Secondary Objectives in Helldivers 2 explained

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Secondary objectives in Helldivers 2 are sometimes called optional objectives, shown as blue icons

Helldivers 2
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Helldivers 2 secondary objectives are optional missions and quests that players can do while engaged in larger missions, marked by little blue icons on your map. Secondary Objectives aren't just ways to hurt the enemy factions a little extra, but they also grant further rewards of experience and requisition slips when the mission is completed, and can even by tied to the occasional personal order to complete six secondary objectives in a single 24 hour period.

These optional missions can include blowing up hives, setting up radar, or loading up missiles - and whatever they are, we'll help you below. Here's everything you need to know about secondary objectives in Helldivers 2.

How to complete Secondary Objectives in Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 Secondary Objectives

(Image credit: Sony)

Helldivers 2 secondary objectives are all the optional side activities in missions that get marked on the map in blue. Secondary objectives appear from the Easy Difficulty onwards, and have two broad variants: Allied Tactical Objectives, which aid your team or Super Earth generally when completed, and Enemy Tactical Objectives, which support foes in some way until you beat them. Slightly confusingly, they're also all referred to as Optional Objectives in the end-of-mission debrief.

When you start a mission, an objective might be marked on the map from the beginning before you even drop, but that isn't necessarily all of them. Some secondary objectives have to be found by players while exploring the map, and you'll have them tagged when you get close. If you can find and trigger a Radar Tower, itself a secondary objective, it will reveal the whole mission map, including the rest of the optional mission elements.

Once you've found a Secondary Objective, the steps needed to complete it will be shown on the right side of the screen, usually involving a terminal of some sort. It's worth watching the horizon for anomalous buildings or structures - anything that stands out from the landscape, like a tower or artillery, is worth investigating.

All Secondary Objectives in Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 Shriekers

(Image credit: Sony)

At time of writing there are 12 Secondary Objectives that players can encounter in Helldivers 2.

  • Detector Tower (Automatons only): A large constructed tower with red spotlight that players need to destroy with a Hellbomb. Sends bots after players it detects.
  • Enemy Bio-Processors (Automatons only): Fight into an Automaton outpost and destroy a small chemical facility. Hellbombs can be used, but other explosives can work.
  • Illegal Broadcast: A radio tower that can either be destroyed with explosives are shut down via a terminal at its base.
  • Mortar Emplacement (Automatons only): An outpost with long-range mortars that need to be destroyed. Hellbombs or player gear and Stratagems can be used for this.
  • Radar Station: A radar tower that can be activated via a terminal. Once activated, it reveals all points of interest on the map.
  • Retrieve Mutant Larvae (Terminids only): Kidnap a small bug, worn as a backpack, and bring it back to extraction. Leaves players unable to equip other backpack items.
  • Rogue Research Station: A cluster of buildings that need to be destroyed with a Hellbomb.
  • SEAF Artillery: A missile launcher built into the ground, activated first by a terminal and then loading specialised shells of your choice into it. Once done, players can have the SEAF fire these shells as a new Stratagem, with five uses.
  • SEAF SAM Site (Automatons only): A terminal-activated launcher that automatically targets Automaton Dropships when they fly in, potentially destroying them before they drop enemies with a roughly 50% success rate.
  • Spore Spewer (Terminids only): A giant mushroom that generates obscuring fog across the map. Use any weaponry or Stratagems to blow it up and destroy it.
  • Shrieker Nest (Terminids only): A cluster of fungal trees that spawn the flying Terminid Shriekers. Both weapons and Hellbombs can be used to destroy them.
  • Stalker Lair (Terminids only): A nest of one or two Bug Holes that spawn Stalkers, powerful Terminids that turn invisible. Can be closed with grenades or explosives like any other bug hole.
  • Stratagem Jammer (Automatons only): A tower that prevents the use of Stratagems in the vicinity. Shut it down using the Terminal at its base, then call in a Hellbomb to blow it up.
  • Upload Escape Pod Data: Activate a Data Transfer near a crashed escape pod and guard it until the upload is complete.

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Joel Franey
Joel Franey
Guides Editor, GamesRadar+

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.