First things first, which means getting rid of the obvious stuff: Helldivers is a very unforgiving game. You can die, you can kill your partners, you can even destroy your own equipment. Likewise, some of your equipment can kill you. All of the above translates into one simple, yet hard to accomplish thing: you need to be careful at all times.
It sounds awful, yeah, but that’s what being a helldiver is about. And it’s no surprise coming from the very same guys who made Magicka: a game in which friendly fire became such an important thing that players would often forget about the story just to kill each other.
Besides friendly fire and other more crushing dangers, there’s also the lack of resources. Helldivers has an intense resources management scheme, in which you can run out of equipment, but you can call out for diverse supplies (delivered via orbital drops). The catch is that these deliveries take time and are, in many cases, pretty limited. This moderate limitation requires smart rationing (especially concerning bullets) and paying attention to what is going on all the time. Running out of ammo before leaving a planet has a 99% chance of returning deadly results.
Helldivers is heavily based on your ability to be a good team player. Not only because of all the mutilation dangers listed above, but also because the planets you are supposedly bringing democracy and freedom to are really dangerous. Helldivers gets hard pretty fast if you don’t have a teamwork oriented party.
Now, remember this, since each of the four team members is needed in order to deliver freedom and well, let’s be honest, destruction too, to hostile planets. This naturally becomes more important as the difficulty levels increase. Taking this into account, covering each other’s backs, sharing resources and defense mechanisms, and taking turns to complete main objectives becomes vital.
You should also communicate constantly with your teammates. Letting them know what kind of stratagem you are using will make things a lot more comfortable and quick. Also, this has the added bonus things being a lot tidier when someone has to activate stuff or even get out of a vehicle. Speak up and don’t be afraid to give orders if your team is being shy. Put on your best shouting commander voice for optimal results.
After all, you won’t want to be the one activating a Hellbomb if it means you’ll be running into an ambush while trying to escape the explosion. In a similar way, I bet no player will gladly carry a black box if it means having to fight endless enemies using only a secondary weapon. It all becomes easier when it’s done by a team. Moreover, if things go bad, it will also be more enjoyable when all players are involved. Helldivers is fun both when missions are strategically perfect and when things go straight to hell.
After playing Helldivers for a while you actually get the hang of it. Enemies have repetitive patterns and even when swarmed by them, you’ll keep developing effective defense strategies. After a few successful missions you’ll think there’s nothing new on the horizon. Well, that may be your biggest mistake.
As many difficult games, Helldivers‘ complexity has a big base on players’ own mistakes. This means the game becomes harder (and in many cases more fun) because you get cocky or you simply screw up. That’s the real beauty about it. Of course there’s also the game actually getting more difficult and dropping tougher enemies at you.
Once you think you are the best helldiver in the hood, and that getting democracy out there is a routine, you die. Maybe you just wanted to be really close to the escape shuttle when it landed,or you thought you could kill a cyborg before it shot you with its laser, it doesn’t matter; you are dead. And dying messes the whole thing up: one less weapon firing, having to ask for reinforcements, missing out on sweet XP points… it all happens in a heartbeat and that’s because you took war for granted. Just don’t do it okay? Mayhem is a fun part of the game, but being ravaged time after time during long missions can get annoying really fast.
Stratagems are the core of Helldivers’ gameplay; they are your most important resource and, more often than you’d like, they will save your skinny ass and your whole planetary incursion. The thing about them is that when you are in a hurry and you need to use something fast, getting the sequences right can be a very expensive pain.
Let’s say you ran out of ammo, or you need to call in some reinforcements so your dead mates can get back into action; you suddenly need to hit a series of keys really fast while avoiding enemies. You are pretty much done for, unless you can actually remember the damn sequences. Well, you should. It’s a life saving capability.
Of course some of them you will remember soon enough, since you pretty much use them in every mission. However, the most important ones are often the ones you use the least, and also the longer ones. There’s no harm on learning them as soon as possible so you can be the best helldiver out there, and a savior for your friends.
A huge part of how good an army is depends on its resources and equipment. This is especially true when you are facing unknown alien races for both territorial and political issues in Helldivers. This means you can only survive and complete missions by unlocking a wide array of stratagems and weapons, and also investing research points to make them better.
This is a key point when choosing missions, since you can see what you will unlock after the three planetary instances. Therefore, visiting planets that will reward you with advanced stratagems is a definite must. Moreover, some specific stratagems really give you a cutting-edge advantage and should be unlocked as soon as possible.
Among the first decisive stratagems in Helldivers, a beginner player should especially look forward to getting the mech and the UAV drone as fast as possible. While the latter one is essential for terrain recognition and locating samples, the mech’s uses are more than obvious. Nonetheless, in addition to being an awesome piece of armor and having incredible firepower, the mech looks crazy bad-ass and can stomp over enemies.
Summing up, choose wisely when doing your first missions, as well as when you are about to move to harder difficulty levels. Afterwards, don’t be cheap when using research points; some improvements are really important and can help a lot.
This may seem a bit exaggerated, but the place in which you and your fellow helldivers drop on a planet is of great importance. Depending on this you may either end up being attacked without even having time for preparations, or having to walk really long distances in terrains in which running isn’t possible at all.
There’s a balance to be found on the relation between distance, convenience and logical distribution. In order to be extremely effective, a strategy can be made so every movement is made with a specific purpose. No long walks needed unless it’s completely necessary.
Yes, it sounds like something nobody should ever do in a casual game such as Helldivers, but it’s not a really big deal. Most of these decisions can be made rather quickly, and become completely worth your while when you avoid unnecessary long walks and minimize the amount of enemies you find in your way. Additionally, you get a lot more into the actual helldiver role; a truly win-win situation.
