Note, first and foremost that the majority of my testing is done on Difficulties; Extreme - 6, & Suicide Mission - 7, with limited efforts on Super Helldive - 10 and near none on Helldive - 9 and Impossible - 8.
Guide Version 1.1, as of Patch 01.002.005
{This Guide Is Approved By Multiple Ministries of Super Earth}

Brought to you, courtesy of SEAF Super Destroyer Lord of Law, Helmed By LordlyLua

So you, like me are, one of those People without friends, yet a need for Super Samples. Fortunately I, along with the valiant efforts of all crew members aboard the Lord of Law Super Destroyer have earned extensive Super Sample Boons with Exceptionally minimal Helldivers Deployed.
It's time you too rake in those coveted Super Samples regardless of your squad size and with this guide you too can see moderate success rates!

This guide is aimed primarily at newer players, and/or players who have primarily played with a squad, as such the information will be presented as though you have already frequented medium difficulties, but not yet become acclimated to the higher difficulties.
Unless you've already frequented these difficulties with or without a squad before, I strongly recommend that following the gameplay recommendations of this guide be done on Extreme Difficulty 6, until you are confident enough in your success rate.
For those who do frequent these difficulties, particularly solo, I invite all counter points, alternative recommendations, or feedback of all varieties (Potentially even to be folded into the guide proper)

That Said Let's get to actual information.

1.1 :
Changelog added; intending to document and archive outdated thoughts, and track when new Manual features are added
Changed Manual Formatting = "Helldiver Outfitting I.I Weapons" added. Secondary and Throwable recommendations moved from Outfitting I, to I.I.
Automaton Primary Weapon Alternative Recommendations altered (Helldiver Outfitting I Weapons)
Automaton Throwable Nomination Added.
Added "Diver's Dance (Automatons)"; depicting a priority list of Automaton Specific side objectives

In the formalized opinion of the Lord of Law and it's crew, it is Terminids who are most sufficient for Solo Super Sample Securing, and will be the overwhelming focus of advice in this guide.
(The Lord of Law and her crew could not come to definitive consensus on methodology, success rate sufficiency or, even first hand gaiety in attempting on Automaton or Illuminate fronts at this time)
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The Biome of the Planet is the first and foremost weighing of pros and cons, you and your ship crew most consider.

Locations with little visual cover or significant obstacles or structures will maximize your information on enemy movements and presence, while also making it much harder to control engagements, break contact, or make a stand.
Locations with high visual cover and/or significant obstacles make it much easier to break contact, and limit engagements but your situational awareness will be severely impacted, making you susceptible to ambushes or picking a fight you shouldn't have.
As well as Locations that might have great visibility may have limited movement options, such as canyon valleys where you may be forced to push through locations, hostile presence, or other hazards better off avoided.

Truly, it's up to the individual Helldiver, though for training purposes it is lightly recommended for a biome of relative neutrality, such as
Desert Dunes,
Tundra,
Or Plains
For acclimation purposes
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Operation Modifiers and Environmental Conditions are the next Consideration when it comes to choosing the Planet and Operations of Choice
In our humble experience the current Environmental Conditions are listed from most advantageous to most detrimental.
Meteor Storms - A massive barrage with fair telegraphing, with a little attention, it's a free orbital barrage.
Acid Storms - Reduces Armor effectiveness for Helldivers & Enemies- for a limited time everyone takes a moderate increase in damage suffered, something a Helldiver stands to benefit from far more than be hindered.
Volcanic Activity - Meteor storms with less obvious warnings, still provides remarkably convenient devastation for enemy infrastructure, if a greater potential for friendly casualty.
Blizzards - provides occasionally great opportunity to break contact with enemies, though impairs movement speed.
Tremors - occasionally causes a map wide stun, which Helldivers recover from significantly faster than all enemies.
Rainstorms - mild loss of visible information.
Thick Fog - almost of 0 consequence.
Extreme Cold - very mild niche benefit, global beyond minor RoF loss.
Sandstorms - Blizzard with greater visibility loss, radar highly recommended to avoid stumbling into patrols.
Fire Tornadoes - remarkably hazardous seems to deal very inconsequential damage to most enemies, fire trails can shutdown, corral, and deny Helldiver movement or demand a stim.
Intense Heat - Stamina Drain is extremely inconvenient, additional niche hindrance.
Ion Storms - Disables Helldiver map, all Helldiver stratagems (except SEAF Artillery if activated)

Operation Modifiers are directly detrimental; here's our order from least inconvenient;
(Terminid Exclusive)Roving Shriekers; Shriekers in patrol pool
(Automaton Exclusive)Gunship Patrols; Gunships in patrol pool.
Poor Intel; objective locations are hidden
Orbital Fluctuations; cooldowns increased by 25%
Complex Stratagem Plotting; call in time increased by 50%
(Terminid Exclusive)Atmospheric Spores; Map obscured by Bug Spores
At and above Impossible-8 Difficulty multiple Operation Modifiers are Active, IMO disregard operations with both Complex Stratagem Plotting & Orbital Fluctuations, it is an immensely debilitating combination.

Once selected a planet with inherent qualities you can observe Operation Specific Missions. Generally, at 6-7 you should be able to throw your weight into completing any Main Objective, however consider dodging an operation that includes (especially if multiple dodge-worthy)
(Defense Only) Evacuate High-Value Assets
Eradicate (Terminid or Automaton, it is considerably less consistent to clear these solo)
Spread Democracy
(If playing at 8-10 I recommend increasing consideration of dodging the previous, as well as consider dodging if there are:
Emergency Evacuation)

The Reason these Main Objectives are worthy of avoidance is due to the nature of holding ground, something even a Squad of Helldivers can struggle to consistently do for extended periods of time, and as a Solo Helldiver, this reality is only truer. Particularly with Evacuate High Value Assets, as the uncontrollable engagement very quickly sees whole breaches of bugs (Or platoons of Automatons, or sections of Illuminate) lose aggro with the player, and attack the objective generators.
As far as bugs in particular, the very common Charger will one-shot a door, and I have personally found them over any other unit across all 3 factions, to be the most difficult to maintain aggro with. Ultimately, despite being my favorite mission type, at high difficulties without a squad, Evacuate High Value Assets is the mission I have the least confidence I have of clearing solo.

Once you've established orbit on your planet, above your operation, it's time to talk about your loadout.

Fortunately, while I would make a case that by this difficulty in the game, the Armor and Weapons you bring, will need to be more optimized than ideal, you will still be able to flex a moderate amount of self expression.
In general at least on 6-8 most of the arsenal will provide respectable service, by 9-10 though I would say insofar as Solo Diving have choices that will not provide the performance demanded for consistent clearance.
So in reality, as far as equipment you should be mostly free to move on, but for those not confident in their own loadout, I will provide my on ideal selections.
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In High Difficulty Solo Play Against Terminids, The Top Consideration for your Primary Weapon is Versatility. It is a steep price to pay for specialization, as you will have to have a card up your sleeve for everything.
It's with this line of thinking that I nominate

AR-61 Tenderizer

With a solid variable zoom scope, respectable magazine count, great magazine return, and a small exchange of Damage Per Round > Magazine Capacity from the AR-23 Liberator, it is the Primary of Choice for the Lord of Law Super Destroyer.
It will stamp out most if not all of an average patrol, can be controlled for medium-long distance engagements, and will serve you proudly as a Democratic Dispenser of Liberty's Light.
Observed Shortcomings in Practice - Terminid Stalkers and Brood Commanders who catch you with a partial magazine are highly likely to survive the rest of your magazine. With Great Accuracy and Greater Shot Placement, you can dispatch these enemies significantly more often than they survive with a single magazine, but it will often require most of, or all +bleedout.
Certain Single Target Threats; Brood Commanders and Stalkers primarily, require nearly every
If the AR-61 Tenderizer does not grace your arsenal, it can be substituted completely with the AR-23 Liberator, AR-23A Liberator Carbine, StA-52 Assault Rifle, StA-11 SMG, or SMG-37 Defender with little to no utility lost.
The reason I consider these weapons as ideal choices for your Solo Dive Primary is for their ability to tackle the majority of battlefield targets. I recommend these also for their control ability, as even new users will struggle to reach sub 55-60% accuracy, with >80% perfectly reasonable with practice.

Because of the priority on versatility, niche weapons such as Marksman Rifles, Shotguns, Explosive, and Special, and many SMGs are not so simply recommended.
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In High Difficulty Solo Play Against Automatons, The Top Consideration for your Primary Weapon is Precision. Most of the Automaton barracks possess critical weak spots in between broad armor, most forces having thick enough plating to resist large arrays of SEAF projectiles.
It's with this line of thinking that I nominate

The R-63CS Diligence Counter Sniper

With a higher armor defeating capability than much of the Standard Issue Arsenal, the R-63CS Diligence Counter Sniper grants it's user the ability to dispatch the medium infantry Devastator line with ease, straight through their chest plates, or with a single shot placed between it's eyes. Because of it's capability for range, allowing you to pick engagements beyond their ability to accurately hit shots.
Observed Shortcomings in Practice - low ammo capacity, even with a highly accurate Helldiver is a risky limitation, and it doesn't take much reinforcing for the Automatons to outnumber the weapons magazine capacity.
Alternatively, Plasma Based Weaponry with particular reference to the PLAS-39 Accelerator trivializes Scout Striders with greater efficiency than the Counter Sniper, and can in some circumstances provide mild crowd damage that the Counter Sniper does not grant. Weapons such as the JAR-5 Dominator, or other high armor defeating weaponry are also acceptable choices, but may not be the ideal choice for less specialized Helldivers.
The reason I consider these weapons as ideal choices for your Solo Dive Primary is for their ability to easily threaten the Medium Infantry, that can cause great issues with less armor defeating capable weapons. While they will limit the scale of engagements you can chew through with low magazine capacities, and tight ammo economy/efficiency, the Diligence Counter Sniper provides the best bang-for-buck as it facilitates the highest precision for critical shots. It takes significant practice, but it stands out from my other recommendations for the degree to which you can be efficient with the ammo you have.
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{The Lord of Law and it's crew could not come to a formal nomination for High Difficulty Solo Play Against Illuminate}
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In High Difficulty Solo Play Against Terminids and Automatons, The Top Consideration for your Secondary Weapon is Single Target Damage. With the suggested primaries, you will have a power house for the rank-and-file, but higher armoured special enemies will be abound, and cannot always be disengaged or avoided.
It's with this line of thinking that I nominate

The P-4 Senator

With Heavy Armor defeating capabilities, it will provide high damage punishment to anything that has the gall to resist your primary. In conjunction with excellent ammo efficiency you will never be utterly helpless against the forces of tyranny.
Observed Shortcomings in Practice - In conjunction with the nominated primaries, the Senator will frequently quickly dispatch the last of a patrol the primary runs out of ammo for or finish off a heavily injured AT target, however outside of opportunistic finishers of troublesome survivors, it's tiny capacity can be chewed away if being used alone against the biggest and baddest.
I recommend no other alternatives as most of the Secondary Weapons are niche utility items. However the P-72 Crisper could serve as an acceptable alternative for Fire's ability to ignore armor in my experience and recommendation the Senator, and secondary slot by proxy, is ideal for enemies like the Hive Guard, or Scout Stridors, relatively rank-and-file enemies with armor that in practice cannot always be played around, a shot or two of the big iron quashes what otherwise would be problematic enemies in the horde.
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In High Difficulty Solo Play Against Terminids, The Top Consideration for your Throwable is Bug Hole Clearing. You will not always have a stratagem to spare for destroying Bug Nests, something that is generally in your best interest to take care of swiftly if you're to remain in the area.
It's with this line of thinking that I nominate

The G-6 Frag

With a base capacity of 5 grenades, 7 with the Engineering Kit Armor Passive, the G-6 Frag is the second most abundant Throwable, significantly behind the K-2 Throwing Knife, it boasts a short fuse, respectable power over a considerable radius. It's fuse time is long enough for a max distance throw (Without Servo Assistance Armor Passive) and does not stick or detonate on impact, making it ideal for ease of Nest clearing, without compromising it's utility as crowd clearing resource. Replenished fully by ambient grenade boxes, as well as resupply it will also remain an available resource to use throughout the majority of a dive. Well timed cooks can also dispatch chargers with ease, and paint serious punishment on impalers.
It is the nominee foremost because of the extra grenade in your belt relative to every other, and therefore I believe it is truly the most optimal choice.
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In High Difficulty Solo Play Against Automatons, The Top Consideration for your Throwable is Anti-Tank. The Automaton legions are in no short supply of thickly armored enemies, the likes of which our arsenal can scarcely handle en masse..
It's with this line of thinking that I nominate

The G-123 Thermite

Packing the ability to single-handedly erase any threat currently on the frontline battlefield, the Thermite grenade is a powerful armor defeating weapon which will put in work for the solo diver against the Automatons. While few are carried in a standard ammo rig, a Helldiver able to prepare a resupply in the area should be able to keep up with demand if for only a window of time.
Hulks are going to be the primary use of Thermite grenades, although can always be a relief to stick onto the side of a structure while you're repositioning it is not only the single target damage that zeroes any one threat, but the minimal effort this asks to work. You can return to primary weapon fire nigh on instantly, and with its sticky barbs making sure that you don't have to think about timing a throw, it is the sheer convenience of AT capabilities that makes the Thermite far and away our Nomination.
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{The Lord of Law and it's crew could not come to a formal nomination for High Difficulty Solo Play Against Illuminate}
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I loosely advise Medium Armor for Non-Defensive missions.
I have no strong preference, let alone intensity of preference, to suggest any weight class beyond individual preference for Blitz missions, or Defensive missions.

I loosely advise against Light Armor for Non-Defensive Missions, Heavy Armor for Defensive Missions, and Medium Armor for Blitzes.

{I haven't even established a personal preference for any mission type against Illuminates.}
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Armor Passives

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Against Bugs there is strong arguments to be made for many passives, I believe ultimately resting on personal preference. However there are a few passives that I would consider as being the least useful. Thusly, if your chosen Passive is not amongst the following, I consider it worth the loadout element.

Scout - increased radar and reduced detection rates. Considering the abundance of patrols, it is difficult to remain undetected for considerable portions of the mission, and the additional radar efficiency is not impactful enough for me to recommend this passive in place of others.
Electrical Conduit - Generally just about actually worthless.
Advanced Filtration - 80% resistance to a damage type used by 2 stratagems and 1 grenade. You stand to gain so much more from your Passive slot than this.
Inflammable - 75% resistance to fire damage, outside of Fire Tornadoes Planetary Effect, it's exclusively taken from friendly fire, particularly in Solo Play, not a valid concern.
Unflinching - Extremely limited niche utility, you stand to benefit significantly more with a different Passive.

Against Bots I feel more confident recommending specifically in favor of a few Passives.
Fortified - Lots of explosive damage goes around, additional ergonomic boost when crouched or prone, great when using precision weapons.
Extra Padding - more armor = less damage, against bots you'll take lots of small arms damage, helping spread out stim usage goes a long way toward survival.

As with bugs, there are still some Passives I would advise against;
Electrical Conduit - nobody does electrical damage.
Advanced Filtration - cntrl+p.

There is otherwise considerably strong arguments to be made in favor of any unmentioned Passives.

The Following Stratagems are generally what I feel is the very best picks in order of hardest vouch to the more arguable picks.

Orbital Gas Strike - a very short cooldown Orbital, it's area denial is unrivaled for the least attention needed. It has very nice range, just short enough that you can drop it on your feet and escape its radius before it lands while sprinting in heavy armor, and I believe even out of stamina sprinting in medium armor. Against the Terminid swarm, it will kill up to hunters that spawn in the center of it's radius, and warriors who remain just a moment longer. With enough DPS in it's impressive AOE to quash a standard bug breach, it also confuses bugs inside, causing them to path randomly, and swing on nothing, greatly prolonging time they remain in the AOE. Spewers and above will survive it's full duration, although suffer greatly for it, also causes light damage to AT enemies, such as Impalers, Chargers, and Bile Titans. Particularly in relation to Bile Titans however, they are not confused by it, and with their long strides escape it's AOE quickly.
Altogether the Gas Strike is Highly Effective against the entire Terminid Swarm save for the very apex of it.

Orbital 120mm Barrage - the shortest cooldown of the barrages, the 120 boasts a slightly more concentrated range than it's piers, with more direct damage than the Napalm Barrage, greater reliability than the 380mm, and aside from the Walking barrage which doesn't really provide the same utility as it's brethren, the 120mm is an imprecise AT tool, best used for passing by infrastructure destruction. Passing by a medium/heavy nest, chuck the 120mm and most of the time the nest is cleared by the end of the barrage, while you've been elsewhere without a thought about that nest.
There is rare circumstances where it doesn't clear a nest, and it's nature as a barrage can sometimes result in Bile Titans or Chargers hanging out in it's radius the whole barrage and leaving nothing more than some dust in it's eyes or mouth, it is overwhelmingly capable of greatly increasing the Helldivers scope of engagement.

Eagle 500kg Bomb - it was recently buffed, and despite a turbulent up and down effectiveness in it's current state the 500kg is a fairly precise infrastructure or AT deleting dream. Personally, I dislike using multiple Eagle stratagems, so between all of it's other current salvoes, this is the most potent and I feel more reliable than the Airstrike.

Orbital Precision Strike - consider it a hip fired unguided railcannon with a third of the cooldown, and I promise it's mild damage deficit in comparison will not be enough to dissuade you. It certainly takes some skill to aim it, and effects such as Complex Stratagem Plotting is all it takes to get you losing several critical shots on a Bile Titan. But considering that barring some dispersion at map edges it's a high explosive that lands where I want it almost whenever I want it... I'll take a bit more legwork and mental math for hitting moving targets and missing 3 times, over the railcannon aiming at something I didn't want once.

Orbital Railcannon - Some days I just want it to aim for me.

Orbital Gatling Barrage - On certain planets, primarily the Swamps, many single salvo stratagems can be caught up in the high leaves, the gatling barrage will always make it through those obstructions, at the cost of some mild trade offs in duration and reliability.

M-105 Stalwart - Take all my notes on the Primary Weapon choice, and add 165 additional bullets to it. Variable fire rate, particularly the 1,150 RPM makes the Stalwart even able to capitalize on opportunities such as a turned around charger, and with 1,000 rounds at my disposal between resupplies you can bet I'm happy to take a dozen extra cartridges to zero in on those Hive Guard Arm Pits.

GR-8 Recoilless Rifle - Will take down anything that looks at me the wrong way, and additionally makes for excellent long range infrastructure destruction. Bye bye spore spewers.
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I think it is generally a better idea for consistencies sake to forego bringing in a Support Weapon in favor of an additional Orbital, but it's not always fun to hope for finding a good support weapon you can't reclaim if things go wrong, and it certainly makes one feel a bit more comfortable to pack a bit more personal punch. Theoretically 2-3 of these recommendations so long as you keep them on cooldown should give you enough room to have a bit of a personal touch to the dive without much fear of lacking enough utility for something. These stratagems provide immense and extremely potent use cases, with a bit of acclimation and a song to speed your step, you can easily bring something silly along for the ride and not suffer for it.

The Following Stratagems are generally what I feel is the very best picks in order of hardest vouch to the more arguable picks.

Orbital Walking Barrage - pick a cardinal direction, and delete it. Against bot infrastructure, a walking barrage that takes a couple steps through it will frequently be all you need. While it's not extraordinary for it to fail to destroy something, it wreaks enough heavy handed havoc to remotely raze every other outpost or objective on your way.

Orbital Napalm Barrage - Due to fabricators having a secondary destroy case other than a well placed grenade or high explosive detonation, the Napalm Barrage will destroy fabricators, making it basically just a 260 mm barrage with a mild AOEDOT that pretty much guarantees that every rank and file that dodges a shell in the radius is still going to die, easily puts the Napalm Barrage well above the 380mm and 120mm.

Eagle Airstrike - With a more spread out AT effect than the 500kg, it is the better bang-for-the-buck of the Eagle stratagems.

A/MG-43 Machine Gun Sentry - capable of damaging the majority of Automaton barracks, this short cool down sentry honestly is in such high favor with me moreso for splitting aggro, distracting, if sometimes very briefly, any of the platoon helps buy a few extra moments to get control of the engagement, or break contact with less eyes tracking me.
________________________________________________________________________________ I have significantly less to vouch for the GR-8 Recoilless Rifle, MLS-4X Commando, or EAT-17 Expendable Anti Tank support weapons as they all fulfill the same purpose with slightly different in-practice advantages or disadvantages to each other. In my experience Automatons demand higher end firepower, require much more attention and thought than Terminids that I find them significantly less enjoyable to Solo Dive Against, and therefor solo dive against them significantly less.

Theoretically every booster has it's argument to be made in favor of it, I honestly have the least advice to give regarding Booster Selection.

I would recommend Hellpod Space Optimization for Blitzes and Eradicates, with the power of high power drugs (stims) and a full belt of grenades, you can brute force Blitzes, destroying at least 2 Bug Holes or Fabricators in a life would win you all difficulty of Blitz. Eased by going full orbital barrages, with some half-assed accuracy you can ensure most of the play area explodes at the same time.
Even if you've got a pretty half and half map, where not enough Holes/Fabs are in an area, again, with 4-6 stims out of the pod, and your shift key held down you can easily outlast the 3 minute longest cooldown and deliver it to the other side of the map you started by the time you're running out of reinforcements.

I can really only recommend against UAV Recon Booster, for the same reason I advised against the Scout Passive, it's just the least bang-for-the-buck you could pick. Motivational Shocks also is remarkably mid. I'd also shrug off Firebomb Hellpods since as far as I know it does not possess AT capabilities, and now that we can stim whenever we want, it takes extraordinary circumstances to die immediately out of a standard hellpod.

Whatever Booster is your favorite really.
My personal favorite is Stamina Enhancement, but I personally really hold onto my stims and don't use the Med-Kit Passive.

When picking a drop spot, I recommend picking from one of the 2, unless something you see is more enticing.


Get a Resupply Down off rip, hang about the area and clear adjacent Nests.
If Main OBJ is nearby, hangout until you can drop a second Resupply
If Main OBJ is far away / on the otherside of heavy infrastructure, don't worry about it and go.


Straight up drop as close as reasonably possible to your main objective
Drop a resupply off rip, finish the main objective as soon as possible to maximize mission time for searching for the Super Samples.

Aside from some edge case scenarios, it's a good idea to always have resupply on cooldown, as a Solo Diver, one resupply is 200% resources, so even if you're completely out of everything, you will not consume a fresh resupply. If something goes wrong and you're in dire straits, having resupply's often enough around means that at the very least you will always know where to be moving.

While doing whatever Main Objective you have, it's important to know the utility in bailing and circling back around after a bit. Particularly with the suggested stratagems you're going to function in bursts of force. If that force fails to end the engagement that's when you're really in trouble. Standing ground is not a strength that the Helldivers can facilitate. At best you can make a stand for several minutes, but if the engagement doesn't end you will eventually be overrun. So run before it's over. The overwhelming majority of enemies are outran easily, and naturally those that can match pace or even close the gap are the highest priority targets. Staying in an area too long is what is going to cost you reinforcements, and understanding how much you can bite off and chew- and knowing when you've bitten too much, to spit it out.


Main Objective, Main Objective, Main Objective.
Where are Points of Interest, where seems to have the highest concentration in the smallest area of Points of Interest.
Bookmark this in your mind, drop a waypoint on your map if necessary.
What Side Objectives are there? How far out of the way are they?

The Following Side Objectives can be considered to supercede main obj based on proximity (To extraction / main objective) and convenience of completing vs inconvenience of leaving.
Radar Station - if Close Proximity and Convenient.
Spore Spewer - Proximity, all distance is convenient, can be destroyed with reasonable small arms fire
Stalker Lair - Proximity, if far away, avoid. If moderate proximity, extreme priority.
Shrieker Nest - Long distance is ideal, can be destroyed with excessive small arms fire or too much ordinance. If close proximity, Hellbomb. Avoid Medium Distance with.

(Do note; as you acclimate to the higher levels, become more familiar with your capabilities and limits you will grow increasingly more able to casually take on side objectives outside of the usual hierarchy.)
The Following Side Objectives should be considered after the Main Objective is complete.
Destroy Rogue Research Station - risk is not especially high.
Terminate Illegal Broadcast - can be attacked with spare high ordinance if convenient before main OBJ if particularly convenient to do so. Otherwise low risk.
Upload Escape Pod Data - should be high priority as samples are abundant around them.
Radar Station - moderate risk, lower priority the later mission it is; PoIs are common and straight forward enough to locate, frequently forego this side objective.
Spore Spewer - if not destroyed during course of Main OBJ, it is considerable priority, moderate risk, samples abound.
Retrieve Mutant Larva - low priority, moderate risk, prolonged risk, back pack slot.


Did you notice a side objective missing? Correct, SEAF Artillery. Over any other side objective, Artillery sights are the longest time investment, and nets unreliable utility for it's completion. Consider looting for rare samples which spawn near by, not worth the time to locate, transport, and load shells. In extraordinary cases where multiple mini nukes spawn, and nearby shell spawns roll, it can be worth the risk and time, abandon and cut losses readily.

Swing by as many Points of Interest as possible. With a quick Main Objective clear and some large scale stratagems you should have majority of the timer left to do this. Passing by bug nests should similarly be quickly assessed for their worth. medium nests typically yield 0-3 rare samples and several common samples, however even small nests provide an opportunity to be put on the back foot.

A large patrol, a pair of patrols next to each other, that one little ♥♥♥♥♥♥ under a bigger bugs corpse, whatever the cause there's a bug breach. Time to go over the target priority list as the Lord of Law sees it.
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1 Stalkers. Not the first bug you see in the swarm, and that's half the reason for being the highest priority. The other half is speed. The only bug that can close the gap on you faster is a charger, except chargers are quite simple to slip. Stalkers are not.
Half Surprise, Half Speed, Half Damage - a stalker can kill a Helldiver, typically in the one combo of sending you flying, leaping on you before you even land and making Super Citizen Sushi out of you - that's 3 halves, no 3 halved abomination should live more than 3 seconds under Democracy's eye.

2 Hunters (and also Pouncers) You already know how bad stalkers are, well this is the 4th half, and it has to die. It's leap can close distance on you, it's bite inflicts a slow, and there's never just a few of them, it's always a khgjbhillion of them. Kill all of them.

3 Impalers. The biggest square foot of bug currently on the frontlines, and is the most problem causing of the lot. It can hang in the back of the engagement, summoning infinite high damage high health tentacles that are never worth the bullets. These tentacles can restrict directions you can go, and with multiple in the fight, you can very quickly be put in a killbox. Additionally them breaking through the ground, can trip, toss, or absolutely launch you. None of these possibilities often work out. If unable to one shot with an AT stratagem or support weapon, getting an angle on their exposed foreheads while they burrow, you can dispense not insignificant punishment to coax them from using their tentacles for a fair period of time. This is also a dangerous proposition in obstacle heavy locations, as their sheer size can body block you and make you prime for body slamming.

4 Bile Titans, Beyond the efforts of firearms, they can vomit at occasionally disagreeable ranges, borderline constantly, only a pinch slower than a sprinting Helldiver, they can make breaking contact especially problematic. They're kingly position in the ranks is the reason you should be packing a stratagem almost exclusively for them, provided it's twin didn't eat it just a moment earlier.

5 Spewers, of both varieties. Can force you to change directions at inopportune moments or into something elses claws. Bile Spewers can also sometimes fire mortars, and that sucks, otherwise both spongy and have the largest threat range of the swarm, not having to melee you. For this, they should die before they get the chance.

6 Brood Commanders / Alpha Commanders. Extremely durable, including a very common death charge. Note that running directly away from them guarantees they hit their one-two death punch and drag you to super hell with it. Fire on with focused precision, as they are liable to survive entire magazines if bullets land in the wrong places. If unable to focus fire, straight up disregard them, they're more dangerous dying than in perfect health.

7 Charger / Spore Charger dimwitted and dummy dense, they're fairly straightforward to kite and dodge. Lowkey, would be lower without the Spore variant, which is significantly more problematic due to causing Helldivers to lose visibility, that the bugs do not lose as well.

8 Shriekers, with only a couple an the area, it takes even less maneuvering than dodging a charger to side step these brainless bird bugs. Worth limiting the amount in the immediate sky, but otherwise low combat priority. If it's just soft targets left though, definitely shut down the aerial front first.

9 The baby spewer, much shorter range and much smaller payload. Can cause a stun. Act as mini grenades, consider utilizing them when engaging higher priority targets, causing a chain reaction can save you a couple bullets.

10 Warrior. You want to know a tip? You can run directly past them, they swing late and miss every single time, Hive guards perform the same strike, you can do it to them as well, they actually straight up don't body block you, as they'll side step around you. While running it means you slip right past their hit detection, and then they can't turn sharp enough to catch you before you escape melee distance again. Morons. Aside of that, they can hit had, and their heads explode very satisfyingly.

11 Scavenger. Oh you so totally thought the hive guard would have been next, but nah, straight up these oversized fleas are worth killing first. They can still occasionally get a critical bite in, and they dip back after their basic swipe if you aren't moving. If you're low on ammo, particularly angry about something, or there's only a few of these guys, straight up, just throw hands. One, sometimes 2 strikes is all it takes, and if it isn't that first strike that kills them, it sets you up for the combo cause it staggers them. Just watch their little back step though, it's timed as fast as your melee animation so they can straight up slip your shot, and counter. Sucks when they pull that off twice.

12 Finally the Hive Guard. Why is it last? Cause it's just generally easier to get around it without kiting a trillion other bugs at the same time. with a big enough engagement go for the armpits if you get the shot, but they're identical to warriors except for being slower, hitting harder, and the armored face and legs. Straight up, imo the least threatening bug in the swarm.

Generally, you don't want an engagement to get prolonged. If one fight triggers a second bug breach and you can't get off the back foot, disengage. Following the engagement order, as long as you can keep hunters from reaching pounce distance, nothing is going to be able to keep up with you. Make use of obstacles and visual cover to make the slip on chargers and bile titans. This is easier or harder based on the type of map, as discussed in the Planet selection chapter.

Additionally note that as far as I can tell each mission seems to pick from a couple of variables as to some specific quirks.
Swarm Type, and Reinforcement Intensity.

IE, one mission can have nursing spewers, the next bile spewers, and the final have neither. Consider that nursing spewers and bile spewers never spawn in the same mission. Additionally it seems that the bile spewers are not always capable of their mortar attack. I genuinely don't know of any way to anticipate when what will spawn, and it does impact to a fair degree what ideal stratagems or support weapons I'd'ave brought if I'd known.
Sometimes missions for some reason are just way less happy about you being there, one level 6 mission can just have you in a 40 minute engagement without a break, never able to fully clear the map of Bile Titans on your back. And then a level 7 mission where across like 12 bug breaches only 2 bile titans ever showed up, and one of them wasn't even out of the bug breach, it was just coming home from getting the super milk.

Without any indication of what causes either of these variables to be any which way, I'll leave this section here, I guess.
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Late Mission

by the 5 minute mark most of your efforts should be wrapped or wrapping up. Speedrunning the main objective gives you a solid, but unfortunately, not 100% shot of finding the Super Samples, I'm convinced there's a real chance that the game straight up lies about having a side objective or super sample rock, and just says there was one after the you can't prove it wrong anymore. By this point in the mission it's frequent that a majority of the map has been scoured, and not rarely can you even clean sweep it!
Wherever you are in the map, it's important to know where your remaining resupplies are. Ideally you can hangout in close vicinity to the extraction zone, but several variables can obstruct this, and fortunately, calling extraction isn't your problem, because the game does it for you.
That's right Helldiver. Emergency Extraction, you're going 2-4 minutes without your Destroyer, Eagle, or Therapist.

In my experience it's only ever a prolonged last stand, or as quiet as can be, with almost no inbetween. Here's what to do in either case.

Patrols of not incredible intensity, here is where you can really just lay next to a rock and wait it out sneaky beaky like. In these instances it is feasible to get to the extraction sight and call pelican before timeout does it for you, but it's best to put your chips on not having that luxury.

Either it's been the same fight from the first bug breach 39 minutes and 47 seconds ago, or for whatever reason Joel just really has it out for you in this moment and will not let up. All directions on the horizon is full of patrols, your cape has fully dissolved from another narrow shower of Titan Bile, and standing still is a death sentence delivered instantly. Congrats, pick the least intimidating direction, run that way for a minute (or 2 if you have an extended pelican sequence), turn around at the halfway point in pelicans time, and just kite a really big circle back round, stim yourself like crazy and dive into pelican.

I have no idea why it seems to be a coin flip which of these two extractions ever seem to be, but both can be extracted from most of the time in many cases some of the time. I haven't kept a spreadsheet but I'm well above 51% success rate. And hey, because you rush the main objective, samples escaped or not, the operations good to continue c:

Genuinely, I can only handle like 3 Not Chillen extracts across a couple days, it's rough and being locked in for 2-4 minutes when you're extra lives are voided, ESPECIALLY when the whole mission just decides to be one whole ♥♥♥♥ show.

Take a break, vibe on like difficulty 4, watch some black and orange youtube, snort a weeds, whatever relaxes you.

Most of the generalized info within the previous Diver's Dances sections apply here as well, however I consider Automaton Specific Optional Objectives to be significantly more disruptive and problematic. As with the previous, the top most is the highest priority, and the bottom most is the lowest priority. In fact the top 3 should generally supercede main objectives.

First and Foremost the Stratagem Jammer; because of it's wide range of effect (up to ~150 meters away) it frequently finds itself overlapping one or more other disruptive side objectives, main objectives, and extraction. There are instances where a Stratagem Jammer is so well positioned that it can be downright crippling to the standard priority flow.

In my experience Stratagem Jammers are almost never ignoreable, very rare is it that I have seen a Stratagem Jammer be on the edge of a map. Needless to say, restriction of using your stratagems is a more than damning affect, that you will most of the time be forced to take action against. (Small tip when attacking Jammers, occasionally destroying the Fabricators in it's outpost can result in the Jammer being deactivated with their lost, though this does not occur often enough to be relied upon, it does not seem to be especially rare either.

Gunship Facility
Would be the highest priority if they could be destroyed by other means than a stratagem susceptible to jamming, Gunships are an extremely problematic enemy to have constantly spawning, the aerial threat makes breaking contact exceptionally more difficult, and their use of rockets can get you stunned or hesitating on movement, both considerably lethal potentials.

SAM site ; unlike the artillery station, the surface to air missile site has a comparatively minuscule time requirement, and for a fair effective distance will provide very respectable aid in limiting encounter sizes. Particularly with other objectives in the vicinity, SAM sites are a boon absolutely worth picking up

Mortar Emplacements ; can be problematic, though a non stationary diver has little to worry about due to their comical inaccuracy, mortar emplacements can be quite stress inducing and/or sensory overloading, absolutely worth putting a barrage on one, though if one mortar turret remains seriously consider letting it remain, if you're in any way pressed for resource or time, as a singular remaining mortar is an empty threat.

AA Emplacement ; while Eagle Stratagems are generally more highly valued against Automatons, the possibility of AA emplacements complicating the use of it does hurt their reliability. If you bring no Eagles, or are not in considerable frequent need of it, AA Emplacements aren't a great threat to the Helldiver them self.

Bio Processors ; throw a barrage in it's general direction, any more effort isn't really worth risking a lost respawn, it is functionally identical to a Terminate Broadcast, except slightly more durable and a less vulnerable target.

Blitz missions are nice because even if it's Not Chillen, it's ~15 minutes, way less time you're hyper focused and locked tf in. Drop in with all the big orbital barrages, just absolutely delete the grid coordinate. Frequently side objectives seem to lean towards Stalker Dens and Shrieker Trees, and these can absolutely compromise the odds of escaping the mission with samples, or even securing the W itself.

Blitzes are also the missions that I'm able to call pelican early the least often on, at best I'm forced out of the area and the timer resets until timeout emergency evac. Since Blitzes are also significantly smaller maps than regular missions, I frequently don't even bother heading towards evac until pelican is already well on his way down, just sweeping up extra PoIs.
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Evacuate High Value Assets is a rough one, I recommend the Tesla Tower on the outsides of the forwardmost walls, picks off rank and file very well, eases some of the aggro off of you. I also recommend the Mounted HMG. That said, for the Solo Helldiver it's a losing battle that you will more frequently lose. After the first couple rockets Chargers are constantly springing up, which one shot walls they so much as look at, shift targets with extreme reluctance, meaning if it wants the generators, it takes a lot of convincing to get them on you. Throw in Bile Titans and Impalers competing for your AT equipment and/or stratagems, you're either going to burn out of respawns keeping the generators up, or you're going to lose the generators because you had just a pinch of self preservation. It's really just gambling for the run that's really light on picking chargers to spawn.
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Eradicates are similarly tough bargains, as the arenas are small enough without any choke points that you're always surrounded with extremely limited kiting capabilities. Which once there's an impaler and bile titan on the map, you're ability to have even inches of personal safety space is going to be basically impossible to maintain. With the right stratagems you can somewhat regularely wedge yourself that most of the swarm can't path too, and just rain hell every few minutes until you get it. But it's not reliable to pull off, and just isn't fun to attempt again and again.
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Extract High Priority Citizens is also arguably a Defensive Mission type, but you can flee the area and circle back unlike these others so it's not especially difficult to do.

I, LordlyLua, on behalf of all the crew of the SEAF Super Destroyer, Lord of Law, am excited to see more Helldivers maximize their destroyers.

I intend to update this guide in due time with more detailed Automaton Advice as well as tips for the new Illuminate front. Additionally, I hope to add feedback from other Solo Divers in the field to this guide.
Additional Tips/Tricks
Arguments for Alternative Recommendations
General Feedback
are all eagerly awaited.

May Democracy & Liberty Billow Your Capes.