Helldivers 2 Could Borrow a Simple Destiny 2 Feature to Boost Endgame Difficulty

Helldivers 2 was one of the biggest game releases of 2024. No one expected a co-op shooter from a relatively unknown developer to peak at almost half a million concurrent players on Steam. But it did. And while the game has had a rocky but consistent road since, the endgame is something that could use improvement.

Arrowhead Game Studios has done a great job of listening to the community post-launch and this player’s suggestion for more endgame diversity is what the game needs right now. The best part is that there is an already existing game that already has these suggested features and Arrowhead can take inspiration.

The Helldivers 2 community always has new suggestions

As of right now, there are ten difficulty settings in Helldivers 2. These range from Trivial to Super Helldive and have increasing enemy count, stronger enemies, and improved rewards. Even with ten levels though, players seem to be finding the experience a bit boring.

If you’re a high-level player who’s played from Day 1, you probably don’t find the hardest difficulty too challenging. Luckily for you though, Helldivers 2 didn’t win an award for being bad. Arrowhead has been on top of community feedback and this could be another instance.

His idea for new difficulties and balance is genius.
byu/BeltMaximum6267 inHelldivers

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But it doesn’t have to be this way. One user on Reddit suggested a really cool idea that a lot of Helldivers have gotten behind. u/cosmicSpitfire on Reddit suggested that the game should have five additional difficulties past the existing ten and each level after it could have unique modifiers. His suggestions include the following.

• Scorched Earth – Orbital Barrages are constantly being fired. (Similar to the old DSS)
• Big Leagues – Heavy enemy spawn rate increased, other spawn rates decreased
• Infestation – Heavy enemy spawn rate massively decreased, all other spawn rates doubled/tripled
• One-way Trip – Extraction is Disabled, and enemy spawn rates and side objectives increased.
• Fools Gold – the number of collectible samples DOUBLED, but the reinforcement budget HALVED.

Luckily for Arrowhead, there’s a looter shooter that has features that are pretty similar to what u/cosmicSpitfire is suggesting. Destiny 2 has game modes like Grandmaster Nightfalls and Tomb of Elders that feature modifiers that change how every mission or raid plays out. For example, the Grounded modifier increases damage taken while airborne, and Counterfeit turns dropped items into explosives.

Arrowhead has a good track record of being attentive to the fans

Adding activity modifiers to Helldivers 2 could address its late-game monotony. Arrowhead has done a lot for the game in terms of post-launch support. And this includes listening to a lot of our community suggestions regarding weapon balance, new content, and other things. This is another great example for the devs to take some notes.

Instead of simply increasing enemy numbers or health pools, a new mechanic or feature like this would add a new layer to the game entirely instead of just making it harder to play the same game. Because if you’re just making enemies tougher and the player weaker, it doesn’t change the game’s content so the same monotony is sure to return. This way, every mission in Helldivers 2 can have a unique tough.

Borrowing from Destiny 2 doesn’t mean copying it outright. Instead, Helldivers 2 could tailor modifiers to its unique co-op and strategic gameplay. For example, mission modifiers could alter the reinforcement system, disable certain weapons, or increase the importance of objectives like resource collection. The community probably has a lot more ideas if Arrowhead is actually open to something like this.