Merryweather's "Backup helicopter"--does it DO anything?

[DentureDynamite]

I've called them several times now; when being chased by the police, when being chased by Mercs, and other players, and other than flying around in their Buzzard, have done didley-squat. Money down the tubes.

 

What am I doing wrong? When, and in what circumstances, do they actually kill an enemy for you?

[Taco_Gta]

Yeah they kill people but it sure as f*ck and worth 5k

[sesamtamam]

hahahah I´m wondering this too. You´re like, "dude help me and dont just fly around like an idiot doing jack sh*t".

[DeucesR]

They do actually work. But not in a vehicle or against NPC's. The Back up helicopter from Merryweather, Does work. I've had it used against me, and it is effective.

 

My crew and I were killing a couple people, one of them called the helicopter, and it DID kill me, twice.

 

It doesn't say the player that called it, killed me, it only says I died. They do work, but not when you're zooming down the streets from NPCs. It works against Players, on foot.

[sesamtamam]

hahahah I´m wondering this too. You´re like, "dude help me and dont just fly around like an idiot doing jack sh*t".

[Black Terminator]

If that back up helicopter doesn't drop, I will RPG that f*cking pilot.

[GTA-Freak-Vi]

It's quite useless. Only used it during earlier levels when doing missions solo(till I realized that it was a waste of money)

[who-dat]

Used it when the odds were against me, and it helped turn the tide till back-up could arrive. As far as I know, it only fights players, not NPCs, but I could be totally wrong.

[Furry_Monkey]

I've used it against mercs and it did work for me, a few times actually. I found it odd that they were probably laughing and joking with each other earlier that day, but 2 complete strangers slap a few grand their way and they'll happily kill each other over it.

[DentureDynamite]

I'll have to give them another try, but it is expensive when they don't do zip to help you...have to almost stand in the street and get riddled with bullets for them to figure it out. lol

Edited November 7, 2014 by DentureDynamite

[GTA6759]

I was in a shoot out with cops and it shot at them.

[Gridl0k]

Expensive decoy.

[DentureDynamite]

Hmm, I'm wondering how it knows who to target? A player shoots you and/or you shoot at another player?

 

So far the Mercs have been the only ones that actually nailed who I sent them after.

 

Sounds like R* have some work to do to make the Backup heli more consistently effective...on foot and in the middle of a gunfight, it can be pretty difficult and time-consuming to find cover long enough to make that call, and then wait for them to show up.

[EW200]

It's just another tool in the tool box.

 

I have used it. It is a good diversion tactic if another player has you pinned down, the player usually will try and shot it down and that's when you make your move.

[Furry_Monkey]

Hmm, I'm wondering how it knows who to target? A player shoots you and/or you shoot at another player?

 

So far the Mercs have been the only ones that actually nailed who I sent them after.

 

Sounds like R* have some work to do to make the Backup heli more consistently effective...on foot and in the middle of a gunfight, it can be pretty difficult and time-consuming to find cover long enough to make that call, and then wait for them to show up.

 

I've wondered that too, but never had them shoot at another player for me. I think I'll start calling them more often and see if I can find out.

[ExMaj]

Well I use it when I am getting killed by a jet.. you might ask, how does that help?? Well when it's hovering above me, if the pilot isn't good enough he will slam into it and die. Worked couple of times.

[JonesyBoy]

My friend and I were screwing around, and we fighting over who would ride the train. He was doing a pretty good job of keeping me from getting back on it. After he ran out of C4 (to try and blow up my car as i was chasing the train) he called in the merryweather chopper. And that thing destroyed me. It kept up with the train car he was sitting in perfectly, and it killed me several times as i tried to ramp onto the train, or even drive ahead and climb aboard. When i lost my patience, i went and got a buzzard of my own to finish things off, and embarrassingly enough, it evaded 4 of my rockets that i locked on, and then being theres no protection at all in the buzzard, i was gunned out from a combination of merryweather and my friend. And of course my buzzard crashed and blew up. So yes. I find it an effective service, at least under these circumstances.

[DentureDynamite]

Dang! I sure could have used that protection when I was being chased by two guys (had a bounty on my head)...lost my vehicle and got gunned down trying to find cover. Other than flying around in circles, it did absolutely nothing to protect me by nailing the attacking players.

[hugh750]

i've used them when i'm doing the titan of a job mission, seeing merryweather fighting merryweather!!

[DarkSavageDeathlyCloud]

it kills other players if they are atacking you and the helicopter can hit them

quite anoying once it starts, since its not flying that low and it has a good aim

but yea, one can just kill you with a good burst or under bridges or stuff and you just wasted money

[Soran Is On]

I use it as a distraction.

 

I was pinned down by a sniper roof to roof and had to climb a ladder that I would have been murdered at the top of 100% probability. Called merryweather chopper, sniper is distracted for 5 seconds allowing me to climb said ladder, killed opposing sniper with grenade launcher. Well worth it if you are in the wrong place at the right time.

[Darth_Rob]

It's supposed to work in Survival matches, but I just wind up accidentally shooting them down.

[C64fanatic]

It saved me in Coveted a long time ago. I was doing it solo and had just picked up the crate when I almost destroyed the Cargobob. It was puffing grey/black smoke - and I thought.... let's give it a try, and I called the backup chopper. It actually managed to keep the enemy chopper away from me, and I could complete the mission - but it was a VERY close call .

 

I could have landed and taken the enemy chopper out, but I knew I had to get to the objective as fast as possible cause the Cargobob was badly damaged.

Edited November 7, 2014 by C64fanatic

[shadyelf]

it's a decent distraction I guess. Funny thing is those guys aren't even Merryweather based on their uniforms, they're with Gruppe Sechs.

[elfoam]

It works in missions but now that you get paid not much in missions and even less if you go faster by getting backup. Well really if you get in trouble during a mission you are better off just dying and starting again on an easier one. Becausepaying for that chopper will take all your payout any way.

[reform]

Best used when your are stationary, say, you're pinned down etc. Pretty funny to use in some gang attacks etc.

[Charles_Lee_Raye]

I use it on missions sometimes. All the time when we had the half off services week.

 

Its highly effective as others mentioned when pretty stationary. It will just stay within a radius of you so the more you move the more the chopper will move thus decreasing its effectiveness.

[soundism]

It's supposed to work in Survival matches, but I just wind up accidentally shooting them down.

This. My buddy used to use it in survivals. I always seemed to minigun half the occupants before he could tell me it was friendly.

 

Neat feature IMO, but not altogether useful or worth the 5k

[greyishgoose]

Well when it comes to the backup helicopter, I've used it on free roam and it attacks people that attack me but most players have the means to take them down quickly.

 

You can definitely use it on missions but believe it or not it's might be a good option for SURVIVAL. Tried it on Industrial (when every random person that would join was just getting killed) and it took down a lot of npc's and I think one of the npc helicopters before they just decided to leave.

 

Just remember to call it when there's enemies around because if there aren't any it'll just be idle and might just leave when you really need it.

[CarimboHanky]

if memory doesnt fail me, i have used merryweather helicopter backup only once...

 

i use it on a madrazo mission... you know that mission you have to go to a house, kill a guy, take a pic of the dead guy and escape the cops...

 

i use it on that mission and it was such a waste.

 

at that time the payouts had been nerfed so the payout was $5,500.

 

so between the ammo, explosives, backup helicopter and lester(remove wanted), that mission was all but profitable for me.

 

that was when i was level 57, that day i stopped doing missions.