Watcher



Watchers are basically heavily armored versions of the Observers with a shield added on for extra protection. Used in the same role as the Observer, the Watchers supervise their more important and less integrated members of Illuminate society. Their extra armor and shield grants them additional time to raise the alarm.

Tactics
Predominately found on medium to high level planets, Watchers patrol the battlefield while cloaked, 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.

Watchers behave very much like Observers: After spotting Helldiver troops, they will de-cloak and quickly raise an alarm to call for support from more powerful Illuminate units. As Watchers have no offensive capabilities they normally re-activate their cloaking system after raising an alarm and seek to avoid conflict.

Similarly to Observers, the Watcher's cloaking ability and small size means Helldivers must be alert and accurate when fighting Illuminate forces.

Because Watchers are shielded and more resilient than Observers, they can absorb more damage before being destroyed, which in turn grants more time to raise an alarm. Their shield also absorbs all damage from the first projectile which makes impact, meaning even very powerful weapons (such as the RX-1 Rail Gun) require at least two shots to destroy a Watcher. Players can combat this trait by using shotguns or rapid fire weapons.
 * The Watcher's Shield is not conventionally used, as it will drop the Shield whenever cloaked (if not already removed by damage), e.g. after raising an alarm. The Watcher's Shield will be activated again when it attempts to sound an alarm.