“Seriously, it’s a Railgun” Helldivers 2 players say the Railgun should be able to take down Gunships

Helldivers 2 went through a negative period that turned many players off when the developers nerfed weapons as soon as it was discovered players were favoring them over others. The logic behind this was that they wanted no weapon to be overpowered, but when it comes to a PVE game there is no benefit to this as other players aren’t at a disadvantage if they choose another loadout.

Thankfully, this doesn’t seem to be the focus now and they are more open to weapons having pros and cons. Unfortunately, many of the weapons in Helldivers 2 that were nerfed have yet to have the chances reverted or new buffs added. One of these is the Railgun that was nerfed early on, which led to much disappointment among the community.

U/Scranner_boi took to the Helldivers 2 sub-Reddit to discuss the Railgun and its lack of damage when it comes to the Gunships.

“The fact that it takes 6 unsafe semi-charged shots to the thrusters to bring them down is just absolutely ridiculous,” they said. The Railgun saw a nerf early on in the 01.000.100 update that decreased its armor penetration capabilities. For comparison, the Heavy Machine Gun can take one down after 4-5 seconds of gunfire, and many launcher-type weapons can take Gunships down in one or two shots.

Many other players agreed that the Railgun is underwhelming, especially when compared to other weapons, with U/DoctahFeelgood saying “I don’t see the point of the rail gun when the Anti-Material Rifle exists. It’s better in every way. The rail gun is more fun to shoot so I will give it that.” The Autocannon is another alternative weapon that players suggest, such as u/Crimision who said “I used to run (the) Railgun against bots, but I had to switch to Autocannon because I just felt useless against gunship.”

With Arrowhead Game Studios no longer releasing reactionary updates when a weapon is discovered to have an advantage over another, it will be interesting to see whether the developers decide to rebalance weapons in Helldivers 2 and buff/nerf them and create new metas. Many of the support weapons, such as the Railgun, are incredibly underwhelming and often leave a lot to be desired for, especially when it comes to dealing with the Automatons.

The Escalation of Freedom update is right around the corner, with the new update landing on August 6th. This new update will add new planets, missions, enemies, and make many quality-of-life changes. It will be interesting to see whether any of these changes will contain changes to weapons and Stratagems, as many are long overdue. But, with Arrowhead Game Studios back from its summer vacation, we should begin to see a steady stream of updates again now.

The latest Major Order sees players once again take on the Automatons after spending a week fighting the Terminids. It has also brought a new mission type for difficulty level 6 and above, which tasks players with destroying Orbital Cannons that are firing at the Super Destroyers, which marks the first new mission type in a couple of months. If you’re primarily Terminid player, it looks like you’re going to be spending some more time fighting the robot army. To help you make the most of it, we highly recommend optimizing your loadout by checking out our Helldivers 2 best weapons guide and best armor guide.