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Major Orders are the large-scale, community-wide objectives that drive the Galactic War in Helldivers 2. If you've ever wondered why everyone seems to be fighting on a particular planet, or what those reward medals are for at the end of a week, you're seeing the effects of a Major Order. Here’s how they work from a player's perspective.
What is a Major Order?
A Major Order is a timed objective given to the entire Helldiver player base. It represents a strategic goal from Super Earth High Command. The briefing sets the narrative, but the core mechanic is simple: the global community must collectively contribute to a specific, large-scale task before a timer runs out. Success grants rewards to every player who participated; failure means no one gets anything.
How Do We Complete Them?
You contribute to a Major Order simply by playing the game and completing missions on relevant planets. Your individual mission success, samples extracted, or bugs/robots killed all feed into the global progress bar you see on your ship's Galactic War map. There is no need to sign up or opt-in; your normal gameplay counts. Most players focus their missions on the planets or factions specified in the order to ensure their efforts are directed efficiently.
What Kinds of Tasks Do We Get?
Based on past orders, the tasks generally fall into a few categories. "Liberate a planet" is the most common, requiring the global community to achieve 100% liberation on one or more specific worlds. "Defend a planet" means preventing that planet's liberation bar from falling to 0% before the timer ends. Others include achieving a total number of community-wide kills, completing a set number of operations (full mission sets), or gathering a specific quantity of common or rare samples. The "hold a planet" objective requires maintaining control over a world until the order expires, which often leads to a frantic defensive effort in the final hours.
What Are the Rewards?
Success typically rewards Medals, which are the primary currency for unlocking new weapons, armor, and cosmetics in the Warbonds. Rewards can range from 35 to 50 Medals. Sometimes, Requisition Slips (the currency for stratagems) are offered, and on rare occasions, a Major Order unlocks a new piece of equipment for everyone, like the EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit. It’s important to remember that these rewards are earned collectively. This is the intended, and only secure, way to progress. Players should be wary of any external sites offering cheap Helldivers 2 medals for sale on U4N or similar platforms, as these violate the game's terms of service and pose significant security risks to your account.
What Happens If We Fail?
If the community doesn't meet the goal in time, the order fails and no rewards are distributed. The narrative of the Galactic War also progresses based on that failure. For example, failing a defense order often means the enemy faction advances, capturing new sectors. This failure state is a core part of the evolving war story and creates new fronts to fight on.
A Look at Past Orders: What to Expect
Reviewing the timeline of past orders shows the typical ebb and flow. Early orders in February 2024 focused on establishing the Terminid Control System (TCS), with tasks like liberating key planets. The community succeeded in building the TCS but failed to defend against an Automaton surprise attack, which narratively allowed the bots to invade. In March, orders shifted between containing new Terminid outbreaks and launching "Operation Swift Disassembly" against the Automatons. These involved new mission types, like activating the TCS towers, and introduced new enemy types, such as the Shrieker, following certain outcomes. Successes and failures are persistent; failing to liberate a manufacturing planet like Tibit, for instance, was noted to have allowed the Automatons to increase their production.
Common Player Strategies
Most players coordinate through community channels to focus efforts on the active Major Order planets. When a defense is announced, you'll usually see a massive surge of Helldivers deploying to that world in its final days. For liberation orders, players often stick to the lower difficulties to complete missions quickly and reliably, ensuring a steady flow of progress. For sample-gathering orders, teams will deliberately seek out higher difficulty missions where rare samples spawn more frequently. The key is understanding that every successful extraction on a relevant planet helps, regardless of personal score.
Why Do They Matter?
Beyond the tangible rewards, Major Orders give the Galactic War its sense of scale and purpose. They create community-wide focal points, making your individual contributions feel part of a larger effort. The successes and failures shape the entire map, opening new campaigns and closing others. In general, participating in the current Major Order is the best way to ensure your gameplay is having the maximum impact on the shared war effort and earning you those crucial Medals for your own progression.
What is a Major Order?
A Major Order is a timed objective given to the entire Helldiver player base. It represents a strategic goal from Super Earth High Command. The briefing sets the narrative, but the core mechanic is simple: the global community must collectively contribute to a specific, large-scale task before a timer runs out. Success grants rewards to every player who participated; failure means no one gets anything.
How Do We Complete Them?
You contribute to a Major Order simply by playing the game and completing missions on relevant planets. Your individual mission success, samples extracted, or bugs/robots killed all feed into the global progress bar you see on your ship's Galactic War map. There is no need to sign up or opt-in; your normal gameplay counts. Most players focus their missions on the planets or factions specified in the order to ensure their efforts are directed efficiently.
What Kinds of Tasks Do We Get?
Based on past orders, the tasks generally fall into a few categories. "Liberate a planet" is the most common, requiring the global community to achieve 100% liberation on one or more specific worlds. "Defend a planet" means preventing that planet's liberation bar from falling to 0% before the timer ends. Others include achieving a total number of community-wide kills, completing a set number of operations (full mission sets), or gathering a specific quantity of common or rare samples. The "hold a planet" objective requires maintaining control over a world until the order expires, which often leads to a frantic defensive effort in the final hours.
What Are the Rewards?
Success typically rewards Medals, which are the primary currency for unlocking new weapons, armor, and cosmetics in the Warbonds. Rewards can range from 35 to 50 Medals. Sometimes, Requisition Slips (the currency for stratagems) are offered, and on rare occasions, a Major Order unlocks a new piece of equipment for everyone, like the EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit. It’s important to remember that these rewards are earned collectively. This is the intended, and only secure, way to progress. Players should be wary of any external sites offering cheap Helldivers 2 medals for sale on U4N or similar platforms, as these violate the game's terms of service and pose significant security risks to your account.
What Happens If We Fail?
If the community doesn't meet the goal in time, the order fails and no rewards are distributed. The narrative of the Galactic War also progresses based on that failure. For example, failing a defense order often means the enemy faction advances, capturing new sectors. This failure state is a core part of the evolving war story and creates new fronts to fight on.
A Look at Past Orders: What to Expect
Reviewing the timeline of past orders shows the typical ebb and flow. Early orders in February 2024 focused on establishing the Terminid Control System (TCS), with tasks like liberating key planets. The community succeeded in building the TCS but failed to defend against an Automaton surprise attack, which narratively allowed the bots to invade. In March, orders shifted between containing new Terminid outbreaks and launching "Operation Swift Disassembly" against the Automatons. These involved new mission types, like activating the TCS towers, and introduced new enemy types, such as the Shrieker, following certain outcomes. Successes and failures are persistent; failing to liberate a manufacturing planet like Tibit, for instance, was noted to have allowed the Automatons to increase their production.
Common Player Strategies
Most players coordinate through community channels to focus efforts on the active Major Order planets. When a defense is announced, you'll usually see a massive surge of Helldivers deploying to that world in its final days. For liberation orders, players often stick to the lower difficulties to complete missions quickly and reliably, ensuring a steady flow of progress. For sample-gathering orders, teams will deliberately seek out higher difficulty missions where rare samples spawn more frequently. The key is understanding that every successful extraction on a relevant planet helps, regardless of personal score.
Why Do They Matter?
Beyond the tangible rewards, Major Orders give the Galactic War its sense of scale and purpose. They create community-wide focal points, making your individual contributions feel part of a larger effort. The successes and failures shape the entire map, opening new campaigns and closing others. In general, participating in the current Major Order is the best way to ensure your gameplay is having the maximum impact on the shared war effort and earning you those crucial Medals for your own progression.