Spiders can be annoying if one doesn't have antivenom or bionics to help clear out the venom, although the samples are a positive to try work around their nests.

I hate those tunnel spiders that hide under ground and catalysm forbid if you land up in one of their nests.

I enjoy using fire, great way to scare off a frog mother if they are chasing you, but usually I don't mind burning a forest down to get rid of their nests if it is in my way also is my go to way to control fungus and reach the towers.

Oh and to use as a means to quickly make a dent in city zombie population in new cities by using a disposable burner home after I looted it to flush them out if I need to.

Swamps I am always careful with as there might be sinkholes and it are usually swarming with amalgams as there is a lot of combat that happens in there.

I had a horrible first experience with the plant bugs ( it always damages the torso when they attack) so finding any form of insulation is good first step for me as I saw the difference and I just shoot them now, they aren't that well armoured against bullets if I recall- a solid m4a1 rifle should handle them and as you said using a molotov if it gets too much is also a solid plan.

It seems the hacks have to arm the grenade before dropping it, so I focus on killing them before it has a chance to complete, they are nimble but are fragile, I have had the blade ones give me bit more of a challenge by comparision but by the time I do labs and military raiding my melee skills are usually decently skilled (like minimum 6) to hit consistently. I do not think I have had a drone drop a grenade on me before though, so it is probably just my personal bias. My melee style is more on one hand, quick weapons ( with sufficient skill I try to aim for sub 90 action costs, but usually sub 100 is acceptable for me) and have a martial arts related weapon. I do panic a bit if I see the mininuke hacks, but I try to kill the drones before it gets to that as well.

If one wants to get fancy, there is the emp bionic and it shuts down any threat from robotic foes.

Yeah, the bionics provide a ton of freedom in builds when I can get it, I usually bite and the bullet and endure it until I can get the bionics though, but indeed, that selection of bionics with maybe the hearing dampener as well and a lot of things are not nearly as deadly as it help prevent those nasty status effect

Indeed, shogs are built differently, they require a specialist loadout to overcome that 50hp per turn regen, and it is tricky overcoming that consistently without using something like a .50 machine gun or a rocket launcher( which is a chore to level up).

Grenades and bombs are risky (although maybe a radio controlled bomb truck could work) as it can just eat it and melee is a question of whether the timestop bioinic can hold out long enough for you too burst down 400hp in time but the thing has 10 melee skill or if one has a melee build that can push past the 50 damage dpt (damage per turn, which I average at 100 action cost per turn) and not miss and avoid being crippled.

I read good things about a laser rifle but have yet to have used one so I cannot provide confirmation on that.