The driving force behind the live service nature of Helldivers 2 is its Galactic War, a massive overarching metagame in which players wrestle with enemy Terminid and Automaton factions for control of various planets and sectors. As Major Orders come down from Super Earth's top brass (AKA, developer Arrowhead Game Studios), Liberty's finest space marines are encouraged to deploy to crucial fronts and either liberate hostile-controlled worlds or defend them from incoming invasions.
Squads contribute to these efforts — represented by a percentage bar above each world and sector — by finishing groups of missions called planetary operations, and while individual completions only have a very minor impact, the community can win conflicts in a matter of days or even hours if they fight on a planet en masse. Victory often leads to rewards like Warbond Medals, temporary free uses of certain stratagems on other battlefields, and even special unlocks like Helldivers 2's new Exosuit mechs; conversely, defeat can result in serious consequences (luckily, players have only lost one minor fight so far).
Due to the importance of Major Orders, it's valuable to understand where most players are fighting so you can head there too, and also to keep an eye on how the war effort is progressing on a macro scale. You can view these details with the map on your ship in the game, but thanks to this Super Earth-approved Helldivers 2 Galactic War map website, you can also monitor them outside of it.
Helldivers 2 Galactic War map explained
First shared on Reddit by its particularly patriotic architect, the "Helldivers: Galactic War Status and Progression" web app — or Helldivers.io — functions as a live tracker of the Galactic War and how it's unfolding around the clock. It automatically updates once every minute, and includes a simplified version of the in-game map that displays every active planet along with stats like their player counts, liberation percentages, progression rates, and the current rates at which the Terminid bugs and Automaton bots are pushing back against the community's efforts.
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Notably, the table above the map also features a "Predicted Time" column that estimates when a world will be successfully freed or held based on calculations with the latest recorded progression rates (or if a planet is losing ground and needs reinforcements). Right now, for example, it suggests we'll liberate Fenrir III later today as part of an ongoing Major Order to free four planets in a week (EDIT: We did, baby, and Turing is next). It shows which enemy faction you'll encounter on each one, too, as well as if a planet is part of the current Major Order. The latter is also displayed on the map itself with golden borders.
The only thing that's missing from the web app are indicators for each world's Environmental Effects and Planetary Hazards like extreme cold/heat, meteor showers or earthquakes, but the creator mentioned they plan to add these in future updates. They also noted they're open to suggestions for other additions, so make sure to drop a comment in the Reddit thread I linked above if you've got an idea.
There's even a full in-depth explanation of how the Galactic War mechanics work at the bottom of the page, which is quite helpful since Helldivers 2's in-game menus don't go into much detail about them. All in all, this is an amazing tool, and one I highly recommend using as you fight to spread managed democracy.
Helldivers 2 is available now for $39.99 on both PS5 and PC, and so far, it's one of the best PC games of the year. Notably, the game also supports cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.
