HELLDIVERS 2 — A Veteran’s Guide to the Galactic War

Ah, the Galactic War Map. It’s where you choose what planet you’ll be fighting on and see how things are going throughout the galaxy. One day, the colours of red, orange, and purple will cease to exist, and Super Earth will finally bring peace to the galaxy.

However, understanding how the Galactic War works requires a little bit of outside help. So, here’s a rundown of how to use the map effectively in HELLDIVERS 2.

Major and Personal Orders

A light in the darkness of war.

The first thing, after you’ve gone through all the dispatches and news, is the Major Order (MO). This is an order from Super Earth for the entire community to complete, such as killing X billion enemies or collecting X million samples. Sometimes, Super Earth will provide access to stratagems if you participate in the MO. At times, we can also receive Strategic Opportunities/Minor Orders: mini-Major Orders that can make the main one easier to achieve.

Don’t feel pressured to follow the MO, even if it is highly encouraged. Regardless of participation, everyone recieves the reward upon completion. Some of these Major Orders may reward the player base with new equipment or stratagems, but will typically reward only medals. You will not receive any more once you have 250 medals, so keep spending them on Warbonds.

If you need extra medals, you can always try to complete your Personal Order (PO), which is on a 24-hour timer that gets renewed every day. You can check the current MO and PO from the pause menu.

Planets

The very lands our citizens allows Managed Democracy to survive in.

There are many planets to choose from, each with its own unique biomes and modifiers that you must deal with in order to either Liberate or Defend, depending on the campaign available. Our final victory edges ever closer the more planets Super Earth controls.

Planets are liberated faster when a large percentage of the playerbase is focused on a single one. It is not by the number of players. There are several HELLDIVERS 2 companion apps you can check out to see how well or badly things are going, such as this one right here.

Mega Cities

Bastions of Super Earth

Many planets have Mega Cities: special biomes that consist of giant skyscrapers to get in your Super Destroyer’s way (delaying orbital stratagems), and tight streets and alleyways to get yourself trapped in. You can fight in one of Super Earth’s bastions by selecting it when choosing an operation.

Within Mega Cities, you will encounter SEAF soldiers (they’re in blue armour and not dead) you can command with the “Follow Me” and “Stop” options in the Communication wheel. There also tends to be civilians running for their lives, so check your fire… or don’t. Hey, not my fault if they walk into my line of fire. My teammates do that all the time.

For every innocent citizen and SEAF soldier killed by you, you will lose 25 req slips, which does add up and can potentially leave you with nothing even after a successful mission. Kill enough on purpose, and you will be branded as a traitor and get an Orbital Precision Strike to the face.

For every Mega City that stands or is taken back, the faster Helldivers can defend/liberate a planet.

Supply Lines

Cut the head and the body will wither.

Supply lines are important to understand when trying to choose where to fight (these are the lines that connect between planets). If a planet loses its supply line due to occupying enemy forces, they cannot be accessed by Super Earth. However, this can also happen to the enemy: if they’re cut off from their supply lines, their resistance plummets, making their planets easier to liberate.

It also tells you where Defense campaigns originate, when the enemy will try to take over another planet. If Helldivers liberate the origin planet, the Defense campaign ends with a Super Earth victory.

Gambits

The ultimate strategy.

When multiple planets are being invaded, there’s a more efficient way to stop them than just defending each one at a time (which usually results in neither getting defended). We call it a Gambit.

Gambits are a special strategy where Helldivers, instead of defending multiple planets at once, can liberate the one planet the attack originated from and stop the Defense campaign on all planets affected. This can help win Major Orders as it does count as successful Defenses, but it requires the coordination of thousands of Helldivers at once. Pay attention to your Dispatch, should the opportunity arise. You are a part of something much bigger, but that doesn’t mean your voice will be lost.

Understanding how the Galactic War works will make you not only a better Helldiver but also a much wiser person, as it’ll take you across the galaxy. Your efforts might seem small, but with thousands of Helldivers working towards the same goal, even the impossible becomes possible! Choose your battles wisely, recruit!