Stratagems are the most versatile tools Helldivers can use to shape the battlefield to their needs and spread Democracy to Super Earth’s enemies. There are47 different stratagemsto choose from inHelldivers 2, and with only 4 slots to bring a stratagem with you in each mission, it’s important to know which ones are the best use of these valuable slots.
Helldivers 2: Best Loadouts
This article will walk you through the best loadouts in Helldivers 2, from tank buster to precision killer.
These stratagems are ranked based on how useful they are, how much they can get done, and how heavy of an investment you need to get them to stand out in their respective jobs. The best stratagems will be highly effective, consistently performs well at its job, and performs its job with little resources spent to make them good. Regardless of their rank, these are still stratagems you should consider bringing when you start a new mission to see if it’ll cover any blind spots in your build.
10Eagle 110MM Rocket Pods
Express Elite Slaying In The Palm Of Your Hand
Up, Right, Up, Left
Call-in Time
2 (3 with Expanded Weapons Bay upgrade)
N/A - 150 seconds when Eagle Rearms
The 110MM Rocket Pod is perfect for taking down elites, large enemies, and destroying Automaton factories. The best part of it is how you can prime it, throw it, and forget about it because it’ll automatically target the largest object in the vicinity of your beacon. Against automatons, you’ll usually want to use this to take out tanks, towers, and factories, while against bugs you’ll want to use this specifically against Bile Titans.
Despite its great usage for covering large, armored enemies, this stratagem struggles with inconsistent targeting, very specific ideal targets, and its limit of 2 or 3 Eagle charges before going on cooldown. Those charges also make it compete against the 500KG bomb and Eagle Airstrike, which tend to be much more useful stratagems but these stratagems won’t come back until you use all of your Eagle charges. In general, there are better stratagems to use against the Rocket Pod’s ideal targets, but if your build is missing a fast elite hunting Eagle stratagem then the Rock Pod will be perfect for you.
9Orbital Precision Strike
The Swiss-Army Knife Of Stratagems
Right, Right, Up
4 seconds (3 seconds with Targeting Software Upgrade)
100 Seconds (90 seconds with Zero-G Breech Loading upgrade)
The first stratagem you start out with is surprisingly useful for completing missions. It does a little bit of everything while also excelling at single target damage. The Orbital Precision Strike can one-shot tanks because of their large bodies and slow moving speed, carve a chunk out of hordes, and destroy critical objectives. Even against the automaton Hulks, the Precision Orbital Strike is capable of destroying them in one shot if they’re caught in the blast. Since it’s only a 90-second cooldown and 3-second call-in time, this stratagem is available fairly often, which allows it to easily fill in any gaps you might have in your loadouts.
You can also use this to consistently slay Chargers. First, guide the Charger into a wall or another solid object. Second, throw the Precision Strike. usually it takes about three seconds for the Charger to move away from the wall and charge again, giving you ample time to tag the Charger and run for your life.
However, while it’s more than capable of handling almost every problem a Helldiver can be faced with, it has two weaknesses it needs to overcome: it needs a heavy resource investment to compete against the Eagle stratagems which share a similar function, and atmospheric interference can render this stratagem completely useless. In order to make this stratagem perform well, you’ll need the Exploding Shrapnel upgrade so its explosive damage is consistent, Zero-G Breech Loading so it comes back at a decent rate compared to the Eagle Stratagems, and the Targeting Software Upgrade to reduce its call-in time down to 3 seconds. However, even with all these upgrades, if a planet has Atmospheric Interference as a hazard, this stratagem will be useless because its AoE will rarely overcome how far it will scatter from your beacon. While this stratagem is amazing in a majority of situations, against atmospheric interference, use an Eagle stratagem instead.
8B-1 Supply Pack
Never Run Out Of Ammo Again
Down, Left, Down, Up, Up, Down
480 seconds
A heavily underrated stratagem for how good it is. Sure, it’s not the flashiest stratagem - it doesn’t explode bugs or wipe out entire regiments of automatons in the blink of an eye - but what it can do ismake sure your guns never run dry.If you’re doing a solo run where you’re using the Autocannon or Grenade Launcher, the Supply Pack is a necessity to make sure you don’t run out of ammo.
In multiplayer, this is an amazing tool to keep your team topped up on ammo and stims. If your team has a tendency to split up to hit more objectives at once, then having a teammate with a Supply Pack to call down a resupply and run ammo to people can help your mission flow a little more smoothly.
7Shield Generator Pack
The Best Shield For Helldivers
Down, Up, Left, Right, Left Right
The Shield Generator Pack is a life-saver in stratagem form. Since Armor Rating is currently bugged and everyone’s armor is currently as durable as the light armor sets, everyone is vulnerable to getting one-tapped by a rocket-wielding robot. The Energy Shield Backpack changes this by being able to absorb at least 1 rocket hit before needing time to recover, giving you time to run away or play a little more aggressively against threats that can immediately delete your existence. Against bugs, the energy shield gives you a precious few extra seconds if you’re getting jumped by Stalkers, Hunters, or Acid Spewers. Plus, being able to resist a Stalker’s knockback can be worth its weight in gold if it helps extend the usefulness of your Helldiver’s life.
6Eagle Cluster Bomb
Best Swarm Destroyer A Helldiver Can Ask For
Up, Right, Down, Down, Right
4 (5 with Expanded Weapons Bay upgrade)
Large enemies will always be problematic at harder difficulties, but it’s the swarms of small enemies that’ll make your life a living hell. The Eagle Cluster Bomb is perfect to solve those exact scenarios. You could have hundreds of enemies following you in a dense pack, and one Eagle Cluster Bomb will destroy all but the most armored enemies. Out of all the Eagle stratagems, the Cluster Bomb also has the most charges, meaning you’ll almost always have this stratagem available to you and you can throw the Cluster Bomb out repeatedly to make sure a horde of enemies is truly dead.
This stratagem is also amazing for completely destroying any patrols.
The only two downsides to the Cluster Bomb are that its wide range and high damage are more than enough to catch allies and yourself if the beacon lands somewhere you weren’t expecting, and it can’t destroy secondary objectives (there are some scenarios where it can destroy bot factories however).
5Eagle 500kg bomb
Sometimes What You Need Is One Big Explosion
Up, Right, Down, Down, Down
Call-in time
1 (2 with an upgrade)
N/A - 150 seconds when Eagle rearms
The Eagle 500kg Bomb is a versatile stratagem that’s only held back by its 1 (or 2 with Expanded Weapons Bay upgrade) charges. It’s capable of wiping out hordes, destroying secondary objectives, closing bug holes, taking out automaton factories, and even one-shotting Bile Titans if they’re close enough to the epicenter of the explosion. Since it’s an Eagle stratagem, it also comes back fairly fast once all its charges are used (150 seconds or 120 with the Pit Crew Hazard Pay upgrade). This stratagem only becomes clunky to use if you’re using multiple Eagle stratagems, which means you may only use one Eagle stratagem at a time, have to wait for a 3 - 5 second cooldown between each, and you’ll need to input the “Eagle Rearm” stratagem or use all of Eagle stratagem charges in your list to get more.
There are just two things to keep in mind when using this stratagem: the actual explosive radius of the bomb itself is a little smaller than the animation, and there is a small delay between when the Eagle flies by, drops the bomb, and then the bomb explodes. For the first point, plant the beacon closer to your target than you’d expect and don’t rely too heavily on its large AoE. As far as the second point goes, the short delay just makes it a pain to catch large targets that move surprisingly fast in the explosion like Bile Titans or Chargers. Tanks are still perfect to hit with this stratagem because of how large and slow they are.
4Orbital Laser
For Those Moments Where You Need Everything Around You Dead
Right, Down, Up, Right, Down
300 seconds (270 with Zero-G Breech Loading upgrade)
The Orbital Laser is one of the best stratagems for clearing out entire bases by itself or taking out large enemies. It has enough fire power to blast apart a Bile Titan or an automaton factory, and it’s more than capable of tracking Chargers and Hulks. Once its original target is dead, it’ll move onto the next target until its time runs out.
It’s usually best used to take out larger targets since it’s the easiest stratagem to use that can consistently take out a Bile Titan. Every other stratagem either requires you to stall the Bile Titan to hit it (like the 500KG bomb) or it’s inconsistent with its ability to one-shot the Titan (Orbital Railgun and handheld Railgun). The only caveat to this is that the Bile Titan has to stop here and there to continue taking damage from the laser, but other than that, the Laser is usualy able to track the Bile Titan’s movements. Besides that, the Orbital Laser’s only other drawback is that it only has three uses, and unlike Eagle stratagems, once these three charges are used, this stratagem will be disabled for the rest of the mission.
3Eagle Airstrike
Flexible And Perfect For Almost Every Job
Up, Right, Down, Right
The Eagle Airstrike is one of those stratagems that you can call in for almost every kind of problem. Have a next that needs clearing? The airstrike can handle that. Huge mob of enemies chasing after you? Throw the airstrike and watch them disappear. How about armored enemies? Believe it or not, an airstrike can handle those too. While it won’t immediately kill armored foes, it will wound them enough that a few shots from an anti-armor weapon will finish the job.
The only enemy you can’t hit with the Eagle Airstrike is Bile Titans. These enemies will stand far above the explosion’s impact radius and can only be hit if the airstrike’s bombs drop directly on top of the Bile Titan. This isn’t too much of a problem normally since you’ll have other stratagems to specifically handle these larger threats. Otherwise, the Eagle Airstrike is comparable to the Orbital Precision Strike in terms of versatility, but it trades high single-target damage for more damage over a larger area.
2Orbital Railcannon Strike
The Best Enemy Removal You Can Get Your Hands On
Right, Up, Down, Down, Right
210 seconds (189 seconds with Zero-G Breech Loading upgrade)
The Orbital Laser’s biggest competitor, the Orbital Railcannon Strike another stratagem that’s dedicated to taking out heavily armored elites. While the Laser can take down an entire base, the Railcannon will quickly take down any large target, from Chargers to Hulks. While it can’t take down a Bile Titan by itself, it will wound the Titan enough so you’re able to put in a few more anti-tank shots to finish it.
The biggest advantage to using the Railcannon over the Orbital Laser is that it’s not limited to 3 charge, and its cooldown is significantly lower. This allows the Railcannon to be more useful for longer missions where you’re more likely to run into more elites. However, there’s definitely a good argument to bring the Laser instead if you’re going to have to fight multiple Bile Titans.
The Best Gun In The Game
Down, Right, Down, Up, Left, Right
480 seconds (432 with Streamlined Request Process upgrade)
The Railgun is the single best gun in the game. It pierces through all armor, has the potential to one-shot Bile Titans and Hulks, strips armor off Chargers, damage Tanks through their turrets, and takes down turret towers. When you put the Railgun in unsafe mode, you’ll be able to overcharge each shot and deal more damage at the risk of blowing yourself up if you overcharge it too much. This mode is perfect for dealing more damage to enemies that would usually require more than one shot to bring down, like the majority of armored Automaton enemies who may not die in a single safe mode shot.
This weapon also comes with 20 shots with each call-in, which is usually more than enough to take down a majority of elites and any armored enemies you may encounter like Devastators.
Helldivers 2: 10 Best Primary Weapons, Ranked
From The Slugger to the Breaker Shotgun, here are some of the best primary weapons in Helldivers 2.
