Spawn Mechanics

== Spawn Mechanics ==
Helldiver, your missions are a dynamic influx of enemy patrols moving around the map and appearing near your position in a surprise ambush. Their job is to eliminate you, your job is to spill oil and rain blood. Intelligence officials are constantly understanding the behavior behind these patrols and ambushes. Through hours of details analysis by a specialized group of Helldivers, we seem to have cracked their communications and have the following working theory on deployment decisions. Honor their sacrifice through victory.
It's important to credit u/gergination (Reddit), u/Psyker101 (Reddit), and u/Lexlocatelli (Reddit) for their dedicated work. Here is a link to the Reddit post that discusses this in greater detail (especially methodology) than provided below - which is but a humble summary by a simple scribe hoping to spread their hard work. A big disclaimer is that this is a working theory. However, this will provide some guiding principles on how to approach missions and objectives. With greater community involvement this theory will be able to be refined and corrected as needed.
=== Spawn Types ===
==== Static Spawns ====
These are the guards of points of interest, locations, and objectives. You won't be able to prevent them as they exist before you even arrive.
==== Reinforcement Spawns ====
Displayed in game as Bot Drops or Bug Breaches; one or more Dropships fly in and drop bots, or one or more (indestructible, temporary) Bug Holes open up and release hordes of bugs from the ground. 
Reinforcement spawns are triggered by an enemy unit launching a signal: either a Commissar firing a signal flare, or a Scavenger releasing a pheromone cloud. The Bot Drop or Bug Breach will then arrive about 10 seconds later, a few meters away from the signaling unit.
Preventing enemies from signaling (by staggering or killing them) can prevent these signals, and so in theory an extremely attentive Helldiver team can prevent Reinforcements entirely.
Only one enemy-signaled Bug Breach or Bot Drop can be happening on the map at a time, and there is a roughly 2-5 minute map-wide cooldown (depending on Helldiver count and mission difficulty) between when signaled reinforcements can spawn. This cooldown time can be further increased with the Localization Confusion Booster.
==== Objective Reinforcement Spawns ====
Certain Objectives will also trigger periodic guaranteed Reinforcement spawns. These spawns also arrive via Bot Drop or Bug Breach, however they occur independent of signaled reinforcement spawns and are not affected by the cooldown.
* A Helldiver is seen by the beam of a Detector Tower. This spawn can be re-triggered as soon as the previous wave of dropships leaves the map, meaning Detector Towers can very rapidly result in very large armies of reinforcing bots; however it can be prevented by evading or taking cover from the direct gaze of the Tower.
* A Helldiver activates a Probe or Drill during a Conduct Geological Survey mission. Triggers once per probe or drill activation (meaning 3 waves during the final drill site).
* Frequently and regularly during Eradicate and Evacuate High-Value Assets missions. Triggers roughly once per minute, until the mission primary objective is completed.
==== Fabricator/Nest Spawns ====
You see them appear from the factory/nest. Unless they encounter a Helldiver, they will remain in position. No data is available yet on how they function throughout the duration of a mission when Helldivers are not present in their vicinity. The presence of Helldivers within their vicinity do trigger unit production. Engage quickly and precisely to prevent being overrun.
==== Patrols ====
A group of enemies that arrive on the map that will then have a designated path to walk. They often will spawn deliberately to cross a players path. They are the spawns that many players are decrying as unfair as they will literally appear out of thin air on top of them.
== Patrol Spawn Mechanics ==
The following information should be applied specifically to Patrols. It is Patrols that are responsible for sneaking up on you while trying to complete an objective. It is Patrols that are responsible for rushing your Extraction site. It is Patrols that will call in Reinforcement Spawns. Patrols are the unknown in your mission. If you want to be in control of the battlefield and not forced into reactive gameplay, then understanding the Patrol system is key.
=== Spawn Point Threshold ===
It is best to understand when a patrol arrives through a point system. Once an area in the battlefield has accumulated enough points to pass the threshold then a Patrol will spawn. The higher the threshold, the more points it take for a patrol to spawn.
=== Tick Rate ===
This is how many points are generated at a given time. For ease of communication we will be discussing any examples in terms of ticks per second. However, it is assured that the developers system is influenced and changes by the millisecond. The higher the tick rate the quicker the threshold will be met and thus spawning a patrol.
=== Battlefield Constant (Baseline) ===
There is an established battlefield constant of threshold and tick rate. All actions taken by the Helldiver will either decrease the threshold or increase the tick rate. A Helldiver can take actions to return the threshold/tick rate back to it's original value, but there has not been found any action that would ultimately increase the spawn time past the Battlefield Constant. 
For example, a Difficulty 1 Solo Automaton Mission will spawn a Patrol approximately every 192 seconds assuming the Helldiver has not take any actions that alter the Battlefield Constant. Any actions taken will ultimately reduce the amount of time between spawns making them appear every 180 seconds, 113 seconds, or 59 seconds. Helldivers can take actions that increase the spawn times from 113 seconds to 150 seconds. But there are no actions that will ever change the battlefield constant from 192 seconds to 200 seconds. The battlefield constant always results in a spawn occurring every 192 seconds.
== Actions that Increase Tick Rate ==
=== Players being within an Area of Influence ===
Certain elements on the battlefield generate an area of influence. The closer you are to that element the higher the tick rate. For simplicity we will call this "Heat." Heat scales based upon proximity. If a player is within 50 meters of the element (element icon on map) you are generating maximum heat. Heat generation then decreases by 1% per meter away from the element. At 150 meters you are no longer generating heat. Unless otherwise noted below, the maximum amount of heat that an element can decrease the spawn rate is 50%. Areas of influence will not stack. Rather the higher heat value will be used in spawn time calculations. The following are elements that have an area of influence that generate heat:
* Primary Objectives 
* Primary Subobjectives (e.g. ICBM launch codes)
* Secondary Objectives
** Detector Tower - 10% additional Heat
** Stratagem Jammer - 10% additional Heat
* Enemy Outposts
** Light Outposts - 0% Heat (they do not have an area of influence)
** Medium Outposts - 50% Heat
** Heavy Outposts - 60% Heat
* Extraction Point
** Calling the Extraction Shuttle has no effect on heat generation
*
== Actions that Lower the Threshold ==
=== Completing the Primary Objective ===
This is the single greatest factor influencing spawn times. Once the primary objective is complete the threshold is multiplied by 0.275. In other words you will be encountering patrol spawns 4 TIMES as much. If our battlefield constant was 240 seconds between spawns, then once the primary objective was completed you then could expect spawns every 66 seconds!
=== Eliminating Outposts/Bug Nests ===
Destruction of up to 50% of outposts on the battlefield results in no change in the battlefield constant. Once you surpass 50%, each additional outpost destroyed will lower the threshold needed for a spawn. This is a linear formula that when all outposts are destroyed the Threshold is multiplied by 0.85 resulting in approximately at 17.5% decrease in spawn time. So if there are 8 outposts - and it doesn't matter if light, medium, or heavy - you are able to destroy 4 of them without any effect.
This actually creates a unique interaction on the battlefield constant. So yes, eliminating these outposts does actually add more enemies eventually. But!!! In exchange you eliminate their area of influence. What this means is that you no longer generate heat nearby their location. This is very important to consider when looking at traveling lanes, points of interest, and completing objectives. It very well may be that the heat being in close proximity to the location is more of a threat than elimination of the outpost.
=== Number of Players ===
* 2 players will multiply the baseline by 0.8333. Or in other words, shorten the time interval of a patrol arriving by 17%
* 3 players will multiply the baseline by 0.75. Or in other words, shorten the time interval of a patrol arriving by 25%
* 4 players were unavailable for data collection. It is assumed that it would be at least the same as 3 players and almost assured it would decrease the spawn time further
=== Mission Difficulty ===
Harder missions have lower threshold
=== Enemy type ===
Automatons have a higher threshold than Terminid
== Player Death ==
Player death doesn't increase the rate of ticks or threshold, but rather it adds a random number of spawn points to the point pool. At times this feels negligible, and at other times it can create a spawn 6 times faster than anticipated.
== Player Grouping ==
Player grouping has a special effect on spawning. It does not affect tick rate or threshold, rather it affect the number of points that a spawn could happen. A player is considered grouped if they are located with 75 meters of another player. Meaning that as long as there is an unbroken chain of no more than 75 meters between players then it is considering one group. But, if there are 4 players who are more than 75 meters from one another then you have now created 4 spawn points instead of 1. Imagine not only 1 patrol spawning every 66 seconds after primary objective completion but 4!
== Actions that have NO effect ==
* Time spent in mission - the in-game tip stating that more time spent leads to greater difficulty is referring to opportunities for spawning to occur and not decreased time between spawns
* Engaging in Combat
* Stratagem usage
* Breaches or Dropships - they are considered and additive element
* Planet
* Mission Type - Caveat, these are for "regular missions." Data has not been collected for Eradication, Blitz, Civilian Evacuation, or event specific (e.g. Terminid Pesticide)
* Proximity to Points of Interest
* Using Terminals
* Interacting of Objective elements like loading artillery shells or turning the radar dish
* Completion of Secondary Objectives
== Patrol Composition ==
For better or for worse, the composition of patrols the spawn are randomized. Sometimes you get a group of 5 warriors...and sometimes you get 2 Bile Titans. Don't curse Joel; It's all about the random number generators.
== Population Cap ==
There does appear to be a maximum number of units allowed on a given battlefield. More testing is to be done, but at some point there won't be any more spawns occurring. Granted, you'll likely be dead long before seeing that cap...but it does exist.
Category:Helldivers 2
Category:Guide
Category:Patrol
Category:Spawn
Category:Missions