The Dragonroach is the newest flying enemy in Helldivers 2, described by the devs as a “flying bile titan”. It’s tough, fast, and when it’s been alerted to your presence, it should be the #1 priority target for your team to take out.
This guide dives into the various behaviors and strategies of the flying menace, and most importantly: how to kill a Dragonroach.
We’ve spotted them on difficulties as low as 6- Extreme, and they’re capable of wiping entire squads if left unchecked.
Behavior
Very similar to the Illuminate Stingrays (the fast ships that bombard players with strafing runs), the Dragonroach flies extremely quickly around the map, often ducking behind cave formations and then returning for another attack.
They can very easily appear out of seemingly nowhere and surprise players with an acidic or fire strafing run.
Similar to Bile Titans, the Dragonroach also has a windup attack that is telegraphed, during this time they begin to hover, making it much easier to hit them.
What actually kills the Dragonroach?
While we don’t have exact numbers on its health pool per body part, we do know that
- The body is heavy armor rated, similar to a Bile Titan.
- The wings are light armor rated, meaning they can be destroyed by most primary weapons.
- A headshot with an anti-tank weapon is a guaranteed kill, but they are hard to hit.
Orbital Railcannon Strike, Guaranteed Kill.
As long as the railcannon strike gets a lock, it’s an almost guaranteed kill.
A major problem with the Railcannon Strike is that it has a 3+ minute cooldown per use. And as you can see from our screenshot, we were dealing with 2 (plus one off-screen) at the same time. So, the second and third Dragonroach had to be taken out with machinegun fire to the wings or an anti-tank shot from a Quasar Cannon or Recoilless Rifle.
What to avoid using
Unfortunately, quite a few weapons and stratagems are near useless against the Dragonroach.
The Spear takes multiple shots to kill it, making it an ineffective and inefficient solution. Also the Dragonroach moves so fast that it actually dodged the Spear by doing a 180.
We also recommend avoiding the Orbital Laser, as they move way too quickly for it to properly track.
The Eagle 500KG, Orbital Precision Strike, and Ultimatum are all also very ineffective.