Helldivers 2 Major Orders and how they work explained
Major Orders in Helldivers 2 are time-sensitive community goals set by the developers
Helldivers 2 Major Orders are effectively community goals and challenges that everybody playing the game all works towards, at least on some level, until everybody at the end is rewarded for the efforts with a big reward of some sort - Medals, Requisition Slips or similar. Major Orders are also different from Personal Orders - little daily challenges that only you can work towards - and we'll go into more detail about how they function below. Here's everything you need to know about Major Orders in Helldivers 2.
What are Major Orders in Helldivers 2?
Major Orders in Helldivers 2, as mentioned, are large community goals that everybody works towards, much in the same way that everybody works towards liberating a planet. The Major Orders themselves will vary - we've seen goals to liberate planets in Helldivers 2, complete Helldivers 2 Defend campaigns, activate bioweapons and secure the special Helldivers 2 mechs - but everybody can work together towards them, depending on what they are.
You can check the current Major Order (if there is one) in the top right hand corner of the pause menu, above your personal order. If there isn't one active, you simply have to wait. There's no automated system setting these up - developer Arrowhead manually decides and creates them to influence the ongoing narrative of the galactic war.
Major Orders not updating in Helldivers 2
If the Major Order progress bar isn't updating when it should have - i.e., you've fulfilled the conditions but the game won't admit it - it's likely one of the occasional Helldivers 2 errors. The typically-strained servers of Helldivers 2 means that a lot of numerical data like stats or challenge progress is often delayed or can even fail to register. Best case scenario, simply waiting for a while should cause Helldivers 2 to catch up and recognise your actions. Otherwise, it might be that it just didn't register and you'll have to do it again. Sorry.
Major Order Rewards
Rewards for Major Orders vary, usually coming down to one of the various currencies that make up the Helldivers 2 progression system - Medals, Requisition Slips, etc, or even access to a new part of the game, like the aforementioned mechs. Medals have been the most common reward so far, usually in large payouts ranging from 30 to 50 Medals, but it can take a while for the rewards to appear. If you're not getting Medals for Major Orders in Helldivers 2, just wait as it can take up to a couple of days for the payout to go through after the community completes the goal.
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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and raconteur with a Masters from Sussex University, none of which has actually equipped him for anything in real life. As a result he chooses to spend most of his time playing video games, reading old books and ingesting chemically-risky levels of caffeine. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at USgamer, Gfinity, Eurogamer and more besides.