Helldivers II: How to Level Up Quickly

Fans of squad shooters will no doubt be happy to learn that Helldivers II is here to scratch your spacefaring, bug-killing itch. The sequel to the highly successful and popular first game has only been out for a short while but is already stirring up a serious player base, making it a bit intimidating for newbies to jump in.

If you’re looking for a bit of a leg up while you get things figured out and nail down your loadout, leveling up as quickly as possible is going to be a huge help. That’s why we’re laying out an effective, tried-and-true strategy that many gamers have been utilizing to get ahead in this interstellar adventure.

Other Helldivers II Guides:

How to Unlock New Weapons and Other Perks

How to Level Up Quickly in Helldivers II

As many players have noted thus far, the easiest way to level up quickly in Helldivers II is to find a mission where you’re tasked with defending a single area from invading terminids. The text for these will generally read, “Eradicate all Terminids.” These are the main bug enemies of the game, so no matter when you start playing the game in terms of its ongoing campaign changes, you shouldn’t have much trouble finding one.

This can be done with the automatons as well, but since they tend to move around in a bit more of an individual battle style, you’ll want to start with the terminids as you’re settling in. Whichever type of enemy you choose to tackle, however, the goal remains the same: mow down everything that comes into your line of sight as quickly as possible.

Though it’s true that every mission in Helldivers II will yield some experience and medals, you’ll find that these missions go incredibly fast and yield a ton of experience. If you want to speed things up even faster, your best bet is to find yourself a squad while hosting a game and simply doing these types of missions over and over again.

Naturally, you can also increase the amount of experience that you pull in by increasing the difficulty. Unsurprisingly, for this kind of game, the higher the difficulty, the more XP you’ll pull in from each successive round. Of course, this is a lot easier with a solid team behind you, hence the recommendation above.

Still, if you’d rather play alone while you get your bearings, you can still do pretty well on Easy, Normal, etc difficulty. Coast on Trivial for a while if you’re struggling, but the more you level up by utilizing these strategies, the more confident and useful you’ll become for future missions.

If you find yourself dying a lot, try to get yourself up to high ground so that you can have some time to breathe while you mow down the relentless hordes. Also, don’t forget to use the sentry turrets you’ll be unlocking from the Strategem menu on your ship to help you manage the encroaching enemy threat.