Helldivers 2 community figures out the invisible ‘Supply Line’ mechanics

It’s clear by now that Helldivers 2 is way more than just a simple bug hunt co-op shooter. On top of its surprisingly deep gameplay mechanics and an ever-evolving campaign narrative, though, there’s a whole extra layer of community-based meta-progression, with Supply Lines being a particularly notable highlight.

If you’ve been befuddled by how Helldivers 2 chooses which planets the Terminids and the Automatons attack next, it would appear that it’s not all just the whims of a potentially sadistic dungeon master. According to a Helldiver 2 community member, Ghoxen, there’s an entire Supply Line feature carefully hidden away from public eyes dictating how the war efforts progress, and it’s way more intricate than the game might otherwise have you believe.

Helldivers 2’s Supply Line mechanics are tricky business

On Reddit, Ghoxen, who established their expertise in Helldivers 2‘s gameplay mechanics with a remarkably in-depth planet liberation guide, also posted about Helldivers 2‘s Supply Line. His information is based on the handy (and ominous!) Galactic War Status and Progression resource. With most of the active battlefields in a “LOSING GROUND” state at the time of writing, it can get rather disheartening to see the Terminids and Automatons mopping the proverbial floor with Helldiver cannon fodder, but that’s beside the point.

Ghoxen explains that developer Arrowhead Studios has set up a massive interconnected network setting the stage for the war efforts at large. This Supply Lines feature determines which war front ought to open up next. It’s complicated, factoring in variables like whether the Helldivers win against the opposing faction, so the network changes accordingly. Thus the theoretical Maginot Line moves inwards or onwards. Supply Lines dictate features like:

• which planets are available to play on
• which planets the opposing factions might appear on

Ghoxen did point out that the mechanics of the Terminids’ onslaught and propagation are currently unknown, as they sometimes “skip” the supply chain by a single planet/battlefield. Spore propagation, perhaps.

“When a planet is attacked by bugs,” Ghoxen says, “all the planets that were previously linked to it would be cut-off, and players will no longer be able to access them.” On the other hand, “When bots attack a planet, a defence campaign is instead started on that planet (e.g. Mantes for the past day). At this point in time, access beyond the planet is not cut off. However, as soon as the defence campaign fails and Mantes is lost, the 2 planets with active liberation campaigns linked to it (Malevelon Creek and Draupnir) would be cut-off.”

As for the planets that have been cut off, Ghoxen explains that these planets essentially behave as if there are no Helldivers active on the given battlefields: “This means no liberation missions or progress will be possible, and any planet regen will keep ticking. E.g. if a liberation planet was cut-off when it had 80% progress, and the planet has 5% regen per hour, 4 hours later that planet’s progress will reduce down to 60% behind enemy lines. If access is regained then, the liberation campaign will resume at that 60%.”

This is all incredibly interesting, but Ghoxen’s thesis does have a somewhat sad conclusion: “Unless there are significant planet regen on planets that may have their supply lines cut-off, or where a Major Order is involved, it’s generally more efficient to just ignore defence campaigns. In their current form defence campaigns are not worth your time or your suffering.”

With this in mind, it’s entirely possible that Arrowhead Studios will end up revamping how the Supply Lines or, indeed, Defense missions themselves function. As it currently stands, though, Helldivers may wish to avoid them for more profitable battlefields – whether that’s democratic or not, from the perspective of Super Earth.