Helldivers 2 is definitely about strategy, but the way I play it I wouldn't call it strategic. My first few hours in Arrowhead's hit shooter were chaotic, not helped by me jumping straight into the Automaton section and starting shooting at thickly armored robots with a pea shooter. I was torn apart by melee bots, caught in the airstrikes of my compatriots, thrown through the air at speeds of several knots, resurfaced more times than I could count, and probably set back the cause of freedom by several weeks . But hey: it was a nice time.
Now that I'm a little more familiar with how the Liberty em-up works (and have discovered the healthy joy of bug-squisting), I've started unlocking the various loadout options across the planet's surface. These thoughts are mostly about whether I bring a submachine gun or a shotgun. But some Helldivers are much more thorough and you don't have to search the Internet for a long time to find the usual ones RankingsRecommendations, Spreadsheets, and warnings about so-called trash builds. Players like Min-Max and as a popular game in town, Helldiver Kit is given full treatment.
The problem is that the information the game gives you about its weapons seems to be a bit incomplete. In addition to certain properties, each weapon has four visible values (damage, capacity, recoil and rate of fire). But it turns out there's a lot more going on under the hood.
“Regarding Helldivers 2 Weapon Stats” writes Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt“Many of you use the 4 stats we show as a comparison, while each weapon may have 50 stats in total. The numbers are indicative but do not give a complete picture.”
“Use the one you like best.”
So. Some of the smarter Helldivers out there had done it already figured out that the damage output of certain weapons didn't necessarily match the visible numbers, but that's straight from the horse's mouth. I suspect this is also due to some recent complaints from players who feel like they've been kicked out of groups for running sub-optimal builds while the meta's toxic concept already has its tendrils wrapped around sweet Lady Liberty has. I think it's better than team killing for resources that are already evenly dividedbut not much.
As someone who has been playing online competitively for over two decades, I can tell you that the concept of the meta sucks. It's always been that way, and it ruins the fun of any game if you take it too seriously. I don't think it's a bad thing to want to optimize your build, gear, deck, or whatever. I just think that when that switches to min-maxing and running the gear you specify in a spreadsheet, then something of the game itself is lost: the experimentation, the playing around and figuring out, the shocking realization that your favorite way to play might be is not the most efficient.
Long story short: No matter what Helldivers 2 stat nerds and Pilestedt say, I really like shooting bugs at close range with the space shotgun or whatever it's called. The thing feels great and the way the bugs break down into chitin and slime is super satisfying. So you can give me the 50 total stats for every weapon in the game and tell me the thing is worthless: I'll still be walking around with it anyway. For Liberty, sure, but mostly for me.
