When Helldivers 2 first launched on February 8, 2024, on PlayStation and Steam, many gamers praised it as top-of-the-line co-op horde shooters available in the market with its enjoyable and chaotic gameplay. Not solely did it have a strong gameplay basis, however its general theming and neighborhood assist of an ongoing galactic conflict elevated the sport to new heights. Nevertheless, as time glided by, the sport steadily declined in participant rely on account of choices made by Arrowhead Studios that slowly degraded the neighborhood’s sentiment on Helldivers 2.
Right here, we’ll check out a few of the stability choices that Arrowhead has made, from the weapons to the numerous enemies within the recreation that had been deemed controversial. One of many greater ache factors in Helldivers 2 at the moment is that Arrowhead likes to provide extra energy to enemies than giving gamers extra viable choices to cope with them, which finally makes the sport more durable for informal audiences.
How does Helldivers 2 stability all the things?
The core thought of Helldivers 2 is that each weapon and Stratagem fulfills a job in fight. Some are finest used within the long-range, whereas others do higher in short-range. Others are meant for clearing out teams of weaker enemies whereas some Stratagems excel at killing armored elite targets. To make up for his or her energy, these instruments are weaker in sure features to make sure that they don’t overshadow different weapons of their roles. This stability of energy ensures that each weapon has a spot within the recreation’s sandbox and that gamers will all the time discover every weapon enjoyable to make use of.
When a weapon does all the things and solutions many of the recreation’s issues, it turns into overpowered as a result of most gamers need to use the very best weapons for any situation. That is comprehensible because the complete level of stability is to make sure that each weapon excels in its goal.
Helldivers 2’s First Nerf: The Railgun
The Railgun assist weapon was initially thought-about to be the very best weapon within the recreation when it first got here out. It had the very best armor-piercing functionality, ammo financial system and general ease of use. It might simply dispatch Chargers, Bile Titans, and lots of heavy Automaton models. It was the staple weapon for many gamers, however Arrowhead deemed the weapon too robust within the meta and nerfed its armor-piercing functionality.
This nerf was extremely divisive among the many neighborhood, however for a time, it was a justifiable one because it overshadowed different anti-tank weapons. This additionally solidified the concept weaker weapons should obtain buffs to make them extra related within the recreation.
Slugger Nerf
Within the Automaton entrance, precision weapons are way more helpful than horde-clearing ones just like the Machine Weapons. The Slugger is a precision slug shotgun that completely occupies this area of interest as a result of nature of Automaton models having innate armor, which requires precision focusing on. In comparison with the Diligence and the Diligence Counter Sniper, the Slugger fills their position higher than the devoted marksman rifles that the sport gives. In response, Arrowhead nerfed the Slugger by lowering its injury, destruction worth and stagger worth.
As soon as once more, the neighborhood had requested for buffs to the DMRs to compensate for the Slugger nerf. Whereas they had been buffed, it wasn’t sufficient to completely interact gamers into utilizing the Diligence weapons over different weapons.
Eruptor Nerf
This nerf was negatively obtained because it was a part of the Democratic Detonation Warbond and had carved itself a pleasant area of interest of coping with teams, due to its AoE injury. After all, the weapon is innately unwieldy on account of its dimension, however gamers caught with the weapon because it’s highly effective in its area of interest. As a sluggish bolt motion sniper rifle that has worse dealing with, its injury was highly effective sufficient. Nevertheless, the weapon had its capabilities lower in half by having its AoE shrapnel eliminated, which severely lower its use on each Automaton and Terminid fronts.
Fireplace Injury Nerfs
Although it wasn’t intentional, flame weapons in Helldivers have been not directly nerfed, as this got here a number of days after the discharge of the Freedom’s Flame Warbond. Many felt that this nerf was a knee-jerk response to the Warbond as they felt it would overperform within the sandbox, however gamers have but to expertise the brand new weapons of their finest state.
The change to fireside projectiles was that they’re now affected by sensible projectile blocking. Beforehand, the flamethrower might penetrate by Charger armor, which made it extraordinarily helpful in opposition to Terminids. Nevertheless, its lack of vary made the flamethrower much less helpful in opposition to Automatons.
This variation makes flamethrowers much less viable in opposition to Terminids since their energy is reliant on clearing each Chargers and smaller targets in shut vary. That change was the straw that lastly broke the camel’s again.
Arrowhead Video games guarantees change
After the backlash, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani admits that the studio has taken a heavy-handed method to nerfing weapons. With the brand new Escalation of Freedom replace granting a more durable issue in a state the place gamers have much less viable weapons to play with, this solely added gas to the fireplace. Jorjani has taken to many social media platforms, promising that the builders will meet participant expectations extra sooner or later.
