How To Use Arc Thrower For Dummies | 5 Tips and Tricks Helldivers 2 (Stop Killing Teammates)

Here are 5 tips and tricks for using the Arc Thrower (if you're a dummy) in Helldivers 2

Check out these other videos with Arc Thrower in it

00:00 Intro
01:11 How to Rapid Fire
02:27 How to use this against different enemies
04:49 Terrain, Bodies, and Team Killing

In today's training we're going to be covering the arc thrower. This is one of the best guns in the game, and its totally underutilized. For mobbing, bossing, etc, all of the above it performs really well especially in the right hands. This gun would be rated high on my weapons tier list. #helldivers2

[thiccfila]

Check out these other videos from youtubers with Arc Thrower in it

[Aryanne_v]

Jump Pack + Arc Thrower is just the Dark Trooper from the old Battlefront games

[nicholasware]

I've fallen deeply in love with this gadget for terminid missions. No other weapon will have you noticing just how often your teammates run right the fuck in front of your gun while you're shooting bugs.

I guess they don't cover that in the 5 minutes of training every Helldiver receives.

[JB-krrk]

And I used to think this gun was hot garbage, turns out I’m hot garbage

[shawnaw]

One tip I found.
Aiming stances actually affect the accuracy of the arc thrower. Plus, you can "aim" the autotargeting of the arc slightly.

So there are 3 modes of firing any gun (arc thrower included)
Normal from the hip
Hold aim for minor zoom in
ADS

I found that when ADS, the lightning ACTUALLY goes where you aim. So actually aiming the weapon for long distance shots makes a big difference and actually allows 70-80m shots (very very far for a arc-ing based weapon)
Outside of ADS, you should almost always aim to hold zoom aim and *not* full hipfire.
Hold zoom aim actually reduces the amount of time your arc going straight to the floor.
But yes, do aim slightly above *still* to reduce the chances of floor arcs to almost zero (i.e. hold aim + aim upwards)

Lastly, always move while shooting (hold aim + aim slightly up + move), this weapon does NOT need to be stabilized since there is already auto-targeting of the arcs. And holding aim vs hipfire are exactly the same movement speed (assuming you are chaining shots consistently)

[asartoretto]

Another awesome combination is arc + guard rover (the laser one). I tell you will be erradicating swarms of enemies, I got a game where I had like 500 kills, which helps a lot because not only you are killing a lot and doing constant damage, but also none of this gadgets use ammo, so your team can have more ammo. But with this combination teamkilling goes hard, you need to have good awareness of where your teammates are so neither your guard or the arc kills a friend.

[sebastianmichaelis]

Arc thrower salesman back at it with another video

[dalektrekkie]

After playing with it for a while, I think the charge extends the range that a bolt will first connect, but rapid firing after that will still work. That's actually how lighting works in the first place. It takes a big jump in charge to get that initial spark, but once it's established the electricity can travel through the air pretty quickly since it's been ionized into a plasma. Normally this only applies to a single bolt, but I can see that logic being used to create a sort of skill gap with this gun. Long charge to get the bolt to actually start connecting if they're pretty far out there, but then subsequent shots will connect a lot easier

[Target]

Thank you!!! I was one of the complainers in the comments that I tried it and killed someone and never touched it again

[KommisarFuklaw]

Laser drone + Arc thrower and I’m getting like 500-600 kills in the 40 min missions.

Feels so good against hordes of armored bugs. Simply never having to reload is so massive and means you can solo hold breaches. Focusing titans and you’ll rack up 30 kills as it chains off the main baddie

[sammy_freddo]

I killed fresh bile titan a few times in 1-2 shots of arc thrower. Shoot him in the face when he's about to spit on you. Similar to railgun. Not always consistent, but possible

[maruzensky]

I've been running the arc thrower + jump pack almost exclusively the past few nights (thanks for the videos on it, I would've never revisited it after unlocking it (lvl 50 now)). For the bile titans, I find that it performs best when you're on elevation (for example, using the jump pack to get onto a cliff/rock next to extract) and you can get those bile titan kills real fast (I think my fastest kill was maybe 3 or 4 arcs? Idk about two but maybe I wasn't paying attention?). Looking forward to your follow-up on dealing with titans faster. My results have wildly varied against titans and chargers.

[iirainoverdawnii]

I love the arc thrower and would've easily used it almost 24/7 if not for my braindead teammates who even if warned, as if deliberately, walk in front of me to get blasted by the electricity and then complain in chat that I killed them. Like man it's not my fault you are stupid 😭

[Alastair_Ulven]

Apologies for the wall of text. Thought I should share my own personal findings. As it might help.

So in regards to rapid fire, after my own testing I have found that it can be fired after charging for 0.75 seconds. And that it takes 1 second to full charge. I believe this is due to it using the same firing mode as the railgun. Which can fire at below maximum charge.

As they are the only 2 guns with this firing mode, they might be sharing code. But the arc thrower doesn't seem to share the damage reduction. Maybe because the "ammo" of the arc thrower isn't coded to reference the charge level of the gun. As according to a recent tweat by a dev, apparently the ammo is what defines most of a weapons stats.


I can also confirm that it can be rapid fired even on the first shot. Despite what many claim. But your testing also seems to back this up from what I can tell. My guess for why it sometimes won't fire is either potential lag or human error. And fully charging the shot just helps you get back into the rhythm by basically resetting yourself from a neutral state.

I tested this by both recording videos, then viewing them frame by frame. As well as using software to hold the fire button, for specific amounts of time. So I could precisely test different timings. And no matter what, I could not get the arc thrower to fire unless I had been charging it for at least 0.75 seconds. Both on the first shot and subsequent shots.

I am not sure where the full charge first shot thing came from. Or the 50% charge thing. I think it is because with it being able to be charged the moment you release the first shot, that means the cursor is already moving. Which combined with the shape of the cursor and not having any charge meter like the railgun. It is giving people the illusion that they are firing at 50% instead of the actual 75%.

[Pyrate_Of_Las_Vegas]

You should make a "Helldive for Dummies" Series.
There are so many that need it.

[Ostrich]

I just did a 2 player helldive difficulty mission and I wish I had the arc thrower, the bile titans weren’t even the problem, it was the swarm of hundreds of small bugs chasing mr

[ciphe]

I genuinely saw the first video you made, noticed you aiming above enemies by a little bit, picked up arc thrower for 2 days and figured out everything in this video except for how to consistently break charger leg armour 😂

[ivanfranebijelic]

Now we need a Dominator video, it's crazy good in certain situations, I would say even better than the Scorcher. It can oneshot Devastators and Terminid Warriors with a headshot, and it can two shot a Brood Commander's head off. I think it's a great pairing with the Arc Thrower

[Canis.Lupus.Arctos]

good grief!!! actually a helpful vid on the arc thrower... look, I'm not gonna lie, I don't like it, and think many other weapons are stronger...
but what annoys most about this weapon are the advocates who obnoxiously tend to either be disingenuous or straight up lie about it...
but yeah, great stuff man!

[archlordv]

Something I've found helps for enemies that rush you down (Hunters, Stalkers, etc.) is when you've fully charged a shot, melee at the enemy next to you. Nine times out of ten, you 'll hit them with your melee attack but the arc will also let go and hit them, as well as jumping to any other nearby enemies. Just watch out for friendly fire.