What HELLDIVERS 2 is
HELLDIVERS 2 is a fast third-person shooter set in a hostile galaxy, where you sign up as a Helldiver and take orders from Super Earth. Missions send your squad onto enemy planets to capture territory, defend against invasions, or clear objectives, and every mission you finish feeds into a larger galactic war that all players share. The tone leans comedic propaganda while the fights themselves stay brutal — everything on the planet you land on wants you dead, and the enemies use distinct, unpredictable tactics with no fear and no mercy.
Playing as a squad
You are put into squads of up to four Helldivers and given strategic missions to run together. Teamwork is the whole point: victory without it is basically impossible, and friendly fire is a guaranteed hazard, so watch where your shots and explosives land. You choose how to approach each drop — rain firepower down from above, sneak through enemy territory, or charge straight into combat. Your loadout covers explosive weaponry, armor, and stratagems, which are the call-in abilities that shape the battle. Coordinating who brings what, and covering each other while objectives get done, is where the game clicks for a group.
Before you start
Requisition is earned through your work and spent on rewards that help you, your squad, your destroyer ship, and the wider war effort, so there is progression beyond a single mission. The war's outcome depends on everyone's actions — planets taken and defended accumulate across the whole player base, meaning individual runs matter collectively. Expect friendly-fire incidents even with a careful squad, and expect enemies that behave unpredictably between encounters, so the same mission type can play out very differently depending on what you run into. The game supports online co-op, controller play, achievements, and a range of accessibility options including adjustable text size, adjustable difficulty, subtitle and volume controls, color alternatives, and chat speech-to-text and text-to-speech.