Helldivers 2

A large-scale cooperative third-person extraction shooter, Helldivers 2 continues the story of humanity’s fight against alien invaders across fronts spanning the entire galaxy. After regrouping following their defeat in the finale of Helldivers, the vicious foes have launched another assault on the worlds of humanity. Once again, the “Helldivers” have been called up—elite soldiers capable of fighting for freedom and democracy with the biggest, coolest, most explosive weapons in the galaxy. Despite having no serious plot or unique protagonist, the game has amassed a huge fan base thanks to its dynamic, chaotic gameplay, amusing friendly-fire mechanics, high difficulty, and finely tuned co-op systems.

The Helldivers series takes place in a hypothetical sci-fi future where the Federation of Humanity has conquered the galaxy under the wise leadership of Super Earth. Humanity thrives by taking part in military campaigns aimed at wiping out any life forms that threaten its values and freedom—namely giant bugs, communist robots, and the mysterious Illuminates.

The sequel, Helldivers 2, focuses on satirizing authoritarian regimes, rabid propaganda, and the military industry. For example, Super Earth, which seems to embody freedom and liberalism, is actually an ultra-authoritarian regime. The sarcasm and mockery can be seen in the game world’s style, the posters and videos shown to players, the character designs, and the lines spoken in combat. The soldiers’ genuine enthusiasm as they “live for 20 minutes” and talk about freedom, liberalism, and shared values is reminiscent of the iconic opening sequence from the 1997 film Starship Troopers, but the creators of Helldivers 2 have taken the parody even further, at times to absurd lengths.

The sequel’s events continue the original game’s story, but you don’t need to know the background. Helldivers 2 simply has no scripted plot, extensive cast of characters, or staged set pieces. The developers direct events, while each player and the community as a whole actively take part in them, steering the story in one direction or another.

The galaxy map is available, with sectors, subsectors, and planets that are being fought over. The players’ objective is to liberate the planet from various foes. The developers, meanwhile, make sure that the process of democratization is costly for the team, whether by handing out bonuses or penalties in the form of hordes of cannon fodder.

New enemy types were added—and humanity went on the defensive. Weapons or powerful vehicles were dropped onto the map—and the liberation of the galaxy sped up. A new alien faction suddenly attacked—and the community was in trouble on every front. The developers’ direct influence on gameplay is what sets Helldivers 2 apart from other live-service games.

Based on the successes on the fronts of the galactic war, the developers release news updates about the latest triumphs of democratization or its sudden failure, writing the story as they go. This helps keep players engaged with what’s happening.

Each planet in Helldivers 2 has a unique combination of terrain and ecosystem, selected from a set of basic terrain types (sand, rocks, hills, tundra, ice, jungles, meadows) and environmental conditions (sandstorms, thick fog, rain, heat, and more—including volcanic eruptions, meteor showers, and fire tornadoes). This combination is permanently assigned to the planet.

The locations where players land, however, are generated randomly based on the planet’s terrain and environmental conditions, taking the difficulty chosen by the players into account. This creates a unique setting, with its own features and challenges, making every landing exciting. The environment actively affects gameplay, while the changing day-night cycle adds variety to the experience.

Adapting to the environment is an important part of success. For example, the deep snow on an icy world slows movement, but the cold gives energy weapons an advantage by improving their cooling. An ionic storm that erupts during the democratization process will cut off contact with orbital support. Or take a desert world: it doesn’t impede movement until the wind kicks up the sand, but its high temperatures limit weapon choices to firearms. And all of this under threat from a scorching fire tornado.

Players “travel” between planets aboard spaceships that serve as fully featured hub locations. Acting as an operations base, each ship lets players customize their loadout and vessel, unlock new gear, weapons, armor, and ship capabilities, and purchase cosmetics. The hub also provides social features: players form groups, review intelligence on their drop, and prepare for it.

Each drop includes a set of main and secondary objectives, regardless of the selected difficulty. Most main objectives are designed to take 40 minutes and involve defending assets or territory; searching for valuable resources; evacuating civilians; locating a data source and transmitting its contents to base; or simply raising a flag. A smaller number of objectives take 10–15 minutes and involve killing a set number of enemies or wiping out enemy bases or nests.

Secondary objectives are side missions that particularly eager and experienced players can complete without losing focus on the drop’s main objectives. For example, activating a radar station, retrieving data from a rescue pod, eliminating a special target, destroying a research station, activating an artillery emplacement, destroying an anti-aircraft emplacement, and more. They may be marked on the map from the start or discovered by the players themselves.

As is standard for live-service games, Helldivers 2 players receive personal daily assignments. The community as a whole receives High Command Orders—for example, to conquer or defend a planet.

The core gameplay is simple: complete the drop objectives and evacuate, all while stranded out in the open and surrounded by enemies trying to stop you. The situation quickly descends into chaos as players struggle to complete their tasks, constantly make strategic decisions, run short on everything, and keep their fingers on the triggers. Adding fuel to the fire is a touch of realism in the form of friendly fire and limb injury mechanics.

Enemies can be shredded with an arsenal that includes revolvers, submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, precision rifles, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, hand grenades, and mines. Each weapon has its own characteristics (damage, rate of fire, recoil, and penetration) that affect its effectiveness against specific enemies. Armor comes in three types: light, medium, and heavy. Each offers a different playstyle and passive bonuses to your character’s stats.

Stratagems are a unique feature of Helldivers 2. They are deployed from the ship to a location designated by a player on the ground, and are limited only by a cooldown. Stratagems provide players with supplies, medical kits, and other equipment bonuses, or offer powerful ways to fight enemies—airstrikes and orbital strikes. This gives players a variety of tactical options during gameplay.

Progression in Helldivers 2 has several layers. By completing missions, players earn samples (resources of three rarity levels), medals, requisition, super credits , and experience. The rewards depend on the difficulty of the drop, the objectives completed during it, any caches found, and plain luck. The difficulty itself is a reward: the more successfully you complete drops, the tougher missions the game will throw at you.

Each type of reward contributes to a different area of progression. Experience accumulates toward levels, which determine a player’s rank and the maximum drop difficulty they can access, and also let them purchase new stratagems. Medals earned after each drop can be spent in the store on better weapons and equipment. Samples let you unlock new ship modules. Super Credits—an in-game currency that can also be found in the game—unlock cosmetic items.