Helldivers 2 is a 2024 cooperative multiplayer third-person shooter video game developed by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The sequel to Helldivers (2015), the game is set in the 22nd century and follows the Helldiver Corps of Super Earth, a division of shock troops dispatched to combat various threats to humanity and to spread managed democracy.
Helldivers 2 was released on 8 February 2024 for PlayStation 5 and Windows, and on 26 August 2025 for the Xbox Series X/S. The game was a critical and commercial success, having sold over 20 million copies and grossed over $700 million in revenue. Considered among the best video games of 2024, it was nominated for and won a number of awards.
Gameplay Helldivers 2 is a live service player versus environment (PvE) shooter game played primarily from a third-person perspective. It features cooperative multiplayer with up to four players, and does not include a dedicated single-player campaign. It provides optional cross-play.
Players complete operations consisting of 1-3 procedurally generated levels (missions), conducting tasks within the missions (objectives), while facing hordes of enemies. Players choose the difficulty level of their operations, ranging from level 1 ("Trivial") to level 10 ("Super Helldive").
Players enter missions by dropping onto planets from their Super Destroyer starship in a transportation device called a "Hellpod". A core gameplay feature carried over from the first game is the use of Stratagems, powerful equipment which must be called in from their Super Destroyer by executing a sequence of directional button or arrow key inputs. Players may select up to four stratagems in advance to bring into the mission, as well as a "Booster" which affects the whole team. Friendly fire is always on during missions. In the initial days of release, gameplay involved staff at the studio observing players and influencing gameplay in real time.
Players can obtain in-game currency which may be discovered in the environment during missions, or awarded by completing operations, missions, and objectives. As players gain experience and progress in levels, they unlock different weapons and Stratagems. Players gain experience points toward their overall level. Upon initial release, the highest level a player could reach was 50; this was subsequently increased to 150 in April 2024, and to 300 in August 2026. Players can collect samples during missions, which are used to upgrade the player's Super Destroyer, providing advantages during gameplay. By completing operations, players contribute to the collective progress of "Major Orders", which are mass-collaborative missions that directly affect the outcome of the Galactic War in-game. Players can also complete daily challenges known as "Personal Orders" for lesser rewards. Introduced in June 2026, the "Control Center" within the Super Destroyer allows players to access information about ongoing and past Major Orders, campaigns and rewards.
Helldivers 2 has a battle pass system called "Warbonds" that never expire. Warbonds can be purchased with in-game currency known as "Super Credits", which players can obtain in-game during some missions, purchase via microtransactions, or unlock as part of the Warbonds themselves. On 26 August 2025, coinciding with the game's release on the Xbox platform, Arrowhead added the "Warbond Token" to the Super Citizen Edition deluxe edition of the game. This Token allowed for the free purchase of any one Warbond, replacing the original benefit of the Super Citizen Edition, which was free access to the first non-base game Warbond. It was later confirmed that Warbond Tokens could not be used to get the "Legendary Warbonds" containing crossover content, which cost more Super Credits than regular Warbonds.https://gamingbolt.com/helldivers-2-super-citizen-edition-is-replacing-steeled-veterans-warbond-with-a-warbond-token
Synopsis
Setting Helldivers 2 takes place in the 22nd century, one hundred years after the triumph of the Federation of Super Earth, a self-described managed democracy, over the Bugs, Cyborgs, and Illuminate during the First Galactic War (depicted in Helldivers). Humanity seized faster-than-light (FTL) travel technology from the defeated Illuminate, and used it to conquer the galaxy during a period known as the Great Democratization. Humanity discovered that the decomposing corpses of the Bugs contain a unique and highly valuable resource known as "Element-710" (E-710) used for FTL travel. Bug farms are established on human-colonized worlds, and after decades of genetic engineering and accelerated evolution, they become known as Terminids.
Environmental storytelling is prevalent throughout the game, with various logs, notes, in-game broadcasts, and propaganda messages available for players to find during gameplay.
Plot
The plot of Helldivers 2 develops in real time, based on Major Orders and decisions collectively taken by the player community.
The events of Helldivers 2 begin in the year 2184 after the Super Earth Armed Forces (SEAF) fail to contain the Terminids, which have escaped their farms, causing chaos and destruction. Simultaneously, a threat emerges in the form of the Automatons, creations of the defeated Cyborgs, intending to get revenge against humanity. In response, Super Earth declares war and mobilizes the Helldivers, an elite task force, to combat the threats.
The initial Automaton expedition culminated in battles on Malevelon Creek, resulting in two months of fighting and high Helldiver casualties before the planet was finally taken. Meanwhile, an effort to destroy the Terminid presence on several worlds fails, and planet Meridia becomes a Terminid "Supercolony". Using a substance called Dark Fluid, the Helldivers trigger a planetary collapse on Meridia, transforming it into a wormhole. Not long after the destruction of Meridia, an interstellar cloud of spores called "The Gloom" emerged deep within Terminid space, terraforming planets within and birthing new variants of Terminids.
As a result of many costly battles, the Helldivers embarked on an expansive project to construct the Democracy Space Station (DSS), a massive orbital battle station capable of supporting Helldiver campaigns with ordnance and soldier optimization. The Helldivers were deployed to defend the construction of the DSS, while destroying Automatons to utilize their technology and harvesting E-710 from the Terminids for fuel. After several weeks, the DSS was completed, and the Helldivers were granted the ability to vote on where to periodically deploy it.
On 12 December 2184, humanity discovered that the Illuminate, an ancient and technologically advanced alien race thought to be extinct, returned and began to invade Super Earth's colonies. The Helldivers repelled the Illuminate in the bloody Battle of Calypso. However, the wormhole produced from the destruction of Meridia, dubbed the "Meridian Singularity," suddenly began moving towards Super Earth, destroying multiple planets in its path.
Though the Helldivers were able to halt the Singularity's advance, an Illuminate invasion fleet emerged from within, and ultimately launched an invasion on Super Earth. SEAF and the Helldivers successfully repelled the Illuminate invasion, but at the cost of tremendous civilian, military casualties and the destruction of all but two of Super Earth's Mega Cities.
Following the Battle of Super Earth, the remnants of the Illuminate invasion fleet retreated south, heavily entrenching themselves on various planets. In response, Super Earth began construction of a new Super Destroyer fleet. In the summer of 2185, all three factions launched a coordinated offensive, pushing the Helldivers to the brink before the new fleet arrived on 26 August 2185. The Helldivers were then ordered to perform an expedition into the Terminid hive worlds that lay within the expanding Gloom in order to extract newly discovered E-711. The first expedition into the Gloom on the hive world Oshaune resulted in the highest Helldiver casualty rate of the war thus far. After upgrading the DSS with anti-Gloom shield coating, the Helldivers managed to take Oshaune in a grueling battle, significantly reducing the Glooms' territorial spread and setting up infrastructure to extract E-711 and prepare for further campaigns.
In December 2185, Super Earth discovered the Automatons were conducting large scale mining operations for resources on volcanic planets. The Helldivers were issued emergency orders to take these planets and to repossess all the resources extracted by the Automatons.
Meanwhile, Super Earth declared the "War on Dissidence", designating all territories across the galaxy as war zones.
In January 2186, Super Earth constructed the Star of Peace, a planet-destroying superweapon. The Helldivers voted to test the weapon on the Automaton held world, Penta, turning it into a black hole. However, firing the Star of Peace resulted in the DSS being severely damaged and taken offline for repairs. Additionally, the plans for the Star of Peace were seemingly accessed by a then-unknown enemy. As a result, Super Earth deployed the Helldivers as commandos deep behind Automaton lines in covert stealth operations with greatly reduced support from their Super Destroyers. Super Earth discovered the Automatons were behind the theft of the Star of Peace plans and immediately mounted an offensive toward planet Cyberstan, home world of the Automatons.
As Super Earth invaded Automaton-held planets on the path to Cyberstan, their communications systems were hacked by the Automatons, who initiated a campaign of demoralization propaganda against humanity. On 9 February 2186, the Cyborgs revealed themselves to have survived the First Galactic War, and as the source of the hack. On 10 February 2186, Super Earth mobilized the Helldivers against the Cyborg Legion in a massive invasion on Cyberstan. On 20 February 2186, the Helldivers exhausted the reinforcements allocated for the invasion, leading to a withdrawal from the planet and the operation was deemed a failure.
In March 2186, Super Earth detected anomalous signals coming from planet Seasse, home to ancient Illuminate ruins. On 20 March 2186, the Helldivers were deployed, discovering superstructures called "Exospires", which when activated cause severe weather across the planet. Super Earth ordered the Helldivers to liberate the planet and destroy the Exospires. Despite efforts from the Helldivers, the Exospires on Seasse continued to worsen weather conditions to the point where spacetime around the system began to fracture, leading to the planet being plunged into a Void, where visibility and access to the planet was lost.
In the months after the apparition of the Void, Super Earth cleared planets for the construction of residential developments for its most affluent citizens. In June and July 2186, Super Earth launched a successful campaign to build a "Celestial Fence" to keep the Terminids at bay. Meanwhile, Super Earth also launched a defensive campaign against the Cyborgs and Automatons who were revealed to be constructing a planetary death laser.
Development and release
On 3 December 2020, Arrowhead Game Studios revealed that work had started on a project for PlayStation 5. It was confirmed that the game would be a third-person shooter. Like the first game, Helldivers 2 runs on the discontinued Autodesk Stingray game engine (originally known as Bitsquid). Arrowhead Game Studios founder Johan Pilestedt confirmed on social media that "The project started before [Stingray] was discontinued," adding, "Our crazy engineers had to do everything, with no support to build the game to parity with other engines."