Helldivers 2 patch adds yet another way to die from friendly fire

If you are anything like me, many of your deaths in Helldivers 2 have been the result of friendly fire. It is all part of the game's charm, really. Many an apology has been made over my headset as fellow Helldivers have been recalled back into the fray after a rogue bullet or two went astray.

And now, as part of a rather lengthy patch that adds adjustments, fixes and improvements, all of which Arrowhead promises will aid our democratic endeavours, the studio has also changed up ricochets a touch. From now, shots that ricochet from heavy armoured enemies will "properly" hit the Helldiver who fired them.

"Trigger discipline is highly recommended," Arrowhead warned. Noted!

Helldivers 2 - Report for Duty Trailer | PS5 & PC Games

In addition, the Spread Democracy mission otherwise known as "raise the flag" can now be enjoyed on higher difficulties for "maximum freedom spreading", the Helldivers 2 team shared.

Arrowhead has also made a large number of balance changes to both weapons and stratagems. For example, the RL-77 Airburst Rocket Launcher shouldn’t blow us all up as much, which sounds quite useful.

The studio has also made some adjustments to enemies, with both Bile and Nursing Spewers getting their move speed reduced (but, only slightly). Also, heads up, Scout strider Riders are now less vulnerable to explosions. Hmm.

You can read the full Helldivers 2 patch notes below (they are quite long, so perhaps make a cup of tea before you settle in):

Balancing: General

• Armors with armour rating above 100 now also reduce damage on headshots.
• Victory poses will now only play for the extracted. (No stolen valor on my ship.)
• Burning damage reduced by 15%

Balancing: Primary, Secondary & Support Weapons

CB-9 Exploding Crossbow

• Slightly smaller explosion
• Increased stagger
• Decreased number of maximum mags from 12 to 8
• Increased number of magazines received from resupply from 6 to 8
• Slight reduction in ergonomics
• Muzzle velocity increased

LAS-99 Quasar Cannon

• Increased recharge time by 5 seconds

BR-14 Adjudicator

• Full auto is now the default fire mode
• Reduced recoil
• Increased maximum mags from 6 to 8
• Increased number of magazines received from resupply from 6 to 8
• Now placed amongst assault rifles

LAS-98 Laser Cannon

• Slightly increased damage
• Slightly reduced damage versus large volume bodies

SG-8P Punisher Plasma

• Decreased maximum mags from 12 to 8
• Increased amount of magazines received from resupply from 6 to 8
• Increased projectile speed, but will still keep a similar range
• Decreased damage falloff on the explosion
• Now placed in the energy weapons category

ARC-12 Blitzer

• Increased shots per minute from 30 to 45
• Now placed in the energy weapons category

R-36 Eruptor

• Decreased number of maximum mags from 12 to 6
• Explosion damage drops off slightly faster

LAS-16 Sickle

• Decreased amount of magazines from 6 down to 3

LAS-5 Scythe

• Increased damage from 300 to 350
• Decreased max number of mags from 6 down to 4

RS-422 Railgun

• Increased armour penetration in both safe mode and unsafe mode
• Stagger force slightly reduced

MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun

• Third person crosshair enabled

63CS Diligence Counter Sniper

• Damage increased from 128 to 140
• Ergonomics improved

R-63 Diligence

• Damage increased from 112 to 125

P-19 Redeemer

• Slight increase in recoil

P-2 Peacemaker

• Increased damage from 60 to 75

P-8 Senator

• Increased damage from 150 to 175
• Speedloader added when reloading on an empty cylinder-speeds up reload on empty considerably

LAS-7 Dagger

• Increased damage from 150 to 200

AR-19 Liberator

• Damage increased from 55 to 60

AR-23C Liberator Concussive

• Damage increased from 55 to 65

JAR-5 Dominator

• Damage decreased from 300 to 275

AX/AR-23 Guard Dog

• Decreased damage by 30 percent

RL-77 Airburst Rocket Launcher

• Airburst Rocket Launcher will no longer detonate when shot near stratagems (HMG turret, Sentries, Resupplies) and other Helldivers
• Reduced proximity radius

Balancing: Stratagems

A/MG-43 Machine Gun Sentry

• Increased health to match other Sentries

A/ARC-3 Tesla Tower

• Increased health by 33 percent

FAF-14 Spear

• Added reload stage reload after the spent missile had been discarded

Enemies

• Bile Spewer and Nursing Spewers movespeed slightly reduced
• Hulks: Force required for them to stagger slightly increased
• Hulk Scorcher direct flamethrower damage reduced by 20%
• Devastator fire rate slightly increased (only the standard devastator)
• Gunships sideways movement slightly increased
• Scout strider Riders now less vulnerable to explosions
• Fog Generators health and armour increased
• Gunship spawners now have a much lower cap on how many gunships they can have active at the same time

Enemy Patrols

• Patrol spawning has been increased when there are fewer than 4 players. The fewer the players the bigger the change. For 4 player missions there will be no change compared to before.The biggest noticeable change will be for solo players at higher difficulties

Gameplay

• Made minor level generation improvements to how we distribute locations throughout the mission map. This should improve variation in distance between objectives, and objectives will likely not spawn as far away from each other as often as before.
• Added setting in the options menu gameplay section to disable automatic climbing and vaulting while sprinting.
• The Spread Democracy mission otherwise known as "raise the flag" can now be enjoyed on higher difficulties for maximum freedom spreading.
• When readying up, Helldivers now salute to ensure maximum democratic readiness.
• Added ambience to the Tremor planetary hazard to underline the severity so Helldivers can react accordingly
• Shots that ricochet from heavy armoured enemies will now properly hit the Helldiver who fired them. Trigger discipline is highly recommended.

Crash fixes

• Fixed crash that could occur when host abandoned mission with squad.
• Fixed crash that could occur if a player tried to enter an occupied EXO-45 Patriot Suit.
• Fixed crash that could occur for all players after or during mission results screen.
• Fixed crash that could occur after shooting from the EXO-45 Patriot Suit's rocket launcher.
• Fixed crash that could occur for all players apart from the one that rejoined the ongoing mission with different armour and got reinforced.

• Fixed Superior Packing Methodology ship module not working properly.
• Fixed Blast Absorption ship module so that it correctly increases sentries' resistance to explosions.
• Fixed issue where players could not navigate to the search results in the Social Menu.
• Fixed some issues where items equipped in a Warbond were not actually equipped.
• Fixed an exploit that allowed overly eager Helldivers to use grenades excessively.
• Fixed issue where kills from orbital barrage did not progress Indirect Fire Exercise order.
• Fixed issue that allowed traitors to try to sabotage the extraction shuttle by deploying sentry stratagems below it.
• Fixed issue where ion storms incorrectly prevented extraction beacon from deploying.
• Fixed some stratagem beams using incorrect colour-coding.
• Fixed issue where the left stick on a controller could not be used to navigate the Social menu.
• Fixed some issues where various UI elements were cut off, off-centred or too close to the edge of the screen on ultrawide displays.
• Fixed Anti-Materiel Rifle facing away from the Helldiver after deploying it.
• Fixed bug where player could duplicate rounds by cancelling the reload of Anti-Materiel Rifle at a specific time.
• Fixed bug where Anti-Materiel Rifle would consume an extra magazine after a cancelled reload.
• Fixed bug where Recoilless Rifle would consume an extra shell from the backpack if the reload was cancelled just after a shell was inserted, but before the reload was completed.
• Fixed issue where the Sickle and Quasar Cannon could not shoot through foliage.
• Fixed several issues where weapon thumbnails would disappear when scrolling through Armory.
• Fixed issues where Automaton Gunships sometimes could not see the player.
• Fixed incorrect collision being left over after destroying Automaton bunkers or detector towers with hellbombs.
• Fixed issue where Hellbombs would not deploy on certain missions
• Fixed certain issues that resulted in Helldivers drowning in deep water upon landing.
• Fixed issue where Hellpod Space Optimization made ammo go above capacity.
• Fixed issue where Stalkers became very visible in fog
• Mines are now pingable for better coordination with your team.
• Receiving friend requests now gives the player a pop up.
• Improved readability of prompts and hints displayed in the tutorial and onboarding.
• Total experience is now visible in the career tab.
• Added better support for ultrawide monitors by fixing the aspect ratio of menus to 16:9 and adding a setting to control the width of the HUD.
• Keybinds bound to numpad will no longer reset upon restart.
• Fixed inconsistent audio when headphones are plugged into the Dual Sense controller while playing on PC.
• Playing Rock, Paper, Scissors in front of the ship no longer causes the player to fall out into space.
• APW-1 Anti-Material Rifle and MG-206 Heavy Machine Gun now trigger hitmarkers while scoped in.
• Secondary weapon no longer remains in the Ballistic Shield ADS position after using a stim with the Ballistic Shield Backpack equipped.
• "Open Text Chat" is now rebindable.
• Explosive weapons such as R-36 Eruptor, CB-9 Exploding Crossbow. GP-31 Grenade Pistol no longer pulls players inward from the blast.
• Disabled the squad invites during the tutorial which caused an overlap in the UI.
• Fixed Primary and Secondary weapons overlapping on the character model in the armoury.
• Fixed UI elements during first boot are cut off on a 21:9 aspect ratio monitor.
• Report and block player is now visible in the squad menu.
• Dead Scavengers now stop screaming for help if killed while calling in reinforcements.
• Fixed Anti Air cannons showing up as "Stratagem Scramblers" in danger warnings.

Known Issues

Various issues involving friend invites and cross-play

• Friend Request cannot be accepted when the requesting player changed their username before the request was accepted.
• Cross-platform friend invites might not show up in the Friend Requests tab.
• Players cannot unfriend players befriended via friend code.
• Players cannot unblock players that were not in their Friends list beforehand.

• Damage-over-time effects may only apply when dealt by the host. We expect to have this fixed in the next patch.
• Reinforcement may not be available for some players who join a game in progress.
• Helldiver may be unable to stand up from crouching when surrounded by enemies.
• Game may crash if the host leaves while dead and rejoins the same play session.
• Game may crash if the player changes the text language while on a mission.
• Players may experience delays in Medals and Super Credits payouts.
• Enemies that bleed out do not progress Personal Orders and Eradicate missions.
• Scopes on some weapons such as the Anti-Materiel Rifle are slightly misaligned.
• Arc weapons sometimes behave inconsistently and sometimes misfire.
• Spear's targeting is inconsistent, making it hard to lock-on to larger enemies.
• Stratagem beam might attach itself to an enemy but it will deploy to its original location.
• Explosions do not break your limbs (except for when you fly into a rock).
• Area around Automaton Detector Tower makes blue stratagems such as the Hellbomb bounce and be repelled when trying to call them down close to the tower.
• Planet liberation reaches 100% at the end of every Defend mission.

Earlier this month, Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt said the studio needs to ensure it fixes any bugs and keeps adding new content in order to "stay relevant".

Talking on Reddit, Pilestedt said that due to the "competitiveness of this industry", the team had to ensure it did both to ensure the longevity of its fan-favourite game.