You unlocked the Autocannon, so why would you still pick the Anti-Material Rifle? Here’s a guide on how both are still viable and, more importantly, FUN to use.
Contents
Guide to Autocannon and Anti-Material Rifle
Сrеdit gоеs to Everesu!
Why Even Care? They’re Both Long-Ranged Support Weapons
Probably one of your first support weapons you’ve tried, the Anti-Material Rifle (AMR) is capable of long-range and high damage semi-auto fire that specializes in taking out specialized units with its superior medium penetration ammunition compared to regular small arms fire.
Each magazine carries 7 rounds and you start with 6 spare magazines (with the Donation Access License ship upgrade), giving you plenty of ammo to use against important targets but not enough for larger hordes of bugs and bots. Additionally, the aiming reticle is removed for this weapon, making most effective when using the First-Person FOV.
All Scope Ranges
Overall, a weapon that incentives staying at longer ranges to deal with enemies before they get too close to become a problem.
In comparison, the Autocannon is a mid-range and high damage semi-auto/full auto support weapon that specializes in taking out specialized targets with its superior explosive ammunition compared to regular small arms fire.
Its internal capacity is 10 rounds and is loaded with stripper clips in 5, with a total of 10 extra clips while holding the backpack (total ammo being 10/50). This gives you plenty of ammo to work with even while taking on crowds of enemies closely grouped together. However, the user must stop in order to reload the weapon (or with the help of a friendly diver to carry the user’s backpack) which leads to issues when being horded by multiple enemies at a time.
Firing Modes
A weapon suited for taking out (certain) armor, it can dish out several cups of liber-tea to high value targets in rapid-fire and over long distances.
But Wait, They Sound Nearly Identical
While they both specialize in longer ranges, their key differences lie in two characteristics of the weapons: their ammunition and their intended targets.
The AMR uses medium-penetrating ammo while the Auto uses explosive ammo. While the ammo can take out similar targets, certain specialized units can cause the user to use more ammunition compared to its counterpart.
For Bugs
Both the AMR and the Auto can easily take out most of the fodder, mainly the Hive Guards with their strong front-plate being a force multiplier in the higher difficulties. Left alone for too long and they could cause a bug breach (which is super NOT democratic). Taking out bugs like the Guards and the Brood Commanders from far away is a key difference from getting to the objective and getting slowed down by more hordes attacking the party.
The one bug that the AMR struggles but the Auto excels at is the Charger due to its explosive ammo (explosives don’t suffer from the 10% total dmg to weakspots compared to regular ammo). While the AMR round is still quite powerful on its own, the Auto can take out a charger from full health in 5 shots to the butt + bleed out.
There’s also this method, but from personal testing it’s inconsistent and you may end up wasting ammo and time when the method mentioned is easier.
For Bots
The AMR can take out key units that can easily kill you or your fellow divers from a decent range, a headshot to Rocket and Gunner Devastators being the main forces that can put down a helldiver incredibly quickly.
This guy HATES freedom!
The rifle can also take out Hulks with 2 headshots (more distance, the better), and has the capacity to damage Tanks, Turrets and large gun batteries like the AA Guns and the Mortars which appear in higher difficulties by shooting their exhaust vents. The Auto can similarly take out Tanks, Turrets and the batteries (with less ammo as well!) but lacks the ability to kill the Hulks with headshots, their exposed backs being the only way. Devastators take more ammo to kill than the AMR as well. The one unit that the AMR may struggle with are the Scout Striders, requiring 3 shots to take out the protective plate that covers the front of the unit while the Auto only needs 1.
Conclusions
While in theory the Auto might sound like the objective better choice in most scenarios, the AMR’s ability to reload while moving while keeping the backpack slot vacant for important stratagems like the Guard Dog Rover and the Jetpack gives the weapon an edge over the more offense-heavy explosive cannon. Objectively you may find more use in bug missions for the Autocannon compared to the AMR, but it still plays an important role to the team while three other divers can make up for the lack of crowd clear with stratagems like Gatling Turret and the infamous Cluster Bombs. It goes to show that with the right team composition and weapons, any build/weapon/stratagem is viable on a fundamental level.
If there’s one thing to take away from this guide, it’s this: play what you want to use, but understand that you work as a team in this game. Trying to keep a good balance of armor-destroying weapons and crowd clear abilities is the true secret to making even the dreaded Helldive difficulties much easier. Don’t let the metaslaves tell you how to play the game, but don’t leave your team behind either!
Thanks for reading this guide! This is the first I’ve made, so I doubt it will reach that far, but I’ve already poured about 200+ hours into this game and its becoming one of my favorites of all time. If this gets well-received I might do one again in the future, compare the differences between the energy shield and the ballistic shield next.
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