Quick answer: The best Helldivers 2 loadout against the Terminids on patch 7.0.2 pairs a high-volume chaff-clearing primary — an incendiary shotgun like the SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary or the SG-451 Cookout — with a dedicated anti-tank support weapon (the Recoilless Rifle or Quasar Cannon) for Chargers and Bile Titans. Bring G-123 Thermite grenades to melt heavy armour, the Eagle Airstrike plus Orbital Gas Strike to shut down bug breaches, and the Eagle 500kg Bomb as your emergency Bile Titan delete button. The whole build is about one thing: never letting the swarm out-pace your rate of fire while keeping an answer ready for the heavies that come with it.
The Terminids — "bugs" — are the faction most players cut their teeth on, and the bug front is still the busiest in the Galactic War. But dropping onto a Terminid planet with a bot or squid kit gets you overrun fast: bugs punish slow crowd clear more than anything else, flooding you through breaches while a Charger flanks and a Bile Titan lobs acid from range. This guide breaks down the exact primary, secondary, grenade, support weapon and stratagems that beat the Terminids on the current patch, how to reliably kill the two units that wipe squads, and how to shift the build as you climb toward Super Helldive.
⚙️ Verified for patch 7.0.2 "Devoid of Liberty" (released 25 August 2026). The most recent update is a stability hotfix — its patch notes open, "Captain Morris here, deploying a small update this fine Tuesday" (Arrowhead Game Studios, Devoid of Liberty: 7.0.2) — and it changed no weapon balance, so the 7.0.0 combat meta still holds. Helldivers 2 rebalances constantly (Arrowhead shipped 13 numbered patches in the first seven months of 2026 alone), so treat every weapon role below as durable and re-check exact numbers against the current patch notes if you are reading this later.
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Key takeaways
- Build by faction, not by "best gun." There is no single best loadout in Helldivers 2 — it is co-op PvE, and the Terminids demand chaff clear plus anti-tank in a way the bots and Illuminate do not.
- Incendiary wins the swarm. Fire damage-over-time keeps killing packs of Scavengers and Hunters while you turn to the next threat, which is exactly what the bug swarm punishes you for not doing.
- Two units end runs: the Charger and the Bile Titan. Bring a real anti-tank answer for both, or a bad spawn buries you.
- Thermite is the great equaliser. One G-123 Thermite sticks to a Charger or Bile Titan and burns through the armour your primary can't touch.
- Close the holes. A Grenade Pistol or an Eagle Airstrike sealing bug breaches does more for your survival than any single kill.
Why do Terminids need their own loadout?
The Terminids (slang: "bugs") are one of three enemy factions alongside the Automatons ("bots") and the Illuminate ("squids"). Each faction fails you in a different way, so each needs a different kit. Bots punish exposure at range; the Illuminate flood you with floating medium units. The Terminids punish breach density — the moment a bug breach opens, dozens of light enemies pour out, and if your damage output stalls for even a few seconds, you get swarmed and pinned while a heavy closes in.
So an anti-Terminid loadout has one core rule: sustained, uninterrupted killing power against chaff, backed by burst anti-tank for the heavies. Every slot below serves that rule.
What roles does an anti-Terminid loadout need to cover?
Treat your four loadout slots — primary, secondary, grenade/support weapon and stratagems — as a coverage checklist. Against the bugs the jobs are:
| Job | Threat | What handles it |
|---|---|---|
| Chaff clear | Scavengers, Hunters, Warriors, Shriekers | Incendiary shotgun, Sickle, Guard Dog "Rover", Gatling Sentry |
| Anti-medium | Bile Spewers, Nursing Spewers, Stalkers | Any medium-pen primary, Grenade Pistol, Eagle Airstrike |
| Anti-heavy / anti-tank | Chargers, Impalers | Recoilless Rifle, Quasar Cannon, EAT-17, Thermite, Railcannon |
| Anti-titan | Bile Titan | Eagle 500kg Bomb, Orbital Railcannon Strike, Recoilless to the head |
The classic mistake is over-indexing on one column. A pure anti-tank kit drowns in Scavengers; a pure chaff kit can't scratch a Charger. The builds below keep all four boxes ticked.
Best primary and secondary weapons vs the Terminids
Primaries — pick something that clears packs without reloading every three seconds:
- SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary: the community's default bug primary for a reason. A fast-firing shotgun that sets everything alight, so a single spread keeps killing a pack after you have moved on. It is a staple, high-fire-rate answer to Hunters and Scavengers.
- SG-451 Cookout: the other top incendiary shotgun — trades some raw pellet damage for stagger and a stronger burn, which knocks down and cooks packs at once.
- LAS-16 Sickle: the laser rifle's near-infinite ammo economy (you manage heat, not magazines) shines when the breach never stops. No reloads means no vulnerable windows against a swarm.
If your primary cannot comfortably delete a Bile Spewer with sustained fire, it is under-gunned for the bug front — favour rate of fire and ammo economy over precision here.
Secondary — bring hole-closing utility:
- GP-31 Grenade Pistol: the single most useful bug sidearm, because it closes bug holes and Terminid nests from a safe distance without spending a stratagem or a grenade. On the Terminid front, sealing spawn points is half the fight. The GP-31 unlocks in the Democratic Detonation Warbond, widely regarded as the best first Premium Warbond to buy.
- P-4 Senator: a hard-hitting revolver as a panic button for a Hunter that leaps into your face while you reload.
How do you kill a Charger and a Bile Titan?
These two units end more runs than anything else on the bug front. Getting them right is the difference between clearing Super Helldive and getting stuck at extraction.
The Charger — the armoured bug that lowers its head and rushes you:
- Sidestep, then punish. Dodge to the side as it commits to a charge; it takes time to turn around, giving you a free window on its exposed rear/side.
- Anti-tank support weapon: a Recoilless Rifle, Quasar Cannon, or EAT-17 round strips or kills it. The Quasar's cooldown-based reload (no ammo pickups) is forgiving for solo play; the Recoilless hits harder and reloads faster if a teammate assists.
- G-123 Thermite: stick one to the Charger and the burn eats through its armour — one of the most ammo-efficient kills in the game.
The Bile Titan — the towering bug that spits bile and stomps:
- Eagle 500kg Bomb: the dedicated Titan deleter. Land it under the Titan and it dies outright; keep this stratagem for exactly this moment.
- Orbital Railcannon Strike: a fire-and-forget option that auto-targets the biggest thing nearby — reliable when you cannot line up a bomb.
- Anti-tank to the head: Recoilless Rifle and Quasar rounds to the head/underbelly whittle a Titan down when your stratagems are on cooldown.
The armour lesson is universal on the bug front: light enemies want volume of fire, heavies want armour penetration. No single weapon does both well, which is why the loadout splits the job between your primary and your support weapon.
Best stratagems against the Terminids
Pick a spread that covers area denial, breach control and anti-heavy:
- Eagle Airstrike: the workhorse. A wide, fast-cooldown line of explosions that clears a breach or a pack of mediums and can seal bug holes. If you take one red stratagem to the bugs, take this.
- Orbital Gas Strike: a short-cooldown area-denial cloud that damages everything standing in it — ideal for camping a breach or an objective.
- Orbital Napalm Barrage: turns an entire bug breach into a wall of fire; excellent when the map floods you with waves.
- Eagle 500kg Bomb: your Bile Titan / heavy-cluster answer (see above).
- Machine Gun / Gatling Sentry: deployable chaff shredders that hold a flank while you fight elsewhere — the Terminids' relentless numbers are exactly what an automated turret is for.
- Guard Dog "Rover": the laser drone autonomously melts Hunters and Scavengers off your back, freeing your primary for the bigger threats. A top pick for solo bug clears.
Team vs solo: in a four-player squad, split the anti-tank duty — one or two divers carry the heavy answers, the rest bring crowd clear and sentries. Solo, you have to cover the whole checklist yourself, so lean on a Rover (autonomous chaff) plus Thermite (portable anti-tank) so your two chosen stratagems can both be area/heavy tools.
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What armour and boosters should you run?
Armour: light or medium armour is standard for the bug front — you want the stamina and mobility to kite Chargers and stay ahead of a swarm. A Fortified or Engineering Kit passive (recoil control, extra grenades) suits the explosive-heavy builds; Servo-Assisted boosts throw range if you lean on stratagems and Thermite. Heavy armour trades the mobility that keeps you alive against bugs, so most players skip it here.
Boosters (bring these first):
- Vitality Enhancement — flat damage resistance; the single most valuable booster on any front.
- Stamina Enhancement — more sprint to kite Chargers and reposition off a breach.
- Hellpod Space Optimization — drop in with full ammo and grenades, which matters when your whole plan is uninterrupted fire.
- Muscle Enhancement — shrugs off the slowing effect of Terminid terrain and Hunter slows.
How does the build change by difficulty?
There are exactly ten difficulty levels, from Trivial (1) to Super Helldive (10). Note that Helldive is difficulty 9, not the maximum — Super Helldive (10) is the top. Mission rewards scale from 1 to 15 Medals as difficulty climbs.
- Trivial–Hard (1–5): almost anything works. This is where you farm Super Credits (set difficulty to Trivial, sweep Points of Interest, then abandon the mission — your credits are banked on pickup, only samples are lost if you don't extract). Bring what you want to level.
- Extreme–Suicide Mission (6–7): Chargers and Bile Titans become common. This is where a dedicated anti-tank support weapon becomes non-negotiable and Thermite earns its slot.
- Impossible–Super Helldive (8–10): heavy density spikes hard. You need two anti-heavy answers (support weapon plus a 500kg/Railcannon), disciplined breach control, and a team that splits roles. The chaff never stops, so your incendiary primary and a Rover or sentry carry the busywork.
What does the endgame grind actually cost?
Terminid loadouts get stronger the more Ship Modules you have unlocked, and those run on samples you extract from bug missions. Fully unlocking all 30 Ship Modules costs 3,830 Common, 2,920 Rare and 305 Super Samples. Sample caps sit at 500 Common / 250 Rare / 100 Super, and the higher tiers only drop on the difficulties where you also need the strongest kit — Rare Samples from Challenging (4) up, Super Samples from Extreme (6) up. In other words, the loadout and the grind gate each other: the modules that make your build sing come from the missions your build has to be good enough to clear.
That grind — leveling, module unlocks, sample and medal farms — is the real time cost of Helldivers 2, not a paywall (every Warbond is fully earnable in-game). If you would rather skip straight to the fun difficulties, that is the one place a service helps.
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Sample anti-Terminid loadout (copy-paste)
A reliable all-difficulty bug kit for patch 7.0.2:
- Primary: SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary
- Secondary: GP-31 Grenade Pistol
- Grenade: G-123 Thermite
- Support weapon: Quasar Cannon (solo) or Recoilless Rifle (team)
- Stratagems: Eagle Airstrike · Orbital Gas Strike · Eagle 500kg Bomb · Guard Dog "Rover"
- Armour: light/medium, Engineering Kit or Servo-Assisted
- Boosters: Vitality · Stamina · Hellpod Space Optimization
Swap the Rover for a second orbital (Napalm Barrage) in a full squad where a teammate already runs chaff, and swap the Quasar for the Recoilless if you have a reload buddy.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best primary weapon against Terminids in Helldivers 2? An incendiary shotgun is the community default — the SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary or the SG-451 Cookout. Both set packs of chaff alight so the fire keeps killing after you have moved on, which is exactly what the bug swarm demands. The LAS-16 Sickle laser rifle is the top alternative thanks to its near-infinite ammo economy.
How do you kill a Charger in Helldivers 2? Sidestep its charge to expose its flank, then hit it with an anti-tank support weapon (Recoilless Rifle, Quasar Cannon or EAT-17) or stick a G-123 Thermite grenade to it — the thermite burn eats through its armour. Avoid trying to out-damage the front armour plate with your primary.
What is the best way to kill a Bile Titan? The Eagle 500kg Bomb dropped directly under it is the cleanest kill. The Orbital Railcannon Strike auto-targets it as a reliable backup, and Recoilless/Quasar rounds to the head finish one off when your stratagems are on cooldown.
Do I need anti-tank on lower difficulties? Not really below Extreme (6). On Trivial through Hard, chaff clear is enough and Chargers are rare. From Extreme (6) up, Chargers and Bile Titans spawn often enough that a dedicated anti-tank support weapon becomes essential.
Is the Terminid loadout still good on patch 7.0.2? Yes. Patches 7.0.1 and 7.0.2 were stability hotfixes that changed no weapon balance, so the 7.0.0 "Devoid of Liberty" combat meta still applies. Weapon roles (chaff clear plus anti-tank) are durable across patches even when individual numbers get tuned — re-check the current patch notes if you are reading this months later.
What difficulty is best for Super Credit farming with a bug loadout? Set difficulty to Trivial (1), sweep the Points of Interest for Super Credit stacks, and abandon the mission once the map is stripped — Super Credits are banked the moment you pick them up, so you do not need to extract. This lets you farm progression with a light, low-effort kit.
