Here's an idea to make Guard Dog (Liberator variant) better and more skilled to use !

For clarification, "GD" will be referered as the "Guard Dog" with the liberator, and "GDR" as the "Guard Dog Rover" with the scythe.

After seeing the up in damage to the GD in the lastest update, (which, to be honest will not make people switch to it compared to the GDR anyways), I decided to share an idea with all of you to make the GD better, more skilled to use and therefore more efficient than its big brother in the right Helldiver hands.

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First let's see the difference between the two dogs : (++ = positive, -- = negative)

GDR :

++ Infinite ammo, the dog can overheat but it's really rare

++ A bit less damage than the scythe primary (because of the latest patch buffign sycthe damage but lowering by 30% the one from the GDR

-- More potential friendly fire, because the laser can go all over the place when being surrounded (even tho the latest patch makes the GDR do less damage to friendlies)

GD :

-- Limited ammo, 6 mags behind the Helldiver, 6 from ressuply boxes, 0 from litlle ammo boxes

++ With the recent patch, the GD gets a little damage buff + buff to the liberator, meaning the GD does a bit more than the liberator primary. It's good for dispatching high threat, small armored enemies faster than the GDR (like those annoying hunters)

++ Less potential friendly fire because of the dog stopping its firing when switching target (much like the machine gun turret compared to the gatling turret)

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Here is my take on the GD : The ammo efficiency isn't the issue (except the little ammo boxes not giving anything), it's the fact that it shoots more armored enemies whitout you telling him to stop shooting, essentially wasting ammo unnecessarily.

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Solution :

-First, make little ammo boxes return 2-3 mags from the backpack, no need to add more mags to the back because ammo boxes are pretty common and resupplies have a fast cooldown (also if you have a teammate with the supply pack he's your 2nd best friend after the dog)

-Secondly, and the main idea of this post, the keybind that uses the supply pack for yourself could turn off the GD/GDR and make it go inside your backpack, essentially "saving" ammo for the right enemies. using the key again turns on the GD/GDR again.

Turning off the GD does not recharge it with a new mag ! It would only repair the dog if it's damaged. turning on again lets the dog finish his mag, then automatically recharging it like we have in game if the mag is empty.

With this change, skilled Helldivers with the GD could potentially save ammo for the right targets by toggling it on or off depending on the situation.

The GDR (and future dogs) should have this functionality even tho it's not that big of an impact, it would be more of a quality of life change, and a big skill expression for the GD.

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Thank you for reading, and please, tell me what you make of this, good change or not ? And what's your solution to the GD to make it on par with it's big brother ?