For many players, the overarching Galactic War in Helldivers 2 can seem like background noise next to the immediate chaos of a mission. However, understanding how these large-scale campaigns work is key to maximizing your rewards and seeing how your actions contribute to the community’s efforts. This guide breaks down the system based on common player behavior and strategic outcomes.

How Does the Galactic War Work?

The Galactic War is the persistent, community-driven meta-game. The Helldivers community, as a whole, works to complete “Major Orders” issued by Super Earth High Command. These are planet-wide or sector-wide campaigns that last for a few days. Your individual contributions in missions—whether completing primary objectives, killing enemies, or extracting samples—add to a collective liberation percentage for a planet.

Once a planet’s liberation reaches 100%, it is secured for Managed Democracy. Conversely, if the enemy’s attack bar fills up, the planet falls. The outcomes of these campaigns are not predetermined; they are determined by whether the player base successfully completes the Major Order objectives within the time limit. Success usually rewards all participating players with Medals, the primary currency for unlocking stratagems and gear in the Warbond.

What Are Major Orders and How Should I Approach Them?

Major Orders are weekly (or bi-weekly) objectives that direct the community’s focus. They might task players with defending specific planets, liberating a key enemy factory world, or collecting a huge number of samples. From a practical standpoint, most players follow a simple logic: play on the planets that are part of the active Major Order.

There are two main reasons for this. First, success grants a hefty one-time Medal payout to everyone who played during that period, often 45-55 Medals. Second, missions on contested Major Order planets typically have a small, automatic bonus to requisition slips earned. You’re directly contributing to the war effort while also optimizing your own progression. It’s a cooperative effort; no single squad can win a Major Order alone, but consistent play across thousands of squads gets the job done.

How Do Community Choices Actually Play Out?

Sometimes, High Command presents the community with a strategic choice, like saving a strategic asset or rescuing civilians. These are fascinating social experiments. In general, the community tends to self-organize based on in-game incentives and the perceived narrative.

For instance, an order to “Save the Gas Mines or the Moderately Feeble Young Adults” might see the player base initially split. However, momentum usually builds behind one objective as players see its liberation percentage climbing faster, leading more to join that front to ensure a win and secure the reward. The “losing” planet often gets abandoned strategically. The outcome is a real-time vote with your hellpod, and the narrative adjusts accordingly. It’s wise to check the Galactic War map early in such an order to see where the bulk of players are deploying, as that’s usually where victory—and your Medals—will be found.

What Are Samples and Why Are They So Important?

Samples are a second, critical in-game currency found during missions. Common (green) and Rare (pink) samples are used to upgrade your ship modules, which provide powerful global buffs like reducing stratagem cooldowns or increasing explosion radius. This is separate from the Warbond progression.

Because ship upgrades significantly increase your squad’s power, collecting samples is a major long-term goal for most dedicated players. Major Orders that require sample collection, like “Collect Samples to Support Research of Gloom-Resistant Technology,” create a focused farming effort. During these periods, you’ll find that many squads on the designated planets will prioritize hunting sample nests and may even use specific loadouts geared for speed and survival to maximize sample extraction. It’s a great time to farm if you need to, as the collective goal aligns with personal progression. Some players looking to accelerate this grind might explore external options to buy helldivers 2 items, though it’s important to note this bypasses the core gameplay loop and carries risks.

How Do Events and Dispatches Affect My Gameplay?

The “Events” and “Dispatches” you see in the briefing are not just flavor text. They often signal temporary gameplay changes. An “ARSENAL AUGMENTATION” event usually means a powerful stratagem, like the Orbital Railcannon, is temporarily available to all players, even if they haven’t unlocked it. This is a perfect time to test high-level gear.

Dispatches like “STRATEGIC ADVISORY” provide genuine tactical advice for the Galactic War. A note stating that “liberating the originating planet ends the enemy attack immediately” is a direct tip from High Command on how to most efficiently complete the order. Paying attention to these can make your efforts more effective. Meanwhile, alerts about new enemy strains, like the “Predator Strain” Terminids, are warnings that mission difficulty on certain planets may be unpredictably higher.

Is the Narrative Story Real, and Does My Action Matter?

Yes, but on a collective scale. The ongoing story of the war against the Automatons, Terminids, and Illuminate is shaped by the community’s wins and losses. If players fail to defend a planet, the storyline acknowledges that loss, and the war front moves. Successful completion of Major Orders unlocks new narrative developments, enemy types, and sometimes even new gameplay mechanics or stratagems for everyone.

Your individual action matters as part of the whole. Playing on the Major Order fronts is the most direct way to participate. The feeling of logging in after a hard-fought campaign to see a “SUCCESS” screen and receiving a pile of Medals is the game’s way of thanking you for your service to the collective effort. It’s a unique system that makes your routine missions feel part of something much larger.