Aside from the incredibly intense co-op action, Helldivers 2’s most alluring feature is its ongoing galactic war. This sees the whole community come together to complete large-scale objectives involving the defense and liberation of planets. While this much is clearly explained in-game, we bet you didn’t know that all 253 Helldivers 2 planets are connected via supply chains that dictate our success and even what planets are accessible at any given moment.
Sure, the sneaky Helldivers 2 game master is pulling all the strings – alongside a newly formed team after an “emergency expansion” – but there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes of the hit new PS5 game. Revealed in the handy Helldivers 2 galactic war tracker, each of the game’s 253 planets are grouped into clusters known as supply chains. Importantly, these aren’t displayed in-game, though you will feel its effects.
These supply chains dictate which planets are available for liberation and defense campaigns. For example, right now, we can only liberate planets that are directly linked to Super Earth. As the galactic war progresses over the following weeks, months, and even years, the outer planets at the far reaches of the map should, therefore, become accessible – if we’re successful in liberating planets.
Interestingly, when our enemies are advancing, the connected planets are cut off depending on where they fit in the chain, gating access to avid Helldivers eager to dispense Managed Democracy. What happens when a planet is cut off from its neighbours? Well, it means all our hard work will slowly be undone as long as it remains out of our reach.
With this wider network in mind, crafty Helldivers with a penchant for grand strategies will no doubt jump to the conclusion that there are smarter plays to make than simply following orders. For example, as Reddit user ‘ghoxen’ rightly pointed out when we lost Mantes, the fated Malevelon Creek and Draupnir were also lost and saw their liberation percentage decline meaning Helldivers’ efforts on these planets were soon undone after our failure. Depending on how many Helldivers you could wrangle together, it would have been best to secure Mantes first.
The opportunity for wider strategies, paired with the game master’s tricks – such as giving lucky players early access to Helldivers 2 vehicles – is one of the many reasons why it has quickly become one of the best co-op games on PS5. So, next time you step into your drop pod to be shot towards a planet, consider whether it’s worth moving along the supply chain first.
Elsewhere in Super Earth’s orbit, the Helldivers 2 devs are squashing meta worries like Terminid under the hefty foot of a mech. However, we’re worried that Helldivers 2’s rapid success could teach Sony the wrong lesson going forward.