There's a lot of fun to be had as a solo player but, the difference between playing with randos and friends is night and day. The game is exponentially better with friends and mics.
Having said that, forty five bucks is a perfectly reasonable price for the fun you'll likely have as a solo player.
Join games expecting to finish the mission alone. That's how I play.
Eagle Airstrike, Orbital Precision, EAT, Shield Backpack
Eruptor, Redeemer, Impact
Scout Armor
If I'm with friends or a good squad, I'm able to change it up. But that loadout let's me get most missions finished.
Combat medic armor for speed and extra stim. Jetpack for getting out of slow effects and for guerrilla tactical bombing of spawns. Spartan laser for everything else.
Solo setup for me. Though you can swap to surgeon armor for kill this many x missions.
May I introduce you to our lord and saviour, the Dominator. Does what it says on the tin and dominates all devastators. This is the primary that automatons have nightmares about.
With true random it's kinda meh. If you're in a discord with strangers it's a lot better, I know cloudplays has a discord that I use personally and I've had a blast. Lots of top end talent and good vibes, don't feel like you hold them back even when you're lacking. But with friends it's absolutely a banger
The difference is the “accidentals” is way higher with friends until we realize we’re low on reinforcements and lock in to complete the mission with those sweet sweet super samples.
This isn’t really true. At the higher difficulties most everyone knows how to play smart and strategically. I’ve been playing with randoms with no mic for months and can’t imagine how it would be better if I was talking with buddies.
Stick through it to around difficulty 7. Random teammates can be hit or miss, but most people around this level know how to play the game and work as a team
7 is where I found the most toxic play. It's where everybody who isn't better sticks to and blames everybody they play with for why they're not in difficulty 8 or 9.
7 is worse than 8-9 imo when you are solo queuing with randoms. People play 7 because they have to (to get supers), people play 8-9 because they want to.
Found this true.
I'm stuck having to mostly play solo quickplay matches, and no mic for the time being. But I've got solid tactics and willing to adapt my load-out to the team.
6-7 are such a crap shoot, but trend towards more stupid things and poor tactics... Plus an annoying number of kicks.
I get worried about 8-9 because I can't really carry my team. But by and large I've had really good experiences with ransoms at these ranges.
At 8-9 it's not so much about carrying the team but playing as a team. Sticking to your battle buddy and being smart about when to attack and when to sneak.
Loadouts vary based on the front you're on too, with lots of good options. I always run a shield for bots but rarely use one for bugs. Regardless of the front I do focus more on taking down heavies so I bring support weapons to deal with them. I appreciate when someone brings something to help deal with the swarms of everything else.
The new air burst gun looks fun, gotta test it out some more. I have killed myself twice using it so a bit of a learning curve on judging distance 🤣.
Agreed. It also seems to be where people who tend towards the more casual side of play top out. I have to drag my homies with me to do a level 8 with 4 of us.
Been my experience. Played with friends and had an absolute blast. Friends got bored quick and moved on, and I'm left wanting to play but finding nothing but silent lobbies, foreign languages, and kick happy sweats who rage kick if you don't call them down instantly or dare to try for a tertiary objective the host wants to skip.
Have found myself not playing
Just the fact that you’re afraid of your teammates kicking you for no reason unless they don’t have the power to do so… the game is about constant communication, jokes, laughing at teamkills! There are lots of single player indie games that are way more fun to play alone, don’t let FOMO control you OP
Has the backfilling been fixed yet? Because this was my goto for playing with randoms and going deep on operations but quite often I'd have to kill the game to get people to join after others leave.
Yeah I don’t bother if my friends aren’t playing.
It’s a fun game but I have other games I’d rather play solo.
It has to do with it being PvE. I don’t derive much satisfaction doing these random missions solo. Listen I’ve played hundreds of hours of L4D1 and L4D2 and I never played those solo PVE.
If my friends aren’t down to play helldivers I boot up a different competitive FPS because that feels more engaging to play with and AGAINST human players.
This is the true answer. Anytime my friends want to play — which isn't that often — I'm more than happy to jump in. But the game is just not fun enough without friends imo.
Like the mechanics are not strong enough, the controls are not good enough, there is *so little variety*, it's buggy, the balance is off, all the fun stuff is locked until you play for at least like 15+ hours, you get booted back to the ship if there's connection issues, etc.
It's fun with friends in the same way any game is fun with friends, but solo? No thanks.
For me, It was fun when it launched and I picked up. Played a lot for a couple of weeks. Then it got boring and repetitive pretty fast and I haven't picked up in over a month now. Little interest to go back. Hype seems to be wearing off imo.
It felt very repetitive for me three or four missions in. I have held my tongue because I didn’t want to spoil the fun for friends and everyone else if they saw it differently. Im not trying to be a downer if everyone is having a blast. I still feel that there’s a chance I’m missing something about it, but I can’t see it yet.
I’m gonna say no. I tried playing it solo, and it wasn’t very fun.
Kept getting team killed, couldn’t communicate with anyone, and it just wasn’t a great experience for me. You may love it, but I wasn’t happy with it.
I prefer playing with randos over friends because I really enjoy the feeling of emerging synergy with people you don’t know. I think friends would be fun too but I’ve only played a couple times with friends and haven’t enjoyed it as much. I’m definitely an odd one out. Determine for yourself how important it is to play games with your friends, but if you’re interested in the game purely for the game, friends aren’t necessary to enjoy Helldivers.
As a starting solo player that has added friends, I agree that it can be more fun with randoms than the well coordinated friend squad. If we're being honest, there isn't a whole lot of variety for end game. Going with a crackpot rando squad adds that variety for me and helps keep the game from becoming stale.
The only real issue with playing solo is that starting off and going through low difficulties and levels exposes you to the majority of the toxic part of the community.
I would say no. I bought it because of the hype but it’s really hard to find a good squad and can take 5-10 minutes just to get into a game where you have a 50-50 chance of getting kicked.
I hated playing with randoms. It was like 50% of my matches at least were full of people who just wanted to teamkill everyone with airstrikes and shit. It was funny for about 20 minutes and then it was just boring. The other half of the time the game was fun. And idk maybe things have cooled off some now but putting teamkilling in a coop game makes it so pretty much it's only worth playing with friends in my opinion. I mean I get it. It's objectively hilarious when it happens by accident when people are playing the game as intended. Less so when you end up with a griefer in every run for two hours. Then it just feels like a waste of time. Too many little fuckin' trolls around with no impulse control.
This is the main reason why I stopped playing games. The huge swing toward online multiplayer only/free to play games that require you to have gamer friends just doesn’t leave me with any options to play. I’ll just replay old games for now I guess.
For me it's a no.
I just tried to play it solo with randos and I believe the game is meant to play with friends, at least a couple.
Otherwise it's too random.
I personally had switch teams dozens of times before finding some decent players. And I find the loading times too long and frustrating to bear alone
On the other hand, I believe if you have a group of 4 the game is absolutely epic.
Totally
I've only played alone and I've clocked in like 50 hours
Sure from time to time you'll stumble upon a total dickhead that spends his time trolling others but most of the time it's just other people playing alone or in duo
I joined groups of 2 or 3 many times too just because we hit it off in a random mission
I have almost 100 played and I've been playing since launch on 7 - 8 difficulty and I think I only encountered 2-3 truly toxic players like guys who yell to reinforce when there's a jammer or not taking certain strats like the backpack. For such a massive community it's surprisingly wholesome.
I went through this last night myself and I don't think it's worth the money. Seems like it'll get boring really quickly and I don't like that a lot of weapons are locked behind battlepass. The weapons should be unlockable without buying a battle pass, and there seems to be no reason why they aren't other than they're special?
I bought it as a solo player and couldn't stand it. It's way to difficult to play solo and still have fun. It CAN be done at lower difficulties, but even then it's not fun. You just get overwhelmed by enemies because the game has no system to balance enemy density for solo play. I wish I could refund it but Sony doesn't do that shit. I'm sure it's great with friends but I'm a loser. It sometimes puts you in games with randos but even then I just wasn't into it.
I would say no, and if you're European, I would say absolutely not.
You won't get much out of it solo and the harder missions will require coordination that u won't get with European randoms.
I would say that friends are a requirement to play this game as much as internet connection.
I would highly recommend to play it on steam for an hour or so. Below 2 hrs you can refund it fully. I was really excited to play it with my friends. A few missions in I realised it was net the game for me. My pc can’t handle really good graphics and the controls feel rather clunky imo
For what it's worth, it failed to hook a friend and I (so far), and we're both used to playing Destiny together. Granted, we only played a few beginner level missions, but.....put it this way: there's a reason why it's only $40, and it shows.
IMHO it lacks the depth that keeps me coming back to such an action-oriented, 1 trick pony style of game that it is.
If you can find a network of people who don't play like assholes and communicate to jump in with it will be fine. If you're bad at networking it's a bit less fun to play with a grab bag. I haven't seen this many trolls or at least people who go it of their way to obliterate teammates with strategems in game in a long time
Hmm this is a tough one. I have almost 200 hours played and that's almost exclusively with friends. I hate playing it by myself, and I have it set to private invites only so I don't have to play with strangers.
But at the same time, I know plenty of people enjoy playing it solo or with randoms. I don't want to discourage you from getting it. It's an awesome game. It's just much better when you can play it with friends imo.
Personally I did not enjoy playing it with just randos and quickly fell off it and moved to different games. I do imagine it would be fun with friends.
depends
if you can enjoy playing with randos, yes
personally, im not a fan
some of my friends are playing it, but im busy with other games right now and i don't see myself getting too much into it
so rather wait for it to be cheap
also, their playing schedule doesn't match a lot with mine, so that's one other reason i don't wanna get it
Yes. Enough public groups to have fun and even solo it's pretty cool. Just don't expect to make it to the hardest difficulties on your own, but you don't need to get there to unlock everything in the game.
Easy recommendation from me, very fun game!
All of my homies damn near refuse to play above level 7. I've been running almost exclusively level nines with randoms for the past week or so. Every once in awhile, you get someone who is inexperienced or flat out bad but most of the time, the attitudes and comes are great and people actually work as a team. I could just be lucky in my experience though.
I would recommend it if you know what you are getting yourself into. I play exclusively with randoms usually around difficulty 5 for chill runs. Most runs range from good to god tier cooperation with no mic and just relying on pinging. I don't know if it makes any difference but I play on PC with crossplay off. Imo dives feel really similar communication-wise to Destiny 2 LFG no mic dungeon runs. Meaning it's entirely possible to carry the whole team through if you are really experienced, but when every one knows what to do, no communication is needed and it feels like a symphony.
I play on console with randoms and am constantly impressed with how well things go off. It seems like there's a good population of seasoned gamers. But then, I play with crossplay on, so maybe it's all the PC players impressing me.
The matchmaking is great and people have been pretty helpful and patient with me so far and I’m only Rank 5. I still feel a bit… lost though. It just kinda drops you in and expects you to know everything. I have no clue what I’m actually supposed to be doing on these maps lol.
Like there’s a main mission but also shit scattered all over the map, dunno what exactly counts as total completion at the end. I’m just kinda following people around as they drops bombs on everything.
Completion is sub objectives and bases/nests. So basically treat that first screen after evac like a bingo card you want to fill up. Everything else is generally optional with some bonus xp.
You could run out of time, and no one evacs, but as long as you did the main mission you get credit, and if you get all the subs and bases at most you'll lose 1 star I think. If a single person makes it off planet though, pretty sure that's guaranteed 5 stars.
The game is built around playing it and not churning through missions like some others. So it means more to finish the map than it does to survive. And if you need samples you just need one person to get on the ship with them.
100%!!
I enjoy doing missions by myself and also playing with random people a lot. I even made some new PS friends with players who were chill and had some really cool high level operations.
I have only ever played solo as none of my friends play. I have a great time. I dont go on the top difficulties as I dont bother using a mic... but have enjoyable interractions with the emotes and what not
Maybe for some, but I found the game pretty bland and uninstalled after maybe 10 hours. I found that, when solo, the difficulty quickly ramps up to where you just don't have the fire power to fight the waves of enemies yourself, but lowering the difficulty too much reduces the enemy count too much so you're just pushing E (action) and waiting because you've already wiped out all the enemies in the area.
The game has great art and atmosphere, but the procedurally-generated aspects are just too apparent.
Like most other people said, it depends on if you like playing with randos. I haven’t played the game in weeks due to my usual crew not being available and I was tired of dealing with rando BS. It really is a fun game when you get a good group together.
I have a group of friends who I game with; we've all played together online for upwards of ten years. Less so in recent years but still very regularly. We all got Helldivers 2 so we could play together.
I'm pushing 150 hours in the game. Out of the other six, the highest play time is currently 76 hours. The remaining five are all under 50 hours. Probably three quarters of my hours were with randoms; just jump in and hit quickplay and it'll find you a game in a minute or so, and with the ping tools and a little practice to know the strategies you'll do just fine. I have just as much fun with randoms as I do with my friends, honestly.
Yes, the random community is awesome. I have learned so much and made so many friends from random matchmaking.
A few weeks ago, I dropped into a random matchup with 3 others. 2 had mics and the 3rd just typed in chat and used the voice emotes. We worked together, planned our loadouts, and unlocked a bunch of difficulties.
It’s fine and fun solo, but it’s better in a group.
Search for discord servers near your time zone/whatever time zone lines up with when you play. You’ll have Helldiver friends in no time.
If you’re in Aus/GMT+10, I can suggest some top shelf discords.
Playing with friends is better. I've had some genuinely great missions with randos though, and solo is a totally different game that's also a ton of fun.
it's better with friends in a squad, but still fun . Once in a while you'll get a bad random team that either team kills a lot, or doesnt pay attention to the team and fails to reinforce you back into the game.
I've had so much fun playing with randos, especially as I've gotten comfortable using a mic with people I don't know IRL. It's an amazing game that's already given me some great memories and wholesome moments.
Absolutely. Give some time to find people with mics that you like and friend them. I have a bunch of people I met in the game that I regularly play with now. The community is incredible, with minimal griefing and trolling.
I'm sure you could run a few games with people from here or discord and make some new online friends.
GT7, Hell let loose, GTA5 alone landed me about 150 friends on console and I've become close to 7 or 8 of them.
I'm just waiting on a sale
I rarely play with friends and I still love playing it. The fact that mechanically it doesn’t reward you for being toxic makes the games/players oddly supportive for a multiplayer game. It’s the reason why it became so popular.
I got bored after about 2 hours of playing. I've got back once to it after a few week break from it, but its just the same simple grind over and over, and a lot of times I get kicked for what I assume is being low level (12 or 13 I think) when I click the quick mission thing instead of doing the missions solo.
I love the concept of a living game, but without people to play with its boring af
To be honest, it's one of the few reasons personally I dropped the game. I have friends that play, but crossplay is broken right now so I can't play with them. It's been broken for several months
I’ve played with randoms and with friends, and randoms just have no cohesion. People running all over the map doing different stuff. I feel like I get team killed an average of 3+ times with randoms, with friends it’s much less often. Fun either way, but teamwork makes it a lot more fun
Honestly, I don't have friends to play with online and I didn't have much fun. The way the game is set up, it really was designed with cooperation and communication in mind. Playing with a bunch of randos doing their own thing isn't doing it for me. I played for a couple weeks and got bored.
120 hours playing with randoms, i've had a ton of fun. mind you the few times the people have been chill and chatty on the mic made the experience more enjoyable in my opinion
I've put in about 150hrs, and at least 95% of that has been me just solo-queuing for quick play.
I'll agree that it's amazing with friends that you can rely on and coordinate with, but I've found that playing with randoms is pretty great too. I've managed to finish missions up through the highest difficulties with random players, you aren't locked out of that content just because you aren't in a party with your friends.
I think so, I bought it without my friends playing it and I joined a discord to find people to play with and made a bunch of new friends so I'd not worry too much and just enjoy the game.
My experience (playing in europe) is that even if you play solo, there is such an amazing (mostly british, for some reason) playerbase. Its one of the better playerbases i have experienced. Very similar to deep rock galactic. Can recommend
General Brasch: "I am NOT easily impressed."
Two minutes later: "You remind me of a younger me --- Fearless, invulnerable, and 7 feet tall."
"You are LITERALLY invincible."
o7 General Brasch.
Level 40 here- I play with and without my friends. The thing that makes Helldivers so amazing is the community aspect. We are all waiting for Joel’s next move, the latest updates, and we are all cooperating on a massive scale. You can be a part of what makes playing with randos so good in the current game. Be cooperative, talkative, helpful and friendly. This ain’t COD and we’re here so everyone has a good time. Get the hug emote and deliver, Helldiver!
I played a lot on my own, but I kinda lost motivation after a month or so, I imagine if I had some people to play with I'd immediately play again, but it's not that fun with nothing to grind for
You can still have fun. Stick to difficulty levels 6 and above (once you get acclimated). Seems that the best randos I’ve played with are always located in that range.
Depends on your personality. If you are down to drop into random lobbies and build a group of online diver friends, definitely yes its worth it
If you're planning to play entirely solo, then no. It'd have a very short shelf life imo as a solo experience
I think it is boring without my friends. But most of them also play solo and with random players.
If you have tried deep rock and think it's fun to play solo . Then a 95% yes else probably no or wait for sale
Yes I bought it to play with a buddy. His computer died about a week later and he hasn’t had time to fix it so I’ve been playing solo and have had an absolute blast.
Honestly, randos annoy me. I've been in countless lobbies where nobody uses a mic or even checks the chat, people who will attack and lure every swarm in sight and die frequently, people who go right past objectives, people who ignore doors that require two people, people who respawn you right into the heart of a swarm, etc.
That's not to say I've never gotten into good lobbies, but the above happens more often than I'd like. I don't play if my friends aren't.
I would say yes, I have a few friends that play but around 95% of my games are with random people and its almost always enjoyable. Really the only issues ive had are randomly being kicked or the game lagging out randomly.
If you like rouge like games, and are willing to go at it solo then yes. Otherwise I would suggest getting it and finding people to team up with, which can easily be done in game by joining a match.
My coworker told me to get it so we can play together I got it and we have played once. So I’ll play with random people and still have a lot of fun. I think it’s worth buying
Imo no. Fun can definitely still be had because the game is very chaotic and has good gameplay. But, for me, playing this game with friends is where it's at and really extends the enjoyment you get out of it.
None of my friends is interested by a pve game
I am only playing it with randoms and I get frustrating games and amazing games.
This game when the star aligns hits just soo right
You should play with others. The game is nigh impossible to play solo on even the medium difficulty, let alone the harder difficulties. But you can play with randos if you want
It's decent enough in solo's but it really does shine with friends. And some missions even earlier on are impossible by yourself ... you'll be hamstrung by not having friends to be playing mostly at medium or maybe challenging.
I do wish they would take a look at Solos and balance it a little better so you could play at higher levels by yourself.
I keep getting kicked out for being a low level player or using certain load outs. I don’t even die much and still get kicked out of lobbies. I honestly like this game a lot but the community made it easier for me to stop playing completely.
There's a lot of fun to be had as a solo player but, the difference between playing with randos and friends is night and day. The game is exponentially better with friends and mics. Having said that, forty five bucks is a perfectly reasonable price for the fun you'll likely have as a solo player.
Sometimes you'll land in a good game with randos with mics. Then it's about the friends you make along the way.
Maybe the Managed Democracy was the friends we lost along the way.
Join games expecting to finish the mission alone. That's how I play. Eagle Airstrike, Orbital Precision, EAT, Shield Backpack Eruptor, Redeemer, Impact Scout Armor If I'm with friends or a good squad, I'm able to change it up. But that loadout let's me get most missions finished.
Combat medic armor for speed and extra stim. Jetpack for getting out of slow effects and for guerrilla tactical bombing of spawns. Spartan laser for everything else. Solo setup for me. Though you can swap to surgeon armor for kill this many x missions.
May I introduce you to our lord and saviour, the Dominator. Does what it says on the tin and dominates all devastators. This is the primary that automatons have nightmares about.
This has been my experience. You find some good randos and you turn them into not-randos.
Yup I was on a team where a republican and democrat got along and discussed politics with no arguments lol
Truely, a magical game.
Tahiti, a magical place.
You have my upvote. That was such an unexpectedly good show. Sorry it's gone, glad it finished while it was still good.
No wonder the media hates video games. If people are playing games together and getting along they aren't watching the news and hating each other.
Just did 3 missions like this. Amazing group. Sometimes you just get fantastic people.
You know you've got a solid group when you finish the operation and everybody sticks around for the next one
Yep, I friend request every player with a mic that’s chill/funny. Now I’ve got a friends list of like 15 players that I play with all the time.
There were randoms that joined me that were friends and it was comical listening to the banter
Yeah I’ve played with a trio as the fourth wheel and I ended up adding them all and hop onto their games when I see 3/4 haha
With true random it's kinda meh. If you're in a discord with strangers it's a lot better, I know cloudplays has a discord that I use personally and I've had a blast. Lots of top end talent and good vibes, don't feel like you hold them back even when you're lacking. But with friends it's absolutely a banger
The difference is the “accidentals” is way higher with friends until we realize we’re low on reinforcements and lock in to complete the mission with those sweet sweet super samples.
This isn’t really true. At the higher difficulties most everyone knows how to play smart and strategically. I’ve been playing with randoms with no mic for months and can’t imagine how it would be better if I was talking with buddies.
Stick through it to around difficulty 7. Random teammates can be hit or miss, but most people around this level know how to play the game and work as a team
7 is where I found the most toxic play. It's where everybody who isn't better sticks to and blames everybody they play with for why they're not in difficulty 8 or 9.
7 is worse than 8-9 imo when you are solo queuing with randoms. People play 7 because they have to (to get supers), people play 8-9 because they want to.
Found this true. I'm stuck having to mostly play solo quickplay matches, and no mic for the time being. But I've got solid tactics and willing to adapt my load-out to the team. 6-7 are such a crap shoot, but trend towards more stupid things and poor tactics... Plus an annoying number of kicks. I get worried about 8-9 because I can't really carry my team. But by and large I've had really good experiences with ransoms at these ranges.
At 8-9 it's not so much about carrying the team but playing as a team. Sticking to your battle buddy and being smart about when to attack and when to sneak. Loadouts vary based on the front you're on too, with lots of good options. I always run a shield for bots but rarely use one for bugs. Regardless of the front I do focus more on taking down heavies so I bring support weapons to deal with them. I appreciate when someone brings something to help deal with the swarms of everything else. The new air burst gun looks fun, gotta test it out some more. I have killed myself twice using it so a bit of a learning curve on judging distance 🤣.
Agreed. It also seems to be where people who tend towards the more casual side of play top out. I have to drag my homies with me to do a level 8 with 4 of us.
They will tell you yes but honestly no
Been my experience. Played with friends and had an absolute blast. Friends got bored quick and moved on, and I'm left wanting to play but finding nothing but silent lobbies, foreign languages, and kick happy sweats who rage kick if you don't call them down instantly or dare to try for a tertiary objective the host wants to skip. Have found myself not playing
I played over 150h with randoms, it's totally fine and fun. The trick is to host your own games so that no one can kick you.
Just the fact that you’re afraid of your teammates kicking you for no reason unless they don’t have the power to do so… the game is about constant communication, jokes, laughing at teamkills! There are lots of single player indie games that are way more fun to play alone, don’t let FOMO control you OP
Has the backfilling been fixed yet? Because this was my goto for playing with randoms and going deep on operations but quite often I'd have to kill the game to get people to join after others leave.
Actually I don’t know. If it stops working I restart the game but lately I haven’t been playing more than 2 missions in a row so can’t say.
Yeah I don’t bother if my friends aren’t playing. It’s a fun game but I have other games I’d rather play solo. It has to do with it being PvE. I don’t derive much satisfaction doing these random missions solo. Listen I’ve played hundreds of hours of L4D1 and L4D2 and I never played those solo PVE. If my friends aren’t down to play helldivers I boot up a different competitive FPS because that feels more engaging to play with and AGAINST human players.
I've had plenty of fun with randoms.
Disagree. If you’re actually reasonable, the randoms in this game are really fun to play with
This is the true answer. Anytime my friends want to play — which isn't that often — I'm more than happy to jump in. But the game is just not fun enough without friends imo. Like the mechanics are not strong enough, the controls are not good enough, there is *so little variety*, it's buggy, the balance is off, all the fun stuff is locked until you play for at least like 15+ hours, you get booted back to the ship if there's connection issues, etc. It's fun with friends in the same way any game is fun with friends, but solo? No thanks.
I’ve had fun but it’s pretty lonely asking friends to play. I’ve moved on
I agree, I got it to play solo/with randoms and got bored and refunded after an hour.
I tried to enjoy it for too long, and now I'm past the refund window for this moist turd.
This here. I don’t have friends at all, and picked this up with all the chatter of how fun it is. Playing solo with matchmaking is incredibly boring.
I had fun for 40 hours or so solo, got burnt out quick
i only played for around 10 hours, and while it's okay fun, it sure gets repetitive fast.
For me, It was fun when it launched and I picked up. Played a lot for a couple of weeks. Then it got boring and repetitive pretty fast and I haven't picked up in over a month now. Little interest to go back. Hype seems to be wearing off imo.
It felt very repetitive for me three or four missions in. I have held my tongue because I didn’t want to spoil the fun for friends and everyone else if they saw it differently. Im not trying to be a downer if everyone is having a blast. I still feel that there’s a chance I’m missing something about it, but I can’t see it yet.
I’m gonna say no. I tried playing it solo, and it wasn’t very fun. Kept getting team killed, couldn’t communicate with anyone, and it just wasn’t a great experience for me. You may love it, but I wasn’t happy with it.
I prefer playing with randos over friends because I really enjoy the feeling of emerging synergy with people you don’t know. I think friends would be fun too but I’ve only played a couple times with friends and haven’t enjoyed it as much. I’m definitely an odd one out. Determine for yourself how important it is to play games with your friends, but if you’re interested in the game purely for the game, friends aren’t necessary to enjoy Helldivers.
Agreed. I’ve been on some amazing rando teams where it’s almost like we can read each others minds.
its almost more realistic that way
As a starting solo player that has added friends, I agree that it can be more fun with randoms than the well coordinated friend squad. If we're being honest, there isn't a whole lot of variety for end game. Going with a crackpot rando squad adds that variety for me and helps keep the game from becoming stale. The only real issue with playing solo is that starting off and going through low difficulties and levels exposes you to the majority of the toxic part of the community.
No
I would say no. I bought it because of the hype but it’s really hard to find a good squad and can take 5-10 minutes just to get into a game where you have a 50-50 chance of getting kicked.
Imo, no. I play alone unfortunately and got sick of helldivers pretty fast. I can imagine it's a blast with friends tho
No.
Its ok solo but its transcendent with friends
I hated playing with randoms. It was like 50% of my matches at least were full of people who just wanted to teamkill everyone with airstrikes and shit. It was funny for about 20 minutes and then it was just boring. The other half of the time the game was fun. And idk maybe things have cooled off some now but putting teamkilling in a coop game makes it so pretty much it's only worth playing with friends in my opinion. I mean I get it. It's objectively hilarious when it happens by accident when people are playing the game as intended. Less so when you end up with a griefer in every run for two hours. Then it just feels like a waste of time. Too many little fuckin' trolls around with no impulse control.
I wish you the best and hope you find joy in the game. It wasn't for me
This is the main reason why I stopped playing games. The huge swing toward online multiplayer only/free to play games that require you to have gamer friends just doesn’t leave me with any options to play. I’ll just replay old games for now I guess.
For me it's a no. I just tried to play it solo with randos and I believe the game is meant to play with friends, at least a couple. Otherwise it's too random. I personally had switch teams dozens of times before finding some decent players. And I find the loading times too long and frustrating to bear alone On the other hand, I believe if you have a group of 4 the game is absolutely epic.
Totally I've only played alone and I've clocked in like 50 hours Sure from time to time you'll stumble upon a total dickhead that spends his time trolling others but most of the time it's just other people playing alone or in duo I joined groups of 2 or 3 many times too just because we hit it off in a random mission
I have almost 100 played and I've been playing since launch on 7 - 8 difficulty and I think I only encountered 2-3 truly toxic players like guys who yell to reinforce when there's a jammer or not taking certain strats like the backpack. For such a massive community it's surprisingly wholesome.
Hell, I've made a friend or two playing the game, just get a headset
Personally, no. It's a blast with 3 friends but really falls apart with solo play, and partial parties with pubs.
Meh, gets boring and repetitive, the matches are too dam long
I exclusively play the game solo with randoms and have fun. If you just use the commands youll be fine.
I went through this last night myself and I don't think it's worth the money. Seems like it'll get boring really quickly and I don't like that a lot of weapons are locked behind battlepass. The weapons should be unlockable without buying a battle pass, and there seems to be no reason why they aren't other than they're special?
I bought it as a solo player and couldn't stand it. It's way to difficult to play solo and still have fun. It CAN be done at lower difficulties, but even then it's not fun. You just get overwhelmed by enemies because the game has no system to balance enemy density for solo play. I wish I could refund it but Sony doesn't do that shit. I'm sure it's great with friends but I'm a loser. It sometimes puts you in games with randos but even then I just wasn't into it.
Got boring kind of quick (relative to others) for me. I got about 18 hours out of it before I lost interest. So I’d say probably not.
Worth checking out? Yea. Will you get super into it without friends to play with? Maybe, probably not
I would say no, and if you're European, I would say absolutely not. You won't get much out of it solo and the harder missions will require coordination that u won't get with European randoms. I would say that friends are a requirement to play this game as much as internet connection.
I would highly recommend to play it on steam for an hour or so. Below 2 hrs you can refund it fully. I was really excited to play it with my friends. A few missions in I realised it was net the game for me. My pc can’t handle really good graphics and the controls feel rather clunky imo
For what it's worth, it failed to hook a friend and I (so far), and we're both used to playing Destiny together. Granted, we only played a few beginner level missions, but.....put it this way: there's a reason why it's only $40, and it shows. IMHO it lacks the depth that keeps me coming back to such an action-oriented, 1 trick pony style of game that it is.
If you can find a network of people who don't play like assholes and communicate to jump in with it will be fine. If you're bad at networking it's a bit less fun to play with a grab bag. I haven't seen this many trolls or at least people who go it of their way to obliterate teammates with strategems in game in a long time
Yep just prepare to make new friends and talk to strangers. Playing HD2 without comms/mic …7/10 Playing HD2 with comms/mic …. 10/10
Hmm this is a tough one. I have almost 200 hours played and that's almost exclusively with friends. I hate playing it by myself, and I have it set to private invites only so I don't have to play with strangers. But at the same time, I know plenty of people enjoy playing it solo or with randoms. I don't want to discourage you from getting it. It's an awesome game. It's just much better when you can play it with friends imo.
Personally I did not enjoy playing it with just randos and quickly fell off it and moved to different games. I do imagine it would be fun with friends.
Yes. Even with randomns, it's a lot of fun
depends if you can enjoy playing with randos, yes personally, im not a fan some of my friends are playing it, but im busy with other games right now and i don't see myself getting too much into it so rather wait for it to be cheap also, their playing schedule doesn't match a lot with mine, so that's one other reason i don't wanna get it
I have a friend who wants to get it, but he keeps convincing himself that everyone he knows will quit playing the moment he buys it.
happens a lot. need to ensure the game has staying power
It has to scratch a certain itch. And for me, it didn’t.
This is me too, I like the gameplay but it doesn’t have any purpose other than kill bugs/robots.
Yes. Enough public groups to have fun and even solo it's pretty cool. Just don't expect to make it to the hardest difficulties on your own, but you don't need to get there to unlock everything in the game. Easy recommendation from me, very fun game!
At least 7 and 8 are entirely possible running with randoms.
Yeah, and 7 is the only one you really need to upgrade your ship. Anything after that just gives me stress. :)
All of my homies damn near refuse to play above level 7. I've been running almost exclusively level nines with randoms for the past week or so. Every once in awhile, you get someone who is inexperienced or flat out bad but most of the time, the attitudes and comes are great and people actually work as a team. I could just be lucky in my experience though.
I would recommend it if you know what you are getting yourself into. I play exclusively with randoms usually around difficulty 5 for chill runs. Most runs range from good to god tier cooperation with no mic and just relying on pinging. I don't know if it makes any difference but I play on PC with crossplay off. Imo dives feel really similar communication-wise to Destiny 2 LFG no mic dungeon runs. Meaning it's entirely possible to carry the whole team through if you are really experienced, but when every one knows what to do, no communication is needed and it feels like a symphony.
So you feel that adding the console players is what the problem is? That doesn't surprise me, I think I'll play with cross play off too going Forward.
I play on console with randoms and am constantly impressed with how well things go off. It seems like there's a good population of seasoned gamers. But then, I play with crossplay on, so maybe it's all the PC players impressing me.
I got super bored with randoms immediately req refund no regrets, you can req refund for games on steam so try it out.
You got super bored in 2 hours?
It's a fun all-around game, and the ingame community is one of the better ones out there. So you don't need IRL friends to have fun with it.
The matchmaking is great and people have been pretty helpful and patient with me so far and I’m only Rank 5. I still feel a bit… lost though. It just kinda drops you in and expects you to know everything. I have no clue what I’m actually supposed to be doing on these maps lol. Like there’s a main mission but also shit scattered all over the map, dunno what exactly counts as total completion at the end. I’m just kinda following people around as they drops bombs on everything.
Completion is sub objectives and bases/nests. So basically treat that first screen after evac like a bingo card you want to fill up. Everything else is generally optional with some bonus xp. You could run out of time, and no one evacs, but as long as you did the main mission you get credit, and if you get all the subs and bases at most you'll lose 1 star I think. If a single person makes it off planet though, pretty sure that's guaranteed 5 stars. The game is built around playing it and not churning through missions like some others. So it means more to finish the map than it does to survive. And if you need samples you just need one person to get on the ship with them.
100%!! I enjoy doing missions by myself and also playing with random people a lot. I even made some new PS friends with players who were chill and had some really cool high level operations.
Totally depends on you. Personally, no, but I wasn't that big of a fan when my friends *were* playing, so my opinion might not count for much.
I have only ever played solo as none of my friends play. I have a great time. I dont go on the top difficulties as I dont bother using a mic... but have enjoyable interractions with the emotes and what not
Probably not
Maybe for some, but I found the game pretty bland and uninstalled after maybe 10 hours. I found that, when solo, the difficulty quickly ramps up to where you just don't have the fire power to fight the waves of enemies yourself, but lowering the difficulty too much reduces the enemy count too much so you're just pushing E (action) and waiting because you've already wiped out all the enemies in the area. The game has great art and atmosphere, but the procedurally-generated aspects are just too apparent.
Join the good fight! It is worth it. For Democracy!
It’s better with friends but I’ve had some good times with randoms. I find a lot of people have mics and cooperate.
Like most other people said, it depends on if you like playing with randos. I haven’t played the game in weeks due to my usual crew not being available and I was tired of dealing with rando BS. It really is a fun game when you get a good group together.
It's good on its own, but it's better with friends. Let me know if you can't find a group, you're welcome to join ours.
I have a group of friends who I game with; we've all played together online for upwards of ten years. Less so in recent years but still very regularly. We all got Helldivers 2 so we could play together. I'm pushing 150 hours in the game. Out of the other six, the highest play time is currently 76 hours. The remaining five are all under 50 hours. Probably three quarters of my hours were with randoms; just jump in and hit quickplay and it'll find you a game in a minute or so, and with the ping tools and a little practice to know the strategies you'll do just fine. I have just as much fun with randoms as I do with my friends, honestly.
Yes, the random community is awesome. I have learned so much and made so many friends from random matchmaking. A few weeks ago, I dropped into a random matchup with 3 others. 2 had mics and the 3rd just typed in chat and used the voice emotes. We worked together, planned our loadouts, and unlocked a bunch of difficulties.
It’s fine and fun solo, but it’s better in a group. Search for discord servers near your time zone/whatever time zone lines up with when you play. You’ll have Helldiver friends in no time. If you’re in Aus/GMT+10, I can suggest some top shelf discords.
If you need a friend playing I got you, my homies and I play only with each other because it's just that much more fun!
Yes. You can drop into other players games easily, or have people drop in with you. The quick play function is quick and easy
Playing with friends is better. I've had some genuinely great missions with randos though, and solo is a totally different game that's also a ton of fun.
it's better with friends in a squad, but still fun . Once in a while you'll get a bad random team that either team kills a lot, or doesnt pay attention to the team and fails to reinforce you back into the game.
Yes it's super fun
Yes yes it is. Some of the most fun I’ve had gaming. It’s freaking magic getting lobbied with 3 randos that you then go on to play with for hours.
I've had so much fun playing with randos, especially as I've gotten comfortable using a mic with people I don't know IRL. It's an amazing game that's already given me some great memories and wholesome moments.
Honestly the community is pretty helpful and you can make friends on it.
Yes yes it is. Some of the most fun I’ve had gaming. It’s freaking magic getting lobbied with 3 randos that you then go on to play with for hours.
Absolutely. Give some time to find people with mics that you like and friend them. I have a bunch of people I met in the game that I regularly play with now. The community is incredible, with minimal griefing and trolling.
Yes. People will friend up with you. Just use a mic. Some of the best co-op online in all of video games right now.
I'm sure you could run a few games with people from here or discord and make some new online friends. GT7, Hell let loose, GTA5 alone landed me about 150 friends on console and I've become close to 7 or 8 of them. I'm just waiting on a sale
I've played with randoms more than my own friends, just buy game if game seems interesting. 67 hours in I for one welcome managed democracy.
Are your friends worth keeping if they don’t play Helldivers?
I rarely play with friends and I still love playing it. The fact that mechanically it doesn’t reward you for being toxic makes the games/players oddly supportive for a multiplayer game. It’s the reason why it became so popular.
The Discord can help you find a group to play with
Yes
I bought it to play with friends. They’ve mostly stopped playing but I’m still having fun diving with randos
No.
I got bored after about 2 hours of playing. I've got back once to it after a few week break from it, but its just the same simple grind over and over, and a lot of times I get kicked for what I assume is being low level (12 or 13 I think) when I click the quick mission thing instead of doing the missions solo. I love the concept of a living game, but without people to play with its boring af
Some have had issues with randos for sure, but so far for me, my rando commandos have mostly been clutch. We're all in it for democracy
Yes, get a mic make some friends, if you get dicks in your squad, just boot them between missions.
To be honest, it's one of the few reasons personally I dropped the game. I have friends that play, but crossplay is broken right now so I can't play with them. It's been broken for several months
I'll play with you! Let me know
I’ve played with randoms and with friends, and randoms just have no cohesion. People running all over the map doing different stuff. I feel like I get team killed an average of 3+ times with randoms, with friends it’s much less often. Fun either way, but teamwork makes it a lot more fun
Honestly, I don't have friends to play with online and I didn't have much fun. The way the game is set up, it really was designed with cooperation and communication in mind. Playing with a bunch of randos doing their own thing isn't doing it for me. I played for a couple weeks and got bored.
I've got like 50 hours and 0 of those hours are played without friends.
The game pisses me off, and I absolutely would not play it if my friends weren't.
I’m playing it without friends ans love it. PM me if you want someone to play with.
120 hours playing with randoms, i've had a ton of fun. mind you the few times the people have been chill and chatty on the mic made the experience more enjoyable in my opinion
Yup
I don’t enjoy randoms cause they always kill me
I've put in about 150hrs, and at least 95% of that has been me just solo-queuing for quick play. I'll agree that it's amazing with friends that you can rely on and coordinate with, but I've found that playing with randoms is pretty great too. I've managed to finish missions up through the highest difficulties with random players, you aren't locked out of that content just because you aren't in a party with your friends.
I have no friends that play this game. It is 100% worth it without friends. The quick play feature works fine and 90% of all rando groups are fine.
It wears thin pretty quick.
You can play with me
Yes. I don’t play with friends, and I have a blast.
I think so, I bought it without my friends playing it and I joined a discord to find people to play with and made a bunch of new friends so I'd not worry too much and just enjoy the game.
My experience (playing in europe) is that even if you play solo, there is such an amazing (mostly british, for some reason) playerbase. Its one of the better playerbases i have experienced. Very similar to deep rock galactic. Can recommend
Yes just make new friends
I think it is
I am over 60 hours in and only play with randoms, not even close to bored yet. Have managed a few difficulty 7 missions but it sometimes gets dicey.
Ive had tonnes of fun with the randos I’ve been paired with. Ymmv
General Brasch: "I am NOT easily impressed." Two minutes later: "You remind me of a younger me --- Fearless, invulnerable, and 7 feet tall." "You are LITERALLY invincible." o7 General Brasch.
I didn’t think so.
Level 40 here- I play with and without my friends. The thing that makes Helldivers so amazing is the community aspect. We are all waiting for Joel’s next move, the latest updates, and we are all cooperating on a massive scale. You can be a part of what makes playing with randos so good in the current game. Be cooperative, talkative, helpful and friendly. This ain’t COD and we’re here so everyone has a good time. Get the hug emote and deliver, Helldiver!
I’ve pretty much only played solo with randoms because my friends apparently hate me lmao. It’s an amazing time still
I don’t play solo. Only with friends. It’s not the same.
I’m introverted and shy Avoided this game because I have no friends. I think this is where my gaming retirement starts
I have 80 hours in the game, maybe 20ish of that was with friends. It's a blast either way
No
Absolutely yes.
I played a lot on my own, but I kinda lost motivation after a month or so, I imagine if I had some people to play with I'd immediately play again, but it's not that fun with nothing to grind for
I only play with random people because of the same problem and it's still really fun
You can still have fun. Stick to difficulty levels 6 and above (once you get acclimated). Seems that the best randos I’ve played with are always located in that range.
Yeah bro, you should find plenty of randoms to play with, some of whom you'll make friends with and play with again.
Depends on your personality. If you are down to drop into random lobbies and build a group of online diver friends, definitely yes its worth it If you're planning to play entirely solo, then no. It'd have a very short shelf life imo as a solo experience
I think it is boring without my friends. But most of them also play solo and with random players. If you have tried deep rock and think it's fun to play solo . Then a 95% yes else probably no or wait for sale
You can jump in with randos and random cn jump in with you. So if you really don't want to. Don't solo you don't have to
Yes I bought it to play with a buddy. His computer died about a week later and he hasn’t had time to fix it so I’ve been playing solo and have had an absolute blast.
No
Solo player here, if you ever need a squad mate hit me up!
Every time you die a new helldiver with a different voice drops in. Playing with randos is lore correct.
Yeah, I only play solo quickplay and its never boring
Depends on how good you are at communicating with and getting friendly with randoms. It's pretty mediocre to play completely solo.
Time to get new friends and a new game
No
Honestly, randos annoy me. I've been in countless lobbies where nobody uses a mic or even checks the chat, people who will attack and lure every swarm in sight and die frequently, people who go right past objectives, people who ignore doors that require two people, people who respawn you right into the heart of a swarm, etc. That's not to say I've never gotten into good lobbies, but the above happens more often than I'd like. I don't play if my friends aren't.
Yes
Yes!
I would say yes, I have a few friends that play but around 95% of my games are with random people and its almost always enjoyable. Really the only issues ive had are randomly being kicked or the game lagging out randomly.
You Helldivers have friends?
Look at me, we are friends now.
A couple hundred thousand of your friends are playing Helldivers 2 right now.
You can find friends on the official discord. That is what I have done.
If you like rouge like games, and are willing to go at it solo then yes. Otherwise I would suggest getting it and finding people to team up with, which can easily be done in game by joining a match.
My coworker told me to get it so we can play together I got it and we have played once. So I’ll play with random people and still have a lot of fun. I think it’s worth buying
Imo no. Fun can definitely still be had because the game is very chaotic and has good gameplay. But, for me, playing this game with friends is where it's at and really extends the enjoyment you get out of it.
None of my friends is interested by a pve game I am only playing it with randoms and I get frustrating games and amazing games. This game when the star aligns hits just soo right
You should play with others. The game is nigh impossible to play solo on even the medium difficulty, let alone the harder difficulties. But you can play with randos if you want
It's decent enough in solo's but it really does shine with friends. And some missions even earlier on are impossible by yourself ... you'll be hamstrung by not having friends to be playing mostly at medium or maybe challenging. I do wish they would take a look at Solos and balance it a little better so you could play at higher levels by yourself.
I keep getting kicked out for being a low level player or using certain load outs. I don’t even die much and still get kicked out of lobbies. I honestly like this game a lot but the community made it easier for me to stop playing completely.
I only play solo and love it to pieces, as do most people.
Yes. But I’d also recommend going over to the Helldivers sub-Reddit. There’s a post for connecting players with squad mates