Helldivers 2 Game Guide
Welcome to our Helldivers 2 guide! We’ll be honing in to every part of this game, helping you through the missions, collecting achievements and seeing everything there is to see.
In this article, we’ll be looking at Stratagems in particular, explaining how they work and how to switch them out to maximize your effectiveness in battle.
Stratagems are the core part of your game plan in any of the missions within Helldivers 2. These range from orbital strikes to weapon drops, resupplies and even mechs that will fight alongside you.
Coordinating with your team is essential to surviving, and maximizing your Stratagem use too. Using these in conjunction with other players can really help you take down even the most armoured of enemies so it’s definitely worth bearing this in mind.
What type of Stratagems are there?
There are six predominant Stratagem types, and each of them enhance a different aspect of your time on the battlefield. They are as follows:
- Patriotic Administration Centre: This includes heavy support weaponry.
- Orbital Cannons: These are your artillery support strikes that hit a radius on the ground.
- Hangar: This predominantly focuses on improving player mobility.
- Bridge: The bridge will shoot down a single precision shot from the Destroyer’s ATLAS cannon.
- Engineering Bay: This brings down weaponry or defensive gear to help turn the tide of a tough battle.
- Robotics Workshop: This brings in a Sentry turret to help you out.
How do you use Stratagems?
In order to use a Stratagem, use your D-pad for PlayStation or the arrow keys on PC. Input the right button sequence displayed in the top left of the screen and you’ll be in business. However, do note that the game won’t pause while you input the code so you’ll need to start learning these by heart.
With that in mind, each Stratagem comes with a cool-down after use, along with a time for them to be deployed (usually depicted by a countdown) so you’ll need to use these strategically (hence the name!)
Some Stratagems do have limited uses, but others are unlimited so use your first couple of missions to test these out and get comfortable with inputting the button combos to call them in.
How do you switch around your Stratagems?
In order to change out your Stratagems and customize your load-out, you can use the Ship Management console on the Destroyer. You can use four different consoles which will help choose and unlock your preferred Stratagems. After selecting these, they can be confirmed at your loadout after selecting an operation to undertake.
In order to unlock more Stratagems, you’ll need to level up your character through Helldivers 2 operations. Each unlock also comes with a credit cost, which you can cover by completing extra operations and Orders. The maximum level unlock at the moment is Level 20, but most will require you to reach Level 15 in order to unlock the most advanced Stratagems.
Are there any general tips with using them?
Absolutely, if you call in a Stratagem artillery blast, be careful as the explosions can hit both hostile and friendly forces. A poorly placed missile can actually wipe out your entire squad if you’re not careful – and you’re not likely to make many friends if you do this!
Similarly, if you need to hold the line for an objective or extraction, defensive Stratagems are a great shout and help to cover your flanks and prevent you from being overwhelmed.
Always make note of how many bullets you have left in your gun. You don’t want to be stuck in the middle of a firefight and have to call in an ammo restock. Also make note of your mission before you deploy down and decide which Stratagems are going to be right for that particular mission.
And that’s about it for Stratagems. There are a whole bunch of different ones to unlock, and they can drastically alter the flow of battle. Good luck out there, soldier!
What do you think of Helldivers 2? Are you playing through the game right now? Let us know in the comments below!