Helldivers 2 You Need To Know These Tips For Fighting The Illuminate!

[@cloudplays]

What tips would you give someone who has just jumped into the illuminate?!

[@ZealTheStewpid0ne]

@@cloudplays prepare

[@alpharius4819]

Dont waste rockets on the shields

[@benloftus]

I use eagles primarily and I'm struggling, those damn shields are a nightmare

[@billblobfish_nz]

wait for the connection issues to be fixed

[@spartan078ben]

Run or shoot? Run or shoot?! BOTH!

[@DrCowinabox]

Another tip: absolutely do the SEAF SAM sites. Theyre 100x better against the illuminate than the bots. Ive seen them take down like a comical number of drop ships back to back.

[@gaverodriguez7847]

You said lasers aren’t the way to go but the laser cannon and sickle have been doing me right.

[@PeterHathorn]

The sickle is amazing

[@samuraitadpole5459]

Better than I thought, it's light pen but does amazing especially when you keep switching between laser canon and sickle ​@@PeterHathorn

[@GrubKiller436]

Well the Scythe and the Dagger are pretty crap against them. But yeah the Laser and and the Sickle are good.

[@samuraitadpole5459]

@GrubKiller436 I thought that was just my imagination although I figured the dagger would be trash against the new guys

[@PeterHathorn]

@@GrubKiller436 yeah I use the scythe to clear the hordes and shields on the tripods and warps, and quasars and impacts for heavy shits, and grenade pistol for the overseers (I’m still ass tho💀🙏)

[@SargentROSE]

I hope everyone has noticed the new percentage when selecting worlds to liberate. Hover over the world and see next to the name a Enemy Resistance (insert Low, Average, High and Extreme?) then the percent. As of now I've seen Low at 1.00, 1.50 then 2.00 at Average across all available planets as of this post. One final thing if you did not notice is the Illuminate invasion has levels, not resistance, meaning it could be a completely sperate mechanic.

[@abyssal-labs]

The voteless feel like flood combat forms from halo minus the huge jumps and the ability to carry guns, PRO TIP: illuminate use arch weapons use the arch defensive armor

[@samuelfrance1720]

I didn't play H1, but I'm so glad the illuminate are finally here! It's great to see what the devs were working on . 💜

[@cloudplays]

Same here! And I'm loving what they have done!

[@KriegerChristi]

I did fight them in HD1, and despite that, I'm glad they're back.

[@sergeantliangplays]

From my first matches yesterday, I have concluded that you need volume of fire more then anything else, even if you have to sacrifice medium penetration for that. Most medium pen weapons have limited ammo capacity, so I recommend laser / arc weapons or flamethrowers. The arc thrower works pretty well but only on 1 or 2 persons in a squad. Get artillery barrages, gatling gun, eagle strafing runs and orbital strikes, the calamari are not exactly as armored as the bots and they will fall quickly. Stick to the bubble shield, they will help you survive a laser blast from the harvesters and help deal with the hordes of melee attacks. Speaking of harvesters, you can also dodge their laser 95% of the time if you go prone. ACTIVATE ANY SAM SITE POSSIBLE OR BE PREPARED TO BE OVERWHELMED BY THE VOTELESS DROPPED FROM SHIPS.

[@jabloneynophony1875]

I just played one round, solo, today, and its almost like a different game. Fighting these creatures in an urban setting was so fun.

[@Schproemftell]

About the stationary Tesla Coils .. Has anybody tried if "going prone" helps ? Apparantly it is supposed to help against your own Tesla Towers

[@liammork]

Yes going prone will make you safe from the illuminates tesla coils

[@justaguypassingthrough4188]

My load put has been medium armor with the unflinching passive. Gas grenades, and hear me out just the normal liberator. 45 rounds and 8 mags to kill chaff. Support stratagems are as follows Orbital gas Eagle air strike Commando Gatling turret It’s worked really well for chaff clear and killing the Illuminate. Shoot the tripod with your primary till the shields are down and pop two rockets off with the commando and they go down pretty consistently.

[@cloudplays]

oh i love the sound of this loadout, and i love how your using the normal liberator!

[@UnrealRealME]

When you try to destroy the spawners use the orbital percion strike. They one shot them.

[@Schproemftell]

I thing the precision Strike is utterly underrated *Pros:* -Relatively low cooldown -Fast deploy/quick response -High Damage capable of destroying *almost* every enemy in one shot also tactical targets like the research facility or detector Towers -decent enough AoE to clear out single Patrols *Cons:* -You cannot use it often enough because you most likely have it constantly on cooldown due to it's versatility -cannot destroy Gunship fabs, Stratagem disruptor , illum.Strat scrambler , -Super Heavy units like Biletitan Impaler or Factory strider require direct Hits ...Fac-Striders and Impalers are however easy enough to hit -and finally it seams boring compared to its bigger Brother the 180mm/300mm/Napalm orbital Barrage... but that is merely a choice of "Style" it's still more efficient than those

[@jacobyoung1456]

The gas stike does as well.

[@3xcidium]

The Iluminate are the enemy we were missing so far - bugs mostly attack melee style in hoard mode, bots mostly attack from a distance with strong units, and the Illuminate are a well balanced force between both. Love it! 💜

[@markdevries8975]

So here's what I use against the illuminate, and it works great. The MG, liberator guard dog, combined with a gatling and a rocket sentry. I use the liberator as primary and secondary I use the smg (idk the name), set to single shot instead of full auto, this way you have a sidearm that has 30 rounds to take out the vote less. Mg can take out every target and liberator is a great backup for when you run out of ammo, also the drone gets alot of kills. However you need a teammate to run orbitals or eagles against the ships.

[@CroculousV2]

Here's what I have been using: Blitzer, Grenade pistol, airburst rocket launcher, Exosuit, orbital rail cannon, and eagle strafing run. For armor, I would recommend and medium armor set. For grenades, i use the incendiary impacts, it helps close off areas for hoards to run through. This is a good all round build, this helps a lot with hoards and medium units, the only problem is when you have multiple tripods, and no exo suit. 💜💜

[@noahcody2655]

Blitzer is fantastic against these guys especially with the unlimited ammo

[@Luke_Reaume]

for the jet pack guys make sure to aim at their jet packs as it will kill them way faster then shooting the body.

[@Jululiby]

I noticed that the warp ships have a glowing blue section on the rear that is a weak point for the shields. A few shots from the sickle knocked out the shield right away

[@davidponder1654]

It finally feels like were fighting a proper armed force. Im loving fighting the squids

[@Schproemftell]

Automaton laughs in 00100110

[@davidponder1654]

@ they still didn’t feel like an actual military force. More like separatists bots from star wars, nothing but programming. Im not wanting them to change either I love that every faction feels vastly different

[@Thatoneguy-xd7yg]

as soon as more Illuminate units get added, I'm in heaven.

[@Xinthium]

Fun fact: Warp Ships shields have about 2700-2800hp (yes, I tested this) with a medium level of regeneration. They seem to take reduced damage or are immune to both arc (or maybe arc's fire rate is just too god awfully slow), fire, and explosive weaponry - OR maybe it's just that they don't take any durable damage (weak point damage). Secondaries that I recommend if you are running exposive crossbow are: 1.5 cliips of redeemer, or 3 full senator clips are capable of taking it down. Edit: Melee weapons work too, it's just really not optimal because it takes a long time and voteless WILL swarm you.

[@lwc2001]

Fantastic content last couple days! Glad you didn't go on break 😂 good on you for apologizing to the devs

[@cloudplays]

Thank you! And yeah think it was kinda needed lol

[@MrTinman712]

I personally have found the normal spray and pray is a great pick, it demolishes the shields, is great at handling the zombies, and can destroy the overseers pretty quickly at close range. The airburst launcher is great for the zombie patrols and will kill nearby watchers as a bonus. With the other factions we were largely concerned with high priority armored targets, with the illuminate is much more of a numbers management game. Bringing multiple machine guns in your squad is something to seriously consider

[@kobyreisner8458]

The walking barrage is great for taking out the spawn ships also and helps clear quite a bit of visual clutter.

[@kobyreisner8458]

Also the Dominator primary one shots voteless in the chest and can one shot the overseers with a headshot. It can also take out the leg joints in a pinch. May be slow firing but I found that since it can be so good for overseers I use other things to deal with the mobs.

[@Shade______dumbnamerestriction]

Another tip for the illuminate tesla tower, just like our tesla tower you can crouch / go prone to reduce the "detection" range of the tower (spam diving also work & is the fastest way to cross distance somewhat safely while inside the tower's range)

[@rainyeevee4047]

Best Strategem for ships is the most basic orbital strike. it kill them in one hit regardless of shields. Only downside is cooldown. Support laser canon is also great for the shields, it takes them maybe not so fast as machine gun, but infinite ammo so you don't have to worry about that. Laser canon also works good for tripods, thanks to long range where you can strip their shields for your friends to hit where it hurts. Also the reinforcments can be taken easily by RR if you shoot them the same spot aliens was shoot in independence day.

[@shoulderpyro]

Fun fact, the shield only blocks projectiles. It is entirely possible - not advised, but possible - to just.. yknow. Walk through the shield. Then hit it from below with an arc. Or, as one madlad did in a clip I've seen elsewhere: Use a high vantage paired with a jumppack to jump on top of the tripod and bash its head in with a stun baton If you do want to take down shields faster, the lasers excel at taking down shields. Plasma however, is worthless. Ballistic weaponry is decent if fired at a fast rate. Arc weapons can take them down but requires a duo to work in tandem. The orbital railcannon completely ignores shields and just punches straight through

[@Timmytimtimm1]

I walked through the shield and took the tripod from the Inside with my EAT

[@scifiguy1236]

​@@Timmytimtimm1Did you survive?

[@samuraitadpole5459]

​@@scifiguy1236oh no! He died😭😭😭

[@sergeantblue6115]

Ive noticed the shields will usually count “tics”as damage to their overall durability, I’m not sure if dmg plays a factor on it. Meaning any high fire rate weaponry can take them out fine. I’ve tested out the crossbow and eruptor on the ships, they suck at destroying the shields.

[@xgzyzyx]

From what I have played, I got to really enjoy quite few weapons and stratagems. Firstly, I really recommend taking the tenderizer primary, putting it on 850 fire rate and changing it to burst. This shit fires soooo quickly yet is incredibly easy to control and since the overseers' armor falls off if you shoot them enough, it's still really effective against them. Then the tesla tower has been great for killing hoards of voteless and stunlocking overseers. Gatling barrage and strafing run are great for killing hoards and dmging/destroying the shield of harvesters. And if you do the defense missions against squids, I really recommend taking the anti tank emplacememt for destroying the ufo and harvesters + hmg emplacement or just something elses that allows you to take care of flying overseers since they swarm you there like flies

[@PennsyPappas]

Ive been using the orbital gatling barrage and the Stalwart. The gatling barrage is just a godsend in kiling hordes of enemies or st least sliwing them down and also helps keeps the shields of a Harvester down for a sustained period as well as doing some damahe to it. Never thought id rely on it so heavily but here i am. Also Plasma Purifier seems to work great against the overseer guys.

[@Jay-hd3uy]

Hey big tip. If you go to your settings, you can change it so you don’t have to change gears in the vehicle and drive like a traditional vehicle and most video games.

[@UndeadDragonWarrior]

Getting some real Xcom vibes again from this release, but also "Dive on in" Roger's voice every time xD 💜

[@spartan078ben]

I use a "Rooftop sniper build" Primary: Liberator concussive Secondary: Grenade pistol Grenade: Any but I mostly use thermite Strats 1. 500 KG 2. Orbital Laser 3. AMR 4. Jump pack Armor: Diver's choice but I like "Siege-ready" for extra ammo. Strategy: use the jump pack to stay on the rooftop. Concentrate on Overseers both kinds. Avoids the horde of noteless. Only come down to do objectives. Use jump pack to avoid getting swarmed.

[@grimgrahamch.4157]

I'm still feeling my way around them, but so far the strafing run is my biggest suggestion. It's a quick and convenient way to deal with shields, along with kiting voteless. Flamers can work but there's a lot of risks involved and even though they van take out harvesters, I'll just stick to conventional antitank. The Blitzer so far has been my most successful primary so far but a lot of medium penetrators have been lackluster.

[@DeathRancher]

The eagle cluster bombs will take out the shields on the war ships as well. I've been using them to kill ads around the ships so when I get in close to throw a grenade on there is less enemies around it.

[@joaocaju3061]

💜 Iluminates from HD1 felt wise and peaceful. The whole "they have weapons of mass destruction" narrative was really a stretch made by Super Earth. But damn, HD2's Illuminates surely are PISSED. Their whole Flying Saucer aesthetic is really cool because it reminds me of those old 80's movies (ET, Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind etc.)... ...but the Mindcontrol aspect is macabre! I really wasnt expecting it and it gives some real vibes from the BODY SNATCHERS movie, making the whole Super Earth discourse feel really reasonable 💜

[@dragonsmith3285]

I wanna say, the precision strike, and gass strike (as well as most artillery strikes) instantly destroy warp ships on direct impact

[@thescrambler6354]

💜 the stun baton is peak helldivers brutality

[@thomaslukeable]

My loadout is : Exploding Crossbow (Voteless/overseer), The revolver, then Stratagems: Sniper (Flying oversee, watchers and harvesters' joints'), Walking barrage (for heavy/medium outposts), and the 500kg bomb (Harvesters, small/medium outposts) and finally the Jetpack (mastering this makes this mode much easier). Armour is the warbond for this mode (light) with the buffed primary reload and ammo. I basically run around like a gremlin flying over voteless, outpacing the enemies to take out the outposts, and act like a scout/sabotage diver

[@litefire01]

I’m loving the fact that electrical weapons and the Tesla tower are super awesome. The armor passive is great as well. The arc12 blitzer is the best. 💜

[@HoundNL]

💜 never expected the fight ain't the most technically advanced race to be with zombies, but I dig it a lot

[@UniqueDisasterTv]

Precision Strike can take out the ships in one hit(i do have the tier 5 High Density explosive, not sure if it makes a difference). 5k bomb will also do in one hit, but needs to be on top of the craft or near the enterance. Sheild on or off makes no difference.

[@petergriffinson1907]

What are those illuminate staffs for? It’s just there idling

[@TiltedBxhr]

💜 love the content

[@lowellp4603]

I’ve been seeing a ton of success with the gas strike it can take out pretty much everything besides the harvesters easily and has a really short cooldown (70 seconds I think) it can also destroy a warp ship through the shield

[@shadowwolf3419]

Laser Cannon shreds the Harvesters, Sickle is great for nonvoters and enemy shields. Orbital Lazer almost instantly wipes out the Warpships. Gatling Sentry and Flame Sentry are great for non voters and Illuminate

[@xetyres]

@Cloudplay thank for the video💯

[@zc4905]

Liberator Penetrator/Senator/Gas nades, with the new Warbond light armor. Gatling Sentry/big shield bubble/Recoilless Rifle/380 barrage for the heavy ship encampments.

[@wickedkiller6906]

Crossbow works good on Tesla towers.

[@Jimjon24]

Flame grenades do extremely good too, the splash damage is enough so don't have to be so accurate.

[@kevind6965]

Loving the content 💜

[@Your-friend-MC]

💜nice, I have been waiting for this vid for the whole day

[@nightowl4546]

5:57 Try the sickle. Don't use plasma.

[@greasemonkey42]

So excited to update and take on the squids! After watching an Arrowhead interview on this update, 2025 is going to be massive for HD2 💜

[@ghostlyswat12]

7:56 here’s a tip for you if you’ve lost your tires turn the throttle to 2 and then try and drive it’s a lot easier

[@cloudplays]

Oh good to know!

[@murderofrooks350]

Cloud and eravin are my 2 chosen creators for this game. Cloud for news, rumors, and community sentiment, and eravin for stats and breakdowns 💜

[@joshuamorgan7341]

Scorcher is putting in work, and the Precision Orbital will take out the Landed Ships in one shot even shielded

[@OscarRodriguez-dh8tq]

thanks for the info💜

[@shadowlobo5]

Thanks for this 💜

[@ArchieLinton-b1y]

I just need to knownhow to destroy those damn ships!

[@Calladim]

Haven't tried yet but I saw folks commenting the orbital railcannon

[@Jowak54]

Just shoot the circle in the middle of the ship (where they spawn) with recoilless, expendable etc.

[@Schproemftell]

for the Encampments Orbital precision Strike is ideal For the Reinforcements the usual stuff like Recoilless ,Quasar, Spear works just aim dead center

[@fernandomunoz9127]

Very helpful! 💜

[@MrGrizzlyX]

things i learned until now, light armor pen weapons are a great choice finally, while automatons and even more terminids have a ton of well armored units with medium armor of 3 or more, against the squids the table turned, weapons like the normal Liberator and Tenderizer can utilize their higher base damage with no effort, same with shotguns, Breaker and B S&P are shredding hordes Punisher and Cookout to, just the B Incendiary not, to much spread not good against flying dudes not even the zombies imo. Same for the Laser guard dog, i switched to the normal one with the Liberator P a while back since Bots and Bug got many medium armor units but the Laser is now back to fry squid zombies. Mg43 can kill tripods pretty easy at the joint area, at the moment i rather keep the 500kg at home since it rarely if at all cant oneshot Tripods, and for the UFOs i can use so many other Strategems for a change, like the Orbital Gas Strike, the projectile is able to oneshot Ships like a Precision strike while having even less CD AND being great agains the hordes. its refreshing to have a faction thats give us the oportunity to utilize other parts of our Arsenal more effective now-

[@Halo56782]

For some reason I find standard frag grenades absolute suck at taking out warpships, I threw four through the door and got jack squat

[@George_M_]

I want an upgrade that lets the Spear penetrate shields. So it can have a niche beyond the RR.

[@KingRage10]

What I find concerning is that this isn’t even their main fighting force, this is simply the vanguard 💜

[@EdwinCaldwellBills]

i remember having a dream about the new faction with a harvester firing its lazier destroying a building that happened the exact same way today I have that dream two months ago

[@UNREALISAIAH]

Thanks for covering all these things over the past few days! 💜💜💜

[@idiotengineer3925]

Eagle strafing run has been killer for me

[@ZealTheStewpid0ne]

3 war bonds?? Sick 💜

[@CameronLestagez]

do you think there is space on the map for one more faction ?

[@stevevos117]

I've been really enjoying trying out different weapons and stratagems. Feels like a whole new game 💜

[@marcelwaddell6290]

💜 This channel and Takibo are my favorite for Helldivers 2 intelligence and tactical field reporting. Thank you for your diligence and contributions to the war effort fellow Diver! 💜

[@gcherfzthequietone]

💜mmhhhh so thats how you deal with the discombopulator. man trying to find that out while swarmed was impossible.

[@Kirainne]

This was very informative. 💜

[@cloudplays]

Glad it helped!

[@Kykokos]

useful video💜

[@jasonmilne2797]

You can destroy the top of the head of a harvester to disable the shield

[@jakobbinkley]

💜 Time to eradicate the Squids! 💜 Salute Super Earth or face the Wall

[@ezramenard8479]

I just introduced a friend to the game, he is loving it 💜

[@Mozenwrath]

See about it, be about it 💜

[@FermentedToast_]

whatever units the Illuminate deploy next, we'll be ready. 💜

[@suuijin26]

For me best loadout is Heavy machiegun, shield, mg turret, laser

[@bobobserver8990]

Feel like there are bugs with the towers. I've shot only a single one of the packs and disabled it at times. This is while able to see a second untouched pack near the one I shot.

[@JRGProjects]

They were "Assimilated" by the Illuminate or Indoctrinated by the Reapers.

[@Democracy_glazer]

Thanks, I'm maining Illuminate!

[@fireglitz1371]

The voteless look kind of like the flood 💜

[@Victors_Stuff]

Thanks :) 💜

[@Lyngspl]

I just really love the new maps 💜

[@Toxxsicklemons]

I like the LAS-5 Scythe it really does damage to the overseer.

[@SusaiJ]

This new enemy definitely has made me feel like a new player mostly cause I don't know what to do against them so this video definitely helps.💜

[@Low-effort-individual]

Hey guys breaker spray and prey is absolutely busted for chaff enemies and shields haven’t tried incendiary breaker but I don’t see it being bad on them

[@tetsujin64]

💜💜💜 Crisper pistol is great against Voteless

[@t0ssacoin408]

💜 Definitely needed this video. These guys got hella health.

[@cloudplays]

Glad I could help!

[@dominikbury2]

Can't wait for them to add more enemies 💜

[@gustavhertz5090]

Hope we get more different iluminate enemies soon but overall im very happy with what we've got💜

[@yugalkishore5108]

We are sooo back💜

[@SpeedeyFreaks]

well, how do I take out the drop ships ? :D

[@cloudplays]

Omg I missed this! 😲 Hitting the bottom of the drop ship where they spawn from will get it done faster. So using a Quaser or something would work amazingly But my favourite is 3 shots of the new Anti tank emplacement!

[@shoulderpyro]

Recoilless or Spear to the bottom circle bit, both take one rocket. All the others either phase right through (Quasar) or just dont have the firepower to take them down c: Better alternative is bringing an arc weapon - it disables the watchers upon hit, preventing them from calling for backup. They're the only ones that can call for backup as well so make sure you always have one arc buddy with you. As a bonus, Arc weapons are AOE and also stunlock both Overseers

[@aztro4581]

blue objective with illuminate on every map propose an AA building, when set back to ON it will shoot any drop ship

[@shoulderpyro]

@@aztro4581 additional note that this is also true for ones that have been found on the automaton front since, well.. forever, really

[@nachocold23]

Adjudicator Flame Pistol Gas Nades 500k Commando Ballistic Dog Gatling Sentry ideal loadout I’ve been running!

[@leeg2787]

the commando on flack one shots the tripods

[@Swatninja82]

💜Thanks for the tips!💜

[@cloudplays]

No problem 😊

[@aarontorres9570]

The illuminate remind me of the elite from halo reach this invasion is so aggressive everything we're doing to fight them back but in the end won't be enough 💜 The cross over would be amazing.💜💜

[@robthemedia]

Hell yea! 💜

[@breadguy4886]

Hey, love to have some extra knowledge against these squids. Can’t wait to liberate Calypso for Super Earth! 💜

[@KarsWithDrip]

I can't wait to farm super credits and super samples with the car after they drop the stratagem 💜