Helldivers 2 director says the meta doesn't matter because guns have over 40 secret stats anyway: "Use the one you like most"

Mar. 1, 2024

“The numbers are a guideline,” not a hard ruling

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

In the face of ongoing conversations about which weapons are the best in the game, Helldivers 2’s director has advised players to just “use the one you like the most” because there are so many stats players can’t see anyhow.

Online games are nearly always the subject of ‘meta’ conversations nowadays, and Helldivers 2 is no exception. Players have been trying to deduce which weapon, armor build, and Stratagems are the best in the game, and in fact, the first category has been such a heated topic of debate that some high-level players will kick squad mates from a match if they’re not using the likes of the elite Breaker Shotgun.

At face value, Helldivers 2 presents you with the same four statistics for every weapon: damage, capacity, recoil, and fire rate. However, according to the tweet from game director Johan Pilestedt just below, there are about 50 individual statistics for every single gun in Helldivers 2 - the game just doesn’t display every stat for players to see.

As a result, Pilestedt tells players to just “use the one you like the most,” as the “numbers are a guideline but does not paint a complete picture.” It’s impossible to know what other statistics are factored into every weapon behind the scenes, but it’s very easy to say that they all feed back into the weapon itself in a meaningful way.

There are some players clamoring for Helldivers 2 to display all 50-odd weapon stats for every gun in the actual game itself. I’d say that’s sort of missing the point - Helldivers 2 doesn’t display every weapon stat because the devs just want players to have fun and use what makes them happy, which Pilestedt himself literally says in his tweet.

Not displaying every weapon stat in Helldivers 2 isn’t some accidentally oversight from Arrowhead Game Studios - it’s a very deliberate choice. So next time you think about raging against another player for not choosing the Breaker Shotgun, or the powerful Railgun Stratagem, maybe stop and think about the developer’s intentions. Also, chill out.

Helldivers 2’s first balance patch is coming soon, which should definitely help to address the Breaker Shotgun’s peak position.

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

Make sure to check out ourHelldivers 2 roadmap and future updatesfor a complete look ahead at what’s to come for the game.

“It seems we’ve missed the mark”: As their Steam review score drops to 14%, Dauntless devs wade into feedback after a disastrous update that gutted progress

How to complete the Indiana Jones Light Chamber puzzle

Get hundreds of hours of RPG goodness for $30 with this bundle of 8 games that includes the first two Baldur’s Gate games, which are absolutely worth playing