How to deal with Chargers in Helldivers 2

Chargers are causing everyone trouble in Helldivers 2, and with a recent patch making the Railgun less effective, we'll all need to learn new ways to deal with the tanky bug.

In the game, you'll fight a tonne of different alien bugs and robots across a myriad of planets, but you need to develop effective strategies for each one so you don't get overwhelmed. If you need some help figuring out how to kill all the Chargers you face, follow some of my tips below.

Best ways to deal with Chargers 

Flamethrower

As of patch 01.000.100, the best method for taking out Chargers is the Flamethrower. Its damage per second has been buffed by 50%, allowing you to spray fire all over the creature for some high damage.

Click to enlarge

The best part of the Flamethrower is that it ignores the Charger's armour, letting you melt the enemy from all sides. I found that several seconds of concentrated fire (especially if you just aim at their exposed backside) would quickly take out a Charger.

Railgun

Despite the nerfs to the Railgun, it's also still one of the best for taking out this pesky bug, but you need to use it on Unsafe Mode. To do this, hold the reload button with the Railgun equipped, and select the other mode. 

You can then hold the fire button to charge a shot, just be careful not to hold it for more than two seconds, or you'll explode. Aim at the Charger's leg with the Railgun, and a couple of shots will take off its shin armour fully, allowing you and your teammates to dump ammo into the weak point.

Shooting its butt

Click to enlarge

Chargers are armoured up, but they have an exposed behind that you can shoot to deal high damage. Any weapon here will work, but I prefer higher power guns like the Autocannon, Anti-Material Rifle, Recoilless Rifle, as they will quickly drop it.

For this method, you ideally need a person on distraction duty by getting the Charger to run at them and expose their butt to other players. Take advantage of its low mobility if you're in this role by diving out of its way or running past it at the last second.

Stratagems

Of course, you can also rely on some of the more powerful Stratagems for taking out Chargers. I personally recommend the Orbital Laser when you need to deal with two or more of them. 

The Orbital Railcannon Strike can also take the back armour off a Charger, but it comes at the cost of a high cooldown.

Any Charger caught in the radius of the Eagle 500KG Bomb will also be vaporised quickly, making it a good option when swarmed.

If you die, you can also use the directional keys while dropping in to use your Hellpod to destroy the Charger. It's hard to execute, but works every time - and is one of the most satisfying ways to deal with it.

Check out our Helldivers 2 homepage for more guides. While you are here, check out how to unlock boosters, how to farm Samples, how to get Super Credits for free, and how to win Defend Campaigns.