Helldivers 2 gives you many viable options to end Automaton and Terminid threats to democracy. Having well-rounded stratagems, weapons, armor, and boosters can make all the difference as a helldiver. While most builds do work most of the time, the following may be the optimal solution to your galactic problems. Here is the meta build in Helldivers 2.
Meta Helldivers 2 Weapons
Jar-5 Dominator
The armor penetration of the Jar-5 Dominator rifle will quickly win you over. It can one-shot any small enemy, especially if it’s on a weak point or headshot. Its damage-to-capacity ratio is very respectable and it can hit enemies from quite far away. Honestly, the Dominator is almost like a medium-penetration long-range slug shotgun.
Compared to the other medium armor-penetrating weapons in Helldivers 2, the dominator is simply too good not to use. You can get this bad boy from the last page of the Steeled Veterans Warbond, which is a bit of a shame if you were hoping to use this weapon sooner and without grinding Super Credits.
P-19 Redeemer
This rapid-fire automatic machine pistol is the yin to your Dominator’s yang. Instead of wasting your Dominator’s jet-propelled rounds on fodder, this one-handed beast can easily do that for you. If I’m running from a horde of bugs, it’s always satisfying to turn around and blast them with this as I jog away.
You don’t always have to spray and pray either, because the redeemer also lets you change from full-auto to semi-auto if you want to conserve ammo.
G-12 High Explosive
This is the default grenade that every Helldiver is given, and what a grenade it is! It does very good damage over a respectable range on a 3.5-second cookable timer. Now, while I love and approve of the Impact Grenade (which largely does the same but on, well, impact), you won’t want an impact-style grenade for bug nests or robot outposts. It’s just that much harder to get an Impact Grenade into those angled holes without them exploding too early.
Meta Helldivers 2 Armor
FS-38 Eradicator Light Armor
At the time of writing, the armor bug that makes the armor rating value inconsistent in-game is still in effect. It feels terrible when you’re slow with your favorite heavier armor of choice and expecting to tank more than two or three hits. So because of that, I can only recommend light armor right now and the FS-38 gets the job done! What makes this armor setup so very nice is its armor passive.
When you’re crouched or prone, your recoil is reduced by 30%. More importantly, the armor passive gives you a whopping 50% resistance to explosive damage, which will save your life many times in a game like Helldivers 2 where explosions are constant and accidental.
Meta Helldivers 2 Strategems
Railgun
The railgun should be your go-to against anything heavier than what your Dominator can penetrate. In a few well-placed shots, you can effectively kill a Charger and even down Automaton tanks and Bile Titans with a few more rounds.
The trick behind this beast is in its ‘Unsafe’ setting. When toggled to it you can overcharge the railgun, making it deal much more damage at the risk of overcharging it too much and killing you instantly since the railgun explodes in your hands—fun! But also effective.
Even if you don’t outright kill heavier enemies with the railgun, it’s likely that they will eventually bleed out.
Shield Generator Pack
Like with the Railgun stratagem, the shield generator pack is what will keep you alive. It protects you from ranged attacks, melee attacks, and explosions. Once the shield is overwhelmed, it only takes a handful of seconds to recharge and you’re back to being protected. Since the Railgun doesn’t require a backpack for reloading, you can use this all the time!
Just keep in mind that the shield generator won’t completely protect you from stronger explosions or direct hits from things like enemy missiles.
Orbital Walking Barrage
This is what you’ll want to use when you’re being chased by a vast horde of trailing baddies. That’s because the Walking Barrage adheres to its name well, by blowing things away in a line in the direction that you throw the stratagem.
While the cooldown is long, its effectiveness is almost unmatched at clearing objectives by itself roughly half the time. At the very least, it will greatly soften up enemy outposts and nests for you to easily finish them off.
Mortar Sentry
As your final stratagem, the mortar sentry is a fantastic offensive and defensive tool. That’s because this turret can be placed behind the safety of cover or high up on a ledge outside of where enemies can reach it. The mortar sentry also has quite a bit of ammo and can reliably pelt your undemocratic enemies into annihilation.
While this can easily kill teammates, it’s kind of their fault for not paying attention to where the mortars will land, right? Because the Mortar Sentry can hide behind cover, it’s also great against heavily armored enemies as it will take them longer to track this turret down, all while you use your Railgun to end them before they can reach it.
Meta Helldivers 2 Boosters
Stamina Enhancement
While a lot of boosters are effective and desirable, the stamina enhancement is just too good too often. That’s because you’re always running to an objective or running away from dozens of combatants. The extra stamina that this booster gives, on top of how much quicker it lets you replenish those stamina reserves, goes above and beyond other boosters.
This booster also highly benefits the light armor you’ll likely be using, too. This gives you that much more stamina that refreshes that much faster.
All in all, you can’t go wrong with a meta build like this in Helldivers 2. With it, you can pierce any armor, level any enemy outpost, run away from anything, and even survive a few nasty hits or nearby explosions. After all, a well-rounded Helldiver is a Helldiver that stays alive longer!
For more like this, check out the best armor in Helldivers 2. We’ve also got a guide on how to emote and how to use the Supply Pack.
