Scavenger


Warrior


Bile Warrior


Hunter


Pouncer


Spewer


Brood Commander


Alpha Commander


Alpha Warrior

• Scavenger: Tiny, weak, but great in numbers, they are feeble and pathetic but can kill you if you let them or if they gang up. No real strategy, shoot them, grenade them, stratagem them, they all die in 1-2 shots or 1-2 melee. Be aware they can call reinforcements at any time; by the time you notice, it will typically be too late and you'll have a bug breach.
  
• Warrior: The rank and file of the Terminids, they also appear abundantly and as such are also relatively weak. Once again, no real strategy; shoot them, grenade them, melee them, stratagem them, they die all the same. Be aware that if you blow their head off, they can still track and attack you for a final time! Double tap or melee them to be sure! Be aware they can call reinforcements at any time; by the time you notice, it will typically be too late and you'll have a bug breach.
  
• Bile Warrior: The acidic brother of the Warrior bug. Same traits as the Warrior but it's attacks cause poison damage and when killed will explode in an acidic puddle, damaging you over time. Same strategy as above, but take care not to melee them or blow them away too close to you as their acid attack will slow you and damage you over time. Be aware they can call reinforcements at any time; by the time you notice, it will typically be too late and you'll have a bug breach.
  
• Hunter: Stark white and spring stepped, these are essentially giant mosquitos that will chase you to the end of the earth to stab you. They will dodge your attacks, flank, jump at you, and are prone to waiting for more of their brothers to show up so they can gang up and attack you to death. Best strategy is to be litigious and take these guys out ASAP because if you leave them alone they will track you until either you or they are dead. Be aware they can call reinforcements at any time; by the time you notice, it will typically be too late and you'll have a bug breach.
  
• Pouncer: the agile cousin of the Scavenger. Essentially a Scavenger that can jump at you, same rules as the Scavengers apply; shoot them, melee them, grenade or stratagem them. Same rule also applies for them as the Hunters though; they will track you down until either you or they are dead, so kill them on sight. Be aware they can call reinforcements at any time; by the time you notice, it will typically be too late and you'll have a bug breach.
  
• Spewer: Basically a Scavenger bug that can spit acid. They will stay out of melee range to pelt you with acid spit that will slow you and eat at your flesh over time, giving time for you to get attacked from all side by the rest of their brethren. Not a huge priority if you can stay away and strafe from their attacks, but take care not to pop them too close as their explode in an acid puddle that will do the same as their spit attacks!
  
• Brood Commander: Basically the officers for the bugs, they are massive dark blood red bugs that have hearty defenses and can summon other bugs without even needing to call for reinforcements like a standard bug breach. Same rules as the warrior bugs apply though; headshots will put it down quickly but they will attempt a final swan song attack before finally stumbling over dead. Destroying their limbs will also slow them down considerably but just blow off their heads and strafe away. Be aware they can call reinforcements at any time; by the time you notice, it will typically be too late and you'll have a bug breach.
  
• Alpha Commander: The Brood Commander, but bigger, stronger and quicker to call in backup. Will take MUCH more of a beating before it goes down, as such it is heavily advised to use support weapons to take them down. On higher difficulties, completely replaces the Brood Commanders.
  
• Alpha Warriors: Warrior bugs but red and faster than their lowlier ilk. Summoned by the Alpha Commander, and considering the spawn rate of them, they will almost certainly end up being half of the warrior bugs you end up fighting. Same breakpoints as the warrior bug but start off much faster.

Hive Guard


These bugs guard the hives (glowing red bug holes, egg hatcheries, and bug POI's) and as such have much heavier armor than the rest of their kin. After taking repeated fire they will hunker down and use their head and front limb's heavy armor to tank attacks. They CAN be killed with light armor penetrating weapons (shotguns will always have some pellets hit their softer underbelly) but if you hate these guys with a passion you can always use a support weapon like the railgun to one shot them to the head or use guns like the AR-23P, JAR-5 Dominator, Slug Shotgun, Counter Sniper Diligence, etc. Be aware they can also call reinforcements!

Stalker

The Stalker bug is essentially a larger Hunter bug, BUT the trick is that it uses camouflage to mask itself until its right up close to 3 hit combo you. It can be killed using any weapon, but it takes a lot of punishment and when its at half/low on health it'll jump backwards to retreat, likely reengaging optical camouflage. Press the attack and kill it before it disengages! These bugs will ONLY appear if there is a Stalker Hive on the map; as such they will likely attack from the same direction their hive is located; kill them and then search around for their hive to make sure more don't appear!

Shrieker

The Shrieker is a new mutation of the bug that appeared as we activated the TCS towers. These are flying variations of the bugs that'll swoop down and attack any helldiver brave enough to venture towards their nests. Follow their flying behavior and find their nests, destroy them using hellbombs, and you should have stopped their spawns for this mission.

UPDATE: SHRIEKERS CAN NOW APPEAR ON EVERY MISSION REGARDLESS OF THEIR NEST'S PRESENCE, YOU CAN BE 100% SURE THEY'LL APPEAR IF YOU SEE THE SHRIEKER PRESENCE EFFECT ON MISSION.

In terms of dealing with the Shrieker specifically, putting lead into them like all the other bugs works well. Just be sure to protect your head!

Nursing and Bile Spewers

Bugs that have MASSIVE sacks on their behinds. Will spew bile at you to either one shot you or slow you down with damage over time, letting weaker bugs get in and finish the job.

• Nursing Spewer: Yellow sacks on their back, video game logic dictates this must be their weakspot, right? WRONG. Shoot the head to take them down quickly as their behinds are incredibly tanky and will only go down quickly if you use an explosive on them. The Grenade Launcher support weapon makes quick work of them; 2 shots to a group of them and it will almost always take the entirety of them down.
  
• Bile Spewer: Green sacks on their back, these also spawn a lot and are essentially a more deadly version of the Nursing Spewers. They will either hang back and launch bile mortars to blot the skin with acid, which if they don't one shot you, will ragdoll you making it easier for small bugs to get you, or they'll get close and use their acid spew attack to kill you. Their heads and spine are armored and will shrug off light armor penetrating weapons, so if you have a medium armor pen weapon the same rule as the nursing spewer applies where you can headshot them to take them down fast. If you don't, you can shoot the glowing sacks with any weapon for less but more consistent damage, just be sure to stand back as they will explode into an acid puddle, damaging and slowing you!

Charger & Charger Behemoth

This is the bug that is giving all of Super Earth Armed Forces trouble. Heavy armor on pretty much all parts of its body, with only its backside exposed, its a tough beast. Super Earth dispatch has alerted Helldivers that the weakpoint is now the head when using AT weaponry such as the EAT or Recoilless Rifle. If that also isn't an option, blast its backside with any gun until it explodes; it will bleed out 5-10 seconds later. The previous trick of taking off its leg armor still works but is no longer recommended. The flamethrower is now a viable option against these guys (nerfed on 08/06/2024) and bugs in general, consider using it against all the bugs up to the Bile Titan; the trick is to aim for either of their front legs as it is the largest and easiest part of the body to get a kill on it.

Same rules apply for the Charger Behemoth, which has appeared more widely on Terminid missions following Viper Commandos Warbond; aim for the legs with flamethrowers and they should fry in under 5 seconds. AT weapons are still viable but unfortunately, the one shot barrier to the head that was previously the trick for chargers does not apply to Behemoth's. You will need to hit them twice or use the SPEAR lock on since it has the breakpoint to one shot it to the head.

Spore Charger

The Spore Charger is the newest abomination of the Charger line of bugs, and they are annoying. Pseodo stealthy uses a cloud of spore fog to mask its approach until the last second, they also use it to hide their allies movements to better attack you.

Same rules as above once again apply: hit its head with AT stratagems or blow it up using a call-in explosive.

Impaler


After 100 years, the dreaded Impaler returns, seemingly larger and more imposing! They tend to stick to the outside of battles in order to burrow their stabby tentacles under the surface to 'impale' you and ragdoll you. The trick is to either run away from the tentacles, or if that isnt an option, dive and crawl away.

Fortunately, they're pretty straight forward to take out; while it's tenctacles are impaled under the surface, they leave their squishy head weak spot exposed, letting you kill them with 1-2 rockets or your preferred AT stratagem weapon or call in.

Bile Titan

The ONLY way to take these guys out is with heavy weapons, like the railgun, recoilless rifle, EAT, or call in stratagems like orbitals or eagle runs and even sentries. Shooting its exposed underside is a good option as it'll both do decent chunks of damage to it, but also stop it from doing its bile spit attack. I've found shooting its head over and over with a railgun will not only stun them, preventing chase, but also stop its bile spewing attack to. Do this over and over until its dead. Rockets into its head also work but I've found that unless you have a team reload its better off to take the railgun and fire, move and reload, fire until its dead. Alternatively, die and smash a drop pod through its head or upper torso.

I'm seeing that the cheeks on its face seem to be the weakspot and are leading to one shots? Your mileage may vary.

Below are the best stratagems for taking these guys out, I usually take 1-2 of them on higher difficulty bug missions:

• Railgun: With the changes to the railguns penetration, the gun now needs to be in UNSAFE mode to achieve penetration, as such you need to charge over the safety marker and fire for it to even penetrate. However, this is still a viable weapon, just not the end all be all.
  
• Recoilless Rifle: With the changes to AT penetration and effectivness, this is a viable option. However, I would NOT use this solo as its reload time is far too long to use alone, but if you have a buddy with your reload pack on him and they perform a team reload, then its DPS goes up a ton making this super viable. Extremely viable at ranges where the Bile Titan cannot attack back, allowing you ample time to reload. Aim for the head to put them down fast!
  
• EAT: Only having 2 per calldown is a bit of a problem but since the cooldown is only 70 seconds you can litter the field with these so you have more than enough to take down anything that comes at you. Same as above in terms of effectiveness, just no reload (which is either good or bad depending on whether you down it or not).
  
• Orbital Laser: will swipe over the entire designated area, so try to aim this right in front or right underneath the titan if you want it to target it the full blast. Very good when combined with railgun shots or other ordinance on it.
  
• Orbital Railcannon Strike: A Single railcannon round targeted at the largest enemy in the area (IE: Bile Titan). It won't one shot it on higher difficulties unless it hits the head, but will wipe out a sizeable chunk of its health.
  
• Eagle 500KG Bomb: A LOT of people seem to use this like a get out of jail free card, but its not. You have to land this almost directly onto the enemy for it to do its max damage output, outside of that it will fall off massively. If you do manage to land the bomb directly onto the enemy, it'll embed and explode shortly after, instant killing it most certainly. Probably the most skillful and efficient option.
  
• Autocannon Sentry: extremely useful in general in higher difficulty bug missions due to the abundance of armored bugs, but you need to place it in a secluded spot and keep it protected for it to do its job. It will NOT kill the Bile Titan on its own, you will need to support it, but it's useful nonetheless.
  
• Rocket Sentry: probably the better sentry option since it targets larger enemies first. Just like the Autocannon sentry, if you support it and keep it safe, it will put in work.

Trooper/Raider/Marauder
Commissar

When in doubt, just remember that if its around the same height as a human, it can be killed effectively with a headshot from any of your weapons. 1-2 shots to the head will put these bots out of action quickly, but if in a pinch you can put 4-5 into center mass to put them down no fuss as well. These bots are equipped with machine guns, rocket launchers, pistols and knives and just straight up dual blades. All are extremely easy to take down, but they don't come alone typically leading you to having to engage multiple at once. Be aware that ALL these bots can call in reinforcements using a flare gun, initiating a bot drop.

• Raider: Basic gun, not a threat until they're bunched up.
  
• MG Raider: Raider with a machine gun, actually dangerous since they can burst you down quite easily.
  
• Rocket Raider: These guys can EASILY one shot you if you are wearing light armor, but arguably worse is if they don't you likely will get ragdolled and gunned down by their friends. If they miss they'll have a decently long reload, so use that to kill them!
  
• Assault Raider: Raider with a jump pack, will try to get right in your face to either kill you quick OR martyrdom you since they explode on death. Hit them out of the sky, hit them before they even fly off, or run!
  
• Brawler: dual blades, will seek you out in melee. Can attempt to block melee and even bullets aimed at its chest at close range.
  
• Marauder: basic gun, same as Raider
  
• Trooper: normally only seen on the scout strider, will jump off and attack normally if their strider is destroyed but they survive.
  
• Commissar: Noticeable for using a handgun and a knife, they can call in dropships to bring reinforcements. Kill them first!

Berserker
Devastator

Standing head and shoulders above the rest of the bots, are the Berserkers and Devastators. The Berserker is armed with dual chainsaws and will chase you down to rip you to shreds, while the Devastators can be armed with miniguns, rocket pods, their fists, and even a massive shield. You can take these guys out with almost a full mag of any weapon to the head, but if you want to truly have a good chance against these guys, bring a medium armor penetrating weapon like the JAR-5 Dominator or AR-23P. You can of course always use a railgun, autocannon, or rocket against them to finish them off in 1-2 shots.

• Berserker: Dual chainsaws for arms, as such their weakspot is their arms. I personally ignore them and just attack their heads and center of mass but if you take off both arms they can't do much of anything except try to stomp you to death. I believe they explode into flames too.
  
• Devastator: Arm mounted rifle, higher priority over the small bots but if you see their big brothers ignore them and focus on them first. Headshots from any gun will kill fast, their heads will catch on fire and then fall over dead. Center mass also works, try to aim for the connector between its torso and legs as this will bisect it resulting in a faster kill. Will attempt to punch you if you get too close.
  
• Rocket Devastator: The MUCH more dangerous older brother. Will stand at range and when they spot you, will get into a firing stance before UNLOADING 4-8 rocket salvos. Run if they're already firing at you, they might miss and if you're lucky they'll only do splash damage. Engage from cover, using your normal guns and engage the head or if not possible, center mass. Center mass also works, try to aim for the connector between its torso and legs as this will bisect it resulting in a faster kill. I treat these guys as a the TOP priority of all the Devastators and as such I usually use my third gun/heavy to kill them. Horribly ammo efficient but effective. You CAN destroy their rocket pods, leading them to try to use their arm mounted rifle or try to punch you to death.
  
• Heavy/Shield Devastator. Noticeable due to the big shield they carry, as well as the mini-gun. These are the automatons shock troopers, and as such have heavier armor. Use armor piercing, flank them, aim for the head, or use a heavy weapon. Center mass also works, try to aim for the connector between its torso and legs as this will bisect it resulting in a faster kill. Once again, the PLAS-Scorcher can hit their shield and the resulting plasma explosion will damage the Shield Devastator BEHIND it, very useful for Bot missions!

Scout Strider


While it can be killed easily by headshotting the operator from the back or the side, using a railgun, autocannon or rocket will put these out of commission rather easily. Shooting at the crotch with any weapon will also put it out of commission if you dont have a support weapon or armor piercing primary. If up close, it will attempt to kick or stomp you, so don't get too close. The PLAS-Scorcher can also hit the front of them and deal splash damage that'll put BOTH out of commission, very useful on Bot missions!

Rocket Scout Strider


The Bots have been busy reinforcing all the weakspots on the Scout Striders, as well as upping their firepower. The operator is now protected 360 degrees from light pen weapons, and now sports 4 dumb fire rockets alongside its typical heavy laser. Getting hit by their rocket's is almost a guaranteed death, but due to their size they are slow, so don't get too close to them and take them out from a distance!

The same rules as above apply for the normal Scout Strider as these except that you can't flank them; medium pen weapons to the crotch/joints will take out the vehicle, as well as autocannon, rockets, PLAS-Scorcher, etc. The weak spot however are those 4 dumbfire rockets on each side, shooting it will detonate all of them, instant killing it.

Hulk

The bruiser, liberator, and scorcher hulks are all heavily armored from almost every angle; the key to killing these behemoth bots is to flank it and hit the glowing red heatsink on its back. Any weapon can harm them if this is hit, but to quickly put them down, use a rocket, railgun, autocannon, etc. If that is not an option, a railgun shot directly to the head will instantly kill it, or you can aim center mass with those same options until it goes down, or to slowly make it combat ineffective, shoot off its limbs, it even has an achievement!

• Hulk Bruiser: Dual assault rifles. Baseline hulk, will attempt to engage at medium to close range. High priority if its the only type on the field, but if its brother's that are FAR more dangerous appears, wipe these up last. Same as mentioned above, headshot with any heavy anti tank weapon, flank and hit their giant heatsinks, or destroy their arms.
  
• Hulk Liberator: Rocket pods that can send a salvo of rockets directly to you. EXTREME Priority as if you let these guys just sit back, they can wipe your whole team over and over. Headshot with AT, hit their heatsink on their back, or take off their arms.
  
• Hulk Scorcher: armed with a large flamethrower (longer range than ours, and deceptively long too) and an auto-axe melee, they will try to get close and burn you with their flamethrowers and if closer, end you with melee. Same as before, headshot with AT, flank and hit the weakspot, or take off their arms.

Annihilator Tank


The traditional cannon tank, the Annihilator, has a massive heatsink on the back of the turret, making for an easy way to put these armored vehicles down. Luckily, the rotation speed of the tank is slow, making this easy if the tank is without infantry support. If that isnt any option, laying into it with grenades, stratagem strikes, railgun, autocannon, or rockets will do the trick.

Shredder Tank


The Shredder Anti-Air tank however (noticeable from its quad mount flak guns) is a tougher beast: the same rules apply of hammering it with heavy weapons and stratagems until its dead, but getting close enough to hit its weakspot may be a problem due to its much higher turret rotational speed. If you do manage to get behind it, hit its weakspots to put it down quick!

Barrager Tank


The Barrager Rocket Artillery tank is a long ranged siege tank that will pummel you from a distance with its Sherman Calliope-style mounted rocket turret. At close range however, is its weakness, as it typically will not dumb fire up close, letting you flank and take out its cooling exhaust on the back of the body. At any other angle, rockets as well as call in stratagem strikes will take them out.

Dropship


You've likely noticed these when the Bots patrols call in reinforcements. They appear to be nigh unkillable, but did you know if you hit any of the 4 engines on it with a rocket, it'll lose control and crash? Great way to stop enemy reinforcements and give yourself some breathing room! If not, unload AOE weapons (autocannon, grenade launcher) in the drop bay, taking out the reinforcements, or grenade or call in a stratagem in the dropping spot, quickly dispatching them ala Halo CE Speedruns.

Gunship



The Bot's have upped their war effort and are fielding autonomous gunships in their operations, that will seek and destroy any helldiver's on mission. They are armed with rapid fire machine guns and rocket pods, as well as a detector beam that will seek you out before gunning you down. Search for the large "helipad" gunship factory and call in a hellbomb to destroy it for good.

UPDATE: AS OF THE VIPER COMMANDO'S WARBOND, GUNSHIPS CAN APPEAR ON ALL AUTOMATON MISSIONS, YOU CAN BE 100% SURE THEY WILL SPAWN IF YOU SEE THE GUNSHIP PRESENCE EFFECT ON MISSION. PLAN AND EQUIP YOUR LOADOUT ACCORDINGLY!

As for the gunships themselves, their red exhausts are their weak points, hitting them with any support weapon (the laser cannon, heavy MG and good old autocannon works wonders) will put them out of commission quickly. Just be careful to avoid their crash!

Factory Strider


Super Earth intelligence has spotted a massive, 4 legged walking fortress of an automaton weapon that is armed to the teeth, armored from nearly every angle, can produce Devastators, and capable of shrugging off ordnance easily. Avoid the front/head as this is where a machine gun nest is located that will QUICKLY gun you down! A massive tank cannon is also located on its back that will turn to fire, watch for its charge and move to cover when it glows red hot!

• Head: Heavy Armor, can be killed using 6 rockets. Not recommended as a target as it has a machine gun pod ready to gun down whoever steps into its sight lines.
  
• Back/Radiators: can be destroyed with 2 rockets to expose a medium armor area, where autocannons and impact grenades can take it out. Hard to see from below so find a height advantage to do so!
  
• Abdomen/Underside: will produce Devastators periodically as a protection escort. When this occurs, the underside will open unveiling an easy way to kill it.
  
• Cannon Turret: Heavy Armor, can be destroyed with 2-4 rockets, massively weakening its firepower.
  
• Chin Lasers: medium armor, a few autocannon shots can put it out of action making frontal attacks easier.
  
• Legs: Heavy Armor, two parts on each leg can be destroyed, once both parts are destroyed the Factory Strider will take a huge hit to its mobility.

As for stratagems to use, consider 500kg bombs, 110mm rocket strafes, Railcannon Strikes, and Orbital Lasers to take them out of action.

Cannon Turret


Litter the map as POI's as well as armed defensive structures on the sides of bases and objective areas, these are essentially the turret from the Annihilator tank but mounted to a tower. Can snipe you from long distance if youre detected, if you notice one sneak up and destroy it before it has the chance. Shooting the weakpoint from the back is preferable, but if not unload AT weapons into any area until it explodes.

Mortar Turret


You will get an audible alert from Mission Command along the lines of "WARNING: YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ARTILLERY" That means you are sighted in and being tracked by a Bot base mortar emplacement. Usually 2-3 will be in the base and as such you can expect 2-3 mortar rounds roughly on your position with stunning accuracy. Figure out where the mortars are arcing from, move in that direction (DO NOT STAND STILL) and take the base. The mortars have red heat sinks on the back that are their weakness, but they can take damage from any support weapon or armor piercing stratagem call in.

Anti-Air Emplacement


You will likely see tracer's lighting up the sky, and as you get close notice your Eagle based stratagems being jammed. Follow the source of the tracer fire in the sky and you'll find 2-3 AA emplacements. Same rule as the other turrets applies; hit the red heat sink weakspot on the back until its destroyed.

THIS SECTION HAS BEEN REDACTED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE BY ORDER OF SUPER EARTH HIGH COMMAND. ANY PERSON'S OR ORGANIZATION FOUND SPREADING MISINFORMATION ABOUT ENEMIES OF SUPER EARTH WILL BE TRIED AND EXECUTED.

First, allow me to thank Arrowhead for this amazing game, as well as Sony for publishing it.

THANKS TO THE HELLDIVERS COMMUNITY FOR MAKING THIS THE FIRST 5 STAR REVIEWED GUIDE FOR THE GAME, OVER 50K UNIQUE VIEWS, 1.3k FAVORITES AND MAKING THIS THE NUMBER 1 RATED GUIDE FOR THIS GAME ON STEAM.

Please also check out my other guide thats focused on the Boosters in the game as well!

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3166911968