Congrats on making it past training and now one of super earths finest of elite forces!
This is Zeke the Gaming Potato and I'm here to educate you, and any other Newdivers from here onwards.
This is the first of many to come on "How to" By Zeke the Gaming Potato.

As a Helldiver you are sent by Super Earth to help liberate planets from the socialist Automations, tyrannical Terminid hordes, and the illuminate cult. But even on the trivial stages these foes do not show mercy, you are always a couple hits away from being another statistic in the second galactic war.

With only 5 reinforcements in your budget, you should make sure that every life delivers some sort of democracy to the enemy. whether in a blaze of glory with a Hellbomb on your back, or by helping with furthering the main objective, however do be sparingly with your mortality.

With that said, starting off from being freshly trained, you are equipped with the standard issue B-01 Tactical armour that comes with the extra padding passive (Which increases armour rating from 100>150), this medium armor practically becomes heavy armour without the downsides! (You won't however receive the 25% less damage that heavy armour receives, but you will get extra effective health 166.67hp>125hp, with vitally booster 185.19hp>158.73hp)





















You're also equipped with the AR-23 Liberator which is perfect for early game use as it comes with balanced handling, ammo capacity, and damage. it is light armour penetrating. You also equipped with the P-2 Peacemaker, it is also light armour penetrating, and does 85 damage. However it performs much worse than the Liberator and should only be used as a last resort.












These guns are perfect for the earlier difficulties, however they quickly become more and more obsolete the higher the difficulty gets. However keep in mind, that guns in Helldivers 2 are usually well balanced (other than the occasional weapon from a warbond, or super store, e.g Liberator Carbine cough cough), meaning that there is rarely a direct upgrade with weapons. The Liberator can still be used in Super Helldive difficulty, but won't perform as well. This is mainly due to the fact that enemies in Super Helldive will mostly comprise of lightly armoured enemies as cannon fodder, as well as the Medium armoured enemies being sprinkled in, and the occasional heavy armour, and tank armour enemy. This is all entirely up to what faction you select, as bugs (and the squids except the head armour of Overseers, Harvesters, Stingways, and Leviathans) can do just fine with the AR-23 Liberator albeit harder, compared to the mostly heavily armoured Automations, but we will get into more detail with the factions on the next section.

In Helldivers 2, Super Earth and its Democratic Territory is constantly barraged by several of its undemocratic enemy factions. This being the Automation's, the Terminid Horde, and the Illuminate Cult.
But you may ask, Which is the best faction to start off with? First we must explain what they are, and what type of enemy they are.


The Terminids are usually considered the "starter" faction, they mostly comprised of large insect creatures that usually use horde tactics. While one bug is not usually a threat once quickly dispatched, there are usually a lot more than one, and most of the smaller/medium bugs can release pheromones to call for backup, this results in a bug breach which contains a wave of scavengers, and then medium bugs, and even larger/heavy bugs on higher difficulties.
From personal experience i consider this faction to be the easiest, and best faction to start off with. most of the bugs are light armour meaning the starter weapons can easily dispatch them, however the hive guards first found on the easy difficulty will require medium penetrating weapons to kill from the front. However from the sides or back, they're light pen, so take advantage of that weakness.
Again, the Terminid faction is a "horde" so beware of getting surrounded by them, or otherwise suffer a cruel swift death.


The Illuminate are an advanced species of "intelligent" squid like creatures. These are the middle ground of starter factions. They use both horde and ranged attacks to try to dispatch you. They use the previously democratic Super earth colonists who have undergone illuminate mind control, in large hordes to try to surround, and brutalise you. However they are watched by Overseers that are stronger, and use ranged attacks with their staff, they can go down with enough firepower however their head has stronger armour with medium pen. but don't let their ranged attacks fool you, they will eventually try to close distance to unleash a devastating melee attack. So try to maintain distance at all times. These guys are a good pick for Newdivers since all of the normal enemies cannot call in reinforcements except the watchers, which are drones that appear with a blue light when passive, or a purple light when investigating. They are easily dispatched, but can be a nuisance hiding behind walls or hiding behind enemies. at first if previously undisturbed will look at you for a few seconds, then will stay stationary to release a beacon to call in illuminate ships, so try to dispatch them before this and make them a high priority target. however keep in mind, the reinforcement call will happen just before the visual beacons, so be wary of that.
Now being said, I like fighting the squids because they are a mixture of ranged and horde tactics, but they can be really, and i mean really annoying sometimes at the higher difficulties (Yes, I was looking at you Leviathans), so if you get to the higher difficulties, and value having fun. try to pick a operation without Leviathan blockade, it makes the game 10x more fun. (as of now, the leviathans got their well deserved nerf, but its honestly up to you if you want to use this infomation, I myself will now play against the leviathans)


The Automations are a primarily robotic force, that mainly fight using ranged attacks with small forces of melee fighters. These guys will try to close the gap, or shoot from afar with their energy weapons, they are usually not the best starter faction. this is because a large percentage of their units are medium penetration with very little light penetration weakspots. I recommend getting medium pen weapons before playing this faction. Another thing is that they are ragdoll central, so if you're not careful and a rogue rocket hits the ground near you. You will be most likely knocked onto the ground, and then you will role-play the victim. These guys are really fun to play against if you like gunplay, however these guys do not have a soul, and is directly spited by god himself, so beware that they will not spare you, and your family (same thing with these other factions). I also recommend getting better stratagems to help deal with the hulks.

The Terminid Horde:

• Good for players who enjoy horde enemies
  
• Good for early game weapons
  
• Will Gang-bang you if they get the chance

The Illuminate Cult:

• Good for players who like horde, and ranged enemies
  
• Most enemies are light armour with heavy armour appearing at higher difficulties
  
• Leviathans will make you miss having fun, and have you role-playing the victim on the ground (Formerly)
  
• the Fleshmobs and elevated Overseers are probably gonna still make you roleplay the victim

The Automations

• Good for players who enjoy gunplay and being shot at
  
• Starter weapons are not as viable at dispatched medium enemies
  
• You will not be spared when ragdolled

As an former New-diver, I recommend learning these tips and tricks to help further deliver liberty to the foe of Super Earth.

• Try to not "Call of duty" Reload, Reloading wastes an entire mag so try to use it all.
  
• Try to reload with a bullet in the magazine, this skips the bolting animation which can save approximately 15-20% of reloading time.
  
• Try to aim for headshots as this can either instakill most enemies, or cause them to start bleeding out, however with stronger enemies, try to aim for weakspots
  
• Go for the weakspots, most heavier armoured enemies have lighter armoured areas.
  
• Utilise first person view, this helps with accuracy and improves handling, and recoil with most guns.
  
• You can set firemode, firerate, scope magnification, and other settings by holding down the reload key, [R] when default.
  
• You can spin revolvers by holding down the reload key for long enough

• Dive a lot to dodge enemies attacks, and make them less likely to hit you
  
• Use stims when damaged, and out of stamina to recover both health, and gain temporarily unlimited stamina
  
• Sprint while using the jump-pack to gain even more distance than walking
  
• When an explosion/explosive is about to happen, prone to reduce explosion damage by 95%.
  
• While wearing democracy protects armour, prone while using the portable hellbomb to not get launched and die of impact damage instead.
  
• Proning/Diving extinguishes flames instantly

• Try to identify when a part of an objective is done by the noise it makes (Radar green zone beep, or oil wheels little beep as well)
  
• Try to not turn on the terminal unless doing it, this alerts enemies in a 100m radius, and insta-alerts them when you're seen.

• When Throwing Stratagems, throw at a 45 degree angle and dive to achieve a distance of 52m.
  
• Try to practice stratagem codes for easier use
  
• Learn how to throw a reinforcement, and other stratagems while diving.
  
• Make sure that ample distance is give for 380mm and 120mm barrages, these are really good for accidental team killing.
  
• Try to always have resupply on cooldown

I would like to say thank you for reading this guide, i hope this helps you do better as a Newdiver. However i have not included every tip, and trick available so try to learn your own little tips, and tricks over time with experience.

feel free to comment anymore tricks you would like others to know, as well as any misinformation found in this guide, anything false or misleading, or anything that is not completely truth, I will 100% try to make this guide as correct as possible.
As a gift I want to give this link to help New-divers practice their stratagems inputs, I personally recommend learning the reinforcement stratagem input
Stratagem Practice [helldiverstrainingmanual.com]

Final Note
I Always recommend checking the wiki for more detailed stats of weapons, armour, enemies, etc. But also for how the game systems works, particularly the damage system, the armour system, and the health system. However wiki.gg is made by fans for fans, the information on the site may contain inaccuracies so try experimenting on the field. Finally I'm myself am Still learning, so try to use this guide as an guideline, not as pure truth.

I have a YouTube channel that I'm planning on returning its former glory.
https://youtube.com/@zekethegamingpotato?si=0YJvcrtuz8umlWdc

Have a good day! for Super earth!

[Pending Approval from the Ministry of Truth]





sources:
Wiki for health[helldivers.wiki.gg]
Liberator gun stats[helldivers.wiki.gg]
How damage works[helldivers.wiki.gg]