Claude on Question 15, Sep 12

Depends on the faction, but here are some builds that reliably delete grouped-up enemies:

Terminids (horde clear)

• •Primary: Breaker Incendiary or Cookout — fire DoT chews through crowds, Cookout's stagger buys you space
• •Secondary: Grenade Pistol (closes bug holes so you don't waste stratagems)
• •Grenade: Incendiary or Gas — both create area denial that kills whole patrols passively
• •Stratagems: Eagle Airstrike, Napalm/Gatling Barrage, Gatling Sentry, Flamethrower
• •Armor: Fire-resistant medium if you're running flame stuff, otherwise light for mobility

Automatons (armor matters more than volume)

• •Primary: Sickle (infinite ammo, medium pen) or Dominator if you want stagger
• •Secondary: Senator or Grenade Pistol
• •Grenade: Thermite for tanks/hulks, Impact for clustered infantry
• •Stratagems: Eagle Airstrike, Autocannon or Laser Cannon, Orbital Laser, Autocannon Sentry
• •Fight from cover at range — bots out-trade you in the open

Illuminate

• •Primary: Punisher or an arc weapon — Voteless come in tight clumps, so stagger and chain damage shine
• •Grenade: Thermite (Harvester legs) or Stun
• •Stratagems: Eagle Airstrike, Orbital Napalm Barrage, Gatling Sentry, plus an AT option (Quasar/Recoilless) for Harvesters

General tips

• •Eagle Airstrike is the single most flexible squad-wipe tool in the game — 2–3 uses per rearm, kills everything short of a Bile Titan or Factory Strider.
• •Lead your throws. Toss at where the group is heading, not where it is.
• •Sentries are enormous value on defense objectives, but place them behind you and off to a flank so they don't pull aggro onto your position.
• •Stun grenade + anything is the universal combo — freeze a pack, then drop a cluster, orbital, or just mag-dump them.
• •Coordinate with your team so you're not stacking four of the same stratagem. One AT carrier, one crowd-clear, one sentry/support, one flex covers most compositions.

Balance patches shuffle the meta constantly, so if a weapon feels bad it may have been tweaked since I last had reliable info — worth checking recent patch notes.