Helldivers 2: Patch notes for the new mega update – private lobbies and lots of buffs

As announced, the latest patch is pretty big. We summarize the most important things for you

The latest patch forHelldivers 2can already be downloaded. It contains numerous improvements to tactical equipment, additional information on the galactic overview map and a new lobby option.

Highlights of Patch 1.000.400

Although the update focuses a lot on balancing, there are a few important changes apart from equipment and enemies. These include:

• Private lobbies, where other players can only enter by invitation
• Visible supply lineson the overview map and the origins of attacks by bots and bugs are also visible
• Super samplescan now be found from difficulty level 6 onwards
• The mission“Evacuation of Essential Personnel “is temporarily removed from the game and fundamentally reworked
• The glitch that allowed playersto have an infinite number of grenadeshas been fixed

A balanced arsenal

The new update is primarily intended to give weaker tactical equipment and weaponsa buff so that players have a wider choice and don’t have to resort to the strongest ones at the moment.

The following “Stratagems” and weapons have been buffed:

• All Sentry Turrets
• E/MG-101 HMG Emplacement
• MD-6 Anti-Personnel Minefield
• MD-I4 Incendiary Mines
• Orbital Gatling
• Orbital Precision Strike
• Orbital Airburst Strike
• Eagle 110MM Rocket Pods
• Eagle Strafing Run
• GL-21 Grenade Launcher
• MG-206 Heavy Machine Gun
• MG-43 Machine Gun
• AR-23 Liberator
• M-105 Stalwart
• AX/AR-23 Guard Dog
• AR-23C Liberator Concussive
• BR-14 Adjudicator
• AR-61 Tenderizer
• PLAS-101 Purifier
• CB-9 Explosive Crossbow
• R-36 Eruptor
• R-63 Diligence

Some of the improvements are very small, as the main aim is to make them a real alternative to the currently preferred arsenal.

Helldivers 2: Patch notes for update 01.00.400

Overview

• Visible supply lines & attack routes in the Galactic War.
• Updating the balancing of strategies, weapons, planets and enemies.
• Various crash fixes, stability improvements and other updates.
• Invite-only lobby creation
  The far right option in the lobby settings. Currently only localized in English. More languages will follow with the next patch

Balancing

The aim of the balance changes to the stratagems in this patch:
With these balance changes, we wanted to upgrade some of the weaker stratagems to make them more viable and add more variety to gear. We also changed some to make them more consistent, but the goal was to maintain a similar or higher level of performance.
We are taking a closer look at the stratagems to see if there are any other stratagems that need reinforcements or changes to make them more viable. We also want to better explain what we are trying to accomplish with the changes, see the linked blog post for more information.

A/MLS-4X Rocket Sentry

• Reduced distribution
• Priority for larger targets
• Increased target distance from 75 to 100m
• Reduced the number of missiles per volley from 2 to 1 (to achieve better ammo utilization)
• Increased explosion radius from 1m to 4m
• Reduced armor penetration of the explosion (The explosion can no longer damage heavily armored enemies. However, the projectile still has enough AP to damage heavily armored targets).
• Increased projectile damage from 200 to 300

A/MG-43 Machine Gun Sentry

• Reduced the cooldown from 180 seconds to 120 seconds.

A/MG-43 Machine Gun Sentry, A/G-16 Gatling Sentry, A/MLS-4X Rocket Sentry, A/AC-8 Autocannon Sentry, A/M-12 Mortar Sentry, A/M-23 EMS Mortar Sentry:

• Increased durability* from 0% to 80%

E/MG-101 HMG position

• Increased rotation speed by 100%

MD-6 Anti-personnel minefield

• Increased explosion damage from 250 to 350

MD-I4 incendiary mines

• Increase in explosion damage from 150 to 210

Orbital gatling

• Increased rate of fire by 25%
• Increased projectiles per volley from 30 to 60
• Increased armor penetration (can damage heavily armored enemies)
• Reduced cooldown from 80 seconds to 70 seconds

Orbital precision strike

• Reduced cooldown from 100 to 90 seconds
• Reduced spawn/call time from 4 to 2 seconds

Orbital air strike

• Reduced the cooldown from 120 seconds to 100 seconds

Eagle 110MM Rocket Pods
While these changes may seem like a direct nerf, that is not the intention. Please read the blog post for more information

• Improved aiming accuracy
• Increased armor penetration of projectiles (now deals 100% damage to heavily armored enemies instead of 50%)
• Reduced projectile damage from 600 to 250 (to compensate for improved accuracy and additional damage from increased armor penetration)
• Reduced armor penetration of explosions (explosions can no longer damage heavily armored enemies)

Eagle Strafing Run

• Increased number of bets from 3 to 4
• Increased armor penetration, can now damage heavily armored enemies

GL-21 Grenade Launcher

• Increased explosion damage from 350 to 400

MG-206 Heavy Machine Gun

• Increase projectile damage from 100 to 150
• Increased projectile damage against durable* body parts from 23% to 33
• Reduced rate of fire from 450/750/900 to 450/600/750
• Reduced reload time from 7 to 5.5 seconds
• Increased wobble strength

MG-43 machine gun

• Shortened reload time from 4 to 3.5 seconds
• Increased maximum number of magazines from 3 to 4

MG-43 Machine Gun, A/MG-43 Machine Gun Sentry, A/G-16 Gatling Sentry and EXO-45 Patriot Exosuits Gatling

• Increased projectile damage from 80 to 90
• Increased projectile damage against durable* body parts from 7.5% to 25%

AR-23 Liberator, M-105 Stalwart and AX/AR-23 “Watchdog “

• Increase in projectile damage against durable* body parts from 10% to 23%

AR-23C Liberator Concussive

• Increased projectile damage against durable* body parts from 23% to 35%

BR-14 Adjudicator

• Increased magazine capacity from 25 to 30
• Increased projectile damage against durable* body parts from 10% to 20%

AR-61 Tenderizer

• Increase projectile damage from 60 to 95
• Increase projectile damage against durable* body parts from 10% to 17
• Reduced ammunition capacity from 35 to 30
• Reduced number of magazines from 10 to 8
• Increased wobble strength

PLAS-101 Cleaner

• The penetration power of the projectile armor has been increased and now corresponds to the explosion power
• Reduced damage reduction due to explosion

CB-9 Explosive crossbow

• Increased armor penetration of the explosion to the same value as the projectile
• Increased destructive power (can destroy bug holes and bot factory buildings)
• Medium penetrating power added

R-36 Eruptor

• Total damage increased from 420 to 570 damage per shot

R-63 Diligence

• Increase projectile damage against durable* body parts from 10% to 25%

* Some enemies have durable body parts that only receive a portion of the base damage from projectiles

Other

• Updated recoil modifiers: We’ve made changes to the recoil stance modifiers to make them more consistent and reward prone more. Almost all modifiers improve recoil and only two have been made worse (and only by 10%).

Gameplay

The AA defense operation modifier has been removed: Reduction of stratagem slots by 1

• We want to revise the operation modifiers in the future. Right now there are too few of them that are repetitive, and the ones we have don’t create variety or encourage different play styles. At the moment we have removed this modifier because it only encourages players to use the best stratagems and does not encourage variety

The event mission “Retrieve Essential Personnel” has been deactivated for the time being

• This is to give the mission the proper attention and care it deserves, as it is currently not considered fun enough or not working as we would like it to.

Super Samples

• Super Samples now spawn on difficulty 6. The reason for this change is that we feel their existence only on difficulty 7+ is forcing some players to play the game on a harder difficulty than they would like. However, we still want a gating for them, but a less punishing one.

• The SEAF artillery stratagem is no longer blocked by stratagem jammers or ion storms and is available after the mission timer ends and the destroyer leaves close orbit.

• Enemies within melee range of the gates in the mission “Evacuate High Value Goods” will now attack them more consistently.

• The ability to chat via the in-game menus and mission loading screen has been added.

• Some crosshairs in the first-person perspective have been revised to improve readability.

Social

• Invitation-only lobbies are now supported

Armors

• New armor passivation Peak Physique (+50% melee damage, +30% weapon ergonomics)

Planets & Dangers

Spiked plant

• The spiny plant that appears on certain planets has been revised.
• It no longer causes bleeding or stamina loss when hit by the plant blast or spikes.
• Now it “pops” three times and emits spikes everywhere, causing increased damage.

Fire tornadoes

• Fire Tornadoes have changed their behavior, they should no longer have the feeling that they are actively reacting to the player’s movement, but rather move randomly.
• During a fire tornado, the opponent’s view is restricted. The player’s vision is not impaired.

*Since fire tornadoes are more random, the situations in which players find themselves should be more variable. Tornadoes are much less likely to stack and overlap on extraction points or targets, and will generally be a bit easier to deal with.

Tremore

• Tremor spawning has been optimized to be a bit more random.
• The size of the epicenter and the range of the effect have been increased.

*These changes should result in more situations where enemies away from the player are stunned, and the player will no longer be hit by a tremor as often.

Ion storms

• Additional VFX for ion storms have been added.

Visibility

For many planets, the amount of fog has been adjusted to be slightly less hard and dense to reduce fatigue from constant combat on planets with poor visibility. It is still intentional that there are foggy planets with poorer visibility, but the balance was a little off.

• Desert planets like Erata Prime, Chort Bay, Hellmire and the like.
• Highland planets such as Varylia 5, Matar Bay, Oshaune, and similar.
• Artificial light sources have been rebalanced in intensity and generally reduced to fix situations where the lights completely blind the player.

Unexploded hellbomb

• The unexploded, defective Hellbombs that can sometimes be found on planets now explode instantly when hit by powerful explosions or heavy weapons. They still have the same delay when hit by small arms or weaker attacks.

Vegetation

• Vegetation, which is large enough to slow the player down, now has an additional function. When Hell Divers are inside vegetation, they are harder to detect, reducing their detection range by enemies. This effect stacks with other effects that reduce detection range, such as night, crouched or prone, or things like the Scout Armor passive trait.

Enemies

Acid effect

• The acid effect applied by hunters, bug mines, etc. now allows you to sprint under the effect and slows you by 30% instead of 50%. The duration has been increased from 3 to 4 seconds. These changes should make it less of a pain for players to be slowed while fighting the Terminids. This will allow us to use the effect in more places without the experience being very bad, for example with the bile spitters.

Balance of armored opponents

• We have reduced the number of heavily armored enemies such as Gall Titans and Chargers on higher difficulties and instead spawned more hordes of smaller enemies, the difference should be noticeable and the number should be at least 30% lower than before on Bug Breaks. We have also slightly reduced the number of Hulks that spawn for the Automatons. Our intention is to reduce the demand for anti-tank weapons and create a better incentive for the group to bring stratagems and weapons to take care of the hordes by having more other enemies.

Patrols

• Patrol spawning is now back to how it worked before patch 01.000.300, with some slight changes so that levels are less empty when you are far away from important locations with enemy presence.

Exciting

• Medium and large enemies are no longer stunned as easily. This does not affect the stratagems that stun, only how easily the Pummeler can stun larger enemies

Terminids
Gall spitters and nurse spitters

• Bile spouts are now slowed down when they lose their legs.
• The spitter now throws up the acid effect.
• Spewing Vomit can now only damage Helldivers up to 4 times per second, and the Helldiver can no longer take damage from the same projectile multiple times. This should reduce the number of times you are instantly killed by this projectile.

Bile Titan

• The Galle Titan’s head is slightly less resistant to weaker anti-tank weapons. This is not a major change and will be particularly important for weapons such as the railgun.
• The Galle Titan’s vomit can now only damage the Helldiver 4 times per second and the Helldiver can no longer be hit multiple times by the same projectile. The damage is still very lethal, so running through their vomit is not recommended. Her vomit now also has a longer range.

Charge Behemoth

• The Charger Behemoth now participates in combat at higher difficulty levels and can now take more damage than before. This allows us to spawn fewer Chargers but still maintain the difficulty level.

Charger

• The body now only displays bleedout effects when the bleedout condition has begun. It can still show bleed out effects from the mouth without the bleed out state having started.

Automats
Hulk Scorcher

• The Hulk’s flamethrower now deals less damage and cannot damage Helldivers more than 4 times per second. In addition, the Helldiver can no longer be damaged multiple times by the same flame projectile. This should reduce the number of times you are instantly killed by it.

Automaton armor

• The armor value on the front of the tank has been lowered to match the value of the non-armored sections on the back of the tank. Originally, the front of the tank was supposed to be more heavily armored, but the visual language did not show this.
• The vents on the back of the tank turret still have the same armor value as before, but are now correctly checked for blast directions.

• The damage of exploding automaton jump packs has been reduced by 50%, but they still set you on fire.

Galactic War

Introduction of supply lines & Origin of the attacks
Previously, supply lines were not displayed on the Galactic War map to improve clarity and readability. However, based on feedback from our community, we have made an implementation that displays them on the map. This solution attempts to maintain overall readability while making the system visible to players in-game.

You will also now be able to see which planet an attack is coming from, which could allow the community to stop the attack at the source. We have also visually updated the sector and planet info popups

Bug fixes

• The FAF-14 spear targeting system has been reworked and should now work much better. However, it has lost the ability to target Automaton Spawners, this is not intentional and will be fixed in the future.

The environment modifiers “Intense Heat” and “Extreme Cold” now affect the reload speed of the Quasar Cannon and are displayed correctly in the HUD.

• Reload speed on cold planets -2.5 seconds
• Reload speed on hot planets +2.5 sec
• The radar pulse for detecting enemies on the mini-map is now visible.
• Most Automatons weapons have now been given tighter limits on how far the projectile they fire can deviate from the muzzle angle of the weapon. This means that situations where ravagers shoot sideways and the like should be fixed.
• Exosuit weapons may now slightly adjust the angle at which they fire their projectiles relative to the muzzle angle. This should make their weapons more accurate.
• Ballistic shield now collides with grenades.
• The unblock button should no longer disappear from the social menu.
• Blocked players can no longer join the blocker lobby via recent players.
• Fixed a bug where the statistics for killed enemies, played missions and completed missions were not displayed correctly in the arsenal.
• Fixed an issue where the player could throw an unlimited number of grenades by pressing the “Quick Grenade” button after closing the Stratagem menu.
• Helldiver now also switches to the last active weapon when out of grenades, fixing the issue where he would hold a Stratagem orb without the Stratagem menu open.
• Fixed some text overlaps in various places.
• The burn effect applied to the player when a combat walker dies is now a normal burn. The intent is that you should be able to make it out alive. But you will be on fire, so hit the ground running!
• The extraction shuttle can no longer take damage that prevents extraction. New, high-quality materials directly from Super Earth R&D have been used.
• On the PC you can now navigate through the Super Credits menu using the “WASD” keys
• Fixed an issue where the number of samples in missions was not displayed correctly
• Levels are no longer generated with blocked areas that prevent the player from progressing.
• The bridge of your ship is no longer cast in an eternal shadow.
• Blue stratagems no longer bounce when placed next to the detector tower.
• The Warbond menu now displays the correct emote & victory poses in the thumbnail view.
• The medal cap is now displayed in the user interface.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Helldivers armor to be invisible to other players.
• Improved the user interface for player reports.
• Fixed a bug that could cause Helldivers to be thrown into the air if they were near a corpse of a Galle Titan or Factory Strider.
• Fix for Factory Strikers sometimes spawning an extra model after being destroyed.
• Fix for situations where Hell Divers could spontaneously die while walking into seemingly walkable valleys on some planets.
• Fixed rare issue on arctic planets where players could spontaneously die near large bodies of water.
• Pelican-1 sometimes started immediately after a player boarded.
• Fixed a bug where the Helldiver could get stuck in the grenade void after throwing grenades
• Fix Superior Packing Methodology not working for other players .
• The list of new players now includes players who join on the fly.
• The separation policy for PC users has been relaxed.
• Fixed an issue where player names from previous sessions were not saved correctly on restart.
• The attack origin of the defense event is now visualized when hovering over the planet with the defense event or attack origin.
• Implemented outlines for previously poorly readable texts.

Crash fixes

• General crash fixes.
• Fix for a crash that could occur when inflicting wounds on multiple enemies.
• PlayStation only: Fixed an issue that sometimes caused a crash when switching between quality and performance mode.
• Fix for a crash when a player leaves the game after all their railguns have exploded.
• Fix for a crash that could occur when re-entering a previous session
• Fix for a crash that occurred when trying to throw a snowball in ADS mode
• Fix for a possible crash when unloading is canceled during hotjoin
• Fix for rare crash associated with leaving a session while aiming a weapon.

Known IssuesThese are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.

• Sending friend requests via the in-game friend code is currently not working.
• You may not be able to join players or invite them to the game.
• Players added to the “Newest Players” list will appear in the middle of the list.
• Players may experience delays in the payment of medals and Super Credits.
• The spear cannot be used to target Automaton spawns.
• Enemies that bleed out will not progress on personal quests and extermination missions.
• Arc weapons sometimes behave inconsistently and sometimes misfire.
• Most weapons fire below the crosshairs when aiming down the sights.
• Plasma Punisher cannot shoot from the shield generators.
• Stratagem beam can attach itself to an enemy, but it deploys at its original location.
• Helldiver may not be able to get up from a crouch when surrounded by enemies.
• The “Handcart” ship module does not reduce the cooldown of the shield generator package.
• Bile Titan sometimes takes no damage to the head.
• The Charger’s butt does not take damage from explosions.
• Players can get stuck in Loadout when joining a game in progress.
• Buffs may not be available for players who join a game in progress.
• Planet Liberation reaches 100% at the end of each defense mission.
• The objective “Raise the Flag of Super Earth” does not show a progress bar.
• The number of missions in the career tab is reset to zero after each restart of the game.
• The descriptions of some weapons are outdated and do not reflect their current design.
• BR-14 Adjudicator has incorrect recoil values