Helldivers 2 Update Nerfs Fire Tornadoes and Patrols

Helldivers 2 players got a new update for the PS5 and PC versions on Wednesday to address some of the issues the community's been voicing concerns about ever since fire tornadoes and more were added recently. The update in question addresses that very feature with environmental hazards spawning less frequently now, but that's not all that's been nerfed in favor of players. Patrols of Terminids and Automatons will now spawn less frequently, too, which should help with some instances of players getting overwhelmed if they decide to split up and then end up encountering multiple patrols at once.

Compared to some other updates which added things like these environmental hazards in the first place, this one released on Wednesday morning is pretty light in terms of changes, but those who complained about the hazards and enemy patrols should be fairly happy with its contents. The balance changes deal exclusively with those planetary commotions like meteor showers and fire tornadoes while the patrol spawns were under the "Fixes" section which suggests that the problem with those spawning so often may have been unintentional.

The full patch notes for today's Helldivers 2 update can be found below:

Helldivers 2 Patch Notes

Balancing

• Balanced and adjusted spawn rates for the various planet hazards including tremors, meteor showers, volcanic activity, fire tornados, and ion storms. Hazards should now spawn less frequently during missions.
• Meteor Shower has received the following changes in addition to reduced spawn rate:
• Reduced explosion radius
• Reduced meteor damage slightly
• Reduced meteor velocity slightly
• Meteor color has been changed slightly to try and make it easier to spot.
• Volcanic Activity has received the following changes in addition to reduced spawn rate:
• Reduced explosion radius
• Reduced rock velocity slightly
• Lighting on Fenrir III has been adjusted to be a bit less bright to improve visibility during meteor showers.

Fixes

• Reduced incidents of patrols spawning on players.
• Exosuit no longer destroys itself when firing a missile while turning .
• Exosuit retains its melee functionality, even when damaged.
• Crash fixes for the following scenarios
• When ALT+Tabbing in fullscreen mode
• After changing voice over language
• PS5 boot issue
• Using a stim inside of an Exosuit while wielding a grenade
• When joining an ongoing mission
• When idling on the title screen
• Shots from arc-based weapons, such as 'Blitzer' shotgun and 'AC-3 Arc Thrower' stratagem now count towards "Shots fired" and "Shots hit" stats.
• Fixed network desync issue with downed Automaton dropships.
• Fixed Elgato Stream Deck Foot Pedal support.

For context on why the patrol fix is good for players, it means that, for one, there'll be fewer enemies to take on in a mission while players are just trying to get from one objective to another. Those playing on lesser difficulties and looking to fight anything and everything may not get as much out of this change, but for the harder difficulties when your primary goal is getting in and getting out, it's a welcome change. Similar to how players have been getting kicked for not using meta loadouts, there have also been instances of players getting kicked because they split off from teammates which led to more patrol encounters. This change will perhaps make the kickers lighten up a bit.

Helldivers 2's latest update is out now on the PS5 and PC platforms.