Helldivers 2 players want more dynamic difficulty—starting with enemy spawners

Anyone who’s played Helldivers 2 on difficulty seven and higher knows the woes of clearing nests at such a high difficulty. Many Helldivers are beginning to wonder if there might be a better reward for destroying nests, other than a bit of XP and Requisition Slips—though not everyone agrees.

On March 3, Helldiver u/ytiria posted on Reddit suggesting extraction intensity should change based on how many Nests or Outposts you’ve destroyed throughout a mission. They explained it’d be “more satisfying” to get in-mission rewards—like fewer bugs or robots to kill—if you put in the effort to destroy their spawners. The Redditor also also wants less inconsistency with Helldivers 2’s mission endings, since enemies either swarm your exit without question or meander about and barely put up a fight.

At the time of writing, enemy spawn rates slowly rise over the course of a mission—with specific events, like Extraction or activating an Objective, causing a surge of enemies. Destroying Nests and Outposts reduces the number of enemies in said Nest or Outpost, but does nothing to enemies outside the spawner area.

Naturally, the post garnered a huge response from the Helldivers 2 community, with strong arguments on both sides. The biggest counterargument relates to difficulty: Helldive missions often live or die by the Extract, since getting Super Samples out can be a tense and satisfying moment. Reducing enemy spawn rates would nullify something many Helldivers love about the frantic run-around during the last two minutes of a successful mission. These difficulty-lovers responded to the OP, telling them to “lower the difficulty” and stop worrying about it.

But voices in support of the idea were louder. Players suggested clearing bigger nests could reduce spawn rates for big guys—like Annihilators and Bile Titans—while smaller nests would just reduce chaff. Other suggestions included adding additional spawners that function like the infamous Stalker nests to incentivize targeted destruction, or a small percentage of enemies being taken off patrols or reinforcement waves for each spawner type taken out. This could even be counterbalanced by “raising base level spawn rates,” as one user recommended, especially if the Outposts and Nests are ignored.

The common sentiment throughout the thread is that immersion in missions is paramount. Helldivers 2 does a wonderful job creating an immersive and believable setting—from the Joel story to Helldivers diving on trolls as a community. We know Arrowhead likes to listen to its fanbase, offering insight into Mechs and armor customization through tweets and interviews. It’s possible the mechanic could be a possible addition to Helldivers 2 in the near future.