Helldivers 2 Update Makes Balance Adjustments to Heavy Enemies

Highlights

• Higher difficulties in Helldivers 2 are now slightly less punishing with adjustments made to heavy enemy spawn rates like Chargers and Bile Titans.
• Arrowhead Game Studios addressed community feedback by reducing Charger and Bile Titan spawn rates on higher difficulties while balancing other enemy types.
• The patch also removes the Electronic Countermeasures modifier and makes further adjustments to charger health against heavy weapons.

The latest update for Helldivers 2 has arrived and makes big adjustments to the spawn rates of heavy Terminid enemies like charges and bile titans, making higher difficulties slightly less punishing for some players. Arrowhead Game Studios continues to tweak the overall experience of Helldivers 2, especially now that many of the server and login issues experienced during the game’s launch window have passed. Updates continue to roll out often, and new content continues to arrive.

In fact, players had a big impact on the world of Helldivers 2 just recently, helping to liberate a planet called Tien Kwan which was being beset by the Automaton faction. As players set out to liberate the planet, they also managed to unlock a new Helldivers 2 stratagem involving Mechs. The Patriot Exosuits can be called down once unlocked at level 25, letting the player ride and deliver plenty of firepower against the enemy forces, many of which have started to get a bit out of control. Thankfully, the latest update aims to balance out how many heavy enemies are able to spawn at lower difficulties.

The latest update takes aim at Helldivers 2‘s heavy Terminid enemies like the Charger and Bile Titan. Recently, players have been discussing their spawn rates, especially on higher difficulties which at times, were forcing players to overload on anti-armor weapons due to spikes. With this update, Arrowhead has reduced the spawn rate of both Terminid enemies on Difficulty 7 and higher, while also decreasing the risk of a spawn spikes as well. The studio went on to clarify that the difficulty has not been reduced, only that other enemy types will now show up in greater numbers instead.

The studio also commented on the community’s new “leg meta” with Helldivers 2‘s heavy enemies like the Charger, praising their ability to discover new game mechanics, but also admitting it may not be the best idea to spend resources on areas that are not obvious weak points. To that end, this update lowered the health of the charger’s head, so that a well-placed shot from the Recoilless Rifle or EAT-17 will instantly kill the creature.

Alongside the enemy changes, Arrowhead also confirmed it has removed the “Electronic Countermeasures” modifier in order to be reworked and introduced sometime in the future. According to the patch notes, this modifier led to more player frustration and confusion over the way it was being implemented.

In terms of new content, Helldivers 2 announced the Cutting Edge Premium Warbond which is set to bring new armor sets, cosmetic changes, and a trio of unique weapons. Specifically, players can purchase two shotguns, though instead of firing traditional slugs, one dispenses lightning blasts, while the other acts more like a grenade launcher with exploding plasma rounds. Rounding out the new weapons is the Sickle, a burst firing style gun that doesn’t need to be reloaded due to firing off laser rounds.

Helldivers 2 Update 1.000.102 Patch Notes

Overview

Today’s patch is dealing with the spawn rate of heavily armored Terminid enemies as well as the possible play against them. It also contains some fixes to UI elements and crash fixes.

Balancing

Enemies:

• The amount of heavily armored targets that spawn on higher difficulties, especially for Terminids, have been a big discussion point online and internally. The intent is for groups to have to bring some form of anti-tank capability but not to the degree previously needed.
• To that end we have reduced the spawn rate of Chargers and Bile Titans on difficulties 7 and up. In addition we have reduced the risk of spawn spikes of Chargers and Bile Titans.
• Please note that we have changed the distribution of enemy types, not reduced difficulty. Expect other enemy types to appear in greater numbers instead.
• We are humbled by the community’s ability to find things like Chargers “leg meta” in our game, however spending your heavy anti tank weapons on legs instead of the obvious weak point seems counter to expectation.
• We are not changing anything regarding the Charger’s legs, we are however lowering the health of the Charger’s head. It should now be at a point where a well placed shot from a Recoilless Rifle or EAT-17 instantly kills a charger.
• Together with the unfortunately undocumented change of last patch that increased the armor penetration ability of less well placed shots for EAT-17s and Recoilless Rifle shots, Chargers should now be easier to handle by well equipped groups.

Gameplay

• “Electronic Countermeasures” operation modifier, which had a chance of giving you a random stratagem instead of the one you input, has been removed in order to be reworked, and will be reintroduced in a future iteration. We found that this modifier wasn’t communicated clearly enough and overall caused more frustration than excitement with the way it was currently implemented. This change was made in 1.000.100 but was unintentionally omitted from the patch notes.

Fixes

• Fixed missing text on several HUD / UI elements.
• Fixed several subtitle / VO mismatches in the news videos.
• Fixed various crashes that occurred mid-gameplay and when deploying to missions.

Known Issues

• Game crashes when attempting to use a stim while inside an Exosuit.
• Pink artifacts may appear in the sky when setting off large explosions.
• Automaton Dropship seemingly disappears and slides in after being shot down.
• Shots from arc-based weapons may not count towards kills in post-mission stats.
• Players cannot unfriend other players befriended via friend code.
• Cross-platform friend invites might not show up in the friend requests tab.
• Players may be unable to select loadout or return to ship when joining a multiplayer game session via PS5 Activity Card.
• The Exosuit can destroy itself with rockets if it fires while turning.
• Text chat box display is obstructed by the cinematic letterboxing during extraction.
• Some people are unable to accept friend requests. This is mostly an issue cross platform