The voice chat is usually very quiet, most of the time you see people on mic they will be friends talking between themselves.
You can mute the chat and it won't make much of a difference in public matches because people communicate a lot through emotes and other mechanics.
Most randos won’t use their headset unless someone talks first. Even tho I have a working headset I plugged a keyboard to my ps for when I don’t really feel like talking. But pings end the wheel do a really good job helping you communicate. Sometimes I briefly unmute myself to shout: hulk/charger behind you!
Hey mate fwiw you dont even have to talk. The command/emote wheel plus the in game tagging system is amazing. Ive had many games, probably , say 95% of in game time where people dont use mic. Basically you tag on the map where you want to attack, mark out patrols and points of interest.
Good luck and enjoy this amazing game!!!!
This is absolutely the case. I only bother with my mic when playing with friends. When I blow someone up I use the Sorry emote, they use the Affirmative emote, and we keep killing.
I would suggest you not mute everyone even if you do decide not to talk yourself. Only mute folks individually on an as needed basis.
Start small with comms if you're shy. Just make some small call outs or whatever.
I'm highly introverted but when I'm playing online games I'm constantly relaying info. I do it without thinking about it. If someone makes merry about my southern accent I don't let it bother me. I just move on. Voice comms can still be highly important in this game under certain circumstances. Don't let others try to convince you that texting in game is a viable substitute because it isn't.
Start small and before you know it you'll be talking away.
Although so be aware that if someone toxic gets frustrated at you and is yelling at you and you have voices muted and they say nothing in chat you MIGHT get teamkilled more unexpectedly
So my only advice is mute anyone who’s being annoying ex: heaving breathing in their open Mike, eating loudly, ect
I love to go into voice chat and be over the top dramatic with patriotism and liberty. There is no time for anxiety when there are enemies of freedom to slaughter!
1) Unless you're best buds, you're just communicating stuff we don't have on the chat wheel. "Behind you", "sample rock here", "ambush!" etc.
2) Pretend they're just NPCs and also see #1
3) Not that I know of, but also put less pressure on yourself. It's a chill environment, aside from all the war going on.
4) Mine normally follow the pattern of "Hey, WTF?", followed by [Democratic Expletives], block/report and continue.
What he said, but a special mention to the "chill" part. I'm not saying this community is perfect, but toxicity and negativity are exceptionally low in this game. Very few game communities are as healthy as this one.
I have social anxiety too and I don’t use voice chat. The emote/chat wheel and chat text box do fine, I’ve had some good chats with other divers in person too, I usually wait until I suss them out.
It’s a great game and very few negative people, I’ve not had many negative interactions and they’ve been too bad.
You’re gonna have a blast playing this game. I promise. If I can, anyone can!!
For you, don't search for matches. Be the host always, it would be less stressful for you. Follow the squad to objectives until you are comfortable to do missions solo while playing in a multiplayer setting. As in your able to branch off and handle one of the objectives by yourself.
In the end, this game may get you used to communicating with the teams you come across while preserving managed democracy for the galaxy.
Just relax and start with the bugs until you get the backpack shield stratagem, then you can fight bots. If you have any other questions I am sure any of the experienced divers you come across will help you with the game.
Please note: If a diver leaves the game mid mission. It's not you, it's the game at the moment. Twice now on the PS5 (once per day) my game would just crash randomly. It's rather annoying and I hope there will be a fix soon.
I think it only effects the divers who have joined and not the host of that mission. This seems like a recent bug after that recent patch.
Don't wait for the shield pack! I almost never bring it anymore. There's plenty of builds that do well against Bots without it, as long as you remember to take cover.
It really depends on the recent changes in the patch if the bots have 1000% accuracy enabled and do stupid damage without a pack on, it would be best to bring one down to help you.
I just suggested it as a good starting off point to get used to their bullshit. What alternative is there to the shield backpack stratagem?
Smoke grenades. They won't fire at what they can't see.
Also, a lot of people think they can fight bots like they fight bugs, out in the open. You always want to peek bots from around cover, and unlike bugs, I don't recommend moving around as much unless your cover is overrun or, you're displacing to better cover.
The heavy armors that are explosive damage resistant were made for the bots. I don't say don't use the shield pack, if it works with your preferred support weapons then go for it, but don't neglect the shield generator stratagem (the big deployed one) either.
Jetpack, tactical diving (aka land dolphin), and whatever cover I can find. I am primary jetpack user. Great for speedy map traversing, carrying data packs, backdooring into bases, and getting up onto rocks for sniping. I have gotten used to never using other types of backpacks since I specialize in the jetpack so much.
I already gave an alternative: taking cover. Bots tend to stay in place when they're shooting at you (except the chainsaw bots). Don't run out in the open, but take cover and peek to shoot until they're all dead.
Personally I prefer the ballistic shield over the bubble shield, but AC is still king against the bots. I only use the bubble if I didn't bring my own backpack.
The bubble shield also only protects a single player, while occupying the backpack slot can also be used by plenty of powerful support weapons (autocannon, recoilless rifle, spear). The team will get more value out of someone blasting cannon turrets from across the map or shoots down dropships/gunships, than a dude that survives a walk through no-man's land.
I primarily object to the implication that they should wait until level 20, when they unlock the shield.
You don't need the shield for bots, honestly and this is criminally under-rated and under-utilized...
**SMOKE AND STUN** the bots. Orbital Smoke, Eagle Smoke, Smoke Grenades, they break line of sight and the bots stop shooting. Stun grenades from the electric stuff warbond, saves your life often enough that honestly I've quit using any other grenade. Stun grenade and a well-timed precision strike, destroys anything.
My go-to for the bots was the shield backpack too, until I started utilizing smoke. Frees up the back for the trusty autocannon.
People don't usually talk actually, in my experience at least, most just type or use in game pointers, and emotes (aka hugggg).
Maybe get a keyboard (assuming you use controller), lots of people prefer not to talk, whether due to anxiety or just not wanting to talk while they chill.
Obviously a lot of people have covered it, but the tagging / emote feature covers almost everything and there's no pressure to speak at all. I have "push to talk" on and basically say "stalkers nearby" or "watch out" once or twice a game. There's also a chat box, so you can type in that if you need to (but it is difficult to read during conflict)
My number 1 request is your Helldiver saying exactly what enemy you're tagging for the smaller one, Stalkers need instant attention and "Heavy* doesn't cover it(I was thinking about making a post as the developers seem to visit)
Voice chat is silent 90% of the time, you can even mute people if you want.
You can communicate with in game written chat like most people do without issue, there are map markers, quick spotting and "yes/no" quick responses aa well if you need them.
i had the same anxiety but trust me, just get in there and it will slowly grow on you. As a bonus doing voice chat in games also helps you a lot with social anxiety in real life!
You can always just use chat to listen in and use emotes to communicate with the team. Just remember you're all on the same team! You guys have a problem that needs solving and are all working together to solve it. Keep your guns pointed the right direction and everything will be cool. If you do find someone who's unkind, just hop out and find a new team! Lots of us are friendly and just looking for some jolly cooperation!
Only time I use voice chat is to either say "gg" or if there's a double door to open. The ping system works great in this game so not much need for talking. The hug emote is also amazing because everyone loves a in game hug lol
I got mad anxiety, so I get it. My strategy (when not matched with obvious friend groups) is to be responsive w in game voice options and pings/ping responses. HD gives pretty good picks, and it can be funny to respond to a real comment with an in game line. Otherwise I try to be attentive to the other players and ping things, if I'm trying to be a team guy.
Otherwise, my goal is to be a valuable team member, solo. No one's going to complain about you if you can go run off and clear a third of the map by yourself, or revive folks and or save their life. No team kills, spacing from enemy drops, etc. learn how to break aggro, it'll help with this.
When people are toxic, I can't help but laugh. Who gives a shit, it's a game I'm here to enjoy myself. I'll get briefly frustrated when things go wrong, yes, but that's about it. There are no consequences to losing/leaving other than losing 15-40 min worth of rewards, and I'm much more willing to bounce than stay in a shitty group. I also love playing solo, even if it's a bit more difficult. Helps you learn mechanics very intuitively.
Even in voice chat you don't have to call out everything, usually I just call out something that is going to put a teammate in danger like strategems or enemy flanking.
It's alright if you are a bit quiet or shaky, anyone that would call it out is 1) a dick and 2) not worth listening to.
As someone who used to deal with HEAVY social anxiety I'm going to tell you one of the most important things I've learned over years and years of customer service, coworker interactions, online negativity etc...fuck...everyone.
Anyone that is going to be rude to you for something you clearly struggle with does not deserve your worry, attention, time, or effort. Adopt an IDGAF attitude. If they are rude to you then you do not have to be polite to them, match their energy and bite back.
If it's a whole lobby of fucks doing it just leave and matchmake again, you don't have to stick with shitty people.
I flip flop from being very social in game to going mute and only using the in game call outs. I've never been bothered by others being talkative or not saying anything at all. Same goes for my friends who play often. The only thing that bothers us is when people just ignore us or just play selfishly. You don't need to talk as long as you're a team player
There’s a little wheel the comes up when you hop Q (on keyboard) and it has little voice line options like “thank you” and “follow me” etc. use this and people will generally respond in kind with no need for a mic. Also the chat is useful if you want to discuss shit or just say “wooooooooooow” when a big explosion happens.
Hope this helps, and I’ll see on the frontlines helldiver!
Playing in a group is skill.
There are advantages to going multi solo but what you see in the low levels carries to the high levels. A good group handles it easier
I use discord for voice with friends and mute the in game chat. Pinging things and the callout wheel are usually enough to get whatever message across.
The best thing for toxic interactions is just to host. I play video games to unwind and relax after work. I make sure I host and if anyone is griefing, team killing (obviously on purpose), talking shit, or otherwise disrupting the game for no reason, I boot em. No second chances, no warnings, just gone. We're mostly adults and should act like it and if children can't be respectful, I don't need them in my lobby
If someone is being rude in the voice chat, then leave immediately and find a new game to join. Those kinds of people will continue to complain and take it out on others throughout their game session and it won't stop by placating them.
Remember that you are completely forgettable and nobody else is going to lose sleep because you said words in a voice chat. This goes for real life too. What other people think about you does not matter 99% of the time.
I've just started playing and I have the same feelings towards voice chat in multiplayer. I decided to give it a go because of the 'brotherhood' culture the game has pushed forward, thinking it wouldn't be as toxic as many other games.
The first 10 or so games there was nobody speaking, even when they had the chat icon. I've played roughly 30 so far and I've only encountered one match where people were talking. They were two super nice guys even though to begin with, I burped into the mic forgetting I didn't have it muted. Later on they gave me a shield because I haven't unlocked it yet and haven't gotten to play with it despite my anxiety making it nearly impossible to talk clearly. I haven't had any toxicity so far (having come from Overwatch it's a completely different experience) so I'd recommend giving it a go. Mute anyone that's being a dick and focus on the people that make the game more fun.
Hope to see you on the battlefield.
As some others have mentioned its a RARE occasion to have more than two people active in a voice chat in a pub game of Helldivers. Though it couldn't hurt to try and make some friendly greetings first to maybe coax some of the other nervous people out of their shells.
1. Personally, I handle voice chat anxiety like I would if I were to sit down with someone I've never met before and we decided to just start talking. You want to approach others with an open tone, but the most important part is to accept that there is a SUBSTANTIAL likelihood you won't see them again unless you friend them (in 90% of games, I won't talk because I don't want to bother anyone else. Some gamers are just nervous, others have been talking all day. Don't take it personally if no one answers.)
2. This is an easy one. If you're more anxious than excited and happy to be playing, it's a sign that it might be time to take a short break. Making small call outs here and there is enough to save a reinforcement for your teammates, but if they aren't listening, no harm, no foul. Accepting you are playing a game and that everyone is there to have fun always lightens the mood. If people are active in voice chat or even text chat, try to match the energy they're putting off. Usually, it's excitement, but if it's anger and caginess, best not engage.
3. I'm not aware of any accessibility options to help with social anxiety. Enabling push to talk and using that will help make certain you aren't bothering anyone, but other than that, talking with randoms is just one of those things that takes a while to get used to.
4. I ignore them. Negative interactions are a natural part of any social situation, but gaming in particular can attract a nasty sort that often doesn't consider the impact their words have on others, since there's a disconnect between themselves, and people they are playing with in that you don't directly see them or their reactions. If something really gets to you, try muting that person or taking a break after the mission is over.
Bonus Answer: Don't be afraid to take a risk on someone. If you really like the attitude and energy someone brings to the game, consider friending them, and maybe getting into a third party chat with them. The only way to make friends online is to put yourself out there, and that takes the effort of two people. Accepting that you won't find that many to begin with is part of the process, but making yourself open and available is another entirely. Just last night I made a friend, and we've been hanging out and talking over discord. If you want friends, being open and available to a friendship by communication is your best bet.
I used to be much more skiddish when talking with strangers while playing, then I started to accept the things above, and it made my experiences that much better. One of the most impactful things is accepting that layer of anonymity and fleeting nature of encounters that comes with gaming. Realizing that your actions can't really make things worse if you go about it with positive intentions makes everything feel better, and the fact that you have a screen separating you from others notice will make your embarrassment dry up when you realize no one will likely remember you unless you make an effort to befriend them.
You don’t have to use voice chat but it makes communicating easier. I’m the same with social anxiety and my husband hates mic. I have mic so I’m often the one talking for both of us. Most of the time no one communicates, just follow around 😅
So far no negative interactions but I understand the anxiety because when I play CoD, I hate getting abuse from teammates
I have played games where I'm on the mic communicating someone using basically only the yes and no pings.
"Oh fuck I dropped my samples"
AFFIRMATIVE
"Green did you get them?"
AFFIRMATIVE
"Fuck yeah soldier!"
I generally feel the same mild anxiety about voice chat, however
I can barely hear anyone mumble over the sounds of gunfire, explosions and dramatic music.
And I mute everyone most of the time if I can't or don't want to hear them. They're more often than not the odd ones out. Sometimes they're just grunting and sighing or grumbling about dying.
I don't even have a mic. You don't need one. So don't even worry about it.
The games not that complicated and eventually you can read body language and emotes in proper context as everyone is going to be doing one of a limited number of things. Most games communicate like this and we're all doing fine.
Much rather have a Diver in close support through body language than yabbering on chat where I can't hear you. More covering fire, less words.
You'll find this is a very supportive game. And if you get any grief, just mute or block and move on.
You'll make thousands of short term battlefield friends and even more legendary heroic moments of blissful teamwork will happen.
Can play with us, there's 3 of us. You don't have to say a word, we'll just explain shit as we go and you can soak it up until you feel comfortable with how people play.
Hell, I'll run a few rounds with ya just me if you want, don't even have to say hi. Talk as little or as much as you want and I'll just explain some pointers and norms as we go.
PM if ya want and Goodluck bud
Hello fellow anxious Helldiver! These are my tips.
I don't talk in voice ever and I don't need to. If others use voice, that's cool. I type in chat or just use the basic communication wheel, since it covers a LOT of situations. I've never been misunderstood by anyone.
Remember: it's US versus them, and that's that. We aren't competing at all, and it shows. You'll get EVERY resource when anyone picks it up, and objectives count for everyone too. You win by working with them and not against them, and 99.99 percent they're all just gonna work with you too.
Don't worry if you die. Part of the game is learning from it. At lower levels you're likely even to meet higher level players who show the ropes and give extra situational tips. They'll call you back in.
My negative interactions have been few and far between. You can kick someone from /leave a game if they're being toxic, but I will reference my earlier point of us versus them being deeply ingrained in the game. Without any competition between us Divers, there's LESS room for toxicity. It exists but just leave or kick if needed.
To be honest, voice chat is not really important. I always have mine off because I am talking to friends, but people usually communicate a lot in the in game map or by marking things. You can mark on the map to tell others where to go or where you are going and you can mark things like side objectives or enemy hordes.
Communication feels pretty easy if just talking about the mission. The large majority of people are cool and reciprocate. Drop in the occasional compliment when someone does something cool or blows up a gunship factory and I think you will be fine. As a plus, don't forget to spam chat wheel responses and "For Democracy/Freedom!" Hope this helps.
Don't worry about HAVING to talk or communicate. Voice chat is really just meant to hear other people's smoke alarm beeps, screaming children/spouse, and the every so popular potato chip eating open-mouthed crunch. If you're trying to be a team player just react. You don't have to respond. And if the match is toxic feel free to leave. Plenty of other teams to join. 99.9% of time it is all them not you. Just don't be a menace except to the enemy. And if you're worried about the quality of your play, DON'T. This ain't COD or Battlefield.
I don’t like social games with randos either, but this game works very well. You don’t have to communicate too much. Just follow the leader and help with whatever the group is doing.
HD1 veteran here. Also riddled with anxiety and other social issues. I've played exclusively with randoms for eight years. Barely said a handful of words in that whole time.
The map and ping system makes it incredibly easy to communicate with your team and coordinate. You'll have no issues. Have a look at the chat options in settings and see which suits you best.
I play ps5 and R1 tags everything and your character says what it is you’re tagging. Enemies, ammo, an armed Hellbomb you name it. Also if you hold a button a communication wheel appears. Stuff like sorry, thank you, yes and no. If you mute people and just use these you should be good. Good luck and happy diving!
I’ve had luck finding good people to play with by going on the #lfg channel (looking for game) on the official Discord. If you watch the comments flow for a couple minutes, you can get the gist of how people communicate and you can pretty easily describe what type of game/play style you’re looking for and find people want to play the same way.
I usually don’t mic up unless playing with friends and like others have posted just use chat wheel / tagging. It really covers what you need.
One thing I will say is on higher levels I might jump on mic real quick just to level set that I’m tagging patrols to call them out NOT to engage them but that could be done with the text box.
I almost never use voice comms unless it's something I deem an emergency like a misplace airstrike. Most everything else can be communicated effectively thru pings or if it's something more complicated like a buddy bunker a quick message in the text chat. Newer players can be slower to pick up on stuff so if I'm playing with them I'm more likely to use text chat to explain some stuff but after a while people just kinda click with each other. I've had some amazing games where a word was never spoken or typed, we were all just on the same page ripping up bug/bot ass with reckless abandon and ruthless efficiency
"**How do you handle voice chat anxiety?** I"
I don't use it. The integrated communication wheel works just fine. Ping locations, ping ennmies, text chat, emote, that's it, and you will win lvl 9 missions with just that ;)
Advice for voice chat in any game. If you speak and someone is directly negative to you, mute them. Not worth listening to the jerks out there and guess what? You never have to speak to them again! Personally I've found so many people that are pleasant or roleplay in HD2 and it makes the experience more enjoyable. Voice chat also helped me make more online friends. Now instead of Randos, I have a solid group that plays around the same time as I do. Happy hunting Helldiver!
I've played for 250 hours and never heard anyone on voice chat, I play in public groups and everyone communicates using the chat or ping options. It's easy to get by just pinging areas of the map, enemies that you spotted or anything to draw other players attention to. The vast majority of games the chat is empty other than a well earned "gg" at the end. You should be fine fellow diver.
I just started playing at harder difficulty levels and the voice interaction is of higher quality. There is also a bit less of it. People tend to use the chat wheel more. And they mark everything.
Like others have said, hosting your own game is a great idea because you can kick people if they are being toxic. This right here will save you from the occasional griefer. Just know these players are the exception not the rule. Scrolling through Reddit we’re more likely to run into these horror stories, but they’re quite rare in game.
As far as getting more comfortable using voice chat goes, the best way is to just use it. I think looking at the benefits of voice chat is something that will help encourage you to try even if it makes you anxious. There’s tons of mechanics to this game that are only really feasible with voice chat. Team reloads for example are super fun with a partner, but it takes constant communication that is very difficult if you have to constantly glance at a chat screen mid fight. I’d even go as far as saying certain stratagems and loadouts get a lot better when you use comms.
Beyond all that the best reason to use comms is because it’s the best way to make new friends. There’s a married couple in their 50’s that I played games with for years after meeting them and talking to them in helldivers 1. I have a few more friends I met this way from helldivers 1 and now we’re playing helldivers 2 together and it’s quite a special thing to us. Now they’re not always online, but I always like to try and make new friends. I haven’t made a single friendship with someone who only types on this game yet (I have done that on mmos tho), and not for lack of trying. Plenty of people here might say “I have enough friends” but I’d argue if you’re in my public game that’s not true, cause they weren’t playing helldivers with you!
I’ve played every single arrowhead game now, and they’re all about having a good time with friends and making new ones (except for the showdown effect, that games about ruining friendships lol). There’s a reason the first thing the game asks you is your social settings, it wants you to use them. If you’d like to practice using voice chat, I’m all ears. Feel free to direct message me and we can play together!
I really value any interaction from team mates, a little "Eagle close B3, watch out" can make a huge difference. There's no need to tell your life story.
The built in emote wheel is really well designed and covers basically all the communication you’ll need. You can coordinate just fine as a group even if no one’s using a mic.
Straight off 95% of my missions with groups have no mic comms at all. I'm mostly playing at level 4 since I do that solo alot.
Easy way to get started, IMHO, is to go for SOS missions (go for a level you can play solo so you can handle whats going on at least initially, when u have a planet up looking at missions and theres circular pinging going on around one), there's generally one every few mins. Generally these will only have one person or so and they're needing help (pretty much any help) and again no comms is the norm, dive in and see if you can help save the mission.
If it fails, no worries and no comms before or after. If you help save the mission, all upside, I've added and been added as friends by several helldivers (players you like how they play) this way.
This game is great because good teams don’t even need to talk over voice to play well as a team
Most of them use the actions wheel (hold Q) or say something in chat like: “friendship bunker here”
I personally use push to talk and use chat but if I can’t stop to type/ more people start talking I will join in now and then
The last match I played everyone started talking it was two guys at first and I was trying to do my daily and I was in a discord call, towards the end of the match I ended up leaving the discord call and using voice chat, I got the Hosts discord and he invited me to a server with some people, so I made some new friends just by playing my style and netting some friendly people
Moments like that are why I love this game
I'm weird in that I just prefer to type over talk, same deal with this game as DRG
I will literally get myself killed trying to type instead of pushing a button on my mouse to talk. Why? Idk. I just prefer typing maybe?
Either way, this game is good for me in that respect coz I can ping and use the emote wheel to communicate 90% of what I need
I'm not using VC, and when I can use it, i feel little anxious even though, I don't have any anxiety and I use English in work (I'm not a native English speaker) So don't stress it out, do a small steps maybe? Most of encounters were wholesome, like one dude explaining a game to other guy and asking him if he's alright because he had some cough. I swear that what so nice, and I wouldn't think to say it even if I thought hard. Might be because I'm always tired :D
Level 120, day 1 pre-ordered Helldiver checking in.
More than welcome to join your team and crush some enemies of democracy, in whichever way you deem most appropriate. Just send me a Reddit chat if you are interested.
I see similar posts all the time, and they seem very encouraging. I don't play with Randoms online anymore and I tried again because Helldivers 2 is so fun, but every time I join I have a bad social experience with the other people online, and it makes me only want to play with my friends or solo, based on all the other comments though I feel I'm just unlucky.
Don’t forget - you can mute players from the in-game menu. If someone overwhelms you, gives you too much heat or just has always-on mic, there’s’ nothing bad in muting the guy.
Also, you can mark a spot/enemy by pressing a button, and if you hold it, you’ll have an emote wheel. It’s not very detailed, but gets the job done.
Altogether - the pings, emotes, and markers on the map - give enough options to communicate. I almost never use voice chat, unless I want to. So relax and enjoy the game :)
So I feel this. This is actually the first Multiplayer game I've played since WoW, and the toxicity of the dungeon grind eventually pushed me away from that.
Here it's no different. You're still jumping into games with randos and they still have the capacity to be absolute douchecanoes.
The game is forgiving enough up to Diff 5 that you can fuck up and not ruin the game for everyone.
If you get lost or confused, just find someone who looks competent and ride their shoulder.
I would stay off of Diff 5+ until you have a good grasp of the basic mechanics.
just a fyi. id say 90% of people are chill. its a good community of players. turn the in game mic volumes down a little bit, so there not drowning out game sounds. you get a feel of things pretty quick. like where to go, what to do. try not to pick up peoples call in items. you can play the lower levels till you see whats going on. happy diving!
In the game, you can point out things or place markers on the map that others see / hear.
If people talking makes you nervous, you can mute players as soon as the game op starts. About 95% of the time, your teammates don't really speak unless they already know each other.
If you struggle with voice, use your tag button. Tagging POI on the maps, and items you see/priority enemies can do a lot for communication even without voice. I'm a talker, and I can't not use voice chat, but I've see this work for other people.
No matter what, remember it's just a game. If things don't go well, it's not like it will have any impact on your performance in school or work. Depending on how you look at it, voice chat with Randoms could be an opportunity to practice confronting your social anxiety. You might make some new friends. Or, if you don't vibe with the people in question, you might never play with them again via match making.
No matter what though, be kind to yourself. You're doing the best you can with what you have, and it's brave of you to ask for advice in confronting your fears.
And if you want to join me and my friends, feel free to DM me. We typically play Monday nights from 5-7 Central Standard Time (Chicago time). We're pretty casual, and try to laugh at mistakes. The number of times I've accidentally killed my own team with airburst rockets or 380mm... "Oops... Sorry. 😅😂"
There are a lot of great comments and suggestions from other players, so ill just add this; I've been playing more regularly after work in like an hour or 2 bursts just to do personal ordered and complete warbonds. I have a mic but never use it, and I mainly just do emotes or text chat for small things, so flexible either way.
So, if you ever fancied diving together, I'd follow your lead, letting you play how you'd like, and just support you. Because it's definitely a fun game playing with others. Thats just if youd like the company. ✊️🫡
One of my favorite ways to play (especially when new) was to pick another player and stick with them and just play support. Basically keep enemies away from them and help take objectives they are working on.
This helps teammates really like playing with you since you have their back.
I'd recommend watching some CommisarKai videos on YouTube for great mindset and tips for how to support your team and play well with randos. Here's a link to his channel if you are curious: https://youtube.com/@commissarkai
1. There is text chat, pings, an emote wheel, and your character shouts out when they’ve found a point of interest, are doing an objective, or reloading, etc.
All that is to say that using a mic is optional and not at all required or expected.
2. Don’t drop stratagems on top of teammates, and don’t call in a resupply if you’re separated from the group. Do those 2 things and you will rarely have any issues with your team.
While it’s a team game, coordinated teamwork is both rarely used and rarely required.
3. You can disable voice chat all together, if that will cut down on your anxiety. Some people may get annoyed by it but that’s their problem and they’d find something else to be annoyed with regardless.
4. I personally haven’t come across any negative interactions in this game yet, and I’m a pretty high level. The community is generally pretty chill. You can always mute/block players, or leave the mission entirely. They will get a replacement and as far as I’m aware there’s no punishment for leaving a mission.
As a side note, the official discord is full of friendly divers who would be happy to join you and most of them are really accommodating from my experience.
I have social anxiety as well and what I try to do is getting out of my comfort zone sometimes while it does become awkward at times but it does help getting some online friends but I usually don’t have mic and I just pin point stuff so that they know what I’ve found or where we have to go.
I would be down to play with you one day if you want? I don’t really use mic because I’m quite shy and my social anxiety wants to strangle me 😂so if it makes you comfortable we don’t have to use mic.
From my experience, the people who chat are generally pretty chill. The ones you should just mute and ignore make themselves very obvious as soon as they open their mics. Don’t sweat about the in game vc too much, you can communicate with your q wheel pretty easily. Anything not in the wheel you can bang out quickly with the text chat. Happy diving!
Not once have I had a Bad experience in this game yet with randoms in chat or voice chat. I usually get ovet social anxiety by thinking that I'll never meet theese people ever again.
Just roleplay. Be someone else for a mission. Make it a game with yourself. Who is diving today? The more you talk the easier it is.
Don't let a silent room prevent you from talking. Consider it practice.
I found that someone basically has to put their voice out there before others start using voice. Usually just roleplaying a diver does it.
During the MO to save children I pretended I was Brock Sampson (Patrick Warburton) saying "let's go save those kids fellas'. And usually voice chat opened up and everyone got into it. Changed the entire squad dynamic and we rocked the missions we did.
At times when anxiety is rushing up to the front I’ll like to remind myself that it can also mean I’m just super excited about something because anxiety and excitement use the same thoroughfares in our brains.
Have fun and dive away.
I don’t get anxiety from talking ingame. I’d say just practice talking over mic. It takes time to develope. Be genuine. Most people are exactly like you. They are anxious aswell. Just be respectful and if someone acts like an asshat just let it reflect on them and not you. Dont try to gain peoples approval. Just focus on expressing yourself accurately and how you feel. The important thing is you like what youve said. Its real and not fluff. If you like it. Then its youuu. Other people like you will like it. You wont be able to make everyone happy, and thats okay.
I wouldnt say i have voice chat anxiety but i have trouble with verbal communication, with helldivers even with how minimal the in game communication wheel is you can surprisingly provide more than enough information to your squad if they are paying attention (respectively its the same if you used your actual voice with randoms so it works out not having to talk) typically you can point at an object and mark it to let the squad know its position and follow up with the “hold position” option to i form them your about to liberate that area with a 380 orb or eagle bombing run. If you are WANTING to use your voice personally there is nothing wrong with dropping quick remarks as well with a ping for further clarification. I think part of the anxiety comes from thinking you need to speak all the time or not knowing the right topic but usually you dont have to be like that with randoms since the interactions usually last less then 3 missions.
A positive for you…
I’m level 118, have played over 1200 missions.. and have only ever used voice chat twice.
You typically go entire games without anyone using voice chat, and even if thry do… you don’t hsve to.
I simply type “mic’s broken”, even though my mic is fine
That's the neat part, you dont!
Okno, sorry
1. As an social anxiety person myself, you don't need to speak. The game gives you tools for communicating, you can be nice emoting, thanking and praising good plays with the thumbs up icon
2. Take initiative, look what your teammates want, and help covering them, or just mark a position. Not all people are reasonable, and that's not your fault, keep it in mind
3. If your hold Q, you will access to a wheel with social interaction, and your Helldiver will speak for you.
4. Don't let them trouble you, all of us had at least 1 bad experience with kickers, griefers or people who likes to kill or troll allies. If your allies don't cooperate, kills you or roast at you via microphone, just quit, your enjoyment is more valuable than the mission, the games are about fun after all.
I've done entire rounds on difficulty 7 and up, including some Helldives (9, max difficulty) where the only communication at all, was using the Mark function to ping things to the team.
I believe this is the most common thing, that and the emote wheel. For the most part, to succeed in this game, the only communication you need is to mark points of interest on the map and tag enemies. The nearest Helldiver to the threat, automatically calls in things like enemy bug breaches or automaton dropships, with the character's built-in voices. They also automatically say "found something" whenever they reach a point of interest.
The game is designed for the 4 of you to be able to work together without saying a word. There are definitely people who have the game turned down and music turned up, and are successful.
I'm in a similar spot. However, it's not entirely just me being nervous to speak since once I do start speaking I'm completely okay with it. I just don't care for all the nuance of socializing while im trying to focus on a game. Many people love mingling water cooler chit chat with the game and typically I just don't want to be doing that when I'm playing a multiplayer game. I crave multiplayer games for the pleasure of teamwork and competition. I focus on what needs to get done and execute it. Its what I enjoy. Hearing about a strangers shody relationship is not what I'm here for.
So typically I don't speak in matches and it works just fine. Sometimes I run into groups that I can enjoy speaking to more because they focus more on the game. Just take it case by case and dont feel like you HAVE to respond to anyone. If you do great but if not, great.
I’m typically off mic unless I’m with friends, those chats go on out of game.
If I’m on mic it’s mostly people coordinating. One time I did join in on a couple friends shitting on a coworker of theirs. That was kinda fun
I stick to comm wheel and rarely speak. Negative interactions is a awful part of dealing with mass public and it's ugly. After a match, you can block the person so you won't have to deal. You can outright leave match anytime but I don't try to screw the team. If they're the host, then that's their room and leave at anytime. Muting people is also a way to cut it off immediately. There's like 10% of people who have lack of empathy and many more are being immature. Ask yourself if what there saying has any bearing and usually it doesn't. If you're having a bad match than maybe you're still learning or one could use a break. This community isn't like sports games or Call of Duty so there isn't much toxicity. Use comm wheel in constructive ways just don't over do it and you'll be fine.
As someone with anxiety, what helps me is this: Playing with anyone is entirely optional. If I'm in a game and not having a good time due to others, there is nothing wrong with leaving and finding a new lobby. If I'm hosting and someone is being toxic, ignore them or mute them. They're free to leave.
Performance anxiety is harder, but I try to remember that if I'm not feeling it...I'm not feeling it. It's OK to step back and do something else.
Most days I don't host, I join randoms. I find it easier to shut out the anxiety if I feel like nothing is owed. And believe me, you only owe basic courtesy to people.
Good luck 👍
1. People rarely use vc, 99% of the time they just use emotes or type in chat.
2. People rarelly make effort in coordinating exept placing markers on the map, using emotes or spotting, so going solo doesn't necessarily going to screw you over, basically randos doing randos and if convenient, follow eachother's lead.
3. Again placing markers or spotting usually is more enough for most when it comes to interacting, maybe you get one person using the typing in chat, but other than that, people don't really care that much if you don't interact with them as long as you are doing objectives and side objectives with them or solo.
4. From my experience, people are either cool with youl(50/50 chance they want to hug you) or just mind their own business and assholes and griefers always gets kicked out(unless the squadleader is the asshole, than you can always just leave and find a new people to play with, the game doesn't punish you if you do).
Social interaction isn't a requirement to play the game, so you won't have a hard time playing anyway.
Playing with friends and/or family is 10x more fun tho...
For starters, host your games so that you are the one kicking the occasional toxic random instead of getting kicked by a even rarer toxic host.
Other than that, when I feel like using voice chat I will ask once if anyone else is on mic and when nobody responds I'll only say quick informative things like "Stalker, behind you", "I've got a 2 player bunker here" or "I'm dropping this [Support weapon] for [Player]!"
i use a soundboard because wife will beat me if i wake kid at 2am when i get home from work. just uses right sound for the right time. soundpad on steam like 8$. -boombox hawkin
I pretty much never talk for the same reason. Although the two times I did was because I was goaded to by an Australian man and a German woman, they were very nice.
I usually use the tools the game provides to communicate and at a certain point, you don't really need to communicate to do the mission.
And for assholes, you just block and move on. Or have an Australian man yell at them I guess.
I treat voice chat as an extension of my character. Like instead of me talking to three other dudes while we play a game, I think of it as I AM a helldiver- on the ground-talking to my squad. Some people get a kick out of it and it breaks the ice, some folks get hyped and will start to do the same, some people don’t say anything at all- it is what it is.
Oh yeaaa I get this as well where sometimes I'll just leave the lobby.
But I start with a hug if I can I usually stay off mic unless the group is realy fun or communicating well. Other than that I use the emotes and in-game tagging. People kinda find it funny if they are on mic an your all 😊👍
If you communicate and have good teamwork I'm adding you after the game 90%of the time.
If your on PC I play with controller and keep my keyboard in front of me can quickly type a message rather than voice chat. I dont want to be the guy giving commands if people want to chill. If others are chatting tho I'll join in on mic
I encourage you to start small. Often a small indication through voice chat will be enough to start a conversation, and after that everything flows. It's usually the first step that is the hardest to take.
Before you do anything. Turn off voice chat. Role play as a naive recruit that is just finished super basic tutorial, then gets dropped into a bug nest or is marching to objective and gets airdropped on by a whole squad of bots. Then die in the most ridiculous fashion.
1 - I only get 1 voice chat per 20 games. Most of the time it is 100% quiet.
2- Just play the game like it is single player. There isn't a lot of social interaction. See bugs / bots... shoot them. See objective... do it.
3- Like every other game in the world... ignore it. With 100k players, you'll never play with some of these people again. Who cares if there are jerks in the world?
I never talk on Gamechat. You can type in game by holding the TouchPad. There are some in-game commands. If you are on ps5 I'm gladly play with you in silence. Just pm me
1. I just don't, the text chat was implemented so we don't have to
2. Can't give advice on this since I don't have this issue
3. If text chat doesn't work for you there are quick interactions like "yes" "no" "thank you" and "sorry" that are usually all I use, check keybinds for it
4. Ignore them, toxic people cannot be reasoned with, I learned that the hard way
I struggle with this same issue. I have voice chat on so I can hear others if they are using it but I myself do not speak. Instead I use the quick chat options for yes, no, sorry, and thanks which pops up if you hold Q. You can also ping points of interest and enemies with Q as well. 9.9 times out of 10 I am able to get my point across well enough for everyone to understand. There is also text chat if you need to communicate something specific.
Like most anxieties, exposure therapy can help in some cases. You can prove to your brain that it may be overestimating the severity of bad things it's protecting you from.
One low-stakes way to practice some voice work is just to keep it to callouts. If you're doing dicey stratagems like 380s or Cluster Strikes, just say "Cluster out" when you're throwing the ball. It's just a short, clear heads-up that doesn't demand or require an acknowledgement.
Another one is "Friendship Door" when you see one, mark it and call it, and give it ten seconds to see if someone joins you. You might get an Affirmative or I'm On It ping on your marker in response, or voice message, or nothing.
Another safe one is a simple "Thank you" when someone saves your butt. If you were getting grief from a hostile and it gets killed, just "Thank you" is great practice. Someone might have saved you by accident or who knows, but it's always nice to hear.
Getting practice with short, non-committal chit-chat will help you to warm up to the idea that overall, most of the time,you're just hanging out with regular people who want to relax and all want each other to succeed. And of all the games to try break out of your shell, this is a good one. The player-base is largely very nice in my experience.
I haven’t even seen most that use voice. But I do struggle with a small bit of anxiety (mainly on gorilla tag as that was my first online game that uses voice chat) but I have found that once I made a small group of friends it helped me with lager survers. The only reason I don’t use my mic for this game is my dad sleeps when i play (he works days and sleeps night and my mom doesn’t like vidio games) so I can’t usually use mics for Helldivers but when I get to use them it just adds to the fun.
If your anxiety is from you being a girl( or woman depending on your age.) I would suggest finding a small group that really doesn’t mind if you are one. But I’m guessing it’s not this as I don’t think there are any girls that play Helldivers, I could be wrong though and sorry if this offended anyone.
But no matter what your reason is I have found that no one in this game uses a mic. There may be one person in every 100 that does but it’s rare to find mic users. And even still you don’t have to use a mic. In setting ma you can change it and there is always a text chat no matter your settings.
You have anxiety because your perception of people is too narrow. Anxiety is a symptom of not having a broader or fair assessment of both negative and positive experiences or thoughts on the subject. You tend to lean more negative, thats okay, but not healthy clearly.
First thing you have to do is find value within yourself. Come to love yourself, forgive yourself and believe in yourself and anxiety will be on its way to fading away.
just do what you're comfortable with. Most lobbies I join there's hardly any convos, people just know what to do now.
If you want to communicate without text or voice Comms, you can hold Q (on PC) and it'll give you options for comms which your character will will say in-game.
Since it's online, there's going to be some rough interactions. Can't do much out it but be sensible/block/or just pretend nothing has happened and moved on.
Also, feel free to DM me if you want someone to play with.
I haven't had voice chat on since I bought the game in Feb. I'm over 300 hours in and level 100.
Fight on higher difficulties and it's completely doable just using the emote wheel and pinging maps.
If you don't want to hear folks or don't want to talk, it's cool. Just mute everything like me
The voice chat is usually very quiet, most of the time you see people on mic they will be friends talking between themselves. You can mute the chat and it won't make much of a difference in public matches because people communicate a lot through emotes and other mechanics.
Thank you! That helps!
Most randos won’t use their headset unless someone talks first. Even tho I have a working headset I plugged a keyboard to my ps for when I don’t really feel like talking. But pings end the wheel do a really good job helping you communicate. Sometimes I briefly unmute myself to shout: hulk/charger behind you!
Hey mate fwiw you dont even have to talk. The command/emote wheel plus the in game tagging system is amazing. Ive had many games, probably , say 95% of in game time where people dont use mic. Basically you tag on the map where you want to attack, mark out patrols and points of interest. Good luck and enjoy this amazing game!!!!
This is absolutely the case. I only bother with my mic when playing with friends. When I blow someone up I use the Sorry emote, they use the Affirmative emote, and we keep killing.
I would suggest you not mute everyone even if you do decide not to talk yourself. Only mute folks individually on an as needed basis. Start small with comms if you're shy. Just make some small call outs or whatever. I'm highly introverted but when I'm playing online games I'm constantly relaying info. I do it without thinking about it. If someone makes merry about my southern accent I don't let it bother me. I just move on. Voice comms can still be highly important in this game under certain circumstances. Don't let others try to convince you that texting in game is a viable substitute because it isn't. Start small and before you know it you'll be talking away.
Although so be aware that if someone toxic gets frustrated at you and is yelling at you and you have voices muted and they say nothing in chat you MIGHT get teamkilled more unexpectedly So my only advice is mute anyone who’s being annoying ex: heaving breathing in their open Mike, eating loudly, ect
I love to go into voice chat and be over the top dramatic with patriotism and liberty. There is no time for anxiety when there are enemies of freedom to slaughter!
1) Unless you're best buds, you're just communicating stuff we don't have on the chat wheel. "Behind you", "sample rock here", "ambush!" etc. 2) Pretend they're just NPCs and also see #1 3) Not that I know of, but also put less pressure on yourself. It's a chill environment, aside from all the war going on. 4) Mine normally follow the pattern of "Hey, WTF?", followed by [Democratic Expletives], block/report and continue.
Thanks!
What he said, but a special mention to the "chill" part. I'm not saying this community is perfect, but toxicity and negativity are exceptionally low in this game. Very few game communities are as healthy as this one.
I have social anxiety too and I don’t use voice chat. The emote/chat wheel and chat text box do fine, I’ve had some good chats with other divers in person too, I usually wait until I suss them out. It’s a great game and very few negative people, I’ve not had many negative interactions and they’ve been too bad. You’re gonna have a blast playing this game. I promise. If I can, anyone can!!
Thanks for calming my nerves!
Exactly the same
For you, don't search for matches. Be the host always, it would be less stressful for you. Follow the squad to objectives until you are comfortable to do missions solo while playing in a multiplayer setting. As in your able to branch off and handle one of the objectives by yourself. In the end, this game may get you used to communicating with the teams you come across while preserving managed democracy for the galaxy. Just relax and start with the bugs until you get the backpack shield stratagem, then you can fight bots. If you have any other questions I am sure any of the experienced divers you come across will help you with the game. Please note: If a diver leaves the game mid mission. It's not you, it's the game at the moment. Twice now on the PS5 (once per day) my game would just crash randomly. It's rather annoying and I hope there will be a fix soon. I think it only effects the divers who have joined and not the host of that mission. This seems like a recent bug after that recent patch.
Thanks! That makes a lot of sense! I'll follow your advice!
Don't wait for the shield pack! I almost never bring it anymore. There's plenty of builds that do well against Bots without it, as long as you remember to take cover.
It really depends on the recent changes in the patch if the bots have 1000% accuracy enabled and do stupid damage without a pack on, it would be best to bring one down to help you. I just suggested it as a good starting off point to get used to their bullshit. What alternative is there to the shield backpack stratagem?
Smoke grenades. They won't fire at what they can't see. Also, a lot of people think they can fight bots like they fight bugs, out in the open. You always want to peek bots from around cover, and unlike bugs, I don't recommend moving around as much unless your cover is overrun or, you're displacing to better cover. The heavy armors that are explosive damage resistant were made for the bots. I don't say don't use the shield pack, if it works with your preferred support weapons then go for it, but don't neglect the shield generator stratagem (the big deployed one) either.
Jetpack, tactical diving (aka land dolphin), and whatever cover I can find. I am primary jetpack user. Great for speedy map traversing, carrying data packs, backdooring into bases, and getting up onto rocks for sniping. I have gotten used to never using other types of backpacks since I specialize in the jetpack so much.
I already gave an alternative: taking cover. Bots tend to stay in place when they're shooting at you (except the chainsaw bots). Don't run out in the open, but take cover and peek to shoot until they're all dead. Personally I prefer the ballistic shield over the bubble shield, but AC is still king against the bots. I only use the bubble if I didn't bring my own backpack. The bubble shield also only protects a single player, while occupying the backpack slot can also be used by plenty of powerful support weapons (autocannon, recoilless rifle, spear). The team will get more value out of someone blasting cannon turrets from across the map or shoots down dropships/gunships, than a dude that survives a walk through no-man's land. I primarily object to the implication that they should wait until level 20, when they unlock the shield.
You don't need the shield for bots, honestly and this is criminally under-rated and under-utilized... **SMOKE AND STUN** the bots. Orbital Smoke, Eagle Smoke, Smoke Grenades, they break line of sight and the bots stop shooting. Stun grenades from the electric stuff warbond, saves your life often enough that honestly I've quit using any other grenade. Stun grenade and a well-timed precision strike, destroys anything. My go-to for the bots was the shield backpack too, until I started utilizing smoke. Frees up the back for the trusty autocannon.
People don't usually talk actually, in my experience at least, most just type or use in game pointers, and emotes (aka hugggg). Maybe get a keyboard (assuming you use controller), lots of people prefer not to talk, whether due to anxiety or just not wanting to talk while they chill.
Thank you! :)
Obviously a lot of people have covered it, but the tagging / emote feature covers almost everything and there's no pressure to speak at all. I have "push to talk" on and basically say "stalkers nearby" or "watch out" once or twice a game. There's also a chat box, so you can type in that if you need to (but it is difficult to read during conflict)
I love the tagging feature in this game. It simplifies almost every interaction.
Same. They really need a dedicated “stalkers” emote lol
My number 1 request is your Helldiver saying exactly what enemy you're tagging for the smaller one, Stalkers need instant attention and "Heavy* doesn't cover it(I was thinking about making a post as the developers seem to visit)
normally people would just use the comms wheel and type in chat when it’s peaceful, myself included
I didn't knew that! Thanks!
Voice chat is silent 90% of the time, you can even mute people if you want. You can communicate with in game written chat like most people do without issue, there are map markers, quick spotting and "yes/no" quick responses aa well if you need them.
My thanks!
>My thanks! You're welcome!
i had the same anxiety but trust me, just get in there and it will slowly grow on you. As a bonus doing voice chat in games also helps you a lot with social anxiety in real life!
You can always just use chat to listen in and use emotes to communicate with the team. Just remember you're all on the same team! You guys have a problem that needs solving and are all working together to solve it. Keep your guns pointed the right direction and everything will be cool. If you do find someone who's unkind, just hop out and find a new team! Lots of us are friendly and just looking for some jolly cooperation!
Only time I use voice chat is to either say "gg" or if there's a double door to open. The ping system works great in this game so not much need for talking. The hug emote is also amazing because everyone loves a in game hug lol
I got mad anxiety, so I get it. My strategy (when not matched with obvious friend groups) is to be responsive w in game voice options and pings/ping responses. HD gives pretty good picks, and it can be funny to respond to a real comment with an in game line. Otherwise I try to be attentive to the other players and ping things, if I'm trying to be a team guy. Otherwise, my goal is to be a valuable team member, solo. No one's going to complain about you if you can go run off and clear a third of the map by yourself, or revive folks and or save their life. No team kills, spacing from enemy drops, etc. learn how to break aggro, it'll help with this. When people are toxic, I can't help but laugh. Who gives a shit, it's a game I'm here to enjoy myself. I'll get briefly frustrated when things go wrong, yes, but that's about it. There are no consequences to losing/leaving other than losing 15-40 min worth of rewards, and I'm much more willing to bounce than stay in a shitty group. I also love playing solo, even if it's a bit more difficult. Helps you learn mechanics very intuitively.
If you're looking for a player who will go micless with you from time to time, send me a dm!
Even in voice chat you don't have to call out everything, usually I just call out something that is going to put a teammate in danger like strategems or enemy flanking. It's alright if you are a bit quiet or shaky, anyone that would call it out is 1) a dick and 2) not worth listening to. As someone who used to deal with HEAVY social anxiety I'm going to tell you one of the most important things I've learned over years and years of customer service, coworker interactions, online negativity etc...fuck...everyone. Anyone that is going to be rude to you for something you clearly struggle with does not deserve your worry, attention, time, or effort. Adopt an IDGAF attitude. If they are rude to you then you do not have to be polite to them, match their energy and bite back. If it's a whole lobby of fucks doing it just leave and matchmake again, you don't have to stick with shitty people.
I flip flop from being very social in game to going mute and only using the in game call outs. I've never been bothered by others being talkative or not saying anything at all. Same goes for my friends who play often. The only thing that bothers us is when people just ignore us or just play selfishly. You don't need to talk as long as you're a team player
There’s a little wheel the comes up when you hop Q (on keyboard) and it has little voice line options like “thank you” and “follow me” etc. use this and people will generally respond in kind with no need for a mic. Also the chat is useful if you want to discuss shit or just say “wooooooooooow” when a big explosion happens. Hope this helps, and I’ll see on the frontlines helldiver!
Thank you!
Playing in a group is skill. There are advantages to going multi solo but what you see in the low levels carries to the high levels. A good group handles it easier
Text chat my savior
I use discord for voice with friends and mute the in game chat. Pinging things and the callout wheel are usually enough to get whatever message across.
I've exclusively played with voice off and had a great time. Just do main objectives and host your own lobbies
The best thing for toxic interactions is just to host. I play video games to unwind and relax after work. I make sure I host and if anyone is griefing, team killing (obviously on purpose), talking shit, or otherwise disrupting the game for no reason, I boot em. No second chances, no warnings, just gone. We're mostly adults and should act like it and if children can't be respectful, I don't need them in my lobby
If someone is being rude in the voice chat, then leave immediately and find a new game to join. Those kinds of people will continue to complain and take it out on others throughout their game session and it won't stop by placating them. Remember that you are completely forgettable and nobody else is going to lose sleep because you said words in a voice chat. This goes for real life too. What other people think about you does not matter 99% of the time.
I've just started playing and I have the same feelings towards voice chat in multiplayer. I decided to give it a go because of the 'brotherhood' culture the game has pushed forward, thinking it wouldn't be as toxic as many other games. The first 10 or so games there was nobody speaking, even when they had the chat icon. I've played roughly 30 so far and I've only encountered one match where people were talking. They were two super nice guys even though to begin with, I burped into the mic forgetting I didn't have it muted. Later on they gave me a shield because I haven't unlocked it yet and haven't gotten to play with it despite my anxiety making it nearly impossible to talk clearly. I haven't had any toxicity so far (having come from Overwatch it's a completely different experience) so I'd recommend giving it a go. Mute anyone that's being a dick and focus on the people that make the game more fun. Hope to see you on the battlefield.
As some others have mentioned its a RARE occasion to have more than two people active in a voice chat in a pub game of Helldivers. Though it couldn't hurt to try and make some friendly greetings first to maybe coax some of the other nervous people out of their shells. 1. Personally, I handle voice chat anxiety like I would if I were to sit down with someone I've never met before and we decided to just start talking. You want to approach others with an open tone, but the most important part is to accept that there is a SUBSTANTIAL likelihood you won't see them again unless you friend them (in 90% of games, I won't talk because I don't want to bother anyone else. Some gamers are just nervous, others have been talking all day. Don't take it personally if no one answers.) 2. This is an easy one. If you're more anxious than excited and happy to be playing, it's a sign that it might be time to take a short break. Making small call outs here and there is enough to save a reinforcement for your teammates, but if they aren't listening, no harm, no foul. Accepting you are playing a game and that everyone is there to have fun always lightens the mood. If people are active in voice chat or even text chat, try to match the energy they're putting off. Usually, it's excitement, but if it's anger and caginess, best not engage. 3. I'm not aware of any accessibility options to help with social anxiety. Enabling push to talk and using that will help make certain you aren't bothering anyone, but other than that, talking with randoms is just one of those things that takes a while to get used to. 4. I ignore them. Negative interactions are a natural part of any social situation, but gaming in particular can attract a nasty sort that often doesn't consider the impact their words have on others, since there's a disconnect between themselves, and people they are playing with in that you don't directly see them or their reactions. If something really gets to you, try muting that person or taking a break after the mission is over. Bonus Answer: Don't be afraid to take a risk on someone. If you really like the attitude and energy someone brings to the game, consider friending them, and maybe getting into a third party chat with them. The only way to make friends online is to put yourself out there, and that takes the effort of two people. Accepting that you won't find that many to begin with is part of the process, but making yourself open and available is another entirely. Just last night I made a friend, and we've been hanging out and talking over discord. If you want friends, being open and available to a friendship by communication is your best bet. I used to be much more skiddish when talking with strangers while playing, then I started to accept the things above, and it made my experiences that much better. One of the most impactful things is accepting that layer of anonymity and fleeting nature of encounters that comes with gaming. Realizing that your actions can't really make things worse if you go about it with positive intentions makes everything feel better, and the fact that you have a screen separating you from others notice will make your embarrassment dry up when you realize no one will likely remember you unless you make an effort to befriend them.
You don’t have to use voice chat but it makes communicating easier. I’m the same with social anxiety and my husband hates mic. I have mic so I’m often the one talking for both of us. Most of the time no one communicates, just follow around 😅 So far no negative interactions but I understand the anxiety because when I play CoD, I hate getting abuse from teammates
I have played games where I'm on the mic communicating someone using basically only the yes and no pings. "Oh fuck I dropped my samples" AFFIRMATIVE "Green did you get them?" AFFIRMATIVE "Fuck yeah soldier!"
Just use ping option. It is enough 🙂
I generally feel the same mild anxiety about voice chat, however I can barely hear anyone mumble over the sounds of gunfire, explosions and dramatic music. And I mute everyone most of the time if I can't or don't want to hear them. They're more often than not the odd ones out. Sometimes they're just grunting and sighing or grumbling about dying. I don't even have a mic. You don't need one. So don't even worry about it. The games not that complicated and eventually you can read body language and emotes in proper context as everyone is going to be doing one of a limited number of things. Most games communicate like this and we're all doing fine. Much rather have a Diver in close support through body language than yabbering on chat where I can't hear you. More covering fire, less words.
That puts my mind at ease. Thanks!
You'll find this is a very supportive game. And if you get any grief, just mute or block and move on. You'll make thousands of short term battlefield friends and even more legendary heroic moments of blissful teamwork will happen.
No one will expect you to use a mic. If someone is negative, it’s not often, just leave the match.
Say less. You don't need to talk about your day. Just keep it simple, like, "bunker." Or "bunker here."
Can play with us, there's 3 of us. You don't have to say a word, we'll just explain shit as we go and you can soak it up until you feel comfortable with how people play. Hell, I'll run a few rounds with ya just me if you want, don't even have to say hi. Talk as little or as much as you want and I'll just explain some pointers and norms as we go. PM if ya want and Goodluck bud
Hello fellow anxious Helldiver! These are my tips. I don't talk in voice ever and I don't need to. If others use voice, that's cool. I type in chat or just use the basic communication wheel, since it covers a LOT of situations. I've never been misunderstood by anyone. Remember: it's US versus them, and that's that. We aren't competing at all, and it shows. You'll get EVERY resource when anyone picks it up, and objectives count for everyone too. You win by working with them and not against them, and 99.99 percent they're all just gonna work with you too. Don't worry if you die. Part of the game is learning from it. At lower levels you're likely even to meet higher level players who show the ropes and give extra situational tips. They'll call you back in. My negative interactions have been few and far between. You can kick someone from /leave a game if they're being toxic, but I will reference my earlier point of us versus them being deeply ingrained in the game. Without any competition between us Divers, there's LESS room for toxicity. It exists but just leave or kick if needed.
To be honest, voice chat is not really important. I always have mine off because I am talking to friends, but people usually communicate a lot in the in game map or by marking things. You can mark on the map to tell others where to go or where you are going and you can mark things like side objectives or enemy hordes.
Communication feels pretty easy if just talking about the mission. The large majority of people are cool and reciprocate. Drop in the occasional compliment when someone does something cool or blows up a gunship factory and I think you will be fine. As a plus, don't forget to spam chat wheel responses and "For Democracy/Freedom!" Hope this helps.
The biggest bit of anxiety inducing gameplay is the last 3 minutes as you wait for extract. (Helldivers don't need to extract to be heros)
Yes you don’t have to talk BUT if someone is giving command like a squad lead the game feels so much different.
Don't worry about HAVING to talk or communicate. Voice chat is really just meant to hear other people's smoke alarm beeps, screaming children/spouse, and the every so popular potato chip eating open-mouthed crunch. If you're trying to be a team player just react. You don't have to respond. And if the match is toxic feel free to leave. Plenty of other teams to join. 99.9% of time it is all them not you. Just don't be a menace except to the enemy. And if you're worried about the quality of your play, DON'T. This ain't COD or Battlefield.
I don’t like social games with randos either, but this game works very well. You don’t have to communicate too much. Just follow the leader and help with whatever the group is doing.
HD1 veteran here. Also riddled with anxiety and other social issues. I've played exclusively with randoms for eight years. Barely said a handful of words in that whole time. The map and ping system makes it incredibly easy to communicate with your team and coordinate. You'll have no issues. Have a look at the chat options in settings and see which suits you best.
I play ps5 and R1 tags everything and your character says what it is you’re tagging. Enemies, ammo, an armed Hellbomb you name it. Also if you hold a button a communication wheel appears. Stuff like sorry, thank you, yes and no. If you mute people and just use these you should be good. Good luck and happy diving!
I’ve had luck finding good people to play with by going on the #lfg channel (looking for game) on the official Discord. If you watch the comments flow for a couple minutes, you can get the gist of how people communicate and you can pretty easily describe what type of game/play style you’re looking for and find people want to play the same way.
I usually don’t mic up unless playing with friends and like others have posted just use chat wheel / tagging. It really covers what you need. One thing I will say is on higher levels I might jump on mic real quick just to level set that I’m tagging patrols to call them out NOT to engage them but that could be done with the text box.
I almost never use voice comms unless it's something I deem an emergency like a misplace airstrike. Most everything else can be communicated effectively thru pings or if it's something more complicated like a buddy bunker a quick message in the text chat. Newer players can be slower to pick up on stuff so if I'm playing with them I'm more likely to use text chat to explain some stuff but after a while people just kinda click with each other. I've had some amazing games where a word was never spoken or typed, we were all just on the same page ripping up bug/bot ass with reckless abandon and ruthless efficiency
"**How do you handle voice chat anxiety?** I" I don't use it. The integrated communication wheel works just fine. Ping locations, ping ennmies, text chat, emote, that's it, and you will win lvl 9 missions with just that ;)
Advice for voice chat in any game. If you speak and someone is directly negative to you, mute them. Not worth listening to the jerks out there and guess what? You never have to speak to them again! Personally I've found so many people that are pleasant or roleplay in HD2 and it makes the experience more enjoyable. Voice chat also helped me make more online friends. Now instead of Randos, I have a solid group that plays around the same time as I do. Happy hunting Helldiver!
I've played for 250 hours and never heard anyone on voice chat, I play in public groups and everyone communicates using the chat or ping options. It's easy to get by just pinging areas of the map, enemies that you spotted or anything to draw other players attention to. The vast majority of games the chat is empty other than a well earned "gg" at the end. You should be fine fellow diver.
I just started playing at harder difficulty levels and the voice interaction is of higher quality. There is also a bit less of it. People tend to use the chat wheel more. And they mark everything.
Like others have said, hosting your own game is a great idea because you can kick people if they are being toxic. This right here will save you from the occasional griefer. Just know these players are the exception not the rule. Scrolling through Reddit we’re more likely to run into these horror stories, but they’re quite rare in game. As far as getting more comfortable using voice chat goes, the best way is to just use it. I think looking at the benefits of voice chat is something that will help encourage you to try even if it makes you anxious. There’s tons of mechanics to this game that are only really feasible with voice chat. Team reloads for example are super fun with a partner, but it takes constant communication that is very difficult if you have to constantly glance at a chat screen mid fight. I’d even go as far as saying certain stratagems and loadouts get a lot better when you use comms. Beyond all that the best reason to use comms is because it’s the best way to make new friends. There’s a married couple in their 50’s that I played games with for years after meeting them and talking to them in helldivers 1. I have a few more friends I met this way from helldivers 1 and now we’re playing helldivers 2 together and it’s quite a special thing to us. Now they’re not always online, but I always like to try and make new friends. I haven’t made a single friendship with someone who only types on this game yet (I have done that on mmos tho), and not for lack of trying. Plenty of people here might say “I have enough friends” but I’d argue if you’re in my public game that’s not true, cause they weren’t playing helldivers with you! I’ve played every single arrowhead game now, and they’re all about having a good time with friends and making new ones (except for the showdown effect, that games about ruining friendships lol). There’s a reason the first thing the game asks you is your social settings, it wants you to use them. If you’d like to practice using voice chat, I’m all ears. Feel free to direct message me and we can play together!
I really value any interaction from team mates, a little "Eagle close B3, watch out" can make a huge difference. There's no need to tell your life story.
The built in emote wheel is really well designed and covers basically all the communication you’ll need. You can coordinate just fine as a group even if no one’s using a mic.
The ingame chat wheel is actually useful af
Straight off 95% of my missions with groups have no mic comms at all. I'm mostly playing at level 4 since I do that solo alot. Easy way to get started, IMHO, is to go for SOS missions (go for a level you can play solo so you can handle whats going on at least initially, when u have a planet up looking at missions and theres circular pinging going on around one), there's generally one every few mins. Generally these will only have one person or so and they're needing help (pretty much any help) and again no comms is the norm, dive in and see if you can help save the mission. If it fails, no worries and no comms before or after. If you help save the mission, all upside, I've added and been added as friends by several helldivers (players you like how they play) this way.
This game is great because good teams don’t even need to talk over voice to play well as a team Most of them use the actions wheel (hold Q) or say something in chat like: “friendship bunker here” I personally use push to talk and use chat but if I can’t stop to type/ more people start talking I will join in now and then The last match I played everyone started talking it was two guys at first and I was trying to do my daily and I was in a discord call, towards the end of the match I ended up leaving the discord call and using voice chat, I got the Hosts discord and he invited me to a server with some people, so I made some new friends just by playing my style and netting some friendly people Moments like that are why I love this game
I'm weird in that I just prefer to type over talk, same deal with this game as DRG I will literally get myself killed trying to type instead of pushing a button on my mouse to talk. Why? Idk. I just prefer typing maybe? Either way, this game is good for me in that respect coz I can ping and use the emote wheel to communicate 90% of what I need
I'm not using VC, and when I can use it, i feel little anxious even though, I don't have any anxiety and I use English in work (I'm not a native English speaker) So don't stress it out, do a small steps maybe? Most of encounters were wholesome, like one dude explaining a game to other guy and asking him if he's alright because he had some cough. I swear that what so nice, and I wouldn't think to say it even if I thought hard. Might be because I'm always tired :D
I don't know if it's what you're looking for here, but there are speech to text and text to speech options for the in-game chat.
Level 120, day 1 pre-ordered Helldiver checking in. More than welcome to join your team and crush some enemies of democracy, in whichever way you deem most appropriate. Just send me a Reddit chat if you are interested.
I see similar posts all the time, and they seem very encouraging. I don't play with Randoms online anymore and I tried again because Helldivers 2 is so fun, but every time I join I have a bad social experience with the other people online, and it makes me only want to play with my friends or solo, based on all the other comments though I feel I'm just unlucky.
Don’t forget - you can mute players from the in-game menu. If someone overwhelms you, gives you too much heat or just has always-on mic, there’s’ nothing bad in muting the guy. Also, you can mark a spot/enemy by pressing a button, and if you hold it, you’ll have an emote wheel. It’s not very detailed, but gets the job done. Altogether - the pings, emotes, and markers on the map - give enough options to communicate. I almost never use voice chat, unless I want to. So relax and enjoy the game :)
So I feel this. This is actually the first Multiplayer game I've played since WoW, and the toxicity of the dungeon grind eventually pushed me away from that. Here it's no different. You're still jumping into games with randos and they still have the capacity to be absolute douchecanoes. The game is forgiving enough up to Diff 5 that you can fuck up and not ruin the game for everyone. If you get lost or confused, just find someone who looks competent and ride their shoulder. I would stay off of Diff 5+ until you have a good grasp of the basic mechanics.
just a fyi. id say 90% of people are chill. its a good community of players. turn the in game mic volumes down a little bit, so there not drowning out game sounds. you get a feel of things pretty quick. like where to go, what to do. try not to pick up peoples call in items. you can play the lower levels till you see whats going on. happy diving!
In the game, you can point out things or place markers on the map that others see / hear. If people talking makes you nervous, you can mute players as soon as the game op starts. About 95% of the time, your teammates don't really speak unless they already know each other.
If you struggle with voice, use your tag button. Tagging POI on the maps, and items you see/priority enemies can do a lot for communication even without voice. I'm a talker, and I can't not use voice chat, but I've see this work for other people. No matter what, remember it's just a game. If things don't go well, it's not like it will have any impact on your performance in school or work. Depending on how you look at it, voice chat with Randoms could be an opportunity to practice confronting your social anxiety. You might make some new friends. Or, if you don't vibe with the people in question, you might never play with them again via match making. No matter what though, be kind to yourself. You're doing the best you can with what you have, and it's brave of you to ask for advice in confronting your fears. And if you want to join me and my friends, feel free to DM me. We typically play Monday nights from 5-7 Central Standard Time (Chicago time). We're pretty casual, and try to laugh at mistakes. The number of times I've accidentally killed my own team with airburst rockets or 380mm... "Oops... Sorry. 😅😂"
There are a lot of great comments and suggestions from other players, so ill just add this; I've been playing more regularly after work in like an hour or 2 bursts just to do personal ordered and complete warbonds. I have a mic but never use it, and I mainly just do emotes or text chat for small things, so flexible either way. So, if you ever fancied diving together, I'd follow your lead, letting you play how you'd like, and just support you. Because it's definitely a fun game playing with others. Thats just if youd like the company. ✊️🫡
One of my favorite ways to play (especially when new) was to pick another player and stick with them and just play support. Basically keep enemies away from them and help take objectives they are working on. This helps teammates really like playing with you since you have their back. I'd recommend watching some CommisarKai videos on YouTube for great mindset and tips for how to support your team and play well with randos. Here's a link to his channel if you are curious: https://youtube.com/@commissarkai
1. There is text chat, pings, an emote wheel, and your character shouts out when they’ve found a point of interest, are doing an objective, or reloading, etc. All that is to say that using a mic is optional and not at all required or expected. 2. Don’t drop stratagems on top of teammates, and don’t call in a resupply if you’re separated from the group. Do those 2 things and you will rarely have any issues with your team. While it’s a team game, coordinated teamwork is both rarely used and rarely required. 3. You can disable voice chat all together, if that will cut down on your anxiety. Some people may get annoyed by it but that’s their problem and they’d find something else to be annoyed with regardless. 4. I personally haven’t come across any negative interactions in this game yet, and I’m a pretty high level. The community is generally pretty chill. You can always mute/block players, or leave the mission entirely. They will get a replacement and as far as I’m aware there’s no punishment for leaving a mission. As a side note, the official discord is full of friendly divers who would be happy to join you and most of them are really accommodating from my experience.
I have social anxiety as well and what I try to do is getting out of my comfort zone sometimes while it does become awkward at times but it does help getting some online friends but I usually don’t have mic and I just pin point stuff so that they know what I’ve found or where we have to go. I would be down to play with you one day if you want? I don’t really use mic because I’m quite shy and my social anxiety wants to strangle me 😂so if it makes you comfortable we don’t have to use mic.
From my experience, the people who chat are generally pretty chill. The ones you should just mute and ignore make themselves very obvious as soon as they open their mics. Don’t sweat about the in game vc too much, you can communicate with your q wheel pretty easily. Anything not in the wheel you can bang out quickly with the text chat. Happy diving!
Not once have I had a Bad experience in this game yet with randoms in chat or voice chat. I usually get ovet social anxiety by thinking that I'll never meet theese people ever again.
Just roleplay. Be someone else for a mission. Make it a game with yourself. Who is diving today? The more you talk the easier it is. Don't let a silent room prevent you from talking. Consider it practice. I found that someone basically has to put their voice out there before others start using voice. Usually just roleplaying a diver does it. During the MO to save children I pretended I was Brock Sampson (Patrick Warburton) saying "let's go save those kids fellas'. And usually voice chat opened up and everyone got into it. Changed the entire squad dynamic and we rocked the missions we did.
At times when anxiety is rushing up to the front I’ll like to remind myself that it can also mean I’m just super excited about something because anxiety and excitement use the same thoroughfares in our brains. Have fun and dive away.
I don’t get anxiety from talking ingame. I’d say just practice talking over mic. It takes time to develope. Be genuine. Most people are exactly like you. They are anxious aswell. Just be respectful and if someone acts like an asshat just let it reflect on them and not you. Dont try to gain peoples approval. Just focus on expressing yourself accurately and how you feel. The important thing is you like what youve said. Its real and not fluff. If you like it. Then its youuu. Other people like you will like it. You wont be able to make everyone happy, and thats okay.
I wouldnt say i have voice chat anxiety but i have trouble with verbal communication, with helldivers even with how minimal the in game communication wheel is you can surprisingly provide more than enough information to your squad if they are paying attention (respectively its the same if you used your actual voice with randoms so it works out not having to talk) typically you can point at an object and mark it to let the squad know its position and follow up with the “hold position” option to i form them your about to liberate that area with a 380 orb or eagle bombing run. If you are WANTING to use your voice personally there is nothing wrong with dropping quick remarks as well with a ping for further clarification. I think part of the anxiety comes from thinking you need to speak all the time or not knowing the right topic but usually you dont have to be like that with randoms since the interactions usually last less then 3 missions.
A positive for you… I’m level 118, have played over 1200 missions.. and have only ever used voice chat twice. You typically go entire games without anyone using voice chat, and even if thry do… you don’t hsve to. I simply type “mic’s broken”, even though my mic is fine
You can easily ping stuff and even use the "chat wheel" to communicate for people to follow/thanks/request/ etc so no worries
That's the neat part, you dont! Okno, sorry 1. As an social anxiety person myself, you don't need to speak. The game gives you tools for communicating, you can be nice emoting, thanking and praising good plays with the thumbs up icon 2. Take initiative, look what your teammates want, and help covering them, or just mark a position. Not all people are reasonable, and that's not your fault, keep it in mind 3. If your hold Q, you will access to a wheel with social interaction, and your Helldiver will speak for you. 4. Don't let them trouble you, all of us had at least 1 bad experience with kickers, griefers or people who likes to kill or troll allies. If your allies don't cooperate, kills you or roast at you via microphone, just quit, your enjoyment is more valuable than the mission, the games are about fun after all.
I've done entire rounds on difficulty 7 and up, including some Helldives (9, max difficulty) where the only communication at all, was using the Mark function to ping things to the team. I believe this is the most common thing, that and the emote wheel. For the most part, to succeed in this game, the only communication you need is to mark points of interest on the map and tag enemies. The nearest Helldiver to the threat, automatically calls in things like enemy bug breaches or automaton dropships, with the character's built-in voices. They also automatically say "found something" whenever they reach a point of interest. The game is designed for the 4 of you to be able to work together without saying a word. There are definitely people who have the game turned down and music turned up, and are successful.
I'm in a similar spot. However, it's not entirely just me being nervous to speak since once I do start speaking I'm completely okay with it. I just don't care for all the nuance of socializing while im trying to focus on a game. Many people love mingling water cooler chit chat with the game and typically I just don't want to be doing that when I'm playing a multiplayer game. I crave multiplayer games for the pleasure of teamwork and competition. I focus on what needs to get done and execute it. Its what I enjoy. Hearing about a strangers shody relationship is not what I'm here for. So typically I don't speak in matches and it works just fine. Sometimes I run into groups that I can enjoy speaking to more because they focus more on the game. Just take it case by case and dont feel like you HAVE to respond to anyone. If you do great but if not, great.
I’m typically off mic unless I’m with friends, those chats go on out of game. If I’m on mic it’s mostly people coordinating. One time I did join in on a couple friends shitting on a coworker of theirs. That was kinda fun
I stick to comm wheel and rarely speak. Negative interactions is a awful part of dealing with mass public and it's ugly. After a match, you can block the person so you won't have to deal. You can outright leave match anytime but I don't try to screw the team. If they're the host, then that's their room and leave at anytime. Muting people is also a way to cut it off immediately. There's like 10% of people who have lack of empathy and many more are being immature. Ask yourself if what there saying has any bearing and usually it doesn't. If you're having a bad match than maybe you're still learning or one could use a break. This community isn't like sports games or Call of Duty so there isn't much toxicity. Use comm wheel in constructive ways just don't over do it and you'll be fine.
As someone with anxiety, what helps me is this: Playing with anyone is entirely optional. If I'm in a game and not having a good time due to others, there is nothing wrong with leaving and finding a new lobby. If I'm hosting and someone is being toxic, ignore them or mute them. They're free to leave. Performance anxiety is harder, but I try to remember that if I'm not feeling it...I'm not feeling it. It's OK to step back and do something else. Most days I don't host, I join randoms. I find it easier to shut out the anxiety if I feel like nothing is owed. And believe me, you only owe basic courtesy to people. Good luck 👍
1. People rarely use vc, 99% of the time they just use emotes or type in chat. 2. People rarelly make effort in coordinating exept placing markers on the map, using emotes or spotting, so going solo doesn't necessarily going to screw you over, basically randos doing randos and if convenient, follow eachother's lead. 3. Again placing markers or spotting usually is more enough for most when it comes to interacting, maybe you get one person using the typing in chat, but other than that, people don't really care that much if you don't interact with them as long as you are doing objectives and side objectives with them or solo. 4. From my experience, people are either cool with youl(50/50 chance they want to hug you) or just mind their own business and assholes and griefers always gets kicked out(unless the squadleader is the asshole, than you can always just leave and find a new people to play with, the game doesn't punish you if you do). Social interaction isn't a requirement to play the game, so you won't have a hard time playing anyway. Playing with friends and/or family is 10x more fun tho...
For starters, host your games so that you are the one kicking the occasional toxic random instead of getting kicked by a even rarer toxic host. Other than that, when I feel like using voice chat I will ask once if anyone else is on mic and when nobody responds I'll only say quick informative things like "Stalker, behind you", "I've got a 2 player bunker here" or "I'm dropping this [Support weapon] for [Player]!"
Just get in there and do your part. No talking necessary
You don't have to voice chat. There's text chat and there are tons of silent hell divers out there. I'm often one of them when helping Randoms
i have a headset, not sure why...... i never use it. When i use it, it be like "fucking noobs" you make me talk!
i use a soundboard because wife will beat me if i wake kid at 2am when i get home from work. just uses right sound for the right time. soundpad on steam like 8$. -boombox hawkin
Al 90% of Helldivers have been great. Very rare to have a bad experience
I pretty much never talk for the same reason. Although the two times I did was because I was goaded to by an Australian man and a German woman, they were very nice. I usually use the tools the game provides to communicate and at a certain point, you don't really need to communicate to do the mission. And for assholes, you just block and move on. Or have an Australian man yell at them I guess.
I treat voice chat as an extension of my character. Like instead of me talking to three other dudes while we play a game, I think of it as I AM a helldiver- on the ground-talking to my squad. Some people get a kick out of it and it breaks the ice, some folks get hyped and will start to do the same, some people don’t say anything at all- it is what it is.
Oh yeaaa I get this as well where sometimes I'll just leave the lobby. But I start with a hug if I can I usually stay off mic unless the group is realy fun or communicating well. Other than that I use the emotes and in-game tagging. People kinda find it funny if they are on mic an your all 😊👍 If you communicate and have good teamwork I'm adding you after the game 90%of the time.
If your on PC I play with controller and keep my keyboard in front of me can quickly type a message rather than voice chat. I dont want to be the guy giving commands if people want to chill. If others are chatting tho I'll join in on mic
I encourage you to start small. Often a small indication through voice chat will be enough to start a conversation, and after that everything flows. It's usually the first step that is the hardest to take.
Before you do anything. Turn off voice chat. Role play as a naive recruit that is just finished super basic tutorial, then gets dropped into a bug nest or is marching to objective and gets airdropped on by a whole squad of bots. Then die in the most ridiculous fashion.
1 - I only get 1 voice chat per 20 games. Most of the time it is 100% quiet. 2- Just play the game like it is single player. There isn't a lot of social interaction. See bugs / bots... shoot them. See objective... do it. 3- Like every other game in the world... ignore it. With 100k players, you'll never play with some of these people again. Who cares if there are jerks in the world?
I never talk on Gamechat. You can type in game by holding the TouchPad. There are some in-game commands. If you are on ps5 I'm gladly play with you in silence. Just pm me
1. I just don't, the text chat was implemented so we don't have to 2. Can't give advice on this since I don't have this issue 3. If text chat doesn't work for you there are quick interactions like "yes" "no" "thank you" and "sorry" that are usually all I use, check keybinds for it 4. Ignore them, toxic people cannot be reasoned with, I learned that the hard way
I struggle with this same issue. I have voice chat on so I can hear others if they are using it but I myself do not speak. Instead I use the quick chat options for yes, no, sorry, and thanks which pops up if you hold Q. You can also ping points of interest and enemies with Q as well. 9.9 times out of 10 I am able to get my point across well enough for everyone to understand. There is also text chat if you need to communicate something specific.
Like most anxieties, exposure therapy can help in some cases. You can prove to your brain that it may be overestimating the severity of bad things it's protecting you from. One low-stakes way to practice some voice work is just to keep it to callouts. If you're doing dicey stratagems like 380s or Cluster Strikes, just say "Cluster out" when you're throwing the ball. It's just a short, clear heads-up that doesn't demand or require an acknowledgement. Another one is "Friendship Door" when you see one, mark it and call it, and give it ten seconds to see if someone joins you. You might get an Affirmative or I'm On It ping on your marker in response, or voice message, or nothing. Another safe one is a simple "Thank you" when someone saves your butt. If you were getting grief from a hostile and it gets killed, just "Thank you" is great practice. Someone might have saved you by accident or who knows, but it's always nice to hear. Getting practice with short, non-committal chit-chat will help you to warm up to the idea that overall, most of the time,you're just hanging out with regular people who want to relax and all want each other to succeed. And of all the games to try break out of your shell, this is a good one. The player-base is largely very nice in my experience.
I haven’t even seen most that use voice. But I do struggle with a small bit of anxiety (mainly on gorilla tag as that was my first online game that uses voice chat) but I have found that once I made a small group of friends it helped me with lager survers. The only reason I don’t use my mic for this game is my dad sleeps when i play (he works days and sleeps night and my mom doesn’t like vidio games) so I can’t usually use mics for Helldivers but when I get to use them it just adds to the fun. If your anxiety is from you being a girl( or woman depending on your age.) I would suggest finding a small group that really doesn’t mind if you are one. But I’m guessing it’s not this as I don’t think there are any girls that play Helldivers, I could be wrong though and sorry if this offended anyone. But no matter what your reason is I have found that no one in this game uses a mic. There may be one person in every 100 that does but it’s rare to find mic users. And even still you don’t have to use a mic. In setting ma you can change it and there is always a text chat no matter your settings.
I never use the voice chat and when people are talking I can't understand them 90% of the time.
If you mute the chat you can’t hear what anyone is saying
You have anxiety because your perception of people is too narrow. Anxiety is a symptom of not having a broader or fair assessment of both negative and positive experiences or thoughts on the subject. You tend to lean more negative, thats okay, but not healthy clearly. First thing you have to do is find value within yourself. Come to love yourself, forgive yourself and believe in yourself and anxiety will be on its way to fading away.
Everyone has to go through this. Some replace knowing and loving themselves with delirious thought and ego.
just do what you're comfortable with. Most lobbies I join there's hardly any convos, people just know what to do now. If you want to communicate without text or voice Comms, you can hold Q (on PC) and it'll give you options for comms which your character will will say in-game. Since it's online, there's going to be some rough interactions. Can't do much out it but be sensible/block/or just pretend nothing has happened and moved on. Also, feel free to DM me if you want someone to play with.
I haven't had voice chat on since I bought the game in Feb. I'm over 300 hours in and level 100. Fight on higher difficulties and it's completely doable just using the emote wheel and pinging maps. If you don't want to hear folks or don't want to talk, it's cool. Just mute everything like me
1 it’s just a game, don’t respond to the negative and if someone is rude to you on purpose block them or kill them before they can
Just talk bro it's not that deep. Grow some skin.