Helldivers 2 has a balance patch coming, but 'it mostly consists of simple stat changes', says senior game designer
Helldivers 2 has a whole host of weapons and stratagems to offer, but if you ask any red-blooded Super Earth patriot what their favourite loadout is, then the same few names are bound to come up. The SG-225 Breaker, the Orbital Laser, the Railgun—with some honorary scattered mentions for stratagems like Autocannon.
At least from personal experience, I can say with certainty that the Railgun is kind of busted—in a fun way, mind. There's something satisfying about capping a charger off at the ankles, or doming a bile titan from a safe distance. It does, however, paint you into a corner if you want to win.
Luckily, Arrowhead's going to be making some tweaks. As spotted by Gamesradar, community manager Baskinator responded to a fan asking about a potential balance patch with a simple: "We are working on that for an update, yes."
As for the details, senior game designer Alex Kravchenko has been kind enough to chat to players about gun tweaks on the game's Discord in "The Armory" channel, a hub dedicated to nattering about equipment—and generally speaking, Arrowhead's against guns with runaway power.
"Keeping overperforming weapons in the game without addressing them does take away from everyone else because players have to constantly choose between fun and optimal," Kravchenko writes. It's a balancing act, though—in a separate message, they write that if Arrowhead nerfs a weapon, "even if the numbers show that it's now more balanced … people will still be unhappy with the changes (rightfully so). Because they found the most versatile tool, they loved it, mastered it, and it's being taken away from them."
Still, Kravchenko reassures players that "the changes are definitely coming, we just didn't want to rush it … the power level of some weapons is VERY different to what's generally assumed."
That tracks with comments from Arrowhead Games' CEO Johan Pilestedt on Twitter, who side-eyed the community's beloved Breaker shotgun as actually not being super great. "You would be surprised to learn that while the breaker scores more kills. It is not overrepresented in missions that end in success."
As for what the patch contains, Kravchenko also chimed in earlier this week back on Discord. "The first balance patch consists mostly of simple stat changes so as to not destabilise the codebase." Numbers will be shuffled, but it makes sense that Arrowhead wouldn't be hasty in turning the dials, especially since it just got a handle on the server situation.