If you want to play with randoms and let them join your game in Helldivers 2, let’s go through everything you need to know. Playing solo in Helldivers 2 is technically possible, but the game wasn’t designed for it.
But if your friends aren’t online, randoms are your next best option, and getting them into your game is easier than you might think. Here’s everything you need to know to make it work.
Let’s go through the process in further detail to make sure you’re doing it right.
How to Get Randoms to Join Your Lobby in Helldivers 2
To have randoms join your lobby, start any mission, and once you fly there with your ship, wait on your ship. As long as you have privacy settings set to public, other people will join.
If everything works correctly, others will join within seconds. If nobody has joined after a minute, the servers are having issues, and your best bet is to restart the game and relaunch the mission.
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One thing worth knowing is that randoms can join you at any point, not just while you’re waiting on the ship.
Players can drop into your mission even after you’ve already landed on the surface, so don’t feel like you have to hold the launch. If you set off and someone joins mid-mission, they’ll get hellpodded in right alongside you.
How to Set Up Your Matchmaking Privacy
Before anything else, you need to confirm your privacy settings are actually set to Public, because the default isn’t always obvious. Here’s exactly where to find it:
Open the Main Menu, go to Options, select the Gameplay tab -> Matchmaking Privacy. Set it to Public. That’s it.
While you’re in there, check your Crossplay setting directly below it. If crossplay is turned off, you’re only matchmaking with players on your same platform, which shrinks the pool of people who can join you.
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The SOS Beacon: Your Best Tool for Getting Help Mid-Mission
If you’ve already started a mission and nobody has joined yet, the SOS Beacon is the most effective tool at your disposal (make sure to have it in your kit, as it has to be there before launching).
When you deploy the beacon, it creates a visible pulse around your mission icon on the Galactic War map.
This flags your session as a priority for other players who are browsing missions or using Quickplay, and it keeps broadcasting until all four player slots in your lobby are filled.
It’s also worth knowing that the beacon allows players to join you even if your lobby is set to private, which makes it a real lifeline when you’re deep in a mission and struggling.
A few things to keep in mind: the beacon can only be used once per mission, and it can’t be deployed during ion storms or near Automaton jammer towers.
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How to Join Randoms in Helldivers 2
Similarly, if you’re wondering how to join randoms in Helldivers 2, simply select the Quick Game option in the main menu, and you’ll instantly join a lobby with random players.
Quickplay doesn’t filter by enemy faction, so you won’t know if you’re heading into a bug or bot mission until you arrive at the host’s ship, which I personally find half the fun.
Since matchmaking is slightly messed up, I highly recommend finding other people and setting up a lobby through the official Helldivers 2 discord server.
Wrapping up
To summarize, the best way to play with randoms in Helldivers 2 is by making a lobby and waiting on your ship until randoms join. As long as you have matchmaking settings set to public, others will join within the first minute.
If nobody joins, I recommend restarting the lobby since it’s probably a bug with the servers. Alternatively, you can always check the official Discord server to find people and queue up together without relying on the game’s matchmaking.
Did you manage to get enough randoms to join without having to restart, or did you resort to finding people through Discord? What are your co-op experiences in Helldivers 2 so far? Feel free to share them in the comments below.