Friendly Fire at the Core of Helldivers 2, All for a Good Laugh and Chaos

While bringing the camera close to your character is one of the biggest changes Helldivers 2 makes from the original, a feature that remains very much the same is friendly fire. If a teammate steps in the path of your own bullet barrage or laser beam, or is caught up in a missile strike, they'll sustain damage and could die. This is treated as a pretty important feature in the Arrowhead Studios follow-up, and it can't be turned off.

The Swedish developer considers friendly fire a "central thread" that runs through many of its titles, and in the case of Helldivers 2, it's all about leaning into the comedy value. "It enhances the satire and that feeling of unpredictability and chaos. It's also a thing about mastery," said assistant game director Sagar Beroshi. "We want you to have moments where you're like: 'I was trying to get rid of this big scary robot, but instead I shot a big orbital barrage right over where you were standing.'"