History VideoGame / Helldivers

* ConceptsAreCheap: Enforced as part of the series' fascist propaganda theme. Join the Helldivers and save Super Earth! Fight for freedom and democracy all across the stars!... whatever that means.

* TakeCover: One "Brasch Tactics" video in ''II'' advises this, providing a very clear indication that Helldivers are woefully undertrained despite [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous their supposed elite status]]. Players should probably still do it, though.

* ConceptsAreCheap: Enforced as part of the series' fascist propaganda theme. Join the Helldivers and save Super Earth! Fight for freedom and democracy all across the stars!... whatever that means.

* TheEmpire: What Super Earth is; however, it wants you to think that it's {{The Republic}}.

* CoolChair: Illuminate Illusionists sit on a floating chair that comes with an integrated shield. Council Members get an even more grandiose chair, which looks more like a throne.
* CoolShip: Your ship - a Super Destroyer - plays a bigger role in the sequel. Your ship is your primary source of supplies and heavy firepower (either directly or via its Eagle fighter-bombers) and can be upgraded through gameplay to enhance its ability to support you on the ground. When you join up with a party of fellow Helldivers, your Super Destroyer joins their formation (or vice versa), and any movement is then done as a group. You can also see fleets of Super Destroyers around embattled worlds. Oh, and you also get to name your ship, from a preapproved set of prefixes and suffixes.
* ConceptsAreCheap:
** Enforced as part of the series' fascist propaganda theme. Join the Helldivers and save Super Earth! Fight for freedom and democracy all across the stars!... whatever that means.

* BottomlessMagazines: comes in two flavors, the lasers and arc throwers.
** Lasers have a heat sink and are subject to {{Overheating}}, but if you manage your heat level you never have to reload a laser weapon.
** Arc Throwers have truly unlimited ammo, the only limitation being the gun's fire rate.

* AmmunitionBackpack: The RL-112 Recoilless Rifle and the MLS-4X 'Commando' are shoulder fired launchers that come with an ammunition backpack that is required to reload them, which takes a while... unless the backpack is carried by somebody else than the shooter, who can reload the weapon ''much'' faster than the user would. The sequel expands this with the Autocannon and Spear Anti-Tank Missile Launcher.

* ThoseWereOnlyTheirScouts: As it turns out, the initial Automaton forces that gave the players such hell on places like Malevelon Creek were just the ''vanguard'' fleet. Helldivers forces celebrating a crushing victory against the Clankers in Valdis Sector soon came upon the main fleet, which is comprised of tens of thousands of warships and quickly retook several worlds including Cyberstan itself. ''You really thought it would be that easy to keep Cyberstan down, did you?''

** The Bugs are used as cattle to be bred, mass slaughtered, and put in graves to produce an oil substance for fuel. They are also a species of giant insects that will kill and devour anything that isn't them and seem to be able to spread across the galaxy somehow. They are highly dangerous, aggressive, and ridiculously invasive. The relationship is like Weyland-Yutani from ''{{Franchise/Alien}}'' thinking Xenomorphs are worth exploiting on colonies and going about as well as you'd think.
** Cyborgs are a cyborg collective that Super Earth went to war with for seeing them as a threat to their empire and used a terrorist attack pretext ([[FalseFlagOperation that likely wasn't done by the Cyborgs]]). They are also utterly ruthless, willing to carve up civilians to make them cyborgs, don't care for the idea of prisoners, and blow up Earth if they win. Their Automaton creations that wish to free them in the sequel aren't much better, given the cages and stone tables with mutilated bodies found in their bases. They, [[UnreliableExpositor supposedly]], take children, but we don't know what they do with them.
** The Illuminate is a highly advanced alien species that had, supposedly, great weapons of mass destruction that Super Earth wanted and, [[RunningGag sensing a pattern here]], used it as pretext for war. The Illuminate are intellectual SocialDarwinists that are all too happy to use those WMD's against Super Earth for doing this.

** Super Earth is an authoritarian[[note]]where do you think the "managed" part comes into play?[[/note]], capitalist dystopia masquerading as a utopian democracy. Its citizens are at best brainwashed or amoral to immoral. They start wars for the sake of greater profit or power while using propaganda to demonize any enemy as a soulless, pitiless scum to be put down for the sake of democracy, freedom, and liberty... unfortunately they're not entirely wrong. This is not a nice galaxy.

** The EAT-17 Expendable Anti-Tank support weapon stratagem which gives you 2 missile launchers that are disposable, only having one shot before being dropped but they have a short cooldown period, compared to the other anti-tank weaponry.

** The Cyborgs lean towards Balanced with a bit of Powerhouse. Their units are both tough and damaging in equal measure, and they have arguably the widest unit variety in the game, with equally good ranged and melee capabilities. They are also the only faction to field proper tanks, meaning that AT weapons are all but required to face them on directly. However, they are also on average the slowest faction, and their units tend to be large, cumbersome targets that fall easily to massed offensive stratagems.
** The Bugs lean towards powerhouse with a bit of spammer. They have the heaviest armor in the game on average, and their strategies almost entirely boil down towards overwhelming the helldivers with hordes of tough, fast heavy infantry backed up by the occasional giant bug that can soak up fire for it's smaller allies and crush the helldivers with a well-placed charge. To further cement this strategy, they are almost exclusively melee. They have a few invisible assassin-like units that can leap into the fray to try and pick off a lone helldiver, but outside of that they rely entirely on their speed and durability to rush the helldivers with few tricks.

* ImmuneToBullets: Armored enemies cannot be hurt with normal firearms (shown as a faint blue impact flash), and require anti-tank weaponry.

* ScreamingWarrior: The Helldivers have NoInsideVoice and will yell and scream every single thing they are doing. If you lay down sustained fire on the enemy for a few seconds they'll let out a cacophony of sound that is somewhere between laughing hysterically and crying.

* SmokeOut: One perk replaces your standard grenades with smoke grenades. They do no damage, but the smoke they release blocks enemy line of sight. This prevents enemy scouts from sounding the alarm if the smoke is between them and the Helldivers.

A sequel, ''VideoGame/HelldiversII'', which shifts the perspective from top-down to [[AlwaysOverTheShoulder over-the-shoulder]], was announced at Sony's "[=PlayStation=] Presents" showcase on May 26, 2023, and it was released in February 2024.

* TheComputerIsYourFriend: Downplayed, as it wasn't to the detriment of their actual creators, but the Automatons have empathy, loyalty, and genuine belief in the virtues of their makers... the problem for Super Earth is that their makers are the Cyborgs, and they seem to have picked up PayEvilUntoEvil as well.

** ''Helldivers II'' makes this the primary tactic of the Automatons, who will fill the area surrounding your Helldiver with ridiculous amounts of energy weapon fire the second you become visible. Some of this is supported by cannons that can one shot even the most heavily armored Helldiver.

* {{BFG}}: Automaton bases and fortresses may have battleship sized turrets guarding them, and they have considerable range. If they are alerted to Helldiver presence, they can easily deliver a suppressive barrage of OneHitKill blasts. You are generally encouraged to either stealthily infiltrate and disable them from within, call down a stratagem on their head, or take them out at long range where their accuracy becomes questionable.

* UnconsciousObjector: Even when disabled, many Automaton units will continue thrashing around as their cybernetic components try to execute the last commands they received. Very easily observed with the Berserkers.
* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: While ''II'' is not a simulator, there's still plenty in the game that would make perfect sense following real logic that might be unexpected for a co-operative third-person shooter like it, such as players being unable to check their map and stratagems at the same time because both are read off of the player's left hand, or players being able to be [[OneHitKill killed instantly]] from [[BoomHeadshot being struck in the head]]. Players can not only suffer damage from falling, but even be killed or damaged from being knocked through the air or having things crash into them.

* UnlockableContent: Weapons and Perks are unlocked as you progress in levels. Stratagems become available as you complete certain missions. In ''2'', equipment is unlocked by spending warbond medals on warbonds, and new stratagems are unlocked for purchase as you level up.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: In ''II,'' nothing is stopping you from landing your pod on a soldier's corpse to dismember it into pieces!

* WeaponRunningTime: In ''2''.
** Offensive stratagems take anywhere from a second to twenty to call in. They're supposed to be aimed at the enemy, but in the chaos, a teammate can throw one down dangerously close, prompting a terrified scramble out of the way. Of particular note is the 500kg bomb, which has a one-second fuse--when it lands on the cliff you're on instead of the valley you aimed it at, you have just enough time for an OhCrap
** Artillery--whether the SEAF's, the automaton's mortars, or the bugs' bile spewers -- takes many seconds of arcing through the sky to land.
** In a volcanic eruption or meteor shower, you have just enough time to spot incoming rocks and dodge them.

** The enemies aren't very different either. The Bugs/Terminids will happily swarm you in the hundreds, Cyborgs and Automatons will drop in more forces to take down helldivers the moment a signal flare is shot, and Illuminates seem to be able to teleport in endless amounts of reinforcements, regardless of how many you kill. Retaliatory Strikes can see you kill upwards of five hundred enemies on max difficulty, and they'll still keep coming at you. Justified with Automatons, as they are robots with RidiculouslyFastConstruction; literally any Automaton mission has at least some foundries that churn out troops ready to fight, so it isn't hard to realize the drops are from more established factories on the same planet.
** In the sequel, one of the ship [=NPCs=] comments along the lines of "The existence of high fatality mission implies the existence of low fatality missions. And that's heart warming."
** Another [=NPC=] in the sequel will note that the cost of an average Helldiver mission exceeds that of a Liberty-class cruiser (with cruisers typically being larger ships than even the largest destroyers in real life).
** In ''Helldivers 2'' you can have your character voice randomized to change each time you die on a mission, [[LampshadeHanging hanging a huge lampshade]] on the trope. To say nothing of how you can literally see the body of the previous "you" when the next "you" comes along.

* YouBastard: In ''II'', you can receive an open transmission from the menacing Automatons of Malevelon Creek that recontextualises the player's actions as a soldier of Super Earth:
-->'''Automaton message''': Do you know what will happen when you lose? Nothing. We will not enslave you. We will not decimate you. We will not take your home. We will return to Cyberstan and rebuild what ''YOU'' destroyed. And we will [[PunctuatedForEmphasis leave. You. Alone.]] [[TurnTheOtherCheek We will give you the grace and the peace that you have withheld from us.]] But until then: Heart. Steel. We... kill.
* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: Some of the ship modules you can get in the sequel include filling out paperwork, providing hand carts, and applying superglue to your turrets to buff your stratagems.

->''How about a nice cup of liber-tea!?''

** The Cyborgs lean towards Balanced with a bit of Powerhouse. Their units are both tough and damaging in equal measure, and they have arguably the widest unit variety in the game, with equally good ranged and melee capabilities. They are also the only faction to field proper tanks, meaning that AT weapons are all but required to face them on directly. However, they are also on average the slowest faction, and their units tend to be large, cumbersome targets that fall easily to massed offensive stratagems. Automatons maintain this theming, though they have more ranged units.
** The Bugs lean towards powerhouse with a bit of spammer. They have the heaviest armor in the game on average, and their strategies almost entirely boil down towards overwhelming the helldivers with hordes of tough, fast heavy infantry backed up by the occasional giant bug that can soak up fire for it's smaller allies and crush the helldivers with a well-placed charge. To further cement this strategy, they are almost exclusively melee. They have a few invisible assassin-like units that can leap into the fray to try and pick off a lone helldiver, but outside of that they rely entirely on their speed and durability to rush the helldivers with few tricks. The Terminids continue this theme as well.

* RevolversAreJustBetter: The P-6 Gunslinger in the first game, and P-4 Senator in the second. They're high-skill requirement HandCannon types with slow reloads but considerable power if you can aim them well.
* RewardsPass: The sequel's Warbonds, which are unlocked with Super Credits and progressed with Medals (acquired by completing missions, and through semi-rare in-mission pickups). All players start with the ''Helldivers Mobilize'' Warbond for free, and Warbonds don't go away once unlocked, offering various rewards split across several tiers that are unlocked by spending a sufficient number of medals in the prior tiers in that Warbond, allowing players to progress through them however they like.
* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: Even if they're actively invading a planet, Automatons have generally already made a good amount of buildings and encampments by the time the Helldivers show up, and their already built foundries [[WeHaveReserves are churning out new soldiers]] ready to defend them.
* RobotWar: Subverted. The Automatons definitely have this thematic, being inhuman socialist machines who hate everything the fine organics of Super Earth stand for... ''specifically'' Super Earth. They are actually out to save their creators, the Cyborgs from the first game, they don't hate life as a concept and it's mostly Super Earth refusing to acknowledge their demands that prolongs the ForeverWar.

* ScreamingWarrior: The Helldivers have NoInsideVoice and will yell and scream every single thing they are doing. If you lay down sustained fire on the enemy for a few seconds they'll let out a cacophony of sound that is somewhere between laughing hysterically and crying. Very obvious with the first and second voice packs in ''II'', with Creator/EricaLindbeck and Creator/YuriLowenthal going all-out on the maniacal laughter.

** Averted in the sequel; Shotguns are highly effective at realistic ranges and have decent pellet spread to kill a small enemy at a hundred yards. They instead suffer an entirely realistic shotgun drawback in that the pellet-based shotguns have no armour penetration whatsoever -- so whilst they can rapidly reduce ''unarmoured'' enemies to nothing more than a pile of mulch, they can't do a damn thing to heavily armoured enemies unless you can find (or create) an exploitable weak spot.

** The entire game is one for ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' (specifically, the Creator/PaulVerhoeven movie). Several Trophies and Codex entries are almost direct quotes from the film ("Next time I see you, I'll have to salute you"; Aim for the center mass, etc).
*** The sequel has a planet named "Klen Dahth II".
** The Helldivers are remarkably similar to [[VideoGame/Halo3ODST ODST]]s, even their name (In ''Halo'', [=ODST=]s are often referred to as Hell JUMPERS)
*** Another reference to Halo is a Twitch drop armor set, called the TR-117 Alpha Commander armor, being an obvious nod to John-117, aka the Master Chief, right down to the green armor.
*** The extraction shuttle is also referred to as "Pelican 1" in a possible reference to the Pelican dropship from the Halo series.
** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
*** The Helldivers could be considered a mid-point between the Imperial Guard and the Space Marines - their armor even looks a lot like that of the Kasrkin.
*** The Mech looks like a Space Marine Dreadnought.
*** The [[ForeverWar constant Galaxy-spanning war]].
*** The Terminids, introduced in ''Helldivers II", resemble the Tyranids in both name and concept.
*** The use of expendable troops who all look a little like the Imperial Guard.
*** The Hellpods are one-man Drop Pods sized for normal humans instead of gigantic Astartes. Their bullet shape embeds them into terrain on landing, and the Helldiver passenger is elevated up and out in a manner suggestive of how Orks emerge from mature spore plants.

*** The achievements in the sequel reference ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', ''Creator/MontyPython'', and ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' of all things.

** The Automatons in the sequel use Franchise/{{Terminator}}s as front line infantry, mini [[Franchise/{{StarWars}} ATSTs]] as scouts, and [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Dreadnoughts]] as elites. Also their love of putting metal spikes onto their troops, decorating with them human skulls, and replacing their arms with chainsaws before charging into battle could bring a tear to Khorne's eye.
** In the second game, you can actually name your Super Destroyer ''[[VideoGame/GearsOfWar The Hammer of Dawn]]''. Bonus points if you have the Orbital Laser stratagem to go with it.
*** In general, the naming convention of the Super Destroyers is an AffectionateParody of the names found in ''{{Franchise/Halo}}'' and ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'', featuring the same "(prefix) of (suffix)" setup but with a ridiculous amount of possible prefixes and suffixes, which can lead to names as conventional sounding as ''Defender of Freedom'' and as silly as ''Superintendent of Family Values.'' Other potential referential names include the ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars''.
** ''VideoGame/XCOM2''
*** The Pelican drop ship the Helldivers extract on is visually highly similar to the iconic "Skyranger" from the ''XCOM'' Franchise, specifically the ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' [[https://xcom.fandom.com/wiki/Skyranger_(XCOM_2) variant]].
** Inside the Lacaille and Kelvin Sectors are the planets [[VideoGame/AceCombat Lesath and Emeria]]
** One of the "reviews" that appears for items in the Acquisition Center is written by someone named [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 Specctrei and reads as follows: "I'm [redacted] and this is my favorite product in the acquisition center!"]]
* SmokeOut: One perk replaces your standard grenades with smoke grenades. They do no damage, but the smoke they release blocks enemy line of sight. This prevents enemy scouts from sounding the alarm if the smoke is between them and the Helldivers. There is also a stratagem version -- or two, in the sequel.
** This is especially powerful against the Automatons in the sequel, as smoke screens will prevent them from tracking and firing on your location. While it won't prevent the occasional lucky hit, it will still dramatically reduce their accuracy, and can cause them to stop firing and start advancing towards the smoke in an attempt to find any Helldivers.
* SnowballFight: Stand still for a few moments in the snow on a suitably frosty world in ''II'' and you may get a prompt to make or pick up a snowball, which you can then throw. There's not really any situations in which this is particularly ''useful'', but hey, it's there.

* StrawmanNewsMedia: Appears repeatedly in the sequel amongst other propaganda shorts viewable aboard the player's Super Destroyer. Appropriately, the news organization in question is [[PunnyName even called "Strohmann News."]]

* SubsystemDamage: In ''2'', both Helldivers and their enemies can suffer from this.
** Helldivers that have their arms damaged will be unable to aim properly, and will be unable to throw their stratagem beacons (and grenades) as far. Should their legs be crippled, they will move slower and lose the ability to sprint. If their chest is hemorrhaging, they will suffer DamageOverTime till they die or use a stim.
** Terminids that have their legs destroyed will be forced to hobble on their remaining legs (except for Chargers, who ''die'' if a leg gets destroyed). For heavier armored Terminids such as the Charger or Bile Titan, a Recoilless round can destroy their armor and expose the fleshy bits to shoot at with regular bullets.
** Automatons can have their arms blasted off, preventing them from firing their weapons, throwing grenades, slashing at you with melee blades, or signaling in a dropship. Beware that they can still kick or stomp you. Cyborg and Automaton tanks can have their treads blown up, immobilizing them, but beware; their turrets are still fully functional and capable of killing you. There's even an achievement in ''II'' for leaving a mission whilst an armless Hulk is still alive.

** Enemies can easily perform TakingYouWithMe with their own dead bodies if they're moving too fast or are too massive. Being under a Bile Titan as it dies is asking to be crushed, and a Shrieker that's killed as it swoops at you can all too easily take you out with the force of its high-velocity dead body. One video circulating around also shows a Charger somehow being catapulted backwards on death (due to a physics glitch of some kind, most likely) and plowing into a ''Bile Titan'', killing it instantly.
** Shooting down Automaton Dropships can have all the destructive effects you'd imagine for anyone (or anything) that happens to be in the way as it's coming down.
* TakeCover: One "Brasch Tactics" video in ''II'' advises this, providing a very clear indication that Helldivers are woefully undertrained despite [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous their supposed elite status]]. Players should probably still do it, though.

* TakingYouWithMe:
** Assault Raiders have jetpacks that tend to explode on death, taking out any Helldivers near them. This is exacerbated by the Assault Raider's tendency to JumpJetPack into close range with the Helldivers to perform melee attacks.
** Shriekers are AirborneMook Terminids with a decently-damaging swooping attack, but their most dangerous trait comes when they're killed while doing so, as the momentum turns their entire body into a deadly projectile that can one-shot any Helldiver it hits.
* TechTree: The first game had a very simplified version, where weapons and stratagems could be upgraded by collecting Samples. The second game has no upgrade system for specific weapons and stratagems, instead having you collect various tiers of samples (common, rare, and super) in order to upgrade your CoolShip, which in turn enhances various aspects - such as reducing the cooldown for all Orbital stratagems.

* TimeSkip: ''Helldivers 2'' is set 100 years after the original ''Helldivers'', and the Federation's victory over the three original enemy factions.

* TriumphantReprise:
** If you are detected during extraction, the game will play a more action packed and slightly faster remix of the title theme, inspiring you and your team to hold out in the name of democracy!
** The sequel replays a slightly more bombastic remix of A Cup of Liber-Tea upon victory of a mission.

* HumanResources:
** Several pieces of randomly-generated terrain in Automaton missions strongly imply that they're rounding up humans, possibly for forced conversion into more Automaton soldiers. At the very least they're being put in cages and often mutilated, implying that - for all the fan favoritism - the Automatons are just as capable of committing atrocities as the Cyborgs were.
** One PA announcement on the Super Destroyer goes as follows: "Too old to contribute [to the war effort]? Why not volunteer at your nearest bio-repurposing facility." While this may be more Alien or Animal Resources versus Human, the lack of any indication thereof should give pause.
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: One of the planets in the "eastern" quadrant of the Galactic War map is Hellmire. It is a scorching desert world which frequently spawns [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_whirl fire tornadoes]]. One imagines that Super Earth's colonization bureau must have a ''very'' slick marketing team to make a place like that sound ideal to settle down and raise a family in a prefabricated sufficiently sized house.
* IgnoredEpiphany: One bit of NPC dialogue aboard your Super Destroyer has the speaker reflecting on how, by using the E-710 the Terminids produce to sustain their war effort, Super Earth is "using corpses to create more corpses." It almost sounds like she's on the verge of having a HeelRealization before she concludes "[[GuiltFreeExterminationWar There's something satisfying about that]]."

* ImmuneToBullets: Armored enemies cannot be hurt with normal firearms (shown as a faint blue impact flash), and require anti-tank weaponry. Made a little more distinct in the sequel, where weapons are noted as having Light/Medium/etc. Armour Penetration capabilities and the deflection effects are more noticeable.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Bile Titans have four very big, pointy legs, and won't hesitate to use them to stab anything that gets on their bad side. Or that just happens to be underfoot at the time. Even other bugs aren't safe.
* IncrediblyObviousBomb: Automaton Contact Mines are big grey metal things with lots of glowy red bits all over. And yet they're still surprisingly easy to trip over in the heat of battle.

** Terminid Bile Spewers and Bile Titans can kill you if enough of their bile manages to hit you. Unless you have a shield and heavy armour, the amount required is not very much at all (and even with them, it won't take much).
** [[AirborneMook Terminid Shriekers]] don't have an instakill attack while alive... but when they're killed, their entire body becomes a deadly projectile boosted by momentum and gravity. Due to how object impacts work, a swooping Shrieker's dead body can one-shot its intended target. Toned down in recent updates though.
** Automaton Cannon Turrets, Mortars and Tanks can instantly gib you with a well placed shot. Their Rocket Devastators and Rocket Raiders are also notorious for sniping players with a single rocket from unexpected angles. Apparently most of this was due to a bug that caused Helldivers to take an explosion's damage multiple times, which has since been fixed.

** In the sequel, certain effects can also cause ShellShockSilence as the screen blurs and all noise is drowned out. It's most often caused by getting grazed or otherwise knocked around by a Charger. Jamming (e.g. from an Automaton Stratagem Jammer, or an Ion Storm) will also StaticScrew your stratagem icons and garble their names whilst it's ongoing.
* InterfaceSpoiler: In ''II'', the total number of primary and secondary weapons available in the Armory on launch ''noticeably'' outnumbers the number of weapons that can be unlocked through Warbond progress.
* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: Super Earth propaganda claims the Automatons kidnap infants in a couple places. [[AmbiguousSituation It's unknown as of yet]] if this is MaliciousSlander (as the Automatons' political agenda is freeing their Cyborg creators), or if they are actually abducting new potential Cyborgs to indoctrinate in their DirtyCommunist ways. Another possibility is that [[PetTheDog despite how much they hate Super Earth, they're not going to kill children for the crime of existing]] and are getting the kids out of the way.
* ItsRainingMen: The Helldivers' M.O.
* IwoJimaPose: Parodied in the [[PropagandaPiece Helldiver recruitment video]], where several divers [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impale a bug]] with a flagpole bearing Super Earth flag and enthusiastically celebrate with a chest bump.
* JackOfAllTrades: The Autocannon support weapon in ''II'' in a gun capable of fully-automatically firing its medium-armor-piercing explosive rounds. While its recoil is heavy, its explosive radius makes it useful against groups of light enemies and it has enough armor-piercing capability to be able to do something against any enemy in the game, [[DifficultButAwesome so long as]] it's properly targeted against heavily-armored foes' [[AttackItsWeakpoint vulnerable spots]]. It even reloads with clips quickly so it can take advantage of slight lulls in battle better than other support weapons (and that's ''without'' a loader!) and be used to destroy bug holes and Automaton fabricators like a grenade. The main downside is its exploding rounds being quite capable of killing other Helldivers without care, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard including the user.]]
* JumpJetPack: A new Automaton unit in ''II'' is a jetpack trooper. Whilst they're quite fragile, their jetpack also has a nasty habit of ''violently exploding'' if it takes too much damage. These units themselves don't actually fly, but instead have a habit of using their jetpack to leap into melee range to use their BladeBelowTheShoulder on you, with predictably lethal results for the Helldiver on the end of that leap attack if they aren't careful with their aim or their trigger finger.
* KillItWithFire: The firebomb stratagem, the flamethrower, and one of the DLC exoskeletons. Fully upgrading the double-barreled shotgun also gives it incendiary ammunition. Cyborg Immolators and Automaton Scorcher Hulks happily use this against you - go prone to extinguish the flames.

* LevelMapDisplay: ''II'' allows bringing up the minimap in the corner, zooming in/out, and placing navigation pins for other players to see.

* LosingYourHead: Downplayed with some Terminids in ''II'', which can still function for one [[LastBreathBullet last charge and attack]] even if their heads have been blown off, before dying shortly after.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Cyborg Hulks and Automaton Heavy Devastators have a massive slab of armor for a left arm, which can harmlessly deflect even anti-tank weapons. Thankfully, they can't shoot or move while holding the shield over their (relatively) unarmored front. Legionnaires also get a smaller shield. While it doesn't protect them from anti-tank weapons, it does make them immune to anything short of anti-tank weapons from the front.

* MiniMecha: The EXO-44 Walker mech in the first game, along with its variants the EXO-48 Obsidian and EXO-51 Lumberer, and the EXO-45 Patriot in the sequel. Slower than Helldivers on foot, but more heavily armored and equipped with ''much'' heavier firepower.
* MissionControl: In the sequel, the Democracy Officer on your Super Destroyer serves as mission control. Not just for you, but for Super Earth as [[PoliticalOfficer they're responsible for maintaining "democracy" on the ship and in the field]]. In a meta sense, there's also a channel on the official Discord server that has in-character dispatches from "High Command", providing information on the ongoing war effort and additional insights and commentary into events.

** Automaton Heavy Devastators trade the slow-firing high-power ArmCannon of the standard Devastator for a rapid-fire cannon to go with their armoured shield, making them incredibly dangerous to unprepared Helldivers.
** A couple of weapons in the sequel can have their firing mode changed. For the basic assault rifle this lets you toggle it into burst or semi-auto modes, but for the support-slot machineguns it's their ''rate of fire''. You can either dial it down to make the weapon more controllable, or dial it up for More Dakka. The Stalwart's high setting in particular is well over 1000rpm.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: The phrase "Shield/Sword of Steel" is usually a pretty ordinary one, but it'll seem a bit cooler when it's the title attached to your giant ship in ''II''. The preceding noun for the list of ship titles also includes job titles which would be a good bit more mundane in most contexts like Custodian, Comptroller, Elected Representative, or Ombudsman...but yet again, attached to giant ship.
* MusicalNod: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5hCkh2AH58 A Cup of Liber-Tea]], the sequel's main title theme has a short nod to the original Helldivers' title theme, at 30 seconds in.
** The Stratagem Hero MiniGame uses snippets of a retro sounding remix of the ''Helldivers 1'' theme. When put together, you can [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILww6K_zZdc hear the original theme.]]
* NamedInTheAdaptation: The Bugs' actual species name of Terminids is given in the sequel.

* {{Nerf}}: The March 6, 2024 patch nerfed both the Breaker shotgun and the Railgun in ''Helldivers 2''.[[note]]The Breaker's magazine capacity was slightly reduced along with its damage per shot and its recoil was increased, and the Railgun's armor penetration capabilities were reduced in Safe Mode plus its damage was reduced against durable enemy parts, necessitating more skill-based use of the Unsafe mode for maximum effect.[[/note]]
* NoBloodForPhlebotinum: The Terminids produce a substance called E-710 which is essential for Super Earth's FasterThanLightTravel to properly function. In the sequel, it's mentioned that Super Earth had managed to corral some broods into massive underground farms until some broke free and kickstarted the latest crisis.

%%* OfficialCouple: According to the lore, Pelican 1 -- the pilot of the escape shuttle -- and Eagle 1 -- the pilot of the Eagle bombing craft -- are married. %% %%Which lore where? There's a lot of conflicting information and unreliable sources floating around. Be careful what you take at face value.%%
* OhCrap: Occasionally the Helldiver's bravado vanishes, resulting in a panicked human being realizing they're in the middle of a SuicideMission at best, but it's understated. Even if they survive the mission instead of [[WeHaveReserves dying and being replaced with reinforcements]], naturally they're just going to go back to their indoctrinated "kill all enemies of Super Earth" mindset, but it shows that fanaticism only goes so far in the face of mortality.
** The sequel adds more to this with voice lines that range from 'cool headed professional' to 'about to have a psychotic break', depending on how stressed the Helldiver is. This can result in Helldivers screaming their lungs out when calling in reinforcements or essentially screaming propaganda to themselves in order to keep themselves hyped up.

* OneHitKill: The Spear in ''2'' is capable of downing a Bile Titan or Automaton tank in a singe hit, if the missile strikes the victim dead center.
* OneManArmy: Any solo Helldiver can still expect to easily rack up dozens of kills, possibly even hundreds, during the course of a high-threat mission.
** [[HoldTheLine Retaliatory Strike and Extermination]] missions require you to kill X number of enemies in an enclosed area, and the number is rarely less than 100.
* OnlySaneByComparison: General Brasch, the officer in charge of Helldiver training, appears to be an authentically OlderAndWiser FourStarBadass, and his advice is worth paying attention to... by the standards of the Super Earth Armed Forces, which appear to be locked in a fierce internal competition to discover the stupidest possible ways to fight a war. By the standards of any competent military, he's a bloodthirsty meathead CaptainObvious who's too high on his own supply of propaganda to offer any particularly deep insight.

* OurElvesAreDifferent: The Illuminate are a clear expy of the [[VideoGame/StarCraft Protoss]] - or the [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Eldar]].

* ThePoliticalOfficer: Automatons have "Commissar" officers that can fire off flares to call reinforcements. It's not entirely clear if the Automatons themselves require the usual duties of such an officer to maintain party loyalty or not.
** Helldiver destroyers are staffed with a "Democracy Officer" near the mission select station who informs the divers of attacks on Super Earth worlds and otherwise [[ContinueYourMissionDammit urges them to join the fray]].
* PremiumCurrency: Super Credits in the sequel, which are used to buy armors and helmets in the cosmetics store, and to unlock new Warbonds. You can find them in missions though, making it possible to earn any cosmetic or warbond simply by playing enough (though the pickup amounts are just 10 [=SC=] each where a Warbond usually costs ''1,000'', so you'll have to play ''a lot''). Warbonds also typically have at least one Super Credit reward option per Tier, effectively reimbursing you some of your investment as you progress; the ''Helldivers Mobilize'' bond includes a total of 750 Super Credits spread across its tiers.
* ProceduralGeneration: The universe, planets, and mission environments. Toned down in the sequel where all of the basic details about planets appear to be relatively hand-made, but the individual missions themselves still take place on randomly-generated maps with shared elements and predesigned points of interest (that may have semi-randomized sub-elements, such as one part might sometimes be a pool of water and other times it might be drained with a collapsed mineshaft, etc.).

* PurelyAestheticGender: Being a male or female Helldiver has no effects on the gameplay. In the sequel it's taken a step further, where the bodytypes are merely described as 'Bulky' or 'Lean', and the voiceprints are just 'Helldiver Voice' with a number after them.

* PutOnABus: The Illuminate are absent from the sequel, on account of having been defeated and disarmed (and their technology apparently used to enhance Super Earth's own FasterThanLight travel tech). Observant players will however notice that there is a conspicuously wide gap at the bottom edge of the galaxy map; the Terminids and Automatons were not placed ''directly'' opposite one-another, leaving plenty of room for the late arrival of a potential third front to the war.
* RecurringRiff: Segments of A Cup of Liber-Tea, the main theme of ''2'' can be heard in multiple places. Most prominently, the loadout select, dropping, and successful extraction.

* ConceptsAreCheap: Enforced as part of the series' fascist propaganda theme. Join the Helldivers and save Super Earth! Fight for freedom and democracy all across the stars!... whatever that means.
** There appear to be Hive Lord husks or molts on worlds controlled by the Terminids. They do appear to be smaller than the Hive Lords from the first game, so whether this implies that they're still around waiting to come back for round two in a future update, or have evolved into something even ''worse'' is up for debate. After all, the Bile Titan [[NormalFishInATinyPond is only considered ''medium'' sized.]]

** In ''2'', you'll be tasked with eliminating high threat Terminid bugs on lower difficulties, that become common at higher difficulties. Level 1 missions need you to assassinate a Brood Commander. They become fairly common on level 4 missions and above. Level 3 missions need you to kill Chargers. At level 6 missions, Chargers become part of Terminid patrols. Level 4 missions see you slaying a mighty bile titan. At level 8 and above they can be found wandering the map or summoned during a Terminid tunnel breach.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Ships in ''II'' are named from a list of available nouns. The possibilities for a name include "Patriot of Patriotism", "Pride of Pride", "Warrior of War", or to a lesser extent "Dawn of Dawn" (which potentially can have a precise meaning that isn't entirely redundant).
* {{Determinator}}: Some of the Bugs/Terminids have a bleedout mechanic similar to Helldivers. However, once they enter this bleedout state, they will charge and attack much faster than before. Their body can even fight [[LosingYourHead with their head visibly destroyed and/or removed]] from their body! Regular warriors don't last long at all, but Brood Commanders can very easily kill an overconfident Helldiver in the short window they remain functional.
* DiegeticInterface: In the sequel, the AmmunitionBackpack for specific Support Weapons (Recoilless Rifle, Autocannon, Spear) serves as the reserve ammunition counter for them, especially for when it's being operated by a single user instead of a two-man crew. The Resupply Pack also shows how many of its 4 Ammunition Supplies are remaining this way.
* DirtyCommies: The Cyborgs of Cyberstan are all communist. The Helldivers' goal is to teach them about managed democracy, by overwhelming force if needed. And continued with the Automatons in ''II'' -- parts of the ''Internationale'' are used as a motif in their Franchise/{{Terminator}}-esque [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REaaeck8UEo faction theme]], to rather chilling effect. Played with, however, in that it's heavily implied the real reason Super Earth hates them is that they have viable alternatives to managed democracy, as most of their aggressive war crimes are implied to be a FalseFlagOperation or scapegoating (Cyborgs) or otherwise sympathetic in goals, [[WellIntentionedExtremist just going a bit too far]] in their justified hatred of Super Earth (Automatons).

* DramaticWind: Apparently the Super Destroyers in ''II'' have their air conditioners going pretty fiercely, because the capes of you, your fellow Helldivers and the Democracy Officer will still be billowing heavily even though you're all inside a spaceship.

* DropShip: Used to extract Helldivers at the end of missions in both games, and by the Automatons in ''II'' to deploy their troops.

* EarlyGameHell: At least, if you decide to start off fighting the Automatons rather than the Terminids. The Automatons are quite a large difficulty spike over the Terminids given their greater access to ranged weapons, heavy armor, and vehicles, and new Helldiver cadets don't have much access to armor piercing weapons that would be effective against them. Probably a big reason the initial campaign efforts focused on the Terminids, sidelining the war effort against the Automatons with comments about how the main Super Earth Armed Forces would be handling that front with limited deployment of the Helldivers essentially acting as special operations teams for critical objectives.
* EasyModeMockery: There's a mission mode in ''II'' exclusive to the lower difficulties (Trivial and Easy) called simply "Spread Democracy," where your objective is to call down a flagpole at a certain location and defend it until the Super Earth flag is fully raised. While in-game your Mission Control treats it with the same ''gravitas'' as any other mission, there's an implied criticism in the nature of the mission itself that Helldivers who only choose the easiest assignments are wasting their time on pointless symbolic gestures while their peers on higher difficulties are accomplishing goals of actual strategic importance.

* EmergentGameplay:
** Invoked by the developers. One of the ''Helldivers'' series' defining attributes is its Galactic Campaign system, which encourages but does not force players to complete specific objectives on specific planets for the chance to temporarily knock an enemy faction out of the war, [[AndYourRewardIsClothes rewarding everyone who participated with unique cosmetics]]. This is intentionally done as a way of creating player-lead "stories" that drive the game's overall narrative.
** ''Helldivers II'' actively expands on this, employing an actual GameMaster who is able to react to player response to in-game events and further concoct storylines based around what the playerbase is doing. This was first seen to a great extent in the sequel with the Battle of Malevelon Creek from February to April 2024, which was initally a completely mismanaged disaster for Super Earth but was eventually turned around into a morale-boosting victory after High Command gave the order to liberate the planet once and for all from Bot control.

* EnemyDetectingRadar: ''II'' has it part of the LevelMapDisplay, where enemies appear as periodic red blips on the minimap. Note that the player cannot attack while using the minimap.
* EnemySummoner: There are a number of enemies that can both attack you and have the ability to call in reinforcements. They're often a very high priority target because of this:
** Any Cyborg enemy with a Flare Gun in the first game can call in reinforcements if they manage to fire a signal flare off.
** In ''II'', most bugs (but particularly the most basic Scavengers) and Brood Commanders can let out a pheromone flare that causes a Bug Breach that summons more enemies into the area. Brood Commanders can also summon groups of the mid-size Warriors independent of Breaches.
** The Automatons in ''II'' have the Commissar, who wield a SwordAndGun and can also fire a flare gun to call in a Bot Dropship that unloads enemies into the area. Most other basic Automaton units can too, though most of the larger units cannot.

*** The bugs/Terminids are used as cattle to be bred, mass slaughtered, and put in graves to produce an oil substance for fuel. They are also a species of giant insects that will kill and devour anything that isn't them and seem to be able to spread across the galaxy somehow. They are highly dangerous, aggressive, and ridiculously invasive. The relationship is like Weyland-Yutani from ''{{Franchise/Alien}}'' thinking Xenomorphs are worth exploiting on colonies and going about as well as you'd think.
*** Cyborgs are a cyborg collective that Super Earth went to war with for seeing them as a threat to their empire and used a terrorist attack pretext ([[FalseFlagOperation that likely wasn't done by the Cyborgs]]). They are also utterly ruthless, willing to carve up civilians to make them cyborgs, don't care for the idea of prisoners, and blow up Earth if they win. Their Automaton creations that wish to free them in the sequel aren't much better, given the cages and stone tables with mutilated bodies found in their bases. They, [[UnreliableExpositor supposedly]], take children, but we don't know what they do with them.
*** The Illuminate is a highly advanced alien species that had, supposedly, great weapons of mass destruction that Super Earth wanted and, [[RunningGag sensing a pattern here]], used it as pretext for war. The Illuminate are intellectual SocialDarwinists that are all too happy to use those WMD's against Super Earth for doing this.

* FailedASpotCheck: When prone, Helldivers are much harder to notice by enemy scouts, requiring them to almost be ''touching the helldivers to notice them.'' Downplayed in 2. While prone Helldivers are much harder to detect than if they're standing or sprinting, enemies can still see them a respectable distance away, especially if they're on open ground with no shrubbery or cover. Using an armour with the Scout perk (reduces detection distance by 30%) can still let you sneak up right behind enemies, though it may not be the best idea to do so.

* ForeverWar: Some hints of this in ''2''. Very occasionally, on certain points of interest, you can find some very old skeletons wearing fairly modern-day looking [=BDUs=] and body armor. Which combined with talks about a 'less parotic predecessor' of the Helldivers means that Super Earth has been at this for a ''very'' long time.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Within ''II'' - despite pretty heavy indications that Helldiver training genuinely is only what's seen in the roughly-ten-minute tutorial before they are cryogenically frozen and then dropped into a mission, playable Helldivers are nonetheless fully capable of reliably using every single weapon they can pick up, calling down strategems, and generally capable of not completely losing their shit...[[RuleOfFun because that wouldn't be very fun.]]
* GenreShift: The original ''VideoGame/{{Helldivers}}'' is a top down twin sticks shooter, which controls not unlike ''VideoGame/SmashTV''. ''Helldivers 2'' is a third person shooter, with the camera hanging over the player's shoulder, similair to ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4''. That said, the tone of both game is very similar: As a Helldiver, you are an elite, yet expendable, soldier, who shoots alien bugs and robots, in a satirical world where you are fanatically loyal to the fascist government of Super Earth.

** In the sequel, certain planets have certain weather conditions. They are usually a mix of both good and bad. Rain for example limits line of sight for both you and the enemy, while extreme cold throws off your aim but reduces heat buildup in laser weapons. High difficulty Terminid planets may also have Spore Clouds as a mission modifier, which obscures the drop pod map and personal radar. [[ParanoiaFuel For all you know, you could be jumping straight into a heavy bug outpost with a Bile Titan and its Charger escorts.]]

* GrenadeHotPotato: In the sequel, Helldivers can throw or kick Automaton grenades back with a quick tap of the Interact button. Aiming them is basically impossible and odds are they'll just skitter along the floor wildly, but it's better than standing on top of a live grenade.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In 2, Terminid bile spewers are not a result of the bugs rapidly evolving over the last 100 years. Instead, they are the result of Super Earth genetic engineering on the Terminids, probably to increase E-710 (oil) production. The fact that new mutations are apparently appearing as a result of exposure to the Termicide is "to be expected", according to the Shipmaster, and surely won't have any consequences down the line either.

* HolographicTerminal: The main mission selection interface of the Super Destroyer in ''II'' is a big circular table which shows a holographic projection of the galaxy map or the planet your ship is currently orbiting. Most of the other interface and display systems seem to be more practical touchscreens though.
* HostileWeather: One of the early updates for ''Helldivers II'' added weather effects that can complicate missions, including tremors (trips up players and enemies), meteor showers (falling space rocks that can hurt players and enemies), rainstorms (persistently obscures vision), ion storms (prevents the use of strategems), volcanic activity (similar to meteor showers, but the debris also lights players and enemies on fire) and [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin fire tornadoes]]. These can work in your favour quite nicely though, as it's possible to see random turrets, fabricators, or nests get perfectly dead-center bullseyed by meteors, saving you the trouble.

--> '''Broadcast Narrator'''

** The EXO-45 Patriot mech in the sequel is a powerful stratagem that can lock down a multiple bot drops or bug breaches with missiles that can easily destroy heavily armored enemies and a minigun that shreds smaller mooks. It's drawbacks is its limited ammo pool that cannot be restocked, a long recharge time (6 in-game minutes) to call another mech and its large frame being vulnerable to ranged attacks especially from Automatons.

* AxCrazy: In Helldivers II, As a result of the conditioning from-birth that they have undergone on Super Earth; Helldivers will periodically yell in satisfaction or desperation when throwing grenades/stratagems ("EAT THIS!!") and killing their enemies ("Ahahahahahaha!")

* BadassNormal: Special mention goes to a posthumous one in the sequel; in certain minor locations of interest, you can find a Citizen (possibly a member of the Armed Forces) who was killed in the middle of burying some other Citizens in the field. Occasionally, a dead Devastator will also be present if it's an Automaton-controlled planet. Cause of death? ''ShovelStrike''. Yes, this humble citizen took down a heavily-armoured, roughly-eight-foot-tall war machine with an ArmCannon that could turn them into paste in a single hit with just a ''shovel''.

* BigCreepyCrawlies: The Bugs/Terminids range from being as small as a dog, with their scouts, to as large as a house - or larger! - with their Hive Lords and Bile Titans.

** The sequel is a bit more explicit about the satire aspect of Super Earth and how it is [[SubvertedTrope pretty much just another shade of black]], likely to make sure the satire was more clear. Various in-game tool tips, notes, and so forth openly talk about many oppressive actions Super Earth takes on its own people and in the ways in which it actively endangers them for dubious benefit or are clearly designed to benefit a select few such as: employing child as young as 7 for the war effort, requiring government approval before any action that might result in a child, farming the terminds for resources (which, given the resultant E-710 comes spewing out of the ground like oil, implies raising the bugs, then mass slaughtering them before burying them in mass graves), utilizing front loading guns... on spaceships, any given Helldiver mission costing more than a Liberty-class cruiser (a bigger ship than the Super Destroyers the Helldivers use), and perhaps the most obvious, knowingly continuing the Helldiver program despite knowing that survival rates for Helldiver training are only around 20%, with the program lasting less than a day and taking in around 48,000 trainees a day, meaning an average of 38,000 people die each day in training alone. In addition, the Cyborgs have been replaced by their creations, the Automatons, and giving how their motive is [[UndyingLoyalty saving their creators by any means]], one could make an argument that ''they're'' the Grey in this, mainly failing to be considered the White because you can find things like the corpses of civilians locked in cages in their bases.

* BladeBelowTheShoulder: The Automatons in ''II'' '''love''' this trope, with most of their common infantry units having one or even two arm blades. Most notable in their 'Berserker' close-range heavy unit, which just has [[ChainsawGood chainsaw arms]] and no ranged capacity whatsoever.

** While the sequel gives you all sorts of exotic support weapons, from the Terminid purging flamethrower, to the explosive autocannon, the machine gun stratagem you start with can serve you well. Its fire rate is controllable between three states (630, 760 and 900 RPM) and it can punch through light to medium armor. Against Terminids, it can quickly cut down swaths of Warriors, Hive Guards and Hunters, while also quickly killing Brood Commanders and Bile Spewers. Against the Automatons, it will cause them to near instantly become suppressed, throwing off their aim drastically. It will easily destroy anything that isn't heavier than a Devastator. The machine gun might not be able to kill Bile Titans or Hulks, but in a team, a machine gun user can easily cut down chaff and weaker enemies easily, letting the others focus on the more heavy targets.

* BorderPatrol: Stray too far past the map's borders in ''2'' and the Democracy Officer in charge of the mission will warn you to get back into the mission zone or be declared a deserter and traitor. Failure to comply will result in [[DeathFromAbove the Super Destroyer shelling the area near you until you die]], even if you return to the mission zone. In particularly desperate situations (probably in an Eradication mission), [[TakingYouWithMe one may even find it beneficial to cause the Super Destroyer to do this.]]
%% * BoxedCrook: In the sequel, the Cyborgs are stated to have been rounded up and imprisoned across Super Earth following their defeat in the first game. The Automatons seek to free them. %% %%Please define clearer how this trope applies%%

** Terminid Chargers in the sequel are similar to Bug Tanks. While they can track you better than Bug Tanks, they can also be stunned for a brief but significant duration by baiting them into a wall, letting you shoot their unarmored backside for a few crucial seconds.
* ButtCannon: Terminid Bile Spewers function as artillery, shooting long range bile blobs to suppress Helldivers and flush them out of defensive positions. They're far from defenseless at close range though, as they can vomit up a OneHitKill stream of bile at close enemies, or if they miss, slash them apart with their claws.
* CalculatorSpelling: In ''II'', the Terminids broke out of E-710 (OIL, upside-down) farms.

* CatchPhrase: The Helldivers cycle through a fair few set phrases:
** "Taste Democracy!"
** "For Super Earth"
** "How about a nice cup of LIBER-TEA!"
** "Freedom Delivery!"
** "Sweet liberty! [My arm/leg]/[The blood]!"
** "Freedom never sleeps!"

** The sequel changes this a bit as the Automatons almost universally use ranged weapons except for the occasional one that uses chainsaws or swords. Likewise, while the Terminids remain a mostly melee-oriented foe, they do include some units that can spray corrosive bile at Helldivers from a moderate range.

* ContinuityNod: As of the time of this writing, Cyberstan, the Cyborg's homeworld can be found in ''2'' if you look at the Valdis Sector. Valdis Sector itself is positioned roughly where the old Cyborgs would be in ''1''. Keplar Prime and Squ'lath Shrine have yet to make an appearance however. Additionally, the Automaton marching song mentions Cyberstan.

** A crewmember in the sequel fondly remembers the local [[ThePoliticalOfficer Democracy Officer]] from her childhood giving her and the other kids candy as a reward for spying on their own parents.
** The sequel's propaganda film shows it is apparently completely normal to have soldiers in full combat gear patrolling the streets of what appears to be a peaceful, middle-class neighbourhood. As well, displaying any emotion other than extreme patriotism while watching that film can result in you being arrested or executed.

* CurbStompBattle: The infamous [[https://kotaku.com/helldivers-2-malevelon-creek-lost-planet-1851294327 Fall of Malevelon Creek]] event in February 2024. Despite the player base's concentrated efforts, the planet became 0.000000% Liberated. In the meta-game, it represents the complete failure of Super Earth forces to take the planet from the Automatons, mirroring the [[Film/StarshipTroopers failed Invasion of Klendathu]].
* DarkerAndEdgier: The sequel, to an extent. While the gameplay and tone are largely the same, Super Earth's dystopian corruption is ''much'' more explicit than in the original, the increased graphical fidelity means that pitched battles can quickly become a lot more bloody and harrowing, and your Helldivers will now audibly panic as they get overwhelmed and their health dwindles.

* AllOrNothingReloads: Very much {{Averted|}} in ''II'', as reloading is done in stages. This even means the phase of ejecting your magazine while your gun wasn't empty will even still leave a single round chambered into it that can be still fired before completely finishing a full reload.
* AlwaysOverTheShoulder: The default aim view in ''Helldivers 2'', but can be switched to a First Person scoped view with the press of a designated button or key while aiming. Especially useful for the marksman rifles, whose settings include Zoom Magnification.

* AntiAir: Automaton anti-air guns can be seen visibly firing on inbound Eagles, preventing them from dropping the requested ordnance and wasting a charge on the strategem.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Should the last player alive die before they can throw their reinforcement stratagem, it will still activate and allow all of the dead players (including the one who was about to throw the beacon) to come back. Only counts if the last player has the reinforcement stratagem beacon in their hand when they die, though. In ''II'', it's no longer possible to wipe through all players dying; instead, there will be a short delay and players will drop in close to where the last player died, assuming there are enough reinforcement charges left.
* AntiPoopSocking: Defied by the sequel in a loading screen tip.
--> ''"Don't forget to take breaks! -- That is, if you want to be remembered as a coward."''
* ArmoredCoffins: The Patriot walkers in ''Helldivers II'' epitomize Super Earth's [[GlassCannon design]] [[WeHaveReserves philosophies]]. Though they are packed with amazing firepower, they are remarkably fragile, explode violently when taken down, and have no ejection of any kind.
* ArmorIsUseless:
** In the first game, your armour/helmet choices were purely cosmetic; only by taking the Heavy Armour perk did you actually get increased survivability. No more in the sequel, as your armour (but not your helmet or cape) now affects your Armour Rating, Move Speed, and Stamina Regeneration, along with carrying one of several Perks - such as Servo-Assisted, which increases your grenade & stratagem throw distance, and makes your limbs less likely to be wounded by attacks.
** Special mention in the sequel where there's sets of armour that provide 50% additional limb health/reduction in limb damage... but in some of those it's clearly because an arm and a leg have been replaced with cybernetic replacements. That is, the Helldiver has 50% less limbs that can take damage.
** However, even in the second game, heavy armor simply does not provide enough protection or comes with too many drawbacks to justify taking it over a light armor and shield backpack combination. Even at a maximum 200 armor rating, heavy armor does not meaningfully protect you against anything that could already oneshot you if you were wearing light or medium armor, and it does not protect you from headshots or critical hits so even attacks from smaller enemies are still prone to chunking 25% or 50% of your HP. And this all comes at the cost of reduced stamina and sprint speed, which is not ideal since mobility is often the priority due to the amount of ground Helldivers usually have to cover when moving between objectives.
* ArtEvolution: The first game has a more cartoony, less graphically detailed artstyle reminicient of games like ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' or ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}''. ''Helldivers II'' swaps this out for much more extreme realism with its graphics.

** The in-universe styled Super Earth High Command Brief posted by the developers on the Helldivers Discord described Malevelon Creek as, "a bastion of human endurance and a symbol of our resistance against the Automatons," a nod toward the Creek's popularity even when Major Orders directed players elsewhere.
* AttackItsWeakpoint: In general, shooting enemies in the rear/backside will deal more damage due to the weaker armor rating. In ''2'', a lot of weakpoints, such as a Charger's and Bile Titan's soft unarmored section, and the Automaton's tanks, Hulks and their large turrets have heat vents on the back that can be shot to deal large damage. Explosive weapons particularly (such as the Dominator and Scorcher) deal extra damage to these weak spots.
** Terminid Chargers have an even less obvious weakpoint: the legs. While shooting the unarmored rear abdomen does significant damage, the fastest way to drop a Charger is to take out the armor on one of their legs (via the Railgun or Autocannon, though this is easier with explosive weapons like the Recoilless Rifle or Expendable Anti-Tank), then shooting the exposed leg a few times with any weapon.
** Automaton Dropships can be destroyed by aiming a recoilless rifle round to one of their four engines. Should your aim be true, the Dropships will crash and explode, taking out most of its cargo. Heavier units however, such as Hulks, Tanks and Devastators may survive the crash.
** Automaton Rocket Devastators have a pair of shoulder-mounted rocket pods. These pods are a weak point however, as they can be destroyed with concentrated fire and this will also likely kill the Rocket Devastator in the process.
* AvengingTheVillain: In the sequel, the Automatons seek to avenge the defeat and imprisonment of their creators, the Cyborgs, as well as free them from Super Earth's imprisonment. The Cyborgs are supposedly all now slaving away in the mines of Cyberstan, according to Super Earth propaganda.

-> ''"Super Earth. Our home. Prosperity, liberty, democracy, our way of life. But freedom doesn't come free.[[note]][[BadBadActing "No... Sweet Liberty! NOOOOOO!!!"]][[/note]] Look familiar? Scenes like this are happening throughout the galaxy, right now! You could be next. That is, unless you make the most important decision of your life. Prove to yourself that you have the strength and the courage to be free. Join... the Helldivers! Become part of an elite peacekeeping force! See exotic new lifeforms, and spread managed democracy throughout the galaxy. Become a Hero. Become a Legend. Become a Helldiver!"''
-->-- '''Broadcast Narrator/Helldiver''', ''Helldivers 2''

A sequel, ''Helldivers II'', which shifts the perspective from top-down to [[AlwaysOverTheShoulder over-the-shoulder]], was announced at Sony's "[=PlayStation=] Presents" showcase on May 26, 2023, and it was released in February 2024. In ''Helldivers II'', Super Earth has (seemingly) reached an era of peace and prosperity following its victories over the enemies in the first game, 100 years ago. Utilizing technology and resources harvested from the slain invaders, Humanity has reached out to the stars, colonizing other planets in the name of Liberty and Democracy. For many, it really does seem that Humanity has achieved a utopian society, to the point that the original Helldivers are disbanded as there is simply no need for them any more...

...or so they thought.

Unfortunately, the bugs (now named "Terminids") rear their ugly heads again[[note]]After breaking out of the factory-farms that were used to harvest them on an industrial scale[[/note]] and murderous Automatons[[note]]Who seek to free their Cyborg masters from imprisonment in the mines of Cyberstan[[/note]] declare war upon Humanity, once more putting Super Earth at risk. To combat these enemies, the Helldivers are once again reactivated, and a new generation of soldiers ready to fight for Super Earth and her people take to the stars, aiming to utterly destroy those who threaten her safety...with plenty of explosives and firepower in hand, of course.

* AchillesHeel: Automaton Stratagem Jammers in ''II'' usually require a hellbomb or other superheavy ordnance to destroy, but will sometimes have a fabricator built into their base; take out this fabricator and the chain reaction will blow up the entire Jammer, no need to call in a Hellbomb and deal with all the mooks.
* AirborneMook:
** Automaton Dropships in the sequel are flying enemy carriers that will reinforce the enemy ranks by dropping off a squad of Automatons. They ''can'' be taken down by well-placed powerful shots to one of their four engines, causing them to crash and their passengers to be destroyed (or take severe damage, in the case of larger ones).
** Terminid Shriekers are flying Terminids that attack by performing powerful diving swoops at the Helldivers. They continuously spawn from nests around the map. Their biggest danger occurs when they die -- in a surprising nod to physics, shooting them down when they dive causes their bodies to turn into gravity-boosted projectiles that can one-shot a Helldiver in the way.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Played with. The Automatons from the sequel sure seem like an endless army of human-loathing robots prone to corpse desecration...but listening to some broadcasts will reveal they were built by ''the Cyborgs'', [[UndyingLoyalty and are trying to free their creators from Super Earth's oppression]]. Their spite is more of a focused PayEvilUntoEvil stance, making them antagonistic sentient machines as opposed to rogue ones.

[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mo_mohanx_hossam_pascal_ruest_testament_comp_v10a_4k.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:1000:Join the fight, spread democracy!]]

* {{Expy}}: All three races evoke familiarity with anyone who has played ''VideoGame/StarCraft'', but they also have shades from other media:
** The Cyborgs are similar to the Terrans (alongside the Players themselves) but also share a lot of similarities with the Orks from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. The Automatons, their successors, are also similar to the Necrons from 40K as well as the Terrans. They're also [[RobotWar very]] [[SkeleBot9000 evocative]] of [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} Skynet and the T-800s]].
** The Illuminate are VERY similar to the Eldar and Protoss, despite being squids, apparently.
** The Bugs (and by extension, Terminids) are very much like the Arachnids from ''Film/StarshipTroopers'', as well as the Zerg and Tyranids.

** Another [=NPCs=] in the sequel will note that the cost of an average Helldiver mission exceeds that of a Liberty-class cruiser (with cruisers typically being larger ships than even the largest destroyers in real life).

* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: While ''II'' is not a simulator, there's still plenty in the game that would make perfect sense following real logic that might be unexpected for a co-operative third-person shooter like it, such as players being unable to unable to check their map and stratagems at the same time because both are read off of the player's left hand, or players being able to be [[OneHitKill killed instantly]] from [[BoomHeadshot being struck in the head]]. Players can not only suffer damage from falling, but even be killed or damaged from being knocked through the air or having things crash into them.