As the popularity of Helldivers 2 has skyrocketed, so have the accounts of players running into cheaters in the wild.
Despite the game being marketed as a casual and cooperative PvE experience, that hasn’t stopped exploits from running rampant—and in the case of some players, ruining their progression entirely. One particularly glaring example caught a lot of traction on Reddit recently. User u/ForeverDesperate5855 shared a screenshot showing a post-mission report where they earned an eye-watering 7560 Common and Rare Samples due to the machinations of the cheaters they matched with.
While they admitted the cheaters in question can “do whatever they want with their game and face the consequences,” their real issue was with the fact that also receiving so many Samples “ruined 80 percent [of] the grind.”
Cheating is more prevalently discussed in the context of PvP games, but a PvE title that’s seen the kind of success Helldivers 2 has can be just as vulnerable to players wanting to exploit the system. It isn’t a problem limited to just one player—several others in the comments sounded off about similar experiences. “I had a guy straight up ask me ‘Y’all mind if I turn on auto aim hacks?’ in a LFG group today,” recounted one reply. “This is exactly why they included that controversial nProtect GameGuard system. And it still didn’t work. Neat,” sarcastically added another.
The cheaters have also sparked a discussion around the lackluster reporting features in Helldivers 2, which currently only support reports for offenses in text chat, preventing players from easily marking any hackers they run into. Many players talked about similarly frustrating encounters under that post, reporting everything from hackers with “unlimited 500kg bombs” to another with “four mortars and an autocannon.”
While in the case of u/ForeverDesperate5855’s situation, a developer left a comment directing them toward Arrowhead’s support to get the issue resolved, the glaring holes in Helldivers 2′s security still need to be addressed.
It’s one thing for the cheaters to ruin their own time with the game, but the quickplay system means many unsuspecting players can unintentionally fall victim to the grind-skipping of a hacked lobby. Yet with Arrowhead’s efforts currently focused on expanding the server capacity to handle the unexpected influx of hundreds of thousands of players, improved security is not likely to be at the top of its priority list.
