Picking the right stratagems can be crucial to determining your success and failure in Helldivers 2, especially on higher difficulties.
It’s important to review the mission briefing and bring the right tools for the job, and to vary your stratagem choices based on what your companions are selecting.
Dropping into a 15-minute defense mission, for example? You’re probably going to want turrets, while the massive explosives may not be necessary, as your teammates will all be confined to a tight space.
Let’s take a look at what I think are the best five stratagems in Helldivers 2, currently.
Spoiler: The 500kg bomb is NOT in my top five. In my experience, it’s way too inconsistent and never kills a huge number of Terminids or Automatons for us (though it is useful for massive enemies like the Bile Titan). The range of the bomb, the long cooldowns, and the fact you don’t get many to use during one mission all kept it off of my list.
Now that that is out of the way, here are my top 5 stratagems in Helldivers 2.
To me, this is the best stratagem in the game. It received a nerf in the most recent patch but it is still S-Tier. I run this on every mission at the higher difficulties. The best thing you can do for your squadmates in Helldivers 2 is to stay alive. This will keep you alive for a long time.
This is the best offensive stratagem in the game in my opinion. It has saved me many times as it one-shot a Hulk or a Bile Titan while I am being swarmed by a horde. It’s nice to be able to throw this stratagem and know it will target the biggest thing chasing you and instantly get rid of it.
The orbital laser is really strong at clearing ads but you have to be careful with it because the likelihood of it killing one of your teammates is high. The laser is great for trying to clear out Automaton hideouts and closing holes made by Terminids. Just make sure you don’t get too close to the enemies.
The Eagle Airstrike and the Eagle Cluster Bomb are interchangeable for me. Both of them provide great firepower and can take out double-digit enemies at once. I like to throw this on a hideout before I get there to level any resistance I may face while trying to complete an objective.
When this game first came out, the autocannon was a must-have to face the Terminids. If you have fought the Terminids before, you know all about the Chargers. They are super annoying but if you had an autocannon you could knock the armor off of their legs in one shot.
Unfortunately, that is no longer the case, but the autocannon is still very useful against a variety of armored enemies, and the backpack it comes with to reload the weapon means you can keep using the autocannon for a while.
