The team behind Helldivers 2 isn’t slowing down. A new patch is live this morning and brings with it an increased level cap, another weapon balancing pass, and a couple of unannounced surprises. Let’s dive in.
First up, the level cap has increased from 50 to 150. There’s nothing new to unlock yet, but this should pave the way for additional progression as new content (stratagems, etc.) drops. We’ll see how the folks at Arrowhead Game Studios tackle this in the future. We’ve already seen new stratagems drop as recently as last week before today’s level cap bump. But I don’t see the devs increasing the level cap without eventually giving us stuff to unlock as we level higher.
Arrowhead also adjusted one of the worst Operation Modifiers, which increases stratagem cooldown or call-in times. Those times have now been cut in half.
Alright, let’s take a look at the weapon balance changes. Most of these are buffs except for the Slugger.
- Arc Thrower: fixed charging inconsistencies; it will now always take 1s to charge a shot.
- Arc Thrower: reduced distance from 50m to 35m.
- Arc Thrower: increased stagger force.
- Guard Dog: now restores full ammo from supply boxes.
- Anti-Materiel Rifle: damage increased by 30%.
- Breaker Incendiary: damage per bullet increased from 15 per bullet to 20 per bullet.
- Fire damage per tick increased by 50% (from all sources).
- Liberator Penetrator: now has a full auto mode.
- Dominator: increased damage from 200 to 300.
- Dominator: increased stagger.
- Diligence Counter Sniper: increased armor penetration from light to medium.
- Slugger: reduced stagger.
- Slugger: reduced damage from 280 to 250.
- Slugger: reduced demolition force.
- Slugger: fixed armor penetration tag in the menu.
- Slugger, Liberator Concussive, Senator: fixed incorrect armor penetration tags in the menu.
- Recoilless Rifle: increased the number of rockets you restore from supply boxes from 2 to 3.
- Spear: increased the number of missiles you restore from supply boxes from 1 to 2.
- Heavy Machine Gun: the highest fire rate mode reduced from 1200 rpm to a more moderate 950.
The Arc Thrower gets a nerf to its distance, but the increased stagger should more than makeup for it. Fire damage also gets a nice buff, so look for more flamethrowers on bug planets. The Dominator, unlocked via the Premium Warbond: Steeled Veterans, also received a nice buff.
Arrowhead also tossed in a pair of new Planetary Hazards with blizzards and sandstorms.
And it wouldn’t be a Helldivers 2 patch without a few unannounced surprises included. The Automatons get a pair of new enemies that will shake even the most seasoned Malevelon Creek vets:
Gunships.
And a gigantic Factory Strider.
What about the next Warbond DLC? When will it release? In a FAQ posted by the developers on their Discord in February, they said,, “Warbonds will be released every second Thursday of the month.”
That means we should see the next one released on April 11.