Helldivers 2 loadout basics: how to build your first four-stratagem kit

The four slots and the four colours

Before a mission you choose up to four stratagems, and they arrive by calling in a code with the D-pad. They fall into four colour-coded groups. Offensive stratagems are red and split into Orbital Strikes, which have longer call-in times and cover a wider area, and Eagle Strikes, which land faster and give you several uses before a rearm cooldown.

Supply stratagems are blue and cover support weapons, backpacks and vehicles such as the FRV, the Exosuit and the Bastion tank. Defensive stratagems are green and include sentries, the automated turrets, and emplacements like minefields and mounted platforms. Mission stratagems are yellow and handle objective-specific tools and ship support.

A balanced starter loadout

The easiest way to not get overwhelmed is to make your four picks do four different jobs. Take one support weapon so you always have a heavier gun than your primary. Add one backpack that pairs with it or gives you utility. Bring one offensive strike, an Eagle option is forgiving for beginners because of its fast call-in and multiple charges, and finish with one defensive tool such as a sentry to hold a position or cover an extraction.

Resist the urge to stack four attack stratagems. A squad that spreads support, offence and defence across its four members clears objectives faster than four divers all throwing the same red beacon. Reinforcements are a shared squad resource, so throwing a reinforcement stratagem is how you bring a fallen teammate back into the fight.

Let the mission and the enemy shape the last slot. Heavier, armoured foes reward an anti-armour support weapon and an orbital or Eagle option that can crack them, while a defence or extraction objective is where a sentry earns its slot. If you are unsure, keep one flexible pick and change it between missions rather than forcing the same four every drop.

What Devoid of Liberty changed

The Devoid of Liberty update, patch 7.0 in August 2026, is the backdrop new players are dropping into. It raised the level cap from 150 to 300 and introduced SEAF reinforcements, medics armed with machine guns and explosives who support you during missions, treat wounded comrades and help storm outposts. The emote wheel also expanded from four to eight slots.

Several quality-of-life changes help beginners specifically. Assisted reloading was revamped, some reload times were cut, and a number of weapons and secondaries now carry noticeably more ammo. The Eagle Napalm airstrike was visually enhanced and now covers a larger area, and vehicles like the Exosuit react more realistically to enemy fire.

The latest fixes and how to read them

Patch 7.1.0 on 22 September 2026 folded in community feedback: enemies no longer target unoccupied vehicles, career stats now correctly track kills from mines, vehicles, drones and backpacks, and Arrowhead fixed a rare case where a diver could get stuck unable to be reinforced even after a teammate threw the stratagem. A follow-up hotfix, 7.1.1 on 24 September, resolved crashes when opening terminals and on superwide windows.

The practical takeaway is that loadout advice ages with the patch cycle. Ammo counts, call-in times and stratagem behaviour shift between updates, so treat the four-slot structure as the fixed rule and re-check specific numbers in-game. Checked 28 September 2026 against Arrowhead's official patch notes and the Helldivers wiki.