How to farm Common Samples in Helldivers 2

Common Samples are a fairly easy resource to come by in Helldivers 2, but the trick is farming a lot of them in a single mission to maximize efficiency. Whether they’re for upgrades or a Personal Order, here’s the break down on how to get Common Samples in Helldivers 2.

Every mission in Helldivers 2 players into all of its systems in some way. Regardless of whether you succeed or fail that mission, you’re rewarded with Requisition Slips and XP so you can purchase more Stratagems and level up your profile. If you manage to extract from a mission, you’ll escape with everything you had on your Helldiver at the time, including precious Samples. The easiest of these to acquire are Common Samples, and if you know how to farm them well, you’ll never want for them again.

Best places to farm Common Samples in Helldivers 2

To farm Common Samples in Helldivers 2, you must hop into a mission on a relatively easy difficulty such as Challenging, Hard, or Extreme, though any difficulty will work. The best missions for this are Blitz: Search and Destroy because they’re fast, usually between 12 to 15 minutes long, and force you to visit locations where Common Samples frequently spawn. They show up with an icon that looks like a circle that’s split by a line through the middle, as the image above shows.

Once you’ve dropped into the mission, you’ll need to seek out Common Samples. I always find most of mine at side objective, the blue icons you stumble upon as you explore the map. There are usually at least one or two Common Samples in these areas. You can also find them in nondescript areas with debris and a few enemies.

The best place for farming Common Samples in a mission is around enemy hotspots, the red areas on the map. These are dangerous because you’ll always be fighting the enemy simultaneously. The Common Samples spawn around these areas, especially Terminid Nests, on their perimeter on Terminid worlds. For Automaton worlds, you’ll need to look close to buildings to find the Common Samples you seek.

Head to every side objective in a mission to maximize your chances of picking up Common Samples. Remember that when any player picks them up, you get those at the end of the mission, so there’s no need to kill friends over them. You should also remember to check the map for any dropped Samples, which leave a test tube icon on the map because you must pick them up and extract with them if you want them to be applied to your account.

How to extract with Common Samples in Helldivers 2

To extract Common Samples in Helldivers 2, you must collect them and extract the Pelican from the mission alive with them in your inventory. If you die without picking them up, those Common Samples will be lost. The same goes for fellow players, so pick up each other’s Common Samples if you drop them.

This is why I say Blitz: Search and Destroy missions are best. They are fast and should help you avoid making silly mistakes with multiple side objectives because of that shorter time limit. You haven’t got much room to dillydally, so you’ll optimize your time completing objectives, collecting Common Samples, and getting off world.

What are Common Samples used for in Helldivers 2?

Common Samples are used to purchase and upgrade Stratagems in your Ship Management menu. You can unlock a lot of these with Requisition Slips alone, but you’ll need Common Samples to unlock the best of the best. This also applies to Ship Modules that will further benefit you in the field with faster Stratagem refresh rates or more firepower.

Common Samples are also sometimes part of a Personal Order. The most recent one I got was to collect 10, which feels very easy until you drop onto an Automaton planet on a high-difficulty mode.