GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Helldivers 2 devs confirm rockets aren’t ricocheting, though the Eruptor’s shrapnel backfire has been headshotting patriots: ‘we’re looking to completely remove the shrapnel effect’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Helldivers 2 devs confirm rockets aren’t ricocheting, though the Eruptor’s shrapnel backfire has been headshotting patriots: ‘we’re looking to completely remove the shrapnel effect’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Games)
Recent updatesApril 30, 2024:Arrowhead Games has released an official statement about the nature of the Ricochet changes which, for the most part, has confirmed the suspicions and debunks of Super Earth’s community R&D officers.Click here to jump to the new information.
Recent updatesApril 30, 2024:Arrowhead Games has released an official statement about the nature of the Ricochet changes which, for the most part, has confirmed the suspicions and debunks of Super Earth’s community R&D officers.Click here to jump to the new information.
Recent updates
April 30, 2024:Arrowhead Games has released an official statement about the nature of the Ricochet changes which, for the most part, has confirmed the suspicions and debunks of Super Earth’s community R&D officers.Click here to jump to the new information.
Helldivers 2’s latest patch introduced a new wrinkle into your average diver’s shoot loop—deadlier ricochets. As thepatch notesread: “Shots that ricochet from heavy armored enemies will now properly hit the Helldiver who fired them. Trigger discipline is highly recommended.”
While some players report only one or two deaths to their own bullets over the course of thousands of fired shots, there’s one common denominator featured in nearly every clip of a soldier blowing their own head off: The Eruptor.
This beastly explosive rifle debuted in thelatest Warbond, and it’s a bit of a monster. Its shells explode in a wide blast that not only has a concussive detonation—it spits out a ton of shrapnel, as well. Which is what’s happening in clips like these.
As investigative redditor Zenbastpoints out in a thread: “The shrapnels probably travels way too far and it needs to be reduced, but people need to understand that’s an issue with the Eruptor specifically, because of a side effect of making people vulnerable to their own rounds.”
In fairness, it’s not as if the ricochet changes are perfect. While it’s not 100% clear if they’re related, there is currently a bug with the Punisher Plasma where it’ll make your head pop like a watermelon if you fire it with a shield active, as seen below. It’d stand to reason that the shield was causing the Punisher Plasma to ricochet upon firing before—but because your own ricochets weren’t hurting you, it wasn’t a problem.
However, this might not be entirely related to the ricochet changes. In a message on the game’s Discord, senior game designer Alexus Kravchenko writes: “The plasma projectile now has a proper hitbox. Coincidentally, that’s the reason it overlaps with the shield gen backpack now.” So it could be that, or a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B. Game development is messy.
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Arrowhead responds
It does, however, seem as though there were plenty grains of truth to the whole Eruptor controversy, as Spitz explains: “we have noticed another issue through these posts and community feedback that has identified the possibility for shots from the R-36 Eruptor to explode and rebound shrapnel at the shooter, which has a high enough damage value to instantly kill the player.”
(Image credit: Helldivers 2 Discord)
Emergency measures are being made to the weapon, which include scrapping the shrapnel component entirely, though Arrowhead “will be increasing its hit damage as a result. This should make it less lethal to the operator but just as powerful against enemies. It should maintain its destructive power, and as it is still classed as explosive, it will not lose the ability to break objects, close holes, destroy fabricators, etc. This will, overall, be a buff to the weapon as shrapnel played an almost negligible part in the damage and power it dealt.
“We apologise for this misunderstanding and thank you all for investigating these new changes so diligently, and for passing on your feedback to us. Hopefully this makes sense and these changes should help everyone survive better!“So there you have it. If youareusing the Eruptor, though, just make sure that anything you’re trying to delete is in a different postcode. Or maybe swap out your loadout for a minute while Arrowhead fiddles with its blast—either works.
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