Okay, so I wanted to share what I went through the other night trying to get onto Helldivers 2 on my PS5. Kept hitting that wall: failed to connect to server. Super frustrating when you just wanna drop in and spread some democracy, right?
First thing I did, the obvious stuff. Checked my own internet. Popped open my laptop, websites loaded fine, ran a quick speed test, everything looked normal on my end. So, probably not my Wi-Fi crapping out.
Then I thought, maybe it’s PlayStation Network? Pulled up their status page on my phone. Everything showed green, all services running. Okay, so it wasn’t PSN being down.
Next step, gotta check the game itself. Maybe the Helldivers servers were just taking a beating. Happens a lot with popular games. Scrolled through their usual social media haunts, saw some other people grumbling about connection issues too. Seemed like it might be on their end, maybe overloaded.
What I Tried on the PS5
Even if it looked like server issues, I still tried the usual console fixes. You know how it is, gotta rule everything out.
- Closed Helldivers 2 completely from the PS5 menu, then restarted it. Nope, same error.
- Did a full restart on the PS5. Not rest mode, the actual “Turn Off PS5” option, waited a bit, then powered it back on. Still no luck connecting.
- Checked for game updates. Went to the game icon, options, check for update. Said I had the latest version installed.
- Checked for PS5 system updates too. Went into Settings, System, System Software Update. All up to date there as well.
Messing with the Network Stuff
Alright, basics didn’t work. Time to get slightly more hands-on with the network.
I went and did the classic router reset. Unplugged my modem and router, waited like a full minute (gotta let it really clear out, you know?), plugged the modem back in first, let it fully boot up, then plugged the router back in and let that boot up. This takes a few minutes, always feels longer when you’re waiting to play.
While I was waiting for the router, I decided to switch things up. I usually play on Wi-Fi ’cause it’s convenient, but I dug out an ethernet cable and plugged my PS5 directly into the router. Sometimes a wired connection is just more stable.
Once everything was back online and the PS5 was wired up, I went into the PS5 network settings and ran the ‘Test Internet Connection’ thing. Speeds looked good, connection successful, NAT type was Type 2, which is usually fine.
The Result?
So after all that – checking my internet, checking PSN/Helldivers status, restarting the game, restarting the PS5, doing the full modem/router power cycle, and switching to a wired connection – I launched Helldivers 2 again.
And… it connected! Finally got past the title screen and into my ship. Success!
Honestly, I can’t be 100% sure which specific step did the trick. Could’ve been the router reset clearing something up. Could’ve been switching to the wired connection. Or maybe, during the 15-20 minutes I spent doing all this, the game’s servers just became less overloaded and started letting more people in. It felt like a combination of rebooting everything and maybe just getting lucky with timing.
But hey, that was my process. If you’re hitting that same error, maybe running through these steps might help you out too. Sometimes you just gotta try everything. Good luck out there, Helldiver!
