The all encompassing guide to the galactic war.

The basics

As explained in the game, you participate in the galactic war by diving on planets and complete operations to liberate the planet more and more.

When do planets get liberated?

What the game does not tell you, is that not all the dives you do for the galactic war actually contributes to Super Earth's war efforts, and this entirely depends on where you dive.

Every single occupied planet in the game has two important internal values to consider before diving. The first is planet health and the second is called decay rate (or the regen rate sometimes). This is the amount per second/hour (depending on the app you're looking at) the enemy refortifies the damage you just did on the world.

Decay rate is not shown in game, however it is shown in third party apps such as Helldivers companion.

Remember, you are just one soldier in this larger galactic war. You are not Doomguy, and the enemy can repair the damage you just did to them on your sucessfull operation quite easily, for you are one and they are in the millions.

However, while you alone do not run the show, you are but one cog in the bulldoser of liberty. Your combined efforts with other players are what will overcome the enemy. When multiple players do multiple ops all at the same time on the world, the decay rate gets overcome by the combined liberation of the entire playerbase.

(Note, the proportion of players online is what matters when it comes to liberation, not the total volume of players.)

A planet's liberation time can be estimated by dividing the remaining planet health by the rate by which we liberate the world per second/hour.

Gambits!

When it comes to defense campaigns, the goal is to liberate enough of the planet before the deadline. Failure to do this results in losing that planet to the enemy.

However, there's another way to complete defense campaigns. GAMBITS!

All defense campaigns come from a world currently occupied by the enemy. If the Helldivers manage to liberate that planet before the deadline, the defense is won automatically since the enemy's attack was cut off.

All defense campaigns require different amounts of total liberation to be considered complete. It's generally less total liberation than what's required to free a planet from the enemy, but not always. In many cases defense campaigns are launched from a world Super Earth is currently in the middle of liberating, and may have less health than the defense campaign. Continuing to liberate the attacking world is the better call in this situation.