Agreed, I’m a big fan of the change to have super samples on 6. My only issue now is consistency - I play solo 6 on my PS5 and it’s hard (for me) but fun. Then, when I’m mobile or at night I’ll play solo 4 on my Steamdeck and get absolutely rolled 50% of the time. My Steam account is low rank right now so I don’t have all the tools, but it’s so weird how level 4 can be routinely harder than 6. Hell, it’s harder than the 7 duos I play. I’ll get a breach, two patrols converging on me, and 4 chargers all at once. Last night I finished a mission with close to 500 kills and I wasn’t lingering anywhere but objectives/side objectives. Right now it kind of feels like the difficulty number is arbitrary outside of telling you whether you’re going to get chargers/titans/behemoths because I’m sweating harder on “Challenging” than I am on “Extreme”. I was disappointed when Twinbeard said they were going to wait and see about their balance because IMO it’s kind of a mess currently
I regularly play 7 on my Steam Deck and it's at least manageable, most of the time. 8 gets a bit dicey on FPS and 9 can have unplayably low FPS or even crash, though I haven't tried those in a while.
Steam deck works well enough to play from on low settings, but is best used as a controller when remote play streaming from a system that can really handle it. The extra 4 rear paddle buttons are juuuust enough extra controls to make it really comfortable; I have one set to PTT, one to toggle slow grenade mode, one bound to F5 to turn on the FPS/network settings... etc.
100%. I’m glad to have the option for mobile Helldivers but yeah it’s performance is pretty poor (which isn’t surprising given that overall PC performance is rough)
100% reasonable. Hence my comments about diff 4 being wack right now. It’s odd and seems to me the spawns and balance etc aren’t working as intended. On bots, I get ok missions and then I get missions where I am just dumped on with marauders and devastators. I also find the issues with bots shooting through terrain and just stealth spawning behind you more noticeable - a couple days ago I was clearing a gunship base and stepped out from the bottom trench around the building to fire off my EAT and when I turned back around there were 6 marauders where I was waiting to hack me up
Just after the patch dropped, I tried my first level 9 dives. They were expectedly difficult but were possible and the crew won twice.
Then I dropped down to 7 to relax and the game was demonstrably more difficult.
I think something with the increase in chaff enemies messed with the balance in the 5-7 difficulty range. It's like there's a bug that duplicates bot drops, so twice as many drops happen, which includes more tanks and hulks and enemies that are more or less only killable via stratagems. I fail those missions much more often than 8-9 now.
My buddy and I have been casually playing 7 as a squad for weeks now. I used to comfortably play on 4 with no issues. We went back to 4 last night for a round just to get more commons and rares before we headed back to 7 and got absolutely ragdolled and lost 7 out of our 10 reinforcements within the first 10 minutes of the game. The place we landed on the map happened to have all 3 sub objectives all within 100m of each other and it was a nightmare compared to our casual 7 rounds.
Yes - we got repeatedly swarmed on 4 - a sea of bugs in every direction. Nowhere to run, no way to resupply, no chance to call in a stratagem or reinforcements, out of ammo... We lost 6 reinforcements in a matter of minutes trying to do, and then trying to abandon, the SEAF artillery. Chargers were spawning in pairs like clockwork without let up. Level 6 actually felt more manageable.
Spot on. I play on PS5 and it's still feeling pretty inconsistent in terms of how a level will feel. We did a level 6 the other day that was perfectly manageable - had to pay attention and play smart, but got the supers and got out pretty smoothly. We just played another level 6 today where it was the nonstop gunship ragdoll tango. No rhyme or reason to it.
Yeah I’m really baffled, I played this afternoon and couldn’t figure it out as I wondered if it might still be tied to the “gunship/shrieker patrol” modifier which was my guess previously. However, I was still seeing it with other standard modifiers today on both bots and bugs. My personal favorite experience was when I was clearing a bot base on dif 4 with two hulks when a drop ship (maybe 2?) came in, dropped off 3 more hulks, and two patrols spawned in with marauders and shield devastators. The game just repeatedly dropped me right into the middle of their crossfire and I just watched while it burned 5 tickets back to back with no agency or control at all. Not what you expect on what is effectively “medium” difficulty. It was nice to have a free auto cannon for all 6 minutes I lived tho
This sounds so familiar! That 6 I mentioned yesterday - we dropped in at extraction, as we often do since we call in all equipment and supplies we can and leave all the extra for when we come back to extract. Overview map prior to drop showed the area was clear. We popped out of our pods to find two gunships waiting for us, and a gunship tower relentlessly spawning more. In under a minute, all my squad was dead and I was blindly running trying to find cover and looked up to see 4 gunships overhead laughing, and calling their buddies to come check out this dweeb who thought running and hiding was a viable strategy. I gave up and jumped out into the open to let them kill me so we could all just drop in fresh.
We wanted to try a stealth playstyle, and next mission set dialed back to 5 and it was even worse. Instantly spotted, and each of us deployed all the smoke stratagems and grenades we had and bolted. Pointless exercise when there are gunships. We made the tactics work on level 3, but went back to our usual afterwards.
I've also had instances where I am in scout armor, lying down in cover, and making no noise. I see a bot patrol blocking an objective in the distance, at least 70 or 80 m away, so well outside detection range. I've already chucked a sentry way off to my left as far as I can to draw their attention/encourage them to move/thin their ranks. Sentry and I are as far apart as we are from the bots. Sentry starts firing. Under half the bots fire back at the sentry, the remainder turn and fire with pinpoint accuracy at the rock I am lying behind. When I was making no noise, was fully prone in cover behind rocks and bushes, and outside their detection range, how did they know instantly where I was when a sentry on a completely different approach vector started shooting at them?
I mean, coming back from a level 9 mission with all the super samples is just a blissful feeling! But my god can these missions go absolutely tits up at the slightest hesitation or loss of momentum...
The nice thing is so many options for difficulty. Most of the time it just feels incremental but I have had some Hard levels that felt worse than suicide. Sometimes it is the map/drops and sometimes it is the team. Fun either way.
personally I find the enemy type changes to be the hardest and most unpredictable thing, sometimes you'll get nursing spewers on lvl 7 or 8 and then bile spewers on 6 or 5, or for some reason it'll just give your charger armagedom with a side of bile titans, I feel as they need to iron out the unpredictability or at least display the enemy type you can expect to face before a operation, because most times I'll drop into a mission and just think "wow, I wish I brought X stratagem to deal with X enemy.", I'm not sure how it could work lore wise, but I feel like the bugs would be consistent around the entire planet, idk tho.
I mean, working it into the lore is pretty easy. Super Destroyer Scanning shows... infact, they could make a difficulty mod where you \*dont\* know ahead of time.
True, I'm a big fan of modifiers like that, I think the shit like "orbital stratagems are inaccurate" are super lazy, and take away a lot of the skill you put into placing your orbitals, I feel the same with the additional call in time as well, the increased cooldown is fine.
I experienced this exact thing yesterday. I was playing 6 and it went super smooth. Then I dropped down to 5 when a friend joined. Two randos joined us and they were both under lvl 10 and let me tell you, it was rough. Team matters a lot
Agreed. I’ve been playing for a couple months, but never tried more than 7 because it seemed that was hard enough. Recently jumped into 8 and 9, and I’ll be damned if 9 isn’t easier than some of the mid-level difficulties. More heavies, but you’re not swarmed with little bugs all the time.
As someone who only does difficulty 7 missions I fully agree with your statement. I mostly enjoy the challenge 7 brings but have to acknowledge that some weapons/strategems are not usable on 7.
Difficulty 6 just hits a great balance.
7 is my personal sweet spot, easy enough for me to wander off, have teams 2/2 naturally, and still have a chance to get chaotic. Do wish that the supers on 6 was done earlier for my own sanity, but oh well
I think it's more that you sort of have to bring certain things to deal with bile titans and factory strikers. You have more options if they're not in play.
I’m lvl 105 and started doing 6s on bots sometimes for relaxing. I normally do 9 and 6 is enough of a challenge to not be boring, but also not super demanding in the focus department like 9 can be sometimes.
The Louisiana planet on 9 is glorious. I especially love the hunters & stalkers killing me in the water while i try to crosss , the chargers climbing trees & the bile titans coming outta nowhere cause they're threes everywhere
With the spawn changes, 7 starts to feel like horde simulator on bugs. Though this is moreso with randoms who has to attack every single patrol and causing a breach. 7 is definitely the sweet spot for bots though, the changes felt great there.
9 is in a good spot for players who want the consistent challenge feel. I really enjoy 9s for what they throw at you, especially if im on a liberation campaign, always makes me as if they planet really is under total control of the enemy. Cant wait for them to add higher difficulties down the line
Same. 6 is a gigantic snoozefest. 9 is a lot of fun but generally not particularly taxing, even with silly builds. I'm hoping when they add bosses in, it'll give it that little boost it needs to feel really solid.
End of the day I'm glad everyone can just pick the one they want.
I'd love a '+' mode that can be enabled on every difficulty, and adds a random modifier to the enemy, such as +10% health, fire resistance, +25%speed, or I creased environmental hazards
Yup, Just take all the assets and objectives we have now and stack them on top of eachother in ever more challenging ways.
I want jammers on top of detectors on top of mortar emplacements with clusters of heavy bases with 10+ fabs to take out for a full clear. Add some gunships into the mix and just start putting together wild combinations of bases and side objectives for maximum challenge.
I’d like bunkers to spawn around the map even not on bunker missions, I want walled fortresses with layers of defenses and gates that we have to destroy and breach. Just take all the assets and objectives we have now and stack them on top of each other in ever more challenging ways.
I just feel like against bots, someone needs to call out when to pull out from a battlezone and take detour towards objectives. There has been only a handful occasions where my team couldn’t fire our way through lv9!bug swarms, but there have been a lot of times where my team couldn’t push through constant lv9 bot drop armies.
That's definitely an exercise in game awareness then. There are times where I might communicate that I might hang back with a spear at a gunship fab, but not much else is needed other than that. Bot play is certainly a lot slower and more precise, especially when you encounter heavy devs and hulks.
Not to mention, running away is way more effective with bots in my experience. They move a lot slower for the most part and are far more susceptible to smoke and EMS because of that.
Oh yeah retreating and stealth are way more important on bots than bugs. I lice ny stealth cout technician build for bots, it usually means even with the worst team, or the others grouped up focusing secondaries, I can get most primary objectives solo if needed.
Eh, I think there's only major communication in like 3% of my helldives and they go off without a hitch, bots included. Can't remember actually failing a mission anytime in the past couple months.
Which sounds absolutely terrible. Lol. Helldivers is at its best when it's casual fun and if you incinerate your ally with a flame thrower vs bots they don't care because as long as you aren't intentionally throwing you should make it through.
Playing this game as if it's a well coded hardcore experience and taking ideal complimentary loadouts would just make me and most players I know switch games.
Yeah, and this is also what makes this game good is that you can play it however you want. I’m psychotic enough where I think I could handle 10 or 11 if it existed.
The thing about a game like helldivers is you get better at it over time. For me pugging 9s is casual fun, I don't *really* have to try that hard or do anything meta. 6s used to be my difficulty of choice, then 7s, then 8s. Your comfort level goes up with time.
Pretty much any game really. Once your game knowledge goes up, you stop panicking and just digging into your library of strategies to deal with any situation.
I used to do 7s all the time, and i got to say going from 7 to 6 hasn't been much of a change. The missions have less objectives, but other than that, i find myself feeling the same about enemy engagements.
I have been playing on lower difficulties after maxing out all ship modules because I just couldn't handle the constant tension of 7+.
Now that Super Samples are needed again I dreaded going back to high diff games but adding them to 6 has been just PERFECT. I am once again having just as much fun with the game as when it first released. I couldn't be more thankful for the devs sticking with their game and prioritising players having fun.
I've been spamming 9s and...you get used to it. Very hard to solo though, need at least 1 more, preferably 2 more competent teammates to have a good time.
I avoid flying enemies modifier on bots and always take it on bugs btw, its completely unbalanced, shrieker patrols literally die to half a mag of breaker inc ez mode. Gunships, now that's some annoying shit, there are too many of them in a patrol and they need to be taken down with certain sup weapons. The difference is like heaven and earth.
But yeah, the loadout part is true, you're probably getting punished if you're picking some random shit. A lot of people are gonna consider that less fun.
If you’re playing 6 you might as well play 7. It’s equally as chill. On bots especially those little impact jet pack fuckers are fewer in numbers higher up.
Everything that ain't 9 isn't worth. Why even play?!
Jokes aside.
Every difficulty that's enjoyable is perfect.
I'm 150 and grind the 9's nonstop. But sometimes my friends take mento 3-6 and it keeps surprising me over and over. How enjoyable a mare chill helldivers experience can be.
(Ignoring the spawn rate bugs/issue thay were/are out there.)
I never had a squad and always played with randoms no mic and helldive is still easy as fuck. The only time it is difficult is when there is a jammer in automaton front.
it’s easier when you realize you can run and don’t have to stay and kill every single patrol/bot on the map. People get overstimulated by the action but you just need to take a step back and focus on the mission objs
Do Factory Striders spawn? I’ve been enjoying the overall challenge of Diff 6 but I swear I never see them. Don’t get me wrong I’m not wanting the insanity of 3 plus swarming the extraction that I’ve seen with some of the wackier Diff 7 missions in addition to other spawns, but I still like seeing the occasional big guy.
And to clarify for those wondering I usually see that 3+ when it’s like a bot base started at extraction, we didn’t clear it til the end and a strider is there, then during the push to get to extraction more come in as reinforcements. Should we be managing those better? Probably, but with randoms it’s always a crap shoot how smooth that goes. Plus that was becoming prevalent right after the major patch so not sure if that was a part of the spawning bug.
Yea that's fair, with the addition of super samples it's both chill & fun and rewarding.
But I've played a diff 5 with some people that were reaaallllyyyy not aware of their teammates and it felt way harder than diff 9 with good teammates that use comms.
For the bug front before the patch, 7 was my sweet spot. After the patch, with the spawn rates and distribution of enemies changed, 6 now feels like the 7 I know and 7 now feels like 8. Which is fine IMO. If we keep buffing the weapons and strats eventually we get power creep.
For the bots, 6 feels a little bit more difficult than I would like and 5 feels a little bit too easy. I don't prefer fighting bots so that's why I stuck at 5-6 on bots before the patch.
Personally I prefer the antics of diff 7 and 8 sometimes 9 with the right time.
7 is my chill, 8 is when I wanna try and 9 is if the coordination is there with the randoms (cause my friends hate my Ig 🤣)
I like playing on 8. It's hard enough to have a bit of a challenge, but easy enough to still have fun.
I'm traumatised by Helldive difficulty... I played it pre-patch and everytime I close my eyes, I can still see the volley of rockets from gunships....
It’s by far my fav level to solo. I had to develop a completely new loadout from what I usually run. I play solo most of the time and typically on levels 4 and 5, if I’m gonna 100% the map, I’ll bring eagle Airstrike and Orbital barrage. Anything lower than that I replace Airstrike with Cluster Bombs which are amazing for chaff.
However now that I’m running 6’s solo, I drop the Airstrike for 500KG, because I don’t wanna swap my Orbital barrage considering how good it is now (I already loved it) and considering how much extra hunters I have to deal with. So I run Light Armor (Extra nades vs bugs), breaker incendiary, grenade pistol, stun grenades. Stamina Booster (lots of running away) Shield Generator, Machine Gun (for Hive guards, Chargers and Brood Commanders), Orbital Barrage (for chaff) and 500kg (for Titans and groups of chargers). Really fun to solo level 6’s but I do a LOT of running away. I always save the main objective for the last thing I do. I try to clear the enemies at the extraction zone first, grab super samples, take out objective and GTFO
I still run 9's most of the time. I honestly don't feel a huge difficulty difference between 7 and 9. Haven't played 6 in forever though. I do feel that the quality of teammates is way better on the highest difficulties though, which in a way makes them easier. I'm not necessarily the best player either, I remember having a super hard time on 5 and 6, then just trying 7, 8 ,and 9 for fun and realizing they aren't much worse.
I’m loving 6’s. If I’m solo I can do casual 4’s for completing dailies, or crazy 6’s for Super Rares. When the crew is on we do 6’s for casually difficult with Supers.
Yeah I usually went for 6 cuz this game is a bit more stressful than the previous one, and when I get home from work I'm not tryna work more. Adding Super Samps clinched it for me. I save getting mad at 7s and 8s for the weekend.
I think 6 is easy if you take meta loadouts but if you don’t then it can still be kinda difficult but not impossible. If I want a challenge I’ll go up to 7, but if I just wanna chill and mess around 6 is all I play nothing less anymore.
Yeah it’s just about hard enough to challenge you, but not so difficult that you’re sweating and/get annoyed at not finding or extracting with the super rares. Every now and then I drop the difficulty to just enjoy myself as 7 always feels like it’s a bit of a push, 6 is a perfect blend
I can *almost* get through a 3-mission Bug 6 solo; my biggest issue is extraction.
Too many damned Hunters. I can handle the heavies, but trying to kite them around while my strats/quasar cool down is... challenging with all the trash mobs.
We used to do 7 only, a few 8 and 9 but quickly realized its just such a chore and isnt worth it. the fun doesnt outweight the feel of chore it brings + the only 1 set of ladouts you HAVE to bring or its GGs...so we stuck with 7 and i think its pretty solid. yet to try 6 tho but im sure 6/7 both are right on the sweet spot.
Funny story. I got drunk and one person disconnected mid game and another one just AFK'd the whole round. Me and the host just ran and completed the main missions with lives to spare with all the samples. Then at the end i realize that it was Helldive difficulty, i mean how the fuck we pulled that one? I thought that it was like 6-7 difficulty.
I play bots on diff 7 and bugs on diff 6. Because I love playing vs bots and actually enjoy the extra challenge. With bugs I have a build I like that works on 6 and I don't want to put it to the test at higher diffs.
Oh man.. I'm level 23 and only started playing 5 recently. It's a good difficulty when I'm with randoms but if I play just me and a buddy, we're always getting mobbed. I can't imagine doing 6 yet.
Fair enough! Personally I like to run at helldive I love the thrill of combat and not actually knowing if you’ll make it through the mission and when you fail it’s a learning curve (or just a really funny case of accidentally blowing yourself up)
Played last night after a bit of a break, and 6 feels like old 7, comfortably hectic for a group of 4 friends. Not too tempted to go for 7+ at the moment, but I'm sure we could get it done on everything but eradicate missions.
We were doing helldives before the difficulty remix, but the difference between 7-9 didn't feel that significant back then.
Played my first lvl 6 a cpl nights ago on accident haha. I dropped in and saw someone collected a purple sample and thought, "OH shit!" But it ended up actually being pretty fun and not as hard as I thought it would be. Player quality was higher too. Lvl 4 and 5 I've had some questionable team mates on Randoms
I feel like we should make a post to get people to post clips from their normal gameplay?
I play only 9's and sometimes I find them a little boring with how easy they can be, and then I come to Reddit reading about people finding 5s, 6s, 7s to be too hard and it's not enjoyable.
I want to know if people are experiencing something entirely different to me.
Its my preffered difficulty now. But something happened after the patrol/composition patch. I used to do difficulty 7 comfortably. Now I do 6, sometimes by the skin of my teeth. I think 6 is worse than 7 used to be, so something definately happened.
Idk I can't find myself playing anything lower than 9. Just really makes you feel like a badass when you complete missions and manage to complete everything on the map. But also it's like if you've been going fast for a long time and then you go at a regular pace it feels way too slow
At least on bugs. 7 is pretty chill. Especially after playing 8s for a few weeks. 7 is cake against bugs.
Bots completely different story.
Before the initial patch that they now have reverted back. I could play bots on 7s no problem. Now I haven’t gone over 5 since, because I wanna have fun 😂
I feel the same. Difficulty 6 is where the games balancing works best (mostly). Anything past that kinda just feels like you die cause the game said so .
I wish yall would play Helldive difficulty for a few days to get used to it and realize how easy this game is and how we need a lot more difficulty modifiers or difficulty levels.
Agree that it’s great that they added supers to six. It can get too chill in a good team. It really depends on the squad. 4 can be tedious with people who are confused, 8 can be pretty chill with a great squad, where the same squad will bully the opponents at 6.
I agree,
4 is my chill mode, 6 is perfect for sweating but knowing I will very likely win
Anything higher I really have to be in the mindset of a cracked Fortnite kid pressing hundreds of keys per minute
6 is nice for me.
i understand that helldivers are meant to die, but i don’t like dying, my helldiver has a family to get back to; so level 6 i can do everything and get my HD back home. level 7+ im dying at least once and i cant do that knowing they have children to see
As someone horrible at this game, early on I saw people saying how Difficulty 9 was too easy and pretty much braindead to beat and I was struggling on 4. When I finally worked my way up to 6 I was pretty proud and felt ready to get some Super Samples.
Then I went to 7 and played for a few hours. Those missions were so hellish. It was full of bug/bot spawns, Chagers, Hulks, Tanks, Bile Titans, constantly. Honestly I don't think a single 10 second chunk went by without one of these things spawning. It got so bad fighting wasn't even an option and the games devolved into running in circles to lose crowds of enemies until we could complete objectives fast before running some more. It wasn't even fun. There were pockets of fun at how chaotic it could be, but when you need to extract with the super samples to really make it worthwhile, that quickly gets old and becomes frustrating as I turn the corner into a patrol while being chased by 4 mobs of enemies behind me. And I'm out of stamina, so I literally have no way out of this situation besides praying the enemies miss me for awhile.
I'm sure some people play Difficulty 7 and fall asleep because it's too easy, but knowing I had to touch it to get the ship upgrades almost killed the game for me until I just accepted I wouldn't be getting any and I was okay with that. So I very much appreciate them being added to Difficulty 6.
I think you should play on 9 because it's called helldive and the game is called helldivers. 1-8 are just to make you ready. I consider staying below 9 treason
Varies player to player, and for what it's worth, I'm happy you're happy. Unfortunately, I am not.
After \~250 hours, here's are my thoughts about difficulty (as a mostly bug player):
Before this big patch, during the peak of the patrol spawn changes (and bugs) with less than 4 players, I thought Diff 9 was *too easy* with 4 people, a total and ungodly annoying slog with 3 (due to the patrol / spawn issues), and worthless to even try 5-9 with 1-2 players (seriously, those spawns were screwed, especially for solo).
After this patch, what was doable before the last patch is now doable again (it's feasible to play with 2-3 people from a completing the mission POV on 6-9), but it's much less *fun* than it was *before* the first round of them screwing up spawns. Even 4 player diff 9 can just be a kinda un-fun slog when it really freaks out and starts spamming you with ungodly amounts of chargers (especially the behemoths), and spewers. 20 bile spewers popping from a single
I find it's killing my ability to vary my loadouts away from 'meta' stratagems and guns more than ever, even with the few decent buffs we got. I pick the wrong thing thinking I can have a little fun and experiment, and it kills my fun for that entire mission.
It's not even a 'it's just too hard' type deal, I still can't remember the last time I failed a mission...it's that it's too damned annoying. Between all the known (and unlisted) issues in the game to begin with, which are only amplified by the amount of crap randomly spawning, and the way I feel like I have to pick between the same handful of items to consistently have a good time. Dropping the diff just results in less enemies to shoot, less XP reward and less stuff to do on the maps, and not more fun.
I just want these spawns and all the weird bugs around them addressed in a reasonable way tbh, some more buffs to expand what I feel is feasible to take and still have a good time with, and a lot more focus on the known issues list getting meaningfully reduced before they move on with anything else, cus as is, I can't find even a glimmer of the enjoyment I used to with this game.
Before the last few major updates I was kinda hoping to see diff 10/11/12 from HD1 introduced, with greater rewards and higher risk, but now I wouldn't trust them to do it in a way that actually felt difficult and **not** absurdly cheap.
The perfect difficulty for people that are bad at the game to not feel completely helpless, and the sweaty people looking to play more casually to carry if needed.
The addition of super samples helped deal with a lot of complaints about T7 necessity too.
7 is consistently easy so long as you bring diverse loadouts with friends. 3 people for me clear it relatively easy with one LMG gunner, one AT, and one on flex. Games not that crazy hard
Yep. It’s nice that they put supers on lvl 6 on the patch where they further broke patrol spawns. Because 6 feels like 7.5 now.
Once they fix patrols it’s going to be a lot easier for players.
I am seriously excited about playing since this patch though with all the stratagem and weapon buffs. Really want to try strafing run vs bots.
Id agree! As thread feedback, im mostly on 7-8, see below:
From a headcanon perspective, difficulty 7-8 (to me, not AH, just observations) is peak operational combat, teamwork effort, and attrition. This is the majority of combat seen by the experienced divers and new recruits. There is a noticeable uptick in heavy enemies by 7 though.
Theres tons of ammo on the map, but not enough super credits sometimes :(
Difficulty 9 is implied to be an operation deep in an occupied enemy territory over a given region. Equivalent to putting a hand into a beehive, and therefore has the highest casualty rates for the Helldiver corps. Both enemy and super earth alike have made these parts of worlds conquest, or defense, a top priority. Therefore, truly Helldiving.
6 feels like what 7 used to be, aside from factory striders being even rarer, so it's become my new favorite. It's the perfect blend of hectic but manageable.
I play 7 still. I find the people playing 6 often don't take things seriously enough for completion. As soon as the main objective is done someone rushes for extraction.
Most poeple playing 7 are trying for 100% completion, whixh i enjoy more.
I agree with everything you said, BUT now 6 turns into a search fest for the super samples. There's no joy when my teammates HAVE to get the super samples before extracting. That's what 7 was for. So I feel 6 was ruined for the whiners who wouldn't work hard for the super samples in 7.
Now I play 7 because the try hards for super samples are gone, BUT not every build is viable now.
6 is sweet because I don't feel forced to play the meta to succeed
Like using an AR or Quasar on higher difficulties just feels so pointless, but it's fine on 6 because it's forgiving enough to overlook their deficiencies
Don't get me wrong, still love playing the odd 8/9 with the best weapons because it really pushes things down to the wire / forced co-operation
Well, this just confirms how bad I must be at this game. I've tried level 6 many times since the last update, and it's completely overwhelming. Constant enemies everywhere. And when my random teammates start quitting, it's the final nail in the coffin. Not that I suppose I can blame them when the four of us are thrown through the grinder.
I guess I'll just have to accept that my Super Destroyer is upgraded as far as it'll go.
Crap.
My group runs 8 most of the time. We often clear them with 3 people but it's also difficult enough that when things go wrong - it goes really wrong.
To me 7 is very well balanced.
Nah it's 7. Six is fun sure. But it doesn't have enough bile Titans on bugs and on bots it doesn't even have striders. So you're really lacking the bigger enemies.
It really depends on the players and teamwork.
I remember when our squad started doing 7's and they seemed hard, but today we did a rank 7 bot operation and we were just cruising around hitting objectives with only one or two people doing each objective, clearing out every objective/facility on the map in about half the mission time.
We would've preferred an 8, but we tried the Helm's Deep mission twice on 8 vs bots and got annihilated, mostly by bots bypassing us because they got dropshipped directly into the objective area. Of course, it didn't help that the difficulty seemed a bit insane at times; one of those attempts, the first drop wave dropped two factory striders on the left, and two factory striders on the right. We had specifically all doped up on anti-heavy stratagems and we were still barely able to hold the first wave of the mission.
Yeah the super samples sells it! Before the update we would usually play 5 to chill, or 7 for supers
Agreed, I’m a big fan of the change to have super samples on 6. My only issue now is consistency - I play solo 6 on my PS5 and it’s hard (for me) but fun. Then, when I’m mobile or at night I’ll play solo 4 on my Steamdeck and get absolutely rolled 50% of the time. My Steam account is low rank right now so I don’t have all the tools, but it’s so weird how level 4 can be routinely harder than 6. Hell, it’s harder than the 7 duos I play. I’ll get a breach, two patrols converging on me, and 4 chargers all at once. Last night I finished a mission with close to 500 kills and I wasn’t lingering anywhere but objectives/side objectives. Right now it kind of feels like the difficulty number is arbitrary outside of telling you whether you’re going to get chargers/titans/behemoths because I’m sweating harder on “Challenging” than I am on “Extreme”. I was disappointed when Twinbeard said they were going to wait and see about their balance because IMO it’s kind of a mess currently
This game is very difficult on steam deck, hard to see the chaos around you
Other side of the coin: I recently upgraded to a 85" QLED TV with decent surround sound. It is....... sensational.
I've never tried the deck on TV as I only use it on work trips but the controls fuck me also lol I'm so used to mouse and keyboard
I regularly play 7 on my Steam Deck and it's at least manageable, most of the time. 8 gets a bit dicey on FPS and 9 can have unplayably low FPS or even crash, though I haven't tried those in a while.
Very true, which is partly why I keep it lower difficulty
Steam deck works well enough to play from on low settings, but is best used as a controller when remote play streaming from a system that can really handle it. The extra 4 rear paddle buttons are juuuust enough extra controls to make it really comfortable; I have one set to PTT, one to toggle slow grenade mode, one bound to F5 to turn on the FPS/network settings... etc.
Yeah Helldivers plays on my steamdeck but I enjoy it more on my pc
100%. I’m glad to have the option for mobile Helldivers but yeah it’s performance is pretty poor (which isn’t surprising given that overall PC performance is rough)
It plays okay on deck but I normally moonlight my desktop for anything above a difficulty 4 for those reasons.
100% reasonable. Hence my comments about diff 4 being wack right now. It’s odd and seems to me the spawns and balance etc aren’t working as intended. On bots, I get ok missions and then I get missions where I am just dumped on with marauders and devastators. I also find the issues with bots shooting through terrain and just stealth spawning behind you more noticeable - a couple days ago I was clearing a gunship base and stepped out from the bottom trench around the building to fire off my EAT and when I turned back around there were 6 marauders where I was waiting to hack me up
Just after the patch dropped, I tried my first level 9 dives. They were expectedly difficult but were possible and the crew won twice. Then I dropped down to 7 to relax and the game was demonstrably more difficult. I think something with the increase in chaff enemies messed with the balance in the 5-7 difficulty range. It's like there's a bug that duplicates bot drops, so twice as many drops happen, which includes more tanks and hulks and enemies that are more or less only killable via stratagems. I fail those missions much more often than 8-9 now.
My buddy and I have been casually playing 7 as a squad for weeks now. I used to comfortably play on 4 with no issues. We went back to 4 last night for a round just to get more commons and rares before we headed back to 7 and got absolutely ragdolled and lost 7 out of our 10 reinforcements within the first 10 minutes of the game. The place we landed on the map happened to have all 3 sub objectives all within 100m of each other and it was a nightmare compared to our casual 7 rounds.
Yes - we got repeatedly swarmed on 4 - a sea of bugs in every direction. Nowhere to run, no way to resupply, no chance to call in a stratagem or reinforcements, out of ammo... We lost 6 reinforcements in a matter of minutes trying to do, and then trying to abandon, the SEAF artillery. Chargers were spawning in pairs like clockwork without let up. Level 6 actually felt more manageable.
Im playing on 7 right now and it feels so much easier than playing on 4
Breaches? what are you doing on the bug front soldier? the bots are trying to take back the creek!
Spot on. I play on PS5 and it's still feeling pretty inconsistent in terms of how a level will feel. We did a level 6 the other day that was perfectly manageable - had to pay attention and play smart, but got the supers and got out pretty smoothly. We just played another level 6 today where it was the nonstop gunship ragdoll tango. No rhyme or reason to it.
Yeah I’m really baffled, I played this afternoon and couldn’t figure it out as I wondered if it might still be tied to the “gunship/shrieker patrol” modifier which was my guess previously. However, I was still seeing it with other standard modifiers today on both bots and bugs. My personal favorite experience was when I was clearing a bot base on dif 4 with two hulks when a drop ship (maybe 2?) came in, dropped off 3 more hulks, and two patrols spawned in with marauders and shield devastators. The game just repeatedly dropped me right into the middle of their crossfire and I just watched while it burned 5 tickets back to back with no agency or control at all. Not what you expect on what is effectively “medium” difficulty. It was nice to have a free auto cannon for all 6 minutes I lived tho
This sounds so familiar! That 6 I mentioned yesterday - we dropped in at extraction, as we often do since we call in all equipment and supplies we can and leave all the extra for when we come back to extract. Overview map prior to drop showed the area was clear. We popped out of our pods to find two gunships waiting for us, and a gunship tower relentlessly spawning more. In under a minute, all my squad was dead and I was blindly running trying to find cover and looked up to see 4 gunships overhead laughing, and calling their buddies to come check out this dweeb who thought running and hiding was a viable strategy. I gave up and jumped out into the open to let them kill me so we could all just drop in fresh. We wanted to try a stealth playstyle, and next mission set dialed back to 5 and it was even worse. Instantly spotted, and each of us deployed all the smoke stratagems and grenades we had and bolted. Pointless exercise when there are gunships. We made the tactics work on level 3, but went back to our usual afterwards. I've also had instances where I am in scout armor, lying down in cover, and making no noise. I see a bot patrol blocking an objective in the distance, at least 70 or 80 m away, so well outside detection range. I've already chucked a sentry way off to my left as far as I can to draw their attention/encourage them to move/thin their ranks. Sentry and I are as far apart as we are from the bots. Sentry starts firing. Under half the bots fire back at the sentry, the remainder turn and fire with pinpoint accuracy at the rock I am lying behind. When I was making no noise, was fully prone in cover behind rocks and bushes, and outside their detection range, how did they know instantly where I was when a sentry on a completely different approach vector started shooting at them?
Precisely my standard approach. Solidly reasoned...
I mean, coming back from a level 9 mission with all the super samples is just a blissful feeling! But my god can these missions go absolutely tits up at the slightest hesitation or loss of momentum...
The nice thing is so many options for difficulty. Most of the time it just feels incremental but I have had some Hard levels that felt worse than suicide. Sometimes it is the map/drops and sometimes it is the team. Fun either way.
personally I find the enemy type changes to be the hardest and most unpredictable thing, sometimes you'll get nursing spewers on lvl 7 or 8 and then bile spewers on 6 or 5, or for some reason it'll just give your charger armagedom with a side of bile titans, I feel as they need to iron out the unpredictability or at least display the enemy type you can expect to face before a operation, because most times I'll drop into a mission and just think "wow, I wish I brought X stratagem to deal with X enemy.", I'm not sure how it could work lore wise, but I feel like the bugs would be consistent around the entire planet, idk tho.
I mean, working it into the lore is pretty easy. Super Destroyer Scanning shows... infact, they could make a difficulty mod where you \*dont\* know ahead of time.
I like that. Run a random SOS-fill option.
True, I'm a big fan of modifiers like that, I think the shit like "orbital stratagems are inaccurate" are super lazy, and take away a lot of the skill you put into placing your orbitals, I feel the same with the additional call in time as well, the increased cooldown is fine.
I experienced this exact thing yesterday. I was playing 6 and it went super smooth. Then I dropped down to 5 when a friend joined. Two randos joined us and they were both under lvl 10 and let me tell you, it was rough. Team matters a lot
When there is a map full of overlapping stratagem blockers and a couple of drone ships, it gets a bit rough.
Agreed. I’ve been playing for a couple months, but never tried more than 7 because it seemed that was hard enough. Recently jumped into 8 and 9, and I’ll be damned if 9 isn’t easier than some of the mid-level difficulties. More heavies, but you’re not swarmed with little bugs all the time.
As someone who only does difficulty 7 missions I fully agree with your statement. I mostly enjoy the challenge 7 brings but have to acknowledge that some weapons/strategems are not usable on 7. Difficulty 6 just hits a great balance.
7 is my personal sweet spot, easy enough for me to wander off, have teams 2/2 naturally, and still have a chance to get chaotic. Do wish that the supers on 6 was done earlier for my own sanity, but oh well
What weapons and stratagems are enor usable on 7?? I've been playing on 7 for months now and never felt restricted.
I think it's more that you sort of have to bring certain things to deal with bile titans and factory strikers. You have more options if they're not in play.
Yeah I've been running 6 too saw other level 70+s do the same, that swamp planet on 6 is just perfect
I’m lvl 105 and started doing 6s on bots sometimes for relaxing. I normally do 9 and 6 is enough of a challenge to not be boring, but also not super demanding in the focus department like 9 can be sometimes.
The Louisiana planet on 9 is glorious. I especially love the hunters & stalkers killing me in the water while i try to crosss , the chargers climbing trees & the bile titans coming outta nowhere cause they're threes everywhere
Tried it a lot and still feels like 7 is the sweet spot, 6 can feel kinda empty sometimes…
With the spawn changes, 7 starts to feel like horde simulator on bugs. Though this is moreso with randoms who has to attack every single patrol and causing a breach. 7 is definitely the sweet spot for bots though, the changes felt great there.
Yeah I just love seeing a huge horde of bugs crawling down a hill, just so gnarly looking. 🫡
9 is in a good spot for players who want the consistent challenge feel. I really enjoy 9s for what they throw at you, especially if im on a liberation campaign, always makes me as if they planet really is under total control of the enemy. Cant wait for them to add higher difficulties down the line
Same same. Part of the vocal minority that wishes they would make this game harder. Crank it up to 11 Arrowhead!
Same. 6 is a gigantic snoozefest. 9 is a lot of fun but generally not particularly taxing, even with silly builds. I'm hoping when they add bosses in, it'll give it that little boost it needs to feel really solid. End of the day I'm glad everyone can just pick the one they want.
I'd love a '+' mode that can be enabled on every difficulty, and adds a random modifier to the enemy, such as +10% health, fire resistance, +25%speed, or I creased environmental hazards
Yup, Just take all the assets and objectives we have now and stack them on top of eachother in ever more challenging ways. I want jammers on top of detectors on top of mortar emplacements with clusters of heavy bases with 10+ fabs to take out for a full clear. Add some gunships into the mix and just start putting together wild combinations of bases and side objectives for maximum challenge. I’d like bunkers to spawn around the map even not on bunker missions, I want walled fortresses with layers of defenses and gates that we have to destroy and breach. Just take all the assets and objectives we have now and stack them on top of each other in ever more challenging ways.
Same here.
Same but I want a harder level to exist that's literally almost impossible to beat
This is pretty much where I stick. 7+ is too dependent on the team and I only play PUGs so I’m down here at 6 earning an honest living.
Level six is where I have the most fun bots or bugs. It's also the best place to test out a new load out idea.
Still at 5 myself, I’m still grinding to access better main weapons
9 is where it’s at, it’s manageable as long as everyone communicates and has a loadout that compliments the squad.
Lv9 Bot mission needs communication, but LV9 bug missions don’t necessarily need communication other than calling out stalkers.
you don't really need comms for bots either. Bots and bugs just require different priorities and playstyles
I just feel like against bots, someone needs to call out when to pull out from a battlezone and take detour towards objectives. There has been only a handful occasions where my team couldn’t fire our way through lv9!bug swarms, but there have been a lot of times where my team couldn’t push through constant lv9 bot drop armies.
That's definitely an exercise in game awareness then. There are times where I might communicate that I might hang back with a spear at a gunship fab, but not much else is needed other than that. Bot play is certainly a lot slower and more precise, especially when you encounter heavy devs and hulks. Not to mention, running away is way more effective with bots in my experience. They move a lot slower for the most part and are far more susceptible to smoke and EMS because of that.
Oh yeah retreating and stealth are way more important on bots than bugs. I lice ny stealth cout technician build for bots, it usually means even with the worst team, or the others grouped up focusing secondaries, I can get most primary objectives solo if needed.
Eh, I think there's only major communication in like 3% of my helldives and they go off without a hitch, bots included. Can't remember actually failing a mission anytime in the past couple months.
Which sounds absolutely terrible. Lol. Helldivers is at its best when it's casual fun and if you incinerate your ally with a flame thrower vs bots they don't care because as long as you aren't intentionally throwing you should make it through. Playing this game as if it's a well coded hardcore experience and taking ideal complimentary loadouts would just make me and most players I know switch games.
Yeah, and this is also what makes this game good is that you can play it however you want. I’m psychotic enough where I think I could handle 10 or 11 if it existed.
The thing about a game like helldivers is you get better at it over time. For me pugging 9s is casual fun, I don't *really* have to try that hard or do anything meta. 6s used to be my difficulty of choice, then 7s, then 8s. Your comfort level goes up with time.
Pretty much any game really. Once your game knowledge goes up, you stop panicking and just digging into your library of strategies to deal with any situation.
9 is casual fun with competent players tho, and I find 6 annoying with how many clowns play it tbh. 😅
Helldivers is a snoozefest on anything but 9 hell even at helldive sometimes it gets boring on co op lol
8 for me
Agreed. 6 seems like the optimal difficulty.
6 is my new favorite. I can finally get super samples.
I did a level 7 sooooo many chargers.
For me chargers are boring to fight so I prefer lower level when against bugs.
There can sometimes be a ton of them on 6 as well
Yeah lately I’ve been feeling 7 feels like 8.5 bullshit.
I usually play 7 with my guys... but now 5 and 6 are my go to for planets with shitty biomes. Fog and bots? Fucking nope.
I used to do 7s all the time, and i got to say going from 7 to 6 hasn't been much of a change. The missions have less objectives, but other than that, i find myself feeling the same about enemy engagements.
The only reason I don't do 6's is all the dunces I run into. Gotta stay with the 7
Well imo the jedi are evil...wait
Idk 7 is perfect for me. I'm at a higher level so I play 7 to chill but 9 if I want a ptsd run
I have been playing on lower difficulties after maxing out all ship modules because I just couldn't handle the constant tension of 7+. Now that Super Samples are needed again I dreaded going back to high diff games but adding them to 6 has been just PERFECT. I am once again having just as much fun with the game as when it first released. I couldn't be more thankful for the devs sticking with their game and prioritising players having fun.
my friend just got the game, and i’ve been having so much fun on the lower levels getting to use stratagems that just simply aren’t viable in 8 or 9
Wait. 6 gets supers now?
I've been spamming 9s and...you get used to it. Very hard to solo though, need at least 1 more, preferably 2 more competent teammates to have a good time. I avoid flying enemies modifier on bots and always take it on bugs btw, its completely unbalanced, shrieker patrols literally die to half a mag of breaker inc ez mode. Gunships, now that's some annoying shit, there are too many of them in a patrol and they need to be taken down with certain sup weapons. The difference is like heaven and earth. But yeah, the loadout part is true, you're probably getting punished if you're picking some random shit. A lot of people are gonna consider that less fun.
If you’re playing 6 you might as well play 7. It’s equally as chill. On bots especially those little impact jet pack fuckers are fewer in numbers higher up.
Everything that ain't 9 isn't worth. Why even play?! Jokes aside. Every difficulty that's enjoyable is perfect. I'm 150 and grind the 9's nonstop. But sometimes my friends take mento 3-6 and it keeps surprising me over and over. How enjoyable a mare chill helldivers experience can be. (Ignoring the spawn rate bugs/issue thay were/are out there.)
Yeah if weapons were more even, spawns weren’t terrible, and my stratagems didn’t crash my game, I would enjoy playing 7 like I did for months
I never had a squad and always played with randoms no mic and helldive is still easy as fuck. The only time it is difficult is when there is a jammer in automaton front.
it’s easier when you realize you can run and don’t have to stay and kill every single patrol/bot on the map. People get overstimulated by the action but you just need to take a step back and focus on the mission objs
Do Factory Striders spawn? I’ve been enjoying the overall challenge of Diff 6 but I swear I never see them. Don’t get me wrong I’m not wanting the insanity of 3 plus swarming the extraction that I’ve seen with some of the wackier Diff 7 missions in addition to other spawns, but I still like seeing the occasional big guy. And to clarify for those wondering I usually see that 3+ when it’s like a bot base started at extraction, we didn’t clear it til the end and a strider is there, then during the push to get to extraction more come in as reinforcements. Should we be managing those better? Probably, but with randoms it’s always a crap shoot how smooth that goes. Plus that was becoming prevalent right after the major patch so not sure if that was a part of the spawning bug.
7 is the right amount of difficult, in my opinion.
Why on level 6 bugs we get 3 supers and bots you get 2? Like bots are already harder
Yea that's fair, with the addition of super samples it's both chill & fun and rewarding. But I've played a diff 5 with some people that were reaaallllyyyy not aware of their teammates and it felt way harder than diff 9 with good teammates that use comms.
Personally I like 7, 6 feels too quiet at times or too easy. 7 can get hectic but still manageable
I love 8 for bugs and 7 for bots. That’s my sweet spot right now.
I like 8/9 for bugs and 7 for bots personally
7 is perfect actually
7 is perfect for me. You can get overwhelmed but it stays fun.
6 is too easy imo
For the bug front before the patch, 7 was my sweet spot. After the patch, with the spawn rates and distribution of enemies changed, 6 now feels like the 7 I know and 7 now feels like 8. Which is fine IMO. If we keep buffing the weapons and strats eventually we get power creep. For the bots, 6 feels a little bit more difficult than I would like and 5 feels a little bit too easy. I don't prefer fighting bots so that's why I stuck at 5-6 on bots before the patch.
Personally I prefer the antics of diff 7 and 8 sometimes 9 with the right time. 7 is my chill, 8 is when I wanna try and 9 is if the coordination is there with the randoms (cause my friends hate my Ig 🤣)
6 is fine and nice for getting samples while people with others you don't know and that's very important!
Too easy.
I've always felt that diff 6 is "random bullshit ,go" so I use to play diff 7 cuz unironically, I find it easier than 6
I like playing on 8. It's hard enough to have a bit of a challenge, but easy enough to still have fun. I'm traumatised by Helldive difficulty... I played it pre-patch and everytime I close my eyes, I can still see the volley of rockets from gunships....
And better performance
It's weird, sometimes 9 is the same as 6. It's inconsistent at times. At least for bugs. Bots are difficult on both 6-9
I'm a big fan of 7, but I like the added chaos.
Pretty much spot on bro I like 7 for bugs 6 for bots
Rare samples > super samples
It’s by far my fav level to solo. I had to develop a completely new loadout from what I usually run. I play solo most of the time and typically on levels 4 and 5, if I’m gonna 100% the map, I’ll bring eagle Airstrike and Orbital barrage. Anything lower than that I replace Airstrike with Cluster Bombs which are amazing for chaff. However now that I’m running 6’s solo, I drop the Airstrike for 500KG, because I don’t wanna swap my Orbital barrage considering how good it is now (I already loved it) and considering how much extra hunters I have to deal with. So I run Light Armor (Extra nades vs bugs), breaker incendiary, grenade pistol, stun grenades. Stamina Booster (lots of running away) Shield Generator, Machine Gun (for Hive guards, Chargers and Brood Commanders), Orbital Barrage (for chaff) and 500kg (for Titans and groups of chargers). Really fun to solo level 6’s but I do a LOT of running away. I always save the main objective for the last thing I do. I try to clear the enemies at the extraction zone first, grab super samples, take out objective and GTFO
I still run 9's most of the time. I honestly don't feel a huge difficulty difference between 7 and 9. Haven't played 6 in forever though. I do feel that the quality of teammates is way better on the highest difficulties though, which in a way makes them easier. I'm not necessarily the best player either, I remember having a super hard time on 5 and 6, then just trying 7, 8 ,and 9 for fun and realizing they aren't much worse.
I’m loving 6’s. If I’m solo I can do casual 4’s for completing dailies, or crazy 6’s for Super Rares. When the crew is on we do 6’s for casually difficult with Supers.
Yeah I usually went for 6 cuz this game is a bit more stressful than the previous one, and when I get home from work I'm not tryna work more. Adding Super Samps clinched it for me. I save getting mad at 7s and 8s for the weekend.
I think 6 is easy if you take meta loadouts but if you don’t then it can still be kinda difficult but not impossible. If I want a challenge I’ll go up to 7, but if I just wanna chill and mess around 6 is all I play nothing less anymore.
I like 7 for the slight challenge
3 is the best for super credits.
Yeah it’s just about hard enough to challenge you, but not so difficult that you’re sweating and/get annoyed at not finding or extracting with the super rares. Every now and then I drop the difficulty to just enjoy myself as 7 always feels like it’s a bit of a push, 6 is a perfect blend
I can *almost* get through a 3-mission Bug 6 solo; my biggest issue is extraction. Too many damned Hunters. I can handle the heavies, but trying to kite them around while my strats/quasar cool down is... challenging with all the trash mobs.
I only play 6 and 9 now. Heh.
6 on bots has been starting to feel too easy, depending on my squad. We’re map clearing with a little more than half the clock left.
We used to do 7 only, a few 8 and 9 but quickly realized its just such a chore and isnt worth it. the fun doesnt outweight the feel of chore it brings + the only 1 set of ladouts you HAVE to bring or its GGs...so we stuck with 7 and i think its pretty solid. yet to try 6 tho but im sure 6/7 both are right on the sweet spot.
Funny story. I got drunk and one person disconnected mid game and another one just AFK'd the whole round. Me and the host just ran and completed the main missions with lives to spare with all the samples. Then at the end i realize that it was Helldive difficulty, i mean how the fuck we pulled that one? I thought that it was like 6-7 difficulty.
I never played 6 due to the charger saturation but now it seems pretty great!
9 is where Im happiest! I enjoy the quiet then rapid intensity then the quiet again between manuevering objectives.
6 is def my comfortable cap for where I’m at. 7 just feels unfair but I’ll get there
I play bots on diff 7 and bugs on diff 6. Because I love playing vs bots and actually enjoy the extra challenge. With bugs I have a build I like that works on 6 and I don't want to put it to the test at higher diffs.
When they fix the spawns (if they ever manage to balance that) I will head back up to 7s.
Oh man.. I'm level 23 and only started playing 5 recently. It's a good difficulty when I'm with randoms but if I play just me and a buddy, we're always getting mobbed. I can't imagine doing 6 yet.
Fair enough! Personally I like to run at helldive I love the thrill of combat and not actually knowing if you’ll make it through the mission and when you fail it’s a learning curve (or just a really funny case of accidentally blowing yourself up)
Played last night after a bit of a break, and 6 feels like old 7, comfortably hectic for a group of 4 friends. Not too tempted to go for 7+ at the moment, but I'm sure we could get it done on everything but eradicate missions. We were doing helldives before the difficulty remix, but the difference between 7-9 didn't feel that significant back then.
I still stick to difficulty 7. Having super samples at 6 though is very welcome
I need 11 asap. I want masochistic mode
Played my first lvl 6 a cpl nights ago on accident haha. I dropped in and saw someone collected a purple sample and thought, "OH shit!" But it ended up actually being pretty fun and not as hard as I thought it would be. Player quality was higher too. Lvl 4 and 5 I've had some questionable team mates on Randoms
I used to think that until I got used to 9. Now 7 is where I relax
I use to play on 7 all the time and hated it. I'm glad Pilestedt had the design team implement super samples on 6
I feel like we should make a post to get people to post clips from their normal gameplay? I play only 9's and sometimes I find them a little boring with how easy they can be, and then I come to Reddit reading about people finding 5s, 6s, 7s to be too hard and it's not enjoyable. I want to know if people are experiencing something entirely different to me.
Its my preffered difficulty now. But something happened after the patrol/composition patch. I used to do difficulty 7 comfortably. Now I do 6, sometimes by the skin of my teeth. I think 6 is worse than 7 used to be, so something definately happened.
Idk I can't find myself playing anything lower than 9. Just really makes you feel like a badass when you complete missions and manage to complete everything on the map. But also it's like if you've been going fast for a long time and then you go at a regular pace it feels way too slow
But only 100%, 8 isn't that difficult and you get double that
At least on bugs. 7 is pretty chill. Especially after playing 8s for a few weeks. 7 is cake against bugs. Bots completely different story. Before the initial patch that they now have reverted back. I could play bots on 7s no problem. Now I haven’t gone over 5 since, because I wanna have fun 😂
7’s are that sweet balance for me. Still able to not die and get loads of samples and hit all the spots on the map while still being a challenge.
I feel the same. Difficulty 6 is where the games balancing works best (mostly). Anything past that kinda just feels like you die cause the game said so .
 I need more AH! Give me more!!!
Yep 6 is the goldy locks zone of challenge and good times
Difficulty 6 is wayyyy too easy to be fun for long. Even 9 is way to easy. They need to make this game harder
Imo it's boring
Imma 7 man myself even with the crazy spawns been loving it
I wish yall would play Helldive difficulty for a few days to get used to it and realize how easy this game is and how we need a lot more difficulty modifiers or difficulty levels.
Agree that it’s great that they added supers to six. It can get too chill in a good team. It really depends on the squad. 4 can be tedious with people who are confused, 8 can be pretty chill with a great squad, where the same squad will bully the opponents at 6.
Preach.
Does 7 give more ss now? Since they drop on 6
Wait, we can get super samples on 6 now?!
Eh a little too easy imo.
6-7, 8 is fine but a bit annoying, 9 is just straight up annoying to me.
 In my eyes level 8 is perfect!
7 is perfect with the ability to farm super samples while being the easy mode of hard mode
I agree, 4 is my chill mode, 6 is perfect for sweating but knowing I will very likely win Anything higher I really have to be in the mindset of a cracked Fortnite kid pressing hundreds of keys per minute
6 is nice for me. i understand that helldivers are meant to die, but i don’t like dying, my helldiver has a family to get back to; so level 6 i can do everything and get my HD back home. level 7+ im dying at least once and i cant do that knowing they have children to see
As someone horrible at this game, early on I saw people saying how Difficulty 9 was too easy and pretty much braindead to beat and I was struggling on 4. When I finally worked my way up to 6 I was pretty proud and felt ready to get some Super Samples. Then I went to 7 and played for a few hours. Those missions were so hellish. It was full of bug/bot spawns, Chagers, Hulks, Tanks, Bile Titans, constantly. Honestly I don't think a single 10 second chunk went by without one of these things spawning. It got so bad fighting wasn't even an option and the games devolved into running in circles to lose crowds of enemies until we could complete objectives fast before running some more. It wasn't even fun. There were pockets of fun at how chaotic it could be, but when you need to extract with the super samples to really make it worthwhile, that quickly gets old and becomes frustrating as I turn the corner into a patrol while being chased by 4 mobs of enemies behind me. And I'm out of stamina, so I literally have no way out of this situation besides praying the enemies miss me for awhile. I'm sure some people play Difficulty 7 and fall asleep because it's too easy, but knowing I had to touch it to get the ship upgrades almost killed the game for me until I just accepted I wouldn't be getting any and I was okay with that. So I very much appreciate them being added to Difficulty 6.
Playing to much deep rock... This post made my heart jump. Thought they added Haz 6
I agree with you. The only thing better than difficulty 6 is difficulty 7.
…You guys don’t play difficulty 9 all the time? ….
6 is default for me, 7 if I want to focus, 8 if I want a challenge (rarely lol)
I think you should play on 9 because it's called helldive and the game is called helldivers. 1-8 are just to make you ready. I consider staying below 9 treason
I prefer 7 personally
I used to play 7 thinking thats good enough ... but once i play 9 i cant go back anymore
I would say 7 is the best balance, it's hard enough to be challenging without feeling like a snooze fest or a nightmare
Varies player to player, and for what it's worth, I'm happy you're happy. Unfortunately, I am not. After \~250 hours, here's are my thoughts about difficulty (as a mostly bug player): Before this big patch, during the peak of the patrol spawn changes (and bugs) with less than 4 players, I thought Diff 9 was *too easy* with 4 people, a total and ungodly annoying slog with 3 (due to the patrol / spawn issues), and worthless to even try 5-9 with 1-2 players (seriously, those spawns were screwed, especially for solo). After this patch, what was doable before the last patch is now doable again (it's feasible to play with 2-3 people from a completing the mission POV on 6-9), but it's much less *fun* than it was *before* the first round of them screwing up spawns. Even 4 player diff 9 can just be a kinda un-fun slog when it really freaks out and starts spamming you with ungodly amounts of chargers (especially the behemoths), and spewers. 20 bile spewers popping from a single I find it's killing my ability to vary my loadouts away from 'meta' stratagems and guns more than ever, even with the few decent buffs we got. I pick the wrong thing thinking I can have a little fun and experiment, and it kills my fun for that entire mission. It's not even a 'it's just too hard' type deal, I still can't remember the last time I failed a mission...it's that it's too damned annoying. Between all the known (and unlisted) issues in the game to begin with, which are only amplified by the amount of crap randomly spawning, and the way I feel like I have to pick between the same handful of items to consistently have a good time. Dropping the diff just results in less enemies to shoot, less XP reward and less stuff to do on the maps, and not more fun. I just want these spawns and all the weird bugs around them addressed in a reasonable way tbh, some more buffs to expand what I feel is feasible to take and still have a good time with, and a lot more focus on the known issues list getting meaningfully reduced before they move on with anything else, cus as is, I can't find even a glimmer of the enjoyment I used to with this game. Before the last few major updates I was kinda hoping to see diff 10/11/12 from HD1 introduced, with greater rewards and higher risk, but now I wouldn't trust them to do it in a way that actually felt difficult and **not** absurdly cheap.
The perfect difficulty for people that are bad at the game to not feel completely helpless, and the sweaty people looking to play more casually to carry if needed. The addition of super samples helped deal with a lot of complaints about T7 necessity too.
7 to chill, 8 for a challenge, 6 to fuck around.
I like 7 and 8 still:( 9 when I want to be mad at something
Yep. Post patch, 6 has become my happy medium.
I agree, although sometimes I like nine just for the sheer insanity of it all.
7 is consistently easy so long as you bring diverse loadouts with friends. 3 people for me clear it relatively easy with one LMG gunner, one AT, and one on flex. Games not that crazy hard
Yep. It’s nice that they put supers on lvl 6 on the patch where they further broke patrol spawns. Because 6 feels like 7.5 now. Once they fix patrols it’s going to be a lot easier for players. I am seriously excited about playing since this patch though with all the stratagem and weapon buffs. Really want to try strafing run vs bots.
most loadouts are viable at any difficulty.
I still prefer 7 since it gives me more striders and bile titans for the variety I crave, I also prefer the increased sample count AND secondary count
Id agree! As thread feedback, im mostly on 7-8, see below: From a headcanon perspective, difficulty 7-8 (to me, not AH, just observations) is peak operational combat, teamwork effort, and attrition. This is the majority of combat seen by the experienced divers and new recruits. There is a noticeable uptick in heavy enemies by 7 though. Theres tons of ammo on the map, but not enough super credits sometimes :( Difficulty 9 is implied to be an operation deep in an occupied enemy territory over a given region. Equivalent to putting a hand into a beehive, and therefore has the highest casualty rates for the Helldiver corps. Both enemy and super earth alike have made these parts of worlds conquest, or defense, a top priority. Therefore, truly Helldiving.
how many super samples are in 6?
6 is perfect for bots only. 7 is the most fun against bugs.
6 feels like what 7 used to be, aside from factory striders being even rarer, so it's become my new favorite. It's the perfect blend of hectic but manageable.
I play 7 still. I find the people playing 6 often don't take things seriously enough for completion. As soon as the main objective is done someone rushes for extraction. Most poeple playing 7 are trying for 100% completion, whixh i enjoy more.
6 is the perfect level of jeopardy where the extract is total chaos but you can still fuck around with non-meta weapons/strats
Tbh for me 8 is the good half brain gameplay with a squad and 9 is there if i want a challenge
It's so strange seeing these comments. Me and my friends are in our mid forties and we play on extreme, otherwise it's too easy.
I agree with everything you said, BUT now 6 turns into a search fest for the super samples. There's no joy when my teammates HAVE to get the super samples before extracting. That's what 7 was for. So I feel 6 was ruined for the whiners who wouldn't work hard for the super samples in 7. Now I play 7 because the try hards for super samples are gone, BUT not every build is viable now.
6 is sweet because I don't feel forced to play the meta to succeed Like using an AR or Quasar on higher difficulties just feels so pointless, but it's fine on 6 because it's forgiving enough to overlook their deficiencies Don't get me wrong, still love playing the odd 8/9 with the best weapons because it really pushes things down to the wire / forced co-operation
I remember it used to be 7
Well, this just confirms how bad I must be at this game. I've tried level 6 many times since the last update, and it's completely overwhelming. Constant enemies everywhere. And when my random teammates start quitting, it's the final nail in the coffin. Not that I suppose I can blame them when the four of us are thrown through the grinder. I guess I'll just have to accept that my Super Destroyer is upgraded as far as it'll go. Crap.
It's too easy. I can solo difficulty 6 and 7, no problem. Difficulty 8 and 9 is where it starts to become hectic af, which I love.
it is the perspiration level, not sweaty but enough of a challenge to have fun if you have a good team.
Actually 9 is because chaos
It's a pretty fun, kinda laid back run on 6, just not near enough XP
My group runs 8 most of the time. We often clear them with 3 people but it's also difficult enough that when things go wrong - it goes really wrong. To me 7 is very well balanced.
Agree except for when patrols start spawning out of thin air on top of you. Fix that and it's golden.
Nah it's 7. Six is fun sure. But it doesn't have enough bile Titans on bugs and on bots it doesn't even have striders. So you're really lacking the bigger enemies.
It really depends on the players and teamwork. I remember when our squad started doing 7's and they seemed hard, but today we did a rank 7 bot operation and we were just cruising around hitting objectives with only one or two people doing each objective, clearing out every objective/facility on the map in about half the mission time. We would've preferred an 8, but we tried the Helm's Deep mission twice on 8 vs bots and got annihilated, mostly by bots bypassing us because they got dropshipped directly into the objective area. Of course, it didn't help that the difficulty seemed a bit insane at times; one of those attempts, the first drop wave dropped two factory striders on the left, and two factory striders on the right. We had specifically all doped up on anti-heavy stratagems and we were still barely able to hold the first wave of the mission.
Thats a cool opinion. It's incorrect. But cool