The much-dreaded Retrieve Essential Personnel mission is one of the most punishing encounters you’ll face in Helldivers 2. This handy guide will tell you what exactly this mission is, and why it suddenly disappeared in patch 1,000,400.
Helldivers 2 Retrieve Essential Personnel mission explained
If you are not familiar with this mission type, let me explain what to expect with Retrieve Essential Personnel. During this accidentally generated mission is found on many different difficulty levels, it is usually more often found on higher difficulty levels (Hard and taller) because of the better rewards distributed at those difficulties.
It involves dropping your squad directly onto a base for extract and save several unarmed civilians. If you played the Emergency Evacuation mission type before, then you will know Retrieving Key Personnel. The main difference is that the latter jumps directly to the extraction step and greatly increases the number of enemies you have to fend off.
Once the mission begins, Helldivers will have little time to prepare before hordes of enemies are unleashed on them in a small, tight area. The civilians in need of rescue are hiding in two shelters located at the base. Players need activate button outside the shelter before a couple of them start fleeing to the extraction point.
Once a set amount of civilians have safely reached the extraction point, the objective will then be marked as completed. It is at this point that Helldivers will be able to call in an extraction ship to get out of the hell of escape. Just secure as many civilians as possible to survivebecause every dead civilian will count as a penalty to your reward at the end of the round.
Where to find the Retrieve Essential Personnel mission in Helldivers 2
The latest patch 1.000.400 is a major one, introducing a dizzying amount of balance changes from Helldivers 2 and new Features on the Galactic War map. But fans of the Retrieve Essential Personnel type mission might be disappointed to hear that the mission was temporarily removed of the game. In the vast patch notesdeveloper Arrowhead Studios claims that the mission was “not quite as fun or action-packed as we want it to be”, so they’ve disabled it for the time being so they can give it the “proper attention and care it deserves”.
This move is understandable given the outcry from the Helldivers 2 community about how punishing it was on very high difficulty levels, with some players even speculating that it was broken completely Here’s hoping Arrowhead can fix the mission so our Helldivers can continue saving the vulnerable citizens of the galaxy!
Curious to learn more about Helldivers 2’s many difficulty levels? Then look no further than the All Helldivers 2 difficulty settings, explained in Pro Game Guides.
