How to kill Brood Commanders in Helldivers 2

Face the Terminid godfather.

Terminid attacking a mother and son in Helldivers 2 opening
Screenshot by Dot Esports

The Brood Commander in Helldivers 2 is not only challenging for its brute strength, but also for the impressive swarm protecting the Commander at all times. Here are our tips on how to kill Brood Commanders in Helldivers 2.

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Helldivers 2: Where to find Brood Commanders

Eliminate Brood Commander mission summary
Brood Commanders can appear in Trivial levels. Screenshot by Dot Esports

The Brood Commander is the toughest, baddest boss of Helldivers 2. Although the biggest, and more challenging Terminid enemies are regular residents of the harder difficulty levels, you will quickly meet the Brood Commander as early as easy mode missions. They won’t appear in every easy mission, however. You specifically want to execute Eliminate Brood Commander missions to target them. The elimination mission spawns multiple Commanders in at once, similar to finding them inside larger swarms on the toughest levels.

Helldivers 2: How to kill Brood Commanders

While there won’t be multiple Brood Commanders within a single nest, their presence invites many smaller enemies that follow their Commander’s every move. The Commander acts similarly to the Warrior, being a large presence for the Scavengers and Hunters to follow. But the Commander is far larger than a Warrior, with a full body of armor and ranged melee attacks. It’s quite fast, surrounding you with a swarm in an instant if you take your eyes off it for too long.

We highly recommend using support weapons and Stratagem artillery to take this giant bug out of action. As the swarm sets its eyes on an offensive attack, you must keep your distance, using a variety of weaponry to quickly kill any low-tiered bug in front of you before you focus your attention on the Commander.

We recommend these weapons against the Brood Commander and its minions:

  • R-63 Diligence (primary)
  • PLAS-1 Scorcher (primary)
  • G-16 Impact (grenade)
  • R-63CS Diligence Counter Sniper
  • Railgun (support weapon)
  • Stalwart (support weapon)
  • Grenade Launcher (support weapon)
  • Mortar Sentry (Stratagem)
  • Orbital Gatling Barrage (Stratagem)
  • Orbital Railcannon Strike (Stratagem)

Use a mixture of Stratagems and weapons to bring the swarm down to a manageable size. The higher the difficulty, the less damage your weapons will have against the Brood Commander. Pick off the Scavengers, Hunters, and Warriors first, using your primary and fast-firing support weapons like the Stalwart or Grenade Launcher. Place down your support weapons and Supply Drops nearby so you can easily replenish ammo.

As the swarm closes in, place a sentry far away to deal damage while the swarm chases you. If you have space to carry the Railgun in replace of other Stratagems, use this only to target the Brood Commander. The Railgun in combination with a well-placed artillery strike will bring this beast down with ease. Never settle on your primary weapon to take a Brood Commander down unless you are playing on Trivial to Medium difficulty. You will always need a Stratagem’s support to help you in this fight if you’re playing on any difficulty above Challenging.

Author
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Hadley Vincent
Writer for Dot since Oct. 2023. Just a Psychology graduate trying to find the meaning of life through gaming. An enthusiast of indie horror and anime, where you'll often find them obsessing over a great narrative and even better twists that'd make M. Night jealous. Their shocking twist? They think The Last of Us II is a masterpiece.