SC grinding 4 dummies </3

Are you an unemployed nerd who plays video games all day? Do you have no reliable source of income outside of your parents' cash? Do you still want the hottest and latest warbond on the block without putting a single penny of your own money down?

Well this guide is for you!

big thanks to The Helldivers Wiki [helldivers.wiki.gg] for being a great source whilst making this guide and all the nice people in the comments.

If you like this guide, I would heavily appreciate feedback in the comment section. Thanks!

You'll want to be Level 25 and have access to the following:
(anything that has a * at the end of it's name is an alternative, but not necessarily worse.)

1: Armor
• Any LIGHT ARMOR for speed OR the ODST ARMOR
  The reason why you'd bring light armor is to obviously maintain speed but you could alternatively use the ODST armor for a slightly greater mPOI detection range.
  
  (BTW, the armor on the right-side of the screenshot is a SC-34 Infiltrator replacement from a mod called Dogmatic Reach on Nexus Mods[www.nexusmods.com].)
  
  
  2: Vehicles (FRV + Any Exosuit)
• Fast Recon Vehicle / FRV (Unlocked at Level 25, 25K Requisition)
  You'll want this if you want to get around to mPOIs with any level of speed.
  
  
  
• Any Exosuit (Unlocked at Level 25, 20K Requisition EACH)
  
  • EXO-49 Emancipator Exosuit
    
  • EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit
  These are needed to glitch into bunkers, an essential part of grinding SC solo. This can also be done with the LIFT-182 Warp Pack. If you want to SC grind in a truly efficient manner, you need the LIFT-182 Warp Pack.
  
  
  
  3: Support Weapons (Pick One)
• LAS-98 Laser Cannon (Unlocked at level 5, 4K Requisition)
  The Laser Cannon is important if you want to retain your current weapons for defense, whilst still having a strong support weapon. The Laser Cannon can blast open cargo container mPOIs without setting off nearby explosive barrels, and is excellent overrall. This is all further explained in "Tips & Important Know-How". Thanks to Uku-Bee the Kobold for being the first to point out that the Laser Cannon could do this in the first place.
  
  
  OR
  
  
• APW-1 Anti-Materiel Rifle / AMR* (Unlocked at Level 1, 5K Requisition)
  Assuming you don't have access to the Laser Cannon, the AMR is still an effective alternative at making nearby barrels not blow up. You'd be better off using the Laser Cannon though. Further explained in "Tips & Important Know-How".
  
  
  
  4: Backpack (Pick One)
• LIFT-850 Jump Pack (Unlocked at Level 8, 6K Requisition)
  Whilst being a bit worse to it's younger cousin, the Warp Pack, the LIFT-850 Jump Pack isn't necessarily needed but in terms of effectiveness in-case your FRV crashes due to your haphazard driving it's useful to get around to mPOIs in-case of an emergency.
  
  
  OR
  
  
• LIFT-182 Warp Pack* (Unlocked through "Control Group" Warbond on Page 3 for 110 Medals and available at Level 8)
  Alternatively, you can bring the LIFT-182 Warp Pack instead which grants teleportation and access into bunkers. If you want to SC grind in a truly effective manner, you need this.
  
  
  
  5: Booster for Stamina (Pick One)
• STAMINA ENHANCEMENT (Unlocked through "Helldivers Mobilize!" Warbond on Page 7 for 75 Medals)
  So you can get around faster with 22.5% more stamina and 40% faster stamina regen. Duuhh.
  
  
  OR
  
  
• DEAD-SPRINT* (Unlocked through "Truth Enforcers" Warbond on Page 1 for 35 Medals)
  I just recently tried this one out on a whim and found it to be a good alternative if you carry a lot of stims on you / call in a Resupply Pod at the beginning of the mission run alongside your FRV and gear.
  

Now that we have the gear, you should have a loadout similar to these below:

AMR / LASER CANNON, JUMP PACK, FRV, EXOSUIT, STAMINA BOOSTER / DEAD SPRINT


OR

something else +
AMR / LASER CANNON, FRV, WARP PACK, STAMINA BOOSTER / DEAD SPRINT


Again, make sure you also bring any LIGHT ARMOR for speed or the new ODST ARMOR as it increases mPOI detection range by 30%.

I personally look for:





A list containing all planets in the game that are either of these biomes can be found here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3626055320
If you find neither of these biomes to be good for SC farming for you then the section about Claysthetics' guide may help you.

The aim of the game is finding Minor Places of Interest. mPOIs for short. These hold what is called "Special Loot" and is, in other words, Super Credits, Medals, or Requisition.

You want to look for and find 3 different types of mPOI:


You can open these by either having an additional player, teleporting in with the Warp Pack, or glitching in with an Exosuit.
(see "How do I get into Bunkers with the Exosuit?" in "Tips & Know-How" for help.)


You can open these by blowing them up with any explosive or by using the Laser Cannon / AMR.


You can open these by only saluting!
(Whether by doing the "Salute" emote OR interacting.)

The general SC grinding loop is getting into a DIFFICULTY 1 MISSION, starting in a far side of the map (or any side), and working your way around in a single direction to clean and wipe out an mPOIs you find.


After you've cleaned out the map, just open your menu and "Return to Ship Alone".


You'll keep all your earned Super Credits or Medals, and won't need to complete the objective. Since you're playing DIFFICULTY 1, all missions you play will have the objective or extraction in the center of the map. So an example of a full run would or should like like below.


There are a multitude of mPOIs, but to keep it brief I'll show you some images of mPOIs you're looking for that contain said "Special Loot".
Note: There's a couple other variants of the House and two other variants of the bunker but I couldn't find them. If you want to see what they look like, or want the full list of mPOIs (including ones that don't have special loot), you can go here. [helldivers.wiki.gg]

Nearby mPOIs on your compass will look like this. Useful if you can't immediately see any or are heading in the direction of another mPOI and are looking for other ones along the way.

If you look into the sky, there's a chance you'll spot glowing beams emanating from crashed Rescue Pods. Generally the strategy to these is if you spot a beam, you go towards it and pick clean any other mPOIs along the way. Crashed Rescue Pods can be seen in the reference / examples below.

If you cannot find anything in the sky, you can run your minimap cursor over the minimap to basically scan for any mPOIs that your cursor can pick up. Any unmarked mPOIs that your cursor picks up will look like this.

Occasionally, you may not be able to find mPOIs while hovering. You can still easily spot them though due to their boxy and unique nature.

Now that you've gotten a loadout, and you know where to go, the next things to figure out are what to do and what to look for. This bit was written assuming you know the very basics of SC grinding.

Some VERY important things before you go in:

1. If you're solo, play Difficulty 1.
   The time sink of higher difficulties like on 2 or 3 aren't worth the rewards solo. You profit the fastest on smaller and open maps when grinding solo, so aim for those. (Note: If you do have other people it still might be worth to check out Difficulty 2 or 3, just don't do it solo.)
   
   
2. Whenever stuff gets boring (because I assure you it will)..
   Put on some background music, a video essay on a second monitor maybe, or a podcast. Really helps trudge through multi-hour grinding sessions if you really want to get as much as you can. (If you'd like a recommendation for video essays, I highly recommend Jacob Geller or hbomberguy and their respective backlogs of video essays on Youtube.)
   
   
3. How do I get into Bunkers with Exosuit?
   Put exosuit back/rear AGAINST bunker door and get out. it's that easy. I even got you a reference.
   
   
4. Using the Warp Pack and cannot enter certain bunkers?
   In the case you cannot warp into a bunker, you should crouch, re-center yourself to the bunker door, and simply try again. Make sure there's distance between you and the door when you're teleporting, but not enough that you won't get in.
   
   
5. Map objectives do not matter!
   Occasionally, you'll get your map generation affected by different objectives, most noticeably on Terminids' "Eliminate [blank enemy]" objectives and Automatons' "Sabotage Supply Bases", but it rarely makes a big difference. If you do notice that some of the map is covered by the mission objectives, than look elsewhere for other operations.
   
   
6. Avoid the Illuminates.
   Illuminate missions have colonies ALWAYS. Just not worth the headache of dealing with the altered map generation.
   
   
   
7. Avoid any megacity.
   Don't have much loot at all. Not good.
   
   
   
8. The less map debris like rocks or rubble, the better.
   This is a self-explanatory one but you want to try to aim get clear areas. Refer to example below.
   
   
   
   
9. USE THE LASER CANNON / AMR NEAR EXPLOSIVE BARRELS TO OPEN CARGO!!!!
   I mentioned it earlier, but if you use any other explosive cargo opening tool that isn't the Laser Cannon / AMR whilst explosives are near (e.g house mPOI), the shrapnel of the shot always seems to trigger the explosives (for me at least) and it's just really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying to have any explosive barrels go off near the cargo container. The Laser Cannon / AMR are the only weapons I know that don't have this issue (because it isn't technically explosive).
   Examples below.
   

Almost there! This section isn't really necessary, and you don't have to read it, but I also wanted to cover some misconceptions as presented in the comments of this guide.

1. UAV Recon Booster
   Even though some people say it does, UAV Recon Booster will NOT increase the range of which mPOIs are detectable via compass (and I'm not even sure it increases range of mPOI detection on the minimap). Unless you're playing on a higher difficulty (6+) where enemies are typically inhabiting mPOIs, this is a outright useless booster and serves no purpose to SC farming.
   
   
   
   
2. "Scout" Armor Passive
   I'm not 100% sure where I remember this but this armor passive, just like the UAV Recon Booster, does NOT increase compass detection radius of mPOIs.
   
   Note: This isn't hating on the SC-30 Trailblazer Scout, it just has the scout armor passive and was relevant. This is still a good armor for SC grinding if you don't have the ODST armor (cuz it's light).
   
   
3. "Seed Farming" SC Grinding Method
   

   Originally posted by random rustard:

   Why is seed abuse not included? roll or look up some good seed and its gonna last you a whole patch, and there are some really good seeds - you can easily find ~80SC seeds urself, or look up current ~120SC seeds and use them, tho importing a seed does take some knowledge, but nothing u cant google in a couple of minutes

   This was discussed in the comments of the guide and originally thrown out as a recommendation but Seed Farming got patched a LONG time ago and no longer works.
   ("Seed" Farming as a SC grinding method just refers to replaying the same mission / map generation over and over to reap rewards. This no longer works as any pickups collected post a mid-mission crash / game closure will not work. or award anything).
   

So figuring out what biomes and planets are good for SC grinding seems like a weirdly semi-debated topic and a SC farming image guide was even created called the "Moo Deng SC Farming Metrics Scale" made by Claysthetics which you can see below (along with his original Youtube video for SC farming).

Feel free to use this if you don't like my recommended planets! this is a fantastic tool and the best planets for SC grinding can be subjective!



(IMAGE AVAILABLE AT 4:37)

This was my guide, I tried putting down as much info as I could. If you thought this guide was cool, a like showing your support would be super awesome. Happy grinding!

CHANGELOG
• 12/18/25: Updated wording and formatting to prevent confusion in "What's Needed & Why". Changed "What's Needed & Why" to be "What To Bring". Changed names of both "Best Biomes + List" and "What To Actually Do In Mission Because You're Not Sure Or Generally Clueless As To What Is Happening (Or You're Not Reading)" to "Biomes" and "How-2-Grind". Shortened the title of "Tips & Important Know-how" to "Tips & Know-how". Created a separate guide for my personally favorite biomes and their respective planets. Reformatted some areas of the guide non-specifically. Added examples of Crashed Rescue Pods, Cargo Containers, and Bunkers in "How-2-Grind".
  Note: Sorry, was reading through my own guide and noticed some minor discrepancies and lack of clarity so I aimed to improve upon it.
  
  
• 12/12/25: Updated wording in certain sections. Added Dogmatic Reach link below the image containing ODST armor and the SC-34 Infiltrator. Added "Dead Sprint" as an alternative booster in "What's Needed & Why". Added tip on background music/video/podcast (good recommendation Arlington!), and two Youtube channel recommendations (hbomberguy & Jacob Geller). Added "Misconceptions" section. Resized some of the images throughout the guide. Reformatted the changelog you're reading right now. Added an additional image (alongside some reformatting) to "What To Actually Do In Mission Because You're Not Sure Or Generally Clueless As To What Is Happening (Or You're Not Reading)".
  (Note: Hah! bet you thought this guide wasn't getting updates. Helldivers 2 is just generally in a rough spot as of now, even post HDD-optimization removal and I haven't been playing it as much. I'll still try to keep this updated though.)
  
  
• 09/07/25: Updated POIs to be mPOIs. Added images to the "What's Needed & Why" section. Moved Claysthetics section toward bottom. Added Exosuit Bunker glitch as a tip. Overhauled "The Aim Of The Game" section and renamed it to "What To Actually Do In Mission Because You're Not Sure Or Generally Clueless As To What Is Happening (Or You're Not Reading)" and rewrote the whole section to have finer instructions.
  (Note: I might return to it too add more mPOIs, however I think it's complete as is and will function better as an introductory to exploration and grinding.)
  
  
• 08/31/25: Renovated some parts of the guide and included more info in the tips and the guide overall about the Laser Cannon. Included some extra images in the tips section, and also re-organized it.

Once again, big thank you to The Helldivers Wiki [helldivers.wiki.gg] and all you nice people in the comments who give feedback.

Please leave a comment with ANY FEEDBACK if you could! I try to stay active and talk about how to improve the guide or just helping people, so if you'd like to talk or need help feel free!