Last year, Arrowhead’s *Helldivers 2* took the multiplayer gaming world by storm, offering players a thrilling experience of spreading democracy through combat against aliens and robots. Now, Steamforged Games, fresh from their successful adaptation of *Elden Ring* into a board game, is bringing the fast-paced action of *Helldivers 2* to the tabletop. You can back the new board game on Gamefound. IGN had the opportunity to play a prototype and chat with the designers, Jamie Perkins, Derek Funkhouser, and Nicholas Yu, about this exciting new project.

Helldivers 2: The Board Game

17 ImagesDevelopment of Helldivers 2: The Board Game began shortly after the video game's launch, aiming to capture the essence of what made it so popular. The board game retains the video game's exciting elements, including tense firefights, unexpected chaos, and the importance of teamwork, while introducing unique twists to enhance the experience.

Helldivers 2 remains a cooperative, objective-based skirmish game, playable with one to four players. The designers suggest solo players use two characters for a fuller experience. Each player assumes the role of a different Helldiver class, such as Heavy, Sniper, Pyro, or Captain, each with unique perks, action cards, and a powerful one-per-game "Act of Valor" ability. Players equip themselves with primary, secondary, and support weapons, grenades, and three strategems, with recommended loadouts on class cards, customizable as players gain familiarity 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 the mission progresses, tougher enemies spawn, and a round-limit timer adds urgency to the gameplay, keeping the experience frenetic and intense.

The prototype focused on destroying Terminid hatcheries, but the final game will offer multiple objectives. The base game includes two main factions, Terminids and robotic Automatons, each with 10 unit types. While not confirmed, expansions might introduce the Illuminate faction, a staple in stretch goal campaigns by Steamforged Games.

Curiosity about how the board game would replicate the video game's overwhelming enemy encounters was addressed with a tactical approach, featuring fewer but stronger enemies rather than swarms of weaker ones. This design choice enhances the strategic element of close-up combat as missions progress.

Turns involve players and enemies adding action cards to a pool, which are shuffled and placed on an initiative tracker similar to Steamforged’s Elden Ring game. Combat is dice-based, with weapons determining the type and number of dice rolled. Every four action cards played trigger a random event, often disrupting plans and adding to the game's chaotic fun.

For Helldivers, combat involves rolling dice to determine damage, with every five points inflicting a wound on an enemy. This streamlined system avoids complex modifiers, focusing on the impact of attacks. Friendly fire is a risk, especially with area attacks, but reinforcements keep the game moving.

A highlight of the board game is the 'Massed Fire' mechanic, designed to replicate the video game's team-focused combat. Nic explained, "In the video game, obviously, you're encouraged to work together as a team. You have a heavily armored enemy, you need to flank around and shoot at the weak points if you don't have a support weapon to deal with it. But there wasn't a really good way to do that in a board game without going into lot of facing and armor mechanics. So what we implemented was we called '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 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 go solo, but the 'Massed Fire' mechanic reduces downtime, allowing involvement during other players' turns and more dice rolling, enhancing overall engagement.

Enemies, however, have simpler mechanics, dealing set damage or effects, with players drawing wound cards that impose negative effects. A character dies after three wounds but can respawn based on the chosen difficulty level, returning with a full loadout.

One notable omission from the board game is the galactic war feature from the video game. The designers chose to focus on creating a unique experience rather than a direct simulation. Jamie humorously framed the board game as a "training simulation" for Helldivers, suggesting a meta-narrative where players are training to become better Helldivers.

Despite the new medium, the designers aimed to retain the essence of Helldivers. Nic emphasized, "We wanted to make sure that even though [we] 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 stratagems, 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 room for community feedback and potential adjustments. Jamie reassured that despite recent concerns about tariffs affecting the board gaming industry, Steamforged Games remains on track with their plans.

After playing the prototype, the systems in place are engaging, with random events and the 'Massed Fire' mechanic creating epic moments. However, the wish for more smaller enemies to clear out remains, reflecting a preference for less tactical and more action-packed gameplay. Additionally, the static nature of enemy attacks could benefit from more variability, perhaps through dice-based outcomes.

Excitement for what Steamforged Games has in store for Helldivers 2 is high, with anticipation for new classes, game types, and combinations with different enemies and biomes. The question on everyone's mind is, "Where we dropping next?"

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