Booster Tier List for Helldivers 2 

honestly, I feel like the hp, ammo, and stamina boosters should have been ship modules to begin with. They're just universally good and are basically throwing if not picked.

maybe expert extract pilot could let you call it in anywhere, like he'll still land at the designated place and leave if no one's there, but it would be nice to call it while running back from finishing main obj

Localization confusion booster increases the cooldown time for bugs and bots to call in breaches and bit drops. There is essentially a timer between their ability to call in such, hence why they don't infinitely keep spawning. Its quite good on defense and civilian extract missions as it gives you extra breathing room. I wouldn't run it on normal missions though.

I was really excited for the motivational shocks but it occured to me that Alexus was the one in charge of balancing and wow did this disappoint

They should add a booster that makes the guns good.

Muscle Enhancement is imo the single most important booster on snow maps with blizzard. It is absolutely miserable not having this one in a blizzard. I really like it for bugs in general, the slows feel much more manageable with it.

What localization confusion ACTUALLY does, is increase the time in between reinforcement calls by 30 seconds. When a breech/bot drop happens, there is a global cooldown which means that enemies cannot call additional breeches until this cooldown is over. Often times, if your team isn't running optimal loadouts, you won't be able to kill everything before the next one is called, especially if a patrol comes in. This just gives you more time before the next call can be made. It doesn't affect patrols, or spawn rate in any way

A booster that raises your support weapons +1 armor pierce would be fun

The Icon animation in the top right is very S tier Your presentation quality is really good.

After 1 bot shoots a flare, a CD begins before any other flares can be shot, the Localization booster adds a small amount to this timer. This mechanic is why you don't see flares being shot constantly. Many people struggled against bots and often fell into reinforcement loops after the update that increased enemy spawns on Helldive, I think this is the reason why you find comments saying it's good vs bots. Personally it's my preferred 4th slot booster but I don't think it affects breaches/drop ships that spawn from mission objectives.

Dude I normally like your content but I could not disagree more on you rank of (Localization confusion). That is an auto pick for me unless someone else has it. Some other guy tested it and it cuts time between (breaches-drops) by like 23 seconds. 23 seconds before another breach or drop is an eternity on higher difficulties.

They’ve said they want to incentivize stratagem use so I’m wondering why there hasn’t been a booster that reduces stratagem cooldown

Buffs for reinforcement boosters: Increased reinforcement budget: Changed into new booster called "Last Stand" which activates once per mission when all helldivers are dead and no reinforcements remain. When activated, all players will be deployed in a safe part of the map with all strategem cooldowns refreshed. Flexible Reinforcement Budget: Inaddition to the lowered reinforce cooldown time, you also get to bank an extra regenerating reinforce per player (if have 4 players, your reinforcments will regenerate until you have 5 reinforcements banked instead of just the last reinforcement.)

Would be fun to have a hell pod upgrade that does fire, explosive or electrical damage when it lands.

Im pretty sure enemies have a set time before they can call in a new breach or drop. Localisation confusion increasses that time. S tier if you want to complete missions.

Mr Dough, I'd like to thank you for suggesting using creatine even if you don't work out in an old video for the benefits it can have on the brain and muscle fatigue. My partner is disabled and we have both started taking creatine daily and they have noticed an improvement in their tiredness and brainfog and also possibly a decrease to their pain (however it is too early to determine that). It has by no means fixed them but has helped and it was because of your suggestion so thank you.

Honestly all they gotta do to give muscle enhancement more utility is make it 100% effective during snowstorms and sandstorms. When you’re on the run and extremely slowed, especially in heavy armor, during a windy storm, the ability to negate that effect almost always pops into my head: “damn I wish I could resist this with a booster!” It’d become a niche but highly effective tool for certain planets

anybody bringing reinforcement buffs is putting up an immediate red flag for me to leave... cos its a declaration of 'i burn through reinforcements like a Russian commissar in stalingrad'

One disagreement. Singular and unos. Localization confusion seems to be godteir on defense extractions. I don't know if you've tested it against the 'dickhead' scripted targeted spawns, but it seems to delay them. This might be good for lesser geared players on tiny high-difficulty exterminations, but the tiny defense extracts also seem to be affected by them. Though, I don't do dough's degree of testing. Point is, localization seems to smack on tiny maps. Otherwise, flushed.

The vitality booster actually works more similar to armor. The Eravin has a video that goes into more detail

I always pick endurance boost because you are running all the time.

Really hope the boosters get some love soon, they're in desperate need of a rework so they all feel imactful.

Shock booster seems really inconsistent sometimes. Like the only things I can confirm it works with are Tremors and Bile Titan spit slows. Its extremely hard to tell if it works anywhere else.

im sure, the devs didn't put so much effort into testing those boosters as you did.

Motivational shocks should double the speed your character gets up from rag dolls on top of making all slow downs from ems, hunters, and bile a lot less punishing. Whenever I take damage from a Hunter I usually stim immediately which negates the slowdown anyway, there’s no reason to make it a little bit better. The reinforcement ones should be combined, and IMO should increase your reinforcements by the same amount, but make it so that your reinforcements start coming back after going under 6 charges. Most of my games are cleared well before we run out of lives, but this would be impactful for games with newer players so that it’s easier to come back from tough missions for them.

For the stamina booster, there is some research showing that it actually increases your speed a bit in medium and heavy armor. Not like it needed to be MORE S-tier but good to know about if you want to run something other than the very fastest armor.

Wouldn't mind seeing boosters in the future that increased aim punch recovery speed, reload speeds, or the speed at which you got up from the ground. They could make reinforcement budget just give a flat 5 additional reinforcements which would be more beneficial for solo/duo play and still be something for full groups. Flexible reinforcement could maybe start regenerating reinforcements when below a certain threshold instead of just when its at 0 remaining. Again both are too similar to each other to be all that meaningful in difference but it could still be a sort of safety blanket pick for players that expect high casualties for whatever reason.

muscle enhancement is very noticeable with a weather condition slows everything (like blizzards), you barely get slowed at all, and that together with the innate stealth bonus you get during said weather effects basically lets you speedrun objectives right under the enemy's noses.

How to fix F tiers: MS: Fix by reducing AOE effects as well. Ever been beamed by an EMS mortar or run into those blue plants? Put that on and mitigate or nullify that status effect. IRB: Make it so the timer starts when you reach 40% of lives instead of 0%. On a team of 4, you can reach 7 lives and then the timer starts to fill up back to eight. It makes it more relevant throughout the mission and will keep you floating for a bit longer, but you can still lose the mission if you're not careful because it is still on a timer. If you're on a team that reaches 10 lives, you're probably only getting a small buff out of it anyway because you blow through them so quickly. FRB: Make the timer shorter than what it is, but honestly this should just combine with IRB and be scrapped entirely. There is no way that extra 13 seconds while you're last alive and being chased by 3 flamethrower hulks and being sniped by rocket devastators from across the map will really make a difference. LC: This one seems pretty good honestly. I understand it as an increase in breach/drop call time, reducing encounter frequency. Make the description more clear as to what it does so people can plan around it accordingly.

Simple design philosophy I don't think we're seeing in booster design: Niche boosters should feel more powerful than versatile ones. Mission design also greatly impacts which boosters are useful. Muscle enhancement becomes amazing on blizzard+snow maps. Expert pilot becomes useful on longer call-in and especially the new mission (that lasted all of 4 days or whatever). In the same vein, if we had a hypothetical map/scenario where most players were in vehicles the entire game, there would be less reason to pick stamina and helldiver HP. I'm really hoping to see arrowhead use these secondary and tertiary design handles to tune the perception of booster balance alongside flatly buffing the stats of a few (looking at you motivational shocks...). Oh, and give us some way to strategize based on enemy squad composition. This is healthy for weapon balance too, but could encourage strategic use of future, niche boosters and underutilized stratagems.

The 3 must picks are S tier and the rest are just a flow chart, not really good or bad. We don't have the variety we'd need for "tiers." 1: Joining an in-progress mission really late and you know it? If yes, Expert Extraction Pilot. If no, go to next. 2: 12-15 minute mission type? If yes, Increased Reinforcement Budget. If no, go to next. 3: Snow planet? If yes, Muscle Enhancment. If no, go to next. 4: Fighting bugs? If yes, Motivational Shocks. If no, go to next. 5: Going for stealth alone? If yes, UAV Recon Booster. If no, Localization Confusion.

Ive resupplied a guy with the recoilless rifle and gave him all of his rockets I think if you already have the upgrade to fully supply support weapons you’re good

I swear localisation booster feels okay as a 4th for terminds, buut could also be a placebo of sorts

Simple upgrade to motivational shocks: the effect of all slowdowns is diminished by 50%, including your own EMS stratagems. Let bile spewer effect be those 3 seconds, but during them you are 50% less affected. Flexible reinforcement could be automatic reinforcement with extra lives, while Reinforcement budget should drop a free second pod nearby with a machine gun sentry or something.

I like you’re you’re upgrade ideas. They can even give req slips more use by making them the upgrade currency.

Localization confusion does increase the time between enemy summoned bot drops and breaches. It is C tier. But no, it does not become B or even A on defense missions. It does not impact the scripted spawns in those missions. Only the cooldown that limits the summoned ones (the flares and puking up into the air).

I love the muscle enhancement with the jet pakc

The localization confusion is actually good if your team is not a hardcore helldive divers It help them giving a breathing room because they can't handle a constant breach or drops. But on try hard squad they can deal with breaches or drops really quick or leave the area to despawn them.

Also, faster extraction gets more value the further into the mission you enter. (meaning it's more useful for when doing quickplay on the first mission you QP onto)

The Localization Confuser definitely works on cutting down patrols & reinforcements, but they are BOTH bugged as I noticed from the minute that update that "evened-out" the rate of them per player dropped. And now it's developer confirmed, so it will work again, once it is patched (which they said they would) and then it will work as intended, it is DEFINITELY not the worst by far.

Muscle enhancement affects more than hunters/titans, it reduces the stamina drain for climbing hills, going throw snow or swamps, and just generally moving across the map gets way easier. With muscle enhancement your stamina bar goes way further. If you take both of the stamina boosts your whole team will be going marathon style across the map and games get much quicker. I'd say it's at least A tier cause of how useful it is, although it is subtle. Also it makes heavy weapons not slog you down so much, so another teeny perk.

Some issue with Motivational Shocks: I believe it dramatically increases diving usefulness when slowed by bugs. With BT spit, it only takes 1 dive and it's gone instead of 2. Same with other slows as well. Localization Confusion increases the time between bug breaches/bot drops by about 30 seconds, increasing cooldown (on Helldive for bots) from 2:00 to 2:30. Pilot should be in F tier because why would I have NO BOOSTER AT ALL for 40 minutes instead of having at least muscle enhancement for the whole match? It's a trap booster for newbies with bad common sense.

Dough, Very timely making this list. Have you seen the new WB coming out next week? It sounds like AH has been paying attention. Increased movement speed when stimmed!

He put localization confusion on bottom tier because he is secretly an automaton and he does not want us to use it against him.

Localisation confusion, as far I know, increases time between how often the bugs/bots can call for a breach/bot drop. On level 9 it's most obvious, as the minimum time between available breaches or bot drops is like 2 minutes, and it adds another 30 seconds between breaches/drops or so. It also seems to affect just how frequently waves spawn on Eradication missions, making them slightly more managable. I've definitely felt the difference there, and actually having genuine "downtime" of no mobs alive on eradication because of this. Also the new "Helm's Deep" defense missions seems to be having a significant impact as well. It's not super vital to have, but good for those specific encounters. I'd bring it over Stamina on eradication and fortress defense, at the very least. Vitality and Space Optimization are MVP picks, though.

Localization Confusion - on helldive the timer between reinforcements from bots and bugs is 110 seconds, the booster gives and extra 30+seconds between each reinforcement, and if you think about it its adds up every time it works, in general making you have less bug breaches in general, its quite good, making you avoid infinite reinforcements and saving you time, ammo and energy on useless fights. Btw it gives you more time the lesser difficulty you play, and yes it doesnt work on scripted reinforcements from enemies. This perk is S tier, people just have to realise that fights dont reward you with anything and just waste your time, but ofc everybody plays the game how they like, its fine, just use whatever you like.

You missed the main attraction for muscle enhancement: it makes it way easier to go over small rocks. Without it, you always get stuck on them, but with the booster, you just run right over them. Always my pick.

Having motivational shocks has literally saved my fleshy rear more times than i can count. But i did not know muscle enhancement does it better so now i have something to test next time im on.

Localization confusion is GREAT for the defense missions like where you defend the nukes while they launch. It means there is more downtime between breaches/drops. It gives you more down time to make sure the team is ok.

The only time I have noticed the last one actually being effective is during the defense swarm missions. It seems to allow them to spawn breaches in a more controlled manner without being too insane.

Expert extraction should trigger extraction immediately upon completing the main objective, and have Pelican hang out flying circles and providing fire support until you actually get to the extraction. Have him stick around longer giving people more time to get in too. motivational shocks should be like a full blown hitboost, where any damage gives you like movement boosts or whatever other buffs it's supposed to do. radar isn't bad, but could use something to make it more attractive. The reinforcement ones are very meh. A better usage than a few extra respawns would be a free respawn that has it's own cooldown. So if your deaths are spaced far enough apart you essentially get infinite ones. Localization needs some very clear update on what it does exactly. Longer between patrols, reinforcement calls, maybe have them spawn further from players, SOMETHING measurable.

Did you add no boosters to A tier cause the S tier boosters are a tier above the rest or did you just do it to annoy the people that complained about the primary tier list ?

According to GameRant, Localization Confusion might affect one of two things (or maybe both, the article was a tad confusing): (1) the cooldown for enemy units to call in reinforcements - basically drops and breaches, and estimated around 35% longer cooldowns (2) the size of those reinforcements - like a 40% chance to reduce a 4-dropship bot drop to a 3-dropship one instead. Of course, the article also notes that it is difficult to tell if the booster has any effect at all. The way I see it, if there is no effect, it’s probably either bug related, or so behind the scenes that players can’t see the difference. Here’s my personal experience with it. I usually play diff 7 with randos, and I bring it along pretty consistently if someone doesn’t equip it first. Our missions are consistently successful, and we usually extract with all four players and reinforcements to spare. Does that mean that LoConf has anything to do with it? I don’t know. It may very well be that my teams have been wasting a booster, which fortunately has not proven detrimental to our missions. Though I normally would say that testing would be warranted, it seems that the extensive testing already done is inconsistent. Perhaps in the upcoming or a later patch, AH will adjust LoConf with a better description and more noticeable results.

My opinion is that they should give the bonuses from Vitality, Stamina and Hellpod Optimisation to the base helldiver so we get them always, then change Vitality to something that buffs stims (e.g. +2 stims or stims heal more), change hellpod optimisation to give bonus primary and secondary ammo and switch Stamina for another bonus like longer lasting stims or quicker recovery from knockdowns. This would bring all the boosters down to a similar level rather than having three standout boosters that you need to have and a bunch that you are actively harming the team if you take one of them instead.

They heavily need to rework most of the boosters and also make the descriptions of them a lot more informative. Like vitality needs to say increases health of limbs and head, expert extraction pilot needs to take AT LEAST half the time off the timer, and like you said in the video the two reinforcement boosters could be combined and buffed at the same time. Say they increase the extra reinforcements it gives you by 2-3 per player instead of 1 and reduces the time before you get one back by 45-60s. Also from what I understand the localization confusion increases the timer between patrol spawns it has nothing to do with breaches/drops. Like I said in the beginning it needs to be way more clear what these things do, it should definitely say increases time between patrol encounters or something at the very least. When I first read the description of motivational shocks I was so excited we finally had a tool to negate the slow effect and the I tried it out and didn’t even notice a difference. An entire team of 4 players can only equip 4 of these, therefore they need to be balanced as such it seems like they’re balancing them as if you’re able to bring more than 4 of them into one mission. If you could equip 2 boosters per player it would make more sense for them to be balanced the way they are but a lot of them are pretty pointless atm. Those are just my thoughts though

I think the 4th good one will wind up coming from the next warbond, with both a dmg reduction and speed boost? If it works, it will be worth rounding out the HP/Ammo/Stamina full group loadout.

Thoughts on viper commando warbond? Looks like the best one so far for me, not necessarily in terms of power but definitely in terms of theme

Muscle enhancement was tested. Hills don’t seem to matter or make a difference. The take away is that muscle enhancement helps with difficult terrain and motivational shocks helps to shorten de buffs. Both together work well added with stamina booster. Have to drop hellpod optimization so it’s a toss up.

They could add more boosters. Swim booster would be niche and nice. They have the animation, make it cost stamina and it won't be exploited. Friendly target: Turrets will do less damage to you. Rage booster: after taking 2 hits, increase damage by 20% or something silly. (you are not supposed to be taking damage so its a risk-reward) Calldown booster: Reduces the calldown of stratagems by x amount Democratic union: Damage increased by 5% for each nearby squadmate (30m radius) just some ideas

I know it's going to be a rough dive when I join a random lobby and nobody has picked the ammo booster.

note for stamina enhancement: different armors have different stamina totals and recharge times, and since the booster is percentage based, some armor benefits more than others. it's not a huge difference, but it's there.

I like the top right timers, very nice

Hellpod Space Optimization is a crutch as a booster, the trigger condition makes it less useful the less you're dying. It should be removed as a booster and added as a ship upgrade that affects each helldiver individually. I would take Muscle Enhancement over it any day of the week.

Hellpod Optimization if upgraded could allow you to land with your Support weapon.

Suggestions to fix F tier: Motivational shocks: instead of reducing duration of slow, have it so that it boosts speed instead so it counteracts the slow by a bit and have it linger for awhile after the slow has ended to give players a chance to escape. Also itll be nice if it makes ragdoll recovery faster, which will be handy against automatons Increased reinforcement budget: honestly its fine as it is. this booster i feel is made bad by design and teaches players to use boosters that actually prevent deaths than just adding more lives. Flexible reinforcement budget: 12 seconds is just painfully hillarious. Even if this is cut by 1minute it will still be a bad booster but a cut down to 30s seems more reasonable. But at least it would turn it from utterly useless to a bad noob trap Localization: nothing wrong with it. shit belongs in b tier at least

The problem is many of the boosters should be a single boost. Increased Re-enforcement should be both 1 extra life per person and a reduced cooldown on additional re-enforcements, muscle enhancements and motivational shocks should be one. These boosters would be like of Optomized packing was just stims and there was a second one that allowed for full ammo and grenades, or if Stamina only increased sprint duration and ignored recovery.

8:50 how about an upgrade that drop one resupply box on the back of your support weapon.

I quite like Motivational Shocks. Usually my preferred fourth option on Bug missions. I like running heavy armor 24/7, so having the luxury of not slowing down from a Hunter leap is amazing. Even better since I run Recoilless, meaning I have no shield gen on my back. Hunters are a pain with that loadout.

The stamina booster has less effect if u wear heavy or medium than it has on light, is still good but the effect is a bit less

Reinforcement booster is really good to bring on a mission with randoms, cause you never know if you’re gonna get that one teammate that drains 10+ of your lives. It is only good with 3&4 people though.

I think it would be cool to have a vehicle booster. Basic transportation vehicle, drops in with your squad at the beginning. Once it blows up then that’s it

Did they buff the weapons yet

Muscle enhancement doesnt effect running up hill or running in sand or snow. It does effect blizzards and sandstorm and mud though

My understanding is that the shocks ans muscle enhancement combo together well.

Nice tierlist. I agree with pretty much everything here. Still disagree about the grenade launcher from last time. I'd like to see if you would test the launcher again. Give it a second appeal? Works fine with stun and supply pack.

Vitality gives you a 20% damage reduction. This affects everything, including headshots and explosions. It's great.

dude where is full list screen

Stamina is the only one i use.. at level 8-9 vs bugs u have to run alot as a solo player... I also use the jump pack.

localization diffusion is great when you're playing with friends who can't kill shit as well so you have to carry on kills. Makes it less likely to be overrun by their bad decisionmaking and killing potential

Stamina enhancement supposedly increases your actual speed as well. More noticeable on Heavy armor then light supposedly but I’ve read and see tests done that seem to indicate medium armor moves about as fast as un enhanced light armor and heavy about as fast as unenhanced medium. Never bothered testing it personally but it does feel like you move slightly better with it across the board.

3:30 It is consistent, bile titan spew is an area of effect attack that inflicts slowdown Emp and frost flowers are area of effect OF slow down So it doesn't effect against area of effects that inflict slowdown, but it does against area attacks that inflict slow down

I think there is a noticeable difference for time between bug breaches and bot drops for localization confusion especially on defense missions you play enough that im genuinely shocked you haven’t noticed yet lol

Some strategems should function like an eagle, multiple uses and then reload. Precision Strike is a candidate for this. Your ship has 3 main cannons, so let us use the precision strike 3 times and then leaload the guns, because the reload now is wy too long

I laughed. The advertisement (brief) segment was smooth. Good information / sound opinion as always. You a 308 guy? :]

I love my UAV recon booster. It rocks for Solid Snake roleplay against bots.

stamina enhancement also makes you FASTER if you are wearing medium or heavy armour, IIRC!

When I match with randoms and someone picks one of the reinforcement boosters, that's usually a big red flag. That person is probably gonna have 8+ deaths on the endgame stats screen

Why do you put in gamepla from a completely different game?

Finally another ohdough video

I'm gonna say it: Muscle Enhancement is better than Stamina. It's much better for maneuvering and escaping danger, and if the extra stamina is enough to make a difference to a diver when it comes to survival, it's more likely the fault of the diver for not retreating/maneuvering correctly. Muscle will save you when going up slopes or through thick snow/sand, and will certainly keep you safer against hunters. I will die on this hill.

Okay, so, about stamina enhancement: it's effect is different based on your base armor values for stamina because it's percentage based, apparently. You were testing with light medic armor. On heavier armors, it helps a lot less. Bumps it down to A Tier for me.

AH really need to start adding passive traits to helmets and / and capes.

budg should honestly be in atleast C. it's not amazing, but it can be useful in some situations especially in the few tiers lower than helldive when people are still only like lvl 15 and constantly dying. its basically in the same boat as shocks and musc where its very specific in what its used in to have any real affect. budg increase has helped me in many cases when it comes to these tier 5-8 difficulties and low lvl people dying constantly

quickest sponsor advertisement ever. good job

would you rather have a 15% reduction in cooldown time for all stratagems booster. OR a 15% chance to not consume a stratagem when used booster I.E you could potentially use 3, 500KG before needing to resupply the bird.

Extraction Booster is really good when Achievement Hunting. When doing "Extract in a Blitz mission in less than 6 minutes" gives you an extra 10 seconds. An extra 5% leeway in that achievement is pretty huge and gives a massive margin for error.

I’d like a booster that lets you spawn with backpacks and support weapons.

From my experience Localization confusion is best on 8 or 9 difficulty. I know instead of like 4+ drop ships or 3 bug breach holes they are cut down to no more than 3 drop ships and 2 bug breaches. Also apparently it forces a delay on how much time between them being possible…. Some video indicated 52s between breaches or bot drops possible on Helldive. Also supposedly I saw it increases time for the tracking down patrol takes longer to locate you.

Haven't played this game for a month now. So few things are usable or satisfying.

Localized confusion is just there to confuse you in what it actually does. I mean, I get people say that it’s supposed to reduce spawns, but it doesn’t feel like it. In fact, sometimes it feels like you get more spawns instead of less.