Massed Doombots

[Kruztee]

Honestly, these guys are harder than bosses, they can appear in pretty much any level and they just shred my team to pieces. Ridiculously OP compared to other bots their level and don't even start me on when they appear (as the RNG does to me so often) with Leader or Command bots.

I'm eagerly watching Misery's expert level LP and hoping that he comes up against these guys soon, but he's having ISP/modem problems and the episodes, unfortnately, aren't getting uploaded regularly.

I'm playing on Expert level. Some of the strats I've tried are turrets (fodder for the Doombots +to power on hit), mines (somewhat effective but not enough to go around), gamma laser (again, effective but limited by ammo count and layout), and stealth (will happily avoid Doombots where possible and where level objectives allow). My main problem is where they spawn in massive numbers (often togther). Perhaps it's just a design decision that they are there to make levels completely unplayable every now and then?

<Sigh> I'd take Vipers or Claws (or pretty much any boss type) rather than these guys...

[nas1m]

I'm playing on Expert level. Some of the strats I've tried are turrets (fodder for the Doombots +to power on hit), mines (somewhat effective but not enough to go around), gamma laser (again, effective but limited by ammo count and layout), and stealth (will happily avoid Doombots where possible and where level objectives allow).

You might try an occasional virus as well ...

[Kruztee]

You might try an occasional virus as well ...

I have enough virus points for exactly one hack on a Doombot in my current expert playthrough. I have tried that but it resulted in the said Doombot running off and aggroing half the level (including 3 other Doombots). I'm not sure that's the way to deal with massed Doomies, but I agree it's a great way to take out one of the blighters and a lot of trash bots in the right circumstances. Especially in levels with lots of corridors, virus hacks on Doombots can be fun. Sometimes I let them shoot my assault once or twice to get them lusting for blood sump oil.

The levels I'm really having trouble with are the open plan ones. The cryogenic pod mission in particular just destroyed me (I'm about 10 days in on an Ironman playthrough). Perhaps I just need to be more careful with my mission selection? Or perhaps just stick to hard difficulty? I have about 50% success on that and the step up to expert seems enormous.

[YukaTakeuchiFan]

I find that kneecapping those things with the new Pistol is really, really helpful. Seriously, extend your range as much as you can with one of those (I suggest scopes that mostly increase a weapon's range- my personal record is being able to put 16 spaces between me and the barrel of my pistol), shoot them once, and as long as you never blunder right into their range afterward, you have made dealing with what's also my own personal "robot I don't wish to run into in a dark parts fabrication lab hallway" a whole lot easier.

[_K_]

Just met those guys on my expert run. (Rey + Brawler/Sniper/Siege/Science)

Yeah, its not that the doombots cannot be dealt with, its just your limited resources run out way faster than those bastards.

In late-game, it might be countered with a properly min-maxed viruser or minelayer, but in early to midgame your only hope is to sneak through to your objective, which often still requires dealing with 5-10 doombots, if at all possible.

[doubtful]

I, too, HATE these things with a passion, lol. On any difficulty above the default, they can be pretty awful.

If you can kill a Recoilbot (I think that's the name), you can make the Doombot rage out and kill other things near it, or of course you can virus it.

What I like to do is cripple it with a Pistol shot after doing either one of these, and then lure stuff past it.  If it doesn't wander off and get shot a lot, it's basically an unstoppable death machine after a kill or two, until it runs out of ammo, lol.

The times I forget to bring Virus points and there's no recoilbots, the best strategy is to NOT aggro them at all if possible.  Even if you have to skip some goodies to do it, sometimes it's best to just get your objective done and get the heck out of dodge.

[Sinophile]

when I first started playing BD, it seems that everything could kill me with one shot. Although with practice, I've learned to avoid most things. Right now I can beat the game on Medium, and am trying to win on hard.