Helldivers 2 Board Game: Exclusive Hands-On Preview

One of last year's breakout successes in the multiplayer game space was Arrowhead's Helldivers 2, which aimed to spread democracy across the stars by shooting aliens and robots with plenty of bullets. Now, following the release of their expansive board game adaptation of Elden Ring, Steamforged Games is set to transform the fast-paced and frenetic experience of Helldivers 2 into a tabletop game. This board game is now available for backing on Gamefound. IGN had the opportunity to play a prototype and sit down with designers Jamie Perkins, Derek Funkhouser, and Nicholas Yu to discuss this exciting new tabletop rendition.

Helldivers 2: The Board Game

17 ImagesDevelopment on Helldivers 2: The Board Game began shortly after the launch of the video game early last year. It captures much of what has made the video game so popular and exciting, recreating the tense firefights, chaotic surprises, and teamwork-centric experience, while also offering unique tweaks to the formula.

Helldivers 2 remains a purely cooperative, objective-based skirmish game, where one to four players (the designers recommend solo players use two characters) work together to complete selected objectives while surviving hordes of enemies and unexpected events. Each player assumes the role of a different Helldiver class, each with a unique perk, a set of action cards for their turn, and a powerful one-per-game "Act of Valor" ability. The demo included the Heavy, Sniper, Pyro, and the Captain. Players outfit themselves with a kit consisting of primary, secondary, and support guns, a grenade, and three strategems they can call in, with recommended loadouts listed on their class card. Once familiar with the game, players can customize their loadouts before each game.

Gameplay occurs on grid-based boards that expand as you explore, requiring you to place new boards that reveal various sub-objectives and locations of primary objectives—like Terminid hatcheries in the prototype. As you explore, more challenging enemies spawn, and with a mission timer limiting the rounds to complete objectives and evacuate, the game maintains the frenetic and tense feel of Helldivers.

The prototype focused on destroying a certain number of Terminid hatcheries, but the final release will offer multiple objectives. Regarding enemies, Jamie explained that the base game will include two of the three main factions—the Terminids and the robotic Automatons—each with 10 unit types. While not confirmed, given Steamforged Games' history with stretch goals, it's likely the Illuminate will be introduced via an expansion.

Curiosity about how the board game would handle the video game's sense of being overwhelmed and outnumbered led to comparisons with other games like Zombicide and Nemesis. Helldivers opts for a tactical approach with progressively more challenging enemies as the mission progresses.

Turns involve players and enemies adding their action cards to a pool, which are shuffled and placed on the initiative tracker (similar to Steamforged's Elden Ring game). Combat is based on dice rolls. A unique addition is that for every four action cards played, a random event occurs, often disrupting plans by spawning additional enemies, adding to the game's chaotic nature.

For Helldivers, combat is managed through dice rolls, with each weapon offering specific dice types and numbers. Damage is calculated by the total roll value, with every five points inflicting a wound on an enemy. This straightforward damage system avoids the complexity of modifiers and defense values, focusing on the impact of your hits. While friendly fire is possible, especially with area attacks, reinforcements are available.

A standout feature in the board game is the 'Massed Fire' mechanic, designed to replicate the video game's teamwork in targeting enemies.

"In the video game, obviously, you're encouraged to work together as a team," Nic explained. "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 using lots of facing and armor mechanics. So what we implemented was what 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 focus fire with you at that time, and so you're explicitly rewarded or incentivized to work as a group."

While players can explore solo, the 'Massed Fire' mechanic reduces downtime by allowing involvement during other players' turns and more dice-rolling opportunities.

Enemy attacks are straightforward, with set damage or effects causing players to draw wound cards. Each wound has a detrimental effect, and three wounds result in character death. However, depending on the chosen difficulty, players can respawn with their full loadout.

One element missing from the board game is the galactic war from the video game. The designers considered including it but ultimately decided against it to ensure the board game felt unique and different.

Jamie shared an interesting piece of "lore" about the board game: "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." This adds a fun meta-layer to the game.

Thanks to Nic, Jamie, and Derek's talent, this latest release from Steamforged Games is already shaping up well. The focus has been on ensuring the game feels like Helldivers, despite the new medium.

"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," Nic said.

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."

As it stands now, the core mechanics are about 75-80% finalized, leaving room for community feedback, balance adjustments, or new ideas. Despite recent concerns about tariffs and their impact on the board gaming industry, Jamie emphasized that these issues won't slow down their plans, and they are moving forward as intended.

Having played the prototype, the systems in place are fun, with random events and the Massed Fire mechanic leading to epic moments. However, while the tactical focus with larger, more challenging enemies is appreciated, more smaller enemies to shoot at with friends would enhance the experience. Enemy attacks currently feel static, and introducing variable outcomes via dice rolls could bring their combat more in line with the game's overall chaos.

I'm excited to see what other surprises Steamforged Games has in store for Helldivers 2. What I've played so far has left me eager to try new Helldiver classes, explore different game types, and mix and match them with various enemies and biomes. My friends and I are already asking: Where are we dropping next?

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