Steamforged Games has officially launched its support campaign for the Helldivers 2 board game adaptation via Gamefound, with keen players invited to back the project for further adventures on Super Earth. Helldivers 2: The Board Game actually hit its funding goal within 12 minutes, 26 seconds of the campaign going live, and as of writing, it’s raised £507,824 (AUD $1,092,286) from supporters.
Given the tenure of Steamforged Games (Elden Ring: The Board Game, Resident Evil: The Board Game, RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg, Monster Hunter World: The Board Game) and the popularity of Helldivers 2, we expect this adaptation will be a popular one, and that the campaign will continue to grow to its conclusion.
For those compelled by the idea of a new Helldivers 2 experience, Steamforged Games has revealed this board game will adapt the skirmishes of the award-winning game, with 1-4 players taking on new alien threats in one of many specially-powered roles (Captain, Heavy, Sniper, Pyro).
In rounds of the game, players will level up their Helldiver, and tackle a range of missions to defeat roaming aliens, including the Charger, Bile Spewer, Brood Commander, Stalker, Hive Guard, Shrieker, Terminid Hordes, and more.
Read: Helldivers 2 Review – Glory to Super Earth
The focus here is combat, much like its source material, with players choosing various missions, then exploring hostile planets to uncover towering threats. Once the battle begins, players must co-ordinate their squads to prioritise targets, and unleash firepower before the aliens attack. Once the aliens are defeated, players must escape the battlefield, and head towards an awaiting extraction zone.
You can check out a first look at this gameplay via Always Board Never Boring:
Those keen to back the project will note a range of options on the Gamefound campaign page. A base game pledge starts at £61 (AUD $131), and there’s additional expansions available for purchase. The all-in “Hell Commander” pledge goes for a whopping £246 (AUD $529) for those superfan Helldivers 2 players.
How will the Trump tariffs impact this board game?
It’s worth noting this board game may be subject to new Trump tariffs on overseas imports, for those pledging from the United States. As announced, these tariffs add additional fees to imported goods from overseas locations, with different countries having different levels of tariffs placed on them.
Given many board game components are manufactured in China, and leaders are currently going tit-for-tat on reciprocal tariffs, there could be additional fees for production and importation of this board game in the United States.
For impacted backers, that’s where Gamefound’s Stable Pledge program comes in handy. This is a system that guarantees “a full refund to backers if the change in any price estimates after the campaign’s end is bigger than 10%.” Essentially, if the Trump tariffs remain in place by the time this game launches (around October 2026), and the cost of production and importation significantly increases, backers will be able to request a full refund.
This should provide some level of reassurance for those keen to back the Helldivers 2 board game within the United States. That said, it is worth noting to cost of board game production will likely go up in this period, regardless of whether you’re based in the United States or not, as countries reckon with a looming global trade war, and changes to market conditions. Pledge with caution as the board games industry deals with these ongoing challenges.
