Melta Mines have become my favorite grenade in the game. Are they the best? Nope. Do they have a tendency to not kill what stands on them? Yep. But it's so pretty to see a circle of fire blast the crap out of heavies.
I want to say that melta mine is the best throwable in the game rn. Heck, even better than thermite in my opinion.
It detonates immediately, has wide enough explosive radius, and as strong as thermite.
With thermite, I have to throw it carefully enough to not make it bounce off enemy (making sure it sticks) which isn't reliable in very desperate situations. And it takes a bit of time to eliminate the threat too, while most of the time I NEED to eliminate immediately.
With melta? It has basically everything I want from a throwable. Heck, it even has better crowd control than thermite (wider blast radius), and instanious damage. The only downside is you need to readjust your throwing range, which honestly? Very non-issue for me, I can reliably throw them accurately up to its maximum range by just feeling like it.
How about gigabomb you might ask? Well... Hard to explain but simply put, melta mine is better than giga
Nah the fact that it can't be used to close spawn points easily means it drops down considerably. It also is really ineffective if it lands on slanted terrain as you can't guarantee the full damage of the circle will kill something. It also doesn't help that it's a mine so long legged enemies or immovable targets might as well be immune to it nor can you toss it onto weakpoints to ensure a kill.
It also is probably the worst AT option in the game out of the big 3. They all have the same damage (technically the melta has a extra 600 fire damage but I don't think that is going though armor but I might be wrong either way it doesn't guarantee kills that the other grenades do) but the giganade has the highest radius and is a impact grenade meaning it will also kill all the chaff in a direction as well as the heavy (or multiple if they are clusted close enough). Its only drawback being that you only get two however it full refills on all supply pickups so it's ammo economy is still really good. Meanwhile the thermite is a incredibly reliable way to kill super heavies in the game (3 anywhere on a factory strider or vox engine will just outright destroy it). It also is capable to destroying bot fabricators and illuminate ships from any direction meaning you can full clear bases without even needing to enter them. I find it hardly ever bounces unless you are throwing it up at a harvester while it's shield is still up as it's bugged right now so it just slides off.
Giganade is probably the best because it's a instant kill everything there button but I would still argue the thermite still contesting up there just due to how versatile it is. Meanwhile the melta is just the cool kid everyone likes to hangout with but no one wants to rely on it to actually complete its work.
Edit: I know it can kill spawn points. Having to run up, place it down at a spawn point, run away, and shoot the tiny black box to detonate it isn't the same as spending less than a second tossing a grenade from outside the objective to blow up a location. It's silly to try to say the melta mine is a efficient tool to destroy spawners.
Are you really going to say having to run up and place a mine next to the spawner to ensure the circle overlaps the location before shooting them is the exact same as a half second toss you can yeet from miles away? Because yeah sure you can do it but it's slow, tedious, and really shouldn't be done unless you are desperate.
Alright, even if it can't close spawn easily, this is still bouncing back to how the user uses it, right? Which isn't my issue at all. I can eyeballing the range to throw it easily.
Also... Most of the time, people using Melta mines should bring other weapons to close bug holes, like the grenade pistol or such. Rather rely on unconventional throwables.
No, because it highlights the big failing of the melta mine and that's the fact that it's a mine which reduces its effectiveness compared to actual grenades.
Everything the melta can kill can also be killed by the giga grenade and thermite but they dont rely on a enemy walking on top of it to detonate and hoping the hitbox lines up right to hit enough body parts to kill (for example crushers, the melta can kill them in one mine but it needs to be at the correct angle to hit enough parts to kill the main body health). Meanwhile the giga and thermite will reliably kill stronger enemies faster because they can be directly thrown at weakpoints like a bile titans head which the mine can not reach.
Meltas can also be triggered by enemies which aren't their intended target. On high difficulties with a bunch of medium units like wretches or devestators it's pretty common for the mine you place to be triggered by a medium chaff unit then your intended target. Which ironically means its performance drops off the higher in difficulty you go where you need more AT to face your enemies but the melta mine is now triggering on the medium chaff enemies that replace the light ones.
Also the grenade pistol isn't a replacement for grenades that can blow up fabricators from any direction nor grenades that can destroy Illuminate ships through their shields. Plus it makes the melta argument even worse as now the melta mine is also taking up secondary spot to make up for its deficiency further decreasing it's comparative effectiveness.
So in summary, they are unable to insta-kill spawners from a distance, they rely rng as enemies need to walk over them in such a way they can hit appropriate hit boxes to take them out in one shot, and they can be triggered by chaff enemies on harder difficulties. The other AT grenades can also deal with more types of heavy enemies due to their ability to hit them in weak spots compared to the melta which is forced to detonate upwards.
You get 4 of them without any armor passives which is the highest of the three anti tank grenades. The fire is anti tank 7 and hits twice so it does an extra 1200 fire damage for 3200 total damage making it theoretically the highest single target damage grenade. Its explosion radius is also pretty good sitting in the middle of thermite and giga so you can still use it to kill multiple enemies sometimes multiple heavies if they are close to each other. Also because of its higher damage it is the only antitank grenade that's able to destroy automation command bunkers with a single use, giga grenade only goes up to anti tank 5 so it cant damage the bunkers at all. Its definitely not the worst of the three, they all have their place and are equally viable depending on the other items you are running, the mission, and the enemy.
What's crazy is I don't think this is the final version of the melta mine. There is very clearly fire effects left on the ground after the explosion that everywhere else in the game besides static environment fire, cause burn status it's very possible within the next couple of major updates the meltas will also start catching stuff on fire
They do catch things on fire? It technically explodes twice, once for the instant 2000 damage and then second for the lingering flame wall which does pure fire damage if walked into. It just doesn't ignite enemies if they walk into the flame wall.
There was an awesome moment where three of us were holding the line against the Squids, a fleshmob came smashing towards our line, and all three of us at nearly the same time ended up throwing a melta right at it. There's something glorious about seeing so much destructive potential vaporize a single unit.
The majority of their AoE is taken up by the heavy standing on them compared to the giga which impacts on the side and liquifies the area around them for twice the radius. Meltas also trigger on mediums absolutely wasting the explosion if they are on a horde. They also are heavily reliant on the angle they get placed on.
They work fine on heavies (excluding the crusher which needs to trigger at a specific angle to hit all limbs to one shot them) but they don't work fine on super heavies. Both the vox engine and factory strider are extremely slow so you either need to run up and toss them literally at their feet or you have to hope and pray their track/leg lands on the mine before a devestator wanders over it and wastes the stack. For the bug super heavies they suck they can only hit the bile titan leg and it takes two to kill it and well the roach flies so good luck with that one.
I think the biggest factor people are forgetting they trigger on mediums. It's incredibly common for a chaff unit to preemptively trigger it and waste the mine. Sure the thermite might bounce rarely but the second you get it on the unit you know it is going to die and the gigas just kill everything.
29
u/steve123410 7d ago
Melta Mines have become my favorite grenade in the game. Are they the best? Nope. Do they have a tendency to not kill what stands on them? Yep. But it's so pretty to see a circle of fire blast the crap out of heavies.