Primary weapons are perhaps the most important tool a Hell Diver can bring to their glorious missions. The Scorcher is a Helldivers 2 primary designed to carve a foothold for democracy everywhere, but is it worth the grind? Let’s talk about it.
The PLAS-1 Scorcher is an energy weapon which fires bolts of energy like bullets. These bolts explode on impact, dealing moderate damage in an area of effect—similar to the JAR-5 Dominator from the Premium tree—but mean the Scorcher reloads normally, unlike the Scythe. It has a total of 105 shots between seven magazines before a refill is needed. Here’s how to get and use the Scorcher in Helldivers 2.
How to get the Scorcher in Helldivers 2
The Scorcher is the final Primary Weapon in the original Warbond for Helldivers 2 Helldivers Mobilize! It requires 1,120 Medals to reach its tree in the first place, then the gun itself costs 75 Medals on top of that. Thankfully, this will not require you to get any Super Credits to unlock—just a lot of grinding.
Sadly, the best way to get the Scorcher is to simply farm Medals. We recommend unlocking Helldive difficulty and finding missions with as many Extermination and Blitz objectives as possible. Helldive difficulty gives you 33 Medals per mission, meaning you only need to complete 36 missions on the game’s hardest difficulty to unlock this weapon from scratch. However, that’s unlikely to be the case, especially for newer players—who’ll likely be pushed to nearly 100 Missions before they can try this energy-ball lobber.
How to use the Scorcher in Helldivers 2
The Scorcher serves as an excellent anti-Robot weapon, thanks, in large part, to its explosive property. These explosions also makes it fairly good at hitting Bile Titan and Charger weakpoints, dealing some damage even without direct hits. However, its lackluster magazine capacity and ammo count make it inconsistent for long-term engagements, as you often need to find ammunition if you want to keep killing. Pair it with a good swarm-clearing Secondary, like the Redeemer, if you want to see consistent success.
This gun is good, capable of exploding past shields and dealing significant damage to enemies like Walkers. Its closest competitor, the JAR-5 Dominator, hits harder and has Medium armor penetration but has more than triple the energy gun’s recoil. With the now-active nerfs to the Breaker and with more and more Divers getting enough Medals, it seems feasible that guns like the Scorcher—which can handle basically any enemy passably well—can make their way into Helldive builds.
