Ultimately, the sky is the limit for what kinds of new weaponry Helldivers 2’s future updates could add. However, any new gear added to Helldivers 2 will admittedly have a hard time dethroning some of the existing best-in-slot gear, and this is especially the case with Helldivers 2’s Boosters.
Instead of offering universal buffs, Boosters added in future updates for Helldivers 2 should consider experimenting with more Boosters that offer tradeoffs similar to the Dead Sprint Booster. This way, players would be able to benefit from powerful buffs, while making sacrifices that would allow for more potent Booster effects to exist without disrupting the game’s balancing.
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Helldivers 2’s Future Boosters Have Tough Competition to Live Up To
Despite several of Helldivers 2’s newest premium Warbonds introducing unique Boosters, some of the first Boosters players can unlock are still widely considered to be the best Boosters in the game across any mission type on any difficulty. This has been a growing issue for Helldivers 2 for quite some time now, and while introducing new Boosters that can compete with the current meta is sure to be a challenge, this shouldn’t discourage Arrowhead Studios from continuing to add more Boosters to the game. However, it may be time to approach the situation from a different angle.
While making new Boosters provide extremely powerful buffs seems like the obvious solution to Helldivers 2’s Booster balancing situation, this kind of approach can have harmful implications for the game’s longevity. Instead, Helldivers 2’s future Boosters may need to take a more creative approach to not disrupt the game’s balancing, and the new Dead Sprint Booster arguably provides the perfect, reusable blueprint to solving this problem.
Helldivers 2’s Future Boosters Should Take Inspiration from the Dead Sprint Booster
So far, Helldivers 2’s new Dead Sprint Booster seems to be quite a divisive buildcrafting tool since it requires players to sacrifice their health in order to take full advantage of it. Regardless, it’s still a rather creative Booster that should inspire similar Boosters and other buildcrafting tools introduced in future updates for Helldivers 2.
Players can reduce the negative effects of the Dead Sprint Booster by combining it with the Vitality Enhancement Booster.
By offering powerful buffs that meanwhile require players to sacrifice parts of their loadout or personal resources, similar to the Dead Sprint Booster, this could be the key to finally giving some healthy competition to the current meta in Helldivers 2 without tipping the scales of the game’s balancing too heavily or repeating the cycle. This kind of design approach to Boosters would incentivize players to closely coordinate their builds with their teammates to choose Boosters based on what best fits their weapons, armor, and Stratagem loadouts, as opposed to relying on some of the existing Boosters that offer universal buffs.
Examples of More Helldivers 2 Boosters that Offer Powerful Buffs with a Negative Side Effect
- All players’ ballistic and explosive weapon damage is increased, but they carry less ammo for primary, secondary, and support weapons
- All players carry additional grenades, but their Stim capacity is reduced
- Arc weapons have increased range, but they can now overheat
- Gas no longer damages Sentry Stratagems, but it also no longer damages enemies or players
- Fire damage caused by Laser weapons deals increased damage, but Laser weapons overheat faster
- Players can equip two primary weapons, but they are unable to equip a secondary or support weapon
Without removing or nerfing the existing Boosters, it will likely be hard to replace the current meta for Boosters in Helldivers 2. Hard as it may be though, it’s not impossible, and Helldivers 2 may already have the key to solving this problem and breaking the cycle by taking inspiration from the Dead Sprint Booster with more Boosters that require sacrifices to gain powerful benefits.
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