The headline-dominating highlight of the recent Omens of Tyranny update for Helldivers 2 was the arrival of the long-awaited Illuminate faction, with developer GSC Game World shadow dropping the Democracy-hating squiddies during The Game Awards and kicking off a brutal invasion of Calypso (against all odds, we managed to repelled it). As fantastic as the Illuminate is, though, I’d also like to bring attention to one of the patch’s other additions — one that has rapidly become one of my favorite stratagems in the entire game, and also an S-tier pick to use in both Automaton and base defense missions.
The stratagem I’m referring to is the E/AT-12 Anti-Tank Emplacement, a fortification call-in found in the new Urban Legends Premium Warbond (it costs 1,000 Super Credits, or $10 worth) that came alongside the Illuminate’s first offensive. You’ll need a hefty 110 Warbond Medals to purchase it and you don’t even have the option to unlock it until you get through Urban Legends’ first two pages, but trust me: it’s absolutely worth getting as soon as you can.
Before I get into its effectiveness, though, can we talk about how hilariously stupid this thing is? You would think a stationary stratagem intended for use against heavily armed and armored vehicles would at least have something solid protecting its operator, but nope — you just sit in what is essentially an arcade game chair, completely exposed to everything around as you acquire and fire on targets with a goofy pair of binoculars and a joystick. Even the automated loading of each new shell is silly, with a flimsy little arm mechanism that’s also fully exposed lifting rounds into the cannon. Every aspect of its design screams “cost-cutting to the max,” which is perfect for a game dripping with satire against militaristic fascism and unrestrained capitalism.
Those comically dumb design flaws translate to some major weaknesses in-game, as if you don’t call down the gun in good spots, you’ll likely either get turned into Swiss cheese by incoming lasers or the whole thing will simply blow up to sustained focus fire. Set it up on high ground a good distance away from enemy forces and fortifications, though, and you’ll be able to leverage its true potential.
Put simply, the Anti-Tank Emplacement is the ultimate glass cannon, with each field gun coming with 30 highly accurate and extremely powerful explosive shells. These can two-shot incoming reinforcement dropships if you hit them in the right spots (corner engines for Automatons, open ring of the ship’s belly for Illuminate), one-shot outpost buildings and ships by hitting their open vents/doors, and make short work of heavily armored enemies like Hulks, Annihilator Tanks, and Harvesters. 8-10 rounds are enough to send even the mighty Automaton Factory Strider collapsing to the ground, and they’re even capable of destroying structures like Cannon Towers and Automaton Command Bunkers. In fact, as the above clip shows, you may even be able to complete several mission objectives in seconds if you have good sightlines from where you called the stratagem in. I’ve been taking it into Super Helldives against the Automatons, myself, and it’s truly ridiculous how quickly it’s been taking care of everything the bots throw at me.
Oh, and in case you’re worried it’s only good against hardened targets, don’t be. Each round fired has a solid blast radius, so vaporizing groups of infantry units with the cannon isn’t hard at all. It’s obviously not ideal for that purpose — it’s not part of my usual preferred loadout for the Illuminate because of that — but if a sticky situation arises and you’re forced to focus on the chaff, it’ll get the job done. Don’t fret about “wasting” its ammo, either; it has a lot of uptime since calling it in only has a three-minute cooldown.
Overall, the Anti-Tank Emplacement is a blast to use (no pun intended), and is particularly stellar against the bots or in missions with defensive contexts. I strongly recommend giving it a shot if you’re looking to try something new; if you wanted to build a loadout around it, I’d definitely bring a sentry or two to protect your flanks while you’re using it. You could also pair it with the new SH-51 Directional Shield that’s also from the Urban Legends Warbond, as the energy barrier it creates activates while you’re zooming in with the cannon.
