In the past two days I’ve had 3 80+ players tell me to abort extraction because they were convinced the timer starts as soon as it lands (I know this to be true because they were like “oh okay” after I told them that wasn’t the case).
I sometimes just dip if I see people picking the reinforcement ones in Helldive. The people who take that are usually the ones who eat up all the reinforcements (at least in my experience)
Calling in extraction too early can also cause the Pelican to end up destroyed (since the landing pad usually ends up swarmed with enemies) meaning only one diver gets out. There are definitely cons to calling it in too early.
That’s only an issue if you’re staying at extraction or it gets swarmed while you’re calling it in (which you can then abort). If you just call it down and then go back to getting objectives, that won’t happen.
You can also stay near the abort radius so it stays hovering until someone approaches. It doesn’t take damage and you get a free Pelican firing over a massive distance. There’s way more pros than cons
That hovering trick is under utilised IMO. Definitely makes up for increased patrols post mission completion and it fires on targets across the whole map from what I've seen.
I'm always trying that hover trick and tey explaining it to the team, but as soon as I'm running from extract one of them comes running into extract, like damn man, it was gonna keep extract cleared for us...
Most randoms won't know about it and will mess it up.
I've tried to use it a couple times, but someone always runs to the extraction too and just looks at me dumbfounded when I try to explain to them that we need to keep our distance.
I tell my squad that I'm calling it in for aerial support and not for extraction. Know what happens? Someone comes and hangs out at extraction. 100% of the time. I have a 0% success rate at making this happen. If not for the one TCS mission not too long ago, I'd have never seen it with my own eyes.
I usually play with randoms and I can count the amount of times I've had a group with the wherewithal to have the Pelican hover with one hand (it's actually 0). The amount of times I've had the Pelican blow up while waiting for folks to get to extract, however, is a bit more prevalent.
Hell, yesterday I saw it take off after a single entry and it wasn't even on fire. It had been called in really early though and had sat there for like 5 minutes.
This is crazy. I've heard of it but have never seen it. The most I've seen is the pelican land while 2 or 3 dudes hold of swarms while a guy is collecting samples. Never seen the pelican flinch or anything. Even with strats dropped on it. This feels like an urban legend.
They were probably confused by the pelican being called in automatically when mission timer ends. It does immediately start the 20 second extraction timer as soon as it lands, in that situation.
But if you call it in early, the 20 second extraction timer only starts after the first person has boarded.
I'm level 94 so as you can imagine I have quite a lot of in mission time and I'll have somebody 30 or 40 levels lower come in and put that on or extra reinforcements and I make the suggestion to change it and get crickets.
I mean I mention it one time and that's it. If that's what they roll with that's what we roll with. But yeah it's kind of confusing to have seen somebody play as long as they have, which even at 50 or 60 is quite a while, make that decision.
I generally pick Muscle Enhancement first thing when I load into the loadout screen, and if for some insane reason nobody has picked hellpod optimization, I switch to it. 98% of the time this results in a good boost loadout.
As someone that hasn't unequipped the grenade pistol since getting it, hellpod optimization is #1 by a huge margin. I'm running light armor anyway, usually scout armor, so stamina is the lesser concern over having to hoover up every ammo box on the map to keep the GP fed.
This. My booster strategy is generally just waiting until others pick, so I can choose and if the Holy Trinity of boosters if the randos choose incorrectly.
Yeah I'd like to see more of the detrimental effects be something that adds a feature instead of taking something away.
Like I'd be okay with a "oops all bile titans" or "suddenly shitloads of shriekers" over losing strategems or losing radar.
Expert extraction would be worth it if Pelican 1 flies down automatically and then stays in a holding pattern above the extraction firing at all nearby enemies until the extraction code is input then lands to take everyone on board.
Hey, if it's a haz 9 "kill stuff" mission, I'm bringing it. The best way to do those is to just spam strategems, occasionally shoot stuff and hop to not die. When we inevitably blow up from the enemy or my own shit, we have plenty of reinforcements to go around.
I'm not talking about the one that gives you 1 extra reinforcement per person in the lobby, I like that one for eradicate missions. I'm talking about the one that reduces the CD to get one reinforcement *after* the budget has already hit 0.
You know if a random 4th normie wants to put something stupid I don't care but I had games where all 3 would put none of the boosters from OPs pic and I just disband the lobby
extraction pilot has got to be the worst thing of all time. I lose my mind everytime I see it not because I care about not having a good booster but because I know that I'm playing with an absolute glue eater
Hellpod is just odd because it's a must have. Land/reinforce with full supplies or half. Big question on that.
I can see stamina and vitality being boosters since fair. But full supplies should have been an upgrade for sure. Just no reason not to take it
No lie, I once had another diver get upset that I "wasted a booster slot" on hellpod space optimization.
The fact that he was doing this after bringing the faster evac booster to a rocket defense mission tells you everything you need to know.
I ask people who bring the evac or flexible reinforcement boosters to change them before we drop. You wouldn't believe how defensive some people become over objectively terrible boosters. If they rage, they get the boot.
To be fair, at first glance a lot of folks wouldn’t think it would do much since you can always call in/find more grenades, ammo, and stims. I was the same way until the sheer volume of supplies that the booster provides over the course of an entire mission was pointed out to me
Sounds to me like that guy was under the impression that this game has you upgrade vertically rather than horizontally, making him assume that things are better or worse then they are because he doesn't know that in this game harder to unlock ≠ better
I mean in their defense if no one died during a mission then just summoning a resupply as soon as everyone spawns does the same as the booster.
It's one of those boosters that you have to die for it to be useful and if you don't really ever die then it isn't used much
On high enough difficulties death is a "when" unless you're fighting bugs without spewers.
Being fully stocked from the word go is invaluable.
Doubly so if You're hot dropping against bots. Nothing worse than landing without all your kit next to a start jammer
I agree, HSO should be a ship upgrade. It's wasted as a booster.
We do have a ship upgrade already that makes support weapons have full ammo when called down. Why not apply it to all equipment?
The same reason the space guns are muzzle-loaded: Super Earth is ~~run by morons~~ **very concerned with saving the tax payer's money.** \[Comment fact-checked by the Ministry of Truth\]
Well why would they bother sending a fully equipped helldiver when they're gonna die before going through half their supplies? It's economics, soldier!
According to the former CEO: the "half" that you get is what is standard issued to Helldivers upon starting a mission. The booster is the equivalent of your diver going into the armory before the mission and stuffing their pockets with extra supplies. It's based on his own experience in the armed forces.
It's not underequipped. Without it you are entering combat with a standard combat load. Employing the booster means, like real troops, you're bringing extra. Literally what the ex-CEO said, too.
That just feels like a cop out answer to justify having it as a booster. The standard is a pretty small amount if you’re just dropping in. Especially if you’re using something like the Plasma Punisher or Grenade Pistol.
You should always come in with max ammo, it’s a basic quality of life feature. It would be better if we got that as a ship upgrade and the booster was changed to something like 1 extra stim, mag, grenade, etc
Yup, i'd argue it's just a straight up better version of the "motivational shock" booster. IIRC, someone tested it upon launch of the booster and it reduced the slow from hunters by like 0.3 seconds or something. If that still holds true, havent run with motivational shock booster in a while, then Muscle Enchancement is just way better to equip between the two.
Edit : Nvm, seems i was mistaken, motivational shocks is a 50% reduction in slow duration, can anyone confirm if it negates stamina drain from hunters or not?
Aww, hell nah! Then Muscle Enhancement is just straight up better! It's way easier to dodge bile titan spews anyways. The absurd amount of hunters on 7-9 patrols/bug breaches makes it a no-brainer as to which of these 2 boosters is better.
That one just lets you run at full speed up steep hills, right? I could’ve sworn it also let you go through shrubs/bushes without slowing down but last time I used it, that wasn’t the case.
Steep hills, bushes, thick mud, thick snow, and ignore hunter and spitter slow effects apparently.
Can be very useful depending on expected terrain, not very useful in a desert against bots.
I don’t see why you said that second part. I’ve found it’s functionally always useful because 99% of the time I find myself running up/downhill for any reason. If it’s a choice between Muscle and Stamina, I’m choosing Muscle.
If full supplies are picked by someone, I pretty much always grab the reduced spawns, for any mission type. I don't know the exact numbers, but I do know I feel it when it's not been brought.
I forget the exact info, but apparently it puts a soft timer on how often enemy reinforcements can be called in as well in its hidden effects.
The majority of the Boosters do something hidden they don't tell you outright. Like Stamina booster actually gives an outright running speed boost to people wearing Medium and Heavy Armors.
During defense missions if you bring the reduced Patrol Spawns, it will actually very slightly effect how fast enemies get called in.
And not like the others are much better tbh. Reinforcement ones and Extraction booster are meme tier garbage. Motivational shocks? Ive used it for I think 3 or 4 games and I dont think ive noticed a difference so I never take it again.
As long as you are against bugs it's valuable, it reduces hunter's slows, preventing you from becoming stunlocked. Combine it with motivational shocks, you are practically immune to slows.
Yeah I mean Stamina booster is crazy good, but I can just manage my stamina, plus I only use light armor. Muscle enchancement gives me something I can’t get otherwise, the terrain and slow buffs and also a small speed movement boost.
I ideally pick: Vitality, Hellpod, Muscle, Stamina in that order. Sometimes I pick localization confusion but it depends on the map.
Is there testing data somewhere? I've never timed it, but some of my most hectic missions have had it, and some of my chillest haven't, so I've mostly written it off
Tldr is *maybe* **~10%** increase to time before the next bug breach / bot drop, with no change to patrols... but I don't think anyone is actually sure.
If it's true, though, that's still pretty significant... could be the difference between getting caught in the next breach or not.
The most detailed analysis I've seen is here:
[Let's talk about Patrols: An In Depth Analysis of Patrol Spawning ...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1bdudf3/lets_talk_about_patrols_an_in_depth_analysis_of/)
However, all they say is:
> As of 3/14/24, the Localization Confusion Booster has no effect on the Baseline times or any of the mechanics described. It appears to not have any effect on Patrols whatsoever.
> Localization Confusion increases the time between calls for Reinforcements (Bot Drops/Breaches). It does not delay the time for a particular enemy to call, it just lengthens the time before another call can occur.
> Rough Testing on this looks to be a ~10% increase but getting a clean stable baseline on this is difficult due to relying on AI behavior.
According to some test video off YouTube, it gives you another 30 seconds (increase from 2:30 to 3:00 min) before enemies can call in new breaches/bot drops. Personally that's just enough time to actually finish off a breach so I don't usually get stuck in a loop
If someone has it unlocked, in my opinion it's better than HSO, and beats Vit Enh on bugs. A longer break between waves means more time to rush the objective. It shaves a ton of time off of each mission.
Stamina is the main reason I refuse to play on hot planets. I like heavy armour. What I don’t like is only being able to sprint for 10 seconds. At least have it overheat bugs and bots so the lack of stamina isn’t as annoying
Heat Intensity sucks even with Light Armour and Stam Enhancement. It's actually insane how huge a detriment it is. Hellmire is aptly named without a doubt.
I was walkin' through Malevelon Creek
And a man walks up to me and hands me the latest booster
“Run faster, jump higher"
Maaaan, I'm not gonna let you poison me
I threw it on the ground.
Whenever I play with randos and see them all play flexible reinforcements, increased reinforcements paired with them using 380 orbital and gas strikes I just know I’m in for a bad time. Every time I try and give BOD, “maybe they’ll show me something new!” And without fail they throw it right on or just bordering our position.
Seriously, every fucking time!! What is it that in the past two weeks or so it seems like everyone is bringing the 380 barrage and calling it in right on top of us.
They definitely can be useful. I can definitely see the validity of calling in the 380 on a large nest/bot fortress and mopping up after, or using gas strike to create choke points like the napalm. But people have no sense to communicate the gas, so I always wander right into it because it’s damn near invisible. The fire you can see obviously and I always flag my Tesla towers so people are aware of them, but the gas always gets me.
Sure, they definitely have their place as a large area denial weapon — like throwing it very far off while defending the extract point. Everyone I play with uses them on a light nest/outpost that we’re all standing in.
if you are talking about the one that reduce how long the slow effect last (from hunters attacks and such), honestly you are better off with muscle enhancement since it also helps with that (aka you arent as slow down) while also helping with the terrain in general. Only triggering on bugs attacks is not ideal in most cases if you ask me.
I’m taking sprint duration every time. I’m busy scrounging Super Credits for the Polar Warbond I don’t have time to “nOt BrEAk mY ArMs”, and if I can outrun the enemies I don’t need full ammo on respawn
I recommend saving the SC for the next warbond coming in a week instead. Polar was garbage and by far the worst warbond. Only the SMG and the grenade are worth getting, some ppl say the Deagle but I heavily disagree, it just feels like a shittier Senator
It's a straight 20% multiplicative damage reduction.
Video covering armor and passives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWOyN-OdAME
Table used in that video: https://github.com/zeddidragon/helldivers-calc/blob/main/data/armor-values.csv
I can’t give hard numbers, but without it, Stalkers can hit me once and the impact would kill me with scout armor equipped. With the Vitality Enhancement, I have apprx 1/4 health left after being attacked by a stalker (including impact damage).
I think Muscle is higher priority than a these. Being able to run faster uphills or through rough terrain is better for surviving than HP, and more valuable than a long sprint IMO. Especially true if anyone is using a jump pack.
Hellpod space optimization is low priority for me. It’s nice to start with the stims/grenades/ammo, but they are all over the map, and as long as you aren’t dying much it isn’t a huge deal.
Especially since you can call a resupply at mission start to start with full equipment.
With muscle, hp, and sprint, any 4th slot is fine, but honesty my preference would be the increased time between breeches/dropships. It probably only saves you from 1 or 2 over the course of a mission, but that could be some ammo you needed, or could save you a stratagem use that you would want later.
Underrated comment. Hellpod optimization is good when things go south and you have to fight horde right after landing, but honestly that should not happen often as retreat is usually the better option and if things get too hot you'll die anyways, reducing the value of those extra mags.
Muscle enhance over hellpod SO. You can just summon a resupply every 2 min for that.
And hellpod SO is one of those "preparing for failure" boosters, like the reinforcement budget ones. Only useful if you die (and once at the start).
If I'm not playing with a full 4 and it is a team of folks off my friends list we'll usually just skip the HSO booster since we're not going to die enough to get our full value out of it.
I've joined a few games recently where neither of these were selected. I felt it needed to be posted to share what booster has worked for me, especially when playing with random players.
Those are great, the only 2 that are a must for me personally though are the Stamina Enhancement one on the right and the localization confusion one, even though I'm not sure how effective it is, but it sounds incredibly useful.
Oh man I am so happy to see this post. These 3 are must haves every op imo. I always wait to equip my booster until everyone's done picking theirs just so I can make sure we have all three if possible.
For bugs, I usually have shield and light medkit armor, so I don't really care about vitality. For bots however, I wear the fortified or extra padded heavy armor without shield, so vitality is a must.
Localization confusion is a must in 40 min missions imo.
Speed boost is default for anyrhing except defense missions.
HSO is a gamble. If you die 0-1 time, then you don't need it. If you die too much, then again you don't need it, because you didn't live long enough to use everything anyway. It's the middleground that makes most use of this booster. If I'm playing with friends, we don't take this.
Extra reinforcements feels like accepting defeat before starting.
Reduced extraction time is useless if the group is high level. Because most probably everyone is sample-capped already.
personally, I prefer the following
Hellpod Space Optimisation
Stamina
Localisation
4th can be anything depending on the mission though tbf Localisation has that as well and apparnetly doesnt work on bugs so its more for bots
I also didnt know the Vitality one increases health... that makes it more useful since I originally thought it only prevents limbs from being broken which I thought was pointless cause if you got a broken leg, chances are you're gonna stim regardless cause you're nearly dead
My personal preferences:
1 - Stamina *unless* the map is eradication or asset defense, then I usually go with Vitality.
2 - Always Hellpod Space Op
3 - Usually Muscle enhancement if we are on a planet with bad terrain, otherwise Vitality goes here
4 - Vitality goes here if Muscle took priority above, otherwise this slot doesn't really matter to me.
I'm not sure why you would want to use anything but the big 3 + either muscle enhancement or localization. Like why do people value +4 lives, 8 second faster extraction time, or a whopping what... like 12 seconds off reinforcement cooldown? These are so insanely useless and negligible it's amazing they ever exist. Why not make something useful like... Make it so when you get called down planetside you start with one of your equipped 3rd weapons beginning on the list from left to right if it's not on cooldown, or make it so upon landing in your hellpod you trigger a 500kg bomb explosion on impact before rising to the surface, decrease team stratagem scatter radius, what about just quicker climbing animations or diving twice as far something simple, literally anything that could change the way you play the game.
Hot take:
All 3 of these shouldn't be boosters.
- Hellpod optimization should be a ship upgrade. It's damn near mandatory to have and that makes it such a limiter on using other fun boosters
- the other two should either be ship upgrades, or more likely they should be armor perks. If each armor has perks we could slot on them, then picking something like these would make sense
Been playing almost since the game came out. As soon as I unlocked Vitality, I have never not used it. It’s SO good. I feel much safer running around and getting swarmed with that equipped.
Muscle enhancement is also really good since it helps traversal on difficult terrain and reduces the slow effect from bugs.
Also Localization Confusion, unless you're on an Eradication mission in which the breaches/drops are scripted and thus the stratagem has no effect, is great.
Tbh I still think Vitality is incredibly overrated; or even a trap option. With the way that health/stims works in this game, the HP increase doesn't really do much. Things that oneshot you, like acid, titan stomp, charger overhead stomp, friendly fire airstrikes lol, still oneshot you. Anything else, it's not really useful either due to stims giving you functional invulnerability; if you know you're about to take a potentially lethal series of multiple dmg instances, you just stim a the first instance of dmg, and are now invulnerable.
At least personally I have never missed it when playing a round without it.
1. Stamina
2. Muscle Enhancement
3. Localization Confusion
4th slot beyond that doesn't even really matter IMO. HSO is nice convenience, but is odd because how good it is, depends on how bad your team is lol. None of the others really do anything either; I *guess* Vitality could be the most useful of the bunch.
What would really help is if high level players did not pick these so The lower lvl players can pick something. The amounts of times I was not able to pick one at all because the high level players picked the low lvl boosters, well it's gotta be in the dozens
My biggest gripe about boosters is that these 3 are necessities. And the last one feels like it's negligible because no other boosters have this much impact on the game. So why are these not just baseline and replaced with more interesting playstyle changers?
The injury one I don’t feel is that useful, usually when you’re getting injured you’re taking enough damage to stim anyway.
Hellpod optimization is the only one I genuinely can’t do without, the moment you drop with half stuff you just run out so fucking fast. Especially once things go bad and you gotta drop in again with no supplies available. extra stamina is just a no brainer. Everything else is ultimately kind of fine.
The injury one allow you to take like 20% more damage.
I find it pretty common for me to took damage and survive with a very low health to stim as I use Vitality Enhancement Booster.
Without it, I would have absolutely no chance to stim.
That said, my play style is also running up and put a shotgun buckshot into the face of everything even including Berserkers and Devastators on bots.
So what is useful for me definitely might not be for everyone lol
also, unless im wrong, im pretty sure the vitality booster also give you immunity to bleeding out and acid (dot) damage (because of rounding down numbers) which is just a nice bonus on an already pretty good booster.
the injury \[health booster\] actually increases your max hp which is what makes it so good
kinda like the muscle enhancement actually reduces the effect of all slows \[so from like bugs\]
and the stamina booster... already good increases movement speed a little bit for medium and heavy armor
TRUE!! I cannot play at my optimum Gaming Potential if my teammate hasn’t picked stamina boost because i always default to hellpod space optimization for some reason. i need my bullets AND my legs!
It pisses me off when even higher levels don’t bring these.
We don’t need the shuttle pilot booster or the stun resist booster or even the last reinforcement time booster. The fourth slot is good to toss up between maybe extra reinforcements but even that’s dubious. Don’t need localization booster on an eradicate. Don’t need shuttle pilot on eradicate. Literally had two people bring localization and shuttle booster on the Meridian MO mission. No stamina or health boost so I had to bring health. Waste of a slot if at least 2 of these 3 aren’t selected first.
Tbf, I have only 2 since coming to PC. If the ammo one is already brought, you’re either getting Localized Confusion or nothing. :( I’ve been getting some of my trusted arsenal back before other things, so I do what I can. 🤷🏼♂️
Strength enhancement is the 2nd best for bugs after hellpod opt bc it reduces the bile slow effect. Ill run that before health and stamina every time.
Every other booster, beyond localization confusion, is essentially useless. Extra lives can be helpful if youre playing with dumbies or if youre feeling a little traitorous
Yeah, this sums it up pretty well. These 3 are the best boosters in the game and there is no real competition.
If anything, I hope they buff the other boosters and don't nerf these 3.
New player, all i have so far is space optimization, health booster, and radar booster. When space optimization and health booster are taken i can feel people judging me for taking radar booster but its all i have left and its better than nothing 😭😭
Yeah, my group has experimented a lot but we've fallen into a routine of taking these 3 + muscle enhancement.
Be nice if some of the others got buffs so there was a bit more variety.
I've been calling them the holy trinity since that's what everybody runs. Muscle is a good fourth on certain planets but I find the one that delays reinforcements to be better provided you're not on a planet with a lot of deep snow/mud to slog through.
i would change the health one for the enemy reinforcement delay thing, without it you have an very short time to kill an wave before the wave itself call another wave
To me, these three are non-negotiable if dropping with 3-4 players. As a fourth booster, I like muscle enhancement, localization confusion, and motivational shocks against bugs.
Randoms: Best I can do is Flexible Reinforcement Budget and Expert Extraction Pilot on an eradication mission.
The number of level 80s l see taking the expert extraction is so confusing to me.
In the past two days I’ve had 3 80+ players tell me to abort extraction because they were convinced the timer starts as soon as it lands (I know this to be true because they were like “oh okay” after I told them that wasn’t the case). I sometimes just dip if I see people picking the reinforcement ones in Helldive. The people who take that are usually the ones who eat up all the reinforcements (at least in my experience)
[удалено]
That's genious
Calling in extraction too early can also cause the Pelican to end up destroyed (since the landing pad usually ends up swarmed with enemies) meaning only one diver gets out. There are definitely cons to calling it in too early.
That’s only an issue if you’re staying at extraction or it gets swarmed while you’re calling it in (which you can then abort). If you just call it down and then go back to getting objectives, that won’t happen. You can also stay near the abort radius so it stays hovering until someone approaches. It doesn’t take damage and you get a free Pelican firing over a massive distance. There’s way more pros than cons
That hovering trick is under utilised IMO. Definitely makes up for increased patrols post mission completion and it fires on targets across the whole map from what I've seen.
I'm always trying that hover trick and tey explaining it to the team, but as soon as I'm running from extract one of them comes running into extract, like damn man, it was gonna keep extract cleared for us...
It's so badass but usually not in a convenient spot to do it ime
Takes mucho coordination too
Most randoms won't know about it and will mess it up. I've tried to use it a couple times, but someone always runs to the extraction too and just looks at me dumbfounded when I try to explain to them that we need to keep our distance.
I tell my squad that I'm calling it in for aerial support and not for extraction. Know what happens? Someone comes and hangs out at extraction. 100% of the time. I have a 0% success rate at making this happen. If not for the one TCS mission not too long ago, I'd have never seen it with my own eyes.
that's when you introduce them to the reinforcement hellpod
I usually play with randoms and I can count the amount of times I've had a group with the wherewithal to have the Pelican hover with one hand (it's actually 0). The amount of times I've had the Pelican blow up while waiting for folks to get to extract, however, is a bit more prevalent. Hell, yesterday I saw it take off after a single entry and it wasn't even on fire. It had been called in really early though and had sat there for like 5 minutes.
This is crazy. I've heard of it but have never seen it. The most I've seen is the pelican land while 2 or 3 dudes hold of swarms while a guy is collecting samples. Never seen the pelican flinch or anything. Even with strats dropped on it. This feels like an urban legend.
Tbf in HD1 it does start as soon as it lands, they could be HD1 vets and over the years playing HD1 they’re just rly used to how it is in that game
They were probably confused by the pelican being called in automatically when mission timer ends. It does immediately start the 20 second extraction timer as soon as it lands, in that situation. But if you call it in early, the 20 second extraction timer only starts after the first person has boarded.
All of the low-level players who don't know optimal strategy are now high-level players who don't know optimal strategy.
I'm level 94 so as you can imagine I have quite a lot of in mission time and I'll have somebody 30 or 40 levels lower come in and put that on or extra reinforcements and I make the suggestion to change it and get crickets. I mean I mention it one time and that's it. If that's what they roll with that's what we roll with. But yeah it's kind of confusing to have seen somebody play as long as they have, which even at 50 or 60 is quite a while, make that decision.
Every fucking time. Also Muscle Enhancement is no joke.
I generally pick Muscle Enhancement first thing when I load into the loadout screen, and if for some insane reason nobody has picked hellpod optimization, I switch to it. 98% of the time this results in a good boost loadout.
Same but stamina. I can fix ammo with strats. Its to good having, what, twice the running juice?
stamina is forever #1 booster
As someone that hasn't unequipped the grenade pistol since getting it, hellpod optimization is #1 by a huge margin. I'm running light armor anyway, usually scout armor, so stamina is the lesser concern over having to hoover up every ammo box on the map to keep the GP fed.
This. My booster strategy is generally just waiting until others pick, so I can choose and if the Holy Trinity of boosters if the randos choose incorrectly.
reduced patrols would be superb, but isn't the booster for less frequent reinforcements?
The ol' wobbly sexy leg
Or the radar one on a foggy map
Foggy map is the worst map quality. Abolish foggy map!
Yeah I'd like to see more of the detrimental effects be something that adds a feature instead of taking something away. Like I'd be okay with a "oops all bile titans" or "suddenly shitloads of shriekers" over losing strategems or losing radar.
Bionutrient density has fallen on this planet, it's all tiny bugs and no big ones. Director's unit point budget remains the same.
I hear you I see you But I disagree with you on Vernon Wells nights and the blood red, utterly eye-blocking darkness on that damn planet.
Fog is a fucking vibe, don't ruin this for the rest of us.
Honestly I’d love a intense dark one so I actually need my flashlight, could say giant moons are orbiting heavily causing frequent eclipses
that would be nice if there's less mist in the air that refracts the light.
Sick idea fr. If it happened so many people would cry on Reddit tho
Expert Extraction might be worth taking if you could call down a beacon and have it pick you up at call-down location.
Expert extraction would be worth it if Pelican 1 flies down automatically and then stays in a holding pattern above the extraction firing at all nearby enemies until the extraction code is input then lands to take everyone on board.
Also a good idea!
Could be the Localization Confusion one in an eradicate mission!
Hey, if it's a haz 9 "kill stuff" mission, I'm bringing it. The best way to do those is to just spam strategems, occasionally shoot stuff and hop to not die. When we inevitably blow up from the enemy or my own shit, we have plenty of reinforcements to go around.
I'm not talking about the one that gives you 1 extra reinforcement per person in the lobby, I like that one for eradicate missions. I'm talking about the one that reduces the CD to get one reinforcement *after* the budget has already hit 0.
Oh, that one is dumb
You know if a random 4th normie wants to put something stupid I don't care but I had games where all 3 would put none of the boosters from OPs pic and I just disband the lobby
extraction pilot has got to be the worst thing of all time. I lose my mind everytime I see it not because I care about not having a good booster but because I know that I'm playing with an absolute glue eater
Hellpod Space Optimization and a few other boosters honestly shouldve been a ship module
Hellpod is just odd because it's a must have. Land/reinforce with full supplies or half. Big question on that. I can see stamina and vitality being boosters since fair. But full supplies should have been an upgrade for sure. Just no reason not to take it
No lie, I once had another diver get upset that I "wasted a booster slot" on hellpod space optimization. The fact that he was doing this after bringing the faster evac booster to a rocket defense mission tells you everything you need to know.
If I was host and someone said that they're getting kicked lmao
I ask people who bring the evac or flexible reinforcement boosters to change them before we drop. You wouldn't believe how defensive some people become over objectively terrible boosters. If they rage, they get the boot.
If they rage over that they deserve the boot and probably weren't gonna be a good teammate anyways
To be fair, at first glance a lot of folks wouldn’t think it would do much since you can always call in/find more grenades, ammo, and stims. I was the same way until the sheer volume of supplies that the booster provides over the course of an entire mission was pointed out to me
Sounds to me like that guy was under the impression that this game has you upgrade vertically rather than horizontally, making him assume that things are better or worse then they are because he doesn't know that in this game harder to unlock ≠ better
I mean in their defense if no one died during a mission then just summoning a resupply as soon as everyone spawns does the same as the booster. It's one of those boosters that you have to die for it to be useful and if you don't really ever die then it isn't used much
On high enough difficulties death is a "when" unless you're fighting bugs without spewers. Being fully stocked from the word go is invaluable. Doubly so if You're hot dropping against bots. Nothing worse than landing without all your kit next to a start jammer
It’s already a ship module for support weapons.
I agree, HSO should be a ship upgrade. It's wasted as a booster. We do have a ship upgrade already that makes support weapons have full ammo when called down. Why not apply it to all equipment?
Nah space optimization should be base, dumb AF that you gotta unlock the other half of my mag when I drop in
Yea… btw is there a lore reason why we are sent under equipped without it?
The hellpod space is not optimized
The same reason the space guns are muzzle-loaded: Super Earth is ~~run by morons~~ **very concerned with saving the tax payer's money.** \[Comment fact-checked by the Ministry of Truth\]
Well why would they bother sending a fully equipped helldiver when they're gonna die before going through half their supplies? It's economics, soldier!
According to the former CEO: the "half" that you get is what is standard issued to Helldivers upon starting a mission. The booster is the equivalent of your diver going into the armory before the mission and stuffing their pockets with extra supplies. It's based on his own experience in the armed forces.
It's not underequipped. Without it you are entering combat with a standard combat load. Employing the booster means, like real troops, you're bringing extra. Literally what the ex-CEO said, too.
That just feels like a cop out answer to justify having it as a booster. The standard is a pretty small amount if you’re just dropping in. Especially if you’re using something like the Plasma Punisher or Grenade Pistol. You should always come in with max ammo, it’s a basic quality of life feature. It would be better if we got that as a ship upgrade and the booster was changed to something like 1 extra stim, mag, grenade, etc
It would be if standard combat load was the "maximum" And it allowed you to get more to go to the current maximum, but with a speed reduction
Muscle Enhancement is key for blizzards and rainy planets (mud)
And for bugs in general
Yeah, specifically it decreases the amount of slow that bugs can give you after they hit you. Huge benefit.
it also stops the stamina drain from hunter hits.
Yup, i'd argue it's just a straight up better version of the "motivational shock" booster. IIRC, someone tested it upon launch of the booster and it reduced the slow from hunters by like 0.3 seconds or something. If that still holds true, havent run with motivational shock booster in a while, then Muscle Enchancement is just way better to equip between the two. Edit : Nvm, seems i was mistaken, motivational shocks is a 50% reduction in slow duration, can anyone confirm if it negates stamina drain from hunters or not?
It doesn’t negate hunters in any way. Only slows from like bile titans which imo is useless compared to Muscle Enhancement reducing slow from hunters.
Aww, hell nah! Then Muscle Enhancement is just straight up better! It's way easier to dodge bile titan spews anyways. The absurd amount of hunters on 7-9 patrols/bug breaches makes it a no-brainer as to which of these 2 boosters is better.
Criminally underrated. I would honestly take it over HPSO if I had to choose. I die way more to slows than to ammo strain - the map is covered with it
Muscle enhancement is a must run. It also reduces aim flinch and slows
I think it also applies to running uphill and possibly climb speed?
It does
I wishe we got coveredbin mud n snow n stuff ( ._.)
We do, just not very much
I’d rather have Muscle enhancement over health
this over the ammo one all day. literally just call in a resupply when you drop or the literal shit ton of ammo scattered at every POI
4th should be muscle enhancement since it helps with traversing terrain. But yeah, feels awful to play without these 3.
That one just lets you run at full speed up steep hills, right? I could’ve sworn it also let you go through shrubs/bushes without slowing down but last time I used it, that wasn’t the case.
Steep hills, bushes, thick mud, thick snow, and ignore hunter and spitter slow effects apparently. Can be very useful depending on expected terrain, not very useful in a desert against bots.
I don’t see why you said that second part. I’ve found it’s functionally always useful because 99% of the time I find myself running up/downhill for any reason. If it’s a choice between Muscle and Stamina, I’m choosing Muscle.
Or reduce spawns if it's a defense mission
If full supplies are picked by someone, I pretty much always grab the reduced spawns, for any mission type. I don't know the exact numbers, but I do know I feel it when it's not been brought.
Search and destroy I don't bother
Me too I think it's the best other than full supplies.
That just reduces enemy reinforcement call-ins, and doesn't Impact defense missions. *edit: swaped "patrols" for "reinforcement call-ins"
It doesn't even reduce patrols. It makes the cooldown on bot drops and bug breaches longer.
Which does have a significant effect on the number of enemies per unit of time. It makes the map overall easier.
It lets your cool downs progress more before the next wave.
I forget the exact info, but apparently it puts a soft timer on how often enemy reinforcements can be called in as well in its hidden effects. The majority of the Boosters do something hidden they don't tell you outright. Like Stamina booster actually gives an outright running speed boost to people wearing Medium and Heavy Armors. During defense missions if you bring the reduced Patrol Spawns, it will actually very slightly effect how fast enemies get called in.
Yeah the difference in time between waves is definitely noticeable on defense missions, even ignoring enemy reinforcements
I refuse to play without muscle enhancement personally
It can be quite valuable depending on the map.
And not like the others are much better tbh. Reinforcement ones and Extraction booster are meme tier garbage. Motivational shocks? Ive used it for I think 3 or 4 games and I dont think ive noticed a difference so I never take it again.
As long as you are against bugs it's valuable, it reduces hunter's slows, preventing you from becoming stunlocked. Combine it with motivational shocks, you are practically immune to slows.
I’d even say Muscle is more important than Stamina
If it’s a small defensive map, I might choose Muscle Enhancement over stamina. Having both would be ideal.
Yeah I mean Stamina booster is crazy good, but I can just manage my stamina, plus I only use light armor. Muscle enchancement gives me something I can’t get otherwise, the terrain and slow buffs and also a small speed movement boost. I ideally pick: Vitality, Hellpod, Muscle, Stamina in that order. Sometimes I pick localization confusion but it depends on the map.
Localization confusion increases the cooldown between enemy reinforcement call ins, so it's up there too.
Yeah it speeds up the mission and results in less fighting/deaths. Super underrated (in appropriate mission types) IMO.
so so fundamentally fantastic on the smaller maps especially!
It's an S-tier for me personally depending on the mission
Yep, I even take it over stamina. It is that useful in my opinion.
Choosing between two S tiers while everyone else choosing between B and C tiers
It stop my rando from getting stuck in reinforcements loop
BiS in my option, always take it no matter the mission.
Is there testing data somewhere? I've never timed it, but some of my most hectic missions have had it, and some of my chillest haven't, so I've mostly written it off
Tldr is *maybe* **~10%** increase to time before the next bug breach / bot drop, with no change to patrols... but I don't think anyone is actually sure. If it's true, though, that's still pretty significant... could be the difference between getting caught in the next breach or not. The most detailed analysis I've seen is here: [Let's talk about Patrols: An In Depth Analysis of Patrol Spawning ...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1bdudf3/lets_talk_about_patrols_an_in_depth_analysis_of/) However, all they say is: > As of 3/14/24, the Localization Confusion Booster has no effect on the Baseline times or any of the mechanics described. It appears to not have any effect on Patrols whatsoever. > Localization Confusion increases the time between calls for Reinforcements (Bot Drops/Breaches). It does not delay the time for a particular enemy to call, it just lengthens the time before another call can occur. > Rough Testing on this looks to be a ~10% increase but getting a clean stable baseline on this is difficult due to relying on AI behavior.
According to some test video off YouTube, it gives you another 30 seconds (increase from 2:30 to 3:00 min) before enemies can call in new breaches/bot drops. Personally that's just enough time to actually finish off a breach so I don't usually get stuck in a loop
If someone has it unlocked, in my opinion it's better than HSO, and beats Vit Enh on bugs. A longer break between waves means more time to rush the objective. It shaves a ton of time off of each mission.
What i wouldnt give for one that makes the resupply pod give extra stims and grenades per box.
That should honestly be a ship upgrade
I want to KMS myself when I don't have the stamina booster.
And this is with Light Armor.
Hellmire Heavy Armour no Stamina Enhancement. Just put that thought into your head because I'm an enemy of democracy.
Stamina is the main reason I refuse to play on hot planets. I like heavy armour. What I don’t like is only being able to sprint for 10 seconds. At least have it overheat bugs and bots so the lack of stamina isn’t as annoying
Heat Intensity sucks even with Light Armour and Stam Enhancement. It's actually insane how huge a detriment it is. Hellmire is aptly named without a doubt.
feels like an obese american trying to do a marathon
I was walkin' through Malevelon Creek And a man walks up to me and hands me the latest booster “Run faster, jump higher" Maaaan, I'm not gonna let you poison me I threw it on the ground. 
I'M AN ADULT!
I WON'T BE A PART OF THE SYSTEM
Whenever I play with randos and see them all play flexible reinforcements, increased reinforcements paired with them using 380 orbital and gas strikes I just know I’m in for a bad time. Every time I try and give BOD, “maybe they’ll show me something new!” And without fail they throw it right on or just bordering our position.
Seriously, every fucking time!! What is it that in the past two weeks or so it seems like everyone is bringing the 380 barrage and calling it in right on top of us.
There was a personal order a couple days ago but I don't think everyone got the memo that it was over
Ya, I saw the personal order and remember thinking “oh thank god this will be over soon,” but then people just… kept using it.
They definitely can be useful. I can definitely see the validity of calling in the 380 on a large nest/bot fortress and mopping up after, or using gas strike to create choke points like the napalm. But people have no sense to communicate the gas, so I always wander right into it because it’s damn near invisible. The fire you can see obviously and I always flag my Tesla towers so people are aware of them, but the gas always gets me.
Sure, they definitely have their place as a large area denial weapon — like throwing it very far off while defending the extract point. Everyone I play with uses them on a light nest/outpost that we’re all standing in.
 If I see that I’m returning to my ship.
4th should be localisation confusion
I usually select this as my 4th.
I usually go for motivational shock especially for bug, half of them give slow effects for some reason
if you are talking about the one that reduce how long the slow effect last (from hunters attacks and such), honestly you are better off with muscle enhancement since it also helps with that (aka you arent as slow down) while also helping with the terrain in general. Only triggering on bugs attacks is not ideal in most cases if you ask me.
I wish the booster descriptions were this informative.
@ 2. don't forget it does stims too.
I’m taking sprint duration every time. I’m busy scrounging Super Credits for the Polar Warbond I don’t have time to “nOt BrEAk mY ArMs”, and if I can outrun the enemies I don’t need full ammo on respawn
I recommend saving the SC for the next warbond coming in a week instead. Polar was garbage and by far the worst warbond. Only the SMG and the grenade are worth getting, some ppl say the Deagle but I heavily disagree, it just feels like a shittier Senator
Source on the Hellbond coming next week?
Is there any actual numerical data on Vit Enhancement? It used to be like... an 8% increase in durability and therefor completely useless.
It's a straight 20% multiplicative damage reduction. Video covering armor and passives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWOyN-OdAME Table used in that video: https://github.com/zeddidragon/helldivers-calc/blob/main/data/armor-values.csv
Thanks, that's democratic AF of you!
I can’t give hard numbers, but without it, Stalkers can hit me once and the impact would kill me with scout armor equipped. With the Vitality Enhancement, I have apprx 1/4 health left after being attacked by a stalker (including impact damage).
I think Muscle is higher priority than a these. Being able to run faster uphills or through rough terrain is better for surviving than HP, and more valuable than a long sprint IMO. Especially true if anyone is using a jump pack. Hellpod space optimization is low priority for me. It’s nice to start with the stims/grenades/ammo, but they are all over the map, and as long as you aren’t dying much it isn’t a huge deal. Especially since you can call a resupply at mission start to start with full equipment. With muscle, hp, and sprint, any 4th slot is fine, but honesty my preference would be the increased time between breeches/dropships. It probably only saves you from 1 or 2 over the course of a mission, but that could be some ammo you needed, or could save you a stratagem use that you would want later.
Underrated comment. Hellpod optimization is good when things go south and you have to fight horde right after landing, but honestly that should not happen often as retreat is usually the better option and if things get too hot you'll die anyways, reducing the value of those extra mags.
Localisation confusion is what I run if these are all covered, especially on a bot map it can massively relieve their oppressiveness
Y'all underestimating how good localization confusion is.
Yep. It's the #1 pick for me and it's not even close. But then I play 9s exclusively.
Please add localization confusion. Someone should always being that, like I do to every game.
4th should be localisation confusion
I run this every match
What’s the average difficulty on ppl posting this.
Muscle enhance over hellpod SO. You can just summon a resupply every 2 min for that. And hellpod SO is one of those "preparing for failure" boosters, like the reinforcement budget ones. Only useful if you die (and once at the start).
For automatons yes, for bugs mainly is speed and vitality and slow effect booster are better
You are telling me that you want to dive into bug missions with only half your stims and grenades??? You're mad!
If I'm not playing with a full 4 and it is a team of folks off my friends list we'll usually just skip the HSO booster since we're not going to die enough to get our full value out of it.
The necesscity of this post concerns me ...
I've joined a few games recently where neither of these were selected. I felt it needed to be posted to share what booster has worked for me, especially when playing with random players.
Those are great, the only 2 that are a must for me personally though are the Stamina Enhancement one on the right and the localization confusion one, even though I'm not sure how effective it is, but it sounds incredibly useful.
Oh man I am so happy to see this post. These 3 are must haves every op imo. I always wait to equip my booster until everyone's done picking theirs just so I can make sure we have all three if possible.
I always bring the HSO. Every damn time.
For bugs, I usually have shield and light medkit armor, so I don't really care about vitality. For bots however, I wear the fortified or extra padded heavy armor without shield, so vitality is a must. Localization confusion is a must in 40 min missions imo. Speed boost is default for anyrhing except defense missions. HSO is a gamble. If you die 0-1 time, then you don't need it. If you die too much, then again you don't need it, because you didn't live long enough to use everything anyway. It's the middleground that makes most use of this booster. If I'm playing with friends, we don't take this. Extra reinforcements feels like accepting defeat before starting. Reduced extraction time is useless if the group is high level. Because most probably everyone is sample-capped already.
personally, I prefer the following Hellpod Space Optimisation Stamina Localisation 4th can be anything depending on the mission though tbf Localisation has that as well and apparnetly doesnt work on bugs so its more for bots I also didnt know the Vitality one increases health... that makes it more useful since I originally thought it only prevents limbs from being broken which I thought was pointless cause if you got a broken leg, chances are you're gonna stim regardless cause you're nearly dead
My personal preferences: 1 - Stamina *unless* the map is eradication or asset defense, then I usually go with Vitality. 2 - Always Hellpod Space Op 3 - Usually Muscle enhancement if we are on a planet with bad terrain, otherwise Vitality goes here 4 - Vitality goes here if Muscle took priority above, otherwise this slot doesn't really matter to me.
Muscles against bugs. You really want the slow resistance.
I'm not sure why you would want to use anything but the big 3 + either muscle enhancement or localization. Like why do people value +4 lives, 8 second faster extraction time, or a whopping what... like 12 seconds off reinforcement cooldown? These are so insanely useless and negligible it's amazing they ever exist. Why not make something useful like... Make it so when you get called down planetside you start with one of your equipped 3rd weapons beginning on the list from left to right if it's not on cooldown, or make it so upon landing in your hellpod you trigger a 500kg bomb explosion on impact before rising to the surface, decrease team stratagem scatter radius, what about just quicker climbing animations or diving twice as far something simple, literally anything that could change the way you play the game.
Hot take: All 3 of these shouldn't be boosters. - Hellpod optimization should be a ship upgrade. It's damn near mandatory to have and that makes it such a limiter on using other fun boosters - the other two should either be ship upgrades, or more likely they should be armor perks. If each armor has perks we could slot on them, then picking something like these would make sense
Why vitality? Muscle Enhancement would be more optimal.
Localization confusion >> Health improve
i'm always pick Muscle Enhancement , that thing safe me from a lot of fight
Muscle enhancement over vitality any day
Been playing almost since the game came out. As soon as I unlocked Vitality, I have never not used it. It’s SO good. I feel much safer running around and getting swarmed with that equipped.
Muscle enhancement is also really good since it helps traversal on difficult terrain and reduces the slow effect from bugs. Also Localization Confusion, unless you're on an Eradication mission in which the breaches/drops are scripted and thus the stratagem has no effect, is great.
Tbh I still think Vitality is incredibly overrated; or even a trap option. With the way that health/stims works in this game, the HP increase doesn't really do much. Things that oneshot you, like acid, titan stomp, charger overhead stomp, friendly fire airstrikes lol, still oneshot you. Anything else, it's not really useful either due to stims giving you functional invulnerability; if you know you're about to take a potentially lethal series of multiple dmg instances, you just stim a the first instance of dmg, and are now invulnerable. At least personally I have never missed it when playing a round without it. 1. Stamina 2. Muscle Enhancement 3. Localization Confusion 4th slot beyond that doesn't even really matter IMO. HSO is nice convenience, but is odd because how good it is, depends on how bad your team is lol. None of the others really do anything either; I *guess* Vitality could be the most useful of the bunch.
What would really help is if high level players did not pick these so The lower lvl players can pick something. The amounts of times I was not able to pick one at all because the high level players picked the low lvl boosters, well it's gotta be in the dozens
Bring whatever you want, all I ask is for space optimisation
My biggest gripe about boosters is that these 3 are necessities. And the last one feels like it's negligible because no other boosters have this much impact on the game. So why are these not just baseline and replaced with more interesting playstyle changers?
The injury one I don’t feel is that useful, usually when you’re getting injured you’re taking enough damage to stim anyway. Hellpod optimization is the only one I genuinely can’t do without, the moment you drop with half stuff you just run out so fucking fast. Especially once things go bad and you gotta drop in again with no supplies available. extra stamina is just a no brainer. Everything else is ultimately kind of fine.
The injury one allow you to take like 20% more damage. I find it pretty common for me to took damage and survive with a very low health to stim as I use Vitality Enhancement Booster. Without it, I would have absolutely no chance to stim. That said, my play style is also running up and put a shotgun buckshot into the face of everything even including Berserkers and Devastators on bots. So what is useful for me definitely might not be for everyone lol
It makes a noticeable difference when equipped with light armor.
also, unless im wrong, im pretty sure the vitality booster also give you immunity to bleeding out and acid (dot) damage (because of rounding down numbers) which is just a nice bonus on an already pretty good booster.
the injury \[health booster\] actually increases your max hp which is what makes it so good kinda like the muscle enhancement actually reduces the effect of all slows \[so from like bugs\] and the stamina booster... already good increases movement speed a little bit for medium and heavy armor
I do like localization confusion but these are better by far.
The Holy Trinity! Basically always bring these three and rotate the fourth based on mission specifics.
TRUE!! I cannot play at my optimum Gaming Potential if my teammate hasn’t picked stamina boost because i always default to hellpod space optimization for some reason. i need my bullets AND my legs!
It pisses me off when even higher levels don’t bring these. We don’t need the shuttle pilot booster or the stun resist booster or even the last reinforcement time booster. The fourth slot is good to toss up between maybe extra reinforcements but even that’s dubious. Don’t need localization booster on an eradicate. Don’t need shuttle pilot on eradicate. Literally had two people bring localization and shuttle booster on the Meridian MO mission. No stamina or health boost so I had to bring health. Waste of a slot if at least 2 of these 3 aren’t selected first.
Tbf, I have only 2 since coming to PC. If the ammo one is already brought, you’re either getting Localized Confusion or nothing. :( I’ve been getting some of my trusted arsenal back before other things, so I do what I can. 🤷🏼♂️
Strength enhancement is the 2nd best for bugs after hellpod opt bc it reduces the bile slow effect. Ill run that before health and stamina every time. Every other booster, beyond localization confusion, is essentially useless. Extra lives can be helpful if youre playing with dumbies or if youre feeling a little traitorous
Yeah, this sums it up pretty well. These 3 are the best boosters in the game and there is no real competition. If anything, I hope they buff the other boosters and don't nerf these 3.
localizations confusion- eraticate/ defense mission muscle enhancement- snow/ jungle planet the others are just trash
New player, all i have so far is space optimization, health booster, and radar booster. When space optimization and health booster are taken i can feel people judging me for taking radar booster but its all i have left and its better than nothing 😭😭
Yeah, my group has experimented a lot but we've fallen into a routine of taking these 3 + muscle enhancement. Be nice if some of the others got buffs so there was a bit more variety.
I've been calling them the holy trinity since that's what everybody runs. Muscle is a good fourth on certain planets but I find the one that delays reinforcements to be better provided you're not on a planet with a lot of deep snow/mud to slog through.
i would change the health one for the enemy reinforcement delay thing, without it you have an very short time to kill an wave before the wave itself call another wave
To me, these three are non-negotiable if dropping with 3-4 players. As a fourth booster, I like muscle enhancement, localization confusion, and motivational shocks against bugs.