How to beat Helldivers 2’s new defense missions that are so impossibly hard they seem bugged
It’s rough out there for the Helldivers, but the Automatons CAN be beaten.
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During its launch week,Helldivers 2asked its community to liberate two worlds from hordes of alien Terminid bugs. Now, though, there’s a new Major Order directing everyone to staunchly defend several planets from an invasion by the Terminator-like Automatons. To do their part and carry out the order, players will have to complete eight defense campaigns by completing tons of defense missions — including new levels called “Retrieve Essential Personnel” that take place in a small compound and involve providing cover for 30-40 scientists as they load onto a shuttle.
There’s just one issue, however: these missions are impossibly hard, to the point where even many of the game’s most hardcore players think they’re bugged. The top of theHelldivers 2 subredditis full of memes and posts about their difficulty, with their replies and posts on social media sites like X (Twitter) flooded with comments from fans desperately trying to find an effective strategy.
The ultimate problem with these missions is that they relentlessly spawn dropships full of dozens of Automaton units — a good portion of them armoredScout Striders, Devastators, and, eventually,Hulks— every 15-30 seconds or so, which is enough to quickly overrun even the most defensively equipped and positioned teams. The bots come faster than you can call down automated sentries or anti-armor weaponry to blow them apart, and the only way you can evensurviveis by running laps around the map until your extraction dropship arrives after the time limit runs out.
Ilovea good challenge, don’t get me wrong. But clearly, these levels are either significantly overtuned or outright broken —one fan points out that they could be dropping 40 minutes' worth of robots in 15, as the mission’s timer is shown to be the former but is actually the latter — and there’s no way Arrowhead will leave them as is. With that said, my squadmates and I have figured out two strategies that’ll make beating the missions much easier (you’ll need full four-man teams and VoIP/Discord communication).
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The first method, which is the one I prefer, requirestwo players to get to the highest position they can and use Recoilless Rifle rocket launchers to target the thrusters of each dropship (the engines on their corners) as they fly in. Hitting them here with a rocket is a one-shot that instantly destroys the dropship as well as all the units they’re carrying, and by reloading each other’s launchers with support backpacks and using a Resupply stratagem to keep those backpacks stocked with ammo, the rocket team should be able to destroy almost every dropship without trouble. At the same time, the other two players should be directing scientists to the evac zone as quickly as they can, fending off any Automatons that manage to deploy in the base.
You can also beat the missions by using a ton of Eagle and Orbital Smoke Strike stratagems to cover the base in smoke, then calling in EMS Mortar Sentries to hit the bots with crowd control slowdowns. This will effectively blind most Automaton units and slam the brakes on their advance, allowing the scientists to run to their shuttle in relative safety. I find this method to be a bit less reliable since gaps in your smoke cover can lead to a collapse of the situation, but if you’ve got a very well-coordinated team, it can definitely work.
Regardless of which strategy you’re trying, I recommend having everyone also bring along some Machine Gun Sentries and Gatling Sentries if they can. These will help you mow down any Automatons that make it through your rocket defenses or smokescreens, and are particularly helpful for defending Recoilless Rifle duos that need to focus on incoming dropships. Note that Mortar Sentries, which are generally strong against the bots, are a poor choice here since their large explosions will likely kill fellow Helldivers or scientists whenever they fire at enemies that get past the base’s perimeter.
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Arrowhead will hopefully nerf or patch these insanely hard missions ASAP — I’d love to complete more of them whileHelldivers 2’s 50% bonus XP and Requisitions weekendis going on — but until it does, these two methods of beating them are your best bet. Good luck, and godspeed. 🫡
Helldivers 2 is available now for $39.99 on both PS5 and PC, and so far, it’s one of thebest PC gamesof the year. Notably, the game also supports cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.
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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he’s been an avid fan since childhood. He’s been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you’ll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he’s not writing or gaming, there’s a good chance he’s either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once.Follow him on X(Twitter).
