GHOSTS AND GOLIATH
Pack light and stay low.
Ghosts and Goliath ties how far away enemies can spot you to how much you are carrying. A diver in light armor with a carbine and a sidearm slips past patrols that would never miss a heavy-armor machine gunner with a backpack.
Heavy kit still has a job: a lumbering Goliath draws attention to a position, freeing the Ghosts on the team to flank.
⚠ HOST ONLY — BE CONSIDERATE IN PUBLIC LOBBIES
HOW IT WORKS
Ghosts and Goliath calculates a load score from your armor and equipped weapons, then smoothly maps that load to an enemy detection-range modifier.
Carry less and enemies have to get closer before spotting you. Carry more and they can see you from farther away.
It uses the game's own "reduces range at which enemies can detect the wearer" armor-passive modifier — the same underlying system used by Scout armor — editing that modifier if your passive already has one and adding it if it does not.
YOUR LOAD
Grenades and stratagem beacons do not count.
Clumsy weapons are heavy. A 15-ergonomics machine gun contributes:
A 100-ergonomics pistol contributes nothing.
EXAMPLES
Using the Standard preset:
There are no arbitrary light/medium/heavy load classes. Removing one weapon, dropping a support weapon or putting on heavier armor immediately moves you along the same continuous scale.
WHAT COUNTS AS EQUIPPED?
Stealth passives can also stack.
With Stealth Passives Stack enabled, armor effects such as Scout (×0.7) and Reduced Signature (×0.6) continue applying on top of Ghosts and Goliath's load-based modifier.
PRESETS
Subtle and Standard preserve a relatively vanilla mission feel while making equipment choice matter.
Tactical creates clear Ghost/Goliath roles.
Hardcore and Ghosts and Goliath are deliberately extreme: a heavily equipped diver can become dramatically easier for patrols to detect.
SETTINGS
Open:
ESC → MODS → TCO - GHOSTS AND GOLIATH
Available settings:
Changes apply when you press APPLY, including during a mission.
Without Mod Options Menu, the Standard preset is used.
REQUIREMENTS
No other Tactical Combat Overhaul component is required.
Select TCO - Ghosts and Goliath in Arsenal; TCO's Shared Runtime is included automatically.
Remove the old standalone Ghosts and Goliath and the Stealth Probe test mod first.
COMPATIBILITY & LIMITATIONS
[/HR
Pack light and stay low.
Ghosts and Goliath ties how far away enemies can spot you to how much you are carrying. A diver in light armor with a carbine and a sidearm slips past patrols that would never miss a heavy-armor machine gunner with a backpack.
Heavy kit still has a job: a lumbering Goliath draws attention to a position, freeing the Ghosts on the team to flank.
⚠ HOST ONLY — BE CONSIDERATE IN PUBLIC LOBBIES
- Enemy AI runs on the host, so Ghosts and Goliath only works when you host or play solo. As a client it does nothing.
- The detection value is stored on the armor passive. While you host, everyone in your lobby wearing the same armor passive as you gets your detection range, whether or not they have the mod or agreed to it.
- Aggressive presets such as Hardcore and Ghosts and Goliath noticeably change how a mission plays for the whole squad. Don't host public lobbies on extreme settings without telling people; Subtle or Standard is the polite choice, or turn the mod off.
- Everything is restored when you turn it off, change armor or quit. Nothing is saved to your game files.
HOW IT WORKS
Ghosts and Goliath calculates a load score from your armor and equipped weapons, then smoothly maps that load to an enemy detection-range modifier.
Carry less and enemies have to get closer before spotting you. Carry more and they can see you from farther away.
It uses the game's own "reduces range at which enemies can detect the wearer" armor-passive modifier — the same underlying system used by Scout armor — editing that modifier if your passive already has one and adding it if it does not.
YOUR LOAD
| Item | Counts as | Default weight |
|---|---|---|
| Armor | Armor rating — 50 light, 100 medium, 150 heavy; mixed sets fall in between | ×1 |
| Primary | 100 − ergonomics | ×1 |
| Secondary | 100 − ergonomics | ×0.5 |
| Support weapon | 100 − ergonomics | ×2 |
| Backpack | Any backpack | +100 |
Grenades and stratagem beacons do not count.
Clumsy weapons are heavy. A 15-ergonomics machine gun contributes:
Code:
100 - 15 = 85
85 × 2 support-weapon weight = 170 loadA 100-ergonomics pistol contributes nothing.
EXAMPLES
Using the Standard preset:
Code:
Light armor 50
+ Liberator 35
+ Peacemaker 0
= 85 load
-> 80% detection range
Medium armor 100
+ Liberator 35
+ Peacemaker 0
+ MG-43 170
+ Jump Pack 100
= 405 load
-> 114% detection range- Smooth scaling: at or below Full Stealth Bonus At Load, you receive your configured Min Detection Range.
- At or above Full Penalty At Load, you receive your configured Max Detection Range.
- Between those two points, detection range changes smoothly with every point of load.
There are no arbitrary light/medium/heavy load classes. Removing one weapon, dropping a support weapon or putting on heavier armor immediately moves you along the same continuous scale.
WHAT COUNTS AS EQUIPPED?
- Primary: counted from your loadout.
- Secondary: counted from drop-in rather than only while held.
- Support weapon: begins counting when picked up and stops counting when dropped or consumed.
- Backpack: counts while worn.
- Death: your loadout is retained while dead rather than temporarily treating you as weightless.
Stealth passives can also stack.
With Stealth Passives Stack enabled, armor effects such as Scout (×0.7) and Reduced Signature (×0.6) continue applying on top of Ghosts and Goliath's load-based modifier.
PRESETS
| Preset | Detection range | Full penalty at load | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subtle | 90–115% | 500 | A gentle nudge. |
| Standard | 80–125% | 500 | Default. |
| Tactical | 70–175% | 450 | Loadout clearly matters. |
| Hardcore | 60–300% | 400 | Support ×3, backpack 150. |
| Ghosts and Goliath | 50–500% | 400 | Primary ×1.25, support ×3, backpack 200. |
Subtle and Standard preserve a relatively vanilla mission feel while making equipment choice matter.
Tactical creates clear Ghost/Goliath roles.
Hardcore and Ghosts and Goliath are deliberately extreme: a heavily equipped diver can become dramatically easier for patrols to detect.
SETTINGS
Open:
ESC → MODS → TCO - GHOSTS AND GOLIATH
Available settings:
- Preset
- Ghosts and Goliath On / Off
- Stealth Passives Stack — default On
- Full Stealth Bonus At Load — default 100, range 0–600
- Min Detection Range — default 80%, range 50–500%
- Full Penalty At Load — default 500, range 50–1000
- Max Detection Range — default 125%, range 50–500%
- Primary Weight — default 100%, range 0–400%
- Secondary Weight — default 50%, range 0–400%
- Support Weight — default 200%, range 0–400%
- Backpack Load — default 100, range 0–300
- Missing Ergonomics — default 50, range 0–100
Changes apply when you press APPLY, including during a mission.
Without Mod Options Menu, the Standard preset is used.
REQUIREMENTS
- Helldivers 2 on Windows PC, Steam build 25480438 / executable 1.8.46015.0
- Bingus Shared Loader — Required, v18+ / API 1
- Mod Options Menu — Optional / Recommended
- SHODAN Stat Editor — Optional / Recommended; supplies weapon ergonomics. Without it, every weapon uses the configured Missing Ergonomics value.
- A mod manager such as HD2 Arsenal or HD2MM
No other Tactical Combat Overhaul component is required.
Select TCO - Ghosts and Goliath in Arsenal; TCO's Shared Runtime is included automatically.
Remove the old standalone Ghosts and Goliath and the Stealth Probe test mod first.
COMPATIBILITY & LIMITATIONS
- Host only: enemy AI detection is host-controlled.
- Shared armor passives: players using the same armor passive as the host may inherit the host's modified detection range.
- Weapon attachments are not counted yet. Only base weapon ergonomics are used.
- Weapons without an ergonomics value use the configured Missing Ergonomics setting.
- All edited armor-passive values are restored when the feature is disabled, your armor changes or the game exits.
[/HR
