Best Helldivers 2 loadouts for the Illuminate, Terminids, and Automatons
For high-diffic🤡ulty missions, bringing the best Helldiౠvers 2 loadouts to bear is key

Assembling the best Helldivers 2 loadouts, whether you’re fighting the Illuminate, Terminids, or Automatons, is vital for mission success, particularly on the highest difficulties. Weapon balancing in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 is in a decent spot and there are plenty of viable options you can add to your loadout before a mission, and it’ll help a lot if you’ve got friends who can bring thei🐬r own firepower to make up for what you’re missing.
However, there are always going to be clear standouts and the variation across and within all the enemy 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 factions means some weapons are essentia✃l for taking down certain foes. So, to help you fight for Super Earth with maximum effectiveness, I've detailed some of the best Helldivers 2 loadouts for all three enemy factions and for all difficulties.
UPDATED 14 May, 2025: With some nice weapon buffs in the latest Helldivers 2 update and new Illuminate forces to contend with, I've refreshed our loౠadout recommendations.
Best Helldivers 2 Illuminate loadout
The mix of organic and robotic units that the Helldivers 2 Illuminate deploy on the battlefield means making an all-rounde🎉r loadout can be a bit tricky, but the fact that they can’t bring much heavy armor is a big help. The main issue to counter that is their love of energy shields but anything that spews bullets can be great at getting rid of them. From our experience fighting the Squids, this is one of the best Helldivers 2 Illuminate loadouts you can pick:
- Primary: Scorcher/Purifier energy weapon, Sickle/Double-Edge Sickle, or Punisher Plasma
- Secondary: Grenade Pistol, Loyalist, or Crisper
- Grenade: Gas Grenade
- Armor: Any light or medium armor (the passive perk is up to you)
- Stratagems:
- Machine Gun or Flamethrower
- Jump Pack or Hover Pack
- Eagle 500kg Bomb or Eagle Strafing Run
- Orbital Laser, Orbital Precision Strike, or Orbital 380mm HE Barrage
While the Illuminate appear to be all about powerful alien tech, you’ll actually spend most of your time cutting down Voteless hordes and that’s why I recommend the Machine Gun, Flamethrower and Sickle (from teh 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 Cutting Edge Warbond), along with the Gas grenade for a bit of crowd control. As a bonus, the Machine Gun and Sickle are also great for destroying shields on Harvesters and warp ships! Packing the Grenade Pistol too and you can easily destroy warp shi✱ps by yourself.
However, if you want a slightly more generalist Helldivers 2 loadout, the punchy explosive power of the Scorch🅷er, Purifier, and Punisher Plasma is great against almost all the Illuminate enemy types, helping you keep Overseers at bay.
Regardless of your choices, it’s still vital to bring some powerful Eagle and Orbital Stratagems aꦆs these will be very helpful in dire circumstances, helping to deal with massive hordes and tougher enemies. Either of the jet packs will also be a useful for navigating the urban environments the Illuminate are found in and can help you outmanoeuvre the deadliest attacks the Illuminate have, from Interloper strafing runs to Harvester beams.
Best Helldivers 2 Terminid loadout
The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 Terminids mainly use swarming tactics and melee attacks, seeking to overwhelm teams of Helldivers with pure numbers, slowing venom, and ferocious claws. Compared to the Illuminate and Automatons, they’re less resilient, with only the largest bugs having strong armor and their organic nature means they’re susceptible to fire. Bearing all that in mi𒁏nd, here's a good meta loadout for killing Terminids in Helldivers 2:
- Primary: Breaker Incendiary shotgun, Cookout shotgun, Sickle/Double-Edge Sickle
- Secondary: Grenade Pistol or Crisper
- Grenade: Gas Grenade
- Armor: Any light or medium armor (the passive perk is up to you)
- Stratagems:
- Flamethrower
- Personal Shield Generator, Jump Pack, or Hover Pack
- Orbital Naplam Barrage
- Orbital Laser, Orbital Precision Strike, or Orbital Gas Strike
As mentioned, fire is highly effective against the Terminids so to kill as many as possible, you need to be the ultimate bug barbecue-r. The Flamethrower support weapon is essential as it can incinerate swarms and even burn through the armor of creatures like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 Chargers. Take the Personal Shield Generator to protect yourself from bile and other attacks and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 Chemical Agents Gas 🀅Grenade to slow and confuse Terminids and you'll have a solid loadout.
As for other Stratagems, the Orbital Napalm Barrage is downright busted if you drop it on a nest or breach, scorching a massive area for a long time. It’s also even better with the Enhanced Combustion 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 Ship Module. You should also pack one of t♚he harder-hit🥀ting Stratagems, such as the Orbital Laser, to help deal with larger Terminids.
Variety is key, however, so this Helldivers 2 loadout shouldn't be used by all four team members – four Flamethrowers would be quite ridiculous after all – but it's good for one or two people to pack to ensure swarms and many of the tougher enemies are dealt with. Other players can then use dedicated anti-armor weapons, such as the Autocannon, Quasar Cannon, Commando, and Recoilless Rifle to take down the largest of the Terminids, such as Impalers and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 Bile Titans.
Best Helldivers 2 Automaton loadout
Dealing with the armored 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 Automatons requꦛires hard-hitting weaponry that can be fired at a variety of ranges. Thankfully, there are many options when it comes to effective bot-killing we𒀰apons, but energy weaponry is a good place to start. Here's what I recommend for the best Helldivers 2 Automaton loadout:
- Primary: Scorcher/Purifier energy weapon, Sickle/Double-Edge Sickle, or Explosive Crossbow
- Secondary: Senator, Grenade Pistol, or Loyalist
- Grenade: Thermite or Stun Grenade
- Armor: Any light or medium armor (the passive perk is up to you)
- Stratagems:
- Quasar Cannon, Railgun, or Anti-Materiel Rifle
- Personal Shield Generator
- Eagle 500kg Bomb or Eagle Strafing Run
- Orbital Laser, Orbital Precision Strike, or Orbital 380mm HE Barrage
Currently, the Quasar Cannon and Railgun feel like the best options for fighting the Automatons, capable of killing 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 Hulks and other big robots easily. Arguably the most important aspects of these weapons is that they don’t take up a backpack slot, which means you can still use the Personal Shield Ge💃nerator for more protection from Automaton guns. Stun grenades are also a great choice against the bots as they'll buy you valuable time to run, recover, or line up a deadly headshot, although Thermite Grenades are also solid if you want more anti-armor power.
Of course, it's still a good idea for one or two team members to pack a different loadout. For example, having one player swap out the Quasar Cannon and shield pack for a Spear, Recoilless Rifle, or Commando is advised, adding more anti-vehicle and anti-structure firepower to the team so you can take down 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 Gunships, Fabricators, and Tanks more easily. The Orbℱital EMS Strike or EMS Sentry are also gre🍌at options for stunning many bots at once.
Best Helldivers 2 loadout for beginners
Some of the best Helldivers 2 loadout options are either unavailable until level 15 and above, or are locked behind Warbonds. With that being said, there are still plenty of powerful options if you’re still trying to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:level up fast in Helldivers 2.
I’ve created this loadout using only weapons and Stratagems unlocked before level 10 and no premium Warbonds:
- Primary: Liberator assault rifle
- Secondary: Redeemer or Senator
- Grenade: High-Explosive
- Armor: Any medium armor
- Stratagems:
- Machine Gun, Anti-Materiel Rifle, Stalwart, Grenade Launcher, or Expendable Anti-Tank
- Jump Pack
- Eagle Strafing Run or Orbital Precision Strike
- Orbital 380mm HE Barrage, Orbital 120mm HE Barrage, or Mortar Sentry
Obviously, you should consider which of the Helldivers 2 factions 🐻you’re facing when choosing from the above options, but there are still plenty of weapons and Stratagems that will see you thrඣough the to the higher difficulties.
Once you reach level 10, you can unlock the Flamethrower and Autocannon, which are two of the best support weapons in the game. You’ll also be able to unlock the Orbital Walking Barrage and two Guard Dog variants if you want a little backpack buddy to provide ex✤tra supp𒊎ort.
Make sure you modify your guns with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 weapon customization, adding attachments to improve their performance within your loadouts. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Helldivers 2 Boosters are another crucial pre-mission choice, but since you’ll have to coordinate with your team, we’ve got a separate guide for those.
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Will Sawyer is a guides writer at GamesRadar+ who works with the rest of the guides team to give readers great information and advice on the best items, how to complete a particular challenge, or where to go in some of the biggest video games. Will joined the GameRadar+ team in August 2021 and has written about service titles, including Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Warzone, as well as some of the🍰 biggest 🤪releases like Halo Infinite, Elden Ring, and God of War Ragnarok.
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