Quick answer: which Warbond to buy first in Helldivers 2
Buy Democratic Detonation first. It is the highest-value 1,000 Super Credit purchase in the game for a new Helldiver, and the reason is one item: the GP-31 Grenade Pistol. It closes bug holes and destroys Automaton Fabricators from your secondary slot, which frees your grenade slot and, more importantly, frees a whole stratagem slot you would otherwise spend on demolition.
The short version of the buy order:
- 1st — Democratic Detonation (1,000 SC): GP-31 Grenade Pistol, G-123 Thermite, R-36 Eruptor, CB-9 Exploding Crossbow.
- 2nd — Cutting Edge (1,000 SC): the LAS-16 Sickle costs just 20 Medals on page 1 and carries you for a hundred hours.
- 3rd — Servants of Freedom (1,000 SC): the Portable Hellbomb backpack and GP-20 Ultimatum.
- 4th — Steeled Veterans (1,000 SC): P-4 Senator, JAR-5 Dominator, SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary.
- Skip for now — Castellan's Creed (1,500 SC): excellent, but it is a Legendary priced 50% above a Premium track. Not a first purchase.
Four things make this decision much lower-stakes than new players think, and all four are worth knowing before you spend anything:
- Warbonds never expire. There is no season, no rotation, no FOMO. Every Warbond listed here will still be purchasable next year.
- Every Premium Warbond gives you 300 Super Credits back, so the real cost is 700 SC, not 1,000.
- The free Warbond holds 750 Super Credits. Clear Helldivers Mobilize! before you buy anything — it funds three quarters of your first purchase on its own.
- Super Credits are fully earnable in-mission. You never have to spend real money to own every Warbond in the game.
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Helldivers 2 - Power Leveling
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How do Warbonds actually work in Helldivers 2?
A Warbond is a permanent, three-page unlock track. You buy access to it once with Super Credits, then unlock the individual items inside it with Medals. Two different currencies, and merging them is the single most common mistake new divers make.
| Super Credits (SC) | Medals | |
|---|---|---|
| What it buys | Access to a Warbond, Superstore items | The items inside a Warbond you already own |
| How you get it | Found in-mission at Points of Interest, or bought with cash | Missions, POI cases, Personal Orders, Major Orders |
| Cap | No hard cap | 250 — anything above this is discarded |
| Premium cost | 1,000 SC | ~700 Medals to fully clear a track |
The Warbond system has no expiry mechanic at all. As the community-maintained Helldivers Wiki puts it, Warbonds "do not expire" and players can progress through them "at any desired pace." (helldivers.wiki.gg) New Warbonds ship on a regular cadence — "every second Thursday of the month" — so there is always another one coming. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
As of the current Devoid of Liberty: 7.0.2 patch, the game has 23 Warbonds: one free Standard track (Helldivers Mobilize!), 20 Premium tracks at 1,000 SC each, and 3 Legendary tracks at 1,500 SC each. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
The 300 Super Credit rebate nobody mentions
Each Premium Warbond contains stacks of 100 Super Credits on each of its three pages — 300 SC total once you clear the track. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
That changes the maths completely. A Premium Warbond costs 1,000 SC and hands back 300, so the net cost is 700 SC. Clear enough tracks and the effect compounds: across the full catalogue there are 6,450 Super Credits sitting inside Warbonds, waiting to be claimed with Medals you were earning anyway.
Before you buy anything, finish the free one. Helldivers Mobilize!, the Standard Warbond every player already owns, runs to 10 pages and roughly 60 items — including 750 claimable Super Credits. (helldivers.wiki.gg) That is 75% of a Premium Warbond, sitting in a track you have already paid nothing for. A lot of new divers buy their first Premium track while hundreds of free Super Credits are still locked behind Medals they never spent.
Arrowhead has been explicit that this is deliberate but not guaranteed forever. From the official Warbond FAQ: "Right now, the Warbonds we have designed contain SC. However, not every future Warbond will contain Super Credits but a lot of them will." (helldivers.wiki.gg)
The Medal cap is the real bottleneck
Here is the trap. Your Medal cap is 250, and every Medal earned above that is destroyed. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
A full Premium Warbond costs far more than that to clear — Democratic Detonation is 699 Medals across its three pages, Polar Patriots is 669, Chemical Agents is 814. So you physically cannot bank enough Medals to unlock a Warbond in one sitting. You will be earning and spending in waves.
The practical consequence: owning three half-finished Warbonds is worse than owning one finished one. Buy one, drain it, then buy the next.
Why is Democratic Detonation the best first Warbond?
Because it solves a problem every other Warbond ignores: objective demolition without spending a stratagem slot.
Released 11 April 2024 for 1,000 Super Credits, Democratic Detonation is built around explosives. Its full contents, page by page: (helldivers.wiki.gg)
| Page | Medal cost | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Page 1 | 90 Medals | BR-14 Adjudicator (20), G-123 Thermite (15), CE-27 Ground Breaker helmet + medium armor, 100 SC |
| Page 2 | 247 Medals | R-36 Eruptor (60), CE-07 Demolition Specialist helmet + light armor, Expert Extraction Pilot booster (55), 100 SC |
| Page 3 | 362 Medals | CB-9 Exploding Crossbow (80), GP-31 Grenade Pistol (60), FS-55 Devastator helmet + heavy armor, 100 SC |
The GP-31 Grenade Pistol is the single best item for a new player in any Warbond. It seals Terminid bug holes and blows up Automaton Fabricators by itself. Before you own it, closing objectives costs you either your grenades or a stratagem call. After you own it, both slots are free.
It also opens sealed containers at Points of Interest — exactly the tool experienced farmers tell newcomers to bring, as one player advising a friend on their first runs put it: "use a gun that can open the container doors like grenade pistol." The Warbond that makes you better at fighting is also the one that makes you better at earning the currency for the next one, which is why it pairs directly with our Super Credit farming guide.
The G-123 Thermite is the other quiet star. At 15 Medals on page 1 it sticks to armour and burns through it, giving a new diver a real answer to Chargers and Hulks long before they unlock anti-tank stratagems.
The one caveat: the Grenade Pistol sits on page 3, which requires 230 Medals already spent on the track before it even unlocks. Expect to play a fair while before you hold it. The Adjudicator and Thermite on page 1 are the immediate payoff.
What should you buy after Democratic Detonation?
2. Cutting Edge — the best cheap payoff in the game
Released 14 March 2024, 1,000 SC. The LAS-16 Sickle costs 20 Medals on page 1 — the fastest a Warbond purchase has ever paid for itself. It is a laser assault rifle with effectively unlimited ammo as long as you manage heat, and it stays viable at every difficulty.
The track also carries the G-23 Stun grenade (25 Medals), which is one of the most useful throwables in the game for locking down a Charger or a Hulk, plus the ARC-12 Blitzer and SG-8P Punisher Plasma. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
3. Servants of Freedom — the utility spike
Released 6 February 2025, 1,000 SC. Here for the Portable Hellbomb, a backpack stratagem that destroys heavy objectives on demand, and the GP-20 Ultimatum, a secondary with absurd single-target damage. Also holds the LAS-17 Double-Edge Sickle and G-50 Seeker. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
4. Steeled Veterans — the classics
Released 8 February 2024, 1,000 SC. The oldest Premium track and still excellent value: P-4 Senator (a revolver that punches far above its slot), JAR-5 Dominator, SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary and the G-10 Incendiary grenade. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
5. Polar Patriots — buy it for one gun
Released 9 May 2024, 1,000 SC, 669 Medals to clear. Most of this track is skippable, but the PLAS-101 Purifier is a strong primary and the SMG-72 Pummeler staggers almost anything. Also holds the AR-61 Tenderizer and P-113 Verdict. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
Situational, not first
- Chemical Agents (19 Sept 2024) — no primary weapons at all and 814 Medals to clear. The TX-41 Sterilizer and Guard Dog Dog Breath shred Terminid swarms, but this is a specialist gas track. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
- Dust Devils (4 Sept 2025) — the EAT-700 Expendable Napalm and MS-11 Solo Silo are excellent, but sit at 85–110 Medals each, deep in the track. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
- Viper Commandos (13 June 2024) — Experimental Infusion is good in a squad; the K-2 Throwing Knife is a novelty. Lowest priority of the older tracks. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
Is the Castellan's Creed Legendary Warbond worth 1,500 Super Credits?
Worth it — but not first, and not at level 5.
Castellan's Creed is the HELLDIVERS 2 × Warhammer 40,000 crossover Legendary Warbond, released 12 August 2026 alongside Devoid of Liberty. At 1,500 SC it costs 50% more than a Premium track. Contents: the R/40-K Hot-Shot Marksman Rifle, P/40-K Bolt Pistol, the 40-K Meltagun support stratagem, the G/40-K Meltamine proximity mine, plus TG-8 Sharpshooter (medium) and TG-122 Demo-Trooper (heavy) armour. One accuracy note, because most coverage gets it wrong: the armour is themed on the Cadian Kasrkin of the Astra Militarum — the Imperial Guard. These are not Space Marines.
Here is the part that settles the argument, and almost nobody mentions it: Legendary Warbonds contain no claimable Super Credits at all. The wiki lists Righteous Revenants — the other recent Legendary track, the Killzone crossover from 18 December 2025 — as "Credits Claimable: None." (helldivers.wiki.gg)
So the real comparison is not 1,500 against 1,000. It is 1,500 SC net for a Legendary against 700 SC net for a Premium — more than twice as expensive in real terms. It is still a good Warbond; it is a terrible first Warbond. Full breakdown in our Castellan's Creed Warbond guide.
Helldivers 2 - Warbond Unlock
Get any Warbond fully unlocked
How long does it take to earn 1,000 Super Credits?
Super Credits appear at Minor Points of Interest — Pods, Cargo Containers and Bunkers — in stacks of 10, rarely 100. (helldivers.wiki.gg) Two mechanics make farming them viable: they are credited to every Helldiver in the squad the moment they are picked up, and they are kept even if you abandon the mission. Samples are the opposite — those are lost unless you extract.
That asymmetry is the whole basis of Super Credit farming: strip the map's POIs on a low difficulty, then abandon out rather than waiting for extraction. Rates vary wildly by map roll, so treat any specific "SC per hour" figure with suspicion — the honest answer is low hundreds per hour, depending heavily on the planet. For reference, real-money bundles run 150 SC / $1.99 up to 13,000 SC / $99.99, with 1,000 SC at $9.99. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
Players who dive regularly rarely need them — one veteran described sitting on 21,000 SC "with everything unlocked — just hit the POIs." The failure mode to avoid is the one another player named exactly: "Since I never have enough for a Warbond, I buy more SC to purchase them." Bank first, buy second.
If the grind is the part you would rather skip, that is genuinely the only real cost in this game — there is no marketplace and nothing to trade. Our Helldivers 2 boosting and leveling services exist for exactly that reason.
Mistakes that waste your first 1,000 Super Credits
- Buying two Warbonds at once. You will not have the Medals to clear either. With a 250 Medal cap and ~700 Medals per track, one at a time is the only sensible pace.
- Letting Medals overflow. Anything above 250 is destroyed. Spend before your next Major Order pays out — those alone award 35–100 Medals. (helldivers.wiki.gg)
- Buying the newest Warbond because it is new. Warbonds never expire. The newest track is the least urgent purchase, not the most.
- Farming Super Credits on high difficulties. POI density is what matters, not enemy level. Low difficulty, open maps, sprint between POIs.
- Using third-party "free Super Credit" sites or sellers. There is no trading and no legitimate third-party source of Super Credits in Helldivers 2. Every site claiming otherwise is a scam or a ban risk.
Once your first Warbond is cleared, gear choice matters more than gear ownership — our best Automaton loadout and best Illuminate loadout guides cover where these weapons land per faction, and the level cap 300 guide covers progression beyond them.
A note on the current patch
Everything above is written for Devoid of Liberty: 7.0.2, released 25 August 2026 — a small stability pass, in Arrowhead's own words "Captain Morris here, deploying a small update this fine Tuesday", fixing a Vehicle Customization menu crash, a Dynamic Resolution Scaling crash and several Message of the Day crashes. (store.steampowered.com)
It changed no Warbond pricing or contents, so this buy order holds. Helldivers 2 patches constantly though — 13 numbered patches shipped between January and July 2026 alone — so check contents in-game before buying if you are reading this months from now.
FAQ
What is the best Warbond to buy first in Helldivers 2? Democratic Detonation. It contains the GP-31 Grenade Pistol, which closes bug holes and destroys Automaton Fabricators from your secondary slot, plus the G-123 Thermite grenade for heavy armour. No other 1,000 Super Credit purchase changes how you play as much.
Do Warbonds expire in Helldivers 2? No. Warbonds are permanent, always-purchasable tracks with no rotation and no seasons — the official wiki states they "do not expire" and can be progressed "at any desired pace." This is the key difference from a battle pass, and it means there is never any urgency to buy the newest one.
How many Warbonds are there in Helldivers 2? 23 as of patch 7.0.2 — one free Standard Warbond (Helldivers Mobilize!), 20 Premium Warbonds at 1,000 Super Credits each, and 3 Legendary Warbonds at 1,500 Super Credits each.
Do you get Super Credits back from a Warbond? Yes. Every Premium Warbond contains 100 Super Credits on each of its three pages — 300 total — so the net cost is 700 Super Credits rather than 1,000. Across the whole catalogue there are 6,450 Super Credits claimable inside Warbonds.
Do Legendary Warbonds give Super Credits back? No. Premium Warbonds contain 300 claimable Super Credits, but Legendary Warbonds contain none — the wiki lists Righteous Revenants as "Credits Claimable: None." That makes a Legendary's true cost 1,500 Super Credits against a Premium's net 700, which is why Castellan's Creed is a poor first purchase.
Do you have to spend real money on Super Credits in Helldivers 2? No. Super Credits are found in-mission at Points of Interest in stacks of 10 and occasionally 100, they are credited to every player in the squad on pickup, and they are kept even if you abandon the mission. Every Warbond in the game can be bought entirely with farmed Super Credits.
Why can't I unlock everything in a Warbond straight away? Two reasons. Pages 2 and 3 require a set amount of Medals already spent on that track before they open — page 3 of Democratic Detonation needs 230 Medals spent. And your Medal cap is 250 while a full track costs around 700 Medals, so no amount of saving lets you clear one in a single session.
