VETERANS OF HELL
Earn your edge. Lose it all.
WARNING
Earn your edge. Lose it all.
WARNING
The October 2026 update added Easy Anti-Cheat and broke every Lua mod in the live game. DO NOT use this mod in the normal online game.
Veterans of Hell runs on HellForge: an offline copy of the game build this mod was made for, which loads Bingus Shared Loader and its mods. Co-op works there with other HellForge players. Please DO NOT comment to ask when the live game will be supported - I will not respond. That depends on the Bingus Shared Mod Loader working again on the live build.
Veterans of Hell runs on HellForge: an offline copy of the game build this mod was made for, which loads Bingus Shared Loader and its mods. Co-op works there with other HellForge players. Please DO NOT comment to ask when the live game will be supported - I will not respond. That depends on the Bingus Shared Mod Loader working again on the live build.
What it does
A roguelike rank for Helldivers 2. Complete missions to earn points toward the next rank; every rank gives you a perk point. Each rank costs more than the last (5, 7, 9, 11... points, up to rank 100), and how you can lose it is up to you: any death, a failed mission, or either.
The catch: your perks replace your armor's passive. At rank 0 your armor has no passive at all - every bonus has to be earned. Rank up on easier difficulties until you can survive the hard ones.
Watch the demo here!
Features
- 54 perks in 4 trees - Supporter, Shooter, Survivor and Veteran. Points go in one at a time (Low Profile 2/5 = -5% detection range), and deeper rows open as you invest in a tree. Bigger perks are bought a whole level at a time (Grenadier: 2 points per grenade)
- Points spent stay spent - only a reset clears them, or the Respec perk (it costs a point). At rank 100 every rank's worth of points is a free Respec
- Scoring: lives left plus Helldivers extracted, per player, times a difficulty multiplier (D7 = x1.00, each step x1.25 up / x0.75 down). Read straight from the game: the mission difficulty, who boarded the Pelican, and the objectives
- XP mode: progress by the game's own mission XP rules instead - 100 per main objective, 50 per side objective, 20 per Helldiver extracted, plus 10 per life left, times the game's difficulty bonus. Rewards doing the side objectives
- Fault protection: a mission that ends in its first minute (a crash, a disconnect, a bad drop) is neither a win nor a loss
- Level Lock: play without gaining or losing anything
- Objective done but nobody made it out? No points, but it counts as a death, not a failed mission
- Kicked mid-mission? You keep playing in your own lobby with your share of the squad's lives
- Turn your other mods into perks: the MODS page lets you register any on/off option another mod adds to Mod Options Menu as a one-rank perk, at a cost you pick
- Switchboard: turn perks you own off and on without losing their points
- Results panel on the destroyer after every mission, in the game's own font
- Switches with the game's language (English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese)
- Works as host, client and solo
Perks
- Supporter: Low Profile (detection range), Soft Steps (movement noise), Prowler (walk speed), Recon (POI spotting), Strong Arm (throw range), Scout (marker radar scans), Grenadier (+grenades), Field Medic (+stims), Long Stims, Slide Boost. Support weapon: Ammo Mule (spare mags), Big Drums (magazine size), Crew Drill (reload time), Heavy Grip (recoil)
- Shooter: Steady Hands (sway), Recoil Control, Fleet Foot (sprint and jog speed), Aimed Movement, Ergonomics, Endurance (sprint stamina), Quick Recovery (stamina), Second Wind (recovery delay), Brawler (melee damage), Unflinching (no aim flinch), Braced (recoil crouched / prone). Primary and secondary: Extra Mag, Deep Mags, Quick Hands (reload time), Tamed Recoil. Lasers: Coolant (heat capacity and cooling), Fast Focus (wind-up speed)
- Survivor: Blast Padding, Tough Limbs (limb health), Chest Plate, Fireproof, Gas Filters, Insulated (arc), Limb Guard (injury avoidance), Rooted (knockdown), Impact Padding, Adrenaline (stamina when hit), Sure Footed (no leg injuries), Tourniquet (chest bleed damage), Bloodlust (a little health back per kill)
- Veteran: Roulette (1 point into a random perk, 10% chance of a bonus point), Respec, Switchboard, Objective Hunter (+XP per side objective), Insurance (excused losses), Cool Head (first death of each mission forgiven), Bounty (+mission points), Legacy (restart at a higher rank after a reset), Sharpshooter (+points for accuracy), Body Count (+points for K
)
Weapon perks, Bloodlust, Sharpshooter and Body Count use HellForge's live game data. They change only your own weapons and your own diver.
Requirements
- HellForge
- Bingus Shared Loader
- Squad-Safe Passives 1.2.0+ - needed for armor perks and for replacing your passive. Without it your armor keeps its passive and armor perks stay off; everything else still works
- Recommended: Mod Bindings Menu (to bind the perk menu key), Mod Options Menu (needed for the MODS page)
Installation
- Add Bingus Shared Loader, Squad-Safe Passives, Mod Bindings Menu and the Veterans of Hell ZIP on HellForge's Mods page (the ZIP as it is - no need to unpack it)
- Start the game from HellForge
- In game: Options > Controls > MODS > Veterans of Hell > Open Perk Menu - bind any key
- Coming from the normal game? The first time it runs in HellForge, your rank, perks and settings are copied over from your old folder (which is left as it is)
The perk menu (on the destroyer)
- Open Menu: the key you bound in Options > Controls > MODS > Veterans of Hell
- Mouse: point to select, click twice to add a point, wheel or scroll bar to scroll
- Keys: arrows to move, Space twice to add a point, Page Up / Page Down to scroll, T to turn a perk off / on (with Switchboard), TAB for the next page (PERKS, SETTINGS, MODS)
- Each perk shows its levels (1 / 2) and a gold outline that fills as you add points
Settings (perk menu > TAB)
- Veterans of Hell - on/off
- Ranks Reset When - Death (any death, even reinforced), Mission Failed (failing, abandoning or closing the game mid-mission), or Either
- Fault Protection - how long a mission has to last to count, or Off
- Unflinching From - Veterans of Hell or TCO Ghosts and Goliath (only matters with G&G installed)
- Level Lock - no points, no resets
- Progress By - Lives or XP
- Language - Game (follows the game) or a fixed language
Good to know
- Weapon and gear perks count from your next respawn, resupply or call-in; Ergonomics from your next weapon spawn; extra stims and grenades from your next resupply or respawn
- A weapon is picked up by the weapon perks the first time you hold it (the last 12 are remembered)
- Weapon perks change the weapon's data on your PC: a teammate holding the same weapon shows your values on your screen only. In their own game their weapon is unchanged
- Quick Hands and Crew Drill only change weapons whose data sets a reload time; the log names every weapon a perk changed
- Bonuses the game takes from the armor piece itself (Siege-Ready / Gunslinger reloads, Extra Padding's armor rating) are not removed by "replace"
- With TCO Ghosts and Goliath installed, the few passive effects that work just by being present (Unflinching, Feet First's leg immunity) stay - G&G needs them to find your passive
- The menu can't stop the game from also seeing your keys (that's why it uses Space, not Enter, which opens chat)
- Your rank and perks: the SETTINGS page shows the folder. In HellForge it is HellForge\userdata\environment\local\CowboyBingus\Helldivers2\VeteransOfHell\state.txt (delete it to start over)
Works with
- HellForge - required to play since the October 2026 update; also needed for the weapon perks, Bloodlust, Sharpshooter and Body Count
- Squad-Safe Passives - required for armor perks
- Mod Options Menu - needed for the MODS page (mod perks)
- Tactical Combat Overhaul - optional; movement perks merge with TCO Core and Run-N-Gun through TCO's shared runtime. Veterans of Hell carries its own copy of that runtime, so TCO is not needed
- HD2Runtime - optional; its cursor handling is used when it is loaded
For mod authors
Global AksVeteransOfHell (read-only): rank, points, perks ([perk id] = points), and mult / add / flags by stat key. Veterans of Hell applies its perks itself - read them, don't apply them twice.
AksVeteransOfHell.register_perk adds your own perk to a tree (see PLUGINS.txt in the download).
Logs
CowboyBingus\Helldivers2\Logs\VeteransOfHell.log (in HellForge, also in HellForge's logs folder) - every mission, perk write and setting, plus a cost line once a minute
Credits
- Game addresses for this build from the research published with Stratagem Announcement 0.3.7, which credits HD2Runtime (SkyeShade) and HD2 HUD+ (DDRK1NG)
- HellForge by SkyeShade: the offline game, its Lua bridge and live game data
- Pelican boarding, objective state and the main / side objective catalogue follow Mission Debrief by Rosensterner
- Passive catalogue and layouts from HD2 Transmog by tyrypyrking, as used by Squad-Safe Passives
- Free-cursor approach from HD2Runtime's mod cursor (SkyeShade)
- Built on Bingus Shared Loader and Mod Bindings Menu by CowboyBingus
- Performance checked with Mod Lag Watchdog by VeganSquid
Planned Changes
- Exclusionary perks
- Perks w/ drawbacks
