HELLDIVERS™ 2: Helldivers 2 : A Totally Objective Stratagem Tier List

Thank you for tuning in your favorite Helldivers 2 guide, I will base these upon my personnal experiences, some data I found on the world wide web and the games stats. The guide will be updated with new content being added and changes to existing stratagems (If I’m not too lazy).I wish you a pleasant reading (my english sucks so sorry in advance), in hope you can have a better understanding on how do you want to spread democracy.

Contains every poo poo pee pee stratagem that is either outclassed by another stratagem that does it better, is absolutely not worth a slot and/or isn’t cool.

• MD-6 Anti-Personnel Minefield

In addition of causing a great threat to your unicellular teammates, they don’t do a lot of damages and are outclassed by the incendiary ones.

• A/MG-43 Machine Gun Sentry

Well, uhm, it’s free. But its just a less useful and less cool gatling centry.

• SH-20 Ballistic Shield Backpack

Barely protects you from enemy projectiles, useless against bugs, even ranged ones, restricts you to your sidearm, take a backpack slot and does not even protects your back when not equipped. I don’t see any reason to waste your hard earned requisitions tickets on this.

• AX/AR-23 “Guard Dog”

It needs to reload ALL the game and barely does more damage than his older brother. It’s the equivalent of using the white dogs with ♥♥♥♥ in their eyes as a guard dog.

• Orbital Smoke Strike and Eagle Smoke Strike

I know you want to feel super smart by using these but they are not worth the strat slot and will at best block your vision. Just use bombs you weirdo.

• Orbital EMS Strike

The mortar version is way better but you can use both if you really hate bots I guess…

Very specific or not great stratagems. Better than nothing right ?

• E/MG-101 HMG Emplacement

As much as I find this one really fun and it actually does decent damages, the low ammo and high vulnerability of the HMG makes is really hard to use in higher difficulties. But if you are willing to use two slot points and find a good emplacement, combining this with a shield generator relay can be really satisfying to pull out.

• FX-12 Shield Generator Relay

Can be useful under heavy fire by bots, but the complicated code that is hard to get in stressful situations (like a heavy fire by bots haha…), lower health than expected and long deployement time will most likely kill you waiting for it instead of running away. Despite all of this, it can save a mission in the right moment.

• MD-I4 Incendiary Mines

While better than the explosives mines for the zone of fire it leaves after detonation and the really neat deployement animation, it’s only useful in small missions. A bad throw can also block your entire team so use it wisely (or not).

• MG-43 Machine Gun

Perfect for a Mavellon Creek Vietnam roleplay, this machine gun will output high damage and even penetrate some light armor. But sadly, having to remain still during reload is a death sentence.

• LAS-98 Laser Cannon

Actually a very good weapon in good hands but I don’t like laser weaponry. Sorry liberals B).

• Eagle Cluster Bomb

Just like the eagle airstrike, but worse.

• Eagle Strafing Run

Another good stratagem, short cooldown, short deployement time and good clearing of smaller enemies, I wish it made the same sound as an A10-warthog.

• Orbital 120MM HE Barrage

You can have 380mm bombs, they make bigger booms. Why this one ?

• Eagle 110MM Rocket Pods

If eagle could hit her target I’m sure it would be a good stratagem.

This tier is for every run of the mill liberty dispensers. As this tier is the biggest, there is no real archetype so read carefully :].

• A/G-16 Gatling Sentry

A very good way to clear unarmored targets and even your teammates when the turret will rotate ! Well just hope it doesn’t target an amored one or it will waste all of it’s ammo for nothing.

• A/ARC-3 Tesla Tower

While our actual Teslas struggle with the Trolley problem, in the future they just said “♥♥♥♥ it, what if we could kill everyone”. So yeah, it works well but it will also kill you and your moth teammates even of you are quite far.

• ARC-3 Arc Thrower

A very good weapon with unlimited ammo. I just dislike charge weapons and being “””accidently””” killed by one.

• EAT-17 Expendable Anti-tank

A good anti tank weapon with short cooldown that carried me to the medium difficulties. However the recoiless rifle is way better in higher difficulties and even more with a coordinated team. An argument is to be made that it doesn’t require a backpack and you can quickly call multiple ones on the battlefield but I prefer some other options.

• GL-21 Grenade Launcher

Do you hate swarms of hunters stunlocking you ? Is your team ignoring the hives ? I got a weapon for you. A great weapon that is hanged back with a lower usefulness against bots and in higher difficulties.

• M-105 Stalwart

1200 rounds per minutes, you can run while reloading. It’s VERY fun to use.

• EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit

First vehicle added to the game, this thing can solve every issue : small enemies ? Minigun. Big ones ? Rocket launcher. Taxes ? Use both ! While bugs will aggro you less (in my experience, I guess they prefer meat) you are very slow and you die very easily, but how can you say no to a friggin M E C H.

• Orbital 380MM HE Barrage

The infamous collateral damage stratagem. Can destroy objectives but is extremely inaccurate and WILL hit at least one teammate. It’s badass looking tho.

• Orbital Gas Strike

Despite making you a war criminal, this orbital isn’t very useful in most cases, dealing less damage than the napalm. But it excells in eggs missions, capable of destroying a whole nest with a single strike.

• Orbital Gatling Barrage

A great way to create a no no zone to spawnkill a bug nest or secure an objective. Large radius but lacks precision, I have a better option for these scenarios.

• Orbital Railcannon Strike

While used by a lot of players for its auto target for the biggest enemy and big damages, the high cooldown is too much for dealing with big armored targets as there are too many and it does not oneshot some enemies. Still sounds and feels amazing to use.

• Orbital Walking Barrage

A very underused and underrated stratagem, making clearing an enemy push way easier. Sadly it’s too slow to use offensively. I still recommand to try it.

A collection of the best stratagems in the game. Only missing S tier by a small drawback. You can’t go wrong with those.

• A/M-23 EMS Mortar Sentry

If you prefer your teammates alive and really hate bots, this is the perfect mortar for you. Place it somewhere high or in cover and you can stop an enemy assault with ease. More effective with bots and does not deal damages.

• A/M-12 Mortar Sentry

The explosive variant of his twin. Deals a ton of dommages, and if placed well, will help you a lot against all enemy types. Remeber that mortars don’t need direct line of fire to shoot, so hide them well. Convince your whole squad to equip it and you can create something truly terrifying. Not S tier because you will kill a couple teammates with it.

• A/MLS-4X Rocket Sentry

A very good sentry that will aim for larger socialists first. I recommand more against bots but it’s equally as good against bugs. Rarely misses their target too avoiding some blue on blue… Or more like yellow on yellow. The only drawback is that turrets that need a direct line of fire usually get destroyed pretty quick against bots, if your team use proper cover. So be careful to find my boy a comfy place.

• APW-1 Anti-Materiel Rifle

Rarely used, I focused first on the anti material part, thinking it would be good against armored enemies. But it was ineffective against heavy and outclassed for medium and light armor. Until one day I realised that it’s a friggin sniper rifle, so I rewatched some MLG complilation, put Darude Sandstorm as loud as possible and used it against bots. You can oneshot most medium bots in the head. It’s cool, it sounds awesome and a skilled player can clear an entire wave of those annoying bots with machine guns. I just wish for a better scope with magnification.

• FLAM-40 Flamethrower

It’s a flamethrower. It’s awesome in every way possible. Don’t dive while spewing fire, you will burn your legs.

• RS-422 Railgun

The infamous Railgun, the only gun you needed after the nerf. Now it’s still good but require more skill, use the unsafe mode.
But dude, you just earlier you hated charge weapons
Yes but this one got that O O M F you know ? It feels nice so he get a pass.

• GR-8 Recoilless Rifle

It’s gr8 (get it ?), like you can kill a charger with a well placed shot. Lots of ammo, versatile, the reload don’t suck that much since it’s a more situationnal weapon and if you have a coordinated team, it’s S tier no doubt. Can’t go wrong with that.

• AX/LAS-5 “Guard Dog” Rover

The better dog, with continuous damage and a fast cooling. Allows you to clear out smaller enemies while you can port your attention elsewhere, espicially good if you hate hunters with a passion. It can even help you spot which tree is speaking binary with that bright laser. A very solid backpack but it will deal a few team dommages from time to time and you can’t really do anything about it.

• LIFT-850 Jump Pack

Another underrated stratagem, the jump pack is very useful in some situations but can change a mission. A giant swarm of bugs is coming your way ? Get the highground with it. An enemy is getting too close to you ? Yeet away. You only have a couple minutes left to extract but you want to greed for samples ? Well now you have more mobility.

• SH-32 Shield Generator Pack

Perfect for high level missions, against hunters that are slowing you and against bots in general, allowing you to greatly extend your survivability. But the only reason it’s not S tier is that the shield can provide you with a sense of false security. A good player, confident with their gear and dive skills, don’t need this and can save their backpack slot for something more adapted. But its still cool if you just want to relax.

• B-1 Supply Pack

A very teamplay oriented backpack that is sadly uniquely played by the purest of souls on this game. It replenishes ammo, stims and grenades. And with the resuply, you might keep your team alive all the time. I wish you could give yourself a pack with it tho and I would rate it S tier. May Super Earth bless everyone using this.

• Eagle Napalm Strike

Napalm my beloved, it looks very good. Yes Im biased, no it’s not that good in high difficulties. But it allows you to clean most small enemies and damage the rest. Really good used defensively.

• Orbital Laser

I see one of these every game, but the slow cooldown and limited charges is a turn off for me. I still like it because it’s the Hammer of Dawn, but I prefer spamming my Destroyer spells.

• Orbital Precision Strike

Even if you unlock this one at the start of the game, a really good player can make this one shine. Low cooldown, medium arrival time, very high damage and can destroy hives and factories. If you want to prove your superiority as a baseball player, use this one. Only A tier because it’s very skill dependent.

The cream of the crop, you can’t go wrong with those.

• A/AC-8 Autocannon Sentry

A long ranged anti tank rifle. Very good against all targets and can shoot from very far. Yes it’s slow to aim but if you place it well, and even more with ship upgrades, you have there a solid turret that will you take down even the biggest threats easily. I recommand place it high to avoid some unfortunate crossfires. The rechamber animation is also very cool.

• AC-8 Autocannon

The best anti everything in the game, with a quite fast reload for a large support weapon. Your best friend for anti armor if you play solo. AND THAT ♥♥♥♥ GOT FULL AUTO TOO. Like come on, I don’t see any issues with this big boy, it even got the Lüger like animation of the sentry version.

• FAF-14 SPEAR Launcher

At first I was “oh ok it’s just a recoiless for noobs with a terrible targeting system”. Then, during a routine test (yes I had to try everything for this tierlist), not only did I one shot multiple tanks, but I also was able to target factories with it. I recommand a lot for the higher bot missions but sadly, the targeting system is a bit ass sometimes so it almost deranked to A. Also works in bug missions.

• Eagle 500kg Bomb

The biggest bomb you can drop on your enemies. And you can have TWO of them with upgrades. Sign me the frick up.

• Eagle Airstrike

Everything you need : fast cooldown, a lot of uses before resupply, can destroy objectives, big damages, average AOE,… A must have in my opinion.

• Orbital Airbust Strike

Sometimes, when in a stressful situation with a ton of contacts, my dyslexic ass struggle to put the right code for stratagems and I end up either wasting time or dying. Until I discovered the orbital airburst : 3, almost instanteanous, strikes of shrapnel with cover a large area and you only need to push three times the same button. A life saver really. And even if you are very good at the game (or a lesbian), it is still a fairly decent strike.

I hope you liked this guide, don’t hesitate to give me feedback as it is my first guide(typos I didn’t spot, your opinion,…), and I hope to see you on Marvellon Creek !
I will release another guide when I have unlocked/tested every weapon (primary and secondary).