Stratagem Tier List

Stratagems represent your tactical toolkit in Helldivers 2—offensive strikes, defensive emplacements, support weapons, and utility tools called down from orbit or via Eagle close air support. Unlike primary weapons that you carry constantly, Stratagems operate on cooldowns and limited uses, making selection and timing critical strategic decisions. Understanding which Stratagems provide maximum impact across various scenarios separates effective Helldivers from struggling squads.

This tier list evaluates all Stratagems for general co-op effectiveness, then breaks down faction-specific meta shifts for Terminids, Automatons, and Illuminate. Each Stratagem receives visual indicators showing faction effectiveness, cooldown windows, and tactical role categorization. The focus is teaching you when and why to deploy each tool rather than simply ranking power levels.

Effective Stratagem loadouts balance four critical factors that determine battlefield impact. Power measures raw damage or utility strength. Versatility indicates how many situations benefit from the Stratagem. Uptime reflects how frequently you can deploy it based on cooldowns and uses. Team Synergy evaluates how well it complements squadmate choices. A Stratagem ranking S-tier typically excels in three or more factors, while lower tiers might only satisfy one or two.

Your four Stratagem slots should generally cover these roles: one anti-armor option for heavy targets, one crowd control tool for swarms, one defensive or utility pick for survivability, and one flex slot adapting to mission requirements or personal preference. Teams lacking any of these categories will struggle in specific scenarios—no anti-armor means Chargers and Hulks overwhelm you, no crowd control means swarms overrun positions, no defensive tools means attrition wears you down.

S-tier Stratagems excel in nearly any mission due to exceptional power, versatility, or uptime. These represent must-consider options for any loadout, though you still need to balance roles across your four slots rather than stacking four S-tier picks of the same type.

A-tier Stratagems are highly effective tools that excel in specific roles or situations. They often match S-tier performance when circumstances align but lack the universal applicability of top-tier picks. These represent strong choices for specialized loadouts or when S-tier options are already occupied.

B-tier Stratagems are solid choices that can excel in specific scenarios but are generally outperformed by higher tiers. C-tier options are average or niche with notable limitations making them harder to justify in most loadouts. Both tiers include early-unlock options players eventually replace and specialized tools for specific tactics.

This table provides at-a-glance comparison of key Stratagems across critical performance metrics. Use this to quickly evaluate tradeoffs between options when building loadouts.

Each enemy faction in Helldivers 2 has unique characteristics fundamentally shifting Stratagem effectiveness. What dominates against Terminid swarms may prove ineffective against armored Automaton forces. Understanding these meta shifts enables you to adapt loadouts appropriately rather than bringing generalist builds that struggle against specific threats.

Terminids attack in massive swarms of melee-focused enemies with few heavily-armored units. Only the largest bugs like Bile Titans possess thick armor plating. They are highly vulnerable to fire and persistent area damage due to organic nature. Effective anti-bug strategy emphasizes rapid crowd-clear and area denial preventing swarms from overwhelming positions.

Meta Shifts: Crowd control Stratagems jump entire tiers in value. Flamethrower becomes arguably the best support weapon. Orbital Napalm transforms from situational to essential. Anti-armor tools remain necessary for Bile Titans and Chargers but take secondary priority compared to swarm management. Single-target precision tools like Railgun drop slightly in relative value since most threats are massed fodder rather than elite units.

Top Picks:

• Flamethrower — Perhaps ultimate bug-killer. Continuous flames melt entire swarms in seconds. Even larger bugs die quickly when lit on fire. Essential for one squad member on bug planets.
• Orbital Napalm Barrage — Extraordinarily effective dropped on hive entrances or choke points. Sets up fire walls bugs rush into and perish. Great for slowing onslaught and thinning huge waves.
• Orbital Laser — Toasts dozens of bugs at once. Instantly destroys nearby bug nests. Deletes any cluster or boss encounter. Top-tier emergency button for bug missions.
• Eagle 500kg Bomb — Bugs cluster around objectives. Well-placed bomb annihilates huge clump or entire nest. One-shots bug bosses if they’re in blast radius.
• Orbital Gatling Barrage — Perfect for swarms of smaller unarmored bugs. Fast cooldown enables repeatedly carpeting incoming waves. Brood Commanders and minions get chewed up efficiently.

Strong Alternatives:

• Eagle Strafing Run surprisingly useful against bugs despite mediocrity elsewhere. Thrown at your feet while kiting, shreds line through approaching horde buying breathing room.
• Orbital Gas Strike releases poison cloud confusing larger bugs. Won’t kill biggest bugs quickly but massacres weaker ones while leaving them choking.
• Eagle Napalm smaller airstrike dropping fire line. Excellent for cutting off stampedes—forces swarm to pause or burn running through flames.
• Anti-Personnel and Incendiary Mines work exceptionally well due to bug density. Bugs blow themselves up automatically. Incendiary mines create small flames playing to fire weakness.

Automatons are robotic enemies deploying lots of ranged firepower and heavy armor. Even many grunt bots have metal plating or shields. They deploy turrets and construct alarm towers. Fighting bots requires high penetration and anti-tank damage to break their armor plus protection from their concentrated gunfire. Single-target precision and defensive tools rank highest.

Meta Shifts: Anti-armor Stratagems become mandatory rather than optional. Railgun and similar precision tools jump to absolute top priority. Shield Generator Pack transforms from nice-to-have to nearly essential for surviving sustained fire. Crowd control drops in relative importance since bot numbers are lower but individual units are tougher. Flamethrower falls dramatically in value due to short range versus ranged enemies and ineffectiveness against armor.

Top Picks:

• Railgun — Practically designed for Automaton elites. Charged shots punch through armored bots, killing Hulks or Striders in one weak-spot hit. Best anti-bot weapon.
• MLS-4X Commando — Immense burst damage for deleting bot armor. Guide missiles into vulnerable points of tanks or walkers from long range. Snipe fabricator cores without engaging defenders.
• Shield Generator Pack — Top pick for bot missions. Constant gunfire, explosives, and laser beams wear you down quickly. Shield negates chip damage enabling you to focus on shooting. Essential survival tool.
• Orbital Laser — Bot bases have tightly clustered structures and units. Single laser sweep obliterates entire cluster of armored robots and turrets. Melts heavy bot bases if placed correctly.
• Orbital Railcannon Strike — Drops kinetic rod instantly killing one big target. Long cooldown but unlimited uses mean you can answer each heavy Automaton with guaranteed kill.

Strong Alternatives:

• Autocannon Sentry if placed covering open approach will destroy even Hulks given moment to fire. High damage and decent ammo make it excellent area-denial.
• Eagle 500kg Bomb one-shots almost any bot including bosses like Behemoths if near blast center. Excellent for cracking hardened structures in bot bases.
• Expendable AT Launchers pair every minute great for bots. Two in succession or well-placed headshot kills Hulks. Can one-shot dropships by hitting engines.
• Orbital Precision Strike common tactic is immediately striking Automaton outpost or alarm tower before spawning reinforcements. Fast arrival removes key targets quickly.
• EMP effects great against bots. Stun Grenades or EMS Mortar halt charging robot groups allowing you to pick them off. Shock Mines periodically freeze incoming bots.

Illuminate are high-tech aliens mixing fleshy units with energy shields and psionic abilities. They generally lack sheer heavy armor of Automatons—only few large units have moderate armor. Instead their threat comes from energy shields negating frontal damage until broken and tricks like teleportation. Effective strategy revolves around breaking shields and wiping groups of fragile but dangerous units quickly.

Meta Shifts: Rapid-fire ballistics and explosive area damage work exceptionally well. Shield-breaking capability becomes important—concentrated fire or high-alpha strikes pop shields enabling follow-up. Crowd control regains importance for handling Voteless thrall hordes. Precision anti-armor slightly less critical since Illuminate heavies are rarer than Automaton counterparts. Versatile multi-role Stratagems that handle both shield-breaking and crowd-clearing perform best.

Top Picks:

• Orbital Laser — Cuts through packs of Voteless, Overseers, and multiple Harvesters in one blast. Placed on Illuminate warp gate or structure demolishes it outright. Efficient way to deal with bunched shielded enemies.
• Eagle 500kg Bomb — Most Illuminate enemies don’t survive direct hit even bosses. They often cluster when teleporting in. Can destroy landed Warp Ship and all deployed enemies in one blast.
• Anti-Materiel Rifle — Illuminates frequently deploy medium armored targets with frontal shields. Powerful single-shot weapon pierces and pops shields or takes out key target from range. Addresses faction’s unique mechanic through brute force.
• Grenade Launcher / Autocannon — Both spew explosive damage hitting multiple foes without requiring precision weak-spot aiming. Most Illuminate units except few don’t have extreme armor—blow up groups with grenades or shells quickly. Help break multiple shields through damage saturation.
• W.A.S.P. Launcher — Guided micro-missile launcher very effective against hovering Illuminate units. Locks on and barrages targets with multiple small rockets. Great for tracking agile Illuminate units and destroying unarmored flyers.

Strong Alternatives:

• Eagle Strafing Run uniquely useful against Illuminates because it strips energy shields from multiple enemies at once. If lacking other shield-breaking, strafing run peppers line dropping shields for follow-up fire.
• Orbital 120mm or 380mm Barrages well-timed on teleporting enemy waves wipe spawn groups as they arrive. Also handy for destroying Illuminate structures from afar preventing more teleports.
• Guard Dog Drones and Sentries because many Illuminate units are relatively squishy once shields drop. Continuous fire from automated weapons cleans them up efficiently while you focus on priorities.
• Orbital Precision Strike useful for taking out Warp Gates and objectives quickly so you don’t get overrun. Couple strikes destroy shielded portal faster than small arms.

Effective Stratagem selection isn’t just picking the four highest-tier options—it’s about creating balanced composition covering all tactical needs. This section teaches the framework for building synergistic loadouts that address mission requirements comprehensively rather than redundantly stacking similar tools.

Your four Stratagem slots should generally satisfy these categories: Anti-Armor for eliminating heavy targets, Crowd Control for managing swarms, Defensive for survivability and area denial, and Flex for adapting to specific mission requirements. Loadouts lacking any category will struggle in predictable scenarios.

Anti-Armor (Slot 1): This role handles boss enemies, heavily-armored elites, and vehicles that your primary weapon cannot damage effectively. Strong choices include Railgun, Quasar Cannon, Commando, Recoilless Rifle, Autocannon, or EAT-17. You absolutely need something in this category—missions will spawn Chargers, Bile Titans, Hulks, or Behemoths that demand high-penetration firepower. Without anti-armor, these enemies will overwhelm your squad through attrition.

Crowd Control (Slot 2): This role addresses mass enemy spawns, breach events, and defensive holds where dozens of enemies assault simultaneously. Options include Flamethrower, Orbital Laser, Eagle 500kg, Cluster Bomb, Orbital Gatling, or Napalm strikes. Against swarm factions like Terminids, this becomes your highest-priority slot. Against Automatons where enemy density is lower, you might downgrade to secondary priority. The goal is preventing tactical situations where sheer numbers overwhelm despite individual enemies being killable.

Defensive (Slot 3): This category covers survivability tools and area denial assets that keep you alive and control battlefield space. Prime examples include Shield Generator Pack, Gatling Sentry, Supply Pack, or defensive strikes like Orbital Napalm for area denial. Against ranged-heavy factions (Automatons, Illuminate), defensive tools jump in priority because you need protection from sustained fire. Against melee-focused Terminids, area denial through sentries or mines provides similar value by keeping swarms at distance.

Flex (Slot 4): The adaptive slot matching mission-specific needs or personal preference. This might be backup anti-armor (bringing both Railgun and EAT-17), additional crowd control for swarm-heavy missions, utility like Jump Pack or Supply Pack for specific tactical approaches, or simply your favorite Stratagem that doesn’t fit other categories cleanly. Experienced players use this slot to min-max against known enemy compositions or mission modifiers.

Certain loadout mistakes appear repeatedly among struggling players. Recognizing these anti-patterns helps you build more effective compositions.

Redundancy Stacking: Bringing four anti-armor tools (Railgun + Commando + Recoilless + EAT-17) sounds powerful but leaves you vulnerable to swarms. Yes, you’ll delete any boss instantly, but thirty Terminid warriors will overrun you because you lack crowd control. Similarly, four crowd-control strikes without any anti-armor means Bile Titans or Hulks will survive your bombardments and methodically destroy your team. Balance across roles instead of doubling down on single capability.

Role Gaps: The inverse problem—bringing four Stratagems that don’t cover critical needs. Example: Eagle Strafing Run + Orbital Precision + Jump Pack + Supply Pack. You have utility and some damage but nothing that truly deletes bosses or manages massive swarms. When Charger shows up, you’ll struggle. When breach spawns forty enemies, you’ll get overwhelmed. Make sure your loadout explicitly answers “what do I do when boss appears” and “what do I do when twenty enemies rush me.”

Mission Mismatch: Bringing generalist loadout into faction-specific mission. If you know you’re fighting Terminids, bringing Railgun as your only offensive Stratagem is suboptimal—it handles Bile Titans fine but does nothing for the ninety lesser bugs accompanying them. Similarly, bringing Flamethrower into Automaton mission cripples you since short range versus ranged armored enemies creates impossible tactical situation. Adapt to known enemy type when possible.

Cooldown Overlap: Taking multiple long-cooldown limited-use Stratagems without any frequent-use options. Example: Orbital Laser (300s, 3 uses) + Eagle 500kg (90s, 1-2 uses) + Railgun (480s) + Recoilless (480s). Once you expend your strikes and support weapons die or run dry, you face extended windows where you’re relying purely on primary weapon. Include at least one short-cooldown option (EAT-17 at 70s, Orbital Gatling at 80s) providing consistent available firepower throughout mission.

In four-player squads, individual Stratagem choices should complement teammates rather than duplicate them. Coordinated loadout distribution creates more capable team than four identical loadouts.

Specialization Benefits: If Player One brings Railgun for anti-armor, Player Two can skip anti-armor entirely and focus on crowd control with Flamethrower. Player Three might bring defensive coverage via sentries. Player Four carries utility like Supply Pack. Together they cover all roles comprehensively. Contrast with all four bringing Railgun—redundant anti-armor with nobody handling swarms or providing utility.

Redundancy Insurance: Some redundancy is smart—if only one player brings anti-armor and they die, suddenly your team can’t handle heavies. Having two players with anti-armor capability (even if one is primary Railgun and other is backup EAT-17) provides insurance against deaths or mistakes. Similarly, ensure at least two players can handle crowd control so single death doesn’t leave team defenseless against swarms.

Complementary Roles: Certain Stratagem combinations create multiplicative value. Recoilless Rifle user pairs perfectly with teammate carrying the ammo backpack, enabling rapid-fire barrage. Shield Generator Pack users should take point drawing aggro while unshielded teammates with offensive backpacks operate safely behind them. Player with Supply Pack becomes mobile ammo distribution enabling ammo-hungry weapons others are carrying. Discuss roles before mission rather than discovering gaps mid-combat.

Communication: Brief pre-mission discussion prevents redundancy and ensures coverage. “I’m bringing Railgun and Shield Pack for anti-armor and defense. What are you bringing?” If everyone briefly states their loadout focus, obvious gaps become apparent. This doesn’t require rigid coordination—casual awareness prevents four players all bringing same Stratagem categories accidentally.

These example loadouts demonstrate the composition theory in practice, showing how to balance roles across four slots while adapting to specific scenarios. Each loadout includes tactical explanation of how pieces work together.

Tier lists provide valuable starting framework for understanding Stratagem effectiveness, but Helldivers 2’s tactical depth means context always matters. The best Stratagem is the one that solves your immediate tactical problem, not necessarily the highest-ranked option on paper.

An S-tier Railgun becomes useless when forty Terminids are overrunning your position and you need area damage right now. A C-tier Smoke Strike might save your squad during desperate extraction when you need enemy aggro break. Mission modifiers, team composition, personal skill level, and tactical situation all influence what constitutes optimal choice in any given moment.

Use this guide as educational foundation teaching you what each Stratagem does well and why. Learn the framework of balancing roles across your four slots. Understand how faction matchups shift priorities. But don’t be afraid to experiment with lower-tier options that match your playstyle or to adapt mid-mission when your initial loadout isn’t addressing the actual threats you’re facing.

The mark of skilled Helldiver isn’t memorizing tier rankings—it’s recognizing which tool fits the current tactical situation and deploying it effectively. Study the patterns, understand the principles, then adapt fluidly based on battlefield realities. That’s how you spread Managed Democracy efficiently.