Helldivers 2 Devs Clear Up Ricochet Worries and Warn Players About 1 Weapon

Helldivers 2 developers explain what's happening with explosive shrapnel.

By Ricky Frech

Earlier this week, Helldivers 2 players were treated to a brand-new patch from developers Arrowhead Game Studios. As with most patches, Update 01.000.300 was full of fixes and changes, including a huge list of balance updates for various weapons, stratagems, and enemies. However, following the patch, many players noted that explosives were seemingly functioning unexpectedly and ricocheting shrapnel was leading to unexpected deaths. Fortunately, the Helldivers 2 developers stepped in to work with the community to test if that was actually happening. Earlier today, Arrowhead announced its findings and revealed that it is going to make a few changes based on its findings.

Helldivers 2 Ricocheting Shrapnel 

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In the official Helldivers 2 subreddit, the developers shared that the team and the community have been working to test if explosive shrapnel was ricocheting off armor to kill players. The initial suspicion that explosives were ricocheting off of armor was debunked by the community, but Arrowhead's internal testing further confirmed that "rockets and explosives are not ricocheting backward."

However, the issue isn't completely resolved. The team did discover that shots from the R-36 Eruptor do have the possibility of exploding, which would rebound on the shooter and instantly kill them. That's obviously a problem, so the team is going to remove the shrapnel effect from the Eruptor moving forward. To keep the weapon's damage output up, Arrowhead is slightly boosting the Eruptor's base damage. It's worth noting that the weapon "will not lose the ability to break objects, close holes, destroy fabricators, etc." In short, the Eruptor will still be a go-to weapon for anyone looking to lay down massive destruction.

What's Next for Helldivers 2?

While we don't know exactly when the next Warbond is coming to Helldivers 2, the last few releases might provide a hint for the release cadence. Thus far, every Warbond has launched on the second Thursday of each month. Democratic Detonation dropped on April 11th, while Cutting Edge came out on March 14th. The game also launched on February 8th with its first two Warbonds.

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That doesn't mean the cadence is locked in, as Arrowhead Game Studio hasn't said as much. However, until we hear more concrete details, we're expecting the next Warbond to drop on May 9th. Regardless, the next Warbond will likely start to be teased relatively soon, with Arrowhead giving players a preview of the new primary weapons, armor sets, and other gear coming with the next update.

Helldivers 2 is available now on PlayStation 5 and PC.

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