Recently I’ve tried going for my weapon commendations, and alas I reached the Hydra.
Unfortunately, I’ve found the lock on to be incredibly inefficient or even glitchy when encountering more than 1 enemy.
An example would be when I’m obviously aiming at one target, it locks on to another target instead.
Does the Hydra just lock on to the target nearest you? Do you have to switch weapons every time you want to switch the lock on?
Few tips for Hydra
1: Play BTB and use it as a support weapon on Deadlock and Basin, lots of ambush points there.
2: Never go head to head, sure recipe to get killed. It’s a mid range weapon optimally, short is too close to enemy fire and long is out of range. Think outer effective range of the AR.
3: Keep the target on one person, aim the center on the reticule on him and you should lock on no problem.
4: Once you have a lock on, flick your thumbstick up and launch 2-3 rounds depending on difficulty of hitting them, the flick skywards makes it act almost like a mortar, the lock persists for a few seconds so this makes it beautiful for taking out guys behind cover.
5: Patience, it took me a while but it’s a really fun weapon when you get the hang of it.
> 2533274884387290;2:
> Few tips for Hydra
>
> 1: Play BTB and use it as a support weapon on Deadlock and Basin, lots of ambush points there.
> 2: Never go head to head, sure recipe to get killed. It’s a mid range weapon optimally, short is too close to enemy fire and long is out of range. Think outer effective range of the AR.
> 3: Keep the target on one person, aim the center on the reticule on him and you should lock on no problem.
> 4: Once you have a lock on, flick your thumbstick up and launch 2-3 rounds depending on difficulty of hitting them, the flick skywards makes it act almost like a mortar, the lock persists for a few seconds so this makes it beautiful for taking out guys behind cover.
> 5: Patience, it took me a while but it’s a really fun weapon when you get the hang of it.
In my opinion i think the standard hydra should have a bigger mag by two or even 4 rounds. Since it takes lock on time, and the missles are slow with practicly half the blast radius of a frag grenade. They are terrible for group encounters, especially with players with good responce time. two good players can gun someone down before they can lock on or hip fire two shots. The weapon is basicly for headglitching and picking people off who have no cover to hide from your missles. Now right now im talking about enemy spartans, not vehicles. Clearly it has value for destroying vehicles, but when it comes to front line combat, hope your not being shot at because aiming accurate hip fire shots that get the slow missles with tiny blast radius to your enemy before you die is difficult.
Yeah one time I locked on to someone behind a wall. Stupid me shot the wall and I ended up killing myself LOL Its not very fast to break the lock when it loses its target.
> 2533274860664098;3:
> > 2533274884387290;2:
> > Few tips for Hydra
> >
> > 1: Play BTB and use it as a support weapon on Deadlock and Basin, lots of ambush points there.
> > 2: Never go head to head, sure recipe to get killed. It’s a mid range weapon optimally, short is too close to enemy fire and long is out of range. Think outer effective range of the AR.
> > 3: Keep the target on one person, aim the center on the reticule on him and you should lock on no problem.
> > 4: Once you have a lock on, flick your thumbstick up and launch 2-3 rounds depending on difficulty of hitting them, the flick skywards makes it act almost like a mortar, the lock persists for a few seconds so this makes it beautiful for taking out guys behind cover.
> > 5: Patience, it took me a while but it’s a really fun weapon when you get the hang of it.
>
>
> In my opinion i think the standard hydra should have a bigger mag by two or even 40 rounds. Since it takes lock on time, and the missles are slow with practicly half the blast radius of a frag grenade. They are terrible for group encounters, especially with players with god responce time.two good players can gun someone down before they can lock on or hip fire two shots. The weapon is basicly for headglitching and picking people off who have no cover to hide from your missles. Now right now im talking about enemy spartans, not vehicles. Clearly it has value for destroying vehicles, but when it comes to front line combat, hope your not being shot at because aiming accurate hip fire shots that get the slow missles with tiny blast radius to your enemy before you die is difficult.
This just completely ignored all my tips, if you go and try it using these tactics you’re going to die brutally over and over. Use it properly and it’s an absolute beast in the right hands.
I mostly used the Hydra at range, to keep people back. Warzone just isn’t Hydra friendly anymore. So go to Big Team Battle. Someone above mentioned the maps that have significant Hydra spawns. I say use your BR most of the time use the Hydra when they are distracted or in a Ghost.
stay behind cover, look out at enemy shooting at someone else, lock on, back into cover, fire missles into air, profit.
I use the Hydra mainly in deadlock and basin. It’s good for hitting vehicles and taking out that one enemy that is running into the open on a map. But if you are going to engage an enemy that will be able to fire back or engaging multiple enemies it would be best to use another weapon. The hydra is a good support weapon but not a primary. I find myself picking it up and draining the ammo then dropping it after I take out a vehicle and a couple enemies.
Having Active Camo with Hydra is an absolute killer and usually the hydra will kill with only 2 rockets if both hit the Spartan and not next to them.
I’ve seen far too many people try use it as an assault rifle. If you get the hydra, you need to drop the hell back so you can see your targets coming(or going past you). Never use it unscoped. Never single shot then unscope like some guy did time and time again the other night in our game.3 shots with a lock should do it.
If you’re target is moving behind cover, make sure to angle it straight into the air so it tracks like a mortar and runs less risk of hitting a wall/blowing yourself up.
I even like the Hydra in Plaza which sounds weird but not enough people use it, making it more effective. But I think they added a red glare so you know what your opponent has (new …I think). But I just got off a game on Eden and had 8 or so kills…enough to call it strong. I think AlphaTango was spot on.
I never fire it straight at the target, I always shoot it in the air, works a lot better.
> 2535406658680196;10:
> I’ve seen far too many people try use it as an assault rifle. If you get the hydra, you need to drop the hell back so you can see your targets coming(or going past you). Never use it unscoped. Never single shot then unscope like some guy did time and time again the other night in our game.3 shots with a lock should do it.
Yeah so basicly the “tactic” with the gun is staying out of range of the enemy and/or shootin them while they arnt looking. At the minimum it seems the rockets should have some kind of blast raduis. Right now they are basicly slow moving bullets that have tiny explosion radius. The only good thing about this weapon is the ability to get rockets behind cover. If it couldnt do that, its be useless. The fact is its an F’ing missle launcher. And it takes two direct hits to kill, compared to the rocket launchers nearly ten foot kill radius., i feel like the only reason people are defending this weapon is because they A are good at hittin people behind cover, or B because they get lucky with the gun. The only thing i would change, would make the blast radius at least that of a frag, with the same damage as it does now. This way hip fireing wouldnt be so useless. Either that or a larger mag size so when you encounter two enemies and are forced to shoot missles like an AR, you can actually win. And that right there is the problem for me. Halo has basicly always been about shooting accurately while taking damage, and this gun can only shoot accurately if you give the missles 4 seconds a piece to get to the target and dont take any damage.
didn’t like it at first but now its one of my favorite weapons. Absolutely love it, takes 3 trigger pulls to take someone out. If they aren’t looking at you fire them real quick but if they’re coming after you and they’re still a mid-range distance away then fire one, wait for them to use their boost to dodge the next two they assume you’re gona unload, then as soon as their boost is gone fire off two more and listen to them cry.
> 2533274884387290;2:
> Few tips for Hydra
>
> 1: Play BTB and use it as a support weapon on Deadlock and Basin, lots of ambush points there.
> 2: Never go head to head, sure recipe to get killed. It’s a mid range weapon optimally, short is too close to enemy fire and long is out of range. Think outer effective range of the AR.
> 3: Keep the target on one person, aim the center on the reticule on him and you should lock on no problem.
> 4: Once you have a lock on, flick your thumbstick up and launch 2-3 rounds depending on difficulty of hitting them, the flick skywards makes it act almost like a mortar, the lock persists for a few seconds so this makes it beautiful for taking out guys behind cover.
> 5: Patience, it took me a while but it’s a really fun weapon when you get the hang of it.
Think of it like the human equivalent of a needle as far as range and time to kill is concerned.
I love the Nerf this thing has gotten since the beta. Now it feels like a skilled power weapon. I love it most in 4v4 than BTB though. It’s best used at mid-range and not long-range or close-range.
> 2533274860664098;14:
> > 2535406658680196;10:
> > I’ve seen far too many people try use it as an assault rifle. If you get the hydra, you need to drop the hell back so you can see your targets coming(or going past you). Never use it unscoped. Never single shot then unscope like some guy did time and time again the other night in our game.3 shots with a lock should do it.
>
>
> Yeah so basicly the “tactic” with the gun is staying out of range of the enemy and/or shootin them while they arnt looking. At the minimum it seems the rockets should have some kind of blast raduis. Right now they are basicly slow moving bullets that have tiny explosion radius. The only good thing about this weapon is the ability to get rockets behind cover. If it couldnt do that, its be useless. The fact is its an F’ing missle launcher. And it takes two direct hits to kill, compared to the rocket launchers nearly ten foot kill radius., i feel like the only reason people are defending this weapon is because they A are good at hittin people behind cover, or B because they get lucky with the gun. The only thing i would change, would make the blast radius at least that of a frag, with the same damage as it does now. This way hip fireing wouldnt be so useless. Either that or a larger mag size so when you encounter two enemies and are forced to shoot missles like an AR, you can actually win. And that right there is the problem for me. Halo has basicly always been about shooting accurately while taking damage, and this gun can only shoot accurately if you give the missles 4 seconds a piece to get to the target and dont take any damage.
In defense of the Hydra:
Imo it’s the human equivalent to the needler, but less effective at anti-infantry, and with an added anti-vehicle option.
Similarly to the Plasma Caster or Plasma pistol, it is a weapon best used as a support weapon.
You know what the hydra is better at than any other weapon?
Dealing with campers. If you get a lock on one, that little tower or wall isn’t going to help them much.
Far too many people try use it as an assault weapon in cqb. It’s useless as such. It’s biggest strength is objective based games. I’m a huge fan of it on breakout.
I’ve actually never tried shooting it a little higher in the air than right at them. Thanks for the tips guys!