Helldivers 2: How to Join Public Games

The galactic war against tyranny demands the full cooperation of the entire Helldivers 2 community, and the effort of every individual soldier will have an impact on how things progress in the future. More dangerous operations will sway the tide more in favor of Super Earth, but these missions are often too much for a lone commando to deal with.

Blasting enemies of democracy with big guns and good friends lies at the heart of Helldivers 2, but if you don’t have a full squad of buddies to team up with, you can always enjoy some merry mayhem by joining a public game. If you’re having trouble finding a lobby, here’s a short guide to help you out.

Updated March 6th, 2024 by Russ Boswell: Playing with friends can be a blast in Helldivers 2 but the game features a fairly solid matchmaking system that can match players from all over the world and put them together on missions. Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to join a public lobby in Helldivers 2. Players who are running missions solo can also place SOS Beacons to open their missions on the map for other players to join. To better show how to join public games in Helldivers 2, the following guide has been updated with a video.

How to Matchmake in Helldivers 2

As far as public matchmaking is concerned, players gain access to the Quick Play queue very early on in the game. This will attempt to match you with a random lobby, whether it be one on an ongoing mission or another that’s waiting for its next deployment. Quick Play also disregards enemy faction preferences, so you won’t be able to tell if you’re going to fight against bots or bugs until you reach the host’s ship. If you’re wondering, the game does have crossplay. If you’d rather opt out of it, you can disable it in the Options menu.

If you want to prioritize contributing to the current Major Order from Super Earth Command, then your best bet is to manually check active warzones and look for lobbies there. Other players’ sessions will appear as selectable missions on the global map screen. You’ll know it’s a multiplayer session if a player list appears when you hover over the map icon. If none appear, view a different planet or change the mission difficulty.

Using SOS Beacons

If you’re hosting a game and no one joins you on your ship, then it may be best to pick a mission, drop planetside, and call-in an SOS beacon instead. This makes your lobby more visible to other Helldivers who are looking for a match in high orbit. When one is active, your mission will have blue waves pulsing out of it from the mission select screen, indicating to other players that you need help. Make sure to set your Matchmaking Privacy in the Options menu to Public.

The launch of Helldivers 2 was soured by connectivity issues, particularly with matchmaking. This was resolved shortly after the game went live, but not completely. If you’re experiencing issues with Quick Play or manual lobby joining, then it’s likely that there’s an error with either your internet connection or the game’s backend.