Hey! I've got about 150 hours of mission time, and a majority of it has been playing against Bots on 9 since the game came out. I know bugs are the comfort zone for a lot of you, but a lot of this comes from lack of widespread good information about how to effectively combat the Automaton threat. This is not fully comprehensive to the entire list of equipment/stratagems, it's just what I find to be most effective to dispatch every enemy type in 1-3 seconds.

Forget everything you know from playing bugs. Very few guns are good against both factions, and many guns specialize specifically against the bots.

I'm gonna break it down, both in terms of how to handle each enemy on an individual basis, and then at the bottom in terms of Loadout decisionmaking.

Bots are very headshot-centric, and fighting the Automatons at a high level is largely a dance of hit and run tactics, devastating headshots, and lethal rockets flying at your face.

Enemies

Tanks

110m Rocket Pods are very consistent at one shotting tanks, and I'd highly recommend bringing them on every mission.

Two Impact Grenades to the side, rear, or top of their turret armor kills them instantly. Manually equipping grenades seems to give you a much faster double throw than using the quick throw button.

Also note that the Shredder Tank (4 Barrels, looks like an AA gun) has very fast turn rate which can prevent you from hitting the side/rear armor as effectively. Default to rocket pods or practice grenading the top at a distance.

Hulks

33% of player struggles comes from Hulks. How you deal with Hulks, and whether you can do it under pressure, is one of the bigger gatekeepers to success in high difficulties.

The Railgun in unsafe mode is still probably the easiest way to do this, needing only one ~50-60% charged shot to the Hulk eye to put them down.

The Autocannon has been excellent against bots since launch, but only recently gained its deserved popularity. It kills Hulks in two shots to the eye, although landing the second shot while under heavy pressure can still be very difficult if you panic. It can also kill Fabricators by ricocheting a shot off of the angled armor down the vent. The explosive shells also make it great for spawn camping dropships.

The Anti-Materiel Rifle is difficult to use due to its wonky scope, but it's worth learning to deal with. The AMR features the same two shot kill against Hulks that the Autocannon has, but it doesn't require a backpack, and has less recoil, offering a quicker followup shot. Also incredibly clean to use against Devastators.

The Laser Cannon is viable, but I don't reach for it against bots often because it can really be a struggle to accurately maintain the laser on a Hulk eye for ~2 seconds when you're under incoming pressure. It's viable, but that's about it. Likely wants the Shield Pack to avoid your aim being flinched off of Hulk eyes.

In co-op scenarios, be on the lookout for opportunities to shoot a Hulk in the back. ~6-7 Scorcher shots can do the trick. I believe the Autocannon does it in three.

Devastators

The other 67% of player difficulty comes from Devastators. Rockets get a lot of hate, but Heavy Devastators were given a stealth accuracy buff a while ago, and are absolutely worth giving top priority to in many cases. Once you know the matchup, they are extremely killable, but that doesn't make them any less lethal. Getting lazy fighting even just one in a 1v1 can and will get you killed. Treat 'em with respect.

The Railgun 1shots their face at low charge. If the Railgun is a comfort weapon for you, it's still extremely fun to belt out killshots every second on the deadliest enemies the game can offer.

The Autocannon and Railgun both 1shot their face at low charge.

The Sickle pairs nicely with the Autocannon, offering excellent accuracy to drill in on Devastator armors with great ammo efficiency. since the Autocannon can handle Walkers in one shot by shooting the pelvis, so missing the Scorcher feels fine.

The Dominator is very hard to use, featuring slow handling, bullet travel time, and bullet drop. But, if you can get this down, it 1shots Devastator heads consistently, on Semi-Auto. The raw potential is worth mentioning. Also worth noting it can kill Walkers by shooting the engine in the pelvic area.

The Slugger is a better handling but weaker Dominator. I swear there's something weird happening with the aim, because I've aimed dead center on a Devastator's face and not had it connect.

The Diligence is slept on, as a sibling to the Scorcher. You lose the ability to fight walkers, but it kills Devastators in two headshots, and can mow through Marauders if you're placing shots on head or upper chest.

The Laser Cannon is viable, but I don't reach for it against bots often because it can really be a struggle to accurately maintain the laser on a Hulk eye for ~2 seconds when you're under incoming pressure. It's viable, but that's about it.

The Scorcher actually isn't all that great at fighting Devastators, but it's good enough against Walkers that it's still on this list.

Walkers

Technically low on the broader totem pole, but will endlessly harass you if you don't have an ammo efficient solution to them from the front. You can run around them and shoot the pilot off given an opportunity or in a pinch, but when the rubber meets the road, you really want to have a default option for dealing with them from the front. The Scorcher is an excellent firearm that really made an identity for itself due to its ability to kill walkers in 2-3 shots by using the energy splash on the top side of the armor plating to kill the pilot behind it.

Berserkers

Low armor, very high health pool. You have two choices: Go for the headshot on a head that's constantly on the move and pretty hard to hit, or just go for general dismemberment and DPS.

The Railgun tends to flow pretty well against packs of Berserkers if you get used to lining them all up before shooting.

Loadout

Armor:

Since the patch, I mostly use Medium Medic. The 4 second regen time lets you shrug off Heavy Devastators while moving from cover to cover. The Medium Armor doesn't get one-shot by Rockets that often, and the Medic passive doubles the Stim value from Supply Pack.

Primaries:

Scorcher 2-3 shot killing walkers is insane. Also very good against

Sickle (for Autocannon)

Diligence (Devastator face shots/Marauder head or upper torso)

Dominator (Practice shooting it at a wall to understand the bullet drop. Very hard to learn but very strong)

Slugger (easier Dominator but less consistent 1shots).

Support:

Railgun

Autocannon

AMR (the scope is a bit off center and the zoom setting also re-zeroes it, load up a Trivial and practice it against a wall until you get used to the handling characteristics).

Laser Cannon (viable but not recommended)

EATs can bring down dropships if you shoot the engine, and if you throw EATs at the ground the moment a reinforcement flare is fired, the EATs will arrive right before the dropship swoops in. Funny, but I prefer direct combat.

Backpack:

Supply Pack: 8 Grenades, 8 Stims, tons of ammo, and you double every resupply box you pick up. Many people rely on the Shield backpack, but it's not that great. It's more akin to training wheels. When you're an effective fighter, Supply Pack is far better.

Shield: Is fine, but tends to pop very easily, and if you're not a good player when the shield is off, you can't expect it to carry you for the brief window it's on. The Supply Pack is much more effective at serving as training wheels, offering you 8 extra stims. The biggest benefit the Shield Pack brings is preventing aim flinch for that brief moment before it pops, giving you a brief window of opportunity against Hulk and Devastator faces.

Guard Dog: DO NOT TRY UNTIL BUGFIXED. It has bugged aim against bots at the moment, causing it to aim to the right of many bot enemies. The thing can't actually kill even basic enemies like Marauders and Berserkers unless they walk into the beam, or unless the aim ambiently sways into them enough to kill them.

Stratagems:

110m Rocket Pods (instakill tanks)

Eagle Airstrike is great if you're new to bots, drop it on a base and watch all of the fabricators get destroyed. Also pretty effective in combat.

Orbital Precision Strike can kill Detector Towers at a distance, Rogue Research Stations, and can be used on Jamming Towers if the terrain bug is stopping you from calling in the Hellbomb close enough to destroy it. It has a decently low cooldown, and is more effective at killing Hulks and Tanks than the 500kg is.

500kg can be used to kill Detector/Deactivated Jamming Towers/Rogue Research Stations from a distance.

Orbital Laser is a stratagem a lot of people rely on. I don't tend to bring it often, but the one use case I see for it, is if you need to do a corpse run back to your stuff, and you know there's Hulks in the vicinity that you can't easily 1v1 without your Support Weapon.