Helldivers 2 How to Beat the Bots (Automatons)

The Automatons, the bots, are the faction that humbles players who learned Helldivers 2 fighting bugs. Where the Terminids rush you in close-range swarms, the bots fight at range with heavy firepower, dangerous armor, and units that punish you for standing in the open. Tactics that work against bugs, charging in and relying on crowd control, get you killed against bots. Beating the bot front means learning their weak points, respecting cover, and bringing a loadout built for armor and range.

This guide was checked in October 2026 against the Helldivers community wiki, the in-game enemy information, and bot-front discussion on the r/Helldivers subreddit. Arrowhead adjusts enemy behavior and weapon balance in patches, so treat specifics as guidance to confirm in-game rather than fixed rules.

Why the bots are different

The core difference is range and armor. Automatons shoot back, often from a distance and often with heavy or explosive weapons, so exposure is far more lethal than it is against bugs. Many bot units are armored in ways that shrug off weapons that would shred a Terminid, which means armor penetration and weak-point targeting matter enormously. And bots arrive via dropships that reinforce a fight quickly, so letting an engagement drag on invites a steady stream of new threats.

The mental adjustment is to stop playing aggressively and start playing deliberately. Against bots you want to fight from cover, pick targets in priority order, and avoid the open ground where their ranged firepower dominates. Patience beats aggression here. A player who treats the bot front like the bug front, running into the open and relying on volume of fire, will be cut down; a player who uses cover, targets weak points, and disengages from spiraling fights will thrive.

Patrols and detection matter more against bots than many players appreciate. A bot patrol that spots you can call in a dropship, and a single dropship can turn a quiet approach into a pitched battle with heavies in it. Because of this, the same stealth and avoidance instincts that help on any front are especially rewarding here: staying out of sightlines, crouching to shrink your detection range, and dealing with patrols quickly and quietly before they can signal for reinforcements. Every fight you prevent is a dropship that never arrives, and on the bot front, where reinforcements escalate an engagement so fast, prevention is often worth more than firepower.

Learn the weak points

Bots reward precision because most of their dangerous units have specific weak points. The common Devastators, the humanoid bot troops, are reliably killed by hitting the head, which is far more efficient than chipping their armored bodies. The Hulk, a large walker that comes in flamethrower and other variants, has a glowing eye on its face and vents on its back; hitting the eye or flanking to the vents drops it far faster than attacking its heavily armored front.

Larger threats follow the same logic. Tanks and the biggest walkers have vents or exposed sections that take far more damage than their armored plating, so positioning to hit those spots is the key to killing them efficiently. Gunships, which patrol the air, have to be dealt with using weapons that can reach and penetrate them, and they are a priority because they are hard to ignore. The through-line is that raw damage into armor is wasteful; precise damage into weak points is how you beat the bots. Learning each unit's vulnerable spot is the single highest-value skill on this front.

Because weak points reward precise fire, the bot front also rewards patience in how you shoot. Firing in controlled bursts to keep your reticle steady, and taking the extra half-second to line up a head or a vent rather than spraying at a target's armored body, converts the same ammunition into far more kills. Players who struggle against bots are often not under-gunned; they are simply spending their rounds on armor plating that was never going to break, when the vulnerable spot was right there to be hit.

Dealing with the heavy hitters

The bot front fields a roster of heavies that demand real answers. Hulks close in and deal devastating damage, so you want anti-armor that can crack them, ideally by hitting the eye or vents, before they reach you. Tanks and cannon emplacements punish exposure with heavy shells, so you destroy them by flanking to their vents or bringing enough anti-tank firepower to break their armor. The largest walkers are mission-defining threats that require focused fire and coordination to bring down.

This is why anti-armor is non-negotiable in a bot loadout. You need at least one weapon or stratagem that reliably kills heavies, whether that is a support weapon, an orbital strike, or an eagle call-down, because a kit that cannot break armor will be overrun the moment the heavies arrive. Our best stratagems guide covers the anti-armor options in detail, and pairing the right stratagems with weak-point targeting is how you turn a Hulk or tank from a crisis into a quick kill.

Use cover and control sightlines

Because bots deal their damage at range, cover is your most important defensive tool. Rocks, ruins, and terrain break the line of sight their ranged units need, and fighting from cover lets you pick targets while minimizing the fire you take. Moving between cover, rather than sprinting across open ground, keeps you alive on a front where a few seconds of exposure to concentrated fire can down you instantly.

Equally important is managing the fight's escalation. Bots call in dropships to reinforce, so a prolonged firefight steadily brings more enemies, including heavies. The answer is to end fights quickly or disengage from ones you cannot win, breaking line of sight and relocating rather than standing and trading. Destroying fabricators, the structures that produce bots, with grenades or the right tools also cuts off reinforcements at outposts. Controlling when and where you fight is as important as how hard you hit.

Smoke and other obscuring tools deserve a mention here, because they directly counter the bots' ranged advantage. Breaking the enemy's line of sight with smoke can let you reposition, revive a teammate, or disengage from a losing fight that would be suicidal to cross in the open. Against a faction whose whole threat model is accurate fire at range, anything that denies them a clear shot buys you options you would not otherwise have. Combined with terrain cover, obscurants turn the open killing fields the bots prefer into something you can move through on your terms, which is often the difference between a controlled withdrawal and a wipe.

Build an anti-bot loadout

A loadout for the bot front leans toward precision, penetration, and explosive resistance. For your primary, favor weapons that hit weak points accurately at range or that penetrate armor, as our best primary guide explains, rather than the pure crowd-clearers that excel against bugs. Bring anti-armor in your stratagems so Hulks, tanks, and the largest walkers have an answer, and consider an eagle or orbital for clustered troops and dropped reinforcements.

Armor choice matters more here than on the bug front. Passives that reduce explosive damage and recoil help you survive the rockets and artillery that define the bot threat, and a slightly heavier weight class can be worth it to absorb hits while you are pinned behind cover, as our best armor guide covers. Round the kit out with a secondary that can close fabricators, such as a grenade pistol, and you have a loadout that answers every recurring bot threat: troops at range, heavies in your face, and reinforcements pouring in.

Squad tactics against bots

The bot front rewards coordination more than almost any other content. A squad that spreads out to avoid being caught in a single barrage, focuses fire to drop heavies quickly, and assigns someone to watch for gunships and dropships will clear content that overwhelms four players acting independently. Communicating priority targets, calling out incoming dropships, and covering each other's repositions turn the bots' strengths against them.

If you are climbing the difficulty ladder on bots, do it carefully, because the same tier can feel harder here than against bugs. Our difficulty guide explains what changes as you climb, and it is smart to run a slightly lower difficulty on the bot front while you build the weak-point targeting and cover discipline the Automatons demand. There is no shame in easing off; the bot front has a steeper learning curve, and respecting it makes you better faster than forcing a tier you cannot handle.

Beating the bots, in summary

The Automatons punish aggression and reward patience, precision, and preparation. Fight from cover, target weak points rather than wasting fire on armor, bring anti-armor for the heavies and explosive resistance to survive their firepower, cut off reinforcements by destroying fabricators, and disengage from fights that are spiraling. Do that and the bot front goes from the faction that humbles you to the one that proves how far your fundamentals have come. Confirm specifics in-game, since Arrowhead tunes enemy behavior.

Because beating the bots is as much about your kit as your tactics, pair this with the loadout reading. Our best stratagems guide covers the anti-armor calls that crack their heavies, and the best armor guide helps you choose the explosive resistance and weight class that keep you alive under their fire. With the right tools and the right tactics, the Automatons become beatable at any tier you are ready for.

Frequently Asked Questions