History YMMV / Helldivers

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: While the games are largely supposed to be a satire against warmongering authoritarian governments who wage wars for profit, the vast majority of players couldn't care less about the political commentary and are more focused on such a setting allowing them to indulge in the "cool" things such as orbital drops, calling down orbital bombardments, and generally just blowing up robots and aliens with overwhelming firepower. It doesn't help that, even with the obvious satirical edge, ''the games themselves'' love invoking DareToBeBadass at every turn, from the opening cinematic to the constant affirmation and exhortations of your MissionControl and Super Destroyer crew. Intentionally or not, the games are an excellent demonstration of ''how and why propaganda works''.

*** [=IFVs=] are just plain nasty for being {{Instakill Mook}}s that take nothing short of an AT Round to dispatch who can ''also'' perpetuate the Alarm like other {{Patrolling Mook}}s. They don't swarm the player down like Butchers or Berserkers and they don't have the numbers of Grotesques, but seeing an IFV spawn in right next to you is bound to make your heart skip a beat unless you already have the tools to quickly take it down.

*** Warlords are the worst kind of SmashMook; namely the kind that can't be killed without anti-armor, which at least Hulks can be with some effort. Their cannons are also much deadlier and more precise than Hulk rotary guns, making it hard to escape their danger radius if they're firing at you.

** The Cyborg dogs tend not to be a big issue individually but they have a habit of running straight at you while you're dealing with more serious threats. If the dogs manage to hit you with this charge, you are knocked over and stunned for about a second. This stacks, so if you have three chasing you that is potentially three seconds solid where you can do nothing but watch as your brave Helldiver avatar is turned into chunky salsa.
** As of the "A New Hell" update, the Illuminate Obsidian Observer, which replace the Watcher as the Illuminate's scout unit on level 13+ planets. While not able to damage the player, they release a pulse which inverts the player's controls for a few seconds when they decloak, generally followed by them calling in swarms of other enemies to attack the disoriented players.

** For the Great Eye, a common trick is to back everyone into a corner of the arena, let the Eye close in and then rain Thunderer Barrages[[note]]sometimes other OrbitalBombardment Stratagems are used[[/note]] on it like there's no tomorrow. This not only does tons of damage but also ideally prevents its FlashStep from allowing it to meaningfully evade any of it, while also catching any spawning Illuminate {{Mook}}s in the blast range as collateral. This tactic isn't ''100%'' reliable, as enemies have a chance of teleporting in behind your squad and some of the Great Eye's attacks can still be tricky to avoid especially when packed into a corner, but it does save a lot of time compared to trying to fight it out in the open where it can attack you on all sides and employ TeleportSpam.

* ThatOneBoss: The Hive Lord is a cut far above the other Master Assaults. Whereas the Siege Mech and Great Eye have powerful weaponry but are slow and easy to hit as a result, the Hive Lord is a full-on GetBackHereBoss who spends most of the fight hiding underground and only exposes itself to damage during very brief periods of attack. This would only make it a GoddamnedBoss, but add in how easily it is to die in this game and how hard it is to keep track of the Hive Lord's movement and attacks amidst [[FlunkyBoss all the other enemies in the arena]] and it suddenly becomes agonizingly difficult to deal damage to it when it's exposed and not immediately die to something right afterward. You're going to be seeing a lot of near-[[TotalPartyKill squad wipes]] if you go up against a Hive Lord.

* ScrappyMechanic: The galactic war system has been a bit contentious since its inception and has only gotten controversial as the game's lifespan has gone on.
** On paper, it's a unique mechanic that allows every player to work towards the greater goal of liberating systems and eventually wiping out one of the 3 enemy factions for the duration of the war, relieving pressure and making the rest of the war go smoother as enemies are destroyed, leading to ultimate victory. In practicality, it tends to just artificially restrict gameplay for a few weeks; some gear unlocks are faction specific, and if the faction you need to fight to unlock it has already been wiped out in the current war, you will need to wait until the next war to get another chance to unlock it, which can take up to a real-life month in some cases. On top of this, wiping out enemies also directly leads to less enemy variety, which can cause players to stop playing until the war is over as fighting the exact same enemy faction for another week or two can get stale and tiring. [[note]] For example, it's a frequent occurrence for the Bugs and Cyborgs to be wiped out in a week or two and then have the Illuminates, the least popular faction to fight, go nearly untouched during that time and eventually win the war by themselves as people eventually give up and stop playing for that war. [[/note]] It also doesn't help that aside from two cosmetic outfits, there is no reward (or penalty) for winning or losing the war, making it all feel even more pointless to stick it out till the end.