HELLDIVERS™ 2 News

Helldivers 2's devs are changing their warbond approach, and the next one, Viper Commandos, drops soon

Boom. A new warbond is set to drop in Helldivers 2 soon, and it's brining with it the game's first bit of vehicle customisation. Viper Commanders is the name of this next care package, and it marks the start of Arrowhead taking a fresh approach to how it handles these kinds of content drops.

Yeah, stop dowloading a mod that'll let you rock some of Fallout's T-60 power armour while you kill bots, here's some fresh official gear you'll be able to get your hands on soon. And hey, depending on what the creation of that hole leads to, you might well need it.

First of all, this next warbond, Viper Commanders. It's dropping on June 13 and is designed to let you play out your "jungle combat dreams". Basically, think every Vietnam war movie you've ever seen - fitting for a game that has long been known for having its own robot Vietnam in the form of Malevelon Creek.

The Viper Commandos run through the jungle on June 13!

Liberty’s greetings, Helldivers! Are you ready to learn all about the new Viper Commandos Warbond?

Firstly, we have been listening to your feedback as we develop our Warbonds in general. The idea behind each Warbond is to allow our Helldivers to roleplay their favorite soldier fantasies within our universe, but it’s important that these are fantasies that actually appeal to our players.

We’re changing our approach to Warbonds moving forward based on player input in a couple of ways. Firstly, we’re slowing down the pace at which we release Warbonds to give us a little bit more time to polish these designs before they’re released. We don’t want to rush anything out of the oven before it’s fully baked.

Secondly, we are changing the arrangement of items in each Warbond to make room for new item types, and also higher quality armors and weapons. This will prevent us from simply adding more of everything, leading to weapons that feel redundant and uninteresting armors. It’s time to focus on quality over quantity.

When we started researching items for Viper Commandos, we wanted to be sure we answered our player calls for stronger theming that coordinates across all the items, more emotes, unique armor passives, and more thoughtful designs rather than simply giving more of the same. We can’t wait for players to get a hold our latest addition, so let’s dive into what’s in store!

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Think jungle. Think swamp. Think about a hot, humid trek through an untamed, marshy wilderness to do reconnaissance on some unliberated scum.

If you ask me, this is our strongest themed Warbond yet, with Helldivers equipped from head to boots with the finest tools to live out their jungle combat dreams.

What kind of tools, you ask?

Weapons
The items in the Viper Commandos set really sell that fantasy of “up close and personal.”

For a primary, we’re giving you a new version of the Liberator, the AR-23A Liberator Carbine, but this one has a modified, shortened form-factor that handles differently from the true classic, with a bit higher recoil, but faster handling that feels perfect for spraying and praying up close.

You can combine carrying that with the new SG-22 Bushwhacker triple-barrel, sawed-off shotgun with two different firing modes, including one that fires all three barrels at once.

Yes, you read that right. This shotgun is a secondary weapon. Meaning you can equip your favorite AR primary, or your favorite shotgun primary, and keep the Bushwhacker handy for close encounters.

Armor
And the armors are nothing short of inspired. Catch me in the PH-9 Predator, inspired by a veteran of the Viper Commandos who was said to have held off an entire Terminid brood with nothing but a machine gun, pocket knife, and Orbital Laser. The headpiece has a beret, and it looks devastatingly cool when combined with the Mark of the Crimson Fang cape.

We also have the PH-202 Twigsnapper for your jungle heavy, which looks awesome with the Executioner’s Canopy cape. Although, mixing and matching works great for both of these sets.

Both armors in this Warbond feature the Peak Physique passive, which improves melee damage and weapon handling. And they both also feature bare arms (and bulging biceps, with a variety of randomized skintones) to keep you sweat-free when diving in the humid atmosphere.

Patterns, Boosters, and More
Another exciting addition to this Warbond are new skins for your hellpods, Exosuits, and Pelican-1, inspired by the classic woodland and tiger stripe camouflage patterns. This is just pushing that customizable fantasy just a little bit further, for a really cohesive look for your squad.

One of my things in Viper Commandos is our new utility item: the throwing knife. Imagine mowing down a crowd of Terminids and running out of ammo with only one bug remaining, no time to reload, so you dive backwards and throw a hunting knife into its carapace right before it descends on you.

There’s also a new booster called Experimental Infusion, which gives your stims the added bonus of boosting your movement speed and reducing the damage you take for a short time.

We’ve also got capes, player cards, and emotes, too. Check out the rest of the items in the Viper Commandos Warbond:

The Viper Commandos Warbond releases on June 13! Welcome to the jungle, Helldivers.

Forget mechs, a new Helldivers 2 mod gives Fallout's T-60 power armour to Super Earth's forces

Sure, the base version of Helldivers 2 has plenty of cool tech and gear to strap yourself up with before you head into battle or deploy via stratagems. Though, I doubt any soldier of Super Earth would turn down a suit of the Fallout series' T-60 power armour, which is where a new mod comes in.

In case you're wondering, this is another fan-made addition to Arrowhead's FPS that comes courtesy of a new tool developed by the team behind the mod pack that can be used to transform the game into a Star Wars shooter. What they've developed to make texture editing in the game easier has been out less that a week, and had already allowed modders to chuck a bunch of gear from other games into Helldivers.

Having already swapped Lethal Company's iconic employee into the game, modder Graelyth's next port of call has been 'Fallout T-60 Power Armor', which does exactly what you'd expect. Gone is a variant of the B-01 tactical armor set and helmet, with the T-60 suit recently added to Fortnite as a skin having been drafted in to take their places.

Though it's taken a little while, Helldivers 2's modding scene looks to be starting to take off. This is all thanks to a helpful new tool developed by the folks behind a very cool Star Wars mod pack for it.

Instead of concentrating on taking part in the Galactic War - which currently sits in a bit of an unnerving state as folks wait to see if the Meridia black hole will actually trigger the arrival of The Illuminate - this group of modders has been busy digging into the game to make their creation possible. While they're not done with the Space Earth Clone Wars just yet, they've also released something that's allowing others to make some more fun Helldivers crossovers.

If you head to Helldivers 2's Nexus Mods page right now, you'll see that it's starting to fill up with skin swaps made with help from the Overlord Modding Team's 'Helldivers 2 Modding Tool for Blender 4.0'. This mod basically makes it easier for folks to edit Helldivers 2's textures, meshes, and materials using - as you might expect given the title - a Blender add-on.

Remember the mod pack that basically transforms Helldivers 2 into something close to the ultimate Star Wars shooter? Well, despite how good what they've already made looks, the group of modders and creators behind it aren't done tweaking and adding to it yet.

Yep, stop listening to the weird whale music coming from the mysterious Meridia hole or getting on with the latest Major Order while you wait to see if The Illuminate rock up, here's an update on what Super Earth's finest Jar Jar roleplayers are planning.

In an interview with ScreenHub, YouTuber ToastedShoes, who's made a lot of the videos showing off what the mods can do, has discussed what the group's goals are for it going forwards.