Vanguard



These rare bug scouts have recently been spotted deep in the bug zone, they seem to be something in between that of a Stalker and a regular Scout. While easily killed in melee, using a bayonet slows down the speed of your attacks, making it more difficult to kill Vanguards before they alert reinforcements.

They can propel themselves through the air with their powerful hind legs and seem to give off spores much faster than their less ferocious cousins.

Tactics
Predominately found on medium to high level planets, Vanguards patrol the battlefield, normally in groups of three, following semi-random patterns while searching for Helldivers. Their patrols are more densely clustered around mission objectives and they are also attracted to Stratagem beacons.

Soon after spotting Helldiver troops, Vanguards will typically leap into melee range then raise an alarm to call for help from more powerful Bug units before engaging the player in combat. However, as Vanguards are very weak and close to melee range so quickly, this situation can be avoided fairly easily by killing them with melee attacks before they can call for reinforcements. Similar to Scouts, the standard-issue P-2 Peacemaker sidearm is more than suitable to dispatch these patrol units.

As Vanguards often jump into the middle of player groups, Helldivers are advised to be particularly careful with friendly fire when engaging them.