As a loyal soldier of Super Earth, you and other players will participate in the Galactic War in Helldivers 2. This long-running mission is the game’s main attraction where the player base completes objectives to liberate planets from alien invasions. While the Galactic War map looks static, Helldivers and enemy aliens have to play tug-of-war for their territories. So how does the game mode work and, quoting Starship Troopers, would you like to know more?
Helldivers 2: Galactic War, Explained
The Galactic War is the main “gameplay loop” or mechanic of Helldivers 2. Your objective is to liberate and spread democracy throughout all galactic sectors and planets, which is done by accessing the War Table on the Destroyer. Simply head to the bridge by taking a right from your cryopod.
In the first Helldivers, a Galactic War often runs for 20 to 50 days. After all sectors have been liberated, or Super Earth fell to enemy force, the War will be reset. Arrowhead Studios said that the Galatic War duration will be slower this time around, although it hasn’t specified how long.
From the War Table, if you pick the left galactic sector, you’ll be facing the robotic army called Automaton. Their territories are colored red. Meanwhile, if you take the right, yellow-colored sectors, you’ll have to push back the bug-like Termininds’ invasions. Select which sector and planet you and your Helldiver team want to liberate.
After choosing a planet, you have to pick an Operation to partake in. Operations consist of one to up to three Missions, with various primary objectives. There are also a random amount of secondary objectives to be done once you’ve landed on the planet.
Of course, the harder the difficulty you choose, the tougher the Missions you’ll have to do. Not to mention that the enemy patrols will appear much more often and in higher numbers.
For example, in Easy you just have to complete one straightforward Mission per Operation, like planting a Super Earth flag or killing 100 Automatons. But on Hard, you might have to complete two or three complex Missions just to complete one Operation. Such as defeating the enormous mech Hulk, destroying a cluster of bug hives, and ends with escorting civilians. Try doing that while dodging hundreds of rockets or acid blasts!
Successfully completing Mission objectives and extracting from a planet will reward you with Requisition Points and XP. Finish an Operation and you’ll acquire Warbond Medals as well as contribute to the planet’s liberation progress. Once you liberate a planet — or eventually, a sector — then the whole Helldivers 2 community can move up to their next Galactic War efforts.
The Galactic War in Helldivers 2 continues this way until the player base reaches and conquers each faction’s Homeworld. Defeating one faction will remove them from the War equation until it resets in the next cycle. The Helldivers 1 Galactic War itself has been running for more than 130 cycles at the time of writing.
Nevertheless, the Helldivers 2 developer team also promised to keep an eye on how the Galactic War progresses. Inspired by a tabletop game’s “dungeon master,” the team can “live tweak” the Mission and planet modifiers depending on how the community progresses. The developer said that it has prepared tools to change how objective timers or debuff modifiers on the fly.
In the previous game, the team made the next Galactic War cycle progress easier if players lost the war. And if the previous War was won, then the next one will be tougher.
The player base can also attempt to clear Personal and Major Orders, sub-missions that can be checked from the War Table menu. Major Orders run for one week and Helldivers have to take over specific planets to obtain a massive amount of Requisition Points or other resources. Meanwhile, Personal Orders are assigned to individual players and let you obtain more Medals. These incentives and live updates help give community-wide goals and make Helldivers 2 Galactic War much more dynamic.
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All Stratagems in Helldivers 2Helldivers 2 is available on PlayStation 5 and PC.
