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HELLDIVERS™ 2 News

RED ALERT: Illuminate emerge from the Meridian Singularity!

Helldivers, get to your Super Destroyers! In a surprise turn of events that even our top researchers couldn’t predict, the Illuminate have finally revealed their intentions, emerging from the Meridian singularity, and setting a course for Super Earth.

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It’s now more important than ever that we band together and stop this salvo from destroying our liberty.

New Enemies
The Illuminate threat has grown, unleashing new terrors on our citizens across the galaxy. Reports indicate the Illuminate have deployed larger, more powerful enemies within their fleet, among them are the Stingray: jetfighters that provide Illuminate support from the sky, targeting Helldivers and lining up devastating strafing runs. Another new foe is the Crescent Overseer, which has the ability to lay barrages on Helldivers in cover.

But perhaps most terrifying are the reports of a failed Illuminate experiment called the Fleshmob: a Frankenstein’s monster of Voteless parts turned into a brute battlefield force that the Helldivers must work hard to destroy.

There have been sightings of other, even larger ships, though details remain unclear on their abilities. But we can’t underestimate the squids, divers, and that’s why we’re assembling our best and brightest to push them back into oblivion where they belong.

We have to gather all our resources to face this incursion and, fortunately, Super Earth’s R&D department has unlocked some powerful tools for our Helldivers, in the hopes that they will help crush the onslaught of Illuminate invaders.

Customize Your Loadout

Helldivers are being given access to a robust new weapon customization feature for the bulk of our primary weapon offerings. Most primary weapons now have levels that are achievable by completing missions, which then in turn unlock new attachments obtainable through Requisition. In addition to attachments, players can also unlock patterns for their weapons. 



Whether it's tweaking sights for precision, changing color patterns, adjusting magazines for ammo capacity, muzzles to optimize weapon performance characteristics or adjusting under-barrel attachments for the handling you want, you're in command of how your weaponry performs on the battlefield. This level of individual attunement is sure to make your favorite primary best in its class.

Old Warbonds, New Patterns
We have unlocked and deployed a stash of patterns for the FRV themed on our Viper Commandos, Freedom's Flame, Chemical Agents, and Truth Enforcers Warbonds. These will help your squad stand out to aid in battlefield coordination and collaboration. This backlog of patterns will unlock for Helldivers on May 15, with the launch of the Masters of Ceremony Warbond!



Expanded Surplus
The Superstore is also getting an emergency expansion to boost your arsenals for the fight. No more waiting for items to come back into rotation–now the items you want are always available, ready to stock your ship and armor your Helldivers with items you might have missed the first time around.

The Superstore will have one rotating page featuring six different content sets that changes every 48 hours, shortening the rotation to 12 days. All the earlier Superstore items from older Warbonds are available to purchase anytime. When new Warbonds are released, one of the current rotating sets will be moved to a permanent page.



This is the moment of truth, Helldivers. Everyone to the front lines and fight for our right to spread Managed Democracy!

*Requires base game, paid purchase of Super Credits, and game progression to unlock.

Fetch the loo roll: Helldivers 2's next big twist is here, as "the full Illuminate fleet is emerging from the Meridia Singularity"

Look sharp and prepare to defecate within your undergarments! Helldivers 2's mysterious Station-81 teases and livestream have given way to an in-game payoff. It's the massive Illuminate invasion everyone feared.

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Patch 01.003.000

Freedoms Greetings Helldivers. Release Captain Carlberg here back with another update straight from Super Earth High Command. Without further ado lets dive straight in

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Overview
  • New Illuminate faction enemies
  • New Weapon Customizations and Progression
  • Crash fixes
  • Weapon fixes
  • Miscellaneous fixes

[h2]Major Update[/h2]
Weapon Customization
Gear up, Helldivers—your arsenal just got personal!
With the new Weapon Customization system, you can now tailor your favorite weapons to match your combat style and preferences once you’ve progressed and unlocked different attachments. Whether it's tweaking sights for precision, changing color patterns, adjusting magazines for ammo capacity, muzzles to optimize weapon performance characteristics or adjusting underbarrels for the handling you want, you're in command of how your weaponry performs on the battlefield.
Tinker in the menu, customize your specific weapon configs and switch between them during the mission loadout sequence.
It's time to fight for Super Earth with weapons that are truly yours!

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We are aware of a bug that prevents players from canceling customization with a controller. We have a fix identified and prepared for our next hotfix. In the meantime, you can save the customization and then go in and do it again.

[h2]New Illuminate Enemies[/h2]
Stingray:
Jetfighters that provide Illuminate support from the sky, targeting Helldivers and lining up devastating strafing runs.

Crescent Overseer:
Has the ability to lay barrages on Helldivers in cover.

Fleshmob:
A failed Illuminate experiment made up of Voteless parts turned into a brute battlefield force that the Helldivers must work hard to destroy.

[h2]Balancing[/h2]
Weapon balances:
  • Spread
  • Drag
  • Sway
  • Melee weapons stamina cost
  • Shrapnel spawning
  • Fire damage
Spread:
Spread refers to how much a projectile veers from the point you're aiming at when you fire. This rebalance primarily targets SMGs and sidearms, which previously had noticeably higher spread values. We've reviewed all primary, sidearm, and support weapons with the intent to significantly reduce spread overall, as it didn’t make much sense for these specific weapons to have such high inaccuracy.

Drag:
Drag determines how quickly a projectile loses speed over distance, affecting its damage. We've increased drag for pistol-caliber ammunition (used in SMGs and some sidearms) to better represent its shorter, wider projectile compared to rifle rounds. As a result, these weapons will be slightly less effective at longer ranges.

Sway:
Sway refers to how much the weapon's aim shifts, influenced by factors like movement and stance. It represents the weapon's inertia and stability—so weapons with lower ergonomics will experience less sway, while those with higher ergonomics will have more. Sidearms will naturally have more sway than primaries due to the lack of support features like stocks. This balance patch specifically focuses on adjusting sway for primaries and sidearms.

Stamina Cost:
All melee weapons now consume less stamina when attacking, reducing the cost from 0.1 to 0.05. This change makes melee combat less punishing and allows for easier repositioning between strikes. The affected weapons include the CQC-30 Stun Baton, CQC-19 Stun Lance, CQC-5 Combat Hatchet, and the Entrenchment Tool.

Shrapnel spawning:
With this update, shrapnel will now always spawn in a full 360-degree spread, regardless of where the explosion occurs. This means weapons like the R-36 Eruptor will now more reliably hit the intended target with their shrapnel.
In addition, we’ve adjusted shrapnel performance against armor. Shrapnel now has reduced effectiveness at poor impact angles, to reflect its lack of design for armor penetration in such situations.

These shrapnel balance changes will impact the following weapons:
  • R-36 Eruptor
  • G-6 Frag Grenade
  • AC-8 Autocannon


Balance Changes:
Armor Penetration decreased on shrapnel projectiles from 3-3-3-0 to 3-3-2-0
  • Each of these numbers represent an angle threshold, which means we’ve reduced the AP value of 3 to 2 in the last range where a shrapnel projectile would penetrate an enemy.


Frag Grenade
  • Increased Shrapnel spawned from 30 to 35
Autocannon Flak
  • Increased Shrapnel spawned from 25 to 30


Fire and Flamethrowers:
This update aims to better balance fire damage between direct hits (like those from flamethrowers) and burn effects over time, while also introducing scaling of fire damage depending on the size of the enemy. Previously, burn damage didn’t scale well against larger enemies, making putting them on fire feel less effective in those encounters.

Now, the larger the enemy, the more damage they take while burning. However, bigger enemies will also be slightly more resistant to ignition. Additionally, direct fire damage now scales with enemy size—so large enemies like Chargers will still take roughly the same damage as before, while smaller enemies will take slightly less.

We have also increased the magazine capacity of the FLAM-66 Torcher and the FLAM-40 Flamethrower because putting stuff on fire is fun!

Damage:

Helldivers 2’s Illuminate Update Overhauls Combat, Cosmetics and the In-Game Economy


Arrowhead Game Studios’ Helldivers 2 continues to expand with fresh content, as the team unveils a new Illuminate threat and updates to the Superstore in defence of Super Earth.





A major update has landed on the battlefields of Helldivers 2. A new post on the PlayStation Blog has warned players of looming Illuminate forces spreading across the galaxy, and it’s up to Super Earth’s finest to hold the line. Patch 01.003.000 is now live on both PC and PlayStation 5, introducing more dangerous Illuminate enemies, significant changes to the Superstore, and new weapon customization options for the more style-conscious Helldiver. Arrowhead Game Studios has also released an official trailer for the patch, which can be viewed below.











Since being introduced as a threat to the Super Earth way of life, the Illuminate have grown in both numbers and variety. Helldivers 2 has issued a Galactic Emergency, alerting all Helldivers to the expanding Illuminate scourge. After several warnings... Read more

Helldivers 2 code-crackers are still desperately grappling with Arrowhead's Station-81 mystery, but at least they've got a "Bee Theory"

When Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead suddenly rolled out its mysterious Station-81 teases and livestream late last week, a lot of us assumed it'd very quickly lead to something big happening in the Galactic War. Well, it's now a fresh week and players are still battling to solve the ARG, but at least they've come up with some interesting theories.

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