Helldivers 2‘s latest Patch was delivered earlier this week and brought with it a number of improvements to in-game strategies. These deployable skills or equipment drops were largely swept under the rug as Helldivers 2The balance has been thrown out of whack by frequent patches, much to the chagrin of the community. It seems Arrowhead’s top priority as part of their new fix approach was to make stratagems viable again, and they may have succeeded.
According to Arrowhead, the goal was to “improve some of the weaker stratagems to make them more viable and provide more opportunities for loadout variety.” To that end, most of the stratagems that have fallen by the wayside in recent months have been buffed in some form or have had balance changes made to increase their use. For example, countless sentry stratagems have had their durability improved, which previously sucked, and it was no longer justified to use them in higher level missions where they would have been instantly wiped out.
Some Eagle Strategies also received damage improvements as well as some Minesand some of them even have reduced cooldowns. Some weapons either do more damage, like the Eruptoror perform their function much better, like the explosive crossbow, which now plugs bug holes more effectively. Arrowhead also explained that looking at stratagems to fine-tune isn’t the end of it, but this first attempt at some underrated ones is a good first step.
In addition, the patch also optimizes things to Helldivers 2 a bit friendlier than in the past. This includes the introduction of Super Samples, a collectible resource in the game, at a lower difficulty level so as not to overwhelm players, as well as the removal of a controversial modifier the reduced stratagem slots. Even planetary dangers are adjusted, for example, fire tornadoes are less responsive to the player’s movements so that divers do not feel exposed to the elements. Enemy behavior is also changed and players can expect less armored enemies on higher difficulty levels.
The patch, which was quite well received by Helldivers 2‘S Community recoverycomes with a few questionsbut the problems seem much less than usual, and the community has responded accordingly. Anecdotally, the patch seems to be working well enough that Helldivers 2The Steam numbers are trending upwards, for the first time in two months over 100,000.
This latest patch is the first since Arrowhead reconsidered its approach to balancing Helldivers 2. After a long period of constant unrest that angered fans and strained the team to the bone, Arrowhead finally announced that they would be slowing down the deployment of patches in order to better review and test the changes implemented in the live game to minimize frustration and bugs.
If the response to this patch is any indication, this could be the right move as Arrowhead continues to refine the game and slow down the constant additions that have thrown off balance since launch. Maybe, just maybe, things are finally looking up for everyone’s favorite bug-squashing simulator.
