Helldivers 2: How to get armor-piercing rounds & best loadouts

The higher difficulties of Helldivers 2 bring you face-to-face with heavily armored enemies who can only be defeated with the right equipment. Here is how you can find armor-piercing rounds for those challenging fights. 

Helldivers 2 has many weapons and armor that players can use to defeat the enemies of Democracy. As you get into harder difficulties, the Terminids and Automatons you have to fight become even tougher, and a lot of them have thick armor you need to destroy before you can kill them. 

One of the most reliable ways to get past this armor is to use armor-piercing Stratagems and weapons. Here is how you can get armor-piercing rounds and the best weapons for taking down the more challenging enemies you will find.  

How to get armor-piercing rounds in Helldivers 2

All weapons in Helldivers 2 come with either Light Armor Penetrating or Medium Armor Penetrating rounds. When viewing a weapon in the Weaponry or Warboard menu, you can check out whether it has light or medium armor-piercing rounds. You can also do this by looking at a particular weapon’s traits. 

At higher levels, you will start running into heavily armored enemies that will be a lot more challenging to take down just with the medium or light armor-piercing rounds in your primary weapon. 

Getting into the more challenging difficulty settings in Helldivers 2 means you need to start working on the ideal loadout for these enemies. Without the proper tools to remove armor from these heavy-armor enemies, you are more likely to fail your mission. 

Specifically, here is where you need to start taking advantage of Stratagems and support weapons that are built for taking down those heavily armored nasties. 

Best loadout for armor-piercing in Helldivers 2

The best loadout to take down heavy-armor enemies in Helldivers 2 mainly revolves around armor-piercing focused Stratagems. 

Here is a list of the best weapons for going up against armored enemies: 

• SG-225 Breaker Shotgun
• AR-23E Liberator Explosive Assault Rifle
• AR-23P Liberator Penetrator Assault Rifle
• R-63CS Diligence Counter Sniper

The first thing to remember when using armor-piercing weapons is to aim at the weak spots of enemies anyway. While breaking off armor is ideal, this will take much longer than making sure you hit those points. 

The Diligence Counter Sniper, for example, is useful against Automatons’ weak points without getting right into battle. It means you can pick them off and put yourself at an advantage without having to spray and pray.

If you do want to go in face-first, however, there are Stratagems that have proven to work really well against heavily armored enemies: 

• Expendable Anti-Tank 
• Recoilless Rifle 
• Railgun 
• Grenade Launcher 

Stratagems are the best course of action when going up against heavy armor enemies. While the weapons will help in support of taking them down, the real way to get their armor off or weaken them is to make use of these Stratagem Support weapons. 

Explosive damage is what you’re looking for, mainly, as it is highly effective when trying to tear away armor. 

The main strategy when playing at higher levels is to use your Stratagems to weaken your enemy, and then get around to their weak point and use your weapons to kill them. 

If you want to know more about Helldivers 2 check out our list of guides below:

Will Helldivers 2 have DLC? | How to fix ‘failed to join’ error in Helldivers 2 | Is Helldivers 2 on Steam Deck? | Is Helldivers 2 on Xbox Game Pass? | Is Helldivers 2 open world? | Is Helldivers 2 on PS4? | How to kill Scout Striders in Helldivers 2 | All armor in Helldivers 2 | How to kill chargers in Helldivers 2 | How to destroy fuel silos in Helldivers 2`