Quick Links
Helldivers 2is a fast, frantic, and ferocious third-person shooter where players risk their lives to defend Super Earth from relentless alien threats. Your mission? To spread peace, liberty, and managed democracy, onewell-placed explosiveat a time.
Before diving into a mission, players can choose how intense and challenging they want their experience to be. If you are a new recruit, you might be wondering why most difficulty levels are locked and what makes one different. This short guide breaks down all the difficulty levels inHelldivers 2, explaining how they impact gameplay and what you need to unlock them.
All Available Difficulty Levels in Helldivers 2
There are10 difficulty levelsto choose from inHelldivers 2, starting with a casual walk in the park and going up to a ruthless fight for survival.
Trivial has almost no enemies, making it an excellent difficulty level tofarm free Super Credits inHelldivers 2.
Helldivers 2 Difficulty Differences and Scaling
The higher the difficulty level inHelldivers 2, the more explosions and chaos. Enemy forces increase in numbers, patrols become denser, and certain types, such as Bile Titans, start spawning.
Higher difficulty missions also introduce more enemy outposts to destroy and increase the number of optional objectives. Importantly, thenumber and type of Samples found depends on the difficulty, withPink Super Samplesonly appearing at Extreme difficulty or higher.
Here are some notable difficulty differences regarding enemy types.
Additionally, your rewards inHelldivers 2scale with the difficulty setting, makingtougher missionseven more worthwhile.Higher-tier missions grant more Experience, Medals, and Requisition Slipsto help you level up, progress Warbonds, and get ship upgrades, respectively.
WithHelldivers 2continuously expanding its content, unlocking everything requires a serious gameplay investment. Hence, push yourself to play at the highest difficulty level you can handle to maximize your rewards.
How to Unlock and Change Difficulty Levels in Helldivers 2
To change your preferred difficulty settings, access the Galactic War Table in the middle of the Bridge. Thenpress Q and E on PC or L1 and R1 on PlayStation 5to cycle through the difficulties at the bottom of the screen. Once chosen, start or join a mission to continue the Galactic War. You can adjust your difficulty setting before starting a quick-play session or an operation. However, once a mission begins,the difficulty is locked in and cannot be changed. Plan accordingly before deploying into battle!
Super Earthvalues your patriotism, but new players (rookies) cannot dive straight into a level 10 Super Helldive mission. To unlock higher difficulties inHelldivers 2, you must complete an entire operation at the previous difficulty level. These consist of aset of three missions that must be completed together. If you abandon an operation midway to start a different one, your progress in the original operation will be lost, meaning it will not count toward unlocking the next difficulty level.
