Helldivers 2 Devs Game-Changing Hints – Massive Maps and 8-Player Raids

If you’ve spent any time in Helldivers 2, you know the drill: drop in, panic, accidentally blow up your friends, and maybe—maybe—extract with a sample or two. If you’ve thought four-player squads were the most chaotic fun you could have, then you’d better hold on. The developers at Arrowhead Game Studios are hinting at something that could turn the mayhem up to eleven: eight-player missions.

Upping the Ante in Helldivers 2 Instead of Making a Third Game

In a recent Q&A session on the official Discord, Arrowhead’s Chief Creative Officer Johan Pilestedt dropped some serious knowledge bombs. When asked about the future of the franchise and the possibility of a Helldivers 3, Pilestedt didn’t mince words. He explained that rather than shipping a whole new sequel, the team would much rather keep expanding Helldivers 2 with “sequel-level features.”

Pilestedt’s philosophy for Helldivers 2 is straightforward: why start over when you can just make the current game bigger, louder, and crazier? He specifically mentioned that if they were to make a third game, it would likely just be to upgrade the engine tech. Since the current engine is holding up just fine (mostly), they’d prefer to dump all their creative energy into massive updates for the game we’re already addicted to.

Pilestedt’s Idea 1: From 4-Player Teams to 8-Player Squads

Pilestedt touched on what those “sequel-level features” might actually look like. He tossed out ideas like “megamaps” and squads of more than four players. Imagine dropping into a Terminid-infested hellscape not with three buddies, but with seven, all equipped with orbital lasers, eagle airstrikes, and mech suits. What a logistical and chaotic nightmare for coordination and friendly fire. If you struggle to get three randoms to stop shooting, imagine trying to wrangle seven of them fueled with Democracy.

But the potential for raid-like mechanics is HUGE. You could split into two teams of four, hitting different objectives simultaneously across a massive open-world map. Or, more likely, you could all bunch up in a choke point and accidentally wipe the entire squad with a single poorly placed 500kg bomb. That’s the Helldivers 2 way, after all.

Pilestedt’s Idea 2: Opening The World With Megamaps

The addition of a “megamaps” is a rich concept, pushing for larger and open-world style mapping. The approach alone can change the pacing entirely. It would require vehicles to be more than just a novelty; a big world means new weapons and vehicles that aren’t knick-knacks. We’ve already got the APC and the Recon Vehicle in the game files (thanks, dataminers), so the pieces are already on the board.

With more ground to cover and a growing squad, the future gameplay for Helldivers 2 could lead to longer, more in-depth operations. We’re talking about missions that feel like a full-scale war. All of it sounds awesome and is a very ambitious project, but I believe Arrowhead can pull it off without breaking the game’s core loop.

Still Just Hypothetical on Arrowhead’s End

Now, before you go pinging your entire Discord server, keep in mind this ISN’T an official roadmap announcement. This is a developer musing about what they WANT to do. Pilestedt was careful to frame this as hypothetical…however, in the game industry, “hypothetical” often translates to “we are testing this and hope it doesn’t break everything.” The fact that they’re openly discussing them suggests they are seriously considering the technical hurdles.

A few questions are still hovering around: Can the engine handle eight players spamming airstrikes at once? Can the servers handle the load? Will the frame rate dip into the single digits? How long until it releases? But again, those features are still in the brainstorming phase, and can change in the future. We’ll have to wait until Arrowhead Games makes an official announcement about those sequel-level features.

Helldivers 2 is Arrowhead’s Creative Lightning Rod

Pilestedt is on the creative helm for Helldivers 2 and expanding the game’s universe. Instead of making a third game now, he much prefers adding as much as he can to the current installment. Arrowhead Games’ Discord discussion is pretty much announcing new changes in their fight for democracy! Whether those ideas come to fruition is up to the creative developers, but just like Helldivers 2, the team behind the code is just crazy enough to pull it off.