The GATER in Helldivers 2 and Conducting Mobile Substance Extraction explained

A GATER truck drives through wasteland in Helldivers 2 — (Image credit: Sony)

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How to use the GATER
Driving the GATER

The GATER in Helldivers 2 is part of the Conducting Mobile Substance Extraction operation and mission, used to drill the mysterious substance from sites around the Terminid Hives. If you're not used to driving the GATER or any other similar vehicle in Helldivers 2, dropping in and immediately panicking as you try to work out the truck controls while simultaneously being besieged by insects is hardly going to help the war effort. With that in mind, I'll explain how to use the GATER truck in Helldivers 2, as well as how to complete the mission and extract the substance from the required sites.

How to use the GATER in Helldivers 2

A player drives a GATER in Helldivers 2 towards an objective — (Image credit: Sony)

The GATER in Helldivers 2 is an essential part of the Conducting Mobile Substance Extraction mission, and you can't succeed without it. Here's the basics of what you need to do.

When starting the mission, head to the GATER marked on the map.
Get inside and drive it towards any of the marked sites on the map.
Once you're directly on there, a new mission Stratagem will appear.
Get out of the driver's seat and trigger the Stratagem to have the GATER drill into the ground.
Once it's done, get back in and repeat the process for all sites.
After all sites have been drilled, an aircraft will pick up the storage tanks from the GATER, which will then explode a moment later.
At this point the mission is complete and you're free to extract yourself.

Obviously this is easier said than done. The GATER is slow and hard to defend, and enemies will be constantly attacking. There is a turret built into the top, but it has limited mobility – and yes, the GATER can be destroyed. If this happens, the mission has officially failed, and there's no way to resolve it successfully.

How to drive the GATER in Helldivers 2

A GATER in Helldivers 2 has its fuel picked up by a shuttle — (Image credit: Sony)

To drive the GATER is similar to the Helldivers 2 FRV, with the same control system. You use the bumpers on the controller (LB&RB or L1&R1) to change gears, and RT/R2 to gun the throttle and accelerate.

This means that if you want to reverse, you have to change gears to R and then press R2. However, the GATER is a lot slower and more cumbersome than the FRV, so don't expect to rocket across the landscape, no matter what gear you're in.

Looking at more objectives from the same update? Find out how to pop the hidden Helldivers 2 Spore Lung, or check out how to kill a Helldivers 2 Hive Lord.

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.