This weapon guide for the game will provide an overview of the explosive weapons in Helldivers 2. Not all weapons are equal in the game – and this guide will aim to show you the differences. Furthermore, we will try to answer the question “Can this gun carry me through Helldive?”. This article is up-to-date as of the Dust Devils premium war bond, and we will update it accordingly as new patches arrive to the game. For more info on weapons in the game, as well as links to guides for other weapon categories, check out our previous Helldivers 2: Weapons Meta article.
CB-9 Exploding Crossbow
-270 Dmg (50 durable) + 350 explosion Dmg. -5 darts in its mag. -8 spare mags. -50 RoF.
When it comes to explosive weapons in Helldivers 2 the CB-9 Exploding Crossbow is a rather interesting one. The crossbow fires bolts that create a 6-meter explosion at the point of impact. The explosion deals its full 350 damage in the first 3 meters of its radius and then falls off. On the other hand, the projectile itself deals 270 damage to enemies. Both the projectile and the explosion are medium armor penetrating, thus making them decent at dealing with mid-sized enemies. In short, the crossbow provides an interesting mix of AoE and single target capabilities.
The bolt is pinpoint accurate, but it’s heavily affected by gravity and has an incredibly slow initial velocity of just 100m/s. As a result, even in relatively close combat, you’ll have to account for gravity or lead the target if it’s moving. So although the bolt can travel quite far, it’s best to stick to close/mid-range with this one. In terms of performance, the crossbow is a very powerful weapon that can do both crowd clear and single-target damage. The combo of explosion and direct damage means you can take out a big target while its AoE cleans up everything smaller next to it.
Aside from the sluggish projectiles, another downside is its small mag size. You’ll find yourself reloading often, and with a lengthy full reload time of approximately 3.5s, you’ll really feel that downtime. When it comes to combating factions, explosive damage is king, so it should come as no surprise that this thing can take on just about anything the game can throw at it. It’ll go through illuminate ablative armor, it will deal good direct damage when you want to bring down anything that doesn’t have heavy armor, and it will pummel crowds of chaff units of every faction into the dirt.
As yet another bonus, the crossbow has the ability to close bug holes, destroy automaton fabricators, open up containers and blow up any annoying fences blocking your way. It’s also a one-handed weapon, meaning it can be used in conjunction with the Ballistic Shield stratagem.
Notes on weapon customization: It only has access to a set of low-powered optics. The default option is the 1.5x tube red dot optic, and it’s basically the best option here, as it’s the only one that comes with some magnification. The rest are reflex sights. Not much to say here.
Verdict: A powerful weapon that gives the player impressive utility as well as an answer to a large amount of threats on the battlefield. A top tier pick by any measure.
Unlocked: Page 3 of the Democratic Detonation premium war bond.
Total Cost: 310 medals. (230 medals to page 3 and 80 medals for the weapon)
R-36 Eruptor
-230Dmg (115 Durable) + 225 explosive Dmg +30x Shrapnel doing 110 Dmg (35 durable) each. -5 round mag. -6 spare mags. -32 RoF.
The R-36 Eruptor fires jet assisted shells that explode in a large area on impact. Like with the crossbow, its damage is a mix of direct (projectile) and AoE damage. The explosion deals 225 damage in an impressive 7-meter radius and penetrates heavy armor. Similar to the crossbow, the explosion’s damage begins to drop off after 4 meters. The projectile itself deals 230 damage and penetrates heavy armor. The standout feature of this weapon is that upon impact, the shell explodes into a shower of 30x shrapnel, each of which deals 110 (35 durable) damage.
The Eruptor is a Bolt-Action operated weapon, which results in it having the lowest fire rate of any primary at just 32 RPM. Its projectile is pinpoint accurate with some moderate drop off at range and a slow initial velocity of 180m/s. However, this doesn’t mean much, as the projectile self-destructs after flying approx 200 meters. The Eruptor kicks like a mule and handles like a brick. This is once again made irrelevant due to its extremely slow fire rate. Put simply, the Eruptor is an accurate, slow, but hard-hitting weapon.
Mastering this weapon means mastering the shrapnel mechanic. Well-placed shots can let it focus the shrapnel on a single target, resulting in catastrophic amounts of damage that can instakill just about any low-mid tier enemy (with Alpha Commanders/Fleshmobs being an exception). In fact, one shot in the right place can pop a Charger’s butt. Two direct projectile hits to the weakpoint can kill hulks, cannon turrets and even tanks. It can kill other large targets as well, but its shrapnel mechanic makes it wildly inconsistent, like the Illuminate harvester taking anywhere from 1 to 4 shots to its leg weakpoint to bring down. The explosion, while it starts losing damage after 4 meters, is still powerful enough to clean small enemies in a significant radius when comboed with the shrapnel.
This can also be used to kill targets during a bug breach, or to instakill low tier and damage medium automatons while they’re still attached to a drop-ship. The eruptor’s explosion deals a massive amount of stagger to enemies inside its radius, further increasing its utility. Speaking of utility, it can close bug holes, destroy fabricators and open containers much like the crossbow.
Notes on weapon customization: Nothing special here either, but there are some opportunities to boost the weapon’s awful ergonomics score, which is welcome.
– Optics: The 10x Sniper Scope is the default here, and it comes with the biggest malus to ergonomics score. The eruptor is easy to aim in third person, mostly because its fire rate is so excruciatingly slow that you have all the time in the world to place your shot. Also, its range is limited by the projectile both being slow and having a short lifetime before self-destructing. If you can live without a scope, then going for Iron sights with their +14 boon to ergonomics (over the default), is a good option. There’s also a 2x Tube red dot optic and a 4x Combat scope which will also provide a small boost, but they’re late unlocks.
– Underbarrel: The Angled foregrip is the winner here. It’ll make the gun slightly easier to handle, and the recoil malus is irrelevant due to the eruptor’s slow fire rate.
Verdict: A powerful all-round weapon whose interesting mix of utility, crowd clear and medium-sized target removal ensures the player has an answer to most things on the battlefield…even if it is a sluggish answer.
Unlocked: Page 2 of the Democratic Detonation premium war bond.
Total cost: 120 medals (60 medals to page 2 and 60 medals for the gun)
Final thoughts on explosive weapons in Helldivers 2
We’ll put it bluntly; explosive damage is king in this game. So by extension, so are explosive weapons in Helldivers 2. Explosives deal the same amount of damage, regardless of how durable enemy body parts are. Durability is an attempt at realism that simulates body parts that have no critical organs/machinery in them. As a result, a gun that has an impressive damage output, but deals low durable damage, will struggle to cut through body parts with a high durability rating. Explosives don’t care about this at all: it’s a damage type that flat-out ignores a mechanic vital for enemy survival.
The fun doesn’t end there either, because as long as it can penetrate armor, it can deal its full damage to the enemies main health pool. As a result, explosions ignore Illuminate ablative armor entirely; if you ever wondered why the crossbow is so good at taking down Overseers. But wait, there’s more! On some enemies, explosions can damage multiple limbs simultaneously, resulting in the target taking even more damage to their main HP pool. The only things that stop the blasts are armor with a higher hardness than your weapons can penetrate, or the devs just flat out giving enemies explosive resistances (many limbs have these).
Is it any surprise that the Democratic Detonation premium war bond is one of the best one in the games right now? It’s our number one recommendation for players just starting the game, in no small part because of the two guns we covered here. So, just grab it, put on your explosive resistance armor and have some fun. Hopefully, this little bit of info on the nature of explosive weapons in Helldivers 2 was worth your time.
Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios.