Helldivers 2’s hail Mary patch has brought players back in droves

Helldivers 2 is a “dead game”; long live Helldivers 2. The action co-op shooter pitting the forces of Super Earth against endless waves of murderous Automatons or terrifying Terminids had a massive launch in February, but faltered over the summer months. A recent patch from developer Arrowhead has led to a resurgence of players returning to the fight or picking up the game for the first time, along with tons of positive reception on social media — but all the new fixes bring a few remaining problems into sharp relief.

The patch, released on Sept. 17, rolled back nerfs that had accumulated over the course of balance patches to many popular weapons, like the railgun and flamethrower, and buffed many other weapons in the Helldivers arsenal. The only new nerf that has impacted my play experience is one to the Commando; it could previously one-shot an Automaton Fabricator from any angle. Now, it takes two shots. That seems fair to me, and the rest of the buffs certainly make up for it — like the Thermal Grenade’s damage rocketing from 150 to 2000.

Players were previously fenced into a metagame of using a few ideal weapons and stratagems; the update has added a more versatile arsenal. The Recoilless Rifle is a new fan favorite, especially since it can take out dropships and their contents in one well-aimed shot. The Spear has emerged as a powerful siege weapon, and the Flamethrower takes out Chargers in a snap.

The buffs make each individual mission much more fun and flexible, but the greater war still has some issues. Consider, if you will, the Automaton presence. The bots have slowly crept closer to Super Earth, while the Terminids are constantly battled back. A sizable chunk of Helldivers simply will not abandon the bug front, not for orders from Super Earth nor for cool rewards. It can be frustrating to throw yourself at the warfront of a Major Order, only to inevitably fail while thousands of players are having a blast fighting bugs on Hellmire.

As Helldivers 2 continues to evolve, Arrowhead will have to consider how players coordinate for the war — huge events like the Terminid supercolony on Meridia, which Helldivers had to assault in a suicide mission in order to create a black hole. Once the highly anticipated third faction from the first game, the Illuminate, show up in the galaxy things will only get more complicated. Arrowhead has resolved many in-game frustrations, but it’s worth taking a look at the broader map to see what else can be ironed out.