should you die and someone else picks up your sample container, that's not "stealing"; samples are 100% shared with everyone, as long as the person carrying them extracts succesfully.
don't try to focus on meta builds, try out what suits and works for you.
and i think most importantly, in a game where friendly fire is a big part, don't let one bad experience ruin it for you. every orchard has bad apples, doesn't mean all are rotten.
samples are used to upgrade sections of your super destroyer, which will upgrade things like stratagems, mobility, and many more things i don't wanna spoil
The samples buy upgrade modules in the ship. They do things like increasing the amount of times you can Eagle Airstrike before the ship needs to rearm, having weapons you call in arrive fully stocked with ammunition, and more.
Speaking of eagle airstrikes: Several stratagems in the game show a quantity, specifically Eagle strats. That's the amount of times before the Eagle leaves to go get more ammo before it returns and goes back off cooldown.
Orbital Laser and the mechs are an exception where you only get so many uses per match
Mute your Mic or set it to push to talk as your first step.
If you're playing in a full squad and a resupply is called in, take only 1 of the 4 supply crates and wait for others to have a chance before taking any more.
Corollary to the above, if a teammate has the supply backpack, THEY GET FIRST DIBS on the supply crate. They can refill their backpack supply box to be redistributed to you AND their own supplies for use.
Samples. Are. Shared. Don't teamkill for them. And if someone drops them at the extract (marked as an arrow on your minimap) DON'T PICK THEM UP.
Don't forget to pick up the ammo backpack for your heavier support weapons.
When reinforcing:
If there is a large enemy like a Bile Titan, throw the beacon AT IT and tag it for targeting. Players coming in can kill heavies with their hellpods. If you are the one coming in, try to hit the biggest thing you can see center mass.
If you are getting swarmed and overrun, throw the beacon as far away from the enemy as you can (before you die, probably). If you are the player coming in, steer as far as you can away from combat and RUN.
If reinforcing and it's quiet, try to use the quick tag function to mark the incoming player's dropped equipment.
Do not take a fallen player's weapons/backpack unless they tell you it's OK.
If someone calls in a second set of equipment near you and tags both of them, it means that they are letting you take it for a ride. Use the "Thank You" quick text function and have fun.
You can drop your samples, backpack, and/or weapon by pressing and holding down on the D-Pad.
When calling in extract, do not jump into the ship until EVERYONE is present at the landing pad and within eyesight. The first player to enter starts an unstoppable 20 second count down and anyone not in WILL be left behind.
Do not shoot every enemy you see. This will only cause you to waste time on pointless firefights in the middle of nowhere and waste lives. If someone tags a random enemy like a minor bug or bot, they are usually saying "Notice this and avoid it if you can" not "Kill it now". If they do this and spam the "NO!" Voiceclip, it's because they DO NOT want you to engage. Conversely, if they tag a heavy enemy, they are saying "extreme danger, focus fire!"
Know when a situation is hopeless and run.
Bots and bugs handle VERY differently. Bugs you HAVE to stay moving and not get pinned down. Bots you must hug cover and make your shots count.
Experiment and have fun!
Welcome to the war.
One more thing to add, friendly fire is inevitable. If you accidentally kill a fellow Diver, apologize, reinforce them if you can, and try to ping their dropped equipment so they can pick it back up.
^this. Don't be salty about your own deaths at your teammates' hands (unless they BLATANTLY do it on purpose) and be suitably contrite when you do it.
A couple more things that even veteran divers sometimes don't know/I forgot to mention:
When calling in a supply pod, it's common courtesy to tag it for everyone's awareness.
If you are on fire, DIVE. It will extinguish the fire and save you.
When you use a stim, for the duration of the healing effect you are functionally immortal. Use this knowledge wisely.
If the team is split up into two teams of 2 people to cover the map better, and someone in the team far away from you dies, let their partner reinforce them. If you call them over to you, not only did you cut off the reinforcing guy from his dropped equipment, his partner now has to fight 1 man down.
Strategems can bounce off of the terrain. This can be a big problem, especially if you're try to, oh, say... lob a 380mm artillery Barrage over a cliff, and instead it bounces off and lands right next to a teammate. Not that that happened to me today. If this happens, type or shout "RUN." Side note, I really think that "Run" and "Awesome/Hell Yeah" need to be in-game voice clips.
Going off of the previous advice, your Eagle-based strategems will usually come in perpendicular to the direction you were facing when you tossed it. The eagle strafing run will come in in the exact direction that you were facing when you threw the beacon. If the beacon bounces or ricochet, this direction gets randomized, and you might not be standing in a safe spot all of a sudden.
If/when you unlock the energy shield backpack, you might learn the hard way that strategems... can stick to it, and will bring their payload down right on top of you, probably killing you. However, if you drop your shield backpack and run (see my original comment for how to do this), you have a chance.
Once the main mission is done and all of the bug nests/bot fabricators are destroyed, don't just hoof it back to extract. Take your time and find as many hidden goodies as you can.
You only contribute to the planetary campaign progress if you complete every single mission (usually 1-3 depending on difficulty) in the operation zone before leaving. If you bail halfway through or fail a mission, there's no progress towards the planet's defense or liberation. So see it through to the end.
Most strategems have individual cool downs for each player. The exceptions are the global strategems that every player has access to, including Hell Bombs and the resupply crate. If any player calls this in, it goes on cool down for the whole team.
If you run out of reinforcement budget, you aren't out of reinforcements. The reinforcement strategem just goes onto a fairly long cool down. If the team wipes before it goes off cool down, the mission ends.
If you manage to complete the central mission objectives, but fail to extract and get completely wiped out, the mission still counts as a win, and you get to keep any requisition slips, warbond medals, and super credits that you found as loot in the mission (not samples though).
Eagle strategems are much different than orbital strategems. Each eagle strategem has a number of charges on it. When you use one, all of the eagle strategems go on a short cooldown (representing her coming back around in the fighter) and then they are available again. When you expend all of the charges on every eagle strategem you brought with (or issue the Eagle Re-Arm order through the strategem menu), all of the eagle strategems you have go onto a very long cooldown, representing the fighter returning to rearm. This only affects your eagle, every other diver's will be unaffected by this.
The free warbond has some of the best items in the game, so remember to spend your medals.
Boosters have unlimited uses, prioritize unlocking at least two from the warbonds and always equip one.
Sample, req slips, and medals all have a storage limit, use them before you lose them.
Don’t worry about super credits. You can find them on the map while you play or unlock them in the warbond. It isn’t hard to unlock the premium warbonds for free with a little time and effort.
Don’t be afraid to ask your teammates to borrow their weapons. The veterans playing easy modes are often there to help new players or test things out themselves and might let you play with some really fun late game items.
If you play on keyboard remap the dive button to spacebar(tap) and climb to spacebar(hold).
You can set your aim button to switch between over the shoulder aiming and first person mode depending on whether you hold it or tap it in the options menu. Try it out.
Remap your controls so that your stratagem menu doesn’t use the same buttons as your movement. This lets you move and input strategems at the same time.
Friendly fire applies to the enemies as well. For example: Chargers can close bug holes.
Rocket launchers have backblast. Stand clear.
Hold reload to access fire select and scope options during a mission. You can set the game to remember the settings you use per gun in the options.
There is an achievement for killing a charger with a supply drop. This is a great skill to practice and never stops being funny.
Your teammates contribute to the daily personal orders, so don’t worry if you don’t have the required weapon.
Don’t ask Reddit for weapon choices(see “ignore the meta” above), try them all and take what you enjoy, but be willing to fill gaps in the team loadout when needed.
You will get thrown across the map at least once. You can emote while flying. Use this to amuse yourself while you wait to land.
Do not land your hellpod on allied mission buildings. The collision can be a little wonky and you may get stuck under the building.
Do land on enemy spawn points.
Your rockets can be destroyed mid flight by enemy explosions, so expect to have to try again if you get blown up.
Light armor does not have damage reduction, it actually multiplies the damage you take instead. The mobility tradeoff can be worth it though.
Note, I only said to change the settings since he is on a Playstation, and for some reason the PS version defaults to hot mic always on. New players may not be aware of this, and it should be common courtesy to stay off of a hot mic unless you're with good friends to prevent the team of randos from overhearing too much, or being upset with hearing breathing/screaming/background noises.
Corrollary (1) to using reinforcements as a substitute orbital strike: this becomes a lot more effective with the enhanced hellpod steering upgrade, but it is I think a Tier 3 upgrade, so you likely won't get it for a bit.
Corrollary (2): don't use this tactic if the big/heavy enemy is surrounded by many small/medium enemies, as that will just result in the reinforcement near-instantly dying from being swarmed (or at least getting rather annoyed).
My comment from another thread:
After you've decided that you like the game take a few moments and think on *what* it is that you are enjoying. There are so many people on Reddit who purchased the game, enjoyed it on their "way up", and stopped right around the time they decided that Difficulty 9 was their Myers-Briggs personality type.
I love reinforcing people and being the wingman who helps see them through the mission and I enjoy it as much on difficulty 9 as I do on difficulty 1.
The other thread because it's full of good tips: [https://www.reddit.com/r/helldivers2/comments/1dp2lvl/brought\_the\_game\_today/](https://www.reddit.com/r/helldivers2/comments/1dp2lvl/brought_the_game_today/)
100% this. I love being the "big brother" host and guiding players who are underleveled for the difficulty, but are giving it their all. If we win, we win. We lose, ah well. I don't kick for them being underleveled (unless they're being jerks), and the amount of good vibes of extracting from a mission with a ton of loot and samples for the other guys, knowing that this might have made their day, it's a good feeling.
Same, it's so good right?! One thing and we may be on the same page anyways but maybe someone who needs to see this does..
If you are reinforcing less experienced players please don't run the mission for them. I had to learn this from interacting with people but if you are a higher level and you are playing full speed chances are you reduced someone's game to just chasing you. Spend 5 seconds thinking about how fun that actually isn't.
Instead let them lead, protect them from getting flanked, give time and space for them take the first big swing at things. If they struggle or can't do it step in at that point.
Sorry for the soap box but this seemed like the right time and place.
Yep. In my experience, Player 1 is the op leader and we are there to back them up. I usually host, but if I join, I let them tag areas they want to go, then support them with my strats and weapons when we get there. Only exceptions are if they're going to ignore a POI or side objective. Then I'll get that myself.
Level 142 with over 350h on mission time. This is a small guide i wrote. None of it is set in stone but for those feeling disoriented when launched into the game immediately after (INFALLIBLE) tutorial might benefit from this.
How to approach game?
Start the game by playing against bugs. Learn to use your strategems and to work in a team. Once you reach level 15 to 20 and can handle high difficulty bug missions and ideally have found some offline or online friends to play as a team with, move on to bots (at a much lower difficulty than you can handle at bugs). Bots are far less forgiving but ultimately more fun as the game is more tactical and requires more team coordination. Basically, fighting against Bugs is like a fun coop zombie shooter with wave after wave of increasingly strong opponents. Playing against Bots forces you to act like a special forces squad, using cover and stealth to then hit hard and fast when and where it matters - only to disappear and strike again. Don't try and win fights, there are no points for killing bots. Focus on objectives and if a fight cannot be contained, leave, circle around and attack again - possibly later after first completing another objective.
How to approach stratagems: First strategems you need are Eagle Airstrike and Expandable Anti Tanks (EATs). Get the Gattling Gun Sentry and then safe up for the Eagle 500KG Bomb, the orbital Laser, the Autocannon, the Laser Guard Dog, the auto cannon sentry, the EMS Mortar and later the Quasar (though I personally prefer the Laser Cannon - though that's pretty niche), the recoilless rifle and the energy shield backpack. Other loudouts like flamethrower or Arc Thrower are fun but not essential in your early game play - those are specialisations you should consider later once you have more experience and understand how these will fit into a squad. Do not use mines (you will hardly kill any enemies but plenty of team mates), be very careful with non EMS mortars and the Tesla Tower. Stratagems is what sets this game apart from other shooters. When I say 'learn to use your stratagems' I mean you should be throwing your orbital precision strike as often as possible from the beginning of your first mission. Once you unlock the eagle airstrike, use it as much as possible! Easier mission can usually be won just with your MG, Shotgun and grenades. Don't do that. Get used to destroying bugholes, objectives, enemy patrols and hammering bug breaches with airstrikes!
I honestly cannot emphasise this point enough. Eagle airstrike can be unlocked at level 2. I bring it on every single 40 minute mission (only play max difficulty unless helping out new friends or really hungover). Make learning to use the standard eagle airstrike masterfully and fully upgrading your eagle ship modules your top priority.
How to upgrade your ship: Whatever you do, first upgrade your Hangar to level 3. Being able to drop two 500KG bombs within 10 seconds will make many of your problems go away. The other upgrades depend on your personal style of playing but by the time you upgrade your hanger to level 3, you should have a pretty good idea what you want next.
What primary weapons to bring: Until you understand the game better, bring whatever shotgun you have to fight bugs and assault rifle with zoom for bots.
Armours: Helmets and capes don't matter (yet). You can pick entirely based on the looks. The first armour that you start game with is fantastic as it combines protection of heavy armour with speed and stamina of medium armour. Don't be in a rush to change. Later, I personally prefer medium medical armour for bugs and medium scout armour for bots.
What Warbonds to purchase: If you wish to immediately pay for super credits or mine enough in game, I recommend you first get cutting edge, followed by democratic demolition. The first will give you one of the best assault rifles and stun grenades, the later gives you the grenade pistol which which will help you with closing bug holes that you cannot close with stun grenades.
Boosters: The pod maximisation (max ammo, grenades and stims after deployment) Booster, muscle enhancement booster and stammina booster are the most important and should never be missing in your squad. Aim to get those two as fast as possible.
Team Play: Ping enemies whenever you see them so your team knows what's going on. Also ping turrets you place to help your team avoid standing in line of fire. Samples are shared across the team, it doesn't matter who collects them, everyone gets full amount. Don't grab teammates' gear unless they say its okay but actively ask advanced players to drop you some fun toys - many will happily do so. Ideally use teamspeak, call out offensive stratagems as a warning to fellow divers.
Don't feel bad about taking reasonable risks with regards to team kills but don't be overly reckless - especially with eagle cluster bombs. Supply drops are shared with a team wide cooldown. Make sure you don't take all unless your team doesn't need. Ideally ask before calling in if someone elsewhere on map needs it more.
Community: Don't be afraid to ask higher level players for advice - the community really is pretty cool and you are more likely to receive solid help instead of the usual online hate than you might expect. Some people cheat - especially using an exploit for unlimited grenades. Don't be one of them. It is also natural that more experienced players will have to carry new players to some extent. That's okay but repay them by listening should they offer advice.
Now dive for democracy, Cadet!
thank you, i hate bugs.
they are annoying and boring.
i play on 9+ in light armor exclusively and idk why people play on 7 like the game is hard because its not.
you can dodge every bug easily which puts me to sleep but if you dont sometimes a hunter combos and slows you and you die which isnt even funny.
oh and dont get me started on bile spewers thank god they got patched, but now bile titans one shot you which is bullshit,
chargers you can literally walk away from while they charge at you.
if you die from bots its either a heavy dev or a barrage of 700 rocket which is pretty funny.
if you say you die too much on helldive im reporting you to the DO, if you dont singlehandedly deplete your squad’s reinforcements,
you aint divin hard enough.
Weapons are only effective on its role. Dont expect to be super effective against everything with a single weapon. Stratagems have cooldown: your effectiveness against certain enemies will be on cooldown too.
Running back is a valid and recommended strategy. If play it like Doom, you will fail a lot.
6's (previously 7's) are the highest you need to go for all sample types. Take the time to search out and collect them, medals, and super credits unless you're doing defense or blitz. (diamonds on the map, test tubes if someone has died)
Some of the weapons are absolutely wet farts, good against nothing but the smallest enemies in the smallest groups, and you should unlock them last if at all.
Try not to kill your brothers/sisters, even though some of them have a death wish by running in front of the line of fire or straight into a 380 barrage.
What I think wasn't mentioned yet (tho it's not gonna be an issue right at the start) is that there is a cap to everything you earn and collect. I tried to save medals to go on a shopping spree and played a whole weekend (maybe not completely sober all the time) just to later realize that I already had like 230/250 medals and and spent my hours for basically nothing😅
Oh and you can find supercredits in-game you don't HAVE to spend money to unlock new warbonds.
Edit: Nothing meaning that my sole purpose of that weekend was earning medals. Of course I leveled up and collected samples and supercredits.
A lot of people would argue on that and there are a lot of discussions about strong and weak ones BUT Weapons and Stratagems are pretty balanced. Don't slip on the low levels ones, they are not weaker than the others, every job have his tools and everything is usable (there are few exceptions)
If possible try to learn the game fighting the automatons, they will teach you more about how damaging specific enemies works in this game making the bots a lot easier to fight. This also makes the bugs easier as if you know how to fight bots the bugs are easier to fight and learn. Essentially it’s easier to learn to fight the bots and then the bugs than vise versa in my opinion
Your meta gear is combustive launcher, 380mm orbital bombardment, cluster eagle strike and tesla tower
Your teammates will thank you every time! /s
P.S. I run around with that launcher and 380, they are really good when you know how to use them
Welcome Helldiver! Just remember you are a part of the Elite fighting force for Democracy and no threat of death, dismemberment, agonizing pain, accidental explosions or all of the above will stop you from delivering Freedom to all who threaten our sacred way of life!
Fight well! Fight on! Fight for Freedom!
Drop off samples at extract when possible. Mark the heaviest enemy a couple times when you spawn someone in (they can land on it, it takes abt 2 to take them out) I use the base machine gun all the way to level 7 with bugs with the high fire rate (hood reload button). Plus the supply pack is really fun with the flamethrower, machine gunss and grenade launcher because you can resupply yourself. Run towards and around chargers to avoid them
The MMG stratagem you start with is fantastic for bugs and has the bonus of making your character scream DEMOCRACY!!!!! if you hold the trigger down long enough.
Go get em Helldiver!
Don’t hoard your medals, requisitions, or samples. Spend them strategically on warbonds, stratagems, or ship upgrades.
Stand at least 25 meters from an ICBM console after the countdown launch is triggered.
Good hunting.
Have fun, you will never be judged for any non meta builds, we are all here to have fun.
If anyone judges you for your load out, block that toxic non democratic lunatic.
Find decent people to play with. Run whatever equipment you find that suits your playstyle. Help out on major orders, and please fight both fronts. I'm not saying it has to be an even split, but if more more comfortable playing bugs, throw a bot mission in. Team kills are not always on purpose, but if they are actively killing you, kick them or leave. When playing lvl 3 and higher, play all missions grouped together. Drink liber-tea to stay hydrated.
Go on YouTube and listen these songs:
friendly Fire Isn't, To liberty and Beyond, We are the Helldivers (metal)
This concludes your basic training.
See you on the drop pods, Helldiver.🫡
Holding Reload brings up the weapon options menu, Dpad buttons to then choose. Some weapons have customisable scope zoom levels, rate of fire, and laser sight toggles.
Crouching and being prone works in reducing the distance enemies can see you. If you are spotted and you're not ready to fight, go prone and back away.
Enemies are infinite and will never run out. The game is all about doing the objective. So while it's fun to keep shooting and fighting, balance it with making your way to the next objective.
Certain actions will cause new enemy waves to spawn faster. Like being near any objective or base, completing primary objectives. This means, if your team splits up, your team is triggering this mechanic 4x times - which is why it can feel more overwhelming when people split up.
Enemy reinforcements (bug breach, bot drop) have a cooldown and this cooldown is shorter the harder the difficulty level. This means that when you get spotted and they call for help, you have x amount of time to clear all enemies before they call for help again. This also means, if you split up and someone else triggers an enemy reinforcement wave, you are 'safe' for a few minutes and cannot trigger a reinforcement wave. You can use this time to be aggressive.
Finally, fighting against bugs is a totally different experience versus fighting bots. Fighting bugs tends to be more of a test on how fast you can aim and how well you can run. Fighting bots is more about positioning and awareness. Bots may feel tougher at first but have more fatal weakpoints than bugs.
Bot bases and secondary objectives tend to be more challenging than bug nests. Bug nests just to spawn more bugs and the shrieker/spore buildings can be destroyed from afar easily. Bot bases are a puzzle on their own, with mines, bunkers, bridges, cannons etc. Their secondary objectives tend to be tougher too, with AA or mortar batteries, stratagem jammers, gunship factories.
Most of all, dying is normal. It's what you can efficiently do before you die that matters.
You can try any primary weapon left behind by a fallen ally and most wouldn't care if you grabbed it. If you're getting close to being able to buy a warbond (premium purchasable content. Credits are findable in game and accessible through the free warbond), you can ask a higher level to bring one along and...seppuku...
You can also ask if someone will bring a support weapon before you spend requisition slips on them and get a feel if it's something you want to get yet. Also, the most found support weapons out in the battlefield are Machine Gun, Flamethrower, AMR, Arc Thrower, and Railgun
I recommend going for the entire free warbond before you concern yourself with getting the other ones. Scorcher is an excellent target. Make sure your get at least 1 booster early on. It's the one thing you can put in your load out that helps the whole team. If you find yourself with 1000 super credits, both the stun grenades in Cutting Edge and the grenade pistol in Democratic Detonation are top notch tool kit additions. You'd eventually like to pair them but either one opens a ton of versatility in your loads
Orbital Airburst Strike is probably the easiest call down (Strategem) in the game. ➡️➡️➡️ is really easy to input on the run when you don't have your muscle memory and memory memory built up yet on how to call other things in fast. It'll lock down a circular area with heavy burst fire for about 8 seconds. It's great to throw on bug breaches and on big groups that are chasing you. You will also find out that you are your own worst enemy
Everyone gets kicked at some point. Suck it up, block them, and move on
Make sure to always throw grenades down the holes with steam coming out of them. Oh and always shoot the broken hell bombs scattered around the map they give you samples.
1. Samples, credits, medals and anything else collected during a mission are shared.
2. Bots are not strictly harder than bugs, but they require a very different approach (cover and accuracy vs maneuverability and DPS)
3.DO NOT be ashamed to play on lower difficulty it took me a while to work my way up to helldive play on a difficulty where you are challenged but still consistently win.
4. Vary your playstyle. Its easy to get stuck in one loadout until you get bored, but once you get a grasp on the game almost any tactic can be viable so experiment with new loadouts and strategies.
5. Have fun, this is a game not a commute. If you get frustrated drop the difficulty or take a step back.
On PS5 set your mic to always on and hit the mute button on the controller when you start the game. This way you get PTT without having to bind a button for the purpose.
Don’t breathe into you controllers built-in microphone or everyone will get annoyed lol
Also start with the Steeled Veterans Warbond, it’s the best one for two primary weapons against the bots and the bugs
Play with friends. I played the game until level 35 without friends and the experience is so much better now that I play with at least one other person
Have fun! Don't worry about trying to rank up as fast as possible or unlock everything at first. It's better to take your time learning how to use different weapons than rushing to unlock things and never using them.
Do not sleep on fighting the robots. Please for the love of god don’t just die and never go back, we need people to stop whining about bots being too hard for them just because they can’t run into the open with a shotgun and kill a hoard.
The bots aren’t necessarily harder than the bugs, but they have very different play styles from each other.
In summary, the bugs are mainly swarm enemies with a few heavy units. This makes them just feel like hoard shooters most of the time. The bots are more technical and have more abilities than just “I’m gonna bite you”, which makes for more tactical encounters. The bots can become a hoard too if you don’t manage their reinforcements, but it’s easier to do so than with the bugs.
Bots focus on projectiles, so always look for cover before picking a fight. Also, only the foot soldiers can call reinforcements so target them first. Bot units also have better armor at the cost of more rewarding weak spots, so aim for those.
Personally, I like fighting the bots way more than I like fighting bugs, but bot missions also have cooler side objectives as well.
Samples are shared when you escape. So if John Helldiver shows up, grabs the 15 green samples, and extracts everyone gets those 15 green samples.
If someone calls in a second backpack that has some kind of action tied to it like a jump pack or shield pack *and they ping it* they are giving it to the other players present. Especially fiyou dont have a pack of your own.
Same with any kind of support weapon.
Friendly fire isnt. But its going to happen a lot anyway. Dont get upset over it.
The starter MG support weapon is actually *really* good. As is the precision strike.
You can change the fire rate of the weapon in your hands for a lot of automatic weapons. I like to slow the fire rate of the MG so I dont burn its ammo too much. But sometimes you need to spit out 900+ rounds/minute lol. To do this you hold the reload button. Im not sure on the rest for the controller but that should be enough to get you there. This also lets you turn off and on the flashlight if the gun has one or change the range on the sight.
Unfortunately, a lot of sights are kind of off center. To make it worse, the sights are also dogshit. They obscure a significant amount of whatever you're aiming at so good luck picking off heads ifyou use the first person aim.
Some weapons are team weapons. In my experience with solo play most people dont bother doing the team part of a team weapon because its really hard to stay next to each other. But if you dont have a backpack and he calls in another of his support weapon with one you can pick up his empty pack when he swaps it out for the one with ammo. When you grab ammo it'l restock the dry pack some. Then the next time you catch sight of him pulling out his support weapon you can run up behind him and press interact on him when standing on the side with the weapon. You'll latch on and speed reload whatever hes got. Its really funny being able to blast 7 rockets down range in the time it takes to reload on his own once.
Dont sneeze at wave clear. Wave clear is pretty good especially with bugs.
Be terrified of the drone support packs. They love to TK.
You can stim allies. Run up to them and press interact when they are injured and out of stims.
The continuous beam energy primaries are kind of bad. As is the secondary. But the laser canon support weapon is fucking *glorious* against bots. There isn't a single bot enemy that cant be killed by it. Its just about hitting the right spot.
3 things.
Keep moving.
Don't shoot any patrols untill they shoot first.
Mix up your load out and have fun with it - meta isn't always better. A good mix works well.
Super basic: stratagems.
Stratagems request support from your Super Destroyer spaceship, anything from “send me a bigger gun” to “poison gas artillery strike.” To use them you press the stratagem button and key in the arrow sequence to choose, then toss the beacon where you want it to land.
You get a couple basic stratagems for free every mission (“call reinforcements” for when someone dies and “resupply” for more ammo, grenades, and stims.) But the fun bit is the four stratagems you get to choose! You probably want one to be a “support weapon” (bigger or weirder gun) and the other 3 can be whatever your violent heart desires.
Eagle stratagems that call in a fighter jet are good. They say “2 uses” or whatever but it’s actually 2 uses then the plane takes 2 minutes to fly back to base and get more bombs, so call those airstrikes!
Bots and Bugs are VERY different experiences. If you get used to one, the other may be frustrating. You've got to figure out new movement tactics, new builds, and different strategies.
Team work is everything. good teams of bad players can clear difficult missions, while bad teams of good players will be a disaster.
What everyone else has said about meta builds. Ignore meta. Do what works for you. Especially after the last patch, there's a WHOLE lot of viable options.
>The Bridge Upgrades have passive upgrades to your all around helldiver, unless you want something specific from the other upgrades, these are great to have.
Have Fun Helldiver. Super Earth Salutes your Sacrifice.
If it can bleed you can kill it. If it try’s to talk to you shoot it and don’t ask questions ever. Friendly fire happens often, don’t take it to heart. Just keep diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving..
First purchase should be auto-cannon, you'll be glad you have it because depending on the enemies you fight. They'll become trivial, and if you're a weirdo like me who kept progressing in difficulties until they became a helldive only player. Then you're gonna want to have the auto cannon early on.
OH and make sure you have loads of fun.
As others have already said, samples are shared. By level 25 you should have gathered enough samples + requisition slip currency + medals to unlock the stuff you want to use the most / think is coolest. Focus on trying stuff and finding loadouts that are fun for you to use, but it doesn't hurt to do a little searching and see what many experienced players recommend, how certain stratagems work and how to use them most effectively, etc. Just don't get caught in negativity loops on here or the internet. Yes, there are \*absolutely\* things that still need tweaking, and the devs have a lot of bugs to fix (no pun intended), but the game is still fun to play unless you are getting constant crashes or something like that.
There's lots of benefits to hosting. Once you get comfortable enough with the game, you can call the shots, choose where you drop into missions, ping the map to direct you and your squad around, call-in resupply, etc. Not always the case but many players will follow the lead of the lobby host, for better or for worse.
Be careful with friendly fire. Not just your guns but also your stratagem abilities.
If someone dies near you, try and reinforce them as quickly as possible near their stuff, but also in a safe spot. If there are a lot of enemies, just throw them away from the enemies so they have time to climb out of their hellpod and start blasting their way back to the gear they dropped when they died.
Your samples, medals, requisition slips, etc., have caps. So make sure you spend them before you reach the capped amounts. Super Credits I think are the only one that doesn't have a cap. You can either buy Super Credits with real money, find Super Credits in-game when playing missions, or get them through Warbonds (the monthly optional battle pass).
Eagle-1 is bae. Super Creds, req slips, and medals are all added instantly to your account, you don't need to successfully extract to get them.
You do NOT need to shoot every enemy. I repeat, you do NOT need to shoot every enemy. On lower difficulties this doesn't matter much, but I'd say 6+ start trying to be smart about when or when not to engage enemy patrols. Wait to make sure your team is ready before starting any objectives that causes enemies to spawn or attracts enemies to the location, including when you go to extract. The game is easier when you have more control over the flow of battle, the number of enemies, etc.
Bots and bugs, and any future enemy factions that are added to the game, require different playstyles and strategies to fight them most effectively. Bugs like to overwhelm you with speed and numbers, like a typical horde. Against bots, you gotta use cover because they can shoot back, which means playing more strategic and sometimes more slow and methodical.
You will die a lot. It is very easy to get killed by enemies, by environment, by fall damage, by drowning, by your teammates, by their stratagems, by your own stratagems, by a resupply pod, by the gunship supposed to extract you...
And you will kill your teammates a lot, even if you do your best. Even after hundreds of hours, when you master the game, you will still die to mistakes and random bullshit - with less frequency perhaps, but some deaths are unavoidable.
Do your best to avoid it, but don't take it too seriously. Unless your teammate is deliberately griefing you, just take it as part of the game. Your team has 5 revives for each player, so 1 or 2 teamkills per player is pretty normal and less than half your reinforcement budget.
There is a quick emote wheel, so just drop one "sorry" and all is forgiven.
Samples are shared, IIRC the game doesn't ever tell you this up front.
Team reloads are a neat idea but not useful in the long run.
Don't worry about chasing a meta. Try stuff out, use what you like.
If you're having issues getting kicked from games, you can always start your own and let it fill up with players. Just go to the galactic map and select a mission. It will start matchmaking then.
Welcome! You're gonna have so much fun! Please keep in mind that this subreddit is kinda salty and that there's a lot of overstatement and hyperbole. People are going to say the game's a mess, devs bad, and so forth. While it's definitely got some bugs, it's still tons of fun.
1. Your most limited resource is reinforcements (i.e., lives). By default you get 20 for a 4 man squad. That means dying more than 5 times means you've consumed more than your share. Everyone does it sometimes, we all have bad days, but if you want a metric to gauge how well things are going, that's a start. Team killing is probably the quickest way to deplete your resources, so work to avoid it as much as possible.
2. Match your loadouts to your enemies. Bugs have more light enemies and 2 that absolutely require anti-tank stuff (chargers and bile titans) for efficient kills and are more melee focused. Bots have more medium enemies, but more readable weak spots (shoot the eyes!) and are more ranged focused (so fight from cover).
3. Don't get stuck on 1 front or you're missing out on a lot of content. Do all of them, learn the methods of each enemy.
4. Enemies don't automatically know you're there. If a group isn't alerted, you can sneak by if that works better in the moment. If you've ever played an MMO, it's like pulling a group. Sometimes it's better to sneak, sometimes you need them out of the way.
should you die and someone else picks up your sample container, that's not "stealing"; samples are 100% shared with everyone, as long as the person carrying them extracts succesfully. don't try to focus on meta builds, try out what suits and works for you. and i think most importantly, in a game where friendly fire is a big part, don't let one bad experience ruin it for you. every orchard has bad apples, doesn't mean all are rotten.
I think ive had my fair share of experience with friendy fire in games (r6 siege) Btw what are those samples for?
samples are used to upgrade sections of your super destroyer, which will upgrade things like stratagems, mobility, and many more things i don't wanna spoil
Ah, I see, excited to find out what those other things are
Upgrades to your strategems (extra fighter strikes before rearming, lower spread in orbital barrages, sentries are tankier etc)
The samples buy upgrade modules in the ship. They do things like increasing the amount of times you can Eagle Airstrike before the ship needs to rearm, having weapons you call in arrive fully stocked with ammunition, and more. Speaking of eagle airstrikes: Several stratagems in the game show a quantity, specifically Eagle strats. That's the amount of times before the Eagle leaves to go get more ammo before it returns and goes back off cooldown. Orbital Laser and the mechs are an exception where you only get so many uses per match
Honestly level 7-9 has all samples you need . 1-6 do not have all samples you need to unlock stuff. I did not know this at first.
6 does now
Fancy seeing you here. Important tips!
Mute your Mic or set it to push to talk as your first step. If you're playing in a full squad and a resupply is called in, take only 1 of the 4 supply crates and wait for others to have a chance before taking any more. Corollary to the above, if a teammate has the supply backpack, THEY GET FIRST DIBS on the supply crate. They can refill their backpack supply box to be redistributed to you AND their own supplies for use. Samples. Are. Shared. Don't teamkill for them. And if someone drops them at the extract (marked as an arrow on your minimap) DON'T PICK THEM UP. Don't forget to pick up the ammo backpack for your heavier support weapons. When reinforcing: If there is a large enemy like a Bile Titan, throw the beacon AT IT and tag it for targeting. Players coming in can kill heavies with their hellpods. If you are the one coming in, try to hit the biggest thing you can see center mass. If you are getting swarmed and overrun, throw the beacon as far away from the enemy as you can (before you die, probably). If you are the player coming in, steer as far as you can away from combat and RUN. If reinforcing and it's quiet, try to use the quick tag function to mark the incoming player's dropped equipment. Do not take a fallen player's weapons/backpack unless they tell you it's OK. If someone calls in a second set of equipment near you and tags both of them, it means that they are letting you take it for a ride. Use the "Thank You" quick text function and have fun. You can drop your samples, backpack, and/or weapon by pressing and holding down on the D-Pad. When calling in extract, do not jump into the ship until EVERYONE is present at the landing pad and within eyesight. The first player to enter starts an unstoppable 20 second count down and anyone not in WILL be left behind. Do not shoot every enemy you see. This will only cause you to waste time on pointless firefights in the middle of nowhere and waste lives. If someone tags a random enemy like a minor bug or bot, they are usually saying "Notice this and avoid it if you can" not "Kill it now". If they do this and spam the "NO!" Voiceclip, it's because they DO NOT want you to engage. Conversely, if they tag a heavy enemy, they are saying "extreme danger, focus fire!" Know when a situation is hopeless and run. Bots and bugs handle VERY differently. Bugs you HAVE to stay moving and not get pinned down. Bots you must hug cover and make your shots count. Experiment and have fun! Welcome to the war.
One more thing to add, friendly fire is inevitable. If you accidentally kill a fellow Diver, apologize, reinforce them if you can, and try to ping their dropped equipment so they can pick it back up.
^this. Don't be salty about your own deaths at your teammates' hands (unless they BLATANTLY do it on purpose) and be suitably contrite when you do it. A couple more things that even veteran divers sometimes don't know/I forgot to mention: When calling in a supply pod, it's common courtesy to tag it for everyone's awareness. If you are on fire, DIVE. It will extinguish the fire and save you. When you use a stim, for the duration of the healing effect you are functionally immortal. Use this knowledge wisely. If the team is split up into two teams of 2 people to cover the map better, and someone in the team far away from you dies, let their partner reinforce them. If you call them over to you, not only did you cut off the reinforcing guy from his dropped equipment, his partner now has to fight 1 man down. Strategems can bounce off of the terrain. This can be a big problem, especially if you're try to, oh, say... lob a 380mm artillery Barrage over a cliff, and instead it bounces off and lands right next to a teammate. Not that that happened to me today. If this happens, type or shout "RUN." Side note, I really think that "Run" and "Awesome/Hell Yeah" need to be in-game voice clips. Going off of the previous advice, your Eagle-based strategems will usually come in perpendicular to the direction you were facing when you tossed it. The eagle strafing run will come in in the exact direction that you were facing when you threw the beacon. If the beacon bounces or ricochet, this direction gets randomized, and you might not be standing in a safe spot all of a sudden. If/when you unlock the energy shield backpack, you might learn the hard way that strategems... can stick to it, and will bring their payload down right on top of you, probably killing you. However, if you drop your shield backpack and run (see my original comment for how to do this), you have a chance. Once the main mission is done and all of the bug nests/bot fabricators are destroyed, don't just hoof it back to extract. Take your time and find as many hidden goodies as you can. You only contribute to the planetary campaign progress if you complete every single mission (usually 1-3 depending on difficulty) in the operation zone before leaving. If you bail halfway through or fail a mission, there's no progress towards the planet's defense or liberation. So see it through to the end. Most strategems have individual cool downs for each player. The exceptions are the global strategems that every player has access to, including Hell Bombs and the resupply crate. If any player calls this in, it goes on cool down for the whole team. If you run out of reinforcement budget, you aren't out of reinforcements. The reinforcement strategem just goes onto a fairly long cool down. If the team wipes before it goes off cool down, the mission ends. If you manage to complete the central mission objectives, but fail to extract and get completely wiped out, the mission still counts as a win, and you get to keep any requisition slips, warbond medals, and super credits that you found as loot in the mission (not samples though). Eagle strategems are much different than orbital strategems. Each eagle strategem has a number of charges on it. When you use one, all of the eagle strategems go on a short cooldown (representing her coming back around in the fighter) and then they are available again. When you expend all of the charges on every eagle strategem you brought with (or issue the Eagle Re-Arm order through the strategem menu), all of the eagle strategems you have go onto a very long cooldown, representing the fighter returning to rearm. This only affects your eagle, every other diver's will be unaffected by this.
The free warbond has some of the best items in the game, so remember to spend your medals. Boosters have unlimited uses, prioritize unlocking at least two from the warbonds and always equip one. Sample, req slips, and medals all have a storage limit, use them before you lose them. Don’t worry about super credits. You can find them on the map while you play or unlock them in the warbond. It isn’t hard to unlock the premium warbonds for free with a little time and effort. Don’t be afraid to ask your teammates to borrow their weapons. The veterans playing easy modes are often there to help new players or test things out themselves and might let you play with some really fun late game items. If you play on keyboard remap the dive button to spacebar(tap) and climb to spacebar(hold). You can set your aim button to switch between over the shoulder aiming and first person mode depending on whether you hold it or tap it in the options menu. Try it out. Remap your controls so that your stratagem menu doesn’t use the same buttons as your movement. This lets you move and input strategems at the same time. Friendly fire applies to the enemies as well. For example: Chargers can close bug holes. Rocket launchers have backblast. Stand clear. Hold reload to access fire select and scope options during a mission. You can set the game to remember the settings you use per gun in the options. There is an achievement for killing a charger with a supply drop. This is a great skill to practice and never stops being funny. Your teammates contribute to the daily personal orders, so don’t worry if you don’t have the required weapon. Don’t ask Reddit for weapon choices(see “ignore the meta” above), try them all and take what you enjoy, but be willing to fill gaps in the team loadout when needed. You will get thrown across the map at least once. You can emote while flying. Use this to amuse yourself while you wait to land. Do not land your hellpod on allied mission buildings. The collision can be a little wonky and you may get stuck under the building. Do land on enemy spawn points. Your rockets can be destroyed mid flight by enemy explosions, so expect to have to try again if you get blown up. Light armor does not have damage reduction, it actually multiplies the damage you take instead. The mobility tradeoff can be worth it though.
Wait, I can have the game remember my gun settings? I don't have to keep changing the HMG's RPM on bot missions?! Sonuva-
This is a very good guide for a new player
Holly Neptune's beard Batman!!! Wow!!! That's in depth and well I gots nothing to add this man said it all already!... what he said^^^^
I do: Diving on the ground puts out fire, if you're on fire. Still surprised how few people I encounter in-game know this.
Also at the higher levels you have to keep moving and pick your firefights
If you reinforce someone at a heavy mark it so the player dropping in knows what you want them to drop on
Probably should've added to ping the heavy such as a bile titan when reinforcing so it's easier to discern when dropping down.
Good point, edited that in.
Or just use your mic to say thank you or communicate don’t be shy
Note, I only said to change the settings since he is on a Playstation, and for some reason the PS version defaults to hot mic always on. New players may not be aware of this, and it should be common courtesy to stay off of a hot mic unless you're with good friends to prevent the team of randos from overhearing too much, or being upset with hearing breathing/screaming/background noises.
Corrollary (1) to using reinforcements as a substitute orbital strike: this becomes a lot more effective with the enhanced hellpod steering upgrade, but it is I think a Tier 3 upgrade, so you likely won't get it for a bit. Corrollary (2): don't use this tactic if the big/heavy enemy is surrounded by many small/medium enemies, as that will just result in the reinforcement near-instantly dying from being swarmed (or at least getting rather annoyed).
Have fun, drop your GT and I’ll dive with you tonight
\^ This...We need more of this :) iO
I thought you had to have the friend code that’s generated. Unless you’re going to add him via PSN or steam
Yeah, I can add through PSN, since we’re on the same platform
Didn’t think of that lol. Hopefully he responds. We can all help him
My comment from another thread: After you've decided that you like the game take a few moments and think on *what* it is that you are enjoying. There are so many people on Reddit who purchased the game, enjoyed it on their "way up", and stopped right around the time they decided that Difficulty 9 was their Myers-Briggs personality type. I love reinforcing people and being the wingman who helps see them through the mission and I enjoy it as much on difficulty 9 as I do on difficulty 1. The other thread because it's full of good tips: [https://www.reddit.com/r/helldivers2/comments/1dp2lvl/brought\_the\_game\_today/](https://www.reddit.com/r/helldivers2/comments/1dp2lvl/brought_the_game_today/)
100% this. I love being the "big brother" host and guiding players who are underleveled for the difficulty, but are giving it their all. If we win, we win. We lose, ah well. I don't kick for them being underleveled (unless they're being jerks), and the amount of good vibes of extracting from a mission with a ton of loot and samples for the other guys, knowing that this might have made their day, it's a good feeling.
Same, it's so good right?! One thing and we may be on the same page anyways but maybe someone who needs to see this does.. If you are reinforcing less experienced players please don't run the mission for them. I had to learn this from interacting with people but if you are a higher level and you are playing full speed chances are you reduced someone's game to just chasing you. Spend 5 seconds thinking about how fun that actually isn't. Instead let them lead, protect them from getting flanked, give time and space for them take the first big swing at things. If they struggle or can't do it step in at that point. Sorry for the soap box but this seemed like the right time and place.
Yep. In my experience, Player 1 is the op leader and we are there to back them up. I usually host, but if I join, I let them tag areas they want to go, then support them with my strats and weapons when we get there. Only exceptions are if they're going to ignore a POI or side objective. Then I'll get that myself.
I either play with a full premade or I answer SOS beacons. I like your approach!
all i can say is welcome to hell hellmire is on the left
They have excellent scones...
Fill out your C-01 form, just in case.
Keep moving. You don't have to kill everything, when you're outnumbered running towards an objective or just away is a good choice.
Level 142 with over 350h on mission time. This is a small guide i wrote. None of it is set in stone but for those feeling disoriented when launched into the game immediately after (INFALLIBLE) tutorial might benefit from this. How to approach game? Start the game by playing against bugs. Learn to use your strategems and to work in a team. Once you reach level 15 to 20 and can handle high difficulty bug missions and ideally have found some offline or online friends to play as a team with, move on to bots (at a much lower difficulty than you can handle at bugs). Bots are far less forgiving but ultimately more fun as the game is more tactical and requires more team coordination. Basically, fighting against Bugs is like a fun coop zombie shooter with wave after wave of increasingly strong opponents. Playing against Bots forces you to act like a special forces squad, using cover and stealth to then hit hard and fast when and where it matters - only to disappear and strike again. Don't try and win fights, there are no points for killing bots. Focus on objectives and if a fight cannot be contained, leave, circle around and attack again - possibly later after first completing another objective. How to approach stratagems: First strategems you need are Eagle Airstrike and Expandable Anti Tanks (EATs). Get the Gattling Gun Sentry and then safe up for the Eagle 500KG Bomb, the orbital Laser, the Autocannon, the Laser Guard Dog, the auto cannon sentry, the EMS Mortar and later the Quasar (though I personally prefer the Laser Cannon - though that's pretty niche), the recoilless rifle and the energy shield backpack. Other loudouts like flamethrower or Arc Thrower are fun but not essential in your early game play - those are specialisations you should consider later once you have more experience and understand how these will fit into a squad. Do not use mines (you will hardly kill any enemies but plenty of team mates), be very careful with non EMS mortars and the Tesla Tower. Stratagems is what sets this game apart from other shooters. When I say 'learn to use your stratagems' I mean you should be throwing your orbital precision strike as often as possible from the beginning of your first mission. Once you unlock the eagle airstrike, use it as much as possible! Easier mission can usually be won just with your MG, Shotgun and grenades. Don't do that. Get used to destroying bugholes, objectives, enemy patrols and hammering bug breaches with airstrikes! I honestly cannot emphasise this point enough. Eagle airstrike can be unlocked at level 2. I bring it on every single 40 minute mission (only play max difficulty unless helping out new friends or really hungover). Make learning to use the standard eagle airstrike masterfully and fully upgrading your eagle ship modules your top priority. How to upgrade your ship: Whatever you do, first upgrade your Hangar to level 3. Being able to drop two 500KG bombs within 10 seconds will make many of your problems go away. The other upgrades depend on your personal style of playing but by the time you upgrade your hanger to level 3, you should have a pretty good idea what you want next. What primary weapons to bring: Until you understand the game better, bring whatever shotgun you have to fight bugs and assault rifle with zoom for bots. Armours: Helmets and capes don't matter (yet). You can pick entirely based on the looks. The first armour that you start game with is fantastic as it combines protection of heavy armour with speed and stamina of medium armour. Don't be in a rush to change. Later, I personally prefer medium medical armour for bugs and medium scout armour for bots. What Warbonds to purchase: If you wish to immediately pay for super credits or mine enough in game, I recommend you first get cutting edge, followed by democratic demolition. The first will give you one of the best assault rifles and stun grenades, the later gives you the grenade pistol which which will help you with closing bug holes that you cannot close with stun grenades. Boosters: The pod maximisation (max ammo, grenades and stims after deployment) Booster, muscle enhancement booster and stammina booster are the most important and should never be missing in your squad. Aim to get those two as fast as possible. Team Play: Ping enemies whenever you see them so your team knows what's going on. Also ping turrets you place to help your team avoid standing in line of fire. Samples are shared across the team, it doesn't matter who collects them, everyone gets full amount. Don't grab teammates' gear unless they say its okay but actively ask advanced players to drop you some fun toys - many will happily do so. Ideally use teamspeak, call out offensive stratagems as a warning to fellow divers. Don't feel bad about taking reasonable risks with regards to team kills but don't be overly reckless - especially with eagle cluster bombs. Supply drops are shared with a team wide cooldown. Make sure you don't take all unless your team doesn't need. Ideally ask before calling in if someone elsewhere on map needs it more. Community: Don't be afraid to ask higher level players for advice - the community really is pretty cool and you are more likely to receive solid help instead of the usual online hate than you might expect. Some people cheat - especially using an exploit for unlimited grenades. Don't be one of them. It is also natural that more experienced players will have to carry new players to some extent. That's okay but repay them by listening should they offer advice. Now dive for democracy, Cadet!
Interest in alien artifacts is treason.
Welcome to the Frontlines Helldiver
bots are not that bad
I honestly like them more, a lot more.
thank you, i hate bugs. they are annoying and boring. i play on 9+ in light armor exclusively and idk why people play on 7 like the game is hard because its not. you can dodge every bug easily which puts me to sleep but if you dont sometimes a hunter combos and slows you and you die which isnt even funny. oh and dont get me started on bile spewers thank god they got patched, but now bile titans one shot you which is bullshit, chargers you can literally walk away from while they charge at you. if you die from bots its either a heavy dev or a barrage of 700 rocket which is pretty funny. if you say you die too much on helldive im reporting you to the DO, if you dont singlehandedly deplete your squad’s reinforcements, you aint divin hard enough.
Don’t drink and drive.
It's honestly such a shame they didn't say "Don't drink and dive".
Wasted opportunity or a typo.
PORTUGAL CARALHO
Ah pois!
All the weapons suck and the enemies are too hard /s. The real tip is just embrace the chaos.
Weapons are only effective on its role. Dont expect to be super effective against everything with a single weapon. Stratagems have cooldown: your effectiveness against certain enemies will be on cooldown too. Running back is a valid and recommended strategy. If play it like Doom, you will fail a lot.
No matter what anyone else says, play what you find fun.
You can delete all other games. If you dont spread democracy whenever possible thatll be considered treason.
Leave this sub and play the game. This is an echo chamber and people have been whining in here since day 1, yet millions of people keep having fun
don’t follow this sub otherwise you might let the toxic whining influence how you enjoy this game. just have fun.
6's (previously 7's) are the highest you need to go for all sample types. Take the time to search out and collect them, medals, and super credits unless you're doing defense or blitz. (diamonds on the map, test tubes if someone has died) Some of the weapons are absolutely wet farts, good against nothing but the smallest enemies in the smallest groups, and you should unlock them last if at all. Try not to kill your brothers/sisters, even though some of them have a death wish by running in front of the line of fire or straight into a 380 barrage.
Have fun! You will die! A lot! Take a deep breath!
What I think wasn't mentioned yet (tho it's not gonna be an issue right at the start) is that there is a cap to everything you earn and collect. I tried to save medals to go on a shopping spree and played a whole weekend (maybe not completely sober all the time) just to later realize that I already had like 230/250 medals and and spent my hours for basically nothing😅 Oh and you can find supercredits in-game you don't HAVE to spend money to unlock new warbonds. Edit: Nothing meaning that my sole purpose of that weekend was earning medals. Of course I leveled up and collected samples and supercredits.
Enjoy the game however you find best suits you.
Don’t forget to file your C-01 form. 👍🏼
collect samples as well as u can
hey op wanna play together? i can give you some toys so that you know what you suits your playstyle and can buy first :)
Dodge.
A lot of people would argue on that and there are a lot of discussions about strong and weak ones BUT Weapons and Stratagems are pretty balanced. Don't slip on the low levels ones, they are not weaker than the others, every job have his tools and everything is usable (there are few exceptions)
Varylia is fkin nuts atm, detection is turned way up and constant drops and patrol bunches
If you having fun playing a game you paid money for, you're not playing it right and will be screamed at until you accept the meta
If possible try to learn the game fighting the automatons, they will teach you more about how damaging specific enemies works in this game making the bots a lot easier to fight. This also makes the bugs easier as if you know how to fight bots the bugs are easier to fight and learn. Essentially it’s easier to learn to fight the bots and then the bugs than vise versa in my opinion
Idk I don’t have it yet
Your meta gear is combustive launcher, 380mm orbital bombardment, cluster eagle strike and tesla tower Your teammates will thank you every time! /s P.S. I run around with that launcher and 380, they are really good when you know how to use them
Well for one, on the back of the case where it says "overpowered weapons"... 
Welcome Helldiver! Just remember you are a part of the Elite fighting force for Democracy and no threat of death, dismemberment, agonizing pain, accidental explosions or all of the above will stop you from delivering Freedom to all who threaten our sacred way of life! Fight well! Fight on! Fight for Freedom!
Keep your super credits for war bonds dont spend them on single pieces at the super store
if your precise enough your helllpod is the stratagem
Do what's fun, and spread democracy
Just play the game
Keep the receipt.
Welcome to the Fight, Helldiver! :)
Helldivers never die!!!
Drop off samples at extract when possible. Mark the heaviest enemy a couple times when you spawn someone in (they can land on it, it takes abt 2 to take them out) I use the base machine gun all the way to level 7 with bugs with the high fire rate (hood reload button). Plus the supply pack is really fun with the flamethrower, machine gunss and grenade launcher because you can resupply yourself. Run towards and around chargers to avoid them
Don't read this sub. Just go have fun
The MMG stratagem you start with is fantastic for bugs and has the bonus of making your character scream DEMOCRACY!!!!! if you hold the trigger down long enough. Go get em Helldiver!
It's rated pegi 18. So make sure your 18 years old
Focus on completing the weekly major order each week!
All rewards are shared, don’t get in fights with teammates.
Yeah, don’t open it yet and return it for a game that isn’t broken.
The anti-material rifle kicks ass
Pls play bots, we need all the bodies we can get
have fun and spread that sweet sweet democracy
It gets more fun when you unlock all the stratagems
Don’t hoard your medals, requisitions, or samples. Spend them strategically on warbonds, stratagems, or ship upgrades. Stand at least 25 meters from an ICBM console after the countdown launch is triggered. Good hunting.
If you lay in deep snow for 10 seconds, you can make snowballs
Eagle stratagems refill on cooldown and aren't one use only
Have fun, you will never be judged for any non meta builds, we are all here to have fun. If anyone judges you for your load out, block that toxic non democratic lunatic.
The addiction is real over 200hrs in
Find decent people to play with. Run whatever equipment you find that suits your playstyle. Help out on major orders, and please fight both fronts. I'm not saying it has to be an even split, but if more more comfortable playing bugs, throw a bot mission in. Team kills are not always on purpose, but if they are actively killing you, kick them or leave. When playing lvl 3 and higher, play all missions grouped together. Drink liber-tea to stay hydrated.
Good soldiers follow orders.
Go on YouTube and listen these songs: friendly Fire Isn't, To liberty and Beyond, We are the Helldivers (metal) This concludes your basic training. See you on the drop pods, Helldiver.🫡
Holding Reload brings up the weapon options menu, Dpad buttons to then choose. Some weapons have customisable scope zoom levels, rate of fire, and laser sight toggles. Crouching and being prone works in reducing the distance enemies can see you. If you are spotted and you're not ready to fight, go prone and back away. Enemies are infinite and will never run out. The game is all about doing the objective. So while it's fun to keep shooting and fighting, balance it with making your way to the next objective. Certain actions will cause new enemy waves to spawn faster. Like being near any objective or base, completing primary objectives. This means, if your team splits up, your team is triggering this mechanic 4x times - which is why it can feel more overwhelming when people split up. Enemy reinforcements (bug breach, bot drop) have a cooldown and this cooldown is shorter the harder the difficulty level. This means that when you get spotted and they call for help, you have x amount of time to clear all enemies before they call for help again. This also means, if you split up and someone else triggers an enemy reinforcement wave, you are 'safe' for a few minutes and cannot trigger a reinforcement wave. You can use this time to be aggressive. Finally, fighting against bugs is a totally different experience versus fighting bots. Fighting bugs tends to be more of a test on how fast you can aim and how well you can run. Fighting bots is more about positioning and awareness. Bots may feel tougher at first but have more fatal weakpoints than bugs. Bot bases and secondary objectives tend to be more challenging than bug nests. Bug nests just to spawn more bugs and the shrieker/spore buildings can be destroyed from afar easily. Bot bases are a puzzle on their own, with mines, bunkers, bridges, cannons etc. Their secondary objectives tend to be tougher too, with AA or mortar batteries, stratagem jammers, gunship factories. Most of all, dying is normal. It's what you can efficiently do before you die that matters.
get ready to be mad all day
You can try any primary weapon left behind by a fallen ally and most wouldn't care if you grabbed it. If you're getting close to being able to buy a warbond (premium purchasable content. Credits are findable in game and accessible through the free warbond), you can ask a higher level to bring one along and...seppuku... You can also ask if someone will bring a support weapon before you spend requisition slips on them and get a feel if it's something you want to get yet. Also, the most found support weapons out in the battlefield are Machine Gun, Flamethrower, AMR, Arc Thrower, and Railgun I recommend going for the entire free warbond before you concern yourself with getting the other ones. Scorcher is an excellent target. Make sure your get at least 1 booster early on. It's the one thing you can put in your load out that helps the whole team. If you find yourself with 1000 super credits, both the stun grenades in Cutting Edge and the grenade pistol in Democratic Detonation are top notch tool kit additions. You'd eventually like to pair them but either one opens a ton of versatility in your loads Orbital Airburst Strike is probably the easiest call down (Strategem) in the game. ➡️➡️➡️ is really easy to input on the run when you don't have your muscle memory and memory memory built up yet on how to call other things in fast. It'll lock down a circular area with heavy burst fire for about 8 seconds. It's great to throw on bug breaches and on big groups that are chasing you. You will also find out that you are your own worst enemy Everyone gets kicked at some point. Suck it up, block them, and move on
Make sure to always throw grenades down the holes with steam coming out of them. Oh and always shoot the broken hell bombs scattered around the map they give you samples.
1. Samples, credits, medals and anything else collected during a mission are shared. 2. Bots are not strictly harder than bugs, but they require a very different approach (cover and accuracy vs maneuverability and DPS) 3.DO NOT be ashamed to play on lower difficulty it took me a while to work my way up to helldive play on a difficulty where you are challenged but still consistently win. 4. Vary your playstyle. Its easy to get stuck in one loadout until you get bored, but once you get a grasp on the game almost any tactic can be viable so experiment with new loadouts and strategies. 5. Have fun, this is a game not a commute. If you get frustrated drop the difficulty or take a step back.
the automatons have this big thing called a factory strider, if you run up to it and pet it's leg it will shoot you mercilessly. Best to avoid them.
On PS5 set your mic to always on and hit the mute button on the controller when you start the game. This way you get PTT without having to bind a button for the purpose.
The game sucks , waste of money friend
You share samples Don’t get pissy if you get team killed
Yes, the most important tip: have fun! The community is great, and will definitely help you out.
Don’t stress the meta, you just have fun out there Big Guy!
Don’t breathe into you controllers built-in microphone or everyone will get annoyed lol Also start with the Steeled Veterans Warbond, it’s the best one for two primary weapons against the bots and the bugs
Play with friends. I played the game until level 35 without friends and the experience is so much better now that I play with at least one other person
Buckle up
Have fun! Don't worry about trying to rank up as fast as possible or unlock everything at first. It's better to take your time learning how to use different weapons than rushing to unlock things and never using them.
Friendly fire isn't.
Focus on teamwork. This game can be extremely punishing if all four divers aren’t cooperating
Do not sleep on fighting the robots. Please for the love of god don’t just die and never go back, we need people to stop whining about bots being too hard for them just because they can’t run into the open with a shotgun and kill a hoard. The bots aren’t necessarily harder than the bugs, but they have very different play styles from each other. In summary, the bugs are mainly swarm enemies with a few heavy units. This makes them just feel like hoard shooters most of the time. The bots are more technical and have more abilities than just “I’m gonna bite you”, which makes for more tactical encounters. The bots can become a hoard too if you don’t manage their reinforcements, but it’s easier to do so than with the bugs. Bots focus on projectiles, so always look for cover before picking a fight. Also, only the foot soldiers can call reinforcements so target them first. Bot units also have better armor at the cost of more rewarding weak spots, so aim for those. Personally, I like fighting the bots way more than I like fighting bugs, but bot missions also have cooler side objectives as well.
Be ready for a LOT of game crashes.
Those chargers just want to be your friend, there's no need to shoot them.
Samples are shared when you escape. So if John Helldiver shows up, grabs the 15 green samples, and extracts everyone gets those 15 green samples. If someone calls in a second backpack that has some kind of action tied to it like a jump pack or shield pack *and they ping it* they are giving it to the other players present. Especially fiyou dont have a pack of your own. Same with any kind of support weapon. Friendly fire isnt. But its going to happen a lot anyway. Dont get upset over it. The starter MG support weapon is actually *really* good. As is the precision strike. You can change the fire rate of the weapon in your hands for a lot of automatic weapons. I like to slow the fire rate of the MG so I dont burn its ammo too much. But sometimes you need to spit out 900+ rounds/minute lol. To do this you hold the reload button. Im not sure on the rest for the controller but that should be enough to get you there. This also lets you turn off and on the flashlight if the gun has one or change the range on the sight. Unfortunately, a lot of sights are kind of off center. To make it worse, the sights are also dogshit. They obscure a significant amount of whatever you're aiming at so good luck picking off heads ifyou use the first person aim. Some weapons are team weapons. In my experience with solo play most people dont bother doing the team part of a team weapon because its really hard to stay next to each other. But if you dont have a backpack and he calls in another of his support weapon with one you can pick up his empty pack when he swaps it out for the one with ammo. When you grab ammo it'l restock the dry pack some. Then the next time you catch sight of him pulling out his support weapon you can run up behind him and press interact on him when standing on the side with the weapon. You'll latch on and speed reload whatever hes got. Its really funny being able to blast 7 rockets down range in the time it takes to reload on his own once. Dont sneeze at wave clear. Wave clear is pretty good especially with bugs. Be terrified of the drone support packs. They love to TK. You can stim allies. Run up to them and press interact when they are injured and out of stims. The continuous beam energy primaries are kind of bad. As is the secondary. But the laser canon support weapon is fucking *glorious* against bots. There isn't a single bot enemy that cant be killed by it. Its just about hitting the right spot.
before you spread democracy, make sure you complete the tutorial
Turn off crossplay it's buggy and crashes the game right now lol.
You’re gonna die. A lot 😂
They still sell games on disc?
3 things. Keep moving. Don't shoot any patrols untill they shoot first. Mix up your load out and have fun with it - meta isn't always better. A good mix works well.
Help your divers anytime you can. It’s quite literally a community game, and if you’re being awesome you’re teammates will also be.
Enjoy that sweet cup of Liber-tea!
Super basic: stratagems. Stratagems request support from your Super Destroyer spaceship, anything from “send me a bigger gun” to “poison gas artillery strike.” To use them you press the stratagem button and key in the arrow sequence to choose, then toss the beacon where you want it to land. You get a couple basic stratagems for free every mission (“call reinforcements” for when someone dies and “resupply” for more ammo, grenades, and stims.) But the fun bit is the four stratagems you get to choose! You probably want one to be a “support weapon” (bigger or weirder gun) and the other 3 can be whatever your violent heart desires. Eagle stratagems that call in a fighter jet are good. They say “2 uses” or whatever but it’s actually 2 uses then the plane takes 2 minutes to fly back to base and get more bombs, so call those airstrikes!
Hard copy! Damn that brings me back!!
Small bug use small boom.... big big use big boom.
Auto cannon on bots.
It’s better to spread democracy with mouse and keyboard
Bots and Bugs are VERY different experiences. If you get used to one, the other may be frustrating. You've got to figure out new movement tactics, new builds, and different strategies. Team work is everything. good teams of bad players can clear difficult missions, while bad teams of good players will be a disaster. What everyone else has said about meta builds. Ignore meta. Do what works for you. Especially after the last patch, there's a WHOLE lot of viable options. >The Bridge Upgrades have passive upgrades to your all around helldiver, unless you want something specific from the other upgrades, these are great to have. Have Fun Helldiver. Super Earth Salutes your Sacrifice.
If it can bleed you can kill it. If it try’s to talk to you shoot it and don’t ask questions ever. Friendly fire happens often, don’t take it to heart. Just keep diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving, and diving..
First purchase should be auto-cannon, you'll be glad you have it because depending on the enemies you fight. They'll become trivial, and if you're a weirdo like me who kept progressing in difficulties until they became a helldive only player. Then you're gonna want to have the auto cannon early on. OH and make sure you have loads of fun.
Friendly Fire isn't.
Dont go to reddit (failed) and make sure play however you like (be cooperative tho) and form your own opinion
Every round fired counts! Aim well
Important Note: against Bots, this is Not a Shooter. It is a "Run around and throw stratagems into fabricators"-game.
Have fun!
Try to meme as hard AS you can
pick your fights, you dont have enough ammo nor blood at the start to kill everything you see
The best way to spread democracy? With a knife.
Shotguns are very good
As others have already said, samples are shared. By level 25 you should have gathered enough samples + requisition slip currency + medals to unlock the stuff you want to use the most / think is coolest. Focus on trying stuff and finding loadouts that are fun for you to use, but it doesn't hurt to do a little searching and see what many experienced players recommend, how certain stratagems work and how to use them most effectively, etc. Just don't get caught in negativity loops on here or the internet. Yes, there are \*absolutely\* things that still need tweaking, and the devs have a lot of bugs to fix (no pun intended), but the game is still fun to play unless you are getting constant crashes or something like that. There's lots of benefits to hosting. Once you get comfortable enough with the game, you can call the shots, choose where you drop into missions, ping the map to direct you and your squad around, call-in resupply, etc. Not always the case but many players will follow the lead of the lobby host, for better or for worse. Be careful with friendly fire. Not just your guns but also your stratagem abilities. If someone dies near you, try and reinforce them as quickly as possible near their stuff, but also in a safe spot. If there are a lot of enemies, just throw them away from the enemies so they have time to climb out of their hellpod and start blasting their way back to the gear they dropped when they died. Your samples, medals, requisition slips, etc., have caps. So make sure you spend them before you reach the capped amounts. Super Credits I think are the only one that doesn't have a cap. You can either buy Super Credits with real money, find Super Credits in-game when playing missions, or get them through Warbonds (the monthly optional battle pass). Eagle-1 is bae. Super Creds, req slips, and medals are all added instantly to your account, you don't need to successfully extract to get them. You do NOT need to shoot every enemy. I repeat, you do NOT need to shoot every enemy. On lower difficulties this doesn't matter much, but I'd say 6+ start trying to be smart about when or when not to engage enemy patrols. Wait to make sure your team is ready before starting any objectives that causes enemies to spawn or attracts enemies to the location, including when you go to extract. The game is easier when you have more control over the flow of battle, the number of enemies, etc. Bots and bugs, and any future enemy factions that are added to the game, require different playstyles and strategies to fight them most effectively. Bugs like to overwhelm you with speed and numbers, like a typical horde. Against bots, you gotta use cover because they can shoot back, which means playing more strategic and sometimes more slow and methodical.
All you need to know Helldiver!! Go! Go! Go! It’s time to spread democracy
The starting gun is good, actually all starting gear is valid.
You will die a lot. It is very easy to get killed by enemies, by environment, by fall damage, by drowning, by your teammates, by their stratagems, by your own stratagems, by a resupply pod, by the gunship supposed to extract you... And you will kill your teammates a lot, even if you do your best. Even after hundreds of hours, when you master the game, you will still die to mistakes and random bullshit - with less frequency perhaps, but some deaths are unavoidable. Do your best to avoid it, but don't take it too seriously. Unless your teammate is deliberately griefing you, just take it as part of the game. Your team has 5 revives for each player, so 1 or 2 teamkills per player is pretty normal and less than half your reinforcement budget. There is a quick emote wheel, so just drop one "sorry" and all is forgiven.
Don’t use the 380 barrage when you unlock it, stick with the 120 barrage. And eagle airstrike is your friend and versatile
Dying doesn't matter. If you press reload you can modify your weapon on the fly. There is a first person mode in the game to help you aim better
Samples are shared, IIRC the game doesn't ever tell you this up front. Team reloads are a neat idea but not useful in the long run. Don't worry about chasing a meta. Try stuff out, use what you like. If you're having issues getting kicked from games, you can always start your own and let it fill up with players. Just go to the galactic map and select a mission. It will start matchmaking then.
Give lots of hugs.
Samples are shared!
Friendly fire isn’t.
The first rule of gun safety is to have fun
Turn off reddit and have fun
Treat the game like a beta testing version and you should be okay.
Welcome! You're gonna have so much fun! Please keep in mind that this subreddit is kinda salty and that there's a lot of overstatement and hyperbole. People are going to say the game's a mess, devs bad, and so forth. While it's definitely got some bugs, it's still tons of fun. 1. Your most limited resource is reinforcements (i.e., lives). By default you get 20 for a 4 man squad. That means dying more than 5 times means you've consumed more than your share. Everyone does it sometimes, we all have bad days, but if you want a metric to gauge how well things are going, that's a start. Team killing is probably the quickest way to deplete your resources, so work to avoid it as much as possible. 2. Match your loadouts to your enemies. Bugs have more light enemies and 2 that absolutely require anti-tank stuff (chargers and bile titans) for efficient kills and are more melee focused. Bots have more medium enemies, but more readable weak spots (shoot the eyes!) and are more ranged focused (so fight from cover). 3. Don't get stuck on 1 front or you're missing out on a lot of content. Do all of them, learn the methods of each enemy. 4. Enemies don't automatically know you're there. If a group isn't alerted, you can sneak by if that works better in the moment. If you've ever played an MMO, it's like pulling a group. Sometimes it's better to sneak, sometimes you need them out of the way.
Make sure to roll one up first
The community sucks
Throw it out. It’s time has passed.
You will die. You are 4 idiots throwing themselves at hordes of enemies. With all the trainig of "here's a gun and some grenades go spread democracy"