What Are Medals in Helldivers 2?
Medals are a form of progression reward in Helldivers 2. You earn them by completing missions, reaching certain objectives, or performing well in specific challenges. Unlike standard experience points or credits, medals serve as a kind of currency for unlocking or enhancing gear, perks, and equipment loadouts.
In practice, medals aren’t something you spend every mission—they’re more about long-term upgrades. You can think of them as a way to fine-tune your playstyle. If you like heavy firepower, you might prioritize medals that improve weapon damage or reduce cooldowns. If you prefer stealth or support roles, you can focus on perks that enhance mobility or squad buffs.
How Do You Earn Medals?
Medals are earned through a variety of in-game actions. Common sources include:
Mission Completion: Finishing missions, especially on higher difficulties, grants medals. The more objectives you complete, the higher the medal reward.
Challenges and Achievements: Certain medals are tied to achievements like killing a set number of enemies with a specific weapon or surviving a mission without dying.
Squad Performance: Helldivers 2 rewards teamwork. Medals can be earned by reviving teammates, calling in stratagems effectively, or protecting objectives.
It’s important to note that medals are cumulative. You don’t lose them if a mission fails, so playing aggressively to complete objectives often pays off.
How Do Medals Affect Your Loadout?
This is where most new players get confused. Medals aren’t automatically applied to your gear; they are spent to unlock or upgrade specific options.
In practice, using medals is about deciding which parts of your loadout you want to focus on. Here’s a typical breakdown:
Weapons: Medals can reduce cooldowns, increase ammo capacity, or improve accuracy. For example, a medal that reduces reload time on a heavy weapon can change how often you can suppress enemies.
Armor and Defense: Some medals improve survivability, like reducing damage from certain enemy types or increasing shield capacity. These are usually valuable in missions where you expect heavy enemy contact.
Stratagems: Medals can enhance the efficiency or speed of your stratagems. Faster calling times or stronger effects mean you can rely on support tools without wasting time.
Perks: Certain medals unlock or boost perks that change how you play. Perks like “Increased Sprint” or “Ammo Recovery” can have subtle but cumulative effects.
The key is to use medals where they match your playstyle. A common mistake is spreading them too thin across all options, which can result in minor improvements that don’t feel impactful.
Should You Save Medals or Spend Them?
Most experienced players recommend a balanced approach. Some medals are easy to earn, so spending them early on useful upgrades is often worth it. Others are rarer, and you may want to save them for high-impact upgrades that will benefit your favorite loadout long-term.
In practice, I tend to focus first on medals that improve weapons or survivability, then use the remaining medals for stratagem efficiency. This gives a noticeable improvement in mission performance without overcommitting to one area.
How to Decide Which Medals to Use First
A common question is: Which medals are worth spending immediately? Here’s a practical guide based on actual gameplay:
Prioritize Core Weapons: Your main weapon sees the most use, so medals that reduce reload time, increase magazine size, or improve accuracy usually give the most noticeable benefit.
Enhance Survivability: If you die often, medals that reduce incoming damage, increase shield strength, or boost dodge speed can save multiple lives over time.
Boost Stratagems: If you rely on supply drops, turrets, or airstrikes, enhancing these options with medals can change mission pacing. Faster cooldowns or stronger effects often outweigh minor weapon upgrades.
Avoid Minor Buffs Early: Medals that slightly improve movement speed or minor perks may feel good, but the impact is usually less than core weapon or defense upgrades.
By following this order, you maximize your loadout efficiency while ensuring each medal has a noticeable effect.
Can You Buy Helldivers 2 Medals?
Yes. Helldivers 2 allows players to buy helldivers 2 medals if they want to accelerate their progress. This is particularly useful if you’re looking to experiment with different loadouts without grinding every mission repeatedly. However, in practice, it’s usually better to earn at least some medals through gameplay first. You’ll understand which upgrades are most valuable to your playstyle and avoid wasting them on less impactful options.
Common Mistakes with Medals
Here are some pitfalls I see frequently among newer players:
Spreading Medals Too Thin: Upgrading every weapon or perk slightly feels tempting, but it usually results in weak gains across the board instead of strong improvements in one area.
Ignoring Playstyle: Using medals on perks or weapons you rarely use wastes progress. Focus on gear you actually take into missions.
Neglecting Squad Benefits: Some medals enhance team performance, not just personal stats. Ignoring these can make solo upgrades less effective.
Chasing Rarity: High-rarity medals aren’t always the best choice. Focus on practical benefits, not just how rare a medal is.
Putting It All Together
In practice, a good approach is:
Track how you play each mission. Which weapons or stratagems do you rely on most?
Spend medals to improve those core tools first.
Add defensive upgrades to reduce mission failures.
Enhance team-oriented perks if you play frequently in squads.
Reassess periodically—once a loadout feels solid, consider saving new medals for experimental builds.
This approach ensures your medals give real performance gains and make missions feel smoother without wasting your progress.
Medals in Helldivers 2 are more than just rewards—they’re tools to optimize your loadout and make missions more manageable. By focusing on core weapons, survivability, and squad-oriented upgrades, you can ensure every medal has a tangible impact. Whether you earn them through gameplay or buy helldivers 2 medals, using them wisely is the key to maximizing your efficiency on the battlefield.
