For the longest time, the third-person co-op shooter Helldivers 2 has had its very own chicken walkers. A term that fans have used for years to describe Star Wars’ AT-ST units, “chicken walkers” refers to the legs on these bipedal robots—which look quite weak and like they could be taken out easily—as well as the way in which they walk. Helldivers 2’s chicken walkers (officially known as Scout Striders) have typically been pushovers befitting of the name, but with the Escalation of Freedom update, they’ve gotten a fresh new upgrade that makes ‘em bigger threats.
In the past, Scout Striders had a bit of an open-ended cockpit. You could strafe around the side or rear of the Striders and easily clip the bot that was maneuvering them, making them easy pickings. The pilots themselves weren’t even reinforced at all, so all it really took was a well-placed headshot and they’d go down. While these Striders are still in lower-level difficulty missions, there’s a new armored variant that completes the AT-ST evolution on higher difficulties and it could prove to be a bit of a problem if you don’t clock its weak spot immediately.
Where to find Scout Striders
While you’ll encounter normal Scout Striders at low-to-medium level difficulty against the Automatons, the new armored variants seem to appear mostly on the highest difficulties, I didn’t personally encounter them until I started tackling missions at level 8 and higher. I haven’t fought them yet on the newest and most extreme difficulty yet, but I imagine they’re an absolute nightmare.
The sign that you’re dealing with one of the new Scout Striders is pretty apparent. First of all, the cockpit will be entirely sealed, meaning you won’t be able to spot the pilot and take them out. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, they’ll have rockets on either side that they will now fire at you. Yes, there’s another Automaton enemy to send you ragdolling. As if we didn’t have enough of those already.
How to take out an Armored Scout Strider
As with most enemy variants, some semblance of the existing strategies for the base enemy should mostly do the trick. That means that any weapon or stratagem with light-to-medium penetration should take them out with enough concentrated fire. I’m talking about Autocannons, or in lieu of those an Autocannon Sentry, as well as the Recoilless Rifle or a Railgun.
If you’re relying on orbitals to take them out, a simple precision strike will do the job, though that’s a waste of a good resource and there’s actually a far simpler way to take them out.
Remember those rockets I mentioned earlier? The ones that the new Scout Strider has along the sides of the cockpit now? Well, it sure would be hilarious if you could shoot and detonate the rockets in order to take out the new Armored Scout Striders with a bit of their own medicine…
Prioritizing these rockets will immediately take out the new Striders, making them look like a bit of a joke. If you’ve already fired on it and done some damage, simply detonating one of them should finish them off. Alternatively, if you trust your aim enough, exploding two of its rockets without ever damaging the Strider prior will also eliminate it. The choice, as always, is yours, Helldivers.
With that all being said, you’re mostly set to jump from the Terminid front to the Automatons, which couldn’t come at a better time. Both factions are stepping up their game, so we’ve got to as well unless we want to look like the chumps of the Second Galactic War, folks.