The Automatons are shivering in their steel.
It feels like only yesterday that I complained that Helldivers 2 doesn't have enough guns that rule against Automatons. Clearly Arrowhead heard my pleas, because in a surprise update this morning, two new support weapons arrived in the Super Earth arsenal: the MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun, and the true talk of the town, LAS-99 Quasar Cannon.
The Quasar Cannon makes a stunning impression. Its boxy, imposing body rests on the shoulder, similar to its distant cousin the Laser Cannon. But unlike laser beam weapons, the Quasar Cannon charges up one huge blast at a time. Mid-charge, the cannon's reticle spins as its internal mechanism whirs with anticipation. A concentrated ball of energy gathers at the end of the barrel, then releases with an understated zap followed immediately by a bassy impact. It's a mean machine, and I'm glad it's on our side.
Unlocked at level 18 for 7,500 Reqs, the Quasar doesn't have to reload, but has a sizable cooldown between shots. Not that whatever you just hit will still be standing—early testing suggests a single quasar blast is about as powerful as an anti-tank rocket, but with a few key advantages:
The Helldivers 2 community is welcoming the Quasar Cannon with open arms and clenched fists. Far and wide, players are sharing their early impressions of the support weapon, pointing out its one-shot-kill potential against Hulks, Chargers, fabricators, and even Automaton dropships. One top-upvoted post on the Helldivers subreddit by user The_Bored_Goat doesn't hold back the Quasar love:
"Best Weapon in the game. It's an EAT with infinite ammo, it performs just as well as the EAT damage-wise, doesn't have a reload animation, and has infinite range," they wrote. "Such a democratic weapon it makes me cry."
While superlatives are premature, the Quasar Cannon does slot nicely into a small club of weapons that can challenge Helldivers 2's strongest threats. Its raw damage and armor-piercing potential remind me of the pre-nerf Railgun that could bore out the center of Chargers and Hulks in a flash. What makes the Quasar so good against bots, specifically, is its precision—as demonstrated by user Carbo-Hydrates-0417, the cannon can accurately snipe fabricators, bug holes, and other destructible structures from any distance.
First time trying the quasar cannon against a fabricator, this thing can snipe from r/Helldivers
But, the Quasar has its share of downsides. Its long three-to-four second charge up time means you really have to know what you want to shoot ahead of time. It's not a "fire and forget" affair like the Expendable Anti-Tank, and if you're accustomed to blowing the head off a Charger seconds before it clobbers you, the Quasar might let you down. Unlimited ammo is nice, but the cooldown between shots is around the same, if not longer, than a Recoiless Rifle reload. You could also choose to see the Quasar's lack of a backpack as a weakness—a Recoiless Rifle or Autocannon with a tag-team reload can fire way faster than the Quasar.
Quasar blasts don't have much splash damage either—despite sharing a form factor with rocket launchers, it's more accurate to think of this as a precision rifle.
I love the Laser-99 Quasar Cannon! from r/Helldivers
I'll leave with some helpful Quasar Cannon testing data gathered by user Emptynesz to give you an idea of how it can be useful not just for killing stuff, but clearing objectives:
