Claude on Question 15, Sep 10

Depends on the faction, but here are the go-to picks for deleting groups fast:

Terminids (bugs)

Chaff comes in dense packs, so area damage and fire dominate.

• •Primary: Breaker Incendiary or Cookout — burn DoT kills entire trash waves with a few shots
• •Grenade: Incendiary Impact, or Gas grenade (confusion makes them attack each other and stops reinforcement calls)
• •Stratagems: Orbital Napalm Barrage (best breach-clearer in the game), Eagle Napalm Airstrike, Flamethrower or Stalwart for sustained clearing, plus Orbital Precision Strike or thermites for Chargers/Bile Titans
• •Armor: Light with Engineering Kit or the fire-resist passive if you're running napalm

Automatons (bots)

Groups are ranged and armored, so you want penetration and precision.

• •Primary: Sickle, Adjudicator, or Diligence Counter-Sniper (headshots one-tap Devastators)
• •Support: Autocannon or Laser Cannon — Autocannon staggers and shreds a whole patrol in seconds
• •Stratagems: Eagle Airstrike (most versatile stratagem, period), Orbital Laser for emergencies, Stun grenades for Hulks
• •Armor: Fortified passive (50% explosive resist) — survives rocket devastator volleys

Illuminate (squids)

• •Primary: Blitzer or Breaker Incendiary for Voteless hordes; Purifier/Sickle for Overseers
• •Stratagems: Orbital Gatling Barrage, Eagle Cluster Bomb, Arc Thrower (chains through crowds beautifully)

Universal picks

Eagle Cluster Bomb and Orbital Gatling Barrage are the most efficient "one input, patrol gone" options — short cooldowns, huge footprint, low investment. Eagle Airstrike is the best all-rounder because it also kills objectives.

One tactical note

Wiping patrols isn't always correct. Dead patrols don't call reinforcements, but engaging costs time and ammo, and on higher difficulties patrol density scales with map completion — sometimes stealth armor and just walking around them clears the mission faster.

Balance shifts with patches, so if something feels weak it may have been tuned recently.