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For Helldivers deploying to hostile planets, encountering a heavily-armored Brood Commander is always a tense moment. When that commander is the larger, angrier Alpha variant, that tension spikes. This guide breaks down the Alpha Commander from a practical standpoint, focusing on how most squads actually deal with it in the field.
What Exactly is an Alpha Commander?
In simple terms, the Alpha Commander is a supercharged Brood Commander. It shares the same basic model and attack patterns as its standard counterpart but is significantly more durable and dangerous. The most critical difference you’ll feel in combat is its increased health pool. Where a Brood Commander has 800 health, the Alpha Commander has 1000. This might not sound like a lot on paper, but in the heat of battle, that extra toughness means it can survive several more direct hits from your primary weapons.
Its armor values are identical to the Brood Commander, so what works against one will work against the other. It’s just that the Alpha Commander will take more punishment before going down.
How Do You Actually Fight an Alpha Commander?
The community’s approach to this enemy is unanimous: prioritize it immediately. An Alpha Commander is fast and aggressively closes distance. If it reaches a Helldiver, its melee attacks are almost always fatal in under a second. The number one rule is to never let it get close.
Most experienced squads will call out its spawn and focus fire. High-penetration weapons and anti-tank stratagems are the most reliable tools. Weapons like the Railgun (on safe mode or unsafe if you’re skilled), the Autocannon, or the Expendable Anti-Tank are excellent choices. If your squad lacks dedicated anti-armor, concentrating fire from multiple Support Weapons on its weak points can also bring it down.
A common and effective tactic, if you can't kill it instantly, is to maim its front legs. Each leg has its own health pool and damaging them significantly slows the creature's advance. This creates crucial breathing room for your team to reposition, reload, or call in a more powerful stratagem. Just remember that crippling it doesn’t kill it; you’ll still need to finish the job.
What Happens When You Shoot Its Head Off?
Just like a Brood Commander, beheading an Alpha Commander triggers a berserk state. This is a critical moment. The creature will thrash wildly and chaotically for a short time before dying. Do not mistake its impending death for safety. Its attacks during this frenzy are just as lethal. The standard procedure is to continue firing from a safe distance or, more commonly, to simply focus on evasion. Dodging to the side repeatedly until it collapses is a standard practice. Do not stand in front of it or try to melee it.
What About the Smaller Bugs It Spawns?
An often-overlooked but dangerous ability of the Alpha Commander is its capacity to summon reinforcements. It will spawn groups of roughly three "Alpha Warriors." These bugs are faster than normal Warriors and share the Alpha Commander’s color scheme. While they don’t have the armor of their boss, their speed makes them a serious distraction. A good team will have one or two members focus on clearing these adds while the others keep pressure on the Commander. Letting them swarm you is a sure way to get overwhelmed. Managing your economy of ammunition and stratagems is key here; some players choose to buy helldivers 2 items like boosters or specific stratagems to better handle these combined-arms threats, though effective teamwork with standard loadouts is always the foundation.
General Tactics and Squad Behavior
In general, engagement with an Alpha Commander follows a clear protocol. Communication is the first step. Upon sighting, a clear callout like "Alpha Commander, west!" is essential. The squad then makes a quick assessment: do we have the firepower to burst it down now? If yes, focus fire. If not, the strategy shifts to crowd control and kiting. Stratagems like the Eagle 500kg Bomb, Orbital Laser, or even well-placed Machine Gun Sentries can be used to zone and damage it.
Most players agree that trying to fight an Alpha Commander in the middle of a large bug breach is a recipe for a squad wipe. The usual practice is to backpedal, clear space, and draw it into a more manageable engagement area. Using the terrain—like cliffs or chokepoints—to your advantage is a hallmark of an experienced Helldiver.
Finally, always have an exit strategy. Sometimes, the mission objective or the overall situation makes fighting the Alpha Commander inadvisable. In these cases, using Smoke or EMS stratagems to disengage is a perfectly valid and smart tactic. Completing the mission is the ultimate goal, and unnecessary heroics against a mini-boss can often jeopardize that.
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