How to get Helldivers 2 Armor Piercing Rounds

Helldivers 2 armor piercing rounds and weapons are essential for getting beyond the mid-game difficulties, with increasing amounts of enemies protecting themselves with armor plating of varying degrees. If you can't handle armored foes you're not likely to get very far as a champion of democracy, so we'll explain Armor Piercing in Helldivers 2 and what weapons can and can't get through enemy armor.

Armor Piercing rounds in Helldivers 2 explained

Armor Piercing in Helldivers 2 - called "Armor Penetrating" in game - comes in three varieties:

• Light Armor Penetrating: The standard level of armor piercing, all weapons and even melee attacks can do this. The name is a little misleading - this level doesn't really break through armor at all.
• Medium Armor Penetrating: This level of armor piercing will break through some - but not all - tiers of armor, usually good for mid-level bots like the Helldivers 2 Devastators.
• Heavy Armor Penetrating: At time of writing there's no weapon actually labelled as such, but there are nonetheless weapons designed to punch through heavy armor plating - normally some of the Stratagem-dependent Helldivers 2 best weapons like the Autocannon and Railgun.

To be honest, there's no standard Primary weapon in Helldivers 2 that's got really good armor penetration - it's far better to rely on Stratagem weapons, airstrikes and explosives instead, while just using a primary you're comfortable with to fight enemies covered in armor plating.

How to kill armored enemies in Helldivers 2

The more dangerous armored enemies in Helldivers 2 should not be shot with regular weapons - bullets can actually bounce off and ricochet into you or others. The process is as follows:

1. Look for a weak spot (such as the vents on the Helldivers 2 Hulks) to target.
2. If no weak spot is apparent, you'll be able to use Armor Penetrating and explosive weapons to break the armor, like you can do on a Helldivers 2 Bile Titan.
3. This should reveal soft meat beneath - you've effectively created a weak spot. Target this with everything you have.

If you're having a lot of trouble with armored enemies, here's some Stratagems we suggest bringing into the field.

• Stratagem Weapons
  • Railgun
  • Autocannon
  • Expendable Anti-Tank 
  • Recoilless Rifle
  • Spear
  • Grenade Launcher
  • Anti-Material Rifle
• Stratagem Airstrikes
  • Any Orbital Cannon
  • Eagle Cluster Bomb
  • Eagle Airstrike
  • Eagle 110mm Rocket Pods
  • Eagle 500kg Bomb
  • Orbital Precision Strike
  • Anti-Personnel Minefield

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