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New Support Stratagem available in the Patriotic Administration Center category, the RL-77 Airburst Rocket Launcher.
Probably unlocks between Level 12 and 20.
Woof, I tried that last night and damn, that thing is a worse team killer than the arc thrower.
I think this may be largely due to players not realizing that they're using it incorrectly. I keep seeing players firing the airburst rockets either directly at the ground toward enemies, or in a straight line in front of them, as they would with any other rocket launcher. I've found that aiming it above enemy groups seems to work best, as this avoids premature detonations by keeping the rocket further away from terrain and foliage, and makes much better use of the rocket's actual airburst AOE range.
In my experience, if you aim it a good 10-15 feet above your enemies' heads, it should detonate more reliably where you're expecting it to. The detonation range is pretty wide for terrain, but it's even wider for enemy units, so you can afford to aim it a bit higher than you might expect. Keep the rocket as far away from the ground as possible, and your teammates' limbs won't be liberated from their torsos quite as frequently.
I also don't recommend ever firing it at any targets 50 meters and under. The AOE of the airburst, itself, isn't 50m, but by the time the rocket's close enough to detect an enemy and detonate, it isn't far enough away from you yet to be safe, so you'll usually get caught in the blast.
I'm hoping that the updated version we should be getting next week includes a minimum priming distance before it can prox-detonate. Just making it so that the detection doesn't activate for like 10 meters or something would help out tremendously with the friendly fire incidents.
Arming range should be outside team kill range. I had plenty of times that the clusters also spread back and kill me and the team.
Yeah, that's what I do but holy crap that proximity detonation as you alluded to is just bonkers inconsistent. Way to many times trying to soften up a base only for it to explode in my and my teammates face.
Yeah, it's still super temperamental. After playing with it some more, it seems like it's also detonating when it detects various objects in the game. So random world props like vending machines at outposts, exploding canisters, etc, all seem to register as "enemy" to the rocket.
I think anything in the game that has an HP meter, even if it's a hidden one like for world props, will detonate the rocket. Which makes it even harder to line up a shot because you need to check for any debris in your line of sight first. Really hoping this gets adjusted!
You're right but it could be better designed to communicate this.
It should have been closer to a Javelin missile system where the missile is oriented at a higher angle than the aiming module. So if you're aiming parallel to the ground, the missile shoots out at a positive angle.
You mean like the Spear?
I use it and see so rarely I must have forgotten.
RL-77 looks to RPG-ish that it makes sense would guess it works as a direct-fire weapon. So those the IRL NLAW but that one top-attack is an option taken by the operator and it's not an area of effect weapon.
SAM - Surface to Ally Missile
Hope they fixed (or are going to fix) the proximity detonation. Right now it’s sensitive as fuck which leads to many (admittedly hilarious) TPK’s.
The game is truly a TTRPG campaign. It only takes one person from doing something unplanned to kill the entire party.
It won't be fixed until Tuesday's update. Still only useful at spectacular amount of TKs.
I hope they add an alt fire mode that disables the proximity fuses completely so you can actually use it on heavies.
Yeah, I won't be using it until it has a non-prox fire mode. Even Boba Fett knew better than to use prox fuses in CQC. 🤦🏽♂️
Looks like they fixed it! From today's patch notes:
Airburst Rocket Launcher will no longer detonate when shot near stratagems (HMG turret, Sentries, Resupplies) and other Helldivers
Fuck yeah