Helldivers 2 Beginner's Guide

We created a Helldivers 2 Beginner's Guide to help players understand the game and get a head start on the galactic war. Overall, Helldivers 2 is pretty simple game, but there's a few things worth knowing before you drop down to your inevitable death. This guide will cover all the basics, from weapons, to currencies, where to drop down, and much more. We hope this guide helps you enjoy the sweet taste of Liber-Tea.

Helldiver 2 Beginner's Guide – Everything You Need To Know About Helldivers 2

Firstly, Helldivers 2 is an online co-op shooter. If you're playing on PC via Steam, then you have nothing to worry about, except maybe some connection issues. However, PlayStation 5  players be warned, you will need a PS+ Subscription in order to play this game with others. Therefore, we only really recommend this game to those with a PS+ subscription, which costs $80 USD annually for its most basic membership.

Secondly, complete the game's brief tutorial to continue this guide.

In this Helldivers 2 beginner's guide, we'll go over the following:

• Co-Op/Online
• Missions & Combat
• Currencies

Helldivers 2 Online Co-op Explained:

Helldivers 2 allows the player to take on missions solo, or with a team of up to four players. To play an online Multiplayer game in Helldivers 2, you can either:

• Access the War Map on your Bridge and press Quickplay (Square on PS)
• OR invite friends manually. To so do, just:
  • Open the Socials Menu in the pause screen
  • Hover over the friend you want to invite
  • Send the invite

However, Helldivers 2 does not offer couch co-op. Therefore, you won't be able to play with a buddy at your side. While this certainly kills the experience for some, we can at least say the Multiplayer component works pretty well after the recent hotfix.

Additionally, Helldivers 2 allows players to utilize Crossplay functionality, which lets them play with both PS and PC players. Thankfully, this should make finding lobbies of players much easier than before. When you finally built a team of players, feel free to select a mission and drop down!

Helldivers 2 Missions & Combat Explained

Helldivers 2 puts you in the shoes of your average soldier. You are not overpowered. You are not carrying the deadliest weapons. Instead, you have relatively low HP, you don't move as fast, reloading and more all while friendly fire is on. After the tutorial, you receive your own ship, and you're free to begin playing at any time.

Therefore, we listed a few tips and tricks for combat

• Galaxy Map
  • This Map shows the player all current planets with missions available. Furthermore, each planet has a progress bar indicating its liberation status. Every mission you complete adds to the overall progress of a planet's liberation. As the game continues, more planets and systems will open for you to play in.
• Mission Prep
  • Although a mission is selected, you don't actually begin until reaching the Hellpod at the front of the ship. Therefore, we recommend visiting the armory and Ship Management menu to get whatever you need.
    • Armory
      • Most armor is cosmetic, but you have an option between different armor types. Just know that heavy armor makes you bulkier but slower, and vice versa.
    • Weapons
      • You are able to carry three total weapons in Helldivers 2, including a primary, secondary, and special weapon. Furthermore, you can unlock more weapons by purchasing them with Warbonds back on the ship.
  • Before a mission begins, you need to decide which stratagems to use. Overall, all Stratagems are useful, so just use the ones that feel right for you.
• Mission Select
  • When selecting a mission on the Galactic Map, you'll be able to adjust difficulty. We recommend the following squad sizes for each:
    • Trivial Difficulty – 1 or 2 people
    • Easy – 1 or 2 people (recommended 2)
    • Medium – 3 or 4 people (recommended 4)
    • Hard > – 4 people
  • Additionally, playing harder difficulty missions rewards the player with more XP and potential resources. More on these currencies later.
• Dropping Down
  • We recommend dropping down far away from the objective. This is because we recommend exploring the map if you can. Throughout the levels, there's different areas to explore that offer ammunition, Super Credits, Medals, and many more rewards. If the mission you chose offers enough time, then try and visit these spots if you can. However, completing the main mission should take priority.
• Enemy Factions
  • Helldivers 2 features two enemy factions:
    • Terminids – These bug like creatures are dangerous in swarms, especially when they surround you. Smaller variants can be killed easily, but bigger versions like the Brood Commander might need to dealt with via explosives. Additionally, Terminids, like Automatons, have weak spots. Their weak spot is usually their glowing backsides or tails.
    • Automatons – These Terminator meets Revenant machines pack a deadly punch in both ranged and CQC applications. Therefore, we recommend firing at their limbs to slowly dismember them over time.
•  Reloading
  • Reloading in Helldivers 2 takes your whole clip away, disregarding whatever ammo you had left in your magazine. Therefore, only reload when you're completely empty or desperately need more bullets. And like a certain CoD character always said, switching to your sidearm is always faster than reloading.
• Friendly-Fire is Always On
  • You can die in multiple ways in Helldivers 2, and what better way to die than through the mistake of your own teammate? Therefore, try to keep your distance from others on the squad. However, you also want to remain close enough to provide each other stims. Overall, you need to find the right distance between yourself and teammates.
• Stratagems
  • While you can't jump high like Master Chief, or rip and tear like DoomGuy, you do have a few tools at your arsenal, including Stratagems. These killstreak like abilities allow you to call down support from above in a variety of ways. For example, the Resupply Stratagem drops down enough Ammo and Stims for the whole squad. Others, like the Orbital Precision Strike, unleash a devastating attack on Terminids and Automatons.
• Extraction
  • After completing all required objectives, you are free to extract with all earned resources. We recommend waiting for all teammates to be prepared for this finale. If all squad mates survive and extract, then you get a better bonus out of it in the end. The Extraction takes a couple of minutes, with enemy waves coming after you. However, once the ship arrives, it guns down all enemies with turrets, making it easy to escape.

And that's everything you need to know about the basic mission structure of Helldivers 2. Lastly, we'll take a look into currencies

Helldivers 2 All Currencies Explained – Super Credits, Samples, Warbonds

Helldivers 2 has a few separate currencies, all earnable and spendable in different ways:

• Super Credits:
  • How To Get
    • Purchase from free track via Warbonds (limited)
    • scavenge for Super Credits in each level
    • Buy from store (real money) – Not recommended
  • What They Buy
    • Premium content from Superstore
• Samples
  • How To Get
    • Scattered across levels. Indicated by circular-looking icon.
  • What they Buy
    • Used for Ship Research projects in the Ship Management Screen
• Warbonds Medals
  • How To Get
    • Complete Operations on the Galactic Map
    • Scattered across levels
    • Purchasing premium Warbonds with real money (not recommended)
  • What They Buy
    • Items in the Warbonds Menu

Generally, Warbonds serve as Battle Passes that give players exclusive content. This content ranged from cosmetics and other rewards earned from completing objectives. Thankfully, the first Warbond comes free for all players. Otherwise, all three currencies in the game are important for unlocking new stratagems

Overall, that includes everything for this Helldivers 2 Beginner's Guide. We hope this Helldivers guide helped you understand the basics of all three phases. From online play, to mission preps and combat, and ending with all the currencies, we hope we covered everything you wanted to know about. Now go out there and enjoy your Helldivers 2 experience!

In our review of Helldivers 2 for PS5, we gave the game a 9/10.

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