The Illuminate are back in Helldivers 2, and they’re deadlier than ever. In case you missed the news, they’ve brought a full invasion fleet through the Meridian Singularity, kicking off the new Galactic Emergency update and threatening Super Earth itself with horde upon horde of troops; along with the regular units players have gotten used to facing since the squids first began hit-and-run attacks late last year, they’ve begun fielding three additional enemy types as well.
As I write this, well over 100,000 Helldivers have deployed to Widow’s Harbor to meet the Illuminate threat head on and impede its advance as much as possible, and more are sure to join the fight in the evening after-work hours. Naturally, with how wide and deep Helldivers 2’s massive sandbox of weapons, armor sets, and stratagems is, many of those brave soldiers on the front are wondering what the best anti-Illuminate loadout to bring into the fray is.
After jumping into a few missions myself to test my usual preferred build against the bolstered alien menace, I’m happy to report that it’s just as effective as it’s always been — even if it’s undeniably insane and fairly risky to use, compared to safer setups. I’ll go over how the build works in detail, but first, here’s everything you’ll need for what I consider to be the best Illuminate loadout:
- Armor: Any w/ Inflammable Armor Passive
- Primary: LAS-17 Double-Edged Sickle
- Secondary: GP-31 Ultimatum OR P-72 Crisper
- Grenade: G-4 Gas
- Stratagems: Supply Pack, Grenade Launcher OR Commando OR Explosive Anti-Tank, Orbital Napalm Barrage
- Booster: Vitality Enhancement OR Experimental Infusion
The Illuminate, by and large, still fights as it always has: by trying to overwhelm you and the Helldivers at your side with overwhelming numbers of Voteless zombies, with more resilient Overseers and Harvesters attempting to pick you off from range and from above while the hordes keep you from getting comfortable in fortified cover. However, its new units — the Stingray, Crescent Overseer, and Fleshmob — all make adjusting to that pressure on the fly considerably harder than it used to be. The former two can flush you out of defensive positions with strafing runs and mortar-like energy blasts, respectively, while the grotesque and tanky Fleshmob does so by rushing you down with surprising speed and flailing its arms about, bowling over and knocking around anyone it hits.
With that in mind, the ideal loadout to use against the Illuminate is one with constant uptime of its maximum effectiveness, along with very high overall damage and ways to quickly and efficiently deal with key threats like Fleshmobs and Harvester walkers. And in my experience, there’s one weapon in the game that does that better than any other: the LAS-17 Double-Edged Sickle.
The fittingly named rifle comes from the recent Servants of Freedom Warbond, and is effectively a regular LAS-16 Sickle that can infinitely fire and ramps up to extremely high damage and armor penetration. The major tradeoff is that it also constantly hurts and eventually sets you on fire as you endlessly hold the trigger down, but that’s precisely what this build is designed to counteract. The Vitality Enhancement booster and Inflammable armor significantly reduce the self-damage of the Double-Edged Sickle to very manageable levels, while carrying around a Supply Pack means you can give yourself new healing stims as you need them — and you’re going to need a lot of them (you’ll be able to call in a new Supply Pack right about when your current one runs out of uses, in most cases).
Essentially, the very stupid, very fun, and very effective idea here is to constantly spray thousands of lethal laser rounds into the Illuminate hordes while keeping a close eye on your health and healing once you finally begin succumbing to the Double-Edged Sickle’s self-damage. Fully ramped up, this thing can cut down even the heaviest of units like Harvesters (aim for the bit between their legs and “head”) or Fleshmobs (go for the legs) with just a few seconds of sustained fire. It’ll also bore holes through Overseers like they’re nothing, and its excellent accuracy makes it great against the flying ones, too.
Indeed, the Double-Edged Sickle is truly an incredible weapon, and is at the heart of the build because of how versatile it is. It alone is often enough to handle most threats if you have the space and time to ramp up its heat levels, but if you don’t, you can use your gas grenades to disorient squid infantry and buy yourself time to mow them all down (this is particularly useful against Fleshmobs). Alternatively, you can pull out the Grenade Launcher for an easy and quick way to spam down a horde, and can call in an Orbital Napalm Barrage to soften up any large waves of reinforcements that get called in. Your fourth stratagem slot is a flex pick, and so use whatever you want.
As for your secondary, I like the Ultimatum as the ultimate “these things need to die” button, but the Crisper flamethrower pistol is also an exceptional choice against Fleshmobs that get too close. Fire damage got massively buffed against tanky enemies in the new patch since it now scales with their health, so don’t underestimate it.
The only weakness of this loadout is that it can’t engage the Illuminate’s Stingray close air support fighters, but generally, at least one of your three other squadmates will have a rocket launcher-style support weapon capable of doing so. And ultimately, if you really want to be able to take care of the fighters yourself, you can trade the Grenade Launcher for a Commando or Explosive Anti-Tank launcher.
As someone who has over 500 hours playing this game since its release last year, trust me: this build is nothing short of fantastic against the Illuminate, and excels even at the highest levels of Super Helldive play that my friends and I routinely grind. It’ll take getting used to, undoubtedly — both the self-damage, and all the constant screaming your Helldiver does as they immolate themselves for the cause — but once it clicks, you’ll consistently be the MVP on your team. Give it a chance, Helldivers.
Helldivers 2 stands tall as one of the best PC games and best PS5 games to play if you’re into co-op shooters, intense sci-fi action, goofy physics antics, and goofy satirical writing. It’s typically $40, though you can often get it for less if you shop around for discounts. Right now, the best one is CDKeys’ sale that shaves over $5 off the price, allowing you to get the bombastic title for under $35.
