Gemini on Question 15, Oct 2

Because Helldivers 2 features two vastly different enemy factions with completely different armor and spawn mechanics, there is no single "best" loadout. What wipes a squad of Terminids will bounce harmlessly off a squad of Automatons.

If your goal is maximum efficiency in wiping out an enemy patrol or breach/drop before they can even react, here are the two most optimized loadouts for the current meta.

1. The Terminid Exterminator (Bugs)

Bugs rely on swarms and numbers. Efficiency against them means high Area of Effect (AoE) damage, damage-over-time (fire/gas), and relentless crowd control.

• •Primary Weapon: SG-225IE Incendiary Breaker or Cookout. Spraying a patrol with incendiary rounds will set the entire squad on fire. You don't even need to kill them with the bullet; just light them up and let the fire damage finish the smaller bugs off.
• •Secondary Weapon: Grenade Pistol. Purely for closing bug holes quickly or finishing off a Bile Spewer.
• •Grenade: Stun Grenade or Incendiary Impact.
• •Support Weapon: Grenade Launcher or Flamethrower.
• •Grenade Launcher allows you to wipe out a dense patrol of 15+ bugs from 50 meters away in 3 shots.
• •Backpack: Supply Pack (if using Grenade Launcher) or Guard Dog Rover (if using Flamethrower). The Rover passively melts approaching chaff while you focus on larger threats.
• •Stratagems:
• •Eagle Napalm Strike: Throw this horizontally across a bug breach. It will instantly kill small bugs and burn everything else to death as they spawn.
• •Orbital Gas Strike or Orbital Gatling Barrage: Extremely short cooldowns. Throw one directly on a patrol or breach for instant, continuous wave clear.
• •Eagle 500kg Bomb: You need one heavy-hitter just in case a Charger or Bile Titan is hiding in that squad.

How to execute the wipe: Throw a Gas Strike or Napalm at the center of the patrol. Immediately follow up with 3-4 rounds from your Grenade Launcher. Anything that survives will be melted by your Guard Dog or Incendiary Breaker.

2. The Automaton Scrapper (Bots)

Bots rely on ranged fire and heavy/medium armor. Efficiency against bots requires stagger, explosive damage, and armor penetration.

• •Primary Weapon: SG-8P Plasma Punisher or JAR-5 Dominator. The Plasma Punisher has an AoE explosion that violently staggers groups of Devastators, interrupting their fire and damaging multiple bots at once.
• •Secondary Weapon: P-4 Senator or Grenade Pistol.
• •Grenade: Stun Grenade. (This is non-negotiable for Bots. A stun grenade stops a Hulk in its tracks and freezes Devastator squads for an easy wipe).
• •Support Weapon: Autocannon. The undisputed king of the bot front. It has a massive ammo pool, splash damage, tears through medium armor, and destroys bot fabricators from a distance. It can wipe a squad of Devastators in seconds.
• •Backpack: Taken by the Autocannon ammo backpack.
• •Stratagems:
• •Eagle Airstrike: The single best Stratagem against bots. One well-placed Airstrike will wipe out an entire bot patrol, destroy fabricators, and severely damage tanks/Hulks.
• •Orbital Laser: The ultimate "Delete this area" button. Throw it into a heavy bot outpost and watch it mop up everything.
• •Orbital Precision Strike: Excellent for instantly deleting a tight cluster of bots or a tank.

How to execute the wipe: See a bot patrol? Throw a Stun Grenade into the center of them. While they are frozen, throw an Eagle Airstrike directly at their feet. If any Devastators or Hulks survive, they will still be stunned—crouch and rapid-fire your Autocannon into their glowing weak spots.

The Ultimate "Squad Delete" Combo (Works on Both)

If you want the most mathematically efficient, resource-light way to kill an enemy squad of any faction in under 5 seconds, use this exact combo:

• 1.Equip Stun Grenades.
• 2.Equip Eagle Airstrike (or Eagle Cluster Bomb for bugs).
• 3.When you see a patrol, throw the Stun Grenade.
• 4.Immediately throw the Eagle Airstrike directly onto the stunned enemies.

The enemies cannot run out of the red beam because they are stunned. The bombs will hit dead-center, wiping 100% of the squad instantly before they can call in a Bug Breach or Bot Drop.

Happy hunting, and for Super Earth!