Helldivers 2’s new patch is a second round of balancing with big buffs

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios has been continually tweaking the horde shooter since launch, and some of those changes have been better received than others. After many nerfs to popular weapons and stratagems made the community unhappy, Arrowhead reversed course with a 60-day plan. The first patch released in September to great acclaim, and now a second round of buffs is arriving with Tuesday’s new patch.

The full patch notes are available on Helldivers 2’s Steam page, but the highlights include heavier heavy armor, a balancing pass on over 70 weapons and stratagems, reduced armor on Hulks, Chargers, Impalers, and Bile Titans, and fewer rockets from Devastators and Gunships.

Fans of plasma weapons may be particularly pleased, as Arrowhead has buffed this class of weapon across the board. Throwing weapons are also much stronger, with High Explosive, Frag, and Incendiary grenades seeing big buffs in the wake of last patch’s tremendously empowered Thermite grenade. Throwing Knives, which are very cool but not strong enough to justify bringing, are much more appealing now that Helldivers have gone from taking eight to 20 on the field of battle.

The Autocannon and Recoilless Rifles, both very strong stratagem weapons, are more flexible due to programmable ammunition. The Autocannon has flak projectiles that can be turned on or off, which makes close-quarters combat with a swarm of Terminids much less deadly. The Recoilless Rifle, which I already adore for its ability to one-shot bot drops, now has a high-yield explosive ammo type for bigger booms.

Perhaps most intriguing are the changes to Anti-Tank Mines, which players failed to get three times before eventually earning the tool. The mines now only trigger when heavy units like Chargers and Hulks move over them, and their damage has been upped from 800 to 2,000. According to Arrowhead, more changes are coming to mines — an infamously unpopular choice — but will need more time to roll out.

Patrol spawning has been tweaked, so that once a mission is done, the increased spawn rate on patrols remains, but is now concentrated over the extraction. This makes sense, as some extractions could be downright boring since the patrols happened to be nowhere nearby. It also makes it easier to sweep the map for samples before heading to extract, since the enemies are focusing on the launch point.

Along with all these good changes, and some nerfs to the Automatons, Arrowhead also did the good deed of canonising the fan joke of “John Helldiver,” the ultimate protagonist of Helldivers 2. As Arrowhead puts it, ““In response to their disapproval of a newly installed cannon on the Automaton Hulk Bruisers, Super Earth High Command sent a crack commando to sabotage their production facilities. The skilled operative promptly escaped into the shadows after completing their mission. Today, still wanted by the Automatons, they survive as a soldier of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can enlist… John Helldiver”