Helldiver 2 Update Reverts Punisher, Makes Game More Difficult, Needs Battle Pass

Helldiver 2 released a big update today, where among the changes includes reverting the Punisher Plasma. I also noticed the game seems more “difficult.”

Regarding being more difficult, I guess what I mean is before the update, it seemed as if when you completed a task or called in the extract, enemies would stop spawning in. I’ve gone minutes at the end of a game sitting there waiting for enemies to show up. However, I noticed in all the games I played today (Matar Bay), it was pure pandemonium! I think we were playing on “Impossible,” but I said it seemed harder than “Helldive” mode (lol).

I also noticed that when the update was first installed, minutes after starting a game, I would get kicked. It seemed as if the games kept crashing. So what I did was restart the game, and so far, no crashes.

Punisher Plasma reverted

For the Punisher Plasma, the patch reverts the recent changes and the magazine capacity has been bumped from 8 to 10:

In response to popular Helldiver demand, General Brasch has issued an administrative order to revert the production changes made to the SG-8P Punisher Plasma (from Patch 01.001.104)
We have reverted the latest changes so the SG-8P Punisher Plasma will now have a more noticeable arc in its projectile path, starting off slower and maintaining speed longer. This will affect its recoil, fire rate, and projectile behavior

Another noticeable update I’ve seen mentioned on X is that Emotes can no longer be triggered while airborne, ragdolling or sliding. I’ve actually never done that myself, but more than a couple of players seemed disappointed.

The new Helldivers 2 patch also fixes the drill bug. At times while playing, someone would call down the hive breaker drill, but none of us would be able to interact with it, hence we couldn’t complete the game. The new update apparently fixes that.

You can check out the full update below.

Why Helldivers 2 needs a Battle Pass

On my wish list includes a Battle Pass. I feel if the game had a consistent inflow of money, they would be able to improve things.

By now, I figured we would have vehicles, new planets, and new threats. I think if the game had a Battle Pass where people are basically subscribing every month or whatever, they would have the necessary funds to improve things. The Warbonds really aren’t all that good. To boot, you can get the in-game currency by playing the game. You can’t do that in Fortnite. And yes, I am saying I would spend more money if it would help improve the game — because I like the game. Time for a Battle Pass, folks!

Patch 01.001.201

Freedoms Greetings Helldivers, Release Captain Carlberg speaking with the latest and greates from Super Earth

Overview

Balance changes

Fixes

Resolved Top Priority issues
Crashes & Soft Locks
Helldiver Fixes
Weapons & Stratagems
Enemies
Missions & Difficulties
Social Issues & Galactic War Map
Miscellaneous Fixes

Balancing

Stratagems
Shield Generator Relay

Increased lifetime from 30 to 40 sec

Primary Weapons
SG-8P Punisher Plasma

In response to popular Helldiver demand, General Brasch has issued an administrative order to revert the production changes made to the SG-8P Punisher Plasma (from Patch 01.001.104)
We have reverted the latest changes so the SG-8P Punisher Plasma will now have a more noticeable arc in its projectile path, starting off slower and maintaining speed longer. This will affect its recoil, fire rate, and projectile behavior

Fixes

Resolved Top Priority issues:

Fixed an issue where encounters would not end and enemy spawning was turned off for the rest of the mission
Fixed a bug where the hive breaker drill would become inaccessible when called in
Fixed an issue where terminals would lose functionality preventing completion of a mission
Dead bodies of Chargers no longer launch Helldivers into the air
Supply packs are no longer used when pressing the d-pad down button whilst calling in a stratagem
QWERTY keyboard numpad bindings now save correctly after the game restarts
The Service Technician is no longer mourning the death of her beloved pet goldfish “Goldie” and can now be interacted with again. Goldie received a dignified funeral and was laid to rest gracefully in a waste capsule, ejected towards the nearest planets atmosphere where the friction between the air and the capsule caused it to heat up, violently explode, and disintegrate
Fixed an issue so that other players can now join a lobby via Quickplay after any member of a 4-player party leaves
Fixed an issue where the social menu was stuck on ‘Please Wait Democratically’ for some players
Friends “Invite only” games can no longer be seen on the Galactic War Map and cannot be joined
Fixed an issue where uninvited friends could join Invite-Only games via the Social Menu
Invite-only lobbies are no longer shown in the hologram

Crashes & Soft Locks:

Fixed a crash on Difficulty 1 (Trivial) when approaching certain bug holes
Fixed a potential soft-lock when abandoning the mission with the squad while fighting bugs
Fixed Geological Survey mission soft-locking when players joined/left the mission
Fixed a soft-lock that could occur if you hot-joined a game in mission summary and all peers left
Fixed a rare crash while browsing the Armory or the Warbond store
Fixed a crash that could happen when fog was destroyed
Fixed a rare crash related to Flamethrowers and Gas weapons
Fixed a crash when repeatedly entering and leaving the tutorial
Fixed an issue where the Nuke Nursery could not be progressed if two players called down the drill at the same time
Resolved an issue where opening the menu while the Emote wheel was active would prevent players from moving
Fixed the Nuke Nursery terminals sometimes not being interactable

Helldiver Fixes:

Fixed an issue causing excessive ragdolling when diving or crawling on uneven terrain

We’re currently working on further solutions to address the ragdolling issues.

Weapons & Stratagems:

Fixed stim pistol incorrectly affecting the STIMS USED statistic in the mission end screen
Fixed dead corpses setting off the rockets from the RL-77 Airburst Rocket Launcher
Fixed an issue with the stratagem cooldown that allowed players to call down multiple resupplies or Hellbombs at the same time
Fixed an issue where switching to holding a grenade and picking up an artillery shell at the same time caused the artillery shell to become stuck in the Helldivers hands
The LAS-5 Scythe scope is now fully operational and can zoom in and out correctly
Empty expendable weapons cannot be picked up nor holstered anymore
The AR-23A Liberator Carbine now has the 0.5 sec shorter reload duration properly implemented, from 3 to 2.5 sec. It also has the correct magazine unit
Fixed a missing mesh for the P-11 Stim Pistol’s syringes
The MG-43 Machine Gun now has the 0.5 sec shorter reload duration properly implemented

We mistakenly wrote that the MG-43 Machine Gun was lowered from 4 to 3.5 sec when in reality we lowered it from 5 to 4.5 sec.

Enemies:

Disabled the gas confusion effect on the Impaler due to odd behavior with its tentacles
Fixed an issue where the Impaler tentacles would sometimes not impact its target
Adjusted Shriekers pathing in tight spaces. They should now prefer to move around tall obstacles instead of trying to fly over them

Missions & Difficulties:

Fixed Nuke Nursery drills getting dropped on top of bug corpses
Lowered the amount of Retrieve Data objectives spawning on the mission for Automatons to match the amount that spawns for the Terminids
The Escape Pod objective will now appear on difficulties 1-2 instead of 2-3
The Terminid eggs on Purge Hatcheries objectives are now tagged as objectives with correct VO and icons
Fixed an issue with Hellpods landing deep underground on edges of Bug Nurseries during the ‘Nuke Nurseries’ missions

Miscellaneous Fixes:

Added information in the loadout boosters menu screen showing which player has equipped what specific booster
Fixed an issue where unbound key/button bindings would stay unbound and not revert back to what they were by default
Fixed an issue that caused players to sometimes join the wrong friend when joining during a social menu refresh
Disabled the third-person player camera while navigating the map
Decreased the chances of player clients from attempting to join lobbies that are already full when using Quickplay
Fixed an issue where the host’s player Title was incorrectly assigned to Helldivers who joined their session
Fixed an issue where changing the stamina width in the settings during a mission would not properly resize its frame
Fixed a case where carriables could no longer be picked up if they were picked up and dropped on the same frame
Fixed an issue of not being able to pick a new first stratagem if it had already been selected
Fixed Helldiver character customizations resetting after closing the game
Fixed an issue where certain Asian language characters were displayed as question marks in the Major order texts and briefings
Fixed an issue where an incorrect platform icon was shown when opening the report popup
Fixed missing “-” character in multi-line texts
Fixed a bug with camera getting disjointed if entering ADS (Aim Down Sights) as you ragdoll
Lowered the resolution of planets when space quality is set to Low and introduced a Medium space quality setting that matches the previous Low setting
Light intensity slightly reduced during the Fire Tornado weather effect
Fixed an issue where the visual appearance of the Stratagem Hero minigame terminal’s arrows lost their colors if a player moved too far away from the terminal
Fixed dispatches sometimes showing as question marks for non-Latin language characters
Fixed an issue where encounters would still attempt to spawn even after being disabled due to reaching certain spawn limits
Fixed an issue where scrolling messages would move the camera
Fixed several issues related to Booster descriptions
Planets are now properly sorted behind effects like the aurora in the sky during missions
Fixed an issue where the crash reporter sometimes wouldn’t show up
General Brasch and Jane Helldiver to award Patriotic Medal for Excellence in Patriotism to the members of the Freedom Alliance. Due to budget cuts, these brave Helldivers will receive an extra 3 seconds of R&R which has now been used reading this note. Get back to work Helldivers
General performance optimizations, Cubemap, reflections och rendering performance improvements