This Helldivers 2 Knowledge Will Help You Liberate Planets Much Easier

Though it can be a bit confusing to understand at first, certain knowledge of Helldivers 2 game mechanics will help Helldivers liberate planets much easier. Helldivers 2 uses the feature of having a multitude of planets that can be liberated, with every planet having its own biome with special effects that can heavily influence what players take on a mission and how the mission plays out. These planetary effects have been shown off even more in a recent update that added fire tornadoes and meteor showers to some planets.

When all planets in a sector are liberated, Helldivers gain access to the next sector while slowly pushing the enemy factions back. What happens when the factions are pushed back completely is unknown, but it’s possible developer Arrowhead Game Studios has a contingency plan for just such an accomplishment. However, just as Helldivers can liberate planets, the enemy factions can sabotage liberation attempts and even reconquer worlds during invasions. A recent Automaton invasion showcased this and led to a stalemate on that front.

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How Planet Liberation Works In Helldivers 2

The math of how liberating a planet works can sound complicated but is simple once explained. Reddit user ghoxen provides a detailed explanation of everything related to planet liberation for Helldivers new and old. How this works is that every planet has a “health bar” that is slowly depleted as Helldivers complete missions. On average, a successful operation (a set of three missions) will deplete 0.0003% of a planet’s health. This may not seem like a lot, but given the number of players Helldivers 2 has, it adds up over a day of playtime.

However, planets will regenerate health every hour to simulate the Automatons or Terminids pushing back against the efforts of Super Earth. This percentage regenerated is set by the game master, who controls Helldivers 2‘s Galactic War, with a value between 0% and 20%. Redditor ghoxen also points out that it seems Terminid planets usually have a higher regen rate, around 5%, while Automaton planets have a lower percentage, around 1%. A good website players can use for a brief breakdown with actual numbers and real-time updates for each currently active planet is helldivers.io.

How Helldivers Can Affect Planet Liberation

Ghoxen goes on to give examples of the optimal ways to liberate planets using Helldivers 2‘s multiplayer matchmaking. They create two hypothetical strategies revolving around the peak hours of the game, which sees around 360,000 Helldivers playing. They also have three target planets for liberation with different percentages of 91%, 81%, and 71% respectively. The reason these strategies hinge on the peak playtime is because planets regen their health the fastest during off-peak hours, since there aren’t enough players online to combat the steady enemy reinforcements.

The spreading-out strategy involves splitting that group into three and attacking all three planets at once. In this strategy, each planet goes up in liberation status by 5% in the first six hours. However, hour seven is when the peak time ends, and the average number of Helldivers per planet will drop significantly. The three planets then start to regen health, and by the time the peak rolls around again, each planet will havea lower liberation percentage than when the attacks started.

The focused blitz strategy has all the active player base attack one planet together and results in much better success. Hour one sees the first planet at 91% be liberated. Planet two, with 81% liberation, is liberated after three hours, while planet three, at 71%, initially sees a big drop, but is rebounded and liberated at hour nine. The only reason planet three takes longer is the initial setback puts it into the non-peak hours. However, the fact that all three planets are taken in one day compared to the first strategy ending in setbacks is a massive difference.

Overall, while it is impossible and unrealistic to get every Helldiver to attack one planet, this experiment shows how it would work. The game has seen signs of this already with mass attacks on specific planets due to the influence of social media mixed with the popularity of the game. For those who want to prioritize liberating every planet on the galactic map, the best strategy would be to aid whatever planet has the most active players. Regardless of whether one wants to help clear the map or play for fun, this Helldivers 2 knowledge will help liberate planets much faster.

Sources: ghoxen/Reddit, helldivers.io

Helldivers 2

Helldivers II is the follow-up to the 2015 multiplayer top-down single-player/co-op shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios. The sequel, which has shifted gears to a third-person shooter format, drops players into the boots of elite super-soldiers who fight to protect Super Earth from invading alien forces while taking the fight to those who threaten the “democracy of Super Earth.”

Franchise

Helldivers

Released

February 8, 2024

Developer(s)

Arrowhead Game Studios AB

Publisher(s)

PlayStation Studios

ESRB

M

Prequel(s)

Helldivers