Helldivers 2 can sometimes liberate itself from your control and send itself into orbit like a Helldiver diving into a Bile Titan’s walking path. It’s frustrating to have your samples, your team and your extraction but find that you’ve returned to the desktop, empty handed. While a lot of crashing can only be resolved by the developers, there are a lot of things you can try to shore up your defenses to bring liber-tea to one and all.
Update Everything
AMD and Nividia have released tons of fixes within their drivers to address issues with Helldivers 2, so get your graphics drivers up to date. While you’re at it, update Windows as well. If you’ve got frequent crashes, you might want to run a “Verify Integrity of Game Files (steampowered.com)” on the game as well.
Make sure everything you can think of is updated. If you use a mouse or keyboard and its associated app, make sure that it’s up to date. Especially any overlays, etc.
You may also want to close any programs that you’re not using and especially anything that generates an overlay, you may want to disable those (Steam Overlay, GeForce, SteelSeries, Razer, etc.).
Clean Up Your Startup and Disable Certain Apps
In Windows, search “startup apps” and turn off any app you don’t need and reboot. This will make sure things like Overwolf, Twitch, etc. don’t automatically load when you boot your PC. This will greatly help with any conflicts, memory leaks, etc.
You can also disable any apps (or just close them) that are running that you don’t use.
If you’re overclocking your PC then that could be a potential cause. I know a lot of players will say disable your OC, but if every game you play is stable but Helldivers 2 then I’d save that as one of the last things you try.
Browser Tabs
Make sure to close as many browser tabs as you can. Streaming sites can consume a lot of memory and while modern browsers do a great job of “sleeping tabs,” it can still present a lot of load for your PC. Best to close everything out on your PC if you’re having a lot of crashes with Helldivers 2. That way you avoid any major conflicts.
Full Screen or Windowed / Graphic Settings
If you crash a lot in Full Screen then switch to Windowed and vice versa. You’ll likely want to lower the graphic settings, reduce shadows and turn off any graphics card features that override the game (Nvidia scaling for instance). These can just cause issues and interfere with the game.
Anti-aliasing and global illumination are often culprits of crashing in Helldivers 2 on PC.
In a dual monitor setup, try running with just one monitor.
If you’ve tried all of the above and you’re still crashing (and its only Helldivers 2) then you may need to watch for the next patch to see if the developers resolve your issue or just try a full reinstall of the game at that point. You can also go into the Steam community for Helldivers 2 and ask for help; lots of knowledgeable fans can help troubleshoot your setup and help pinpoint what’s wrong.
For console, you shouldn’t be crashing. Liber-tea awaits!
