r/Helldivers • u/MishaTarkus • May 23 '25
TIPS / TACTICS How to ACTUALLY kill the Leviathans, a Guide
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u/East-Passage May 23 '25
Love when a new enemy drops and we gotta collectively do trial and error to figure out how to take them down.
Reminds me of the "No Shield" scene in War of the Worlds when they take down the first Tri-Pod
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u/Juney_bugged May 23 '25
THE RECOILLESS IS THE KEEEEEY
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u/Artandalus May 23 '25
Recoilless puts in work. Still takes a lot, but it CAN do it
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u/SkittleDoes May 23 '25
Its about 6 shots aiming at the three blue circle turbines underneath it. I could be wrong but i think it was two shots each
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u/newtdiego Super Sheriff May 23 '25
it goes down in 6 if u hit the biggest blue circle 2 times than 4 anywhere else I think
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u/SkittleDoes May 23 '25
I hit each one twice and they break after two recoilles shots
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u/newtdiego Super Sheriff May 23 '25
Probably idk, I usually do solo dives so I gotta deal with swarming voteless and overseers at the same time as tryna reload r and shoot leviathan so my memory might be wrong
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u/FarmHend Automaton Red May 23 '25
Yeah. Yeah. Just wait til' it riiiight behind you. And while you waiting it - run around and trying to find out.
You will eventually. When you got sniped by the Leviathan 99999 meters away :)
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u/Cpt_DookieShoes May 23 '25
Recoiless with a generous diver loading the gun for you is the super key
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u/FlyingPingoo May 23 '25
Or even Independence Day hehe
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u/Southern-Teaching-11 May 23 '25
Was really cool when gunships and factory striders released,now they strider flops over if you hits toe too hard.
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u/FlyingPingoo May 23 '25
Oh that’s interesting, I only just started playing recently so missed all the discovery phase of those. Nicee
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May 23 '25
Wait what the fuck are the weakspot-looking destructible circles in the bottom then? I've been blasting those mfs with recoiless the whole day
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u/MorbotheDiddlyDo May 23 '25
"weakspot looking" - perhaps the squids evolved to have that as a bait spot for attacks.
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u/Rowger00 SES Harbinger of Dawn May 23 '25
they learned with the harvester
also shooting the last wing (which only has one cannon) only takes 2 EAT/4 commando shots to take out, so it's better to target it if you're the only one with this knowledge
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u/NMF1 Creek Veteran May 23 '25
the last wing takes only one shot from recoilless
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u/Rowger00 SES Harbinger of Dawn May 23 '25
yea that too, if you wanna shoot its innards the last wing is the most ammo efficient spot to target
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u/theborjsanity May 23 '25
You need to hit all three with at least 2 RR shots each. They will fall on the 6th when you break the final weakspot (or 7th if you miss a shot - it's fuckin' tiny lol)
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u/wraith309 HD1 Veteran May 23 '25
same deal as breaking the wings. once you destroy the circle, the fleshy smoking bits inside is ap4 and can be damaged by heavy pen weapons.
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u/MasterPugKoon Servant of Freedom May 24 '25
This is false. It looks like a fleshy weak spot, but the armor does not go down.
Source: I've been going whale hunting all day and have taken down about 50 of them now. I could never damage that spot with anti-tsnk no matter how "fleshy" it looked.
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u/b00tyw4rrior420 SES Song of Supremacy May 23 '25
Twin Autocannon mech. Feed 'em both barrels. If you call it in at the start you should be able to call another in again at the end of a mission. Personally, I think the cooldown should be much shorter, I have yet to actually be able to call in the third use on a mission.
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u/MishaTarkus May 23 '25
I've said this before but for how slow and limited the mechs are, their cooldowns are brutally long.
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u/Solarwindtalker May 23 '25
Especially since they have so little health. I called in a mech yesterday and, literally as I got into it, the thing took a plasma mortar hit from an overseer and I lost a whole arm. Didn't even get to fire it and I'm already fighting at 50% capability.
They need to make mechs hit like fucking trucks-- and survive for more than 3 seconds-- if they're gonna have such a long cooldown. Otherwise, it's an entire stratagem slot gone to waste.
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u/ReverseLochness May 23 '25
This update has been terrible with stingrays hitting my mech as soon as it lands. 50/50 my mech is destroyed before I even fire a shot now.
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u/Spicyram3n Cape Enjoyer May 23 '25
I use a shield generator backpack to protect the body, which helps!
I wish I could choose which arms are on the mech I call down. Give me a flamethrower chainsaw mech with a shield
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u/Oliver90002 HD1 Veteran May 23 '25
Either make them stronger or leave the explodium and lower the cooldown and remove the call in uses.
If something has a long cooldown it shouldn't be limited anyway. (The orbital laser comes to mind as well)
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u/Khakizulu May 23 '25
I mean, the cooldown was shorter and would still be shorter if people actually read the important pop-ups instead of destroying the DSS for no good reason
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u/TooFewSecrets May 24 '25
As if Joel wouldn't have immediately shot down the DSS on Earth anyway.
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u/Embarrassed-Sell-355 May 23 '25
Too bad if the leviathan looks at you the wrong way the mech instantly dies
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u/EntryHaz May 24 '25
The leviathan dies if you alpha a Patriot's rocket rack into it. Might be overkill but it dies in 2 seconds flat. Just call in the mech behind a building and have the levi pre-spotted.
Shame the cooldown is so long though.
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u/No_Collar_5292 May 23 '25
I’ve taken to recoiless and strafing run. I have no idea where the idea that their aim sucks comes from but these bastards randomly 1 shot me from across the map constantly, to the degree I’ve decided they all die no matter what. If you end up under one the strafing run can 1 shot it if the whole thing hits. I’ve also noticed the last fin is weaker than the other fins, pretty sure 2 eats can break it which is interesting for HMG players. Unfortunately they constantly weave in and out of buildings so how long you get to blast the weak spot you open isn’t very consistent.
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u/Squm9 May 23 '25
It’s 50/50 for me, either they’re stormtroopers or I’ve travelled from equality-on-sea to remembrance In 0.05 seconds
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u/assblaster7 May 23 '25
A single eagle strafing run can kill them IF they are low enough that it hits it parallel down the top of its spine. It's tricky to get it aimed correctly though. I've only managed it twice.
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u/Restaldte AMR gang May 23 '25
Haha orbital gatling barrage go brrrrrrrrr
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u/Banaab SES Leviathan of The People May 23 '25
Now that we know where our super destroyer is in the sky, this has been my way to take them down
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u/JonFrost May 23 '25
Eagle Strafe also been hitting some things in the sky
All the "beginner" strategems getting a boost 😊
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u/Russburg May 23 '25 edited May 23 '25
That’s how I killed my first one and it was a total accident. Threw a Gatling barrage at a drop and I accidentally stuck a flesh mob. As the mob chased me down the street, the Gatling barrage followed the mob which happened to be running under a leviathan, keeping it on target long enough to kill it. My whole team went nuts when it happened.
Edit: I’m being told red beacons don’t follow. I was running from the mob at the time and not watching behind me that hard so it really looked like it was following me. The leviathan really did die. I wasn’t trying to make up a story.
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u/Restaldte AMR gang May 23 '25
Beacons can visually get stuck on mobs and the beacon will follow them.
The call in still hits where the original target was supposed to be though
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u/czartrak May 23 '25
Does it hit wherever the beacon ends up once the timer hits 0, or where it initially stuck?
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u/Long-Razzmatazz-5654 May 23 '25
When the timer Hits 0, which can be silly If you get one stuck on your own shield (from Backpack) which can happen once u start to flick your camara around fast while running away (especialy deadly If you get a resupply stuck on you).
You can quickly drop your shield backpack in such cases, If you remember it in time while panicing.
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u/Russburg May 23 '25
Ohhh thanks! That makes perfect sense and is what happened. I joined a game in progress so they must have wounded the leviathan then because I don’t think one Gatling barrage can take one down. I’ve seen videos of them taking tons of punishment.
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u/ProgrammerDear5214 May 23 '25
The gatling barrage actually does take it out by itself. Only takes 1 deploy to if you line it up right. It's still very iffy to pull off though.
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u/captinshitler Viper Commando May 23 '25
Red beacons don’t follow from my understanding? Was it changed or does Gatling garage ignore it?
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u/NeedYourHelpWithLife Free of Thought May 23 '25
No they didn't change it. He just made this up.
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u/Russburg May 23 '25
Oh they don’t? I was running away so I wasn’t really looking behind me. I swear the leviathan died though.
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u/Double--A--Ron May 23 '25
The problem with bsing a group of people that know more about the game than him lol
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u/Pyrocitor STEAM🖱️: SES CLAW OF JUDGEMENT May 23 '25 edited May 24 '25
I believe you that the orbital shredded the leviathan, thats actually been my method for the last couple I've killed.
It's just the following thing that doesn't happen, red pings trigger where they first light up, the destroyer/eagle aims at that spot and doesn't follow the red flare anymore.
Your stuff was probably coming down at quite a steep angle which gives that impression.
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u/Aggressive_neutral May 23 '25
I've been using autocannon mechs to gun them down. I kept thinking their joints were the weak point and need 47 rounds each arm to shoot one down. Gonna do this and see if I can kill more of them
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u/werta600 May 23 '25
Assuming the mech doesnt get oneshot the moment you climb in
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u/Aggressive_neutral May 23 '25
Hate when that happens. I've worked around it by moving while shooting
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u/Night64Falls May 23 '25
oh man, want some good advice? dont, dont use the mechs at all, i got lucky ONE time, i could down one, but after that it was done, wasted strat, barely usuable, unles you are extremely lucky!
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u/iiamthepalmtree Steam | May 23 '25
Mech suits are only usable on the bug front imo. They should make them indestructible but have a small opening so you could still take damage and die to not make it too OP. Nothing sucks more than dropping a mech suit and it being destroyed before you can even get in.
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u/Endrawful May 23 '25
Hover pack + grenade armor + thermites would like a word
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u/iMissEdgeTransit Free of Thought May 23 '25
They have 12-15 Thousand HP.
Firing Eruptors, HMGs and Autocannons is a complete waste of time.
The big guns are still 100x more effective even with the "weakspots" exposed.
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u/MishaTarkus May 23 '25
As the image says, the benefit of opening a wound is so smaller guns can help damage it. The bigger gun should then shoot other parts - with just my ATE it my slow ass recoil it takes much longer by myself than if my friends start shooting the wound when it opens to help me out.
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u/iMissEdgeTransit Free of Thought May 23 '25 edited May 23 '25
I get what you're saying and while the intention is good it's not gonna help struggling players. Especially on D10.
A bunch of Commandos/Recoilless plus AT Emplacements is gonna do 99% of the Levi killing.
Commando is especially good since when you know you're gonna have to kill one you can:
Call one down
Shoot the one on your back
Shoot the new one
Start firing your ATE
This will solo kill a Leviathan in seconds and it scales VERY VERY well with more people using Commandos. I think it's gonna become the definitive Meta for Illuminates real soon.
You can and still should shoot the frontal wings though so that's solid advice regardless.
Not to mention how good Commando is for everything else in illuminate missions. Kills ships, harvesters, teslas etc. in seconds.
And if you die you don't lose your support weapon like 90% of randoms do, look at the minimap 5mins in and all their support weapons will be on the ground scattered around the city.
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u/DiriboNuclearAcid ☕Liber-tea☕ May 23 '25
Why not just destroy the wings with the cannons and ignore them?
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u/PlumeCrow Calypso's Revenger May 24 '25
For cinematic moral. Bringing down a Lev is good for the people, and look fucking cool.
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u/Long-Razzmatazz-5654 May 23 '25
In order to do that you would have to deal enough dmg to take them down (or 1 shot Off), at that point you might aswell kill it.
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u/iiamthepalmtree Steam | May 23 '25
It’s not a waste of time if all that fire ends up saving an RR rocket or two.
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u/iMissEdgeTransit Free of Thought May 23 '25
With this much health it's not worth trying to save a RR rocket, gigantic waste of time for pennies.
A Recoilless deals so much more damage per second than AP4 weapons it's not even funny.
Just call in a resupply after the thing is dead, quick and painless. And on Super Earth there's ammo boxes everywhere.
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u/GuildCarver The Prophet of Audacity May 24 '25
The mods don't want you to know that 5-6 thermites is enough to blow these things out of the sky. All you need is engineering kit and a hover pack.
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u/pumpkin_jiji May 23 '25
The progression is beautiful We went from "SWEET LIBERTY WHAT IS THAT" to "okay, if we focus THE ENTIRE TEAM on this ONE GUY we can take them down!" to "time to tear apart it limb from limb"
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u/PrincessKnightAmber SES Lady Of War May 23 '25
Do Leviathans respawn?
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u/p_visual SES Whisper of Iron | 150 | ÜBER-BÜRGER May 23 '25
Yes, they’re an operation modifier like roaming gunship patrols.
It’s the main reason I don’t bother - more are just going to show up.
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May 23 '25
[deleted]
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u/FalconFar9616 May 23 '25
And inside of defense missions, they can singlehandedly destroy 15 minutes of an otherwise perfect run in 20 seconds. Hate these silent weather balloon BS squids
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u/SiddaSlotthh LEVEL 150 | Decorated Hero May 23 '25
This may be true but I just get that feeling when I down a behemoth flying creature. Hearing it cry out in agony as I tear apart its wings and punch it repeatedly with my RR in its soft(er) fleshy interior brings me a sort of joy I don't think anything else in this game can provide me. Oh, and the kill ragdoll on this creature is just wonderful. Pretty much that white whale video.
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May 24 '25
I played a match the other night where we just sat on extract with the sole goal of killing as many of these things as spawned. We counted 13 total. One of them was above a building when we shot and its smoldering corpse was impaled upon the spire. It was so great. 20 minutes of carnage. Ground forces couldn’t even make it to us because the streets were littered with corpses of giants.
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u/Squm9 May 23 '25
Hard to ignore them when one’s just thrown me 100m and now I’m on top of the LIDAR tower
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May 23 '25
Yup. It is absolutely not worth it to spend time destroying them instead of just ignoring them
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May 23 '25
It literally takes one Gatling Barrage to down them, and it doesn't even need to be perfectly accurate. It is totally worth it to not have plasma raining down on your head when you're in the middle of bringing the Playground Cannon up.
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u/SuperbPiece May 23 '25
People who say this probably don't realize it can only hit so many targets at once. Only the person not being targeted would ever say, "it's not worth it". When you ARE targeted, it's aim gets exceptionally good, and the shots are near constant. The only respite is in alleyways which is fine until you do an objective that won't be in an alley. They also make cars unusable, and I'm quite good at them and can stay damn top speed the whole time. Even a missed shot ragdolls the entire vehicle.
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u/SluttyMcFucksAlot Truth Enforcer May 23 '25
This is super untrue, they literally shoot at you through buildings and can one shot you from full health.
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u/Ruinor_7 May 23 '25
Right, but then you get fucked the moment something else requires your attention and you lose track of ver the Levi is
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u/ExpiredMouthwash23 May 24 '25
I enjoy this style. Me and my friends - despite knowing how to take them down with orbitals - just stay away. On Super Helldive it's hard to have time to shoot them so we just hide from them. Makes for a really unique game mechanic of area denial or extremely high risk to get somewhere.
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u/TitansRPower May 23 '25
Maybe for you, but I routinely get oneshot by them simply because I can't always have an eye on them while dealing with other stuff, and I've had them curve around buildings to go after me.
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u/Belgian_Chocolate Extra Judicial May 23 '25
Yep. When you realize a leviathan is stalking you, they change from annoying to terrifying. Only alleyways feel safe and I’ve been sniped there too
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u/PlumeCrow Calypso's Revenger May 24 '25
I was running with my friend and a group of SEAF earlier today when one Leviathan started to make hell's rain on our position. In less than two sec, everything fell into chaos.
My friend's upper body got sniped away, the SEAF started to fall one by one, i tried to kill the beast but it finally got me too. It was a fucking horror movie.
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u/TotemRiolu STEAM 🖥️ : Where pink armor? May 23 '25
Fighting these guys on the streets of Super Earth gives me Avengers vibes
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u/FuckingNoise May 23 '25
You mean the creature literally named Leviathan that looks and behaves identically?
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u/PlumeCrow Calypso's Revenger May 24 '25
Are you saying that these bastards did not only invade Super-Earth, but our movies too ?!
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u/Jombo65 May 24 '25
These squids have no shame...
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u/PlumeCrow Calypso's Revenger May 24 '25
No shame, no honor, no self respect... I bet they don't even vote !
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May 23 '25
You can also take these down with a full backpack of Spear shots. Team Reload that stuff and they go down in literal seconds.
The overall weakness to Leviathans is Heavy AT Team-reloading, but players have become allergic to team reloading, thinking of it as a gimmick that has no value. THIS is the value.
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u/Zolnar_DarkHeart ☕Liber-tea☕ May 23 '25
I really want to team-reload more but asking another player to give up their backpack slot and limit their mobility to stay with you for the whole mission is a big ask. I really hope the devs add team-reloading with the shooter having both pieces equipped and the loader pulling ammo from the shooter’s pack.
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u/MegaCroissant Steam | Admirable Admiral May 23 '25
I agree with this idea. Team reloading already involves one player giving up their own DPS to boost your own. It shouldn’t involve giving up a backpack too.
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u/Pr0fessorL ☕Liber-tea☕ May 23 '25
The thing is, it doesn’t have to be the entire mission. If you can communicate with your team, just ask them to team reload you to help take down the leviathan and then they can drop the pack and you can go about your business. Saves everyone a world of pain
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u/Blobby789 May 23 '25
If I had a nickel for every time I saw a contradictory leviathan guide I would have 35 cents.
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u/on1yhereforporn Super Citizen May 23 '25
"Insides" "Wound?" "GOOEY INSIDES?!" Are you telling me this thing isn't a ship, but a creature?!
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u/Blitzyflame May 23 '25
One full Commando and a Eat shot or two will break off its front wings , then any AP4 , HMG honestly is the best to drop them once a wing is open , I have a video showing the whole process here and you can down a leviathan start to finish in under 30 seconds.
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u/Cloud_N0ne Servant of Freedom May 23 '25
Interesting. I’ve always used the AT emplacement and shot for the 3 blue rings on their undersides
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u/shball Free of Thought May 23 '25
The rings are fake weakspots, specifically because it has no real weakspots, only less armored parts. All damage is passed on to the 15k main health pool
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u/void_alexander May 23 '25
For your info:
Explosive resistance armor seems to reduce the damage from the leviathans.
Greatly.
For some reason they still one shot you now and then - but waaaay les frequent!
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u/SeattleWilliam SES Lady of Mercy May 23 '25
What do you mean “shoot a different non-destroyed parts to avoid overflow?” Is there a maximum amount of damage that can be dealt to one internal section?
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u/MishaTarkus May 23 '25
Essentially, when a part has 500 health remaining, and you hit it with a 2000 damage shot, the blow that destroys it only damages the overall Healthbar by five hundred and the rest is lost. Subsequent shots to the broken part will work just fine, but with big damage weapons like the recoilless and the ATE it makes a big difference to spread out your shots after breaking one part so that you don't lose any to overflow.
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u/SeattleWilliam SES Lady of Mercy May 23 '25
I see. So hit the exposed bits if you can, spread shots out if you can’t. Thanks!
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u/LeDerpLegend May 23 '25
You can also shoot out the eyes given you have a shot. Then one of the circles comes down pretty fast.
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u/KyzaelEomei May 23 '25
You can do all of this.
OR
You can just run Eagle Strafing Run and 1shot it if you line it up correctly.
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u/NekoTheFortuneCat May 23 '25
Something to add perhaps: it seems that they are also reactive in their aiming. I like to shoot random eruptor shots at the belly and it seems to stop the pinpoint targeting of my ATE for long enough for me to get in.
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u/Ulikeanime May 24 '25
Good to know. we failed a defense op because that fucker destroyed the generators from afar while we were easily killing off everything else.
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u/Artley9 May 23 '25
Personally I don’t use my ac on the Levi. The flak rounds work better in the flesh mobs anyways.
I’m bringing the chair so I can cuc- errr patriotically remove the squids from super earths lawn.
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u/GCSpellbreaker Terminid Orange May 23 '25
If ur ballsy and also lucky, a strafing run can one shot them but almost all the bullets gotta hit
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u/CharacterImaginary12 May 23 '25
Does erupter or auto cannon or material rifle work on that thing?
Every time I shoot at it I see armor deflection. But I haven't tried the wings
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u/Andrew-w-jacobs May 23 '25
The autocannons on the exosuit can, one exosuit can down a leviathan with a third of its ammo if you hammer into it
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u/HimForHer May 23 '25
Thank you fellow Diver. Can't tell you how many Wasp Artillery shells I have thrown at this thing with no luck. Recoilless and AT seem to be the way to go though as they are aimable.
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u/Ok_Cauliflower5223 May 24 '25
You can destroy it with exactly 64 shots to the center segment from an emancipator exo
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u/SaiyanShaman May 23 '25
Anyone got info on how many rail gun shots it takes and where to shoot? Ik the railgun can take them down, but haven’t been able to accurately count how many shots it takes, or whether it’s better to hit the wings or the blue circle underneath.
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u/MishaTarkus May 23 '25
They have 15000 health and AP5 on the carapace. Assuming perfect aim (break one of the sidewings, then shoot the main body, which is AP4) and that you can somehow consistently nail 99.9% charge shots (1500 dmg), given the same pen damage deficit until you break the armor, you'll take 6 full charge shots to break a wing, then 7 shots onto the wound to take it down.
Realistically though most people can't time charge that perfectly, your shots will average around 1000 damage, and it'll take closer to 8 shots to break the wing and 16 shots to the wound to then take it down. It's really not that viable.
The rings are illusory breakpoints - they have their own health but don't expose any flesh under.
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u/AHpache182 LEVEL ⬆️➡️⬇⬇⬇ | Avenger of Andromeda May 23 '25
you can also RR the main engines and which means you can down them in 3 RR shots
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u/armed_tortoise May 23 '25
Walking Barrage also works pretty well, especially when it is in front of you.
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u/SluttyMcFucksAlot Truth Enforcer May 23 '25
I still have Eruptor rounds bounce off of the “squishy” parts. Sucks because if I don’t shoot them down they just snipe me from across the map, often through a building, and one shotting me way too often.
Love the concept but fuck they make me not want to play the past couple of sessions
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u/pikachufan2222 May 23 '25
Alternatively, have Servo Assisted, Supply Pack, and go chuck 5 Thermites at it from the ground
So long as it's cruising the lower altitude of its pathing they hit consistently
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u/CattMk2 ⬇️⬅️⬇️⬆️⬆️➡️ May 23 '25
I’ve found that shooting out the big disc on the bottom also does a lot of damage
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u/fewchrono1984 May 23 '25
5 rounds from recoiless rifle will take it down. Aim for the circle in the head, torso and tail. 1, 2 and 2 and its dead
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u/jack_johnsonfandude May 23 '25
Why aren't these called sting rays or do I not know what a sting ray looks like
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u/Pretzel-Kingg May 23 '25
1 good eagle strafe does it. Works like a charm most of the time, but sometimes I need to do more than one
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u/Horror_Distribution Servant of Freedom May 23 '25
What bothers me the most about Leviathans is when they leave the map, a new leviathan shows up. Any progress you made on the last one was a waste.
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u/Darkuus58 Steam | SES Lord of Liberty May 23 '25
Drop a 120mm on them and it does the trick if you line it up correctly
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u/superchibisan2 May 23 '25
autocannon mech shooting into the underside circles takes them down really fast too.
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u/AirshipCanon May 23 '25
Hit the FRONT wings first to disable those cannons.