Huge Helldivers 2 balance changes are here, but the patch notes are a major letdown
Nerfs without the buffs people were hoping for, but hey, at least armor’s fixed.
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What you need to know
The first majorHelldivers 2balance patch has gone live this morning, but its changes aren’t exactly what many in the game’s community were hoping for.
Since it launched early in February, the co-op shooter’s “meta” — the generally agreed upon list of thebest weaponsand stratagems — has settled on the Breaker shotgun, the Railgun support weapon, and the Shield Generator Pack, along with call-ins like the Eagle 500kg Bomb and the Orbital Laser. These stood out as the strongest items at Helldivers 2’s higher difficulties, though they didn’t trivialize their challenge at all; as a result, based on what I’ve gathered from spaces like theHelldivers Discord serveror itssubreddit, most players (myself included) seemed to want buffs for everything else rather than nerfs to meta gear.
It’s disappointing, then, that the Breaker, Railgun, and Shield Generator Pack have all been nerfed in the latest Helldivers 2 patch, with barely any meaningful buffs to other items to compensate. The Breaker now has higher recoil and three less rounds in its magazines, the Railgun’s Safe Mode armor penetration and damage against thick enemy armor has been reduced, and the Shield Generator Pack’s recharge delay has been increased.
The only weapons that got buffed were the Flamethrower, Laser Cannon, Punisher, and Breaker Spray & Pray. The Flamethrower now has 50% higher damage-per-second, while the Laser Cannon has better armor penetration, damage against weak points, and handling. Meanwhile, the Punisher shotgun’s gotten 20 extra total ammo, increased stagger force, and a per-bullet damage increase to 45 (up from 40), making it the biggest winner of the patch. The Breaker Spray & Pray isn’t completely useless now either, as its armor penetration, fire rate, and pellets-per-shot have all been raised, albeit with the caveat of six fewer rounds in its magazines.
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Stratagems were largely untouched, though both the 120mm and 380mm Orbital HE Barrages received duration increases and a tighter spread. This makes the 120mm barrage significantly better than it was before, and the 380mm one was already great, so now it’ll undoubtedly be one of thebest Helldivers 2 stratagems.
In addition to all these balance changes (read the section below for the full patch notes), the patch has added Planetary Hazards to Helldivers 2 as well. These are described as “additional environmental challenges” like fire tornadoes and meteor showers that can appear randomly while you’re in a mission, and will likely damage and kill anyone — friend or foe — that gets caught in their area-of-effect. Eradicate missions have been made tougher with higher kill requirements and faster enemy spawns, too.
The most exciting part of the update is a fix to Helldivers 2’s long-standing armor bug that caused every armor set to provide the same level of protection, essentially making anything other than light armor useless. Now, medium and heavy armor offer the increased damage reduction they’re supposed to, making them viable loadout options.
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All in all, thereissome great stuff here, but Arrowhead’s decision to nerf the best loadout without also buffing up Helldivers 2’s many underperforming weapons and stratagems is a huge letdown. I understand that only buffing things and never nerfing them is a bad idea, as Arrowhead’s Head of Product Testing Patrik Lasota wrote in theblog postthat accompanied these changes. But in a case like this where the best items often felt like the only ones that were strong or viable at high difficulties, I think a buff-heavy approach was warranted.
The silver lining is that Arrowhead says it wants to prioritize keeping the fantasy of a weapon alive over perfect game balance, and that it hopes that “you, our players, will tell us when we cross that line [of ruining a weapon’s fantasy and fun] inadvertently.” Ultimately, it sounds like the studio is willing to reconsider any nerfs that the community deems too strong, and will hopefully buff underwhelming options in future patches.
Helldivers 2 Update 01.000.100: Patch notes
Below, you’ll find the full patch notes for Patch 01.000.100, taken directly fromArrowhead’s official news postabout the update on Steam.
Major Updates
Balancing
Eradicate Missions
Primary, Secondary, & Support weapons
Stratagems
Fixes
Known Issues
These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.
Helldivers 2 is available now for $39.99 on both PS5 and PC, and so far, it’s one of thebest PC gamesof the year. Notably, the game also supports cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.
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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he’s been an avid fan since childhood. He’s been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you’ll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he’s not writing or gaming, there’s a good chance he’s either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once.Follow him on X(Twitter).
