Helldivers 2 has caught the attention of PlayStation 5 and PC players after a huge initial launch and positive reviews from critics and players. With the series coming back into the spotlight after nine years, you may be curious if the shooter is for you, especially if you are keen to play Helldivers 2 solo.

In case you haven’t seen any trailers for the game yet, it is pitched as a multiplayer co-op shooter where you and your friends join the ranks of the Helldivers to protect Super Earth from alien forces and creatures. Unfortunately, there isn’t any Helldivers 2 local co-op for you and a family member to play on your couch together. If you don’t have a large group of friends for online play you may be wondering if playing solo is still an option?

Can You Play Helldivers 2 Solo?¶

You can play Helldivers 2 solo and succeed when playing on lower difficulties. However, as soon as you start moving onto harder missions and the Challenging difficulty, completing missions solo becomes significantly harder. This is because there are more enemies, tougher objectives, and more boss-level bugs and robots to take down. The game doesn’t scale greatly either when playing solo, so the challenge isn’t too different from if you have four friends by your side.

If you are playing solo, you can always matchmake and pair up with random players in missions. On PS5 you will need PS Plus to play online, but on Steam you can matchmake without any issues. For a better breakdown of how to matchmake in Helldivers 2, you can check out our guide.

While you can complete some lower-level missions and operations alone, chances are you will still find things difficult. After several hours of completing missions solo, most of our successful extractions ended with no revives left. The sheer number of bugs and robots at any one time means it is hard to deal enough damage and keep yourself out of danger, especially when several dozen enemies are chasing you down.

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Even when playing on the lowest difficulty, you will face death often.

This does mean that some of the tougher challenges in the Galactic War will be out of reach if you want to remain a strictly solo player. However, unlocking weapons in Helldivers 2 and unlocking Stratagems in Helldivers 2 is still possible thanks to being able to earn medals and currency to buy the upgrades from the Warbonds and Ship Management menus.

It is possible that Arrowhead Game Studios will add more modifiers and options to be able to play harder missions alone down the line. However, given that the game’s central narrative is focused on everyone working together to protect Super Earth, it seems unlikely that this would be the case, to create a balanced experience overall.