Helldivers 2 — From Cadet to Helldive: Armor, Loadouts and Staying Alive

HELLDIVERS 2 (Steam 553850) · Reflects the live game as of September 2026 · Updated Sept 2026

You've cleared a few Medium and Challenging missions, and now you want to push toward the top difficulties without being dead weight. The jump isn't about aim. It's about knowing what your gun can and can't hurt, bringing a loadout that covers what you're missing, and not fighting fights you don't need to. This guide covers those three things. Balance patches land often, so it sticks to mechanics and habits that have held up across updates. Specific names and unlock levels were checked against the community wiki in September 2026.

1. The difficulty ladder and why it matters

There are ten difficulties: Trivial, Easy, Medium, Challenging, Hard, Extreme, Suicide Mission, Impossible, Helldive, Super Helldive. As you climb, you get more enemies, more patrols, bigger outposts, and more operation modifiers. The first modifier appears on Hard and the second on Impossible. Rewards grow too, with Requisition and XP bonuses running from +25% on Medium up to +300% on Super Helldive.

Two breakpoints matter most for progression:

• Challenging (4) is the first level where Rare Samples spawn.
• Extreme (6) is the first level where Super Samples spawn.

So you have a reason to reach Extreme even if you never want to go past it. Everything above that is about skill and bragging rights, plus bigger Requisition payouts.

2. Armor penetration: the rule that decides every fight

Every weapon has an Armor Penetration (AP) value, and every enemy body part has an Armor Value (AV). Your hit is decided by comparing those two numbers:

The last row is the one that kills new players. Low AP doesn't mean "less damage" against heavy armor. It means no damage at all, and you've spent a magazine on nothing. Worse, ricochets can bounce back into you or your squad.

What this means in practice

• Armor lives on body parts, not on the whole enemy. A Charger's front plating shrugs off rifle fire, but its rear is soft. A Hulk has an eye and back vents that are weaker than its faceplate. Devastators die to headshots. A Bile Titan's underside is much weaker than its back. Learn where to aim and your primary weapon becomes useful against a lot more targets.
• The in-game labels are coarse. The armory tags weapons as light, medium, heavy or anti-tank "armor penetrating". Those tags are good enough to sort weapons into tiers, but two weapons with the same tag can perform differently. When a weapon feels bad against a target, check whether your rounds are bouncing before you blame your aim.
• Your primary handles chaff. Your support weapon and stratagems handle heavies. No build should need the primary to kill a Charger, a Hulk or a tank head-on. That's what anti-tank tools are for.
• Watch for ricochets and switch targets. If you see sparks, stop firing. Reposition to a weak spot, swap to your support weapon, or throw a stratagem.

Tip: Some Illuminate units carry shields or armor plating that soak up overkill damage. One huge shot is wasted on a shield, so steady sustained fire usually works better there. See the faction section below.

3. Building a loadout that covers the gaps

You get four stratagem slots. A reliable template for higher difficulties looks like this:

1. A support weapon, usually your answer to heavy armor.
2. A backpack for survivability or utility. Skip this if your support weapon already needs the backpack slot.
3. An Eagle or Orbital strike for burst damage on heavies, nests and outposts.
4. A sentry or other flexible pick to hold ground and cover extraction.

This isn't a law, but if you drop one of these roles, make sure a squadmate is covering it.

Support weapons

Backpacks

• B-1 Supply Pack (Lvl 1, 4,000 Req): carries resupply you can share with teammates. It's great when a squadmate runs an ammo-hungry weapon.
• AX/AR-23 Guard Dog (Lvl 10, 7,500 Req): a drone that shoots nearby small enemies for you, which helps when chaff swarms you.
• SH-32 Shield Generator Pack (Lvl 20, 10,000 Req): a personal shield that absorbs incoming fire. It's a big survivability boost, especially against ranged enemies.

Eagles and Orbitals

Eagles come in several uses per rearm, then the Eagle has to go back and rearm. Orbitals each have their own cooldown. It pays to carry one of each.

• Orbital Precision Strike (free, Lvl 1): a single precise shell. It's reliable for closing nests and fabricators and for hitting slow heavies.
• Eagle Airstrike (Lvl 1, 4,000 Req) and Eagle Cluster Bomb (Lvl 3, 4,000 Req): your early crowd and outpost clearers.
• Eagle 500kg Bomb (Lvl 15, 10,000 Req): a single big bomb for heavies and structures. You need to throw it accurately.
• Orbital Laser (Lvl 15, 10,000 Req): sweeps an area on its own for a while and has few uses per mission. Save it for emergencies.
• Orbital Railcannon Strike (Lvl 20, 10,000 Req): a dedicated anti-heavy strike aimed at a large target near the beacon.

Sentries

• A/MG-43 Machine Gun Sentry (Lvl 1, 1,500 Req) and A/G-16 Gatling Sentry (Lvl 5, 4,000 Req): hold off chaff while you work on objectives.
• A/AC-8 Autocannon Sentry (Lvl 13, 6,000 Req) and A/MLS-4X Rocket Sentry (Lvl 15, 7,500 Req): hit harder and handle tougher targets.

Tip: Sentries shoot whatever is in front of them, even if you're standing in the way. Place them beside your position, not behind you.

Coordinate as a squad

Four divers with the same build is a weak squad. At minimum, make sure at least two people carry anti-tank, and that someone can deal with crowds. The loadout screen shows what everyone picked, so glance at it before you lock in.

4. What to spend on first

The game has three progression currencies. Keeping them straight saves a lot of regret.

• Requisition Slips buy stratagems. You earn more on higher difficulties.
• Medals buy items from Warbonds, including weapons, armor and boosters. You earn them from missions, and they also come from the major orders the whole community works on.
• Samples (Common, Rare, Super) buy Ship Modules: permanent upgrades to your Super Destroyer, such as faster cooldowns, more ammo from resupply and stronger Eagles or Orbitals. Storage is capped at 500 Common, 250 Rare and 100 Super, so spend them before you hit the cap.

A sensible order

1. An anti-tank support weapon, starting with the EAT-17 because it's cheap at Level 3. Later add the Quasar Cannon or Recoilless Rifle.
2. One Eagle for crowds, the Airstrike or Cluster Bomb. Add the 500kg Bomb once you reach Level 15.
3. A backpack, the Supply Pack early, then the Guard Dog or Shield Generator Pack as you level.
4. Ship Modules that boost stratagems you already use. Put samples into the upgrade line that makes your main stratagems better, rather than spreading them thinly.
5. Warbond items with Medals, but only the ones that fill a gap in your kit. Primaries that deal well with a faction's common armor are worth more than cosmetics early on.

5. How each faction wants to be fought

The three enemy factions in the live game are the Terminids, the Automatons and the Illuminate. Each one also has subfactions that change the mix of enemies, so read the mission briefing.

Terminids (bugs)

• What they do: they swarm into melee, backed by acid attacks from units like Bile Spewers. Heavies include Chargers, Bile Titans and Impalers. Stalkers ambush you.
• How to play: keep moving and don't let yourself get cornered. Mobility beats standing your ground. Crowd-clearing Eagles and sentries are excellent here.
• Heavies: dodge a Charger's charge, then hit its soft rear or use anti-tank on it. Bile Titans need anti-tank, a 500kg Bomb or a Railcannon.
• Nests: bug holes need an explosive with enough demolition force, such as a grenade or a strike, to close them.
• Subfactions such as the Predator, Spore Burst and Rupture strains change how bug missions play. Predator Strain in particular hits faster and harder.

Automatons (bots)

• What they do: ranged fire, rockets and heavy armor. Devastators, Hulks, tanks, gunships and Factory Striders form the heavy end.
• How to play: use cover and line of sight. Standing in the open against bots is how squads get wiped. Go prone, break line of sight, and flank.
• Weak spots matter more here than anywhere else. Shoot Devastators in the head. Hit Hulks in the eye or back vents. Tanks are vulnerable at their rear vents.
• Fabricators (bot factories) can be destroyed by landing a grenade in their open vent door, or with a strike. Clearing them stops more bots from spawning there.
• The Shield Generator Pack and a precise, high-penetration support weapon both pull their weight against bots.

Illuminate (squids)

• What they do: hordes of Voteless swarm you, while Overseers pressure you at range. Watchers fly overhead. Harvesters are big walkers with shields, and there are air units like Stingrays.
• How to play: Voteless are slower than bugs, so you can usually outrun them. Kill Watchers on sight, because they're easy to ignore and cause trouble if left alive.
• Shields and plating punish single big shots. Steady sustained fire, or a squad focusing on one target, works better than trading one-shot weapons against shielded targets.
• Harvesters: break the shield first, then go for the legs or joints.

6. Stealth vs. fighting

At high difficulty, every fight you start makes the next one worse. Enemies call in reinforcements: bots shoot a flare, bugs call a breach, and Illuminate bring in more units. Each wave uses up your time and your reinforcements.

• Walk around patrols you don't need to kill. Crouching and moving away from their path is usually faster than fighting.
• If you engage, kill the caller first, meaning the unit that's about to signal reinforcements. Then either finish the fight fast or break contact.
• Don't fight a breach or bot drop to the last enemy. If the objective is done, leave. The enemies will keep coming, and you won't get anything for staying.
• Split up with purpose. Two pairs covering different objectives on the map is efficient, as long as each pair can handle a heavy on its own.

7. Extraction and sample management

• Samples belong to the squad. Anything carried aboard by any diver who extracts counts for everyone. If you die, your samples drop where you fell, and a teammate can pick them up.
• Consolidate before extraction. Hand samples to whoever is most likely to make it onto the ship.
• Watch the mission timer. Once it runs out, you lose your stratagems and extraction gets much harder. Don't dawdle on side objectives when time is short.
• Prepare the extraction zone before you call the ship. Place sentries, save a strike or two, and hold a sensible spot instead of the landing pad itself.
• Stay near the pad for boarding, but don't block it. Once the ship lands, get on board. Don't run off to recover a stray sample.

8. Squad etiquette

• Don't throw stratagems on your own teammates. Friendly fire is on. Call out big strikes, and give people a second to clear the area.
• Reinforce quickly, and in a safe spot. Don't drop a teammate straight into the middle of a horde.
• Share support weapons and supplies. If you run the Supply Pack, resupply the people carrying anti-tank.
• Let the host lead. Follow their pace and objectives. Ping instead of wandering off.
• Don't kick people for low level. Everyone was a cadet once.
• Respect the team's plan. If the squad wants to extract early, don't run off after optional objectives on your own.

Quick checklist

• Your primary weapon clears small enemies, and your support weapon handles armor.
• If your rounds ricochet, stop shooting. Aim for a weak spot or switch weapons.
• Loadout: support weapon + backpack + Eagle/Orbital + sentry, with at least two anti-tank users in the squad.
• Play Challenging+ for Rare Samples and Extreme+ for Super Samples, and spend them before you hit the cap.
• Bugs: keep moving. Bots: stay in cover and hit weak spots. Illuminate: use sustained fire and kill Watchers first.
• Kill the reinforcement caller first, and don't fight fights you don't need.
• Give your samples to someone likely to survive, and set up defenses before you call extraction.
• Call out strikes, reinforce safely, and share supplies.