Helldivers 2 Players Establish ‘Unspoken’ Co-Op Etiquette

Helldivers 2 has only been out for a handful of days, but already its community is working to establish the “unspoken” rules of engagement, with an etiquette for good co-op play.

For the uninitiated, Helldivers 2 is a co-op focused shooter in which players team up to defeat giant alien bugs and terrifying automatons. It’s a dangerous game, and I don’t just mean just because of the bad guys. In Helldivers 2, you’re as much a danger to your teammates as the big bugs you face. With friendly fire very much a part of the gameplay, Helldivers 2 is a game in which you need to watch where you’re shooting – and where you’re landing in a drop pod.

And so, across the Helldivers subreddit, Discord, and social media, players are setting down best practice for co-op play. There’s a great thread by redditor RhuanSqx in which the Helldivers 2 is essentially crowdsourcing this early-days rule list. There’s some obvious stuff in there, such as do not walk in the way of your teammate when they’re shooting and be careful where you place your strategems (that area of effect!). But there’s some less obvious stuff that’s really helpful for promoting positive play, too. For example, when someone calls in a resupply, share the ammo by only grabbing one cache. The more ammo everyone has, the merrier a time you’ll have. Oh, and reload your weapons before snagging that resupply.

Here’s a nice suggestion: don’t loot your teammates’ equipment without their permission, but feel free to loot their samples (extracted samples are shared equally at the end of a mission). In Helldivers 2, turrets are particularly useful, but they can also hit your teammates hard (friendly fire, remember!). Combat this by placing them on high ground, making the low ground as safe as possible.

Some of this etiquette is as much about avoiding griefing as it is promoting effective play. Helldivers 2, as I’ve said, is a dangerous game, and so it’s as much about what you don’t shoot as it is about what you do shoot. So, firing at an enemy off in the distance while the rest of your squad is focused on something else probably isn’t the wisest course of action. Lobbing a teammates respawn right at a titan isn’t smart, either.

Do not shoot the nuke in Helldivers 2… pic.twitter.com/YpUtJq1dDO

— Papa JoPa – King Shark Main (@JoPaWrites) February 11, 2024

Speaking of griefing, I’ve already seen some players report that they’ve encountered players who’ve engaged in a spot of teamkilling. Some are even orbital-striking the entire group as soon as they spawn onto the map, only to do it again seemingly just for a laugh. And teamkilling during an extraction, or kicking a teammate during extraction after a 40-minute mission? Yikes!

But in Helldivers 2, it’s not always clear when teamkilling is accidental or deliberate. Redditor PassageLongjumping24 shared an interesting experience in which they dropped the carpet bomb at their feet knowing they and a teammate were about to die, taking at least 40 bugs with them. “It was a success and saved the team,” they said. But the other two players in the squad were less than impressed.

“Friendly fire is part of the game, embrace it,” PassageLongjumping24 said. “Teamkilling is a different beast altogether. After being insulted for saving the mission, I blew the dissident away with my shotgun, which led to a brief but bloody teamfight in which no-one won.

“Know the difference. Don’t cry like a baby when you get nailed by a strat and happen to be in the blast zone. Or if you weren’t even in the area of effect, just laugh and move on.”

Griefing is of course as old as online gaming, and, tonally, it might even fit Helldivers 2. This is a game inspired by Starship Troopers, a game in which you really do need to learn to embrace the chaos. You will die. Over and over again. So will your teammates! Sometimes random silliness is just that. But, as Helldivers 2’s co-op etiquette shows, there’s a fine line between slapstick and frustration.

The most important thing, though, is to have fun, and Helldivers 2 is all about that fun. According to Arrowhead boss Johan Pilestedt, Helldivers 2 has already sold one million copies across PlayStation 5 and PC, smashing all expectations in the process. And despite various matchmaking issues, Helldivers 2 shows no sign of slowing down. Check out IGN’s Helldivers 2 tips and tricks for getting started if you’re jumping in.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].