Helldivers 2 Illuminate Weak Points: Key Units (7.0.2)

Short answer: do not grind a Harvester's shield down. The shield comes from the prongs above and below its eye, and destroying just one of the three shield generators disables that Harvester's shielding permanently. Be careful with the eye, though — destroying it raises the Disintegration Beamer from 1,400 DPS to 1,800 DPS. Below are the per-part health and armour values for the Illuminate units you fight most on patch 7.0.2, plus the weapons that actually work.

Scope: this guide covers six units — Watcher, Harvester, Overseer, Voteless, Wretch and Crusher. Other released units such as the Gazer, Leviathan, Overship, Stingray, Fleshmob and Crescent Overseer are not covered here.

This guide covers patch 7.0.2 (released 25 August 2026, "Devoid of Liberty"). Enemy values change with patches, so every health and armour figure here comes from the community wiki at helldivers.wiki.gg, and release dates and update contents come from Arrowhead's official Steam news.

The Illuminate are already live, and the Void is the current front

The Illuminate arrived as Helldivers 2's third faction on 13 December 2024 in patch 1.002.001, playable immediately after their reveal at The Game Awards 2024. They are not an upcoming threat to prepare for; they have been in rotation for nearly two years.

Patch 7.0.0 "Devoid of Liberty" (12 August 2026) then moved the battlefield itself. A Gateway stabilised over Rirga Bay opens into the Void, and the campaign objective is to liberate the Source Planet — formerly Seasse. Per the official announcement, Void operations differ from earlier, more linear dives: each operation assigns several randomised primary objectives, alongside reconnaissance work with a tactical video camera and unlockable secondary extraction zones.

Watcher: stripping its fins will not stop it

Watchers decide how hard an Illuminate drop becomes. On spotting Helldivers, a Watcher halts and emits holographic flares that call in Warp Ships. Everything else about the fight follows from whether you kill it first.

The trap is that a Watcher survives having multiple fins torn off. Chipping at the edges does not kill it, so aim at centre mass.

• To one-shot it: the APW-1 Anti-Materiel Rifle and the RS-422 Railgun both destroy a Watcher with a single hit to the main body. That is the most reliable way to remove one before the call goes out.
• If the call has already started: the ARC-12 Blitzer and ARC-3 Arc Thrower stun Watchers, and the stun interrupts the reinforcement call. You do not always need the kill — you need the interrupt.

Harvester: break the source of the shield, not the shield

The tripod. The common approach — everyone dumping into the shield until it pops — is the slow route.

The shield generators are the prongs above and below the eye. The wiki states that only one needs to be removed to disable a Harvester's ability to shield permanently. Since the shield itself has 1,500 HP and regenerates after being broken, killing a generator is both faster and cheaper in ammunition. Shrapnel-throwing weapons — the R-36 Eruptor and the AC-8 Autocannon — are the listed tools for taking a prong off.

Think before you shoot the eye. At 350 HP and light armour it is a soft, tempting target, but per the wiki destroying the eye empowers the Disintegration Beamer to 1,800 DPS, up from 1,400 DPS. If the kill is about to land, that hardly matters. If the fight is going long, strip the hip joints or the carapace weak spots first and leave the eye alone.

A Harvester has two attacks. The Disintegration Beamer fires a 1,400–1,800 DPS laser over roughly a four-second beam and applies burn damage of 100 DPS for three seconds. Up close, the Tesla Ripper arcs for 60–180 damage per strike and applies a 1.5-second stun. The Electrical Conduit armour passive grants resistance to otherwise lethal amounts of arc damage, which is the direct counter.

For the kill itself, the EAT-17, GR-8 Recoilless Rifle and MLS-4X Commando are the anti-tank options listed for the eye and hip joints. Stagger weapons such as the AR-23C Liberator Concussive and SG-8S Slugger interrupt its attack animations.

Overseers and Voteless: headshots or area damage

Overseers are the command units — spotting a Helldiver, they order nearby Voteless to attack. Standard, Elevated and Crescent variants exist.

The two arms are not equivalent. In the wiki's anatomy table the "Fatal?" column reads Yes for the right arm and No for the left. Blowing off the right arm kills an Overseer outright; doing the same to the left one does not. Both sit at 300 HP with very light armour and transfer 50% of incoming damage to the main pool. If the angle makes it hard to tell left from right, go for the head instead — 150 HP, medium armour, and the JAR-5 Dominator, R-6 Deadeye and P-4 Senator are all listed as one-shot headshot options.

While the shield is up, explosive weapons such as the PLAS-1 Scorcher bypass it and damage main health directly. The exposed legs are also fair game.

Voteless are former Super Earth citizens warped by Illuminate experimentation, with 100 HP (light), 130 HP (medium) and 160 HP (heavy) variants. Their main bodies are completely unarmoured, and each claw swipe does 25 melee damage — individually trivial, dangerous in numbers. Note that some Voteless keep crawling and attacking after losing their legs, so do not turn your back on a downed one. High-volume or wide-area weapons suit them: the CB-9 Exploding Crossbow, FLAM-66 Torcher and AR-23A Liberator Carbine. Gas is described as particularly effective against large hordes because of the confusion effect, and fire can kill them outright without a second damage source.

Vote Snatchers, added with the Void

Patch 1.007.000 (12 August 2026, the 7.0.0 "Devoid of Liberty" update) added the Vote Snatchers, a subfaction of creatures mutated inside the Void. It has two units.

The Wretch has 450 HP in the main body, 100 HP in the head, two claws at 200 HP each (medium armour) and two legs at 450 HP each. It closes in a straight line but darts around cover to flank, and its pounce tracks a moving Helldiver strongly. Notably, it prioritises sentries and emplacements over Helldivers. The in-game dispatch reads "sever its bladed appendages; cranial trauma has no effect" — headshots will not drop it. High-DPS options such as the MGX-42 Bullet Storm and MG-43 Machine Gun work, as does area denial with the P-72 Crisper, FLAM-66 Torcher or FLAM-40 Flamethrower. At close range, crouch to aim low and destroy the legs to immobilise it.

The Crusher is a giant, heavily armoured unit swinging a massive club. Its skin is extremely durable and demands heavy firepower; heavy-armour-penetrating weapons can break its helmet and expose the head. A direct club hit will knock a Helldiver over or kill outright. The wiki currently lists no health or armour numbers for the Crusher, so none are given here. This section will be updated when values are published.

Loadout summary

Because arc damage is everywhere in this faction, having at least one squad member on an Electrical Conduit armour passive noticeably improves survival.

Sources

• Arrowhead official Steam news, "Devoid of Liberty: 7.0.2" (25 August 2026) — release date of the current patch
• "Devoid of Liberty: 7.0.0" (12 August 2026) / "A deep dive into the Illuminate Void" (18 August 2026) — the Gateway, the Source Planet, randomised primary objectives and secondary extraction zones
• Helldivers Wiki: Illuminate — introduction date (13 December 2024, patch 1.002.001) and unit roster
• Helldivers Wiki: Watcher / Harvester / Overseer / Voteless — per-part health and armour values
• Helldivers Wiki: Vote Snatchers / Wretch — Wretch and Crusher

Revision note: fully rewritten on 7 September 2026. The previous version treated the Illuminate as an unreleased faction and predicted their behaviour from the first game, which was wrong — they shipped on 13 December 2024. This version is based on live patch 7.0.2 data.