Helldivers 2 adds “planetary hazards” and buffs Flamethrower

Arrowhead Game Studios has added “planetary hazards” to Helldivers 2 via a patch that has been deployed, among other changes.

Via the Steam notes, this is “minor patch 01.000.100” and the first thing to note is in the major updates section:

• 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.

So basically this suggests that the actual planets will now be harsher while you’re exploring away. So that’s nice!

Moving on to the balancing issues, then:

• 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 usually take twice as long to complete.

Weapons have been balanced, too:

• Breaker: Decreased magazine capacity from 16 to 13, increased recoil from 30 to 55
• Railgun – Decreased armour penetration in Safe Mode, decreased damage against durable enemy parts
• Flamethrower: Increased damage per second by 50%
• Laser Cannon: Increased damage against durable enemy parts, increased armour penetration, improved ergonomics
• Punisher: Increased total ammo capacity from 40 to 60, increased stagger force, increased damage from 40 per bullet to 45 per bullet
• Breaker Spray & Pray: Increased armour penetration, increased fire rate from 300 to 330, increased number of pellets from 12 to 16 per shot, decreased magazine size from to 32 to 26

While playing last night, our group was remarking how the Flamethrower could do more damage, so that’s something!

Onto stratagems, then:

• Energy Shield Backpack: Increased delay before recharging
• 380mm and 120mm Orbital Barrages: Increased duration of the bombardment, decreased spread

There’s also a host of bug fixes (not that kind, har har!) that you can check out, here.

Our review (9/10) had Chris White saying: “Helldivers 2 is a fantastic co-op driven action shooter, where it has its live service elements wonderfully structured. Landing on a planet and fighting against the clock and the enemy can lead to some unique and exciting moments, with a ton of options at your disposal never leading to a dull mission. The Strategems are an excellent mechanic, especially how you call them in, and while the mission objectives can get repetitive, it’s how you execute your strategies that make it a superb online shooter. The simple rhythm of shooting then spending is satisfying, with plenty of ways to unlock new abilities and equipment, and I can’t wait to see what is coming in the future”.

The patch is currently only on PC, but coming to PlayStation 5 soon!

Helldivers 2 is out now on PS5 and PC.