Arrowhead Game Studios has released a new Helldivers 2 patch that reduces the number of heavily armored targets that spawn on higher difficulties.
Patch 1.000.102 is now live on PC and PlayStation 5 and aims to make further balance changes for the third-person online shooter, as well as fix a bunch of UI and crashing issues that have been bothering players.
The main focus of this update, however, is Helldivers 2‘s enemies, particularly the Terminids. Arrowhead explains in the patch notes that it has made significant changes to the spawn rate of heavily armored Terminid enemies, one of the more tougher aliens you can encounter while on a campaign.
“The amount of heavily armored targets that spawn on higher difficulties, especially for Terminids, have been a big discussion point online and internally,” Arrowhead says. “The intent is for groups to have to bring some form of anti-tank capability but not to the degree previously needed.”
To combat this, the developer has reduced the spawn rate of Chargers and Bile Titans on difficulties 7 and up, as well as reduced the risk of spawn spikes of Chargers and Bile Titans.
Arrowhead also makes it clear that it hasn’t lowered the difficulty of enemies, only changed the distribution, and tells players to ” Expect other enemy types to appear in greater numbers instead.”
Alongside this update, the health of the Charger’s head has been lowered, but the legs remain the same, with Arrowhead saying it’s aware of the Charger’s “leg meta” in the game, and the “Electronic Countermeasures” operation modifier, which gave players a random stratagem instead of the one you input, has been removed to be reworked.
Helldivers 2 version 1.000.102 patch notes:
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.
For more, check out our list of the best multiplayer games, along with our recommendations for the best PS5 games you can play right now.
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