We’re all still learning the little quirks of Helldivers 2.
You can tell Helldivers 2 has some legs when over a week from launch we’re still trying to figure out many of its quirks. Between ramping difficulty tiers, under-explained stratagems, and curveballs thrown into the galactic war simulation, it’s clear Arrowhead Games is intentionally maintaining an air of secrecy around Helldivers 2.
In these early days it feels like anything is possible, and that our understanding of Helldivers 2’s inner workings can change in an instant. Like, did you know explosive gun variants only deal extra damage to certain enemies? Arrowhead CEO John Pilestedt left that detail out of in-game descriptions, and says other details like it have yet to be discovered by players.
As we continue to play Helldivers 2 daily and share our experiences, here are our best non-obvious but important tips that Helldivers 2 does not tell you.You don’t have to survive to succeed
In keeping with Helldivers 2’s cynical world, it’s not that important that you extract from a mission. You do get a bonus for every helldiver that leaves via airship, but as long as the main objective is completed, you’ll get your full Medals payout either way. This is good to keep in mind on missions with short timers: it’s OK to take your time on objectives and not sweat the extraction part.EMS strikes are important against Automatons
The first thing you’ll learn in a high-difficulty Automaton mission is that they have more armor than you have bullets in a magazine. It’s easy to get overwhelmed in Helldivers 2 when your guns feel even slightly underpowered, and explosive airstrikes aren’t the silver bullet they are against Terminids. Consider asking one squadmate to bring an EMS strike (or EMS mortar), an AoE stun field that stops bots in their tracks and gives your squad room to take a breath, reload, and flank bot weak points.
