Helldivers 2 Stratagem Loadout: Four Slots, Four Jobs

The four jobs

Anti-armour. Answers Hulks, Tanks, Titans, Fabricators. This is the slot that decides whether a heavy push is survivable. Area denial. A barrage, a sentry, or an Eagle — something that clears a mass or holds a line while the squad does something else. Support or mobility. A support weapon, a supply pack, a jump pack. This is the slot players skip and then regret, because it is the one that keeps the other three working. Resupply. Either a dedicated resupply stratagem or a support weapon with enough ammunition to self-sustain. On higher difficulties this stops being optional.

Why doubling up loses

Two Eagles plus two barrages is the classic “all damage” build. It clears the first wave beautifully and then has nothing for the second, because Eagles share a rearm and barrages share a cooldown. Worse, it leaves no answer for armour. A squad that cannot kill a Tank does not lose slowly; it loses at the moment the Tank arrives. The Eagle page explains the shared rearm, and the orbital page explains why cooldown-only tools are cheaper to stack — but even free cooldowns do not solve a penetration problem.

Build by mission type

Defence. Sentries and barrages. The enemy comes to you, so static area denial is the highest-value thing you can bring. The sentry page covers placement. Objective running. Mobility and a single anti-armour answer. You are moving, so barrages that land where you were are wasted. Kill missions. Anti-armour plus area denial, with resupply to keep the ammunition flowing. Extraction holds. One big area denial, one sentry, one anti-armour, one resupply. Everything that helps you survive a fixed position.

The squad version

In a group, the four slots are per player, so the squad has sixteen decisions. That means you can afford one player who is pure area denial and one who is pure anti-armour — which is exactly why the squad roles page recommends agreeing on roles rather than everyone building a generalist. A random group with four generalists beats a random group with four damage builds and loses to a group that decided. Say your role in the lobby; it takes one sentence.