Recommended Controls
The important thing here is the “Press” for open stratagems and using arrow keys for the codes. This allows you to run around while inputting the code. The open list key is up to you. Should default to ctrl.
Common Mistakes
Letting enemies push you back
If you’re struggling with an objective and you keep dying, its very important to not give the enemies too much ground or you’ll slowly drift away from your objective and they’ll “retake” the ground you’ve already fought for. There’s generally two ways to counteract this when you notice it happening:
- Actually disengaging. Run. Book it. Circle around and take a flank. Most outposts have multiple entries, so you can just take a less populated angle. You’re generally faster than your enemies, so you can outrun them and reduce pressure. This might also make them move away from the area they were defending to go chase you instead. RETREAT IS COWARDICE… BUT ADVANCING TO THE REAR IS ALWAYS AN OPTION.
- Have your teammates throw reinforcements in a way that they land behind the enemies so you can flank them or get a head start on the objectives.
Being too slow
The longer you spend in mission, the more enemies spawn. Prioritize destroying bug-holes/fabricators, as this will reduce the amount of units on the field and slow down their spawns.
Enemy patrols actually stop spawning (or are greatly reduced) if you destroyed all the fabricators. I’ve done tier8 missions where extracting was a peaceful walk across the field because we’ve quickly handled all the spawners and nothing else was spawning.
If you’re being pressured, then pressure the spawners. Grab the samples or POIs later, once the spawners are handled.
Boosters Explained
- Hellpod Space Optimization: Helldivers come out of the Hellpod fully stocked on Ammo, Grenades and Stims.
- Vitality Enhancement: Gives your limbs more health. Requiring more damage to them to cause breakage. This also seems to effect how much damage you can take before you die, in general. (expect being able to tank 1 or maybe 2 extra shot.)
- Stamina Enhancement depends on the armor you’re wearing:
- Light armor -2s regen time, +9s sprint duration
- Medium armor -1.5s regen time, +7s sprint duration
- Heavy armor -1s regen time, +5s sprint duration
- Muscle Enhancement: makes running thru mud, snow, and bushes easier.
- UAV Recon Booster: Increases all Helldivers’ effective radar range. Seems to increase it by 35m (which of course stacks with the 50 from the Nuclear Radar ship upgrade)
- Increased Reinforcement Budget: Give you +1 life for every player in the squad. So full squad = +4 lives.
- Flexible Budget: When you’re out of lives, instead of waiting 1m 59s for a new Reinforcement, you have to way 1m47s (aka -12s).
- Localization Confusion: Seems to increase the game’s internal timer between Bot-Drops/Bug-Breaches, by about 35-40%. In a level 1 mission, there’s a delay of at least 250s (4m10s) between dropships. With the booster, it goes up to 340s(5m40s).
- Expert Extraction Pilot: Pelican-1 takes -15% time to land.
Resources & Difficulties
Info
Difficulty doesn’t scale with number of players. Its only the difficulty setting. Enemies also don’t gain health or damage with higher difficulties, their numbers increase.
| Difficulty Level | Difficulty Description | Sample Types |
|---|---|---|
| 1 - Trivial | Primary Objectives, Enemy Patrols | Common |
| 2 - Easy | Allied Tactical Objectives, Light Outposts | Common |
| 3 - Medium | Secondary Objectives, Medium Outposts, Heavily Armored Enemies | Common |
| 4 - Challenging | Enemy Tactical Objectives, Heavy Outposts, Heavily Armored Enemies | Common Rare |
| 5 - Hard | Operation Modifiers, Massive Enemies, Heavily Armoured Enemies | Common Rare |
| 6 - Extreme | Tactical Objectives Increase, Massive Enemies, Heavily Armored Enemies | Common Rare |
| 7 - Suicide Mission | Tactical Objectives Increased, Massive Enemies, Heavily Armored Enemies | Common Rare Super |
| 8 - Impossible | Increased Enemy Presence, Multiple Operation Modifiers, Heavily Armored Enemies | Common Rare Super |
| 9 - Helldive | Increased Enemy Presence, Multiple Operation Modifiers, Heavily Armored Enemies | Common Rare Super |
Experience Gain
| Thing | 9 - Helldive |
|---|---|
| Heavy Bug Nest | 20 |
| End mission difficulty multipliers |