Helldivers 2 is comfort food. I don’t consider 400 hours to be particularly extensive when other multiplayer PvE games like Monster Hunter effortlessly triple that, yet Helldivers 2 is uniquely palatable, despite me not truly having any sort of affinity for the ironic, slapstick Starship Troopers mosaic it folds itself into.
However, at level 143—shy of the current level cap by seven levels—my love for Helldivers 2 is continuously renewed and reinvigorated when new content arrives. 400 hours later, I have a firm grasp on what loadouts I prefer, though they’re susceptible to a bit of tweaking now and then, and I tackle nearly every mission type in the same way when my Hellpod lands in an SOS lobby.
How My Approach to Helldivers 2 Has Changed Since Launch
Hundreds of hours ago, in any mission type, my highest priority—especially if I joined a lobby with players whose levels are all below, say, 50—was racing to every critical, orange mission objective. I had joined too many missions where players were seemingly aimless or unaware of the ticking clock in the top-right corner of the HUD, and there is no faster way to ignorantly deplete reinforcements than to dillydally on Helldivers 2’s Level 10 Super Helldive difficulty, which I’ve played on exclusively for as long as I can remember.
One of my least favorite experiences in Helldivers 2 was joining an SOS lobby midway through, seeing reinforcements down to single digits, and realizing that not a single orange objective on the map had been completed. This informed me that players were either so overwhelmed by the enemy faction, which I suppose is possible if they were ill-equipped and lacked a full squad to begin with, hence why I was able to arrive via SOS, or they were preoccupied with side objectives and resource scavenging.
Under certain circumstances, all of these excuses are valid. Still, even if I was seeking points of interest and resources, such as Helldivers 2’s Super Credits, Requisition slips, or common, rare, and super samples, I preferred to have the safety net of a mission’s chief objectives completed first, so that I didn’t risk jeopardizing Warbond medals.
Now, with so few progression routes to actually pursue beyond continuously and optionally fueling the Democracy Space Station (DSS), I am no longer as concerned with a mission succeeding as long as I have procured a decent number of resources and managed to extract. It isn’t the end of the world if I don’t secure myself whatever amount of medals I would have earned from a mission I join, as I know I’ll acquire them soon enough. Plus, with Helldivers 2’s Warbond medal cap still at 250, I’m often at the maximum number I can hold anyhow, with nothing to spend them on if there isn’t a new Warbond I haven’t already swept clean.
Helldivers 2’s Xbox launch was a rare case where my medals were consistently low, but that’s due to there being two Warbonds back-to-back in that span: the Helldivers 2 x Halo: ODST Legendary Warbond and the Dust Devils Premium Warbond.
400 hours in, I’m pleased with how a mission goes as long as I’ve found spare Super Credits to help chip away at the next Warbond, and if I feel like I’ve contributed to Helldivers 2’s Major Orders. The icing on the cake is if the players on my squad are amicable, don’t take the game so seriously as to punish friendly fire with a kick from the lobby, and demonstrate a willingness to operate as a team, such as stimming one another when someone is low on health and hasn’t stimmed themselves.
I Rely on Helldivers 2 as a Refreshing ‘In and Out’ Game, Not a Time Sink
Depending on where we’ve chosen to drop on a map, I’m likely to trek to the objective farthest from our extraction site. That way, I’m nearer the extraction site and can call in the Pelican shuttle sooner once the main objectives are done and I’ve slowly looped back around, clearing other red blots and question mark points of interest in the meantime.
If I see an Automaton Stratagem Jammer or Illuminate Cognitive Disruptor, I abandon whatever the main objective is to cut it down so that no nearby objectives are compromised, and I’m not left fumbling for an Orbital nuke only to realize that they, much less reinforcement or resupply Hellpods, have been negated in the vicinity.
The timer denoting when Helldivers 2’s Destroyer will leave the planet’s orbit never seems to be a concern of mine; rather, what I loathe is when a mission has already taken upwards of 20 minutes and players refuse to call for extraction, choosing instead to sit on the extraction site and kill enemies. I experience this often enough for it to be a severe gripe of mine, seeing it as wholly wasteful when we’ve exhausted everything of value, buddy bunkers and all, and I’d rather depart, secure my rewards, and start a new mission promptly.
The Stratagem is Mightier Than the Gun in Helldivers 2
After 400 hours, with at least 80% of that playtime spent joining SOS lobbies from the Galactic War table, many mission types blur together in a haze of the same main and side objectives, which vary between each Helldivers 2 enemy faction. Some missions are unique, such as ones that have a singular objective with limited map real estate and no side objectives, but my modus operandi rarely fluctuates, and my loadout/build is fairly unshaken; I main an anti-tank meta on Automaton missions, whereas I run a spritely, mission- and loot-focused meta on Terminid and Illuminate missions:
Automaton Stratagem Loadout
- A/MLS-4X Rocket Sentry
- Eagle 500KG Bomb
- GR-8 Recoilless Rifle
- Orbital 380MM HE Barrage
Terminids/Illuminate Stratagem Loadout
- AX/LAS-5 “Guard Dog” Rover
- Eagle 500KG Bomb
- M-105 Stalwart or MG-43 Machine Gun
- Orbital Laser
The only mission types I drastically replace my stratagem loadouts for are Eradicate and Evacuate. Because they’re so straightforward and can be completed so swiftly, I have a loadout curated for each that I believe is as efficient as humanly possible:
Eradicate Automaton Forces/Eradicate Terminid Swarm Stratagem Loadout
- Eagle 500KG Bomb
- Orbital 120MM HE Barrage
- Orbital 380MM HE Barrage
- Orbital Laser
Evacuate High-Value Assets Stratagem Loadout
- A/AC-8 Autocannon Sentry, A/M-12 Mortar Sentry, or A/M-23 EMS Mortar Sentry
- A/MLS-4X Rocket Sentry
- Eagle 500KG Bomb
- E/AT-12 Anti-Tank Emplacement
As you can tell, Helldivers 2’s Eagle 500KG Bomb is my bread and butter. I appreciate it for its annihilation and convenience, able to be thrown into a general area with confidence that it will make a figurative crater out of it as I run by. The Eagle 500KG Bomb is a model offensive stratagem permit when it comes to objectives like Detector Towers, Mortar Emplacements, Rogue Research Labs, and Spore Spewers, but it’s also fantastic in a pinch when I have an insurmountable horde of enemies tailing me, or if I need to clear a Spread Democracy mission’s flag sites of all the enemies that flood them.
Eradicate and Evacuate Missions Call for a Bit of Nuance
In what I’ve come to witness as exceptionally rare, I equip all offensive stratagems for Eradicate missions so that I can rain nukes on encroaching enemy swarms. The strategy here, whether obvious or not, is to reach the 100% percentage of enemies killed that we need in order to complete the mission as quickly as possible.
This unquestionably puts myself and my squadmates in the line of fire, but the number of deaths we take compared to the deaths enemies take is a sacrifice I gladly make and has proven optimal thus far, as opposed to bringing supply stratagems and trying to hold a perimeter around the extraction site while waiting for cooldowns to end.
On Evacuate missions, my loadout ethos is virtually the reverse. The whole intent of Helldivers 2’s Evacuate missions is to defend two generators behind multiple gates and whatever defenses players have brought with them. Therefore, Sentries are vital in staving off incessant waves while the mission’s automatic progression gradually drags onward.
And, ever since the debut of Helldivers 2’s Anti-Tank Emplacement, players can literally take a seat and either shoot bot and squid ships out of the sky before they have an opportunity to unleash a new horde of enemies, or shoot them down and have them crash into recently spawned enemies below. In my opinion, Anti-Tank Emplacements are both the best and worst stratagem to bring on Evacuate missions, as it’s tremendously fun to repel Factory Striders and Bile Titans before they can enter the compound, but the mission itself becomes trivial and static when nothing can contend with four Anti-Tank Emplacements parked in a row.
400 hours in, I’m pleased with how a mission goes as long as I’ve found spare Super Credits to help chip away at the next Warbond, and if I feel like I’ve contributed to Helldivers 2’s Major Orders.
My Primary, Secondary, and Throwable are Unlikely to Change After 400 Hours of Helldivers 2
Besides how frequently I lose control of my Helldiver while ragdolling and sailing through the sky or how I’m routinely slain by a turret laser before I can comprehend what happened, I love bot missions for how incredibly engaging they are and how they force me to plan or route efficiently. My anti-tank loadout is intended to pare away the tedium and frustration I’d otherwise have, and I truly can’t imagine wielding anything other than Helldivers 2’s Eruptor in 90% of scenarios.
It’s like bringing brass knuckles to a fight where my opponent has brought a baseball bat—I’m still at a great disadvantage, but if I can close the distance, or get one lucky hit in, that blow will be devastating (for me, too, potentially). As for my secondary weapon and throwable, I’ve settled on the GP-32 Ultimatum and G-3 Thermite for the same anti-tank purposes, allowing me to go toe-to-toe with almost any enemy unit in any faction, and I’ll be thrilled to see if any future Warbond or Helldivers 2 Superstore content will have me conflicted on what I want to replace and when.
- Released
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February 8, 2024
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
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Arrowhead Game Studios, Nixxes
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Publishing
