Stress Testing Helldivers 2's Most EXPLOSIVE Gun

The R-36 Eruptor is currently the most explosive gun in Helldivers 2. Naturally you would assume that makes it the best gun in your primary slot. But is that actually the case? We thoroughly review it here to find out.

-=Follow me on=-

[madhudson]

"...in the end game..."
The end game starts when you get handed your cape

[benmowe]

Something not mentioned in the video:
- Against bile spewers, nursing spewers, brood commanders and hive guards you get far more consistent 1 shots shooting UNDERNEATH THEM and having the bullet explode underneath them. All these enemies become consistent 1 shots when you employ this tactic.

Best primary for bugs :)

[BGB]

Eruptor + Stalwart is a lot of fun and covers all bases. Fun times.

[muzman]

This is a very good balanced gun. The sleeper of the warbond is the crossbow. I know a lot of people are calling it F tier but I've been getting used to the aiming and taking advantage of the fact it is a silent shot which the explosion can be used to lure enemies away with sound. Then it starts to become something very unique.

[eminentnebula]

something to take into account is that, given the tiny magazine and the time it takes to shoot again and to reload, it's important to reload when still having at least one cartridge in the magazine. It skips the long cycling animatino, and gives you one extra cartridge, which can be crucial in some cases.

Also, I think you can change to another gun just after shooting, and when you come back to the Eruptor, it will be ready to shoot another bullet, skipping the cycling animation. I still have to test this more thoroughly.

And finally, be very aware of where your teammates are when shooting this gun. If someone is about 10m around the point of impact, the shockwave will make them tumble and a fair amount of damage

[DeviousMachineR]

for devastators and berserkers aiming for the groin has been most effective for me and more likely to one shot vs trying to headshot.

[everyonethinksyoureadeathm]

A tip for the Europtor vs Devistators.
Aim for the head or aim for the waist.

The waist is light armor apparently and will snap them in two.

[Sylv]

- always reload with one bullet left (when the magazine turns red) This is so you skip the bolt animation and always get the fast reload animation. It also keeps the one round you didn't fire in the chamber so you don't actually waste ammo
- self damage starts at around 8 meters
- I personally always keep my scope at 200m zoom because the hipfire is super accurate
- it can close bug holes and fabricators
- it can two shot spore spewers, illegal broadcasts and clean up tanks with one of any rocket launcher shot to the back plate and one eruptor shot anywhere on the turret
- there are three damage zones from the eruptor: the impact of the actual bullet, the explosion, and the fragmentation. The impact damage has medium armor pen, the explosion does damage through soft targets, and the fragmentation (which still does considerable damage) is reflected off of the impact point. This means against groups you want to almost always shoot into the middle of the group to get the most out of your shot instead of the front most target which will blow them away.
- against bile spewers and chargers its best to shoot underneath them if you want to hit them from the front. Nursing spewers do not have head armor and die in one headshot. Regular spewers need you to shoot their mouth or chin but you can shoot the ground directly underneath them for a kill. Charger butts explode in 3 hits so it's recommended that you shoot it once from behind then shoot under it from the front when it turns to you then once again in the butt after dodging it's charge again
- bile titan sacs get destroyed in 3 shots
- Against the devastators you should aim for the waist instead of the armored chest like was shown in the video. Chainsaw men get one shot if you hit them in the red waist and the armored guys get 2 shot. Aiming for the head is dumb when you can just cut people in half
- minigun guys suck, but you can blow their gun off in one shot if you aim for the shoulder joint

[chanuelle]

- Eruptor with stun grenade
- eagle cluster
- autocannon sentry for killing everything if good positioning
- jetpack for high level experiences

[venerablebrothergoriate]

Been using Eruptor and MG-43. When you’re keeping your distance to take advantage of the Eruptor as the sniper rifle it is, the stationary reloading of the MG-43 isn’t really that much of an issue. Snipe to pound the harder targets into the dirt from long range, and as the trash mobs close in, just mow the lawn with your machine gun. I just can’t wait for the new resupply ship module upgrade to work, because then I can make my supply pack ammo last way longer.

[Drackzgull]

A bit more info in the Eruptor.

It's damage has three components. The projectile's direct impact, the explosion, and some shrapnel projectiles (unknown amount) that blast off along the explosion. That last shrapnel component is why even with perfect shot placement, it still gets somewhat inconsistent results against enemies that may or may not survive it, and why sometimes a nearby blast can be even more damaging than a direct hit (e.g. It's not rare to shoot at a group of Berserkers or Hive Guards, and have the one you hit survive, but one or more of those around it die).

Against Chargers, you can hit their back side by shooting under them from the front. This is specially useful to finish them off after you've already taken one or two direct shot from the back at them and they still survive. Similarly, you can hit a Hulk's vents by shooting the ground behind them between their legs from the front, but that's not as consistent as with the Chargers, and tends to require some high ground advantage for the shot to not bounce off the ground from too shallow of an angle.

Devastators and Rocket Devastators are most consistently killed by shooting a leg or their hip joint. One or two shots will blow their top half off. Against Heavy Devastators, one shot in their gun arm will generally kill them in a single shot, and in the rare cases when it doesn't, it'll blow off their gun and disarm them.

[Spillow-C]

it one shots the bile spewers at the head, yes even the annoying green armored ones which are immortal, sometimes it can take two shots with those, still amazing tho

[brettwerdesheim]

Find it more hilarious that if caught in the explosion it acts like an implosion. Just socks you in

[Anonymoose]

I like that that bundle brought new variability to the primary and secondary slots. It's not that the weapons themselves are particularly great on their own, but that they enable other already existing things in the game to be better. With the grenade pistol I can take a utility based grenade and not feel like I'm missing out on clearing small groups or holes/fabricators, and with the eruptor or the crossbow I can take the lighter support weapons without feeling like I just can't kill heavier targets without a stratagem

[simonphoenix]

I really hope they don't nerf this... there is finally a decent primary weapon other than the breaker and sickle.

[LordDonnington]

Currently, my loadout for higher level missions is Eruptor, Quasar, Rover, and the machine pistol secondary. Love the versatility.

[xinectin]

Ive been using it the past few days, with the Stalwart as the go to "Oh you are kinda close there buddy" Support Gun. I found myself using it less and less as the Mission goes on the more Enemys start swarming. The unwieldiness of it being one of the major factors to why. I destroy Fabricators and Bugholes with it when possible, otherwise i just delete a stray Walker or ranged Devestator type with it. I do not like it with the Bugs, the amount of Hunters makes the Eruptor nearly useless and even deadly if one jumps infront of your barrel at the wrong moment. Chainsaw Devestators are wierdly more tanky than the other ones and i find myself getting swarmed by them so often that the Eruptor just makes thing worse at a certain point.


Im a huge fan of the Countersniper + Recoilless Rifle + autopistol with contact grenades loadout and i find that it outperforms any kind of Eruptor combination i have tried by far. The Recoilless oneshots Chargers to the head, one to twoshots Hulks and Tanks and can take care of some destructable objectives. Titans get the 500kg treatment anyway and the AT-AT i havent figured out an effective way to deal with yet aside from spamming orbitals. With the countersniper i just one to twoshot Devestators to the head, small enemys die to one hit and anything that gets close gets a contact grenade to the face an riddled with the autopistol. Contact grenades are fine to destroy fabricators and bugholes with, just got to aim right. Otherwise, nothing a airstrike or orbital cant handle.

So far, i'd say the Eruptor needs a buff to its sensitivity making it easier to stay on target when things are moving or aiming between targets, the input lag is just too much. It fires Slow already and cant penetrate and delete Hulk eyes like the railgun can. So damage and utilitywise its in a good place, it just needs to be a bit faster in terms of handling.

[Hydrocannon]

Can we please get back Slugger's ability to break doors, fences and other assortment of props it used to break pre-nerf? Thank you...

[YipeekayHarasho]

Eruptor + Any mob clearing support weapon (i personal prefer Arc Thrower) makes bug mission a breeze walk.

[carbontheprotogen]

Have used this on the western front since I got my hands on it, and it's been my go to against the clankers ever since. Super Earth's weapon industry has outdone themselves this time!