Update 7.0 “Devoid of Liberty” added two new Illuminate enemies to Helldivers 2 — the Crusher and the Wretch — and both are catching squads that walk in with their usual loadout. The Crusher’s kill spot isn’t the exposed hide you’d expect from an Illuminate unit; it’s the head underneath its helmet, and that head doesn’t exist to your gun until the helmet is gone. A single center-mass hit from a Recoilless Rifle or Quasar Cannon won’t drop it. Community testing has clocked a Railgun shot to the helmet followed by an immediate headshot, or a single thermite grenade or C4 brick, which community testing shows is capable of dropping it outright. The Wretch is the opposite problem: small, fast, and disposable — aim for its clawed arms or set it on fire, and don’t waste time lining up a headshot. Hotfix 7.0.2 (August 25) touched only crash fixes, so none of this has changed since launch.
The Crusher’s Weak Point Isn’t Where You’ve Been Aiming
Arrowhead’s own patch notes describe the Crusher as an enemy that “needs to be worn down quickly and consistently without a moment of pause” — that line is doing a lot of work. According to the community-maintained Helldivers Wiki, the Crusher’s main body carries roughly 6,000 HP behind only light armor, but its helmet is a separate, heavily armored component with around 300 HP of its own. Break the helmet and you expose a head with another 300 HP that takes full damage from any hit. That’s the actual kill path: helmet first, head second. Aim center-mass without breaking the helmet and you’re just chipping at a health pool the Crusher is actively rebuilding.
Why Your Recoilless Rifle Isn’t Cutting It
The mechanic that makes the Crusher feel unfair is its regeneration: everything except the helmet and head heals back at roughly 30 HP per second, starting half a second after the last hit lands. A Recoilless Rifle or Quasar Cannon each fire once, then need 12-plus seconds to reload — plenty of time for the Crusher to claw back most of what a single shot took off, if that shot didn’t break the helmet outright. Sustained-fire weapons don’t have that gap. An AC-8 Autocannon keeps landing hits every second or two, staying ahead of the regen curve instead of racing it. If your loadout is built around one anti-tank slot and a rifle, you’re set up for the tanks and hulks Helldivers 2 has always had — not for an enemy that punishes single big hits and rewards continuous pressure. Our armor-piercing basics guide covers why penetration values matter more than raw damage numbers for exactly this reason.
Fastest Confirmed Kills
On paper, the fastest kill is a two-hit combo — Railgun to the helmet, then a headshot — but a single thermite grenade or C4 charge is reported capable of dropping the Crusher outright, skipping the aiming problem entirely.
| Method | What It Does | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Railgun (Safe Mode) to helmet, then headshot | Breaks the helmet in one hit; the follow-up shot kills | Fastest confirmed kill — needs precise aim |
| G-123 Thermite grenade or C4 brick | Community-tested one-shot kill, bypassing the regen mechanic entirely | When you can’t line up a clean headshot |
| AC-8 Autocannon, sustained fire | 5–6 shots to stagger and kill without relying on the weak point | Squads without a dedicated marksman |
| EAT-17 / Quasar Cannon to helmet | Can break the helmet in one hit, but regen may close the gap before a follow-up | Backup option — pair with a weapon that can finish the headshot |
The Wretch Is a Different Fight Entirely
Don’t bring the same plan to a Wretch. It’s fast, it dodges, it leaps, and it almost never travels alone — community guides consistently point to its clawed arms as the weak point, not the head, and note it’s unusually vulnerable to fire. A Flamethrower, the Cremator, or an incendiary primary like the AR-2 Coyote clears a pack faster than precision shots ever will. When Crushers and Wretches show up in the same encounter, kill the Wretches first: they’re the ones that get you surrounded while your squad is busy chipping away at the Crusher’s helmet. Our stratagem tier list has the current picks if you’re rebuilding a loadout around either enemy.
What to Change Before Your Next Drop
In our own drops since the patch, we watched a squad-mate’s Recoilless shot bounce off a Crusher’s helmet at range and do almost nothing — by the time the weapon reloaded, regen had erased most of the damage from a follow-up hit that also missed the helmet. That’s the trap: the weapon isn’t weak, the aim point was wrong. Swap one loadout slot to a Railgun or Autocannon if you’re consistently running into Crushers, keep a thermite grenade or C4 charge in reserve as a guaranteed kill, and don’t sleep on incendiary weapons for the Wretch swarms that usually show up alongside them. For the full rundown on every Illuminate unit added since launch, our Illuminate enemy guide covers the rest of the roster.
Verified against Update 7.0.0 “Devoid of Liberty” and hotfix 7.0.2 (no balance changes to either enemy). Values may shift with future patches.
Sources
- PlayStation Universe. Helldivers 2 Update 7.0.0 Brings Devoid Of Liberty Content Including SEAF Support, New Illuminate Enemies — Full Patch Notes Listed. PSU.com
- The Helldivers Wiki. Crusher. wiki.gg
- KeenGamer. Helldivers 2 — How to Defeat Crushers and Wretches
- Patched.gg. Helldivers 2 v7.0.2 — Stability & Crash Fixes
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.