How to Combat the Illuminate

There are a small, but formidable variety of Illuminate enemies on our southern front. They are as follow:

• Voteless
  
• Flesh Mob
  
• Watcher
  
• Overseer
  
• Elevated (flying) Overseer
  
• Crescent (arty) Overseer
  
• Harvester
  
• Squid Tesla Tower
  
• Warp Ships (grounded + flying)
  
• Interloper
  
• Leviathan

Voteless are zombie like enemies. Stripped of their vote, and physically stronger than your typical colonist, voteless are quick and only capable of melee attacks, which are also capable of striking Helldivers seated within an FRV. Weapons with high capacity magazines are ideal for dealing with these enemies as they gather in swarms.



Recommendation:

Stalwart - 250 rounds without the need to take a knee and reload. Hold your reload button and make sure to switch this to it's highest fire rate.

Other Recommended:

Eagle Strafing Run: Up to five uses before rearm, and can kill every voteless in a line behind you when you're in a bind



Orbital Gas Strike: Damage over time with a blinding/disorienting effect on Voteless. Cloud sticks around for a moment, very useful

Turrets:

Machine Gun Sentry

Gatling Sentry

HMG Emplacement

The flesh mob is a recent edition. Presumed to have first been uncovered at an arctic research station, preserved in ice only to be freed from its icy tomb and go on to kill everyone in said research station, it is a walking monstrosity with a ridiculous amount of health.

The fastest way I've found to kill these things thus far is the HMG. Most weapons/stratagems can destroy these guys, and other viable options I usually run are the other two machine gun stratagems and autocannon, with the FLAK mode sometimes being quicker and other times being inconsistent. Contrary to others, (and as much as I love John Carpenter), I would not recommend the flamethrower.

Personally, my favorite way of dealing with these enemies is to just ignore them, and for that, I want to bring attention to possibly the most underrated feature of the game: Gas


Gas was pretty much useless and written off when introduced, but since then was buffed. It produces less damage over time than fire damage, but has the advantage of blinding enemies, causing them to move aimlessly and on occasion, attack one-another. In addition, teammates are very rarely ever killed by gas due to its slow damage being easily negated by a stim, or stopping before a helldiver hits 0 HP. Gas also lingers.

In short, gas will make flesh mobs wander off and even occasionally kill an overseer. The guard dog back pack makes you almost untouchable to melee attacks.

It watches, but more importantly, it calls. Watchers are the enemy type that calls in Illuminate warp ships, so prioritize shooting these things in their undemocratic faces.


There's a right way and a wrong way of killing Watchers. The right way is to kill them immediately. No need for anything special. Do not allow them to call for Warp Ships.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qdRlOdOPn0&ab_channel=Dakota

Overseers are a bit tanky because of how their armor works. There are two variants. Ground based Overseers have shields, and a weapon that doubles as a rifle and a melee tool capable of caving your helmet in with one swipe. Flying Overseers throw grenades and will constantly fire at you, so make sure to toss them away from yourself and teammates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqlc1VkDi2g&ab_channel=Dakota

Their secret weakness, much like our own, is explosive weapons. Scorcher, Dominator, Plasma Punisher, etc, make a joke out of Overseers


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t6ghqWbgbQ&ab_channel=Dakota

The recommended stratagems for Overseers are the same as the Voteless. Strafing runs will instantly kill them, and turrets are powerful at stripping their armor and destroying them. Gas will just as well disorient them and deal damage over time.

Additionally, I also like using

Machine Gun

Heavy Machine Gun

The War of the Worlds is upon us, and with it came this new type of tank unit. At first glance you may want to make like Tom Cruise and make a break for it, but fear not Helldiver. Beyond the tough exterior of this looming crustacean lays a soft and meaty filling, and to get to it just requires cracking a leg open or shoving something sharp through its eye.


Take down a Harvester shield with high fire rate weapons or stratagems. Primaries, stalwarts, strafing runs. All quick and easy ways to drop a Harvesters shield.

Then aim at a weak point with any weapon that has at least medium armor penetration. Most Primaries that have enough pen can usually kill a Harvester in a mag or two.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtDf01UOuZc&ab_channel=Dakota

Harvesters are not worth an airstrike because of how fragile they are.

Additionally, any launcher stratagem can one-shot the Harvester aside from the Spear & the WASP. Avoid the Spear and WASP as they both seem to target a strong point. Railcannons, Anti-material rifles, and autocannons also all do solid damage against a Harvester.

Throw or shoot a grenade or crossbow bolt at this.
Additional tip: laying down prevents the tower from targeting you

Warp Ships are enemy spawners. They are both parked around the map, and will fly in to drop enemy reinforcements.



Cheap & Dangerous way:
If you intend to run up to the ships, first strip the shields with gun fire or stratagems like the Eagle Strafing Run, then throw a grenade in the doorway, or use a grenade pistol.

Not so cheap but not so dangerous way:
120mm Barrage into the center of a camp: this will often kill every ship. For larger camps consider using a 380mm barrage.

120mm Barrage

380mm Barrage

Walking Barrage

Orbital Gas Strike: A direct hit will destroy a warp ship: Credit to professorZman for figuring this one out


The "Feels like cheating" way:
Drop an emancipator, ignore all enemies, and run throw the map clearing every outpost.
Emancipator Exosuit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L47Z57ns8Rk&ab_channel=Dakota

Take any launcher, or the anti-tank emplacement and shoot it in the circle in the center of the ship.

The Interloper, also know as the Stingray, acts as a strafing aircraft for the Illuminate. They bombard similar to strafing runs after highlighting a path on the ground to strike. These ships can be easily shot down by targeting their underside with any medium pen weapon. MG43s, Autocannons, rockets, even our primary weapons with medium pen don't struggle knocking these things out, just wait for them to start their run and lead your shots.

This section is currently under bombardment