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  1. #1

    FYI, about killing Cleaner heavy/tank

    If you shoot the back weakpoint of these, they pull off their head armor and become killable very quickly. Just to those who don't know, because from what I keep seeing when matchmaking is that people either don't know it or that they refuse to aim for the heads of these for whatever reasons.
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  2. #2
    nuxbag's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally Posted by LethiaAlethia Go to original post
    If you shoot the back weakpoint of these, they pull off their head armor and become killable very quickly. Just to those who don't know, because from what I keep seeing when matchmaking is that people either don't know it or that they refuse to aim for the heads of these for whatever reasons.
    Each different weak point does something, if you destroy his pouch he can't throw grenades, if you destroy the red tanks on the side of his thrower he pulls out an ax cuz he can't use the flamethrower anymore
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  3. #3
    I am aware, but the weakpoint on his back takes the least bullets to destroy, and when he removes his mask/head armor he will drop so rapidly (provided people actually shoot the head, but most of the time they are refusing to do so...) that neither his grenades nor his flamethrower will be much of an issue anymore.

    But whenever I'm running Cleaner missions I'm apparently the only one ever going for his back weakpoint and aiming for his head afterwards, even with the Hollywood GE being active and him taking tons of bullets to the chest both to get rid of the armor there and to drop his health. When I destroy his back weakpoint and shoot his head then he drops >a lot< faster.

    I guess people are used to shoot center mass generally. I'm running a DPS build with headshot damage, and it irriates me a lot when I'm the only one ever shooting the heads of tanks/heavies. I'm not sure if their heads have higher armor value and this being the perhaps the reason why everyone aims for the chest. But chest hits can "miss" too and damage the arms instead. The head on the other hand is always free to hit even if you clip their gun belts to get a breather.

    So, I'm not really understanding why nobody will ever shoot the heads of these enemies, ever at all. It's not like engagements are often long range and you couldn't hit them with ARs or LMGs either (I'm maining rifle). And these enemies are stumbling and shambling around slowly. They aren't spamming dodge rolls like hunters or rogues do, there I can actually understand if people just give up with headshots and go for chest.
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  4. #4
    Sircowdog1's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally Posted by LethiaAlethia Go to original post
    If you shoot the back weakpoint of these, they pull off their head armor and become killable very quickly. Just to those who don't know, because from what I keep seeing when matchmaking is that people either don't know it or that they refuse to aim for the heads of these for whatever reasons.
    If you have enough DPS, then shooting center of mass is often a faster kill than waiting for the animation of him pulling the headgear off. Although while he's doing that animation, he's not doing anything else, so that's a consideration.
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  5. #5
    nuxbag's Avatar Senior Member
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    It depends on my mood, most of the time for them I ignore the weak point and just go for headshots, if I'm being lazy I'll go for the weak points
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  6. #6
    A decent build generally has no issues melting these guys shooting them straight into the strongest part of their armor (dead center in the chest). My EP/Vile build, with Stinger Hive deployed and Harmony firing drops even the named heavies in 5-7 seconds, so I end up getting lazy and not bothering with the weak points.

    The one exception: Heroic. Obviously the HP required goes WAY up, and that's the only time I start paying attention, usually hitting the red tanks first (because their axe charges are super easy to avoid).

    I suspect most players know this, but thanks just the same for putting up the pointers!
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  7. #7
    N3mB0t's Avatar Senior Member
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    shooting the weak points is the always the smartest way to play , for one you stop them in their tracks they are not hurting anyone and its much faster to kill them DPS or not , shooting center mass is just a good tactic when you just cant hit their weakpoints.

    not just for heavies but for everything else in the game , weak points are underrated.
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  8. #8
    nuxbag's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally Posted by N3mB0t Go to original post
    shooting the weak points is the always the smartest way to play , for one you stop them in their tracks they are not hurting anyone and its much faster to kill them DPS or not , shooting center mass is just a good tactic when you just cant hit their weakpoints.

    not just for heavies but for everything else in the game , weak points are underrated.
    I don't know about always. It's just a personal thing
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  9. #9
    N3mB0t's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally Posted by nuxbag Go to original post
    I don't know about always. It's just a personal thing
    we were talking about being efective against this kind of enemies , not about everyones taste , obviously there couldn´t be discussion on that.
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  10. #10
    You can also kill legendary Black Tusk tanks without breaking their armor by shooting through their broken hive pack from behind, but that's almost certainly a bug. You can also bypass their armor from the front while the hive is intact, if you aim ever so slightly off of their chest armor where it meets the hive. I've accidentally dropped several tanks with one shot while soloing Summit with my headhunter build, trying to pop their pack.
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