Helldivers 2 - Difficulty + Patrols Explained

Given there have been multiple videos getting this information wrong, I figured it's time people heard this from the horse's mouth. Or one of the three horse's mouths.

[lexlocatelli]

Since I'm already getting comments stating things we've already tested and know aren't true, I've made videos with proof for things that aren't already in the Reddit post:


I'll upload more as more things come up/if more things come up.

Also, people asking about the new Booster; it does not affect patrols. It changes how often they can call in reinforcements (bug tunnels/bot dropships). It doesn't have a huge effect either, it doesn't seem worth it as of the current patch.

The patch on March 20th has no affect on these numbers, but did break spawns in certain circumstances, which is covered in my latest video.

As of the April 9th patch, this video is still accurate.

[WalnutBun]

Using my newfound knowledge to stay exactly 76m away from my teammates to try and get patrols to spawn directly on their heads

[snappa_tv]

so thats why sometimes i just see massive groups of enemies materialize out of thin air right in my face for no reason what so ever

[AHoardyBoi]

Really do wish they would switch the emphasis from patrol spawns to outposts.
It would be interesting if we had a Defcon-style alert system for the map (i.e. other outposts seeing orbital strikes/hellpods landing and making more units that formed patrols), rather than a BS patrol spawns on top of me while I’m sniping that pinpoints my location.

[ChristophelusPulps]

I hope they change some of the patrol spawning mechanics, because having a patrol spawn right on top of you because of where your teammate is located is a shitty design.

[Eight-Bytes]

Getting punished for dying by spawning more patrols while still in the middle of clearing one is pretty messed up.

[ashesfromtheheavens]

so tldr: stay together, do the primary objective last. thank you for your valuable work!

[alexlowe]

My perspective is that you should still push for the primary objective in some cases. Specifically, if you're on the second or third mission. If you burn out a bunch of revives because there are multiple stalker nests on top of each other and your team of randoms struggles to clear it, then you might not be able to finish the primary objective. That counts as a complete mission failure, and breaks your mission streak. But if you finish the primary objective, even if you die, it still counts as a victory for your mission. You don't get any samples, but you do get medals. I've seen too many people try to push for multiple secondary objectives and run out of either time or revives and end up completely failing the final mission that gives the most reward medals.

Really, it depends on what you're farming. If you're farming medals, go straight for the primary objectives, and extract. If you're farming samples, finish all the side objectives first, then complete the main objective. I do like that there's still a reason to finish the primary objectives, especially if you're with a team that might struggle to finish everything and still extract.

[TacticalBaconPatches]

12:27 happened to me multiple times, running to a last outpost before extract and suddenly being surrounded by a patrol I watch pop into existence from the ether.

[theferalpaladin]

Intel is how wars are won, Great work Helldiver

[StoneMountain]

Excellent video on this! thanks for the summaries

[ryanjdigiorgio]

This is the most comprehensive and well organized video about this topic. Thank you 🙏

[EspyMelly]

Here's what I believe is the reasoning for some of these mechanics:
- They want you to always be either fighting enemies or actively having to dodge their notice. This is why patrols will always path through a line that passes through your rough location when they spawn. This also prevents completing longer objectives from getting boring or too easy, and will force players that like sitting in a hidden spot sniping enemies for 5 minutes to actually move.
- A patrol spawns for every spread out player group in order to keep the game active for everyone involved even if they split up, and to create the illusion that there are enemies moving everywhere, though the fact all of these patrols can stack on one of the player groups at random does seem bizarre and hopefully unintentional. This also encourages players to stick together and complete objectives as a team as the game is substantially more dangerous otherwise. Basically, you can split up to cover more ground but there's a risk to that. Also the fact that one group's patrol can spawn inside another's 'zone', Cyberpunk 2077 style, will hopefully be fixed.
- Clearing outposts not reducing patrols is again likely because they want the game to get more tense as you progress instead of less. If patrols reduced from clearing outposts that might run the risk of the match getting a bit boring. The problem with this is that outposts have meager rewards for clearing them so avoiding them completely becomes more optimal. They should buff what you get out of outposts, perhaps destroying nests/fabricators could reveal rarer samples to collect, or some of the mission effects like longer stratagem cooldowns come from specific outposts that could be taken out early to reduce or remove the debuff.
- The timer not increasing patrols makes sense both from a lore and gameplay perspective. If you're not being active on the map then the enemies have no reason to think there's anything going on to send more peeps to look around, and this prevents players that take a bit longer to do things or that want to explore from getting punished for it.

One thing I think they should change is secondary objectives having no effect, perhaps take some of the effect the primary objective has away from it and spread it throughout the secondaries.

[meejmuas]

Clear, concise and easy to understand. The best video Ive seen yet on patrols

[albireo]

A masterclass video in terms of taking all the info from your reddit post and breaking down the main points in a clear and helpful manner. Well done!

[handlesarecringe]

The "stay together" advice should only apply to groups trying to do the _same_ objective. A lone wolf doing a secondary objective halfway across the map and not engaging patrols does not change the spawns for the other three players.

[SO-ifyn]

Shout out for the MF doom song at 3:00. Stay up. Been gaming since 1992, things pass but great art lives on.

[ryanazar]

I think it would be more logical if the number of fabricators or hives you destroy reflects a decrease in spawns rather than an increase.

[IsilZhaSB]

After I read your post a few days ago, I changed my playstyle to take it into account and it has been quite noticeable. Especially the counter-intuitive thing of doing secondaries before primary. A lot of this really explains how you can get stuck in an endless battle - if you're near a point and let it go on too long, you just keep getting more patrols spawn and run right into and add to your never-ending combat.

Also the staying together thing.

[dragonzzz]

Thank you for all your work on this. The reddit post and video explanation are amazing and so important for trying to understand the game. <3