'Squadleader' Soldier



This soldier type is often the commander of patrol squads, using their grenade launcher arm to fire alarm flares and to rain high explosive death on their foes.

Tactics
Found on planets of all difficulty levels, 'Squadleader' Soldiers patrol the battlefield, following semi-random patterns while searching for Helldivers. They patrol more often around mission objectives and are also attracted to Stratagem beacons. On low to medium difficulty planets these patrols typically consist of two 'Squadleaders' and two Initiates, whereas on high difficulty planets the patrols are made up of four 'Squadleaders'.

Soon after spotting Helldiver troops, 'Squadleader' Soldiers will launch an alarm flare to call for help from more powerful Cyborg units before engaging the player in combat from mid to long range. Their grenade launcher has a slow rate of fire and the grenades only have a small area-of-effect but just one or two are enough to down a Helldiver. Going prone allows Helldivers to survive fragmentation grenade explosions at relatively close distance.

'Squadleader' Soldiers are more heavily armoured than almost all other enemy scouts, meaning it can often be very difficult to kill them before an alarm has been raised. Unaided, only a very few weapons (such as the SG-255 Breaker or CR-9 Suppressor) are able to reliably take down full patrols quickly enough, making concentrated fire from entire Helldiver teams very important.