Helldivers 2 TD-110 Maelstrom Tank: How to Unlock and Use It (Patch 7.1.0)

The TD-110 Maelstrom is the new drivable tank added to Helldivers 2 in the Devoid of Liberty: 7.1.0 update on September 22, 2026, and right now you unlock it for free by winning the live "Armored Eagle" Major Order — not by spending Super Credits. It is a two-crew tracked tank with twin triple-barrel rotary guns and rear laser-guided missile pods, and it can carry a full squad of four. Here is exactly how to get the permit, how the crew and weapons work, and how to actually keep it alive on a Helldive.

Quick answer: The TD-110 Maelstrom is a Stratagem (Supply permit) that drops a tracked tank. You do not buy it — every Helldiver who participates in the successful Armored Eagle Major Order campaign (running on the designated planets right now) is granted a free permit. Once unlocked it has unlimited uses, a 10.5-second call-in, and a 780-second cooldown. It seats 4 (Driver, Gunner, two Passengers), carries 2,100 rounds across its two rotary guns and 20 laser-guided missiles, and rewards 50 Medals for finishing the order. The Major Order expires in a few days — do it now.

What is the TD-110 Maelstrom?

The Maelstrom is Helldivers 2's newest crewed ground vehicle, added in Devoid of Liberty: 7.1.0 (released September 22, 2026). In-fiction it is sold by the satirical megacorp X-UDE, whose reveal advert promises "a Tank in Every Driveway. Luxury in every detail." Mechanically it is far more serious than the joke: it deploys as a Stratagem and turns two competent players into a mobile fire-support platform that can shred everything short of the heaviest enemies.

It is Arrowhead's second tracked tank after the TD-220 Bastion, and it fills a different role. Where the Bastion is a single-cannon breakthrough vehicle, the Maelstrom is a sustained-fire and anti-armor platform: it hoses chaff with two rotary guns and swaps to guided missiles for Chargers, Hulks, and Bile Titans.

Key facts at a glance:

• Type: Stratagem-deployed tracked tank (Supply permit)
• Call-in time: 10.5 seconds
• Uses: unlimited (per mission)
• Cooldown: 780 seconds base — 741 seconds with the Morale Augmentation ship module
• Crew capacity: 4 (Driver + Gunner + 2 Passengers)
• Unlock method: Armored Eagle Major Order campaign reward, not a Superstore purchase

How to unlock the TD-110 Maelstrom

You unlock the Maelstrom by winning the live Major Order, not by buying it. As of the latest live Galactic War pull, the active order reads: "Liberate the designated planets to secure territory for long-term construction of the TD-110 Maelstrom Tank." This is the Armored Eagle campaign, and it is currently being fought on the designated front (the wiki lists Marfark and Phact Bay at the time of writing — check your in-ship map, because the planets shift as the war progresses).

The unlock is refreshingly simple:

• Open your Galactic War map on the bridge of your Super Destroyer.
• Deploy to a planet flagged for the Armored Eagle Major Order and complete operations there, contributing liberation percentage like any other MO.
• When the campaign succeeds, every Helldiver who participated is granted the Maelstrom permit automatically. It then appears in your Stratagem list to equip on your loadout.

Outlets have described this rollout as the tank being supplied as a free prototype during "Armored Eagle Phase 1" — so treat it as a limited-time construction effort. The order rewards 50 Medals on top of the permit, and it expires within a few days of this article, so do not sit on it. If Arrowhead follows past patterns, the Maelstrom will later join the standard Stratagem pool, but the guaranteed way to have it right now is to finish the order.

Do you need Super Credits for the Maelstrom? No. Unlike Warbond gear, the Maelstrom is a campaign permit, not a priced Superstore or Warbond item. Do not fall for any third-party "buy the tank" listing — there is no such thing.

Crew roles: who sits where

The Maelstrom seats a full squad of four, and it genuinely rewards coordination. Voice comms are recommended — a solo driver is a slow, blind target.

Driver — front-right seat, entered from the front.

• Controls movement and the smoke-flare screen (M1) for breaking line of sight.
• Uses a R-N-D-1-2 gear selector (Left CTRL to shift down, Left SHIFT to shift up), WASD to move, SPACE for the handbrake, and F for the horn.
• The tank can pivot in place without rolling forward, which matters in tight canyons.
• Cannot hotkey-swap seats — the driver is committed.

Gunner — entered from the rear, the damage seat.

• Hold M1 to fire both triple-barrel rotary guns; R to reload (do not vacate the seat mid-reload or it cancels).
• Tap M2 to fire a missile toward the crosshair, or hold M2 to fly a missile manually down the laser to the target — this is how you thread a rocket into a Bile Titan's belly or a Hulk's vent.
• Press C to rotate between the Gunner and the two Passenger seats.

Passengers (x2) — on the casemate roof, one per side.

• Can use their own primaries, secondaries, support weapons, stratagems, stims, and throwables while riding.
• Aim in third person only (no ADS), and can hunker inside for cover under fire.
• Can also swap into the Gunner seat with C.

The practical takeaway: a two-player Maelstrom (driver + gunner) is strong; a four-player Maelstrom with two passengers laying down support fire and calling their own stratagems is a rolling fortress.

Weapons and ammo: what the Maelstrom actually packs

The Maelstrom carries two distinct weapon systems, and knowing when to switch is the whole skill.

Twin triple-barrel rotary guns (primary fire)

• Heavy armor penetration — effective against everything up to genuinely heavy units.
• 300 rounds per belt, 7 belts, 2,100 rounds total.
• Reloading a belt discards any leftover rounds in it, exactly like swapping cannon shells in the Bastion — so burn a belt down before reloading, or you waste ammo.
• Community consensus after day one: the rotary guns "slap" for raw damage but have loose accuracy at range. Treat them as a mid-range shredder, not a sniper.

Two rear laser-guided missile pods (secondary fire)

• Anti-Tank penetration — this is your answer to Chargers, Hulks, Factory Striders, and Bile Titans.
• 10 missiles per pod, 20 total.
• Rapid mode: tap to launch toward the gunner's crosshair at the moment of firing.
• Guided mode: hold to steer the missile in real time down the laser, the same way the MS-11 Solo Silo works — ideal for hitting a specific weak point.

Ammo discipline matters because the tank does not refill from resupply the way a Helldiver does — you get what it spawns with, then re-call it on the 780-second cooldown. Save missiles for armor; use the rotary guns for chaff.

How to use the Maelstrom on higher difficulties

The Maelstrom is powerful, but on Helldive (9) and Super Helldive (10) it dies to inattention. A few rules that hold up:

• Never leave it empty in a hot zone. One nice 7.1.0 change helps here: enemies no longer target unoccupied vehicles, so a parked tank is safer than it used to be — but a Charger will still flatten it if you abandon it mid-swarm.
• Kite, don't brawl. Reverse while the gunner fires. The tank's tracks let it pivot in place, so a good driver keeps the front toward threats while retreating.
• Use smoke to reset. The driver's flare screen breaks enemy line of sight, letting the gunner reload a belt safely.
• Bring anti-tank on foot anyway. Twenty missiles go fast against a Bile Titan wall. Keep an EAT-17 or a Recoilless on a passenger for overflow.
• Coordinate the gunner seat. Only one person should hold the guns — a rotating "everyone tries the gun" tank wastes the reload window every time someone swaps out mid-belt.

For the loadout your foot soldiers should bring alongside the tank, our best support weapons guide ranks every pick by role, and the faction-specific Terminid loadout and Automaton loadout guides cover the weak points the Maelstrom's missiles should be targeting.

What else changed in Devoid of Liberty 7.1.0

The Maelstrom headlines the patch, but 7.1.0 shipped a stack of community-feedback fixes worth knowing:

• Enemies no longer target unoccupied vehicles — parked tanks and exosuits survive longer.
• Career stats now correctly count kills from mines, vehicles, drones, and backpacks.
• A rare no-reinforcement bug (where a downed squad couldn't be revived even after a reinforcement throw) is fixed.
• Enemy spawns rebalanced for split squads — the game now measures enemy pressure by count and distance, spawns enemies near under-pressure divers, and despawns far-away enemies when over budget. No more roaming into empty outposts while your teammate drowns.
• Evacuate High-Value Assets got much harder: more waves, shorter gaps (start-of-mission wait cut from 60s to 42s, end from 40s to 28s), more enemies per wave, possible SEAF troop spawns, a Shrieker chance on the bug version, and a per-generator health-percent UI.
• Randomized loot and weapon locations, plus +10 common Samples available per mission — a small but real boost to Ship Module grinding.
• Balance passes on multiple weapons, including the AR/GL-21 One-Two (underbarrel grenade ammo raised from 2 to 3 starting, 3 to 5 spare, 3 to 5 refills) and the LAS-13 Trident.
• The patch arrived alongside the Ironclad Democracy Premium Warbond, which is now live — see our Ironclad Democracy guide for its weapons and armor.

The real cost of the Maelstrom is time

Here is the honest part: the tank itself is free, but earning it means grinding the Armored Eagle campaign before it expires, and getting real value out of it means crew that can already survive the difficulty you want to farm. If you are still climbing toward Helldive, the bottleneck is your character progression and Ship Module upgrades, not the tank.

If you would rather skip the level and medal grind and jump straight to running high-difficulty operations with the new toys, timesaver.gg runs Helldivers 2 leveling and carry services to save you the time — same account, no third-party currency, just faster progression. Everything the Maelstrom needs (a high level, upgraded modules, difficulty access) is exactly what a carry gets you to.

FAQ

How do you get the TD-110 Maelstrom tank in Helldivers 2? You unlock it by participating in the successful Armored Eagle Major Order — the live campaign to "secure territory for long-term construction of the TD-110 Maelstrom." Complete operations on the designated planets, and when the order succeeds every participating Helldiver is granted the permit automatically. It is not a Super Credit or Warbond purchase.

Does the Maelstrom cost Super Credits? No. It is a campaign permit reward, not a Superstore or Warbond item, so it has no Super Credit price. Ignore any third-party listing claiming to sell it.

How many players can ride the Maelstrom? Four — a Driver, a Gunner, and two Passengers. Passengers can fire their own weapons and throw their own stratagems from the roof, and anyone but the driver can rotate into the gunner seat.

What weapons does the TD-110 Maelstrom have? Two triple-barrel rotary guns with Heavy armor penetration (2,100 rounds total across 7 belts of 300) and two rear laser-guided missile pods with Anti-Tank penetration (20 missiles total). Use the guns for chaff and the missiles for armored enemies.

What is the Maelstrom's cooldown? 780 seconds base, or 741 seconds with the Morale Augmentation ship module. Call-in time is 10.5 seconds and it has unlimited uses per mission.

Is the Maelstrom worth using on Helldive? Yes, with a crew. Two coordinated players (driver plus a dedicated gunner) can hold a lane on difficulty 9–10, but leaving the tank unmanned or fighting head-on into a swarm gets it destroyed fast. Kite, use smoke, and save missiles for heavies.

Was the Maelstrom added in a patch or a Warbond? A patch — Devoid of Liberty: 7.1.0, released September 22, 2026. It launched alongside the Ironclad Democracy Premium Warbond, but the tank itself comes from the Major Order, not the Warbond.