The right Ship Modules, if unlocked early in Helldivers 2, will help you a lot. These will increase your survival chances with improved cooldown, damage, rearm, landing, etc. However, you can’t get the upgrades for the ship module when you want.
You will need to find Samples to unlock Ship Modules in Helldivers 2. Some modules will also require you to unlock another ship module first. Luckily, finding samples isn’t really that difficult, as you will get them while completing missions. Ensure you complete all the objectives if you want to get samples quickly.
While looking for Super Credits, you mostly skip mission objectives, which you can’t do if you want samples for Ship modules. Playing at harder difficulty is recommended so you can get Rare Samples along with the Common, as you will also need these in unlocking the upgrades.
Now you know all about Ship Modules and how to unlock them, let’s talk about the best Upgrades you should unlock first in Helldivers 2.
1. Liquid-Ventilated Cockpit
- Unlock Requirement: x80 Common Green Samples
- Affected Stratagems: Eagle 110MM Rocket Pods, Eagle Smoke Strike, Eagle 500KG Bomb, Eagle Strafing Run, Eagle Cluster Bomb, Eagle Napalm Airstrike, Eagle Airstrike
It is the best module upgrade that you can have in Helldivers 2. This will reduce the cooldown of all Eagle Stratagems by 50%, which is huge. The cooldown will allow you to attack your enemies more often without much wait and use your Stratagems effectively.
2. Pit Crew Hazard Pay
- Unlock Requirement: x80 Common Green Samples, Liquid-Ventilated Cockpit, and x40 Orange Rare Samples.
- Affected Stratagems: N/A
This is another excellent Ship module upgrade for the Eagle Stratagems. This will reduce the Eagle Rearm time by 20%. To help you understand the Rearm time, let’s say you have two Eagle Stratagems, and you consume all of their attacks.
Once all attacks are consumed, they will go on a cooldown before you can rearm them. This module upgrade will lower that rearm time so that you can use your Stratagems after a small break.
3. Expanded Weapons Bay
- Unlock Requirement: x80 Common Green Samples, Pit Crew Hazard Pay, x80 Orange Rare Samples, and x10 Super Pink Samples.
- Affected Stratagems: Eagle 110MM Rocket Pods, Eagle Smoke Strike, Eagle Napalm Airstrike, Eagle Airstrike, Eagle 500KG Bomb, Eagle Strafing Run, Eagle Cluster Bomb.
This may take some time after unlocking the above modules, as it will require you to have x10 Super Pink Samples. Once you have all the required samples, you should go for the third Ship module upgrade in Helldivers 2.
It is excellent after the Pit Crew Hazard as it increases the number of uses of Eagle Stratagems after the rearm by 1. You can use two nukes back to back with just a cooldown of 8 seconds.
4. Donation Access License
- Unlock Requirement: x60 Common Green Samples
- Affected Stratagems: Anti-Material Rifle, Railgun, Flamethrower, Laser Cannon, Stalwart, Grenade Launcher, and Machine Gun.
This can be unlocked quite early and used to double up the benefits of the above modules. You have already lowered the cooldown time, and this will increase the number of magazines of each support weapon.
It means you can use your weapons longer, reuse them after a little wait, and overpower your enemies.
5. Synthetic Supplementation
- Unlock Requirement: x10 Rare Orange Samples and x60 Common Green Samples.
- Affected Stratagems: HMG Emplacement, Shield Generator Relay, Incendiary Mines, EMS Mortar Relay, Autocannon Sentry, Rocket Sentry, Machine Gun Sentry, Gatling Sentry, Anti-Personnel Minefield, Tesla Sentry, and Mortar Sentry.
It is a crucial module upgrade as you will be dealing with many robots, and Sentry will help because of the reduced cooldown. This will also reduce the cooldown time for the Resupply and Emplacement Stratagems, which are also great against robots.
6. Dynamic Tracking
- Unlock Requirement: x60 Common Green Samples and x20 Rare Orange Samples.
- Affected Stratagems: Autocannon Sentry, Rocket Sentry, Machine Gun Sentry, Gatling Sentry, EMS Mortar Sentry, Tesla Tower, and Mortar Sentry.
Dynamic tracing is excellent for buffing up the above ship module upgrade in Helldivers 2, as it reduces deployment time. This will allow Sentry to turn to new targets faster and increase the focus. This will fix the issue of your Sentry taking too long to select the next target after firing at one target.
7. Shock Absorption Gel
- Unlock Requirement: x80 Common Green Samples, Dynamic Tracking Ship Module, x40 Rare Orange Samples, x5 Super Pink Samples.
- Affected Stratagems: Autocannon Sentry, EMS Mortar Sentry, Machine Gun Sentry, Rocket Sentry, Mortar Sentry, Gatling Sentry.
With improved cooldown and targeting of Sentries, the next upgrade that will help you a lot is the Shock Absorption Gel. It will increase the ammo by 50%, meaning you can now take on robots longer. The only thing you will now lack is Sentry Health, which our next upgrade covers.
8. Advanced Construction
- Unlock Requirement: x5 Super Pink Samples, x80 Common Green Samples, x60 Rare Orange Samples, and Synthetic Supplementation.
- Affected Stratagems: Autocannon Sentry, EMS Mortar Sentry, Machine Gun Sentry, Rocket Sentry, Mortar Sentry, Gaitling Sentry, and Tesla Tower.
A 50% buff in the Sentry health is excellent for you as it will complement the last few Sentry-focused Ship Modules in Helldivers 2. Bugs and Robots will attack your sentries if these are in their range, so it is always great to boost the Sentry’s health so they can last longer.
9. Power Steering
- Unlock Requirement: Nuclear Radar Module
- Affected Stratagems: N/A
After improving different Stratagems, improving the steering while landing is also important. The improved Hellpod steering will allow you to land where you want and even take out Chargers. This will help you greatly in unlocking the achievement that requires killing a charger with a resupply pod.
Because of this, you can land on the tallest point and then use the strategy to unlock the Caught Them by Supplies trophy.
10. Zero-G Breech Loading
- Unlock Requirement: x10 Super Pink Samples, x80 Common Green Samples, x80 Rare Orange Samples, and More Guns Module.
- Affected Stratagems: Orbital Has Strike, All Orbital Cannons Stratagems, Orbital EMS Strike, Orbital Smoke Strike, and Orbital Precision Strike.
Finally, you should know that orbital stratagems mostly take time to cooldown. Unlock the Zero-G Breech Loading ship module in Helldivers 2 to buff them up. This will allow you to use Orbital Strike more quickly.
