Fancy a challenge?
Helldivers 2 is quickly becoming one of the most successful titles of 2024, having overtaken even Palworld on the Steam top sellers list.
Its unexpected surge of players has caused a few issues, but we’re hoping these will be ironed out soon. Many users are having a great time after all. And if you’re thinking of joining, you might be wondering what you’re in for.
Love gaming? Listen to our podcast, One More Life!
More to the point, you might be concerned Helldivers 2 will be too much of a challenge.
Luckily, it does have multiple difficulty settings to choose from.
Let’s take a look at the choices, so you can make sure Helldivers 2 is an enjoyable experience, and your controller remains in one piece.
How many Helldivers 2 difficulty levels are there?

Most games tend to settle with three difficulty settings – your typical easy, normal, and hard. Maybe with a very hard type thrown in for those looking for a challenge.
Helldivers 2, however, has nine difficulties.
What are the Helldivers 2 difficulty levels? Full list and how to unlock
So what are these nine difficulties? And how do we unlock them all? Firstly, let’s take a look at all nine creatively titled difficulties:
- Trivial
- Easy
- Medium
- Challenging
- Hard
- Extreme
- Suicide Mission
- Impossible
- Helldive
Unlike a lot of games, players must start off on Trivial. So even if you consider yourself a seasoned gamer, you can’t jump straight into Challenging – or even Medium – but at the very beginning.
Trivial might be a bit boring, but you need to complete an operation at this level to unlock the easy. From there, you work your way up, unlocking the next difficulty level every time you beat your current one.
What’s the difference between the Helldivers 2 difficulty levels?
As you’d expect, the game gets more challenging with each successive difficulty. As you work your way up the difficulty levels, the enemies become harder to kill and the number of outposts grows. Helldive will feel like a different game to Trivial.
It’s not like you don’t get rewarded, though. Plenty of trophies and super credits will come your way if you’re up for the challenge of levels like Impossible and Helldive.
How to change between Helldivers 2 difficulty levels
Once you’ve unlocked modes other than Trivial, you can change the difficulty by heading to the Galactic War Screen. Once there, you can change the difficulty by pressing L1 and R1 on the PlayStation, or Q and E on the PC.
Only do this if you feel up to the challenge, though. As we said, Helldivers 2 should be an enjoyable experience so only proceed if you’re ready!
Listen to our One More Life podcast and subscribe to our gaming newsletter for all the latest intel.
Looking for something to watch? Check out our TV Guide or Streaming Guide.
Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.