Three Helldivers aiming their weapons in Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2: Does Its Difficulty Scale With Players?

Helldivers 2 can quickly overwhelm you if you’re not careful, but does its difficulty scale with the number of players in a given match?

Helldivers 2 has burst onto the scene with its frenetic blend of explosive action and tense squad-based multiplayer. As many have found out the hard way, things can ramp up pretty quickly. Some believe the game will throw more enemies at you when in a full squad instead of playing solo. Though it may not have difficulty scaling in the traditional sense, there are still many factors to consider when determining whether or not Helldivers 2’s difficulty scales with players. We dive into it below!

Does Helldivers 2 Scale With Players?

No, Helldivers 2’s difficulty does not scale with players. The enemy behavior and AI are the same across the board and their health pools are exactly the same regardless of how many players are in your squad. However, playing with others can make the experience more difficult in several ways.

Despite not having a more traditional difficulty scaling feature, Helldivers 2 can often feel more difficult while playing with more players for a number of reasons. Firstly, you will likely be spotted by scout enemies and patrols much more often, causing a higher frequency of enemies to be alerted to your location. With a full squad, more enemies will inevitably be aware of your presence, thus leading to more enemy encounters than when playing with fewer people. This can often feel like a spike in difficulty.

Group of four players shooting Terminids in Helldivers 2
Group of four players shooting Terminids in Helldivers 2

Thankfully, more players means more firepower at your disposal. Each Helldiver in your squad will bring powerful weaponry and devastating Stratagems to help retaliate against the oncoming alien onslaught. When coordinating and working together as a team, you can easily make short work of anything the game throws at you. Even at the game’s highest difficulty setting, Helldive, players can work together while taking advantage of meta builds to win most matches. You also have access to more Reinforcements while playing with more players. Because of this, it’s actually more beneficial to play the game in a full squad rather than playing solo.

That’s all you need to know about if more players affect difficulty scaling in Helldivers 2. For more guides like this one, check out our Guide Hub.