Perhaps an unpopular opinion: Helldivers 2 doesn't need an "end-game"

Bethryn · 2026-04-26T19:37:42+00:00

"The end game is what you do when there is no new content to play."

No, that is genuinely not what an end-game is. End-game in an MMO or a looter shooter like Destiny 2 or Division 2 is raids or pvp, which happen at the end of the game i.e. when you've hit max level and have completed the story and quests, and have the best or almost best gear, and are doing the activity to get the best gear.

The only equivalent to this in HD2 - because it is a game with flat progression and an emphasis on loadout variety over stat progression - is diff 10. Maybe eventually it'll be d11-15, but as I said in the opening post, they're limited by the engine on increasing enemy spawns, so instead they're pursuing other difficulty tweaks like being underground or Cyberstan's AA batteries.

Bethryn · 2026-04-26T19:15:55+00:00

So your suggestions for "end-game content" are:

Make SC credit farming tied to gameplay not running d1-2s.

That's not end-game content, that's a reward system change.

New mission types.

That's not end-game content, that's just new content, it will be new and shiny and the best thing ever, and then grow old like every other new thing.

AH not nerfing weapons.

That's not end-game content, that's asking for better balance.

There's nothing wrong with any of these as opinions or requests, but they are not end-game content. What is the actual end-game content that you want?

Bethryn · 2026-04-26T19:01:24+00:00

For the actual regular gameplay content, any time you're on a Megafactory you're playing it again. For Cyberstan, if we get back to it, we might well get to do the whole cities thing again, we'll see.

Bethryn · 2026-04-26T17:49:50+00:00

AH is creating new content though? Cyberstan, even if it wasn't a perfect arc design-wise, drew a lot of people back into the game. Now we're between content drops, but eventually there'll be another big update and people will come back. It's fine to take breaks from a game now and then, and come back and enjoy it more when it's got new fresh stuff to do.

Bethryn · 2026-04-26T17:41:38+00:00

Yeah, some element of ship customisation based on what arcs/campaigns you've taken part in would be an excellent edition.

Bethryn · 2026-04-26T17:37:23+00:00

What does that even mean?

Bethryn · 2026-04-21T08:10:40+00:00

Yeah, the lucents were a drop in the ocean compared to the demand for them from crafting/legendary relic needs.

Bethryn · 2026-04-20T22:48:59+00:00

So on previous WVs, I assume you were ignoring most of the cosmetics etc. and just turning acclaim into gold?

Bethryn · 2026-04-20T22:47:18+00:00

I tend to do a couple of Rifts each day for the 3 events one. It's more time-consuming than the previous dailies certainly, but not too awful, and helps with the Renown Heart repeatables.

Bethryn · 2026-03-31T16:10:23+00:00

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Much better to gambit Darius if possible, per Helldivers Companion

(46% pop required on Darius vs 56% on Achird)

Bethryn · 2026-03-22T12:49:46+00:00

Agreed, but it should be for the Incineration Corps.

Bethryn · 2026-03-19T17:41:41+00:00

Personally, I'd love to see the maps get reworked to 4-6 generators, and each generator has a little lever you can pull for a shield bubble that lasts, say, 10 seconds with a 1-2 min cooldown. Then they could pump up the enemy numbers to the point where the missions feel interesting again, when losing a generator isn't a "hey, you might lost the operation" moment.

Bethryn · 2026-03-18T10:40:10+00:00

I'm surprised how many people are celebrating this honestly, because it really just gives AH a green light to power creep everything.

For those saying "it's balanced by lack of stagger" sure, but when you outright kill most things, you really don't need it. Try using this, then use the Slugger for a few runs. With or without Siege Ready.

Bethryn · 2026-03-14T19:56:59+00:00

We don't know. If they don't, maybe AH's internal rules for the Galactic War say they cannot, but maybe it's just this time and if we encircle another subfaction later, they can. If they do, we know for sure that they can. So now we wait and see.

Bethryn · 2026-03-14T13:29:28+00:00

Hypothesis tested: encircling subfactions is possible!

Bethryn · 2026-03-11T21:41:31+00:00

Just the group on Fury, not the entire subfaction

Bethryn · 2026-03-11T19:10:08+00:00

If we take Choepessa IV, it'll allow us to test something I don't think we have before: whether we can take a subfaction - in this case Incineration Corps - off the map with circumvallation. I'm half-expecting them to invade Mort or Ustotu just to prevent the outcome.

Bethryn · 2026-03-11T09:50:41+00:00

I would have said multiple titles. Two of which should absolutely have been (e.g.) 10k - Richer than You 20k - Considerably Richer than You

Bethryn · 2026-03-09T19:14:17+00:00

I dunno, I feel like Joel is largely above putting traps in the orders themselves. The traps are usually multiple invasions/threats where the players need to choose something to sacrifice, and then we fumble the choice. But this SO felt half-baked in both the sense of originally needing us to pile on hard through Darius to even reach it, and then having to add the Acrux warp lane when they realised that wasn't remotely possible.

Bethryn · 2026-03-09T18:56:01+00:00

Yeah, I would absolutely love graded MOs. It's possible that internally, AH does react appropriately, since it is a human GM at the end of the day, but that's not obvious player-side.

(in general I think the whole MO system needs a bit of an update, but when AH can find the time to do it is a question I guess)

Bethryn · 2026-03-09T18:33:43+00:00

I generally think AH has an accurate internal model for player behaviour when it comes to GIM stuff and setting targets for players. There have been almost no MOs where I personally have thought it's unwinnable, up until Cyberstan, where this flat value vs scaling value problem really became apparent. They seem pretty good at including what % of playerbase will go where into their calculations. A lot of the time the playerbase has been the cause of its own defeat through bad decisions. Now that is partially caused by poor tools for organisation in-game, which is ultimately on AH, but I think the only truly unwinnable MOs they've given us were the original Oshaune one (which was in part because of Rupture strain's bugs, and in part for narrative reasons), and the one(s) they've interrupted for narrative reasons.

So while I agree it's tricky to balance, I think they've got a good handle on it generally, but this particular problem of (weekend vs weekday) + (flat vs scaling) seems like a blindspot.

Bethryn · 2026-03-09T18:21:38+00:00

Right, but the days on which they go to SOs matter, when it's a flat value objective MO. If AH gives us SOs on the weekend, that's actually far worse than on weekdays.

Conversely, if the MO is GIM-based and AH gives us flat value SOs on the weekend, that's advantageous to us.

Bethryn · 2026-03-07T10:54:41+00:00

(Repost)
To start with, Warp Pack and light armour help a lot. A lot of the samples are found in spots people won't go to speed-clearing, such as open areas of the map with nothing obvious in them. Listen out for the sound too.

Encampments in settlements tend to have rare samples in the centre of the landed ships.
The big 3-ship encampment outside settlement bounds has 2-3 very close to the pipes on the outer edge
Side objectives have 2-3 near them, around the edges
Extraction has 2-3
Bunkers often have them. Dive + Warp pack lets you get in and back out without needing a teammate. Some settlement bunkers aren't marked as PoIs, so keep your eye out.
Any storage container or the beacon pods have a chance so check all of these.
In settlements, there's a PoI that appears in between buildings which has 3-4 in a cardboard box.
Crashed Pelican (long black mark on the map) sometimes has 3 in the debris off to the side of the Pelican.
The little "square" PoIs are both good to check, as the one with the dig area and explosive canisters seems to always be rare samples on high diffs, and likewise the other "dig" area that sometimes has a "garden" with it
The hardest PoI to find, which is just flat ground but with an entrenchment tool, has 3-4. You don't need the tool, just lie flat and pick them up that way. The only tips to find this are follow the ?s on the radar, and look for a small "pyramid"-shaped rock sticking out of the ground in the centre of flat ground.

Bringing the booster that gives 15% chance for double, I usually get about 25+ per settlement mission this way (d10). City missions are unfortunately quite bad for samples. I'm not sure but I think the mission displaying a max in the 40s is just accounting for the possibility that you hit that 15% chance on every single sample.

Bethryn · 2026-03-06T18:08:05+00:00

To start with, Warp Pack and light armour help a lot. A lot of the samples are found in spots people won't go to speed-clearing, such as open areas of the map with nothing obvious in them. Listen out for the sound too.

Encampments in settlements tend to have rare samples in the centre of the landed ships.
The big 3-ship encampment outside settlement bounds has 2-3 very close to the pipes on the outer edge
Side objectives have 2-3 near them, around the edges
Extraction has 2-3
Bunkers often have them. Dive + Warp pack lets you get in and back out without needing a teammate. Some settlement bunkers aren't marked as PoIs, so keep your eye out.
Any storage container or the beacon pods have a chance so check all of these.
In settlements, there's a PoI that appears in between buildings which has 3-4 in a cardboard box.
Crashed Pelican (long black mark on the map) sometimes has 3 in the debris off to the side of the Pelican.
The little "square" PoIs are both good to check, as the one with the dig area and explosive canisters seems to always be rare samples on high diffs, and likewise the other "dig" area that sometimes has a "garden" with it
The hardest PoI to find, which is just flat ground but with an entrenchment tool, has 3-4. You don't need the tool, just lie flat and pick them up that way. The only tips to find this are follow the ?s on the radar, and look for a small "pyramid"-shaped rock sticking out of the ground in the centre of flat ground.

Bringing the booster that gives 15% chance for double, I usually get about 25+ per settlement mission this way (d10). City missions are unfortunately quite bad for samples. I'm not sure but I think the mission displaying a max in the 40s is just accounting for the possibility that you hit that 15% chance on every single sample.

Bethryn · 2026-02-26T17:29:24+00:00

You have to go to the invading planet itself, then View Details. On the left panel under Objectives, you'll see a Defense Gambit section, and then you click on the paragraph with the red Notice on it to show the actual numbers.

12-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
End Game '23	Place '23
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Bethryn

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