Helldivers 2’s worst launcher Stratagem needs some love

The Spear Stratagem is one of Helldivers 2’s strongest launchers, but it’s held back by a myriad of issues that need addressing.

Helldiver’s 2 Spear Strategem is an anti-tank homing missile launcher that should have many uses in the game. Unfortunately, two big issues hold back the weapon’s full potential. Primarily, the launcher suffers from lock-on issues galore, as commented on by countless Redditors, and the ammo count doesn’t do it any favors, particularly when resupplying.

Regarding the lock-on issues, it seems the weapon struggles with accounting for weather and elevation, which throws off how well the tracking works. There are workarounds, such as marking a target to improve the core function.

The other core issue is the Spear comes primed with four missiles. If you’ve used them all or lost them due to lock-on troubles, resupply, and ammo packs only provide one extra shell to use. For a weapon with a 480-second cooldown, or eight minutes, that alone makes it easy to avoid compared to the buffed EAT-17 and RR launchers.

There are a variety of paths Arrowhead Game Studios can take with fixing the Spear. The lock-on mechanic needs better tracking, especially if weather and elevation hinder performance. With the ammo conundrum, buffing it to provide two rockets instead of one seems like a healthy medium. If the developers don’t want every item to dish out extra shells, they could buff specific items to fill that niche, rewarding players who run items like Supply Packs, for example.

Where it currently stands, the Spear occupies a weird role of being good at multiple things provided the situation is “right” like clearing bot factories or unaware enemies. That’s fine, but just a few slight tweaks could make this the king of freedom and democracy in Helldivers 2.