I drive an automatic in a flat part of the state, so I legit don't know what they do.

I think there's a marked difference between defending FOMO ("Fuck you, I have mine) and complaining about missing out on rewards even though you didn't participate. I've been seeing arguments from both sides and I'm starting to understand why people despise FOMO-defenders, but I still feel people who are asking for free, instant access despite not playing the game are losing the plot.

My personal take? Part of the reward should be early access to the reward. Participating in and completing a campaign should give you free, instant access to the rewards. Once the campaign is over and you didn't participate, the reward should enter the REQ shop 1-4 weeks later, where you have to pay REQ slips to get access to the reward.

If you don't contribute, you shouldn't get instant access to the stratagem. It should have to be unlocked later on with req slips.

I get it, sometimes you're genuinely busy, in the hospital, or otherwise preoccupied. That's fair, life happens. But you shouldn't be punished for missing out. That said, if you weren't going to play for 3 straight weeks even when you had the chance to, and then you get mad at AH for not giving you the rewards, the onus is on you.

3 weeks is a LONG time, and AH wasn't exactly shy about advertising the new FRV models. They had trailers, ads, and in-game notifications. If you weren't able to log on for 3 straight weeks, much less play a single match, chances are you weren't going to play anyways, in which case missing out on a stratagem literally wouldn't matter because you weren't gonna use it.

These are the people I can't take seriously. It's one thing to not participate in the campaign and need to unlock it later while those who did participate get access to it for free. That's completely fair and reasonable. It's when people demand that they get instant access to it even though they didn't play at all for 3 weeks that confuses me.

That said, FOMO sucks. It's a short-term solution that exacerbates long-term issues. There's no benefit for having FOMO, either for the devs, players, or the game. The incentive shouldn't be "I need to play, otherwise I'll miss out." The incentive should be "I need to play, otherwise I'll need to wait longer."

If the FRV is rewarded for free a month, maybe a month and a half, after the completion of a successful campaign, it's all good in my book, because the people who participated and worked for the reward get their hands early on it. That's a good reward system. Meanwhile, the people who don't get their hands on it will eventually have the chance to unlock it later on.

There's no point in speculating "oh AH is gonna put it in the warbond that's been cancelled!" or "AH is gonna have us pay super credits for it!" because there's been no proof. It's all speculative. People are scared, yes, but you got people spouting this crap like it's a done deal. It's not.

The real issue is that we don't know when the FRV is gonna come out. Knowing AH, it could come out next week, next month, or next year. People like to bring up the Sony Killzone stuff, like how it took a year for that to come back, but that was a slightly different situation in that IPs were involved. Those kinds of things are gonna take more time to resolve, but not an entire year.

AH NEEDS to give us an accurate timeline on when rewards are gonna come. Saying "It'll come later" is not good enough. When is "later?" AH said they were going to be more transparent and communicative. "It'll come later" is not that.

I'm willing to bet the reason AH doesn't have an answer right now is because this is the first time they're doing something and they're trying to find an even playing ground.

If you give the rewards too late after a campaign, people are gonna be upset, as they are right now. If you give the rewards too soon, then people are gonna ask "why would I even participate if I'm gonna get it anyways?"

I decided to try out the Stinky Raider build, which is basically running Raider with the Dreglord relic, Rot/Poison build up below Max HP, and taking damage causes Rot/Poison build up, and I CANNOT believe the amount of damage I'm putting out.

In one run, we turned a Red BBK into dust in less than 30 seconds.

40% extra damage ain't no joke

Hello everybody,

I just wanted to take the time to thank you guys. After dealing with the recent "hidden AP changes debacle," as I'd like to call it, and writing up that 3.7k+ word document going over every single change and their effects, I was low-key afraid that a lot of people would ignore or shit on that post entirely, calling me a "glazer" for trying to defend what looked like obviously bad changes, but I was pleasantly surprised.

As a lot of you might know, I try to play the middle ground. I like to try and understand AH's reasoning without immediately jumping on the hate train whenever they fuck up, but I also like to hold them accountable when it's obvious they're only doing something to virtue signal or show how much they actually "care" for the community. I know this sub has a rather "negative" outlook on AH and a lot of people have expressed a genuine hatred towards AH, so when news of the hidden changes came out, I knew a lot of people were going to be upset. That's part of the reason why I made that comprehensive list, to help fight against misinformation.

This community, and this sub to an extent, is extraordinarily vulnerable to misinformation. A lot of people rightfully have gripes with the game and AH, but those gripes aren't always for the right reason. I've always been of the opinion that if you're going to shit on someone/something, you should at the very least understand why they deserve to be shit on.

So I made that list, knowing full well that there was a non-zero chance that I was about to wade face first into a tsunami of liquid shit, mouth open, only to find out that a lot of people already managed to sus out why AH changed the AP's on a lot of enemies and actually understand why those changes aren't as meaningful as others made it out to be.

To put it succinctly, I'm proud of you guys for actually taking the time to read between the lines and understand why these changes were made. A few months ago, this sub would've undoubtedly jumped AH in the street for these undocumented changes, so I'm glad (most) of you have nuance and can understand the reasoning behind some of these changes instead of instantly starting a riot while still calling out AH for their fuck-up of not including specific details or a link to a changelog with all the details. You guys really do make my "job" as a mod easier (using air quotes because saying that being a reddit mod is a job is comical lmao).

On another sidenote, I'm also (mostly) proud of what this community has become and done. I say mostly because there's always going to be that one schizo-stinker, but I've only been a mod for about...4 months. I joined the moderating team here during the doxxing situation which was not a fun first week.

Following that, a whole plethora of shit has happened in what's only been a short amount of time, from the AMA, to the CGW, the misinformation arc about the CGW, to meeting with and talking to some of the biggest figureheads in community, actually meeting with an AH developer, having to deal with a femboy streamer threatening legal action against me, to a schizo Youtuber crashing out and making 6 videos about me because I called him a conspiracy theorist...

Yeah, I know. All that shit happened in four months.

But in those four months, Unfiltered has become what it's always meant to be: a truly unfiltered place where you can say whatever you want about to game, be it positive or negative, without fear of being banned for going against the crowdthink.

This sub used to have a negative reputation for being filled with whiners and schizos (and it definitely is lol), but now this sub is also known for being, well, unfiltered. Where you can go to honestly talk about the game either positively or negatively. That's what this sub's always been about, and is what us mods have always tried to enforce. Of course, there's a few people who still think as Unfiltered as a schizo hate sub and a few people that still don't understand the point of Unfiltered, but I digress.

I know I'm only a reddit mod, for an unfiltered subreddit no less, but in the 4 months we've been in here, we've made some pretty radical changes in the game and community. We've seen what we can do. Unfiltered, for better or worse, has a voice.

We had Pilestedt himself come in here for the AMA, which is huge news since it means they do take our criticisms seriously. And after the AMA, the game has, for the most part, improved somewhat. Not by much, but we are taking steps forward, slowly but surely.

We had issues with communicating with the devs, let Pilested know, and he promised us biweekly communication. Now, whether or not Pilestedt reports back personally (he definitely hasn't yet lmao), you cannot deny that AH has tried to keep that promise in the form of biweekly transmissions. That was a change we asked and rallied for.

We have the power to make changes for the betterment of the game. Let's make sure we don't lose the plot now.

Thanks,

An extraordinarily, extremely, unfathomably, unheard of, depressed, borderline suicidal, despairing sad sandwich

https://preview.redd.it/f4ftyrfohh9h1.png?width=393&format=png&auto=webp&s=e884c96f48a990f850cb844ad84e14ca6c5c1b90

I don't CARE if they only do 9 damage per attack. I don't CARE if they're short-ranged. I don't CARE if they attack once a decade. I don't CARE if they're squishy. I don't CARE if they only made these changes so our vehicles can't be invincible. Why the FUCK does AH keep balancing the game? Don't they know that balancing isn't important? Also, why the FUCK is the Queen in Chess 2 so FUCKING overpowered? Can we NERF the Queen yet?

Hi everyone,

As I'm sure most people have seen and are unsurprised by, AH has once again failed to publish the full list of balance changes they made in the most recent patch. Unlike other patches, where they completely omitted their existence, they at least tried to let us know about the existence of these undocumented changes but said that the reason they didn't include them was because "there were too many to list."

After going through all of the changes, calculating their effects with the buffs to our new stratagems...I can confidently say they were right. There are a LOT of changes, roughly 62 changes. So...when AH said they couldn't list out all the changes because of how many there were, they were right. Doesn't make it a good excuse, but at least they admitted to it this time.

For a full list on what can or can't damage our vehicles, please see this post here.

This list is meant to be a comprehensive list covering ALL of the documented changes and their effects. Patch 1.006.300 gave us a bunch of good buffs for the mech and exosuit, but many of these undocumented changes also buffed the enemy's AP to compensate. Some are already whining about monkey-paw balancing, but after going through all these changes, most of these changes were made with good reason and are entirely a compensatory buff for the enemies because without these buffs, the Bastion and Exosuits would quite literally be invincible.

But that's enough yap for now. Please note this list is not exhaustive and will be updated accordingly as more information comes out.

Many of the changes will refer to "direct armor penetration." In Helldivers, certain attacks that hit a target at a shallow enough angle will "bounce" off, dealing reduced damage. This has been removed for the most part, partially due to creating inconsistencies, but also because enemies are generally pretty good at hitting center mass, especially if they're targeting a massive tank, so this was an unnecessary mechanic that served no purpose. Now, if you get hit, you take full damage.

Method of Testing

After the list of undocumented changes went live, I did a bunch of boring math stuff and calculated how much each attack from an enemy should do against the Bastion and Exosuits. After doing that for every attack (save for the ones that are statistically similar, of course), I booted up the game and brought the Bastion, Exosuit, and Ballistic Shield and counted how many attacks it took from each enemy to destroy each vehicle stratagem.

Dividing the vehicle's health by the number of attacks ended up giving a similar set of numbers from my own out-of-game calculations. Damage numbers in HD2 are rounded down, so if you choose to follow my math, there might be a few mistakes, such as an attack actually doing 49 dmg instead of 45, but to my knowledge, it still takes the same amount of hits to destroy vehicles as it did pre-patch.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Breakthrough Mech Shield is now AP4 (yay!) but the clipped arm hitbox is still not fixed (nay!)
• The Grenade Launcher Emplacement Shield is now AP4 (yay!) but AH has still not fixed you instantly dying when the emplacement is destroyed (nay!)
• The Ballistic Shield stratagem is now AP4 instead of AP3 (yay!)
• Adding this as an addendum: While sentries did get 100% extra health to account for the indirect durability nerfs they received, the extra AP many units recived do not effect the sentries. This is because sentries are considered AP2, so they already take full damage from AP3 attacks. An attack going from AP3 to AP4 isn't gonna do shit
  • That being said there are a few changes where enemy AP was increased from AP2 to AP3, meaning they effectively deal 35% extra damage against sentries. which sucks.
• The FRV overall has had it's handling (allegedly) increased. I wasn't able to confirm for myself since I haven't tested it personally, but a few Helldrivers have mentioned that the FRVs did receive a handful of QoL and cosmetic changes, including but not limited to
  • New horn and motot sounds
  • FRVs are now more controllable a higher speeds on the ground and in the air
  • Handling was improved using the brakes compared to simply steering and praying.
  • The handbrakes have greatly improved functionality and can stop the FRV on a dime more easily, at the cost of losing all your momentum every time you use them.
• The Bastion (allegedly) has had the deflection angles on the main cannon changed. Shooting at extreme angles will more consistently result in your shells bouncing off the ground, though this is ONLY if you shoot the ground for whatever reason.
  • The Bastion also (allegedly) has an easier time rolling over small obstacles, though this is harder to notice due to the Bastion moving with the pace of a slightly inebriated snail.

Overall Gist: The only enemies that got changed on the Bug and Illuminate front were either units that vomit literal acid onto you or the units using charged plasma bolts on the Illuminates (which makes sense because plasma is really, really hot). The Bots all got sweeping changes, but these were mostly compensatory changes since their higher AP values only effect the vehicles, which got their own AP increases so it evens out, while leaving Helldivers entirely unaffected. However, this also means Bots are now much more likely to kill each other if they accidentally frag each other.

This DOES mean the Bastion and Exosuits are objectively more tanky against a larger variety of enemies, but anti-vehicle cannons can and will destroy them in the same amount of shots. Keep in mind that some attacks that consist of multiple attacks like rocket volleys or continuous streams of damage are only be calculated as one singular instance. Taking 45 damage isn't a lot, but when that 45 damage is multiplied by 9, the damage can rack up QUICK.

When describing each damage value change, I will be using the following designations and format because I'm not type out "durable damage" four billion times:

X standard damage / X durable damage / AP X + X explosive damage (if applicable) / AP X

where DD = Durable Damage and EX = Explosive damage

Vox Engines

• Torso Health reduced from 21,000 to 9,000
  • Not sure why the Torso had so much health before but at least it matches the main health pool now
• Undercarriage health reduced from 11,000 to 9,000
• Top Mounted Autocannons (80 dmg/80 DD/AP6 + 50 EX/AP4) EXPLOSION AP has been increased from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuit still take the full 80 ballistic damage.
  • Against the Bastion, each round now does 19 explosive damage due to the Bastion's innate 60% ExDr, which is unchanged from last patch.
  • Against the Exosuit, the main AP4 chassis 16 explosive damage, which is a substantial improvement over the old chassis' 25 explosive damage. The AP3 legs and arms are immune to explosives, so it just goes straight to the main AP4 chassis.
• The missile launcher volley AP (30 dmg/100DD/AP6 + 250 EX/AP5) EXPLOSION has been increased from AP4 to AP5
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuit still take the full 100 damage, and because the explosion damage still surpasses the armor, they still do full damage, meaning there has been no changes to damager numbers.
  • Against the Bastion, each missile still does 100 dmg
  • Against the Exosuit, the main AP4 chassis still takes 125 dmg
• The side-mounted miniguns (20 dmg/6DD/AP3) AP has been increased from AP2 to AP3
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuit's main chassis are entirely immune, while the Exosuit's arms and legs still take 8 dmg per bullet, which isn't a super big deal because the miniguns tend to aim at center mass anyway

Factory Strider

• The chin-mounted miniguns are unchanged and remain AP2, meaning the Bastion and Exosuits are entirely immune.
• The main back-mounted cannon now deals AP5 on a shallow deflection angle instead of AP4, which means you still take the full 1500 damage, nothing's changed
• The main back-mounted cannon (1500 dmg/1500DD/AP6 +100 EX/AP4) has had it's EXPLOSION increased from AP3 to AP4
  • This is arguably the least important part of the attack since most of the damage comes from the projectile itself, NOT the explosion. Seeing as this is pretty much an anti-armor cannon, this is a nothingburger change, but I'll include the calculations for the sake of consistency.
  • Against the Bastion, the explosion now deals 26 explosive damage
  • Against the Exosuits, the explosion now deals 32 explosive damage

Annihilator Tank (the ones with the cannon)

• Similar to the Factory Strider's main cannon, a shallow deflection angle is now AP5 instead of AP4, meaning you still take the full 1500 damage, nothing's changed
• The main cannon (which is statistically the same as the Factory Strider's main cannon, so look above) has received similar changes, meaning it's AP has been increased from AP3 to AP4
  • Again, this is the least important part of the attack since most of the damage comes from the projectile itself, NOT the explosion.
  • Against the Bastion, the explosion now deals 26 explosive damage
  • Against the Exosuits, the explosion now deals 32 explosive damage
• The Co-Axial machine gun's AP (35 dmg/6 DD/ AP3) has been increased from AP2 to AP3
  • This is the weapon mounted on the barrel, not the one attached to the front of the tank. That one is unchanged.
  • Against the Bastion and the Exosuit's main chassis, they are entirely immune. The exosuit's arm's and legs will still take a whopping 7 damage

Shredder Tank (the ones with 4 barrels)

• The main quad-barreled machine gun (60 dmg/20 DD/AP4) has had it's AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning there has been no changes in damage numbers.
  • The Bastion and Exosuit's main chassis still take 13 damage per shot. The Exosuit's arms and legs will still take 27 damage per shot.

War Strider

• The mounted cannons (80 dmg/80 DD/AP5 + 65EX/AP3) has had it's projectile AP increased from AP4 to AP5
  • As these are literally stated to be anti-vehicle weapons, I think it makes sense for them to be able to damage our vehicles. Most noticeably, however, the explosion damage is unchanged
  • The Bastion and Exosuits as a whole now take 80 damage per shot, no matter where they hit.

Hulks (ALL variants)

• Their laser cannon (60 dmg/ 20DD/AP4) has had it's AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuit will take whopping...18 damage per shot. Did not expect their laser cannon to be so weak

Hulk Bruiser (the ones with the missile launchers)

• Their missiles (30 dmg/100 DD/AP6 + 70 EX/AP4) has had its EXPLOSION AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuits will still take the full 100 damage, regardless of where they're hit.
  • Against the Bastion, each missile now does 27 explosive damage due to the Bastion's innate 60% ExDr, which is unchanged from last patch.
  • Against the Exosuit, the main AP4 chassis takes 22 explosive damage. The AP3 legs and arms are immune to explosives, so it just goes straight to the main AP4 chassis.

Hulk Scorchers (and pretty any bot that uses flamethrowers)

• Flame weaponry (60 fire damage/45 DD/100 DPS/AP4) has had it's AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual damage values are unchanged, which means there is no increase or decrease in damage against our behicles
  • This also matches our own flame weaponry, which also does AP4, so this is also a consistency change as well.

Gunships

• The Gunship's main cannon (60 dmg/20DD/AP4) has had it's AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuits still take the full 13 damage per shot
• The Gunship's missiles (30 dmg/100 DD/AP6 + 70 EX/AP4) has had it's EXPLOSION AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • Like the cannon turrets on the Factory Strider and Tank, this is the least important part of the attack. The Bastion still takes 27 explosive damage and the Exosuit still takes 22 explosive damage
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuit still take the full 100 damage, and because the explosion damage still surpasses the armor, they still do full damage, meaning there has been no changes to damage numbers.

Agitator

• Their cannon arm (45 dmg/6 DD/AP3) has had their shallow and slight deflection angles AP increased from AP2 to AP3, while large deflection angles increased from AP1 to AP2
  • Again, this is a literal nothingburger change. At most, they'll be able to damage your Exosuit's arms now if they happen to shoot at a REALLY bad angle
• Their overcharged shot (65 dmg/65 DD/AP4 + 30EX/AP4) has had it's AP increased from AP3 to AP4 and it's EXPLOSION AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • Again, the damge values have not been changed, meaning the Bastion and Exosuit will still take 42 damage anywhere on the body while the Exosuit's arms and legs will take 65 damage
  • Against the Bastion, the explosion will deal 11 explosive damage
  • Against the Exosuit, the explosion will deal...9 explosive damage.

Radical

• Their plasma shotguns (100 dmg/100 DD/AP3) has had it's slight angle AP increased from AP2 to AP3, meaning them shooting at your mech arms at a slightly bad angle will now damage it...though I doubt they'll be able to do any meaningful damage due to the mech arm's high durability and their shotgun's high spread and drag factor.
• The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuit's main chassis are entirely immune, while the Exosuit's arms and legs still take 6 dmg per pellet, for a maximum of 60 dmg if all 10 pellets connect, which isn't a super big deal because the miniguns tend to aim at center mass anyway

Rocket Devastator

• Their missiles (30 dmg/100 DD/AP6 + 70 EX/AP4) has had its EXPLOSION AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuits will still take the full 100 damage, regardless of where they're hit.
  • Against the Bastion, each missile now does 27 explosive damage due to the Bastion's innate 60% ExDr, which is unchanged from last patch.
  • Against the Exosuit, the main AP4 chassis takes 22 explosive damage. The AP3 legs and arms are immune to explosives, so it just goes straight to the main AP4 chassis.

Incendiary MG Devastator (the ones with the "MG" that fires slow as fuck)

• Their shields are now destructible and are the same as the normal Heavy Devastator's shields. This change was supposed to implemented in Patch 1.003.202 but was left out due to developer oversight.
• Their cannon arm (30 dmg/4 DD/AP3 + 100DPS/AP4) has had their shallow and slight deflection angles AP increased from AP2 to AP3, while large deflection angles increased from AP1 to AP2
  • Their actual ballistic damage is unchanged...but let's be honest, if your Exosuit is being taken out by one of these guys, you have bigger issues than your mech's old shitty AP3 armor

Conflagration Devastators (the fire shotgun one-shot guys)

• The fire shotgun (300 dmg/75DD/AP3 + 100 DPS/AP4) has had it's AP increased from AP2 to AP3
• AP when shooting at deflectable angles are now AP3 instead of AP2.
  • Again, nothingburger change. You now take damage more consistently from these guys, but if these guys are the reason why your tank is dying, you got bigger problems. These guys are a problem when you're on foot, but they should NOT be an issue when you're in a motherfuckin' tank.

Scout Striders (both variants)

• Their main cannon (60 dmg/20DD/AP4) has had its AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuits still take the full 13 damage per shot

Incendiary Rocket Raider (the little guy with the laser cannon)

• Their laser cannon (80 dmg/80 DD/AP5 + 65EX/AP3) has had it's projectile AP increased from AP4 to AP5 while the explosion remains unchanged.
  • This weapon is statistically the same as the War Strider's cannons, meainign it is an anti-vehicle weapon. As such, I think it's fine for these little guys to be able to damage our vehicles...if they can hit them. Have you SEEN how god-awful their accuracy is?
  • The Bastion and Exosuits as a whole now take 80 damage per shot, no matter where they hit.

Rocket Raider (rocket launcher guy)

• Their rocket launcher (30 dmg/100 DD/AP6 + 70EX/AP4) has had their EXPLOSION increased from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuit still take the full 100 damage no matter where they're hit.
  • Against the Bastion, each missile now does 18 explosive damage due to the Bastion's innate 60% ExDr, which is unchanged from last patch.
  • Against the Exosuit, the main AP4 chassis takes 22 explosive damage. The AP3 legs and arms are immune to explosives, so it just goes straight to the main AP4 chassis.
  • Again, this is assuming they can actually hit you, so...you have a 50/50 change of taking no damage because these guys think missing is a full-time job paid by the hour

All Automaton Trooper Variants

• ALL of their ranged attacks are AP2, meaning the Bastion and Exosuits are entirely immune to their attacks, save for two exceptions, their melee attacks (which is literally superheated plasma btw) and their grenades.
• Their grenades (200 EX/AP4) has had it's EXPLOSION increased from AP3 to AP4
  • Against the Bastion and Exosuit, each grenade now does a whopping...52 damage. And these guys can only throw out one grenade after 25 seconds...so yeah. (woo)
  • While the Exosuit's legs are AP3, they are entirely immune to explosion damage. However, they do transfer 100% damage to the main health pool, so if for some reason you're standing stock still directly on a grenade, you'll take the full 200 damage. To counteract this, simply...walk forward or backward and you'll take a fraction of the damage.

Mortar Emplacement

• The mortar shells now have ballistic and durable damage, going from a fat 0 to 20 dmg and 2 DD. However, because they are also AP0, that means they do a fat load of nothing to our vehicles. Truly, a monumental buff for the ages
• The mortar shells (20 dmg/2DD + 200 EX/AP4) has had their AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual explosion damage is unchanged while deflected shells now deal a whooping AP0, making them effectively null and void
  • Against the Bastion, a direct mortar blast will now deal 52 explosive damage
  • Against the Exosuit, a direct mortar blast will now deal 65 explosive damage if it somehow hits you

Bunker Turret

• These are statistically the same as the War Strider's cannons
• The Bunker Turret's cannons (80 dmg/80 DD/AP5 + 65EX/AP3) has had it's projectile AP increased from AP4 to AP5
  • The Bastion and Exosuits as a whole now take 80 damage per shot, no matter where they hit.

Command Bunker Turrets

• These are statistically the same as the War Strider's cannons
• The Bunker Turret's cannons (80 dmg/80 DD/AP5 + 65EX/AP3) has had it's projectile AP increased from AP4 to AP5
  • The Bastion and Exosuits as a whole now take 80 damage per shot, no matter where they hit.

Automaton MG Emplacement

• There are two variants of these MG turrets. The one that fires fast as fuck but only does AP2, and the one that fires a lot slower but does AP4. The one that fires slower is the one that got changed
• The Heavy MG (60 dmg/15DD/AP4) has had it's AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual damage values are unchanged.
  • Against the Bastion and Exosuit's main chassis, each shot will deal 9 damage
  • Against the Exosuit's arms and legs, each shot will deal 23 damage

Gatekeepers (the ones with the plasma cannons)

• The volley shots' (30 dmg/50DD/AP5 + 20EX/30DD/AP4) has had their AP on a direct hit increased from AP4 to AP5 while deflection angles are increased from AP3 to AP4
• The volley's EXPLOSION has been increased from AP3 to AP4
• The charged shot's (110 dmg/140 DD/AP6 + EX60/80DD/AP4) EXPLOSION has been increased from AP3 to AP4
  • I'm not sure how or why their explosions have durability damage since explosions ignore durability entirely, but for these guys, I'm assuming this is the only instance of explosions being affected by durability since these guys would SHRED vehicles otherwise
  • Damage values are unchanged
  • Against the Bastion, each volley shot will deal 50 damage + 5 explosive damage
  • Against the Bastion, each charged shot will deal the full 140 damage + 15 explosive damage
  • Against the Exosuit's main chassis, each volley shot does 50 damage + 6 explosive damage
  • Against the Exosuit's main chassis, each charged shot will deal the full 140 damage + 20 explosive damage
  • tldr, don't fuck around with these guys

Stingrays

• Their strafing runs (50 dmg/50DD/AP5 + 125EX/AP5) has had their PROJECTILE AP increased from AP3 to AP4. The explosion values are unchanged
  • Damage values are unchanged, but I'm not calculating that shit. From my own personal experiences, these guys still absolutely mow down vehicles, which makes absolute sense since they're literally aircraft.

Overseers

• Their ranged attack (40 dmg/50 DD/AP5 + 30EX/AP3) has had their AP increased from AP4 to AP5, and deflection angles increased from AP3 to AP4. However, their explosive damage remains unchanged
  • Against the Bastion and Exosuit's main chassis, they now deal a whopping 50 damage per attack.
• Their melee attacks remain AP3 however, so the Bastion is entirely immune to their melee attacks while the Exosuit's legs (which is the only thing they can realistically reach) only takes 40 damage per swing.

Elevated Overseers

• Their plasma rifles (35 dmg/15DD/AP4) now does AP4 on shallow deflection angles.
  • While this change sounds insane, remember that their attack duration and accuracy has been reduced, which means that while they do fire more shots in a shorter amount of time, once they miss a burst, it'll take longer for them to fire again

Crescent Overseers (the mortar guys)

• Their plasma mortars (40 dmg/100 DD/AP5 + 80EX/100DD/AP4) have had their EXPLOSION AP increased from AP3 to AP4
• The projectile itself now has an increased AP on deflection angels from AP3 to AP4
  • The actual ballistic damage is unchanged, meaning the Bastion and Exosuit still take the full 100 damage.
  • Against the Bastion, the explosion now does 20 explosive damage
  • Against the Exosuit, the explosion now does 26 explosive damage

Obtruders

• Their little shock attack (35 dmg/15DD/AP4) has had their AP on shallow deflection angles increased from AP3 to AP4 and AP on extreme deflection angles decreased from AP3 to AP0
  • This means that if they (somehow) miss, they do a fat fucking 0
• Believe it or not, but these little guys have always been AP4. This patch did not buff them to AP4. However, even if they were AP4, these guys are still a joke, because...
  • Against the Bastion and Exosuit's main chassis, which will always be targeted due to the nature of arc weapons, each attack does...9 damage.

Watcher

• Their shock attack (30 dmg/15DD/AP4) has had their AP increased from AP3 to AP4, shallow deflection angles increased from AP2 to AP3, and extreme deflection angles increased from AP1 to AP2.
• While I personally find it ridiculous these guys can now damage the Bastion, keep in mind their attacks require them to be in melee range, has a slow charge-up, and a long cooldown
  • Against the Bastion and Exosuit's main chassis, which will always be targeted due to the nature of arc weapons, each attack does 9 damage.

Lightning Spires (the Squid's Temu Tesla towers)

• Their shock attack (200 dmg/200DD/AP4) has had their AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • Keep in mind these guys have a limited range, slow attack speed, and are entirely harmless if you shoot at them from a distance
  • Against the Bastion and Exosuit's main chassis, which will always be targeted due to the nature of arc weapons, each attack does 130 damage, which is certainly substantial, but not exactly threatening unless you park your Bastion right next to one and leave it unattended for a full 8 minutes

Hive Lord

• Their bile spew (no dmg numbers yet due to lack of data and inconsistency when testing) has had its AP increased from AP4 to AP5
  • TBH this bile spew doesn't do much damage to the vehicles unless you're fighting for a long time,
  • Plus, it being literal stomach acid from a fucking Hive Lord means it damaging tank-grade armor is, at the very least, completely reasonable and plausible

Dragonroach

• Their fire breath (no dmg numbers yet due to lack of data and inconsistency when testing) has had its AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • Keep in mind this is also doing reduced damage.

Spore Bile Titan

• Their Bile Spew (no dmg numbers yet due to lack of data and inconsistency when testing) has had its AP increased from AP4 to AP5
• Their Bile Spew EXPLOSION has had its AP increased from AP3 to AP4
  • This was incorrectly entered as the Bile Titan. To my knowledge, Bile Titans have always done AP5 damage, so this change is specific to the Spore Titan. However, keep in mind that while these AP increases to their spew attack sounds like a net buff, these guys truly do no damage. Their true threat comes from the ragdolling and buffs to nearby enemy units If your Helldiver can survive a point-blank spew attack and walk it off after being ragdolled for a morbillion years, your Bastion can shrug it off just fine.

Bile Spitter

• Their bile spit (no dmg numbers yet) has had it's overall increased from AP3 to AP4.
  • While this seems like a net buff, remember that they are quite literally spitting acid at you and these little spitters do a fat load of nothing damage.

Predator Hunter

Spewers (ALL variants, including Rupture)

• Their bile spew (no dmg numbers yet due to lack of data) has had their AP increased from AP4 to AP5
  • Their melee attack is unchanged and is still AP2
  • Personally, not a fan of these changes since a group of these guys can easily wipe out something like the Bastion. Exosuits can manage a bit better because they are more maneuverable, but with how many of them there are and how quickly they can bunch up, I would not recommend taking any vehicles to a Spewer-heavy constellation. That said, they are also easy to take out from a distance and con only attack from a short range, so don't let them get close.

It took me a LONG time to gather and test all this data, so if you made it all the way to the end, hats off to you. Remember, be mad at AH for hiding these details AGAIN, but don't have a kneejerk reaction to the changes just because you hear the word "enemies got buffed."

Edit: I'm so tired

As a side note, I am proud of this community and all of you in general for not instantly jumping AH for these unlisted changes. I'm glad (most) people here have nuance and can understand why some changes were good and why they were made instead of instantly jumping on the hatewagon. You guys really do make my "job" as a mod easier (using air quotes because being a reddit mod isn't a real job lmao)

Edit 2: A lot of people in some youtuber's discords aren't happy with this change. Because apparently the Obtruder doing 9 fucking damage is too much.

Edit 3: Added some FRV and Bastion handling changes, as well as the rest of the Terminid changes

Hi, sorry for the spam posts, but I've been geeking out about Nightreign recently. Recently, I came to a sudden realization that we may, keyword may, know which Crucible Knight the Executor may be.

Obviously, this throws a wrench into the whole timeline thing because of course Nightreign has to be an alternative prequel timeline whatever relative to Elden Ring's more straight-forward timeline, but I just wanted to cobble together a few things I realized. Obviously, this is a shaky theory held together with string and shoelaces, but I didn't see anyone else point out the similarities between the Executor's backstory and the Evergaoled Crucible knight.

We know four things for sure with this "theory."

1. They are a "fusion" of souls, consisting of the Painter, the Knight, and the cursed blade that once belonged to the Painter.
2. There are only 16 Crucible Knights in Elden Ring. Two of which are spirits in a cave so technically there are only 14 left alive, but all of them can be found wandering the Lands Between, save for one, which is trapped in an Evergaol.
3. The Executor is said to be a former Crucible Knight. More specifically, an Axe Knight, with the sword and shield, not a Spear Knight.
4. The Executor went missing after "a prison stint" in the Lands Between.

Crucible Knights, for people unfamiliar with Elden Ring's lore, were the personal guard of the First Elden Lord, Godfrey. That means they're pretty important people, and with only 16 of them, you bet your ass people know about them. Of course, after Godfrey's exile, people started to hate them since their powers draw from the Crucible, which is big no-no, but here's the thing:

We know the Executor can't be any of the other Crucible Knights wandering the Lands Between because...there's no evidence. Granted, there's no evidence saying they can't be any of those Knights, but we also know that there are at least 2 dead Crucible Knights, an Axe Knight and a Spear Knight. I believe the dead Axe Knight may have been the 2nd Knight the Executor killed, with the other Spear being a random bozo that got skill-checked (jk).

However, we know the Executor lived after his failed seppuku attempt. But...where did they go? As I said, Crucible Knights are pretty important people. Even though they have a negative reputation because of their association with the Crucible, they are undoubtedly fanatical supporters of the Erdtree, not the Golden Order.

They may not be as popular as before, but a Crucible Knight being thrown in jail is like a member of the Queen's Guard being arrested. For such a high profile person, them being thrown in jail is a huge deal.

My personal headcanon theory is that the Crucible Knight we fight in the Evergaol is the Executor.

Now, because of how fuckin' wonky Nightreign is, there are obviously some issues. The most standout issue is, of course, we don't fight an Executor in Nightreign. We fight a Crucible Knight, but considering how the Executor used to be an Axe Knight, just the same as the Evergaol Knight, that means it's possible they may be one and the same.

However, it is heavily implied that the Executor was imprisoned after killing the other Knight in their remembrance and would merge after said killing, meaning they either merged in the Evergaol or before they were imprisoned. However, we fight a full Crucible Knight instead.

Of course, this is just my headcanon and there's a LOT of issues with this theory, but I thought it was interesting enough and didn't see anyone else point it out.

Low-key embarrassing it took me this long to finally browse the subreddit but I play a lot of Guardian and I realized recently that there's been a pretty noticeable gap in my knowledge, so I'm trying to fill in the blanks here.

Also just for brevity's sake, I'll be referring to "damage negation" as DN because I'm not typing that out every time.

I have three main questions here:

1. How useful is Successful Guarding Boosts DN?

Normally damage negations are anywhere from 20 to 40%, but when I see "Guarding boosts DN," the numbers seem abnormally low. 14, 19, and 24% seem awfully pitiful, especially in DON. I assume this is to account for every shield passively negating incoming elemental damage by at least 50% if you're using greatshields, but that leads me to my next question:

2. Does it stack with "Taking Damage Boosts DN?"

Self-explanatory.

3. How does "Taking damage boosts DN" work with guarding?"

This is the one question I'm most curious about. Does the DN kick in if you take damage while guarding? How does it work with guading?

Hello everybody,

A few weeks ago, a user revealed images of a new FRV-themed warbond called "Helldrivers." In it, stratagems such as the new FRV variants, Orbital Napalm Gatling Barrage, and a bunch of other stuff that looked to be legit.

That warbond is fake.

Eagle-eyed users found a few discrepancies in the images shared and came to conclusion that a large part of the warbond was created using AI-generated images. The original poster later admitted to fabricating the whole warbond for the sake of trolling.

Some of the items inside the warbond are real, datamined leaks. However, the warbond as a whole was confirmed to be fake. That doesn't mean those weapons and stratagems aren't real, but that AH had no plans (at the time) of making an FRV warbond and that the original poster only made it to stir up drama inside the community.

However, new leaks have come out about a new FRV-themed warbond that is apparently also called "Helldrivers."

This name is most likely a coincidence and is in no way related to the AI-generated leak.

Now, there's been a lot of backlash since people really don't want vehicles in warbonds, and for good reason. There's been a lot of speculation surrounding this warbond. People are asking if this is the real deal, if the leaks are real, if the warbond is cancelled, etc.

Simply put, we don't know. The warbond certainly looks to be real, complete with the formatting, Helldiver posing, and other related materials, but a few users have also pointed out discrepancies in the images suggesting AI manipulation.

These discrepancies could be chalked up to photo fidelity since those images are all screenshots and Reddit has shit compression, but the moderating team has been in contact with one of the original leakers and they have provided some pretty damning evidence. But considering that said leaker is also a staunch user of AI-generated images, we took it with a grain of salt, and so we advise you to do the same.

A lot of people are rightfully upset about this warbond's existence, but as a reminder, this is still unreleased content. There's already been a ton of speculation on AH trying to push for this warbond even after the Exosuit debacle, but considering the abnormal amount of time since the last warbond (52 days as of now), people still aren't quite sure if AH is scrapping the warbond, trying to put together a new warbond as a replacement, or pushing it out regardless, damned be the community outcry.

Since then, a lot more information has been coming out about this warbond. Stuff like capes, player cards, a new FRV model with an autocannon mounted on the back, booster icons and effects, etc. These assets will most likely be part of an FRV-themed warbond, but we still don't know if that warbond is still coming out or not.

Until AH makes an official announcement, remember that everything discussing the FRV warbond should be treated as speculation. Datamined leaks can certainly provide insight into content that's still in development, but they rarely provide context regarding AH's planned timeline. Just because something exists doesn't mean it's 100% guaranteed to happen.

Edit: As confirmed, the new FRVs will not be in a warbond. The reason for this is because both FRVs are confirmed to be rewards for this MO. So long as we win a majority of this current campaign, we'll get both for free, but it is highly unlikely for AH to put a MO reward into a warbond.

We'll keep an eye on this as new information becomes available and will try to keep you guys updated.

https://preview.redd.it/a17ic1z10b5h1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=5c8ff0bdd8e4591e366daf6192031c865bd666ae

Can't fucking believe this. AH is a bunch of greedy bastards who are TONE DEAF and DON'T care about what the community is asking for. Why else would they add something the community has been asking for?

And why did AH make a whole announcement post telling us why they didn't add any levels before? They said before they didn't add any levels because there would be NO accompanying progression changes, so now that they're adding new forms of progression, WHY are they adding levels now? Is it because they're trying to key jangle us?

NO, I did not read the whole post. I just scrolled down and saw a picture of the Helldiver standing at a console and read around it. I ONLY care about what I care about. What do you mean I need to READ to UNDERSTAND the announcement post????

Hello everybody,

As some of you might know, June is commonly known as Pride Month, Men's Mental Health Month, National PTSD Awareness month, and a whole plethora of other celebrations/observances. Unfortunately, there's been a number of rather concerning posts expressing some pretty concerning sentiments that us mods, quite frankly, just don't want to deal with. As such, we'll be making this announcement to make our policies VERY clear.

Rule 4: Sir, this is a Wendy's

As a rule, we do not allow any political or real-world issues on Unfiltered. This isn't because we want to "suppress" one side or because we believe one stance over another, but because those topics are complicated as all hell and we want to keep the sub focused on Helldivers. Of course, we allow historical comparison and examples, but those posts tend to be more strictly monitored.

While Pride Month and LGBTQ stuff are not something I can personally relate to as a straight man, there are quite a few people bemoaning how "those people" are trying to "push" their "ideologies" onto the sub (note the air quotes).

As a moderator, I can safely confirm the number of people doing so numbers in the single digits. We see every comment and post you guys make, so I can personally confirm that there are more complaints about people "pushing" for LGBTQ stuff in Helldivers than there are actual people doing so.

Yes, Helldivers is inherently political, satirical in every sense of the word, and showcases instances of fascism, authoritarianism, and almost every government type that ends in "ism," but that does NOT mean we support those political ideologies when we remove your post or comment.

As a mod, our job is keep the sub alive and clean, first and foremost. That's something the mod team has always expressed. You guys lead the conversation here, not the mods. We understand that, by the nature of Unfiltered, you guys want us to be as hands-off as possible, but if we have to step in and remove a few posts/comments so the sub doesn't get nuked, we will. We'd much rather have you guys bitch at us here in Unfiltered than not being able to bitch at all because the sub got banned.

Rule 5: Be a Good Citizen

When you post on Unfiltered, you are opening you and your post up for critique. If you don't want to get shit on, then don't post. As Rule 5 states, criticism and disagreements are core parts of this subreddit's philosophy and is allowed. This rule was intentionally worded to be as vague and open-ended as possible to foster meaningful, uncensored conversations.

That does not mean anyone who disagrees with you is automatically a member of some political or ideological group. However, some miscreants have taken advantage of the rule's laxness to post some HEINOUS shit. While disagreements are bound to happen and are expected as befitting the nature of an unfiltered subreddit, there is a VERY clear difference between disagreeing and spouting some straight up hate speech

The mods here have had to deal with this issue before, namely with racism, slurs, and now LGBTQ stuff. However, our stance remains the same. If you think someone is silly because you disagree with their statement, that's allowed. If you think someone is silly because you think they're making a mountain out of a molehill, that's allowed. But if you think someone is pushing a political ideology or whatever by supporting Pride Month, YOU are the problem.

If you think someone is overreacting by calling out a VERY real issue that's becoming more and more commonplace in this sub and your first reaction is to go "that problem doesn't exist," call them a slur, or immediately disparage their sentiments because it doesn't align with your worldview, congratulations, you are now what we call a "glazer." The only reason this issue was brought to light now is because it's Pride Month and we have a plethora of cockroaches crawling up from between the floorboards to say some of the most hateful language I've ever seen at each other.

We've seen way, way too many people feel insulted and attack other people for making these callouts. If your first thought when being called out is to feel attacked or insulted, and your first reaction is to type up an angry comment trying to disprove said callout or call them a slur, chances are, YOU are the problem, not the person calling you out.

As much as us mods want to be as hands-off as possible, we cannot, will not, and should not allow these kinds of sentiments to spread. Let's be honest, as the Unfiltered subreddit, we already attract the worst of the worst. Sure, some people are in here because they wanted to get away from all the LARP and yes-men in other subs. Some people are here because they want an honest, truly unfiltered opinion. And others are in here because they want to vent in a place where people won't judge (mostly).

And then you have the people who were banned from other subs/servers and all it takes is one glance at their profile to understand why they were banned.

As another user once mentioned, “If you treat others with intolerance, then others are no longer obligated to tolerate you. It’s a social contract, if you break it, then it no longer applies to you.”

So what is hate speech?

Hate speech has no official definition according to the google. However, the singular recognized characterization of hate speech that us moderators have agreed on is as thus:

"Hate speech is defined as any public communication, whether verbal, written, or symbolic, that attacks, insults, demeans, or disparages an individual or group based on inherent characteristics like race, religion, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation."

This definition was partially based on the United Nation's definition. Of course, based on that definition, literally the tamest of insults could be considered hate speech, so we obviously give you guys a LOT more leeway. However, several people have taken this freedom to spout "free speech."

Simply put, if you think you're being censored or suppressed for "free speech," consider the following:

• If your post/comment is being removed because you're telling a whole group of people to pipe down and that you don't care about them, YOU are the problem.
• If your post/comment is being removed because you're expressing an ideological philosophy commonly associated with a political ideology known for censoring or suppressing people, YOU are the problem.
• If your post/comment is being removed because you're harassing people and attacking them, YOU are the problem. Be the bigger person. Grow the fuck up, and either learn to take things on the chin, realize that it's an internet argument, or that downvotes are literally meaningless and you're arguing with someone you will never meet over a topic you will never bring up again.

There's been a few comments basically going "I don't want LGBTQ+ stuff to be put into Helldivers because a fascist government simply wouldn't allow those kinds of ideologies to be expressed!"

First things first, someone's sexual orientation is NOT an ideology. It is someone's fundamental right to feel emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction to other people. It is something deeply engrained into every human being. It is NOT a political ideology, some kind of foreign thought, or a lifestyle choice. If you feel otherwise, you're wrong, plain and simple.

Simply put, it is NOT hard to accept, tolerate, or even not giving a damn about someone else's sexual orientation. If you have to make a whole post/comment talking about how much you don't care about an internet stranger's sexual orientation, chances are you do care. You just don't want to accept them but you want other people to celebrate your intolerance.

Secondly, as another poster once said, we ALL belong under the flag of Super Earth, no matter what we look like, how we feel, or who we like. We are all Helldivers.

Sure, you may not like it when someone posts something you disagree with, but do you know how most people deal with it? You move on and ignore it. You don't need to understand or accept their message necessarily, but you do need to accept the fact that, in a sub that champions free speech, you're going to see things you won't agree with. Telling them to pipe down because they're wrong means you're going against what the sub stands for on a fundamental level.

Conclusion

In short, us mods want to be as hands-off as possible. We don't want to suppress anyone or dictate where the conversation goes. That's not what we want.

Our priority is to keep the sub alive, and if we have to step in time to time to do so, we will. As such, we will TEMPORARILY be a bit stricter on what goes on in the sub. Some of you may disagree with that decision, but if we have to choose between keeping a few bad apples or keeping the sub around, the choice is an easy one to make. We can’t justify sacrificing 250k members to satiate the wants and “needs” of a few.

If you feel like we're censoring or suppressing you for expressing your opinion, that's your right to feel that way. But in keep in mind that freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences.

If you feel like the mod team is "taking a side," that's your right to feel that way. But we'd much rather cultivate a community where everyone is welcome than to turn into an echo chamber where the same points are spouted over and over again.

If you feel like this statement was unnecessary, it absolutely was. There's a reason why this post was made to begin with.

Edit: If you're downvoting people because you don't like pro-pride stuff, hold the L. You don't speak for us, you don't represent us, and we most certainly don't stand with you.

Hello,

For the past 2-3 months, I've been working on a comprehensive list of how I would personally buff or change every single weapon in the game, as well as most stratagems, grenades, enemies, armor passives, and ship boosters. This is the eighth part of a series of posts I'll be making. You can find the other parts and their focus here:

Part 1: General/Universal Changes

Part 2: Status Effects, Fire, and Lasers

Part 3: Enemy Sizes

Part 4: Assault Rifles and Marksman Rifles

Part 5: SMGs, Shotguns, and Explosives

Part 6: Plasma, Laser, and Special Weapons

Part 7: Secondaries, Melee, and Grenades

In this part, I will be touching on all of the support weapons. However, before we start, I want to get a few things out of the way.

1. These changes are just my opinion.  
2. My philosophy on weapon design is that every weapon should have their own unique role and place in the sandbox.
3. There will be no direct nerfs whatsoever, with one exception.
4. This sheet is being made WITHOUT considering weapon customizations.
5. Realism will usually be the last thing I consider.

For these weapon changes, please remember the reworked armor and durability mechanics touched upon in Part 1. For those who need a quick reminder, here is a quick TLDR:

• Durability has been removed entirely
• If AP is greater than AV by at least 2, you do 125% damage and give out red hitmarkers (i.e. AP2 vs AP0). This will be referred to as a weapon’s “critical damage modifier.”
• If AP is greater than an AV by 1, you do 100% damage and give out red hitmarkers (i.e. AP2 vs AV1)
• If AP matches AV, you do 75% damage and give out white hitmarkers (AP2 vs AP2)
• If AP is less than AV by 1, you do 25% damage and give out white hitmarkers (AP2 vs AP3)
• If AP is less than AV by at least 2, you do no damage and give out deflection icons (AP2 vs AP4)

Now that that's out of the way, let's here into it here. Please feel free to leave feedback and criticism!

Support Weapons

Support Weapons, as a rule, tend to be highly specialized weapons, with each one serving a very specific niche in a Helldiver’s fireteam. As such, there should be no need to explain what role they serve since it should be self-explanatory.

Universal changes

• All non-backpack weapons should receive the ability to change their scopes. For example, the Stalwart will be able to change their scopes, but not something like the Recoilless Rifle.
• All backpack weapons will now be able to be reloaded using a teammate’s backpack, instead of needing to carry their respective ammo backpack for them.

Machine Gun

As the starting support weapon, the MG-43 is remarkably well-balanced and useful. Its current drawbacks are its stationary reload, high ammo consumption, and sluggish ergonomics. Since two of these have been part of the weapon’s identity since HD1, changes made to the MG-43 aim to make it a bit better to handle and use.

• Increase the damage from 95 to 115 (this is because it uses the same ammo as the Adjudicator so might as well double dip on that buff)
• Increase magazine size from 175 to 200.
• Decrease the reload speed from 4.5 seconds to 4 seconds
• Bonus recoil reduction and increased ergonomics while prone specifically. The gun has a bipod and is explicitly stated to perform best while stationary.
  • For reference, standing gives a recoil modifier of 100%, crouching gives 60%, and prone 40%. For bipod-mounted weapons specifically, going prone will reduce recoil while prone to 20% and increase ergonomics by 30%

AMR

It’s the AMR. It does what it says on the tin. Turn stuff into an orange/blue/oily cloud of death from really far away.

• Increased projectile speed from 880 m/s to 950 m/s
• Reduce drag factor from 0.3 to 0.1
• Bonus recoil reduction and increased ergonomics while prone specifically. The gun has a bipod and is explicitly stated to perform best while stationary.
  • For reference, standing gives a recoil modifier of 100%, crouching gives 60%, and prone 40%. For bipod-mounted weapons specifically, going prone will reduce recoil while prone to 20% and increase ergonomics by 30%
• Increase stagger force on enemies
• Bullets will now be able to penetrate enemies, albeit with reduced damage and “only” up to a range of 75m. Penetration can only occur once per bullet and only if the AV is less than the AP.
  • For example, shooting an enemy with AV4 will result in that one bullet only hitting that one target, but shooting an enemy with AV3 will result in the bullet punching through to do reduced damage to an enemy behind it
• Small units killed by the AMR will gib instantly upon death.

Surprisingly, the CS has a faster projectile speed than the AMR. While the IRL projectile is actually slower than what we have in-game, I feel this is a case of eschewing realism for gameplay purposes. Similarly, reducing its damage fall-off would help improve its role as the sniping weapon. The only weapons that should have no damage fall-off whatsoever are lasers, rocket-propelled projectiles, and the AMR. Initial drafts had the damage increased from 450 to either 475 or 500, but with the durability and armor changes, this would effectively accomplish the same task of allowing the AMR to take one less bullet to kill anything it needs two shots for while still keeping three shots for anything it needs three shots for.

Stalwart

• Increase stagger force on enemies within 10m.
• Increase spare magazines from 3 to 4
• Increase reload speed from 5.5 seconds to 4.5.
• Change default scope from Reflex Sight Mk2 to 1.5 Tube Dot.

The Stalwart is meant to act as a primary weapon in your support slot, allowing you to use more specialized primaries to compensate. Given that role, the Stalwart does a superb job. Considering the sheer amount of bullets you’re sending out, I find a slight buff to its stagger force reasonable since it’ll also help out a bit in close quarters. The Stalwart’s video preview has it equipped with a 1.5 Tube Dot sight, which is odd given that it uses the Reflex Sight Mk2 in game. Of course, you’re not exactly sniping anyone with this, but changing the sight to a 1.5 Tube Dot would mildly increase its effective range

EAT

• Decrease cooldown from 70 seconds (without upgrades) to 60
• Slightly decrease the arming time when switching to the EAT from 3 down to 2 seconds.

Recoilless Rifle

• Can no longer do your taxes for you.
• Otherwise, unchanged.

Flamethrower

• All flamethrower-type weapons will now have reworked damage fall-off calculations, with a maximum ramp-up of 125% at close range, 100% at medium range, and 75% at max range.
• Implement the “pushback mechanic” (for more details, please see above in the “Flame Weapons” section).
• Change status application to first apply “burning heavy,” then the normal “fire.”
  • “Burning heavy” is what the ONB, NEAT, and Eagle Napalm apply. Burning heavy inflicts significantly more damage than standard burning (200 DPS vs 100 DPS), but only lasts for 1 second after being afflicted before being replaced by normal fire
  • This effectively gives you 400 DPS for the first second, and 200 afterwards. This change will be unique to the Flamethrower, Cremator, and Lumberer. The Torcher and Crisper will only inflict normal burn.
• Increased spare canister count from 5 to 6.
• Increase starting canister count from 3 to 4
• Increase damage per tick from 2 to 3, increasing its DPS from 150 to 225

This change aims to make the Flamethrower function more similar to its iteration in HD1, having the same amount of DPS, DOT, and ammo capacity.

3/18/2026: As of the 1.006.100 update, flamethrowers can now slow down enemies! While it’s a modest slow up to 25% and only by keeping the stream on a single enemy, this is close enough to my original proposition, so a win’s a win in my book.

4/20/2026: As of the 1.006.100 update introducing the Creamator, I’ve decided to increase bump the DPS of the standard Flamethrower. I found it odd that the Flamethrower did the same amount of damage as the Crisper and Torcher when it’s a support weapon, so this change aims to help make taking it more meaningful. Right now, there’s no reason to bring the Flam-40 when the Torcher does the same thing but with slightly more frequent reloads.

Autocannon

• Increase damage in APHET mode from 325 projectile/150 explosive to 400/200.
  • Flak damage increased from 330 to 450

Self-explanatory, there’s not much the AC can do that other support weapons can’t. Its main strength is its versatility, being a jack of all trades but master of none. It can’t clear crowds as effectively as the GL, nor take on tanks like the RR, but it can do both reasonably well. The changes to reload mechanics already do wonders for the AC, so there’s not much I can change here without ruining the weapon. 

3/18/2026 Edit: Was not expecting a reload speed buff, but it feels pretty great!

Heavy Machine Gun

• Bonus recoil reduction and increased ergonomics while prone specifically. The gun has a bipod and is explicitly stated to perform best while stationary.
  • For reference, standing gives a recoil modifier of 100%, crouching gives 60%, and prone 40%. For bipod-mounted weapons specifically, going prone will reduce recoil while prone to 20% and increase ergonomics by 30%
• Increase magazine size from 100 to 150
• Bullets will now be able to penetrate enemies, albeit with reduced damage and only up to a range of 50m. Penetration can only occur once per bullet and only if the AV is less than the AP.
  • For example, shooting an enemy with AV4 will result in that one bullet only hitting that one target, but shooting an enemy with AV3 will result in the bullet punching through to do reduced damage to an enemy behind it
• Small units killed by the HMG will gib instantly upon death
• FRV ONLY: 
  • Increase ergonomics from 0 to 35, making it the same as the Adjudicator
  • Reduce vertical recoil from 55 to 12
  • Increase magazine size from 100 to 200
  • Increase spare magazines from 4 to 5

The point of these changes is to help separate the HMG from the Supply Pack. Given how powerful the HMG is supposed to be, it feels odd that you have to spend so much ammo shooting at one enemy when your ammo supply is already so limited. Given the changes to armor and durability, this is no longer as big of an issue, but the HMG should also be able to mow down hordes of chaff units, if not as efficiently as the MG or Stalwart. The MGs in general should trade mobility and handling for firepower, with Helldivers having a spectrum to choose from.

Airburst Rocket Launcher

• Reduce reload animation from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Flak mod’s proximity fuse now has a 0.15 second safety fuse that must pass before it can automatically explode unless it directly hits something

Commando

• Reduce cooldown time from 120 seconds to 90 seconds
• Increase damage from 1100 projectile/150 explosive to 1500 project/150 explosive
  • This will allow the Commando to take down heavies with one less rocket to specific weakpoints while still requiring two shots if you miss.
  • This makes it so you have effectively have 4 EATs if and only if you can hit your shots, rewarding skilled gameplay.

Railgun

• Increase damage ramp-up from 250% to 300%
• Increase armor penetration in unsafe mode to AP6 at +95% charge
• Increase stagger effect on enemies
• Include a warning sound effect when nearing 100%, same as the Epoch.
• Decrease drag factor from 0.3 to 0.1.
• Increase demolition force to 20
• Bullets will now be able to penetrate enemies, though the Railgun will differ slightly from other instances of overpenetration. 
  • Unique to the Railgun specifically, the amount of enemies that can be overpenetrated will be infinite. Furthermore, damage will not be reduced but rather AP. Shooting an enemy with AV5 will result in the projectile now having AP5 penetration, then AP4, then AP3, then AP2 before finally dropping to AP1. 
  • If AP > AV by at least 1, there will be no penetration decrease (AP5 vs AV4 will still keep an AP5 projectile)
  • If AP = AV, the projectile will penetrate and have one less AP (AP5 vs AV5 will result in an AP4 projectile)
  • If AP < AV, the projectile finally comes to a stop (AP5 vs AP6)
• As an example, a Railgun in safe mode will have AP5 penetration. Shooting an AV5 enemy will result in the projectile punching through to do AP4 penetration to anything behind the AV5 enemy. If the enemy is AP3, the projectile will continue to do AP4 penetration to an infinite amount of enemies until it hits an AV4 enemy, whereupon projectile penetration will decrease to AP3. This will continue until the projectile finally stops at AP1.

The Railgun and the AMR currently share a role in taking out heavily armored targets. However, I aim to differentiate the two. While the AMR is the safer, more consistent option given its range and accuracy, the Railgun should act as a higher risk, higher reward option, requiring more aggressive positioning and a risky charge-up for maximum effect. To sell that notion, I’ve increased the damage, demo force, and included a special penetration mechanic unique to the Railgun.

Spear

• Increase damage from 4000 projectile/200 explosive to 7000/400.
  • This will now allow it to one-shot Bile Titans anywhere on the body but will still require two shots to bring down Vox Engines and Factory striders
• Decrease the target criteria to only include Heavy units and above.
  • Specifically, Hulks will still be able to be targeted despite being classed as a “large” enemy and not a “heavy.” This is for QoL.
• Increase the amount of missiles in the backpack from 3 to 4
  • Predicted lol
• Slightly reduce cooldown time from 8 minutes to 7 minutes (un-upgraded)
• Increase lock-on range from 300m to 450m
• Improve tracking and lock-on feature. The Spear now uses center mass to lock on instead of whatever the fuck it uses now.

The Spear should act as THE ultimate anti-tank option, being able to turn Ultra-heavies and even Massive units into mincemeat (with enough ammo, of course). Not even heavy units should be something you have to use the Spear on given how powerful the Spear should be. Given how you have to sacrifice a backpack slot, can only target a small selection of units, and requires positioning and distance to use effectively, it is unfortunately outclassed by the RR. The RR should act as the most consistent option, with the Spear acting as the guaranteed option. Given its low ammo supply, each shot needs to count, which means sinking more than one or two rockets into an enemy means you’ve already sunk more resources than you can afford.

WASP Launcher

• Projectiles will now exit the weapon barrel in a consistent pattern, with the micromissiles launching up before homing in on their targets, much like the Spear.
  • I get that the random projectile deviations is part of the weapon’s identity from Killzone, but this makes it inordinately difficult to use in environments where you’re next to a wall, which is all the god-damn time in city and cliff maps.
• Increase damage from 200/600 ballistic/explosive to 250/750 in Burst mode.
• Drastically increase explosive damage from 600 to 900 in Artillery Mode
  • Increase inner blast radius from 3m to 6m
  • Increase outer blast radius from 5m to 10m
  • Increase shockwave radius from 7 to 14m
  • Increase inner blast radius damage from 600 to 900 
  • Increase inner blast radius damage from 599-0 to 900-200
  • Damage now ignores terrain cover entirely, meaning even if an enemy is hiding behind a rock, they’ll be damaged.

The buffs to Burst fire means a single micro-missile can consistently one-shot medium enemies while still taking 2 shots for large enemies like Bug Commanders. Tankier units like Hulks and Chargers will still need at least a full cylinder to take down, though this will be much more consistent. The artillery’s main drawback is its small AoE, inconsistent damage, and some enemies being small enough to avoid the projectiles…which kind of defeats the point. The buffs to Artillery mode means all units in the blast radius will take a minimum of 200 AP4 explosive damage in a larger area more consistently.

Grenade Launcher

• Increase inner blast radius from 3.5m to 4.5m
• Increase outer blast radius from 7.5m to 8.5m
• Increase shockwave radius from 8m to 10m

With the GL’s most recent buff, there’s literally nothing I can do or add without nerfing it or  making it blatantly overpowered. As such, the simplest solution is to lean into its crowd-clearing capabilities even more. Initial drafts had a damage decrease from 400 to 350, but since explosive damage has already been slightly buffed in this balance sheet, I find touching damage values to be unnecessary. 

3/18/2026 Edit: As of Patch 1.006.100, the GL’s AP4 penetration has been reduced back down to AP3. A justified nerf given how it overpowered other support weapons, but the buffs to its blast radius should remain the same.

Laser Cannon

• Increased the “magazine capacity” from 12.5 seconds to 14 seconds.
• Massively increase its DPS from 350 to 700. It should be able to instantly kill chaff units such as Scavengers, Hunters, and Troopers with just a glance. Larger enemies will naturally need more focus to take down. 
• The Laser Cannon now has an “armor melting mechanic.” Sustained focus fire to a specific body part on an enemy will result in permanently lowering the AV for that specific body part by 1, as well as lowering its health pool by the body part’s health amount and dealing 50% of the body part’s health pool to the overall health pool.
  • The time to melt will be dependent on AP, with higher AP values taking less time. Actual values have yet to be considered since I’m not a game developer, but my logic is higher AP means higher intensity lasers, which means higher heat generation.
• Implement a new alternative firing mode where the Laser Cannon can be “overclocked.”
  • Overclocking the Laser Cannon grants it AP5 penetration, 1050 DPS, and faster fire build-up at the cost of building up heat twice as fast, resulting in a maximum firing time of 7 seconds instead of 14 seconds
  • Running out of “ammo” in Overlock mode will cause the battery to explode, doing 75 flat explosive damage and destroying the weapon, as well as setting you (anyone else around you) on fire.
• Increase the range from 200m to 1000m, making it consistent with other laser weapons. 
  • 3/18/2026: Would you look at that?
• The time it takes to set enemies on fire will now depend on AP. Unarmored, fleshy sections will naturally catch on fire faster than heavier, high AV, armor plates.
• Fix the hitmarker bug showing “bullets” ricocheting when there is no such ricochet.

Arc Thrower

• Increase arc damage from 250 per bolt to 350
• Decrease charging time from 1 second to 0.8 seconds
• You can now hold the fire button to charge and fire continuously.
• Fix the bug where corpses and bushes can block arc tendrils
• Allow the Arc Thrower to gib all small enemies and Terminid Warriors specifically, regardless of damage.
• Increase the stun build-up per shock so that it can stun small and medium units in one shot, large units in 2, and heavies in 3. Ultra-heavies will remain immune.
• In addition to stun’s existing properties of freezing enemies temporarily, enemies stunned will now permanently suffer from slower movement speeds, increased reaction times, and decreased attack speed. In the case of the Automatons and Illuminate, this will also result in lower accuracy to reflect their systems/brains being fried.

Quasar Cannon

• Reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds. 
• Just for fun, Quasar Cannon can now set enemies on fire.

 

A 10 second cooldown is way too short given how much better players have gotten, but 15 seconds is a bit too long in my opinion. The Quasaw’s main draw is that it has infinite ammo and range and doesn’t take up a backpack spot at the cost of an above-average “reload” time and needing to charge up. With how many armored units can appear now, the Quasar is simply outpaced and overshadowed by other AT options for considerably less opportunity cost. This change serves to help even the field a little bit.

Sterilizer

Buckle up, this’ll be a doozy.

• Will now apply the “Gas Mk2” and “Gas Confusion Mk2” effect on the stream itself (the Sterilizer already does this, I’m just including this “change” for explanatory reasons)
• Gas clouds will now linger on the ground for up to 15 seconds, depending on how long you’ve been spraying for. These gas clouds will inflict the “Gas Mk1” and “Gas Confusion Mk1” effect.
• For reference Gas Mk1 and Gas Confusion Mk1 will last a total of 8 seconds while Gas Mk2 and Gas Confusion Mk2 will now a total of 12 seconds
• Increased DPS from 30 to 90.
  • This should be a mirror of the Flamethrower, where the Flamethrower specializes in raw damage, the Sterilizer should focus on support but still capable of killing in a pinch
• Increased tank capacity from 100 to 150.
• Gas Mk2 now applies the Acid Storm weather effect, which reduces AV1 by 1, lowers resistance to fire, and causes them to take 33% extra damage.
• Enemies will now be blinded and slowed by 50%. To compensate, enemies can and will still attack, albeit blindly and in random directions. This is to simulate them panicking or shortcircuiting, so they’ll attack anything and everything indiscriminately.
  • To compensate, enemies will also ignore sounds or alarms created by enemies under the effects of gas.
• Small enemies such as Pouncers, Scavengers, and maybe Hunters killed by Gas Mk2 will have their bodies “melt” away by gibbing or popping. This way, the corpses don’t get in the way as much.

Not a huge buff for the Sterilizer. Uh… just some minor bug fixes… a few QoL changes. You know?

One True Flag

Ah…I’m sure people will have absolutely no arguments over this whatsoever.

• Increase melee damage from 200 to 300. 
• Change the swing animation: 
  • Normal melee attacks will be the usual stab
  • ADS melee “attacks” will have the Helldiver wave the flag, buffing other Helldivers nearby and gallivanting them.
  • You can still wave the flag normally by inspecting your weapon while the flag is equipped
• The flag can now be dual-wielded. You can carry the flag in one hand and your sidearm in the other, assuming your sidearm is one-handed. Inspecting your weapon will result in you inspecting your firearm. Switching to the flag specifically will two-hand it and allow you to wave and inspect the flag.
• Flag now has a reduced cooldown from 8 minutes to 3 minutes
• Introducing the Rally mechanic: 
  • If a Helldiver is waving the flag, all Helldivers within 15m will receive a 25% increase to their stamina recovery speed, 15% damage resistance, and reduces the “maniacal shooting VO” timer from 6 seconds to 3 seconds. The buff will last 30 seconds with a 45 second cooldown, starting from when the buff is first applied, meaning the cooldown is effectively 15 seconds. Waving the flag again will not refresh the effect, but will give the effect to any Helldivers who unfortunately miss the first rally.
  • This is to simulate a patriotic adrenaline rush, with Helldivers fighting even harder and shrugging off wounds that would normally incapacitate them
• Alternatively, a Helldiver can plant the flag by dropping it, whereupon it will automatically induce the Rally buff in all nearby Helldivers. However, the flag can now be destroyed. Enemies, especially the Automatons, can and will go out of their way to destroy it.
  • The Planted Flag will have about the same amount of health as an unupgraded sentry, with an increased damage vulnerability to fire damage.
  • If the flag is destroyed, all Helldivers within the buff radius will have their stamina bar temporarily zeroed out, similar to how Ice Plants and Moor Shrooms can temporarily slow you down.
  • All Helldivers within the buff radius will also be forced to use the “terrified but still patriotic VO” for a short time, regardless of the situation
  • These are the voice lines where your Helldiver sounds considerably more distressed and/or panicked. Yes, that is the internal file name for those voice lines lol
  • This introduces a “risk and reward” system where you can sacrifice a single Helldiver’s firepower for more consistent buffs, or a higher-risk procedure where all Helldivers can fight at the same time but at the cost of having their morale lowered when the flag is destroyed. This also allows you to use the Flag as a temporary distraction as the enemies try to destroy their natural enemy: democracy.

De-Escalator

• Speedloader added when reloading on an empty cylinder
• Each grenade will now inflict stun in an 8m radius around the impact point in addition to the arcs.
  • Think of each grenade having a stun grenade explosion wherever they land.
• In addition to stun’s existing properties of freezing enemies temporarily, enemies stunned will now permanently suffer from slower movement speeds, increased reaction times, and decreased attack speed. In the case of the Automatons and Illuminate, this will also result in lower accuracy to reflect their systems/brains being fried.

Imma be honest, I have NO idea how this weapon works from a mechanics perspective. From what I’ve seen, most issues with this gun come from status effects not applying because of the host-client bug. Assuming that’s fixed, I still have no idea how damage is calculated with this gun. As such, I’m not gonna touch it in case it breaks something, and I’ll just add the stun grenade’s heavy stun to the impact point so the De-Escalator can act more of, you know, a de-escalator tool police officers might use and to help it fulfill a more supportive role while still being able to mulch heavy units.

Epoch

https://preview.redd.it/2gpbb0qvyj3h1.png?width=1092&format=png&auto=webp&s=a2ecb00e1b5cf88b859dabf48a666a6ef49444e7

• Increase magazine size from 3 shots to 4.
• Increase maximum damage limit on charged shots from 800 to 950
• Remove the range limit on the Epoch’s projectiles, though the slower projectile speed, arc, and drag factor will naturally limit the Epoch’s effectiveness at range.
• Increase charged inner blast radius from 3m to 4m
• Increase charged outer blast radius from 5m to 12m
• Increase charged shockwave radius from 5m to 16m
• Uncharged shots will remain unchanged.
• +95% charged shots will now leave behind a puddle of hazardous plasma that can slow down Helldivers and enemies that walk through it, as well as setting them on fire.

The point of these changes is to increase the Epoch’s effectiveness against crowds of chaff units while increasing the reward of its charged shot against heavily damaged units. The Epoch is in a weird spot breakpoint-wise where it takes a minimum of two shots to kill most heavy or ultra-heavies, yet the weapon only has 3 shots per battery. Bumping that up to four but keeping the total spare magazines the same would help improve the weapon’s sustainability in combat while still keeping its limited ammo supply a constant factor. As a weapon with a naturally high skill floor on account of its disastrous consequences if mishandled, the Epoch should naturally push players to get the most out of their limited ammo supply instead of rewarding mediocre aim and charging.

Speargun

• Will now apply the “Gas Mk2” and “Gas Confusion Mk2” effect on the projectile itself
  • Gas Mk2 now applies the Acid Storm weather effect, which reduces AV1 by 1, lowers resistance to fire, and causes them to take 33% extra damage.
• Gas clouds from the projectile will now linger for up to 15 seconds. These gas clouds will inflict the “Gas Mk1” and “Gas Confusion Mk1” effect.
• Small enemies such as Pouncers, Scavengers, and maybe Hunters killed by Gas Mk2 will have their bodies “melt” away by gibbing or popping. This way, the corpses don’t get in the way as much, assuming they don’t get popped instantly from the projectile itself.

NEAT

• Decreased cooldown from 140 seconds to 90 seconds.

Considering that you get two of these and the effects linger just as long as the ONB, I find it more than reasonable that the NEAT have a longer cooldown period than the EAT, despite its lowered effectiveness against tanks.

Solo Silo

• Increase demolition force to 50 
• Increase explosive damage from 2500/1500 to 5000/3000
• Increase inner blast radius from 10m to 15m
• Increase outer blast radius from 25m to 35m
• Increase shockwave radius from 35m to 50m
• Stratagem Jammer pulses will now interrupt Solo Silo targeting systems, causing them to veer off target and away from the Jammer (to keep the BalanceDivers happy)
  • To circumvent this, you now either need to time the missile strike so it connects between pulses, pray to the RNG gods, or keep the laser sight on the Jammer until the missile connects.

Maxigun

• Increase the damage from 95 to 115.
• Increase ammo capacity 1000 to 1500
  • While Patch 1.006.100 increased the ammo capacity from 750 to 1000, the new RPM buff necessitates more ammo overall.
• Increase RPM from 1500 to 2500
• Increase ammo box resupply from 200 to 300
• ADS’ing will now have you preemptively rev up the Maxigun, similar to how Heavy TF2 works in TF2
• The Maxigun now requires 0.87 seconds to rev up and down
  • This is to encourage smart and careful positioning while punishing players for playing in a bad spot. If you die because you get caught while revved up, that’s a skill issue 80% of the time.
• You can now dive while spinned up, revving up and revving down, but not while firing.
  • To clarify, the moment you stop firing, you will be able to dive. Unlike other weapons, where you can dive while shooting, the Maxigun will require you to stop shooting before you can dive. If you want to walk normally, you have to wait for the spindown to finish. Diving animation-cancels this spindown instantly
• All Helldivers will receive a minor resistance to flinching and knockback while spun up. This will stack with armor passives and boosters, if applicable.
• You can now walk (albeit at the same speed as crawling while prone) while firing IF you have the Rock Solid armor passive equipped.
• Reduce muzzle blur and smoke effects
• Bullets will now be able to penetrate enemies, albeit with reduced damage. Penetration can only occur once per bullet and only if the AV is less than the AP.
  • For example, shooting an enemy with AV3 will result in that one bullet only hitting that one target, but shooting an enemy with AV2 will result in the bullet punching through to do reduced damage to an enemy behind it
• Increased stagger force on enemies within 15m.
• Small units are now insta-gibbed when being killed by the Maxigun specifically
• Fix the issue of corpses blocking bullets

3/18/2026 Edit: The Maxigun actually got its magazine capacity increased from 750 to 1000, which is basically what I proposed but without the rest of my propositions.

Defoliation Tool

• Remove this garbage from the game
• Increase melee damage from 450 DPS to 500 DPS
• Increased audio profile while weapon is active (you have a revved up chainsaw, is it any surprise you won’t be stealthy?)
• Change the swing animation: 
  • Normal melee attacks will start with the usual side-to-side swings
  • ADS’ing will have your Helldiver rev up the chainsaw, holding it out in front of them with an active hitbox that does 120 DPS. Attacking while ADSing will have have your Helldiver press the chainsaw into whatever’s in front of them for 500 DPS that starts from AP4 and increases to AP6. Clicking the melee bind will have your Helldiver swing it side-to-side, like it does currently.
  • Increase stun effect from “stun small” to “stun large.”
  • This is not a true stun like the Pacifier or Halt, but rather a way to ensure targets remain stuck in place for you to do your work. As such, it will not have the buffed versions of that status effect

Imma be honest, I’ve never used this weapon. I don’t like it, I don’t care for it, and I don’t want to try and understand it. From what I can tell, most issues stem with you needing to work the camera a certain way to make sure the Chainsaw stays on target, and that’s too much work for me to even consider balancing around. As such, change is simple. Hold the chainsaw out in front of you. If you’ve played with L4D2’s chainsaw, this should feel familiar.

C4 Pack

• You no longer need to switch firing modes in order to detonate placed charges. Instead, pressing the “backpack” key will detonate charges.
• Implement a linear demolition force scaling, where one C4 naturally has a demo force of 30, two C4’s increase the demo force to 40, and 3 C4’s to increase the demolition force to 50, and 4 or more to increase the demolition force to 60
• Fix the bug causing enemies to instantly know where you are as soon as you throw a brick.

Yes, this means you can now eliminate Jammers and Gunship Factories, at the cost of nearly half your supply of explosives, which is more than fair in my opinion

Breaching Hammer

• Increase demo force to 40, allowing it to destroy city walls and Fabricators in one hit
• Increase damage from 300 melee/2100 explosive to 300/2250
  • This will allow it one-shot War Strider legs and both Charger variants anywhere on the body
• Change the swing animation: 
  • Normal melee attacks will now use the non-explosive side of the hammer
  • ADS melee attacks will KABOOM

3/18/2026 Edit: Patch 1.006.100 actually increased the damage from 300/2100 to 300/2200, which is actually surprisingly close with my original proposition. The extra 50 damage would’ve accounted for some variance and give players some leeway, but AH wants to keep the bulk of the damage in a solid hit to center mass, which I can’t disagree with either.

Leveller

• No changes needed

Belt-Fed Grenade Launcher

• Increase ammo capacity from 120 to 150 pipes
• Increase ammo box resupply from 20 to 30
• Increase inner blast radius from 2m to 4m
• Increase outer blast radius from 4m to 8m
• Increase shockwave radius from 5.5m to 11m
• Increase explosive damage from 150 to 250.
  • This allows the BFGL to kill units such as Warriors, Devastators, and Hunters in a single direct hit while splash damage can kill in two. This also drastically increases its TTK against larger units given changes to explosive damage.

If the GL is meant to act as a chaff unit shredder with the ability to tank shred as a bonus, then the BFGL should act as a tank shredder with the ability to shred chaff units as a bonus. Giving up a backpack slot is a heavy ask, and considering how underpowered the BFGL is with that requirement, buffing its ammo capacity, damage, and blast radius is the obvious fix. Since AH also confirmed that the BGFL was never intended to have shrapnel, I decided to follow their line of reasoning and not incorporate it either, though the buffs the BFGL received will hopefully make up for it.

3/18/2026 Edit: The 1.006.100 patch increased magazine capacity from 100 to 120 pipes, and with the nerf to the normal GL, the BFGL feels a lot better to use. The other propositions should still be added, but they’re no longer as necessary.

Cremator

• All flamethrower-type weapons will now have reworked damage fall-off calculations, with a maximum ramp-up of 125% at close range, 100% at medium range, and 75% at max range.
• Implement the “pushback mechanic” (for more details, please see above in the “Flame Weapons” section).
• Change status application to first apply “burning heavy,” then the normal “fire.”
  • “Burning heavy” is what the ONB, NEAT, and Eagle Napalm apply. Burning heavy inflicts significantly more damage than standard burning (200 DPS vs 100 DPS), but only lasts for 1 second after being afflicted before being replaced by normal fire
  • This effectively gives you 400 DPS for the first second, and 200 afterwards. This change will be unique to the Flamethrower, Cremator, and Lumberer. The Torcher and Crisper will only inflict normal burn.
• Increase ammo capacity from 500 to 750
• Increase damage per tick from 3 to 4, increasing DPS from 225 to 300.

Bullet Storm

• Increase ammo capacity from 300 to 360

Miscellaneous Notes

With durability and armor being removed, this drastically makes a multitude of weapons more viable. As such, many weapons will not receive direct buffs or changes due to the removal of durability and armor rework buffing them indirectly.

While some of these changes may be seen as powercreep and/overpowered-ness, I tried to keep each change as balanced as possible, relying on quality over quantity and leaning into each weapon’s respective strengths and/or identity

NOTE: As I mentioned in the status effects section, I don’t always have access to all the data weapons use. If I say something like “XYZ weapon should receive a slight increase to its reload speed or damage,” I’m not being purposely vague or whatever. I’m just saying XYZ should receive a buff, though how much of a buff is still up in the air.

Hello everybody,

Given recent events involving AI-generated content and the intentional spreading of misinformation (aka disinformation), the moderating team has (finally) decided to update Rule 6: "No False Intel" as per popular request.

Effective immediately, we will no longer allow any unapproved AI-generated content (more info down below). Posts containing leaks or speculatory information must be marked accordingly and must be supported by concrete evidence. Otherwise, they may be marked as misinformation and removed.

Now, some of you might've noticed the "unapproved" in that last paragraph? What does this mean?

Simply put, if you want to post something that contains AI-generated content, you must first reach out to the mod team for approval before you can post. Once you get approval and make the post, the mod team will mark said post as AI-generated. This is to help curb down on the amount of slop spam and misinformation that's becoming more and more common nowadays, unfortunately.

A few posts will slip undoubtedly through, but with this new approval system, this means you guys should see less slop.

However, it will take time for these changes to be reflected in the sidebar ruleset.

u/HelldiverSA, the creator and lead mod of this sub, is currently away. However, when they shifted perms around to give some of the mod team added perms, they also kinda sorta bungled flair and ruleset perms, which means none of the active mods now can edit or update any flairs or rulesets. Once they get back, we'll make it a priority to update those items.

So In essence, here are the things we plan on updating as soon as we get the chance:

• Rule 6 to reflect the new changes
• Editing the "miss-info" tag to be more visible and easily noticed
• A new approval system for AI-posts

As always, if you guys have any questions or concerns, feel free to leave them down in the comments or contact us directly, either through DMs or modmail.

Hello,

For the past 2-3 months, I've been working on a comprehensive list of how I would personally buff or change every single weapon in the game, as well as most stratagems, grenades, enemies, armor passives, and ship boosters. This is the seventh part of a series of posts I'll be making. You can find the other parts and their focus here:

Part 1: General/Universal Changes

Part 2: Status Effects, Fire, and Lasers

Part 3: Enemy Sizes

Part 4: Assault Rifles and Marksman Rifles

Part 5: SMGs, Shotguns, and Explosives

Part 6: Plasma, Laser, and Special Weapons

In this part, I will be touching on secondary weapons, melee weapons, and grenades. However, before we start, I want to get a few things out of the way.

1. These changes are just my opinion.  
2. My philosophy on weapon design is that every weapon should have their own unique role and place in the sandbox.
3. There will be no direct nerfs whatsoever, with one exception.
4. This sheet is being made WITHOUT considering weapon customizations.
5. Realism will usually be the last thing I consider.

For these weapon changes, please remember the reworked armor and durability mechanics touched upon in Part 1. For those who need a quick reminder, here is a quick TLDR:

• Durability has been removed entirely
• If AP is greater than AV by at least 2, you do 125% damage and give out red hitmarkers (i.e. AP2 vs AP0). This will be referred to as a weapon’s “critical damage modifier.”
• If AP is greater than an AV by 1, you do 100% damage and give out red hitmarkers (i.e. AP2 vs AV1)
• If AP matches AV, you do 75% damage and give out white hitmarkers (AP2 vs AP2)
• If AP is less than AV by 1, you do 25% damage and give out white hitmarkers (AP2 vs AP3)
• If AP is less than AV by at least 2, you do no damage and give out deflection icons (AP2 vs AP4)

Now that that's out of the way, let's here into it here. Please feel free to leave feedback and criticism!

Secondary Weapons

In general, secondary weapons fulfill one of three options. They are either focused on utility, as an emergency backup option, or as a diet version of other weapons. As a rule, utility secondaries should offer options other don’t or can’t, backup options should focus on taking care of whatever’s in front of you when your other options are ineffective or unavailable, and “diet weapons” as I like to call them should open up your loadout versatility, allowing you to make up for blindspots in your loadout. Some secondaries will naturally cover two or more of these categories, while others are solely specialized in one. The purpose of this balance sheet is to lean into each weapon’s strength and role while avoiding diminishing its effectiveness in other areas.

Pistols

Peacemaker

Unfortunately, the Peacemaker has been sidelined pretty hard since the game’s launch. However, that’s not to say it’s a bad weapon, per se. Offering 100 damage in a high ergo, 15 round magazine with 1500 DPS is nothing to scoff at. Its only major flaw is that it’s outshadowed by other options that are either more versatile, more damaging, or more unique which I feel is not a fault of the Peacemaker itself and more so a case of other secondaries having more distinct identities. As such, I aim to give the Peacemaker some of its old character back.

• Reintroduce the “burst” firing mode from HD1.
• Decrease drag factor from 1.2 to 0.6

As the starting secondary, the Peacemaker serves its purpose as a reliable sidearm that you whip out when things get dicey and you’re out of ammo in your primary. However, given that other secondaries outshadow it, giving back its HD1 burst firing mode as an alternative firing mode would help the Peacemaker re-earn its identity as a reliable sidearm capable of a surprising amount of burst damage in a pinch.

Redeemer

The Redeemer ought to be the ultimate “oh shit” weapon when being swarmed by chaff units. Given how it shares this niche with the Buchwhacka, the Redeemer trades higher single target damage in favor of bursting down hordes of chaff units. In that, the Redeemer fulfills its role exceptionally. As such, changes will be made to reinforce this role a bit better.

• Increase stagger force on enemies within 6m.
• Removed the “semi-auto” firing mode.
• Increased magazine size from 31 to 38.
• Slightly decreased sway modifier while moving.
• Decrease drag factor from 1.2 to 0.6

To keep its role as chaff sprayer, I decided to increase its magazine side and remove the single fire mode entirely, because…why? Why does it need it? Yes, I know the IRL MAC-10 is what this weapon is based on and they only have 32 rounds max, but getting a magazine size increase would help solidify the Redeemer as the ultimate “get these fucking Hunters off me” option. The slight stagger buff would also help with clearing hordes of bugs nipping at your heels as well, with the same logic as the Stalwart and Lib-Carbine, albeit not as strongly.

Senator

The Big Iron. Probably the most iconic and memed weapon in a Helldiver’s arsenal. The Senator offers extremely high damage per shot and terrifyingly high burst damage at the cost of only having 6 shots in the chamber and a slow reload. It serves its role as a pocket AMR well and is well-balanced given its advantages and disadvantages. Changes made to it will mostly focus on QoL changes.

• Decrease drag factor from 1.2 to 0.8
• Increase the RoF from 200 to 250
• New firing mode: “fan the hammer.” Helldivers can rapid fire the Senator at 500 RPM for maximum DPS at the cost of immensely high recoil, inaccuracy, and all your bullets in the chamber
  • The ultimate “fuck this thing in front of me right now” option
• Increase the reload speed
• Overhaul the Senator’s reload mechanics. If there is only one bullet left in the chamber, the Helldiver will now discard that bullet as well in favor of using the speed loader. If there are more than two bullets left in the chamber, the Helldiver will reload as usual. This slightly nerfs the Senator’s ammo economy in favor of faster reloads across the board.

The Senator is already limited at range due to its lack of scope, so having a 1.2 drag factor seems a bit overkill and unnecessary. Increasing RoF from an okay 200 to a crisper 250 helps the weapon feel more responsive in close-quarter situations, and the increased reload speed and reworked reloading mechanic helps in maintaining the weapon’s uptime. The new “fan the hammer” firing mode is purely for fun, however, and is more of a personal change than anything else.

Verdict

Basically the Peacemaker but better. The Verdict acts as an in-between between the Peacemaker and the Senator, having respectable damage output and magazine capacity while not exceeding either weapons in those regards. It works perfectly fine as a sidearm given its high RoF and reload speed and is commonly seen as an improved version of the Peacemaker.

• Decrease drag factor from 1.2 to 0.6
• Increase stagger force

The Verdict is, for all intents and purposes, surprisingly powerful for it brings to the table. Sharing the same caliber as the Reprimand, it certainly has the damage to be competitive with the Senator, though the Senator will always outclass it due to its higher armor penetration. However, given that the Verdict’s primary flaw is “it’s not the Senator,” I think that’s the best flaw a sidearm can have in HD2. Decreasing the drag factor gives it a bit more range and lets it shine in its role as a medium enemy killer.

Warrant

The Warrant is a cool concept held back by mediocre stats and execution. In theory, the autolock, guided ammunition, and lack of damage falloff makes it seem like the ultimate “fire-and-forget” weapon, but in practice, it’s small magazine size, low damage per burst, slow bullet speed, and inability to lock onto weakpoints turns the Warrant into an inferior Verdict with slower bullets.

• Increase damage from 80 to 100.
• Increase magazine size from 13 to 16 (Increases effective bursts from 4 to 5 while still allowing tactical reloads)
• Increase projectile speed from 285 m/s to 380 m/s
• You can now hold down the trigger to fire automatically in bursts of 3, albeit with a slight pause in between bursts.

OR

• Turn the Warrant into Titanfall’s Smart Pistol: 
• Increase magazine size from 13 to 18
• Increase projectile speed from 285 to 420 m/s
• Remove the ability to use non-guided projectiles entirely
• The Increase damage from 80 to 120
• The Warrant will now be able to calculate exactly how many bullets are needed to kill an enemy, up to a maximum of 5 bullets
  • For example, if the Warrant detects a Warrior needs 2 bullets, it’ll fire 2 bullets. If the Warrant detects the Warrior is already wounded, it’ll only fire 1 bullet.
• The Warrant can now lock onto 5 separate targets at a time
  • Holding down the trigger will fire the weapon at full-auto, with each individual bullet automatically seeking out their targets
• Might break the Spear /s

Socom

Honestly, the only reason players seem to avoid the Socom is because it fails at the one thing that separates it from other sidearms, that being a dedicated stealth option. As such, decreasing its audio profile helps it succeed in that role. Given that the Peacemaker and Verdict both fill the role of the mag-dump secondary, I’ve decided that the Socom should be a combination between the Peacemaker’s high capacity but (relatively) low damage and the Verdict’s high damage, armor piercing shots but comparatively lower magazine capacity. As such, the Socom will have higher damage per shot, but lower armor penetration to sell the notion that this is best used to pick off isolated chaff units.

• Decrease audio profile from 15 meters to 8 meters
• Decrease vertical recoil from 10.00 to 5.00
• Decrease drag factor from 1.2 to 0.6
• Increase damage from 125 to 150
• Edit the reload animation to better match that of the Automag from Halo 3: ODST

Given how the Socom is essentially a Peacemaker with higher damage per bullet, it does technically outclass it, but given that the Peacemaker and Verdict work better as a magdump-esque weapons, the Socom should be unique in that it should be able to eliminate chaff units in one-shot, perfect for stealth operations and rewarding disciplined precision. To facilitate this, I’ve opted to decrease the vertical recoil to make it function more similar to its performance in ODST.

Veto

Since it fires jet-propelled rounds like the Dominator, I decided to go and make the Veto into a lite-Dominator, aka it’s now a fucking Bolt Pistol. The same armor stripping mechanic will be present, though it won’t be as powerful since it’s a pistol.

• Increase damage from 105 to 150
• Now deals 450 “durability” damage to armored body parts
• The Veto now has the unique property of bypassing armor entirely, meaning you will always do full damage to your target, regardless of AV. To compensate, the Veto will not have access to the universal 125% critical damage modifier other weapons have, being hard-locked at a constant 100% damage modifier.
• The Veto now has a unique “armor breaking” mechanic, similar to the Dominator Against enemies where armor parts have their own health pool, the Dominator will now deal extreme damage to these armored body parts. Damage dealt to these armored parts, however, will not transfer any damage over to the main health pool underneath.

These changes aim to make it like a pseudo-Dominator, allowing consistent access to stripping armor from heavy units if you have no AT options available.

Melee

As should be common knowledge by now, melee combat in HD2 is more of a novelty and gimmick than an actual, viable combat strategy. Melee in shooter games have always been more of a last-resort option, and this should be no different in HD2 given how lethal enemy units are in general. 

However, this is not to say they should be entirely useless. The risk-reward factor will naturally be disproportionately higher, but melee weapons should serve the purpose of clearing out any unwanted presence within your personal space. As they are now, melee weapons lack any sort of meaningful mechanics that would give them an edge in combat. 

Of course, HD2’s game engine wasn’t designed with these mechanics in mind, nor was melee combat considered in the overall gameplay loop outside of pistolwhipping the occasional Hunter that gets too close, so I’m not going to go and implement complicated parries, blocking, and stuff like that. HD2 isn’t that type of game, nor should it try to be something it’s not. 

(Though it would be dope for there to be a QTE where your diver catches a Hunter’s tongue to rip that stupid fucker’s head clean off, a la Space Marines 2.)

Universal Melee Changes:

• All melee weapons will receive a substantial damage buff. Melee weapons should be able to one-shot all small enemies, two-shot medium enemies (assuming their AP is high enough), and tickle larger enemies if you don’t hit the right spot. 
• Due to changes to durability and armor, melee weapons will have their own unique damage modifier: 
• If the AP is greater than an enemy’s AV by at least 2, the weapon does 200% damage (i.e. AP3 vs AP1)
• If the AP is greater than an enemy’s AV by 1, the weapon does 150% damage (i.e. AP3 vs AP2)
• If the AP matches an enemy’s AV, the weapon does 100% damage (AP3 vs AP3)
• If the AP is less than an enemy’s AV by 1, the weapon does 0% damage (AP3 vs AP4)
• Melee weapons should be reserved for fending off chaff units and as a last resort against larger enemies. If you’re gonna die, go down swinging.
• Melee weapons will now have two different “modes.” One while swinging normally (either without ADSing or with the melee bind), and one while ADSing. This second mode while ADSing will have a unique trait or moveset specific to each weapon.
  • This change will only apply if both hands are free, i.e. not carrying anything. If you are carrying something, the moveset will be locked to the normal moveset.

Please note that I’m not particularly experienced at melee combat in HD2, so please feel free to let me know if there’s any nuance or factors I may have failed to consider.

Stun Lance

• Increase melee damage from 165 to 200
• Change the swing animation: 
  • Normal melee attacks will be the usual stab
  • ADS melee attacks will have the Helldiver “prime” the stun lance, increasing its stagger and stun build-up dramatically at the cost of a slightly slower attack speed.
• Increase the stun build-up per stab so that it can stun small units and medium in one stab, large units in 2, and heavies in 3. Ultra-heavies will (naturally) remain immune. If the stun lance is primed, each enemy size will be decreased by 1.
• In addition to stun’s existing properties of freezing enemies temporarily, enemies stunned will now permanently suffer from slower movement speeds, increased reaction times, and decreased attack speed. In the case of the Automatons and Illuminate, this will also result in lower accuracy to reflect their systems/brains being fried.

Hopefully this change turns the Stun Lance into a more of a spacing/supporting weapon, allowing you to stun enemies from a (relatively) safer distance while creating openings for you and your team to capitalize on.

Saber

• From HD1, the Sabre now has its blade coated in energy, allowing it to set enemies on fire.
• Killing enemies set on fire will cause them to create a non-damaging 1.5m radius plasma explosion around them that will cause enemies nearby to stagger
• Increase melee damage from 240-275 to 325/240
• Change the swing animation:
  • Normal melee attacks will now be the usual side-to-side swing followed by a stab. This stab will have high higher damage and high stagger
  • ADSing with the Sabre will have your Helldiver attempt to block melee attacks with the sword, reducing incoming front-facing melee damage by 33%. Each block will result in some stamina being drained, about as much as a normal melee swing. Ranged attacks and explosions are unaffected. 
  • Attacking while ADSing will have normal melee attacks.
  • Specific with the Ballistic Shield and Sabre, Helldivers can press the melee keybind freely at any time to perform a low damage but high stagger shield bash, pushing enemies back.

Befitting its appearance as a more elegant weapon from a more civilized age, I decided to turn the Sabre into a dedicated dueling weapon. Adding the plasma explosion upon killing inflamed enemies gives it a bit of crowd control other melee options have no access to. While these changes may be a bit much, I couldn’t really think of another way of making the sabre stand out, and given how the Axe was designed to be a high single-target damage through brute force, I decided to make the Sabre the more finesse counterpart.

Stun Baton

• Increase melee damage from 75 to 115  (Patch 1.006.202 increased damage from 75 to 120)
• Increase the weapon draw speed (stacks with the Gunslinger armor passive)
• Unique to the stun-baton, it will not have a changed moveset between normal and ADS melee attacks.
• Increase the stun build-up per swing so that it can stun small units and medium in one swing, large units in 2, and heavies in 3. Ultra-heavies will remain immune.
• In addition to stun’s existing properties of freezing enemies temporarily, enemies stunned will now permanently suffer from slower movement speeds, increased reaction times, and decreased attack speed. In the case of the Automatons and Illuminate, this will also result in lower accuracy to reflect their systems/brains being fried.

This weapon feels like a true “emergency back-up” option, and given its short length and fast swing speed, I feel other melee weapons receiving changes is enough to make the stun baton unique enough to stand on its own as a “get off me” tool.

Combat Hatchet

• Increase stagger force against enemies
• Increase melee damage from 240 to 300/275
• Change the swing animation: 
  • Normal melee attacks will be the usual side-to-side swing
  • ADS melee attacks will result in your Helldiver swinging crazily at anything and everything in front of them, with slightly lower damage and stagger but massively increased swing speed.
    • ROF will increase from 150 to an exhausting 180 (if this doesn’t sound like a lot, set an online metronome to 180, then come back).

Since the primary difference between the Sabre and the Axe is their range, I decided to differentiate the two by having the Sabre focus more on crowd control and precision and the Axe on single-targets and unga-bunga. 

Machete

• Increase armor penetration from AP3 to AP4
• Increase melee damage from 300 to 450/450-550 (huh?)
• Change the swing animation: 
  • Normal melee attacks will be the usual side-to-side swing
  • ADS melee attacks will become a more powerful two-handed overhead chop that you have to press and hold to charge before releasing to attack. You can release this charge at any time for slightly reduced damage. At max charge, it’ll do 550 and minimum charge it’ll do 450.
  • ADS melee attacks have massively increased stagger force that only heavy units and above can tank. Yes, this means you can stagger Hulks, which is incredibly metal.

Hopefully this turns the Machete into a slower but more powerful melee weapon that specializes in taking on larger, more durable enemies.

Special

Most “special” secondaries fall either into the utility or diet weapon categories, with each of them being surprisingly capable given their mobile nature and comparatively smaller magazines. As such, most changes will be made for the sake of QoL or to improve their existing functions. Given how their respective roles should be obvious, I’ll refrain from explaining their usage like with primary and secondary weapons, both to save time and my own personal sanity.

Stim Pistol

• Implement the Warrant’s lock-on feature as an alternative firing mode so that stim enthusiasts can have an easier time tracking and healing their fellow Helldivers
• Implement an alternative firing mode so that Helldivers can directly inject themselves in the arm with the Stim pistol.
• Approaching a wounded diver with the Stim Pistol out will now show a prompt for you to stim them. Like with normal stims, you’ll stim them, but using the stim pistol instead.
• Increase projectile speed from 200 m/s to 285 m/s, matching that of the Defender SMG. (outdated as of Patch 1.006.100)
• Increase the healing rate from roughly 33% of normal stims to 50% of normal stims (outdated as of Patch 1.006.100)
• The stim pistol can now heal anything it hits, including enemies and friendly SEAF units but not Automatons (for obvious reasons). NPCs under the effects of stims will have increased movement speed, attack speed, decreased accuracy, and a regenerative effect for 5 seconds (purely for fun)

A common point of complaint most players have with the Stim Pistol is that it’s difficult to hit a small, fast-moving target, and that the healing is too slow to make a noticeable impact. Plus, most players will instinctively stim the moment they take damage anyways, making the Stim Pistol useless in 99% of all combat scenarios. There’s not really anything I can do about this since you can’t control the actions of other players, but to improve the Stim Pistol, I decided to up its healing and applicability outside of battle for it to act more of a top-off tool when not in combat.

Bushwhacka

• AP3 OVP will range out to 10m 
• Decease the reload speed from 2.5 seconds to 2.0 seconds.
• Reloading from empty will have your Helldiver use a speedloader, with a brisk reload speed of 1.5 seconds.

Since the Bushwhacka uses the same ammo type as the Punisher, it makes sense to give it the same OVP mechanic as the Punisher. Given that it’s supposed to be a staggering, “get off me” tool when bugs get a bit too close, I’ve decided to slightly increase its reload speed to reduce the vulnerability period while you’re reloading.

Talon

• To make it consistent with other laser weapons, the Talon can now set enemies on fire. The amount of time to apply the fire effect will depend on the AV of the location you’re shooting, with higher AV locations taking longer than fleshy weakpoints.
• Decrease vertical recoil from 1.5 to 0.

Not much to do here besides making it consistent with other laser weapons.

Crisper

• Implement the “pushback” mechanic, albeit not as strongly as the Flamethrower given its smaller stream. (for more details, please see above in the “Flame Weapons” section).
• All flamethrower-type weapons will now have reworked damage fall-off calculations, with a maximum ramp-up of 125% at close range, 100% at medium range, and 75% at max range.

Given the Crisper’s recent buff and terrifying damage output given its size, the Crisper absolutely does not need any more buffs. This thing should be ILLEGAL.

3/18/2026: As of the 1.006.100 update, flamethrowers can now slow down enemies! While it’s a modest slow up to 25% and only by keeping the stream on a single enemy, this is close enough to my original proposition, so a win’s a win in my book.

Grenade Pistol

• Increase the reload speed slightly
• Separate the reload stage into three parts: opening up the gun, putting the shell in, and cocking it.
  • Right now, the gun only has two parts: opening up the gun and putting the shell in and cocking it. This results in many players seeing you physically put the grenade in, but because you haven’t cocked it yet, you end up needing to put the shell in again. The best way to counteract this issue is to listen for the slight click the gun makes as you cock it, but given how this makes the gun feel clunky and frustrating when you get interrupted.

Dagger

• Fix the hitmarker bug showing “bullets” ricocheting when there is no such ricochet.
• The time it takes to set enemies on fire will now depend on AP. Unarmored, fleshy sections will naturally catch on fire faster than heavier, high AV, armor plates.
• Implement a new alternative firing mode where the Dagger can be “overclocked.”
  • Overclocking the scythe grants it AP3 penetration, 375 DPS, and faster fire build-up at the cost of building heat twice as fast, resulting in a maximum firing time of only 3 seconds instead of 6.67
• The Dagger now has an “armor melting mechanic.” Sustained focus fire to a specific body part on an enemy will result in permanently lowering the AV for that specific body part by 1, as well as lowering its health pool by the body part’s health amount and dealing 50% of the body part’s health pool to the overall health pool.

Ultimatum

• No changes needed.

I’m not opening up this can of worms. In short, yes, it should’ve been able to destroy Jammers. Yes, the nerf made sense. Yes, this change ended up creating a multi-month debate on the Unfiltered subreddit about how every demolition source is balanced around the Jammer. No, I don’t want to talk about it.

Loyalist

• No changes needed.

Like the Crisper, people who’ve used this secondary know how strong it can be. It absolutely does not need a buff, especially after Patch 1.006.100.

Re-Educator

• Now does 50 ballistic damage on the dart itself
  • This will be enough to one-shot Troopers with a headshot, albeit only at closer ranges.
• Will now apply the “Gas Mk2” and “Gas Confusion Mk2” effect on the dart itself instead of Mk1
• Gas Mk2 now applies the Acid Storm weather effect, which reduces AV1 by 1, lowers resistance to fire, and causes them to take 33% extra damage.
• Enemies will now be blinded and slowed by 50%. To compensate, enemies can and will still attack, albeit blindly and in random directions. This is to simulate them panicking or shortcircuiting, so they’ll attack anything and everything indiscriminately.
  • To compensate, enemies will also ignore sounds or alarms created by enemies under the effects of gas.
• Other stats are unchanged

 

I won’t lie, I’ve never used the Re-Educator before, but from what I’ve seen on forums and discussions of the weapon, the Re-Educator looks to be a great concept in theory afflicted with the age-old AH issue of poor execution. By buffing and overhauling the gas effect, as well as making it so the Re-Educator can properly dispose of Automaton Troopers, this will hopefully allow it to work better as a stealth secondary, incapacitating enemies to allow you to slip past them.

The Shovel

• No changes needed. What the hell am I supposed to do with this? Let you crit people while ragdolling from an explosion?

The Pissle Mistol

Surprisingly decent for a mini-Spear.

• Increase spare ammo capacity from 3 to 4
• Increase explosion AP from AP3 to AP4
• Increase the explosive damage from 300/AP3 to 500/AP4
• Fix the UI saying this gun does AP3
• Increase inner blast radius from 2m to 4m
• Increase outer blast radius from 4m to 8m
• Increase shockwave radius from 12 to 16m

Grenades

Dynamite

• Increase inner blast radius from 6m to 8m
• Increase outer blast radius from 12m to 16m
• Increase shockwave radius from 16 to 20m
• Increase damage from 1000/AP4 to 1500 AP4

Frag

• No changes needed. This thing’s a BEAST.

High Explosive

• Decrease fuse time from 3.5 seconds to 3 seconds
• Increase inner blast radius from 2.5m to 4m
• Increase outer blast radius from 7 to 8m
• Increase shockwave radius from 9m to 12m
• Increase damage from 800/AP4 to 1000/AP4

To prevent the HE or Dynamite from overtaking each other, I aimed to make the HE the more “skillful” option that requires a bit more finesse to use and the Dynamite the easy option. To compensate for the HE’s slightly smaller blast radius, I decided to give it one extra grenade and decreased the fuse time to make it slightly more snappy.

Incendiary

• Change status application to first apply “burning heavy,” then the normal “fire.”
  • “Burning heavy” is what the ONB, NEAT, and Eagle Napalm apply. Burning heavy inflicts significantly more damage than standard burning (200 DPS vs 100 DPS), but only lasts for 1 second after being afflicted before being replaced by normal fire
• Increased duration of fire pools from 20 seconds to 30 seconds
• Increase damage from 300/AP3 to 400/AP3

Pineapple

• Increase damage on shrapnel from 100 to 125
• Increase initial explosion damage from 300/AP3 to 500/AP3

Impact

• Increase damage from 400/AP4 to 500/AP4
• Increase inner blast radius from 2.5m to 4m
• Increase outer blast radius from 7 to 8m
• Increase shockwave radius from 8m to 12m

Incendiary Impact

• Change status application to first apply “burning heavy,” then the normal “fire.”
  • “Burning heavy” is what the ONB, NEAT, and Eagle Napalm apply. Burning heavy inflicts significantly more damage than standard burning (200 DPS vs 100 DPS), but only lasts for 1 second after being afflicted before being replaced by normal fire
• Increased duration of fire pools from 15 seconds to 20 seconds
• Increase damage from 150/AP3 to 200/AP3

To differentiate the Incin-Impact from the normal Incen Grenade, the Incin-Impact should focus on immediate area denial and damage (duh) while the moral Incin Grenade should focus on longer and more meaningful applications of area denial and damage.

Stun

• In addition to stun’s existing properties of freezing enemies temporarily, enemies stunned will now permanently suffer from slower movement speeds, increased reaction times, and decreased attack speed. In the case of the Automatons and Illuminate, this will also result in lower accuracy to reflect their systems/brains being fried.
• The stun effect will now last 8 seconds, the longest out of all stuns to compensate for its lack of damage

Gas

• Will now apply “Gas Mk1” and “Gas Confusion Mk1” (the grenade already does this, I’m just including this “change” for explanatory reasons)
• Gas clouds will now linger on the ground for up to 15 seconds, depending on how long you’ve been spraying for. These gas clouds will inflict the “Gas Mk1” and “Gas Confusion Mk1” effect.
• For reference Gas Mk1 and Gas Confusion Mk1 will last a total of 8 seconds while Gas Mk2 and Gas Confusion Mk2 will now a total of 12 seconds
• Enemies will now be blinded and slowed by 50%. To compensate, enemies can and will still attack, albeit blindly and in random directions. This is to simulate them panicking or shortcircuiting, so they’ll attack anything and everything indiscriminately.
  • To compensate, enemies will also ignore sounds or alarms created by enemies under the effects of gas.

The Gas Grenade will be the only form of gas that won’t inflict the acid rain weather effect. The reason for this is because all the other forms of gas (Sterilizer, OGS, Dog Breath) have higher opportunity costs and take up a whole stratagem or weapon slot. Because you always have access to Gas Grenades, it makes sense to have them be slightly weaker since it would otherwise become the best-in-slot option for crowd control.

Seeker

• Increase inner blast radius from 3.5m to 4m
• Increase outer blast radius from 7 to 8m
• Increase shockwave radius from 8m to 12m
• Increase lifespan from 30 seconds to 60 seconds
• Seekers grenades will no longer automatically home in on enemies with 5m of the Helldiver

Since this is just a flying Impact grenade, it’ll have the same changes as the Impact grenade. You give up the ability to easily close bug holes in favor of having an explosive little buddy follow you around, so the longer lifetime should help with you amassing a swarm.

Smoke

• Smoke clouds now last 45 seconds instead of 30.
• Increased ammo capacity from 4 to 5

Thermite

• Thermites will now stick consistently to whatever you throw them at as long as it hasn’t activated yet.
• Increase fuse time from 3.5 seconds to 4 seconds
• Similar to laser weapons, the Thermite now has an armor melting mechanic. By throwing it onto an enemy, the Thermite will “melt” away the body part it’s stuck to, permanently lowering the AV for that specific body part by 1, as well as lowering its health pool by the body part’s health amount and dealing 50% of the body part’s health pool to the overall health pool.

Throwing Knife

• Equipping the Throwing Knife now changes the Helldiver’s melee from a simple gunbutt to a swipe/stab with the knife. This new melee will override all melee weapons unless you are one-handing something (like with the ballistic shield or carrying mission objectives) or if you’re using a melee weapon, which will override this new melee
• Increase melee damage to 150/AP3
• Damage will be unchanged, but landing a headshot (if applicable) will increase the damage from 300/AP3 to 500/AP3
• Unique to the Throwing Knife specifically, Throwing Knife damage will now bypass all armor types and barriers such as shields and ablative armor
• You can now pick up wasted Throwing Knifes by walking over to them and interacting with them. You cannot retrieve Throwing Knifes that have been stuck in an enemy. It’s too hard to pull out.
• Fix the slight aim offset bug.

Pyrotech

• Pyrotech Grenades will no longer jump out of bug holes, fabricators, or grounded warp ships once they are thrown in
• Increase fire DPS from 20/AP4 to 50/AP4
• Increase explosion damage from 50/AP3 100/AP3

Urchin

• Increase number of arc pulses from 4 to 8
• Increase duration of the Urchin from 13.7 seconds to 20 seconds
• The Urchin can now fire off “arcs” that can stun other enemies around the target, giving it some crowd control.
• In addition to stun’s existing properties of freezing enemies temporarily, enemies stunned will now permanently suffer from slower movement speeds, increased reaction times, and decreased attack speed. In the case of the Automatons and Illuminate, this will also result in lower accuracy to reflect their systems/brains being fried.
  • Enemies stunned by the Urchin’s arc will also have this debuff applied to them

Arc

• In addition to stun’s existing properties of freezing enemies temporarily, enemies stunned will now permanently suffer from slower movement speeds, increased reaction times, and decreased attack speed. In the case of the Automatons and Illuminate, this will also result in lower accuracy to reflect their systems/brains being fried.
• Arc grenades will no longer jump out of bug holes, fabricators, or grounded warp ships once they are thrown in, though that shouldn’t matter since it has no demo force anyways
• Fix the bug where corpses and bushes can block arc tendrils
• Increase the damage per arc from 100 to 125 
• Small units killed by the Blitzer will gib instantly upon death.
• Arc Grenades will now bounce a total of 7 times instead of 5

Lure Mine

• Lure Mines now have a 4 second arm time before they can explode. This prevents Helldivers from instantly blowing themselves up
• Increase inner blast radius from 2m to 6m
• Increase outer blast radius from 8m to 12m
• Increase shockwave radius from 12 to 16m
• Increase damage from 1000/AP4 to 1500 AP4
• Increased throwing distance so you don’t have to aim as high

Smokescreen

• Increased ammo capacity from 5 to 6
• Hitting an enemy directly with a Smokescreen Grenade will now stun them for 7 seconds, though this stun is not a true stun and will not apply the permanent debuff from true stuns. This stun effect is on top of the 45 seconds of obscured visuals

This “flashbang” change serves to give it a more combative/supportive role. If the standard Smoke Grenade is meant to be proactive, the Smokescreen is meant to be more reactive. Like with other impact-style grenades, the effects won’t last as long as the standard version. In this case, the Smokescreen’s duration will remain unchanged at 30 seconds

Shield

• Increase duration of the shield from 20 seconds to 25 seconds

Giga Grenade

• Increase damage from 2000/AP5 to 2250/AP5
• Increase inner blast radius from 2m to 8m
• Increase outer blast radius from 12m to 16m
• Increase shockwave radius from 16 to 24m
• Increase the amount of grenades you get from resupply boxes from 1 to 2, meaning you will always be able to full restock unless you have an armor passive that increases grenade capacity

Hello,

There's been a lot of rumors and hearsay going around so I just wanted to take the time to clear the air since it's only a matter of time before another misinformation campaign starts and I don't want to deal with that shit so here it is.

Why Now?

Games Workshop (GW) has an annual event called "Skulls," which is basically a video game festival but dedicated specifically for Warhammer games. During their stream, they announced that they were planning a crossover with Helldivers. Following this, Helldivers made their own announcement post on YouTube.

This is important because a lot of people are assuming AH was the one to make the announcement when this is not true. GW was the one to make the news official, AH only followed up afterwards.

A lot of people (reasonably) have called this the "break glass in case of emergency" warbond, but I'd like to take the time to (somewhat) disprove this conspiracy theory. While it is certainly unfortunate AH decided to make an announcement like this when the community's morale is so low, there's a lot of negativity surrounding this announcement for the wrong reasons.

GW, as most people familiar with them ought to know, is notoriously difficult to work with. Objectively speaking, they are one of the most difficult companies to work with because they are incredibly possessive of their IPs. More than other collabs, they will most likely have first-look deals with AH when it comes to this crossover.

Between the number of hoops companies likely have to jump through to make a collab like this, it is also likely IP negotiation talks took longer than usual.

Because of this, it is likely they reached an agreement with AH long ago but AH was unable to make an announcement until GW gave them the go-ahead.

But why would GW give the go-ahead now? The answer is simple: Skulls. As mentioned previously, Skulls is an annual event that is scheduled ahead of time. There's been a lot of talk on how AH is actually manipulating GW into making this announcement now to float up their own sinking ship, but that theory is flat-out insane. AH does not have the pull or authority to supersede GW on this without GW nuking them with a Virus Bomb.

Why Warhammer?

There's also been confusion on why AH wants to do a crossover with Warhammer. Actually, as the picture from Pilestedt himself indicates, why do a crossover with Warhammer if it's supposedly off the table? Are AH hypocrites?

https://preview.redd.it/upldh6sawj2h1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=3cdc5c4618a50f76d572f0c890976bfe39aa940a

The answer is "yes, but not this time."

Most people, when they think of Warhammer, automatically (and rightfully) think of Space Marines. The Adeptus Astartes. The Warhammer faction. However, Space Marines are not the only faction of humans in the lore.

Even more than Helldivers or even Halo Spartans, Space Marines are genetically modified super-humans. They're faster than fast, stronger than strong, and are all at least several centuries years old. They're considered demi-gods in all but stature by most people of the Imperium.

That, obviously, would not fit the Helldivers universe.

However, Warhammer also has the Astra Militarum, which are ordinary soldiers like you and me. These are the guys sent to the front lines, told to die, and make up (quite literally) 99.999% of the Imperium's armed forces in the game. These guys go into battle undertrained, underequipped, probably sleep-deprived, and are told to die for the Emperor, and (some) of them will gladly do so. These are the guys Helldivers will most likely get equipment for.

How effective is the warbond going to be?

It's pretty safe to say Legendary Warbonds don't have a great track record when it comes to effectiveness, but please keep in mind that this isn't even a proper announcement. This is an announcement that they will be making a crossover warbond, not an actual trailer for the warbond itself.

That's why there's no gameplay trailer or footage of new weapons, because they're likely still in development. The whole point of the announcement to let people know a crossover's coming.

A lot of doomers have already jumped the gun to call the Warbond shit because the last two Legendary Warbonds were lowkey pretty bad, but I don't think it's unreasonable to call those people unreasonable for judging something that doesn't even exist yet. That being said, they do have a reason to be worried about the weapons.

To that, all I can say is if GW doesn't like how AH translates their weapons into the game, they'll let them know. Loudly.

Hello,

For the past 2-3 months, I've been working on a comprehensive list of how I would personally buff or change every single weapon in the game, as well as most stratagems, grenades, enemies, armor passives, and ship boosters. This is the fourth part of a series of posts I'll be making.

You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here.

As always, any feedback and criticism is welcome!

In this part, I will be touching on SMGs, Shotguns, and Explosive Weapons and how I would best buff them. For each weapon, I will include a short summary on what role I believe a weapon should fulfill as well as my own personal thought processes for those changes. However, before we start, I want to get a few things out of the way.

1. These changes are just my opinion.  
2. My philosophy on weapon design is that every weapon should have their own unique role and place in the sandbox.
3. There will be no direct nerfs whatsoever, with one exception.
4. This sheet is being made WITHOUT considering weapon customizations.
5. Realism will usually be the last thing I consider.

For these weapon changes, please remember the reworked armor and durability mechanics touched upon in Part 1. For those who need a quick reminder, here is a quick TLDR:

• Durability has been removed entirely
• If AP is greater than AV by at least 2, you do 125% damage and give out red hitmarkers (i.e. AP2 vs AP0). This will be referred to as a weapon’s “critical damage modifier.”
• If AP is greater than an AV by 1, you do 100% damage and give out red hitmarkers (i.e. AP2 vs AV1)
• If AP matches AV, you do 75% damage and give out white hitmarkers (AP2 vs AP2)
• If AP is less than AV by 1, you do 25% damage and give out white hitmarkers (AP2 vs AP3)
• If AP is less than AV by at least 2, you do no damage and give out deflection icons (AP2 vs AP4)

Now that that's out of the way, let's here into it here:

SMGs

SMGs in HD2 are designed to serve as close-quarters weapons, possessing good handling, relatively high damage per bullet, and the unique trait of (mostly) being one-handed, allowing players to be much more mobile and multi-purpose. As such, they tend to work best around players positioning themselves aggressively to take advantage of their DPS in close quarters.

For a long time, however, the SMGs were mostly overshadowed by ARs, due to ARs having more effective range, ammo, and damage. To remedy this, AH “wisely” decided to lean into the SMG’s strength by increasing their damage at shorter ranges and utterly castrating their effectiveness at longer ranges.

This, quite frankly, was overkill. SMGs are already limited at range due to their slower projectile speed and lack of any meaningful scopes. This also negatively impacted the SMG’s ammo economy since you’re now spending more bullets to do the same amount of damage. As such, almost every SMG will receive the following changes: 

• Decrease bullet drag changes from 1.2 to 0.3
• Increased spare magazine capacity by 1

The original value of 0.3 was changed to 0.6 in the Omens of Tyranny update before being increased to a whopping 1.2 in Patch 1.004.100. For reference, the base Liberator only has a bullet drag value of 0.3. Decreasing bullet drag from 1.2 to its original launch value will still encourage players to use it at close range without punishing them for trying to use them at longer issues. SMGs, as a rule, will never be as effective as an AR at long ranges, but that doesn’t mean they should be entirely useless either.

The ammo buff will also give them a much-needed sustainability boost. As they are right now, SMGs use a lot of ammo due to them needing more shots to kill at range, which means running out of ammo more quickly.

Defender

The Defender serves as the face of the SMG class, possessing a superb blend of high damage per bullet, almost non-existent recoil, and the highest ergonomics out of any primary in the game. While its RoF is below-average, this actually benefits the Defender as its low recoil means recoil is essentially a non-factor, even while moving. Given the changes to durability, armor, and reverting the drag changes however, this allows the Defender to act as a pseudo-Liberator, with a stronger emphasis on close-quarters combat while still allowing accurate shooters to use it at range.

• Spare magazine capacity increased from 7 to 8

Pummeler

Like the Lib-Con and Pacifier, the Pummeler suffers from a crippling combination of low DPS, almost non-existent status build-up, a bugged status build-up, and a useless status when it does finally proc. While it's but a shadow of its former self, I opt to lean into its role as a stagger machine. However, to avoid significant overlap with the Lib-Con and Pacifier, I aim to make the Pummeler a combination of both, being able to inflict both status effects albeit with reduced effectiveness to compensate.

• Spare magazine capacity increased from 7 to 8
• Increase the stagger force
• Increase the stagger/stun build-up per bullet so that it can stagger/stun chaff units in one shot, medium units in 2/3, large units in 47, and heavies in 24/16. Ultra-heavies will remain immune.
• Decrease stagger animation distance (huh?)
  • Certain enemies in HD2 have "exaggerated" stagger animations, where they’ll be launched back a whole meter when hit by a strong enough attack. This makes follow-up shots difficult. Decreasing the distance this animation covers while keeping the actual length of the animation the same should allow for more consistent follow-ups.
• Enemies stunned and concussed by the Pummeler will now temporarily suffer from slower movement speeds, increased reaction time, decreased attack speed and melee damage, and will be more vulnerable to stun and stagger effects from all sources, including the Pummeler itself.
• Pummeler bullets will remain AP2, but the stagger effect will now affect enemies up to AV4, though higher AV’s will require more sustained fire.

 

Enemies in HD2 typically lack any reactions to being shot outside of weapons surpassing certain thresholds. By making it so the Pumeller can actually do its job through increased status build-up and bug fixes, players will be able to take full advantage of the Pummeler’s heavy staggering capabilities. Units like Warriors or Devastators are more than capable of pushing through full-auto ARs and SMGs, but the Pummeler will serve as a hard-counter to those tactics, buying you and your team space and time to deal with these threats. 

Knight

Admittedly, the Knight is probably my least-used weapon, next to the Pummeler and Pacifier, but in a similar vein to the Lib-Carbine and Stalwart, this weapon should be the definitive bullet-hose weapon in close quarters. 

• Increase stagger force on enemies within 10m.
• Increase spare magazines from 7 to 9

Given that getting in close to an enemy is usually a death sentence, giving it a higher staggering force would allow players a little bit more leniency when they choose to engage in it. You’ll still have to hit your shots, but at least you can buy yourself a little bit more breathing room. Yeah, I know it’s not a lot, but there’s only so many buffs you can give to “bullet-hose” type weapons before you just make them a Maxigun but lite.

StA-11 SMG

The StA-11 in Killzone possessed a high-capacity magazine with below average damage and surprisingly reasonable recoil and accuracy despite its incredible RoF. However, the StA-11 also had a quirk in that shoulder mounting and ADS’ing with the StA-11 would not lower a player’s movement speed. Given how SMGs tend to award you for taking aggressive positions, I’ve decided to combine that philosophy alongside Killzone weapons being made for CQC to create a weapon perfect for running in and storming fortified locations.

• Spare magazine capacity increased from 7 to 9
• Increase stagger force on enemies within 10m.
• Reduce recoil
• Increase the reload speed
• Aiming down the sights will NOT slow you down, allowing you to move at normal (non-sprinting) speeds.
• Decreased sway modifier while moving

This change will allow you to make the StA-11 SMG the best SMG to use when you need to “run and gun,” even more than the other SMGs. Increasing the reload speed will help decrease the amount of downtime you’ll be facing, allowing you to play even more aggressively and rush down enemies in an entrenched location.

M7S SMG

While we already have a dedicated stealth option for ARs and MRs, the M7S will act as the stealth option for the SMGs. Yeah, it’ll still be outclassed, but there’s not much I can feasibly do here.

• Spare magazine capacity increased from 7 to 8
• Decrease audio profile from 15 meters to 8 meters
• Edit the reload animation to better match that of the M7S from Halo 3: ODST

Audio profile change should be obvious. Despite stealth being bugged and more of a novelty in HD2, this is still somehow a better stealth weapon than the actual M7S from ODST kekw. The changes to bullet drag will also help the M7S immensely as well.

Reprimand

The Reprimand is an outlier from other SMGs in its category in that it acts more like an AR than an SMG. Given how the SMG’s primary characteristic is being one-handed, the Reprimand being the sole exception seems odd. Of course, the actual reason is because the UMP.45, which the Reprimand is based on, is meant to be a two-handed SMG, but for the sake of consistency, making the Reprimand one-handed seems to be the play, even if I personally disagree with it.

• Can now be one-handed, though one-handing it will increase vertical recoil. This vertical recoil increase will not be present if two-handing.
• Slightly increase the reload speed
• Increase magazine size from 25 to 28

With the reversion to bullet drag, this should already be enough to propel the Reprimand back to its former glory. However, for the sake of leaning into its role as a pure combat monster, I’ve decided to increase its magazine capacity and reload speed, slightly reducing its downtime, though it will not receive the universal spare magazine increase other SMGs have. 

Stoker

Like the One-Two, the Stoker suffers from “one thing trying to do two things effectively ends up being less effective than both of them” syndrome. However, the difference is it’s actually surprisingly decent. Sure, the drag still holds it back, but assuming that’s been rectified with the universal changes to SMGs, that means all the Stoker really needs is a slight boost to its sustainability.

• Increase spare magazines from 5 to 6
• Increase spare flame canisters from 3 to 4

Part of the lack of change is due to recency and lack of in-depth testing, but from my experiences, the Stoker is genuinely one of the best SMGs in the game, though that bar isn’t exactly high.

Gallant

I mean, this is just the Knight but white and with a higher AP. Everything the Knight can do, the Gallant can do, either slightly worse or slightly better.

• Increase stagger force on enemies within 10m.
• Increase spare magazines from 7 to 9
• Increase damage from 65 to 70
• Bullets will now be able to penetrate enemies, albeit with reduced damage. Penetration can only occur once per bullet and only if the AV is less than the AP.
  • For example, shooting an enemy with AV3 will result in that one bullet only hitting that one target, but shooting an enemy with AV2 will result in the bullet punching through to do reduced damage to an enemy behind it

Since it’s so closely related to the Knight, I gave it the same changes as well as the same damage buffs from the Lib-Pen. There’s not much I can do with this.

Shotguns

Shotguns are a simple weapon, even in a needlessly complex game like Helldivers. Point the end towards the enemy, pull the trigger, boom. However, shotguns in HD2 suffer from both AP and durability issues, both of which have been rectified in this document. Since there’s not really a way to differentiate one boomstick from another, I’ve decided to introduce a new mechanic I’d like to coin as “overpenetration,” or OVP.

In short, pump shotguns will receive a higher AP value at close quarters, with this distance varying based on the weapon. However, as soon as an enemy is outside this OVP range, the AP value drops down to its standard value. OVP is meant to reward players for using shotguns in their intended ranges (fuckass close) by partially circumventing AV restrictions and taking advantage of the bonus damage while avoiding punishing players using shotguns at range. 

For example, the Punisher shotgun normally does AP2. However, when an enemy is in this OVP range, the Punisher will now do AP3. As soon as an enemy steps outside this OVP range, however, the AP will drop back down to AP2.

The only shotguns that are exempt from this new OVP mechanic will be the Halt, Cookout, and all Breaker variants, due to them using different ammo types.

Punisher

As the quintessential pump-action shotgun, the Punisher has no need for introduction. Again, with the removal of durability and armor rework, this gives the Punisher much more room to play with, allowing it to fulfill its true purpose as the ultimate one-pump champion.

• Increase spare ammo from 60 to 64 (because numbers not being divisible bugs me)
• AP3 OVP will range out to 10m

With durability and armor mechanics being reworked, I find there is no need to change anything else about the Punisher. The Punisher should now kill things much more consistently and easier, making it so less shots will need to be pumped into one enemy.

Slugger

The Slugger is in a bit of a weird spot right now in the weapon sandbox, with it acting more like a marksman rifle rather than a true shotgun. However, given the Deadeye’s existence, this makes the Slugger practically obsolete.

On paper, the Slugger seems like an excellent weapon, having high damage per shot, stagger, and accuracy. In practice however, these advantages are negated by the fact that the Slugger has an incredibly high bullet drag factor and a slow projectile, taking multiple shots to kill even a single enemy a few meters away. The Slugger’s primary selling point is its AP3 penetration, which is no longer quite the same achievement given armor reworks. As such, I’ve decided to overhaul the Slugger entirely. 

Taking inspiration from the Deadeye’s gameplay loop (staggering enemies targets for an easier follow-up shot), I’ve decided to turn the Slugger into a close-range, high risk, high reward sidegrade, having a higher bonus damage modifier so that it can easily kill medium enemies should you hit the weakpoints while still being able to follow alternative playstyles. Whereas the Deadeye has consistent damage and the safety of range on its side, the Slugger will require good aim, getting close to the enemy, and knowledge of enemy weakpoints to take advantage of its higher bonus damage modifier.

• Increase demo force to 20, allowing it to break container crates again
• Reduce drag from 2.0 to 0.6
• Increase spare ammo from 60 to 64 (because numbers not being divisible bugs me)
• If the AP is greater than an AV’s value by at least 2, the Slugger does 150% damage. (AP3 vs AP1)
• If the AP is greater than an enemy’s AV by 1, the Slugger does 125% damage (AP3 vs AP2)
• Other damage thresholds will remain unchanged
• AP4 OVP will range out to 15m

Similar to the Tenderizer, the Slugger will have the highest “critical damage” modifier in the game. The purpose of these unique AP thresholds is to incentivize players to go for efficient one/two-shot kills on enemy weakpoints while still allowing the usual pump-and-dump gameplay other shotguns offer. Reducing the drag to a more reasonable level greatly opens up the Slugger’s viability in mid-range combat. Allowing the Slugger to open crate containers again would also be a welcome re-addition to the game.

Halt

An exception to the OVP rule, the Halt is already compensated for by having natural AP3 and stun rounds, which makes lining up the next shot even easier. Again, because of the durability and armor changes, this solves many of the Halt’s existing issues. As such, changes made are aimed at making the Halt more accurate to take advantage of its dual-gameplay loop.

• Increase spare ammo from 60 to 64 (because numbers not being divisible bugs me)
• Slightly tighten up the spread from ↔[300.00] ↕[200.00] to ↔[200.00] ↕[150.00]
• Decrease stun round damage from 120 (6x20) to 40 (2x20)
• You can now reload both tubes at the same time. You no longer need to switch to the other tube to load shells for that tube.
• Increase the stun build-up per pellet so that you only need 2 to stun small enemies, 4 for medium enemies, and 10 for large enemies. Heavies and ultra-heavies will remain immune due to stun pellets having a smaller “payload” than other stun options.
• In addition to stun’s existing properties of freezing enemies temporarily, enemies stunned will now permanently suffer from slower movement speeds, increased reaction times, and decreased attack speed. In the case of the Automatons and Illuminate (mostly the Overseers), this will also result in lower accuracy to reflect their systems/brains being fried.
• Make the effects of stunning an enemy more visually noticeable.

Tightening up the spread allows players to be more flexible when aiming and affords a bit more leniency when dealing with the 6 Stalkers bearing down on you. Similarly, making the stun pellets have more build-up will allow them to stun more consistently, keeping you and your team alive. Being able to reload both tubes at the same time is a nice QoL change and cuts down on downtime. The nerf to stun round damage should be inconsequential as well, since…why are you using stun rounds to kill things?

Cookout

My personal favorite. The Cookout excels at wiping out crowds of chaff units and dealing heavy fire damage. However, it naturally suffers from low AP, wide spread, low damage per pellet, and being incredibly ineffective against anything that the Cookout can’t set on fire, requiring you to use the Cookout’s relatively low damage per shot to finish the job. However, this is compensated for by its sheer effectiveness in wiping out crowds of chaff units.

• Increase spare ammo from 60 to 64 (because numbers not being divisible bugs me)
• Decrease stagger animation distance, similar to that of the Pumeller
  • Certain enemies in HD2 have "exaggerated" stagger animations, where they’ll be launched back a whole meter when hit by a strong enough attack. This makes follow-up shots difficult. Decreasing the distance this animation covers while keeping the actual length of the animation the same will allow for more consistent follow-up shots.

Not a whole lot of change here since the Cookout is already one of the strongest weapons on the Bug and Squid front.

Double Freedom

An already powerful weapon, the DF will receive no major changes outside of having a unique OVP mechanic in that it would actually be able to do AP4 at very close range, AP3 normally, and then AP2 at very far ranges (which, why would you even use a shotty at that point?). 

• AP4 OVP will range from point blank to 5m, AP3 from 6-45m, and AP2 from 46m onward

*Loads shotgun with democratic intent*

M90A Shotgun

Shotguns, on average, fall on a spectrum between power and sustainability, with the DF and Punisher both being different sides of the same coin. The DF has incredible power, but the worst sustainability while the Punisher has (comparatively) lower damage but much more sustainability. The M90A aims to fall right in between these two, where it has the firepower to get the job done in 1-2 shots, but also has enough leeway to miss a few shots. 

• Descrease spread from ↔[120.00] ↕[100.00] to ↔[100.00] ↕[80.00], making it slightly more accurate at range.
• AP3 OVP will range from point blank to 20m, giving it the widest OVP margin
• Slightly increase reload speed
• Increase spare magazines from 44 to 60

OR

• Change the model to the M90 from Halo: CE
• Increase magazine size from 6 to 12
• Increase spread from ↔[120.00] ↕[100.00] to ↔[150.00] ↕[120.00]
• Massively increase the reload speed
• Increase spare magazines from 44 to 60
• AP3 OVP will range from point blank to 20m

Given the fact that the shells used by the M90A in the Halo games were literally outlawed for being too brutal against humans only to be made legal again once humanity realized the Covenant weren’t human, I’ve decided to lean into making that factoid a reality with my changes. The tighter spread will allow it to function at longer ranges than other shotguns, with the longer OVP bonus allowing players to (finally) indulge in an AP3 M90A while still being balanced out by spread and lower AP  at longer ranges.

The alternative change would just allow us to use a modern version of the Halo CE shotgun, perfect for clearing out Libraries and/or enemies of humanity. This is purely for fun.

Sweeper

The newest shotty on the block, the Sweeper offers incredibly consistent, high damage with a high ROF and superb ammo economy. Like the Breaker, it seems to balance its high DPS out with frequent reloads, low stagger and a relatively shallow ammo pool, which is a fair enough compensation imo.

• Increase bayonet damage from 165 to 200
• Fix the bug where the “no sights” sights would not improve the Sweeper’s ergonomics

Like the Stoker, I haven’t been able to do any meaningful tests with this weapon, partially due to its existing effectiveness and partially due to how new it is. The most I can do is make its bayonet consistent with other bayonets, but that’s about it, really.

Breaker

With the Breaker’s main drawback of only being AP2 somewhat mitigated by changes to durability and armor mechanics, the Breaker is now much more viable on a wider variety of fronts. To maintain its role as a flexible, high-damage weapon capable of dealing with groups of chaff units or bursting larger enemies, I’ve decided to improve its sustainability and lean even more into its damage potential while keeping its existing drawbacks of low ammo and frequent reloads to compensate.

• Increase the maximum RoF to 500 while in the semi-auto firing mode, but cap the RoF to 300 RPM when in full-auto
• Increase the spare magazine count from 7 to 8 
  • Starting magazine count will decrease from 5 to 4
• Decrease recoil from 55 to 30

The Breaker is balanced around its need for frequent reloads and how quickly it chews through ammo. As brought up by YouTuber ItsYaBoyBrandyBoy, the Breaker actually fires slower than you can click. While this makes recoil manageable in full-auto mode, it feels awkward in semi-auto mode when you swear you pulled the trigger on a Hunter that’s about to jump you. Having a higher RoF in semi-auto aims to solve this issue, though you will have to deal with the ammo shortage and recoil as a consequence. To help mitigate this, I’ve reverted the recoil nerf it received back in 1.000.100 but this will still be a factor to consider when using the weapon.

Initial drafts included bringing back the Breaker’s flechette round upgrade from HD1, allowing it to penetrate enemies at AP3, but I decided not to go down this path since an AP3 Breaker sounds like an actual war crime.

Breaker S&P

The S&P is in an odd place where it functions less like an auto-shotty and more like an AR but with spread. Its purpose is to vomit out as many bullets for as long as possible while giving as little shits as possible. To that… it does its job well…until you unlock drum mags with the normal Breaker, making this weapon completely obsolete. Its sole upside is the LUDICROUS amount of ammo you have, giving it better ammo economy, but that’s still not quite enough since you’ll be spending more ammo to kill the same amount of enemies

• Increase the maximum RoF to 650 while in the semi-auto firing mode, but cap the RoF to 450 RPM when in full-auto
• Decrease the damage each pellet does from 15 to 9
• Increase number of pellets per shot from 16 to 32, increasing its damage from 240 per shot to 288
• Reduce vertical recoil from 45 to 25
• Rename the in-game description to reflect the S&P using “bugshot” instead of “birdshot.”
• Give a “burst” firing mode.

While this damage increase may seem absolutely ludicrous, keep in mind the S&P still has the widest spread out of any shotgun. With a decrease in vertical recoil and a higher RoF changes as the base Breaker, this allows the S&P to live up to its name. While its downsides are severe relative to its role, remember that not every weapon will be effective at everything. The S&P sacrifices the ability to efficiently deal with large enemies in favor of wiping out hordes of chaff units.

Breaker Incendiary

Should operate as a side-grade to the Cookout. They both do the same thing, but whereas the Cookout sacrifices RoF in favor of ammo economy and hitting shots more consistently, the Breaker-Incin should focus more on setting as many things on fire as possible in as little time as possible, similar to the S&P but with a spicier twist.

• Increase number of spare magazines from 4 to 5
• Decrease vertical recoil from 41 to 30.
• Increase stagger force to 15, matching that of the Breaker’s.

6 spare magazines was admittedly a bit much, but nerfing the Breaker Incin’s spare magazines down to 4 was too harsh. Settling for a happy in-between and reverting the unneeded recoil nerf would help propel the Breaker-Incin back to its former glory without trampling over the other auto-shotguns. 

Explosives

Crossbow

It’s the Crossbow. We all know how strong it is. ‘Nuff said.

• No changes needed.

Eruptor

• Increase the initial projectile speed from 180 m/s to 360 m/s, just slightly slower than the Slugger
• Remove the charging handle bug where the projectile would not line up with the reticle.
• Increase the speed at which Helldivers cock the charging handle, increasing the RoF from 32 RPM to a more energetic 42 RPM (you’re actively getting eaten alive, you ought to have a bit more pep in your movement).
• Decrease projectile life-time from 1 second to 0.7 seconds.
  • This may seem like a nerf, but this is to compensate for the projectile moving nearly twice as fast, effectively increasing its effective range.
• Make the shrapnel more visible, so that WhineDivers can stop complaining about the Eruptor seemingly one-shotting them in close-quarters. It’s not a bug. It’s shrapnel. You are firing an explosive shrapnel grenade in close quarters.

Most of these are QoL changes. Maybe the projectile speed increase is unneeded, but I’ll revisit this again at a later date if need be.

Miscellaneous Notes

With durability and armor being removed, this drastically makes a multitude of weapons more viable. As such, many weapons will not receive direct buffs or changes due to the removal of durability and armor rework buffing them indirectly.

While some of these changes may be seen as powercreep and/overpowered-ness, I tried to keep each change as balanced as possible, relying on quality over quantity and leaning into each weapon’s respective strengths and/or identity

NOTE: As I mentioned in the status effects section, I don’t always have access to all the data weapons use. If I say something like “XYZ weapon should receive a slight increase to its reload speed or damage,” I’m not being purposely vague or whatever. I’m just saying XYZ should receive a buff, though how much of a buff is still up in the air.

Hello,

For the past 2-3 months, I've been working on a comprehensive list of how I would personally buff or change every single weapon in the game, as well as most stratagems, grenades, enemies, armor passives, and ship boosters. This is the fourth part of a series of posts I'll be making.

You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

As always, any feedback and criticism is welcome!

In this part, I will be touching on Assault Rifles and how I would best buff them. For each weapon, I will include a short summary on what role I believe a weapon should fulfill as well as my own personal thought processes for those changes. However, before we start, I want to get a few things out of the way.

1. These changes are just my opinion.  
2. My philosophy on weapon design is that every weapon should have their own unique role and place in the sandbox.
3. There will be no direct nerfs whatsoever, with one exception.
4. This sheet is being made WITHOUT considering weapon customizations.
5. Realism will usually be the last thing I consider.

For these weapon changes, please remember the reworked armor and durability mechanics touched upon in Part 1. For those who need a quick reminder, here is a quick TLDR:

• Durability has been removed entirely
• If AP is greater than AV by at least 2, you do 125% damage and give out red hitmarkers (i.e. AP2 vs AP0). This will be referred to as a weapon’s “critical damage modifier.”
• If AP is greater than an AV by 1, you do 100% damage and give out red hitmarkers (i.e. AP2 vs AV1)
• If AP matches AV, you do 75% damage and give out white hitmarkers (AP2 vs AP2)
• If AP is less than AV by 1, you do 25% damage and give out white hitmarkers (AP2 vs AP3)
• If AP is less than AV by at least 2, you do no damage and give out deflection icons (AP2 vs AP4)

Now that that's out of the way, let's here into it here:

There’s been a lot of discussion about the usefulness of primary weapons when a majority of them are unable to deal with certain enemies due to AV and durability. However, now that both of these factors have been reworked, this should open up a lot more options. Most players, especially from HD1, will know that your primary is going to be your “primary” weapon 80% of the time (duh), with support weapons and stratagems a bit more specialized. With that in mind, I’ll be balancing primaries around the knowledge that they’ll be your primary source of damage.

Assault Rifles

AR’s, as a rule, tend to be overlooked by most players because they are the most straightforward weapon class to understand. Their weaknesses typically come down to lower damage per shot and below-average durability. However, their strength lies in their reliability, simplicity, and versatility. They should be equally applicable across all fronts in most situations, so I’ll be changing them to fulfill that niche, as general as it is.

Liberator

As the starting weapon for every Helldiver, the stock Liberator is an exceptionally well-rounded weapon. It can perform reliably across all factions and has a good blend of handling, damage, and DPS, making it one of the most consistent weapons in the game. As such, the Liberator should serve as a good base for what every other AR should be built around. 

• No changes needed.

Liberator Penetrator

The Penetrator falls behind both the stock and Carbine in terms of damage in favor of sporting higher penetration, allowing it to damage a wider variety of enemies. However, with the proposed AP changes, this is no longer as important as a factor to consider. As such, I propose that we lean more into its namesake and play into its role as an armor-penetrating machine.

• Increase damage from 65 to 70
• Bullets will now be able to penetrate enemies, albeit with reduced damage. Penetration can only occur once per bullet and only if the AV is less than the AP.
  • For example, shooting an enemy with AV3 will result in that one bullet only hitting that one target, but shooting an enemy with AV2 will result in the bullet punching through to do reduced damage to an enemy behind it

These changes aim to help separate the Lib-Pen from its sisters, as well as give it a unique role in the sandbox as a pseudo crowd-controller while still enabling it to accurately pop weakpoints from a distance.

Liberator-Concussive

The unwanted black sheep of the family. The Liberator-Concussive suffers from the debilitating issue of having an almost useless status effect at the cost of having incredibly middling damage. However, even this advantage is surpassed by the simple act of killing said enemies, resulting in a permanent stagger via rigor mortis. While the support aspect of this weapon is obvious, its opportunity cost far outweighs the advantages it offers. As such, changes to this weapon aim to make its stagger more applicable and significant.

• In addition to concussive round’s existing properties, enemies concussed will now permanently suffer from slower movement speeds, increased vulnerability to stun/stagger effects, and will take longer to recover from said stun and stagger effects. In the case of Terminids and Illuminate, this will also result in decreased melee damage to simulate how being concussed means you won’t be able to swing as hard.
• This will also be able to instantly stagger any enemy out of their reinforcement call-ins.
• Liberator-Concussive bullets will remain AP2, but the concussive effect will now affect enemies up to AV4, though higher AV’s will require more sustained fire. 
• Make the effects of concussing an enemy more visibly noticeable.
• Increase the stagger and concussion build-up per bullet so that it can stagger small units in one shot, medium units in 2, large units in 4, and heavies in 16. Ultra-heavies will remain immune
• Reintroduce a minor 2m splash radius, allowing the Lib-Con to have some semblance of crowd control.

This change is intended to help separate the Lib-Con from its sisters as well as giving it an actual use. With the reimplementation of its minor splash damage, this will hopefully allow a single user to help stymie the flow of enemies, giving teammates more breathing room and time to react.

Liberator-Carbine

The Carbine is just the stock Liberator with a higher fire rate and higher recoil. Given that it already shines in close quarters, it should reward you for taking fights in close quarters. However, since this is just a base Liberator but with a higher RoF, this ends up being a death sentence 80% of the time. However, because of its limited range due to a lack of scope, this means you’re forced to engage in close quarters combat with very little margin of error

• Increase ergonomics from 70 to 80.
• Increase the bullets fired in burst fire mode from 3 to 5
• Removed the “semi-auto” firing mode, making it so the Carbine only has two firing modes: full-auto and burst-fire.
• Slightly decrease the reload speed from 2.5 to 2.2 seconds.
• Slightly decrease initial vertical recoil but increase maximum vertical recoil
• Increase stagger force on enemies within 10m.

A little bit of an ergo boost would make sense for a smaller and shorter weapon. Similarly, the stagger force increase in close quarters will help give you a bit of breathing room in close-quarter fights, though you still need to accurately hit your shots to make space for yourself. The decreased minimum and increased maximum vertical recoil values would also help sell the Carbine as a CQC weapon while still enabling you to take out targets at longer ranges with proper trigger discipline.

StA-52 AR

While it is unfortunate Promo Items are unable to be edited without express permission from their respective IP holders, this balance sheet will be made under the assumption that AH will be able to make these changes, both as a fun thought experiment and for the sake of discussion

• Increase spare magazine count from 6 to 7 (don’t even think about it, zoomer)
• Slightly increase the reload speed
• The StA-52 now has access to its under-barrel shotgun. This shotgun will be similar to the Punisher, dealing 405 damage AP2 albeit with a slower reload and less shells in its magazine, only having enough space for 8 shells.
  • This underbarrel shotgun will have an OVP range from point blank to 10 meters, matching that of the Punisher (look below to the shotguns section for more details)

This re-addition will allow the StA-52 to function as a true close quarters weapon, given its large magazine capacity and lack of noticeable scope. The underbarrel shotgun will function similarly to that of the One-Two’s underbarrel grenade launcher attachment. With the increased magazine count and reload speed, this should help improve the StA-52’s hungry ammo consumption.

Pacifier

Like the Lib-Con, the Pacifier is unfortunately cursed with the abysmal combination of low damage and a useless status effect. Most enemies that can be stunned are usually killed by the time the Pacifier is actually able to stun it, and anything that can’t be stunned, the Pacifier is wholly ineffective against anyways. To play into its unique role as a support weapon, the Pacifier needs to be able to consistently cause stun and have its stun be useful.

• Increase damage from 55 to 65.
• Increase the stun build-up per bullet so that it can stun small units in one shot, medium units in 3, large units in 7, and heavies in 18. Ultra-heavies will remain immune.
• In addition to stun’s existing properties of freezing enemies temporarily, enemies stunned will now permanently suffer from slower movement speeds, increased reaction times, and decreased attack speed. In the case of the Automatons and Illuminate, this will also result in lower accuracy to reflect their systems/brains being fried.
• Pacifier bullets will remain AP3, but the stun effect will now affect enemies up to AV5, though higher AV’s will require more sustained fire. 
• Make the effects of stunning an enemy more visually noticeable.

These changes will now allow the Pacifier to have a true purpose in stunning and slowing enemies. While the Pacifier and Lib-Con may share similar roles, I feel the difference in effects helps separate them. While the Lib-Con may want to focus on slowing an entire group, the Pacifier may want to focus on debuffing a single target. While the Pacifier will still have the least damage per bullet out of any AR, its AP3 and high RoF should make up for this. The stun also takes more shots to take effect, but given the Pacifier’s high RoF, this is already compensated for.

Coyote

The Coyote is an odd-ball weapon in the AR family due to it having some of the best traits from both AP2 and AP3 families, having decent ergo, high damage, AP3, and great ammo economy, with fire DoT to boot. Given the environment it was introduced in, I aimed to make the Coyote function best as a “shoot ‘n scoot” weapon, where you want to capitalize on that fire DoT in situations where holding ground is an unviable strategy due to enclosed spaces, overwhelming numbers, or some other factor while still allowing you to use the weapon’s high damage as a more conventional AR.

• Slightly decreased sway modifier while moving
• Replace the customization options for a x4 and x10 scope to a 2x and 4x scope, respectively.
• Give a “burst” firing mode.
• Fix the bug where the “no sights” sights would not improve the Coyote’s ergonomics

These changes will allow the Coyote to function more as a “run and gun” type of weapon, letting players take advantage of the fire DoT to kill enemies while still allowing players to use it as a traditional AR. The Coyote having a x4 and x10 scope is overkill, given the weapon’s high recoil and RoF. Giving it the 2x and 4x scope instead allows it to function in more close-quarters scenarios while still allowing players to engage from range if need be.

MA5C AR

From a numerical and stats perspective, this weapon is actually above-average, being held back by a small magazine size, high recoil, and lack of scope. As a weapon that’s been stated for over 20 years to work best in short, controlled bursts, this weapon does little to incentivize or reward such tactics. As such, I aim to make the MA5C the skill AR, requiring a greater measure of skill and discipline than other ARs while offering greater rewards in return.

• Bump the damage up 117 (as a cute reference) 
• Slightly reduce vertical recoil from 25 to 18
• Increase spare magazines from 8 to 11, matching Halo 3’s ammo pool.

OR

• Change the MA5C to the MA5B, an older model of the rifle from Halo CE with a 60 round magazine.
• Decrease spare magazines from 8 to 6, giving you 360 spare rounds (and also because 600 spare bullets is an INSANE amount of ammo)

The first change turns the MA5C into the hardest-hitting rifle AR in the entire game, but given its existing drawbacks in the form of a small magazine pool, long reload, lack of scope, and high recoil, I believe this is a reasonable trade-off. Players are incentivized to learn how many shots it’ll take to down an enemy and where enemy weakpoints are to optimize TTK. The increase to spare magazines and slight decrease in vertical recoil helps give players some leeway while not entirely nullifying it.

The second change leans more into its role as a “W+M1” weapon, a la Halo CE while still requiring a bit of finesse to use effectively at medium-long range. This is more of a fun change based on my personal taste

Tenderizer

The Tenderizer effectively functions as a Liberator with higher damage per bullet but less magazine capacity. However, to differentiate them from each other, I aim to make the Tenderizer live up to its name as a weapon that specializes in dealing heavy damage to squishy body parts. 

• If AP is greater than AV value by at least 2, the Tenderizer does 150% damage (AP2 vs AP0). 
• If AP is greater AV by 1, the Tenderizer does 125% damage (AP2 vs AP1)
• If AP matches AV, the Tenderizer does 100% damage (AP2 vs AP2)
• If AP is less than AV, the Tenderizer will do no damage (AP2 vs AP3)
• Decrease the reload time from 4 seconds to 3 seconds (3.5 to 2.5 for tactical reloads
• Set the default firemode to “burst” and RPM to 850
• Increase magazine capacity from 35 to 36 (wow)

These AV and AP changes give the Tenderizer one of the highest critical damage modifiers in the game. While this damage buff may seem overkill, this would allow it to function as the ultimate chaff-clearing and weakpoint-popping tool, but only with proper accuracy and trigger control. While not being able to damage AV3 targets is an exception to my previously established rule, I feel that is a fair punishment for being unable to properly capitalize on an enemy’s weakpoints given its sheer damage output. These changes also allow us Halodivers to relive the Halo 2 BR days.

Adjudicator

The Adjudicator and Lib-Pen both serve the same role right now, though the Adjudicator tends to outclass the Lib-Pen despite its higher recoil and lower ergo. With the Lib-Pen receiving the ability to penetrate enemies, this allows the Adjudicator to serve as the primary AP3 damage weapon focused solely on DPS. 

• Increase the damage from 95 to 115.

While this damage buff might intrude on the MA5C’s role, I feel these two weapons are intended to be very similar, with players choosing based on personal preference and/or aura/nostalgia. Like with the MA5C, players are incentivized to make the most out of each individual shot, with the increased damage rewarding players with conserved ammo.

However, to avoid stepping on the DCS’ role as a long-range AP3 marksman rifle, I aim to keep the Adjudicator more focused on the raw DPS while the DCS leans more into the range and accuracy.

Suppressor

From a weapon’s standpoint, this weapon is remarkably well-balanced. However, its flaw is that it suffered from above-average bullet drop, which is fair given it fires sub-sonic rounds, and that it’s not the Censor. As such, the Suppressor should function more as a “clean-up” solution compared to the Censor’s “surgical elimination” role.

• Reduce sound profile from 12m to 8m.
• Decrease stagger force on enemies

The reduced sound profile would drastically help increase this weapon’s stealth gameplay. Unlike the Censor, the Suppressor is unable to instantly kill small units outside of a headshot, which is made difficult by its bullet drop and lack of scope. As such, it is important for the Suppressor to quickly eliminate chaff units. A lower sound profile remedies this, but does not nullify it. Similarly, reduced stagger force means lining up consecutive shots is easier, since Automaton Troopers apparently stagger from an ant pushing on them slightly too hard. This does slightly worsen its performance in CQC, but its ROF and surprisingly decent DPS should make up for it.

One-Two

The One-Two quickly became a novelty after its release due to the universal curse of “one thing trying to do two things effectively ends up being less effective than both of them.” The One-Two’s strength lies in its ability to open up a player’s loadout, but this is held back by the fact that AH doesn’t want it replacing the Grenade Pistol entirely. This results in a lackluster AR with a lackluster Grenade Pistol attachment.

• Improve ergo from 30 to 40, making it the same as the Adjudicator (for reference, the stock Liberator has an ergo of 65).
• Reduce vertical recoil from 17.5 to 15, making it the same as the Liberator
• Increase spare grenades from 3 to 4
• Increase spare magazines from 6 to 7 (stop thinking about it)
• Modify grenade physics to match that of the grenade pistol (if it doesn’t already)

The One-Two should never be able to fully replace either the Liberator or Grenade Pistol, but that doesn’t mean it should be a statistically inferior version of both weapons either. This change will allow it to act as both, but with less overall sustainability as a reasonable downside.

Marksman Rifles

Marksman Rifles (MRs) are often considered to be above average in terms of weapon performance due to a comfortable blend of ergo, damage, and accuracy at the cost of a slower RoF and sluggishness in close quarters combat. Given their existing strengths and reworked durability and armor mechanics, changes to the MRs will be relatively minimal, with most changes serving to better improve their role as hard-hitting, long ranged weapons. 

Diligence

As the first MR a recruit can unlock, this is a superbly powerful weapon in a Helldiver’s arsenal. Thanks to its snappy ergonomics, plentiful ammo economy, high damage, and ease of use, the Diligence is remarkably efficient at clearing chaff units on nearly every front despite its lack of crowd control, offering both good damage and leniency on nearly every front.

• No changes needed.

Diligence-CS

The CS trades the base Diligence’s ergonomics and ammo economy for higher damage and armor penetration. This makes it one of the best sniping weapons in the whole game and one of the worst weapons to use in close-quarters combat (without changing attachments of course).  As mentioned with the Adjudicator, this weapon should lean even more into the range aspect to take advantage of the weapon’s high accuracy and damage, though sacrificing ease of use is obviously less-than-ideal.

• Slightly increase ergo from 35 to 40 (this makes it on-par with the Adjudicator)
• Decrease bullet drag from 0.3 to 0.1 (damage drop-off)

These changes aim to lean into the CS’s greatest strength while diminishing, but not entirely nullifying, its core weakness. Given that it’s naturally unsuited for close combat, increasing its effectiveness in long-range combat would help eliminate targets before they get a chance to approach, though the slight ergo boost would allow a bit more lenience when fending off Hunters or Berserkers. These changes make it more of an AMR-Lite, yes, but there are noticeable opportunity costs for picking up the AMR. This allows you to have a sniping option on hand, though it won’t quite be as effective as the real deal.

Amendment

The Amendment is an outlier in the MR category in that it’s surprisingly capable at both close and long range combat, as well as offering the highest DPS out of any non-explosive primary in the entire game. Of course, melee combat is still ill-advised, but I believe the Amendment is best seen as an illegal crossbreed between an AR and an MR, blending an AR’s close-medium effectiveness together alongside an MR’s accuracy and damage per bullet. Leaning in that role, I aim to make it the best close-quarters long range rifle (which sounds like an oxymoron, I know)

• Give a “auto” firing mode (not sure how that would work realistically but fuck it)
• Slightly increase ergo from 50 to 60 (for reference a stock Diligence has an ergo of 65 while the CS has an ergo of 35)
• Increase bayonet damage from 165 to 200

The purpose of this change is to make the Amendment lean more into a role that can work at all ranges but is most effective in close-to-medium distances. Melee combat is, of course, still a novelty, but having an option is always better than having no option.

Constitution

This is just the Amendment but worse. Unfiltered is going to crucify me for this, but this weapon was very obviously designed to be a meme weapon. It was marginally effective in HD1 due to it having AP capabilities, but even there, it was held back by its low RoF, slow reload, comparatively low DPS, and lack of area damage, all of which are incredibly important on high difficulty missions. However, it is still somewhat useful in HD2 due to it naturally having AP3 penetration, a generous amount of ammo, and ironically one of the best ammo economies in the game. The only real reason to take this over literally anything else is when you’re trying to do a challenge run.

• Increase armor penetration from AP3 to AP4.
• Increased stagger force on enemies
• Increase bayonet damage from 165 to 200
• Increase damage from 180 to 225
• Introduce a “stripper clip” reload when reloading from empty
• Increase ammo supply from 99 to 100 (because not being divisible by 5 bugs me)

No amount of buffs or reworks will solve the issues that this weapon has, being a slow but relatively hard-hitting single-fire range weapon lacking a scope, The bayonet is still a novelty at best, but any form of effectiveness the Constitution can muster is unfortunately bested by the Amendment. Despite the Constitution’s higher AP, the Amendment’s higher damage, ergonomics, and presence of a simple scope nullifies even this one advantage.

Deadeye

The Deadeye is a difficult weapon to balance around due to its exceptional strengths and very obviously intended and well-balanced downsides. Next to the CS and (surprisingly) the Censor, the Deadeye has the most amount of stagger damage per shot. Leaning into that stagger, I believe its true role is that of a more supportive weapon, using its high stagger force to disrupt and destroy key targets like Devastators and Scout Striders before finishing them off with a follow-up shot.

• Slightly increase the reload speed.
• Reduce the amount of camera shake in first-person mode while cocking the the next shot
• Increase spare ammo from 60 to 64.

These changes are intended to make it easier to line up the next shot, allowing users to more consistently stagger enemies. Not a whole lot here, but there’s not much I could do here, though I’m open to suggestions.

Censor

The Censor’s role should be self-explanatory. Changes made to this weapon will solely focus on its performance as a stealth-oriented weapon.

• Decreased sound profile from 15 meters to 12 meters
• Fix the bug where bushes can effect bullet trajectory (should be fixed now I think)
• Increased projectile speed from 330 m/s to 450 m/s
• Slightly increase the gravity factor from 1.0 to 1.2
  • The point of this change is to allow it to act more effectively inside its specific range (up to around 150-170 meters), but past that, its rounds will quickly lose momentum and drop off, though damage will remain unaffected.
  • Better inside that effective range, loses effectiveness more quickly outside that range.

To help with its stealth gameplay, I aimed to reduce its sound profile, though not to the same extent as the Suppressor to avoid overshadowing it entirely. The range rework will allow the Censor to shine in the one situation it’s designed for while encouraging players to play as tactically and disciplined as possible. You’ll still be able to snipe more effectively with it, yes, but you’ll need to be more careful about when and how you snipe.

Miscellaneous Notes

With durability and armor being removed, this drastically makes a multitude of weapons more viable. As such, many weapons will not receive direct buffs or changes due to the removal of durability and armor rework buffing them indirectly.

While some of these changes may be seen as powercreep and/overpowered-ness, I tried to keep each change as balanced as possible, relying on quality over quantity and leaning into each weapon’s respective strengths and/or identity

NOTE: As I mentioned in the status effects section, I don’t always have access to all the data weapons use. If I say something like “XYZ weapon should receive a slight increase to its reload speed or damage,” I’m not being purposely vague or whatever. I’m just saying XYZ should receive a buff, though how much of a buff is still up in the air.

Hello everyone,

The moderating team here has recently received a notification from one of Reddit's site-wide admins on the subject of what we'll be referring to as "I got banned from XYZ" posts. You guys know what kind of posts we're talking about.

As for "Hey guys look at what they're saying in XYZ sub" posts (acronym pending), those posts will still be allowed, but under the addendum to Rule 1: "No Treason," those posts must have usernames scrubbed out or censored.

https://preview.redd.it/0zphpcbr2z1h1.png?width=1132&format=png&auto=webp&s=2549455a4f76e3a148c492539eaf740df56cd449

Other subs have begun banning crossposts to help combat brigading and toxicity, but we have yet to do the same for the sake of being as unfiltered and unrestrictive as possible. However, with this warning from the admins and a rising number of users and posts being as combative and antagonistic as possible, the moderating team has decided to, effectively immediately, ban any and all "I got banned from XYZ" posts.

The point of this change is four-fold:

1. This change will help curb the toxicity that's been spreading into other subs, which creates a negative feedback loop.
2. This will help clean up the feed a bit and help curb the number of low-effort slop posts.
3. This helps makes things easier for the mod teams. Not just the ones in here, but also in other subs.
4. This change will also help cultivate some goodwill with the other subs. This sub, despite what many people will claim (and what I'll touch on later) is not anti-anything. We complain because we care, but sometimes people have a point when they say we complain too much.

Normally, we would put these kinds of announcements through a sub poll first, but considering this is an official notification from Reddit's admins and we have to prioritize the sub's survival, we'd much rather hear you guys complain about this in this sub than to hear no complaints at all because the sub got nuked.

Why were these posts allowed in the first place?

For the sake of being Unfiltered, we allowed these posts because they were, at the end of the day, a complaint about the game's community. During the charity doxxing situation, we had a large number of users proudly proclaiming how they were going to go over to the main sub to try and get themselves banned as an act of solidarity with the charity guy.

Allowing this, in hindsight, was a mistake, and one we had to correct a few days later (hence the announcement and reminder posts).

We saw any complaint of unjust bans as completely reasonable complaints. Were these bans justified? Sometimes yes, sometimes not. But we had to start cutting down posts that were explicitly "I'm going over to XYZ sub to get banned." There is a difference between the two.

However, with rising levels of toxicity on all sides, this sub has been weaponized by all sides. People who think this sub is the worst of the worst have ample amounts of evidence to throw at us. At the same time, we have people who think the other subs as "lesser" use this sub as a flimsy excuse to attack other people. This, quite frankly, is unacceptable, which leads to my next point.

As a reminder to everyone:

Regarding the recent division and "us vs them" mentality that's been popping up, I'd like to take the time to remind everyone (again) on what this sub is about.

This is HelldiversUnfiltered. It is not HelldiversUnglazed, or Helldivers "Anti-AH," or Helldivers "Whiners." We complain because we care, but I've been seeing far too many people think that this is a hate sub and that we're justified in hating on the other subs because they're not "like us."

To those people who think that way, you're wrong. You do not speak for us, you do not represent us. This sub, at the end of the day, will always be a place for unfiltered discussion, whether it be positive or negative.

If you think someone's a glazer because they don't have an issue with something, you are the problem. If you think someone's a whiner because they're complaining about something you have no issue with, you are the problem. Calling someone a glazer or a whiner because they disagree with you? You are the problem. Saying "you are insufferable and under every post, just leave this place if you don't agree with what people think" is NOT what this sub is about.

We will never ban people for going against the status quo, but we will never tolerate people who think unfiltered criticism is a justifiable reason for being hateful or toxic towards other people sharing their own ideas and opinions.

Remember, Free speech is a right, not a privilege. By trying to stamp out other people's voices, you fundamentally misunderstand this sub and are creating an echo chamber antithetical to this sub's philosophy.

Edit: Changed the last sentence because I mixed up "right" and "privilege," which created a statement that meant the exact OPPOSITE of what I was trying to say. Whoops.

Hello everyone.

For the best two or so months, I've been putting together a comprehensive list of how I would personally buff or change every single weapon in the game, as well as most stratagems, grenades, enemies, armor passives, and ship boosters. Right now, the document is over 90 pages in length, so for the sake of brevity, I've decided to cut these up into smaller segments for the sake of seeing what you guys think of these changes.

The first change I wanted to get through is the subject of durability, armor, and explosive damage. Please see the following below:

Durability

Durability was originally meant to simulate how certain parts on a heavily armored enemy could be “broken off” with enough firepower. However, this mechanic was scrapped in development in favor of the system we have now.

In short, durability is a mechanic that essentially cuts down your weapon’s damage by a certain percentage using the following formula: 

Standard Damage × (1 - Durable %) + (Durable Damage × Durable %) = Damage dealt

This means you are rarely, if ever, doing the full damage listed on your weapon’s stat screen. This system is meant to simulate tougher or “non-vital” areas on a weapon. In theory, it’s supposed to make taking down beefy enemies more satisfying after laying down gluttonous amounts of firepower. In practice, however, it makes certain enemies incredibly bullet-spongey and makes your own weapons feel incredibly weak or ineffective.

On top of that, because explosive damage ignores durability entirely, this corrals players towards an incredibly small selection of weapons because…why would they use other weapons if these other weapons feel weak?

As such, the change is simple: Durability, as a mechanic, is effectively removed from the game. All weapons now deal 0 durable damage and all enemies will have 0% durability. 

To compensate, some enemy weak points should get a health boost to encourage AT weapon use and prevent small arms like the Liberator Carbine from shredding a Charger’s 900 HP butt too easily. In general, AT weapons should be the quick and easy way to kill armored enemies. Small arms can eventually kill some of these armored enemies, but only after spending more time, ammo, or attention than you could otherwise afford, making them more of a last resort or finisher option when all else fails.

Armor Values and Penetration

Armor penetration, as it works now, is serviceable. It gets the job done, conveys the mechanic relatively well, and is reasonably straightforward in its math. However, with the removal of durability, this system will require a rework as well.

For reference’s sake, armor penetration of your weapon will be abbreviated to AP while the armor value of an enemy will be abbreviated to AV.

The way armor works now is as thus: 

• If AP > AV, you do 100% damage (red hitmarkers)
• If AP = AV, you do 65% damage (white hitmarkers)
• If AP < AV, you do 0% damage (deflection icon)

While this works fine for the most part, it can also really screw your loadout over if, for instance, you bring an AP2 weapon to a constellation where most enemies are AP3 (which is another issue entirely but not one I’m going to touch on in this sheet). Right now, the system serves to punish players for using the wrong weapons for the wrong job when it should be rewarding players using the right weapons for the right job.

There should be drawbacks, of course, but the point of these changes to make every weapon more universally viable and the armor system less of a headache to deal with if you come poorly equipped.

As such, here is my proposed armor system rework: 

• If AP is greater than AV by at least 2, you do 125% damage and give out red hitmarkers (i.e. AP2 vs AP0). This will be referred to as a weapon’s “critical damage modifier.”
• If AP is greater than an AV by 1, you do 100% damage and give out red hitmarkers (i.e. AP2 vs AV1)
• If AP matches AV, you do 75% damage and give out white hitmarkers (AP2 vs AP2)
• If AP is less than AV by 1, you do 25% damage and give out white hitmarkers (AP2 vs AP3)
• If AP is less than AV by at least 2, you do no damage and give out deflection icons (AP2 vs AP4)

As a numerical example, let’s take a Liberator (90 dmg/AP2) and an Adjudicator (95 dmg/AP3) against a hypothetical enemy that has a nice, even health pool of 500/AP3. Both guns deal (almost) the same amount of damage, which is why we’re using them as a comparison here.

Each Liberator bullet will deal 23 damage (22.5 rounded up), taking just over 22 bullets to kill. In comparison, the Adjudicator will deal 71 damage per shot and will kill the Hive Guard in only 8 bullets.

However, against that same enemy who now magically has AP2, the Liberator will kill in 8 shots while the Adjudicator kills in 6. The difference now is a lot smaller, almost to the point where it's unnoticeable.

When deciding between AP2 and AP3, AP2 weapons typically come with benefits such as better handling, more ammo, or more effective DPS. On the other hand, AP3 weapons should be more effective against a wider array of units and doesn’t require pinpoint accuracy to do well. 

AP2 weapons should reward skillful accuracy while AP3 weapons should offer consistency.

The point of this change isn’t to make one option better or worse than the other, but to give players more options. Players should never be punished for using the wrong weapons, but rewarded for using the right weapons. You should always have an option available, though the effectiveness of said option should vary.

Explosive Damage

Explosive damage has received a slight tweak. Currently, explosive damage ignores durability entirely to deal direct damage to an enemy’s health pool, often damaging multiple body parts at once and dealing exponentially higher damage. To compensate, certain body parts are either resistant or entirely immune to explosive damage. However, this is also dependent on AP and AV.

My rework aims to make damage calculations more straightforward. With my proposed rework, all explosive damage will now deal 100% damage to the main health pool if the explosion’s AP matches or exceeds an enemy’s AV. This, however, comes at the cost of explosion dealing progressively 50% damage to each individual body part.

This damage will also take into consideration the new AP mechanics specific to explosions.

• If AP ≥ matches AV, you do 100% damage (i.e. AP4 vs AP3 and AP4 vs AP4)
  • Explosions will not have an increased critical hit modifier
• If AP is less than AV by at least 1, the weapon does 75% damage (AP4 vs AP5)
• If AP is less than AV by at least 2, the weapon deals no damage (AP4 vs AP6)

As an example, the Eruptor currently does 230/AP4 projectile damage and 225/AP3 explosive damage. Shooting an an enemy with AP4 armor and hitting three body parts will result in the projectile dealing 172 damage and the explosion dealing 294 damage (168+84+42 rounded down) for a total of 466, which is about the same as the Eruptor’s current combined base damage of 455.

Against an enemy with AP3 armor and hitting 3 body parts however, this will result in 230 projectile damage and 393 explosive damage (225+112+56) for a total of 623 damage.

Please note this only affects direct hits**. I’m not brave or smart enough to tackle how splash damage works (yet).**

I'm aware that many of these changes will probably make the game easier. Without getting into the difficulty debate, I’m aware some people prefer the game to be easier and others to be harder, but I won’t be getting into that in this sheet. In general, I won’t be touching any enemy number changes because, quite frankly, that’ll take way too much time and math. There’ll be a few hypothetical examples, a few blanket suggestions, but I won’t be tackling any changes to enemy health values.

Please note that these changes are purely hypothetical and are being made for the sake of my personal entertainment and to create constructive and meaningful discussion pieces. Depending on how people feel, I'll be sharing more and more of the doc, albeit in pieces to avoid overwhelming readers.