Helldivers 2 Update Adds Fire Tornadoes and Huge Balance Changes

Helldivers 2 players have been asking for buffs for underpowered weapons and meta shakeups for awhile now after players settled into their go-to loadouts, and as of today, the Helldivers 2 community got those changes and much more. "Much more," in this particular case, means meteor showers and fire tornadoes. The same update that added the balance changes for different weapons like the SG-225 Breaker and ones that needed some love like the FLAM-40 Flamethrower also made it so that environmental hazards will be active on certain maps, so while you're looking out for Terminids and Automatons, you'll have extra dangers to keep an eye out for, too.

The meta loadouts people were using, for the uninitiated Helldivers, consisted mostly of the SG-225 Breaker, the RS-422 Railgun, and the Shield Generator Pack. Those were becoming staple items to the point that players were unfortunately getting kicked from lobbies if they weren't running those loadouts, so people called for not only nerfs for those weapons but buffs for other ones, too, so that there would be more variety. Thanks to the latest update, that should now be possible, and once mechs are added to the game, players' strategies and loadouts will vary even more.

The same update also addressed an issue that's been present since the release of the game: armor ratings. Light, Medium, and Heavy armor suits are supposed to provide varying levels of defense against attacks with the stamina and movement speed affected as well depending on which you were using. Armor wasn't working right, however, so anyone using the Heavy sets were putting themselves at a disadvantage compared to teammates in Light and Medium builds. 

Patch notes for today's Helldivers 2 update can be found below. The update is currently out for the PC platform only with a PS5 release to follow.

Helldivers 2 Patch Notes for Update 01.000.100

Major Updates

• Planetary Hazards active
• Many planets now have additional environmental challenges that will appear at random while you are deployed, from fire tornadoes to meteor showers and many more.

Balancing

Eradicate Missions

• Eradicate missions now require more kills and enemies spawn more often. The time to complete the mission was previously shorter than intended and should now take twice as long to complete.

Primary, Secondary, & Support Weapons

• SG-225 Breaker –  Decreased magazine capacity from 16 to 13, increased recoil from 30 to 55
• SG-8 Punisher – Increased total ammo capacity from 40 to 60, increased stagger force, increased damage from 40 to 45 per bullet
• SG-225SP Breaker Spray & Pray – Increased armor penetration, increased fire rate from 300 to 330, increased pellets from 12 to 16 per shot, decreased mag size from to 32 to 26
• RS-422 Railgun – Decreased armor penetration in Safe Mode, decreased damage against durable enemy parts
• FLAM-40 Flamethrower – Increased damage per second by 50%
• LAS-98 Laser Cannon – Increased damage against durable enemy parts, increased armor penetration, improved ergonomics

Stratagems

• Shield Generator Pack – Increased delay before recharging
• Orbital 120MM HE Barrage – Increased duration of the bombardment, decreased spread
• Orbital 380MM HE Barrage – Increased duration of the bombardment, decreased spread

Fixes

• Fixed armor rating values not reducing damage as intended.
• Fixed certain Bug Holes (including Stalker Nests) that were unnecessarily hard to destroy.
• Fixed anti-aliasing toggle not working on PS5.
• Balanced lighting across all planets to solve cases where the game was too dark.
• Improved flashlight efficacy.
• Increased visibility during "sand rain" weather on Erata Prime.
• Updated tutorial materials and lighting.
• Improved cases where some materials could look blurry if "Lighting" graphic setting was set to "Low".
• Fixed timing issues that could occur in the "Extract E-710" primary objective.
• Changed button interaction behavior for buttons in bunker POIs. Helldivers will now let go of the button after holding it for a few seconds.
• Fixed some cases of large assets floating if the ground beneath them was blown up.
• Helldivers standing next to ICBMs during launch will get properly toasty with a chance of not-so-spontaneous combustion.
• Fixed unthrowable snowballs after ragdolling.
• Fixed being able to use grenades after drowning.
• Camera no longer locked on the player's own corpse and blocking spectator mode.
• Helldivers now take damage from fire, gas etc. generated by other players.
• Armor no longer stretches when dismembered.