Helldivers 2 has continued its path of success with a balance patch to effectively squash a force meta, and developer Arrowhead Studio continues to improve the game for everyone. One thing people were vocal about was the prevalence of armoured enemies on the Terminid planets at higher difficulties. More specifically, Chargers and Bile Titans were particularly pervasive in these missions. The latest patch for Helldivers 2 has addressed this.
The patch notes can be read here.
“Today’s patch is dealing with the spawn rate of heavily armored Terminid enemies as well as the possible play against them. It also contains some fixes to UI elements and crash fixes.” – Helldivers 2 Patch Notes
The patch’s specific changes target the spawning rates of heavily armoured targets. This does include the Automatons’ Hulks and Tanks, but these changes are more focused on the Terminids and their Chargers/Bile Titans for difficulties 7 and up. In order to preserve the difficulty of each difficulty that would be affected by a reduced spawn rate, other enemy types should appear in larger numbers.
Additionally, the team at Arrowhead wants players to feel less forced to focus on a Charger’s legs for the quick kills and so rather than nerfing that strategy, adjustments were made to allow quick kills to occur from correctly placed anti-tank shots to a Charger’s head.
It is also worth noting that Arrowhead used these patch notes to officially document the removal of the “Electronic Countermeasures” operation modifier despite this removal occuring in an earlier patch. For those unaware, this operation modifier would effectively randomise what stratagem would be called down once you put in the combo for any stratagem of your choosing. The modifier is being reworked and will be reintroduced at a later date, but for now you will no longer have to worry about accidentally throwing an Eagle 500KG Bomb at your feet; only intentional suicide/team kills via spectacular explosion.
However, something wicked this way comes as players have noticed a new enemy type in the game following this update.
Designated as “Shriekers”, it’s clear that the Terminids went back to the drawing board and realised that the Helldivers’ reliance on big explosions is also their biggest weakness. Flying around like some kind of gargoyle, the Shriekers will prove to be a hassle that rivals the likes of my friends getting in front of me when I shoot my Recoiless Rifle.
Helldivers 2 is available for the PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam.
