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Helldivers 2 Board Game: First Impressions

By Ellie: May 04,2025

One of the standout multiplayer games of last year was Arrowhead's Helldivers 2, a thrilling title where players spread democracy across the cosmos by engaging in intense battles against aliens and robots. Following their successful adaptation of Elden Ring into a board game, Steamforged Games is now transforming the fast-paced and frenetic experience of Helldivers 2 into a tabletop format. The board game is currently available for backing on Gamefound. IGN had the opportunity to play a prototype of the game and discuss it with the designers, Jamie Perkins, Derek Funkhouser, and Nicholas Yu.

Helldivers 2: The Board Game

17 ImagesHelldivers 2: The Board Game, which began development shortly after the video game's launch early last year, successfully captures the essence of what made the original game so popular. It recreates the intense firefights, chaotic surprises, and teamwork-centric gameplay, while also introducing unique tweaks to the formula.

This cooperative objective-based skirmish game supports one to four players, with the designers recommending solo players control two characters. Each player takes on the role of a different Helldiver class, such as Heavy, Sniper, Pyro, or Captain, each equipped with a unique perk, a set of action cards, and a one-per-game "Act of Valor" ability. Players customize their loadouts with primary, secondary, and support weapons, grenades, and three strategems, with recommended setups provided on class cards, though players can choose their own once familiar with the game.

Gameplay unfolds on grid-based boards that expand as players explore, revealing sub-objectives and primary mission locations, such as Terminid hatcheries in the prototype. As exploration continues, increasingly difficult enemies spawn, and a mission timer adds urgency, ensuring games remain tense and fast-paced. The final release will include multiple objectives and feature two main factions, Terminids and robotic Automatons, each with 10 unit types. There's potential for the Illuminate faction to be introduced via an expansion.

A key aspect of the adaptation is how it handles the game's sense of being overwhelmed and outnumbered. Unlike games like Zombicide, which rely on sheer numbers, Helldivers opts for fewer, stronger enemies, resulting in more tactical, close-up combat. Turns involve players and enemies adding action cards to a shuffled pool, placed on an initiative tracker similar to Steamforged's Elden Ring game. Combat is dice-based, with every four action cards triggering a random event that often disrupts plans, adding to the game's chaotic charm.

On the Helldivers' side, combat involves rolling dice determined by the weapon's type and quantity, with damage calculated from the total roll value. Every five points inflicts a wound on an enemy. The straightforward damage system, where Helldivers always hit, simplifies combat while still allowing for friendly fire mishaps, adding a layer of strategy and excitement.

A new feature the designers are particularly proud of is the 'Massed Fire' mechanic, which encourages teamwork by allowing players within range to join in attacking the same target, mimicking the cooperative feel of the video game. Nic explained, "In the video game, obviously, you're encouraged to work together as a team... So what we implemented was 'massed fire,' so when anyone shoots at a target, if that's within range of another Helldiver's primary or secondary weapon, they can also focus fire with you at that time, and so you're kind of explicitly rewarded or incentivized to work as a group."

Players can choose to explore independently, but the 'Massed Fire' mechanic reduces downtime and enhances group engagement. Enemies, however, have a more static approach, inflicting set damage or effects, causing players to draw wound cards. A character dies after receiving three wounds but can respawn with a full loadout based on the chosen difficulty level.

One element missing from the board game is the galactic war feature from the video game. The designers opted to make the board game a unique training simulation for Helldivers, as Jamie noted, "We're positioning it effectively as a training simulation. So you would get this board game as a Helldiver as a training simulation to learn how to be a better Helldiver."

Despite the new medium, the designers aimed to retain the Helldivers feel. Nic said, "We wanted to make sure that even though it had different mechanics, it felt like Helldivers – like we want to have unexpected things that you have to deal with from turn to turn. We want to have stratagems that could go awry and actually blow up your friends in addition to the enemies. The pool of reinforcements that dwindles as you go through the game and calling in strategems, those are things that feel uniquely Helldivers." Derek added, "We knew we needed to keep the core loop of what Helldivers is with the mission objectives, and just being able to chase the shiny, right? We've got points of interest and sub-objectives and the objectives to uncover and find, while also having to deal with enemies that are, you know, trying to eat you."

Currently, the game's core mechanics are about 75-80% finalized, allowing for flexibility based on community feedback and potential new ideas. Jamie emphasized that despite recent concerns about tariffs in the board gaming industry, Steamforged Games is moving forward as planned, with experts ready to handle any necessary adjustments.

My experience with the prototype showcased fun systems like random events and the 'Massed Fire' mechanic, leading to epic moments. However, I felt the game could benefit from more smaller enemies to enhance the chaotic feel of the video game, and enemy attacks could use more variety to match the game's dynamic nature. I'm eager to see what other surprises Steamforged Games has in store for Helldivers 2, and my friends and I are already planning our next mission.