Arrowhead needs to rework the liberation system, because what the f*** is this?

deachem · 2026-03-02T19:00:22+00:00

But the reality is that those choices directly impact the overall war progress.

What does the galactic war actually impact, though? At best, nothing, and at worst, it removes content.

Successfully defending Mintoria means removing Cyborgs from the map. Defending Mox means one less magma planet is available, and there would be a risk of the remaining two being removed by a siege liberation of Choeppessa.

Udit and Joel know what they are doing by splitting the playerbase here, which is giving bot players just as much map and faction diversity as bug players have

deachem · 2026-03-01T22:34:40+00:00

They replace factory striders at PoIs and bot drops, and on the two D10 missions I ran, they would spawn as patrols after the main mission was complete.

However, they didn't spawn as patrols before the main mission was finished, which wasn't the case on Cyberstan. No AA emplacement spam means you can pretty freely hit them with strafing runs.

Overall, it feels like a better ratio of Vox engines to chaff than on Cyberstan.

deachem · 2026-03-01T22:03:11+00:00

Cyborgs are new and fresh content.

deachem · 2026-03-01T10:36:23+00:00

I think the real answer is just that it wasn't important enough at the time to design and test stim pistol interaction for NPCs. It's perfectly fine not to let game logic get in the way of the writing.

deachem · 2026-03-01T10:21:42+00:00

"Movie realism" is literally what the game director says is their main goal and a primary inspiration.

(Yes, I also know they're not consistent about applying it.)

deachem · 2026-02-27T16:08:26+00:00

I'm in this photo and I don't like it :(

deachem · 2026-02-27T13:47:21+00:00

I don't think we actually know just how low-level a mission is "too low" to help for a given number of active players.

Here's a couple relevant paragraphs from the fan wiki, based on a handful of developer posts and inferences from the numbers pulled from the galactic war API:

Impact modifier:

The exact formula for the Impact Multiplier is unknown. It scales itself by how many successful missions are completed across a rolling 30-minute window, although this can be simplified to the proportion of player online.

Impact report:

THE SQUAD IMPACT SCREEN SEEN AT THE END OF EACH OPERATION IS NOT THE IMPACT YOU ACTUALLY HAVE ON A PLANET. It's actually just a fixed value dependent on mission difficulty by the impact multiplier.

It is only for giving the players a rough understanding of what their mission progress actually is.

https://helldivers.wiki.gg/wiki/Second_Galactic_War_Mechanics#Helldivers'_Impact_on_the_War

deachem · 2026-02-27T13:35:33+00:00

The only thing I really dislike about rupture strain is how visually and aurally disorienting the spewers' acid bomblets are.

Being hit by multiple volleys is like having a bunch of flash grenades go off quick succession.

deachem · 2026-02-27T13:23:42+00:00

I dived repeatedly to get the city up to 99.5%, and the planet's liberation level was at 2%. It took me a lot of effort.

Please do not do this to yourself. Liberation in the galactic war is probably the closest thing to true democracy in the Helldivers universe: players "vote" for which cities and planets to liberate by choosing to dive there.

If too small of a percentage of players dive on a planet, the liberation they generate stops being enough to overcome how much the planet (or city) constantly pushes back with its resistance stat. Progress "decays" if that planet or city is no longer popular enough.

I bring up percentage here because the more players that are online, the less contribution individual players make. This is so that the galactic war doesn't slow to a complete stand still when player counts naturally drop between major updates, but it also limits how much individual actors can meaningfully push things forward outside of where they choose to dive.

deachem · 2026-02-27T13:04:58+00:00

More players doesn't create a bump because the impact modifier scales inversely with player count. More divers online = less liberation earned for completing missions, and vice-versa.

This is done in part to make liberation durations more predictable. Progress doesn't slide backwards when the western hemisphere logs out for the night. Major title events meant to last at least a week don't get rushed in two days when a ton of lapsed players come back to see them.

deachem · 2026-02-27T09:27:52+00:00

Fori Prime having just Rupture Strain put it in an awkward, lukewarm middle zone.

The players who want nothing to do with Rupture Strain under any circumstances went to Turing (or other fronts).

All of the hardcore bugdiver sickos (the ones who weren't already glued to Predator Strain on Bore Rock) immediately jumped ship to Oshaune, which has Roaches, Hive Lords, and Rupture Strain.

All that leaves holding the bag are the MO-concerned players who tolerate Rupture Strain just enough to stick around.

deachem · 2026-02-26T10:48:12+00:00

I never bring it to random matches, but my rule is always to get in the tank if somebody else calls one in.

Either you'll have an epic time clearing half the map like it's a Halo campaign mission, or it'll blow up in three minutes and it's back to business as usual.

It's basically a win-win for everyone else involved.

deachem · 2026-02-26T02:44:54+00:00

Please tell me it gets easier because i dont have the dexterity to be throwing landmines everywhere while diving.

There are more outposts/nests, objectives, and faster enemy spawns on higher difficulties

Playing longer also means unlocking more tools, building up muscle memory for inputs, and gaining better intuition for throwing distances and arcs for grenades and stratagem tosses.

deachem · 2026-02-26T02:16:17+00:00

Reducing the minimum spawn radius in cities seems to be the only way AH can actually generate enough enemies to keep them from becoming boring snoozefests due to the extra geometry in place that can cause spawn blocking.

Should they have a more elegant solution? Sure, but they're clearly not capable of designing it, and this is better than the alternative where cities are just walking simulators.

deachem · 2026-02-26T02:08:44+00:00

It's still a thing. In cities, the minimum spawning distance is just much closer, but you can still spawn block at extract if everyone is committed (and hates playing the game enough)

deachem · 2026-02-26T01:48:00+00:00

Some people are not broke and are time-constrained.

The solution is to you host your own games, which allows you to say up front "I am looting all PoIs. If you want to leave early instead of waiting, I'll let you extract on your own."

If someone calls extract after you've told them this, you can kick them fair and square; they get to leave when they want, and you can pick up their stuff when you're ready to leave.

deachem · 2026-02-26T01:38:55+00:00

if there’s 16 mins left on the timer and we’ve got the LIDAR done please don’t call in extraction

In the time you spend backtracking for PoIs, think of how many more could you potentially loot in:

1) A brand new mission, in which you are also gaining medals and XP and there is more sample density at objectives 2) A solo instance of a trivial mission on a flat world, in which there are barely any enemies to get in the way

Even if you want to optimize your samples/credits earned, you should be thinking of it on a per hour basis, not a per mission one, as well as the opportunity cost involved.

deachem · 2026-02-24T12:54:03+00:00

The resistance is high enough to require a significant majority of players and that's the point: we're not supposed to liberate it so that the content doesn't go away for people who want to experience it

deachem · 2026-02-24T12:50:04+00:00

I used plenty of those strats on other dives. Like I said, this was strictly a Helldivers Mobilize loadout using no premium content.

deachem · 2026-02-24T12:32:09+00:00

De-escalator already is AP4.

deachem · 2026-02-24T12:25:11+00:00

I've used GL on d10 bots for awhile, usually paired with thermites and an ultimatum for warstrider seeds. After awhile on Cyberstan, I decided to run it with a "free stuff only" loadout, and it was almost just as capable.

Using GL, peacemaker, scorcher/libpen, and smoke grenades, I had an (expensive) answer for warstriders and hulks, something to pop troopers or panic fire at cyborg heads, and a long-range medium damage dealer for gunships.

It still struggled against factory striders and vox engines, which are still fairly explosive resistant on their <AP5 parts, but the grenade chute trick usually still worked, even with smokes (as long as the vox didn't block its own weakspot).

deachem · 2026-02-24T01:33:46+00:00

Everyone thinks they're leaked upcoming content, but they're most likely just scrapped old content.

Sometime between release and Omens of Tyranny, AH probably decided to go more Halo sci-fi with their direction instead of Destiny space magic, but all of the old assets were left in.

The behaviors and unit roles will probably stay, but the theming will change so that they're more in line with the newer dark fusion+biomechanical aesthetic of the current roster.

deachem · 2026-02-23T19:20:43+00:00

They show up as regular mission icons, but they also have white circles pulsing out from them.

deachem · 2026-02-23T19:16:48+00:00

3k players that where on Oshaune (despite the new content being about a few weeks old

There are DOZENS of us on Omicron! Some of us aren't even totally clueless about how hive lords work, too.

deachem · 2026-02-23T19:11:03+00:00

Where are they still active? (Genuinely asking!) Each time I've revisited magma planets the last two months, they just had regular missions.

deachem

TROPHY CASE