One of last year's breakout successes in the multiplayer game space was Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2, a thrilling experience where players spread democracy across the stars by battling aliens and robots with an abundance of bullets. Now, following their impressive adaptation of Elden Ring into a board game, Steamforged Games is turning their attention to the fast-paced, frenetic world of Helldivers 2. The new board game adaptation is currently available for backing on Gamefound. IGN had the opportunity to play a prototype and discuss the game with designers Jamie Perkins, Derek Funkhouser, and Nicholas Yu, gaining insight into this exciting tabletop rendition.
Helldivers 2: The Board Game
17 Images
Development of Helldivers 2: The Board Game began shortly after the video game's launch early last year. The board game successfully captures the essence of what made the video game so popular and exciting, including tense firefights, chaotic surprises, and a teamwork-centric experience, while also introducing unique twists to the formula.
Helldivers 2 remains a cooperative, objective-based skirmish game that can be played with one to four players. The designers recommend solo players control two characters. Players assume different classes of Helldivers, each with unique perks, a set of action cards, and a powerful one-per-game "Act of Valor" ability. The prototype included the Heavy, Sniper, Pyro, and Captain classes. Players customize their kits with primary, secondary, and support weapons, grenades, and three strategems, with recommended loadouts on their class cards. Experienced players can choose their own gear before starting.
Gameplay occurs on grid-based boards that expand as players explore, revealing sub-objectives and primary objective locations, such as Terminid hatcheries in the prototype. As the game progresses, increasingly difficult enemies spawn, and a mission timer adds a sense of urgency, keeping games tense and fast-paced.
The prototype focused on destroying Terminid hatcheries, but the final release will offer multiple objectives. The base game will include two main factions: Terminids and robotic Automatons, each with ten unit types. While not confirmed, there's a possibility of the Illuminate faction being added via an expansion, given Steamforged Games' history with stretch goals.
The adaptation aims to replicate the video game's feeling of being overwhelmed and outnumbered. Instead of overwhelming players with sheer numbers, like in Zombicide, it opts for fewer but stronger enemies, akin to Nemesis, fostering tactical close-up combat that becomes more challenging 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 relies on dice rolls, and every fourth action card triggers a random event that can disrupt plans, such as spawning horde enemies or additional threats.
On the Helldivers' side, combat uses dice rolls with each weapon determining the type and number of dice. Damage is calculated by the total value of the roll, with every five points inflicting a wound on enemies. This streamlined approach avoids complex modifiers, focusing on the impact of hits. Friendly fire is a risk, especially with area attacks, but reinforcements can bring players back into the action.
A new feature the designers are proud of is the 'Massed Fire' mechanic, which replicates 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 kind of 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 to a lot 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 kind of explicitly rewarded or incentivized to work as a group."
Players can explore solo, but the 'Massed Fire' mechanic reduces downtime and encourages group play, enhancing engagement and enjoyment.
Enemy actions are straightforward, with set damage or effects causing players to draw wound cards. Each wound has a detrimental effect, and three wounds result in death. However, players can respawn depending on the chosen difficulty, returning with a full loadout.
One aspect missing from the board game is the video game's galactic war feature. The designers considered including it but decided against it to keep the board game unique. Jamie shared an interesting piece of lore: "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." It's hoped that future iterations might include Helldivers playing the board game within the video game.
The team's focus has been to ensure the board game feels like Helldivers, despite the different medium. Nic emphasized, "We wanted to make sure that even though 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. Despite recent concerns about tariffs affecting the board gaming industry, Jamie assures that their plans remain unchanged, with a team ready to adapt if necessary.
After playing the prototype, the random events and 'Massed Fire' mechanic stand out as highlights, creating epic moments. While the tactical focus with fewer, stronger enemies is appreciated, some might prefer more smaller enemies to shoot. The static nature of enemy attacks could be enhanced with varied outcomes based on die rolls, aligning better with the game's overall chaos.
Excitement builds for what Steamforged Games has planned for Helldivers 2. The prototype has left players eager to try new classes, game types, and combinations with different enemies and biomes. The question on everyone's lips is: Where are we dropping next?
See more board games based on video games
### Resident Evil 2: The Board Game
3See it at Amazon
### Bloodborne: The Board Game
4See it at Amazon
### Slay the Spire: The Board Game
2See it at Amazon
### Pac-Man: The Board Game
0See it at Amazon
### Stardew Valley: The Board Game
4See it at Amazon
### Doom: The Board Game
2See it at Amazon
