¶ Overview
Illuminate warp ships are the hardest spawners to destroy quickly out of all the factions, due to the shield and seeming immunity to support weapons when not hitting the doors.
This guide outlines the design of the warp ships as well as the tactics necessary to clear outposts quickly.
¶ Design
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Warp ships are large circular buildings with 2 thrusters in the back and a fin in the front. Warp ships are easy to make out at a distance due to the blue color of their shield.
there are 2 doors on the sides of the warp ships, these are the weak points. Warp ships are immune to normal weapons when hitting anywhere but the doors.
¶ Strategies
There are 2 ways to approach warp ships, either using your weapons or red stratagems.
¶ Basic Weapon
In order to take down a warp ship with your weapons, you need to figure out 2 things: How to disable the shield and how to destroy it.
1. Shield
Taking down the shield is simple, just deal enough damage to disable it. Various weapons will work, but a few stand-outs are as follows.
SG-225SP Breaker Spray&Pray: one of if not the best primary for disabling shields, only taking about a second with a few caveats.
When dealing with the Illuminate themselves, it struggles against all but the voteless.
Machine Guns: the Heavy Machine Gun, Machine Gun and Stalwart are all very effective against shields as well as being extremely powerful weapons in their own right.
The Heavy Machine Gun will disable the shields the fastest, with Machine Gun being a very close second. Stalwart is the slowest. In the video, all weapons are set to the highest fire rate.
Depending on your recoil control and armor passive, all 3 can be viable, but over all the Heavy Machine Gun will be the best for most runners.
Anti-Material Rifle: The AMR can disable the shield in roughly 5 to 6 shots, all well staying a safe distance. In tandem with its ability to one shot Illuminate makes it very useful.
2. Destruction
Any explosive can destroy warp ships as long as it hits one of the 2 doors.
Exploding Crossbow: Not much needs to be said, it's overpowered for a reason.
Eruptor: Similar to the Exploding Crossbow but less effective against enemies.
Commando: The laser guidance can allow for angles that would be otherwise impossible. 2 rockets will disable the shield.
¶ Red Stratagems
Some red stratagems can both pierce the shield and destroy the warp ship.
Both Orbital Laser and Orbital Walking Barrage can clear whole outposts.
¶ Efficiency tables
¶ Support Weapons
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Markings:
- Red · does not destroy the warp ship or disable the shield.
- Yellow · does disable the shield but will not destroy the warp ship.
- Orange · does not disable the shield but can destroy the warp ship.
- Green · does destroy the warp ship.
Notes:
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Quasar Cannon: the shield will recharge before a second shot can be preformed.
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Expendable Anti-Tank: both rockets are need to disable the shield.
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Spear: will not lock on to warp ships.
¶ Orbital Stratagems
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Markings:
- Red · does not destroy the warp ship or disable the shield.
- Yellow · does disable the shield but will not destroy the warp ship.
- Orange · does not disable the shield but can destroy the warp ship.
- Green · does destroy the warp ship.
Notes:
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Eagle Smoke Strike Stratagem and Orbital Gas Strike have to be direct hits to be effective.
¶ Credits
Rose for summarizing warp ship information.
Zovc for the warp ship icon.
Helldivers wiki for the warp ship image.