Helldivers 2's massive balance patch means business: weapons are buffed, the galactic map's supply lines are there, solo patrols are reasonable again, and the worst mission modifier is gone.

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

1 4 minutes read

Arrowhead Games has said repeatedly lately that when it comes to patching Helldivers 2, it will slow down its pace to deliver more quality – and assuming there isn't a catastrophic bug hidden in the shadow, it's clear by this last patch that the studio thought so.

This morning's update for Helldivers 2 is absolutely huge – so huge, in fact, that I won't be able to cover it all here, although you can always head over to the Steam news page and browse it yourself. In the meantime, here's your quick debrief, soldier.

At a glance, the biggest change here is a general set of pseudo-armor penetration improvements for the game's larger caliber weapons, as explained in a follow-up blog from the former CEO, today today CCO Johan Pilestedt.

According to Pilestedt, “durable” body parts (which he refers to as large pieces of the model that nevertheless have “non-vital organs”) took roughly the same amount of damage from both small arms fire. And larger caliber rifles. This has made larger weapons, like rifles and machine guns, feel like peashooters, a problem that now needs to be addressed.

Guns, not bean shooters

(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Most of the following weapons have had their damage against durable body parts increased by at least 10%. For example, the lasting damage on body parts of the MG-206 heavy machine gun has been increased from 23% to 33%, while that of the BR-14 Adjudicator has had its damage increased from 10% to 20%. “In general, the higher the caliber of your weapon, the better the effect against durable body parts.”

AR-23 Liberator
Faithful M-105
AX/AR-23 “Watchdog”
AR-23C Liberator Concussion
R-63 Diligence
Referee BR-14
AR-61 Tenderizer
MG-43 machine gun
A/MG-43 Sentinel machine gun
Gatling Sentinel A/G-16
Gatling from the EXO-45 Patriot exosuit

The Eruptor, which received an inadvertent nerf after discovering that shrapnel was the source of some ricochet conspiracy theories, has also had its damage increased to the tune of “150 additional damage per explosion”, a tweak that aims to make it effective at taking out medium-armored enemies while keeping horde removal intact.

The galactic war. The Galactic War changes sometimes.

(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

In terms of general gameplay adjustments, supply lines will be visible on the Galactic War Map, giving players a better idea of which planets are priority targets to hit without resorting to websites like helldivers.io or forums and Discord servers. You can see the new UI elements below.

(Image credit: Arrowhead Games)

What excites me the most, however, is that the most annoying mission modifier has been removed from the game entirely, namely AA defenses, which reduced your available stratagems by 1.

Arrowhead Games says it would like to reconsider its operations modifiers across the board in the future, but the AA-Defences modifier was particularly egregious because it limited the amount of stratagems you could take with you, as the studio says . , “create variety or promote different styles of play”. The Retrieve Essential Personnel mission type, which has given divers headaches since its launch, has also been temporarily removed from the game pending changes.

No more sentient fire tornadoes

(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Global weather patterns have also been completely overhauled. For example, Fire Tornadoes should no longer be intelligent: this earth-shattering weather phenomenon once seemed to chase players across the battlefield, but its movements should now be much less vengeful and more random. Fog-dense planets have also had their visibility improved across the board, specifically targeting Desert and Highland biomes.

You should also be able to hide in shrubs: “Vegetation large enough to slow the player now has an additional function. Inside vegetation, Helldivers will be harder to detect, reducing their detection range by enemies This effect stacks with other detection effects such as nighttime, crouching or prone, or things like scout armor's passive. Huge boon for stealth and solo players, fitting nicely into a reversal of the patrol spawn mechanics that made life for lone wolves a living nightmare.

Fixing bugs, bots and bugs

(Image credit: Arrowhead Games)

Heavily armored enemies should appear less now, but don't worry too much, as they will be replaced by even more mooks. The patch notes cite a 30% decrease in the number of heavily armored insects during bug violations and a decrease in the number of Automaton Hulks – the intention being to reduce players' reliance on anti-tank weapons in difficult difficulties. higher, which could be so flush with buggers that a recoilless rifle or expendable anti-tank launcher was basically mandatory kit.

When it comes to these heavier enemies, there have also been some nerfs: the Bile Titan's vomit and Hulk Scorcher's flamethrower should no longer melt you in seconds, and Automaton tanks have had their frontal armor adjusted to better match the “visual language” of the model.

There have also been numerous fixes, including some hope for the long-maligned FAF-14 Spear, which has had its targeting reworked, although it can no longer target Automaton generators – which Arrowhead says , is not planned and should be. “fixed in the future”. Exosuit bots should also have better targeting, and there have been a batch of crash fixes to let you take down bots and bugs for longer.

Overall, this is a truly impressive performance from Arrowhead. With the recent wobbles (not helped by PSN controversies) being what they are, it's nice to see a real commitment to improving the game and applying more thoughtful, but less frequent, patches. You may also have noticed that there is no mention of a Warbond here, that's because the Viper Commandos, who will have a nifty throwing knife, will be released later today at 3pm BST (7 a.m. PST).