helldivers 2 Developer Arrowhead Game Studios has been continually tweaking the horde shooter since its release, and some of those changes have been better received than others. After many weapon nerfs and popular stratagems made the community unhappy, Arrowhead changed course with a 60-day plan. The first patch was released in September to great success, and now a second round of improvements arrives with Tuesday's new patch.
Full patch notes are available at helldivers 2on the Steam page, but highlights include heavier heavy armor, a balance 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 happy, as Arrowhead has improved this weapon class across the board. Thrown weapons are also much stronger, with high-explosive, frag, and incendiary grenades gaining huge benefits from the last patch's massively boosted Thermite grenade. Throwing knives, which are cool but not strong enough to justify bringing, are much more appealing now that Helldivers has gone from eight to 20 on the battlefield.
The autocannon and recoilless rifles, both very powerful stratagem weapons, are more flexible due to programmable ammunition. The autocannon has anti-aircraft shells that can be activated or deactivated, making close combat with a swarm of Terminids much less deadly. The recoilless rifle, which I already love for its ability to launch bots in one shot, now has a high-yield explosive ammo type for larger explosions.
Perhaps most intriguing are the changes to anti-tank mines, which players were unable to obtain three times before obtaining the tool. Mines now only activate when heavy units like Chargers and Hulks move on them, and their damage has been increased from 800 to 2000. According to Arrowhead, more changes are coming to mines, a notoriously unpopular option, but they will need more time to be implemented.
Patrol generation has been modified so that once a mission is completed, the higher patrol generation rate remains, but is now focused on extraction. This makes sense, as some extractions could be downright boring since the patrols weren't around. It also makes it easier to search the map for samples before heading out to mine them, as enemies focus on the drop point.
Along with all of these good changes and some nerfs to the Automata, Arrowhead also did the good deed of canonizing the fan joke of “John Helldiver,” the final protagonist of Helldivers 2. As Arrowhead says, “In response to his disapproval of a newly installed cannon on the Automaton Hulk Bruisers, the Super Earth High Command sent a crack commando to sabotage their production facilities. The skilled agent quickly escaped into the shadows after completing his mission. Today, he is still wanted by the Automatons. , survive as a soldier of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help you and if you can find them, maybe you can enlist… John Helldiver.”