As a third-person shooter game launched in February this year, Helldivers 2 is actually the sequel to Helldivers launched in 2015. Although it is a sequel, Helldivers 2 has excellent performance both in terms of the production of the game itself and in terms of market response.
In the specific game, you need to fight enemies in various missions. There are many types of these enemies, including the alien faction Illuminate. They will use technology and many cannon fodder to defeat you, and therefore became notorious among the player community in the first game. In the sequel, they also continue the previous style.
When facing these enemies, you need to carry the right equipment and use appropriate tactics to complete each relevant mission. Based on this, we will provide you with some effective methods to fight Illuminate.
Carry High-Firepower Weapons
All Illuminate units have a common feature. They have high health but almost no armor, so they will use high-health energy shields to compensate for this. Since their shields add more health to them, you’ll want to trade medals in Helldivers 2 Items for something that does more damage or can fire a lot of fire to deal with them.
Illuminates lose health primarily through bullets, and even the heaviest unit, Harvester, can be shredded with a weapon that can penetrate moderate armor. If you’re unsure what weapon to bring, bring something that shoots fast or has a lot of firepower - both are best.
Stripping Enemy Shields
As you know, Illuminate’s energy shields can absorb a lot of burst damage for them. For example, a shielded Harvester or Warp Ship can withstand the blast of a 500KG bomb or a recoilless rifle.
However, shields can’t withstand sustained damage for long. So it’s recommended that you bring a rapid-fire weapon designed to destroy shields - P-15 Redeemer. It shines as it can shred all kinds of Illuminate shields.
Additionally, you can knock down the shields of Illuminate Warp Ships in Outpost with small arms, then blow up the ship itself with anything that can destroy a Fabricator or Bug Hole.
Target Their Weaknesses
If you’ve played Helldivers 2 before, you’ll find that Illuminate’s weaknesses go against traditional weakness logic. While Voteless can be knocked down easily, Overseers and Harvesters are much stronger, and it’s even worse if your bullets don’t hit them accurately.
For Overseers, you can aim at their chests with sustained fire with something like Tenderizer from Polar Patriots Warbond, which is enough to break their chest armor and expose their fragile flesh.
If you encounter flying Overseers, don’t worry, you can blow up their jetpacks to knock them down. It’s worth noting that the armor strength of Overseers’ helmets is at least one level higher than the rest of their armor parts, so you need to be careful when dealing with them.
As for Harvesters, it’s more useful to aim at their leg joints. Because while their eyes are also a weakness, they are difficult to hit, so it is more effective to aim for the knees and leg joints.
In addition, Harvesters are easily repelled by explosive weapons like Purifier and Exploding Crossbow. Laser Cannon is more effective when you aim for their leg joints.
Choose The Right Stratagems
There are a few stratagems in Helldivers 2 that can help you deal with Illuminate, but not all of them are effective, or will not work without some additional measures.
Based on this, it is recommended that you prioritize using powerful stratagems, because Illuminate’s energy shield can withstand a lot of damage. In addition, area denial weapons are very suitable for dealing with large groups of Voteless. These stratagems mainly include:
- Eagle Strafing Run
- Orbital Gas Strike
- Guard Dog Rovers
- Machine Gun/Gatling Sentry
- Eagle 500KG Bomb/Orbital Precision Strike
- 120mm Orbital Barrage
Deal With Cognitive Disruptors
When you encounter Illuminate Cognitive Disruptors in the game, your strategy code will be disrupted. However, unlike Automaton Stratagem Jammers, you can still call strategies even under the influence of these buildings.
One thing you need to remember though is that your code will be disrupted every three seconds. So it is best to enter after the code is disrupted to give yourself enough time to enter.
After this, you must disable the jammer by looking for capsule-shaped power sources near the jammer. Then shoot them all down and the building will be deactivated. Alternatively, you can bomb the general area covered by the jammer and hope that the explosion will bring you a battery.
Watch Out For Warp Ships
While it can be a nice visual to see a bunch of UFOs explode and fall to the ground in the game, it’s usually not worth it. SPEARs and recoilless rifles are poor against Illuminate, and while they can be used to kill enemies before Warp Ships drop their payloads, it’s better to just throw grenades at the reinforcements themselves.
Additionally, Warp Ships are enormous, which means their wreckage can block your view or cut off your escape route. You’ll also be killed if a Warp Ship falls on you, so be careful.
Hopefully, the above will help you succeed in your game against Illuminate and win. Have fun!
