AX/AR-23 “Guard Dog”

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Stratagems
Engineering Bay
Supply
Backpack
AX/AR-23 "Guard Dog"
“

An autonomous drone equipped with a Liberator assault rifle, providing 360° cover. Returns to backpack to rearm.

— Ship Management Terminal

The AX/AR-23 "Guard Dog" is a Stratagem that calls down a defensive drone that is equipped in the backpack slot.

Stratagem Statistics

General
Call-in Time 9.75 seconds
Uses Unlimited
Cooldown Standard 480 seconds
With Morale Augmentation 456 seconds
With Hand Carts 432 seconds
With All Upgrades 410.4 seconds


Detailed Weapon Statistics

AR-23P Liberator Penetrator
Fire Rate 640 rpm
Recoil 19
Sway 1
Ergonomics 59
Capacity 45
Reload Time 3 s
Tactical Reload 2 s
Spare Magazines 8
Starting Magazines 5
Mags from Supply 8
Mags from Ammo Box 4
Attacks
Rifle 5.5x50mm Penetrator Projectile
Rifle 5.5x50mm Penetrator
Projectile
Caliber 5.5 mm
Mass 4.5 g
Initial Velocity 1000 m/s
Drag Factor 30%
Gravity Factor 100%
Penetration Slowdown 25%
Damage
Standard 60
vs. Durable 15
Penetration
Direct Armor AP3 Icon.png Medium
Slight Angle Armor AP3 Icon.png Medium
Large Angle Armor AP3 Icon.png Medium
Extreme Angle Armor AP0 Icon.png Unarmored I
Special Effects
Demolition Force 10
Stagger Force 10
Push Force 10

Functionality

The Liberator Penetrator wielded by the Guard Dog has the same statistics as that wielded by the player. It will independently target and attack any nearby enemies, regardless of whether or not it can penetrate their armor. When its magazine is depleted, the Guard Dog will return to its backpack to rearm; it carries up to eight reserve magazines, which can be refilled with the Resupply stratagem or by picking up Ammo Boxes during a mission. The amount of reserve magazines remaining can be seen visually on the backpack, the dark rectangle "arms" that open and close whenever the drone returns to the backpack to reload; the status of the magazine that is currently loaded in the drone is tracked in the HUD. The Guard Dog can also be recalled manually by pressing the backpack input, which will cause it to return to the user and deactivate until toggled on again.

Tactical Information

Guard Dog Specific

  • The drone is equipped with an AR-23P Liberator Penetrator and hovers around the user, engaging any targets within 30-metres.
  • Compared to the AX/LAS-5 "Guard Dog" Rover, the standard Guard Dog has better damage output and increased armor penetration in exchange for relying on a backpack-stored ammo supply to replace depleted magazines.
  • When manually recalled, Guard Dog will discard its current ammo-magazine and reloads a fresh one. Once reloaded, Guard Dog can be made active again.

General Guard Dog

  • Once the Guard Dog has locked on the first target, it won't disengage or switch targets until there is several seconds of line-of-sight lost or Guard Dog has completed its objective be it destruction or other main function.
    • This can lead Guard keep aiming at but not suppressing their initial target beyond the 30-metre engagement distance. The disengagement on out-of-reach and sight-line targets requires ~5-seconds time to reset and acquire a new closest target.
  • Because it effectively functions as a backpack-mounted sentry, the Guard Dog is very helpful in engagements where there are numerous enemies that need to be quickly dispatched.
  • The main benefit that the Guard Dog provides is that because it fires at targets automatically regardless of the player's actions, it can dispatch enemies even while the player is sprinting. This makes it very useful in scenarios where the player has to run to escape an area but cannot afford to slow down to shoot at enemies.
    • Guard Dog also can be used to clear targets behind covers, especially ones behind elevated walls.
      • Due to Guard Dog stratagems hovering by downward quadpropellant rocket engines and armed with a fixed non-gimbled gun, Guard Dog is unable to take down targets situated in extreme elevation differences such as right above or below. This operational vertical angle is approximately 45-degrees,
  • Unlike the stationary defensive-stratagems such as A/MG-43 Machine Gun Sentry, Guard Dog (stratagems) will only initiate engagement with alerted hostile targets.
    • Guard Dog is considered as a separate entity from their Helldiver-operator which won't gain the Scout Armor Passive while being active out of the backpack. In other words, hostile will spot and get alerted by Guard Dog itself before the Scout-Helldiver carrying the backpack.
    • Although hostiles won't specifically target the Guard Dog itself, it can be still rendered temporarily inoperable by stray bullets or explosions. This is observable by Guard Dog docking back to backpack "spitting" sparks until the repair process has been completed (approx.. 10-seconds).

Applicable Ship Modules

Department Ship Module Effect
Patriotic
Administration
Center 		Hand Carts Decreases cooldown for all Backpack stratagems by 10%.
Bridge Morale Augmentation Reduces cooldown time for all Stratagems by 5%.

Media

Tutorial Video Demonstrating Use of the AX/AR-23 "Guard Dog"

Change History

Patch
Description

1.003.002
2025-05-20

Fix

  • Fix drones not returning to backpack correctly

1.001.104
2024-10-15

Changes

  • Switch from AR-23 Liberator rounds to AR-23P Liberator Penetrator rounds
    • Armor penetration increased from 2 to 3
    • Damage decreased from 70 to 60
  • Magazine capacity increased from 30 to 45
  • Drone Backpacks now has a new toggle drone function
    • Activate: The drone leaves the backpack and starts to perform its tasks
    • Deactivate: The drone returns to the backpack into a passive standby state

1.001.100
2024-09-17

Undocumented Changes

  • Damage increased from 60 to 70.
  • Durable damage increased from 14 to 15.
  • Stagger Force increased from 10 to 15.

1.001.002
2024-08-06

Changes

  • Increased number of magazines from 6 to 8.

Fixes

  • Can now be refilled from ammo boxes found on the map.
  • “Kill x amount of enemies by guard dogs" personal orders can now be completed.

1.000.400
2024-06-13

Changes

  • Increased projectile damage against durable body parts from 10% to 23%.

1.000.300
2024-04-29

Changes

  • Slight increase in damage.

1.000.200
2024-04-02

  • Now restores full ammo from supply boxes.


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