This guide was compiled from Treadstone's tips gathered based on 100 hours of gameplay as well as my experience from my first 10 hours.
The basics
Helldivers 2 is a PvE extraction shooter for 1-4 players inspired by Starship Troopers, somewhat similar to Deep Rock Galactic, but with much more realistic graphics and without DRG's "claustrophobia" that I didn't like.
Make sure that you're familiar with character progression and the currencies you can spend on upgrades. The recommendations below are biased towards anti-terminid combat, but you should also consider situational and playstyle preferences, e.g. clearing many small enemies with explosions vs. snipers and rockets against heavy ones.
Recommended starter armor
CM-21 Trench Paramedic can be purchased for 250 Super Credits from page 12 of the Superstore. It's a light armor with low armor value, contrasted by its high speed and stamina values, meaning that you'll need to put an emphasis on movement and kiting. The Med-Kit passive ability makes it especially attractive.
Earning 250 Super Credits is relatively simple: The Medals earned from the first few missions (potentially accelerated by completing a Personal- or Major Order) will allow you to unlock 100 Super Credits on each of the first 5 pages (and then 50 per page onwards) of the Helldivers Mobilize warbond.
Warbond unlocks
Helldivers Mobilize is a free warbond with 10 pages of items, each page (besides the first one) requiring an increasing amount of Medals spent to become available. You will likely need to spend more medals to purchase items than what you actually need.
Further warbonds require spending 1000 Super Credits, which can also be purchased for 10 €.
Note: The Super Citizen upgrade includes the Steeled Veterans warbond at the time of publishing this guide. Starting from August 26, 2025 it will include a Warbond Token instead, which can be used to unlock any warbond.
Helldivers Mobilize
- Always unlock the Super Credits on each page, but it doesn't have to be first thing you unlock on a given page.
- Get every booster you can, except for UAV Recon.
- Page 2:
- P-19 Redeemer is a great sidearm for the long term.
- R-63 Diligence is a DMR against light-armored enemies.
- Page 4: SG-225 Breaker shotgun. Don't bother with the SG-8 Punisher shotgun on page 1.
- Page 5: G-16 Impact grenade that explodes on contact without delay.
- Page 6: AR-23P Liberator Penetrator is a great assault rifle with medium armor penetration, which benefits greatly from Weapon Customization to reduce spread and recoil.
Patriotic Administration Center
- MG-43 Machine Gun: Efficient against medium enemies, but reload is slow and stationary.
- APW-1 Anti-Materiel Rifle: A sniper rifle for penetrating heavy armor.
- M-105 Stalwart: A more compact, but faster (and much better) alternative to MG-43 against light enemies.
- EAT-17 Expendable Anti-Tank: 2 pieces of single-use anti-tank RPG with a fast cooldown time.
- GR-8 Recoilless Rifle: Reloadable (from the included backpack) anti-tank RPG.
- AC-8 Autocannon: Heavy armor penetrating support weapon with explosive damage; ammunition carried on the back. Similar capabilities to APW-1.
- MLS-4X Commando: Anti-tank, laser-guided missle launcher with 4 barrels, capable of launching any number of missles at the same time. Alternative of the EAT-17.
Orbital Cannons
- Orbital Laser: 3 charges, fires a continuous laser beam for 25 seconds that targets the largest enemy in the designated area.
Hangar
- Eagle Airstrike: Carpet bombing run of 6 explosives (perpendicular to the direction you're facing) in a relatively small area.
- Eagle Cluster Bomb: A barrage of explosives over a larger area effective against small enemies, launched perpendicular to the direction you're facing.
- Eagle 500kg Bomb: A single, massive explosive capable of eliminating colossal enemies.
Engineering Bay
- B-1 Supply Pack: 4 packs of ammunition in a backpack that you and your teammates can use.
- GL-21 Grenade Launcher: Great splash damage, can close bug holes.
- LAS-98 Laser Cannon: Heavy (lower end of the range) armor penetrating energy weapon effective against small and medium enemies, also somewhat effective against large ones. Includes two heatsinks, i.e. it uses the heat-management mechanism instead of ammunition.
- LAS-5 "Guard Dog" Rover: Laser drone that follows you. Very effective against small enemies, but prone to friendly fire. Other stratagem categories offer variants with different weaponry.
Each category of modules is a separate, linear track requiring you to unlock every preceding module in order to reach a given module.
- Patriotic Administration Center: Donation Access License.
- Hangar: Everything up until XXL Weapons Bay.
- Bridge: Power Steering.
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