How to Destroy Gunships and Factory Striders in Helldivers 2
With the Helldivers making strides in beating back the Automaton front, there are now 2 new enemy types have been causing players a lot of trouble in Bot-occupied planets. The Gunsips and Factory Striders have entered the battlefield and are armed to the teeth. Gunships are armed with autocannons and rockets, while the Factory Strider has large artillery guns and dual laser gatling guns. Players are wondering how they can defeat this mechanical menace in Helldivers 2, so we will discuss some strategies and loadouts to fight back against the new Automaton threat.
Table of Contents
Gunship Strategies
Gunships will always attack in tandem with other Automaton units nearby, making them a serious threat to many Helldivers. Low and medium cover still exposes you to the Gunship’s arsenal, so you must break the line of sight with the enemy to stand a chance against them. The red scanner light in front of it determines its line of sight, which works like the Detector Towers with their sweeping scans.
Like the Automaton dropships, a gunship’s weakpoint is at the turbines. A Quasar Cannon and EAT shot directly at the center can take out a gunship easily. Still, the Autocannon, Laser Cannon, Heavy Machine Gun, Grenade Launcher, Anti Material Rifle, and Recoiless Rifle can destroy if shot at the turbines. Unfortunately, The SPEAR doesn’t work with this enemy type since it cannot lock on against gunships.
Destroying the Gunship Fabricator
The Gunship Fabricator is a Tactical Objective, a large tower structure that spawns Gunships on the top. Extensive testing reveals that offensive Stratagems like the 500kg Bomb and Orbital Laser will not destroy the tower. You must call down a Hellbomb (provided by the mission) and manually arm the bomb to destroy the objective. Support weapons also cannot destroy this structure. Ensure the Hellbomb is secure, as Automatons will attempt to shoot the ordinance if it comes down.
Factory Strider Strategies
The Factory Strider is by far the toughest enemy in the Automaton army, even beating the Command Bunker regarding armor and health. This elite unit only spawns on Suicide Mission difficulty and higher. The Factory Strider functions as a mobile Fabricator, spawning Devastators from the hatch on its underside. It can tank many powerful offensive Stratagems and is armed with a cannon turret on its top and miniguns on its head. So far, it can survive an Eagle 500kg Bomb, Orbital Laser, Orbital Railcannon, and Eagle 110mm Rocket Pods. Fortunately, Factory Striders do not respawn so once you destroy it, that’s it for the rest of the mission.
There are no clear weakspots with the Factory Strider, so you must keep throwing heavy firepower at it until it gets destroyed. You can, however, destroy the guns on its frame to make it less dangerous on the battlefield. It is also possible to destroy one of its legs to slow its movement, which should take a few EAT and Quasar Cannon shots. The squad must combine their offensive Strategies to take this beast out, so keep persisting in shooting it, and it will eventually go down.
