Helldivers 2 has most of its fun toys locked behind warbonds. If you just joined the game or came back from a hiatus to defend Super Earth, you’ve probably got a heap of locked warbonds to choose from. As a veteran player, this is the order I recommend unlocking them in, from best to worst.
1
Urban Legends
As of right now, I firmly believe that the Urban Legends warbond offers the most value. This is primarily due to the very strong effect of the armor sets included in the warbond, which is called “Siege Ready.” This passive allows you to reload any primary weapon 30% faster, and also increases ammo capacity for all weapons except backpack stratagems by 20%. This is really strong because it benefits pretty much every primary and secondary gun in the game. You can never go wrong with it.
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But there are lots of other great tools in this warbond as well. You can get an automatic flamethrower turret, an anti-tank emplacement, a directional shield that covers you from the direction you are aiming, and even the ability to turn your resupply pods into makeshift sentry turrets. There’s also a stun lance, and although melee is never meta in HD2, it’s still a lot of fun to use.
Basically, this warbond gives you a useful tool for almost every situation and enemy faction in the game, and the Siege Ready armor passive has long been considered one of, if not the strongest. The only downside of this warbond is that it doesn’t give you any new primary or secondary weapons, but the crazy buff it gives to all the weapons you do have is well worth it, especially now that you can combine it with the weapon modification system added to the game.
2
Democratic Detonation
The main draw of the Democratic Detonation warbond is the handful of primary and secondary weapons that completely change how you play the game. The Eruptor, a sniper rifle that fires exploding bullets, is so powerful that it can handle 90% of the game’s problems at a distance. The grenade pistol transforms your secondary slot from something you rarely use to an awesome utility item that can destroy any enemy spawner, letting you save your more specialized grenades.
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The exploding crossbow is not quite as powerful but gives the player a semi-automatic explosive option that can easily clear groups of enemies. Finally, there’s the thermite grenade, arguably the best grenade in the game: it sticks to enemies and burns for a time before exploding. It’s capable of killing almost every enemy with a single grenade, including hulks and chargers.
The armor you get from this warbond has an effect that reduces gun recoil when crouched and prone and two extra grenades. It’s very useful, though not the strongest armor passive. Ultimately, the main draw of this warbond is all the weapons, which are versatile enough to free up your grenade and support weapon slots in almost any scenario.
3
Polar Patriots
At this point, most of the warbonds are pretty good overall, offering worthwhile things that aren’t the absolute best, but still nice to have. Honestly, their positions could be switched around and it wouldn’t make too much of a difference. Polar Patriots is a fantastic pick for anyone because it expands your armor options quickly and easily.
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You see, most warbonds give you multiple armor sets that all have the same armor passive. But Polar Patriots gives you three sets of armor and each one has a different armor passive. This one warbond gives you access to Scout (easier to avoid detection by the enemy), Servo-Assisted (greater throwing range and limb health), and Fortified (less recoil and damage taken from explosions). This is awesome for new players who don’t have a lot of armor options yet.
Of course, the guns are pretty good too. Each weapon in Polar Patriots is a heavy-hitter that does high damage per shot, and the impact incendiary grenade is more powerful than ever with the recent improvements to burn damage. It served me extremely well while defending Super Earth!
4
The Steeled Veterans
Steeled Veterans is the very first premium warbond HD2 ever had, and it was always pretty good, but with some changes to game mechanics since it first released, it’s only gotten better.
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The main draw is the variety of weapons it offers. The Senator is a powerful revolver that can one-tap a lot of enemies with good aim. The Jar-5 Dominator is a hybrid assault rifle/marksman rifle with medium penetration and some of the highest damage per round in its class. There’s also an assault rifle with concussion rounds for staggering enemies, and an automatic incendiary shotgun, which has gotten much stronger thanks to recent burn damage buffs.
This warbond basically gives you a good weapon to fight every faction with, and the armor abilities will allow you to throw your stratagems and grenades much farther too. Finally, you get an incendiary grenade. It’s a very well-rounded warbond overall.
5
Servants of Freedom
There are only two things to care about in this warbond. A portable mini-nuke launcher and a portable hellbomb backpack. The double-edged laser rifle and the tracking grenade both have their uses, but the big explosions are the main reason you’d want to buy this warbond. Why? Well, that mini-nuke launcher and portable hellbomb give you a much easier way to destroy lots of secondary objectives on maps.
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Labs, nests, gunship spawners, strategem scramblers, mortar pits, you name it: you can shoot a nuke at it or run that nuke in yourself. It’s not like these tools are the only way to do this, but the ability to pull out your sidearm and blow away an entire secondary objective is pretty nice. Kamikaze hellbomb charges are also a huge meme, which is value all its own.
6
Masters of Ceremony
A week ago, I may have said that this warbond was one of the worst. But ever since the warbond’s armor got a huge buff, it’s become a pretty good pick. The armor in this warbond has a very strong passive: it reduces taken limb damage, increases the melee damage you deal, and increases primary weapon reload speed by 30%. This is good for any build, but pairs very well with the bayonet-armed, high-power, semi-auto Amendment rifle that is also in this warbond.
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You also get a saber to swing around, a surprisingly effective firecracker grenade, and of course, the One True Flag. It’s a flag you can poke things with. There’s also a sample scanner booster that gives you a chance to get double samples, which is pretty useful if you’re new to the game.
7
Borderline Justice
This cowboy-themed warbond is a great pick for pure aesthetic, but it’s a functionally niche choice. You do get a powerful lever-action rifle and the only semi-auto laser pistol in the game, both of which are pretty good. You also get a hover jetpack and literal dynamite, which have their uses. But the booster is pretty worthless (it gives large enemies a chance to drop common samples, which are already easy to get).
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The armor passive is not bad, but it’s super niche: it’s built entirely around sidearm usage, reducing their recoil and reload speed and increasing their draw speed. The bonuses are quite significant, but playing purely around sidearms is very limiting, making this a novel pick rather than a “good” one.
8
Truth Enforcers
I want Truth Enforces to be good, but it’s just mediocre. Its booster allows you to sprint beyond your stamina bar by draining your health instead. The armor just makes it so you don’t flinch when you get hit. The only genuinely good things here are the weapons. The warbond includes a pretty decent shotgun that has two fire modes and ammo types, and a plasma pistol that can charge up its shots just like its cousin from Halo.
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The real gem here though is the Reprimand, an SMG with medium armor penetration and high-damage. It used to be pretty bad due to its extreme recoil, but the new weapon modification system allows you to adjust this, making the Reprimand an extremely powerful primary that can take on all but the most heavily armored enemies.
9
Viper Commandos
This warbond has one very strong selling point, which is the Experimental Infusion booster. It increases your movement speed by 10% and reduces incoming damage by 90% whenever you use a stim, though it does increase your weapon sway by 25%. This is obviously pretty powerful if you combine it with armor that increases your number of held stims and their duration.
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But that’s kind of the only thing to care about here. All of the weapons, while useable, aren’t game-changing, and there are better alternatives to most of them. The throwing knives are almost literally worthless. Some people swear by the warbond’s armor passive, which improves weapon handling, but I personally believe there are more valuable options, and the new weapon modification system lets you improve weapon handling anyway.
10
Cutting Edge
This warbond has one strong point, which is the Sickle, an automatic laser rifle that’s one of the game’s best overall primaries. Everything else is pretty negligible. The other weapons fill a niche that barely exists in HD2, and the armor protects you from electrical damage, so it only protects you from one fairly rare Illuminate weapon and friendly fire from players using arc throwers or tesla towers.
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Unfortunately, there’s just very little reason to jump on this warbond unless you have no other options left to unlock. One pretty good primary isn’t enough to salvage an otherwise unremarkable selection and nearly worthless armor.
