Fenrir said:

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They sold the game in hundreds of countries that they do not have PSN support for. Most of those nations are not particularly large and I'd say the overall percentage of the HD2 community impacted is relatively small...however I'd say it's a generally poor business tactic to sell a game and then retroactively remove people's ability to play it because of something only the publisher controls and people were reasonably annoyed.

All the big publishers have a history of ****ty, anti-consumer behavior. It's nice to see them knocked back a peg or two once in a while.

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It would be interesting to know how many players are actually from these countries, the list is much longer than I expected though.

All countries where PlayStation Network is available (and countries where it's not) (sportskeeda.com)

Training manual tip: the best way to maintain personal space is with bullets.

Is this game worth starting now or is most of the shine wearing off? Getting a new laptop today and finally able to run it.

Been debating between this, Diablo 4, or Hades 2 which started yesterday.

It is still clipping along at > 100,000 active players daily and that is just on Steam. I think it still has wheels and likely will have additions in the not too distant future.

I'm 51 and empty nest with my wife, work 8-5 M-F. I also like that I can just hop on and goof around for 30 minutes or more at the end of the day or on a slow weekend. Especially as I get older I find I enjoy Coop a ton more than PvP for the most part.

Note that this game is not pause friendly however! So I usually play when my wife is gone or going to sleep. My current pause friendly game is Baldur's Gate 3.

Thanks y'all. I have younger kids so pause friendly would be nice but I won't likely play until they are in bed anyway. Ever since the game came out I've had some major FOMO and watched a ton of streams. It just looks like a ton of fun

Rule Number 32 said:

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Thanks y'all. I have younger kids so pause friendly would be nice but I won't likely play until they are in bed anyway. Ever since the game came out I've had some major FOMO and watched a ton of streams. It just looks like a ton of fun

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It's repetitive, but it hasn't gotten boring for me as an old gamer. My days of spending hours upon hours at a setting playing games are long behind me.

Even with the repetition of missions you can still find unique play style. Move from attacking a nest or outpost as a squad to going lone wolf while your team is doing another objective.

Try out new strategems and weapons

Me an Xbox user sadly checking this thread daily until they let us join the fun

MW03 said:

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I think it's the most fun I've had playing a game in a while. I don't yalls stage in life, but I love it for the fact that I can drop in and play for as little or as long as I want and it doesn't matter. That used to be COD, but I can't keep up now with the kids grinding out better gear and upping their talent level. It's almost more akin to Madden in a way. I can fire up a game of Madden or FIFA and play the computer for a bit and blow off some steam, go 2 weeks, and jump back in. With this, it's the same vein except it's shooting and I'm pairing up with people for co-op. I also don't hate the fact that I'm killing alien bugs and robots, so it's easier to put it on when my 8 year old is running around.

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Hit the nail on the head. Boot up and into a match within 60 seconds. I'd have to wait 5 minutes+ for a Tom Clancy title.

Lvl 13 after a few days.

HD2 Friend code: #2368-7916
Steam Friend Code: #8669989 (didn't know these were a thing)

Don't know why it ain't working but your hell diver friend code doesn't come up when I search it

It's like a one time code and it refreshes every so often

That is amazing, especially coming from an indie small game in HD 1.

Level 23 here. MaroonGoon.

I haven't found a better combo than the shotgun and grenade launcher.

Which has me wondering: are the weapons available later in the game not that great? Or do they reserve a bunch that you have to $$$ extra?

They all are about the same. Just depends on what you like. I haven't found anything to be super amazing. Apparently the eruptor was awesome before it was tuned down, but I haven't unlocked it yet.

So far there does not seem to be any "pay to win" items.

evan_aggie said:

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Level 23 here. MaroonGoon.

I haven't found a better combo than the shotgun and grenade launcher.

Which has me wondering: are the weapons available later in the game not that great? Or do they reserve a bunch that you have to $$$ extra?

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Incendiary shotgun seems popular, I don't have it yet. Dangerous friendly fire of course. Grenade launcher is good but not great vs heavies. Autocannon is pretty great but hard to give up a backpack shield/weapon.

If you're fighting the bugs, the incendiary shotgun is MONEY, bots I use the Laser Canon strategem.

Fire damage is stupid in general. One stray pellet from the incendiary shotgun and your helldiver lights up like he lost the high ground to Obi-Wan. With any kind of fire status on yourself, you have to notice immediately in order to stim in time. The damage over time for fire on helldivers makes it so that any fire is basically an insta-death.

I stay the **** away from the fire tornado planets because of this. The fire on the ground after the tornado has been gone for 10 seconds will still instantly kill you and the tornadoes follow you, camp objectives, swarm the pelican, etc.

My favorite loadout for bugs is breaker + grenade launcher + jet pack. I switch back and forth between impact and stun grenades.

Against bots autocannon or expendable anti-tank is a requirement at upper levels imo.

Grenade launcher struggles with the mini Bile titans and giant tanks @ extreme. But I generally save my orbital laser or rail strike for them.

For the most part I end up leading kills with other people level 30-60, which made me wonder if that was somehow an overlooked combo.

evan_aggie said:

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Grenade launcher struggles with the mini Bile titans and giant tanks @ extreme. But I generally save my orbital laser or rail strike for them.

For the most part I end up leading kills with other people level 30-60, which made me wonder if that was somehow an overlooked combo.

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I think grenade launcher plus resupply pack is a pretty meme load out for bugs. It doesnt seem to work quite as well in the 7-9 difficulty unless you have good teamwork to take out all the heavies that will spawn.

Do you also use sentries and airstrikes? They figure into your kills, too. Gatling Sentry can mow down enemies if it's placed well and doesn't get insta-ganked.

All the secondary weapons have situations in which they can shine or suck. Quasar is pretty strong b/c you don't have to reload it and sit like a duck after shooting.

chilidogfood said:

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evan_aggie said:

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Grenade launcher struggles with the mini Bile titans and giant tanks @ extreme. But I generally save my orbital laser or rail strike for them.

For the most part I end up leading kills with other people level 30-60, which made me wonder if that was somehow an overlooked combo.

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I think grenade launcher plus resupply pack is a pretty meme load out for bugs. It doesnt seem to work quite as well in the 7-9 difficulty unless you have good teamwork to take out all the heavies that will spawn.

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Correct. Usually it goes really well when someone on the team has the rocket launcher to take down drop ships with terminoids.

I'm only lvl 16, I like the diligence rifle and recoiless rifle fighting the clankers.

For bugs, I go with a shotgun, the laser guard dog, and the disposable rockets

Throw in the 500kg bomb and precision strike fighting both.
Does the trick for me.

I'm currently level 9 but it has been a lot of fun. Not sure if its going to have a ton of staying power since I feel so much lower level than everyone else, but I've been enjoying it.

Currently running the breaker shotgun, minigun since I havent updated support weapon yet because I can't choose, and the mortar. The mortar is pretty fun but I think it kills me more often than the enemy.

After playing on a buddies' PS5 I bit the bullet and decided to see if I could get it to work on my Steam Deck. Have to do a few things to get it rolling and turn graphics way down but so far I am having a blast.

What's crazy is that players, even some who have really high ratings, don't get that everyone gets the same samples and credits and whatnot after a mission. Had dudes melee me in the back of the head right before an extraction so they could have my samples or veterans ask others to put them down so a lower rated player could level up.

Lvl 67 with all upgrades/stratagems playing on Helldive difficulty:

My terminid setup is sickle or breaker primary, redeemer secondary, and impact grenade. Always light armor with increased stim capacity and stim effect to maximize stamina. Strategems are Quasar cannon, guard dog rover, eagle airstrike, and eagle cluster bomb. With upgraded eagles that gives you three eagle airstrikes and five cluster bombs before they need to rearm. The quasar is the best general utility weapon for taking down shrieker nests, bug holes, spores, chargers, and bile titans. It can one shot a charger with a head shot easily. In most situations, I can evade, focus on the heavies, and let the guard dog rover take down the small stuff. The result is consistently ending missions with 200+ more kills than the next guy.

Automatons are a little more tricky. I run the scorcher, redeemer, and impact grenade, and upgrade to medium armor for a little more durability. The scorcher is hands down the best weapon for automatons. Strategem option 1: Quasar cannon, guard dog rover, eagle airstrike, and either 500kg bomb or orbital railgun. Strategem option 2: Autocannon, eagle airstrike, 500kg bomb, and orbital railgun.

I typically default to option 1 because the quasar can take out drop ships better than the autocannon. Its very satisfying to take down a dropship that just dropped a tank, and then bring the dropship down on top of the tank.

The guard dog rover is unconventional for automatons with most players running the shield pack. On the higher difficulties with the lighter enemies running at you more quickly, I still take the utility of the rover over the shield pack even if it means I stim more often.


At the end of the day, do what you find most satisfying. Though, the 120mm, 380mm, and walking barrages are useless, and I'll back out of a game if those get called down routinely in my vicinity as I'm usually one of the casualties.

When can you get the scorcher?

I'm at level 25 and don't recall seeing it in the primary Warbond page, but maybe it is on the last?

Also, how do you use the Quasar effectively when you get 1-shot every 8 minutes?

evan_aggie said:

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When can you get the scorcher?

I'm at level 25 and don't recall seeing it in the primary Warbond page, but maybe it is on the last?

Also, how do you use the Quasar effectively when you get 1-shot every 8 minutes?

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Scorcher is a utility weapon stratagem. I've never used it on bots but grilling bugs is pretty dang fun!

evan_aggie said:

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When can you get the scorcher?

I'm at level 25 and don't recall seeing it in the primary Warbond page, but maybe it is on the last?

Also, how do you use the Quasar effectively when you get 1-shot every 8 minutes?

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It's the last page of the main warbond. Takes a **** ton of medals to get to it.

I have started running EATs instead of Quasar. Similar role but thanks to the short cooldown you can just pollute the entire landscape with expendable rockets.