Helldivers 2 is a four-player game, and everything about it, the enemy volume, the stratagem economy, the way patrols pile on, is tuned around a full squad sharing the load, so the second you drop solo or as a duo the whole calculus of your loadout changes. The kit that carries a four-stack will get you killed on your own, which is why I get asked constantly what to run when you are short of bodies, and the way I build for solo and duo changed again when Update 6.3 nudged the numbers. You can launch any mission alone, and on lower and mid difficulties it is very playable, though the enemy volume does not scale all the way down, so the bar has to do four jobs or the mission finds the missing one.
You are every role at once
In a four-player team, people specialise, so one carries the anti-tank, someone else brings the chaff-clear, another runs support and resupply, and between you the bases are covered. Solo, there is no someone else, and every gap in your loadout is a gap nobody fills, so instead of chasing whatever weapon is trending I build to cover four roles by myself and judge every slot by which role it serves. If two of your picks do the same job, you have a hole somewhere else, and the game will find it on the drop.
An answer to heavy armour
The thing that kills under-equipped solo players is a heavy unit they simply cannot hurt, because a Charger or its bot equivalent will run you down while your primary chips uselessly at its armour, so your first non-negotiable is a dedicated answer to heavy targets. That answer can be an anti-tank support weapon you carry or a heavy-hitting stratagem on call, and Update 6.3 made the choice easier in two ways worth knowing. The Orbital Railcannon Strike had its damage pushed up to 10,000, which makes it a far more reliable delete-that-one-big-thing button than it used to be, and that is exactly the tool a solo player wants when nobody else is bringing the punch. The Eagle 110mm Rocket Pods now hit harder and penetrate Heavy armour, so they have gone from a niche pick to a legitimate answer to armoured threats. On the enemy side the Charger now charges a touch faster but needs an extra second to recover afterwards, which puts the dodge-then-punish window back and rewards your patience.
Clearing the chaff before it swarms you
The other way solo runs end is drowning, because the little enemies are not individually dangerous, but in volume they pin you, chip you down and hold you in place for the heavy that is coming. You need a reliable way to clear waves fast, either a high-volume primary that can hose a crowd or an area stratagem that resets a swarm before it surrounds you, and whatever you pick has to handle quantity. Solo, you do not have three other guns thinning the herd, which is why a primary that only feels clever against one target is a luxury the drop will not let you keep.
Self-defence for when it gets close
In a squad, a teammate peels the thing chewing on your back, and solo that job is on you, so the sidearm and the grenade are not the slots you fill last and forget. A dependable secondary that can put down something that closed the distance, and a grenade that can break you out of a bad spot or close a bug hole, are the difference between trading out of a scrape and dying in it. I treat both as the close-range half of the bar, because the stratagems are useless if you are already on the floor when the beacon lands.
Survivability, and a mech that comes back sooner
You also have to build to stay alive, because solo you cannot rely on a quick revive, which means armour you can take a hit in, and ideally a stratagem that buys you space, something that resets a fight or covers a retreat. The Exosuit is genuinely more attractive after 6.3, because the cooldown dropped from 10 minutes to 8, so you can call a mech more than once across a longer mission, and a mech is a fantastic solo crutch. It is a mobile answer to both chaff and heavies at once, and now you get it back sooner, which is why a short squad can lean on a mech more than once in a longer mission.
How I actually play it when the squad is short
Loadout is only half of it, and the other half is the mindset, because solo and duo you are not winning by standing your ground and out-gunning a horde when you do not have the firepower of four players. You win by moving, positioning and picking your fights, using stealth where you can, refusing to aggro a base you do not need, kiting the heavies into your stratagems instead of brawling them, and treating reinforcements as the precious, limited thing they are. Most people who bounce off solo are simply running it at the difficulty they would play in a four-stack, so drop a notch or two, play smarter, and it clicks, which is less romantic than a tier list and more useful on the drop.
On the higher difficulties especially, fewer players means fewer stratagems on the field, fewer guns clearing waves, and nobody to revive you quickly, and the game does not fully rescale for a smaller team. If you are still deciding whether to commit, my full take is in is Helldivers 2 worth it in 2026, and the dedicated solo question is covered in can you play Helldivers 2 solo. For everything that changed in the big patch this loadout advice is built around, see Helldivers 2 Update 6.3: everything new, and if you want more in the same co-op chaos lane I rounded up the best games like Helldivers 2. Build the loadout to cover the gaps, drop in, and spread some managed democracy, which is the only slogan I am willing to keep once the squad is short and the bar is doing four jobs.
FAQ
Can you play Helldivers 2 solo?
Yes, you can launch any mission solo, and on lower and mid difficulties it is very playable, though the game is balanced around a four-person squad so the enemy volume does not scale all the way down. Solo, you carry the entire load of every role yourself, which is why your loadout choices matter far more than they do in a full team, and I would not pretend a lower difficulty fixes a bar that is missing a job.
What should every Helldivers 2 loadout include?
Think in four roles, an answer to heavy armour with an anti-tank support weapon or a heavy-hitting stratagem, a way to clear chaff fast with a high-volume primary or an area stratagem, reliable self-defence with a sidearm and grenade for when something gets close, and survivability through armour and a stratagem that buys breathing room. Solo, you must cover all four yourself rather than leaning on teammates, and two slots doing the same job is how the hole opens.
What changed for loadouts in Update 6.3?
Several balance shifts matter, and the Orbital Railcannon Strike had its damage raised to 10,000, which makes it a much more reliable single-target answer to a heavy. The Eagle 110mm Rocket Pods now hit harder and penetrate Heavy armour, moving them from situational to genuinely useful, and the Exosuit cooldown dropped from 10 minutes to 8, so mechs are available more often across a mission.
Is Helldivers 2 harder solo than in a squad?
Yes, on the higher difficulties especially, because with fewer players you have fewer stratagems on the field at once, fewer guns clearing waves, and no one to revive you quickly. The game does not fully rescale for a smaller team, so most solo players drop a difficulty or two from what they would run in a four-stack and lean on stealth and positioning rather than brute force.
What is the best stratagem in Helldivers 2?
There is no single best, because it depends on the role you need filled, though after Update 6.3 the Orbital Railcannon Strike is an excellent reliable answer to a single heavy target, and mechs are more usable thanks to the shorter cooldown. The honest answer is that the best stratagem is the one that covers the gap in your loadout, not whatever is topping a tier list this week.
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