How beginner friendly is this game?

[Alin.]

Title. My friend gifted me this game for my upcoming birthday, I wouldn't have ever bought on my own because I don't like online games. But I'll feel guilty if I don't play it now. So how beginner friendly is it? I've no knowledge about this game. And the last online game I played, if my memory serves me right, was Marvel Rivals for like 5 hours before uninstalling it.

[CedricO]

There is no real way to predict how your first hours will be. You can find a great group and have a great time, play with friends, have a great time. You could end up in a group with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who team kill for not doing precisely what you want them to. Its a bit of a gamble with any co-op game.

My experience so far has been rather positive, the only thing that seems somewhat prevalent is people bringing the most ridiculous boosters. But other then that ...

[CedricO]

Add me if you want, we can play some matches if you like. #7774-3140

[Klipwc]

Originally posted by Alin.:

Title. My friend gifted me this game for my upcoming birthday, I wouldn't have ever bought on my own because I don't like online games. But I'll feel guilty if I don't play it now. So how beginner friendly is it? I've no knowledge about this game. And the last online game I played, if my memory serves me right, was Marvel Rivals for like 5 hours before uninstalling it.

There are difficulty levels. And the lower difficulties are easy enough even if you only played with one hand, you would win.

There are also harder difficulties, and eh. Lets just say its crazy the higher you go.

For someone who isnt very good at the game, the minimum difficulty you need to go to unlock everything (super samples) will be 7 / 10. The game isnt too difficult on diff 7.

[Voin]

This game has a tutorial that teaches you the basics to get you on your feet but the rest is up to you to learn, be it from other players, experimentation or doing your own research on what to both use and what to prioritise in unlocking. The community I've found can be rather chill and nice, regardless of the impression one might get from the Steam Forum or Discord, there's plenty of new players joining so you won't be alone either in getting help.

Note, this game plays and functions differently from other online shooters, from how you unlock new content to how you defeat enemies, it may or may not be for you. What I would suggest is that at the very least, you play a few matches with your friend against the different enemies (Illuminate may be unavailable for awhile but worth a go) and see how it feels. It can be overwhelming and at times draining but, its a good way to see if the game is your cup of tea or not.

[Singularity's Marauder]

not very. We are in later stages of live service so new enemies are 90% ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you dont know what is happening

they have dumb gimmicks like shotguns that set you on fire, being invisible or having basically infinite health that may or not be beatable unlese you have specialised weapons possibly locked behind a warbond (thermite for fleshmob, stationary antitank emplacement for leviathans)

[nullpo]

For me very easy. One week in already playing difficulty 8-10 regularly. But that might be boosted with friends that teach me things the game don't tell you (like enemy weakspot, especially for automatos for example)

[Geruhn]

Originally posted by Alin.:

Title. My friend gifted me this game for my upcoming birthday, I wouldn't have ever bought on my own because I don't like online games. But I'll feel guilty if I don't play it now. So how beginner friendly is it? I've no knowledge about this game. And the last online game I played, if my memory serves me right, was Marvel Rivals for like 5 hours before uninstalling it.

The game is a (horde) shooter, so if you're familiar with those, this is not that much different.
The somewhat difficult thing is to learn the patterns for requesting stuff, but they are always on screen so you can always see what button you have to push if you haven't learned the patterns (I'm 100h mission time in and I still haven't learned all the patterns I regularly use by heart). If you need beginner-friendly team mates, feel free to reach out for a salt-free environment :)

[Botji]

Originally posted by Klipwc:

Originally posted by Alin.:

Title. My friend gifted me this game for my upcoming birthday, I wouldn't have ever bought on my own because I don't like online games. But I'll feel guilty if I don't play it now. So how beginner friendly is it? I've no knowledge about this game. And the last online game I played, if my memory serves me right, was Marvel Rivals for like 5 hours before uninstalling it.

There are difficulty levels. And the lower difficulties are easy enough even if you only played with one hand, you would win.

There are also harder difficulties, and eh. Lets just say its crazy the higher you go.

For someone who isnt very good at the game, the minimum difficulty you need to go to unlock everything (super samples) will be 7 / 10. The game isnt too difficult on diff 7.

They changed it a while ago so super samples start showing up on difficulty 6 too.

[Voin]

Originally posted by Singularity's Marauder:

not very. We are in later stages of live service so new enemies are 90% ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you dont know what is happening

they have dumb gimmicks like shotguns that set you on fire, being invisible or having basically infinite health that may or not be beatable unlese you have specialised weapons possibly locked behind a warbond (thermite for fleshmob, stationary antitank emplacement for leviathans)

The thing is, most enemies can be taken down with ease without buying a single warbond, warbonds only just make the game easier with whatever quirk or mechanic they run. Note that the Incineration Corps got nerfed, Stalker Hunters are easy to kill, infinite health enemies don't exist (Unless you meant the Fleshmobs which are still easy to kill, even with baseline weaponry to an extent) and so on. Leviathans aren't even made to be easily killed, they're meant to be a step up in the foodchain that we can try to kill but with great difficulty.

In fact, most enemies are only hard to kill if you just expect to shoot at them like any other enemy from most other games like COD, L4D2 or Payday 2, enemies are far different in this game and should be respected as such to better counter-act them rather than getting upset that their gimmick has to make you think for a few seconds.

[VelxraTV]

If you play any horde style game than you already have this one down. When and where to throw stratagems is the biggest learning curve. Along with learning where enemy weakpoints are at.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Alin.:

How beginner friendly is this game?

Depends on what you mean. Just playing the game by the sear of your pants is fairly straightforward. It is an action game, and muscle memory can do a lot of the work.

If you want to actually understand the game and make informed decisions, however, then you're looking at a bit of an uphill battle. There are many things that the game simply will not tell you. The in-game UI makes no mention of durable damage, you've no way to tell which enemy has what weak points or armour, the descriptions for most boosters are either confusing or straight-up wrong, etc.

I'd recomment checking the Wiki[helldivers.wiki.gg] if you run into problems, or ask here on the forums. For as awful as this place is, you'll typically get proper answers.

[Dexaldem]

Originally posted by Alin.:

Title. My friend gifted me this game for my upcoming birthday, I wouldn't have ever bought on my own because I don't like online games. But I'll feel guilty if I don't play it now. So how beginner friendly is it? I've no knowledge about this game. And the last online game I played, if my memory serves me right, was Marvel Rivals for like 5 hours before uninstalling it.

Eehhh... It can range. Like... Extremely. My only advice is to have crossplay off so you aren't subjected to the absolute worst of the community. From there, just have fun climbing the difficulties and just take your time learning strategems, weapons, enemy weak points, side-objectives, main objectives... Normally the veterans will show you how it's done, so watch what they do, and if you have questions, ask. I wouldn't expect Warframe-level wholesomeness out of the Helldivers 2 community, but the in-game population is normally pretty chill. That's the best advice I can offer.

[Singularity's Marauder]

Originally posted by Voin:

Originally posted by Singularity's Marauder:

not very. We are in later stages of live service so new enemies are 90% ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you dont know what is happening

they have dumb gimmicks like shotguns that set you on fire, being invisible or having basically infinite health that may or not be beatable unlese you have specialised weapons possibly locked behind a warbond (thermite for fleshmob, stationary antitank emplacement for leviathans)

The thing is, most enemies can be taken down with ease without buying a single warbond, warbonds only just make the game easier with whatever quirk or mechanic they run. Note that the Incineration Corps got nerfed, Stalker Hunters are easy to kill, infinite health enemies don't exist (Unless you meant the Fleshmobs which are still easy to kill, even with baseline weaponry to an extent) and so on. Leviathans aren't even made to be easily killed, they're meant to be a step up in the foodchain that we can try to kill but with great difficulty.

In fact, most enemies are only hard to kill if you just expect to shoot at them like any other enemy from most other games like COD, L4D2 or Payday 2, enemies are far different in this game and should be respected as such to better counter-act them rather than getting upset that their gimmick has to make you think for a few seconds.

so you can kill fleshmob with a stalwart
but thermite does that too unlike any other grenade (emp seems to not affect them? Or affect them at a delayed pace)
the leviathan can kill you, you should ignore it, but stationary emplacement lets you mow them down
Spear, RR, etc. require you to have a ton of spare ammo and can even take too long

fire bots were nerfed
stalkers can be killed

but it still doesnt change the fact that a guy with a shield and an lmg. Or a big bug that is heavy. Or small bug that jumps are a bit more comprehensive concepts than instakill shotgun dude with a shield, a grenade Hulk or a guy who has magic armour that makes them invincible to railgun. Or a mech that has magic armour that makes it invincible to spear

the kind of detail that made enemies fair was thrown out the window after Escalation of Freedom

propagation of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ enemy design like elite Chargers, reinforced at ats or rocket tanks. All which were nerfed. But are fundamentally unfun to fight. So they have to be kept ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to even stay in the game

[darkblade]

Originally posted by Alin.:

Title. My friend gifted me this game for my upcoming birthday, I wouldn't have ever bought on my own because I don't like online games. But I'll feel guilty if I don't play it now. So how beginner friendly is it? I've no knowledge about this game. And the last online game I played, if my memory serves me right, was Marvel Rivals for like 5 hours before uninstalling it.

its ok i would say if you play with the nice people but its grindy

[Starbarian]

The game itself is very easy on newbies at lower difficulty, But I wouldn't say the same how players would treat newbies.