HELLDIVERS™ 2 News

[p]Attention, Helldivers! [/p][p]Helldivers™ 2 x Killzone is back and this time, it's back for good! It seems fitting that a year after their initial launch, we bring back this iconic content but now in a new and improved format and pricing – yes, we totally heard you all!  [/p][p][/p][p]Along with our partners at Guerrilla, we’re pleased to announce Helldivers™ 2 x Killzone is now officially a Legendary Warbond*, costing 1500 Super Credits. We couldn’t just add the same stuff as before and leave it, where is the fun in that(?!), so we’ve even added some extra content to round out the package. [/p][p]
[/p][p]Not only is the content returning with extra items, but we want to continue to do right by everyone who purchased Super Store content from last year, therefore a whole load of people will be able to unlock this Legendary Warbond at no extra cost. Check out if you’re eligible below. [/p][p]Who gets what and how does it work:  [/p]

• [p]Players who have previously purchased any (even one) of the Killzone items, will have the whole Helldivers™ 2 x Killzone Legendary Warbond unlocked at no extra cost! Additionally, there is no medal vacuum here! The items previously purchased (and those which were gifted last December) will be medal unlocked. So no need to spend medals on the items you already own! [/p]

• [p]Players who received the gifted items in December 2024 but didn’t pay for any single item, will have to pay the 1500 Super Credits to unlock the full Legendary Warbond.  [/p]

• [p]Not to worry, if you do pay for the warbond; the gifted items will also be medal unlocked. [/p]

• [p]Players joining after the Helldivers™ 2 x Killzone items left the store in December 2024 can access the Warbond by unlocking it for 1500 SC, and then enjoy redeeming medals on their favorite items just as usual [/p]

[p]Let’s recap all the items included and dig into those new items as well.[/p][p] Weapons and stratagems:  
Arm yourself with some of the best weapons Stål has to offer.[/p][p]
Beginning with the StA-52 Assault rifle the pride of the Stål armory, providing you with the strength to decimate your foes. It boasts a high-capacity drum mag, great for providing sustained fire. [/p][p] [/p][p]StA-11 SMG with a helical-feed magazine, which provides a higher ammo capacity whilst making it more front heavy. This close-range weapon is the nightmare of the enemies of freedom.[/p][p][/p][p]PLAS-39 Accelerator rifle, a high precision burst-fire rifle that will banish your foes after a short charging period. [/p][p] [/p][p]Armors and capes: [/p][p][/p][p]AC-1 Dutiful/ The Strength in Our Arms cape 
This heavy armor boasts a breathing apparatus built in to help both soldiers and colonists thrive, even when assigned to planets with atmospheres rated "suboptimal", "extreme", and "character building". 
 
AC-2 Obedient/ Defender of Our Dream cape [/p][p]The muted colors and relaxed, high mobility fit make this light armor a favorite among long-distance snipers and hide-and-seek champions alike. 
 [/p][p]Acclimated passive 
The passive of these armors provides 50% resistance to fire, gas, acid, and electrical damage. 
 [/p][p]The “Defender of Our Dream” and “Strength in Our Arms” player cards are also returning along with the Assault infantry player title 
 
New Patterns:[/p][p][/p][p]The latest additions to round out this Warbond are the Extrasolar Ash patterns for your Exosuits, FRV, Hellpods and Pelicans.  [/p][p] [/p][p]So start saving your Super Credits for December 18th at 3pm CET when Helldivers™ 2 x Killzone Legendary Warbond will be available for purchase from wherever you enjoy our game![/p][p][/p][p]*Requires base game, paid purchase of Super Credits, and game progression to unlock. [/p][p]Please note you will not be able to claim the Helldivers™ 2 x Killzone Legendary Warbond with a Premium Warbond token. [/p]

Seems it’s a good day to be a Helldivers 2 player: in addition to the buff-happy Into the Unjust 5.0.0 patch that launched earlier, developers Arrowhead have shared an update on their efforts to shave down the co-op shooter’s mammoth install size. And it’s not so much a shaving as a fully fuelled chainsawing, high vis vests be damned. As the Steam post explains, there’s now a beta build, available to try, that cuts the 154GB game down to 23GB – a 131GB (!!!) reduction. That’s like surgically removing an entire Black Myth: Wukong that was growing out of its back.

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[p]Hey Helldivers,[/p][p]This blog post is a follow up to my previous post about the installation size of the game on PC which you can find here.
[/p][p]Today, I will update you on our progress in reducing the installation size and how you can help.
 [/p][p]Update[/p][p]We have followed through on our plans and made small reductions in the PC installation size over the last few patches while still adding new content. While this was a good start, our short term fixes have not been enough to keep up with all of the new content in the latest patch. The longer term goal has always been to bring the PC installation size much closer in line with the console versions. We are happy to report that, thanks to our partners at Nixxes, we have reached that goal much sooner than expected. By completely de-duplicating our data, we were able to reduce the PC installation size from ~154GB to ~23GB, for a total saving of ~131GB (~85%). We have completed several rounds of internal QA and are ready to roll this out to early adopters as a public technical beta. Our testing shows that for the small percentage of players still using mechanical hard disk drives, mission loading times have only increased by a few seconds in the worst cases. This is live NOW![/p][p][/p][p]Only a few seconds difference?[/p][p]Further good news: the change in the file size will result in minimal changes to load times - seconds at most. “Wait a minute,” I hear you ask - “didn’t you just tell us all that you duplicate data because the loading times on HDDs could be 10 times worse?”. I am pleased to say that our worst case projections did not come to pass. These loading time projections were based on industry data - comparing the loading times between SSD and HDD users where data duplication was and was not used. In the worst cases, a 5x difference was reported between instances that used duplication and those that did not. We were being very conservative and doubled that projection again to account for unknown unknowns.[/p][p][/p][p]Now things are different. We have real measurements specific to our game instead of industry data. We now know that the true number of players actively playing HD2 on a mechanical HDD was around 11% during the last week (seems our estimates were not so bad after all). We now know that, contrary to most games, the majority of the loading time in HELLDIVERS 2 is due to level-generation rather than asset loading. This level generation happens in parallel with loading assets from the disk and so is the main determining factor of the loading time. We now know that this is true even for users with mechanical HDDs. 
[/p][p]Great! When does this happen? How can I help?[/p][p]Do you want to be an early adopter? You can opt-in right now and help us test the slim version! There are no functional differences between the legacy and slim versions besides the installation size. You will be connected to the same galactic war as everyone else and be using the same account you always do - so all progression, war contributions and purchases will carry over between the different versions. You will still be able to matchmake and play with all other players. You can also opt-out at any time if you experience issues. It’s a low-risk way to save ~131GB of space on your drive and help us extend our testing to real-life conditions. Full instructions for opting in and out of the technical beta can be found at the end of this blog post.
[/p][p]The future![/p][p]When the public technical beta confirms that there are no issues present in the slim version, it will become the default version for everyone. For a limited time, we will allow players to opt-in to the legacy version as a way to self-troubleshoot any issues that were not picked up during our internal testing or the public technical beta. Given the very minor differences in loading times between the two versions, there is no justification for us to keep supporting the legacy version long term. Maintaining the legacy version alongside the slim version would only add extra burden to our developers, build machines, QA teams and release processes. Assuming all goes smoothly, the legacy version will be discontinued some time next year. 
[/p][p]Finally[/p][p]Thank you to the community for all your support with the game as we work through these technical pieces, and thank you to our partners at Nixxes for helping us troubleshoot and implement all the above improvements.[/p][p] [/p][h2]Warning![/h2][p]Modders beware! Any patch we roll out can break the game if you have mods installed and this one is no exception. We recommend that only players with a clean installation opt-in to the slim version. As always, you mod the game at your own risk.[/p][p][/p][p]If any of this seems a bit scary to you, we encourage you to just sit back and wait for the slim version to become the default version.[/p][p][/p][h2]Opting in to the slim version[/h2][p]Step 1.[/p][p]In your steam library, right click on HELLDIVERS 2 and select ‘Properties’.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Step 2.[/p][p]Next select the ‘Betas’ tab.[/p][p][/p][p]Step 3.[/p][p]In the Beta Participation drop down list, select “prod_slim”[/p][p][/p][p]Step 4.[/p][p]Finally just close the properties dialog and wait for the game to download the patch![/p][p][/p][h2]Opting out of the slim version[/h2][p]If for any reason you want to opt-out of the slim version, you can repeat the above steps and select “None” from the Beta Participation drop-down instead. If you opt-out due to experiencing problems with the slim version, please report them to our player support team.[/p][p][/p][h2]Opting in to the legacy version[/h2][p]In case of emergency! Once we make the slim version the default version, you will be able to opt-in to the legacy version by selecting “prod_legacy” from the Beta Participation down-down. This will only work for a limited time, so please be sure to report any issues specific to the slim version to our player support team.[/p][p][/p][p]
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