Rating Each Premium Warbond (DLC)

If you're spending money on it, you might as well know what you're getting.

THIS GUIDE IS OUTDATED

With more frequent balance patches and new warbonds, I will be using this shortened guide, instead.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3403162194

THE LEAST TERRIBLE ONE (Steeled Veterans)

This is good.

Yes, these are the standards we're working with where I think the best warbond is just "good."

I personally like Steeled Veterans less than Democratic Detonation just because the weapons and armors here don't necessarily wow me as much, but honestly, I recognize this as the superior package. Although I don't use many weapons in this warbond, I do acknowledge they're near-universally good while also avoiding being boring "bigger number" upgrades to the base weapons.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Every single weapon ranges from "fantastic" to at least "decent." However, I'm a little hesitant to list this as a good thing because currently some of them are being eyed for a nerf, especially the fire shotgun due to fire doing much more damage than intended. At the very least, every weapon offers a new and refreshing playstyle.
  
  
• The previous bullet point was made before they nerfed the fire shotgun exactly like I predicted. Am I psychic or what? It's still at least decent now, and the other weapons in this warbond are untouched.

LOWLIGHTS

• Everything that isn't a weapon. The victory poses are extremely dull and although the prosthetic limbs are a neat idea for armor design, they mostly look a little silly or are borderline unnoticeable. The whole gimmick of one armor set is literally the fact it's the basic armor but with some parts replaced. The other armors are still extremely vanilla and do not stand out. However, the armors come with servo-assisted, a decent armor effect which is unfortunately becoming increasingly more common.
  
  
• This warbound also has the dubious honor of having the most useless booster in the whole game. If you somehow burn through all 20 of your reinforcements, this lowers the time for you to get a reinforcement via cooldown by 18 or so seconds. To be brutally honest, I wouldn't use this booster even if it gave infinite reinforcements, because how common is it you ever run out? More often than not, you will go entire missions, game sessions, or possibly weeks of gameplay without ever seeing this booster's effect be used.

BLOW YOUR LOAD (Democratic Detonation)

This used to just be okay. Now? Well, it's good, but it's the most fun "good" in the whole game. The main appeal of this pack is gaining some extra utility, but the weapons pack enough firepower on their own in addition to them completely changing your playstyle.

This warbond offers something absolutely no other pack even gets close to emulating. Steeled Veterans may be the most practical warbond, but Democratic Detonation is absolutely the most enjoyable yet unwieldy.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The eruptor is a controversial primary but it's currently my favorite weapon. It basically acts like a mini-autocannon. It's not wonderful for every situation due to how slow it is, but if you have a trusty sidearm and support weapon (which you will usually use as your main means of damage over the eruptor), it works fantastic. Pairing it with a shield lets you do point-blank shots without taking any damage, an otherwise major flaw, which is an appealing option since the weapon can destroy enemy bases, meaning you most likely won't need a specialized grenade or backpack anyway. Its ridiculous range makes bots a complete cakewalk.
  
  
• The explosive crossbow turns you into a base-obliterating machine. It's obviously not as safe as the eruptor, since its harsh falloff forces you to get a little closer to enemy outposts, but you can destroy even the heaviest of facilities as fast as you can dash in, aim, and dash out. It's a little mediocre when it comes to combat, but it can still hold its ground while only needing a tiny bit of support, either through stratagems or teammates. I personally use it for bugs, since the denser crowds and closer ranges makes it a better fit compared to the eruptor. It also functions as a pseudo stealth weapon since its firing is nearly silent (although its impact obviously isn't).
  
  
• The grenade pistol is a great secondary if you don't have any means of blowing up enemy bases, especially when many sidearms go mostly unused for entire missions if your primary is good enough. It's a little frustrating to aim at first, but you eventually get used to it. Supposedly, it's intended to be able to fire two grenades per magazine instead of the one it has currently, but this seems to be just a rumor.
  
  
• The victory poses are all great in this pack. Multiple of the best poses in the entire game come right from this warbond, namely the bow and squat. The squat itself has four random variants, as well, giving you four poses for the price of one.
  
  
• The designs of all the armors are great and have fairly generalist perks, so you're likely to use them. The light armor in particular has stats offered by no other armor in the entire game, on top of a beautiful red and black color scheme.

LOWLIGHTS

• Thermite has an extreme identity crisis as to what in the world it's even supposed to do. It didn't work when it was first added, and now it just sort of does some damage to heavies? You're better off using any other grenade in all situations. To be honest, I'm partially convinced an impact grenade does more damage than a perfectly placed thermite. Ultimately, you're only going to use thermite to celebrate at the escape shuttle because it looks like, sounds like, and is about as strong as fireworks.
  
  
• The weapons have gotten some buffs, but when they have gotten nerfed, they are completely butchered. I'm a little sketchy even with the recent patches buffing them, since I feel they may be reverted by some capacity in the future.
  
  
• The booster, expert extraction pilot, is stupid. It's only really good for missions where you don't care or won't be challenged, like helping your newbie friend on difficulty 4. It reduces the call-in time for evac by a whopping 20 seconds, or 35 if you brought this to a mission with increased call-in times.

THE PACK WITH THE SICKLE IN IT (Cutting Edge)

If you've ever watched a Youtube video where some fat, lazy content creator just spouts off his stupid, unedited opinions on the effectiveness of every weapon using a free tier list maker website before going back to playing only difficulty 6, odds are he lists at least one of the two notable weapons in this pack at the very top.

However, the biggest issue is that everything else in the pack will most likely never be touched after you try them once, and this applies to the actually decent weapons since they carry an obnoxious learning curve which barely justifies how they're only slightly better than standard weapons.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Stun grenades are easily one of the best grenades in the entire game, although it makes you unable to destroy enemy bases without some explosive alternate weapons. The sheer utility from these should speak plenty as to why you see every team have at least one person running them. I'm still somewhat concerned whether or not these will be nerfed in the future given the fact it stuns chargers and hulks.
  
  
• The sickle. Not only is it one of if not the best primary in the game, it's the first thing you can unlock in this warbond. The blitzer is also a nice weapon, but it's much more unorthodox compared to the simplicity of the game's starting weapon with effectively infinite ammo.
  
  
• One of the few good premium warbond boosters. It delays the next enemy reinforcement by around 30% or so. Obviously, this isn't among the best boosters, but it's easily one of the best out of every warbond booster since the bar is so abysmally low.

LOWLIGHTS

• The armors all follow the same useless gimmick. They let you tank a tesla tower zap (specifically three). Ignoring how two out of the three armors in this warbond are exact copies of the other, the tesla tower is exceptionally underwhelming and you shouldn't be standing close enough to get zapped by it anyway.
  
  
• All other weapons are horribad, except for the recently buffed scythe which is just okay. They either require you to work twice as hard to do the same thing as a default weapons (or worse) or have some sort of bug or fatal flaw that makes them unusable or nonsensical. For instance, the laser pistol offers a solution to the non-existent problem of ammo management on a sidearm.
  
  
• While obviously not the biggest dealbreaker, this pack has the most understated victory poses. They're either slow and subtle, making them hard to notice on the end results screen, or stiff and unusual, like the animation is still on a first draft. If that's what you're looking for in a victory pose, though, then more power to you.

ONE UGLY DLC PACK (Viper Commandos)

There was a time where this guide basically was me going "I can't believe they released Polar Patriots as it is. How could they think Polar Patriots was a good pack? There can't possibly be a warbond as bad as Polar Patriots ever again."

Then this came out immediately after. It launched with the armors completely nonfunctional and with way less content than before.

Now it's fine. As you can see, I consider it better than Polar Patriots. It's mainly hindered by the gameplay content being replaced with lackluster cosmetics.

HIGHLIGHTS

• A team emote. Yay.
  
  
• The armors have a pretty decent effect, especially if you use weapons which are typically quite slow to aim, like the autocannon. They're not by absolute favorite, but they are one of the few armors I enjoy playing now and again. This is in addition to their phenomenal visual designs.
  
  
• The best warbond booster. Definitely viable to be your go-to third or fourth booster. Having a speedboost and damage resistance buff every time you heal is fantastic.
  
  
• The best weapon here is yet another Liberator reskin where they just swapped some numbers around. I consider this a blessing and a curse. Yes, you are getting a good weapon, but it's not good because it has a faster fire rate but more recoil. It's good because it's just the Liberator. Again.

LOWLIGHTS

• The sawed-off shotgun is literally a worse Senator revolver. Halve the Senator's magazine size, halve your reserve ammo, gut its range, remove all armor penetration, and strip away its speedloader mechanic, and now you have the sawed-off. Its only benefit is having high stagger, but you should really bring something which outright kills what you want to stagger.
  
  
• Meanwhile, the knife is barely better than the horrible thermite grenades, which is not a high bar. Anyone who says it's good for stealth builds has never used stealth before. Don't think for a second you can only learn how to use stealth if you have the knife. Even the eruptor, with its ear-shattering explosions, can be used for stealth using the current mechanics based on whether or not your shot kills the target in one hit.
  
  
• The cosmetics (besides the armors) are one of the most baffling decisions I've seen made in this game yet. The devs decided to focus on adding texture packs and cosmetics using...the pack with the camo theme. A.K.A. the style of patterns literally made not to stand out. And guess what? They don't stand out.

COOL THEME, HOT GARBAGE (Polar Patriots)

I want a super refund for my super credits.

To summarize this warbond in a sentence, I would say "form over function." Recent patches have made this pack not as bad, but the weapons are still rather underwhelming.

HIGHLIGHTS

• All of the armors look very unique, including being the first non-preorder armor that's blue. Isn't it sad I'm talking about armor colors as the main highlight of a warbond?
  
  
• I like the victory poses. When this pack first came out, I said "good luck seeing any of them when you try using the weapons from this warbond." That was a good joke. The weapons are better now, though.
  
  
• The SMG is decent. It can stagger a lot of stuff, including some heavies. Since nothing in this warbond is allowed to be good, this will probably be nerfed in the future (or, more seriously, the devs flip out when you have something which trivializes heavies, even when that's the only thing this gun has going for it). This nerf I'm personally predicting would render every single weapon in this warbond useless.
  
  
• The previous bullet point was written before a patch rebalanced the weapons. Guess what? They nerfed the SMG like I predicted. However, they also buffed the other weapons to be thoroughly okay, now, but that still sucks.
  
  
• The deagle is decent but thoroughly disappointing, as it's functionally just a slower, stronger pistol with nothing else to offer, even though I do personally use it when I want small mob control.

LOWLIGHTS

• All weapons besides the SMG really aren't worth the hassle. Oops, I forgot they nerfed the SMG. Okay, let me try again: all the weapons really aren't worth the hassle. The mandatory Liberator reskin is pretty nifty since it rewards precise shooting, but it doesn't really grant you a unique playstyle. You're ultimately working a lot harder to compensate for its lack of armor penetration when any other weapon will just let you, well, penetrate the armor. The whole five or six shorter frames on an enemy's time to kill fails to justify the extra effort. Same goes for the weird energy weapon, which functions as good as the other energy weapons, except it's just more cumbersome with nothing to really show for it.
  
  
• The booster, motivational shocks, is only good for identifying newbies who pick it. Despite its description, attacks that slow you down will do so anyway, as it's not complete mitigation. Even if it worked with 100% effectiveness, it has zero purpose against bots. The muscle stimulant booster does effectively the same thing but better than this booster, as well, but works in many more situations. The motivational shocks booster is little more than a badge proclaiming "I hate hunters." I suppose you could stack it with the muscle stimulant booster, but in that case I'd honestly suggest you just try not being bad at the game.
  
  
• The armors don't offer anything functionally unique. That's okay if you're looking for something pretty to replace your vanilla kit, but is that really worth the 1,000 super credits?

BURNING MONEY (Freedom's Flame)

The mere idea fire weapons got nerfed literal days before a weapon pack explicitly focusing on fire weapons came out is a decision so idiotic, even people who don't play Helldivers 2 have heard of it. This warbond is the poster child for a user backlash so strong, the developers put out statements explicitly apologizing while promising to undo or make up for the damages done.

Needless to see, this warbond is not very good.

And unlike Viper Commandos, which launched broken but was corrected to the point it was worth getting, this warbond is inferior by design. Only reworks can save it. Buying it is more of an investment, hoping they'll buff these in the near future. If you have the choice, pick anything else. The closest comparison in quality is Polar Patriots, but that at least comes with functional but okay weapons and some armor skills you're probably going to use and might not have yet.

HIGHLIGHTS

• It's pretty. Hands down has the best visual design in the entire game. I'm sure you've noticed how small this section for the positives is.
  
  
• The cookout shotgun is okay. It staggers annoying enemies like hunters and stalkers, all while doing burn damage. It's decent, but it's definitely not going to be your favorite weapon.

LOWLIGHTS

• The emote. Yes, the emote manages to be a negative. It's the chest bump you see in the game's intro. That's neat. I guess the intro cut away before one of the characters realized they were frozen in place and couldn't move, because that's what can randomly happen if you try it.
  
  
• The armor effect is mediocre. It gives you a 75% resistance to fire, which is only good if you get set on fire often, in which case you should really just learn how to deal with being set on fire. All it allows you to do if you're not terrible at the game is throw incendiary grenades at your feet without dying.
  
  
• The other weapons are mediocre to just plain bad. The flamethrower sidearm at least lets you retreat while firing and actually has more damage and range than other flamethrowers, but all flamethrowers are now bad at handling everything including large enemy numbers since they can't pierce hordes anymore. Even the sidearm runs out of ammo in an instant while only having around the same time-to-kill as more popular secondaries. This is a huge issue because these weapons are the only thing selling the warbond. You need some mind-numbingly fun weapons to push people's desire to get it, and when they're just "underwhelming" at best, there's no reason to get it over something like an earlier warbond.
  
  
• This is the only booster in the game with a downside, making it so all drop pods, including for weapons, explode like an incendiary grenade. That means if you use something which you'd like to be close to when it lands, like the mounted HMG, you will randomly be set on fire. The explosion itself is pathetically weak against enemies and is much smaller than its visuals imply. Even with rapidly regenerating items like EATs, you cannot use this to clear a horde and trying to do so makes it so your weapon is now needlessly difficult to reach since you threw it into a mass of enemies which are still alive.

[ThaTylar]

personally, i am having fun with Masters of Ceremony sword and the heavy armor. Zombies go down in 2-3 hits, and with ballistic sheild you can basically be invincible.

[ItsRaven]

Honestly I'd disagree with the placement.
The sickle and maybe the booster is the only thing carrying Cutting Edge and the sickle isn't even close to how good everyone says it is.
And I'd put Polar Patriots above it ngl since at least that one has more actually good things in it.

(Although, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day since if you're actually good at the game you can use any weapon to play and still have a fun time.)

[Foxx_Party07]

the incendiary impact from polar patriots is something that makes the entire warbond worth it to me

[[UPSR] Weebo]

I drank 20 pounds of liber-tea and shat myself and allo over the hunters cause i hate them

[Rifluvr]

The very first sentence of Cutting Edge paragraph deserved you like. This is so accurate is funny

[THETA 🌭 ZERO]

No, it's literally the worst.

[0rbitalPotato]

is chemical agents a good warbond?

[THETA 🌭 ZERO]

Urban Legends is one of the best, Truth Enforcers has some flaws but it's among the good ones.

[Naut]

Kinda curious where you'd put the two new warbonds on this list, given my first was truth enforcers

[Asakarios]

This guide is currently outdated due to recent buffs to literally all weaponry. A lot of these armaments are now much, much more viable.