The Automaton Berserkers in Helldivers 2 are among the simplest enemies in the game, but also one of the deadliest and, frankly, the scariest. They forego fancy laser-based weapons in favor of the humble… chainsaws-for-hands. That’s right; they don’t have hand-like biorobotics, they have chainsaws… for hands. These enemies are something out of a horror movie, and they can easily induce that same sense of dread and anxiety as they relentlessly chase you down while you’re at your most vulnerable. On this page, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about where to find Berserkers on Automaton planets and the best ways to kill them quickly.
Automaton Berserkers are among the scariest of foes in Helldivers 2.
Automaton Berserker Locations¶
As with most Automaton foes, Berserkers are exclusively found on planets that are controlled by Automaton forces. You can easily find these via the Galactic War map, where you’ll see the relevant sectors highlighted in red, as in the screenshot below. If you’re looking at a specific planet via Quickplay, you can check the top left of the screen to see “Automaton Control”. If it says “Terminid Control”, you’re in the wrong sector so you should back out and look elsewhere. The easiest way to remember the relevant sectors is by their color coding. Automatons are red, as already mentioned, while Terminid sectors are yellow.
(1 of 2) You can see Automaton sectors highlighted in red on the Galactic War map.
You can see Automaton sectors highlighted in red on the Galactic War map. (left), Check the top left of the screen to see whether Automatons or Terminids control a planet. (right)
Automaton Difficulty Levels¶
The next thing you need to consider is the difficulty level that you’re playing on. Berserkers can appear on all difficulty levels, even Trivial (the starting difficulty that is the easiest for soloing), but if you need to kill a lot of Berserkers for a daily mission objective, for example, you’ll benefit from increasing the difficulty level to at least Challenging, and preferably higher. As with most elite enemies, the higher the difficulty, the more of them you’ll see during a mission.
How to Kill Berserkers – Helldivers 2¶
The Berserkers are simple creatures, they just want to chop you all to pieces with their chainsaw hands. They’ll stop at nothing to reach you, so you won’t have the same level of security that you can get by hiding behind an object or a large chunk of terrain as you normally would when escaping Automatons that primarily focus on ranged damage. These Berserkers will chase you around anything and everything that you try to take cover behind, so your only option is to face them directly and deal with them quickly.
Thankfully, unlike with most forms of Devastators, there are two main weak points for a Berserker, consisting of its head and the core of its body. Both of these are lit by a red light, so they’re easy to locate even on darker maps. All you need to do is shoot these weak points to kill the Berserker, but it’ll take a fair few shots with weaker weapons before they go down. They’re actually tougher than most Devastators, which look like they should be tankier, so it’s best to use more powerful weapons against Berserkers. One of the best options is the Machine Gun, a support weapon that can be acquired early on. However, if you want to see a full list of other options, be sure to check our Best Support Weapons page.
(1 of 2) Aim for the head or torso on Berserkers to hit their weak points.
Aim for the head or torso on Berserkers to hit their weak points. (left), You can easily find yourself being chased by multiple Berserkers on the higher difficulties. (right)
If you’re facing a large group of Berserkers, which is likely on the higher difficulties as they like to hunt you in packs, you may find it easier to use an explosive weapon to weaken them first. The basic grenade will do the trick, and may even kill some with its base damage, but you’ll often find that you have to finish them off with a few shots. If you’d rather kill them all at once, a high-power stratagem such as the Precision Orbital Strike (or an AoE equivalent) will do just fine. The only disadvantage with the AoE stratagems is that you can’t use them as much when rescuing citizens, due to the risk of killing them at the same time. You’ll also need to be careful to avoid hitting your squadmates if you’re playing in a group.
Ultimately, Berserkers aren’t the toughest Automatons to kill, but they can easily overwhelm you if you don’t take the initiative and bring them down first. There isn’t much security to be found by climbing platforms to escape them either, since they can jump quite high on most of these. You can outrun them most of the time, though, so if you need to create some distance as you reload or prepare a stratagem, that’s a viable option to give you some breathing space.
If you want to learn more about other elite Automaton and Terminid enemies, check our pages on the Scout Strider, Hulk, and Bile Spewers.
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