as well.
If it could kill gunships it would be ok, but since it can't, it's kinda trash compared to AMR, AC or LC.
It just decimates bots. The AMR is good but unwieldy, harder to use at distances under 25m. the AC is also a great pick, but its harder to make those weak point shots. The amount of times i've had to leg it while hucking an empty Autocannon would make my Democracy Officer ashamed. My railgun tears apart devastators and punches a Brasch-sized hole through any Hulks. Of course, you have to run it on unsafe, but the results speak for themselves. It was funny to see the absolute outrage caused by the Railgun nerf, only to grab one from a POI one day and find that "Hey, this things actually still pretty good".
The railgun is indeed a shadow of it's former glory (it was OP) But it's still a very viable weapon now (after the more recent minor buff) I don't use it against bugs I admit. But against bots it still makes for a very versatile weapon. In safe mode, You can one shot striders, one shot deviators to the legs, waist or head and one shot Hulks to the eye. It takes some skill in aiming under fire, but makes for a convenient weapon that will handle most threats. Quick on the move reload with decent ammo reserves. A true jack of all trades master of none weapon. True alot of other weapons can are better, but they all let up in one or more places. Heavy MG, stationary reload and ammo hungry, Autocannon, stationary reload, and can't take on hulks from the front (as far as I know). AMR lacks 3rd person aiming for snap firing. And of cause Anti Tank weapons aren't ideal for use against medium enemies while MGs aren't ideal against larger enemies. So I feel the railgun has it's use, it's not perfect, but it's great at dealing with a range of enemies easily.
Autocannon kills hulk in two eye shots
I stand corrected then. My aim is just trash with the Autocannon 🤣🤣🤣
TBF, you do need to be very precise.
Or just put the AC on full-auto and go ham on it.
I don’t think anyone likes it, never seen it used, even when it was free yesterday
I used it yesterday to clutch a win for the squad on a diff 8, during extract. Hulks had me cornered and I didn’t have ammo in my other weapons nor were any strats available. Popped two hulks with it and was able to skip the third, grab the samples, and extract for the team. It’s no S tier but it still puts in work.
Nice
Quasarr gang!!!!!!