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There are many ways to play Helldivers 2, you can go in all guns blazing or take the more strategic approach. When it comes to your loadout there are even more options to help tailor the experience to your play style. The Railgun was once one of the most used Stratagems in Helldivers 2. But its recent nerfs have made it get left behind in favor of many other options.
U/Zani1903 took to Reddit to discuss the Railgun and how its recent nerfs have made it an unviable option to bring with you on missions saying “Nowadays, I can’t see the reason for the Railgun to stay in its currently nerfed state for even a single patch longer. Not only have other support weapons been brought up in power, the distribution of enemy sizes has changed drastically as well.”
When it comes to using it against the Automatons, when comparing the Railgun “to existing stratagem, the Railgun fires too slowly, which makes it hard for it to compete with the AMR, LC, and AC at dealing with packs of enemies, Factory Striders, and gunships especially. The Railgun’s ammo economy is too poor, making it very hard to justify for a mobile playstyle against the AMR and LC, which are far more economical while also not taking up the backpack slot. The Railgun cannot deal with any Automaton objectives, making it useless in the face of the optional-objective-shredding Spear.”
Moving over to the Terminids, where the Railgun does hold up better, but the Flamethrower also exists which really negates it.
“Railgun’s viability is severely diminished from the old days. Not only do you have AT weapons that can now deal with Chargers and Bile Titans (Quasar is a big one here, which keeps your backpack slot and allows you to stay on the move), now those have lower spawn rates in favour of increased chaff spawns, particularly Hunters, that the Railgun suffers against to an extreme degree, and the sheer volume of enemies means you can’t just straight-up deal with everything with an Incendiary Breaker without eventually just running yourself out of ammo.
Unnerfing the Railgun would likely leave it still unviable on the Terminid front, as it’s a completely different game to how it was back then. It still has the crippling rate-of-fire issue, and so many other stratagems are now significantly better at dealing with the same targets. It now also can’t even deal with Bile Titans, because that was a bug, not intended, even if you revert the nerf.”
It is a shame that the Railgun is no longer viable considering how much it was used in the early days of the game. But as the game evolved we will continue to see some weapons left behind. To help you keep up to date with what you should be bringing with you on your next mission, we highly recommend checking out our Helldivers 2 best weapons guide and best armor guide.
