Helldivers 2: Illuminate Guide | Weakness & How to Beat Them

The Illuminate are the newest enemy faction in Helldivers 2, so learning their weakness and how to beat them is crucial to survival.

This new faction ranges from zombie-like cannon fodder all the way up to gigantic tripodal robots that fire huge instakill lasers. There’s a lot of variety here, that’s for sure!

But no matter how varied they are, we’ll tell you the weakness of every Illuminate enemy in Helldivers 2 and how to beat them with ease.

Illuminate Guide | Weakness & How to Beat Them

Voteless

The foot soldiers of the Illuminate faction. These are basically just zombies and pose very little threat individually, but they can overwhelm you since they’re usually in large groups. Ideally, try to shoot them in the head to kill them faster without wasting too much ammo on them.

You should have no issue taking them down as long as you’re careful and keep an eye on your surroundings. Don’t let them overwhelm you or surround you! Remember, they only have strength in numbers.

Watcher

These floating drones are the scouts for the other Illuminate. They search areas and look for threats to the Illuminate, such as you. If they spot you, they will call upon other nearby Illuminate to attack you. They can also shoot flares to summon Warp Ships!

Thankfully, Watchers are very weak and should go down quickly with any weapon. That said, you should still do your best to avoid being spotted by them so they don’t call reinforcements. Watch out for their telltale cyan and magenta lights.

Also, Watchers’ remains explode when you take them out, which can damage you. Keep your distance when shooting them down.

Overseer

Bulky brutes who excel at melee combat. They have large maces which can land devastating attacks and they can also pull out an Energy Shield to block your attacks. You’ll likely instantly die if they hit you with a strong swing of their mace, as it can knock you out and leave you defenseless for too long.

The best way to take them out is to simply keep your distance. Overseers are only a threat in melee range. Keep away and focus fire on them before they can close the gap and you’ll be fine!

Elevated Overseer

The opposite of the standard Overseers, Elevated Overseers are agile and focus on ranged combat. Elevated Overseers wear jetpacks that allow them to fly indefinitely. On top of that, they can fire projectiles and throw grenades at you. If you’re feeling risky, you can grab the grenades and throw them right back at them!

Thankfully, Elevated Overseers aren’t quite as tanky as the regular Overseers. They don’t have an Energy Shield either. Their mobility can make them hard to hit, but they can’t take many hits before going down.

Also, their jetpack seems to be a weak spot if you manage to get behind them. Focusing fire on the jetpack can make it explode, killing the Elevated Overseer. Just make sure to stay out of the blast range so you don’t take damage as well.

Harvester

Gigantic walking three-legged robots capable of dishing out massive damage. They can cover themselves with massive Energy Shields which will prevent them from taking damage. Also, they can fire huge lasers from their central eye, usually resulting in instakills.

The most annoying part of dealing with Harvesters is the Energy Shield. You have to bring it down by attacking it. The Laser Cannon is your best bet for this, as it can make pretty quick work of the shield. Other heavy weapons can work well too, though, like the Heavy Machine Gun. Do note that the Harvest can re-enable its shield after a short period, too.

Alternatively, you can also get inside the shield to hit the Harvester directly without stripping the shield. We can’t recommend it, though, as you’ll take damage while doing so… but it’s still good to know!

Thankfully, Harvesters have 3 noteworthy weaknesses for you to exploit once their shield is down:

• First, the horn-like protrusion above their eye can be destroyed to prevent them from re-enabling their shield again.
• Second, the tendons connecting the legs to the main body are very weak.
• And lastly, the eye can be destroyed with strong weapons like the Quasar Cannon or Recoilless Rifle for quick kills.

Warp Ship

Last, but not least, the Illuminate have also brought Warp Ships with them into Helldivers 2. You’ll most often find these parked on the ground during missions. However, they can also appear flying in the sky, usually after a Watcher summons them. These ships will spawn other Illuminate enemy types to attack you.

When it comes to the grounded variants, they’re fairly easy to take out. Some Stratagems can take them out in a single hit. These include the Orbital Laser, Orbital Gas Strike, and Eagle 500kg Bomb. These will even go through the ships’ shield for the instakill!

Alternatively, your second-best bet is to first strip the shield protecting the ship. You can do so easily with Stratagems such as the Eagle Airstrike and Eagle Strafing Run. Then position yourself in front of the ship’s open entryway and shoot explosives at it. It can be a Frag Grenade, Gas Grenade, Explosive Crossbow shots, or a Grenade Pistol shot. This almost always destroys the Illuminate ship in one hit!

For the flying Illuminate ships, your best bet is the Orbital Gatling Barrage Stratagem. It can quickly overwhelm the ships and take them down within seconds. Alternatively, use Anti-Tank weapons and Stratagems to shoot them down. The new Anti-Tank Emplacement works pretty well, for example.

Thankfully, though, the flying Illuminate ships don’t have any shields. They also generally fly away after dropping more Illuminate forces, so they aren’t too much of a threat themselves. However, taking them out before they spawn more enemies is always a good idea.

So, there you have it! That’s our guide on every Illuminate enemy type in Helldivers 2, their weakness, and how to beat them. For more help dealing with them, check out our Illuminate loadout guide as well!