GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Helldivers 2’s enormous balance patch means business—weapons are getting buffed, galactic map supply lines are here, solo patrols are sensible again, and the worst mission modifier is goneWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Helldivers 2’s enormous balance patch means business—weapons are getting buffed, galactic map supply lines are here, solo patrols are sensible again, and the worst mission modifier is goneWhen 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 Game Studios)
This morning’s update for Helldivers 2 is absolutely massive—so massive, in fact, that I’m not going to be able to cover everything here, though you can always head to theSteam news pageand rifle through it yourself. Until then, here’s your quick debriefing, soldier.
At a glance, the largest change here is an across-the-board set of pseudo-armour penetration buffs to the game’s higher-calibre guns—as explained in afollow-up blogfrom former CEO, now-CCOJohan Pilestedt.
According to Pilestedt, “durable” body parts (which he characterises as big, chunky bits of the model that nonetheless have “non-vital organs”) were taking roughly the same amount of damage from both small arms fireandheavier calibre rifles. This led to bigger guns such as rifles and machine guns feeling like pea-shooters, which is something that should now be addressed.
Rifles, not pea-shooters
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)
The Eruptor, which received an inadvertent nerf after it was discovered that shrapnel was thecause of some ricochet conspiracy theories, has also had its damage buffed to the tune of “150 more damage per explosion”, a tweak which aims to make it good at taking out moderately-armoured foes while keeping its horde-culling intact.
The Galactic War. The Galactic War sometimes changes.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)
In terms of general gameplay tweaks, supply lines are going to 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 heading to forums and discord servers. You can see the new UI elements below.
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(Image credit: Arrowhead Games)
Arrowhead Games says that it’d like to reconsider its operation modifiers across the board in the future, but the AA-Defences modifier was especially egregious since it limited the amount of stratagems you could bring with you who does not, as the studio puts it, “create variety or promote different playstyles.” The Retrieve Essential Personnel mission type, which hasgiven divers a headachesince launch, has also been temporarily removed from the game pending changes.
No more sentient fire tornadoes
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)
There’s been a complete overhaul of planetary weather conditions, too. For example,Fire Tornadosshouldn’t be sapient anymore—this upsetting weather phenomenon used to seemingly chase players across the battlefield, but its movement should be far less vengeful and more random, now. Fog-dense planets also have had their visibility improved across the board, targeting Desert and Highlands biomes specifically.
Fixing bugs, bots, and bugs
(Image credit: Arrowhead Games)
Heavily-armoured enemies should be spawning less now—but don’t get too excited, because they’ll be replaced with even more mooks. The patch notes quote a 30% decrease in heavily-armoured insects during bug breaches and a lowered amount of Automaton Hulks—the intent being to reduce players' reliance on Anti-Tank weapons at higher difficulties, which could be so flush with the buggers that a Recoilless Rifle or an Expendable Anti-Tank launcher was basically mandatory kit.
In terms of those heavier enemies, there’ve also been some nerfs—the Bile Titan’s puke and the Hulk Scorcher’s flamethrower shouldn’t melt you in seconds, anymore, and Automaton Tanks have had their front-facing armour adjusted to better match the “visual language” of the model.
There’ve also been a lot of fixes, including some hope for the long-maligned FAF-14 Spear, which has had its targeting reworked, although it can’t target Automaton spawners anymore—which Arrowhead says isn’t intended and should be “fixed in the future”. Exosuit mechs should also have better targeting, and there’s been a batch of crash fixes to keep you gunning down bots and bugs longer.
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