Achluophobia / Nyctophobia – Fear of the dark

• Trigger: Night missions, caves, or shadow-heavy environments

• Why: Darkness conceals enemies, intensifies tension, and limits visibility, especially during ambushes or extraction sequences.

Acousticophobia / Phonophobia – Fear of loud or sudden sounds

• Trigger: Explosions, orbital strikes, screeching aliens, sudden reinforcements

• Why: Audio cues in Helldivers are intentionally jarring — alerts, bombings, and alien roars are loud and often come without visual warning.

Agoraphobia – Fear of open spaces

• Trigger: Large barren planets or open landscapes with nowhere to hide

• Why: Massive, wide-open environments can create feelings of exposure, especially with enemies that ambush from multiple directions.

Atychiphobia / Atelophobia – Fear of failure or imperfection

• Trigger: Dying frequently, failing objectives, or accidentally killing teammates (friendly fire)

• Why: Helldivers is punishing, and mistakes (like misusing stratagems) can have real consequences for your team, leading to stress and fear of messing up.

Claustrophobia – Fear of confined spaces

• Trigger: Tight corridors in installations or caves, swarm attacks in narrow areas

• Why: Enemies flood into small rooms quickly, making tight quarters feel overwhelming and inescapable under pressure.

Entomophobia – Fear of insects

• Trigger: Fighting insectoid enemies (Terminids) with swarms, egg sacs, and chittering behavior

• Why: These enemies resemble giant bugs and often swarm the player, triggering strong discomfort for those with insect phobias.

Hemophobia – Fear of blood

• Trigger: Alien gore, player deaths, explosions of blood and guts

• Why: Despite its stylized graphics, Helldivers contains plenty of visceral enemy and player splatter effects, especially when dismembered or blown up.

Mysophobia – Fear of contamination or germs

• Trigger: Bug nests, toxic enemies, goo-spitting monsters

• Why: Some alien types use acid, poison, or sludge attacks that resemble infection or contamination.

Ophidiophobia – Fear of snakes

• Trigger: Some alien enemies (especially Automatons or flying serpents in later updates) may resemble snake-like behavior or design

• Why: Slithering or lunging movement and elongated body types can unsettle players with this fear.

Scopophobia – Fear of being watched

• Trigger: Constant alerts, surveillance-like targeting systems, orbital drones

• Why: Enemies and the game’s camera setup often give a sense of being under constant watch or targeted, especially during stealth missions or objective defense.

Thanatophobia – Fear of death

• Trigger: Sudden character death, ambushes, failure of team extractions

• Why: Helldivers doesn’t pull punches — characters die easily and sometimes without warning, reinforcing the fear of being fragile or expendable.

Trypophobia – Fear of clusters of small holes or bumps

• Trigger: Insect egg sacs, burrow entrances, alien hive textures

• Why: Some terrain and alien nest designs resemble porous or clustered organic patterns, which can be disturbing to people with this sensitivity.