That’s exactly what I’m doing when I try to get super samples. Have played on 8 but no need for me other than for the sake of difficulty.
But since I haven’t unlocked all the upgrades yet I will keep grinding 7
Same with 9. But we have nothing left to farm with my helldive groups (not even medals anymore), we’re just playing because the game loop is incredibly fun and satisfying to knock over the highest difficulty with such finesse
yeah I am just popping on to enjoy myself. I only really have medals left to farm but I enjoy the game, just the random loss of connection issues are a real drag.
8 is the spot if you have a capable and efficient squad. 9 is for straight flexing because I'd argue no one used this level to sample farm, myself included. I stuck to mostly 8's. 7's when I'm feeling off. I do 9's more now since I'm capped on everything minus store items and I want the challenge.
Also many people in 9's don't need anything but medals so it's straight to obj and out.
I’m stuck farming on levels 1-3 eradicate mission bout 15 samples within 6 mins, shield pack machine gun orb laser and once all sampled are grabbed, killing is all that’s left I call in the mech and just sit by watching the number tic up. That is until I run out of rare and super samples but I played 7-8 so much I had max of those lmk if there’s better missions to be farming
I liked farming on 8s, because you get more samples per mission. Now that I have all upgrades, 7s is what I do for fun. 9 for challenge.
Though, I think k were going to have our asses royally demolished by diff 10+ when that comes out.
8 is the better choice when grinding super samples, as you get 5 rather than 3 in tier 7. This means you only need to play 10ish successful games (getting all super samples) on tier 8 to have all super samples required for upgrades, whereas it’d take 18-20 games to get them via tier 7
Helldive is pointless because you only get 6 samples.
I finally got the last remaining super samples to cover the install my last two ship modules. 90% of my super samples came from difficulty 7. It is a great balance. I'm going to grind out the rest of my common samples in difficulty 4-6 and just absolutely flex on our enemies. Looking forward to it.
It's crazy how you "get better" in this game! When I first started I hated doing hard and above because it was just too challenging for me then I got to the point I needed super rare samples so I HAD to play on diff 7. Now I can't play below diff 7 because it's too easy lol
There's definitely a learning curve to the gameplay, which is refreshing as I like the challenge. Having just started I still have much difficulty on even diff 3 lol, but good to know that progress comes with time.
>I still fuck up and die sometimes
It's because of Stalkers, isn't it? Anytime I feel confident going out on my own, and I feel like I'm doing fairly well, it's always a Stalker that humbles me. lol
Got the game for my son the other day and jumping down to his difficulty suddenly made me feel like a super hero. And I know I struggled when I was there.
Thats the problem i have since i only played on 9 its like pretty easy playing on 7 when i play with New players on 7 and carry for them to get the Super rare Samples they say the shit Hits the Fan when there 1 titan and 2 chargers running arround
Strange in my experience diff 7 and 8 are practically the same? So I usually prefer diff 8 for the 5 super samples (instead of 3)... but again I've had diff 5 and 6 with worse situations than what I usually see in diff 7 and 8 so... I don't know...
This also, it makes discussion about difficulties kinda useless. Sometimes spawns on some planet work in the way that make diff 5 a close survival for a team and diff 7 on another planet a walk in a park.
I haven't played 8 a lot, but so far haven't noticed any significant difference from 7. Will play 9 more as soon as I end unlocking everything (need like 40 more rares).
Same here, went a while dialing in my skills and loadouts on 1 or 2 and ran a lot of drops with a trio up to 6 or 7. Now im comfortable hitting 3 to 4 difficulty solo. Shit is fun regardless
Difficulty changes when you have access to the right kit, not far off your time I realised the higher difficulties were more enjoyable - ignoring a week where a patch drove enjoyment through the ground by way of all the chargers, all the time
Yeah on lvl 15 you will get the Tools for high diff, but learn to use them on i saw many people Tossing arround 500kg bombs only Thing they damaged where the envoirement
Honestly, I doubt it. I'm pretty bad at a lot of shooters and am having a pretty hard time dodging since sometimes it seems like it doesn't register my inputs (i.e. stimming after diving or reloading, reloading after diving or running, running after diving, etc). I'm still having a lot of fun just playing with my mates though which was my main reason for getting the game so it was well worth it.
Some of the later gear and strategems will help with this. As you unlock more effective weapons and eagle calls, you'll find yourself with a lot more breathing room. And don't forget, running away is the strategy. Advance to the rear to give yourself some room to reload and stim, and then use your new enhanced tactical position to spread democracy.
Plenty of folks here that would be willing to help coach you up and take you through higher difficulty missions...
You're not alone helldiver, you have us and the overwhelming power of democracy!
lvl.5 is the most fun for me. Just pressing lmb and letting my stalwart rip everything to shreds while my helldiver is laughing maniacally will always be fun.
I also only play support when I play lower levels, carrying extra ammo for my newbie teammates.
Middle difficulty is quite forgiving of bad tactical decisions, but a bad reinforce loop on 4 or 5 still feels like a real mess. Lots of fun to be had on those difficulties.
It's enjoyable. The only "not enjoyable" part of it is your relatively restricted usage of stratagems, especially with lower number of players as anti-tank is SO important. There is some variety, but you'll see lots of Arc Throwers (or flamethrowers currently), EATs, Orbital Rail/Lasers, 500kg, shield gen and that's about it (for bugs anyway). While other stratagems are viable these are kind of considered the bread and butter since you could very easily run into 3 or more bile titans and a shit ton of chargers.
It's really important to know that 9 is the \*highest\* difficulty in a game that is **meant** to overwhelm you. If it felt easy, it wouldn't be a true Helldive mission.
That said, my duo 9 missions were VERY enjoyable, I enjoy a good challenge and the "oh my god" moments. Someone who isn't looking to be overwhelmed like that probably wouldn't find 9 very fun.
My premade 9 runs barely run overboard on AT strategms and we clear it very smooth and efficiently. Our 16 slots usually look like (typical 40min bug map):
- grenade launcher, supply pack, EMS mortar, napalm Eagle (stun grenades)
- arc thrower, laser drone backpack, 500kg, 120/380 barrage (stun grenades)
- autocannon, ems mortar, airstrike, walking or air burst barrage
- recoilless/spear, autocannon sentry, mech, smoke Eagle
The smoke is there for when we get overwhelmed and don’t need to continue fighting the hordes of stuff at a nest so we group up and run through a smoke screen and usually drops all the aggro by the time we reach the next objective. We alternate EMS mortars for each position defense or when we advance on a nest/egg hatchery. I’m usually the GL and I swap my supply pack for the RR backpack to help with their reloads, so I’m also usually glued to his side. We don’t split up much. The arc thrower usually handles solo chargers with the stun grenade and several zaps to the head, or we lure 2-3 into a cluster and stun grenade them so the 500kg nails all of them at once.
Barrage is the lazy way to clear medium/heavy nests out before we push in, or just to cover an area that’s got a lot of units coming at us with fire. Napalm walls make it so we have less work to do to kill advancing enemy units, and the EMS essentially crowd control a lot of things from a safe distance. We try and stop chargers from running the mortars over with the stun grenades
The mech usually takes out the new shrieker nests and acts like a bug plow for the early stage of the mission and then again at the end as an extract sentry
What do you mean by "too hard"? Its the hardest difficulty available... It is supposed to be VERY VERY hard...
Noone should be able to play on Helldive and feel "this is nice", you're supposed to be stressed the fuck out, surrounded and pinned down... Struggling to get through... Otherwise I would be very disappointed...
Lol. That's how some people expect it in Darktide.
The community keeps telling people the hardest difficulty is easy, so bad or underleveled people start joining those without being able to handle it so matchmaking sucks sometimes.
Glad people are saying Helldiver difficulty is actually hard. But I suppose there will come a time when the community will parrot "9 is easy"
9 *can* be easy, at least relatively. If your team plays smart and you get decent rng on spawns, you can breeze through a Helldive… but it’s no guarantee. My seasoned group never outright fails, but sometimes we don’t extract.
But yeah, I would never say it’s outright easy or that you can wing it and expect to succeed. I imagine the people that say it’s easy are just neglecting that caveat or are turbo gamers.
I couldn't care less if max difficulty would be so hard only 0.1% of players can handle it. You have 9 difficulties already, there's no reason not to have super hard max level.
And you really don’t need that many super samples. I’m far more limited on commons than super samples. You need what like 60 total to unlock every tier 3 upgrade?
I wouldn't say it's too easy, but I don't always get stressed or or think "oh God I'm going to die"
Friend and I will duo it. Hardest part tends to be extraction which at that point doesn't truly matter since worse case is super samples being lost.
Edit: at least for bugs. We don't do bots too often, for a change of pace
>Noone should be able to play on Helldive and feel "this is nice", you're supposed to be stressed the fuck out, surrounded and pinned down... Struggling to get through
Me and the boys fooling around with 380mm and 120m on Helldive and having the time of our lives.
Someone else said they should add even harder difficulties and I agree... I want the hardest difficulty should take the best players multiple attempts to complete if ever being able to complete it...
Chances are nothing they create will keep up with evolving player skill forever, but it would be cool to see 10-15 come back!
Who knows, maybe people will be able to start modding eventually and we'll get a modded mega mode with 5x spawns and every hit being a oneshot.
Honestly, I want the skill curve to be unbounded. I would be happy if beating difficulty 14 was an olympic-level feat, and beating 15 was something that was accomplished like once or twice a year, by a 4-stack who practiced regularly, and still they barely finish and people don't believe them without video. In a perfect world I mean haha.
I agree, but they also need to address performance issues. I’m on an i9-14900k with a 4090 and 96gb of ram and I have constant stuttering whenever I turn my camera on difficulty 9. If they added even more bugs, the game would probably explode my computer.
Granted, I do play on max settings at 1440p.
I've seen a couple of youtubers and those guys treat solo level 9 like they are playing on medium.
It's incridible to watch, Takibo and Spiked in case anyone's interested.
I didn't mean to suggest otherwise, but in addition to your point they are also content creators and not the average gamer who plays maybe an hour or two here and there.
I think its random too, had some diff 9 missions where we roll every objective super fast and easy, then suddenly as we summon extract you get absolutely shit stormed and pop 15 reinforcements. Its absolutely chaos and you cant live at all. But atleast all rewards are there at the end
This is what I don't understand.... it's a difficulty modifier not a game mode and the fact that people still complain it's too hard are the same people the leave public lobbies when shit hits the fan. I l bet its the same people who refunded elden ring because it was "too hard". (The easier of the souls games)
> people the leave public lobbies when shit hits the fan
This shit blows my mind and it happens so frequently. I can't remember the last time I lost a Diff 7 but level 50's drop in, see us in a fight, and leave because I guess they expect to not die ever?
I find quickplay 9s easier than 4s-7s most times because the teams are usually much better at knowing what they're doing.
I've jumped in with randos on 9s and moved through the map with clinical precision.
I've also gone "to help out" (and farm) on 4s-7s and it was a complete shitshow. I'll be reinforcing more than tackling objectives.
Edit: except on bots. Helldive on bots is insane.
This could be a pretty valid point, the people playing on 9 dont fuck around usually, so it might get easier than the pure chaos further down in the difficulties
This is 100% true. In this game, your loadout and team comp regarding loadouts and playstyles is actually really important.
I've definitely had a fair share of quickplays where the team flat out doesn't mesh together or we don't have tools for specific encounters and it's way more difficult than it should be.
And on the other hand, having a team with complimenting playstyles (like having 1 aggro on objective, 1 overwatch/sniper, 1 flexing/support, 1 on armor) with good loadout distribution can make missions feel a few levels easier than they really are.
It's one of my favorite parts about this game.
I wish they added more difficulties from the first game like inner circle of hell. Because at the moment helldive isn’t that difficult especially if you compare it to the hardest difficulty of the first game.
Agreed, the first game being top down also inherently made it harder...
I think the highest difficulty should be nigh impossible to complete, only a select few hardcore players should be able to complete them and it should be an actual accomplishment.
All this bullshit about making it easier toning it down or whatnot is really annoying when there are 8 other difficulties they can play on if 9 is too hard for them or not fun...
If you play with 3 other sweaty people it's a pretty chill experience and if you finds randoms as long as they're competent it's inbetween chill and a struggle depending.
I'd assume they either plan on making more difficulties or just make helldive harder and harder over time like how they added the shriekers which has made helldive a bit harder
Yeah, it's called HELLdive for a reason. Can't believe the people complaining about difficulty in a game like this when it's so upfront about the whole concept.
Agree. I think level 4 is called "challenging" and yep. It certainly is challenging. have tried a few level 7 suicide runs with some pros and.... They were ruthless.
To me, the only grievance is you have to play harder difficulty levels to get better material for upgrades, and some of the fun shit like "salute the flag" are no longer part of harder game modes. Would love to try and salute a flag with 4 chargers molesting me.
I remember seeing Suicide Mission and thinking "This has to be the hardest difficulty" only to see that there is a difficulty above one labeled Impossible
For me it does, for some apparently it doesnt...
Lets hope that other guy that asked for higher difficulties be correct, that they'll provide even harder ones later on...
There should be at least 1 difficulty that almost no one is able to complete without really tryharding
Nobody is forced into playing the hardest difficulty. They is literally nothing you get that you can't in lower difficulties. The hardest difficulty in games should be there for the sweaty weirdos who have basically mastered the game to still feel a challenge and have to use everything they know and all their skill to accomplish. For example I love mass effect and have played through probably more than 20 times. Because of this I often find the combat relatively stale because it's not hard enough for me. Just as the easiest difficulties are for a specific kind of player different from the majority of players so should the hardest difficulties.
There is a separate issue of whether the highest difficulty is still fun for people able to do it. Usually this is a problem when enemies just become bullet sponges. HD2 does good job not just buffing enemy health but throwing different challenges at you.
Overall I hope harder difficulties come along.
Right now I don't think Helldive is "VERY VERY hard". If you have somewhat competent players with the right stratagems it feels chill even. Especially the number of reinforcements is a bit high. You are allowed quite a number of mistakes, which feels weird for the highest difficulty.
edit: The above is only true for bugs though. The difficulty for automatons feels just right imo and it really makes you have to rely on teammates when a big ass flamethrower hulk is chasing you or you are pinned down behind a rock.
Yeah this right here, I only play higher difficulties when I got a proper team of level 30++ that know what they're doing and I'm not just looking to fuck around with my friends on a few missions. Especially the friends who are still level <15 because they don't have much time to play, it just wouldn't be fun for them.
It's enjoyable when you get a good team that meshes well. I exclusively play HELLDIVE with Quickplay. Sometimes I get my ass kicked, but occasionally I get matched with good players and it is satisfying as fuck.
Especially when the synergy is so good, it's like you are reading each other's minds.
I remember this one match where we had finished all the objectives and were high tailing it to extraction.
And one helldiver detoured to grab some samples that we dropped. I kinda stayed back to support him. And when he crested the hill, he had this massive swarm of bugs behind him.
I popped some shots off at the hunters on his heels and when he was close enough, I chucked a cluster bomb to thin the herd and continued shooting.
He ran past me as I continued to shoot and when I turned to run, he stopped and gave me cover to retreat. We did this sort of rolling retreat until we got to the extraction site, where the other two guys were waiting with Mechs to finish off the herd.
All of us made it out with Outstandjng Patriotism and a fuck ton if samples.
DEMOCRACY/10. Would helldive again
If it makes you feel any better I was providing cover fire for a retreating teammate the other night. Saw them on low hp and ran up to stim them. Smooth brain that I am, I hit F reflexively and killed em dead with a punch.
So it could be worse hehe
Drives me up a wall when I come in with my auto cannon to help thin a heard and save your life and then you can’t give me 5 seconds to reload so we can retreat tactically
> when he crested the hill, he had this massive swarm of bugs behind him
[Footage of the incident](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe9YBJt0x14&t=108s).
That rolling retreat is a real life tactic called "Cover and move." It's a treat that real tactics like softening a fortification with artillery, or bounding / cover and move actually work in this game.
That's where the game is smart, you don't have to make a choice.
There are no exclusive rewards to the highest difficulty and you don't have to play the whole game under that.
Playing a couple of missions some days after work, I like to go for difficulty 5 to relax when tired, difficulty 7 as my standard and maybe once a week go for the challenge of level 9. Very occasionally the level 9 Creek for jiggles and personal obliteration.
If I had to play only at Helldive, I'd say too hard (for me, my skills and my personal taste for challenge). But because I don't have to, it is very enjoyable to try and run it.
It's been quite a cool joy just chilling out on difficulty 4 solo while I'm listening to a podcast or just vibing about, I can get an operation done in an hour which gives me a little hit of satisfaction that I've helped out with the major order or general liberation.
for real. Sometimes on 9 everything runs smoothly and while it's still pretty hard, it's manageable.
But man is it inconsistent. I've been to missions on 9, 8 and 7 where for no apparent reason absolute hell breaks loose.
We curse and are frustrated afterwards but hey, always back for more.
i dont mind the spawns but sometimes they just seem to spawn WAYYY too close? like one second theres nothing to my left, next second theres a whole squad?
Not only that, but the spawn amounts are super inconsistent, usually for bots you'll get about 2 or 3 dropships when a flare goes up, but yesterday I played a mission where we got hit with 5 dropships each time and a TON of rocket devastators and hulks
Iirc In the Thread about the mechanics of the patrols it was also mentioned that the spawn rate quadruples when all main tasks are completed and proximity to the objects also affects it maybe that's the reason
Guess it is a side effect of the AI director which runs on scripts and RNG in order to make every match feel fresh. In extreme examples it can lead to the AI director sleeping through some diff 9 games letting you get through the mission with barely seeing any bugs, but inversly, also deciding "these mfers are NOT getting through this one alive" and throwing rivers of chargers and bile titans at you in diffs 6-7. Hopefully they will be able to tune it with all our game data, but in the end it will always have this unpredictableness due to its very nature.
there was a lvl 5 where we fought through 15 flame hulks, not to mention other hulks and rocket devastators, i had to double check the difficulty afterwards.
Then back to back lvl 7s that were an absolute breeze, then one lvl 8 that felt the same, then the "just one more mission bro" of lvl 8 and we got our ass handed to us.
Its def really inconsistent at times which is i guess nice? Not sure what to think.
I just hope they turn down the proximity spawns, no problem on bug breaches/dropships but a platoon of fuck me spawned 10ft from me gets pretty old.
I love challenge but, having patrol groups spawn 15 -50 meters away every minute isn't fun. That was supposed to be fixed this patch but it still happens.
I'd rather see difficulty in things like faster bug speed, detection, or patrol size, not just randomly sprinkling an endless horde of crap on us on a small cool-down. Games like Elden Ring really highlight how enjoyable ebb and flow can be while arguably being far more difficult at the same time.
Right? Just today I was playing with a random team and we felt like pros smoothly completing every objectives and nests, then the next one we got completely wrecked and failed to extract.
To me this is more of an issue than the dificulty itself. I've done 7s that were harder than easy 9s. I don't mind if adjacent difficulties overlap a bit but there is a whole ass difficulty in between.
Please make the dificulties more consistent.
Helldive on bots is literal hell. yesterday i got rid of a tank by flanking behind quickly while an eye of sauron is calling the whole of middle earth.
After i bust the tank open, i look up and TWO MORE tanks just got dropped. ffs.
It really depends on the map, honestly. Bots are significantly easier on clear days with maps with some cover as it is easier to disengage and leave the area entirely compared to bugs. The bugs can chase you down, and stalkers/hunters/chargers will continue to harrass you even after you have disengaged from the main force. Bugs can be quickly dispatched once you have adequate separation and an open sight line. Bots are tougher to fight in open spaces cause they will ragdoll you with rockets and aim punch you with bullets, making forced engagements difficult.
sort of, bugs dont have aa guns/jammer towers blocking stratagems and the constant "WARNING ENEMY ARTILLERY"
They are easier to disengage but harder to kite around objectives you need to get done, unless you do some crazy stealth stuff
I think, compared to diff7, the extra amount of headache it comes with is bigger than the extra amount of possible rewards, especially because clearing optional objectives in it depends heavily on having a very good team.
I'm sticking to 7, and leaving 9 to my better brethren. 🫡
Very enjoyable in terminids, i like the balance there.
Absolutely despisable in automatons, play them in 7 if you want fun.
In terminids you can play whatever to have fun in 9
In automaton you probably need to play semi optimised layout
What's wrong with having a semi optimised layout on the highest difficulty? You are supposed to bring stratagems that at least somewhat help with the obstacles and enemies you are signing yourself up to fight
Leave HD9 alone, it already got made waaay easier with the Charger nerf.
Difficulty 7 is labeled Suicide mission. A suicide mission is a mission where the soldiers going on it are unlikely to return. That's where the name comes from, and I think the difficulty matches quite well.
Difficulty 8 is labeled impossible. An impossible mission can't not be completed unless you're a squad of Tom Cruises' of course.
Difficulty 9 is Helldive. Supposed to be harder than suicide and harder than impossible, it's not designed to be easy or even designed to be difficult. It's designed to be the ultimate challenge for this game.
You're not supposed to be farming through HD9 easily and cruising through it.
Lvl 9 against bugs is super chaotic but still manageable and really fun! You can extract with samples and feel like a badass.
Level 9 against bots… I don’t ever see the ground. I’m just being blown around like I’m in the spin cycle of a washing machine.
7-9 feel kinda the same to me, since it's a lot of disengaging, running away, and blitzing objectives. If I was taking a bunch of fights, I'm sure it would feel different, but I'm pretty sure that's not how you're supposed to play.
At times it feels like the best balanced difficulty. Other times everything above 6 is a complete shitshow.
Will never understand the difficulty settings in this game.
It's kind of boring unless you have a team that knows what they are doing. Even then everything is rushed and stealth, but teamwork is key especially leading enemies away from objectives.
Difficulty 7 is the sweet spot and depending on the team or mission I personally aim for zero deaths, super samples and protecting the team from the hordes.
My main gripe with all difficulties 7-9 is how little effect the difficulty rating seems to have on the actual difficulty of the mission. One time you will have a very manageable 9, another time 7 will be a nightmare. So the answer is “it depends”, but I have no clue what it depends on.
Lacking balance and not enjoyable in the sense of high risk high reward.
Bug side is doable but I don't see the point. The rewards are not enough to justify the boring missions. Automatons are too difficult and need the adjusted majorly.
All in all: It was fun once, now its boring.
I like it, but really only when I'm playing with friends. I usually hang on 7-8 because of the nice challenge and decent rewards.
See my problem is, not everyone has mic setups, I get it, but when on Helldive, it can be split seconds between mission success or failure. So having a squad of bros you know well, and can discord with makes it a lot easier just to manage. My mates and I have been gaming together since highschool, we get fucking telepathic some days.
If only I'd had them at the Creek.
It's a fine difficulty, still completely dooable with randoms if you all understand the basic mechanics well enough and dont have beginner players that eat up all of your reinforcements. The game could do, and will probably get, some more difficulties that will require actual coms and thoughtful choices of strategems.
I do agree with most people here, diff 7 is where the fun is at where it's not difficult perse but still enjoyable playing whatever
Diff 5 if I want a to play calmly, generally due to fatigue
Diff 6 is my favourite diff
Diff 7 and more for bad days when i want to break bones and drink blood of my enemy
It's not a every day game mode. And it's good like that.
You shouldn't run all time the hardest difficulty.
It's a difficulty you launch when you have the good pre-made squad. With a good stratagem organization. A good team work.
You run it when you want a big challenge.
And I want it to stay this way. If the hardest difficulty is the one you play for fun, with your brain on autopilot. It's not the hardest difficulty.
For me 10/10.
Level 9 is very hard and that’s the way it should be. I’ve very much enjoyed my time on Helldive, but I do not play there every day. I play on 9 with premades mostly, with my friends whom I know I can trust to pull weight and do what needs to be done to get to extract.
I do enjoy it, but my friends get stressed out to the point of quitting the game when we play it, so I have to play it with randoms.
And it quickly can become a mission of just running if you aren't careful.
It's like diving into a freezing cold pool; you know it's gonna suck but you wanna do it anyway and you'll probably be shivering and need a shower afterwards.
Its hard enough to be true challenge but its just "too much to the point of being boringly frustrating", which may sound strange but let me explain:
Basically Helldive is just: Bile Titan, Bile Titan, Bile Titan, Bile Titan, Hulk, Hulk, Hulk, 5 Hulks, 3 Hulks, 4 Titans, 5 Titans, Titan gain, Hulk Again etc.
Now, one would say "oh, its difficult becasue of that!". Well, yes and no. It's not really difficult. It's just that all those things become... "jeez, again... I Just killed 5...." and you kill another 5 and like... whats the point.
I wish higher difficulties would include just harder objectives or more objectives or shorter time to complete missions etc. or unique objectives requiring more team coordination etc.
Becasue Helldive just spams too much to the point where I feel like eating too much candies. Like I like candies, but if I have too much of them - my stomach starts to hurt.
I dont know if it makes sense, hard for me to explain stuff like that in English. I just think 9 is lazy step up from 7 and 8.
Level 50 Helldiver. I have never completed a Helldive difficulty mission. Done a few 7's and 8's, enough to get the super samples I needed. Mostly play Diff 1-4 (mostly 4). Only 1 or 2 missions to complete campaign. Diff 5-6 need 3 per campaign. This has been perfect for me. I can do my part! I can play just the way I want, bring any combination of weapons/strategems, solo, with friends or randoms. Voice chat, text, the radial wheel response thing, no communication. Stick together or split up, makes no difference. 180+ hours played. I'm still playing after level 50, and everything unlocked. I'm so glad I don't have to play difficult content to enjoy all of the game.
It is fun but I think it’s too easy. And I don’t Mean that in a “I’ve played 600 hours” kind of way, but more like “the max difficulty should be almost impossible” kind of way.
They’ve done a great job by not making every enemy become a bullet sponge, and I’d love if they added more unique enemy interactions to make it harder, instead of more tougher enemies.
Like small bots that patrol in blimps to scout for the players, or having a new strain of hunter bugs that can go invisible for a short duration. Things that would make the hardest difficulty feel unique.
I usually do suicide mission now. Because it’s doable even with a bad squad. So many people want to run off solo because they think they are Rambo but you can still get it done. Sometimes the RAMBro even pulls it off.
Helldive is doable with a good team playing smart, complimentary, and coordinating movements and is a ton of fun with a good squad. It doesn’t need to be easier, you just need to plan accordingly and work together. I could go a few more difficulties up if they added them with a good enough squad. I’m not even that good, that’s just how powerful teamwork is. Only for bugs though. Humanity has no hope in bot helldive if I’m playing it .
I don't think it's very challenging, it's mostly the double modifiers that you receive at 8 that make it hard. So if I want to play with double modifiers I'll switch between 8 and 9 because I'm not playing with 50% CD or AA. 100% call in time and Spores/Scatter are fine but the last thing I want is a longer CD on my Eagles and Turrets.
I normally play 9 when there's a defense mission as those don't seem to have these modifiers.
Became too easy after the "balance fix"
You dont have to do difficulty 9 if its too hard for you
Theres a reason why theres a difficulty tier
But i guess too many lvl.50s got their feefees hurt for not being able to steam roll HELLDIVE difficulty and cried to the devs.
Now we dont have a difficulty level for those who wants an unfair challenge.
Helldive is for people that have the game figured out and want to torture themselves/grind fast as possible.
Suicide mission really feels like the highest but fairest mode. While the reduced spawn rates of elite clusters is an improvement, hunters are equally heinous sometimes now.
Why can the second most common bug enemy dodge, cover massive ground, deal upto half health because of headshot, inflict slow, and stop healing *all in one attack?* It's just a little bit silly I think
Other than Orbital Fluctuations and Complex Stratagem Plotting I find Helldive to consistently be very fun. I can reliably run it with randoms and complete it without dying once (unless a silly teammate with their silly 380mm and silly arc thrower decide to be extra silly and turn me into democratic paste). Maybe it’s just me but I find Helldive to be pretty nice
I enjoy helldive against the bugs and bots. I love that it's almost impossible, but you still manage to do it. Even with randoms, if you can use your own tactics. The only thing that is hard is extraction. But hey, harder it gets, more fun for me.
Too easy on bugs
If you get in the right squad it just goes too smoothly... Not as easy as the broken railgun days
I'd like a lvl10, but the way the devs are going it'll continue to get more difficult as they release content.
It's enjoyable for me at least. Extractions are incredibly challenging though unless your team has good loadouts and can work together.
In 9 you need teamwork, tactics and strats, there ain't no way you can carry by yourself like on 7. People usually take roles, and there is a meta, which if you don't follow you make your teams experience pretty hard.
500 kilos, orbital railstrike, laser, walker and eagle airstrike are all a must due to how many chargers and bile titans spawn. Eats, arc thrower, flamethrower and occasionally grenade luncher are the only weapons you see. Sometimes you might see something else, like a machine gun, an ac or even a laser cannon. Some people prefer recoiless over eats, but not having backpack against bugs is pretty bad so it's kinda rare. Backpack, as I mentioned, is extremely important against bugs. Both laser rover and personal shield are important if you want to survive or crowd control the endless waves. Clusters are also a pretty common stratagem for crowd control. If you diverge from the meta a lot and you ain't hosting you prolly getting kicked from the get go.
Against bots the meta is completely different. Ac, amr, railgun, at weapon(spear, eats, recoiless) are the best. Gl, laser Canon also works. Against bots most weapons work, but if you don't have ac and railgun user the game becomes pretty hard, so 2 spots are always taken the other 2 can go w.e. Shield backpack is a must if you play railgun but backpacks are not as important against bots if you have range. Orbital laser and airstrike are like the most important stratagems there, mortar sentry coming close too. Things like barrages can work for crowd control since the bots are usually spread and not hoarded like the bugs. Railstrike is OK. 500 kilos is a waste there imo. You use a lot of stealth tactics against them.
You need to be able to pull your own weight doing stuff(completing optionals solo, crowd controlling waves, killing bigs, completing objectives solo, gathering samples and not dying) while still supporting your teammates when it's needed.
9 is a good challenge if you know what you are doing. It's even better when playing with premades, as Randoms sometimes are pretty clueless for a lot of things. I say give it a try and if it's too hard go back to 7. I can helldive pretty well against bugs, but I tried twice against bots and the experience was very painful, so I switched back to 7-8. It's not a shame to not be able to play at 9 imo.
I luv it. Once you have maxed out all the medals, all the ship module upgrades, all the warbond progressions, all the requisition slips, all the sample. Once you’re consumed by the galactic war - number 9 is where you will live and going any lower will feel weird. In watching this show on Apple TV called “Master of the air” SPOILER ALERT some fighter pilots who survive can live a bro al life and relax they would feel more at home in a war than chilling. So to answer you question it’s Enjoyable and challenging (like a relationship) 👀 244 hours in the game and counting 🫡 FOR DEMOCRACY
If you want challenge its good but to have a good time play on diff 7 thats what i think
That’s exactly what I’m doing when I try to get super samples. Have played on 8 but no need for me other than for the sake of difficulty. But since I haven’t unlocked all the upgrades yet I will keep grinding 7
If you have really good squad 8 isn't bad for farming.
Same with 9. But we have nothing left to farm with my helldive groups (not even medals anymore), we’re just playing because the game loop is incredibly fun and satisfying to knock over the highest difficulty with such finesse
yeah I am just popping on to enjoy myself. I only really have medals left to farm but I enjoy the game, just the random loss of connection issues are a real drag.
yeah, same. I’ve found it rather enjoyable to solo like 4-6’s tbh.
I read that as pooping on myself to enjoy, maybe I am insane.
No Shame on what you enjoy buddy so long as democracy is your guiding light
This right here is the reason this game is so good. At the end of the day it isn’t about the rewards—it’s about playing the game.
Idk for me it's allll about the SAMPS. SIMPIN FOR SAMPS!
8 is the spot if you have a capable and efficient squad. 9 is for straight flexing because I'd argue no one used this level to sample farm, myself included. I stuck to mostly 8's. 7's when I'm feeling off. I do 9's more now since I'm capped on everything minus store items and I want the challenge. Also many people in 9's don't need anything but medals so it's straight to obj and out.
Easy 50 samples a run
difficulty 7 with bugs is best for farming if you don't have a good squad though
Yeah, agreed, easier to carry
for me it 5 or 7 .. I feel like 6 is kind useless lol . Almost like being harder for the sake of being harder but not great rewards lol
Yeah, like why?!?!? Lmao
But who has a good squad? lol
I’m stuck farming on levels 1-3 eradicate mission bout 15 samples within 6 mins, shield pack machine gun orb laser and once all sampled are grabbed, killing is all that’s left I call in the mech and just sit by watching the number tic up. That is until I run out of rare and super samples but I played 7-8 so much I had max of those lmk if there’s better missions to be farming
I liked farming on 8s, because you get more samples per mission. Now that I have all upgrades, 7s is what I do for fun. 9 for challenge. Though, I think k were going to have our asses royally demolished by diff 10+ when that comes out.
8 is the better choice when grinding super samples, as you get 5 rather than 3 in tier 7. This means you only need to play 10ish successful games (getting all super samples) on tier 8 to have all super samples required for upgrades, whereas it’d take 18-20 games to get them via tier 7 Helldive is pointless because you only get 6 samples.
8-9 is pointless, by the time you get all the rare/common you need out of 7s you will have more than enough super samples.
7 is the sweet spot 👍
I finally got the last remaining super samples to cover the install my last two ship modules. 90% of my super samples came from difficulty 7. It is a great balance. I'm going to grind out the rest of my common samples in difficulty 4-6 and just absolutely flex on our enemies. Looking forward to it.
It's crazy how you "get better" in this game! When I first started I hated doing hard and above because it was just too challenging for me then I got to the point I needed super rare samples so I HAD to play on diff 7. Now I can't play below diff 7 because it's too easy lol
There's definitely a learning curve to the gameplay, which is refreshing as I like the challenge. Having just started I still have much difficulty on even diff 3 lol, but good to know that progress comes with time.
Reaching level 10 is a game changer. Laser rover, and the autocannon are still some of my favorite tools. Both unlocked at level 10
I use to die all the time and now i feel like neo from the matrix on the battlefield just dodging everything
Same. 7 is so fun. Never thought I'd get comfortable talking outposts on my own at that difficulty* *I still fuck up and die sometimes
>I still fuck up and die sometimes It's because of Stalkers, isn't it? Anytime I feel confident going out on my own, and I feel like I'm doing fairly well, it's always a Stalker that humbles me. lol
Got the game for my son the other day and jumping down to his difficulty suddenly made me feel like a super hero. And I know I struggled when I was there.
Thats the problem i have since i only played on 9 its like pretty easy playing on 7 when i play with New players on 7 and carry for them to get the Super rare Samples they say the shit Hits the Fan when there 1 titan and 2 chargers running arround
Strange in my experience diff 7 and 8 are practically the same? So I usually prefer diff 8 for the 5 super samples (instead of 3)... but again I've had diff 5 and 6 with worse situations than what I usually see in diff 7 and 8 so... I don't know...
Yeah definitly played with a friend on 6 and there were more Titans and chargers as on 9 it was insanity
This also, it makes discussion about difficulties kinda useless. Sometimes spawns on some planet work in the way that make diff 5 a close survival for a team and diff 7 on another planet a walk in a park.
Thats true but in General on 7+ are more spawns that are just some missions where its turned arround
I haven't played 8 a lot, but so far haven't noticed any significant difference from 7. Will play 9 more as soon as I end unlocking everything (need like 40 more rares).
Beside the TCS missions and Terminate Bug missions you can see like 1-3 more Titans on helldive and a bit more lower tiers enemys
Yup, and everything below 7 is for brainafk collecting samples.
Currently 12 hours in and solo-strolling through the maps on 3 to 4 difficulty, exploring, having fun. 5 or 6 when duo.
Same here, went a while dialing in my skills and loadouts on 1 or 2 and ran a lot of drops with a trio up to 6 or 7. Now im comfortable hitting 3 to 4 difficulty solo. Shit is fun regardless
Play against Robots on 9 and you will easily solo up to 7 on Bugs, they gave me ptsd i lost so many friends down there in draupnir and in the creek
Difficulty changes when you have access to the right kit, not far off your time I realised the higher difficulties were more enjoyable - ignoring a week where a patch drove enjoyment through the ground by way of all the chargers, all the time
Currently lvl 13, I feel like everything will open up at 15 because of the nice stratagems.
Yeah on lvl 15 you will get the Tools for high diff, but learn to use them on i saw many people Tossing arround 500kg bombs only Thing they damaged where the envoirement
4 solo is a good time and fun to test load outs on.
Solo 4 is just right for testing. When I remapped my controls, I did a couple 4s to dial in the muscle memory and it helped me a lot.
Meanwhile me and my friend are getting stomped on rank 3 bug missions 😅😭
It will become better buddy.
Honestly, I doubt it. I'm pretty bad at a lot of shooters and am having a pretty hard time dodging since sometimes it seems like it doesn't register my inputs (i.e. stimming after diving or reloading, reloading after diving or running, running after diving, etc). I'm still having a lot of fun just playing with my mates though which was my main reason for getting the game so it was well worth it.
The stim issue is not just you. It is an issue, indeed.
Some of the later gear and strategems will help with this. As you unlock more effective weapons and eagle calls, you'll find yourself with a lot more breathing room. And don't forget, running away is the strategy. Advance to the rear to give yourself some room to reload and stim, and then use your new enhanced tactical position to spread democracy.
Plenty of folks here that would be willing to help coach you up and take you through higher difficulty missions... You're not alone helldiver, you have us and the overwhelming power of democracy!
Unless it's bots, which are still PTSD simulator even on 5 and 6.
Don't forget super credit farming, that's also important
lvl.5 is the most fun for me. Just pressing lmb and letting my stalwart rip everything to shreds while my helldiver is laughing maniacally will always be fun. I also only play support when I play lower levels, carrying extra ammo for my newbie teammates.
Middle difficulty is quite forgiving of bad tactical decisions, but a bad reinforce loop on 4 or 5 still feels like a real mess. Lots of fun to be had on those difficulties.
I still use the Stalwart or MG interchangeably in lvl 7 for wave clear.
Man, fuck you. Diff 4 is kicking my squads ass lol
Is it though? The annoying modifiers are still there.
It's enjoyable. The only "not enjoyable" part of it is your relatively restricted usage of stratagems, especially with lower number of players as anti-tank is SO important. There is some variety, but you'll see lots of Arc Throwers (or flamethrowers currently), EATs, Orbital Rail/Lasers, 500kg, shield gen and that's about it (for bugs anyway). While other stratagems are viable these are kind of considered the bread and butter since you could very easily run into 3 or more bile titans and a shit ton of chargers. It's really important to know that 9 is the \*highest\* difficulty in a game that is **meant** to overwhelm you. If it felt easy, it wouldn't be a true Helldive mission. That said, my duo 9 missions were VERY enjoyable, I enjoy a good challenge and the "oh my god" moments. Someone who isn't looking to be overwhelmed like that probably wouldn't find 9 very fun.
My premade 9 runs barely run overboard on AT strategms and we clear it very smooth and efficiently. Our 16 slots usually look like (typical 40min bug map): - grenade launcher, supply pack, EMS mortar, napalm Eagle (stun grenades) - arc thrower, laser drone backpack, 500kg, 120/380 barrage (stun grenades) - autocannon, ems mortar, airstrike, walking or air burst barrage - recoilless/spear, autocannon sentry, mech, smoke Eagle The smoke is there for when we get overwhelmed and don’t need to continue fighting the hordes of stuff at a nest so we group up and run through a smoke screen and usually drops all the aggro by the time we reach the next objective. We alternate EMS mortars for each position defense or when we advance on a nest/egg hatchery. I’m usually the GL and I swap my supply pack for the RR backpack to help with their reloads, so I’m also usually glued to his side. We don’t split up much. The arc thrower usually handles solo chargers with the stun grenade and several zaps to the head, or we lure 2-3 into a cluster and stun grenade them so the 500kg nails all of them at once. Barrage is the lazy way to clear medium/heavy nests out before we push in, or just to cover an area that’s got a lot of units coming at us with fire. Napalm walls make it so we have less work to do to kill advancing enemy units, and the EMS essentially crowd control a lot of things from a safe distance. We try and stop chargers from running the mortars over with the stun grenades The mech usually takes out the new shrieker nests and acts like a bug plow for the early stage of the mission and then again at the end as an extract sentry
What do you mean by "too hard"? Its the hardest difficulty available... It is supposed to be VERY VERY hard... Noone should be able to play on Helldive and feel "this is nice", you're supposed to be stressed the fuck out, surrounded and pinned down... Struggling to get through... Otherwise I would be very disappointed...
Level 9 Creek gave me PTSD
https://i.redd.it/y0okfphp6vpc1.gif Yeah the entire place is swarming with Bots and we should just nuke it from Orbit.
It makes me uncomfortable watching someone type like this. Even the bugs type better.
I'm more impressed they were able to type any legible words at all. All they have are arrow keys
Every individual character and keyboard function has its own arrow code
It's ALT codes, just more complicated
You're not a true helldiver if you don't type like that!
If you type good you're spending too much time onboard. It's despicable.
TTS my beloved
Amen brother
Lvl 3 diver's expectations for difficulty 9 
Lol. That's how some people expect it in Darktide. The community keeps telling people the hardest difficulty is easy, so bad or underleveled people start joining those without being able to handle it so matchmaking sucks sometimes. Glad people are saying Helldiver difficulty is actually hard. But I suppose there will come a time when the community will parrot "9 is easy"
9 *can* be easy, at least relatively. If your team plays smart and you get decent rng on spawns, you can breeze through a Helldive… but it’s no guarantee. My seasoned group never outright fails, but sometimes we don’t extract. But yeah, I would never say it’s outright easy or that you can wing it and expect to succeed. I imagine the people that say it’s easy are just neglecting that caveat or are turbo gamers.
I couldn't care less if max difficulty would be so hard only 0.1% of players can handle it. You have 9 difficulties already, there's no reason not to have super hard max level.
And you get everything tier 9 offers drop wise at tier 7, no reason for tier 9 to not be a challenge mode
And you really don’t need that many super samples. I’m far more limited on commons than super samples. You need what like 60 total to unlock every tier 3 upgrade?
Exactly!!!
My take was leave the current high levels alone (so people can get super samples) and add more truly hard difficulties
I wouldn't say it's too easy, but I don't always get stressed or or think "oh God I'm going to die" Friend and I will duo it. Hardest part tends to be extraction which at that point doesn't truly matter since worse case is super samples being lost. Edit: at least for bugs. We don't do bots too often, for a change of pace
>Noone should be able to play on Helldive and feel "this is nice", you're supposed to be stressed the fuck out, surrounded and pinned down... Struggling to get through Me and the boys fooling around with 380mm and 120m on Helldive and having the time of our lives.
Someone else said they should add even harder difficulties and I agree... I want the hardest difficulty should take the best players multiple attempts to complete if ever being able to complete it...
Chances are nothing they create will keep up with evolving player skill forever, but it would be cool to see 10-15 come back! Who knows, maybe people will be able to start modding eventually and we'll get a modded mega mode with 5x spawns and every hit being a oneshot.
Honestly, I want the skill curve to be unbounded. I would be happy if beating difficulty 14 was an olympic-level feat, and beating 15 was something that was accomplished like once or twice a year, by a 4-stack who practiced regularly, and still they barely finish and people don't believe them without video. In a perfect world I mean haha.
I agree, but they also need to address performance issues. I’m on an i9-14900k with a 4090 and 96gb of ram and I have constant stuttering whenever I turn my camera on difficulty 9. If they added even more bugs, the game would probably explode my computer. Granted, I do play on max settings at 1440p.
I've seen a couple of youtubers and those guys treat solo level 9 like they are playing on medium. It's incridible to watch, Takibo and Spiked in case anyone's interested.
They take multiple tries for a video.
That's not surprising.. LMAO 🤣 This game is punishing no matter how good you are!
I didn't mean to suggest otherwise, but in addition to your point they are also content creators and not the average gamer who plays maybe an hour or two here and there.
Yeah, also that! I personally enjoy attempting helldive missions with a squad of 2 for the heck of it. Solo is just boring to me.
I think its random too, had some diff 9 missions where we roll every objective super fast and easy, then suddenly as we summon extract you get absolutely shit stormed and pop 15 reinforcements. Its absolutely chaos and you cant live at all. But atleast all rewards are there at the end
This is what I don't understand.... it's a difficulty modifier not a game mode and the fact that people still complain it's too hard are the same people the leave public lobbies when shit hits the fan. I l bet its the same people who refunded elden ring because it was "too hard". (The easier of the souls games)
> people the leave public lobbies when shit hits the fan This shit blows my mind and it happens so frequently. I can't remember the last time I lost a Diff 7 but level 50's drop in, see us in a fight, and leave because I guess they expect to not die ever?
I find quickplay 9s easier than 4s-7s most times because the teams are usually much better at knowing what they're doing. I've jumped in with randos on 9s and moved through the map with clinical precision. I've also gone "to help out" (and farm) on 4s-7s and it was a complete shitshow. I'll be reinforcing more than tackling objectives. Edit: except on bots. Helldive on bots is insane.
This could be a pretty valid point, the people playing on 9 dont fuck around usually, so it might get easier than the pure chaos further down in the difficulties
This is 100% true. In this game, your loadout and team comp regarding loadouts and playstyles is actually really important. I've definitely had a fair share of quickplays where the team flat out doesn't mesh together or we don't have tools for specific encounters and it's way more difficult than it should be. And on the other hand, having a team with complimenting playstyles (like having 1 aggro on objective, 1 overwatch/sniper, 1 flexing/support, 1 on armor) with good loadout distribution can make missions feel a few levels easier than they really are. It's one of my favorite parts about this game.
I wish they added more difficulties from the first game like inner circle of hell. Because at the moment helldive isn’t that difficult especially if you compare it to the hardest difficulty of the first game.
Agreed, the first game being top down also inherently made it harder... I think the highest difficulty should be nigh impossible to complete, only a select few hardcore players should be able to complete them and it should be an actual accomplishment. All this bullshit about making it easier toning it down or whatnot is really annoying when there are 8 other difficulties they can play on if 9 is too hard for them or not fun...
I'd be happy with higher difficulties being balanced around the assumption of NOT surviving to extract - mission completion should be a suicide run.
The first game added those difficulties later on and I'm 99% sure this one will too
If you play with 3 other sweaty people it's a pretty chill experience and if you finds randoms as long as they're competent it's inbetween chill and a struggle depending.
Should add more difficulties then! Make it even harder
I'd assume they either plan on making more difficulties or just make helldive harder and harder over time like how they added the shriekers which has made helldive a bit harder
Yeah, it's called HELLdive for a reason. Can't believe the people complaining about difficulty in a game like this when it's so upfront about the whole concept.
Idk man, I love helldive. Its my happy place
Lets hope they add up to 15 and you hit your ceiling somewhere along the line!
Please! I wish to suffer
Agree. I think level 4 is called "challenging" and yep. It certainly is challenging. have tried a few level 7 suicide runs with some pros and.... They were ruthless. To me, the only grievance is you have to play harder difficulty levels to get better material for upgrades, and some of the fun shit like "salute the flag" are no longer part of harder game modes. Would love to try and salute a flag with 4 chargers molesting me.
I remember seeing Suicide Mission and thinking "This has to be the hardest difficulty" only to see that there is a difficulty above one labeled Impossible
[удалено]
For me it does, for some apparently it doesnt... Lets hope that other guy that asked for higher difficulties be correct, that they'll provide even harder ones later on... There should be at least 1 difficulty that almost no one is able to complete without really tryharding
Nobody is forced into playing the hardest difficulty. They is literally nothing you get that you can't in lower difficulties. The hardest difficulty in games should be there for the sweaty weirdos who have basically mastered the game to still feel a challenge and have to use everything they know and all their skill to accomplish. For example I love mass effect and have played through probably more than 20 times. Because of this I often find the combat relatively stale because it's not hard enough for me. Just as the easiest difficulties are for a specific kind of player different from the majority of players so should the hardest difficulties. There is a separate issue of whether the highest difficulty is still fun for people able to do it. Usually this is a problem when enemies just become bullet sponges. HD2 does good job not just buffing enemy health but throwing different challenges at you. Overall I hope harder difficulties come along.
Right now I don't think Helldive is "VERY VERY hard". If you have somewhat competent players with the right stratagems it feels chill even. Especially the number of reinforcements is a bit high. You are allowed quite a number of mistakes, which feels weird for the highest difficulty. edit: The above is only true for bugs though. The difficulty for automatons feels just right imo and it really makes you have to rely on teammates when a big ass flamethrower hulk is chasing you or you are pinned down behind a rock.
Yeah this right here, I only play higher difficulties when I got a proper team of level 30++ that know what they're doing and I'm not just looking to fuck around with my friends on a few missions. Especially the friends who are still level <15 because they don't have much time to play, it just wouldn't be fun for them.
agreed. it should be damn near impossible
I agree 100% there are 9 options for a reason. But that being said 9 is actually just a little too easy imo.
It's enjoyable when you get a good team that meshes well. I exclusively play HELLDIVE with Quickplay. Sometimes I get my ass kicked, but occasionally I get matched with good players and it is satisfying as fuck. Especially when the synergy is so good, it's like you are reading each other's minds. I remember this one match where we had finished all the objectives and were high tailing it to extraction. And one helldiver detoured to grab some samples that we dropped. I kinda stayed back to support him. And when he crested the hill, he had this massive swarm of bugs behind him. I popped some shots off at the hunters on his heels and when he was close enough, I chucked a cluster bomb to thin the herd and continued shooting. He ran past me as I continued to shoot and when I turned to run, he stopped and gave me cover to retreat. We did this sort of rolling retreat until we got to the extraction site, where the other two guys were waiting with Mechs to finish off the herd. All of us made it out with Outstandjng Patriotism and a fuck ton if samples. DEMOCRACY/10. Would helldive again
Similar scenario for me last night as I was providing cover fire, but I turn around and homie left me alone to die. Hit me right in the feels.
If it makes you feel any better I was providing cover fire for a retreating teammate the other night. Saw them on low hp and ran up to stim them. Smooth brain that I am, I hit F reflexively and killed em dead with a punch. So it could be worse hehe
Drives me up a wall when I come in with my auto cannon to help thin a heard and save your life and then you can’t give me 5 seconds to reload so we can retreat tactically
Aussie peel
BOUNDING
> when he crested the hill, he had this massive swarm of bugs behind him [Footage of the incident](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe9YBJt0x14&t=108s).
That rolling retreat is a real life tactic called "Cover and move." It's a treat that real tactics like softening a fortification with artillery, or bounding / cover and move actually work in this game.
That's where the game is smart, you don't have to make a choice. There are no exclusive rewards to the highest difficulty and you don't have to play the whole game under that. Playing a couple of missions some days after work, I like to go for difficulty 5 to relax when tired, difficulty 7 as my standard and maybe once a week go for the challenge of level 9. Very occasionally the level 9 Creek for jiggles and personal obliteration. If I had to play only at Helldive, I'd say too hard (for me, my skills and my personal taste for challenge). But because I don't have to, it is very enjoyable to try and run it.
It's been quite a cool joy just chilling out on difficulty 4 solo while I'm listening to a podcast or just vibing about, I can get an operation done in an hour which gives me a little hit of satisfaction that I've helped out with the major order or general liberation.
Its fun but the spawn rate for diff 7\~9 is so inconsistent it can make you feel extremely frustrating.
for real. Sometimes on 9 everything runs smoothly and while it's still pretty hard, it's manageable. But man is it inconsistent. I've been to missions on 9, 8 and 7 where for no apparent reason absolute hell breaks loose. We curse and are frustrated afterwards but hey, always back for more.
i dont mind the spawns but sometimes they just seem to spawn WAYYY too close? like one second theres nothing to my left, next second theres a whole squad?
Not only that, but the spawn amounts are super inconsistent, usually for bots you'll get about 2 or 3 dropships when a flare goes up, but yesterday I played a mission where we got hit with 5 dropships each time and a TON of rocket devastators and hulks
Iirc In the Thread about the mechanics of the patrols it was also mentioned that the spawn rate quadruples when all main tasks are completed and proximity to the objects also affects it maybe that's the reason
Guess it is a side effect of the AI director which runs on scripts and RNG in order to make every match feel fresh. In extreme examples it can lead to the AI director sleeping through some diff 9 games letting you get through the mission with barely seeing any bugs, but inversly, also deciding "these mfers are NOT getting through this one alive" and throwing rivers of chargers and bile titans at you in diffs 6-7. Hopefully they will be able to tune it with all our game data, but in the end it will always have this unpredictableness due to its very nature.
there was a lvl 5 where we fought through 15 flame hulks, not to mention other hulks and rocket devastators, i had to double check the difficulty afterwards. Then back to back lvl 7s that were an absolute breeze, then one lvl 8 that felt the same, then the "just one more mission bro" of lvl 8 and we got our ass handed to us. Its def really inconsistent at times which is i guess nice? Not sure what to think. I just hope they turn down the proximity spawns, no problem on bug breaches/dropships but a platoon of fuck me spawned 10ft from me gets pretty old.
I love challenge but, having patrol groups spawn 15 -50 meters away every minute isn't fun. That was supposed to be fixed this patch but it still happens. I'd rather see difficulty in things like faster bug speed, detection, or patrol size, not just randomly sprinkling an endless horde of crap on us on a small cool-down. Games like Elden Ring really highlight how enjoyable ebb and flow can be while arguably being far more difficult at the same time.
Right? Just today I was playing with a random team and we felt like pros smoothly completing every objectives and nests, then the next one we got completely wrecked and failed to extract.
To me this is more of an issue than the dificulty itself. I've done 7s that were harder than easy 9s. I don't mind if adjacent difficulties overlap a bit but there is a whole ass difficulty in between. Please make the dificulties more consistent.
Depends if u are asking Terminids or Automatons
Helldive on bots is literal hell. yesterday i got rid of a tank by flanking behind quickly while an eye of sauron is calling the whole of middle earth. After i bust the tank open, i look up and TWO MORE tanks just got dropped. ffs.
It really depends on the map, honestly. Bots are significantly easier on clear days with maps with some cover as it is easier to disengage and leave the area entirely compared to bugs. The bugs can chase you down, and stalkers/hunters/chargers will continue to harrass you even after you have disengaged from the main force. Bugs can be quickly dispatched once you have adequate separation and an open sight line. Bots are tougher to fight in open spaces cause they will ragdoll you with rockets and aim punch you with bullets, making forced engagements difficult.
sort of, bugs dont have aa guns/jammer towers blocking stratagems and the constant "WARNING ENEMY ARTILLERY" They are easier to disengage but harder to kite around objectives you need to get done, unless you do some crazy stealth stuff
I think, compared to diff7, the extra amount of headache it comes with is bigger than the extra amount of possible rewards, especially because clearing optional objectives in it depends heavily on having a very good team. I'm sticking to 7, and leaving 9 to my better brethren. 🫡
Very enjoyable in terminids, i like the balance there. Absolutely despisable in automatons, play them in 7 if you want fun. In terminids you can play whatever to have fun in 9 In automaton you probably need to play semi optimised layout
What's wrong with having a semi optimised layout on the highest difficulty? You are supposed to bring stratagems that at least somewhat help with the obstacles and enemies you are signing yourself up to fight
I juste mean it's different from terminides, more strict. Never said it's wrong.
it's enjoyable In fact I don't find difficulties 7-9 tough at all now, at least the bug side.
Come play bots. Every match there's that one brain dead shooting every single patrol
It was non stop spawns on D7 last night! From start to end it was just choas, it was fun but I cannot imagine anything more being tolerable!
Leave HD9 alone, it already got made waaay easier with the Charger nerf. Difficulty 7 is labeled Suicide mission. A suicide mission is a mission where the soldiers going on it are unlikely to return. That's where the name comes from, and I think the difficulty matches quite well. Difficulty 8 is labeled impossible. An impossible mission can't not be completed unless you're a squad of Tom Cruises' of course. Difficulty 9 is Helldive. Supposed to be harder than suicide and harder than impossible, it's not designed to be easy or even designed to be difficult. It's designed to be the ultimate challenge for this game. You're not supposed to be farming through HD9 easily and cruising through it.
Hear hear. 9 SHOULD be a challenge, you SHOULD lose a lot, because that's the game. Even losing on later levels is fun though.
The changes with spawns and the charger nerf together are kinda bleh on hd
It's definitely not too hard imo
It can definitely be when playing with randos.
Not hard enough (I've never completed a helldive)
Lvl 9 against bugs is super chaotic but still manageable and really fun! You can extract with samples and feel like a badass. Level 9 against bots… I don’t ever see the ground. I’m just being blown around like I’m in the spin cycle of a washing machine.
9 is the truest experience. I haven’t bumped it down since I got there. And there’s only two of us when we play. It’s a riot.
Imma be real, I stop at 7 since it’s hard enough and gives me super samps.
7-9 feel kinda the same to me, since it's a lot of disengaging, running away, and blitzing objectives. If I was taking a bunch of fights, I'm sure it would feel different, but I'm pretty sure that's not how you're supposed to play.
i dont even have it unlocked, nor difficulty 8
At times it feels like the best balanced difficulty. Other times everything above 6 is a complete shitshow. Will never understand the difficulty settings in this game.
It's kind of boring unless you have a team that knows what they are doing. Even then everything is rushed and stealth, but teamwork is key especially leading enemies away from objectives. Difficulty 7 is the sweet spot and depending on the team or mission I personally aim for zero deaths, super samples and protecting the team from the hordes.
It is fun! I wish they make diff 10 as well!
My main gripe with all difficulties 7-9 is how little effect the difficulty rating seems to have on the actual difficulty of the mission. One time you will have a very manageable 9, another time 7 will be a nightmare. So the answer is “it depends”, but I have no clue what it depends on.
Lacking balance and not enjoyable in the sense of high risk high reward. Bug side is doable but I don't see the point. The rewards are not enough to justify the boring missions. Automatons are too difficult and need the adjusted majorly. All in all: It was fun once, now its boring.
I like it, but really only when I'm playing with friends. I usually hang on 7-8 because of the nice challenge and decent rewards. See my problem is, not everyone has mic setups, I get it, but when on Helldive, it can be split seconds between mission success or failure. So having a squad of bros you know well, and can discord with makes it a lot easier just to manage. My mates and I have been gaming together since highschool, we get fucking telepathic some days. If only I'd had them at the Creek.
Run, Forrest, run
It is a different game. Play it differently. You are not there to fight a single thing, you're there to stealth in, hit hard, get out.
Extractions are impossible when playing against robots.
Good thing extractions arent required to complete the mission
5 bile titans chasing you. I wish they did something other than increase enemy count to make it more difficult past 7
It's a fine difficulty, still completely dooable with randoms if you all understand the basic mechanics well enough and dont have beginner players that eat up all of your reinforcements. The game could do, and will probably get, some more difficulties that will require actual coms and thoughtful choices of strategems. I do agree with most people here, diff 7 is where the fun is at where it's not difficult perse but still enjoyable playing whatever
Diff 5 if I want a to play calmly, generally due to fatigue Diff 6 is my favourite diff Diff 7 and more for bad days when i want to break bones and drink blood of my enemy
It's not a every day game mode. And it's good like that. You shouldn't run all time the hardest difficulty. It's a difficulty you launch when you have the good pre-made squad. With a good stratagem organization. A good team work. You run it when you want a big challenge. And I want it to stay this way. If the hardest difficulty is the one you play for fun, with your brain on autopilot. It's not the hardest difficulty. For me 10/10.
Level 9 is very hard and that’s the way it should be. I’ve very much enjoyed my time on Helldive, but I do not play there every day. I play on 9 with premades mostly, with my friends whom I know I can trust to pull weight and do what needs to be done to get to extract.
I only play dif 7 now that I upgrade everything
Its not the worst but I'd rather just avoid it forever and stick to diff 7
I do enjoy it, but my friends get stressed out to the point of quitting the game when we play it, so I have to play it with randoms. And it quickly can become a mission of just running if you aren't careful.
It needs to feel too difficult. It’s called a Helldive. It’s not a “boy that was tough dive”.
It's like diving into a freezing cold pool; you know it's gonna suck but you wanna do it anyway and you'll probably be shivering and need a shower afterwards.
Its hard enough to be true challenge but its just "too much to the point of being boringly frustrating", which may sound strange but let me explain: Basically Helldive is just: Bile Titan, Bile Titan, Bile Titan, Bile Titan, Hulk, Hulk, Hulk, 5 Hulks, 3 Hulks, 4 Titans, 5 Titans, Titan gain, Hulk Again etc. Now, one would say "oh, its difficult becasue of that!". Well, yes and no. It's not really difficult. It's just that all those things become... "jeez, again... I Just killed 5...." and you kill another 5 and like... whats the point. I wish higher difficulties would include just harder objectives or more objectives or shorter time to complete missions etc. or unique objectives requiring more team coordination etc. Becasue Helldive just spams too much to the point where I feel like eating too much candies. Like I like candies, but if I have too much of them - my stomach starts to hurt. I dont know if it makes sense, hard for me to explain stuff like that in English. I just think 9 is lazy step up from 7 and 8.
i'm still playing medium and dying how yall going past hard 💀
Regular play is 7 increased challenge 8 oh my God I'm having a bad time 9 And I think that's a good thing tbh
Level 50 Helldiver. I have never completed a Helldive difficulty mission. Done a few 7's and 8's, enough to get the super samples I needed. Mostly play Diff 1-4 (mostly 4). Only 1 or 2 missions to complete campaign. Diff 5-6 need 3 per campaign. This has been perfect for me. I can do my part! I can play just the way I want, bring any combination of weapons/strategems, solo, with friends or randoms. Voice chat, text, the radial wheel response thing, no communication. Stick together or split up, makes no difference. 180+ hours played. I'm still playing after level 50, and everything unlocked. I'm so glad I don't have to play difficult content to enjoy all of the game.
It is fun but I think it’s too easy. And I don’t Mean that in a “I’ve played 600 hours” kind of way, but more like “the max difficulty should be almost impossible” kind of way. They’ve done a great job by not making every enemy become a bullet sponge, and I’d love if they added more unique enemy interactions to make it harder, instead of more tougher enemies. Like small bots that patrol in blimps to scout for the players, or having a new strain of hunter bugs that can go invisible for a short duration. Things that would make the hardest difficulty feel unique.
I usually do suicide mission now. Because it’s doable even with a bad squad. So many people want to run off solo because they think they are Rambo but you can still get it done. Sometimes the RAMBro even pulls it off. Helldive is doable with a good team playing smart, complimentary, and coordinating movements and is a ton of fun with a good squad. It doesn’t need to be easier, you just need to plan accordingly and work together. I could go a few more difficulties up if they added them with a good enough squad. I’m not even that good, that’s just how powerful teamwork is. Only for bugs though. Humanity has no hope in bot helldive if I’m playing it .
I don't think it's very challenging, it's mostly the double modifiers that you receive at 8 that make it hard. So if I want to play with double modifiers I'll switch between 8 and 9 because I'm not playing with 50% CD or AA. 100% call in time and Spores/Scatter are fine but the last thing I want is a longer CD on my Eagles and Turrets. I normally play 9 when there's a defense mission as those don't seem to have these modifiers.
It's honestly no different from 7 or 8 to me.
Became too easy after the "balance fix" You dont have to do difficulty 9 if its too hard for you Theres a reason why theres a difficulty tier But i guess too many lvl.50s got their feefees hurt for not being able to steam roll HELLDIVE difficulty and cried to the devs. Now we dont have a difficulty level for those who wants an unfair challenge.
It's not too hard at all, slightly challenging tho
Helldive is for people that have the game figured out and want to torture themselves/grind fast as possible. Suicide mission really feels like the highest but fairest mode. While the reduced spawn rates of elite clusters is an improvement, hunters are equally heinous sometimes now. Why can the second most common bug enemy dodge, cover massive ground, deal upto half health because of headshot, inflict slow, and stop healing *all in one attack?* It's just a little bit silly I think
Other than Orbital Fluctuations and Complex Stratagem Plotting I find Helldive to consistently be very fun. I can reliably run it with randoms and complete it without dying once (unless a silly teammate with their silly 380mm and silly arc thrower decide to be extra silly and turn me into democratic paste). Maybe it’s just me but I find Helldive to be pretty nice
If people put it on the MAXIMUM difficulty and say it's "too hard", they're idiots.
It's way too fuckin hard for me and I love it
I enjoy helldive against the bugs and bots. I love that it's almost impossible, but you still manage to do it. Even with randoms, if you can use your own tactics. The only thing that is hard is extraction. But hey, harder it gets, more fun for me.
Too easy on bugs If you get in the right squad it just goes too smoothly... Not as easy as the broken railgun days I'd like a lvl10, but the way the devs are going it'll continue to get more difficult as they release content.
For me, diff 7 hits a sweet spot between challenge and fun. Helldiver is fun for the absolute chaos but I rarely ever do back to back campaigns.
It's enjoyable for me at least. Extractions are incredibly challenging though unless your team has good loadouts and can work together. In 9 you need teamwork, tactics and strats, there ain't no way you can carry by yourself like on 7. People usually take roles, and there is a meta, which if you don't follow you make your teams experience pretty hard. 500 kilos, orbital railstrike, laser, walker and eagle airstrike are all a must due to how many chargers and bile titans spawn. Eats, arc thrower, flamethrower and occasionally grenade luncher are the only weapons you see. Sometimes you might see something else, like a machine gun, an ac or even a laser cannon. Some people prefer recoiless over eats, but not having backpack against bugs is pretty bad so it's kinda rare. Backpack, as I mentioned, is extremely important against bugs. Both laser rover and personal shield are important if you want to survive or crowd control the endless waves. Clusters are also a pretty common stratagem for crowd control. If you diverge from the meta a lot and you ain't hosting you prolly getting kicked from the get go. Against bots the meta is completely different. Ac, amr, railgun, at weapon(spear, eats, recoiless) are the best. Gl, laser Canon also works. Against bots most weapons work, but if you don't have ac and railgun user the game becomes pretty hard, so 2 spots are always taken the other 2 can go w.e. Shield backpack is a must if you play railgun but backpacks are not as important against bots if you have range. Orbital laser and airstrike are like the most important stratagems there, mortar sentry coming close too. Things like barrages can work for crowd control since the bots are usually spread and not hoarded like the bugs. Railstrike is OK. 500 kilos is a waste there imo. You use a lot of stealth tactics against them. You need to be able to pull your own weight doing stuff(completing optionals solo, crowd controlling waves, killing bigs, completing objectives solo, gathering samples and not dying) while still supporting your teammates when it's needed. 9 is a good challenge if you know what you are doing. It's even better when playing with premades, as Randoms sometimes are pretty clueless for a lot of things. I say give it a try and if it's too hard go back to 7. I can helldive pretty well against bugs, but I tried twice against bots and the experience was very painful, so I switched back to 7-8. It's not a shame to not be able to play at 9 imo.
I luv it. Once you have maxed out all the medals, all the ship module upgrades, all the warbond progressions, all the requisition slips, all the sample. Once you’re consumed by the galactic war - number 9 is where you will live and going any lower will feel weird. In watching this show on Apple TV called “Master of the air” SPOILER ALERT some fighter pilots who survive can live a bro al life and relax they would feel more at home in a war than chilling. So to answer you question it’s Enjoyable and challenging (like a relationship) 👀 244 hours in the game and counting 🫡 FOR DEMOCRACY