How to Improve at Helldivers 2 in under 5 Minutes

A short guide to help you reach max difficulty.
Follow me on Twitch: / wooliegaming
Second channel: / @woojie
Join our Discord: / discord

[@Woolie]

and remember - extracting is always optional. spreading Democracy, however, is NOT

[@K0RT3K]

Question: Is there a diference in body types or is ot just purely visual? (Hitbox, turnspeed, whatever?)

[@Woolie]

I don't know for certain but I'd imagine there is no difference@@K0RT3K

[@K0RT3K]

@@Woolie ok

[@K0RT3K]

@@Woolie The game says that it makes no diference, but with the level of detail in Helldivers 2 I do not really believe that.

[@DudeSoWin]

The Redeemer pistol performs worse than the starter gun for clearing trash mobs which I assume is the intended use of a sidearm.

[@SkillJoy.]

I truly love that raising difficulty does not increase enemy health. There's many game that do just that, but it diminishes how rewarding progression is.

[@Woolie]

agreed

[@weiss4855]

Enemies not gaining health with higher difficulty and enemies gaining new attacks are my favourite ways to do difficulty, it's not everywhere in this game but there are some enemies like the Bile Spewer gaining access to a mortar attack in addition to it's extra armour.

[@Savileaurus]

I swear they do, though. At least bile titans must do. A full orbital laser killed one outright before, but on the higher difficulties, it doesn't.

[@BertsBalls]

I think they do slightly, the charger takes 2 hits to kill with the rail in the leg on lower difficulties while it takes 2+ a bunch of shots to the exposed flesh on 9

[@HalIOfFamer]

Unfortunately that's not true tho. Enemies gain health with difficulty. Either that or all bugs had their health buffed recently and it coincided with me getting access to hardermissions. But it feels like killing the bile titans on hard for the quest of killing them is way easier than killing the same bile titans on suicide mission. They still die to 2 perfect headshots with a recoilless rifle but on hard you can whiff a little and it's still gonna die, on SSCD mission the hits have to be pinpoint perfect or they'll just eat the shells.

[@horrorfan117]

"You don't have to scour the map for those last 6 samples." Sounds like something an Automaton Spy would say.

[@Runtsymunts]

Dissident thought for sure

[@anon4854]

Pretty un-patriotic to not secure every last inch of the map in the name of Super Earth. Borderline treasonous. Sounding like a certain someone needs a brush up on their Democracy.

[@BlackSkullArmor]

Remember to report them to the government! I did and now I get 1 more doctor visit a year!

[@Battleatthecreek420]

This man is a traitor! For democracy!!! FREEEDOMMMMM

[@kronos2006]

Not a very democratic thought here

[@gibster9624]

Learning to break aggro was the biggest difference maker in the higher tiers for me. Get comfortable with crouching after breaking line of sight and still moving. Even tho it'll allow enemies to potentially catch up to you, they will slow down trying to relocate you. In some cases, you can watch the radar and see the red dots immediately stop and turn around. This will prevent having multiple patrols showing up anytime you pick a fight.

[@0BuLLeT01]

This. Too many people want to fight each and every fight and every enemy they see. The fights don't matter. Finishing the objectives matter.

[@Splidtter]

Thats what annoys me about my current mates.... on one side they want to increase difficulty but on the other side they cry about too many heavy enemies spawning because they keep triggering patrols.....

[@CrizzyEyes]

I've noticed that if you use orbitals on a group of enemies that hasn't seen you yet they'll just walk around confused wondering what the hell is going on. It's also really easy to lose enemies in pursuit on planets like Mantes that have plenty of trees that block line of sight. They search but they'll have no idea where you are.

[@LoserInChief]

Super key. I can't tell you how many missions I have failed because my idiot squad mate Just HAD to aggro that oblivious swarm on the ridge and then hold their ground against 3 breaches rather than complete the mission. It's me, I'm the idiot squad mate.

[@bonehed1]

Smoke grenades or a smoke eagle are great for breaking contact, getting away from a big pointless fight and getting towards the next objective. They are incredible, especially against bots

[@unnero1]

Good tips, some notes however: - You need armor penetration above 7, however we like to have 1 person bring Grenade Launcher. It clears hordes and Spewers up super fast, plus there are a fuckton of bugholes to close and it can do it. When everyone else hais railguns, railcannons and mortars, having more just would go to waste - I like switching between the Breaker shotgun and the Defender SMG. You wouldnt think it, but the SMG, its a straight up upgrade from the ASSAULT RIFLE.... more dmg, bigger clip, letss recoil plus its one handed, so you can lug the SSD around - Don't bother with Spear, currently its extremely unreliable and borderline useless because of that. - Get the Personal shield backpack , makes your survivability shoot through the roof.

[@_dekr0306]

Grenadier with horde clearing orbital or eagle is extremely important in high difficulty. I have seen so many times that a full squad consisted of only single shot / semi shot anti-armoured weapon and high cool down stratagem get swarm by dozen of light armoured unit because they can't clear them fast enough as they spawn. Despite there's increase in the number of medium and heavy armoured unit, light armoured unit still consists of majority of all units during the encounter. Grenade Launcher is still very effective against devastator and stalker because it can stun them and give a breath window for your teammate to take it out with their high penetration weapon.

[@spartan456]

Was waiting to see someone else mention Defender SMG. It is a complete 100% upgrade over the assault rifle and IMO I find it way better than the Breaker. It can't chew through a line of cyborgs in the same way as the Breaker, but I generally swap to the railgun in unsafe mode for higher penetrating shots to deal with that nonsense. PERSONALLY, if you are with a good team, the Recoilless Rifle is amazing when handling the cyborgs, but you _REALLY_ have to be with a good team. Not necessarily for the assisted reloads, but y'all need to be very good at covering one another. The RR can down a dropship if it's hit in the right spot instantly. This makes horde spawns much easier to deal with. I played one level 7 with a guy who was rolling around with the RR. He'd use it to handle dropships or hulks, and would only ever reload it by himself in a sensible spot (like surrounded by hard cover). I'd watch his ass just to be safe, or if I saw him reloading in the middle of a firefight, I'd make sure to cover him. The smoldering dropship also serves as additional, totally free damage at the cost of ONE rocket, since it will spiral out of control and land on something. Sometimes your teammates. Sometimes a pesky Hulk.

[@milesg7877]

Yup SMG baybee, you can also carry the package with your primary

[@ESaSi-dj7ww]

Fun fact, the Autocannon can also clear bug holes

[@unnero1]

@@ESaSi-dj7wwIt's true and I really like it but we decided to shelf it because 1. it doesnt have AoE and 2. it can only hurt Chargers from the back and Bile Titans takes ages with it 3. it needs a backpack. Sadly it's just outclassed because Grenade clears hordes instead of single bugs and Railgun just does things better without a backpack slot.

[@aashilr]

"Hah, Eagle never misses" - biggest lie of democracy

[@GumpierGoat2]

Eagle always hits their target, their target just isn't the same as your target

[@danturtle381]

As the other person said, they don't miss... The beacon. The fact the enemy isn't on the beacon isn't the pilots problem :/

[@robfus]

eagle always hit exactly where you tell them, you are the one tht miss

[@beefychickens-8276]

This man needs to be re-educated

[@GumpierGoat2]

@@beefychickens-8276 take him to the freedom camp

[@Brenhydra]

>Immediately gets into the tips instead of waffling along in an introduction. I DIDN'T REALIZE I NEEDED THIS UNTIL NOW

[@bonehed1]

Fr this game already has so many talentless slop farm youtubers it's ridiculous

[@platiuscyndar9017]

It's woolie gaming man. Quality content since forever. Been here when he was making ROR2 content and he's stayed classy the entire time.

[@toasterstrudel1313]

Dude got RIGHT to the point. his intro was a tip and I love that

[@LoserInChief]

"Rocks can't blow up" Chargers: "Am I a JOKE to you?"

[@isaal7118]

Yes

[@khanhnguyen-tt3ff]

chargers is joke by itself cause you can run circle around chargers, the hulk is something else

[@Manglet762]

@@khanhnguyen-tt3ff Only a joke if they're alone, which they usually aren't.

[@hoofhearted4]

found this out last night. tried to put something between me and a charger, it didnt work. lol

[@Lucios1995]

Autocannon can blow it up too

[@Dr4gonBorn_]

Stims are essentially God mode if you pop one before taking a ton of damage or being surrounded. Especially strong with medic armors where you get 4ish seconds of invulnerablility and infinite stamina to get out of danger.

[@WickedFearGaming]

Spy

[@moshipsword4410]

I would also like to point out the eye on the hulk while harder to hit does more damage and with railgun you can 1 shot them if you have good enough aim

[@zackroshaven8900]

^This. I hit lvl 20 last night and figured out real quick how powerful the Railgun was!

[@davejones8462]

@@zackroshaven8900yess bro just hit level 32 and the railgun hasn’t left my hands since level 20 damn near 😂

[@e_maccy4589]

You can also damage the eye with auto cannon and anti materiel rifle, both kill in two shots. If you fight multiple hulk's they drop fast with good aim and you might save an orbital beam that way

[@davejones8462]

RIP Railgun 💀

[@moshipsword4410]

@@davejones8462 it's still perfectly fine on unsafe mode

[@helsreach8954]

we need to make people learn these trick else we wont be liberating those damn automatons planets

[@inconsideratebox3000]

May Democracy be with Draupnir.

[@BBBerti]

Yeah I'm not sure if we'll get the major order that's up right now. It's understandable though cause those defend missions can get crazy especially solo (kill me 🤮)

[@inconsideratebox3000]

@BBBerti -Tbf players can get their 8 wins by just playing Trivial mode. Did that a couple of times solo and it was incredibly easy post-patch. Plus, they get 12,500 credits for strategems / whatever else uses that currency if they complete the order.- -Might just be that casual players aren't really invested, which is understandable, like what you said.- *EDIT:* Turns out the 8 wins aren't tied to individual missions. Instead, they are tied to planets, and in order to win the planet, we have to beat the Automatons in a sort of points race until a timer runs up. Once the timer runs out, whoever has more points will claim the planet, and if we are the victors, then we will gain a point in the Major Order. So, to contribute to the Major Order, you just have to complete as many missions as you want on any planets with a massive DEFEND marker over them, which will add points to our bar and hopefully contribute to a victory for Super Earth. Although this isn't confirmed, I'd assume that failing or abandoning missions would add to the Automaton bar. It would also make sense for the Automaton bar to slowly raise over time regardless of activity since not doing so would insinuate that players could stall a Major Order by simply not playing the game. Thanks to zTxMeta for the correction. Devs should have made this clearer tbh.

[@zTxMeta]

​@@inconsideratebox3000it's not about winning individual operations, it's about the entire community successfully defending 8 whole planets

[@Splidtter]

@@inconsideratebox3000 by doin it on trivial you add almost nothing to the liberation meter.. just sayin.... the lower the difficulty, the lower tzhe impact on the planet!

[@Tr0llTh3W0rld]

Railgun is, at this point in time, just the best AT option available. You can hit a charger twice in the leg and pop the fleshy part, bile titans go down in a few shots to the head, hulks can be one shot on unsafe if you aim precisely for the red spot on their face, and tanks can be three/four shot on unsafe (either hitting the vent directly or by shooting through the front, railgun pierces armor). It can also one shot almost every tougher bug that spawns besides the charger and bile titan, as well as one shotting every bot including devastator and berzerker (if you're lucky on berzerkers)

[@TheHuckeberrie]

you can one shot the hulk on safe

[@Tr0llTh3W0rld]

@@TheHuckeberrie Ever since I learned about unsafe I don't think I've used safe so I just assume it doesn't hit the same breakpoints as unsafe

[@TheDwarfishjoe]

Bile titans can take 10 shots to the head, you must be getting lucky with a few...

[@CatWithThumb]

i've been oneshotting bile titans to the head, even on helldiver difficulty and while on safe. and very consistently doing that as well

[@JubJub958]

@@CatWithThumb I wanna use whatever cracked out railgun you're using!

[@theologe6076]

'warhammer 40k levels' got me good ngl

[@khanhnguyen-tt3ff]

im not worried cause im sure there will be a mod to covert this into Warhammer 40k

[@ULTIMATZEKROM]

@@khanhnguyen-tt3ff Hell, we're already entering planets via a drop pod like a Space Marine lol

[@BSEUNHIR]

That's actually a really insightful video. Hard to find those for HD2. My group has now more or less mastered level 7, but we struggled and failed level 8. Got DPS checked and failed to disengage. The flood of enemies seemingly never ends at 8.

[@jujijuman]

only kill what you cant outrun. usually when getting overrun its because those orange winged hunters. if youre moving, the charger will clear the crowd for you sometimes. if youre getting overrun by biles. hit pause on that objective and go do something else. sometimes people get tunnel vision on the objectives. it could be better to take small strke at it, do a side objective, then loop back t it

[@neziaojuara1768]

The mission also gets harder as time goes on, so please guys, don't run to the other side of the map just to destroy a small bug nest for 50 extra credits(and end up dying as you do so). I've found that the best option by far is focusing on the main objectives and destroying/collecting what's on the way as you run from one objective to the next(also lowers the chance that you'll get a random crash/disconnect).

[@BSEUNHIR]

I haven't found that to be the case at all. In fact, the more bug nests you destroy, the fewer enemies you seem to encounter.

[@Acrid_Arsonist]

​@BSEUNHIR there is an in game tip that literally saus what nez said

[@zTxMeta]

​@@BSEUNHIRthe patrols aren't effected by the nests in the slightest. As has already been said patrols crank up in volume the longer the mission goes on, more patrols means more chances for breaches/drops

[@mr.meanwhile]

But mah sampuls 😢

[@Oddball_E8]

@@zTxMetaThat's not my experience. There is a significant reduction in patrols if you take out all the nests.

[@psychokiller5431]

You can also only change that stratagem UP to mouse wheell up, so you wouldn't need to rebind anything else AND you can still hold you mouse while moving and inputing commands

[@Lunageldia]

this sounds like a good tip but I have this feeling that I would absolutely confuse the heck out of myself with it

[@psychokiller5431]

@@Lunageldia i've also changed stratagem menu from ctrl to mouse side button and as for me it feels more natural to be this way :)

[@Armetar]

@@psychokiller5431 You are saving my life with this one

[@ashton7742]

Now how do I convince my friends not to be little goblins and scoure the landscape for samples

[@smithastley1616]

L20 progression rewards hitting up the samples. Tell them they'll need buttloads of them.

[@tycheese5]

Samples is endgame

[@ryean8212]

You don't, You join them and scoure the landscape for samples.

[@sweetsillysquid]

Why should they stop? They probably need samples, if you don't thats great for you but everyone else does so stop your whining and help them out xD

[@Brian-yz8dj]

​@@sweetsillysquidor, and hear me out, you can start another mission and find 2-3x the amount in the same time youd spend finishing that map AND you get more other curency/xp. No brainer.

[@adrianpena800]

This is one of the best gaming videos I’ve seen in years. Quick, useful, to the point, a bit of humor. BE LIKE THIS GUY

[@Cobyba]

People I think don't realize how being proactive to enemy aggro can be a total game changer to survival. If you see 2 bot drops coming in, you should be at least 50 meters away and broken line of sight before they've even landed. If you find yourself running from a large enemy force because they've converged on your position, it's probably already too late, unless you get some well placed strategems within the hearts of their ranks or are able to use EMS/Smoke to aid a late escape. Number 1 tip for solo 9 is definitely to avoid fighting at all costs. There's no benefit to killing more enemies/taking unnecessary fights, as all you're doing is extending your time in mission, which causes more enemies to spawn, and increasing both your ammo/resource consumption and chances of death.

[@Akrilloth]

Unfortunate tbh, it basically means you have to play on lower difficulties if you want to wipe the map of enemies.

[@MrStonehengeX37]

It’s worth mentioning that the arc thrower can kill chargers, bile titans, hulks and tanks. It just doesn’t crack the armor loose to give access to the critical meat. I caught it on video, just haven’t posted it. Learning the rapid fire sweet spot makes it hold its own and its ammo is infinite. It also tracks pretty heavily, it’s very aim forgiving unless your team mate is over there. It will always 1 shot team mates, but most things do.

[@Sorain1]

The biggest issue Arc Thrower has is the finnicky arcing of the bolt getting hung up on things like the ground, boxes or fences.

[@mat0808]

or teammates lmao

[@Sotanaht01]

@@Sorain1Definitely an issue. If the enemies feet blocked by cover, the arc will often just ignore them completely. That means you need to be fully exposed in order to shoot it. Still one of the best weapons for light and medium targets. I'm not really sure why anyone uses the grenade though.

[@andreazampedrino9117]

This kind of content is top notch. No intro, no time wasted. You get what advertised from second 1, love it

[@ant94]

I love how much you’ve packed into this. A beautiful and rare style of video creation.

[@SleepyMatt-zzz]

Choosing not to fight enemies is one of the most useful tips everyone should know about. I often notice that many people will shoot the first thing they see, even at high levels. Additionally: - If you spot a roaming group of enemies, check to see if it is a scouting party by spotting it. Scouts are pretty much guaranteed to call for reinforcements. - Another tip I would give is that sometimes it is better to keep moving, rather than hunker down in one position. people often do this when enemy reinforcements are called, which isn't always bad, especially when holding an objective. The problem is that if you stay in a single position for too long, a new round of reinforcements will come, again, and again, because scouting parties will come investigate the commotion. If you have no reason to stick around, just move on to the next objective. - Enemies are pretty dumb, and will eventually stop following the player if they lose sight of them, then they will move to the last place enemies spotted the player. - USE THE RADAR. I can't name the amount of times I saw teammates walk around a corner right into a scouting party or encampment and get swarmed. In Hell Divers, it is important to maintain the momentum of the mission. Loitering for too long means higher chances for the players to fumble and make mistakes.

[@spartan456]

Adding onto using the radar, armor sets which grant bonuses to radar pings are heavily underused and I see nobody using them the way they should be used. When I roll with armor like that, especially if our team is split up handling objectives, I use my pings on the map to show my teammates what's around them. I recently used it to guide a friend through some mountainous terrain so he could avoid the swarms of scouts around him. I just kept moving to my objective, and used the map to occasionally update the radar pings around his position. Pings set by these armors scan further than the default player's radar can reach, and EVERYONE can see what they find. If you have an armor with a bonus like this, PING STUFF CONSTANTLY. Whether you're headed for an area and want to see what's around it, or want to show someone else what they might be walking into. It's also useful for extraction, since you can just drop pings around the area to see where enemies are coming from much further away.

[@codythatcher735]

I love getting called out for getting the least amount of kills, but they know damn well its because they just sat there wasting reinforcements fighting for 20 minutes while I'm running around doing all the objectives lol

[@robjsmiles]

Radar with the ship upgrade and booster for range goes crazy for efficient map clearing and stealth

[@finickyflame]

​@@codythatcher735unless they change the breakdown to include the enemies sizes, the amount of kills is not a good metric. It's easier to kill 40 smalls than 1 big bile titan

[@codythatcher735]

@@finickyflame thats what im sayin

[@S.unsh7ne]

This is one of the best "how to get better at game" ive ever seen. Keeping it short and entertaining, while keeping a sense of humor and getting straight to the point. Amazing. 👌🙌

[@alanwilson3572]

The last tip is the best, you DONT have to fight everything on the screen

[@fauloo]

in regards to this. I wish people stop taking marked patrols as a challenge.

[@escapegoat1344]

10/10 video. I've also been talking about how the late game enemy armour balancing needs to change, I agree with you entirely.

[@itsSmiv]

Just started helldivers and needed some tips. I knew when I saw "woolie" this would be a top tier, straight to the point guide. Good shit as always.

[@thewarlockehs]

I love how you LITERALLY instantly get into the tips and make the vid short. Subscribed👍

[@apersonthatis7007]

If you’re looking to maximize war effort, do not play max difficulty. Squad impact caps out at 3 at around difficulty 5, and never increases.

[@Manglet762]

For any newbies that see the Breaker Shotgun bit at 3:10, don't worry too much about what weapons you're using, most weapons at least up to Hard (Difficulty Level 5) are good. I'll admit I haven't played much above Hard, but until you're sleeping through Hard (it lives up to it's name, trust me), you generally don't need to worry. The only outright bad weapon I've used so far is Liberator Penetrator, felt outrifht awful to use, even then it may still be good and I just didn't get used to it.

[@nogamenolife705]

Also watch out for the host kicking you if you accidentally kill them which is very possible when you are new and even later on. This happened to me a few times and feels bad after putting 15 mins or so into a mission.

[@talal6222]

That’s literally what happened to me. The host killed me 3 times but I was ok with that since he was a noob, my turret killed him one time in the extraction, he kicked me in 1 sec lol

[@mmstick]

I've been kicked so many times, despite often carrying teams of randoms wasting their lives left and right because they run straight into enemies and kill themselves repeatedly with their own eagle strikes. There was one game where I avoided being killed the whole mission and carried everyone's samples, but the host and his friends ran straight into a walking barrage and exhausted their lives right at the moment of extraction. Even the one person I reinforced died seconds after landing. They were so angry that I was the only person to extract that they kicked me before the extraction scene was finished.

[@TheJeremyKentBGross]

Man, idk why but I can't even get into groups even 2 months in. QM never finds matches. SOSs never work, and whenever I try to join rando missions by clicking to join in progress ones on the map, it fails immediately. I can join friends, but the one or two people on my list who were actually playing seem to have moved on already. I've been stuck playing a coop game solo pretty much always, which has significantly reduced how much I'd otherwise play. Very rarely a rando joins me, but never when I drop an SOS. Usually they don't talk, do stupid stuff like fight everything in sight, and leave after one mission. The one or two times I've actually managed to join someone else, I got kicked almost immediately for no obvious reason, with no warning. This seems like a cool game, butso far my experience with HD1 was infinitely better.

[@nogamenolife705]

@@TheJeremyKentBGross here's a tip i found works. Pick a mission and launch it, use sos beacon and after it lands return to ship alone. Then load up any mission on any planet you want to play and select the mission then just wait. People will join you pretty quick now. Just turn crossplay on and make sure your set to public.

[@IScreamAtCats33]

Woolie: "Rocks. use them, all the time. They can't blow up." Crusher: "And I took that personally"

[@TheGrooviestGarbage]

Bro just went right into the tips no nonsense just cold hard facts easiest subscribe of my life!

[@OhioState_11]

Pro tip if you want an easy way to level up do the missions of killing swarms of bugs on difficulty level 5 or 6 if your ready for bile titans and keep going around to the other planets and keep doing the same mission I got to level 20 in 2 days

[@depoittier]

Don't try it; I have the high ground.

[@lazerkeyboard]

The one thing that I do every single game that physically sets me apart from bad players (as in, im already at the objective and theyre not) is TO KEEP MOVING. It does NOT matter to clear any area out totally before you move on, once the objectives been completed, samples collected and or side objective finished just keEP MOVING towards the next area. You will not be able to kill the enemies faster than they can call for help.

[@R1po]

Yeah, I love having level 10s in my 7+ runs. "How does this work?" "I have no armor penetrating weapons" "What are weakpoints?" "3/4 dead.. doesn't notice...

[@Aprolisce]

Be their teacher so that they can become a better diver than your sensitive ass

[@Winasaurus]

Extraction is optional. If you don't care about getting the samples, or already lost too many of them to care, you can push the limit on side-objectives and random loot drop areas to maximize recquisition and super credits.

[@cptnbangatron2221]

Soooo a youtuber named Matu just released a video yesterday that is pretty much a 1 on 1 copy of this video... I'd give him the benefit of the doubt, but it's just too close to your video for that to be the case.

[@speedsters4556]

Great way to do a video, informative, fast and no intro of "please do this, this and this". Great Vid man!

[@STUPIDGUARDIANS]

For armor penetration, Recoiless wasn't mentioned. That gun carried me until I got the Railgun. It has a horribly slow reload but it carries enough rounds and can be refilled with regular ammo pickups on the map. Also you should unmention Spear. Try to do a high difficulty mission with it to find out why. (Ammo can`t be replenished with regular ammo pickups on the map, 5 shots total, unreliable lock-on, can`t shoot at targets up close, takes backpack slot, secretly anti-democratic)

[@omegaxtrigun]

I was confused about him not mentioning recoilless. Like, surely if the disposable breaks armor, recoilless does too?

[@nicolaspeigne1429]

Recoiless strips a charger leg's armor in one shell, meaning you can kill it with your primary easily since it will also stun him out of its charge most of the time. I haven't unlocked the railgun yet since i'm not lvl 20 but i the only difficulty i have yet to unlock is helldive

[@bonehed1]

As far as I can tell the RR does the exact same damage as the EAT, it's nice as a more dedicated rocket option

[@brokenman58]

unreliable lock on is being nice to say the least. I have gotten ONE shot off with it through an entire match and will not use it again

[@Illicitusx]

The spear can be replenished with regular ammo. You get one from each regular ammo box and two from resupply boxes. The lock on is pretty troublesome though, but when I’m in charge of dealing with heavies I bring the spear over the recoiless, eats, and quasar cannon. I also got familiar with how precise the lock on needs to be and most of the time I can just one shot heavies( I only run difficulties 7-9). What would make the spear absolutely my go to would be if it could lock onto shrieker nests and only take 1 for each nest. 😅

[@vonswagger1000]

I've seen numerous guides out there at this point but yours is the best for how concise it is and having the most important tips.

[@hope_sparrow]

After 48 levels of grinding, it's concerning to me that game is this unbalanced and we lack so much in terms of weapon and stratagem variety

[@connor8125]

its a month old….

[@rexempire3365]

It also doesn't help that the devs nerf stuff to the ground to prevent players from having fun. Resulting in a slow grindy "min-maxing" shooter game.

[@robertgrays8790]

Rockets are a good friend against Chargers. Expendable Rocket Launchers are your best friend. You can spam it every 60 seconds and literally have a go-to anti-armor solution anywhere on the map, that can also pop objectives like propaganda towers and Shrieker nests from across the map. If a Charger runs at you, dodge it until it stops, then aim a rocket at it's face when it turns to face you. One hit (The hitbox is generous) will kill it immediately. Explosive rifles can save you time when taking out nests. Aim at the lower-back of the opening (accounting for bullet drop) and don't be too close (you can kill yourself at point-blank range). This also works for bot factory vents. No more jumping into a bug pit and getting cornered by the bugs spawning in the nest!

[@IRMentat]

2 main "rules" i would encourage. 1. ALWAYS do a fighting-retreat, unless you vastly out-power the enemies (by position or raw firepower) drawing back 20-30 meters can cluster the enemies more and further still can separate their support/ranged/tackler troops from the mass of meat/metal rushing right at you, that gives you the room to defence-in-depth the big/annoying threats without becoming swarmed and surrounded. 2. AV/anti-heavy vs bugs or precision anti-medium vs bots is MANDATORY, strikes/orbitals despite the devs comments 2 weeks ago WILL MISS when you need them most, have long cooldowns and only kill 1-2 dangerous foes while weapons can take out 4-10 of them if backed up by primary ammo. and it'sd easier to get ammo on the fly than is it to wait for a 2-10 minute cooldown. low levels binging the EAT as a backup to any support weapon you like is pretty helpful within any run (cast on cooldown LITTER THE FIELD with them). Mid levels the AMR/AC/flamer/laser/arc CAN work vs bots, but not against bugs, high levels (beyond challenging) bugs NEED anti-heavy weapons so thats the flamer, the EAT, recoilless rifle and yes the railgun is STILL META for a reason, the "nerf" was mostly a fire-rate/safe-mode (don't use it in safe mod anymore, it's pointless) but it can still take out more medium/heavy enemies using it's default ammo pool than any other support weapon (and it doesn't need a backpack), the head-shot to charger patch buffed the railgun as well as the eat/RR (which you will notice no one is making a fuss about) just watch for the "bubbles/flames" effect when charging and don't kill yourself. note 2:22 you forgot the recoilless rifle 9the best overall AV weapon, the eagle strike/cluster CAN TAKE OUT HEAVY (i'd actively avoid the rockets until they get a buff), orbital laser is super unreliable as it seems to love add-clear. AutoCannon is anti MEDIUM thus only of use vs bots (against which it's only downside is the horrible computer game reticule) vs bugs it's merely okish, mortar is asking for friendly fire unless VERY well communicated, generally avoid. Hell the Arcgun is comparable or better than the AC in many circumstances tho the AC is IMo a very nice weapon that's probably one of the best balanced in the game, enough ammo to almost use as a primary, a neat reload system and enough range/damage/pen/downsides that being anti-almost-everything is balanced out by the backpack and lower handling stat. bonus round the AC-turret (need he turning speed upgrade) can hold down an area for an extended time if places at a distance (and ideally at a higher elevation) to provide cover-fire and/or wipe a couple of patrols off the map but 99% of the time the rocket turret will get overwhelmed and die before doing anything useful, it's prioritisation actively hinders it's usefulness as it's rockets are quite slow to move and the rate of dire a little too low. other turrets (except GOAT EMS turret) are great for tearing the average patrol/breach/dropship spawn into chunks again as long as they are covering you, rather than you throwing them like an airstrike into a swarm of enemies that will instakill the squishy turrets, just know that the regular mortar turret is more of a risk to you vs bugs than it is to the bugs.

[@abkh1413]

Imagine covering more points in 4.5 minutes than the previous 40 minute video I just watched. Well done, bro.

[@Isaax]

Straight to the point and solid advanced tips, outstanding video, very justified self plug at the end

[@souleater4242564kodd]

Except for the primary garbage, use whatever feels best, not whatever some meta only ass says you should use Breaker is beyond boring when every gun is good

[@RavenWarrior90]

Wow I am genuinely impressed... this video gives the best advice I have ever seen. I can only confirm how important that terrain tip is, because many many many either don't understand this or they greatly underestimate the effectiveness. Unfortunately you need a brain to do that... and that's truly a rarity when playing with randoms. All what they do most of the time is rushing around and gunning mindlessly like it's f***ing Gun-Fu time, or with other words they play HD2 like it's Call of Duty.

[@SergeantSniper]

Good shot placement with an AMR can also drop some of the heavier enemies that otherwise have *mostly* heavy armor but some medium armor and weaker weak spots. Granted you need to be a good shot to use it.

[@Dantprime]

I love how quick and to the point you are instead of padding stuff out. Subscribed.

[@Blovy123]

I do have an idea for a challenge run you could do if your interested. The (Ironman)SuperMan run. Complete one of each difficulty of mission, 1-9 against one enemy type on one planet, but your respawns carry over, (Or if your really crazy you could have only one life)! If you loose all of your 5 respawns, you restart from the begining. You would use the loadouts that would correspond to the level you would normally play at for that difficulty. So level 1 is just the two starting ones, 2-5 would be stuff that you can unlock under level 10. 6-7 would be things between level 10-20, and difficulty 8-9 being things 20+ level wise. For weapons you would set it up the same kind of way according to the battlepass but I dont know how I would set that up. I think it would be a torturous idea but fun

[@onlyforcomments7760]

My rule on samples is half. If we pick up half as we do main and side objectives, we're extracting. Which typically happens because you kite away from scout groups and poi typically only have like 5 enemies tops

[@Tacocheese101]

NEVER FORGET YOUR ABCs "ALWAYS, BE, taking COVER!!"

[@tear4442]

Don't forget the 3 Cs also: Cover Courage and more Cover

[@JumpMasterJef]

Really good video, glad to see you're on HD2 after years of watching your ROR2 guides/vids.

[@Ihategoldenrods]

the slugger shotgun is amazing btw. unlisted medium armor pen and really good precision on it

[@olekan1351]

The greatest part of this video is the lack of an intro. The title alone is the only intro we need. Thank you for not wasting our time lol

[@yaveker]

The slug shotgun and revolver are pretty good against bots as they both go through medium armor (despite the fact they say they don't in the description), you can 1 tap the medium bots with the slugger if you hit their head and a miss will still stagger them. For bugs the breaker is king tho

[@toospooky5929]

One note - while 4 players doesn't equal 4x the spawns, it DOES INCREASE SPAWNS. Especially if you get separated. Stay together as much as possible.

[@Keyce0013]

I cannot overstate how important running away is. So many runs end up dying out because my teammates (and I, sometimes) are just throwing ourselves at one enemy outpost as it gets more and more reinforcements from bug holes or automaton ship drops. By the time we finally take the thing over we've got minimal reinforcements left for the rest of the mission. Run away, reset the fight, then soften them up again with explosives and explosive strikes.

[@fwg1994]

I've found that also just aggroing and running away from nests can leave them surprisingly empty, at least against bugs. Had some fights start to go real bad, and my teammates just do a fighting retreat, and then I've circled back around and found nothing in the nest, giving me ample time to just clear it out.

[@Keyce0013]

@@fwg1994 That's a tactic I employ a lot in group play. Circle around the back of an outpost, wait for my allies to aggro the nest, then pick at the objectives from relative safety.

[@Manglet762]

Happened to me a few days ago. 3 man squad, get in a big fight with the Bots, our reinforcements get drained down to where we're relying on cooldowns by the end of it; it only ending because I decided to run away, tell my teammates that we should play it safe from now on and only do the main objectives; call only 1/2 of my dead teammates, he runs BACK to the place we just got out-attritioned at, charges in for freedom and glory and dies. It was like this for the whole mission, call them in, tell them they should be careful and ignore side stuff, they go to them instead, die, wait for me to call them in. I had one of my longest lives in the game by playing smart to compensate for them, lasting i think 20 minutes straight. It got so bad that sometimes when reinforcements were off cooldown, I thought for a few seconds if I should call them in because they'd likely just make things worse. I finally die at the end of mission which we failed because time ran out, Extraction comes in, i tell the last guy to book it to extraction, he doesn't, dies fighting a pointless fight, and then they KICK ME as soon as the mission is over. I had to laugh at that. This all happened because they couldn't be bothered to cut their losses and run. Pick your fights carefully, kids. It's something I admittedly also struggle with.

[@Keyce0013]

@@Manglet762 Hey we all do man. Good luck out there in the field!

[@Verin100]

"If you don't take the breaker, you're basically trolling" -Breaker gets instantly nerfed -Armor gets fixed

[@AddedKarma]

we stan the autocannon round here

[@idkanimate7455]

another tip i found for finding loot, if you find the radio towers, activate them and go to the locations it marks on the map, if you dont find it, just take out the outposts and extract, fastest way to get as much loot.

[@louditalian1962]

“Rocks can’t blow up” you sure about that. I just had my cover blasted by Nids.

[@Razumen]

A big tip is simply "Don't fight everything." Learn to spot patrols and sneak past them, when to run away from a fight you don't need to be in, and when you can sneak into a base and complete the objective there solo while the rest does another objective elsewhere

[@gokkiyoutube]

One intermediate skill i learned is using the quasar cannon at the start, get into a high position and literally look out into the area to see if i can snipe some broadcast towers or terminid spewer trees.

[@SadCatSad]

bro just dropped the shortest most informative guide on the game and thought we wouldnt notice

[@SunkenPotato]

Another great support wpn is the Quasar Cannon. One/Two shots everything. And no reloading required. Remember, Helldiver. It's not about extracting. It's about spreading managed democracy throughout the universe

[@iBangAPES]

for those who have mouse with extra modifiable buttons, remap the Map (Tab button) to M and configure it to your chosen mouse button. so many times that I'm sprinting and want to look at the map at the same time would trigger Steams Overlay while in-game. Sure i can disable the overlay but i enjoy using it every now and then.

[@rosvall216]

To clarify an error - Line of sight works like this, if there are 10m to the target from the LOS breaking object and you yourself have at least 10m of your own to the same target the enemy will attack your last known position and then go into patrol mode. But, Titans are an exception, they will come for you regardless so smoke etc won't help you here, nor LOS. It is much much harder to break Titans attack objective on a spotted group of Helldivers.

[@TheDrFinkleburg]

Just today, I was quite a new helldivers 2 player and I then discovered that I can handle challenging pretty well.

[@homerthompson6028]

I’ve found that the higher difficulties are actually easier to play, not because it’s inherently easier but because the other players tend to be more serious and experienced. Level 5 and below, people tend not to have the right loadout or know how to deal with hordes once their orbitals/eagles run out. Once I got to extreme difficulty and above almost everyone in the squad has an auto cannon and really knows how to time their orbitals/eagles. Bile titans tend to go down in a minute or less. One thing though is that they don’t orient their loadouts to deal with a lot of bugs so that’s why I run the Stalwart and shield backpack. I used to run the ammo pack but it makes you way more prone to attacks while reloading.

[@fuwymechtopia8982]

I've explained to my friends the difference between a good helldiver (5-7) and a great helldiver (8-9). You hit objectives strategically and swiftly, tactically "retreat" towards the next objectives, choose extra fights wisely, know how to break line of sight, enemy weak spots, and be comfortable with your loadouts. You cannot afford to stay in a spot and fight because it will be endless, and they will keep coming stronger and harder and in greater numbers. The game is designed for more and more enemies to spawn as the timer goes on. This is why at T9, you can tell who's experienced, who's still learning, and who has no idea wtf they're doing (extermination farmers typically because they didn't play the game).

[@BetonBrot]

No Intro, no lifestory of your pet goldfish, no VPN midroll - straigth to the concent, thats refreshing

[@DarkonFullPower]

When using stragegems on controller, you can move in any direction with the left stick, EXCEPT UP. You must manually rebind forward movement and strat Up to fix this.

[@TacynMegan]

I swaped the strat combos to the actual buttons , triangle square etc

[@SgtIronbeak]

One thing I rarely see pointed out: the tiny little heads on the fronts of Hulks are a weakpoint. Armored, but a well-placed railgun shot will kill it in one.

[@MorganSuhm]

Thanks for the video! I think the recoilless rifle deserves more love. Pairing up with a teammate and a recoilless rifle and watching that weapon turn from a slow-firing rocket launcher to a semi-auto monster is one of my favorite experiences I've had with the game. Also, watch for the backblast.

[@leadpaintchips9461]

I'm surprised that you didn't mention the recoiless. Been running around with that as part of our crew and having one on the team really does help out a lot. I know there's an argument for having the disposable one instead, because of how short the CD is while also freeing up the backpack slot for something more useful, but having someone consistently carrying around a "F U heavy armor" cannon on their back without having to fiddle with calldowns has made our experience much smoother. Also, for the love of democracy, PING HIGH PRIORITY TARGETS. The amount of times that a tank or a charger has run rampant with chaotic comms, blindsiding a teammate, or the one person who might have an answer being chased by other things is too high.

[@Aflay1]

I've had to switch to controller recently because I literally broke the shift key on my keyboard from how stressful this game gets. The funny thing is, I find controller is surprisingly handy for realizing that you can move and spec stratagems at once, but I had a hard time with other things like aiming and diving. Mind you, I've played FPS games with both keyboard and controller, and even hybrid sometimes. One argument I hear often is "oh, keyboard is much better for aiming, PC supremacy" but personally, I find it a matter of preference. Do what you think is most comfortable. Don't be afraid to bind your keys or controller buttons to something more comfortable or familiar. Your fingers will thank you. This game is very demanding one way or the other.

[@Basschannel1]

Now anyone with EATs can handle basically anything

[@whynot5568]

Could've sworn I heard a different tuber say if you split up with your team mates, eventually hunter enemies will spawn for your buddy and an additional hunter group will spawn for you, resulting in much more enemies spawning in. But if you stay together only one hunter group will spawn for you and your buddy.

[@DAISNAID214]

That last tip with the screen is actually game changing.

[@TheNikotin33]

DID I HEAR A ROCK? AND STONE!

[@Theodoros.8]

I'm so happy to hear that the Breaker shotgun is amazing in helldivers 2 as well, being my favorite weapon in helldivers 1.

[@lordzombieboy]

I believe if you split your team up far enough apart, each player gets their own spawns as if there were 4 single player sessions in the same spot, but it goes back to normal when you group up within a set distance again

[@nukekhang1740]

“Use rock….they can’t blow up.” Lies some rocks will BLOW UP.

[@geofff.3343]

Facilitate a loving relationship with the Eagle pilot. She is our First Lady of Managed Democracy and should be treasured.

[@Henkibojj]

About difficulty affecting enemies: I don't know for HD2, but HD1 didn't let the enemies spawn some of the tankier bugs (and probably Cyborg/Illuminates) even on difficulties that should spawn them, until enough players had joined the game. There is a trophy you can solo, but doing it solo on mid-difficulty level spawns no such enemies. Only when I connected more local controllers did they appear, and within ten seconds at that. I have a (rather boring) video on my channel proving that, look for Element Of Supplies.

[@willstc]

Imagine HD2 with Halo SOT during a intense fight

[@spaghettisama]

No intro, no bullshit, just 100% pure gas. My preferred kind of content

[@MaverickX2k5]

tip for stratagem bind: use mouse wheel for up / down. You can leave l/r on [a]/[d], still move and don't need to take your hand off the mouse

[@ElderNightHound]

Great tips, I personally love the rail cannon/airstrike combo myself.

[@SamTheApe]

It does raise health, using the grande launcher can 2 hit bile spewers on lower difficulties and 3 tap on higher ones. The hp increase isn’t big but it’s noticeable

[@slangnbang757]

"STRANGE ANIMAL" shirt is based

[@squirrelzar]

Armor does still matter a bit. Slots it gives you and speed/stamina effects still work. Its just the armor amount that’s bugged, so pretty much always go light for right now

[@JL-ml6cy]

Noticed the Eagle Airstrike isn't mention for armor pen. It is honestly the strongest low level stratagems available and its killed Bug Titans and Tanks for me if you can land a direct hit with it.

[@Brass319]

and yet the spear was, for some reason

[@JL-ml6cy]

@@Brass319 Had a friend use spear and was consistently one-shotting bile titans and tanks with it. Just does suck at everything else unlike the railgun

[@Brass319]

@@JL-ml6cy idk maybe it just deemed him worthy. I'm sure you've heard it a bunch by now but it _just won't lock on_. And when it does it's liable to not land a direct hit and take another shot anyways to finish it off

[@BBBerti]

​@@JL-ml6cyone shotting bile titans? Fr? That doesn't sound too bad

[@JL-ml6cy]

@@BBBerti yeah just gotta aim for the face. Its a pain to reload and aim

[@cruisectrlau1696]

Started watching this guy for risk of rain tips n tricks and now he’s onto Helldivers?? One of my favourite KZbinrs is back and I’m all fucken for it

[@ZZMonkeysUncleZZ]

You forgot Arc Thrower. There is no enemy it can’t kill. It can deal with chargers, hulks, and turrets relatively quickly. It can kill tanks and titans too, but they take quite a while.

[@andyarken7906]

Saying you should get distance between yourself and the enemy is like arguing you should kill the enemy king in chess: We know it helps, the question is how.

[@Apex_Slide]

A helpful hint for those playing in teams... when calling in reinforcement... throw it AWAY from the group of enemies... Thank you.