What are medals actually used for?

Medals are mainly used to unlock rewards in Warbonds. Warbonds are basically the progression pages where you spend medals to unlock:

Weapons

Armor sets

Grenades

Boosters

Capes and cosmetics

Cosmetics are optional, but the important part is that many core tools for higher difficulty are locked behind medal unlocks, especially boosters and certain weapons.

In other words: medals are not “side content.” They are part of your combat readiness.

How do you earn medals in normal gameplay?

Most medals come from doing what you were already going to do:

Mission completion rewards

Every mission gives medals depending on difficulty and mission type. Higher difficulties tend to reward more, but they also take longer and fail more often if your team isn’t ready.

Major Orders and Personal Orders

These are where medal income spikes. Personal Orders are especially reliable because they’re usually simple tasks like killing certain enemies or using specific weapons.

Points of interest (POIs)

During missions you can find medal pickups in containers and caches. These aren’t guaranteed, but squads that loot efficiently usually earn noticeably more medals over time.

In practice, players who rush objectives without looting earn fewer medals per hour than players who clear efficiently.

Should you farm medals or just play normally?

Most players don’t need to “farm” medals in a dedicated way until they hit a progression wall.

If you're still clearing difficulties 4–6 comfortably, you can mostly play normally and medals will come steadily.

You should start thinking about targeted medal earning when:

You want a specific weapon or booster ASAP

You’re stuck failing difficulty 7+ missions

Your squad is under-equipped compared to the threats

At that point, it makes sense to play a difficulty you can win consistently rather than pushing higher and losing repeatedly. Winning more missions usually beats gambling on higher medal payouts.

What should you unlock first if you want to survive difficulty 7–9?

This is where a lot of players waste medals.

The best early medal value is usually boosters

Boosters affect the whole squad and improve your mission stability. Many teams fail Helldive missions because they run out of reinforcements, ammo, or time.

Boosters that help with stamina, reinforcement, and resupply efficiency are usually better early choices than cosmetics or niche weapons.

Weapons that are “reliable under pressure” matter more than flashy ones

At high difficulty, you don’t want a weapon that is strong only in perfect conditions. You want something that still performs when:

you’re being chased

visibility is low

enemies are armored

your squad is split

you’re forced to reload while moving

Players who unlock consistent primary weapons early generally adapt faster to higher difficulty.

Grenades are underrated

Many high-level fights are decided by whether your team can remove a threat instantly. A good grenade unlock can change how you handle armored enemies and bug swarms.

How do medals affect your ability to deal with armored enemies?

Armored enemies are the biggest difficulty spike in the game. Bugs and bots both have threats that basic gear struggles against.

Medals matter because they unlock tools that solve armor problems more cleanly, such as:

weapons with better penetration

grenades that delete key targets

boosters that keep your squad stocked

gear that improves survivability while carrying heavy support weapons

A lot of teams lose because they can’t quickly kill Chargers, Bile Titans, Hulks, or tanks before the fight spirals.

Medal unlocks don’t automatically win the fight, but they reduce the number of situations where your only option is “run and pray.”

Why do experienced players prioritize medals even after they have good stratagems?

Stratagems are powerful, but stratagem cooldowns and limited uses create downtime. At high difficulty, you’re constantly fighting. You can’t rely on orbital strikes for everything.

Medal unlocks often improve your “baseline combat strength,” meaning:

your primary weapon is stronger

your grenade is more useful

your armor perks are better suited for survival

your booster improves your overall mission pacing

This matters because the toughest missions punish inconsistency. Stratagems save you sometimes. Your loadout saves you all the time.

Do medals help with team coordination and squad roles?

Yes, indirectly.

When your squad has limited medal unlocks, everyone tends to run similar “starter” setups. That usually means:

overlapping roles

weak anti-armor coverage

not enough crowd control

poor sustain during long fights

As you unlock more options, you can specialize. One player brings dedicated anti-tank support, another focuses on swarm clearing, another plays objective runner with mobility perks.

This role separation is what makes difficulty 8–9 feel manageable. Without it, missions become chaotic and ammo-starved.

What mistakes do players make when spending medals?

These are the most common ones I see:

Spending medals on cosmetics early

It’s fine later, but early progression should focus on things that affect mission success.

Unlocking “fun” weapons that don’t scale well

Some weapons feel good on difficulty 4–5 but struggle when enemy armor and density increase.

Ignoring boosters

Boosters look boring compared to guns, but boosters win missions. They make the entire squad more efficient.

Unlocking too many items across different Warbonds without a plan

Players sometimes scatter medals across pages without reaching the best unlocks. It’s better to commit and reach key rewards sooner.

How do medals connect to the game’s toughest challenges?

The hardest challenges in Helldivers 2 are not just “more enemies.” They combine multiple pressure points:

armored targets

constant patrols

limited time

objective defense

extraction chaos

reduced margin for error

Medals are what let you unlock gear that reduces these pressure points. For example:

A better primary weapon reduces ammo waste.

A stronger grenade prevents emergencies from becoming disasters.

A booster improves reinforcement pacing.

Armor perks help you survive mistakes that would otherwise wipe the squad.

At Helldive difficulty, small advantages stack up. One bad reload timing or one wasted resupply can snowball into a failed extraction.

That’s why medals matter: they don’t make you invincible, but they give you more tools to keep control of the mission.

Is it worth trying to speed up medal progression?

If you’re aiming to push difficulty 9, speeding up medal progression is worth it, but most of it comes down to better play habits, not shortcuts.

Players who earn medals faster usually do these things:

complete Personal Orders consistently

loot POIs while moving toward objectives

avoid unnecessary fights

finish missions cleanly instead of wiping late

stick to a difficulty they can clear reliably

Some players also look for external options like buy helldivers 2 items, but in normal gameplay terms, the most dependable approach is simply completing orders and winning missions efficiently.

How many medals should you save before spending?

Most players spend medals as soon as they have enough, and that’s fine early on.

Later, saving can help because you can plan around big upgrades. If you know a specific weapon or booster is coming up soon, saving prevents you from wasting medals on something you won’t use.

A good habit is to always ask:

“Will this unlock make my next 10 missions easier?”

If the answer is no, it can wait.

What’s the practical strategy for using medals to reach Helldive readiness?

If your goal is to handle difficulty 7–9 without feeling underpowered, the practical approach is:

Unlock one or two reliable primary weapons you can trust under pressure

Unlock at least one strong grenade option

Prioritize boosters that help mission pacing and survivability

Only then start spending medals on armor variety and cosmetics

This matches how experienced squads actually progress: they don’t chase style first, they chase consistency.

Final takeaway: medals are not optional progression

Medals are the game’s main way of gating power upgrades. If you're serious about higher difficulties, medals are how you get access to the tools that keep missions stable.

You can still win with basic gear if you play well, but the reality is that difficulty 8–9 assumes your squad has at least some key Warbond unlocks.

If you're struggling at higher difficulty, it’s usually not because you need to “get better” in some vague way. It’s often because your loadout doesn’t have the right unlocked options yet, and medals are how you fix that.